Tired of sickness...

Who out there is sick of all the sickness?---no pun intended. Yes, Tabitha definitely has another ear infection, had it confirmed tonight at the urgent care, she's been having 103 fevers all day and I just knew it was her ears. Thing is, Tim had her at the pediatrician on Tuesday, not her regular one I might add, and he said that her ears were fine, that she just had some virus. Tim took her because she'd had a fever and a really runny nose and cough. So what does this pediatrician give Tim? A decongestant!....something to make her nose run even more! I swear! So now she's on antibiotics, AGAIN. Poor thing you can just tell she's miserable, she was so tired and felt so bad tonight that she fell asleep in her high chair while drinking her bottle! Bad part of this is ALL of us are now sick. The Dr. said that I had the flu, and gave me Tamiflu. Thing is, I also had bronchitis and he didn't give me anything for that until I called the office telling them that I still was coughing up awful stuff! Finally he called in an antibiotic. I don't think it's the right one for what I have though, because I've been on it for over 3 days and I'm still no better. My mother is sick, Tim is getting a sore throat, this has not been a good spring. Sorry for the whining!

FFF: Spring has sprung!

The theme this week is "Spring has Sprung". Here in South Carolina, spring actually sprang about a month ago. These are a couple of shots at the end of March. What could signify that spring is here more than butterflies? That is a shot of a black swallowtail butterfly on our azalea bush.

Slide show

Here are some photos of Tabitha put into a slide show. Hope that you enjoy them!

It's official!

Our daughter's official, legal name is now Tabitha Alice Lourdes Taylor. We just received the papers of the official ruling from the court. The lawyer mailed them to us, the official date that all of this occurred was last Monday, April 14, 2008. Now we are just waiting for her official South Carolina certificate of foreign birth. Once we have that we will be able to get her a new passport! I am over the moon happy that all of this paperwork will soon come to a final end!

Cookies and milk

Let's see if I can cram this whole cookie in my mouth at one time.

OK, now I need some milk to wash 'em down



We don't give Tabitha cookies very often, we usually choose more healthy kinds of sweets like fruit, but since she's been feeling so bad lately, I gave in and gave her a chocolate covered graham cracker. She of course, loved it! Notice that she's drinking from a "big girl" cup now. We kind of discovered by accident that she could drink from a straw. Since she doesn't really like those other kind of "sippy cups", I decided to look for a cup that had a straw. This one is great, it's made by Platex and is spill proof just like the other sippy cups. The straw is flexible so it won't hurt her mouth either. She caught on really quickly on how to drink from it. She's only been getting a bottle now when it's time to go to sleep--no, she doesn't go to bed with a bottle, she gets rocked and given a bottle at nap and bedtime.

Ears, ears, ears

I think Tabitha may have another ear infection! I'm not sure, but she's starting again with a fever--only 101 this time and she's had this runny nose and cough going on. I swear, she just finished the antibiotics Monday. Being a nurse, I know that having had as many ear infections as Tabitha has had (I think it's 3 or 4 now) since she's been home, actually no, since February, she wasn't really sick prior to starting daycare, isn't a good thing. So I ask you fellow bloggers and readers of my blog, what can I do to stop these....short of getting ear tubes? I may be a nurse, but I want to hear practical everyday things that I could try.

The moods of Tabitha....

Sometimes you'd think that Tabitha had already turned two--she's only 15 months today. She is already having "terrible twos" behavior! Today her note from daycare said, "did not have a very good day today, would not listen; whiney, grumpy." Apparently Tabitha threw her lunch on the floor, "milked" the milk out of her bottle all over the highchair tray, had a tantrum, would not lay down for nap time....shall I go on? I'm glad someone else besides me got to experience this side of her. This note came from the same teacher who had asked me if Tabitha ever cried, because she was always so mellow and sweet at daycare. I can hear it now, "Mrs. Taylor, this is the school calling, Tabitha has been sent to the principle's office...."
These are a few pictures that I've managed to take over the past few weeks of those moods....

Favorite Foto Friday

I don't think there really is a theme this week. So I'm going to post a few (I couldn't choose just one) of my favorites from this week.

This looks like something fun to play with.

Why don't I get in it?

No, this is much better. My own little fort!

Friends and playmates....

As I have mentioned before, we had nothing but "dog babies" for years....So now that Tabitha is at home, it's kind of funny to watch how the dogs and Tabitha behave.....as you might expect, somewhat like siblings! Ralph, the one on my lap, Sherman is barely visable to the side of Tabitha, were "mama's boys". At one point both of them and Tabitha were on my lap! All competing for their "spot".
Competing for mom's lap

Playing "tug o' war"

Sick again!

Well, Tabitha is sick again! I don't think that I had posted that a few weeks ago we spent a Saturday in the ER with Tabitha. She had had a fever of 104 and the nurse on call for the pediatrician said that Tabitha should probably be seen by a Dr. After 9 hours of waiting, they finally said it was her ears. They gave us a prescription for an antibiotic and we FINALLY got to go home.

Yesterday I got a call from the daycare that Tabitha was running a fever, please come pick her up. I promptly called the pediatrician and they got us right in. The pediatrician said that Tabitha had the beginnings of another ear infection and gave us a prescription for a different antibiotic than last time since she had had that antibiotic twice and had yet another ear infection.

Poor baby, today her temperature again went up to 104! This time at least we didn't have to sit in an ER for 9 hours! I guess that it's good that I was a pediatrics nurse for 16 years so this stuff doesn't really phase me. Sometimes Tim fusses at me and tells me to stop treating her like one of my patients. Let me tell you, I make myself go into that mode, otherwise, I'd be one panicky mom! You see, if I go into that mode I know that Tabitha will be well hydrated, and checked on frequently so hopefully nothing major will happen. I can still be a mom who cuddles, cleans up poo and puke and isn't hysterical while it's happening. It's not a bad combo as far as I'm concerned---mom and nurse.

Update and pictures with Dora....

It's April Fools Day, no I don't have any April's Fools type pictures. Thankfully my husband didn't try any jokes this year! Tabitha gave us her version of April Fool's Day....she didn't take a nap today at daycare, and boy was she a crabby girl tonight! She cried about everything---cried before supper, after supper, during her bath, getting her hair washed then towel dried, getting lotion put on her---she was simply not consolable---point is she was WAY too tired! I am really hoping this was a one day thing, I don't want a repeat!
Oh, since I missed updating about her daycare situation....we changed the daycare center that we had her enrolled in. She's now in a center that is a Christian run daycare center, and it's only about 2 miles from our house. She goes all day again and seems to like it. She's a little "rag-a-muffin" when she comes home, but at least I know that she's been fed. You see the straw that broke the camel's back at the old daycare center was when grandma went to pick her up and was told that Tabitha hadn't been fed lunch because they didn't have time---that and everyday Tabitha would come home with her bottle FULL that I had taken that morning! Plus Tabitha screamed every single day that I would take her. She cries occasionally when I drop her off at the new center, but it's not the same. She's usually crying because she wants to be held and I put her down....So far so good. Like I said, I'm praying that this NO NAP thing was a 1 day occurance!
She's growing well, her last weight was 18 and a half pounds! Yea! Sure beats the 14 lbs that she weighed when we got her!
I've posted a couple of pictures of her that I think are too cute. The first one is Tabitha in her new DORA chair, she loves it! The second is Tabitha asleep in the carseat with DORA....she's just so cute!