This and that

We had a very quiet St. Patrick's Day around our house... definitely not the crazy holiday it used to be!  

Lucky leprechauns 

Maggie was obsessed with her shamrock
headband from Grandma!

We were able to get an appointment with the allergist last Thursday, but it was during the middle of the day.  Jamie picked the short stick and took a couple hours off work to take her in.  I believe he described it as “one of the worst 20 minutes of my life.”  They decided to do a mini scratch test on her leg, which requires her to sit still (or rather, be forced to sit still) with an itchy leg.  In the end, the control substance didn’t work, so the test did not reveal any useful information. 

Seriously?!  Thanks for the torture experiment

Since she had a little cough along with the break-outs, the doctor thinks the break-outs were likely a result of a virus attacking her skin cells rather than a food allergy.  It can happen to kids around this age.  Unfortunately, everything is just a hypothesis and we can only wait and observe.

Checking baby doll's vitals before
the appointment

I went in for my weekly doctor appointment on Friday, and everything still looks good with our little girl!  The doctor said I appear to be dropping a little bit, but not all the way yet.  I'm really trying to treasure every moment with Maggie... I already feel guilty about how much time I will have to devote to her sister; just don't want her to feel neglected.

Are you ready to be a big sister, little one?

Jamie and I went to see “Bob’s Burgers Live” last night while my parents stayed with Maggie.  It was a fun date night out!   We saw a few parents who brought their kids… I imagine they left about 1 minute into the show.  I think my favorite joke of the night was, “…my wife is the only one I’ve been with since getting married… everyone else has been like nines and tens…”

Such a hipster

"Name that Expression" is still one of Maggie's favorite games...

I love my Daddy

Lately Maggie makes us applaud for her so she can take a bow.  It totally cracks us up - I'm guessing Grandma taught her:

The Great Thaw

Spring is in the air and I am in an infinitely better mood!  Maggie is happy because she gets to go outside a lot more, and there is a plethora of puddles for her to splash in!  ...and we finally took down the Christmas lights (blush).

My philosophy is that you can never
have too many hair accessories

Maggie’s scary rash magically disappeared after 7 days, just like the doctor told us it would.  We still don’t know what the cause was, but were pretty happy to have it gone... until Friday when it came back again - gah!  It's not as bad this time, but bad enough that we decided to schedule an allergist appointment.  Hoping we can get some answers this week, because my daughter is a dramatic cranky-pants when she's on Benadryl.

My dear friend Becky was in town last weekend for some photography (if you’re around Chicago and need an amazing photographer, check her out: http://rebeccapeplinski.com).  She hung out with us all day Sunday, it was so great to see her!  Maggie adores Becky, probably because she has the energy level of a 3-year-old on espresso!

Taking some sample sips

It’s now crunch time for little miss baby – by which I mean we have to finish preparing for her, not that I will be performing any sort of abdominal exercise.  We’re in pretty good shape (again, baby-wise, not physically), spent a bunch of time this weekend pulling things out of storage and cleaning.  I’m hoping she’ll be here in 3 weeks, but could be up to 5.  I’m predicting an Easter birthday… if so, will name our little girl Bunny or Egg (or perhaps a more traditional name).

Maggie insists this is still her tub...
"it fits, Momma!"

Yup, that's definitely my tub

Here's Maggie doing the wheelbarrow - such grace and strength!

Maggie hasn't been able to do anything without her
Ariel doll this week

This is Maggie's angry face.
Do not try to take her doll away.

Under the sea...

I See Spots

Earlier this week Maggie’s skin had a bunch of red patches, so I put some hydrocortisone on and put her to bed.  When she woke up, the patches had morphed into one giant red blob that covered most of her back and stomach.  She seemed perfectly happy and wasn’t itchy, but I was still freaked out.  Jamie took her to the doctor who said she had an allergic reaction, though we can’t figure out what could have caused it! (I won't gross you out with the graphic pics)

We always get a little nervous when taking Maggie to the doctor because she has been very scared and whiney that past few times.  We’ve been playing with her new doctor kits at home, so when the doctor started to do the normal check-up routine, she knew what everything was and how she should behave.  She was insistent that the doctor check her eyes and ears even though he didn’t really need to!

Maggie's face on a good day...

We've been using Benadryl and steroids all week, and while she's had temporary improvements, she still wakes up every day with lots of red blotches all over the place.  We went back to the doctor today, which was wasn't very helpful... sounds like we will be waiting a couple days to see how she does, and if it still doesn't improve, we'll head to an allergist.   Maggie is a total trooper, but all the medicine has made her rather melodramatic.  Hopefully we can solve this mystery soon!

Just waiting for the doc

I love doing puzzles with Maggie - for every piece, she has to say "hmmm" before putting it into place:

Loves stacking her new boxes

Doh, what did I do wrong?

Not much else going on around here... Jamie has been working almost non-stop on ads and other digital designs for Ben's Encore while also creating a major set for Bishop Foley's musical.  Oh, and he works full-time.  And has to deal with his pregnant wife and red blobby daughter.  This poor guy needs a break!

Maggie and Jamie like to sing "The Wheels on the Bus" whenever they drive somewhere together, except they like to change the verses for our family members...  some of my favorites are:

Claire/Will on the bus says "wah wah wah"...
Luke on the bus says "time to play"...
Mama on the bus says "clean-up time"... (I find this slightly insulting)
Pops on the bus says "snore snore snore" (sorry Dad)
Grammer on the bus says "here's your shoes"... (because she made wraps for Maggie's brace?)
Grandpa on the bus says "feed the fish"...
Grandma on the bus says "giddy-up"...

Happiest when she gets to "hold" babies

My little helper

We had a pretty uneventful week.  I had a nasty cold for most of it, which was definitely not fun.  Jamie had Thursday and Friday off work due to the temperatures, and he has this entire week off for winter break.  I’m not jealous.  What I feel is definitely stronger than jealousy!

I can't believe I still have 8 weeks until my due date... ugh, I feel overly-pregnant, if that is possible!  My doctor said it's normal, all the uncomfortable stuff starts earlier with each pregnancy.  I'm hobbling around like an old woman and using words like "malarkey"!  As it’s getting harder and harder to do all the chores and such on the weekend, I've enlisted a little helper to help me out:

She usually makes more messes rather than helping to clean, but she's so darn cute and well-meaning. 

After church this weekend we took Maggie to the mall to run around and do fun kid stuff.  She really loved the merry-go-round and even got to go on a train ride.

The happiest (and only?) hot dog
driver I've ever seen

Check out my new ride

Riding with Daddy

Way cuter here than when she
was told to get off the ride...

We are mostly finished with Maggie's room, just need to get some curtains.  Jamie did a fantastic job on the walls!

Here's a few other randoms from the week:

I don't know what this look is, a
flash-forward to her teenage years?

She will just pose like this for long periods of time,
waiting for Daddy to flip her over

Love this girl

Grammer always sings this song to her grand-babies, and Maggie just loves to sing it after bath time lately:

Our funny valentine

Maggie is our little song bird.  She just loves singing songs, and lately her favorite one has been “Part of Your World” from the Little Mermaid (which I 100% approve of)!  She really gets into the emotion of the song (if not the exact words), and loves belting out the long-hold diva notes.  I love that I can now figure out what song she is singing, at least most of the time.

Lately at dinner, we’ve been goofing around with facial expressions.  Her favorite expressions are “surprised” and “angry.”  I love seeing her transition between them both.

I was a bad photographer this week and didn’t take any pictures… luckily Grandma snapped a few!  Maggie spent the night over there so Jamie and I could go the Bishop Foley auction (I know, most romantic date ever!).  Jamie surprised me and had my desperately-flat piano tuned – it sounds sooo much better and is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.  He knows I love when gifts are both practical and thoughtful!  …and I got him a bunch of beer… not so much practical or thoughtful – he wins again!

Uncle Jason’s birthday was Sunday, so the family got together for dinner and games.  Maggie helped Grandma make a cake:

Do you mind?  I'm trying to make a
masterpiece here!

Oh, I was just trying this on, making sure
it still functions correctly...

Her new favorite game

Sleepy Head

Well, this past week started off difficult – we were still trying to help Maggie adjust to her big girl bed.  It took one and a half hours to get her to fall asleep the first couple nights, and I continued to sit outside her door to make sure she didn’t feel scared.  Clearly this was not the solution.  So I decided to copy our old crib routine exactly (except with a bed)… no lights, sing a lullabye, put her in bed with a kiss and then walk out and close the door.  After 30 seconds of whining, she settled right down and went to bed!  Jamie bought some big body pillows to put on either side of her.  These help her from falling out of bed, and also raise up the covers enough to let her turn around with her braces.  She's done great all week!

I love getting Maggie up in the mornings and just sitting together on her bed for a minute cuddling.  She likes to sing songs and look at books while getting changed and cleaned up for the day.  She still really hates getting her hair done.

Dancing to express her big girl feelings:

Maggie’s new annoying phrase is “I can’t” in a super-whiny voice.  If you ask her to do something she doesn’t like, she covers her eyes and says her little phrase.  It’s slightly nicer to hear than “NO!”, but drives us crazy sometimes!

Red Robin has become our restaurant of choice...
sigh, we are such parents

Our other little girl is becoming more and more active, kicking and squirming all over the place.  Sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night while she boogies down; I don’t mind, it’s only a couple minutes before I clonk out again, and I love feeling her movements.

Thursday we had another check-up with the orthopedist.  Nothing new to report – Maggie's feet still look great and she’s walking very well.  The doctor warns us at each visit that her left foot could potentially require a minor surgery in the future because it is still a little stiff.  He says it’s not very likely, but he also keeps reminding us…

Maggie and I did some painting on Saturday:

She gets very focused when painting, just
like her Daddy

Maggie really hates having anything on her hands - she will whimper because she has a little sauce or crumbs on her fingers during a meal.  You can imagine my surprise when she decided to start finger-painting (albeit with one very carefully placed finger):

Brrrr

We had a very snowy Sunday/Monday in Michigan!  It was not fun getting out of the driveway (and back into it) on Monday, but shoveling is good exercise, right?  Jamie came down with a rough stomach bug yesterday, so after all the effort of getting myself to work, I had to come home at lunch and take care of Maggie so he could rest.  Thankfully he had a snow day yesterday and today, so no missed work!  Our neighbors' son use his mega snowblower to take care of our driveway - thank God!  I could barely handle digging out the car and porch, and Jamie was in no condition to even stand up.

We had some fun in the snow Sunday though!

I can't believe all this snow!

Making her first snow angel!

Trying to look at her first snow angel

Getting pulled by Daddy:

Daddy getting pulled by Maggie:

The other big news for the week is that we moved Maggie into her big-girl room this weekend.  She started Sunday with a nap, and did pretty well.  We decided to keep going and put her in there for bedtime as well the past couple nights.  She definitely has a harder time falling asleep, and struggles to flip over while under the covers with her braces.   We have had to lay next to her on the floor for a little while until she falls asleep.  Last night I tried to leave while she seemed to be dozing… that back-fired.  I think she felt really abandoned because I spent the next hour+ outside her door, reassuring her I was there until she finally fell asleep.  I think we’re on the right track, it’s just going to take some patience and time.  I’ll post pictures of the finished room once we get the final touches done.

Terrible picture of the monitor showing
my big girl in bed

We made jello jigglers after her first nap to celebrate

Pretty soon she'll be able to drive...
getting some practice in at Home Depot

Daddy, I told you I was going to wear the flowery bow today!