One going on 14

A Lesson, Katie-style :How to make your baby girl seem five years older within five minutes.

First and only step: braid her hair

You'll love it because it's so adorable. You'll also immediately regret this decision because she looks old enough to begin solving algebra problems.

And while you're trying to figure out if you like it or not, you just can't look away or stop taking pictures...

because she's just so cute,

especially since the ends curl. (sigh)

And what trip to the park is complete without teaching the kids to roll down a hill? Thankfully we did not snap a picture of me in a skirt teaching them to roll down a hill while flattening an acre of grass in the process.

They didn't get it. Blake just watched while Madeline tried to roll UP the hill.

But in the end, I realized they're so cute individually but mushy-cute when together (did I really just type "mushy-cute"?) (and does "mushy-cute" even make sense?).

Cleaning is an ugly word

Do you ever look around your house and think, "Man, I've been slacking.?"

Because I do that a lot.

Even though Madeline's amoxicillin reaction was not even 1/15th of a quarter of what some parents deal with on a daily basis, cuddling, comforting and loving on her filled my days recently and not left much room for dealing with our house other than straightening.

For the record, I'm an excellent straightener. If you tell me you are coming in 10 minutes, my house can look very presentable. Just promise to not peek in my closets, my side of the bed (which you can't see from the bedroom door), our guest bedroom or our basement stairs.

Other than those areas, my house will look fantastic.

But cleaning? That is the first thing to go when I have anything else on my plate. Anything. In the past, this has included eating a second lunch at 3:30 p.m. But let's not be technical.

So our floors were dirty and dusty. Actually, everything was dirty and dusty.

There was a clean load of whites sitting in a laundry basket in the corner of my bedroom. It had been there for about two weeks because I strongly dislike matching white socks. I preferred to fix this problem by simply pretending to not see it about six times a day.

Then there's the other basket of clean clothes in Madeline's room. An overflowing basket of clothes she had recently outgrown and I kept telling myself I would sort and store away tomorrow. I did this repeatedly. For, like, a month.

And the paper. Oh, how quickly the paper piles up. Um, especially when you're a writer.

You get the point. I had been slacking. And our house was paying the price.

But then one day, I got a surge of organizational energy that I hadn't felt since my nesting days with Madeline. I wanted to conquer everything. The floors, the clothes, the dust, the paper piles.

So where did I start? The medicine cabinet and my kitchen junk drawer, of course.

Let me be perfectly clear: these were not the worst areas of our house. At all. Even as I was emptying, wiping down and reorganizing the medicine cabinet, I wondered why I started there.

(A little part of me knew deep down is was to avoid the white socks but I calmly ignored that.)

After finishing those two very demanding and totally exhausting areas, I promptly lost all motivation to do anything else.

Later that day, when I told Joe that I cleaned and organized the medicine cabinet and junk drawer, he replied, "Oh. OK. Good."

Then he came back a few minutes later and very, very kindly asked that if I get another spurt of organizational energy, maybe I could start with the laundry baskets next time.

I have to admit, I totally agree. Just let me finish my second lunch, OK?

Wal-Mart is rolling back the price of happiness

Wal-Mart has Disney Princess, Little Mermaid and Tinkerbell mini umbrellas for $6.

Exhibit A: Happiness can be bought. At least for my Madeline.

Back to regularly scheduled programming

Even though I declared Madeline back to normal earlier last week, she had some more issues with that dang amoxicillin and this round was bad.

So once again, for hopefully the last time, I am declaring the Great Amoxicillin Saga over and excited to announce that Madeline is back to normal and kickin' it old school.

As in kickin' it with grass stains, muddy knees, squeals of laughter and all.

I'm really, really, really hoping this is the end.

My raw mom-heart can't take more of sick, sad Madeline, as evidenced by a) my desire to watch last night's Hallmark TV movie about mothers being separated from their children and b) the vast amount of tears shed during said Hallmark TV movie.

Just give me some tapered jeans and a flowered turtleneck shirt. I'm a mom.

There I go, being random again

Photo by Jenny

I hope you all had a great Easter. I was so thankful Madeline was better by the weekend. Not only was she feeling better (i.e. back to running in circles and dancing to the faintest trace of music) but the rash is so close to gone.

Call me vain but I didn't want her to look a leprosy child in need of an Easter miracle for all the photos I didn't take. Especially in her gorgeous Target dress.

I love this age for holidays. She's old enough to be able to dye eggs, participate in egg hunts and get unbelievably excited over her Easter basket.

I also love Easter. It's so good for me to have time to focus intently on just how much God loves me and what He did just for me and for you.

Back in high school, I was slightly obsessed with Third Day. I'm pretty sure I bought every album and out of the five concerts I've been to in my life, probably three of those were going to see Third Day. (Maybe four.)

(And I'm really not exaggerating about the number. I'm a total concert loser and would rather go to a nice restaurant than stand to hear some live songs. Plus, we already know I have really odd taste in music. Let the berating begin...)

Anyways, their song "Love Song" is one that I can honestly say changed my life because it changed how I view God. It gave depth to church-y words like "Savior" and "Redeemer." It made me stop and really realize, "Jesus. Loves. Me."

And I especially love listening to it around Easter. "Love Song" to my Easter is like "O Holy Night" to my Christmas. It just makes it real and complete.

In other words, there's a strong chance Joe is sick of hearing Third Day's "Worship" album around the house the last couple of weeks.

If you haven't heard it, you should. (So says the person with zero taste in music.)

P.S. If you watch the video (because I can't figure out how to upload just audio to Blogger), please pay special attention to the dedication to Krystal. I'm still trying to figure out if she is 9 years old and one day or if they've been together for 9 years and one day. What do you think?

"...and he now showed them the full extend of his love."
John 13:1

Best on the blogs this week

A Day at the Beach at 5 Minutes for Parenting
Oh, our memorable first trip to the beach. Enough time has passed now that I'm thinking it would be fun to go back. Yes, I might be crazy.

Follow Me... at Heart and Home
I needed to be refreshed this week. And this post did it.

Name at Big Mama
How He lavishes His loves on us...

A Lesson on Rising Costs in the Dairy Aisle at This Ain't New York
And with this one, I'm putting on the laptop and going on a walk with my family.

Is it the weekend yet?

I love Madeline's pediatrician. He's an older man who has seen it all and now practices with his son who is also a pediatrician. I love that every time he opens the door to the exam room, he's always the same. He wears a kind expression, speaks with a hushed voice and is extremely gentle.

I trust him implicitly. Madeline trembles in fear and bursts out crying at the sight of him.

Yesterday, I brought Madeline back to him for the third time in two weeks. After much trembling and crying during the exam, he said she moved from a reaction to full-blown allergy to the amoxicillin. (Apparently, the bubble-gum flavor brings joy; the drug brings a rash.) Since it was progressively getting worse, he prescribed her a steroid to stop it.

I was very relieved to not be told to go home and wait it out; I'm all for taking action. But the word "steroid" sounded very harsh, especially considering my daughter was completely covered in itchy red patches from the world's most basic drug.

Me: "What are the risks to giving a steroid to such a small child? Could we maybe wait one more day to see if she gets better on her own?"
Dr. C: "Like with any drug, there are risks. But the risks of letting the reaction continue are greater. Since the rash is about as bad as it can be, the next progression is the throat closing up and convulsions. So I strongly recommend giving her the steroid as soon as possible."
Me: "It's fine! It's fine! It's fine! The steroid sounds fine!"

For the next 30 minutes, from the doctor's office until I was handed the drug, ripped it open right then in front of the pharmacy tech and Madeline swallowed it, I was in fear of watching her convulse, gasping for air. My imagination is unnecessarily very vivid.

She's getting better and I'm relieved that this week is finally ending. I'm very ready to dye eggs with her, eat resurrection rolls and plan her first egg hunt this weekend.

It is so true that we don't appreciate our health until it's in jeopardy. I'm so incredibly blessed to know Madeline is healthy. Even though no one gets a choice, I'll take an allergy over a sickness any day.

Nothing to report

Madeline still has The Rash of All Rashes so we're headed back to the doctor today. I took a picture of her back to show all of you how bad it looks but first, I sent it to my sister-in-law. Jen replied back, "Oh. My. Goodness."

Her response made me realize you all might not like to be forced to see a nasty rash image right before lunch so I decided not to post it.

So now I have no blog ammo. Nothing to wow you and especially nothing to make you laugh. My days have revolved around Tylenol and Benadryl doses, lots of PBS and even more cuddling.

However, one highlight has been watching my brother and sister-in-laws' wedding video over and over. Over and over. Seriously my favorite wedding video ever. I'm thinking Joe and I should renew our vows in Dallas just so we can have a similar wedding video.

I'll check back in once I have anything good to say. Unlike this post.

Normalcy? If I promise to be nice, will you come back?

It's just a little disconcerting get your child out of her crib first thing in the morning, give a couple kisses and discover a million tiny red bumps all over her body.

Because that's how my day started. And since I tend to overreact just a little, I struggled to not immediately begin googling "little red dots, possible rash, hasn't been to Africa but could this be deadly??"

Madeline was sick again over the weekend, better yesterday and then broke out in a rash today.

So we scheduled another trip to the doctor and had another experience with the horrific diaper-pee-bag contraption to see if she had another UTI. We waited seven, count 'em, SEVEN hours for her to pee.

It was a long day. I would be lying if I said I didn't check in on Angie and MckMama several times today for a little perspective. Stellan had his 17th day in the hospital and the Smiths are commemorating the one-year anniversary of Audrey's birth and death.

And me? I was just spending my day waiting for my cranky, irritated, miserable, yet overall healthy daughter to pee.

It finally ended when I did the unthinkable: I called my cousin, explained that we were driving nearby and wanted to come in so Madeline could be distracted by new toys and some young kids and hopefully pee.

Yes, I wanted to:

• invite myself over (a major no-no)
• arrive within just a few minutes since we were driving by (again, something I never do)
  
• in hopes that my daughter would pee in her house (my mom didn't teach me this one but I'm guessing this is also something I shouldn't ask of others)

Aren't you glad you didn't get that call?

Thankfully, Christina immediately yes without fully understanding what or why I was desperately asking to come over and (thank you Lord!) the plan worked. After a few minutes of watching Cohen play Wii and playing with his toys, she finally peed. And I wondered why I didn't do this at 10 a.m. instead of 3 p.m.

If it were on my life to-do list to leave a friend's home in a euphoric state of glee while holding a bag of urine, I could then call my afternoon an accomplishment and check it off my list.

In the end, the pee checked out perfectly healthy so our doctor thinks she reacted to that wonderful bubblegum amoxicillin which tasted so good when it hit her lips. (Name that movie for double friend bonus points. Actually, triple friend bonus points if you've made it this far.)

Hopefully, hopefully, we'll be getting back to normalcy soon. And I'll do my best to not drop of the face of Planet Blog. My apologies that you waited a week for an update and instead got a post which mentioned "pee" seven times. (Oops, now it's eight.)