Baby Steps, Baby Birds, and a Beautiful Butterfly

So, what's new with the Coopers this week?  Well, not much really.  Last week I wrote about how Maleah was sick.  She started feeling better on Friday but I ended up with it on Sunday.  It was pretty short-lived though so I was feeling better by Sunday night.  We're all hoping and praying that we're done with sicknesses in this household for a long time!  We've had a bad run of it lately. 

I did make it to my scrapbook crop on Friday night and Saturday and had a great time with my friend Holly and the rest of the scrappin' girls.  Nancy at Precious Memories put on a great crop and I even won a prize and got a t-shirt.  But the best part is that I'm all caught up on my scrapbooks again.  And that, my friends, is a good feeling.  For those of you who don't scrapbook, just trust me on this one.

The big news today is that Carissa took a step all by herself!  Just one step, but she did it!  After that she dropped to her knees and continued her journey on her knees, which is her preferred method of mobility these days.  I am going to try to take a video or her doing this and I will post it next week.  Most people that have seen her knee-walking say "I have never seen a baby do that!!".  She's an original.

These are a few pics of Maleah that I took this week.  On Monday night we went to the circus that came to town.  I didn't really enjoy it that much.  Maleah was just sort of into it.  Most of the acts were too long for her attention span.  Carissa was not happy to be there at all.  Maleah did get her face painted like a butterfly and she loved that part the most.  Overall, it was just an okay circus that took waaaaayyy too long.  Luckily, for us we sat by the door and I was able to walk around a little bit with Fussy Pants (aka Carissa).  She would be much happier if she would just learn to walk.  She desperately wanted down and did not want me to hold her.  But you can't let a baby crawl around in a dirty circus tent.  Here's the best part about the whole evening:  I talked Maleah into leaving at intermission!  Yay for us!!  How did I manage to do that?  Well, it's all thanks to the Mama Killdeer Bird that laid it's eggs in my parents' driveway.  We have been patiently waiting for those eggs to hatch for a very long time and they just happened to hatch the day of the circus.  So when I got the text at the circus from my Mom saying they were hatched Maleah was ready to hit the road and go see them.  Talk about perfect timing!  I saw a church sign this week that said "Coincidence happens when God chooses to remain anonymous".  I love that.

Sick kid again?? What is up with that???

Okay, so last week in my blog I was celebrating the fact that Maleah never got the stomach flu that the rest of us had.  Well, I am still happy that she never got that but now she has something else.  She got sick this morning and ran a really high fever off and on throughout the day and now tonight she keeps complaining that her throat hurts.  Uh oh.  I am suspecting strep throat.  Just thinking about it makes my throat hurt.  So am I getting sick or am I just a little bit psychosomatic?  In this case, I'm hoping that I'm just a little bit nuts.

Today was the 4th Annual Nursery World Tour, which is a day invented by my group of playgroup moms, and we travel all over the area to about 3 or 4 great nurseries and go flower/plant shopping together.  We always have a great time.  Well, I left the house this morning at 8 a.m. and dropped Maleah off at Grandma Debby's.  Carissa was going with me and Maleah was staying with Grandma until school time.  I was at nursery #1 (Amish-ran Zimmerman's Greenhouse in St. Peter, my favorite place to buy flowers!) when I got a text from my Mom telling me that Maleah had a high fever and felt terrible.  So you're probably wondering why I didn't realize she was sick when I dropped her off.  Well, it's because she is the Girl Who Cried Sick.  Almost every day when she wakes up she is whiny and tells me that she doesn't feel good and that she has a headache.  Then she has a Capri-Sun and gets woke up and watches a cartoon and then, suddenly, she's fine!  So when she told me this morning that she didn't feel good, I got her a Capri Sun and we headed out the door to Grandma's.  Ooops.  This time she was really sick!  She needed her mommy and I was way out in the country and didn't have my own vehicle to get back.  Luckily, my friend Deb's mom had met us there in her car and she wasn't going on the rest of the World Tour.  She was planning to head back to Clay County so I hitched a ride with her to Louisville.  I met up with my Dad there who was on his lunch hour and he gave me a ride back to Flora.  But I got there!  And picked up my sad pathetic little Missy Cooper and headed home with my two girls.  What a day!  It definitely didn't turn out how I thought it would. 

Carissa and I went to Evansville earlier in the week.  We had a fun day of shopping together.  She is such a good little girl!  We made it home that evening in time for Maleah's Western Night at her school.  I wish I would've brought my camera with me but I didn't.  It was pretty funny.  Maleah got to put shaving cream all over her Daddy's face and "shave" it off with a popsicle stick.  She had a blast!  It was a good thing they had baby wipes nearby, I'll say that.    She wore her cowboy boots, her cow print skirt, her Western t-shirt they made at school, and a straw cowboy hat.  Carissa had fun too and liked watching all of the other kids.  She wanted to walk all over the place, just on her knees, not on her feet.  We had to carry her the whole evening because of that and she was a little annoyed.  I told her to learn to walk and she wouldn't have to be carried as much.  She's thinking that over.  I think she'll get back to me soon.

Carissa has been adding to her vocabulary again.  New additions, since the last time I blogged them, are:  1.) Uh-oh!  This is usually said prior to her dropping something.  2.)  Dank-Doo.  If she hands you something or you hand her something she says Dank-Doo (thank you!).  3.)  Am-ma (Grandma).  4.)  Sissy or Muh for Maleah.  And on the food front, I found out that she likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  She has improved a lot just in the last two weeks! 

I found this picture of my niece Chloey when I was going through Maleah's birthday party pics.  I love this picture of her!  She is twelve now and isn't always as smiley as she used to be.  I don't think any twelve year olds are.  So, anyway, I love that she's happy and laughing here. 

I am supposed to be going to a big scrapbooking crop this weekend with my friend Holly.  I am really looking forward to getting caught up on all of my scrapbooking but now I'm a little worried I might not make it if one of us or all of us are sick.  I'm going to be praying tonight that we all wake up healthy tomorrow!!

Barbie and Skipper in the Mustang

Well, I always say that God doesn't give anyone more than they can handle.  And He knew that if Maleah (aka Drama Queen of all Drama Queens) got the terrible stomach flu that we all had, that it might be a little too much for all of us to handle.  So guess what??  She didn't get it!  The rest of us suffered through it but she managed not to get it.  Yay for all of us!!!  I am so so glad.  Thank you God!!!

After the rest of us began feeling better, we were all glad to get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful weather we've been having.  We have spent a lot of the past week outside.  Here are a few pictures of the girls in their pink Barbie Mustang convertible.  Maleah got this car for her 3rd birthday.  We thought she would love it.  She even thought she would love it when she picked it out on toysrus.com.  Well, she didn't love it as much as she thought she would.  She was actually scared to death of it.  She is definitely not a risk taker and her gross motor skills have always been way behind other kids her age.  So she wasn't good at steering it and pushing the gas at the same time.  And she just didn't like it.  Period.  So it has sat in our garage for the past couple of years waiting on someone brave enough to drive it.  I really thought Carissa would be the next one to drive it.  But, lo and behold, Maleah decided this week that she would give it a try again.  So I got it out of the garage, wiped the dust off of it, and let her go at it.  I really thought she would be too tall for it now.  She managed to get in it okay and took right off!  So yay for Maleah!  She finally has it figured out, although she still isn't a very good driver.  But I know she will get better.  The girls have been driving/riding around the block in it.  I think the neighbors are getting a kick out of it too.  Carissa enjoyed riding with her too - as long as the car was moving.  If Maleah stopped, Carissa would try to get out.  But otherwise she seemed pretty content.  Now that I'm looking over these pictures though, I think she looks slightly terrified!  Maleah and her had an agreement that Maleah was in charge of the driving and Carissa was in charge of the radio.  When the song ended Carissa would push the button to make it play again.  And she also liked to push the button that shows how much battery charge is left.  Speaking of the battery, we can't find the charger anywhere!  If anyone has an extra one, let me know!

 

In other news, Carissa is eating better.  I am so relieved.  I was getting really worried about my little one who wouldn't eat much of anything.  She would cry for milk and I would give in and give it to her.  But I quit doing that and let her get hungrier and she started eating more.  It also helped that I've found some foods that she really loves.  She really really loves lasagna.  Who knew that?  Not me.  She also loves Lipton noodles - especially the Chicken and Broccoli flavored ones.  I found out that she does not like rice but she does like Italian Beef.  I am slowly figuring this kid out.  She still prefers cat food to any people food but that is usually prevented.  Since she doesn't drink water very well I've started adding a little bit of pink lemonade to it and she drinks it right up.  And she hates hates hates sippy cups.  She screams "baa-uhl, baa-uhl, baa-uhl!" and throws the sippy cup in her hand across the room or slams it repeatedly against the floor or the wall (whichever is closest).  This leads me to think that she is a.) independent, b.) prone to tantrums, c.) stubborn, d.) not open to new ideas, and finally e.) totally devoted to her "baa-uhl" (bottle).   In a few years if you see me with a four year old carrying around a Dr. Brown's baby bottle, you'll know why.  Here is a picture of Carissa after eating an entire baby vanilla ice cream cone from Dairy Queen in the backseat of our car while I drove.  I am a brave mama. 

My little paparazzi Maleah has been at it again.  I have been avoiding her camera lens, but here are a couple of funny ones she took this week.  The first one is of her "boyfriend" Anden.  She decided to take this picture of his picture because "I think we need more than one copy, Mom.  You can keep this one hanging in the kitchen on the photo wall and I will make a copy to hang in my room by my bed."  Okey, dokey.  The second one is of her eraser collection.  She is crazy about little tiny erasers and has several different kinds, but these flower ones are her favorites.  Unfortunately, they are very small (about the size of Carissa's airway) and I have to constantly make sure she hasn't left them within reach of her sister.  I've already fished one or two out of Carissa's mouth. 

We had a fun weekend and went roller skating twice - Saturday night at Fairfield and Sunday afternoon at Louisville.  I'm trying not to say anything bad about anyone's business, but those two places are like night and day.  Maleah skates better every week and this week she was the second place winner in the limbo contest.  She thought she was going to win and was very disappointed when she didn't.  That girl has confidence.  I'll say that about her.  She never doubted that she would win so when she didn't, she was a little bit shocked.  It was her hair that got her out, actually the big hair flowers that I had stuck in her pigtails.  If it hadn't been for those she would've won.  Oh well.  She needed a lesson in disappointment and losing. 

Carissa had her one year pictures taken today by Elizabeth Keach.  I can't wait to see them!  Elizabeth is our neighbor and is starting her own photograpy business.  She's really good and Carissa really likes her.  I wish Carissa would've been a little bit more smiley but oh well.  I am sure she will look beautiful anyway.  My kids always choke when it comes to professional pictures.  Also today, Maleah had her spring pictures taken at school.  She looked cute as a bug when she left for school, so I'm hoping the pictures went well and her hair wasn't too messy.  I'll post those as soon as I get them!

I hope you guys all have a great week!

Our Terrible Easter Weekend

So our Easter weekend didn't go as planned.  It all started on Friday night.  After a nice dinner at Anthony's celebrating my brother Brad's birthday with my family, Maleah and  I left town and headed to Fairfield to go skating.  We had a great time but then we got a phone call from Jason saying to head home because Carissa was very sick.  The poor little thing had been throwing up since I had left.  She was perfectly happy and healthy when I left for Fairfield but by the time I got home she was dehydrated.  Her breathing was very labored and noisy and that really scared me.  So at 10:30 that night I loaded her up and took her to ER. That's when I found out how dehydrated she was and how babies sometimes breathe like that when they are really sick.  They decided to admit her and gave her an iv (it broke my heart to watch that).  She threw up most of the night and then woke up with terrible diarrhea.  It is so unfair when babies are sick.  It was a long night and an even longer day on Saturday.  She continued to improve though and was released late Saturday night.  I'm writing this on Monday morning and she still doesn't feel that much better.  She has thrown up a few more times so I'm keeping a close eye on her and really trying to push the Pedialyte.  I don't want to end up back in the hospital with her.

So then on Sunday morning, I woke up very sick.  I'll spare you the details but will say that I had the same symptoms as Carissa.  I stayed in bed all day and tried not to move.  Disaster struck when I did so it was best not to.  Jason took care of the girls.  I didn't get any Easter pictures.  The girls loved their Easter baskets and hunted eggs in the living room.  I missed all of that.  At noon my Mom came and picked up Maleah and took her to the Oestreich Easter dinner and egg hunt.  That made Maleah very happy.  Later that night I got a phone call from my Dad saying that my Mom was sick now.  Uh oh.  I feel pretty guilty about that.  Sorry Mom!!!  By Sunday night I was feeling better so Jason went to work.  He came home a few hours later because now he is sick!  Uggh!  Will this ever end?  Probably not till after Maleah gets it and that hasn't happened yet.  That will be dramatic to say the least.  Please say a prayer that we all start feeling better and that Maleah doesn't get it!