Lately: In Pictures

      This is one of our toys we've allocated to outside, and so I let Lochlan and Mirren  have a little fun with it one afternoon. She was LOVING taking a real live baby for a walk with it. :)  Lochlan was pretty interested in the whole process and even though his legs were a little squished, he sat there really well!

 Bronwyn put this outfit together and I had to get a picture. 

This girl has some pretty good style! :)

 Upside down boy. 

For a long time, he kept doing this, putting his head upside down and looking around. 

Man, he makes everybody laugh. 

He's so funny!

 Aftyn needed a picture this day. 

She looks pretty cute!

 Part of Bronwyn's birthday celebration. 

Just before, we had had a water gun fight, 

thus the wet hair on Aftyn and Bronwyn.

 He looks like Mario with red hair

 This kid. 

He is SO ticklish! 

This is a ticklish face.

 Aftyn got her own basketball 

and got to participate in a basketball camp for her birthday this year. 

She loved it!

And since she's a girl who loves pink, I got her a pink and purple basketball.

Because.

 Aftyn and Bronwyn playing outside with water guns 

 and what little water remained in our pool

           So so happy    

We sure love his happy spirit in our home

Aftyn got some birthday money and went to a garage sale with it. 

Scored some Lincoln Logs and she's had a blast with them!

Aftyn Was Here

Post bath shot of the bath tub. 

Mirren took the bath, 

Aftyn came by afterward 

to organize the letters to her liking.

The Hand Foot and Mouth Plague

It all started last Monday, the 16th. We had had a fun birthday weekend for Bronwyn and we had an appointment for her to get her kindergarten shots around lunchtime. Because I knew she would worry and panic about it, I didn't tell her until about 2 hours before it was time to go. She was worried, but survived.

Fast forward to Thursday. Mirren had a fever, and wasn't feeling well. I thought it was probably her molars coming in. Friday she had the same fever and I thought nothing of it, except that she had it during the day.

Saturday morning, she woke up with spots ALL around her mouth. They freaked me out, but I linked it to the previous teething, but they didn't seem to be going away like they would once she was awake and her binky was out of her mouth. Mid-afternoon, I looked up her symptoms. And found that yes, she had ALL the symptoms of Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. Oh boy.

I immediately quarantined her to her room and one chair in our front room, so as not to spread this illness. Sunday was awful. Reed and I took turns going to church and all the kids stayed home so we didn't spread it.
Monday came and mid-afternoon Bronwyn had these 2 strange bumps around her mouth and a LOT of weird bumps on her upper thighs, but all of those disappeared within a few hours. I was still suspicious. I made her and Mirren share the bunkbed room and moved Aftyn in with Lochlan, since they weren't sick. Tuesday afternoon, Bronwyn got a fever. I was glad I had put the two sicko's together.

Wednesday. Today.  Bronwyn still had a fever this morning. By this afternoon, Lochlan had a water blister on his right pointer finger and a fever. I gave him Tylenol and put him down for a nap.

We've used up 10 oz of hand sanitizer, and we're working on bottle number 2. I have an extra bottle by my bed, and one additional full bottle that I'm pretty sure we'll be utilizing. Everything I've read says kids are contagious if they have a fever AND if they have any oozing blisters. I thought Mirren had already emptied all her blisters but just now as I was washing her hands, I found a big one on her finger that hasn't popped yet. So, on her day 5 now, she's still contagious. 3 down, I'm so hopeful that the other 3 of us won't get it. Pictures to come. And by the way, this all came from that fateful trip to the doctor for shots.

Post Edit: Reed came down with the fever yesterday. It's just Aftyn and I, except Mirren may or may not now be not contagious. And I broke my baby toe yesterday. We got this. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Pictures

                                                        Favorite loved fluffy skirt

                                                  Cute. Cute. Cute.

                                                           Superheroes!

                                            Because they do dishes together :)

                                        Angelic sleeping babies. Gotta love them.

Sunday

Amidst the hustle and bustle of choir practice, Sunday School teaching, baby blessing, and all the other various responsibilities I have on any given Sunday, I had this wondrous moment that made all the crazy, horrible, uncomfortable, s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g moments of the past year worth it.
       
In pondering my busy day and accomplishments I said to my Self: "Self, what a good day you've had! Look at all you've done, look at how genuinely you have been yourself in the things you have done." And I felt a sense of satisfaction that I was truly needed today. At choir practice, in church, and just in general in my life. And while feeling all the feels, I felt a truly resounding happiness deep to my spirit that whispered "You were needed. You are needed. You are important. YOU matter."


 And so do YOU.

ANGRY Eyes

Mirren had eye surgery this past week to fix her right eye. Here are some pictures of what it looked like:

                                                                   1st Day

                                                                       2nd Day

                                                                    3rd Day

On Day 2, Mirren woke up with very watery eyes and a swollen lower lid. Reed was rightly worried, and so I put in a call to the doctor after putting her antibiotic eye ointment in her eye. After waiting a few hours for a return phone call, I began to notice that the swelling was gone and the wateriness was SO much better. Many hours later, the doctor called back but at that point we'd decided she was fine. 

    All in all, the surgery was worse than I expected because I didn't know WHAT to expect, but after the first day, she has done amazingly. Just expect your child's eye to look red, expect the time as they come out of anesthesia to be awful and expect some tylenol for the first few days, and you'll be good.

The Eyes Have It

 Aftyn and Mirren recently saw an eye doctor who was determining if they both needed eye surgery.

Answer: Mirren does, Aftyn doesn't RIGHT NOW. But SHE WILL, later. 

Mirren will be patching her eye before and after her surgery to strengthen her weak right eye.