Thursday, April 14, 2011

9-Months




Today Anna is 9-Months! We decided to knock out her well visit while we were getting her rash checked on Monday. She weighed in at a little over 19 lbs (60%tile) and she is 28.5 inches (82%tile), so while she is still a big girl, she has slowed down a bit. I guess it is a combination of her hair and long body, but most people think she is a year old already. I even had an old lady ask me if she was 18 months and then a few weeks later a different old lady asked me if she was 2 years old. Both women were astonished when I told them she was only 8-months. I guess you really do forget what it is like the older you get.

The great news is that Anna's crazy rash is almost all the way gone. I am so happy she did not have to deal with that for 4 weeks! In addition:
Anna is a crawling machine. She goes all over the house-in and out of all the rooms. My favorite thing is when I am vacuuming she follows me into each room and then sits in the middle and watches me vacuum. The twins used to do this as well.
She can pull herself up on all sorts of stuff and from time to time will let go and balance for several seconds. The other day at the park she kept crawling up to my lap, pushing herself up and standing all by herself.
Her favorite things to say now are "AHH BOO!", "Boo-boo-boo", "OU" (like ouch without the "ch"). She also says mum, mama, dada, nana, baba (but I don't think she means any of it yet). She also growls and makes all sorts of deep throaty sounds.
She is starting to wave "bye-bye".
She L-O-V-E-S me. She wants me to hold her constantly. Since she has had this whole rash thing, she has been super cuddly and will lay her head on my shoulder and hug me. It is really sweet.
She is starting to have some anxiety around people she is not used to and will occasionally cry if someone looks at her the wrong way, but only occasionally.
She loves to eat and is happiest right after a good meal. She always wants the snacks that the big kids are eating. Right now she loves graham crackers and will get all excited and grabby when she sees them.
Still loves a good bath, sleeps great when she feels good and loves her brother and sister.

Allie and AJ are good too. They are getting so mouthy. I never anticipated back talking, but they have both mastered that.
Lately they live to ride bikes with their friends.



Brad pointed out to me the other night how well they articulate their thoughts. It is amazing that they can put together such complex sentences and express themselves so well.
Tonight Allie was brushing my hair and told me I looked like a beautiful horse.
Lately when given a choice like, "AJ do you want Life cereal or Chex?" He will say, "Lets go with Life." I think he must of picked up that phrase, "Lets go with..." from my dad.
AJ also likes to say, "Tear it up!" Alberto always tells him to "Tear it up" when he is doing stuff so now AJ will tell others to "Tear it up!" or he will ask, "Dad, did I tear it up?"
Allie talks and talks and talks lately. She will tell these crazy stories and likes to ask "Why" A LOT. She also copies what we say. Tonight she was playing a little game on the ipod and when it told her she earned a sticker she said, "What the hell?" Alberto and I were busting up (bad parenting, I know) then once we composed ourselves we talked to her about how that is not a nice thing to say.
Anna just loves playing with Allie and AJ and wants to be in on everything they are doing and they love her too, but often times they get really annoyed with her knocking there stuff down or ripping their papers. I think it is a good lesson for them in patience.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Seriously...

Remember my last post titled, "Sick of Sick"? Remember how I wrote about Anna being so fussy that day and that she was getting a tooth. Well deep down in my heart I knew it was probably not the tooth that was bothering her that day, but I wanted it to be just a tooth, so I went with it. Well later that day she started having a fever which never got too terribly high, but continued through the night along with the fussiness. The next morning I fed Anna breakfast and gave her the last dose of the antibiotic she had been taking for her most recent ear infection. After breakfast I went to change her diaper and noticed an intense rash around the top of her legs. I thought at first that I was the worst mom ever and had left her diaper on too long. Then with further inspection I noticed splotches on her thighs. Once I got her diaper changed, I pulled off her jammies and onesie to get her dressed for the day and found the same intense rash in her arm pits with splotches on her upper arms. I decided with this weird rash and a fever something was truly wrong with her and made an appointment with the Dr.
By the time we arrived at the office later that morning, the splotches were working there way up her neck and under her chin. While waiting for the Doctor (Nurse Practitioner) to come in, her ears turned red and began to swell and the splotches began to show up on her cheeks.
To make a long story shorter, after visiting with the NP she determined Anna was having an allergic reaction to the antibiotic or in other words she was breaking out in Hives. Weird considering she has had the same antibiotic before and she had finished the whole 10 days this time, but apparently it is possible. Although the NP felt quite sure that this is what was happening there was still some doubt due to the fever and the late reaction. So I left thinking in a day or two it would clear up. Unfortunately, this case of the Hives has just gotten worse and worse as the days go by. It was so bad Sunday night that we decided we needed to see our doctor for a second opinion. We took Anna in Monday (yesterday) morning to see Dr. Kaddu and he immediately knew that she had a condition called Erythema Multiforme. He said it can indeed be caused by a reaction to the antibiotic, but is more likely to be caused by a viral herpes infection (or the hand, foot and mouth she had only in her mouth). He assured us that it was scary to look at, but that she would be ok. The bad news is there is really nothing we can do for her and it could take up to 4 weeks to clear.
In addition to the nasty rash it also causes the skin to look bruised, itches and causes some swelling at the joints, which creates aching and discomfort. Here are some pictures of Anna over the last few days. Seriously these pictures look sad, but in real life it is so much worse.

Saturday


Sunday

Monday