Tag: D

Baby girl D

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There’s a ghost in our house

The other night I sat D in the bathroom sink to wash her hands and feet. At some point she must have stood up and planted her left hand on the mirror for balance, because later in the night I found that little reminder above. A reminder that yes, a munchkin lives in our house.

My first thought was to just clean it off, but then I realized that never again will her hands be that exact tiny size. So what else was there to do but take a picture?

And do a little comparison.

They don’t show up extremely well, and it was hard to even capture the hand prints at all with a white ceiling and bright lighting, but I tried to see just how big mine was next to her 22-month-old hand.

Della and Mommy.

Not ghosts.

 

 

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Anyone else ever heard of this?

Parents of kids who’ve had hand, foot, and mouth, I have a question for you. Or adults who’ve had it themselves too, I guess. Anyone with any experience with HFM, please come over here.

Did any of your kids’ fingernails or toenails fall off after a really bad case?

Yeah, I know, that’s disgusting, isn’t it? Here’s the thing…

The index, middle, and thumb nails on Della’s right hand have all been looking like they’re going to fall off this past week. Discolored, kind of thick-looking, and starting to separate from the cuticle area. My first thought was she must have gotten them slammed/stuck in something at daycare, because we never heard her cry about it at home. But there’s never been any bruising on any of the fingers or nail beds, just these weird nails.

Then this weekend Ryan noticed that both of her big toenails are doing the same thing. So gross!

He typed in “toddler’s fingernails falling off” in Google yesterday, and apparently a bunch of the comments about it were from parents who saw it as a result of severe cases of HFM. Bingo! That must be it. D’s 2nd case was definitely much, much worse than her 1st, and I would call it severe. Wouldn’t you?

Has anyone else ever experienced this or even heard of it? Those dangling nails are really grossing me out.

 

 

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Hippity-hoppity

Easter’s on its way! And I’m so excited to fill an Easter basket and help the Easter Bunny set up an egg hunt for D this year, since she’ll be able to do it on her own this time. Last year she was too little and had to help Daddy hunt for his eggs. But this year it’ll be all her.

My mom got her a ridiculously cute bunny coat last Easter, and it still just fits for this one. The sleeves are getting a little too short, but we had to wear it this week to celebrate. It’s luxuriously soft and furry, with a pink satin lining, bunny ears, and a little cotton ball-esque bunny tail on the back hem. Get out of here!

Here she is modeling and showing yet again what a difference a year makes… (please pardon the crappy phone picture from this year, but she now insists on being able to see herself when you take her picture)

 

 

 

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Ode to daycare

Oh, our daycare, we do love it so.

D loves to constantly learn and play and grow.

She whines a little when we arrive,

But after hand washing she’s off to thrive.

 

Her days are filled with art and song,

And sometimes she acts like she’d rather stay there all night long.

The teachers in all of her rooms so far

Have been absolutely wonderful – right now she’s a Shining Star.

 

But there’s just one thing about which I need to complain.

And no, it’s not that today’s filled with rain.

You see this thing keeps happening;

This thing which does not make my heart sing.

 

Every couple weeks the tell-tale signs begin –

Coughing, sneezing, snot rivers down to D’s chin.

Her excellent sleep patterns are soon replaced

By this screaming monster whom I’d like to punch in the face.

 

Not one night has gone by this week

Where we haven’t awoken to her midnight shriek.

“No, not again, go back to sleep!” I silently pray.

For I know this will lead to yet another horrible day.

 

A double ear infection, pink eye, and yes, she’s on meds.

Unfortunately they haven’t yet helped to calm her nighttime head.

I, too, now feel the beginning of this damn stupid cold,

And these aches, pains, and bloodshot eyes are getting quite old.

 

So dear daycare, you’re the best, but give me a break!

I don’t know how much more sickness our little family can take.

Your kids are all cute, I’m not gonna lie.

But I’m now pretty certain they can all shoot biological-warfare grade snot straight out of their eye.

 

 

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The witching hour

I’ve heard a lot of parents lamenting that time of day when their kids tend to go a little more berserk than normal. It’s apparently usually late afternoon or early evening, and it always seems to happen around the time said parents are trying to get dinner made and on the table.

And I’ve always secretly heaved a sigh of relief that D doesn’t really have one. A witching hour, that is. She’s normally very cheery and playful when we get home from daycare, ready to eat soon after we arrive, then happy to play around in her toy area for most of the night until bedtime.

Bedtime can be another story, but when that happens it’s usually because she’s too tired and doesn’t want to trust me that she’s ready to sleep. Silly girl, still hasn’t learned that Mommy knows best, even when she screams otherwise.

Unfortunately, we seem to have discovered her witching hour this week, on the dawn of her 20 month birthday. And how lucky are we? It occurs at 2am. Whee!

The past 2 nights she has awoken in fits of howling right around that time. Did she hear a noise? Did she have a bad dream? Did she just want to rebel against the rest of our world who likes to SLEEP at that hour of night?

Now, she did start a cold on Sunday that has progressed over the past 2 days, so there is that aspect, but still. 2 nights in a row? That’s a little much, my dear. She might average waking once a week or so, but rarely on consecutive nights.

And last night was awful. The sleeping cough she almost always gets with her colds began, so I knew it was probably going to be a rough go. Little did I know that she would wake approximately 78 times between 2-4am. That was great fun.

Poor R is suffering through the adult version of D’s cold right now, and he even got up to help with her fits last night. We took turns, alternating shifts. He gave her some baby Tylenol at one point, but I’m not sure how much it helped. I was trying to magically plug my ears and pretend there was not a wailing child in the house.

So, all this to say, I’m tired. We got a brand new mattress set this weekend, and I’m now 0-2 on nights enjoying it. The thing is an absolute monster – king size pillow-top, and my feet don’t even touch the ground when I sit on the side of it! It’s taller than D now too, so she gets frustrated that she can’t pull herself up on it like she could on our old one.

I envisioned nights of sweet, cushioned, squeak-less slumber, but instead I’ve been greeted with incessant toddler screams and ghosts of pre-dawn terrors.

I do feel terrible for D – you can tell she’s uncomfortable and it took everything I had to wake her up this morning when it was time to get ready for school. But I really hope tonight is better.

Maybe this is payback for inwardly thanking my lucky stars that we don’t have that late-day witching hour. Because if I had to choose between 4pm and 2am, I’d happily say BRING IT ON 4PM!!