Calling Card

I just came upstairs for the night at the McGrandparents'. Apparently
the RGs had a little fun in the bathroom earlier today.

That's an upturned waste basket, aka drum. Various bed linens,
previously neatly folded and stored. And most of my Velcro hair
rollers, artfully arranged.

Thanks, girls.

Sweet Baby J

Nope, this is not a commentary about a James Taylor song. This is a warning. And a request for understanding and the feigning of deafness.

IF you should hear the RGs yell out, "Sweet baby Jesus!" sometime in the near future, please please do not:

a) judge
b) say, "WHAT did you say?" (thus causing them to repeat it)
c) spit-take
d) laugh

Just ignore. Or if you must say something, maybe start singing "Away In A Manger" or "What Child Is This".

Let me explain. The RGs have this little nativity scene (courtesy of the McGrandparents). It's so darling. Each piece is a finger puppet, but can also stand alone. So, Roo walks around with her finger stuck inside the manger holding the baby Jesus.

And she keeps chewing on Him!

In response, I remind her that it is not for her mouth. I say, "We don't put the sweet baby Jesus in our mouths." Or, "Sweet baby Jesus is not a chew toy, Roo, take Him out of your mouth."

Apparently the only part of those sentences that has stuck is "sweet baby Jesus."

Oh. Lord.

*****
Also, the Virgin Mary is MIA. She's been located at the McGrands house inside a toy train tunnel. With her twin (the Mary to cousin Jonah's nativity set). So, now we add to our list of fail, two kidnapped Mary's lined up on the railroad tracks in a train tunnel.

Feeling Poorly

You may have noticed that Em seemed a little less bright and shiny than usual in yesterday's cookie making session.


Towards the end of the cleanup she started whining. Then, she grabbed her blankie and then her thumb. And got in my lap. That's when I noticed how toasty she was. The thermometer said 98.9 and that's enough to feel yucky.




After some Tylenol, I gave her some snuggle time and she fell asleep quickly. About and hour and a half earlier than her normal nap time. So, she got to sleep in Mama's bed while Roo and I played, ate lunch and read stories.

before the fever broke

after - little sweaty head and pushed off covers

She woke up from her nap feeling lots better, but by bedtime was running a fever again. This time 100.3. I called the on-call doctor because this is so close on the heels of her pneumonia recovery. Em has no other symptoms of illness other than the fever. So, we're to wait and see.
Full recovery and excellent health prayers are most appreciated!

Me Want Cookie

Roo has a little pop up book entitled Cookie's Christmas Cookies. It's a short story about Cookie Monster wanting to make holiday cookies instead of his usual fare. The whole Sesame Street gang comes to his house, slaves over a hot stove cranking out the cookies, and well...
You can guess how the story ends.
Roo LOVES the Mmm-mm-m at the end. She's working this new guttural Cookie Monster voice that makes J roll with laughter every time he hears it.

All that to say, with the constant requests to reread this book, I wanted to give the girls a chance to make their own Christmas cookies.
Aprons were donned. Rolling pins procured.

They like to make an entrance.



And many star-shaped cookie cutters were offered to allay any arguments over who gets what shape.




As the video shows, clean up was longer lasting fun than the actual cookie making process.

Poor Bert.




The cookies turned out great. Some are going to the neighbors, some to Nannie and the rest have already been appropriated. Em and Roo called dibs on at least a dozen cookies. I just looked in the cookie tin on the table and every single star has powdered sugar finger prints, or missing points, bitten off or tongue marks.
That, folks, is how you call dibs.

Christmas Past

Because The Rowdy Girls blog is morphing into a comprehensive chronicle of the girls' formative years, I'll be backtracking, periodically, to include some special pre-blog memories. Which certainly includes Em's and Roo's first Christmas.

We spent Christmas eve and day with the McGrandparents and extended family. Then, we went onto visit Mammaw and Pappaw. And I can't locate the pictures we must have taken on the second leg of the trip.

Em was pretty overwhelmed by the whole present-unwrapping thing. Look how glazed over her eyes are!


But then she discovered delicious wrapping paper. M-m-m.

I'm pretty sure her diaper contents were Christmas colored because she sucked all the color out of some red and green tissue paper when I looked away. I also recall Roo's drool being festive colored, meaning she did the same thing. No judging. There are two of them!

Roo was pretty studious about the entire gift process. What a surprise. This toy is still a hit. Now, she removes all the caterpillar's pieces and stacks them or reorganizes them to make higher order numbers.
I really love this picture of Roo and Nannie. They each have their mouths pursed in the same expression. And then the look in Roo's eyes as she receives a kiss from Dubbie. Oh, that is a precious memory.


And speaking of Roo's big blue eyes...
This little monkey finger puppet was just a tad too close. Poor little cross-eyed baby.

It was a wonderful first Christmas spent with so many of the people we love so dearly. The girls' second Christmas was posted about in the early days of this blog. And of course, number 3 is quickly approaching!

Scraps

It's been a busy couple of months and not everything made it into the blog.
Looking back through our photos, I see a few to remember.

Daddy and the girls at H's and L's Halloween party. The girls were in terrible moods when we arrived. Wearing their costumes only made it worse. Turns out, they just needed a few kilos of food to make everything happy.

Later that evening, Roo left her mark on the dog's water bowl.


Then, we had the privilege of attending Mallory's and Kelby's first birthday celebration. What miracles they are!

Em and Roo discovered a deep and abiding love for popcorn recently. And, also, for wearing Daddy's cycling bandanna. They ask J over and over to wear his "ya-yow hat".

Em and Roo bounced their booties off at R's and C's 2nd birthday party. Fun! Roo kept checking in with me to make sure I was where she left me. Love her little "Hi, Mama!" Hi has 8 syllables and Mama barely has 2. (note to self: must get that on video)



Saturday morning snuggle time with Daddy the day after the decorations went up.

This is the picture I thought we would have to use on our Christmas cards. Fortunately Roo and Em showed us mercy later that day when we tried again.

Ask and Receive

Feeding Roo has always been fraught with difficulties. From the beginning.

*When she was born, she was too weak to suck and was tube fed. Then, her nursing latch was very immature, so I pumped milk and bottle fed her.

As Roo grew and became stronger, those issues evened out, but then she had horrible reflux. There were many many feedings during which she threw up almost the entire intake.


When she was 6 months old, her doctor ordered an upper GI to explore the reflux issues. What a nightmare procedure.
The absolute closest I've ever come to punching someone. Those poor techs were doing their jobs most professionally, but they were causing my baby pain!
It came back clear, but Roo was still throwing up large amounts of her feedings. So, she was started on two serious reflux medications. That tamed the problem, but never conclusively solved it.

Roo didn't like to eat from a spoon. Foods seemed to feel wrong in her mouth. Moving to solid foods proved even more frustrating than the milk feeding/reflux problems. At times, even the slightest bit of new texture in her mouth made her gag and vomit the contents of her tiny tummy. So, I began to explore the possibility of sensory integration issues to explain Roo's food aversions.

Along the way, we switched from formula to whole milk. A month later she had the worst diaper rash ever. I believe our pediatrician coined it the "diaper rash from hell". Three months, a skin biopsy, allergy testing and a food elimination protocol later, it seemed she had a milk and soy protein intolerance. (Which exacerbated the reflux and was why the meds never really fixed the problem).

Now, Roo has entered the toddler years of exerting her independence. So, it's always a guessing game to determine if she is not eating because she is not hungry, having food-related sensory issues or just plain being a two year old who says "NO!" because she can.

With all of that history in her short two and a half years, you might understand how excited I was to have this conversation with her at lunch time one day.

Mommy: Lunch time. Here's a peanut butter sandwich.
Roo: Sandwich. Sandwich and apple?
Mommy: Sure! I'll get an apple right now.
Em: Grapes!
Mommy: Ok. Grapes and apples. Coming right up. Roo? Grapes or apples?
Roo: Um... Strawberries. Ok? Ok?
Mommy: I only have frozen strawberries. Want to try them?
Roo: STRAWBERRIES! Ok! Ok!

She asked for fruit! She thought about her choices, thought of something better, and asked for it. And she ate it!


*Same situation for Em