Eliott's first 2 teeth

Wow, what a week it's been! Saturday we had Phoebe's birthday party and she got lots of great stuff! Sunday Eliott had his 2 front bottom teeth come through his gums and then on Monday he started crawling. Not actually up on all fours yet but he's mobile and scooting everywhere, it's great!
Well that's all for today-

Our stay in the hospital

On Sat morning Phoebe woke up and had a huge insect bite on her arm. I'm not sure if she got it on Friday while we were outside or what but by 5:00 it was swollen really big and red and she had 104 temp. So we had to take her to the after hrs clinic at St Francis. They said it was infected and had cellulitis, gave her 2 shots of antibiotics, which made her not be able to walk for a few hours because they put them in her legs, and a prescription and said to come back on Sunday for them to check it again. So Phoebe and I went back on Sunday morning thinking they'd just say ok, looks good and go home. But instead the doc said since it hadn't changed and was still swollen he said he was going to have to admit Phoebe to give her iv antibiotics. Since the bite was so close to her joint (elbow) then they don't mess around with that anymore. If the staph infection gets into her joints it's a whole other ball game and would be a lot worse. Wow, wasn't expecting that at all! Here I am with my daughter on Mother's Day getting admitted into the hospital to stay the night, and according to the after hrs clinic doctor we would be staying 2 nights. Denzil is at home with Eliott who is only breastfed with no pumped milk at home...OH MY GOODNESS! I was pretty much freaking out inside but I knew I had to keep my cool for Phoebe's sake. While they got our room ready upstairs we sat in the exam room and I entertained her with a tennis ball and she loved that! Then 2 nurses came in the room and one of them got her arm and was looking at her hand, the other got a blanket and wrapped her up in it with her other arm so she couldn't fight them. They stuck the needle in her hand and my baby girl just started screaming. It was not something that I wanted or ever want to hear on Mother's day. After they got the blood out of it they put the iv tube on it and taped it into place and wrapped it up with tape. I thought to myself..."how in the world will she keep this in?" I felt so bad for her, she was just screaming and crying because it hurt and I picked her up and just held her while she cried and cried. At one point I just started crying because there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop her from hurting. I felt so bad! About 2 hours later we were upstairs in our room talking to another nurse. Luckily she was great with kids and talked Phoebe through what she was doing and had Nemo on her stethoscope. Since I had Eliott's car seat my mom came up to the hospital and was able to stay with Phoebe while I ran home to pack some bags and get Denzil and Eliott. We all stayed at the hospital that night and Denzil and I were soooo sore the next morning from sleeping in those nasty beds! But by Monday morning the bite was not hot to touch, red or swollen anymore and it looked a whole lot better! The doc said we could go home!!! YEAH! I was so thankful that we didn't have to stay in there another night. I think Phoebe kind of enjoyed it though because she had our undivided attention (no housework to do or anything to distract us) and they had a huge playroom with lots of different toys. She did so good with the iv in her arm and she didn't really ever mess with it. There were a few times that she pointed to it and said "tube hurts" but we were able to distract her enough. Then I thought that it would be cool if we could get another one of the little "cast" things that was over her iv and put it on Elmo's arm and that made it a whole lot better! The pic is of her with the "cast" thing on her arm. It was an experience and I am so glad that Phoebe is better now. We go tomorrow for a recheck but it's pretty much all healed up!!

Wednesday was her 2nd birthday and we had a great day! We went to gymnastics, which they sang happy birthday to her, then came home and opened presents then left and drove to the OKC zoo. That was lots of fun, then ate dinner at Shorty Smalls, which has awesome food if you're ever in OKC! And they sang happy birthday to her too. She really liked that, surprisly, and she clapped right along with them as they sang. Then we drove home. It was a fun day and made up for our hospital stay. Saturday we are having a little party for her with family and a few friends so I'm sure she'll like that too.

Fretting

Well I was reading an article in the Parents magazine and it's titled "What matters most." It is just one mom's account of looking back on being a mother of young ones. One of the things she said that really hit me was this paragraph:
"The pity, when I look back on years of being a mother to my young children, is that I see, among the many happy and wonderful images, an overtired and sometimes burned-out woman, often too stressed by fretting over details to enjoy the great gift of simply being their mother."
I am really feeling like that overtired person right now. I know in the blink of an eye Phoebe and Eliott are going to be grown and graduating from high school, getting married and moving out. I really want to be able to give them an awesome childhood and I want to have those wonderful memories but she's so right, I don't want to stress and frett over little details that will just work themselves out. I love being their mother and I love watching them grow every day. I am so very blessed to see them, watch them, spend loads of time with them everyday...I love them sooooo much and I love being their mother!