reunion

Xaris got to play with Marshall and Jack again last month!

We've missed Marshy and his parents (and brand new baby sister we just got to meet!) since they moved about 5 hours away. It was lovely that they came back for a visit during their spring break and we all met up at Jack's house for pizza and playtime.

Let's all run around crazy!

We actually got a pretty cute picture of the three of them! (you should see how many failed attempts are on our camera).

Marshall's still about double X's weight, although she's catching up in height (finally!)

Hugs on my head from Marshall?

X doesn't look too sure about those head hugs from Marshy...

He's certainly full of love, what a sweet boy! (both of them, actually). We miss you Marshy!

sick again

Yep...we got the crud again. This time round I was a little more aggressive with getting treatment for all of us. When Xaris had to change antibiotic again this time I had words with her pediatrician about not letting her illnesses linger, at least while I'm pregnant and have very little options for treating it when I get it. I can totally understand why it's important to not go to the strongest drugs first unless it's absolutely necessary--but this is twice in a row that Cephalexin hasn't worked for her. If she gets sick again, I'm refusing it for another antibiotic so hopefully she'll get healthy and we'll stay healthy.

When Ric and I got sick, we went to CareNow instead of our own Dr. SOO much better. I was in and out in less than an hour, instead of the long waits and 2 visits that my Dr. seemed to require in order to take care of my bug. Ricardo left CareNow with an antibiotic, cough meds, and steroids, and within a day he was feeling better--instead of the 3 days of missed work last time around.

Now--it could be that this is a lesser infection than what we got last time around? But sick feels like sick, and I'm not being very gracious anymore--I think it's time to change Drs!

We're back on the road to health...X is sleeping well again and obviously feeling better by her amount of energy and her playing. Ric's been at work all week, and I have too, although I'm still lagging behind in my recovery. I was the last to get sick though, so the last to start the antibiotics.

Anyway...Hopefully we'll be back to good FOR GOOD soon. I'd like to post pictures from a dinner we had with our friends John, Debra (and Marshall and Lucy!) and Mark, Leslie (and Jack), but we left our camera at Mark and Leslie's house, so it'll have to wait.

Instead, I'll put up a poll--it looks like I'll have an ultrasound around the end of April, so you can post your votes now about gender. I'm not giving you any hints yet :) Maybe I'll post some later on!

on the condition of cloth diapers

So here's a question:

for all of you using cloth diapers, how are they holding up?

Now that we're approaching the 2 year birthday of several of our bumgenius 3.0, I'm starting to notice their age and wear, particularly in the velcro. So I started wondering about how everyone else's are holding up? And what routines do you follow for the cleaning, laundering, care of these diapers?

Now that Boo-Rod 2 is on the way, the plan is have X totally out of diapers before baby's arrival. And most of the diapers are holding up pretty well, but the laundry tabs (where you fasten the velcro to wash the diapers) are shot, so each load I do I end up pulling diapers apart from each other, making the velcro fuzzier and fuzzier. There are a couple that I'll probably replace. Or if there's something totally revolutionary and new out there that you have discovered, please share!!

Here's our diaper care routine:

Wet, dirty diapers go in pail in bathroom (if it's dirty, we spray it off with diaper sprayer, then spray on a little bac-out).

Every other day, all diapers get washed, first in a cold soaker wash with bleach and either All Free, or Charlie's soap, and lots of water.

Second round: hot water + a little more soap.

Third round: hot water rinse. Sometimes I do this twice.

Dry on low heat (in summer, they dry on the line).

Then I pull out a tangled, velcro-y mess of diapers and begin to pull them all apart and fold them together.

Any suggestions or variations in your results??

only in North Texas...?

We did get some "real" snow in February. After 3 day of being homebound because the city and streets were covered in thick sheets of solid ice, the snow rolled in and made our day so much better because we could play outside (finally!) We took three trips out into the snow that day, and each time Xaris didn't want to come back inside. I suppose I don't blame her after the previous 3 days of being stuck inside (we had pretty much been homebound the previous 2 weeks too--due to illness).

She wanted to play soccer, and her favorite became laying down in the snow after watching mama make a snow angel.

We did take some photos and video of her snow-angels, and attempts at building a snowman. The snow was too dry and powdery to hold together, so it really looks more like a snowmound, but X still called it snowman.

Learning about Snow angels...

When I got up, she went and laid down in the angel :)

Then walked around the yard, periodically laying down.

Working on the snowmound

That's about as much as we were able to pack/stack together. It was REALLY dry.

Out again for more fun later

And more laying down...She actually started to get the snow angel movements, with a little help. We LOVE snow!

And...the following week: 80 degrees (still in February)...it wasn't too hot, so we went to the Arboretum for the first time this year. Papa even managed to swing by after work!

SO much easier to run in a dress and sandals than a snowsuit and boots!

She really loves the huge lawns to run around on.

And I really love this dress on her!

Ohhhhhaaah! (hoja: means leaf). Another favorite pastime.

Both were wonderful days because of the weather and for different reasons. Although, 80 degrees in February just makes me really scared for what's coming.

The gene game

So, who is winning the "whose genes did X get?" game??

All boiled down to the simplest form--Ricardo is numbers and I'm letters. He's a mathematician (3 math degrees and working on another), and I majored and did graduate work in theology (ie: lots and lots and lots of reading and writing). So, we've been curious to see if Xaris favors one or the other, or both equally. She's been doing really well with numbers and letters. She'll repeat after us, and make it all the way through the alphabet, or count up to 5, 10, or more with us.

If she sees any signs or numbers outside she yells "A" (no matter what the letter or number). In her play I'll hear her count or say letters--not usually in any correct or consistent order. She has a few favorites, so I'll hear something like "uno, dos, ocho, ocho, ocho, ocho, ocho, ocho", or "A, B, M, Q, X!" (X is a favorite, wonder why:) So is W.

But, waiting to see which (letters or numbers) she was grasping the concept of quicker, or was capable of using correctly on her own has been fun. Here's a quick video of which one won!

Yep, looks like Ricardo's genes are winning! She can count to 5 by herself in both English and Spanish. And she's pretty close to doing a good job getting all the way to 10! A few little mixups still--like confusing "nueve" (9) with "huevy" (her word for egg)...

She understands the concept of counting things though, and is constantly lining up her play plates in her kitchen, her goldfish snack, raisins, napkins or washcloths laid out on the floor, shoes, etc and counting them repeatedly. And when there are more than she can count, she states with great enthusiasm: "MUCHO!"

So, congrats to our little potential mathematician, we're proud of you, think you are brilliant, and can't wait to see what you learn next!

Sooooo Sick.

We are under the weather. What would be below under the weather? Under-under? Whatever it is, that is what we are. It has been traumatic.

X had a fever last Monday night (that's right, a week ago), with no other symptoms, but I brought her into the Dr. anyway. Good thing I did, because he checked her all out, ears, lungs, nose, everything all clear, but then he looked at her throat and said "Well, that looks pretty bad". Did a strep test, came back positive, so round 1 of antibiotics. 2 days later, she's worse (yanking her ears, all sniffly, coughy, and nose-drippy) and I've started feeling bad too, despite my constant netty-potting, salt-water gargling, hand-washing, sanitizing-everything state of being for the past 72 hours. I call the Dr. again, and he switches her antibiotic.

Then we go see MY Dr. She doesn't think I have strep, but prescribed an antibiotic for "just in case" I got worse over the weekend. Good thing. Friday I woke up much worse. I called her, she told me to fill the prescription, so I started antibiotics on Friday, and proceeded to get worse daily over the weekend until now. Tomorrow is my last antibiotic, glad it's helping?

Today: X seems to be feeling a little better, at least she has no fever, more energy and wants to play, but she's still got this scary rattly chesty cough, and insane amounts of nose runnies.

Today: I am still worse, can't breathe through my nose half the time, and wake up coughing so hard Ricardo has had to move to the other room. :(

Today: I called both Xaris' Dr, and mine, to mention that we are still not better and are at the end of the course of antibiotics. X's Dr. wants her to do another course, so today we started antibiotic #3. My Dr. wants to see me at 7:45 in the morning. yippee.

Today: Ricardo came home sick from work (which he NEVER does) and went into get checked out: no strep fortunately, but a nasty sinus infection, so antibiotics for him too.

Total, for our family of 3: FIVE different antibiotic prescriptions (plus 7 other meds) in less than a week. I can't remember the last time I was this sick, and that it lasted THIS long.

Sorry for the griping, but I want the sympathy (and maybe advice if there's any out there). Mostly, I just want health!!

Watching Toy Story 3 in bed. Again. I don't mind because she'll actually sit and watch a good chunk of it, which means I can lay down, and maybe even close my eyes for a few....

An experiment

Trying to see if I can post an update for a different date--like in the past. Can I catch up, and still keep things in chronological order?