The New Adventure

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Monday, January 25, 2010

Molly's Home

Molly was finally released from the hospital on Saturday afternoon. It only took about 5 hours from the time we were told we were going to be released until we actually got signed out and released. Molly seems to be feeling much better. It took a bit of time for her and McKenzie to become reacquainted with each other. They don't like sharing. I think they have spent too much time as only children over the last week. I'm sure that will get better soon.

Now for some other updates we had been meaning to make. Both Molly and McKenzie have had their first haircuts. McKenzie had what Lindsey called "her wispys" cut just before Christmas. Her are a few pictures of the process.

Before we begin and we're not sure we like it.

Partway through...still not sure.

After we're done with our stylist Aunt Liza

Molly has been blessed with a mullet: business up front and party in the back. For some reason, her mother didn't like this very much. So, Molly got her hair cut as well. Here are some pictures and a video!

Before we begin

This isn't so bad...

Oops...we were wrong

And a video of the event...
video

And that's it for now.

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Friday, January 22, 2010

Molly's Fun and Games

It has been quite a week for the girls. Starting on Friday night, McKenzie started coughing and had a runny nose. By Saturday, she had a fever. We started the Motrin and tylenol and laid low for a few days. Skipped church on Sunday. By Monday, we decided it would be best to take the girls to see Dr. Jeanie.

A blood test confirmed that McKenzie had RSV. At that time, Molly had no fever and no congestion in her lungs. RSV is quite contagious so there was never really any doubt that Molly would come down with it. Boy, did she ever...

On Tuesday, both girls were coughing and running fevers. By late in the evening, Molly started breathing pretty hard. After calling our pediatrician's after hours call service, Lindsey took Molly to the PM Pediatrics office in Hixson. I don't think we'll be going back to this particular office. They can't do much of anything. If you need blood work, an x-ray, etc they'll send you out to Hamilton Place.

So, they got sent to Hamilton Place. They took an x-ray and started monitoring her oxygen levels. Apparently, Molly couldn't keep her oxygen up. Due to their crazy office policies, since her oxygen level was less than 93%, they called an ambulance to transport Molly to the hospital. That's crazy...

So, Molly got to go to the hospital in an ambulance. Lindsey rode with her. First time for both of them. Yay.

We all got to the ER pretty close to the same time, around 9:45. Unfortunately, we would spend a lot more time in the ER. The doctor made it in to see us at some point. We did a breathing treatment and had some more tylenol. Molly's temperature was spiking at 104.7. We watched Cheers and Golden Girls for a few hours. At some point, we realized that we were the only people in our half of the ER. By now, it was 1:30 or 2 in the morning.

I finally left the hospital just before 3am. I had left my mom at home with McKenzie and we really needed to get back to them. Molly was finally admitted to a room at 5:15. For some reason, 17 people were admitted overnight. We were number 14. Yay.

Molly finally received the antibiotics that the ER doctor recommended at midnight at 1:30PM; only 13 hours later. They also confirmed that Molly had RSV with double pneumonia as well.

So, they continue to give her antibiotics and tylenol. Tonight is her 2nd "official" night in the hospital; the 3rd if you count the night in the ER. She has now spent more time in the hospital than McKenzie did after BRAIN SURGERY. Seriously? Yeah.

Ok, so now I'm getting snippy because it's late. Here are 2 pictures of Molly we took tonight in order to document the whole experience.

Up and about for the first time in a few days:

Relaxing and watching a bunch of TV:

So, that's it. Hopefully we'll be coming home tomorrow. Hopefully...

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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Post Christmas Updates!

When we last left off, we were a few days away from Christmas. Here is what has happened since then.

We got the results of Molly's allergy test back. The blood test showed that Molly had a level 1 (out of 6) reaction to milk. Everything else came back negative. Since she had the reaction, we were referred on to an allergist. We got an appointment with the allergist the very next day. We went and had a skin test for milk. There was no reaction.

Basically, the allergist said that she doesn't have a milk allergy but a milk intolerance. Apparently though it doesn't take a great deal of milk to trigger the bad reaction. We're in a trial and error period where we are gradually reintroducing some milk stuff and seeing what happens. Yogurt is not a problem but we haven't gone and started cheese or whole milk yet. Might not happen for a while.

Here's a picture of our Christmas tree this year.


On Christmas Eve, we went to the 5pm service at Hixson UMC. After the service was over, my parents came over and we had shrimp gumbo. Before the girls went to bed, we did the traditional Christmas Eve stuff.

Here's a picture of the family.


Here is a picture of just the girls in their Christmas dresses...


We also hung stockings by the chimney with care...




The last step was to read the Night Before Christmas. It ended up being a family affair with my parents there with us and John and Sue joining in via Skype video chat on the computer. The girls were much more active and squirmy compared to last year.


Christmas morning came.


The girls seemed to enjoy going through their different gifts. I don't think they "get it" yet but that's coming soon enough.


After we wrapped things up at home, we went over to my parents house. Here are some pictures of the girls and their grandparents.


McKenzie and her favorite toy...


The day after Christmas, we loaded up and headed to Maryville. We had a lot of family fun over the next 3 days. First, we went to Fred and Cynthia's house and had "Fajitas Navidad". On Sunday there was a family brunch at Billy and Emmy's. Late that night, McKenzie decided to cut some new teeth. We were up with her from 11pm til 2am and again at 5am. Fun times were had by all...

The girls got some more new toys to play with. First was a small couch that they can both sit on and share. Here they are doing what they typically do: climbing on the couch.


And finally, a riding toy that also doubles as a walker. Here the girls are sharing.


After Christmas, Lindsey had the rest of the week off. The girls went to stay with Gigi and G-Daddy for New Year's Eve while Lindsey and I had our Sunday School Christmas party. I'm not sure who went to bed first, the girls or the grandparents.

The girls started back at their parents day out program this past week. Molly and McKenzie moved up to the 1 year old class. We tried this once before Christmas but the girls didn't do so well. There were a lot of older kids in there and the girls didn't handle the transition well. Now, most of the older kids moved up to the next class.

Amazingly, both of the girls have transitioned pretty well. They are both able to take a nap on a mat on the floor. We might have cheated a little by sending their lovies and pacifiers but really, whatever works.

So, that's it for now. We keep rocking right along...

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Friday, December 18, 2009

Post Thanksgiving Update

Another month has slipped by so I guess it's time for an update on the family.

We started our Thanksgiving holiday by traveling to Maryville to be with Lindsey's family on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday was the typical cabin luncheon with only about 65 family members this year and then a journey into Knoxville to Fred and Cynthia's house so I could FINALLY get some bread and some mashed potatoes. I don't know what is up with people who don't think bread and mashed potatoes are part of a Thanksgiving dinner. Thank God for Cynthia! She loves me!

Here are some pictures of the girls bundled up and playing in the leaves at the cabin.





On Friday, we had a birthday celebration for Molly, McKenzie, John, and Lew. The girls got to eat some delicious cupcakes. Once again, Molly tore into hers like there was no tomorrow.


McKenzie though prefers to keep her hands clean. Therefore, she just went into the thing face first...at least until all the icing was gone.


We returned home on Saturday and had another Thanksgiving lunch with my family. Then it was time to rest...

On Monday, the girls had their one year checkup with the doctor. We were supposed to get shots but neither girl was well enough for them. Isn't that odd? I thought so. McKenzie had a double ear infection and Molly had a wheeziness in her chest. McKenzie got "the pink stuff" which she likes way too much and Molly got to do breathing treatments 3 or 4 times a day for a week or two. Fun!

Molly weighed in at 21 pounds 7 oz and was 29" tall. She's 60th percentile in weight and 50th in height.

McKenzie weighed in at 19 pounds 5 ounces and was 30" tall. She's 25th percentile in weight and 60th percentile in height. This was the first time that the girls measured differently in height.

Head circumference for both was 46cm which is right at the 50th percentile.

On the following Saturday, we actually got snow! First time in a long time that we've actually had anything that stuck to the ground. We got the girls all bundled up and went out to see what was going on. McKenzie went nuts crawling all over the place. Molly stood on the sidewalk and cried. Shocking...

Here are some pictures from that morning.





On Thursday, the 10th, we decided to take the girls to see Santa for the first time. In order to get ready, we decided to get all dressed up and then play some so we would be in good moods. Here are some "getting ready for Santa" pictures:









And finally, the big moment...


Once again, McKenzie is kinda passive and Molly is about 2 seconds from losing it entirely. We're gonna need to get Molly over her fears at some point. I just don't think it's going to happen today.

Yesterday, we went back to the doctor to finally get our one year shots and some other stuff. Each girl got 4 shots including the swine flu shot. It wasn't pretty. McKenzie had a finger stick to draw blood for her iron levels. They are finally in the normal range so we're good for now. Molly had a vial of blood drawn from her arm so that the doctors can run an allergy screening.

The thought right now is that Molly has a milk allergy. Whenever she has milk, she gets a really bad, blistery diaper rash and has really loose stools. We took her off milk everything about 2 weeks ago and things have gotten A LOT better. Some of the strangest things have milk in them though. Case in point: soy yogurt. The yogurt cultures are milk based. Same for soy cheese and a lot of the rice based products.

We went to Greenlife Grocery (cool place by the way. A ton more people were there for lunch, not buying groceries...) earlier this week and found some Vegan Cheddar "Cheese". It's...odd. It's kinda crumbly and wet for some reason. Also, expensive ($5 for 8 ounces). Apparently Molly likes it though.

We're kinda hoping that this allergy is something she'll grow out of. If not, she's not going to enjoy sitting in the car while we eat Nana's Custard =)

We'll know the results of the allergy screening in about a week.

So, that's it for now. We're gearing up for Christmas traveling as best we can. Santa's going to bring us lots of fun stuff (not that we need any more toys in this house!)

2008



2009



Til later...

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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Has It Been a Year Already?

Wow, it has been a year since Molly and McKenzie arrived to torment and destroy our lives...

A whole year. So, for this grand occasion, I was told that I have to update the blog and let people know what has been going on in the last 6 weeks or so. This will be mainly pictures since I know that is what you guys like the best. So, here goes...

A few years ago around Christmas, there was some sort of promotion where if you spent X number of dollars, you got a free stuffed animal. One day, we pulled it out and let the girls play with it. And let me tell you, it was a hit. It's nuts...

Here's a picture of McKenzie:


And here's a picture of McKenzie doing what they do to poor old Pooh...


A few weeks later, we started getting ready for Halloween. Part of that entailed going to a Pumpkin Farm near Athens, TN. The girls got to see a bunch of different animals, pick out pumpkins, and generally just enjoy the great weather. Here are some pictures and a quick video from that day.

Checking out the baby cow. We're not too sure about this stuff yet.


Here's McKenzie checking everything out.


And here's Molly thinking about the horses...


Maybe the goats are more our thing.


Ahhh...finally something our size. The chicks and ducklings were very interesting.


Now, it was time to find our pumpkins.


That one might be a bit too big.

Here's some more our size...


A quick family shot at the end of the day.


And a video of McKenzie going nuts with the straw...


video

Soon, it was time for our Sunday School Pumpkin Carving Party. It's an annual affair hosted by the Hill's. The girls went as scarecrows.


We're not too sure about these hats.

McKenzie enjoyed the swing. Here she is with the Pillsbury Doughgirl watching over her to make sure nothing went horribly wrong.


Molly tried to help out a bit with the pumpkin carving...

video

Finally, it was actually Halloween. The girls went as scarecrows again. Gotta get some use out of the outfits when you can.

Here they are looking particularly thrilled with their outfits.


We spent most of the day with GiGi and G-Daddy since the girls were getting ready to spend an entire week with their other grandparents in Maryville while Lindsey and I were in Washington, DC.

Here they are enjoying their little rocking chairs. I think they actually figured out that the chairs can rock.


Here is a quick video of Molly and McKenzie enjoying the swings in Maryville while Lindsey and I were in DC. Apparently they are able to enjoy themselves even if we're not with them. Shocking...

video

And finally, here is a quick video of the girls at their birthday party this past Sunday. They were a bit hesitant at first when we gave them their cakes. Molly had no trouble tunneling right through the middle of hers once she got started though...

video

Wow, that's quite a year...




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