Sister

My dear sister has had a very bad run of things lately. She went in on March 15th for back surgery. One week later, they had to go back in for infection and to readjust some of the screws. It was then that they discovered she had MRSA, a very hard to kill infection that requires at least 6 weeks of IV antibiotic treatment. Two days ago, her fever spiked again and the doctor, for the third time, opened up her back to clean out infection. It is not fair. It is not fair. It is not fair. My poor sister only wanted to be able to walk without pain. She merely wanted to be able to bend over and pick up the laundry basket without wailing. She wanted to be able to travel to Augusta to see her family without ending her journey in tears. It's not fair that she has had such a terrible time.
I worry for her daily. I call every day to track her progress in hopes that one day I'll call and she'll be chipper and happy and pain free.
So tonight, I'm thinking of my sister, whom I love immeasurably. And I wish for the annihilation of infection and everything yellow and green in the body that spikes a fever.
Get well very soon, my dear Sandra. I love you.

I hope I remember

There are so many things that I try and file away in the storage cabinets of my brain. Some of those include the fact that at 18 months old - my girl is a whopper of a toddler at 29 lbs wearing a size 6 shoe. And like Doug and squirrels in the movie "Up," she is easily distracted by one of two things, her "toe" and "dog". I hope I can remember how she tells me that she wants to get down sounding something like, "birdown". Or the way she points out to me the most minuscule detail of something as she says, "See!" At 18 months she is a bread-a-holic and a huge fan of balls...and balloons, which she calls ball. But after a year and a half of life, we still have our special moment every evening when we go "nigh nigh" ..... which is similar to "nah nah" for banana, but can be deciphered based on what time of day it is. Baths are a favorite time and she'd really rather go "nigh nigh" in her crib than in mommy's lap, much to my dismay. Her Independence often leads her to little breakdowns of shear aggravation because I didn't hand her the entire cookie, or I didn't let her hold the fork, or she wanted the grape, not the pineapple. She can't say it yet, but if she could, she'd just bust out with an "I can do it myself!"
With her pitter patter becoming more and more steady by the day, I can only imagine where she'll e in the next 6 months. It's still so wild that last year this time, she was barely able to sit up.

Nearly 18 months

With one week to go, we are quickly approaching the 1 1/2 year old mark. How is it humanly possible that 6 months have passed since we celebrated my "baby" turning ONE.

We did reach another milestone this past weekend..our first fever. I have been really blessed with a healthy, healthy, healthy little girl. So much so, the doctor laughed at me when I told her how much Tylenol I was giving Addison for her fever.., "I give her to the top line on the dropper."

Apparently when your nearly 18 month old weighs 29 lbs, it's time to stop with the infant Tylenol and move on to Children's Tylenol. Makes sense and yet...it alluded me - because SHE HASN'T HAD A FEVER...EVER.

We rang in our new achievement well with a whopping 103.7 degrees. Poor baby was shivering so hard from chills. Unfortunately, we were in a hotel room in Greenville, SC which prompted a 4 a.m. run to the 24-hour CVS for more supplies. By the time I had returned from my adventure, her fever had broken.