For those of you keeping score....

Today was Maggie's 4th trip the ER this year. Her "asthma" (her ped. calls it asthma. Her allergist does not) started acting up on Wednesday and by Thursday she had a fever and was breathing much harder. We stepped up her albuterol treatments and took her to the doc on Thursday but she got much worse Thursday night so at 3 am we took her to the nearest ER, which I learned was probably a mistake. I was surprised that it took over an hour from the time we got IN A ROOM until they gave her any oxygen or albuterol treatments.

When she got to the ER she had a fever of 103 and I think the doctors seemed more concerned about that than her breathing. They tested her for flu, RSV, did chest x-rays and tested her white blood cell count. Everything came back fine except for the chest x-ray. They said she had a very small amount of pneumonia in one lung.

For a time they thought they were going to admit her for observation because she wasn't able to keep her pulse ox levels up without oxygen but after a steriod shot she did better and we went home about 8:30 am.

The rest of the day was spent catching up on sleep and keeping her on her meds. She's now continuing the albuterol every 4 hours round the clock, on a steroid and an antibiotic (just to be safe - they think the pneumonia is viral). She is acting much more like herself tonight....energetic and playful, although whiney and acting out more than normal due to the albuterol. She bit me this evening in an act of frustration.

I just checked on her tonight while she is sleeping and boy what a difference! Last night I could watch and listen to her breath from the doorway of her room. Tonight I had to kneel down next to the crib to catch the soft motions of her chest as she slept. Talk about relief.

We go back to the doc tomorrow am for a check up to see how she is doing. Please pray that she will continue to improve quickly and be all better soon!

Thanks!
Heather

Silent Night

Click here to see a video of our handbell chior.

Christmas Parade

A friend invited us to attend the Semmes Christmas Parade today. Semmes is a small town north of Mobile. This was the first parade that Maggie has ever seen! She had a good time although I think it took her a little bit to decide what she thought of the whole thing.

Of course, no parade in Mobile would be complete without throws - I think Mobilians think every day is Marde Gras! So Maggie got to collect her share of beads, candy, rings, and even a teddy bear!

It was a small parade, but a great size for Maggie's first one. There were 2 or 3 marching bands (unfortunately, none of them were playing when they marched past us so Maggie only got to hear the drums) and fire engines and about 10 floats or so and of course horses both large....

and small....

When it was all over, Maggie said "more?!?" so I guess she liked it even though we never had any really big smiles. But she's been holding onto that bear all afternoon. :-)

Merry Christmas from Maggie!

Christmas is coming!

In honor of the impending advent season, I have loaded all the Charlie Brown Christmas songs onto my playlist....enjoy!

And check out the Sara Groves song - click on the banner at the top of the page. I LOVE this song and so I was excited to get to share it with you for free. It's a great Christmas CD.

Ooh-rah!

Ben just got back from a trip to DC with his dad for his bi-annual Marine Corps Officer Basic Class 3-56 Reunion (whew! What a mouthful!). They had a great time!

There's a new National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico which Ben enjoyed a great deal. When you arrive you get to pretend you are just arriving at your Basic Training - complete with drill sergeants yelling at you! Then there are some great exhibits about WW II, the Korean War and Vietnam. But as always I think Ben was most excited about the planes they had displayed.

Monday they got to do some sightseeing. They went to the National Archives as well as the WW II Memorial and the Air and Space Museum (of course). Ben even got to see President-Elect Obama's motorcade drive by on his way to the White House.

Monday evening was the Birthday Ball for the Marines - 233 years! I was very sad to have missed this because not only did Ben look very spiffy in his suit but there was DANCING! Had I known I would have an opportunity to dance with my spiffy husband I would have gone! But alas - I digress. The ball was held at the top of the Key Bridge Marriott - where they were treated to a lovely view of the city. Ben raved about the steak dinner they served, complete with 2 desserts (Mousse and birthday cake). They have a tradition at the Birthday ball for the oldest Marine present to cut the first piece of birthday cake with his sword and feed it to the youngest Marine present.

Ben had a great time with his dad, but Maggie and I are very happy to have him home!

PT 6

Maggie had another great day - only accident was during naptime so I only partly count that one. :-)

Tonight Maggie went to Will's birthday party (he's 3!) and they had SO much fun! It was a Curious George theme and Maggie liked holding her George mask up to her face and going "ooo..... oooo.....ooooo". Joy had quite the dinner laid out and even had chocolate-covered frozen bananas as a treat while she cut the birthday cake! After dessert we watched a Curious George video which was very cute and funny. Everyone had a great time.

It makes me wonder what kind of birthday party Maggie will want when she turns three. . . hmmmmm. . . .

PT 5 & Family Fest

Today was a big day for Maggie. In the morning, she went to the barber shop and to Bellingrath with Daddy and had a great time! Then she took a nap in her underwear without wetting the bed... yea! Then we went to Family Fest at church. Maggie went as a tiger (Tigger?) and Ben and I went as Tiger Keepers. I had my old zoo vest on and the pockets stuffed full of all the things I needed for Maggie - change of undies and pants, sippy cup, leftover hamburger, epipen. . . :-)

The best part of the day was that Maggie was accident free all day!

PT 4

Maggie wakes up now and says "I no ax-dent today" so she is trying to not have any accidents which is exciting to see. She gets easily discouraged when she has one - doesn't want to use the potty after that, but we push through and so far things seem to be going well. Yesterday she wanted to nap with her underwear on so I was willing to try it - but she never napped. Oh well. Today Maggie is at Bellingrath with Daddy so we'll see what happened when they get home.

Potty Training (PT) part 3

Today Maggie went to church for about 5 hours today and managed to stay clean and dry. . . until 5 minutes after I picked her up. :-) Oh well. She WAS in a playground which can be pretty distracting. Then she had another accident shortly after we got home a few minutes later. Life lesson: Make them sit of the potty after an accident, to make sure they are done.

So after her traumatic afternoon she was ready to throw in the towel and go back to diapers ("I wan diaper!!") but I was able to convince her to give it another go with a bribe of Chocolate Milk. No, I'm not above bribery to get out of changing diapers. It worked for the time being.

An encouraging note: Maggie woke up from a 3 hour nap with a dry pullup! Yea!!!!!

Potty Training (cont.)

Today she was so upset at the thought of taking off her underwear and putting on pull-ups for naptime that she didn't want to take her nap. But I convinced her that it was ok because she could but her underwear back on when she woke up. oi.

Maggie was going to a birthday party tonight at FiFi's house (a neighbor) and wanted to use the potty at her house! She talked about it all day. As the time drew near she got excited and decided she would NOT use the potty until she got to FiFi's - which was about 30 minutes from then. So she ended up having an accident about 10 minutes before we left. oh well. I thought it was kind of cute that she wanted to show off for FiFi.

Today Maggie was playing with my hair - she grabbed two big fistfuls and lifted it up and said "you angel!" I said "You're an angel!" She said "No, I daddy's girl." I laughed!

Potty Training

Maggie did such a good job while we were on our trip with her, um, movements, that we decided (ok, Ben told me) it was time to step up the potty training! So we decided to have an intensive week of training starting today. Thankfully I bumped into my friend at Walmart who told me that the trick was to NOT use training pants (they're too absorbant) and go straight to "big girl underwear". So I took Maggie to the aisle to let her choose. . . I was certain she'd pick the princess pack but she surprised me with Dora 6 pack instead. To that I added a 12 pack of good ole Hanes. Then we found some wonderful Thomas stickers which I decided would make a lovely incentive for her.

We arrived home and I told her the plan: after lunch and her nap, she would get up and go potty, then she could put on some underwear and everytime she used the potty and kept her panties dry she would get a Thomas sticker (oh Joyous Rapture!). Well, apparently that was a little too much excitement to handle because she decided to skip the nap entirely. oi.

But we had a good day - 8 successful trips to the potty and only 2 accidents. I had set a timer to go off every 30 minutes and she had a little trouble making it to 30 so I backed it up to 25 and that helped. So we'll try 30 minutes again tomorrow. So I decided to keep a potty training journal (see side bar) to track our progess for the horde of you who are interested in such things (oh Joyous Rapture!). :-)

Keep us in your prayers. . .

Pumpkins and Balloons

Today Daddy took Maggie to a pumpkin patch! They had a lot of fun. They surprised mommy with some very pretty mums and a bouquet of sunflowers!! How cheery!

Tonight we went to Bellingrath Gardens for a special annual event - Balloon Glow! Kids come in costume and trick-or-treat along the garden path and then there are 3 hot air balloons set up in the Great Lawn - it was so neat! Maggie was scared of the noise the balloons made (kind of a whooshing sound when they fired up the flame) but was fascinated and kept saying she liked the red one best.

Maggie's been reading a Pooh book lately and likes Tigger a lot, so we borrowed this tigger costume from a friend and added our Auburn tiger tail... viola! Instant Cute!

Fall Vacation 2008

We just got back from our annual Tour d' Parents and Leaf Peeping! It was a lot of fun and very relaxing.

First we went to Ben's parents where we were able to take an a football game, which was fun. . . would have been more fun if they had won. har har. ;-)

Then we spent 5 days with my parents. We drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway, hiked up to Sam Knob, and took long walks around the mountain neighborhood. It was lovely and relaxing.

Then we back through Opelika and Montomgery, stopping at the Montgomery Zoo which was very interesting. Maggie loved it - her favorite animal was the "elfan!" (elephant).

I'm trying to get a slide show of those pics posted.. . if that doesn't work I'll do it the old fashioned way. :-)

I know it's fall in Mobile when. . .

we have cold tap water again! Yea!!!

When I first moved here I thought something was wrong with our plumbing because I couldn't get cold water from the faucet - just tepid water. I even asked a plumber about and I think he thought I was nuts. But apparently the ground temp just keeps the water in the pipes from staying cold.

Anyway, I'm glad it's back. It's the little things that make me happy. :-)

ERs and Popsicles

Maggie has had a fever since Sunday so I finally took her to the doctor. Doc said she has a virus but everything else is fine and the fever should end soon. Later this afternoon, I was on the computer with Maggie on my lap. I heard a crunching sound and looked down to see Maggie chewing something while holding staples in her hand! I said "Maggie! Are you chewing something?" (nodding) "Are you chewing staples?" (nodding and swallowing) "Don't swallow them!" "Maggie - did you eat staples" (yes).

So after calling our doctor we went to the ER and after 2 hours and a set of x-rays discovered Maggie had not in fact swallowed staples. But Maggie has learned that the ER is a fun place to get popsicles. So Mommy had a good talk with Maggie when we got home about lying. I think I'll start keeping popsicles at home.

The good news is that she has not had a fever since this afternoon - yea!

A Wonderful Visit

Eleven years ago I moved in with a host family in Seattle while serving as a campus missionary for the Baptist Campus Ministries. Little did I know that I would end up living with them for 3 years and that they would be such a huge influence on my life. Jim and Nancy Anderson (and their daughter Leanne) became friends, mentors, and family to me. It had been over 5 years since I had seen them and I was so excited when Jim and Nancy came to Alabama for a visit!!! They got to meet Maggie for the first time which was wonderful. Maggie just loved them - she would wake up every morning and ask "where's Andersons?" I would say "they're in the guest room" and she would say "YEA!!!!!" We got to tour Mobile - Bellingrath Gardens, the USS Alabama, our church, the beach and we topped off the visit with a football game at Auburn. We taught them how to do "War Eagle". It was a lot of fun. But what I enjoyed the most was reconnecting with my friends. I felt like I was part of the family again.

Thanks for the visit, and I hope I can return the favor soon! :-)

FLYing

For those of you who know me best, you know that deep down inside me is a very messy person which my outer organized person tries hard to control. (Mom, Dad. . . I know you still have those pictures of my room as a child). Ever since I became a mom, the organized side of me has been losing more of those battles than winning.

So a good friend told me about FlyLady.net. It's a wonderful site for people like me, for those who live in CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome). Flylady is about teaching us how to take babysteps to change our habits, creating daily routines that will keep our houses clean and our lives in more order. It's not about having a perfect home, but learning how to have productive routines so that you don't have to live with all those nagging voices in your head.

I've been Flying now for about a week and a half and I have to say I'm loving it! No, I've not perfected my habits, but there has definately been a change in the state of my house, and Ben has noticed it and is happy about it too. If you've been struggling like I was, you might want to check it out.

Tour de Parents

We just got back from our semi-annual circuit in which we visit both sets of parents (grandparents). It was a wonderful trip with lots of fun things in both locations.

The highlight at Ben's parents was probably celebrating his mom's birthday. Maggie sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her for the first time and we all got a little "verklempt".

While at "grandmoms" house we got to take Maggie to the train. . . It's a small, working desiel train engine that pulls some small cars around a track at the local park. For $1 you get to ride around the park 3 times. Maggie is fascinated by it, but scared too and refuses to ride it. Ok, that's mostly my fault. I pretty much forced her to ride it the first time a couple of months ago because we all just knew she was going to love it. Sure, she was clinging to my shirt for dear life, but we just knew as soon as it started moving she would laugh and smile and relax. . . not so. I think I scarred her for life. Let that be a lesson to you! Never force a two year old to ride a small train. oi.

Despite the traumatic introduction, she still talks about it nearly non-stop. Therefore, while at "grammy's" house in Western NC we decided to show her another train. . . the Great Smoky Mountain Express! This is a disiel train that you can ride through the mountains. Of course we weren't foolish enough to try to get her to ride it, but we did take her to look at the train.

We celebrated the 4th of July in lots of fun ways. . .

Ben, Dad and I took a short hike up to the top of Richland Balsam Mountain (elev. 6410 feet). It was a beautiful hike, even if it was a little hazy out.

That afternoon we played with bubbles and Maggie and I had a blast.

She ended up covered in bubble solution head to toe. We added corn syrup to the solution in order to make the giant bubbles so you can imagine how sticky she was but it was definately worth it.

That night, right before bed, Maggie had her first experience with sparklers! She was definately curious but a little frustrated with me I think when I kept moving her hand away from the pretty bright light. :-)

We always enjoy this time with family and this year was no exception. Hope you had a good 4th of July too!

Clearly Scene

After much encouragement from friends and especially Ben, I've started a little hobby business making cards with some of the photographs I've taken at Bellingrath Gardens and other places. I've set up a blog to display the available designs.

The name of the business is Clearly Scene which is taken from one of my favorite scriptures, Romans 1:20:

“For since the beginning of the world God’s invisible qualities...have been clearly seen,being understood from what has been made..."

When I was in college I took a course called "Drawing from Nature" in which we walked around campus and drew studies of different plants and animals and learned about what we drew. It was a great course which mostly taught me to observe the beauty of everyday things around me. And one of the greatest lessons I learned in that course, which was not on the syllabus, was that creation is screaming "There is a creator!".

As I walked around campus one day, I picked up a petal that had fallen to the ground and looked at it very carefully - the beauty of it, the intricate detail and pattern in one simple petal. I thought to myself "How can anyone say this happened by accident?". Several people have asked me if being a biology major in college didn't conflict with my Christian faith. But I never found that to be true. . . the things I studied in biology and chemistry only testified to me of our Great God who is so concerned with even the smallest details in His creation.

My Little Piccasso

One of Maggie's favorite pasttimes is fingerpainting. She'll point to the closet where I keep the paints and say "Mommy! Pent!" It's been fun to watch the natural progression of a toddler's paintings. This week she made quite the leap in her technique.

First she painted this. . .

Note all the dots.

Then she painted this. . .

She went from just using her fingers to make little dots and lines to getting her whole hand in there and mixing it all together! She had so much fun. . . I wish I had the camera handy to capture the expression on her face.

Coughs and Carousels

Well, Maggie had her first trip to an ER yesterday . . . she got sick and had trouble breathing and they gave her some oxygen and albuterol treatments. . . hopefully she'll be fine in a couple of days.

On Friday (that seems like an eternity ago!) we took Maggie to the Mall to enjoy some carousel money she had recieved as an Easter gift. She had so much fun! She's ridden on this carousel two or three other times so she is finally getting comfortable enough with it to enjoy sitting on the moving horse. Click here to see a short video clip of her ride.

Easter

This was Maggie's first "real" Easter and we had a lot of fun. The week before Easter we got to attend a wonderful Easter Egg Hunt at the Gardens. Maggie's friend, "Whoa" came along and we all had a really great time.

On the Saturday before Easter we made "Resurrection Rolls" - Maggie helped me dip marshmellows in butter and cinnamon and sugar and wrap them up in crescent rolls to bake. They puff up and become hollow (the empty tomb). Maggie had a lot of fun helping me - and the rolls were VERY tasty. . . but I think the symbolism was lost on her. ;-) But I'm looking forward to making that a tradition.

Easter Sunday she had an Easter basket. . . she got some headbands, a stuffed Boz (her favorite TV show) and a Bullfrogs and Butterflies CD (anyone else remember that or is it just me?).

Sunday after her nap we had an Easter Egg hunt with our neighbors and we all had a really good time!

The Furminator

After weeks of constant hairballs, we finally broke down and bought a Furmintor - touted to be the best brush for reducing shedding AND hairballs in cats. Because I'm thrifty I bought it on Ebay for about half the retail price. It arrived today and the package was sitting on the kitchen table. Ben said to me "Let's try this on YOUR hair!". Oh, I died laughing.

After putting Maggie to bed, we closed the cat up in the bathroom to test out the brush (better to contain flying fur!) We were all quite pleased - Ben, Me AND Alley! I managed to get a little video if you want to see for yourself. If you turn up the volume you can hear Alley's purr of satisfaction.

This resulting pile of fur is the result of about 10 minutes of brushing.

Let the Good Times Roll!

Here on the Gulf Coast, Mardi Gras is a pretty big deal - especially where we live! You may not realize this, but our town is the home of Mardi Gras - we had it even before New Orleans and the locals here take great pride in that. When my neighbor learned that we would not be attending any parades here, she brought over a bunch of beads for Maggie! We've had fun playing dressup today. . . .

Maggie's First Prayer!

Tonight we were reading a book called "Thank You God". We were looking at a page that talked about the food we can thank God for and Maggie spied a cup, which she assumed must contain MILK! So she folded her hands and said "Thank you Milk. Amen."

Ok, so it sounded more like "dah dou mauk. aen." but I knew what she meant.

I was SO PROUD! :0)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAGGIE!

It's hard to believe our darling is now two years old! We had quite the celebration for such an auspicious occasion. On the day of her birthday, we had a lunch playdate with the neighbors. Since we've spent so much time at the Gardens this Fall and Winter, we had a flower theme. Here are the PB&J and Cheese sandwiches that we served for lunch:

That night we had another family over for dinner. Maggie had a lot of fun playing with her friend, Will (or "Whoa!" as she calls him).

The following weekend we had a family party at Ben's folks. My parents, Ben's aunt and my middle sister, Kathy, and her family were able to attend. Here's a nice group photo. . . . notice Kathy showing off her new baby tummy. She's due in June!

Over Christmas, Maggie got to try Grandmother's coconut cake and she LOVED it. We were all surprised because Maggie is very picky about texture and doesn't like frosting at all. So we convinced Grandmother to make another for Maggie's birthday. Here she is wolfing down a nice slice. We colored the coconut on top of the cake green and used butter cookies and gumdrops to make flowers on the top.

Of course we had fun opening gifts at her parties and other neighbors and friends brought Maggie gifts too. We're very blessed to have some many people who love Maggie!

Now my biggest challenge is finding a place for all her new toys, books, crayons, paper, etc. etc. etc. :-) A young visitor to our home once complained that we didn't have very many toys. That is no longer the case! :-)

Perhaps the best part of the whole thing was hearing Maggie respond to the question "How old are you?". She would look up and smile real big and say "two!" in the cutest voice you've ever heard. Not that I'm biased or anything.

Ben and I are excited to see what this year holds for our family. I'm sure there will be many joys and struggles ahead. I'm still surprised sometimes by just how very much I love her. Thank you to all of our friends and family who have supported, prayed, laughed and cried with us this year! You are SUCH a blessing to us, especially to me personally - sometimes I need all the help I can get. :-)

Self Awareness is a double-edged sword

Ben said that one morning at breakfast and I couldn't agree more! Maggie is now doing more and more on her own - she even started potty training herself before Christmas. Along with that come the inevitable pint-sized attitude and firm (but still cute) "No!" which is now heard frequently in our house. She is struggling more with sharing, and more insistant that she do things on her own now. It's fascinating to watch, and a little sad too. "Our baby's growing up!" However, I will be thrilled to death when she gets the potty training thing down. :-)