Infected

It has been almost two weeks since Brynlee's head injury and she is now wearing this lovely gauze patch over her injury. It will probably be a few more weeks until she can go without one.

Brynlee had the steril strips on her head for several days when her head started bleeding again. I figured she just picked at it so I put a band aid on it and left it to heal. It bleed a lot so I started to worry that maybe it had come open. Joel wasn't worried at all and no one else seemed concerned that I told so I figured it wasn't that big of a deal. By Thursday the cut looked pretty gross and it would still bleed occasionally. We couldn't really see what was going on under the steril strips but I decided to just call the doctor.

This is what the steril strips looked like one week after the accident

When I called on Friday morning they had me come in right away. I was kind of thinking there would probably be nothing wrong and the doctor would think I was crazy for bringing her in but the wound just didn't look right. I think the doctor was shocked at how bad it looked. She couldn't believe the cut happened a week ago. She had to pull one of the steril strips off, which looked like it was really painful but Brynlee took it like a champ. As soon as the strip came off there was all kinds of puss that seeped out. Turns out her head was really infected. All of the bandages had to be pulled off, and they were on there really good. They had me hold some wet gauze on the cut to try and soak it off but even that was hurting Brynlee. It didn't seem to make things that much easier to come off either so in the end they still had to be painfully ripped off of her head. It is so hard to watch your child in pain. I am glad Brynlee handled everything so well. The doctor gave her a sucker to suck on and that helped a lot. Brynlee's wound was cleaned up and bandaged and then Brynlee got a sticker. I was so proud of how good she was for the whole thing.

This is what the cut looked like on Saturday, 9 days after she got the injury

Since Brynlee's head injury was so infected, the glue all came off so it was like there was nothing on it at all. It was too late to try and restitch or glue it again. Now we just have to wait for it to heal and it will leave a pretty nice scar. The worst part is that she has to take some antibiotics twice a day and she hates it. Plus we have take off the bandage and clean everything up and she hates that too. I literally have to hold her down while she cries. Oh the joys of parenthood. At least she doesn't pick at the gauze and try to take it off, because she will have to wear it for a while.

We had to go back to see the doctor yesterday and it is already starting to look better. I feel bad that Brynlee has to go through all of this but I really didn't know any better. If I could do it again I would have just taken her to the ER to begin with and gotten stitches. I was worried she wouldn't want to ever go back to see the doctor again because she kept telling me that the doctor hurt her. Then this morning she told me she wanted to go see the doctor and let her look at her head so she could get a sucker. I hope we don't have to go back there for a while but I am glad she isn't afraid of the doctor.

Six Months

Miss Annalyn is six months old! She weighs 16lbs 8.5oz (58%) and she is 26 3/4 inches (81%). She has really grown a lot this month. She can sit up unassisted and she is rolling well both ways. She can scoot on her belly to grab things that she wants but she hasn't ventured very far yet, thank goodness. It might be time to start baby proofing some more though.

Annalyn is still a pretty easygoing baby. For the most part she is pretty happy. She loves it when Brynlee plays with her. Brynlee likes to get right in Anna's face and almost sit right on top of her but Annalyn just laughs like it is so funny. Annalyn still loves to be held but she has been quite wiggly lately. I feel like she is trying to get out of my arms and just start walking away. Plus she tries to grab everything she can get her hands on. She is still a great little traveler but she doesn't sleep in the car as often. In fact, we are still working on nap times. She likes to be held for her naps so we get a lot of little short cat naps. We also had several weeks this month where Annalyn was waking up two or three times during the night but we have hopefully broken her of that habit.

Annalyn loves to be held, to play with Brynlee and to be outside. She loves to swing and she likes wagon rides to the mailbox. She likes to watch the chickens and anyone else around her. She likes the grass and anything else she can put in her mouth. She has a tight grip and also likes to pinch her mom and grab Brynlee's face.

She doesn't like when I leave her with someone else or when Brynlee tries to hurt her. She also doesn't like taking a nap lately. She would rather stay up and see what is going on with the rest of the world.

This month Annalyn tried oatmeal, green beans, bananas, and squash for the first time. She is getting used to eating like a big person and likes it now. She seemed to like and eat all of the vegetables but she really went crazy for the bananas. She ate the whole jar!

 She also played in the water outside this month. It took her a few minutes to warm up to the slip n' slide but she seemed to like it. Most of the time she held on really tight to the back of Brynlee's swimsuit.

Anna has brought lots of joy and happiness to our family. We love watching her learn new things everyday. She is such a sweet baby. Happy half birthday! 

Trip to The Hospital

I love being a mom but lately it has been a lot of work. Harvest started at the farm which means long hours working for Joel. He leaves the house around 6:30 and doesn't come home until after 7. Brynlee barely get to see him most days and she has been a real handful lately.

Yesterday Brynlee was as busy as ever. Instead of taking a nap she destroyed her room and put on almost every skirt she had in her drawer. I didn't get to do any of the cleaning I had planned to do during nap time so the rest of my house was also a disaster. It was still early in the afternoon and both kids were awake and Joel wouldn't be home until late so I decided to head over to grandma's house.

Instead of taking a nap Brynlee took all the sheets off her bed and she is wearing 7 skirts.  

Brynlee had fun playing with Ryder at grandma's house and things were going pretty well until Brynlee took one of Ryder's toys and threw it right at the baby. The baby started to cry so I picked her up and tried to talk to Brynlee and get her to apologize. She didn't want anything to do with it so I stuck her in grandma's guest bedroom for a time out. She goes in there a lot when she isn't good. When Brynlee's two minutes were up I went to get her out of the room and I found my sweet girl there crying and completely covered in blood. Her dress, face, arms, feet, and even the carpet was covered in blood. Talk about one of the scariest things I have ever seen. She also had dirt on her arm. It seems that she grabbed the leaves from the plant that was on top of the desk and she pulled them so that it fell and the pot hit her right on the head. I felt like a terrible mom for leaving her in there to cry and not realizing that she was hurt. I called to grandma and gave her the baby while I ran into the bathroom and wiped Brynlee up with a towel. She didn't want me to touch her head. In fact she was more worried about the dirt on her arm than anything. My cousin Ryder was also really concerned about Brynlee. "I can see Brynlee's brain" he cried. He rushed downstairs and came up with a band-aid that he tried to stick on Brynlee's cut.

Grandma and I both inspected the wound and decided it would probably need stitches. I hated to leave the baby with grandma because Annalyn cries every time I try to leave her. I didn't want grandma to have a screaming baby the whole time I was gone so I put her in the car seat and then grandma decided to come with me to help me out. Brynlee fell asleep in the car on the way to the hospital. I thought Quick Care would be faster than the ER so we took her there. We were the only people in the waiting room but we still had to wait a long time to see the doctor. Brynlee woke up right away when we got there and just happily played a game on grandma's I-pad while we waited. Her little dress was still covered in blood and she was still bleeding from her head. She told the doctor all about the owie on her head and she happily did everything they told her too. I was proud of how well she handled everything. She wouldn't let me hardly look at the cut but she let the doctor clean it. She didn't cry until they squirted it with water. I had to hold her hands so she couldn't move. She cried for me and I wanted to cry too. I felt so bad for her. At that point the baby started crying as well even though grandma was holding her. She didn't cry for to long but she has been a real momma's girl lately.

Once the wound was inspected the doctor decided to just glue it and put some steril strips on it. She said I could go to the ER and get stitches put in but either way it would leave a scar so I told her just to glue it. I held Brynlee tight and she was good for them. It is not east to watch your child be in pain. I really wished I could do something to help her. Once she was all bandaged up they gave her a sucker which Brynlee ate right away.

We finally went back to grandma's house and ate the dinner that was almost done cooking when we left. We had to warm it back up. Joel finally called when he was done working. I couldn't get ahold of him earlier. I helped grandma clean up the mess from the blood and the plant that was all over the carpet. Brynlee was just as hyper as ever and started trying to jump on the bed and then went outside and tried to jump on the trampoline. When we got home she pooped in her pull-up and then took it off, getting poop everywhere. Joel was so mad at her. The cut on her head hasn't slowed her down one bit. Now we just have to wait for the bandage to fall off on its own and for the cut to heal. I am glad it wasn't worse than it was and that Brynlee is doing fine. Despite how difficult she can be at times I sure do love her.

Brynlee with her head all bandaged up

LIttle Miss Fashionista

Lately Brynlee has been really into getting herself dressed. Every morning I give Brynlee two decent options of what she can wear for the day and then I help her get dressed. Although, I don't get to help her very much anymore. In fact, if I even try to help her and she doesn't want my help she throws a major tantrum and then will take the clothes off to start all over again. Needless to say it takes forever to get her dressed in the morning.

 Recently Brynlee has started to change her outfits in the middle on the day. Many times she wakes up from her nap with something totally different on. About half of the time she has both legs in the same hole or she has her clothes on backwards or inside out. It has been interesting to see what she picks out to wear. She also loves shoes and is constantly putting on different combinations of shoes. She likes to wear bracelets and she loves skirts. She especially loves to wear her "foup" (swimsuit). I love this girl and her crazy fashion choices. Here is a small taste of some of the outfits Brynlee has put together.

Her is Brynlee with a pink pajama shirt, a skirt, tennis shoes with no socks, and my pink baseball cap on backwards.

She woke up from her nap and wanted to paint so she put on "daddy's shirt' and some snow boots.

Brynlee sporting her favorite pink tu tu. She loves her baby dolls too apparently.  

Brynlee's pink shorts and a long sleeve, inside out shirt. 

Here is Brynlee in a way to big Christmas dress that she found in a box in the back or her closet. 

The other day we went to the store and Brynlee picked out some new "big girl panties." As soon as we got them home Brynlee took them to her room and put all seven pairs around her neck as a necklace. She came out of her room and told Joel and me that she was beautiful. It wasn't really a comfortable way to wear them so I helped her take them off and put some on over her pull-up.

Then she decided to wear all of them over her pull-up. I hope she still likes her panties later this week when we wear them without a pull-up.

On this day Brynlee used a skirt hiked up under her armpits as a shirt with another skirt on as a skirt around her waist. She even got her own pull-up on. She has it hiked up on her belly between the two skirts because she put both legs in the same hole. 

Sometimes I wonder why I even get her dressed in the mornings since she just changes later. I love her fashion; I just don't like all the extra laundry. How did she get such an opinion so early anyways? At least she keeps life entertaining. 

Family Photo Shoot

On Monday my whole family got together for a family picture. The last picture we took together was at least seven years ago so it was really time for another one. My dad and I both took our cameras and my aunt took the pictures. It sure it hard to get a good picture with so many people. We had a few people that didn't want to cooperate plus we had three kids with us. Someday I really want to take a photography class so I know how to take really good pictures but I think they turned out pretty good for what we had to work with. We got a few poses where everyone had their eyes open. Brynlee kept trying to sit down so in some of the best ones so you can't see Brynlee at all. I am just glad to finally have a picture with all of my family. 

Pictured: Randy, my sister Heather and Jakobee, Mom, Dad, my brother Josh
Me and Anna, Joel and Bryn, my sister Alesha, my brother Brian and his wife Heather

After the big family picture we stayed around and took some pictures just of our family. Joel and I took some together but they were really blurry. Oh well, I guess we will have to try again later. He wasn't very excited about taking a family picture but he didn't complain once when we were taking the pictures.  

When we were done taking pictures Brynlee had fun playing with a cattail that she found. I snapped a few pictures of her and of the baby. Then I had someone take some pictures of me and my girls. I sure do love my family so I am glad we have a picture of us all. I hope we can take another one again before seven years.

August

August was such a fun busy month for us. We tried to spend at much time as possible hanging out with our family; enjoying the nice summer weather. My brother Brian and his wife Heather were home from college for a few weeks so we had fun spending time with them. 

We spent lots of time this month playing in the water. Brynlee played in the kiddie pool at grandma's house, the sprinkler, and the slip and slide. One day Joel went tubing down the river with my family while Brynlee and I waited for everyone to come back. Brynlee had a lot of fun playing in the water. I tried to leave Annalyn with grandma but she cried and screamed until I came back and got her. She has been a real momma's girl lately. My dad also got his boat running so we had fun spending an evening out in the boat with them. Annalyn didn't ride in the boat but Brynlee loved it. She didn't want to get out.

While Joel was at work one day I took the kids to the Discovery Center with my grandma, Ryder, and Aunt Lora. Brian and Heather came too.  It was lots of fun. I even had fun playing with all the stuff and the kids were good. Afterwards everyone went to the park to play while I fed the baby.

This month we were finally able to use some things from our garden. We gots lots of cantaloupe and watermelon, as well as squash, green beans, and tomatoes. Everything in our garden grew so close together that it is hard to pick anything and it is covered with goat heads. Other than that the garden did all right. It has been nice to have the fresh food to eat and I have been trying to fill the cupboard and our freezer with food. I spent one day helping my grandma and aunt Lora freeze some corn so now we have a freezer full of corn.

Brynlee walking in the corn field. 

The second week in August started out with my little sister Alesha breaking her collar bone during soccer practice. She was in a lot of pain for a long time. I took the kids over to visit Alesha and say hi. While we were there Brynlee was not acting normal at all. She was just sitting on Heather's lap and not moving. It felt like she had a fever so we gave her some medicine. The next thing I know she threw up all over Heather and on grandma's carpet. Sorry you guys. I took the kids home and turned on a movie for Brynlee. She went to bed early but she seemed to feel better the next afternoon. I thought she was over it but then she started to get a rash all over her face, her shoulders, her arms, hands and feet. Turns out she had hand foot and mouth. She didn't act like she was sick but the rash looked kind of painful. We stayed in the house for a few days but she got over it pretty quickly.

You can't see the rash very well in this picture but it's there.

In other news, Joel had two different job interviews this month. The first one was for a job in Canada. I am kind of glad he didn't get that one because I really didn't want to move there. The second job interview is for a job with a construction company in Portland, Oregon. They had Joel drive all the way to Portland for an interview and then told him to talk to me and let them know if we wanted the job. We called to tell them we wanted the job but they are interviewing some other people so we will see what happens. We should find out if Joel will get the job sometime next week. It sounds like a good job but we would miss it here so much. We really don't want to move.

Joel was only gone for one day so it wasn't that bad. We did have one of our chicken escape so I am glad Brynlee likes to catch the things. It did feel kind of funny to be sending my two year old out to catch the chicken; but she loved it. She held it for a long time before she gave it up to put away. While Joel was gone we spent a good part of the day over to my sister Heather's house and I helped her try out some new recipes and my family came over to help test them out. It was lots of fun and the food turned out to be really yummy.

Overall it was a great month. Joel has still been busy working on grandma's shed. It is coming along very well and really looks like a building. School started so my parents are working again. My mom works at the school while my dad drives school bus. They had three little foster girl's at their house for most of the summer so I didn't get to spend as much time with them as I would have like. 

Both of my girls are growing everyday and getting into everything. I had to take Annalyn into the doctor's office for a yeast infection but it is gone now. I feel blessed to have two healthy active children. Who knows what our future will bring but for now we are just trying to enjoy everyday. 

The building Joel is working on