Changing Tires With Daddy

Tonight the family spent time changing tires on the milk truck. Sounds like a whole lot of fun doensn't it. Well when that is the only time we get, you take it. Elly had a blast helping change tires. This is not the first time she has attempted to help but this time she really got down and dirty. And when I say dirty I mean totally a grease monkey!

15.1 Weeks Prego Picture

The belly is starting to show!

Elly's Illness Update

I have been waiting all day for the nurse to call me back with Elly's results before I put a post out. Well let's just say one thing about triage nurses "uuuurrrrgggghhhh". I am so use to dealing with Elly's regular doctor and nurse that when I have to deal with someone that doesn't know her status, it is very irritating to me.

Tuesday afternoon Harry & I took Elly into see Dr. "Nancy" Erickson as her fever spiked up to 103. To me that is just too high. So we did a couple of different tests. We did a urine test because Elly was complaining of hurting when we would wipe and her tongue hurt. Well actually it was not really her tongue that hurt but her throat but since her tongue was the first thing that she could scratch at that is what she would tell me. So the urine test, which they sent for a 24 hour culture for bladder infection, turned out to be a contamination rather then bacteria. So that was good....no antibiotics. But she does have a yeast infection which we are treating with just baby butt cream. (I just thought of this...totally of note here...but some day when Elly is like 16 and reads these entries way back when, she is going to be totally embarrassed that I wrote about her having a yeast infection. Oh the funny things that you get embarrass your child with.) Anyway, back at the subject at hand....her throat hurting entails having a viral infection in her throat that is in the same family as the hand, foot & mouth disease. And that one just needs to run its course. They have seen it last from 3-7 days. We are hoping for the 3 day version.

Today was good. Elly still had some fever but not as high or as often. It seemed that she was only hot maybe once or twice today rather then all day long. So I think we are finally on the mend. She is also starting to eat and get her appetite back. There are still certain foods she will not touch but that is to be expected.

Last night was our first night back in her own bed since Saturday night. Although a little bit unpredictable we all did make it through the night. There was some crying throughout the night but nothing long or serious. And tonight she went down with no complains. So hopefully after a great vacation and now illness we can get back to our normal, boring routine.

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers while Elly has not been feeling well.

Berry Picking

Sunday when Harry got home from his milk route we left for Grandpa & Grandma's house....or as Elly refers to them as Big Papa & Big Grama's house. My parents (Papa & Grama) met us up there and we all went back in the woods and picked blackberries. My goodness the rain has been good to them this year. They were huge and plentiful. After 2 hours we had 3 1/2 gallons of blackberries. Elly, of course, was already a pro at picking blackberries as she already learned with Aunt Beth while in Kentucky. But the difference is that Aunt Beth's patch is small, behind the shop, and after 20 minutes you are done. So after about an hour and half she was a little bored with it but she made it. She got to drive an Oliver tractor with Papa, so all was better.

When we returned we had supper with Big Papa & Big Grama. Then, unfortunately, it was time to leave. But the berry picking turned from really good to really bad by the time we got home. Elly had struck a fever on the way home. By the time we were home it was already 102.5. So we got Tylenol in her right away and started preparing ourselves for what we new would be a long night ahead of ourselves. It was a very long night, as every 2 hours we had to give her either Tylenol or Ibuprofen. The fever then would come down but then spike again. I stayed home with her yesterday and we did a lot of reading books, puzzles & movie marathons. Just as long as she was sitting on mommy's lap she was fine. Last night was another long night. I think we might have gotten the fever down for good but I said that once already and then it spiked even higher then 102. So I am just waiting to see how she is when she wakes. I am staying home with her again today as neither one of us got much sleep (poor daddy who has got barely none) and so that if this fever doesn't go down by noon I am going to take her in to be checked out. I am sure it is just a virus but want to make sure.

Finger Nail Polish

Yesterday, was definately a trying day for all of us. Elly only napped for about an hour yesterday as her schedule is still a little off. So I was trying very hard to keep her in a good mood until night time. Harry ran to Kwik Trip to get milk and so I decided that it would be a good time to do Elly's toenails and keep her occupied. As we are coming out of the bathroom into the dining room/kitchen area she was klinking the two bottles of polish together when all of a sudden one broke open. All over the kitchen floor, dining room chairs, stools and Elly. Well bright pink is a little hard to decipher whether or not it is blood or nail polish. So I got all the broken pieces out of her hands around from her feet and got her up to the sink to start washing her hands. But before we started to move towards the sink the nervousness of the situation took over and Elly wet her pants. So another mess on our hands. As Elly was crying perfusely on the stool at the sink with wet pants on, I was trying to clean the floor as fast as I could before it dried. When Harry walked in, all I could say was "don't get mad right now....just start helping". After 45 minutes of clean up and lots of elbow grease on the floor we were able to get most of the polish off everything. There was not enough nail polish remover to go around so I still have hot pink hands but otherwise we are all better. WOW - never a dull moment in the Young household.

Our Visit To Grammy's House

Last Wednesday we left for Kentucky around 3:40 PM. Actually 20 minutes ahead of schedule. We took our time and had some dinner and stopped at a rest area for Elly and myself to get out and relax. Then it was time for night time. But a couple of things that we did on our way down....


1. Feed child ice cream, put her in a car seat for a long car ride and let her dance to Metalica for a while.

2. Let Mommy dream of having her own semi of all the coffee she wants while driving down the road!

3. At 2:30 AM stop for gas, let child pick out powered donut, give her some and then tell her to go back to sleep. She actually did go back to sleep after eating a donut. Where was my camera? Too late to think about, I guess.

We arrived at Grammy's house around 3:40 AM. A long trip. We basically colapsed into bed and we did not wake up until 8 AM. That is right about 4 hours of rest.

While there we had a wonderful time spending time with Grammy, Uncle John, Aunt Beth, Laura, Jeffrey, Al, Mary, John & Baby Melrose. Just some of the things that Elly got to do that we didn't get captured on camera was riding in Uncle John's semi, riding in a very big John Deere tractor, riding on the 4-Wheeler with daddy. This all happened while mommy was out with Aunt Beth & Laura on a shopping spree in Clarksville, TN. Yup, I got to cross the border!

Daddy made breakfast for mommy & Elly every morning.

On Saturday we traveled to Murray, KY to visit with Cousins John, Mary and their new baby Melrose. Plus, an added bonus was to see their new home they moved into 17 days before having Melrose. Bless Mary's heart.
Elly loved Baby Melrose right away and wanted to hold her every chance she got.

I was even surprised that there was no jealousy issues when Harry or myself held Melrose. Elly was just fine with it. Let's hope this continues when we have our new baby.

It was very cute with Cousin John holding his baby and Elly holding her baby.

Cousin John got his banjo out for Elly to listen and before too long was asking to play too.

Besides wanting to hold Baby Melrose all the time, another favorite was the former firewood cabinet in Cousin John & Mary's house. It is also a great little hideout place for kids to play in for hours. In and out, in and out. Great entertainment.

Elly had a blast on Aunt Beth & Uncle John's swingset. She especially loved to play on the bridge. Aunt Beth helped her the first couple time to get the hang of it and then after that, she was doing it all on her own. Notice Muffin the puppy in the picture....she loved Muffin (on the otherside of the door).

The swings, slide & bridge were her favorites and would go back and fourth for hours (if we would have let her).

Like I said she loved the swingset! What a little dare devil.

Elly had a blast helping Laura make a fudge pie.

And Elly really liked licking the bowl, too!

Every day we were able to spend at least an hour if not more with Grammy at the nursing home. We had so much fun talking with Grammy. Elly really enjoyed her time as Grammy read books, colored with her and played puzzles. It was lots of fun.

Monday we left around 2:30 PM after saying our goodbyes to the family and seeing Grammy one more time. We traveled for about 5 hours until we got to Effingham, IL and stopped at a hotel for the evening. Elly was so excited to get to stay in a hotel for the first time and to go to a big pool. She has always just played in a little kiddy pool. So this was a huge treat for her.
Although a little scared at first, it did not take Elly long to warm up to the idea of kicking her feet and swimming all over the pool with mommy & daddy. We had a great time.

We headed out of Effingham on Tuesday around 7:30 AM and arrived back on Wisconsin soil in Vernon County around 3:30 PM. Although we are all sad that our time had to end so quickly, it was a lot of fun to hang out with the family and can't wait until next year to show off the new addition to the family.

Can You Say Grammy's House?

For the last couple of weeks we have been talking to Elly about going to Kentucky and staying at Grammy's house. I am sure to her, by now it has been over a year since we started talking about it and yeah right they are never going to take me there. They are just talking! Poor girl. Monday & Tuesday she definately did not want to go to daycare as she wanted to go to Grammy's. I think she had finally had enough of us telling her stories. Today every time we went and did something I would say "we need to do this and then we will go to Grammy's house". We still have not left for Grammy's house. At one point I told her that she needed to wait for her daddy to get home....ummmm yeah, she was ready to leave without him. Nap time was not happening either....why nap when we are suppose to be going to Grammy's? I know at this point she was basically saying to herself that mommy & daddy have seriously lost their marbles. Poor girl is just beside herself. We did let her pack her own toys and packed them in the truck last night...although why can baby stay overnight in the truck but I can't? There are just times when there are lots of questions with not very good answers. So hopefully mommy & daddy are back on the good list when she wakes up from her nap and we actually leave for GRAMMY'S HOUSE!!!!!!!!!

--------------------------------

Side note - I am 13 weeks today and feeling very good. Still tired after a long day of working but doing better then even a week ago. Have not been sick or taken medicine in the last week and a half. That is progress baby! Looking forward to some good times with family and will have tons of pictures to upload when we get back.

Please pray for our safety while we travel, our time with family and the big one....Harry's relief drivers (Dad & Diesel)! Yes, that is right, the tables have turned and now Dad is Harry's relief driver instead of the other way around.

12.1 Weeks

Today we finally got to hear the babies heartbeat for the first time. It was absolutely wonderful. Plus my nurse & doctor are so excited for us that they pulled the ultrasound machine in and did another ultrasound for us. The babies heartbeat was 160 beat per minute. Which is right on target. Not much else to report except that all is well and she is hoping in the next week or two I will be done taking the Zofran. Which I kind of have and went back to suffering through the sickness because the Zofran has been the cause of making me dizzy. Therefore, I am hoping for some relief soon. And the only restriction that Nancy (doctor) gave us for our trip to Kentucky was that I needed to get out of the car every 2 hours to walk around so that I don't get any blood clots in my legs.

Tractor Rides

We went to the Newry Antique Tractor Show and Elly got to ride on the train. She had lots of fun.
I was a little afraid that we were not going to get her off, but we did.
Harry took Elly on a tractor ride the other night and oh the fun she had.
Now she asks for them all the time.

Spending Time With The Hardin's

Elly & I were able to go to Todd & Laurie's Wednesday & Thursday. Oh the fun we had. Wednesday night, bless Todd's heart, stayed with all 4 kids so that Laurie & I could have some quality time together. It sounds like there was lots of fun going on while we were gone, but when we got home Todd was not tied up, there was no blood and all seemed pretty happy. So it was all a good day. Reece, Nay Nay & Elly were getting their grove on with dancing. It was great fun. See at the end for a video of it. Mr. Reece was so posing for me. What a little man. Elly, Reece & Nay Nay all driving on the WII game. Remarkably only one steering wheel worked. Elly & Nay Nay were loving to wash their hands as long as there was LOTS of bubbles. And of course, a little tea party in the bathroom is always fun!

Coolest Kid On The Planet!

Have I mentioned lately that I have the coolest, cutest, most adorable, awesomest kiddo on the planet! No more having to ask her if she needs to go potty(well I still do to be cautious). But seriously she just says she needs to go potty, runs in and does it all on her own. SCORE! Yesterday we were into Walmart and she said she needed to go potty. Well they are remodeling and so by the time I found out where the bathrooms were I was frantic that she was going to have a mishap but she held it until we got there. Well she must have thought this was a fun game searching for a bathroom because then throughout the rest of our shopping trip she kept telling me she needed to go potty. Now do you believe her and rush her in to find out that really she wanted to see if you would just drop everything...yes you do because you never know when it is really going to be the real thing. Finally I started asking her if she really needed to go potty or she just wanted to in the bathroom. When she said just go in the bathroom then I knew we were done with that game. This is not the first time she has done this to me. You would think I would learn.

Hopefully our traveling to Kentucky is as easy with potty time. We are a little concerned about it. What if she says she needs to go potty after we just pasted a sign that said the next exit is 18 miles? I don't want to put her in pull-ups because we have done that before and then we go back three steps. So we will see how it all turns out. The good thing is we are leaving around 4 in the afternoon so it will only be 4 hours of potty time and then it will be pull-up for the night.

Playing At The Park

I am a little behind on posting this one but Elly and I were able to meet in the Viroqua park one Wed. morning with some friends from our church. We had a blast. We were there for over 4 hours hanging out and just having fun. And the best part was having a McDonald's happy meal picnic! Thanks for the great memories Katie, Ellie, Lila, Joy, Blessing, Sandy, Jacqui, Ira & Dane!
Sandy holding Lila
Blessing, Ellie & Elly swinging
What cute girls!
Ring Around The Rosie