Last night we put Brooke to bed. An hour later she woke up screaming. I ran into her room and saw she had thrown up all over. The vomit-fest continued all night long.
For the record, I’m totally blaming this on that stupid gumball.
A couple of nights ago Dallas and I took the girls to a pet store to waste time before bed. Brooke happily wandered the store squealing in delight at the puppies and the fish and shrieking in disgust at the snakes and the lizards.
After her third lap around the store, she noticed the bubble gum dispenser near the check-out desk. Quickly, she got on all fours and started playing with the trap door opening and closing it in the hopes that this time a gumball would magically appear. When that didn’t work she said, “Mom! I want gumball. You have money?”
I thought back to everything Brooke had just touched: fish tanks, fish water, bird cages, pet food, dog toys, pet carriers, the floor, and finally, the bubble gum trap door. How many other kids had done just the same thing with their grimy hands?
The answer was easy; I said, “No Brooke. We don’t have any money for gumballs today,” but what I was really thinking was, “There is absolutely no way any child of mine will EVER eat a gumball that we’ve purchased from a pet store.” Involuntary shuddering occurred next.
Just as we were turning away, I heard a woman say, “Here. Here’s a quarter for her.”
“Oh, no, that’s okay…” I stammered.
“No really. Take it.”
I prompted Brooke to thank the woman, and I gave her a very sincere, “You shouldn’t have.” Brooke deposited the quarter in the machine and watched the gumball spiral down to the door. I swooped down to get the gumball before it had a chance to fall on the floor (did I mention there were mealworms in a box on the floor nearby?). As I held the gumball, I realized it was somewhat of a large choking device for my two-year old. With the stranger watching on, I swallowed, heaved a sigh, and bit into the gumball. I gave Brooke half of it and forced myself to chew the rest.
Brooke hummed her delight at the taste of the gum. The woman stood nearby beaming at her. And I tried not to think about all of the germs we were being exposed to at that very moment.
You can’t get rabies from a gumball, right?
On our way down to the library this morning we were listening to the soundtrack of Pixar’s Up. This was the first time we were listening to the CD. I thought it would be a good time to find out if Brooke understands the emotions of music by asking Brooke if it were a happy song. Her response was that it was raining. We were a bit confused until I realized that it must be the music from the scene when they are going through the storm. After listening for a minute I realized that Brooke was right. I’m quite convinced that Brooke has a musical ear. I now need to know how to keep Brooke’s attention long enough to start teaching her music theory and how to play.
Last night Dallas and I put the girls to bed. Then we found ourselves lounging around playing various versions of Sudoku late into the night. You know the feeling of being dead tired but not wanting to go to bed? That’s what was happening. As we were finally getting ready for bed I said something like, “I wish we were on vacation without the girls and could just sleep in tomorrow as late as we wanted.”
Then we slept. And slept. And slept. I vaguely recall Caroline squawking, but she quickly put herself back to sleep. And so did I.
The girls both slept in until 9:30 a.m. NINE-THIRTY A.M.! That is unheard of. I don’t know if it was your fervent prayers on my behalf that were answered or if the girls sensed that my sanity depended on them staying quiet for a couple of extra hours this morning.
In any case, it was a wonderful morning. Let’s hope for a repeat tomorrow.
I think Brooke and Caroline are over their sicknesses. Finally.
Caroline was remarkably happy during most of her bout with RSV. Just look at how smiley she is during one of her breathing treatments:
There is one little problem, though. Actually, it’s a huge problem. During the night when Caroline was sick, she would cough herself awake. Sometimes she would fall asleep again on her own, and other times she needed to be held, have her nose suctioned out, or given more medicine. Consequently, I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that she’s forgotten how to sleep through the night.
This is especially disturbing because merely a month or two before this we had just gotten her to the point where she was consistently sleeping through the night.
The past several nights have been miserable. She will wake up and scream and cry. I’ll try to rock her back to sleep, but she will be so fitful and restless that it takes her HOURS to go to sleep again. Last night we were up from 1:30 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. I can’t tell if she’s still feeling a little sick or if she’s just bent on being completely disagreeable for the fun of it.
I hope this stops soon.
Really Smart Valedictorian?
Rotting, Slimy Vegetables?
Reconnaissance Scout Vehicle?
Rebecca’s Silly Voice?
Respiratory Syncytial Virus?
Yep, that one. RSV.
This little girl has it:
We’re doing lots of breathing treatments, temperature taking, oral medicine drinking, coughing, wheezing, and cuddling.
Last night Brooke decided she’d add “throwing up all over our dry-clean-only comforter” into the mix.
Fun times in the Golden household.
Potty training.
[Imagine a huge sigh as I say those two words.]
We’ve been training for months. MONTHS. I won’t calculate exactly how many months because that number depresses me. The first two weeks of training were hard. Brooke was scared to go in the potty. By week three, she had caught on and was having regular success. By week four she was completely potty trained at home.
By about week 8 she started regressing. The word “regression” doesn’t even do justice to the situation that we found ourselves in. She regressed so far that she was less potty trained by week 20 than she was at week 1. You ask, “Can that even happen?”
Yes, my friends, yes it can.
We took a potty training break during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Once the new year started, we decided to give it a try again.
The progress has been slow, but I can finally say I think we are actually making progress.
[Another huge sigh.]
She hasn’t had a day-time accident in a while.
She often wakes up from her nap dry.
And then, this morning, after a full-night’s sleep, she woke up dry.
That light, that little glimmer of light that I’m seeing, is that the light at the end of this nightmarish tunnel?
Well, now that GoldenDance is over, I feel like I should post something.
During the two weeks that Dallas was posting videos I kept thinking about things I should blog about. Now that the videos have ended, I can’t remember anything about what I was going to write.
How about a Brooke story?
Brooke has been talking about heaven a lot lately. Our upstairs neighbor had been out of town for several weeks. She came back and we heard her walking around. Brooke noticed the noise, stopped what she was doing and said, “Mom! I hear heaven!”
Our little Caroline is getting her first two teeth. She’s also started rocking and bouncing as she’s sitting up. This allows her to scoot a little bit to grab things that have fallen out of reach. I think mobility is in her future. When that time comes, we may be trapping her in this drawer more often.
Grandma Thomas has waited for a long time for this video.
Brooke loves music and Pixar movies!
This was a short film I worked on a couple of years ago for the LDS Film Festival. They needed a super cute baby so Brooke took the part. You can see Brooke in a couple of parts.
Crossroads
Spanky Ward | MySpace Video
I probably should have included the completed commercial for you to see as well as the outtakes.
What does Tweety say?
Another clip of Caroline.
Here are the funny little outtakes from the Amp commercial I did for Sarah.
Brooke’s funky dance moves. Whenever Brooke falls, she always announces that she’s okay. Listen for that near the end of the clip.
