Hannah explores her tastes

Sunday, downtown Naperville had trick or treating for kids.  We had originally planned to go downtown with our Sunday School group but Riley's croup interrupted those plans.  So David and Hannah went while I stayed home and nursed Riley.  Before they left, David and Hannah were watching an episode of Dirty Jobs that talked about clams.  Midway through their trick or treating, Hannah looked up and David and said "I think we should get some clams daddy."  With David and I being the lover of such a wide range of food, David felt he should jump all over this.  

And he did.  

She loved the crawfish.  A little later the topic of snails came up.  

When Hannah found out you could eat snails, she looked at David and said "I think we should try snails daddy."  Of course, David and I know how hard snails can be to come by.  However, they happened to be right downtown where he knew of a restaurant that served escargot was.  

The verdict: she loved them.  And devoured them.

The restaurant also served frog legs, so David got an order for Hannah.  What do you know, she loved them too.  

So at the day's end, David has spent a ridiculous amount of money on food but made unforgettable memories with Hannah.  Hannah even caught the attention of employees at both restaurants.  One employee commented that little kids always want hot dogs and macaroni and cheese and it surprised them to see a little kid want such adventurous food.  I'd call that a pretty fantastic day.  

My understanding is that manager over at Hugo's Frog Bar will not soon forget Hannah.  He even gave her his business card, and told her that the next time she comes in, she should ask for him and remind him that she's the kid that ate all the frog legs and snails.  

Science fun

Yesterday Hannah and I tackled a couple of science related crafts.  One I'd been holding on to since our trip to California, the other I just came up with last week.  

I picked this fossil kit up at the Western Center for Science when I was out visiting Casey.  Hannah loved the museum, so I thought she'd enjoy doing this.  

But first, we put together a Halloween decoration.  We had a glass bottle, spiders, bats, and small, plastic halloween cut outs.

We put all those in the bottle with some red water.  Red water for effects only.  

We also added a little glitter, because who doesn't like a little glitter.  

Then we talked about why the bats stayed up top and everything else fell to the bottom.  

And now we have a Halloween decoration to keep.  

Back to the fossil kit.  Here's the block she had to break away to get to her fossil.  

She couldn't wait to dig out her surprise.  

She kept saying it was hard, that her hand was getting tired, but she kept chipping and brushing away.  

She's starting to see something. 

Look mom, it's right there!

Her first fossil removal, a tusk.  

She uncovered the fossil of a mammoth, which needs to be glued together.  

Finally, she painted.  

Only the paint that came with the mammoth dried up, so we had to improvise.  

So it's a metallic pink/purple/blue/gold mammoth.  Not conventional at all, but pretty!  

We made it 8 months

Until yesterday, I had no idea what croup really was.  I thought it was a nasty cough.  It's a little more than that though.  With Riley, it means a fever over 103.  It also means no appetite, unhappy, not smiling, very drooly baby.  She woke up in the middle of the night and she felt warm.  When she woke up at 7, I took her temp and it was just over 101.  So I gave her some tylenol.  She also had a really nasty cough, and though I had never been exposed to croup, I suspected it.  And her fever went up.  So I called the pediatrician and she said to alternate Tylenol and Motrin.  She also told me they had seen a lot of croup going around, so if her congestion didn't go away when her fever down, then I needed to take her to the ER.  

David and I chatted.  We would try and make it through the night, and head to the pediatrician's office today.  This is how Riley spent the day, when she wasn't cuddled up against David or I.  We did shower and keep her in the bathroom, breathing in the steam.  At 2, her fever was just under 103 so I gave her some Motrin.  An hour later, her fever had not gone down, so I gave her some Tylenol.  

I took her temperature again at 500, and it was 103.2 .  That's when I decided we needed to take her in to the hospital.  

It was a relatively quick trip for us.  We went straight back, once we got there.  It took less than 10 minutes for the doctor to come in.  They decided to give her a breathing treatment and steroids.  Her fever still hadn't gone down, but there wasn't must that could be done about that.  After they gave her the breathing treatment, they wanted to monitor her for a little while, which was the bulk of out time at the hospital.  She was pretty pitiful at the hospital.  She had fever chills and tremors.  She would fall asleep, then wake up and cry until she fell back asleep.  They took her temperature right before we left, and it had gone down, to 99.9.  

I also learned a lot about croup.  The ER doctor was super friendly and explained that it is actually related to the influenza virus.  And adults know it as laryngitis.  The airway in the throat become inflamed.  When an adult's airway becomes inflamed it's not that big of a deal, because of the size of our airway.  However, an infant's airway is much smaller.  So when it becomes inflamed, it cause a lot more stress on their body.  

On the way home, we stopped and got a cool mist humidifier for the girls' room.  It helps with the croup symptoms. Riley's fever returned before she went to bed, but she refused to take any medicine.  We tried for 15 minutes or so and she vehemently she her head no.  We expected a rough nights' sleep but I got up this morning after having slept through the night.  I can hear her moving around and making whimpering noises every once in awhile.  Sounds like she had a restless nights' sleep, but at least it was uninterrupted.  Hopefully, her fever will have subsided when she wakes.  

My New Years Resolution was no hospital trips for 1 year.  Of course, that went out the window in February, when Riley had a four night stay.  However, we made it 8 months.  I think that's the longest stretch in the last 4 years.  Now that's something to celebrate!    

Reminiscing over old cookbooks.

I love old cookbooks, especially the ones that come from churches.  I was going through some that my mother in law have and thought I'd share with you why I love them so much.  This cookbook comes to us from Sacred Heart Parish Cassel in Marathon, Wisconsin in 1970.  

You may have to zoom in, check out the second hint.  If you can't read it, it says "teach your children to pick up their toys before going to bed."  I guess they decided to throw some parenting advice in there too!

I also like the last hint on the helpful hints page. It says "To keep honey soft, add 1/4 lb. of butter to 1 qt. of fresh honey.  Mix well.  Will stay soft and you won't have to butter bread separately."  Huh, what bread?!

Here's an example of a recipe a particularly enjoy:  

Where's the chicken under ingredients?  How much chicken?  

Sweet N Sassy

Saturday was birthday party day for Hannah.  She had a birthday party in the morning and one in the afternoon.  The first one was for Jayden, at a place called Sweet & Sassy.  The idea behind sweet n sassy is girl dress up fun.  There were 8 girls total, who all arrived to get their hair done, their nails done, put on fancy outfits and then prance on a runway.  

The lighting in the place was different.  I don't know it what way, but I do know that most of my photo's didn't come out great.  Most look a little out of focus.  

Glitter was EVERYWHERE!  

Riley really wanted to check out the runway.  

Birthday girl, Jayden, and Hannah.  

She was moving so fast!

Hannah, loving her outfit.  And the entire place.

Getting her princess bow hair do.  

The runway show.  The little girl behind Hannah is Eva.  She's 5 too, that's why they decided to be twins.  

Singing and dancing.  

The birthday girl.  

Hannah, getting "crowned." 

They also read Hannah's bio during this time.  She likes to color.  Her favorite color is pink.  And in her spare time she likes to play with her baby sister.  The one rule in her kingdom would be no boys allowed. 

Quasi Limbo 

The Princess'

The after party.  

Hannah had so much fun.  She absolutely loved it, and I must admit, it's a neat birthday idea.  Hannah was so hyper and constantly moving while there.  Of course, so were the other girls.  She ended up taking a nap before we went to her cousins birthday party.  They have much smaller packages for just one girl, like spa packages or hair packages.  It's something I would do for Hannah, as a treat for her.  

On a leaf hunt

This week we're learning about leaves; why they change colors in fall, what trees they belong to and so forth.  I planned a trip to a nearby park for us all.  Our goal was to collect as many leaves as possible, of all shapes, sizes and colors.  Tomorrow the temperature is dropping a good 10 degrees, so I really wanted to make it happen today.  We almost got rained out, as a short lasting downpour started on our way to the park.  

But it cleared up and we all set out.  

She's ready to go!  Hannah, our faithful leader.

Riley, tucked in and ready to go.  This is the first time I've ever back packed Riley in this backpack by myself.  It was a little tricky, but with Hannah's help we managed.  

Pondering a bird we saw in the trees.

Chasing a squirrel.

One, of many, leaf selections.  

Our collection drying out: 

After we're done sorting them and learning about the trees we collected from, we'll do a couple of art projects.  

Learning Italian

We're learning Italian.  I bought this for Hannah.  We're going to read and compare our English version with the Italian version to help our understanding of the way Italian sentences are structured.  

Hey, I can do that!

Is what Riley must've been saying. That's because she can feed herself with a spoon.

And it's all she wants to do.  She yells until you give her the spoon.  So I put some food on the spoon and then give it to Riley.  I think she makes less of a mess doing it herself.