September 2010 – Andelin Adventures

Chicken Pox :(

Well we’ve made it 7 1/2 years as parents and have never had to deal with chicken pox before (aside from when we had it as children of course). Ethan came to me after putting pajamas on a couple of weeks ago saying “Mom, I have a whole bunch of bug bites that weren’t there this morning. They happened while I was at school.” My first thought was WHY would a bug be crawling all over just YOU at school? So I asked him to show me. When I saw them I instantly thought “Chicken pox!” Now the last time that I had ANY exposure to chicken pox was more than 17 years ago, I’m no expert at what they look like or diagnosing it, but really that was the only way that I could explain so many spots appearing in such a short time. I called the after hours doctor, and spoke to a nurse. She told me that based on my description of the spots that they didn’t sound like chicken pox and there really wasn’t anything they could do about them. OK FINE!

The next morning, Saturday, I had Kyle inspect the spots as well and I insisted that Ethan go to the urgent care to have a doctor actually look at them and tell me what they are. Well they WERE chicken pox. Ethan has had both the chicken pox vaccine and the booster shot so his case was very mild. We missed stake conference, Sunday then he missed school Monday, but all of his spots had broken and were scabbed over by Tuesday morning so he was good to go back to school. Then life was good. Or so we thought…..

This past Saturday we were at Granny’s house, and while Kyle was holding Chloe, Granny pointed out a spot on the side of her head and said “oh she’s got a zit”. One spot no big deal, it could have been a zit, or a bug bite….

Sunday morning Kyle went to get Chloe out of bed and brought her into our room saying “I wonder why she’s breaking out.” She had more spots on her face, then he unzipped her jammies to change her diaper and there were other spots on the rest of her body too. Dang it! It’s gotta be chicken pox! Only thing though, is that Chloe has NOT had the vaccine! Her doctor was being lame and I decided not to go back there and I haven’t made an appointment with another doctor yet to take her in for her vaccines that she should have got at 12 months (Bad mommy! I know!). The varicella vaccine would have been one of those shots. Chloe has been coming up with new spots every day since. It makes me feel horrible to see her like this, knowing full well that had I actually just taken her in she wouldn’t have a full blown case of the chicken pox. 🙁

But in a way I guess it’s good that I got to see the difference between chicken pox with the vaccine and chicken pox with out….. Ethan only had a few patches on his belly, his back and neck, a few spots on his face and a few on his arms and legs. Chloe has them everywhere! All over her face and scalp, and all over her body and arms and legs and all over her bum. 🙁 SO SAD!

Washing her face and hands after a meal is so hard. Normally if there is a bump on her face it’s food that is stuck there and I get to pick it off. Right now I have to be careful about what I’m picking off her face.

At least I know that if any of the other kids get it, they’ve all had the vaccine so they won’t get it this bad. Thankfully.

Student of the Month

Tyra received a “Student of the Month” award at school today! I had actually been invited to come to the assembly, but the paper inviting “parents” to the assembly didn’t actually say that MY daughter was getting an award, so I didn’t go. So I’m really bummed about that! I mean really the paper only said “Parents are cordially invited to attend Eagle Valley Elementary Student of the Month Recognition Assembly” then it lists the date and the times. Nowhere did it actually say anything about Tyra being student of the month! Lame! So I took my own picture after she got home and showed me her award.

“Mom”

Today Chloe has started coming up to me and saying “Mom” as she repeatedly pats my leg or arm with her hand to get my attention. My sweet little 15 month old has finally figured out how to call me by name. She’s so cute. 🙂

The Cheese Monster AGAIN?!?!?!

OK I think the cheese monster (aka Dinah) went a little too far this time!

A brand new 8 oz tub of cream cheese spread all over the cabinet! Not to mention that she was eating it by the handfuls, so it was all over her face and hands too! Then the dog proceeded to lick up whatever she had left in the tub (which really wasn’t much) so I couldn’t even save that!

Dinah’s 3rd Birthday!

Dinah is three years old already! It seems only yesterday she hadn’t been born yet, and Kyle and I were trying to decide when he would quit the second job. We were planning on him quitting before the baby was born, so that he would be home with me more when we had the baby, and afterward. Well here we are 3 years later and he is STILL working two jobs, and we’re not quite ready for him to quit yet (even if we are always discussing when it should happen).

Dinah was oblivious to the fact that it was almost her birthday so Kyle and I, and her brothers and sister, kept reminding her that it was almost her birthday. That got her excited. Then Tuesday was her birthday and so we were all telling her “happy birthday” and I kept asking her how old she was. She would say “Two, NO FREE!” Then she would try to hold up three fingers which was quite entertaining, because we had to keep showing her how many fingers is 3.

Another favorite game that I have with Dinah is to ask her who she is. I like to ask her to see if she knows, to see what she says, and to see if she knows her full name. So I would ask, “Who are you?” and she said “Dinah!” So I said “Dinah WHO?” and she answered “Dinah Befany”, so then I would ask “Dinah Bethany WHO?” She used to say “Dinah Befany Andelin” but this week since her birthday has been the main focus, she would say “Dinah Befany it’s my birfday!” or “Dinah Befany where’s my present!”

Saturday I was gone at the retreat and we were planning on having a little party for her Saturday evening, but the cake wasn’t ready and Debby hadn’t come like she said she would so we postponed the party for tonight. Kyle made the cake yesterday since I wasn’t home and he went ahead and made the frosting today to finish it. Dinah requested chocolate cake, but she kept saying that she didn’t want frosting. “Don’t want frosting”, she would say. We had to tell her that the frosting helps keep the candles in the cake, so I offered chocolate frosting, and Kyle offered peanut butter frosting, and the peanut butter frosting won….

I love how big her eyes get!

She was really excited to get to open her present.

Thank you Grandpa Tom and Grandma Kathy for the cute outfit!