Playing Hookie with the Girls

Yesterday I kept Jayla at home with me. She seemed a little sad in the morning that she wasn't going to see her friends at school. But, once I revealed our plans for the day, she soon got over that. Our goal for the day was to hang out at the big, swanky mall with a girl that I used to work with and her daughters (ages 4.5 and almost-3). Last year, we took off of work to take our girls to the mall at Christmastime. This year, I thankfully, didn't have to take off of work to do it. It's funny because Jayla was talking about them this weekend, not knowing that we had an outing planned with them this week. That made it extra-sweet when she got to see them.

We met at lunch time and started at the Bennigan's in the mall. Then we walked around for about 3 hours. The girls were great. First of all, I was just so happy that Jayla used the potty when we were at Bennigan's because it is so much easier to hold her over a potty than it is to change a pull-up in a public bathroom. Then, we actually got to shop - and buy Christmas presents! The girls walked around most of the day, holding hands, and really just entertaining themselves. Usually Jayla was in the middle. But, they walked in front of us the whole time. It was really cute. They got to watch ice skating, awesome water fountains, see Santa and blow kisses at him without making us stand in line to take a picture with him, and Lord only knows how long we were in the Disney Store! We wrapped up the day with a trip to the Nestle store in the food court for chocolate chip cookies. And even though the girls probably don't remember last year, we did the exact some thing so, it is officially a tradition now.

My friend and I were debating on how much longer the girls will enjoy being at the mall with their moms. Since her oldest is already 4.5, we figure we've only got another 8 years before she starts convincing the younger two girls that it isn't cool to walk around with us anymore. But, for now, those trips are definitely a blast and really, I am so already looking forward to doing it again next year!

My Little Chef

Jayla helped me make pepperoni rolls for dinner tonight. I was so proud of her for putting the cheese on the dough rather than in her mouth. The pepperoni, however, didn't stand a chance against her!

Thanks for staying...

For the past few months of non-activity on this blog, I've been seriously thinking about whether I would ever post here again. I mean, I didn't blog about my child's 2nd birthday, quitting my job, starting school, the cute halloween outfit, Jayla starting ballet classes, or our Thankgiving trip. But, I feel compelled to come back to this blog because a few of you are still faithfully checking in on me. And I appreciate that...really, I do.

So, I won't bore you with trying to catch up much on what's been going on but, let's just say that school has been keeping me extremely busy and Jayla and her vocabulary and attitude have grown to the point that I can no longer even imagine that time when she didn't tell me what she wants to wear, what she likes and doesn't like, and how I should wear my hair. It is never boring when she is around...that's for sure...

Anyway, I'm welcoming myself back to my own blog. Thanks for staying...

Steppin' To The Bad Side...

Poked and Prodded to the Max

On Monday night, as I was putting Jayla to bed, I noticed that she was a little warm. I took her temperature - 101.3 - no need to be too alarmed. I gave her a dose of Tylenol and put her down to sleep.

I really did not think much of it and even considered not telling my husband about it. But, I did right before we went to bed just so he would know to check her out when he woke her up the next morning.

She was still running a fever when he got her up on Tuesday - still 101.3. She was really lethargic so, he gave her more Tylenol and let her sleep some more. I volunteered to stay home with her for the day because it was the day before the holiday and frankly, there was absolutely no reason for me to go to work.

She woke up again just after her daddy left for work and really wanted nothing more than to just lay around and watch PBS while I surfed the web from the couch. It really was a great morning.

I tried to put her down for a nap a little early. She slept for about 20 minutes and then woke up screaming. I picked her up and she was burning up! Her skin looked red and was hot to the touch. I took her temperature and with every 1/10 degree that the number increased, I was just praying that it would STOP GOING UP ALREADY!!

It didn't stop until it had reached 104.7. That's degrees, people. The child had a fever of 104.7 degrees! I thought of my boss' stories of how his child went into seisures at 105 degrees. My immediate thoughts were to get her in a bathtub of cold water and call the doctor.

I let her sit in the bathtub as the water ran and I called the doctor's office. They, of course, were at lunch and would not monitor the voicemail for another 2 hours - when they opened back up! I left a message and focused on cooling her down.

I managed to get the fever down into the 102 range before she went down for her full nap. Please remind me the next time to just go straight to the Motrin. Tylenol does NOTHING for this girl.

Her fever continued to decrease through the afternoon and then we had a doctor's appointment later on. I think that doctor's appointment was definitely the worst part of the day for Jayla.

By the time we left the doctor's office, she'd had blood drawn from both of her arms, her finger pricked, been catheterized, and had a shot of antibiotices in her thigh. She faught everything tooth and nail. I was very proud of her for fighting back when she perceived that someone was hurting her. But, really, I'm so glad that her daddy was there to hold her down. It freed me up to cry in the corner as they poked and prodded by baby.

So, she either started feeling better from the shot or the threat of having to ever go back to that dreading doctor's office...