Easter Egg Hunting

The weekend before Easter, you know, the weekend all the Easter Egg Hunts were scheduled, we got slammed with a blizzard.  All the hunts were cancelled, of course.  I was kind of disappointed; I thought Addy was really going to enjoy it this year!

And then I remembered the the city had theirs scheduled for the next Saturday.  We went for Piper’s first Easter and it was. a. zoo.  Only a few of the local municipalities still do egg hunts any more, so this one usually has a TON of people.  I wasn’t too sure, but as it was our last option (and the weather was gorgeous and calling our names) we got out of the house and headed over.  We were there fairly early, so the girls got to get out and run.  We even ran into one of Piper’s friend’s from school!

Look who else Piper found!

Addy was…  less than amused.  Check out that glare! 

The girls were in two different age groups, so Luke took Piper and I took Addy.  The result is that I have pictures of Addy, but not of Piper…  Only so much you can do, right?? 

Addy was super impressed that she found dumdums on the ground.  I think she got about 20 suckers.  And about three eggs.  She knew that the eggs had goodies in them, but she would rather have the suckers.  Weirdo.

She’d get a handful and put them in her basket.  And then unwrap one and take a taste.  Her efficiency lacked a little.  But her enthusiasm was full-bore!31

Dying eggs. And my house.

We finally got up the nerve to dye eggs on Saturday before Easter.  It hadn’t occurred to me before how much more difficult dying with TWO kids would be.

Until I set a mug of dye, blue dye, in front of Addy before we even started.  And she proceded to dump the whole glass in her lap. 

Which dripped all over my hardwood floors.

My natural maple hardwood floors.

I was afraid our house would look like we murdered a Smurf for years to come.

White vinegar worked really well to pull up the color and I think we skirted that drama.  The floor drama, that is; not the drama that involved Addy who was none too thrilled that she looked like she was the Smurf murderer.

And the drama that occurred when Addy was ticked that we wouldn’t let her taste the dye.  So I gave in and gave her a class of red water. 

Whatever works, right?

After all that was done, I think we were ready to just get it done!  And as a result, this is the only half decent picture of Piper that I got. 

<<sigh>>  There’s always next year, right?

Painting Pair

This week was spring break, and as such, marked the third week that Piper’s been out of school.

My toolbox of Fun Things To Do When it’s Too Cold To Go Outdoors was quickly dwindling.  Addy asked to finger paint, so finger paint we did.

Piper wasn’t so enthused; she thought it was fun for about 5.2 seconds and decided it was time to move on.

She was, however, much more interested in Finger Painting.

Addy thought the purpose was to paint her fingers.

…and nose…

…and Piper’s shirt (notice the hand print on her shoulder.)

She wasn’t too keen on the idea of using her fingers (which was ironic because her fingers were covered in paint) so I went to find some brushes for her.  Not able to find one (I wasn’t willing to go downstairs or dig too long with my kids upstairs, with paint, unsupervised- he thought still curls my toes…), I resorted to these little rubber spatulas.  They actually worked really well!  Addy was exceptionally excited to see them.

Addy looked so cute as an artist.

Until she did this.  And then we were finished.

“Kitty Monster”

We took a walk up through the ravine the other day and saw, for the first time ever there, several quail running around.  They’re surprisingly fast, and we surprised them, so we only caught little glimpses of them.

I think they startled Piper, too.  She kept asking to see them again (easier said than done.)  And then, when we didn’t produce, she asked for “More Kitty Monsters, pleease!” 

The only thing we can figure is that the tail of the bird looked like a tail of a cat, but it was certainly not a cat, so monster is the obvious choice. 

I have no idea.

Anyway, ever since then, Piper keeps laughing about “kitty monsters.”  After dinner last night, she did this, while laughing, and exclaiming “I kitty monster!” and then laughing some more. 

She’s not afraid to laugh at her own jokes.

Addy didn’t really get The Joke, but she wanted in on the laughter, too, so she tried.

It didn’t work out well for her.

…and then decided she didn’t really know what was so funny, anyway.

Our “New Fun Thing” of the week

Piper went back to the pediatrician yesterday to see if we could discontinue her oxygen during the day.  She was using a half liter when we discharged, so I was hoping that we could be off by now.

We left with her turned up to 1 or 1 1/2 liters.  That was not what I was anticipating.  She got a Therapep to use that she was really good at- all the whistle blowing for speech therapy paid off!  I’m glad that we had an appointment Thursday instead of waiting until after the weekend.

But, since Piper’s still on a leash, I was trying to think of something to do outdoors (the weather is gorgeous!) but where she wouldn’t be tempted to run around too much. 

So, this week we did make-your-own sidewalk paint.  Equal parts corn starch and water with food coloring.  I got cheapie paint brushes from Walmart and they went to town!  For the record- I’m not sure why I took the time to make twelve separate colors- within about three minutes they were all about the same color, but they were pretty to start!

 

 

 

 

Home, sweet home

Home at last!

Because it’s flu season, minors aren’t allowed on the floor at the hospital.  That means that the girls didn’t get to see each other- at all- while Piper was there.  They were very glad to get some hugs in when Piper got home!

SICK!

Piper had parent-teacher conferences last week on Thursday.  She was fine that morning, and went to school with Luke and me.  Afterward, my mom, Addy, Piper and I spent the day together.

Piper fell asleep on the way home (about an hour and a half drive) and woke up just a few miles from home.  When we pulled into the garage, she was grunting as she was breathing.  I got us all indoors, took everyone potty, got shoes off, and got the pulse oximeter.  I checked Piper- she was sitting in the mid 80’s.  Crud.

Luke wasn’t home from work yet, but he was ready to leave.  We decided to meet a the ER and figure out what to do from there.  It was quickly approaching dinner time for Addy, so it was going to be interesting.  By the time I got shoes back on and the kids back out to the car, Luke actually beat us to the hospital.

We got checked in and, sure enough, her O2 was low.  They wanted to take some xrays (we were assuming it was going to be pneumonia again) and get us settled in, because we weren’t going anywhere that night.  I left Luke with Piper, I took Addy to dinner, went home and packed my bag.  I changed Addy into pajamas, ran back up to the hospital, sent Addy and Luke home and settled in with Piper.

Low-and-behold, her xrays were clear.  There was some junk, but just viral crud.  We stayed the night at the urgent care (which is nice for urgent care- private bathroom, pull out couch, etc.) but not as nice as the actual hospital.  Saturday, we were expecting to get a foot and a half of snow with blizzard conditions.  I asked (begged) to be transferred to the main campus on Friday so that, just in case Piper went downhill again like she did last time, we’d be there instead of having to get there in a blizzard.  There was no resistance at all, which was nice, but we did have to wait for a bed.  Late that afternoon, she got transferred down to the main campus.

And there we sat for another four nights.  I was glad we got moved.  It was rather anticlimactic- she didn’t even need an IV this time (she barely skated by without one), and kept her oxygen at a fairly moderate rate (only got up to about 2 1/2 liters.)  She was “moderately” sick, but not even close to how sick she got this fall.  I kept waiting for her to get sicker, but thankfully it never happened. 

They did do a viral panel because of her history- they were concerned that pneumonia would develop, so knowing if there was a virus, and what it was, could help decide how concerned to be.  Come to find out, she had THREE viruses- RSV, Rhinovirus, and coronavirus.  No wonder she was sick!

She got discharged on Tuesday- with continuous oxygen.  She’s over the cannula, so it’ll be interesting having her at home.  We’ll see how it goes.  We’re glad to be under the same roof again, and really glad that she didn’t get any sicker than she did!

On a side note, we learned that Piper is really good at playing Memory!

 

Busted. Again.

Addy’s a trouble maker.  Can you tell?

This time I learned that baby wipes do a spectacular job in removing Crayola (not generic so much) washable markers. 

I also learned how to execute a more in depth marker search in the house.  Although I wouldn’t put money on me having found them all…

Remind me again…

…how old is she???

She was not happy when I washed her face.  Not not not.