Friday, February 10, 2012

Daily life for us...

I was looking back through some of my old blog posts the other day and realized that I have been quite lax about recording some of the random, mundane things our family has been doing. When I was an earlier blogger, I recorded so many stories about Gracie & Katie that are priceless to me now. Stories about sweet Ellie, being the 3rd, have mostly been posted shortly on Facebook or are in my brain (or out of it now!). I need to write more of them down, so I'm going to try to blog more often about our simple daily lives. I told Chris, after reading through posts from years ago, that I feel like we had a whole lifetime before Ellie came along. To which he replied, "Well, we did. We lived in a whole other place." Very odd to think about.

My sweet girl just amazes me sometimes. I watch her and just thank God that he knew we needed an Ellie in our family. We "planned" for Gracie & Katie somewhat but Ellie was a complete surprise (well, mostly anyway!) We weren't sure we "wanted" a 3rd child, but I'm soooo glad God wanted us to have a 3rd, and I'm so happy the 3rd was Ellie! She is such our little princess. Some might like to use the word "spoiled," but that sounds so negative, so we'll say "well loved." LOL

We love living close enough to the elementary school to walk, and the past couple of days, Ellie has decided she needed to bring some babies along on the way to pick up Katie. Makes for a longer walk, but you're only 3 once, right?

I love that the baby is Annie. I loved Annie as a child; I'm guessing this was one of my dolls from childhood.


The 2nd day, a different stroller and different babies were brought along. Mimi, the pink bunny, is one of her favorites.

Biggest sissy even had to be silly one day and push the stroller along the sidewalk.
We don't get to stay home these days nearly as often as I'd like, but on the mornings when we do, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is a favorite for Ellie! Katie used to love this show, too. Her 3rd birthday was Mickey Mouse which is when I made her "Mickey Blanket" that is an absolute favorite, even almost 5 years later! It's a bit funny to me, thinking about my days with Gracie at this age compared to my days with Ellie. Gracie was certainly able to stay home and have more down time than Ellie, with needing to get kids to school & pick them up and various other things going on. I guess that's what happens when you're the 3rd!

Speaking of Katie....she had to bundle up for school at least one day this week. It was quite chilly a few days, which seems more appropriate for February than highs in the 70's like last week!

My sweet Katie struggles with her allergies so much, poor thing. She is on regular allergy shots, which I *think* are helping, but she still struggles. Morning times with her are probably times only a mommy or daddy can love...ha. They are full of sneezing, coughing, snorting, bad breath, & yucky sounding nose rubbing, etc. I've noticed in the past few weeks that she seems short of breath more than she should be, and when I looked in her nose once it looked almost completely swollen shut. The mommy in me decided I should take her in for a check up with the allergist, especially before she got her next shot. Well, mother's intuition was good this time! Sure enough, after a very unpleasant procedure to check & see if she truly had a sinus infection (which has given my ever-wanting-to-do-inventions Katie inspiration to create an easier way to test),we discovered she indeed did have a sinus infection. He also heard some wheezing, so she did some interesting breathing test on the computer. He said her numbers for that weren't too bad, but he gave us an inhaler to use if needed and asked me to give a steroid (equivalent to Prednisone) for 2 days. Katie. On a steroid. Wow. So we left with instructions to use an antibiotic for the sinus infection, steroid for 2 days, Singulair pretty much every day, inhaler if needed, and I asked for another prescription to have on hand that I use for all 3 when needed for coughing & congestion. The girls, all 3, have been really healthy for the most part lately, thankfully. Of course, now that I've written that.........

Here is Katie after her first dose of the steroid. Not really tired, huh?! I can't stand taking steroids...they make me cRaZy!!!! The first night, we finally just told her to go in her room and read or something but to stay quiet. The second night, she had a bit of a hard time falling asleep but not too bad I don't think. Didn't hear too much out of her anyway. This morning, she got up early...of course, checking to see if the tooth fairy brought money for the tooth she lost the night before, was incentive for that! I made her get back in bed and read for awhile, but she was ready & willing to get up! I imagine the meds have helped clear up her sinuses, thus making her sleep better and feel better. Poor thing, I hope her allergies won't just get worse as she gets older, and I really hope she doesn't develop asthma. That scares me. Interesting thing, she didn't really feel "sick" even though she had a sinus infection. She wasn't really "snotty"as you think goes with a sinus infection, no fever, no saying she felt bad, etc. I wonder if her body has just adapted to them b/c she suffers with them so much. I really think she has probably has them more than we know about just b/c we think "that's just the way she is" when she probably needs treatment. We have GOT to remember to give her Singulair DAILY. I've also heard it said (not by the doctor) that milk may contribute to problems. I may have to limit that, but oh how she loves her milk!

Yesterday, as Ellie strolled her babies along the sidewalk, she was gifted by one of our neighbors with these cute little baby clothes hangers. They had been passed along to her by a different neighbor, and it was time to pass them along to someone else, and Ellie was blessed to get them. She loves them and had to put her baby's clothes on them as soon as we got home. Too cute!

I love this book Ellie made in Bible Class a few weeks ago. Her sweet teachers helped them do it and put it together for them, complete with laminating it. She is very proud of it! I love it!




...and here is my sweet Junior High daughter. Love her.

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