Grandparents Come to California '05

Grandmom and Grandpop arrived on Friday afternoon to hugs and kisses from Olivia, weird looks from Sophia and toots and burps from Gracie. By Saturday morning, everyone was having fun, playing and laughing. We spent Sat. in the pool, the Greg wanted to go on the historic Niles Canyon train ride. Check out the pictures to see how that went over. Grandmom brought a Princess tent for the girl which was a big hit. Today the big event was sidewalk painting. Lets just say more paint was on the girls than the sidewalk!

The Road to Recovery..and Sanity

Today was the first day in a few that I have been able to give an update and I am glad to say I think we are all recovering from this nasty virus. Today was the first day they are actually eating and drinking things and keeping it down. They are playing as well. I knew Olivia was ok by her defiaance =) and I knew Sophia was OK when she woke up talking instead of screaming. Let hope this is not too early and this thing turns on me. Some pictures from today below.
Congrats Jude on winning your flight in the club championship!

Status Report from the Sickie Ward

Olivia started throwing up tonight but she was running a fever all day and did not eat much so she really had nothing to throw up. She is sleeping out here in the loft with me and doing ok. No temp as of now. Sophia kept down a bit of food today and even kept down some milk before going to bed. She woke up around 1 am and came to sleep in the loft with Olivia and I. After several kicks to the face and a head butt I put her back in her crib. As I did, she let me know she was hungry and took a bottle. That was 10 minutes ago. Lets hope that stays down and her diahrrea goes away soon.
Kim and Gracie are well sleeping pretty good from the sounds of it.
Good luck Judy in the club championship!

She Loves Me, She Likes Me, She Can't Smell Me, I Got My Hair Cut

Yes folks, that would be the fever talking. Olivia, in her fever induced delirious chatter told me "Daddy, I love you and I like you too, but I can't smell you, no, but you got your hair cut when you were at Nanny's". Um, Tylenol please! So, I took Sophia to the Dr. after the night of throwing up and it was determined she has a stomach flu. She threw up a few times this morning but kept down a little food and pedialyte this afternoon. She had a slight fever before bed, but I just checked on her and she seems OK. Let's see how the night goes for her. Olivia was fine this morning but as I was in the Dr.'s office with Sophia, Nanny called Kim to tell her Olivia was running a fever. Kim went to get her, with Gracie in tow then came to meet me to get Sophia and go home so I could go to work. Cheryl came over to take care of Olivia and Sophia while Kim and Gracie played "hide from the germs" in our room all day. Olivia's fever got to 102.4, but I just checked it and its down to 100.4. Let's hope its breaks over night. I guess we are skipping swim lessons tomorrow :). Kim took Gracie in for a post hospitalization follow up and the Dr. gave her a thumbs up. Now if we can all get healthy at the same time I will cancel my padded cell at the asylum and we can all enjoy a visit from Grandmom and Grandpop next week. Hey mom and dad, start your vitamin C shots now! :)

Life in Pietry Dish

This is the ultimate in up to date blogging for ya. Its a little after midnight, Gracie's first night home and wouldn't you have put money on someone getting sick? Well if you did go collect. At about 11:00 Sophia started throwing up. She has been dry heaving for the last hour. So, Kim is in our room taking care of Gracie for the night and I am here on Sophia's floor keeping watch (and keeping myself up by blogging). Hopefully a long time from now the girls will read these blogs and go easy on us :-). I will keep you posted on Sophia. Let's hope its just an upset stomach.

Gracie Comes Home

Gracie was sprung from the hospital today after 3 days. The finally determined that the fever was due to a cold and not anything bacterial. The first blood test they took was contaminated somehow and was giving a false positive. That is why it took so long to rule things out because they had to do additional test on the second day. The girls were very happy to have Gracie home and got dressed up for the home coming. See the pic below. Gracie weighed in at 8 lbs. 8 ozs. today before she left the hospital. While she was there she was the talk of the town. Many of the nurses from the nursery where she stayed for three weeks came to see her. They were so happy with how big she is and how well she is doing. It was very nice to be some place where they all knew Gracie. She was like a celebrity.

Waiting for Gracie

Gracie was admitted to the peds unit at Valley Care last night with a 101.4 fever. Its standard to have an infant Gracie's age admitted to the hospital for tests when they get a fever over 100.4. They have taken blood, urine and did a spinal tap to test for bacteria infection, etc. Results look ok so far but it takes about 24 hours for the cultures to grow. Gracie will be there until at least Wed. They have the fever down now and she is eating and sleeping OK. It could just be a cold, but at this age they really need to rule everything else out. Kim spent the night there last night and Olivia, Sophia and I went over there today to visit. Olivia really wants Gracie to come home from the doctors. She set up camp next to Gracie's crib for nappy today. Ah, sister hood, its not all pushing, biting, and taking each others toys. We will keep you up to date.

Holy Crap

We had lots of fun today in the swimming pool in the yard. But Daddy had the most fun when Olivia saw a fly in the pool which prompted her to say "Holy Crap". Hmm, I wonder where that came from? So Daddy when to interrogate and correct his little princess. D: "Olivia, we do not say that, that is bad." O: "Why?" D: "That's a bad word and we do not use bad words." O: "But, Mommy says it". Uh-oh, now I knew I was in trouble. D:"Ok sweetie, Mommy said it to let Daddy know it was a bad word" O: "Oh, OK". So later it got even funnier when Olivia decided to tell me her rules. These rules include the following... 1) We don't talk to strangers, 2) We don't pinch, bite or push, and 3) We don't say "Holy Crap". How funny. She told me the rule and broke it all in the same breath. It was really cute. When Kim asked Olivia what a stranger was Olivia said, "The Wolf and people we don't know".

Sophia had fun figuring out the may ways to go down a slide into the pool. She has always done the standard slide but today she figured out the backwards on the belly slide, the side belly slide and the "oh I am just gonna jump off the slide" slide. See pictures below.

Summer Fun '05

Sorry for the long time between updates. Been a crazy week. We started the girls in swim lessons this summer. They are really excited about it. You can see them in some cute swim outfits below. Olivia did really well yesterday considering last year we did not make it through 3 classes. Sophia really likes the water and playing, but when it comes to going under she is not so sure. It certainly has made bath time more fun these days as they both blow bubbles and get a little crazy like they do in the pool. Kim spent some time the other day training for her upcoming NASCAR race by racing the girls around the yard in the cars. It was a lot of fun to watch. Gracie is starting to eat more these days and has gotten down to 2 feedings through the night. Nice to get a little more sleep these days. A cute picture of Gracie below from yesterday. Judy and Steve are coming out for a visit in a few weeks and we are all looking forward to that. Olivia just told me there is soap up in her bathroom waiting for them to use. Not sure where that came from but hey, she seemed excited about it. =)