Sweet Sounds

Sisters

Grandpa Ken

Kenny's grandpa is hospitalized in Abilene with liver cancer. His mom called us this morning to let us know. It is inflamed and that makes it painful for him to lay on one side. He has lost 35 lbs in the last two weeks. Please send thoughts and prayers his way. We will probably be heading back this afternoon to visit him.

On a side note, Kenny is on antibiotics for the third time in a month and a half. He had strep again! The doctor told him to start taking a vitamin and get more rest because he stays up too late. I've been telling him that for a while. Perhaps now he'll listen?

Goofy Girls

Time to get your fix of the cutie pies!

Shelby is staying awake now for longer periods of time, so I can get pictures of her with her eyes open. She coos when you talk to her and has started laughing, too. I'm trying desprately to get it on video, but I think the camera distracts her! She still sleeps in the bassinet beside our bed at night, but I have started laying her down in the crib in her bedroom during the evening when she falls asleep before I am ready for bed. That way she can start getting used to it and she seems to be taking to it just fine.





Autumn continues to love going to daycare and suprises me almost daily with something new. It took me forever this evening to figure out what "heppo" was. I was certain it had to be her purple hippo stool in the bathroom, but she was adamant "No, Mommy. Heppo." Turns out it was helper. I was making her supper and she wanted to be my helper. How cute is that?!

New Windows!

We had an opportunity come up to get our windows and the sliding glass door downstairs replaced, so we decided to bite the bullet and do it. Kenny will be the first to tell you, I despise parting with large sums of money (which to me is anything over about $300), but since we plan on being here awhile I figured we'll have plenty of time to pay it off. We both like the look of bay windows, so we had the front picture window replaced with a bay and had the window in the bedroom cut larger so a bay could go there as well. We had some trouble with getting the people here to install them, because the bay windows took longer to come in. The main guy would call us at 9 or 10 the night before to tell us the bays hadn't come in and they'd have to reschedule after Kenny had already taken the day off of work, but over the span of several days all the windows finally arrived and were installed. Below are before and after pictures of the front of the house.







Kenny and our friend, Keith, did a great job of repainting the front to cover where the trim used to be. The bays still need trim on the inside of the house and Kenny has plans for that. He does his best to describe them to me, but my imagination is limited, so I think he has given up trying. I'll post more pictures when he gets it done.

Autumn quickly figured out that she could




stand on her princess couch











and climb into the window.











Waving goodbye to Papa in the morning.

Tummy Ache

Kenny has a pain in his abdomen that started Saturday. It becomes more intense and then fades and seems to be worse when he eats. We thought maybe kidney stones, so he went to the doctor yesterday. The doctor didn't feel any stones and also thought appendicitis might be a possible cause. They took blood and told him to stay home and take it easy until they got the results back. He got a call today and the blood work didn't give them any answers. His white blood cell count was a little higher than normal, but not so high that they were concerned. They are sending him for a CT scan of his abdomen this afternoon and said it would be reviewed while he waits so that they can tell him what it shows. Please send thoughts and prayers his way and I will update you when we know more.

UPDATE: The CT scan showed swollen lymph nodes around his small intestine indicating an intestinal infection of some sort. They said for him to rest and drink lots of fluids. If it's viral, that should take care of it in a few days. If he still feels it after that, it is bacterial and they'll give him antibiotics. I can't hardly believe it would be bacterial because he was just on antibiotics last week for strep throat! I guess we'll find out. And the really weird thing is that he hardly ever gets sick. I hate to think what next week will bring - hopefully a healthy husband!

Dreaming Big

What will I be when I grow up?

Perhaps a leader with wise ideas to share. Listen and follow me!
Maybe I'll be a model. Watch me strike a pose.
I could be a dramatic actress.
"For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
Or maybe a great thinker. Einstein's got nothin' on me!

You all will just have to wait and see!

Discovery

The peephole in our front door is pretty big and in the evening when the sun is shining just right we get a rainbow in our house!

Acne vs. Eczema

Shelby has had the worst baby acne ever since she was born. Her little cheeks and chin have been red and bumpy. I figured any time it should go away, but it seemed to get worse spreading down below her ears, around the back of her neck, and even some on her back and chest recently. So, I started looking up baby acne on the internet. (Babycenter.com is a very helpful website. I've used it a lot starting with Autumn.) Everything I could find tended to agree that at this point the acne should be subsiding or gone. One of the articles, though, mentioned the possibility of eczema and that the incidence of an infant having eczema is higher if a parent has it. The light bulb in my head clicked on. I have eczema. I'll occasionally get an itchy spot that flares up, but it never occurred to me that her red bumps and my itchy spots could be the same thing. To test my theory I liberally applied my sensitive skin lotion to her little cheeks last night and this morning you could immediately tell a difference. The bumps were smaller and her skin was less red. I went ahead and applied some more this afternoon to really get around the back of her neck and she looks 100 times better. Her skin has much better color to it and looks less red and irritated.

I just feel bad now for not thinking of it sooner because I know just how badly eczema can itch. There were times I'd hold her up against my chest and she'd be upset and turn her face from side to side. I thought she was looking for her pacifier for comfort, but now I wonder if she was uncomfortable and itchy. Anyway, I'm hoping it is something she will grow out of.

Playtime