Rhett's Finger

A few weeks ago I noticed that Rhett had a white blister looking lesion on his forefinger. It was small and didn't seem to be infected, no redness, just the white blister near the base of his fingernail. I kept an eye on it and as the week went on it progressed. Redness and swelling were now present and Phil said I needed to take him to the doctor. He is taking his second year of microbiology and launched into hyper aware med student mode and told me he probably has cellulitis and a staph infection since staph is all over our body. I listened to him but in my mind thought he was being a bit over the top.

I took him to the doctor that afternoon and told her my husband is a crazy med student and thinks he has...relaying what Phil told me. I felt kinda silly since I was sure she would just dismiss it as no big deal and send us on our merry way. I told her that Rhett sucks his two fingers and perhaps he just sucked really hard and made a blister?

She confirmed Phil's diagnosis and gave us a prescription for Keflex; but told me to first do warm compresses and Neosporin and see if it improves. I took the script and we went home. That night it seemed like the blister had subsided though his finger was still red. I waited a few days and then filled the prescription since it didn't improve after our compresses and the blister had returned but now it looked yellowish. His poor little finger is red down to the first knuckle and is distended. I don't think these pictures do it justice.





We started the Keflex and only had it for two days when I was in the laundry room stain treating some clothes and came back into the kitchen to find Max at the kitchen sink with his little chair, one bottle of orange flavored Keflex poured down the drain. Ahhh! Such a stinker! I was not happy but was glad he just dumped it instead of drinking it.

One sheepish phone call to the doctor and refill later we have been on the medicine for going on 5 days now and still no improvement. One night I covered the infection in ointment and put a sock on his hand so he couldn't suck it and it did improve a bit. Rhett was not happy though and I felt bad for him. I have since let him have his fingers back since I can't keep a sock on him forever! Plus he or Kate takes it off.

Despite his sore looking finger he is still a happy camper. He definitely doesn't like his medicine but does well. He is smart and quickly learned to clamp his lips together after the first taste. We have a few more days of the medicine and will return to the doctor since it is not improving. I don't know what she will do, maybe lance and drain it? So sad if that is the case!

Lunch with Max & Kate

Kate's a Big Girl

It's official. Our resident thumb sucker is no more!

I went back through the years of pictures I have of Miss Kate and took a few to illustrate the deep love she had of her thumb. She found it when she was 4 months old and we kicked the habit two years later.

It served us well, helped her sleep and was her ultimate comfort. You can't deny she was pretty darn cute with it too! But it was altering her upper bite and that just bothered me so much as a dental hygienist.

We have been prepping Kate for a few months now. Always telling her that she is a big girl, to take her thumb out of her mouth and we would make it fun by making a popping sound as we demonstrated popping our thumb out of our mouth. It got to the point where we could just do the hand motion and she would take it out. And then put it right back in again. 

Max started putting his thumb in his mouth so he could get the positive attention too. Even now, Max will get a mischievous glint in his eye and put his thumb in his mouth while grinning at you so you can tease him, "Max, are you a big girl?" He laughs and does it over and over again so we will take his thumb out of his mouth. Silly kid. 

My friend Kathryn, mother extraordinaire, mother of multiple multiples (two sets of twin girls), had posted about breaking her 2 year-olds' habit by using the bitter nail polish this past summer. She shared her experience of whiny toddlers, interrupted sleep and naps, gagging children as they ate their meals, vomiting, etc. Basically she scared the crap out of me! I knew how attached Kate was to her thumb and I didn't think I could endure all of the above, especially with a coming newborn. I didn't want to make any big changes with a new baby coming, that was change enough for all of us. I kept putting it off and said we would really address it when she could communicate better, after Rhett was born, maybe she would give it up herself...

A few weeks ago I bought the polish one night while grocery shopping. "Let's do this!" I thought. I brought it home, put it on the counter, went to bed. The next morning Phil asked if I was going to do it.Overnight I already had mixed feelings, it seemed so cruel to just trick her like that. Pull her security blanket right out from under her. So I waited through the morning mulling it over.

After her nap we put it on. She loves to paint her toes and I felt mean tricking her as I painted it nice and thick on her thumb. We blew on it so it would dry and she hopped off my lap. 

I watched. Waited. She put it in her mouth. 

Her face crinkled up in disgust and she hurried over to the table to get her water. Gulp, gulp! She washed the taste out of her mouth and tried again with the same results. But she kept her thumb out the rest of the afternoon. I watched her throughout the day. She would subconsciously put her thumb to her mouth and then remember and take it out. It was working!

She did well that night and I put another coat on before she went to bed. The next few days we had some rough naps. She screamed and screamed. Totally out of character for her and she tested my patience to the limit! In the heat of the "battle" I was so frustrated with her behavior but once I removed myself from the situation I knew that she was acting out because she had lost her self-soothing mechanism and she didn't know what to do with herself. 

We painted her thumb for a few more days and then I stopped to see if she would do it on her own, without it. She has done great! We only used the polish for about one week and haven't had any big problems. She did go through a short period where she was picking at her face. We noticed that she still has the urge/desire/habit to have her thumb sucking hand close to her mouth and face. They have finally healed and she has left her face alone so far. She now screams a lot more and drives us all crazy with her emotional self and dramatic mood swings when things don't go her way but we are so proud of her!

Phil and I have both noticed an improvement in her teeth already. Hooray!

(Taken this afternoon)

She now takes it upon herself to make sure Rhett is being a big boy.

Good job Kate! We love you, drama, sweetness, sass and all. You are such a big girl!

A Sunday Afternoon

A few Sundays ago we had our Stake Conference. Seeing that we have very small children with very short attention spans we opted out of facing the reality of a two hour meeting with hundreds of people. Just getting through one hour of sacrament requires a hefty bag of tricks. I am always sad to miss these enriching meetings, this one especially since our Stake Presidency was reorganized and I hear the speakers were amazing, spiritual feasting that I sorely needed. Phil was super stressed with school exams and neither one of us had the gumption to get our parenting game on. Without our usual three hour time block I had to find ways to keep the kids entertained and quiet so Phil could study.

We busted out the pipe cleaners and strainers, which is a novel idea but it lasted 5 minutes. 

Max was quick to catch on and was adept at poking the fuzzy pipe cleaners through the holes with ease. Kate was adept at getting frustrated when they didn't go just as she wanted them. I was adept at picking up 50 bent pipe cleaners and soothing the toddler drama. It was fun while it lasted and we moved on.

After naps and snacks we headed outside. Our favorite past time of late is riding the plasma cars around the neighborhood. These kids are fast! Best gift ever, thank you Grandma Nay and Papa.

Max and Kate took off down the path while Rhett and I followed with the Nikon.

I do love living so close to a park and having these nice paved walkways in the neighborhood. I will miss it when we move.

I love how Max sticks out his tongue when he is concentrating. Zoom, zoom!

Sweet cheeks along for the ride.

We walked/rode quite a ways around the neighborhood, killing time and enjoying the evening weather.

Back when Max and Kate were wee babes, Phil and I used to walk around our Mesa neighborhood and admire all the nice landscaping. Since I had the camera with me it was fun to notice the little details this night. Towards the end of our walk I kept stopping here and there so frequently that Max started to copy me and ended up lolly-gagging behind staring at bushes. Usually he leads 1/2 a block in front of us.

Riding down a hill is lots of fun...

It is not so fun to try and come up again. Assistance was required. 

This girl is hot and cold; as quick as she can turn on the drama she can shut it right back off. 

Family Portraits 2011

Thanksgiving Weekend we had our family pictures taken. Everyone loooves family pictures, right? Ha! Yes we all look like the perfect happy family but our morning was full of the classic stress, grumpy dad, bickering parents over outfits and dad wanting to change mom's carefully laid out plans, toddlers being indignant and uncooperative and the like. It is good to be behind the camera every so often, humbling. It makes you appreciate what the family/client goes through to get these images. And thank goodness for a photographer that just keeps shooting. 

"Love bumps" with dad.

Phil says we aren't paying someone to take pictures until the kids are older, much older. I completely disagree and it is my goal to manage yearly photos. I am never in photos and it is worth it to me to go through the stress and hassle to document our family as we change and grow. Plus looking at pictures of my family just makes me smile. I am currently putting together a photo wall and will post pictures of it once I complete it.