Pink Eye

Because of the pink eye (which you probably don't even notice), I made a special breakfast of banana pancakes with strawberries and whip cream!

We noticed that Calleigh's eye was a little red on Thursday night and Friday morning, it was still the same.  It wasn't bothering her but when I pulled the bottom part down, I could definitely see the red.  So I said to Calleigh, "You know, I think you might have pink eye."  And she said, "Yes, I love pink eye because pink's my favorite color!"  I decided that a little trip to the doctor was in order and even though it was smack dab in the middle of yard sale-ing, off we went.  I told Calleigh we had to go see Dr. Anne so see if they could give us medicine for her eye.  "So it can be brown again?" she said.  I decided not to get into a discussion on how her eye was really still brown it was just the white part of the eye that was discolored.  We ended up with a nice gentlemanly doctor who sat Calleigh on the edge of the exam table and then held her hands while he first checked her lymph nodes.  As soon as he touched her hand, Calleigh just had to point out the tiny infinitesimal boo-boo that she's had on her pointer finger for like a week.  After he had properly looked at it and oo'd and ahh'd, the exam was able to continue.  He dimmed the lights and got his light to look into her eyes.  After checking a few other thing, he declared very undramatically that she most likely had some conjunctivitis (aka, pink eye).  He left to see if they had any drops on hand and as soon as left, Calleigh immediately stated to me that it isn't good to shine lights into people's eyes.  This was a recent bit of news that Calleigh had been taught when she started shining a flashlight into her eyes.  Glad to see that it sunk in.

The pink eye itself has really not been a problem in terms of bothering her.  It's a very mild form and in fact, if you even looked at her, you probably wouldn't be able to tell that she has it.  Her eyes are barely red (yes, it went over to the other one shortly after).  The good news is that once you start the drops, it's only contagious for 24 hours so tomorrow we shouldn't have any restrictions.  The bad news is that putting the drops in is like torture...on us.  She has her eyes closed tighter than Fort Knox.  Duncan has to basically sit on her to keep her arms down (more like straddling her.  Obviously he's not putting his full weight on her or anything).  She's bawling her eyes out and screaming and you would think this is the worst kind of punishment available.  The thing is, I honestly don't think the drops even sting.  It's not like some filmy ointment that I remember putting in my eyes as a kid when I had pink eye.  It literally looks like saline.  She has to have the drops three times a day and the first two today were quite stressful to say the least.  We tried bribing her with whipped cream and ice cream but neither worked, surprisingly.  Finally, for the one tonight we said that she could watch the movie "Noah" for a few minutes and thankfully that seemed to do the trick.  She held still and didn't cry and as we suspected, it was no big deal.  Hopefully she'll still be cooperative tomorrow.  Fortunately Aubree hasn't shown any signs yet of getting it too.

Clearly we did not attend church this morning and so that left us in with the quandary of finding something to do.  This morning we did end up giving them the special treat of watching "Tiny Tots for Jesus" which is a DVD for little kids with some singing and stories.  I figured that could take the place of Sabbath School.  Honestly, I do not remember the last time the girls watched TV here at home.  It might have been Christmas the last time something kid related was on.  While I was still heavily nursing Aubree, I would occasionally watch a game show but it's been months since that's happened.  They are allowed to watch things in the van when we're on long trips (like Nova Scotia) but while we at home, the TV is never on while they are up.  I hope we can stick to that!  But today, I did make an exception because of the situation.  I guess the good thing about it is that since they watch so little, it's a good bribing tool!  And really, Aubree isn't supposed to be watching TV because she's under two...another reason to keep it very minimal.  Anyway, after that was over we decided to go for a walk at a nursery close by.  It's one we've been to several times with Elaine.  Despite the heat, we had a nice stroll looking at all the trees, plants, and flowers, and saw lots of butterflies too.  Afterwards, we went over to Trotwood Park in Winter Springs to feed the turtles and fish and then had a picnic lunch.  I'll be glad when we can be back in Sabbath School but at least we had an enjoyable time enjoying nature.

Aubree may, or may not be, picking her nose.

Dad, these aren't real, I swear!

Calleigh insisted on pushing us.

As I write this, Duncan has just completed returning my new cell phone.  I was holding off a little because I wanted to make sure the old one was fixed (of course, the new one was doing the same thing).  As far as I can tell, it is.  So off he went to try to return it without having to pay the $35 "restocking" fee.  My other concern was that I had signed a new 2-year agreement to get the phone at a discount and while I don't mind being in a contract because I won't be leaving, did that put me in a bad spot if down the road I do need to buy a new phone?  Fortunately Duncan called and reported that not only did he not have to pay the $35 but he also got the contract cancelled.  Good work Dunky G. and kudos to Verizon for being reasonable. After that, he was off to fill the van with gas and get a couple of things at Walmart.  Ahhh, the excitement of a Saturday night, huh?

I forgot to mention in my last post that I was at the dentist, yet again, on Tuesday.  They definitely know me very well there.  Before leaving for Nova Scotia I had gotten my new crown.  As soon as I got into my car from the dentist office, I looked in the mirror and was appalled to see that it was longer at the bottom then the other front tooth right next to it.  Giminy, what do I have to do to be satisfied with these teeth??  So frustrating.  How could they, the dental professionals, not have noticed?  It was too late to go back in there so I called and they said I could make an appointment to come back and get it fixed.  Well, Nova Scotia happened and now this week, I finally got in there.  Now mind you, my mother-in-law couldn't tell that it was longer but Duncan could and most importantly, I could and it bugged me.  I paid a lot of money for these teeth and by golly, I want to be happy.  There's some fancy name for the procedure to shave your tooth but I have no idea what it is so I'll just say they shaved the tooth a little, I looked in the mirror said it wasn't good, and then they shaved more.  It was bizarre because the dentist himself kept thinking it was good and I almost felt this pressure to just say it was fine even though I didn't think it was.  Finally, I said it was good even though I didn't think it was perfect but I guess this is the best I'm going to get.  Maybe someday when I'm rich (ha, ha) I'll have everything redone somewhere else.

 In Aubree news, her second front tooth is just starting to make an appearance.  Her gum is so swollen there and I've been giving her Tylenol just before her naps the last few days.  She had been napping a much shorter amount of time this past week and I finally realized it might be from that.  With the Tylenol, she's back to her normal length.  Thankfully it hasn't had any impact on her night sleeping.  Also, we're now down to nursing three times a day.  With the morning nap disappearing, it's been pretty easy to get rid of the nursing session that occurred when she woke up.  Now it's just when she wakes up in the morning, wakes up from her nap, and before bed.  Next to go will be the nap one but I'm not sure when that will be.  My dream was that Duncan and I (and whoever wanted to join us) would go on a cruise in October for a few days while my mom watched the kids.  But as long as Aubree's still nursing, it won't be happening and I don't really see her weaning any time soon.  Calleigh nursed until January 1, as a comparison.  

Other than the pink eye, Calleigh is fine and dandy.  This week I went through all her clothes since she's been growing out of her 3T's.  Time to bring in the 4T's.  Because of my yard sale-ing and thrift store shopping, I've had a bin accumulating with clothes for her and there was no need to go out and buy a bunch of stuff.  Our only splurge was a pair of Buster Brown white shoes that she wears all the time during the colder months (those are such a distant memory - - the cold months, not the shoes).  In other Calleigh news, she really has made some progress with her face under the water fear.  She was in the pool at Grandma and Granpa's this week and she herself, without any adult interference or help, jumped off the ledge on the side of the pool and went under water.  And then she did it a few more times after that even.  All her own idea.  Progress!  

Tomorrow we're headed off to Sea World.  As season pass holders, we get a free ticket so we won't have to pay for Calleigh.  We haven't been there since Christmas so should be fun!

And now, Duncan has arrived home with a little red velvet cake for us to share.  What a guy!