An Interesting Spring Break

Spring break started out great. We went over to my parent's house with all my sister's and their families for a soup dinner. My mom made homemade clam chowder and cream of mushroom soup. It was super yummy and all the cousins had fun playing together. On Monday, I met my sister Laura and my nephew Mavy at Whole Foods where we had lunch. Tae loves little Mavy and they had a blast running all around outside. That evening we went back to my parent's house and we joined them for a corned beef dinner since it was St. Patrick's day after all.

For the last 4 years we have taken a trip to Texas in the spring. Since I work in education and get off for spring break, it always works out great to take a quick trip to Texas and have some fun. This year we decided to go to Fort Worth. We had plans to go to the zoo, see the cattle drive, go to the Perot Museum and Ikea in Dallas, and also eat at a few local restaurants. We decided to leave early Wednesday morning so we could spend the day at the zoo before checking into the hotel. The trip down was quick and the girls were pleasant. Tae did complain early on that her tummy hurt (first hint), but when you have kids, you know this is a common statement. We didn't think much of it.

We get to the zoo right about lunch time, grabbed a bite to eat and then trekked on to the zoo. Fort Worth has a really great zoo. It was also their half price Wednesday, so it was a great price.

This was their gorilla exhibit. It was impressive.

We stayed at the zoo for several hours and Tae got pretty tired towards the end and said she was ready to go to the hotel. We picked up a few souvenirs from the gift shop and headed out.

We were lucky enough to find a great hotel and a great price in south Ft. Worth. It even had a salt water pool! We checked into the hotel and then decided to go grab some dinner at Brewed which is a local eatery. We got goat cheese fondue for an appetizer. I ate a BLT and Aaron had a burger. Tae went with the mac & cheese. For dessert, Aaron and I had coffee. We also had their smore's in a jar and some of their house made ice cream. Tae only had a few bites of her ice cream which we thought was a little weird, but didn't think too much about it (second hint). After a lovely meal, we headed back to the hotel so we could go swimming!

They had been working on the pool all day, so we were very excited that it was open when we got back to the hotel. We all dressed in our swimsuits and headed to the pool.

We swam for an hour or so. The girls had so much fun. The pool was a little cool for Hensley, but the Jacuzzi was awesome so we sat in there for the most part. After our swim, we went back to the room and got ready for bed.

The girls had baths and were both tucked into bed. Aaron and I headed to bed shortly after and we were all sleeping pretty good when Tae woke up coughing and choking at 12:30am. Aaron realized she was throwing up and quickly carried her to the toilet. I got up and stripped her sheets from the pull out couch. Aaron went down and got her more sheets. Tae didn't seem too upset, but she was shaky and sweaty. We finally got her laid back into bed and I gave her the ice bucket just in case. She ended up throwing up 4 more times and finally went to sleep at 2:30am. Hensley slept through this whole mess, but I think I may have only gotten an hour or two of sleep that night.

The next morning, Aaron went down to the breakfast area and brought back some toast and apple juice for us to try. Tae took one bite and it immediately came back up. We knew that it would best for us to head home. Tae was devastated. She was so upset that we wouldn't be able to finish the trip. I knew the drive back could be risky with her throwing up so I made a call to her pediatricians office and they called us in some Zofran. Aaron went to Walgreens to pick it up and man that stuff was expensive! We got three days worth and after our insurance it was still $50! We got everything packed up, gave her the medicine and hit the road. Her and Hensley slept almost the whole way home. Aaron and I were both so tired from the night before and we were ready to get home.

Here is a picture of us when we got home. We all slept a good part of the afternoon. My husband was awesome enough to unpack the car, start laundry, and put up all our stuff. That evening, both girls started running fevers. Tae's was about 100 and Hensley's climbed to 103.7. I was on the phone with the triage nurse on whether we should take her in because Tylenol wasn't budging the fever. She suggested alternating Motrin and once we did that it came down. She slept for aver 20 hours with just little fusses here and there. It was so hard to see both my babies sick. On Friday, Hensley was still running a fever with no other symptoms, but Tae seemed to be doing better. She started having diarrhea, but hadn't thrown up since Thursday AM. She also was eating some. By Saturday, all fevers were gone and my mother in law came for a visit with our niece, Franki. Tae had fun playing and Aaron and I were able to make a quick trip to the store. That evening, Aaron started running a low fever and became really tired. He took a nap and felt a little better afterwards.

 

Sunday we had a family dinner at Whiskey Cake to celebrate my little sister's graduation from culinary school. Tae was still pretty weak and tired and still was having diarrhea. We had a good time at dinner, but Tae didn't feel like eating anything. She did drink a fairly large natural sugar cherry soda during the dinner. Tae looked like she was getting tired, so we headed home. As soon as we pulled in, Tae started coughing and immediately threw up all of the soda she had drank. She covered her car seat and herself. While I got her cleaned off, Aaron took the car to the car wash and cleaned out the car. She went to bed easily and didn't have any more issues.

 

On Monday, I noticed that her eye was a little red and she kept complaining that it was getting blurry. By Tuesday, it was having discharge and I thought she might have pink eye, so we took her to her pediatrician. I told the Dr. about all of her recent symptoms and she immediately came to the conclusion that she had Adenovirus. Adenovirus is a group of viruses that affect the membranes (tissue linings) of the respiratory track, eyes, intestines, and urinary tract. It can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, upper respiratory infections, pink eye, among other symptoms. I had no idea that this virus even existed. The Dr. prescribed us some eye drops that we were to do twice a day for seven days. The drops are super thick (like honey) and the first time was pure craziness. We are on day two and she is getting better at it. We have to do both eyes because it has spread to both.

 

I think we are on the tail end of this mess. I'm so glad that both my girls are feeling better. I know that this spring break will go down as one of the most memorable ones for sure!

Hensley: 9 months!

Weight: I've weighed her the other day (with clothes on) and she is about 23 pounds. She is such a big girl. She has such short arms and legs though :)

Food: She is quite the foodie. This past month she has had fish, gnocchi, spaghetti, shepherd's pie, among other things. She doesn't really have a preference, she likes everything. We usually just feed her what we are eating and she gets a little plate of her own and feeds herself. She is still nursing about every 3 hours. She very much likes her "milky" and always nurses before and after every meal. She also now has her bottom two middle teeth. So she has that cute toothy grin.

 

Clothes: 12-18 month seems to be where it's at. I'm glad it's getting warmer because long sleeves and pants are just too long, even though it fits her body. She really prefers to just be in a diaper and she absolutely hates sleeping in pajamas. I think she just gets too hot. He usually just put her in a onesie at night.

Sleep: Aaron has been putting her in her crib for naps during the day, but she is still sleeping with us at night. She has not been sleeping very well the last week or so. She's been really fussy and will just toss and turn in her sleep and cry. I'm not sure if it is teething or what, but it has led to some very tired mornings for all of us. She is still nursing at night and probably even more so since she has been having trouble sleeping. I think she nursed 3 or 4 times last night. I'm hoping it doesn't last forever!

 

Movement: I wish Hensley would just slow down! Not only is she crawling everywhere, but she is also freestanding and she even took two steps yesterday! She cruises all over the furniture and is learning to climb. She adjusts her crawl on the tile to where she is crawling on one foot and one knee and it is super funny.

Product: I think one of our favorite "new" things are some of her toys. She has really started to love playing and loves to put things into things. She has an activity table and she loves to put the balls down the chute and watch them come out the bottom. She also loves her shape sorter and will dump them all out and put them back in. She has found her sister's little babies and loves to carry them around and give them kisses. She is quite the sweet little girl.

Highlight: Her biggest highlight is her two steps the other day, but she also is getting more vocal. She says "mama" and "dada" along with "that". We think she also says "kitty" and she loves to yell and make silly noises at her sister. She still signs "milky" and we've been working on "more", "eat", and "all done".

 

Taelyn: Taelyn always wants to be around her baby sister. She loves for Hensley to be a part of her night time routine and likes having her in her room to play. She has been very good at sharing and will often give up one of her toys to let Hensley play with it. I can see them becoming good friends even though they get on each other on occasion.

Blessing: Things just seem normal and we have a great routine. Hensley is such a "go with the flow" baby and she is almost always happy. She is very serious and loves to stare and check people out, but she almost never cries. We are taking a quick little vacation in a few weeks and we are excited to have some much need fun with our precious little family.