Bekahism #46

Bekah: I'm working on becoming a ninja, dad. I have got the "swift" part down, but I have to work on the "silent" part. Ninja's are swift and silent. I am swift, but I jump around too much to be silent. It's hard to be silent when you're jumping around all the time.

Best friends/sisters

This morning the girls barreled into our room at 7 a.m. (with Seth imploring, "Why can't you let us sleep in?!") and then back out. Seth and I groggily lounged about in bed a while longer while the big girls busied themselves downstairs. When we finally emerged, we found this on the counter:

 

It seems like Bekah has been missing her younger sister and accomplice while she's been in school.

80's flashback

When Seth and I were invited to an 80's themed surprise birthday party, I decided we were going to go all out. I did all sorts of research to find out how to transform myself. (Yes, I was born in the 80s, but I wasn't old enough to wear makeup, buy my own clothes, wear earrings or style my own hair before the decade was gone, so I wanted to make sure I could do something authentic.) Bright colors? Check! (Thank you, D.I.) Bright makeup? Check! (Thank you, big sister). Big earrings? Check! (Thank you Fred Meyer clearance sale.) Big hair? Check! (Thanks, gallon of hairspray, triple-barrel curling iron and comb for ratting.)

Don't click on this to see the larger version unless you want to have nightmares tonight. Yes, that is blue glitter on my eyelids.

Seth was a harder case. What did guys wear in the 80s? We found a vintage-y looking shirt. Did my brothers wear something similar back in the day? And what can do you to hair that's been recently buzz-cut? Our solution:

That's right, peeps. Seth sported a mohawk.

It's a shame he couldn't wear some of his honkin' big glasses from the 80s.

In this state, we went to the party. Unfortunately, of the 14 people who came, we were the only ones who altered our looks to fit the theme. Even the hostess forgot to dress up.

Rather than crawling into a hole, I toughed it out during dinner and then utilized a comb and a wet wipe to try and transform myself into something more normal looking while we traveled from the birthday boy's home to go play dodgeball at a gym full of trampolines.

So if I show up at a costume party in my normal attire, you'll know that I chickened out because of my, like, totally bogus prior experience.

Superstitious

Apparently our eldest is the superstitious sort. And the addingsoundeffectstoyourmathhomework sort.

MIri's second trip to the ER

Miri wins the award as the child needing the most medical attention. Sure, Ana outdid her older sister by ripping open her forehead and needing stitches. But Miri now has two ER visits chalked up next to her name.

The first one involved a post-op fever and infection. The second one involved a viral infection and fever.

Last Wednesday, Miri woke up with a fever. We gave her Tylenol and ibuprofen as needed. I kept an eye on her. I even called the nurse at our pediatrician's office and asked if I should bring her in because, even though it was her first day of the fever, her cousin who I baby-sit had been diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection, and I thought it might be a good idea to get her on antibiotics. But the nurse said to wait.

So I waited ... until that afternoon. Her fever shot up to 104.9, and I called the office again. This time the nurse said to bring her in. We saw the pediatrician who said she might have the flu (turns out she didn't, which we found out after the lab technician swabbed her nose ... but I swear she shoved that Q-tip up high enough to perform a frontal lobotomy), pneumonia or an infection. He prescribed amoxicillin and a steroid to help her crackling lungs, and told us to give her albuterol treatments and keep giving her Tylenol and ibuprofen.

After spending a horrible hour at Wal-mart (And why didn't you tell me you didn't have my new insurance information the FIRST TIME I spoke to you, huh?), we came home with plenty-0-medicine.

Miri doing one of her albuterol treatments. It's happy and sad at the same time that she'll sit still for these: happy because I don't have to set her in my lap and hold her hands the entire time so she won't rip the mask off her head. Sad because she's had to do it enough to know not to rip the mask off her head. She also tells you "all done" when the medicine's gone.

The next day, she seemed to do better. Her fever only got up to 102.

And then we had Friday morning. Early Friday morning.

Miri woke up at 5 a.m. Her fever was over 106. We gave her Tylenol and stripped her down for a lukewarm bath. We decided to take her in.

I was scheduled to teach FAME all day Friday. Seth had the day off for "non-denominational spring holiday" (aka Easter or Good Friday), so he took her to the ER while I waited at home and got ready for the day.

Gratefully, the fever had gone down by the time he got there. They did a chest x-ray and determined that Miri had a viral infection in her lungs and possibly a kidney infection. The doctor told Seth to keep doing what we were doing and sent them both home.

Seth got to spend his glorious day off supervising medication and "Elmo's World" consumption. I spent the day trying not to botch my playing of "Für Elise" in front of 300 students and worrying about my little girl.

Saturday her fever was slight in the morning and disappeared in the afternoon. She's still got a lingering cough and snotty nose and we're still finishing off the amoxicillin, but I hope we can safely say that this one is behind us.

Miri's first real haircut

Miriam's always been obsessed with her hair. When she was old enough to grasp, she'd reach up to her tender little head and yank out chunks of hair. I thought she had grown out of that phase long ago. ... Unfortunately, the habit has just evolved.

Now, instead of merely pulling out hair, Miriam likes to twist it around her left index finger and tie it in knots. Sometimes when she pulls her finger out, she still takes some of the hair with her. (At least she's old enough to say, "Uh-oh" and hand me the hair so I can throw it away.)

I decided to put a stop to the hair habit once and for all. So I cut her hair.

The morning of the haircut. Not only is her hair a giant mess from sleeping on it all night, but it also has a huge knot on the left side from her twisting it.

One of many knots I've had to extricate from the messy nest of hair.

Seth had given me clearance to cut it above her chin, so a few chops later, this is the 'do our 2-year-old was sporting.

Nice and short for summer. Hope the back of her neck doesn't burn too easily.

Then the little stinker proceeded to yank out the elastic from the top of her head (another annoying habit of hers). So then I cut her some bangs she she can wear her hair down and not have it in her eyes.

My life in B&W

Seth ripped this from the comics the other day and handed it to me. I didn't need any words to know what he was thinking. ... "This is the story of my life," his eyes stated. No wonder I use medication to help me sleep.