Wednesday, March 31, 2010

recovery day

Zoe ran a fever every other week, first one starting on her birthday, so we rescheduled her party to two weeks later. Then she had a fever that evening too, then again two weeks later, and again...and again. The first one Jamie brought her in to the doctor and they ran every test (blood, cath, xray, flu, strep, etc) and then told us it was something viral. :( The next two we let go, thinking why spend another $500+ (we have a deductible plan) to hear that it's just viral again. The 4th one, only lasted one day, and the 5th one I decided to bring her in again because I couldn't believe she had a fever again! All of them were about 101-102 degrees except this last one went up in the 104s. The doctor said it sounds like "Periodic Fever." We had to do more blood draws to rule out some other ailments (which all came back negative). Basically Periodic Fever is when they get a fever periodically every set number of weeks (anywhere between 2 and 6 weeks) and then it just keeps recurring without any other symptoms other than swollen tonsils and sometimes sores in the mouth. It resembles strep throat but isn't and it can last anywhere from 6 months to years! I had never heard of this before and its only been classified as an actual disorder since the late 1980s.

My first thought was...I'm going to have to quit my job! I can't take off every 2 weeks! The doctor said since it isn't contaigious, she can write a doctor's note to daycare saying she is able to go, but when Zoe is running a fever she just wants to be held and doesn't want to be held by just anyone. Since the tylenol & motrin weren't keeping the fever down, the doctor gave us a prescription for prednisone (a steroid). Apparently the treatment for periodic fever is either steroids or a tonsilectomy (which works in 90% of cases). One of the side effects of steroids is "irritability"...yeah right...that's putting it mildly! I decided steroids were out...tonsilectomy is going on the agenda! When we went to ENT for her consult visit (and we pried her mouth open) the doc got a quick look and said, "Yes, she is definitely a candidate for a tonsilectomy and adenoidectomy." She had surgery on March 15th. Everything went fine, and the insurance deductable is definitely met for the year! Now we're hoping to be in the fortunate 90% that it works for! :)




Here she is sleeping the day of her surgery. She slept most of the first day, then went back and forth between being happy and crabby (can you blame her?) the rest of the week.

montana or bust

Click here to view these pictures larger

We went to visit Jamie in Montana over Spring Break. We drove through quite a bit of fog as you can see on my mirror (it froze on). His brother Ben came with and helped out with the girls (and had fun fishing too!). The car ride was happy...grouchy...and sleepy. When we finally got to Great Falls, Ava and Zoe were SO HAPPY to see their daddy! The got started with some fun daddy-play as soon as we checked in to the hotel...wrestling, tickling, and zerbits! Zoe got into my lip gloss..."I look pretty mommy?" We checked out the dams on the Missouri River, the one in the picture is Black Eagle Dam. We fed fish at the trout hatchery. When Jamie was working, Ben and I brought the girls to the Children's Museum. We had lots of fun in the pool...proof is in our chlorine-faded swimsuits! I learned how to make spawn sacs and became quite proficient at it...it was kinda fun! Ava, Zoe, and I met Jamie and Ben in the town of Craig (in the Big Belt Mountains) one afternoon. They went fishing and we had a picnic lunch. We stopped up to Holter Lake before heading back to Great Falls.

We're looking forward to seeing daddy again this weekend!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Ava's map of the world

After it was proudly displayed on the classroom door at school, Ava brought home her map of the world. She traced each of the continents (or "states" as she calls them), then used a needle to punch holes around the boarders. Once punched out, she glued them all in place. Now it's proudly displayed on our kitchen wall :)



Wednesday, March 3, 2010

It looks good enough to eat!

Picnics, Picnics, PICNICS! at our house! The girls LOVE their favorite new toys made by my ultra talented 13-year-old cousin Emma! Emma knitted all of these foods and she said there is still more to come...we look forward to seeing what else she can create! THANK YOU!




Wisconsin Dells

We spent the last weekend in Wisconsin Dells. We met my Uncle Joel, Aunt Sandra and cousins Emma and Evan. Ava and Zoe got to stay at Grama and Grampa's on Thursday night and left for the Dells on Friday morning. I had to work Friday, so after work, Justin and I picked up Jer in Minneapolis and we got there around midnight. We had so much fun at the waterparks in the resort! Ava and Zoe have been talking about Emma and Evan every day, they miss you already (and so do I!).

Here are some pictures from the weekend:





Festival of Lights

Ava's preschool celebrates the light or spirit of the children each winter with a (battery-operated) candle-lit celebration called The Festival of Lights. (Or as Ava refers to it as...The Vestibule of Lights) :) The kids (dressed in their finest apparel) walk in individually with their candle and when everyone is in, they sing all of the songs they've learned so far.


Here, Ava is with her teachers Linda & Alyssa and her best friend Fiora.