Happy Birthday Maya!

My precious girl turned 2! I can hardly believe it. She is growing up so fast and learning things at an unbelievable pace. People are always commenting on how smart and articulate she is. Before her second birthday she not only can recite and sing the alphabet, but she actuallly knows at least 22 of the 26 letters. On some occasions she gets all 26 correct!! Amazing to me, really. One of her favorite things to play each night in the bath tub is handing the bath letters to me and telling me what they are. I have to stack them EXACTLY as she demands, or I hear about it. Then, I have to hand them back as she requests each letter... Maya also know most of the primary colors. She loves to sing and dance. Hearing her sing is one of the most precious things I know. She speaks in full sentences the majority of the time.

We had a small family gathering at Chuck E. Cheese for her birthday dinner. Daddy didn't make it ---we were bummed about that. Brian was due back from Canada, but due to the storms in our area, all flights to DFW were cancelled. He hopped a flight to Chicago, but when he got there, again all the flights to DFW were cancelled.

The kids, of course, all enjoyed themselves at C.E.C. Gabe and Maya shook their groove things on the dance floor. Later Paloma, then Zoe joined them in the dancing. Very cute!!





Mason and Gabe had fun playing air hockey until either of them uttered the words "I won." Then it turned ugly. Sometimes competition can be hard at age 4ish.


Maya obviously does not get the concept of Ski Ball... She climbed up on it sat down as if it were a slide.

I know Angi got some really cute pictures in addition to the ones I have here, so I may need to add a few later! The kids stayed so busy that we never got Maya interested in opening her gifts.




In the last picture Maya shows off The Backyardigans that Grandmother and Pops gave her for her birthday. She loves them!

Happy Birthday sweet girl.
I love you little Pita!

Lasik Correction

Brian had Lasik almost 2 years ago. Friday he had one of his eyes enhanced or corrected because 20/20 or it's free and he was 20/15 in one eye but only 20/25 in the other. So, they re did the 20/25 eye and now it too, is 20/15. He was supposed to come home and go to sleep wearing the goggles that they provide. Of course, the kids wanted to wear goggles and lay in bed with him. We had one extra pair of goggles from the first surgery, but this left the one who REALLY needed the goggles out of luck. I didn't pose this picture. They really wanted to do as Daddy was doing.

We got Brian a pair of goggles back when M&M went to bed. Mason insisted on taking a pair to bed with him. He wanted to sleep in them, too, but I told him he couldn't. I was afraid he might get strangled by them or something freaky. So, they laid on his nightstand. The next morning when he came down, he had them on. He claimed one of his eyes "hurt just a little bit."

Amanda & Brooke

My friend, (and one of my college roommates) Amanda, came in town and it was so GREAT to see her. I know many people that read my blog also read Amanda's blog and know what a talented and funny writer she is! A bonus was that she had her new baby, Brooke, with her! It had been such a long time since I held a baby so small. Mason really likes babies a lot and Maya liked her until I held her. Then Maya said "No Mommy - Don't touch that baby!" A little jealous, I guess. She was okay with Brooke as long as I wasn't holding her.

Just the girls had a nice lunch (Amanda, Brooke, Maya and I). Brooke is such a sweet baby not even making a peep the whole time we were at lunch. Maya also behaved at lunch but she wasn't quiet. She had lots to say!!

M&Ms

Almost a year ago, my sister, Angi said something like this to me. Next year, you should have Mason and Maya's birthday parties together and the theme can be M&M's. I thought, maybe... and then thought, yeah, that is really cute.

Well she has be gracious enough to help me get AWESOME invitations created for their birthday party coming up next month. The invitations look like M&M wrapper with lots of cute details about the kids and the party. I'll have to post a picture of the invite later...

Angi took some pictures of my M&M's to put inside their invitation....

She is so creative, so talented, and very generous with her time and efforts. I'm very lucky to have a sister like Angi.

THANK YOU AUNT ANGI...(from M&M).

Hevic

Several months ago Mason started talking about some imaginary friends. One name stood out.... Hevic. Brian and I got a kick out of it and would ask about Hevic or refer to Hevic occasionally. There was also a Jevic, and a Hooty-Mooty-Tooty.

Fast forward to last night.
Mason: "Is Stupid a nice word"
Amy: "It is not nice to call people stupid" (for months we have been telling him he can't say ''stupid," but we keep getting caught saying it ourselves...)
Mason: "Is Dum-med a bad word?"
Amy "Dum-med isn't a word, do you mean 'dumb'?"
No answer from the boy.
Amy "Where did you learn Dum-med?"
Mason: "at church"
Amy: "no you didn't, where did you hear that or who said it?"
Mason: "playschool, no, HEVIC"

I bust out in laughter.... and then he does too.
Poor Hevic is always the fall guy......

Happy Girl & Boy

Another beautiful Sunday!! Maya is still feeling good, and I'm so thankful.

After naps, we played outside. We played some soccer & we played basketball. It was so nice, we decided to have our dinner outside on a blanket in the front yard. Then we played a little more before time to go inside. The extra hour of daylight helped us out!


I felt like I for sure needed to get some better pictures of Maya on the blog...since I had posted such horrible pictures of her when she was all spotted and ill!

Feeling Better Already

Saturday late afternoon, Maya is feeling better already.

When she got up from her nap, I was anxious to get her outside because it was SO nice.. actually kind of hot! But, we love it. She loves to go over to the next door neighbors porch. They do have an awesome porch with fans and rocking chairs. Plus stairs to get up and down... all around, she thinks it is pretty cool to play on. Luckily, the neighbors are very nice and don't mind her over there. This is Maya headed back toward our driveway with her blankies and yellow bunny.

She also has on her new red bows and her new red flower flip flops.

Bad to Worse

The hives got worse before they got better. Friday night, 3-2-07, we had to take Maya to the Urgent Care near our house. Her legs were purple under the hives and her whole body seemed swollen and she could not stop itching. Plus her fever spiked up pretty high. We didn't notice how bad her legs had gotten until it was bath time. We called the after hours nurse and she eventually told us to take her to the ER. So we did. They looked her over and discovered that even after a few days of her new antibiotic her ears were still very red. But also, the hives were horrible, and they prescribed some medicine stronger than Benedryl to help with the itching. It did help. The hives finally cleared up by Monday. Maya also finished the antibiotic on Monday.

(These pictures were actually taken when she was looking a little better -- but still very hard to look at. AND NO that isn't dirty bath water, it is an OATMEAL BATH to help with the itching!)

Unfortunately, Tuesday was the day she was scheduled for her Urinary Reflux testing that she had last year. The sonogram doesn't hurt her, but she just is very leary of what they are doing and why and fused throughout it. Next was the nuclear cystogram..... basically 10-15 minutes of torture. Anyway, she screamed through the whole thing, but we are glad it is over for this year. We saw the Urologist on Thursday to go over the results. Bad news is she still has reflux, but good news was it is now only on one side. Last year the reflux was on both sides or to both kidneys. It give me some hope that maybe she will outgrow this with out surgery, which is obviously what we are praying for.

So, Thursday night... Maya's fever spikes again. I just knew she still had an ear infection. She fell asleep in my arms at dinner....... this NEVER happens. Which brings me to the current Friday - TODAY.... I call the Dr. this morning to get a re check on her ears. Sure enough, she still has DOUBLE ear infections. (she also picked up a pretty bad cough) We are trying one more round of antibiotics and if this doesn't clear it up, then they are sending her to an ear specialist!! :( ENOUGH ALREADY -- I want my healthy, happy daughter back, PLEASE.

I drop the Prescription off at the pharmacy and go back a half hour later to pick it up -- very anxious to get her started on it. The Pharmacist says "we have a note that she is allergic to penicillin...," "YES," I say. The lady goes on to explain that those who have that allergy are sometimes also allergic to this antibiotic and she thought she should call my dr. to make sure they knew she had the allergy. I tell her they definitely know and I want to go ahead and fill it. She agrees and tells me just to watch for any signs. So, I call the Dr. back after pulling away and when I finally get a hold of them this afternoon, they say it is okay to try this medicine. She had 2 doses today...and I pray it works and that she is NOT allergic to it.

Just to show you that she is looking so much better, here is a picture of M&M riding in Daddy's truck this afternoon. Maya is working on taking her pony tail out that I JUST PUT UP.

Penicillin

Well, this is what can happen if you take Penicillin and you are allergic to it!!

I took Maya to the Dr. over a week ago. She had an ear infection. She was prescribed an antibiotic that had Penicillin in it. Yesterday, 1 week and 1 day later, she had a rash that progressively was getting worse. I was at work this morning when she woke up and didn't get pictures of the worst of it, (she had a swollen eye and the rash had worsened overnight) but after another Dr. visit this morning, they determined that Maya is allergic to the Penicillin she has been taking for 8 days. Needless to say, it did nothing to clear up her ear infection and now she has infections in both ears and hives to boot!! My poor little baby girl has suffered for over a week. Dr. prescribed her a new antibiotic (Penicillin free) for her ears, and she is taking Benedryl and Motrin for the hives. She cannot stop scratching and seems miserable. You can tell in these pictures she is clearly not happy. We are hoping she will be feeling much better very soon.

The boy, however, is happy and healthy. Here he is going to bed.