Poor Baby

I started to add this as an update in the last post, but no one ever seems to notice it after I add stuff to the bottom of the post. I got an email from Wil, who just came back from the hospital with the flu diagnosis. The MSG, who was in charge of the conference, recognized that his symptoms were a little more serious than a bad cold and took him to the hospital. Poor guy. Poor House Keeping at the hotel. At least now he has a plethora of medications to help him along instead of just a bottle of Nyquil. He's also on quarters now, and I'm sure for the rest of the conference. I must say that I'm a little relieved that Chase is not allergic to the flu vaccination like her father. Can you imagine the three of us sick together under one roof? I shudder at the thought. Get well soon, Honey! Just a few more days and you'll feel even better when you see your beautiful baby at the airport. Hope all the germs are gone by then, because, you know, I'd hate for you to be responsible for spreading this across the Atlantic. I love you with all of my heart but will beat you senseless with a stick if you get our baby sick for the forth time in a little over a month. So take this as an order to rest, rest, and rest! Get well soon, My Love. You are almost home.

I Did Warn Her

Don't even ask me how I missed 2 exits on the autobahn today, even with the Garmin yelling directions at me. Because of our little detour, we came home 30 minutes later than when Chase's afternoon nap was supposed to start. 30 minutes. Apparently that was all the excuse my kid needed to act up for the rest of the day. She had a restless night and didn't sleep long for her morning nap either. So for the following 6 hours of nap strike, my child was a picture of a petulant monkey. Her only saving grace was the fact that she knew when to reach out for me and grab my face to give an opened-mouth kiss in the midst of all the crocodile tears--or else she would have already been dropped off at the fire station. I told her that if she didn't eat her dinner nicely, instead of digging through a pile of beefy rice to look for pieces of carrots and throwing everything else everywhere, I would post an unflattering picture of her on the blog. I think that was when she decided that Brutus and Paddy needed sweet potatoes more than she did. So I'm following through with what I said, 'cause MOMMA DON'T PLAY.

OK, so the child is far too photogenic to truly have a horrendous picture. At least we can all point and laugh at her hair.
And because I know her father needs to see this gummy smile to get him through a terrible cold/flu/stomach thing and the next couple of days.
Alright, one more for good measure.

I'm not sure what she was doing here as she was standing like this for a very long time. I was too afraid to ask in case it was some kind of baby booty dancing routine.

I gave Chase a stick of hard pretzel to gnaw on and when I turned around she was feeding it to Paddy. After Paddy bit off a piece (it was already soft and soggy, so he didn't really have to bite down, MOM. I promise Paddy won't eat her fingers), she put the rest in her mouth. She got this from her father. And Paddy is going on a diet.

Smelly AND Theraputic!

I was on the phone with my mom yesterday telling her how much trouble Chase was having sleeping because she couldn't breathe. That was when my mom suggested one of the craziest things I'd ever heard. She said "put a crushed shallot in her bed when she goes to sleep." Apparently in the Thai olden days, crushed shallots and kaffir lime leaves were added to a warm bath for any babies/kids with congestions. I didn't have any kaffir lime leaves and probably wouldn't even know where to look for one but did have a bag of shallots sitting in my pantry. I kind of thought it was crazy but mom said that she did it when we were little and it worked well. I was afraid that the emitted gas would burn Chase's eyes, and she assured me that a shallot was small enough and would not be as pungent as a big onion and told me to just hold it in front of me for a minute to try. Sure enough I didn't feel any stinging, but since my nose wasn't stuffy at the time, I couldn't attest to the nose-clearing ability. Desperate time called for desperate measures, and I wasn't about to face the third sleepless night in a row without a fight. And you know what? She slept 11 hours straight last night. I never heard one stuffy nose snort--not one angry fit. When I opened her bedroom door this morning, the distinct aroma was abundantly there but my child was also breathing effortlessly. Within minutes of my taking her to the living room to have breakfast and play, she was suddenly congested and dripping the gooey stuff again. Unbelievable!!! I'm not above making her a shallot necklace to wear for a couple of days. Kun Yai to the rescue! You are the greatest walking and talking mom's encyclopedia. I also made your concoction of lemon and honey drink this morning to soothe my miserable throat and am already feeling better. Man, I used to hate that stuff when I was little. Thanks again, Mom!

We're experiencing our first thunderstorm in this house, and Paddy was taking a refuge from the evil storm that was coming to get him under my feet.
My 85-lb baby.


I was feeling adventurous and let Chase have some chicken and noodles for dinner. The kid looks stoned here, doesn't she? Anyway, ALL the kids were very happy about this dinner choice, if you know what I mean.

It's been raining cats and dogs here all week and our backyard is so overly saturated and flooded. I have had to hose down the boys a couple of times a day after they come back from using the bathroom. We have both a bathtub and a little shower stall in our bathroom, and I've been rinsing them off in the shower stall so I wouldn't have to fight with Paddy to throw him in the tub. It's really tiny even for me, but it does ok for a quick job. For some unknown reason, Brutus LOVES to be in the shower stall. All I have to do is to open the door and tell him "bath" and he'd just jump in. I think he's just relieved that he didn't have to slip and slide all over the place in the tub. Last night I left Paddy outside while I was cleaning off Brutus in the bathroom. When he was done and dried off, Bru jumped into his papasan chair and got comfortable. Then I went to get Paddy, opened the door, told him "bath", and practically had to shove him in. Brutus, who heard the command, leaped out of his chair and into the stall. I couldn't get him out for a minute. He was actually miffed that I kicked him out of the bathroom without giving him another rinse down. All my kids are weirdos. Look how thrilled Paddy is about this situation.


BUSTED!

This explains why we are not making any progress with the sippy cup. My kid thinks that nipples of any kind are funny. I know. She would gnaw on it a little, take it out to examine it, squeeze it to see if something comes out, chuckle to herself, and then repeat the process. She does it with mine sometimes and I can never keep a straight face long enough to tell her no. Life with this child is always amusing.

I'm Going to Stab You with a Fork, Winter, and It's Going to Hurt

Chase gave me her cooties and it just took me nearly 45 minutes to swallow a bowl of noodle soup.

√ Feeling of head becoming detached from the rest of the body.
√ Earache.
√ Having to fight for a place and blanket in bed with mutts that smell like the outdoors. Feeling much too wonky to give them baths.
√ Spent far too much time playing with symbols after discovered the 2-key combinations to make: œ∑´®†¥¨ˆøπåß∂ƒ©˙∆˚¬…æΩ≈ç√∫˜µ≤≥÷
√ Love Mac.
√ Kid's still sick.
√ Need clean sheets. And my mommy.

Allergies and Sickness #3 Rant

Chase is having a rough month, to say the least. She started to sound a tiny congested a few days a go and I was keeping my fingers crossed that it was just a minor reaction to the manic cold/rain/snow/occasional sun combination we've been having. No such luck. Yesterday she started to have a runny nose while we were out having lunch with our friends. I stopped at Ramstein Bx to look for a bulb syringe. We have several, but I find the one that was sent home with her from the hospital to be the most effective. Paddy was mesmerized by the thing and kept stealing it, and now I have no idea where it is. If he has it, he's not telling. I mean it sounds simple enough right? Well, I couldn't find it anywhere, so I asked 2 store employees, who had no idea what I was talking about but eventually sent me to another kid section, where I was told by two more employees that bulb syringes were being phased out. Huh? Phased out? A newborn/infant necessity is being phased out at AAFES, you hear it here first! Personally I thought there was some language barrier as none of the four I spoke to were a native English speaker and I had to actually explain what a bulb syringe was. I mean, if you don't know what you are talking about, why not just admit to it? I pretty much gave up after combing through all the baby/kid sections and went up to pay, where I registered my question/complaint to the cashier, who appeared to be a sweet high school student. She didn't have an answer for me, but the girl who was in line behind me thought she surely did when she chimed in with "oh, yeah, that's old." What's old? Bulb syringe? I had a baby 9 months ago and it was in use then. As far as I know, newborns haven't evolved so far as to be able to blow their own noses immediately after birth, so I'm pretty certain it's still fairly "in" and "new." I have very low tolerance for morons especially when my poor baby is telling me with her sad eyes that she's utterly miserable and can't breathe. I didn't have time to drive around on the economy to look for one, because the baby didn't look well and I wanted to give her some medicine and let her rest. Needless to say, our night was horrendous. She was up for nearly every hour crying because she couldn't breathe. Benedryl doesn't even put a dent into this one and the tiny bulb syringe we have is just useless. And since today is Sunday, no stores are opened on the economy for me to go look. Sigh. I'm thinking about calling Mother & Baby unit at Landstuhl, where we got the first one, and offer to buy one from them. This much trouble for a FREAKING BULB SYRINGE!!! I reserve a special kind of hatred for AAFES buyers/stockers.

So while we were out at lunch yesterday, I let Chase try a piece of steamed sweet red bell pepper. I made sure to order them without butter, salt, or any kind of seasonings. No more than a few minutes passed before red rashes started to appear around her mouth. Unfortunately, this is not at all uncommon with Chase. She has so many food allergies that the poor child ends up just eating the same thing over and over again. At the very least, the reaction is localized around her mouth and goes away quickly without an aid of any medication. The worst was when I gave her about two teaspoons of baby yogurt a few months ago. Her whole face puffed up and she became very fussy, which led me to believe that she might be having some trouble breathing. Of course, we rushed her to the German Krankenhaus in town (we were living in Baumholder then) immediately and thankfully she was fine. Her airway didn't close up and her internal reaction was the cause of her agitation. When the doctor undressed and examined her, we could see that she had broken out in red hives, with her belly being the main area of concentration. It was the scariest day of my life, and every time she has a reaction since then, however minor, it sends me into a panic. I had the worst time finding something that doesn't have dairy in it to eat when I first found out that Chase had milk protein intolerance, so I could keep nursing her. Now imagine trying to find something for my finger-food-loving 9 month-old that doesn't contain any dairy. I feel so bad for her. On most days she ends up eating Cheerios and fruits, because the child has decided that she doesn't like the taste of bland chicken or meat that I'm supposed to give her. I spoke to her doctor about it the other day when we went in to discuss having her tested for allergens, because she suddenly started to randomly breakout (not food related) since we moved into this house. We're thinking that she might be allergic to something in the yard that the boys track in. Anyway, back to the food. I never thought letting the baby have food with some seasoning was bad as long as it wasn't too salty, but I had been trying to go by the books, which all said to NEVER add salt to baby food. I'm beginning to think little salt is better than no protein outside of breast milk at all.

I know this post is so long and unorganized. I'm guess I'm just frustrated. Normally I would have Wil to bounce my thoughts and concerns with about the baby, and I kind of don't want to bring it up to my other friends because I feel like illnesses and sleep problems are all I talk about as is. I guess this is what I'm doing here, but since this is MY blog I'm just going to let it rip. I'm having a really foul Sunday, can't you tell?

One for Me and One for My Homie

We've been up to our elbows in Cheerios. Literally.

I've Been Busy

I can't tell you what I've been doing these past few days (besides the usual trying to keep the house in decent living condition and the child alive and clean) since we dropped Wil off at the airport, but I know that by 7 p.m., when I tuck Chase in for the night, I am also ready for bed. I was worried about Chase and the boys, but I think they are coping well in their own ways. Chase loves to hear Wil's messages on our answering machine and she would smile the biggest gummy smile when she hears his voice. And it's as if our neighbors knew that the boys would be a little lonely these next few weeks, because they have really been spoiling my kids. Yesterday I looked outside and saw a neighbor to the left of us tossing chewy treats to the boys over the fence. Then our door bell rang today. I walked up to find a little girl, who lived with her family in the house to our right, holding up a bloody looking plastic bag and saying "für die Hunde" (for the dogs). I looked down and saw a gigantic rack of meaty ribs. Mind you, the weather has pretty much kept us inside most of this past month and we have had rather limited contact with our neighbors besides the usual halo/tschuss when we see each other running in/out of the cars. I took the opportunity to go over to thank the neighbors and introduce myself--and somehow managed to invite their 6 and 8 year old girls over with my sign language. They were lovely children, but I was happy to have 5+ more years to prep my system for all that energy. Chase was super amused with all those little hands pinching her chubby cheeks and had a good visit with the girls. They were very sad to leave for dinner until I told them "bis morgan" (until tomorrow). Looks like I've booked myself daily lessons with two very lively German teachers.

Here are a few pictures since the last post. I'm gonna wrap here and enjoy my cup of tea before bed. Bis spater!

Wil's flight was early in the morning, so we decided to have breakfast together at the airport before he took off. Our table was next to a pair of sweet German grandparents, who couldn't stop cooing at our baby the whole meal. They even offered to hold her while we ate (really not uncommon here as we have experience this kind gesture everywhere), but no one had the heart to pry the baby out of Wil's hands.

If you were at Frankfurt airport last Saturday morning, I'm sure you saw these two. And Baby, those jeans are not doing anything for your girlish figure.

I was trying to tickle Chase so that she would smile, but the camera only saw the claw of death. Man, I looked tired. Ok, I was tired and it was early. At least all of us were looking in the same general direction, for once.

"I'm keeping your seat warm for ya, Papa"

"Papa, you are right! Tofu does taste terrible! Why does Momma keep making us eat it?"