Ultimate Fighter

Every once in a while Lacey gets so banged up that Butch calls her the Ultimate Fighter Champion. On Saturday, she fell and bit her lip (her bottom left), resulting in blood and a little swelling. Yesterday, she refused to hold my hand and fell down the steps to the garage. Luckily, she didn't hit the concrete. However, she did get scraped up (her right forhead, cheek and nose). Then, after her nap, I found a clump of melted candy in her hair (her left side). I guess she had it in her hands when she fell asleep in the car. Luckily, this washed out pretty easily. But, I had to take a picture!

Lacey's 18 Month Check Up

Lacey had her well baby visit last week. She weighed 23 pounds....25-50th percentile, so still a little petite thing. Dr. Jill is still very happy with that. They said her height was 35 1/4 inches, which is like 95th percentile. I think they must have gotten it wrong. It's pretty easy to, since toddlers don't like to lay there and be measured. I think I'll try to do it myself with a mark on the wall.

She had to get her chicken pox vaccine, but did really well. Screamed (of course), but quit with 30 seconds. No side effects from it, thankfully. They also did a finger prick to test for iron since she is such a picky eater. I'm guessing that will be fine, because although she's picky, many of the few things she eats are high in iron (eggs, spinach, oatmeal breakfast cookies).

So....now she isn't due back officially until she's 2. But, we'll go back in October for a flu shot. Hopefully we won't be back for anything else until then!!!!


*****
I'm back....I did check her height again on my own (with a mark on the wall the way my mom used to do). She is only 32.25". I don't know how they got that so wrong!

Not much

So the summer is coming to a close! Butch went back to work yesterday. Lacey starts daycare next Tuesday. I've been home with her for a couple of days, and Chuck/Nancy are coming into town tonight to help out for the rest of the week. We took L to daycare one afternoon last week - just for an hour or so - and she was loving it. Of course, Butch was there the whole time, but she wasn't paying any attention to him. And, when I came, she waved to me and went about her business. She didn't want to leave when we did. I'm taking her again on Thursday morning for a little bit and am hoping she'll be the same way.

She & I both have colds. Blah. I've been drugging us both with Benadryl at night so that we can sleep well. Hoping that she avoids an ear infection this time. She has her well baby appt. tomorrow, so we'll see how her ears are doing then. She's due for her chicken pox vaccine - ouch. The # of vaccines have gone up 50% in the past 10 years. I read that a few days ago.

Toonces is hanging in there. Since I've been dilligent about giving him his fluids every single day, he's been eating better and has gained a little weight. I'm hoping he'll get some more muscle in his back leg so that he can walk a little better. He was having trouble getting in and out of the litter box...and decided just to go outside of it. So, I bought smaller, kitten sized boxes and he's doing okay with that.

We got directv hooked up in our basement, in front of the treadmill and I love it! We have DVR (Tivo) there, too, so I can watch my soap while I'm walking. (Yes, it's my guilty pleasure....I still watch Days of Our Lives.) I can walk for 30-40 min. while watching it and the time flies. Hopefully I'll get back into a shape! Oh - the best part is that we aren't paying any more per month for this. We canceled the DTV in our bedroom since we never watched it.

Toonces Update

When we got back from OBX, I realized that Toonces was looking very thin again, so I weighed him. He was back down to 5.5 pounds again. I called the vet and had to wait about 2 weeks for an appointment. He was looking even smaller on Sunday, and not eating hardly at all. So, back on the scale again - this time about 4 pounds. I was able to move the vet appt. from Wednesday (today) to Monday, thankfully. My poor boy's kidneys are failing. The vet thinks they are probably about 70% shut down. He doesn't eat b/c his kidneys aren't flushing out all the bad things and it makes him feel sick.

So, the vet sent us home with some fluids, which I give him each day. It's like an IV bag. I put a needle under his skin and let the fluids run in for a few minutes. He seems to be doing a little bit better already. He won't be cured, but at least he feels better. The vet had given me a recipe for a homeade diet that's low protein -- and it is rather gross. Plus, Toonces is smart enough to eat all the meat and leave the rice - not good since it's supposed to be low protein. So, my friend (a vet tech) is sending me some special canned food to give him instead. She said she's known cats that lived for months with the fluids, so as long as it isn't stressful to Toonces or to us, just to keep that up. There is a part of me that thinks it is just his time, but until things get worse, I can't make that decision.

This week

We are dogsitting Woody - Rick & Kristina's Maltese. He's a cutie. But, he has issues. I think he needs a therapist. Major separation anxiety. Luckily, since Butch is home for the summer, he's not left alone. When he is, he will mess on the floor b/c he is so stressed out. So, Butch thinks Woody has more of a problem than that. He, for some reason, thinks Woody will just pee whenever. So, he's been putting the water dish up at bedtime. This was a problem on Sunday night. Woody woke me up 2x to drink. The first time, I thought he just wanted outside, so I let him out. But, realized that he was thirsty. Then, 2 hours later, he woke me up again. My guess is that after being outside (at my dad's) in the heat all day, he was just needing more water. He had water available at Dad's, but must not have had much.

Then, on Monday night, Lacey woke up 3-4 times throughout the night. So, I was exhausted yesterday. I should have gone to bed early. But....Butch had a late volleyball match and I usually stay up to keep the dog(s) from barking when he gets home and waking Lacey. I didn't go to bed until 11:00. Stupid me. I'm beat.

We had some a/c problems again. It wasn't cooling off well upstairs before we went on vacation. But, we couldn't get someone in before we left, so I called this guy after we got back who said he could do it and to call when we were back in town.. I called him 3 times over a week or so. He never called me back. Then, I remembered someone else that we know that does HVAC work and called him. He was there within 3 hours. ;-) He refilled the coolant for us, so it's working for now. But, yes, we have a leak. It was filled last in early June.

Now that we've dealt with sleeping in much warmer temperatures, we're leaving the thermostat turned up a bit. Lacey had been sleeping so well while the a/c was broken, that I wondered if she had been cold previously. The night that she woke 3-4 times, was the first night that she'd woken in the middle of the night in over a week. So, last night, we turned the thermostat up a couple of degrees and she slept through. Hmmmm.

It is so freakin' hot here. Yesterday, I checked weather.com for Hughesville and it was 100*....and the heat index was 116*. Yikes. We are supposed to see some cooling off on Friday....thankfully. I think today it is supposed to hit 101*.

We're going to Pittsburgh this weekend for Chuck & Nancy's 45th anniversary (and Chuck's 75th birthday) party. Steve, Marilee and Samantha are coming in, too. I'm excited for Lacey & Sam to see each other again. They were only about 5 months old when they met.

I'm not looking forward to 5 hours (or more) in the car with a 17 month old, though. It's about a 5 hour trip normally - with 1 or 2 quick stops. I know it will be longer with Lacey. She gets so frustrated being confined for long periods. I bought a couple of new DVDs for the trip and a new toy. We can use those when things are getting rough.