The Birthday Party: American Girl Place, Chicago

The lovely cake. Chocolate and vanilla. My daughter patiently waiting for lunch. She was so hungry, that I was feeding her mints. K- and her cousin A- were dressed alike, as were their dolls. Aunt Kristin and Uncle Tom gave K- the matching outfit as a birthday gift. K-'s birthday is in December and often, Aunt Kristin and Uncle Tom don't get the pleasure of being able to watch K- open it. This time, not only could they see the opening, but also the wearing. By the way, people thought that K- and A- were twins. A display right outside of the cafe holding area.
The Hancock Building.
95 floors up, you get to see this out the window. Not too shabby, since I had to use the zoom with no flash while we were standing in the waiting area of the observation area restaurant. No, we didn't eat there. It was pretty, though.

We started out on the road at about 3 PM on Friday. Hubs worked 1/2 day, but the school was late in arriving, the program was even later starting because of the little tiny bladders needing to dispense upon arrival, K- was in school and I was busy packing, packing, packing as I didn't do it the night before because I was busy making party necklaces for the next day. (At least I didn't do them on the drive like the church secretary suggested.) We need to take the air mattress, cot for K- and sleeping bags, as well as all the clothing, gift, doll and her trunk.

You'd be glad to know that we crammed the 5 1/2 hour drive into 7 1/2 hours. Sweet Pete! I'm happy to announce that the Chicago Skyway is passable at 9:30 PM with little traffic. At least, that was our experience. By the time we arrived, unloaded, set up sleeping quarters and the girls got to hang out, we remembered to add an hour onto their Central Time, we discovered that K- was tucking into bed at 11:30 PM. Eeeee-ghad!

We had a nice time at the party. American Girl is very efficient in how they run things. You are in and out in an hour. They greet you with warm cinnamon rolls, followed by appetizers of fruit, fresh veggies and pretzel/cheddar balls. You order your food. It is up lickety-split. It is good food and not crappity crap. The cake comes out. You do the singing and the candles, it comes back out cut with a little plastic flower pot filled with ice cream then voila! You are done. You leave with a little gift bag and you are spit back out into the store where they are hoping that you will continue to keep their store recession-effect free.

With the amount of merchandise flying from the shelves on Saturday, you would think that they were giving things away. I had already had the talk with K- in the car on the way to Chicago that we would NOT be buying anything. I told her that Miss Nora helped us to get her a lovely dog (Coconut, but re-named Cutie) and that she was permitted to touch things, but that we weren't buying anything.

She didn't ask for a thing. I was so proud!

Uncle Tom took us on over to the Hancock building to look out. The birthday girl wanted to do that, but discovered that the cold she was suffering from rendered her without her sense of hearing once we reached the top. We stayed just a brief time, then got her back down to solid, asphalt and concrete covered land.

Tom was kind enough to drop Hubs off at the Field Museum so that he could look around while we were doing the girl thing. Hubs was able to spend 4 hours in the museum and said that he still didn't see all of it. Folks, he was in love. I am so glad that he got to do that!

After the party, we returned back to Kristin and Tom's to find that the birthday girl's godfather had arrived. We took K- downstairs, had her change and had her take a nap. While she was napping and they were opening godfather gifts, Hubs and I escaped. We walked to the thrift store in their neighborhood, but found nothing. Then, we walked to the candy store around the corner from Tom and Kristin's house. We bought a few things, then headed down to Whole Foods. We always walk down there when we are in town. We wished that we had one here. How we love, love, love that store. We got some snackin' things, the homemade tortilla chips that MIL wanted and headed on back. K- was up and playing with the girls. Tom made dinner for all of us, which was great. We bathed and settled into bed.

This AM, we left by 10:15 EST. We stopped in at Bass Pro Shops in Toledo. Hubs gave me a Christmas shopping list to tackle. As soon as I got it done and the merchandise in the car, Hubs called to tell me that K- puked. (What would a trip to Chicago be without puke?!) I ran up, checked on K-, ran back out to the car for clean clothes, back up again to retrieve K- to take to the bathroom to clean up, and then out to the main aisles for K- to have fun with their rodeo weekend. So, why did my kid puke this time? She drank the equivalent of a can of soda (or better) in less than 5 minutes. Probably no breaths. Very cold. She doesn't drink pop, but by sips when she is sick. She suffers from reflux and gluttony. Don't worry about her, though. She is fine. But she has learned. I explained that drinking that much water is quite different from drinking that much pop. I told her that all the bubbles kind of collected together, they probably just wanted her to burp, but she got more than that. The in-law's apologized. They said that they tried to feed her, but she just wanted soda and they gave it to her as a rare treat kind of thing. Like the chocolate milk incident, I'm sure that they'll rethink that next time they consider soda.

So, I'm here this evening. I'm tired. I read the update on Dawn. I read the update on Michelle's dad. Both situations aren't ideal by any stretch. Please continue to keep these folks in your prayers. Thank you for doing that for my blogoversary (and all the time for the regular checkers!) I have a heart for prayer. I just find that even when things seem so funky, I can always pray for someone. I may not be able to find the right words to say to them, but I've got the words to God covered for them.

Smiles in my weekend:

- To Chicago and back safely.

- K- having a nice time playing with her cousins.

- Hubs is done for Christmas. (Thank you Hubs and nice sales person at Bass Pro that took my list and just kept handing me things.)

- Hubs stayed $5.05 under budget. That's enough to throw a few little things into a stocking. (K- filled it last year with things that she chose, so I'll probably do that same thing with her this year. He'll get an odd assortment of things, but she has fun with it. I give her a limit to stay within, so she's pretty good with it, too.)

1 Year Blogoversary

I sit here "celebrating" a year of blogging, but then my heart goes to so many people in need. To celebrate my one year, please consider reading the prayer list on the sidebar. Lots of needs going on there. I'll hit a few of them, but it doesn't mean that they are any more important than others.

1. Dawn at Because I Said So- 5 of 6 children have H1N1. Hubs is recovering from surgery. She poured her frustrations out in a post that I will be praying about. Consider reading it here.
2. Our friend, Ford- He is unable to find a position. He is in sales, just traveled 5 hours to Louisville to a potential job and it was just a joke. He has 3 interviews set up for companies around here, but my heart goes out to him and my friend Kim. He's been without a job for more than a year and not because he hasn't been trying.
3. Michelle at Big Blueberry Eyes- Joe, her husband, is deployed and there was just a 6.2 earthquake in Afghanistan. Her dad has been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer.
4. Marcy, the gallery director's granddaughter- She's preparing for a stem cell transplant. I expect that it is a similar situation as Ethan Zohn, as they were both diagnosed with very treatable lymphoma that decided to not be treatable as it should be.
5. Rachael at Life with Hannah and Lily- 14 weeks pregnant, surrounded by 5th graders that are dropping like flies from H1N1, was able to be vaccinated today. Would love Rachael to remain well from EVERYTHING during her pregnancy with the Jellybean (flavor unknown, though I would bet it is Pear.) :)

Again, these are just a few I highlight, but believe that each and every prayer entry deserves equal attention.

Please consider praying for someone/some people on my sidebar. They really need it.

Smiles in my day:
- All of you.

We are THAT Family Blogoversary Celebration: The Amish Party

I'll wish Kristen a Happy 2 year Blogoversary and I celebrate my 1 year Blogoversary tomorrow! But let's get to it, shall we? What is our THAT family moment? Oh, allow me to share!

There is a beautiful little Amish vegetable stand that we visit. We visit it so often that one year, we even took our Christmas card picture there. The family thought it was neat. Since they saw us often, they invited us to their end of the year Customer Appreciation Party.

We were so excited. Hubs even requested the day off work. I mean, how often do you have the opportunity to be invited to an Amish get together? For us, this seemed like a one time gig.

We got ready that day, with K- wearing a little dress and I was wearing a shirt and skirt. We didn't want to look Amish, but we wanted to look respectful. When we arrived, K- wanted to stand in line to ride a little horse cart. There she was, at three years old, on the cart with a little boy. He took her up the hill, around a barn and back. She had so much fun!

We went over and they were roasting hot dogs on a fire. There were chips, salads and ice cold spring water straight from the well. K- was digging on the spring water. She drank and drank again. Then she decided to go to the outhouse.

I should stop to tell you that my daughter LOVES outhouses. If there is ever an opportunity to go to an outhouse and spend an extended period of time in there contemplating the meaning of life (or just plainly taking care of business), our daughter will do it.

Hubs had offered to take K- to the outhouse. They were gone for what seemed like a sweet forever. Hubs was chuckling and waved me on over. I called in to K-, "K-, are you doing okay?" "Yup Mom, just poo*pin'." "Okay." We stand there for probably another 10 minutes and I begin to see what seems to be a silent circle of Amish in need starting to form around the outhouse. "Baby? I think that there are some people who need to . . . " and I opened the door just in time for K- to blow. Folks, she filled the floor of the outhouse in vomit. Hubs looked at me. "What do we do?!" I told him to go and gather some water from somewhere. I mouthed to the one Amish gentleman that my daughter was ill and was there anyway that I could get any water?

Hubs came with two styrofoam cups of water. Folks, two styrofoam cups of water were no match to what K- had done in there. The Amish man had gathered hose and pulled it out for me.

The hose was a foot and a half short.

So, I asked the Amish guy if I could use a bucket? As he went to get the bucket, I asked Hubs to hold the outhouse door and I reached over the moat of puke for K-. When I set her down on the ground, I was mortified when I stood back to take a look.

Dress up and covered in puke.

Panties down around her ankles.

Wad of toilet paper jammed between her cheeks. All this with an Amish audience.

I removed the wad, yanked the panties up, pulled the dress down and poured the two styrofoam glasses of water that Hubs brought to me down K-'s dress to remove some of the mess that she was wearing. I then had her stand there with Hubs as I did my best re-enactment of mucking out the stalls as what I could muster. I was in a cap sleeved shirt, a skirt to the knees and leather flip flops while slinging buckets of water into the outhouse to clear it out. After about the 4th or 5th bucket of water, the kind Amish gentleman offered to handle the rest of it for me. (Most of it was handled and only a little remained.)

We walked very quietly to the car. Our vehicle was parked kind of in front of the party. It was still back a little bit, so I quietly and behind the door took K-'s messed dress off of her. I took it to the back of the car to put in a plastic bag. I asked Hubs to snap her into her car seat.

I heard the car door close. Then I heard feet. It was Hubs with K- walking to the back of the car. "Why do you have her out here in front of the Amish party with her panties and a pair of sandals on?!"

"There was a car coming."

"It is an Amish dirt road. They would have quietly passed."

So, not only did we have our kid puke at the Amish party, but the poor folks were afraid that she got sick on something she ate there. Then on our attempt at a quiet exit, my husband ended up parading a puked on kid in only her underpants and sandals in front of a bunch of conservative Amish.

No, we were never invited back! (Not that I think they held anything against us, but because we weren't there at the invite time of year.) Our quite embarrassing THAT family moment.

Smiles in my day:
- Giant Eagle was so understanding when I went with my $320.00 worth of antibiotics for K- and asked them to pretty please make it strawberry flavored. They did it quickly and with no charge. Hooray! K- still thought it tasted yucky. :( I made her take it anyhow, because I'm just that kind of mom.
- K-'s cough has improved so much. Hooray for good antibiotics!
- Hubs laughing to near tears when I told him about posting this story. "Did you remember to say . . . ?" So we tossed details back and forth to confirm I got it all. You'd be glad to know that my memory served me well. How could it not in this case?

Works for Me Wednesday: H1N1/Flu must haves

As it appears as though my child probably had her experience with H1N1 last week and has clinical pneumonia as a nice dessert to the whole thing, I figured that I would tell y'all what things helped us out.

1. The Braun Ear Scan Thermometer. You can take their temperature in the middle of the night and not wake them up. Remember that this is not good for children less than 6 months old due to how their little ear canals are.
2. Mucinex Mini Melts. A school mom taught me about this. We call them "cough pixie sticks," but you may want to refrain depending upon your child's love for the flavor and/or pixie sticks. In the middle of the night, she can basically be asleep, but still listen enough to get up and to pour them into her mouth.
3. Oscillococinum. Homeopathic loveliness. This pulls us through flus. K- calls them "sugary balls." They really did seem to help her.
4. Advil. 'Nuff said. The Tylenol didn't seem to be kicking it for her generally and some dental work called for Advil. I don't think I'll ever go back.
5. The vaporizer. Hubs bought us a new one since we had the Great Humidifier Flood of 2008. She even talked about it this AM about how it helped her cough.
6. Cough drops. K- hated the taste, but if your child is old enough to get the idea to keep them in their mouth and let them melt, I think that you would be good to go.
7. Water, water, water and more water. K- hasn't been to hip to eating tons by any means, but we've been able to get her rolling with water.
8. The sippy cup. Yes, she is nearly 6, but I still have a few kicking around. It is great to leave it on her desk and easier to give her some sips of water to try to calm the cough before considering another dose of cough medicine.
9. Vicks Vaporub. I would have done this with K-, but she wouldn't let me. I've done the Vicks on the feet and it didn't work for her. In fact, her reaction was kind of funny!

Thankfully, our probable bout with H1N1 (not confirmed, but probable) was not severe. K- ran a fever for 2 1/2 days, spiking to 103.7 F, but mainly staying in the range of 101 - 102 F. What is particularly important to remember in kids is that though protocol around here is not to see them in office initially, as to let them try to run it through their system, it is important to keep vigilant and continue to take their temperature even after they seem like they have ditched the fever. K- started to slide back ever so slightly, running a very low grade fever. Her nose started running and running and her cough got a little gunky, productive but gunky. They have plunked her into the "clinical pneumonia" category more as a formality (and probably an H1N1 statistic) and not because it is big and scary like it sounds. She is fully functional, on Omnicef and doing just fine.

Don't panic. Believe me, I did. Take a deep breath. More than likely, it will run its course like a general flu. That is what we had going on here. And I have to tell you, the viral funk K- had in August was way worse.

Can I tell you something else? I haven't really slept for days. A little block here and a little block there. I was so tired last night, that I fell asleep sitting up while watching a movie with my husband. He finally sent me to bed before 10 PM!

Smiles in my day:
- K- is starting to feel better! :)

Have a great week and stay well!

H1N1 anyone?

This is my second post for the day to say that apparently K- did most likely cash in on the H1N1 and as a result, has clinical pneumonia. She is at school. She is functioning fine, but it is just the beginnings. I have antibiotics to give to her. Since she seemed to be getting better, then a low grade fever kicked back in and her cough started sounding gunky, I took her in. The doctor said that Friday they were triaging, but that I did the right thing to bring her in after she was seemingly getting well.

So there you have it. Dr. P- said that the likelihood that she had H1N1 is pretty high, as she had it, too. The cough lasts for three weeks. They are treating the kids in K-'s case as having clinical pneumonia. It sounds big and scary, but it is not.

Onward to work. Have a good oink-free day.

Tales from the Trenches: I wrote a post and I deleted it.

On purpose. I'm crabby tonight. Hubs and I halfway wonder if I should give the pediatrician's office a call to see if they would consider giving K-'s lungs a listen. I just want to make certain that she doesn't have bronchitis. The cough is funky, but productive.

I'm hungry for something that we don't have in the house. I have no idea what, but I know that whatever it is, it isn't here.

I haven't slept in nights. Many nights. I mean, I'm sure that I have logged some small blocks of sleep in, but K-'s coughing has had me up and down giving drinks and cough suppressant. I don't see that ending anytime soon. I'm running the vaporizer tonight to see if it helps at all. Again with the doctor. I just hate that I was so irritated at the nurse, that I hung up on her. I guess I worry that I'm on some black list somewhere.

There was a crabby lady in at work who was mad at us for not cashing out the remaining portion of her credit. ($52.00.) She went on and on and wouldn't let it go. Finally, I told her that Target won't give you as much as a quarter back on a gift certificate. Her response? "Well, that isn't very democratic of them." Can I tell you how much that didn't make sense to me?

I have friends moving. One friend will be moving sometime in the first quarter of the year to some undecided location. Her boys are friends with K-. She'll miss their "van visits." My second friend is looking for and applying for employment in Louisville KY and Raleigh NC. (Her husband has been without a job for over a year and there is just nothing in employment for him around here.) K- is friends with her two kids. It makes my heart sad that not only will I be losing friends living close by (but not the friendships, of course), but K- will as well.

Hubs went fishing today and got nothing. He said that it is the "first day he has been skunked all year." He also told me that I didn't call. Normally, I do. Apparently, right after I call (every time) he catches something major. He tells me that the fish wait for my call. He did say that he noticed more ducks and geese out than usual. Quickly he found that it was duck hunting season and many of the ducks he saw were decoys! He said that all the gun shots got him back off the lake pretty quickly. Poor guy!

Smiles in my day:
- Laurie laughing about the great underpants hunt. She is making K- a sleeping bag for her doll, a doggie carry bag and a doggie bed. K- didn't even notice that her doll and her chinchilla bag are gone. (She has a stuffed chinchilla that Hubs' mom bought for her. She calls it "Squeak.")
- Hubs had to go for his monthly shot and he took K- to his mom's house so that she wouldn't be exposed to anything else. How thoughtful!

My AM update:
I feel like I've been given an access pass to see the Wizard! I called the pediatrician's office, the secretary answered, I told her that I think that K- has bronchitis or a sinus infection and she asked if I wanted a morning appointment. Of course I would! Hooray!

I know that I slept some. I'm sure of it.

As you can expect, when you have a child with a fever and a nasticious cough, sleep is going to be at a premium. Suffice it to say, it has been a long weekend. I'm happy to say that though the sleep deprivation took me back to the days of when K- was a newborn I DID NOT INGEST ANY CAFFEINE! Aren't y'all proud of me?! I am truly caffeinated without caffeine. The additional caffeine was only causing brain hiccups and even messing with me to the point that my typing wasn't as fluid as it usually is. For what was probably the equivalent of 2 cups of coffee per day, it is just obviously too much stimulant for me. I did have some 7-Up, though. My aunt sent it. It was like it was calling me from the refrigerator. "Drink me. Drink me!"

Here are some miscellaneous whatnots from the weekend:
1. K- ran a fever from Thursday night through Saturday early evening. It broke and Saturday night she fell asleep in her bed while watching Elf (she's been on a Christmas movie thing lately) on the portable DVD player. Typically TV in bed isn't allowed, but sickness is an exception.
2. I've slept intermittently through the nights all weekend. I was up administering cough suppressants, Advil, checking her temperature (I cannot tell you how much I LOVE! the ear scan thermometer) and begging her to allow me to do all these things. Long story short, one night it took 3 1/2 hours to get her to take Advil since she was convinced it was going to make her vomit. No, we didn't do a 3 1/2 hour battle, but finally she decided at 6 AM she would take it and was surprised that it did not make her ill. Sheesh.
3. Hubs and K- made a haunted house in our basement. Over the play area, Hubs stapled sheets to the floor joists, put scary creatures, a black light, a strobe light and stuck a spider on a string so that when I walked past, K- could make it go up and down. They worked on it for hours. She loves it! She stuck signs that she made all over the sheets. I'll have to take pictures. It really is quite a sight to behold.
4. I made a chicken pot pie that K- told me was "delicious, Mom!"
5. K- is currently making up for lost time and is eating us out of house and home.
6. I've been working on the American Girl necklaces and am pleased to report that I'm nearly done.
7. An amazing Ohio rare occurrence this time of year . . . sorry, I had to walk away to look at it. There is a big round thing. It is supposed to be warm and bright. We normally don't see much of it until around May. Yes, you've guessed it. It was "Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, Please shine down on me!" (That was for my niece, J-!) For a few moments, it made an appearance. I pulled the blind up just a little further to enjoy it.
8. Hubs greeted me at the door when I arrived home from the grocery after church. He was in need of a "zipadeedodah." Apparently, he took a tour of the used CD stores in the area. He promised to be home in time for me to go to Festival choir practice. He was! He was able to score a $1.00 copy of the movie, Cars. He watched it with K- when I was at choir practice. He said that it might be his favorite kid movie now.
9. There was no line at the pharmacy! In fact, I had to hop back in line (behind my cousin who was originally standing behind me!) to get the very illegal-to-buy-straight-off-the-shelf Mucinex D. I fear that K-'s congestion is beginning to gather in my chest. Ugh. I had a coupon, though! That's a good thing!
10. It's been over a week and my kitchen table still hasn't been eaten by the inevitable pile o' paperific goo that overtakes half of it.
11. Though it has taken some time, I found a peanut free snack for K- to take to class on Wednesday. She has a child extremely allergic to peanuts in her class, and though I know that they have "safe snacks" for A-, I want to be certain that he doesn't get left out.
12. I have a weird emergency of sorts. K-'s American Girl doll lost her underpants. Now, this normally wouldn't be a big deal except that we are due to attend an AG birthday party here within the next few weeks. I have every single piece (not many, as AG is freakin' expensive) of AG merchandise that she owns, but not the stinkin' underpants. So! I've called on my seamstress friend, Laurie, to make K-'s doll some extra underpants. I told her that my mother-in-law would not understand the doll going to the party commando. -- A Sunday evening update. I found the flippin' underpants! They were in the wardrobe box all along! K- had tucked them inside of one of the dolls boots! :)!!!
13. In my begging for help with the missing underclothes, I batted my eyelashes over the phone real pretty like and asked Laurie to make a bed for the dog we'll be giving K- on the way to The 'Cago. I'm sorry, but not only am I not purchasing a set of AG doll underclothes from AG (I'm not in need anymore anyhow), but I'm also not going to be purchasing the dog bed set, either. All cute and of wonderful quality, but shoot! They'll put me in the poor house. We'll just have Miss Laurie and Mommy's Homemade Brand. Besides, I'll also be suckering Laurie into making a little doggie purse for K- to carry him/her around in. I'll make a small fleece coat (all I have to do is cut and tie that!). Laurie is so good to me! I just want to give K- something cool. I know that she'll be surrounded by a store of wonderful things that she'll want to love on and take home. K- is actually pretty good about loving on store things and leaving them behind. This time, I wanted to be certain that she could take something neat and nifty with her. I wanted her to have her own one-of-a-kind thing with her. I want her to feel special, even if her mom and dad can't afford anything in the store.
14. In preparation for the AG fest, I gave K-'s doll a once over. She had some skid marks on her face, arms and legs from taking middle of the night dumps out of bed and smacking against the wall. The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser took care of that. The Clorox Bleach Pen took the chocolate spots off of the white coat and the white satin rosettes on one of the little patent leather shoes. K- doesn't eat around her doll, but somehow chocolate ended up in her doll clothes tote. At least those two pieces were the only ones involved. Everything else appears to be in good working order.
15. I agree with you, Rachael. The Heene Hoax has me all confused on why a family would do such a thing for some time in the spotlight. I think that we are all suffering from the "look at me and my kids and . . . " with the Jon and Kate fiasco. When reading TMZ earlier, there was a live feed news conference on where the Sheriff said that they will no longer be holding news conferences. They said that they have too much to do to keep having updates on such a story.

Smiles in my weekend:
- K- feeling better and going back to school tomorrow! Hooray!
- Having my H1N1 vaccination knowledge confirmed by a public health educator and a pregnant family member who is studying to be a doctor. K- will be getting one as soon as they are available.
- Finding the dolls underwear. I had myself unnecessarily stressed out about them. K- pretty much always takes very good care of her toys. She had a period this summer where she lost her baby mind about taking care, but the Pick Up Fairy visited often and I instituted the post-it note system of loss, so she was tired of losing her things. She is much better with her belongings now.
- Hearing the music to the movie Halloween. Apparently, Hubs is watching the Rob Zombie remake, which goes into the detail of Michael Myers' life in youth. Though I haven't watched it, it is an interesting spin on a movie that Hubs and I watch every year.

Have a great week!