like.father.like.daughter

Look what I caught two of my favorite people doing the other day.

That's right...staring at the television...chewing on their fingers.

Josh does this all the time when he's concentrating on something intense (like a football game or the Bourne movies). It drives me CRAZY (though I still love him)!!

I hope that I don't have to remind Amelia every Sunday to stop chewing on herself while watching the big game. At least she has a good excuse for the moment.

vacation.with.the.fam

I know everyone has been on the edge of their seats waiting for the post about the family vacation. So, without further ado...

We had such a fun time on our family vacation. A few years ago, Josh's family decided that we would quit giving all of the kids (and siblings) birthday gifts. Instead, we would use the money that we would have spent and go on a full family vacation every three years. This was our first outing. The weather wasn't the best, but we still had a blast.

We rented a huge house with 6 bedrooms (enough beds for 21) and 5 bathrooms. It had 4 levels, and the kids (all 11 of them...9 and under) spread out. Everyone enjoyed the space...especially since it rained every day that we were there.

Some highlights of the weekend:

1. Running down the "mountain".

2. Watching every kid biff at least once while running down the "mountain".

3. Listening to Meredith cry (while completely covered in sand), "Yucky! Yucky! Yucky!"...I know,I know...I'm a terrible mom.

4. Watching my mother-in-law take a thousand pictures.

5. Shopping for Josh because he forgot to load his suitcase into the van (oops).

6. Getting 2 shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, and 4 pairs of boxers for $21. (Clearance racks...my favorite!)

7. Ice cream.

8. Shopping with my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law.

9. Pedicures by Aunt Gina...

10. Realizing (again!) that I married into a pretty great family! I'm so thankful for all of you!

And I just couldn't pass up two adorable pictures of our "little-melia" from vacation...

we're.home

...from vacation. Sometimes you're so tired that you just want to curl up in the corner of your room and hide behind your pillow! That's about how we feel right now.

We've been on vacation with Josh's entire family. Great house. Rainy weather (boo!). Fun memories. More on all of this later.

Claire is feeling much better, but she's still a challenge when it comes to her meds. Josh has worked his negotiation magic (he gets lots of practice at work!), and he is in charge of giving it to her. The first day of negotiations took about 20 minutes. It has progressively gotten better. I think they are down to about 5 minutes from start to finish. Thanks for the suggestions! She is one stubborn little child.

question.of.the.day

Claire is sitting up at the counter counting her money. She has in front of her 2 $1 bills and 5 quarters (plus a whole bunch of nickels, dimes, and pennies off to the side). She asks...

Is this a hundred dollars? No.

What if I add these two dimes?

Thank you, Lord, for comic relief. :)

last.nerve

I think I have one nerve left. Sesame Street is helping me try to find a couple more at the moment.

We had round 2 with the meds this morning. Unfortunately, Josh was already at work. It was just Claire and me. We screamed, cried, fought, got really sticky from a certain someone spitting medicine all over the place barely survived. At least it's over. Josh called right at the end, and thankfully it was him. If it had been someone else, I think they would have thought I was a really angry person. Picture me, eyebrows together, lips pursed, almost ready to cry (and slightly annoyed that someone was calling at this inopportune time) saying in a gruff voice, "HELLO!" I probably would have hung up on me. There was a slight pause before Josh said anything, so I think he probably thought about it, too!

It was good timing and bad timing all at the same time. I cried.

If you have any suggestions for getting this medicine down her in an easier fashion, please leave it in my comment section. Fortunately, she only has to take it twice a day. Unfortunately, it is super thick, so even when you think you're done, you still have 1/4 teaspoon left. I tried to mix it with her jell-o yesterday...she was way too sharp for that one. She took two bites, and said, "I know you just tried to poison me with that medication...I'm smarter than that don't want any more."

Prayers, please.

10:35 p.m.

Well, we had an eventful afternoon. I called Josh to come home early so that I didn't have to load the kids up and head out for more meds. He didn't have too much craziness at work today, so he was able to come home.

Around 3:00, Claire said her head hurt and she didn't feel well. We took her temp and it was 105.2. With the headache, that number was high enough for me to call the doc's office. They wanted to see her.

We took her in, and they looked her over and had her pee in a cup. She didn't want to. On a side note, when I was prego with Amelia, I had to pee in a cup at every OB appointment. Each time, Claire would ask, "Can I pee in a cup, too?" No. Well, here was her big chance, and she didn't even want to! She did anyway (with a little encouragement from the trickling water in the sink).

Anyway, the sample showed that she had a urinary tract infection. I was thrilled! I know that sounds bad, but I was just thankful to know what was wrong with her. A couple of years ago, we sat in that hospital for 4 days having temps consistently register around 103 and get as high as 107. No one knew why she couldn't keep her temps down, and she didn't want to take her meds. She would be fine for an hour, and then she would shiver, shake, sweat, etc. I felt just helpless. I was starting to feel like we were getting ready to have round #2. So, the UTI was the best news I received today!

So, thank you all for your prayers for Claire. Her temp was up again tonight before she went to bed, but we were easily able to get her to take her Motrin since we purchased the chewables. The first round of the UTI meds didn't go down so well. She screamed really loud and spit part of it out didn't like it. She's not looking forward to more tomorrow. It's only 2 times a day. Tomorrow a.m. will be an interesting time. I'll keep you posted...

1:15 p.m.

My little Claire is still as sick as a dog. Poor thing. She's sleeping right now, but her temp isn't going down. It went down before Josh headed to work, but then it spiked back up around 11:15 to 104.1. I just took it again about 15 minutes ago, and it was 104.7.

We're just alternating between Motrin and Tylenol for the time being. Daddy is on his way home with the Tylenol. Plenty of fluids too. I feel like we're having flashbacks to September '06. This is exactly the same way things went. I guess it's slightly easier since we've been here before, but it's hard to see a typically full-of-energy child currently down-and-out. Thanks for the prayers.