I am "Mommy" now!!!!!!! :)

One of my all-time favorite milestones, Haven now calls me "Mommy" instead of "Mama"!!!!  She also calls Jason "Daddy" instead of "Dada", but who cares about that, right?! :)  I am SOOO happy to be "Mommy"!!  The first few "mama"s were nice when she was first saying them, but ever since then, I couldn't wait for her to call me Mommy, it sounds so much more grown-up!  I was the same way with Venily.  And I cringe whenever Venily occasionally calls me "Mom".  Why can't I just be Mommy forever?!

I am super slacking on all other updates.  Venily still needs her 3 year update.  I don't think I ever did a Halloween post.  Haven turned 14 months old a few days ago.  We had Thanksgiving and a trip to the Kalahari.... but my house is a mess and I need to clean it so I can put up Xmas decorations (Venily asks me every single day)... so the rest of my updates will have to wait for another day!

Random...

Haven had a rough night last night!  We fought her fever all day yesterday and could hardly get it below 102 WITH Ibuprofen AND Tylenol.  We had her sleep between us last night and she was fitful all night.  Scary breathing and moaning and all!  One time I picked her up and she said "owwwww, owwwww" and gave me the biggest hug.  I wanted to cry. :(  We had alarms set for almost every hour and gave her tons of medicine (she doesn't wake up when we feed her medicine while she sleeps).  She was doing pretty well all morning today though and woke up from her afternoon nap a COMPLETELY different child!!  I'm so glad the antibiotics finally kicked in!


Venily went to the dentist this morning to get her molars sealed!  She did AMAZING!!!!!!!  She kept telling me she didn't want to go so I was prepared for a disaster when we got there, but she was an angel!  The dentist and assistant were both females and super good with her! :)  The dentist said that she was the youngest patient she had ever had and that she had been so nervous all morning when she saw her age, but she couldn't believe how good she was!  YAY, VENILY!!!


After her appointment we had her preschool's "Family Thanksgiving Feast" where we got to eat a Thanksgiving lunch with her preschool class and their families!  So cute!!!  The kids made cute little turkey centerpieces and Venily was excited that she got to eat some the pumpkin bread that they made in class last week! :)

Haven's First ER Trip!

 

Well, 2nd if you count the time I had to go with her when I was almost 11 weeks pregnant with her!  Oh my gosh, I remember seeing her on the screen for the first time, it was so wonderful....


She has had a low grade fever for several days now.  Actually, she'd have a fever for a day, then be completely fine for a day and I'd think "oh great, she's not sick any more" and then the next day she'd have a fever again.  She's also had a cough and runny nose on and off.  Yesterday her fever got up to 103.4 though (when the highest before that had only been 102), so I knew something had to be wrong.  I gave her Ibuprofen and put her to bed.  5 hours later she woke up and was SUPER hot, so I checked her temp again and it was 104.2 (and this was when the Ibuprofen should have still been working)!  This was the highest temp I've ever seen in either of my girls or even myself.  We called the 24 hour nurse line and they told us to give her Tylenol (since she still had an hour before she could have more Ibuprofen) and bring her into the ER.  ***FYI- If you had to make a bet on who could handle a child "mini-emergency" between Jason and myself, you'd be smart to bet on ME!!!!  My gosh, Jason goes crazy when he think something is wrong with one of the kids!  He can't think rationally whatsoever!  Anyway...***


Luckily my sister was just right down the road and was able to come and stay at the house while Venily slept (it was 11:30pm).  Haven was super happy and laughed the whole way we drove to the hospital even though she was really tired and kind of out of it! :)  She wasn't a fan of any nurse or doctor touching her at all, but I had brought her baby, puppy, blanket, graham crackers, and water with so she was, overall, a very happy girl (especially considering it was the middle of the night and she was sick).  The doctor was soooo nice (I ♥ nice doctors!) and said she had a double ear infection.  He also wanted to get an x-ray of her chest just to make sure she didn't have pneumonia.


If you have never seen a child get a chest xray, it is QUITE the process!!  Only one parent could go in with her (and of course I outrank Jason, lol) and she leads me up to a device that looks like it's used for child torture!  No joking, it looked medieval or something!  It was like a weird wooden children's saucer that encases the child in a clear plastic tube!  She had to stick her legs in, put her arms up, and then her whole body was crammed into the tube as it latched around her.  She actually did really well, some crying of course, but not too bad!  Her xrays checked out good though, so 10 days of Amoxcillian were all she needed... plus a steady supply of alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofen!


We didn't get home until 2am and Haven slept in until almost 10am (though Jason and I would sneak in there and give her medicine while she slept, lol- she never woke up!)!!  I got her prescription today and also a supply of Probiotics to take so HOPEFULLY she won't get any diarrhea or diaper rash with the antibiotics!

It is sad when I can tell she isn't feeling well.  She will say "owww, owww" and come over to me and say "Up, PLEASE! UP... PLEASE!!!!" or run over to where her medicine is and say "MED!" and point! :(  Silly girl, she sure loves medicine!

Xmas is going to be easy this year... :)

I have asked Venily several times what she wants for Christmas and she keeps telling me "nothing"!!  And then I'll say, but don't you want some cool new toys?  and she says "I already have lots of toys!" (and points around to all of her toys).  What 3 year old DOESN'T want new toys, loves shots, and loves medicine?!  Lol, something has to be wrong with her!


I did say maybe we could buy a new toy and give it to a child who doesn't have any toys.  She was SUPER excited about that, so that will be really fun to do!  She is unusually interested (for 3 years old) when I tell her how some people have no houses, no food, no tv's, etc.  She is always like "that is SOOOO sad!" and asks a million questions about it.  She picked out a book at the library about 2 little Afghanistan refugees who had to share a pair of sandals they found and it is currently one of her favorite books!

Haven updates- 13.5m

Haven is a talking machine!!  She is getting lots more 2 word phrases and sentences lately and even an occasional 3- word one and is still learning 2-5 new words each day!


Some of her two-word (3 word) phrases: "more bagel... PLEASE!!!" (she ♥ bagels), "bagel break" (when she breaks it in half and wants it put back together, lol), "baby eat" (while she feeds her baby), "baby on" (while bringing me her baby and an article of clothing to put on her baby), "shoes on" (when she wants her shoes on (also "socks on" or OFF), "love you" (which she has temporarily stopped saying :(  ), and any other combo of "more, please, and an item she wants (like milk, cracker, etc)", "no touch" (b/c she hears that one often!), mix it (while pretending to mix her play food), "stop it" (which she also hears, though mostly to her sister, lol), "nice bug" (while trying to pet a lady bug) and she continues to say "thank you" whenever you give her something, and "all done/ all gone"!  Oh, she also says "hereyago" when she gives me things- it took me a while to figure out what the heck she was saying, haha!


She also told me her first re-enactment of events the other day.  Venily was playing and bumped her head on something and Haven watched really concerned... a few minutes later Haven went over to the spot and said to me "bang head, bang head" (while hitting herself in the head) and then she said "owwwww...... bang head!", telling me that Venily banged her head! :)


She is also learning how to say people's names really well!  She loves looking at pictures of her family and saying who they are!


And some of my newest ♥ FAVORITE ♥ words of the moment (since it's always changing)...
* puppy (she will say dog OR puppy now)
* pickle (usually pronounced "ickle")
* broccoli (she has a piece of pretend broccoli that she really likes, lol)


I make her repeat words that I love over and over again b/c they are so darn cute!!!  And she knows that it makes me super happy!! :)


She learned two new body parts (or at least let me know that she already knew them).  If you ask her where her lips and nails are, she will gladly show you!  She also LOVES getting her nails cut now.  I was cutting Venily's nails and almost couldn't b/c Haven wouldn't stop sticking her nails in there, trying to get me to cut HERS instead! :)

She is sleeping so well lately again.  Goes to bed around 7:00/ 7:30pm and doesn't wake up until around 7:00am now!!  And the last 2 days she's taken an awesome 2hr+ nap for me during the day!

Tooth #12!!

I'm officially going to "count" her last molar now (today is exactly one month after she cut her first molar!).  It's almost all the way in but is pretty much all the sides and still some gum in the middle (so gross, haha).  They haven't bothered her in a few days, so I think the worst is over now!!!!  Her top 2 still have a little way to fully come in as well, but they don't bother her like when they initially cut through.  Now we wait for her cuspids which should be a piece of cake compared to her molars!  :)

Parent Teacher Conference!

I had Venily's preschool parent-teacher conference today!  I don't know why, but I had so much anxiety about it and was disappointed it had to be during the day so Jason couldn't come with (he really wanted to come).  I have never been on the "parent" side of parent-teacher conferences before!  Her teacher had a little evaluation sheet on Venily as well as a few pieces of work that she's done.  She told me how Venily is way beyond her age-level in almost everything!  She had a picture of a drawing that Venily did of herself (which was AMAZING by the way, lol) and said that she is able to draw way beyond what she "should" be drawing at this point.  She was really impressed by her vocabulary and how much she knows (colors, shapes, letters, counting, etc) and is going to specifically work with Venily now on writing her name!!  She says that she's definitely ready to start working on writing letters!  She also said that she is really sweet and is talking in class more and more (something that I am MOST proud of!)!! :)  She participates in class and really enjoys playing with her friends and playing pretend!  And loves talking about her family!


However, she has two areas that she is "at age-level" which includes being able to express her emotions with words (she gets emotional a lot just like her Mommy, haha, her little eyes well-up with tears) and sharing (her teacher said that sometimes if one of her friends wants something she will take it from another child and give it to her friend).  So those are areas that we are going to work on even harder.  Everything her teacher said was spot-on with how she is at home, so I knew just what she was talking about.  It's good to know that she doesn't act too differently.  Oh, also she can cut with scissors but needs to work on cutting straight lines.


She also told me once again that she often forgets that Venily just turned 3 b/c she seems so much older and is so tall!  It was a good conference and I really like knowing a little more about what goes on when I'm not around.  If they had a camera that I could watch, I'd probably spend the whole 3 hours each day watching what she does, lol.  It's so weird being a parent and not knowing!  I can't imagine what it would be like not seeing her for a whole school day!!!!  At her preschool, I get monthly overview calendars, weekly reports of activities they do, and there is more in-depth weekly lesson plans up on her door, but it's just not the same as actually WATCHING what's going on and how Venily does!

Transitioned to one nap!

Haven officially transitioned to one nap a day!!  :(  Much too early in my opinion, but she is a lot happier with the change!  She used to take a morning nap around 9 or 10am, but we are usually out and about at that time, so it was getting hard to make sure she was home and able to take her nap anyway (and then she started MAJORLY fighting it when I was able to put her down) and then she'd take a 2nd nap around 2pm.  Now she is taking one nap around 12:30pm (or shortly after lunch) and falling right to sleep the second I put her down.  I've been keeping her up later at night as well to help her adjust to the time change this weekend too!  The last 2 nights she's made it past 8pm with no problems, so that's great- hopefully it will all go smoothly this Sunday!

Tooth #11!

Officially came through yesterday!  It's the top left 1 year molar (molar #3)!!  Gosh are these molars HORRIBLE!!!  My poor baby has been miserable again for the last couple of days and has even been waking up in the nights the last 2 nights! :(  (which she hasn't done in months!!!)  The bottom left molar is starting to cut through now as well.  There are, I think, 2 little tips poked through, so we are in for another week (at least) of pain and sadness! :(  So glad we are nearing the end of these molars!!!