Random stories

On Friday during lunch the girls were putting their arms around each other and cuddling their heads together. They asked that I get the camera and take a picture of how much they love each other.

By the time I got back with the camera, though, Miriam was over the idea of cuddling her sister and I instead got a picture of her elbowing Rachel in the face. They love each other so much. Honest.

Fever-free Tuesday

Miriam and I stayed up late last night watching "UP." I forced Miriam to eat freezie (OtterPop) after freezie after freezie. She went to bed around midnight and didn't get up until nearly 10 o'clock this morning. It was wonderful, even if I didn't get to sleep the whole time. I have more than one child to cater to so I rarely sleep through the night but I'm pretty much used to that by now. Rachel's been having trouble sleeping—she's been rather stressed out about everything, too—and woke up crying in the middle of the night and I of course had to get up to use the bathroom a couple of times due to a silly baby bouncing on my bladder.

I gave Miriam some tylenol at around 5:00 AM but she didn't really wake up for that at all. She just drank it right down—she's a very obedient sleeping person.

We had our first fever-free day today, which was almost as wonderful as sleeping through the night, if not more so. Of course, we've been pumping Miriam full of tylenol/ibuprofen every few hours and haven't given her fever a chance to come back. The doctor said it was probably best to do that for a couple of days since she's been going from normal to deathly in no time flat.

I'm not usually one to get nervous about fevers but Miriam's had a fever since Friday. On Saturday when it was just around 100 I wasn't worried but when it started creeping up into 103.5 I started more drastic measures (like actually giving her tylenol and bathing her to get her fever to come down). Watching the numbers flip by on the thermometer makes me nervous—our thermometers have spent the past couple of days zooming up to 104. Today though the numbers were just creeping through the 90s.

98.6 has never looked so beautiful before. It might just be my new favourite number.

Just another day at the hospital

My dear little girls woke up at 8:00 on the dot this morning. Part of me was grateful because it meant that I was able to call the doctor's office first thing this morning. Part of me was wondering how they managed to wake up, considering Rachel was up until 10:00 and was up once in the night and Miriam was up until midnight and was up and down like a yo-yo. 

Miriam seemed fine but I was supposed to get her in for a follow-up appointment. Unfortunately her pediatrician was booked through the day and would only be able to see her at 10:00 in the morning, which was hardly a 24-hour follow up appointment. I finally got through to the nurse who quickly reviewed the paperwork the ER had faxed to our doctor and conferred with our doctor about whether or not a follow-up was really necessary. Our doctor said that since she seemed better and wasn't running a fever he probably didn't need to see her—and we could just remove her IV line by ourselves.

I said that probably wasn't going to happen. 

She hates the IV line and has been carrying on about how painful the "beetle" in her arm is and hasn't been using it at all. We had to hide her arm from her all day so that she wouldn't cry. There is no way I'd be able to get her to let me unwrap her bandage and pull the IV out unless she was unconscious or something. 

Alternatively I suppose I could have peeled the tape off and let her rip the IV out herself. She probably would have done that.

The nurse said I could come in that afternoon and she'd take the IV out for us. 

We got breakfast and then I popped "Snow White" on and we settled in to what was supposed to be a relaxing morning. However, through the course of the movie Miriam got hotter and hotter and hotter and when it was over she wouldn't even stand up. 

"I think your fever's back," I said. "Let's get you some more medicine."

Sick, sick baby

We left Miriam with Grandma while we went to church—Grandma had stake conference and volunteered to stay home with Miriam since she didn't have any obligations to fulfill in her ward today—and when we got home Miriam was napping. She had woken up with a high fever again this morning so we gave her some Motrin and showered her off to cool her down. Grandma said she was still doing alright when she put her to bed, but when she woke up (shortly after we got home from church, before we'd gotten lunch ready or anything) she was not alright.

"Momma! Momma!" she croaked from her bed.

She wouldn't even lift up her head. I picked her up and she went completely limp in my arms, her head and limbs flopped all over the place while I walked her to the rocking chair.

"How do you feel, baby?" I asked.

"Good," she said.

"Liar!" I said. "You can't possibly feel good—you're burning up!"

I took her temperature, under her arm again. Up and up and up it went. 104.1 is where it finally stopped.

"That's it," I said. "We are taking her to the doctor. She's had this fever for days and now it's up far too high."

The only way we've been able to keep it at bay was by bathing and giving her Motrin—but she can only have a dose every six hours and her fever was coming back long before another dose was due.

We abandoned our lunch plans, ran Rachel over to the neighbour's house (where Grandma was visiting teaching) and headed to the InstaCare. I thought we'd be in and out with a prescription in no time.

I was wrong. Instead, when we told the receptionist what was wrong she called a nurse to come see us right away—she actually checked Miriam in the waiting room—and she told us to get to the emergency room right away (she was worried Miriam was dehydrated and there's nothing they could do for us at the clinic for that) so we headed over to Orem Community Hospital.

Miriam's sick...the fun never ends here

All of our Saturdays in February have been incredibly busy—they wear us out because we're not used to it. We're booked solid from noon until bedtime, it seems, which is far too long to be booked solid for a four-year-old, a two-year-old, and their pregnant mother.

Last night Miriam woke up around midnight feeling sick. She just wanted to cuddle and was running a slight fever but couldn't really tell us where she was hurting.

"My head is hurt and my tummy is hurt and my back is hurt and my neck is hurt and..."

Perhaps, we thought, she had one of those full body aches brought on by the flu.

We hadn't gotten ready for bed yet because we'd just finished watching "True Grit" and so I suggested to Miriam that she cuddle with Andrew while I got ready for bed and then I'd cuddle her while Andrew got ready for bed and then we could all fall asleep together. It was a beautiful plan but it fell apart seconds after I started brushing my teeth.

Miriam's tummy was hurt.

"Hold me!" she begged Andrew, cuddling close into his chest.

And then...vomit.

Wild West

Andrew and I watched "True Grit" last night—the 2010 version directed by the Coen Brothers. It was fabulous. I have only seen a few of the films the Coens have directed—"O Brother Where Art Thou," and "Raising Arizona," both of which are fabulous, if not a little quirky. "True Grit" was also quirky and fabulous.

When Karen asked us how it was and if it deserved all the awards/nominations it got, Andrew said that it certainly did. It was "funny."

"Funny?!" I gasped.

It is not funny. It is a drama. But it is a quirky drama.

For example, there was not a single contraction in the entire script, which almost made the language sound stilted, especially when the ruffians were speaking, but somehow it ended up sounding natural. When Tom Chaney declared, "I am not happy," I wanted to die laughing...but because it was such a tense part in the movie I could not.

I'm, you're, and couldn't've were all I am, you are, and could not have.

There was not even an ain't to be heard, however you expand that contraction.

All day long I have been noticing how many contractions I use. I use a lot. I imagine they did back in the days of the Wild West as well. Even when I am typing I like to throw in contractions because it reads smoother to me. But the lack of contractions was a quirk I enjoyed, as unrealistic as it may have been.

The movie helped me to understand where the term "midwest" came from. The story takes place in Arkansas and Oklahoma. At first it was hard for me to think of those states as part of the Wild West...but they were. For some reason I have no problem linking Texas + Wild West in my brain but it took me a while to get over Arkansas. But when Mattie arrives to collect her father's body and you see that the train tracks end right there (but that they have obvious plans of going farther) it hit me that they really were in frontier county.

No-blood Wednesday

First of all, I'd just like to publicly announce that not a single drop of blood was spilled today. It's an Ash Wednesday miracle! And now we can start one of those cool counter things:

Heissatopia has gone 1 day(s) without a lost-time accident!

Safety first. That's our motto.

To celebrate our accident-free day we went to the playground. It was so warm out when we left the house (54°F/12°C) but then some clouds blew in and covered the sun and it turned blustery and chilly. I don't know how cold it got because instead of checking the temperature when we got home I made some hot chocolate and apple cider to help us warm up. We were only out for about an hour but we were freezing when we got home.

It was worth it though, I suppose. The girls got lots of energy out while doing their laps up to the slide and back down again. That's pretty much all they did. 

Miriam was afraid of the tunnel again. Every time we get to the park after a long spell of not going to the park (this is the first time we've gone down to the this particular park this year) we have to reintroduce her to the tunnel. She cried about it today until I agreed to go up with her.

The second time I made her do it by herself and she got up this far...

Tiding lahandingheum

Today Miriam came up to me and said, "Watch this, Mom!" Then she kneeled down on the floor and started clapping her hands and singing what at once sounded familiar and foreign. It took me a minute to realize why—it was because it was both familiar and foreign. She's singing a line from the Tari Saman I'm learning with my sister and mom.

I told Miriam it was very cute and then asked her if she'd do it again for the camera. She agreed to.

She sings, "Tiding lahandingheum!" twice. Then she says, "That is very cute!" before singing "Tiding lahandingheum" once more.

I have no idea what "Tiding lahandingheum" means but neither do the Indonesians in our group—it's in a dialect of Aceh, which is only spoken on the island of Aceh, which is where the Tari Saman comes from. I've been writing a post about Tari Saman but I'm not ready to post it yet. I want to wait until I have a video of our performance because I want it to be a surprise...because I know you're all so excited, right?

*crickets chirping*

Anyway, here is my baby girl performing a segment of a Tari Saman:

Monday and Tuesday

Monday was a holiday. In America, it was President's Day. In Alberta, we adopted President's Day because we wanted a day off in February but since we don't have presidents we called it Family Day and it's just a day when everyone does stuff with their family—lots of places offer good deals on family pricing that day (pools and such). I'm just happy for a day off at all. 

Andrew slept in the longest and Rachel finally went in to wake him up. She bounced on him a bit and then started to get really silly jumping on the bed. Andrew was still more than half asleep—he's impossible to wake up. Then there was a crash and a scream and Rachel ran out of the bedroom and into my arms, still screaming.

She put her hand up to her head, screaming/explaining that she'd fallen off the bed and had hit her head on the dresser. Suddenly she pulled her hand away and stared at it, shaking.

"THERE'S BLOOD!" she screamed.

"Where did you hit your head?" I asked, combing through her hair.

"On the corner! On the corner!" she screamed.

"Not 'Where did you hit your head on the dresser?'—Where did you hit your head on your head?"

"Oh," she sniffed, and showed me.

Sunday

Sunday was a lovely day, for the most part. Teaching Sunbeams is always exhausting, but we expect that. This Sunday Rachel's teacher was sick and couldn't find a substitute so we taught Rachel's class as well—both classes are small so it wasn't overwhelming, especially since Andrew and I team teach.

After church Andrew went home teaching and I watched the girls. Then Miriam and I went down for a nap and Rachel started Prince of Egypt (that's a church movie, right?) and then Andrew went to choir and Grandma came home from her ward and then Miriam woke up and joined Rachel watching the movie. And then I woke up to the sound of Andrew making banana bread.

After dinner the girls got ready for bed and made some silly Harry Potter faces with Andrew. Andrew and the girls and his mom are slightly double jointed and can bend their fingers in really awkward ways.