March from my phone

So many great pictures are on my phone and I don't always get them added to my blog posts. I'm trying to be better about that but I thought a phone picture post to help me catch up on March was in order.

These two do this move all the time.

We finally pulled the double jogging stroller that we acquired from my parents out of the shed. It still needs a good cleaning but the girls enjoyed running with both Mommy and Daddy.

I love how much these two love each other. 

We try to make it to the park whenever we can. It's fun exploring new playgrounds. 

My little climber.

Anna with her friend Ethan

There is a small park only a mile from our house and easy to get to so we end up there a lot. 

Muscles!

Cuties.

On this particular evening we were drawing ice cream with sidewalk chalk out on the deck. Jane cracked me up when she "tasted" it.

Kevin had a work trip to Germany so we started off the week with a visit to the park.

We also made a trip to the craft store. The girls had fun looking around and trying on hats.

I mentioned in my last post that we had some issues after Anna took the antibiotics. The day after her last dose of the Amoxicillin  Anna broke out in hives. It happened really fast so we made our way to Walk-in clinic where the ARNP told us it was an allergic reaction, most likely to the penicillin. I was a little shocked because we were finished with the medication which was a 10 day course. I gave her benedryl and zyrtec and we went about our business. That was Tuesday.

On Wednesday Anna's little hands and feet started swelling and her hives looked awful. It progressively got worse throughout the day. She also had a bit of a fever. After another call we made our way back in and had a chance to see Anna's doctor. At that point she told us Anna had what appeared to be Serum Sickness Like Reaction.

The exact reason for Serum Sickness Like Reaction (SSLR) is unknown but in layman's terms she most likely had an abnormal inflammatory reaction because her body couldn't metabolize something, most likely the amoxicillin. Usually there is a fever, the hive-like rash, and the swelling. She was breathing fine so we just kept on the antihistamines although I'm convinced that the fact she takes a steroid inhaler helped us avoid something that could have been much worse. 

Thursday was a pretty rough day. Anna woke up with a swollen mouth and face and was pretty miserable all day. She'd watch show or movie and then I'd try to have her do a craft, color or eat at the table but every time she complained of her feet hurting so she ended up spending most of the day on the couch. I even let the girls eat out there which we don't typically allow. The poor girl could barely walk due to swollen feet and wanted to be picked up and moved places because it hurt to move. It was kind of sad watching her try to grasp a crayon. Luckily Daddy came home that evening and we were all very happy to see him.

Friday morning Anna seemed to be feeling a little better but her eyes were swollen. (I swear that every time she woke up, even from a nap, she seemed swollen somewhere else). Her hands and feet were doing better and her rash wasn't quite as red but the eye swelling was enough to prompt the doctor to put her on oral steroids for a few days. That was an adventure in itself, she was all over the place and not sleeping much, but it helped improve her swelling drastically. She's completely fine now but we are following up with an allergist next month and see what we need to do if anything. In the mean time...no more penicillins!

After getting everyone healthy we were back to our usual activities. Jane is so cute and loves to paint.

Painting at playgroup!

We had fun in March but reviewing everything reminds me again of how happy I am that it is now April!

Some of March

I finally loaded some pictures to the computer so I thought I'd try and catch up a little. We had fun this month but it was also a long month. There was sickness on and off and I'm feeling pretty worn out from it all. It started the end of February when Anna picked up pink eye somewhere and caught a nasty cold and it's been a rocky road since.

A lot of television was watched this past month.

We did do a lot of crafts this month too. 

Anna working on her pot of gold.

 Jane caught the cold too and a WEEK after Anna had pink eye Jane had it too. Eye drops on little kids is not fun although they got pretty good at it by the end of it all. 

The girls have moments where they play really well together. Of course there are other times when you hear Anna yelling things like "just leave me alone Jane!" or random screaming over a toy. Jane wants to do everything Anna is doing and sometimes they just need alone time.

Anna giving Jane a check up

 It is so wonderful when they are getting along though.

Sister Love!

Anna ended up with an ear infection after her bad cold lending to another trip to the doctor. At that point I think it was only the second trip of the month. We didn't do antibiotics at that point because we thought it was viral. A few days later Jane had an ear infection too. We skipped antibiotics again but it was another trip to see the doctor. She ended up getting over it on her own. During this time Anna's cough was just getting worse despite the inhalers so we eventually made our way to walk in clinic again. At this point the doctor thought her ears still looked infected so we finally gave in and put her on amoxicillin. Anna finally started getting better but trouble set in from this which I will get to later. 

We celebrated several birthday's this month and also meant several trips to Topeka. One weekend it was in Topeka for a HUGE Copp family birthday (I think there were 10 or more people being celebrated that day). I managed to get zero pictures of this. The following weekend we had our friend Ethan's 3rd birthday party.

The party was the week before Easter so they had an egg hunt in the back yard which the kids LOVED. It was Jane's first hunt and she was thrilled every time she found an egg. We had a great time.

After that party we were Topeka bound again to celebrate Grandma's birthday. James and Michelle set up a bunch of 'Minute to Win It' games and we had a blast playing. It was fun catching up with everyone and being silly. We even managed to get a family picture in!

Right after this Kevin had a trip to Germany and was gone 5 days. This ended up being a rough week for me and I have never been happier to have Kevin home! I will give more details in another post (most of my pictures are on my phone so it will be easier to just make a separate blog entry) but Anna ended up with Serum Sickness Like Reaction from the amoxicillin she'd taken. There were 3 doctor's visit this week.

Anyway, there was one day in particular where Anna got to watch a TON of television. On the other days we tried to do Easter crafts and science experiments to keep busy which were a big hit.

A lesson in color absorption

 Anna made her first hypothesis and we talked about what that meant.  

We also put a couple of eggs in vinegar and both girls loved looking and holding the eggs without a shell. 

I thought everyone was healthy this last week but now Anna has another cold and a nasty cough. I hate that every cold she gets leads to terrible cough. We are really hoping she outgrows this asthma/reactive airway. 

January and February Fun

I feel like I've been trying to work on this particular post for a month. It was originally going to be a recap of January but since it is now March it is going to be a recap of February too.

It's been a busy couple of months so far. We've had a few nice days here and there but lots of inside play. I think we are all ready for spring but we've managed to stay somewhat busy indoors. I finally found the time to make cupcakes with the girls. 

They loved helping. This is really the first time I've let Jane help with this sort of activity and she was thrilled to be taking part. I can't really stop her since she can climb up on the learning tower by herself now.

We decorated a box one day which was a big hit.

Table dancing!

The girls helped Daddy put together a shelf.

We did lots of Valentine crafts including heart-shaped crayons!

Jane is very into play dough so we've doing a lot more of that lately.

We've also been trying to do more science experiments lately. This one was pretty cool. It was a snowstorm in a jar. Baby oil, white paint and alka seltzer = Big Hit!

Olathe East High School was putting on a performance of Mary Poppins and I decided to take Anna to it. It was her first musical and she did amazing for her age. After almost every scene she would ask me...is it over? She also had lots of other questions throughout and was always concerned about where the kids went. She was a little restless during Act II and wanted lots of snacks but for how long a musical is I was impressed. A matinee would have been better but we couldn't go that weekend. 

Anna's first musical!

Cousin fun with Hailie when she and Grandma came to visit.

We went with Thomas, Serena, and Adell to the zoo one weekend. It was a gorgeous weekend and it was fun getting together. 

I just love these pictures. Their butts are so cute!

The best I could do at a picture of everyone.

I need to load a bunch of pictures from my phone but we'll see if I ever get around to that. 

10 Years!

Celebrating 10 years with this guy today. Much has changed over the last 10 years but we still make a great team. I sure do love you Kevin!

Zoo trip

We had a Saturday that wasn't crazy cold so we decided to make a trip out to the zoo. It has been nearly a year since we've been to the KC zoo and it was time. We renewed our Friends of the Zoo membership that we had lapsed on last year so there will definitely be more trips coming up. They were bringing out ice for Berlin, the polar bear, to play in and the girls were excited about it. 

Waiting while they brought the ice out

 Anna had learned all about polar bears and penguins during one of her Young Explorers classes. She started going to these last December. They are in 3 week sessions: 1 day a week for 2 hours and each session has a different theme. The first one was North Pole, South Pole, then W is for Winter, and she just started one called Mad Scientist. She loves going and seeing Miss Kelsey who does a great job leading the class. They read books, do arts and crafts, and experiments. All things Anna loves! Anyway, it was fun to get and see both a polar bear and a penguin after her class. She even remembered that polar bears "live on top" and penguins "live on bottom" referring to the North and South pole!

Anxiously waiting for Berlin.

Finally!

Pretty happy.

The polar bear exhibit was right by some picnic tables so we set up there and we were able to eat and watch the polar bears after the crowd scattered.

Then we went inside to warm up a bit before checking out the penguins and small aquarium. They had an old piano in there for the kids to play on.

We also got to check out the Orangutan exhibit which opened last summer. 

We're excited to go again soon. The Africa loop is 1 mile long so we haven't been in quite some time. There is so much to see at that zoo!

Activity School!

The biggest thing to probably happen in January was that Jane started going to Activity School with Anna! I'd been looking forward to the prospect of 2 1/2 hours to myself every Thursday for a couple months but I didn't want to get my hopes up. We did a walk-in the first day before enrolling but it went AWESOME so she is officially enrolled!

On the first day she was eager to take off her shoes and finally get to go into the gym. She's been watching Anna get dropped off for months now and sometimes stands at the door saying things like "ball" or "balloon" depending on what they had out that day. There were some tears for about 5 minutes once she realized that Mommy wouldn't be joining. The staff there is great about getting the kids walking and distracted and Anna was also a HUGE help. She was thrilled that Jane would be coming and stayed with her until she stopped crying. She's only cried a couple of other times since then. The third week of drop off and once when she saw me in the window right before class was over one day. I stayed the entire first class but now I have some kid free time!

Anna walking with Jane at the start of class.

I had intended to post about this earlier but I was waiting until Jane's shirt came in. They look so cute! 

 Anna really thinks she is hot stuff now that her little sister is in class with her since she knows the ropes. She will report back to me if Jane cried, didn't eat her snack, had to go with the little kids for a bit, etc. 

These two silly things make me smile so much and I'm so glad they have this class they can do together.