KerryAndGabe.com

Two weeks ago this past Monday, we took Maddie to the doctor for goopy eyes. She had an infection in her eyes and her left ear. They prescribed augmentin, which is one of the penicillin drugs (amoxicillin/clavulanate potassium). On that Friday, she had her early 15-month appointment. Her ears looked much better with only a little fluid left in them. The doctor said that we could stop giving her the antibiotic at any time but we could finish out the dose, if we wanted. We decided to be cautious and finish the dose. That day, she had her MMR and chicken pox shots.

Monday morning, we woke up to the hives that I posted about the other day. I’ve already explained that in detail. Two days later, we returned to the pediatrician to find that her ear infection had returned. They prescribed cefdinir, which is one of the antibiotics that she has taken in the past. She had a high fever that night of over 104, but on Thursday morning she was fever-free and the hives were fading. She seemed to be in a pretty good mood on Thursday. By Friday, her hives were mostly cleared, and she was able to go to school again having been fever free for a full day.

This weekend, her fever returned Saturday evening and was in the 102-103 range for most of the night and the next morning. We took her to the Urgent Care on Sunday to find that her ears were still quite infected. The cefdinir wasn’t working, so they prescribed azithromycin (z-pak). I’m pretty sure she has had this one as well. Since her fever was over 102 Sunday night, she was unable to go to daycare yet again on Monday. Gabe was also quite sick on Sunday with a fever of over 102 himself, plus he had a huge deadline on Monday.

Hopefully, the antibiotic is working, and she will be back to her normal self soon. She has seemed better in the past day or two. The good news is that we’ve seen many doctors, and we have asked the opinion of each one with regards to our travel plans. They have all been unconcerned and encouraging about our vacation. We are taking Maddie into the doctor tomorrow afternoon to recheck her ears and ensure that she is healthy and ready for our trip to Bermuda!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that made me smile this week: Getting our proofs from Catherine Keene Photography.

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking that I probably should start figuring out what we’re going to do in Bermuda since our trip is coming up fast!

Something I am hoping: I’m hoping that Maddie adjusts better to her new classroom soon. She’s just not quite used to the teachers and gets upset when I leave her. It’s been difficult as I enjoy visiting her at lunch. I’ve had to visit her far less often than I would like since it disrupts her day.

Something happening around the house: The cleaners came on Tuesday, but by now it’s a little hard to tell.

Something I’m reading: I finished Shopaholic Ties the Knot, started and finished Shopaholic & Sister and started Shopaholic & Baby. I guess I should stop reading fluff and get back to some book club selections or maybe something with a bit more substance…

Something tasty I ate this week: We weren’t sure what to do with the cabbage from our Produce Box, so we tried this Beef and Cabbage recipe from Audrey. Both of us thought we hated cabbage and that we weren’t going to like it. We both admitted it was quite tasty.

Something Maddie did this week: Maddie woke up Monday with her eyes crusted shut due to an infection that had spread to her eyes and ears. This marked her 3rd ear infection, and we started her on an antibiotic. It was basically the same one that she HATED taking last time but flavored with grape. She couldn’t get enough of it.

Something I struggled with this week: This week I struggled with shoe shopping for Maddie. Towards the end of the week, I thought that I had found a cute pair of shoes for her. Testing them out this weekend shows them to be a poor choice as they won’t stay on her feet. How frustrating!

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I haven’t done anything in particular towards my goals this week, aside from a few of the obvious ongoing ones. Maybe we’ll cancel our Netflix subscription today or organize the board games.

Something I learned this week: I’m not sure I’ve learned anything from it, but I’ve heard WAY too much about the swine flu.

Something I’m looking forward to next week: Hrm, in the last few weeks, some of the things I’ve been looking forward to have been canceled or postponed (like last week’s book club and a playdate a few weeks ago). Should I mention that I’m looking forward to Mother’s Day? They can’t cancel that, right??

Something I captured: Maddie sporting her first ever ponytail. Ha!

Now that I’ve revealed my life goals, I thought I would detail the progress that I’m making on some of them. Many of them are just ideas in my head, but I have taken some steps towards completing a few. A good number of my goals are ongoing efforts, and I haven’t listed all of those here.

Be able to retire at 50, Fund my kids’ college education, and Become a millionaire: As far as I’m concerned, these three are somewhat related. “Millionaire” can be defined in multiple ways, so I guess I need to figure out which definition applies. What am I doing towards these goals? Gabe and I are both saving as much as we can in our retirement accounts (as well as towards Maddie’s college). I periodically do calculations and projections with spreadsheets and online tools to see if we’re on track. Having the ability to retire at 50 is an aggressive goal, though it doesn’t necessarily mean that we will stop working then. It just means that we’d like to be in a position to do so, if we desire.

Create yearly photobooks for our family: I started making photobooks near the beginning of my relationship with Gabe. We have a book from each full year that we have been together. I am in the middle of working on our 2008 book…though it might end up being 2 books at this rate. 2008 was an eventful year!

Help raise over $100,000 for the MS Society: If you saw my post a few days ago about this year’s Triangle MS Walk, you know some of what I have been doing to raise money for the National MS Society. This could take me many years, but I hope that it is something that I can achieve. You can help! Visit our team’s website:
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/goto/team_bpatrol

Prepare meals for families with new babies or illness: When Maddie was born, we greatly appreciated food that family and friends prepared for us. This is not a goal that I can cross off the list, but something that I would like to do when the opportunity arises. We have several opportunities in the coming weeks to do this for other families.

Take a photo each day for the first year of each of my children’s lives: I thought that this would be a neat project, and it was! We successfully took a photo of Maddie every day for the first year. I loved the results!

Take at least one family vacation each year: We may not be able to do this every year when our kids are very young (like last year, we didn’t go on any vacations with just the 3 of us), but we would like to be able to do it when we can. We recently booked a Bermuda cruise for our first official family vacation, and we will be taking it in May.

Visit all 50 states: I’ve made progress towards this goal throughout my life. I will be able to mark another state off the list in September when we visit Maine.

Visit all Canadian Provinces/Territories: After our trip in September, I will be able to mark New Brunswick and Nova Scotia off of my list.

It’s already time again for The Sunday Somethings! Let us know if you want to join us, and we’ll to link to you. Be sure to check out Audrey‘s blog for her installment this week.

Something that made me smile this week: Gabe and I both have our own sink in our master bathroom, each with our own identical, decorative soap pump. When one of us runs out of soap, we play a little game where we swap our soap pump with the other’s presumably non-empty soap pump. Throughout the next few days, we will find that the other has switched the pumps again. This amuses me. I think that we determined Gabe started it this time. He said to me earlier this week after several such exchanges, “so, I see we’re playing the soap game again.” Funny.

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking that I really need to finish Maddie’s thank you notes from her birthday party. I’ve been meaning to do them for a while, and I’ve decided that I better get them finished by the end of today. Maybe I should add it to my goals list, ha!

Something I am hoping: I am hoping that our trip to Bermuda in May is a success! I can’t believe that we’re actually booked on a cruise with just the 3 of us. It’s exciting, but it’s a little bit scary to think about how Miss Maddie will handle the travel. I’m thinking positively and hoping that we’re going to make some wonderful memories. I know Maddie won’t remember it, but I will…and we’ll always have photos.

Something happening around the house: Well, on Wednesday night, we thought that we had our first toy-in-the-toilet incident. We had some major issues with the toilet overflowing and the plunger not helping. Something very solid and small was stuck down there, and we never did discover what it was. We thought that a Little People figure could be to blame, but a rudimentary Little People census reveals that all are present in our town. We think.

Something I’m reading: I’m still reading The Book Thief for April for my regular book club.

Something tasty I ate this week: Yesterday, at a birthday party for one-year-old twins, I ate some jicama. I don’t recall whether I’ve ever tasted jicama, but it was tasty!

Something Maddie did this week: Maddie and I visited her toddler class together for the first time this week. I was excited to meet her teachers and see the toddler room. She has been visiting their classroom for a while, and she even participated in music class with them this week.

Something I struggled with this week: I’m still struggling with the same thing that I mentioned last week. Maddie is weaning from her lunchtime nursings, and I was so sad on the two days this week that I did not visit her at all. I still plan to visit her frequently, even when she isn’t nursing. I have to admit that it will be nice to have some extra flexibility, too.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I’m actually creating my life goals list. More information on them coming soon! I had a tough time getting started, but once I got going, I kept thinking of more and more to add to my list. I’m hoping to finish up the goals database later today and get them published to the website.

Something I’m looking forward to next week: Regular book club on Wednesday night and our conference with Maddie’s new toddler teacher on Thursday morning!

Something I captured: This was taken just yesterday, after we returned from the twins’ birthday party. Hooray for Spring (well, sorta, it’s still a little cool…)!