Sick baby = sad mommy

So, Zion has had a runny nose on and off for a couple of weeks now. There have been colds passed round and round the house since the weather changed. On top of the fact that she has been teething for weeks (current tooth count, 4. 2 on top, 2 on the bottom), she has been a snotty mess. The runny nose returned a few days ago and initially I thought it may have been something that she was eating, but yesterday I noticed that she was breathing pretty fast and as the day progressed she began to wheeze and was running a temperature. We decided to take her to the ER just to be on the safe side. Of course with the whole swine flu madness going on there were a bunch of people in masks sitting in the waiting room. I opted to wait my turn out by the elevator. After 6 hours in the emergency room, one nasal swab, an albuterol treatment, a shot of antibiotics, a dose of Tylenol and a chest x-ray, we were sent home with a diagnosis of RSV and an ear infection in both ears. All of that seems like enough to make any adult crabby, but my sweet little angel took it all in stride. She has been in good spirits and if it wasn't for the runny nose, you wouldn't even know she was sick. She cooperated and fussed very little (even with the shot), she laid still for the x-ray, only fussed a little for the swab, but she did spit Tylenol on the nurse. But after all she'd been through, I think it was warranted. Today, she has been doing pretty well. She's still all over the house and she ate dinner this evening (she hadn't been eating much). Her breathing sounds much better after tonight's nebulizer treatment and we have the humidifier going near her bed. Hopefully by the end of the week we will be back to 100%. I read somewhere that babies display new abilities after they've gotten over a fever. I'm afraid that she will be walking or talking in sentences when she does get better. I think I would take walking over talking right now. I don't know if I could handle another talker in this house. I haven't been able to hear my own internal dialogue in years!

Fun with playdough

I'd been promising the girls for months that I would get them some playdough when we got the art room together. It took months, but we've finally put our unused laundry room to use as the kids' art room. It has been a VERY welcomed addition to the house. I'm not sure who thinks that carpet is good for a house with children, but we have been blessed/cursed with a lovely house covered in carpet. Because of that, there has been very little paint or playdough used over the last year. So this morning while waiting F-O-R-E-V-E-R for Zion prescription to be filled at Walmart, I decided to finally get the girls some playdough. They played Ace of Cakes and Food Network Challenge (Cake Off) all day (except for when I forced them to do some math and reading). Jena created her own playdough island, complete with waves in the water. I'm sure some day soon I will have pictures of 8 tier wedding cakes draped in flowers.

Kids and cameras

I'd forgotten that I let Ashni take pictures with my camera this past weekend as she and her sisters walked around the neighborhood. Children have an uncanny ability to take incredibly focused and candid photographs of their surroundings. They can capture the true nature of their subjects in a way that I could only hope to. They can also take pictures of some of the most ridiculous things. I have my fair share of butt photos, cracked concrete photos, blurry grass photos, but I guess those too have their charm. I usually keep them all, maybe hoping that when they are 15 or 18 or 25 that they will get a kick out of their early photography. Here are some of this more entertaining photos from the weekends photo shoot...

Is she doing what I think she's doing? EWW...

The stroller handle?

There were an abnormal number butt pictures. i enjoy Bijou's Napoleon Dynamite-esque boots-pants combo that she has going on here. You take what you get when you let them dress themselves. She loves these boots.

The driveway...or the road....or the neighbor's driveway....not sure.

and some that melt my heart...

Jena, the other mother. She's VERY sweet and patient with the little ones. Now she and Ashni, that's another matter entirely.

The future IS now! The most awesome shirt in Bijou's current wardrobe.

Ashni and Bijou played very well on this day. It was refreshing. I dread the upcoming winter and everyone being closed in the house all day. I think we will be taking lots of trips to Memphis and Tupelo for activities outside the house.

Bijou was trying to calm Zion who'd had enough of the playpen in the driveway. Excuse the snotty baby nose. This, I assume, was the beginning of her RSV and ear infection she is fighting right now.

Years of being duped

For years I have been led to believe that Duncan Hines was the master of frosting, Aunt Jemima had the lock down on pancakes, Pilsbury was the king of biscuits, Betty Crocker....well, you get where I'm going with this right. Pop open a can or a box and whip up some deliciousness in no time flat, right? Wrong! A couple of years ago I decided to be bold (and a bit crazy) and whip up a carrot cake from scratch. I'd never made anything from scratch before. It just seemed like something that only grandmothers and Stepford wives did. And a carrot cake? Seems a bit complicated for a first attempt, but it was the most delicious slice of cream cheese frosted heaven that I'd ever tasted. After the carrot cake came the lemon buttercream frosting on homemade lemon cupcakes (um, I like cake and cake-type foods). Since that day, if I can make it from scratch, I will make it from scratch. Sunday is generally buttermilk biscuit day around here. I make a big batch and we all have breakfast together (well, the hubby works Saturday nights, so he usually has breakfast a few hours after the rest of us). I was too lazy this morning to whip up a batch, so instead of making my own, I thought I'd share the recipe and maybe someone else will start their own buttermilk biscuit Sunday. Bijou is getting her practice in now. Enjoy!

Buttermilk Biscuits

3 cups all purpose flour

3 tbsp sugar (optional, I leave this out a lot)

3 tsp baking powder

rounded 1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 stick of butter (cold and cut into cubes)

1 1/2 cup of cold well shaken buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Sift into another bowl. Use a fork or a pastry cutter to cut in the butter. The consistency will be like moist sand. Some large lumps of butter left in are fine, you don't want to over work it. Stir in the buttermilk and mix until the dough sticks together and forms a ball. On a floured surface knead the dough 4 - 6 times. It is VERY important to ONLY knead 4 - 6 times. If you knead too much your biscuits will be tough.

Arrange on a non stick baking sheet (I use my pizza pan) so that the biscuit are just touching one another. Brush the tops with milk. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

On a couple of occasions I have added cinnamon to the biscuit dough and made a brown sugar glaze to spoon over them once they come out of the oven. Enjoy with a big glass of milk. Don't they look SUPER DELICIOUS?!!!! They are!!

A labor of love

For years I have said that knitting and crocheting are skills that were completely unattainable for me. It all seemed so complicated and time consuming (two qualities that I do NOT look for in a project), but I could not help drooling over all of the super cute crocheted baby accessories that I came across perusing Etsy. I am self proclaimed baby hat fanatic. Add ear flaps and/or a pompom and I am hooked. A few months ago, a friend, who was relocating to the Bahamas (lucky!), was cleaning out her stash of hand dyed alpaca yarn. I left her house with 6 or 7 skeins and absolutely no idea what I was going to do with it. On that day I decided that I would learn to crochet if it killed me. To be honest, I stored the yarn away and didn't think about it again for months. A few weeks ago I came across the yarn and Jena's plastic crochet needle from her potholder kit. That discovery sparked my newly reawakened desire to crochet. After much stress, many cramped hands and many, many youtube how to videos, I successfully completed my very first hat for Bijou. It took me a total of 3 full days. 3 DAYS!!! Now, a secondhand felted Goodwill sweater can be reconstructed into a very cute hat (and matching boots) in about an hour, so three days was a bit much for me. I declared Bijou's white and blue hat my first and last hat attempt.
(She was not happy about being photographed on this day for some reason, hence the extra attitude in the face.)
But being the determined (and sometimes insane) mama that I am, I decided to keep trucking and give it another try. Today, I am proud to say that I can officially crochet very cute little hats for my babies (complete with ear flaps AND pompoms) and it only takes me a day. Two if the children are being uncooperative. I've shaved off 2/3 of my crochet time. Not bad if I do say so myself...

So far, all of the girls have hats and I'm still making more. If nothing else, they will have warm heads for the rest of their days. But don't worry unwanted, secondhand, felted wool Goodwill sweaters, I am still making hats and boots with you too!

Fallen

This is our first fall in our house in Oxford. I guess this would be the girls' first official fall settled on the mainland. They are enjoying the crisp air and colors of fall. We took a field trip to Home Depot to pick up a couple of rakes (because that's not a tool one needs when living on an island) so the girls could rake up the leaves in the backyard. The mountain of leaves was mind boggling - at least as tall as Bijou. Zion wanted to join them, but I'm pretty sure I'd have lost her in the mound, so she was forced to watch from the window.

Reduce, Reuse, RECONSTRUCT

I am a big fan of cardboard and its many uses. My favorite use right now? Fabulous and virtually free toys for the kids. Because the phrase "starving artist" in heavily weighted in truth, awesome toys can be beyond our financial reach. The solution, my friends? If you can't buy it, recreate it. To date, we've made a lovely kitchen for Bijou complete with sink and oven. She was in desperate need of a place to prepare her array of felt food (I was beginning to miss my pretend meals). It took weeks, but the girls and I finally finished the cardboard dollhouse. AND because I've gotten so much positive feedback, I've decided to complete my illustrated instruction book for both projects. Honestly, I've tired of retyping instructions in emails over and over again. Here are some pictures of Bijou's kitchen (and food) and the dollhouse. Keep and eye out for the instruction books coming soon! At some point I would like to be able to construct a few pieces of cardboard furniture. Keep your fingers crossed.

The dollhouse in its skeletal stage. It's all held together with packing tape and Elmer's.

A fresh coat of yellow picked out by the girlies.

Sandpaper and black construction paper make the shingles on the roof. Shutters and doors added.

The kiddos trying their hand at interior design. Their choice of wall treatments is questionable.


The kitchen. Complete with fridge, stove, oven and sink. The lovely shelf above the stove is cut out of an Ikea catalog.

The living room sofa and more Ikea home furnishings. We are particularly fond of the green lamp.

The completed front door with handle and porch light cut from a home furnishings magazine

Blue bathroom on the third floor.

The family is all moved in and ready to play!















Some pictures of the kitchen, as well as pictures of the felt food I made to go along with it. Some of the food is new, the rest is transplanted from the cardboard kitchen we had in St. Croix.

Some day I will master the blog format....unfortunately it will not be today, blah...