Our First Cold

What a difference a day can make. Natalie got her first cold and is one miserable looking little lady. Poor girl is just a sniffling mess. I blame her brothers and all their kisses they've been giving her for the cold, but 6 months with no "sickness" is not too bad. Here's to a day of snuggles and love.

Face Fun

WARNING: This post may be a huge rant and I may seem like a crazy mom, but I am totally ok with that. Read on at your own risk.....
My sweet baby girl has taught me many lessons since her birth..... A healthy baby is not always a for sure thing and you REALLY do appreciate good health when you get it,  little girls CAN be as fun as little boys, you really can live on almost no sleep and still be thankful for everything you have, and no matter what you child looks like on the outside, they are the most BEAUTIFUL little gift you could ever ask for.

Now that that has been said, I will explain. Natalie has been battling skin issues for about 3 months now. It started out looking just a little chapped and since it was the middle of winter I didn't think much of it. We took her to the doctor and were told to put Aquaphor on it and it would be fine. Then it began oozing and crusting over and we knew it wasn't just chapped skin. Fast forward a month and we had two bad infections, 2 rounds of antibiotics, and what felt like a gallon of Aquaphor (MINOR exaggeration there, but we really were putting it on her face upwards of 5 times a day).  The first two months were the hardest because we had no idea what was wrong and if it was something we were doing to make it worse. Her face literally felt hot to the touch every time it got all red and we couldn't get it to go totally away for a SOLID 2 months. During those 2 months I learned a VERY valuable life lesson.....People can be just RUDE! Through all of this Natalie looked rough as can be, but was never fussy or irritable, just a smiling little pumpkin. I of course got use to the ugliness of it, but people were so rude. They would look at her and immediately wince and go "oh what's wrong with her?" or  "Oh, poor baby, that looks terrible". NO JOKE!! They said this TO ME!! All the while she is smiling like a sweet doll. I honestly considered telling people she either had leprosy or that she was burned....I figured stupid comments deserve stupid responses right.:-) NO PARENT wants someone to look at their sweet child and then wince and give them what I call "the poop face". I really developed a complex after a while and would either keep her carseat covered up so they couldn't see her or I would warn them before they looked at her so there was not the sting of the shock value. I would even start her on her steriod cream 3 days before we had an "event" or were going somewhere with a lot of people so I could have 1 day of clear skin. That was about all it lasted too was 36 hours at MOST. Then we went to our pediatrician for another infection and a different doctor saw us walking down the hall and he said "Oh I see a sweet baby coming my way" (She was facing back and all he could see was her head) I had had enough of people wincing when they saw here so I said "Oh, she may not be so sweet when you see her face" (Not my best moment, but you get to a point where if you scare them then they aren't as shocked when they see it). When I turned her around he didn't even flinch and he said, "Oh if you can't see past a little redness (and oozing and blood) and see that gorgeous smile then you are missing out. Look at that sweet girl, my goodness!" This mama needed that and he did my heart good. After that I stopped making excuses for her face and would just ignore people who said stupid things. Even family members made stupid comments and I just told myself that some day they may understand what it is like to have their child not look perfect and they will regret their comments.

I am so happy to say that after 3 visits to the dermatologist and 2 different prescriptions she is doing MUCH better. She simply has REALLY bad eczema and we have to stay on top of it, but we have had almost a week of soft skin and that is by far the longest stretch we have had in 3 months. I find myself kissing those sweet cheeks all day long and I just love it. Myles even said to me today, "Mom her face isn't so red anymore."
To end my soapbox rant....WHEN you see a person's child no matter what the circumstances, DON'T ask "What's wrong with them?", "What happened to them?", or say "Poor thing". If you don't know what happened and the parent doesn't offer up information right away they probably don't want to talk about it or draw attention to it and it probably isn't anyone else's business anyway. If you DO suspect it is something you don't want your child to have or catch, then keep them away, but keep your comments to yourself. Parenting is hard enough as it is. Simply say, "What a sweet baby", because ALL babies are sweet. They may not all be pretty, but they are all sweet.:-)Thank you to my sweet friends and especially my sister who were such great support and loved my baby girl for who she was inside and out and gave me the support when I NEEDED it.

This is kind of a bitter beer face, but this was how it looked almost all the time. Red and scaly....Always...

I could get it to look this good for about 36 hours and then we had to take a break from the steroid cream for a week and it would flare up again like crazy.

Here was when it was infected again....

 Oozing and infected.....

This was her just today!!! How sweet are those cheeks? SO kissable!

Pretty sure Ty is saying, "DON'T BE RUDE AND STOP TALKING ABOUT  MY SISTER!!" I may be wrong...

Love......Some days they have it......

 

Some days they don't....

I officially apologize to my mom for all the fighting I did with my brothers. I'm getting what I deserve.  I would LOVE any parenting tips anyone has on how to get kids to get along with their siblings.This mama could use a break from the fighting. :-)

Super Hero Work

Because helping around the yard is just more fun when you are a superhero......

KY Weather

This winter has sure been a crazy one, not just for Kentucky, but for everyone. I am hearing of temps in MN that I have never heard of for March and April. We've been trying to go with the flow of this unpredictable weather by having every kind of clothing in our closet at one time. One day we may be in a sweater and the next we may be in shorts. Our goal is just to get as much outside time as possible no matter what it takes. Here's a look at the last month of weather for us.....

Being silly for the camera.

Poor Ty will NEVER live this picture down. I laugh out loud EVERY SINGLE TIME I SEE IT. Little man insisted on the bike helmet so I gave it to him. This WILL be enlarged and put up at his high school graduation, I assure you!

I can TOTALLY picture Ty owning a motorcycle some day....

After the nice little warm front we got the tornadoes that swept through our region. Because we don't have a basement storms have me a little more cautious that I use to be. Nat is still not fazed by them, but I REFUSE to be the parent who lets her kids get hurt because she didn't take the storms seriously. Luckily our awesome neighbors, the ones with the frogs :-), totally invited us over to ride the storm out in their basement. We just put a Curious George on the IPad, ate snacks, and chatted while we waited it out. Luckily, we did not get any damage from the storms.

Surviving our first real KY tornado. Thank goodness for wonderful neighbors.

After the tornadoes, we had...SNOW! We got the most snow we have had all winter and they weather had predicted just a dusting! About 4 inches fell and Myles was in HEAVEN!!! That boy could not have been more excited had it been Christmas. After inhaling their breakfast I got them  both ready to head out in the gorgeous snow. My sister and I were chatting and we said the goal for Ty was to have him outside at least as long as it took me to get him dressed. We did succeed at that....not by much, but I will count it as a victory!! I think the only reason he lasted as long as he did was because he walked all the way to the back of the yard and then had to walk all the way to the front and that took longer than he had planned with the amount of snow and his little, short legs. Myles was out there for as long as he could stand it. He was rosy cheeked and HAPPY by the time he got in.

All bundled up and ready for some fun! Ty always thinks he is going to love the snow as much as Myles does but that just isn't the case.

All dressed and playing in the snow before 8:30 a.m.!!! Gotta love how efficient they are when they want something.

I love the little footprints through the fresh snow.

And....We're......Done.....

All the while, this one is just getting started.

 

 Here is our family snowman named Farfanooggen. We had a blast making him together. 

Then only a short time later, we were in short sleeves and actually feeling a bit hot while playing outside. Gotta love the KY weather!!

Really?

Do I have something on my face??

You mean it's suppose to go IN the mouth? HMMM interesting concept. May give that a try next time.

Happy Monday!

There's nothing like starting out a Monday morning with a smile like this!! 

Happy Monday!