Holiday Traditions

My family never really had traditions that we followed for the holidays. I mean, yeah we would decorate the tree together or make a gingerbread house occasionally but we never had one thing we did EVERY year. I take that back, the gingerbread houses kind of became a tradition in my late teens. Now that I have a family of my own I want a tradition! I need your help in coming up with some ideas. The idea of our traditions hit me when I was looking at my friend Sarah's post on her blog titled Countdown With Style. This product got me thinking as I was trying to make one of these for my family. I had NO idea what to put in the boxes. Yeah, I came up with a couple like Elf night (our favorite holiday movie), actually I think that is the only one I could come up with. So, HELP ME!

Luvs for Cousin Jane, peek a boo, and back to normal!

Just the three of us

This picture was taken before the herpes outbreak but I love it so much. I just got it off of my camera. We don't have many of all three of us together so I had to put it on.

Thank you!

Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers. Mackenzie is back to herself again. Her lips are pretty much back to normal now and she's eating and drinking again too. She went to daycare Wed-Fri of this week and did great. I will post a picture and video tomorrow! She is doing something new, can't wait to show you! Matt and I are so glad to have our little girl back and feeling better. Now we await the next flare up, a cold sore. Should be just a single one though. We have Acyclovir on hand!

Blog makeover, Mackenzie update, and FOLLOW ME.

As you can tell, I gave the blog a little makeover. Let me know what you think. I really wish there were more choices for fonts. I love blogging. I know it's mostly about Mackenzie but I might just started putting other random thoughts on here. We'll see. Not sure how many people actually read this. Speaking of that, if you read this blog click on the "follow this blog" link!!!

And on to the more important things. Mackenzie is doing great!!!!! She slept better last night and in her crib for the majority of the night. She drank some pediasure last night also. Did I blog about that already? I can't remember. I have the urinary system on my mind from lecture today. Anyway, this morning after waking up Mackenzie asked for some cereal. After making sure my ears weren't full of wax I asked her if she wanted cereal and got the reply of YES. I decided I'd give her some when I dropped her off with Mimi and Papa for the day. She continued to ask for cereal up until the moment she had it sitting in front of her. Mind you, only about 15 minutes had gone by. She ate a few bites of it but was rather distracted by the playdough. (One of her new favorite things) Key point being she did not cry with the first bite or any of the 3 she took. I went off to school. Papa told me she had a couple of bottles of pediasure and some cookies. COOKIES! How awesome is that? Tonight she ate some pasta, cheese, and even a few bites of chicken! I can't believe it. Her mouth is looking sooo much better. Most of the scabs have come off and she is able to suck on her pacifier again. I was secretly hoping that since she wasn't able to suck on it that she would forget all about it, not the case though. She is now sleeping. The doctor's office called to check on her and see if we were giving her the antiviral. Did I mention that we only gave her a few doses? It really gave her some GI distress, worse than the motrin. And, it's likely not going to be effective since it was started so late. Had we started it Tues or Wed it may be a different story. I let them know how frustrated I was that we were not told of the results until Friday and that had they let us know that the herpes rapid test was positive on Wed rather than making us wait this outbreak could have been less painful and horrible for her. What I am trying to say is that today I found out that they had the results when they told me they didn't. Should we find a new pediatrician?

With all of that going on I haven't really been able to update you on the new things Mackenzie is doing. She loves to twirl and dance. She loves the slide at the park and will climb it by herself. When we drive by the park on our way to Mimi and Papa's she yells "SLIDE!!!!!" I think I already told you about her learning shapes. Tonight she distinguished pink from yellow when I asked her to point at the pink playdough. Miss Smartypants I tell you. She has an obsession with Bob from Veggie Tales and will ask to watch "Ba" just about every second she gets. Her favorite place to be is outside. She doesn't like to share her toys which is something we are trying to work on.

Sorry this was a long post! Thanks again for keeping her in your thoughts and prayers, we appreciate it. Again, if you follow our blog, click on the FOLLOW THIS BLOG link to the right!!!!!

Back to playing

Well it seems as though little miss monkey is feeling a little better. She slept more last night but still had some tummy issues from the medicine. We stopped giving it to her as it just wasn't worth it and it wouldn't be effective since it was started so late in the eruption of the virus. I was worried last night that I was going to have to take her to the ER to get rehydrated. She wasn't drinking very much and her diaper had extremely concentrated urine in it. Today is a different story. She still won't eat but she has had almost 2 bottles of the yogurt and milk stuff. Then I decided to buy some pediasure, she loves it. Now she is actually playing like herself! Her sores are healing and peeling off and of course still bleeding. We're keeping vasaline on her lips and that seems to make a HUGE difference. Right now she is hugging her baby and saying "nigh nigh" as she is giving her daddy a blanket. Then she lays on the floor waiting for him to put it over her and pat her back. It's so cute. Did I ever mention that she is obsessed with Bob from Veggie Tales?

The updated picture

Here are two pictures, the first one she just wanted to sit on my lap and put stickers on herself. That is what we did for Halloween this year. Fun huh. The second one you can obviously tell that she in uncomfortable. You can see that the break out has spread to around her mouth. Her lips are now cracking and bleeding and the medicine is giving her diarrhea so we really have to make sure she gets enough fluids. She still doesn't want to eat or drink much but hopefully as the weekend goes on that will change.