Beggar's Night (Trick or Treating)

Last night was Beggar's Night. It was so cold and windy that we were very thankful the mall was having indoor trick-or-treating and family night. The stores were handing out candy and there were arts and crafts to do and inflatables and lots of fun things for kids. As you can see, Kaia was a doctor. She was a hit! Everyone we passed ooh'd and ahh'd over her costume and seemed to get a kick out of it. She got a little candy and loved seeing the other kids in costume. All in all, it was a success!!

Kaia loves Daddy

Let's Go, Mom!!

Checkin out the goods.

Our little doctor.

With mama...she didn't like the shirt.

Making sure Daddy's healthy!

My new favorite picture

This is a picture taken by my friend Brittney at Tyler and Elizabeth's wedding in August.

I love it!!!

Pumpkin Playdate!

On Saturday we got together with our friends, the Waglers. Kaia and Finn had a great time playing together and had some messy fun painting their little pumpkins!!

Finn and Kaia

What is that silly girl doing?

Painting is fun!!

Kaia preferred her paint pens.

We love pumpkins!

Kaia's newest favorite face.

Feeling all better!

Great Coupon Site

I stumbled upon a great coupon site...I'll post it underneath "Blogs I'm Following". It's a blog with links to many coupons and deals from various stores and vendors. A great find for all of us who are needing to save a little money (and who doesn't right now?)! I'll post the link to it here also:

http://www.couponcravings.com/

**I also posted a link under "interesting articles" for those of you interested in buying organic produce. It lists the types of produce treated with the most pesticides and those treated with the least to help you decide which ones to spend a little more on to buy organic.

Memorable Moments

A few memorable moments from the last couple days...

• Kaia watching the Hawkeyes play football (8-0!!) and saying "bah ball" (football) and "good catch!"
• Josh was with her yesterday and noticed she was really quiet. He went into the kitchen and saw she had gotten the syrup out of the lazy susan, poured it all over the floor, and was licking it up! Needless to say, a bath was in order!
• We were driving and I turned the radio on. Kaia said "no" to every station until we got to the one playing "Party Like it's 1999" by Prince. Then she started bobbing her head.
• Last night we were in Target looking at the Halloween costumes. Kaia fell in love with the animated skeleton (and he was scary looking!). She kept waving to him and saying "hi" and blowing him kisses. All the shoppers around us were cracking up and I finally had to pick her up and carry her away to get her to leave. She also loved the scary masks and the big witch. I can't believe she wasn't scared! I guess beauty IS in the eye of the beholder.
• After her bath I always ask her who she thinks will be on her diaper in order to get her out of the tub. We don't watch Sesame Street much, but the characters are on her diapers. So last night I asked her and she got all excited and said "Elmo". I said do you want to go see if Elmo is on your diaper? She said "no" and went back to playing with her toys.
• Kaia's big smile and saying "amen" at the end of bedtime prayers.
• "Nigh-Nigh" hugs and kisses

Febrile Seizure-Mayo Clinic Article

Here is a link to the Mayo Clinic's Febrile Seizure article. We had never heard of it before Kaia had one and it's good to be informed about it, especially for our friends who have little ones.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/febrile-seizure/DS00346.

**See post below for details.

1st Hospital Stay

This past week was definitely eventful, to say the least. Kaia started getting sick 2 weeks ago, with what seemed to be a cold. She spent last week with a runny nose and a fever that came and went but never got high. Josh had to go to Bloomfield to work on Thursday and since we're in between daycares again, he took her with him. She seemed to be doing better and we were giving her Tylenol to help with her mild fever. On Friday Julie was watching her and Josh went over for lunch. Kaia was cranky and fussy and Josh laid her down to change her diaper. All of a sudden she stopped moving and was staring off into space. Her breathing was shallow and she wasn't responding. So they rushed her to the ER and started running tests. They took her temp when she 1st got there and 1 hour later, and it jumped from 101 to 103. Apparently she had what is called a Febrile Seizure. This is common in babies and occurs when their temperature spikes suddenly. (It is not a normal seizure and they usually grow out of it by the age of 2. It doesn't do any damage to them, but is very scary to witness. Just because they have 1 doesn't mean they'll have another, and it also doesn't mean they will have any regular seizures. Apparently there is nothing you can do to prevent it...not even giving tylenol or motrin. If it's going to spike, it will do it regardless of the meds.) Her chest x-ray showed bronchitis, and she was admitted for the night for observation to make sure her fever didn't spike again. She was started on antibiotics for the bronchitis and given Motrin. None of us slept well, but her fever was controlled by the Motrin and her white blood cell count was back to normal on Saturday morning, so she was released. A special thanks to Drew for taking such good care of her in the hospital!

We stayed in Bloomfield Saturday night and then came home on Sunday. Kaia was feeling fine as long as the Motrin was in her, but her fever would return when it wore off. Finally on Tuesday she was fever free and also finished her antibiotics. I stayed home with her on Tuesday and Wednesday to make sure she was better and she was acting perfectly normal yesterday. We were afraid she had H1N1, but we received the results of that test yesterday and it came back negative. Thankfully she is getting her seasonal and H1N1 flu shots today. It won't be a very fun night, but we're hopeful they will protect her from those dangerous illnesses.

Josh was also really sick last week and got a high fever around the time Kaia did, so it was an all-around miserable time for him. Thankfully he is doing better now as well and I am knocking on wood that I haven't gotten it. We are thankful that both of them are healthy again and hoping for them both to stay healthy.

The Sweetest Sound

This video just makes my day! I hope it brightens yours too!

How old is Kaia?

1 year!! We haven't even been working on this with her, but on Saturday when our friend Stacy asked Kaia how old she was, she held up 1 finger and said "one"! So she's picked it up somewhere!

1st snow!

Kaia watching the 1st snow. She was so excited since this is the first one she's old enough to appreciate.

So big!

Kaia loves to sit on the stool and play on the computer! Don't worry...we stand close by. But don't even try to have your hands within a foot of her to try to hold her...screaming ensues. She has to do it by herself!

Modeling her new sweater!

Pumpkins!

We went to Iowa Orchard thinking it would be like the other orchards we've been to- we'd go walk through the trees and pick our own apples and also get some pumpkins while we were there. We were really excited to go, and then were very disappointed when we got there. Apparently this orchard does not allow you to walk through it. You're only allowed to purchase the apples at the store and pick a pumpkin from the ones sitting out in the front yard or in a bin. Luckily Kaia didn't know the difference and was just very excited to see all the big pumpkins. She had a great time running around and trying to say "punkin". She was so busy that I had a hard time getting a good picture of her, but we're glad she enjoyed it and here are a couple pictures that did turn out ok.

Kaia measuring her height on the big apple! She wouldn't stand on the other side, but would go up to the apple and then turn around and put her back against it to get a picture like this.

She loved putting her face in and it was just the right height for her!

What a big pumpkin!! Trying to pick it up...

Kaia loves pumpkins!

new pics

Reading on her couch

Listening to Daddy playing guitar

With her hawkeye bear!

Let's Go Hawks!!

Kaia was eating her snack this morning and saw my Hawkeyes sweatshirt and started saying "let's go hawks"! She's been doing this the past couple weeks, but this is the first time I've been able to catch it on video..she usually stops as soon as I get out the camera!

Daycare Dilemmas

The week before we moved Josh and I spent a day touring several daycares (in-home and centers). We decided to go with a center and found two that we really liked. Both were close to home and very similar. We decided we liked one a little better than the other and chose that one for Kaia to go to. At the time they were all full and had a wait list started. Apparently it's more difficult to get your child in once they've passed the newborn stage because each class has to have enough spots for the kids that already attend when they move up. And it gets tricky because you have to navigate that moving up process. This is the time when daycares move kids into the next age group, which happens about 3 times a year. For example: the kids who are 2 or almost 2 move into the 2 year olds and the babies who are around a year and already walking move into the 1 year olds. We were told we were #2 on the list and the director said we should be able to have Kaia start in the middle of October. This was about 6 weeks away, which was at the limit of how long we could wait for her to start. But we decided it was worth it for her to attend this daycare and we would manage until then. I called the daycare this week to confirm her start date and was informed that the October start date was not going to happen and now the earliest time she could get in, even going part time, would be December. We were so frustrated and upset that we weren't told of the change and we have been juggling having Josh stay home with her and trying to work when, had we known, we could have started her somewhere else already. Fortunately, the other daycare we really liked is moving their 1 year olds into a larger room and so they have an extra spot opening up. Kaia is going to start gradually next week and then start full time on the 12th. I'm confident she's really going to like it and will do great. Most likely better than me in dealing with this new change. So far it hasn't been bad leaving her to go to work because I've known Josh has been there with her and taking good care of her. As have Josh's mom Julie and sister Mandy when he's had to work, which has been so awesome of them! (Thanks!!) So we'll see how I do the first time I have to drop her off!