Have you ever hoped your kid had the flu?

On Sunday night, Kara started throwing up right before bed. I got it all cleaned up in the bathroom and her bedroom, and Ben took her in to sleep by him on the guest bed. I gave her some pedialyte, and she immediately threw that up too. She kept crying and begging for a drink, but she was throwing up even a little sip of water. I got the sheets changed on the guest bed, and we finally got both girls to sleep. as soon as I fell asleep, Ben came and woke me up saying that she was throwing up again. This continued about every hour until 2 am. Ben did not wake up that time, I just heard her in the bathroom crying. So I went in there, and she had been throwing up more. So I finally brought her in to sleep by me. She kept it up until about 4:30 and finally fell asleep. After Ben left for work in the morning, I was up with Kiersten, and Kara got a few hours sleep. I called the pediatrician's office, and they said they could get her in by 1:30. then they called me back and pushed it back to 2:00 because of lots of walk-ins. then they called AGAIN to change me to 4:00. Kara was still not holding anything down, so I didn't want to wait that long. I called back to see how long I would wait if I just took her to the urgent care clinic. (same office, same doctors, just different rooms reserved for urgent care) she told me they only had one patient in the urgent care right then, so to come now. I got both girls ready and went straight there, only to be told we had to wait an hour. So we waited and waited and everyone was getting called back but us. I kept asking how much longer, and they kept saying they didn't know and to go sit back down. They kept calling for Karla Miller and there was no one there responding. I asked if they meant Karalee Miller, and the nurse angrily told me no. Finally, I had been waiting over 2 hours, and I demanded the receptionist tell me how many people were still ahead of us. she went to check and said that we had no chart because the girl who checked us in typed in Karla Miller instead! They had all been present when I had asked if they didn't mean Karalee, and I am ashamed to admit I threw a tiny fit at that point. I even implied that the girl who checked us in was stupid. So now I feel badly about that, but I was really frustrated. Kiersten was hungry and bored, and Kara was sick. By the time we finally got called back, she was melting down and would not cooperate with the nurses or the doctor. But I let them deal with it because it seemed like their own fault! she didn't have any flu symptoms other than vomiting, and no temp. she tested negative for strep, so the doctor was a bit perplexed. she was dehydrated and constipated, but he told me not to increase her miralax because if it does turn out she has the flu, she will get painful diahrea. He thinks she might have a bladder infection, which is uncommon for her age, but he said her symptoms are pointing to that. He is the same Dr. that dealt with her rectal prolapse last year, and had her tested for CF, so he knows her history pretty well. given that she's been on the miralax and a high fiber diet for a year, and still has problems, he wants to test her for childhood diabetes. there were other reasons, but he did say it is not too likely, but a possibility we need to rule out. She was crying and begging to go home by that point, and we couldn't get her to pee in the cup. So the Dr. finally sent us home with a kit to collect her pee and bring it back the next day. So all last night and today I tried to get her to do it. This was not easy, because she hasn't wanted to use the potty for the past few days. she cries and says she can't or doesn't want to. I eventually got her to do it aroud noon today. So we rushed it over to the pediatrician's office (they wanted it as fresh as possible). I thought I would just be dropping it off, but they had me wait there for 45 minutes just to have the nurse come out and tell me that they will be sending it to the lab and call me when they get the results. a few days for the bladder infection results, and about a week on the prelim. diabetes test. so now we just get to wait. I am really hoping that it is just the flu and this was all a waste of time, but I am glad that he is really trying to figure out what's causing her problems, even if I don't like thinking about all the possibilities. she is feeling better today, and no more puking. the only issue, is she is still hesitant to go potty in the toilet. I really think (and hope) that it's just her defiant personality and not a serious medical condition.

cute Christmas pictures!

it's over now

christmas is gone again until next year. I am soooo glad we didn't travel anywhere this year. We've been watching all those people on the news who are stranded at the airport for DAYS, and just being happy to be cozy in our house.


Christmas eve was a fun day together.Kara and I made cute snowman cupcakes and a rice krispie house. I have to admit, I let Kara do most of the decorating on the house herself, so it's not the best looking, but I was so tired of doing projects by that point, and I was also trying to help Ben with dinner. Ben made us such a yummy dinner. He did a pot roast with potatoes and carrots, artichokes, and I did the rolls and jello. Both of the girls loved the dinner too. Unfortunately, Ben got one of his first bites of meat stuck in his throat. I guess it's about time for him to go back in for work on it. He tried and tried, and thought he could get it down, but it just wouldn't budge. he kept puking violently every time he would try to swallow anything. He shook up a soda and tried to force it down with that, but he just ended up getting soda with little food particles on every wall of the bathroom. the sink and floor were covered, and the ceiling too. so that was not too fun to clean up. I called the hospital to see what the wait time was, (he's waited for over 12 hours before when this has happened, because a specialist has to come in to take care of it) but the ER lady refused to give out a time frame because she said it is always changing. she just kept telling me to call 911. I tried to explain that he could breathe, so this was not life or death, and she said, "just do what you need to do then, I can't help over the phone". all I wanted was a little info, jeez! so Ben decided he didn't want to go until the next day. he still wanted to eat his dinner, even though he couldn't swallow, so he sat there with a bowl to puke it back into. so that was a bit... disturbing. but he didn't want to miss out on it. Then the girls got to open some jammies from us and their gifts to each other, which were disney blankets with their names on them. Kara got cinderella and Kiersten got Tinkerbell. And we opened our gifts from the girls, which were... disney blankets!!! Ben got Jack the pumpkin king, and I got minnie mouse. They had our names on them too. Kara ended up having an accident on the couch, so don't worry, I had plenty of cleaning up to do. so the couch was wet and it was too much for ben to be around all the yummy goodies we had, so we all went upstairs to spend the evening in the family room. Kiersten and Kara went to bed early, so Santa was able to visit relatively early. But Kara woke up and was far too excited to go back to bed. she kept Ben up til around 2:30. and then Kiersten was up bright and early at 6, so I let her play around for a while so the other 2 could get more sleep. I think everyone finally got up around 8 or 8:30. The food fell down to Ben's stomach overnight. He said it was a Christmas Miracle! We were so glad to not have to go out in the yucky snow on Christmas day!

The girls were so cute playing with everything, and even had a switcheroo where they both ended up with each other's stocking stuffers. they finally got to unwrap all those presents under the tree. that sure took a while. Kiersten only liked it for a few gifts, then she just wanted to play, and who can blame her? Ben was pretty good about getting things put together quickly so they could play. It was a really nice day. Ben got to relax and play his new video game a lot. we also played tons with the girls and I didn't make Kara do any chores or "tidying up" as we call it. Kara got hi-ho cherry-o and candy land. those were both really fun to play with her. Ben even let kiersten play candy land. Kara's favorite gift is her leapster from Grandma Howard. I can not believe how much she was glued to that thing yesterday. She also got a stroller, carseat, and bed for her new baby doll, so that was a hit too. Kiersten loves this musical mirror with instruments that she got from Grandma Howard. They both actually played with that a lot. She also really likes her new glow worm. and they both had fun jumping on the bubble wrap that came in a gift from my sister Chris. Hopefully next year will be even better! (without any choking)

Snowed in

Thanks to the lovely snow storm we've been having, Ben has only worked one day out of the past 9 days. It's driving him crazy because if this snow were in Idaho or Utah, we would totally be driving in it. But with all the people around who don't know how to drive in snow, and the lack of salt for the roads, it is so scary out there. The news is reporting accident after accident during their traffic report. We have all started getting cabin fever the last few days. We were starting to turn on each other, so we had a few quick trips to wal-mart, since it's just around the corner. I got an awesome new dyson vacuum, and Ben got a new mini fridge for his bar. The other thing that has saved our sanity is Christmas priojects. Kara and I have made christmas suckers, cookies, brownies, painted wooden christmas magnets, and tomorrow we are doing snowman cupcakes and a gingerbread house. It seems crazy to do so many things, but if we don't, she will find a mess to make. Ben is driving in to work tomorrow with a coworker who has 4 wheel drive. Hopefully they'll be okay on those icy Seattle hills!

This Christmas

Kara is so excited for Christmas this year! she has been watching so many Christmas cartoons. Every day she asks if Santa is coming that night. She'll stop and say, do you hear that sound? Is it Santa? She gets kinda sad when we tell her no. So we thought she would love going to the mall to see Santa and sit on his lap, but she would not go near him. She got sooo angry that we tried to get her to do it. We got an adorable picture of Kiersten though. I'm so glad we finally got an advent calendar this year, because she loves opening the little door every night after dinner. Afterward, she counts how many days are left until Christmas. It is super cute. We made the mistake of letting the girls open a gift that one of Ben's clients from Hawaii sent for them. Now, they don't understand why they can't open the rest of presents downstairs. Only 4 days left!