Claire's first trip to the ER

Oh my goodness, where do I begin?
Claire went to bed with a slight fever last night: 99.7, and when I checked on her at 10:30 she still had one, so I gave her more tylenol. Around 12:30am she began moaning, and when we checked on her, she wouldn't wake up. She was like a limp moaning noodle who wouldn't respond to sound or even ice washcloths or cold water on her body. Time to get in the car and go to the ER!
Thanks to a clear freeway, I was able to get to the hospital rather quickly, and thanks to a full tank of gas and a turbo charged Volvo, I was able to get there even faster. I think 110mph was my max.
She began having a febrile seizure in the car which really started to scare me, so I just pushed the gas pedal closer to the floor hoping no cops or speed traps were ahead of me.

I rushed her in to the hospital, and she was triaged immediately and very quickly given a room-- it appeared to be a slow night in the ER.
After a CT scan of the brain (slept through it), chest x-ray (slept through it), urinalysis (didn't like that very much), and blood draws (really didn't like that very much), we waited. She received IV fluids and motrin and slept soundly in anticipation of her test results. It was amazing how much better she appeared after just a few minutes of IV fluids. The net result of all that panic: Nothing! All tests were normal. The doctor said that the only way to rule out meningitis was to do a spinal tap, but since her white blood cell count was normal, I decline the spinal tap. The ER doctor thought her febrile seizure (if she even had one) was brought on by her temperature (102). These types of seizures aren't uncommon and usually don't have lasting effects (see link above.) When talking to my mom later, she said that I had quite a few of these when I was little. The doctor said that she most likely has some virus such as a slight head cold that is causing the fever. By the time we were discharged from the hospital, Claire was beginning to wake up and interact with the nurses.

We were discharged without any necessary prescriptions and sent home. Back to sleep for us! We will follow up today with a 5pm appointment with her regular pediatrician. She seems to be acting 100% normal- a bit irritable and still has a slight fever, but the ER doctor said to expect this with a virus. It's good news that she is acting normal because an altered mood or level of consciousness is one symptom of meningitis (swelling of the brain). The lesson for all parents out there is febrile seizures can happen in children under the age of 5 and come without warning. I had no idea a temp around 101 would lead to our ER adventure.

Claire was awake and alert for our entire drive home, and boy were we happy to see Rob and Lilly. Claire is resting now and eagerly anticipating her pediatrician appointment in a few hours.

Big moral of the story: Count your blessings for your health and say a prayer for those you love.

Update: We saw the pediatrician and he ruled out swine flu and other flus. He said she has a virus and it has to run its course. It sounds like all that will be going on around here are fluids, rest and motrin!

Sunny with a Chance of Fun!

As a child, I absolutely loved the Scholastic book club. Mom spoiled Amy and me with this monthly mail order book club. All kids love mail, and all kids love books... what a perfect combination.
Way back in the day, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs came in the mail. I fell in love with it and read it over and over again. It is still in my top 10 all time book favorites, I think. In fact, this summer when mom, Amy and I sifted through old books in mom's basement, this was one book I had to find! Isn't it a beauty?
Fast forward to 2009... and low and behold if they didn't make a movie!

This weekend Lilly agreed to go to the movies with me- she is a great movie companion, and I was ashamed to go alone. So under the cover of taking my daughter to the show, we went.
But this time we didn't go alone -Shelly and Hannah met us. This is incredible considering Hannah had her major surgery just one week ago. When Hannah walked up to the ticket counter, Lilly saw her and gave her this embrace...

Here's the two just before the movie began. Shelly was away buying kiddie popcorn while I snapped a few pictures of the movie-goers. Hannah was cooperative and Lilly, eh, not so much.
The final weather report: one great show. Of course it differed from the book, but the movie is quite entertaining and lots of fun!
Put on your raincoat, grab an umbrella and head to a theater near you!

Funny Lilly story...

So we've been helping Hannah's family by doing little things like watching her baby brother, so today, I picked up Claire and Dylan from childcare, brought them both home and then realized I didn't have any food for Dylan. I texted his mom for their garage entry code, and Lilly and I pranced across the street in search of Similac. We entered the garage code... no problem. We opened the door to the house... big problem. The alarm went off... and we didn't have the alarm code! Sirens blared and were REALLY loud!!
So, needless to say, I panicked. We ran back home to gather neighbors' phone numbers in order to track down the code since Shelly wasn't answering her cell. Never fear, the code was recovered and alarm turned off before any police or firemen appeared. Relief!

When we got home, Lilly told Rob, "Dad, there was a firetruck inside of Hannah's house." Close! That's an appropriate assessment for the loud alarm, don't you think?

Where has September gone?

Time flies, I 'm telling you! Tick Tock Tick Tock. Where does all of our time go?

It's been one busy month, and I wanted to share a few things that have been occupying our time. But first I want to update you on my dissertation progress: It's pretty much done... all written. Yes, get up off the floor- I know it's a shocker.My editor has it at the moment- checking it for APA formatting, etc- then I will send it to my committee so that we can schedule the dissertation defense probably sometime mid-November. Whew! I'm still running 120mph after all of the writing I've been doing. Couple that with everything else that's going on and I feel like I need a vacation! Enjoy the pictures below- these are the moments that I enjoy most- the ones spent away from my laptop with the girls...

It was Claire's turn for a haircut, and she was less than thrilled. She cried BIG crocodile tears until she was given a lollipop. She'll behave for sugar.

Claire's latest trick... Ask her "Claire, make a silly face," and this is what you get...

Our buddy Hannah underwent her 3rd big surgery, so Lilly helped make her feel better at the hospital. We took ice cream cupcakes one evening... a big hit!
Feel better Hannah, we miss having you over to play!

At preschool, the theme has been "things that go," so Lilly's class made cars today. What a sight it was to see these little ones all lined up "driving" their cars with their paper plate steering wheels. Lilly was very excited! So cute!

A close-up of Nascar Lilly

Funny story: After taking Hannah lunch at the hospital, Lilly wanted to stop at the hospital playground, but once she began playing, she didn't want to leave, of course.
Lilly still thinks the hospital is a hotel... now she knows it has a playground, some really nice people called "music therapists" who played guitar in Hannah's room, super-neat kid friendly toys, a play room and much more. So one question remains... where's the pool? Here's a picture of Lilly on the play equipment.

Have a great week, everyone! Thanks for stopping by to see what we've been up to!

Labor Day Fun

The perfect plan for a long weekend is to spend quality time with the family! We took advantage of the 3-day weekend to spend time outdoors . We pretended the weather was nice and cool instead of the actual 100 degrees, but thanks to sunscreen, misters and lots of water, we survived.

Tumbleweed Park was our first outing. It's amazing how the girls seem to completely ignore the heat and focus instead on having fun. We carry their thermos' everywhere we go because constant hydrating is important when you're a desert dweller, of course. Once at the park, the swings are always our first stop...

Claire is always out for an adventure, and the baby swing is usually a crowd pleaser for both girls.... Yes, Lilly still prefers the "baby" swing over the "big girl" swing. I think it's because of the nostalgia and the fact that Sister gets to use it.

What a mean joke, Daddy! Rob helped Lilly onto the monkey bars and then let go. This photo accurately captures her amazement/freaking out moment. Next time maybe Mom should help.

Claire was all smiles when we got to the zoo. She was secretly planning to take home a hippo... oh wait, the Phoenix Zoo doesn't have hippos. What a relief!

This was Lilly's first experience eating a snow cone. Of course it had to be purple. Go Cats! Claire liked it too.

The new elephant viewing area lets you get very close to the animals. Lilly and Claire were impressed and so was Lilly's blanket.

The big highlight of our zoo trip was not the snow cone nor the elephants... it was the log cabin/playhouse/tree house. Lilly was fascinated with this play area and probably would like to live inside this super cool house forever. It's built into a tree... two stories, fireplace, wooden play furniture, a slide and even a patio out back. Super cool!
This photo shows Rob forcibly carrying Lilly away from the house so that we could leave the zoo.

Last but certainly not least was the ride on the carousel. Lilly opted for the crocodile while Claire chose the cheetah. It's all smiles and round and round we go.....

Everything's a comparison

Lilly is quite the talker- always has been- but she has been on a serious talking kick lately.
Over the past few weeks we've noticed that everything she does she seems to verbally rationalize or mentally process what is going on to whoever is around, usually Rob or me. Her rationalizations seem to be all along one main theme... a comparison of whatever the situation is to the ability of someone else or something else to do the same task. For example, if we ask her to brush her teeth she will say. "But not Claire. Claire can't brush her teeth with the Mermaid toothbrush. And not Belle and Sue. Belle and Sue can't brush their teeth. They're dogs." Or... when we asked Lilly if she wanted to go to the zoo last weekend, she rationalized her response this way "Belle and Sue can't go to the zoo. Only Lilly and Claire can. And not our house. Our house can't go to the zoo because it is too big." Or, when we talk about going home to Kansas in October Lilly says, "Only you, me, daddy and Claire can get on the airplane, right? Not our car. Our car is too big to go on the airplane." Or when we told her aunt Brianne had her baby she says, "But Isabel can't talk. She can't talk because she's a baby. But I'm not a baby. I'm a big girl and I can talk. But Claire can't talk because she's still a baby." So, I guess it's good that she's figuring all of this out!

It is VERY comical. Rob and I glance at each other and smile whenever she gets in one of these "modes", which is several times each day. It is too cute... just adorable. Oh the joys of being Lilly's parents!

Two of a kind

Say Cheese!!
In case you can't tell, that's Husker Hannah on the left and Lilly Wildcat on the right.

Now make a funny face!

Oh the fun of being little! Lilly and Hannah continue to play nonstop most evenings- dress-up, tea party, doctor, school, you boss me around and I'll boss you around, coloring, let's see how much of a mess we can make Lilly's room, watching movies, eating popsicles, and even swinging outside.

When Hannah is over to play I inevitably snap a photo or take a short video because they are just too cute for words. Notice how both girls have the same skin-tone, dark dark brown eyes and the same color hair. They even have the same haircut. Little Hannah is still receiving maintenance chemotherapy for her ongoing battle of CCSK (clear cell carcinoma of the kidney) that migrated to the brain. She is an amazing little girl, and we love her dearly. In fact, my car has a permanent third car seat strapped inside for Miss Hannah. She frequently rides with us to Tiny Toes in the morning and out and about other times.

I thought you would all enjoy these photos of Lilly and her best friend.
Have a great Labor Day weekend, everyone!