Busy, teeth, and sick...what else is new?!

Well since my last post lots has gone on in the Hughes household!! The first and MOST exciting thing is that Caroline got her first two teeth!!!! Yay!! They popped through the skin on the 18th of March. She got both bottom teeth at the same time...poor thing! Boy is she MUCH happier now that they broke through the skin. So now she is constantly licking them with her tongue and making funny little faces while exploring these new objects in her mouth! She doesn't like me to look at them, so we have yet to get a picture of the new pearly whites, but they are there...I've been bitten! :) She's growing up so fast! She is also now fully into 12 month outfits, which totally amazes me since Katherine was wearing these outfits when she was WALKING! Caroline is not even crawling yet! She's so sweet though. She's got the sitting up thing down pat pretty well now, but most of the time I will sit her in the floor, walk away for a second and then come back to find her lounging on the Boppy with her head on one side and her feet propped up on the other. She is one chill kid, that's for sure! She is also very excited with her ability to roll...everywhere. She will roll over onto her tummy, then onto her back and as soon as she sees the ceiling she just cracks up! She has also figured out that she can get what she wants if she rolls to it, so we are now into re-baby-proofing. Except this time for little people instead of just a three year old. Amazing how you forget about not having little stuff out that the baby will chew on, etc. Look out, because we are about to have two VERY mobile kiddos! AAGGHH!

Chris has been extremely busy with the shop and some personnel issues there. I think he has everything ironed out now, but for a while it was crazy, crazy! Business is still doing well and we are so thankful and blessed that we are thriving in a time where most contractors are closing up shop! Praise the Lord!

The weekend of March 20th, Chris and I took Katherine back to the Magic Kingdom for a special Mom, Dad and Katherine get-away. It wasn't intended to be a full day and night of just the three of us, but it ended up that way, and was very fun! We spent the whole day at the Magic Kingdom (main Disney park) and then went back at night for the Spectromagic Light Parade and Fireworks. Katherine was completely enamoured with all of the sights and sounds. She was also worn slam out! She was fast asleep and completely limp by the time we got on the bus toward the hotel. Sunday morning we got up and managed to have breakfast with Pluto and Minnie Mouse!! What a treat! Then we zipped back home in time for lunch with Grammie, Gray Gray, GiGi, Joe Joe and Caroline!! Caroline got to spend some quality time partying with Grammie and GrayGray while we were at Disney with Katherine. She was pretty excited to see me when we got home, but more excited to see her big sister Katherine! Caroline L-O-V-E-S her big sister. It's so sweet!

Last weekend was a weekend at home, and guess what?! We were FINALLY all well enough to go back to church?! Imagine that?! It was great to be back at church and Katherine was very glad to play dress up with the Princess outfits in the nursery. Especially since she now knows all of the Disney Princesses and which outfit belongs to each Princess. She favors Cinderella...as if there were a competition! :)

This week is Katherine's Spring Break, so it's been quality girl time in the Hughes house. Yesterday we managed to make an Easter Bunny cake and today we went shopping for "summer shoes." By summer shoes, I mean Crocs. Katherine wanted flip flops, but she HATES the thing between her toes, and surf shoes are horrible at collecting sand, so we met in the middle and decided on Crocs. You will never guess what color she picked...PINK! Imagine that?! So we are now all set for summer, complete with bathing suits, cover up, PINK crocs, and PINK sandals. Bring it on!!!

Caroline is not feeling so well today, so we will be going back to visit our wonderful Dr. W in an hour to see what's up with her. I am thinking that it's the croup again...we shall see!

Here is a picture of our Easter Bunny cake in honor of Easter this weekend! I'll try to get more pictures up on Shutterfly pronto! Enjoy!

10 Favorites

So I was thinking today that I should probably document my 10 favorite things that the girls are doing/saying at this stage. So here goes in completely random order:

Katherine (3 years old)
1. The way that she runs at top speed for the door when Daddy comes home screaming "DADDY!!!"
2. The way she dances...all of the time.
3. The way she lights up and says "Hi, Miss Caroline" when she sees her sister in the mornings or after a nap.
4. The way she will run up and hug me and say "I love you Mommy."
5. The way she says "Yum, delicious!" when she really likes something to eat.
6. The way she will ask "How bout that?" when she really wants to do something.
7. That her favorite color is PINK, PINK and more PINK.
8. The way she sings "Old MacDonald." It goes like this "Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-eye-ee-eye-oh. And on this farm he had a cow and BINGO was his name-o, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-eye-ee-eye-oh." Love it!
9. Her beautiful smile that will light up a room.
10. The way she remembers...EVERYTHING. You cannot get away with anything, because she will remember it all.

Caroline (8 months old)
1. Her smile first thing in the morning when I walk into her room. I swear I don't think a person could smile any bigger than that.
2. The way she adores her big sister.
3. How she will smile at anyone. They all think that she is the cutest thing ever.
4. How she kicks her feet and flaps her arms when she is really excited about something.
5. The way she gets SO excited to eat that she starts smacking her gums and lips in anticipation.
6. The way she belly laughs when Katherine dances.
7. That she is, for the most part, SO laid back and easy going.
8. That she babbles constantly and just seems completely content to talk to herself.
9. How excited she gets about bath time. She just about busts with excitement by the time I get her undressed and headed toward the bathroom.
10.How she will snuggle her little head into your shoulder and put her arms around your neck when you first pick her up. It's like she's giving you a hug! So sweet!

I know I am missing things that I just adore for both girls, but for now I will commit these to the blog world for eternity. :) We have been blessed with the SWEETEST little girls EVER! :)

On the mend...I think

Well I do believe that the Hughes crew is on the mend...I hope! I have my fingers crossed, prayers said, so here's to believing that we are over the worst of the germies and on our way back to healthy little munchkins. :)

Katherine still has a nasty sounding cough, but her fever is down to 99.3, which is a major improvement and she's back to her little defiant, testing self, so I'm taking that as a good sign. ;) She also has protested the past two days at naptime...also a good sign. :)

Caroline isn't nearly as fussy as she was a week ago, but she is still getting up 2-3 times per night to feed. This does not make Mommy happy, but I am hoping that it's just a growth spurt or teething and will quickly pass. I really enjoyed having a baby that slept 12-13 hours straight at night! Especially since Katherine still gets up once a night most nights. And she's 3! Caroline's fever is also down to around 99.1 or so.

All in all, I'm thinking we're ready to get back to normal...or at least get out of this stinkin house! :) I love my house, love being at home with the girls, but seriously?! I have only left the house for a quick trip to Target, a quick trip to the grocery store and a pediatrician visit since last FRIDAY! That's 7 whole days of house arrest...not cool. Yesterday was BEAUTIFUL, so I broke down and let Katherine go outside and play for a little bit, while I grilled our dinner. Of course by the time I finished grilling it was starting to get cold again, and is now rainy and dreary today. Yuck! What happened to my wonderful Florida weather?! I'm hoping that this weekend will be nice so we can finally get outside and PLAY! :)

Well both girls are down for a nap, so I think i will go do something for me, like read, or sleep or I don't know, but something! :)

More pics on shutterfly!

Pneumonia

Well the verdict is in and little Katherine has a very early case of pneumonia...ugh! We LOVE our pediatrician. We go to church with him and he is just the sweetest man ever. Perfect for his profession. He stayed late yesterday waiting for Katherine's x-rays to come in so that he could get the results and personally call me. He said that she didn't have the hard, fully formed balls consistent with pneumonia, but she had striations of mucus in her lungs. SO, based on his look and that of the radiologists' they decided that it is definitely early pneumonia due to her high fever, lack of appetite and overall no other symptoms except for a runny nose. So he called in a prescription to our local pharmacy and Christopher was able to pick it up on his way home from work. :) She took the medicine last night and was rather perky around bath time. Then at 3am (after her last dose of Motrin wore off) she woke up thirsty and burning up. Fever was 102.5 again. UGH! So we gave her some water, washed her down with a wet washcloth and got more Motrin in her. Luckily this morning she woke up at 6:45 with only a 99.9 fever! MUCH better! We are going to keep her close to home and try to get her to rest and drink as much fluids as possible. I have to call and check in with our favorite Dr. W in the next day or so as he may need to change her meds if she doesn't show progress. I am believing that she will knock this pneumonia out with her current meds and be raring to go sooner rather than later. :)

Caroline is still on the mend, but darn is that girl hungry! My little one that used to sleep 12-13 hours straight...has now been getting up once or twice a night to eat! She's so hungry that when I pick her up out of her crib, she gets so excited that she's going to eat that she starts smacking her lips and flapping her arms. It's like she's saying "OH GOODY, I get to eat!! FOOD, FOOD, FOOD, FOOD, FOOD." I am hoping that this is either the end of her illness or a growth spurt and that we will return to normal sleeping patterns soon! Mommy likes her sleep! :)

Well I'm off to make my big girl some blueberry pancakes for breakfast...I take this as a good sign that she wants to eat! Yesterday she didn't eat much of anything!

Birthday present and Katherine

My 29th birthday was yesterday...ugh...the last year of my 20s! :( For my birthday my hubby, girls and parents bought me a new camera. I am having SO much fun taking pictures with it, though I have NO idea how to really use the thing. I think we took something like 400 pictures yesterday. I know...CRAZY! I loaded a bunch onto the shutterfly website so you can go check them out there. http://hughesfam.shutterfly.com If you don't remember the password, just shoot me an e mail. :)

I had a WONDERFUL birthday thanks to my wonderful family. :) I love ya'll!!

This morning Katherine woke up with a pretty high fever 102.5 and just feel poopy. So we went back to see Dr. W...for the fourth time in ONE WEEK! Sheesh! It's a good thing we love him to death! :) Poor little Katherine might have pneumonia...yuck! Dr. W could hear something in her chest, but couldn't distinguish between pneumonia and noise in her throat. SO, we went and had a chest X-ray done a few minutes ago. We will know for sure sometime tonight or first thing in the morning. I am hoping it's just a virus and will run it's course. She's one pitiful little girly!

Caroline on the other hand, is feeling MUCH better. She still has a nasty sounding cough, but her fever is gone and she can breathe! Hallelujah! :) She will go back for another check up next Friday (19th) to make sure her ear infection has totally cleared up.

Chris and I are doing much better, so I think with the exception of Katherine we are all finally on the mend. I am believing that Katherine just has a mild virus and will be on the up and up super quick! :)

Well I"m off to fix some dinner and tend to my little ones. :) Enjoy the new pictures on shutterfly!!

One sick little Caroline

I just returned from the pediatrician's office...for the third time in four days. I think maybe I should just buy a permanent spot in the office. HA! Anyway, little Caroline was miserable last night, so I called first thing this morning and managed to get an appointment at 11am. So off the Hughes girls went to see our favorite Dr. W. We were seen almost immediately and they checked her breathing, blood oxygen levels, etc. Monday she had been diagnosed with the croup. Today the poor child was diagnosed with a laundry list of problems! As Dr. W put it...we took care of 90% of pediatric illnesses in one visit...lovely. She has a double middle ear infection, still has the croup and now also has viral bronchiolitis. Bummer! So we walked out with a prescription for amoxicillan (however you spell that) for her ear infection and a prescription for a nebulizer. Apparently this is some kind of steam breathing apparatus thing that we will have to give her 4 times a day to help with her wheezing and coughing. Poor thing! :( We already picked up the amox. and the medicine for the nebulizer. We are now waiting on our health provider to deliver the nebulizer and train us on how to use to darn thing. Fun stuff! The good news is that it is mild enough not to require hospitalization. :) So now we just stick close to home and keep her calm (not hard to do since she is Christopher's mini!) and give her the medicine! I must say I am very glad this did not happen with Katherine...calm has never been a part of her vocabulary, so it would have been much more of a challenge with her!

Well I"m off to take care of our little pumpkin! Hopefully my next post will report healthy little munchkins!! :)

Pictures from Disney

On the road to Disney!!!


Katherine reading in the chair all by herself, once we checked into our rental unit.


Katherine was mesmerized by the Disney characters at dinner...until they got close to her.

Katherine's birthday cupcake from Mickey!

Katherine and Caroline meet Prince Charming...Katherine was more interested in her cupcake.

Katherine being shy with Cinderella.

She wouldn't look at the camera for anything!

Not so sure about meeting the evil stepmother!

Doing some serious damage on her cupcake!

Our first view of Cinderella's castle!

Her very first ride...the teacups. We ended up riding them three times.

Mommy and Katherine on the "horsey" as Katherine called it.

"I want to go ride the teacups." We weren't even off of the merry-go-round yet!

Caroline slept the morning away!

Katherine and Daddy waiting to get on the Dumbo ride.

Katherine and Daddy riding Dumbo. Katherine couldn't figure out where I was.

Our attempt to get a picture of Katherine in front of the castle...

Just heard the music from the Celebration Parade...what's that mom?!

Watching the parade!

Dancing in the street during the parade with Grammie.

Mesmerized by the parade still.

Meeting Mickey and Minnie. Notice Caroline is looking at Minnie and Katherine is staring at the ground. Two kids and not one of them will look at the camera!

Sweet Caroline!

Mommy and Katherine on the teacups....again!

The four of us in front of the castle. Neither kid is looking at the camera again...Oh well!

Katherine conked out...approximately 5 minutes into our ride out of the park.

Caroline conked out too! Disney is tiring!

3 year well visit and the croup!

After our ever exciting trip to Disney last week, the birthday girl came down with a nasty cold. Yuck! She ended up with a spiking fever in the middle of the night Saturday night and felt just yucky all day Saturday and Sunday. Luckily Motrin and sponge baths managed to get the fever down and by Monday morning all that was left was a low grade fever and the sniffles. She did have to miss school on Monday, which was a total bummer, but she was good to go this morning! She was so excited to tell all of her friends about her trip to see Mickey Mouse. Very cute!! On Monday Caroline woke up with the sniffles and by lunchtime had this horrible sounding cough. I said it sounded like she was blowing a horn every time she coughed. So off we went to see Dr. W that afternoon. The nurse said it was imperative that we came in that day...I asked because Katherine already had a 3 year old check up scheduled for first thing the next morning. I'm glad we went in. Poor little Caroline had the croup! Yuck! Dr. W put her on a small dose of steroids and sent us home with the warning "you may be up all night, as the croup tends to be the worst in the middle of the night." Great.

Amazingly enough, Caroline only woke up once during the night and I gave her more medicine, nursed her and she was conked out again. She did cough most of the night, but it didn't seem to bother her much. By the next morning her fever was down to almost nothing and she seemed quite content! So, back to Dr. W's office we went for Katherine's big girl check up!!

She is now 38" tall and 29 lbs. This puts her in the 60-70th percentile for height and in the 15-20th percentile for weight. We still have one long and lean chickadee!!! Dr. W said she looked excellent and the fact that she LOVES her veggies and water makes her one special kiddo...as if we didn't know that already?! :) We then went through the checklist of developmental milestones with Dr. W...

How many ABCs does she know? All of them.
How high can she count? Well, definitely to 30 by herself, but after that she needs a little prompting.
Can she ride a big wheel or tricycle with some assistance? Uh...she rides a bicycle with training wheels...and doesn't need much help.
Can she speak in sentences? Yes
Can most people understand what she is saying? Yes.

By this point Dr. W starts chuckling and I ask what's so funny. He looks at me and says "Well, the developmental milestones you just gave me are for a 5 year old...not a 3 year old. You have one smart cookie on your hands." We knew that she was smart, but we didn't think she was super ahead of the game...especially since when she was 2 we were worried that she might be speech delayed?! Amazing what a difference a year can make! So yeah, we have one bright girly on our hands. :)

Yesterday afternoon we got home and both girls were feeling pretty good. I put Caroline down for her morning nap and she conked out like a champ. I finally got Katherine down for her nap around 1:30...and then the fun began! Caroline woke up from her nap screaming. So I went in and got her. No fever, but a major runny nose. I then spent the next two and a half hours straight nursing her, because she would cry every time I stopped. Talk about tiring! Katherine woke up around 4 and we went downstairs...with more crying from Caroline. Poor thing was miserable...but still no fever. Chris had a West Point meeting last night, so I was on my own for dinner and bath. By 6pm Caroline was just done. She had either been crying or nursing non-stop since 1:30pm. I got both girls bathed and put a movie on for Katherine while I attempted to put Caroline to sleep. After about an hour and 15 minutes, I finally succeeded in getting Caroline to stay asleep. Chris came home while I was in with Caroline and thankfully took over with Katherine.

Poor Caroline woke up at midnight, 3, 4, 5, and 7am. She is miserable. Still no fever, but she has a nasty cough (but not croup cough) and runny nose. We took Katherine to school this morning and Caroline and I are just chilling in the house since she feels so crummy. I'm hoping that maybe today she will knock this cold and maybe we can get some sleep around here! :)

Oh...and while we were at the doctor's they weighed Miss Caroline...she weighs in at a healthy 17lbs. 14oz. That is a half a pound more than Katherine weighed at 1...not sure on the length yet as they didn't measure her. I think she may catch her sister sooner rather than later!! :)

I will try to upload some pictures later this afternoon from Disney!!