For a while now, the girls have been relentless in repeating nearly everything we say. It started innocently enough; we just had to watch what we said. For the past six months or so, though, I’ve had the opportunity, on occasion, to hear what I must sound like to them because they’ve taken to repeating a selection of my commonly-used phrases.
The first time I overheard one of them say, “You’re driving me nuts!” while they played, I just about couldn’t stop laughing. It’s not uncommon, too, to hear one of them scolding their dolls, “I told you, no!” or “Go sit in the corner!” Sometimes I wonder if I’m more of a tyrant than I thought I was! On the other hand, they both are awfully sweet when they baby their dolls, so I must be doing something right.
Their most recent phrase of choice is, “Umm…Excuse me?” It’s something I’ve been saying to them a lot in recent weeks, and I’ve continued to say it because it works. If one of them is doing something they know they shouldn’t, all I have to do is say, “Excuse me?” and I have their attention immediately. I guess I didn’t realize how frequently I was saying it, though, because I was completely caught off guard the first time one of the girls repeated it. Now, they say it ALL THE TIME. If someone – anyone – is doing something they aren’t supposed to be doing, you can bet Cadie, Maddie, or both of them will call them on it. The most ridiculous part of it all is I can’t seem to stop myself from continuing to say it!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
On the Mend
I imagine many of you are wondering why I haven’t posted about our Disney World trip, yet. Well, when it rains, it pours.
Since we’ve been home (last Thursday), we haven’t had much down time. We celebrated my little sister’s birthday Friday evening, Valentine’s Day Saturday evening, and Cadie started getting sick on Sunday. Her breathing became very ragged and labored that evening, and she was restless all night. I think we got a combined two to three hours of sleep. So Monday morning, sleep-deprived and bleary-eyed, I called the pediatrician and made an appointment. She rested in my lap all morning until I finally drug her mattress into the living room, propped her up, and allowed her to rest like a queen. She loved it.
My first thought was RSV, but my gut kept telling me it was pneumonia. My gut was right. Dr. Mayberry wasn’t in the office Monday, so we saw Dr. Freed. He was concerned about how tight her breathing was, so we did some X-rays – Cadie’s first since the hospital – and some breathing treatments. He also measured her oxygen saturation using a Pulsox. She was “satting” around 94 (out of 100). Cadie did really well with the X-rays. I couldn’t ask for a better sick kid. She’s quiet, still, and very cooperative. She stood totally still, giggling just occasionally, and we got two X-rays on the first try. The technician asked if it was okay for me to stay in the room with her. She hesitated, then asked if there was a possibility I was pregnant. I laughed and left it at that.
Once we got back to the exam room, we started the breathing treatment. Cadie did breathing treatments for about a year after she came home from the hospital, but they were very different from this one. She used to do her breathing treatments with a mask connected to a chamber through which the medicine was pumped distributed from something similar to an asthma inhaler. It was a couple of pumps, then we were done. This is a lot more involved. The medicine is squirted into a chamber that connects to a piece that goes in Cadie’s mouth. Then, the medicine is vaporized using a nebulizer. All in all, it takes about 15 to 20 minutes for the whole process. Once Dr. Freed mentioned breathing treatments, I felt a lot better about Cadie’s condition. She’s always responded very well to breathing treatments.
The improvements were evident right away. He examined after the first treatment and could tell her breathing had already loosened up substantially. Dr. Freed ordered another breathing treatment, so we sat through the whole process again. After the second treatment, Cadie was starting to act like her usual self, and Dr. Freed was very happy with her progress. After the second treatment, she was “satting” around 91 (he explained the phenomenon of the sat actually going down after treatments before rising again, but I’m not going to bore you with it), so we had to wait a while for the treatments to show results on the Pulsox. Finally, about two hours later, things were looking much better. I wasn’t surprised when they had to move the monitor to her toes to get a decent reading on the Pulsox. That’s where we had to keep it to get a good reading when she was a baby. These things, I guess, don’t change. Dr. Freed sent us home with a nebulizer, a prescription for Albuterol (the steroid that goes with the nebulizer), a prescription for an oral steroid, and an antibiotic. He advised us that we wouldn’t need to bring Cadie in for a check-up unless she didn’t appear to be getting better.
That night, both of the girls crashed from exhaustion. Cadie slept really well and woke the next morning a changed kiddo. She’s done really well with her breathing treatments, putting up only the occasional protest. She’s not a big fan of the oral medicine (who is?), but as long as Maddie and I chant, “Drink, drink, drink, drink!” she giggles and chugs it all down. Her breathing was noticeably improved right away. The wheezing disappear almost immediately and her coughing lessened to just enough to break up the congestion.
Yesterday, Maddie started showing signs of not feeling well. Once we found out Cadie was sick, I started taking precautions to make sure they shared as few germs as possible. I don’t think Maddie has pneumonia, just a touch of something else, but I’m doing my best to make sure it’s not passed back to Cadie.
Last night, Maddie was having a hard time resting, so I brought her into our room with intentions of letting her sleep with Daddy until I finished up with my tasks for the evening. As I carried her to our room, I had the privilege of being thrown up on for the very first time. I’ve felt like a mom for ages now, but it’s nice to know I’ve experienced another rite of passage. Bless her heart, I got her cleaned up and showed her how to be sick over the potty. She was upset, but kept it together pretty well. After I got her new jammies on her, she curled up in bed with a very brave daddy and fell asleep. She slept well the rest of the evening, and woke with only a mild temperature this morning. It seems she, too, is on the mend.
Please don’t let the cycle start again!
Since we’ve been home (last Thursday), we haven’t had much down time. We celebrated my little sister’s birthday Friday evening, Valentine’s Day Saturday evening, and Cadie started getting sick on Sunday. Her breathing became very ragged and labored that evening, and she was restless all night. I think we got a combined two to three hours of sleep. So Monday morning, sleep-deprived and bleary-eyed, I called the pediatrician and made an appointment. She rested in my lap all morning until I finally drug her mattress into the living room, propped her up, and allowed her to rest like a queen. She loved it.
My first thought was RSV, but my gut kept telling me it was pneumonia. My gut was right. Dr. Mayberry wasn’t in the office Monday, so we saw Dr. Freed. He was concerned about how tight her breathing was, so we did some X-rays – Cadie’s first since the hospital – and some breathing treatments. He also measured her oxygen saturation using a Pulsox. She was “satting” around 94 (out of 100). Cadie did really well with the X-rays. I couldn’t ask for a better sick kid. She’s quiet, still, and very cooperative. She stood totally still, giggling just occasionally, and we got two X-rays on the first try. The technician asked if it was okay for me to stay in the room with her. She hesitated, then asked if there was a possibility I was pregnant. I laughed and left it at that.
Once we got back to the exam room, we started the breathing treatment. Cadie did breathing treatments for about a year after she came home from the hospital, but they were very different from this one. She used to do her breathing treatments with a mask connected to a chamber through which the medicine was pumped distributed from something similar to an asthma inhaler. It was a couple of pumps, then we were done. This is a lot more involved. The medicine is squirted into a chamber that connects to a piece that goes in Cadie’s mouth. Then, the medicine is vaporized using a nebulizer. All in all, it takes about 15 to 20 minutes for the whole process. Once Dr. Freed mentioned breathing treatments, I felt a lot better about Cadie’s condition. She’s always responded very well to breathing treatments.
The improvements were evident right away. He examined after the first treatment and could tell her breathing had already loosened up substantially. Dr. Freed ordered another breathing treatment, so we sat through the whole process again. After the second treatment, Cadie was starting to act like her usual self, and Dr. Freed was very happy with her progress. After the second treatment, she was “satting” around 91 (he explained the phenomenon of the sat actually going down after treatments before rising again, but I’m not going to bore you with it), so we had to wait a while for the treatments to show results on the Pulsox. Finally, about two hours later, things were looking much better. I wasn’t surprised when they had to move the monitor to her toes to get a decent reading on the Pulsox. That’s where we had to keep it to get a good reading when she was a baby. These things, I guess, don’t change. Dr. Freed sent us home with a nebulizer, a prescription for Albuterol (the steroid that goes with the nebulizer), a prescription for an oral steroid, and an antibiotic. He advised us that we wouldn’t need to bring Cadie in for a check-up unless she didn’t appear to be getting better.
That night, both of the girls crashed from exhaustion. Cadie slept really well and woke the next morning a changed kiddo. She’s done really well with her breathing treatments, putting up only the occasional protest. She’s not a big fan of the oral medicine (who is?), but as long as Maddie and I chant, “Drink, drink, drink, drink!” she giggles and chugs it all down. Her breathing was noticeably improved right away. The wheezing disappear almost immediately and her coughing lessened to just enough to break up the congestion.
Yesterday, Maddie started showing signs of not feeling well. Once we found out Cadie was sick, I started taking precautions to make sure they shared as few germs as possible. I don’t think Maddie has pneumonia, just a touch of something else, but I’m doing my best to make sure it’s not passed back to Cadie.
Last night, Maddie was having a hard time resting, so I brought her into our room with intentions of letting her sleep with Daddy until I finished up with my tasks for the evening. As I carried her to our room, I had the privilege of being thrown up on for the very first time. I’ve felt like a mom for ages now, but it’s nice to know I’ve experienced another rite of passage. Bless her heart, I got her cleaned up and showed her how to be sick over the potty. She was upset, but kept it together pretty well. After I got her new jammies on her, she curled up in bed with a very brave daddy and fell asleep. She slept well the rest of the evening, and woke with only a mild temperature this morning. It seems she, too, is on the mend.
Please don’t let the cycle start again!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
We Were Sick
Last Wednesday, I wrote about Cadie’s newfound heartache over the circumstances of their premature birth. It was an incident that took me totally off guard and left me a little dumbfounded. Over the past few days, though, it seems as though the girls have come to terms with Cadie’s heartache in their own way.
The memory of the video obviously stuck with them because the very next day they began announcing, “We were sick…when we were born. But, the doctors took care of us, and so did Mommy and Daddy. We’re not sick anymore.” They were repeating all the assurances I had given them the day we watched the video. Again, I was blind-sided. So, there I sat, watching my two-year-old twin daughters comforting one another, already wise beyond their years.
They’ve since continued to discuss their birth both with each other and with me and Jeff. And, I’ve since continued to be amazed by the two beautiful blessings before me.
The memory of the video obviously stuck with them because the very next day they began announcing, “We were sick…when we were born. But, the doctors took care of us, and so did Mommy and Daddy. We’re not sick anymore.” They were repeating all the assurances I had given them the day we watched the video. Again, I was blind-sided. So, there I sat, watching my two-year-old twin daughters comforting one another, already wise beyond their years.
They’ve since continued to discuss their birth both with each other and with me and Jeff. And, I’ve since continued to be amazed by the two beautiful blessings before me.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
From the Mouths of Babes
For several months now, we’ve had the same bedtime routine: baths, jammies, brush teeth, drink of water, go to the potty, bedtime story, lights out (nightlights not included). Three or four months ago, though, we added a new part to the routine, bedtime prayers. The girls are old enough to understand the concept to a certain degree and they need to start developing a reverence for speaking to God, so we decided it was time to get started.
Now, every evening, the girls say their bedtime prayer:
Now, every evening, the girls say their bedtime prayer:
"Dear Jesus,
Thank you for my mommy and daddy.
Thank you for my grandmas and grandpas.
Thank you for my aunts and uncles.
Thank you for my cousins and all my friends.
Thank you for my sister.
Please be with me always.
In Jesus' name,
Amen."
I was amazed when, after a couple of nights, they both started picking up on the order. It’s a long list –one that could have been much longer if we hadn’t lumped people into groups – so I wasn’t expecting them to have it memorized right away.
Now, Cadie is very particular about saying her prayers. First, you have to have your hands in the proper position, palm to palm, in the traditional position, with eyes closed and your head bowed. If you don’t do it right, she will bug you until you do. This evening, she got through the entire prayer with minimal prompting. For some reason, she takes it a lot more seriously than Maddie does. I think of Cadie as an old soul, though, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Tonight, after our stories and prayer, Cadie put her own spin on things. She declared that she wanted to say her prayers by herself. Jeff and I couldn’t help but smile when we heard,
Now, Cadie is very particular about saying her prayers. First, you have to have your hands in the proper position, palm to palm, in the traditional position, with eyes closed and your head bowed. If you don’t do it right, she will bug you until you do. This evening, she got through the entire prayer with minimal prompting. For some reason, she takes it a lot more seriously than Maddie does. I think of Cadie as an old soul, though, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Tonight, after our stories and prayer, Cadie put her own spin on things. She declared that she wanted to say her prayers by herself. Jeff and I couldn’t help but smile when we heard,
"Dear Jesus,
Thank you for my aunts and uncles.
Thank you for my daddy and for my mommy.
Thank you for my Maddie.
In Jesus' name,
Amen!"
Nothing could be sweeter than prayers to Jesus from the mouths of babes.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Turd is the Word
Yesterday afternoon, Maddie was getting cleaned up after a #2 in her pull-ups, so Jeff requested that Cadie bring him the “wipies”, our nickname for baby wipes. As Cadie brought them to the bathroom, Maddie matter-of-factly declared that they are actually called, “turd wipes”. I don’t what it is with my children and their embracing of the word turd, but this is not the first occasion they have found excuse to use it. I promise it’s not a word I use on a daily basis, but it must have struck a chord with them because they use it with inexplicable fondness. Jeff laughed, then spent the rest of the day calling their pull-ups “turd catchers”. That’s right, not only do we expose our children to words like “turd”, but we also encourage the usage by presenting them with new phrases containing the word. Luckily, it doesn’t look like “turd catchers” has caught on, but it’s becoming more and more clear that we aren’t raising two prim and proper girls. These girls can talk turds with the best of ‘em!
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