Meet Reggie

When I got home from work today I heard a scared sounding meow coming from under our house. It took me a few minutes to find exactly where it was coming from, but I found the wide eyes to match the cries. When Jeremie woke up from his nap his first job was to climb under the house and rescue the very scared kitten. He was a good sport and woke up 15 minutes early, because I'm sure he knew both Mollie and I were concerned about the trapped kitten. He crawled under the house with a flashlight and successfully coaxed the kitten to come to him! We all were very relieved!!!

Mollie and I walked around the entire neighborhood, looking for the kitten's family. We were unsuccessful, so Jeremie ran to the pet store to pick up some cat food and litter. Mollie is LOVING having a new playmate in the house, as you can see from the pictures. She often gets a little too excited and picks him up by the neck! But so far so good- no scratching or biting! He seems to be taking well to her.

Jeremie is taking surprisingly well to the kitten, too. He even named it "Reggie". We are not sure that we will be keeping it, because of allergies, but are enjoying every minute of it for now!

So Many Changes

With so many changes in our lives these days it's hard for me to stop and enjoy the present. But, luckily I have a one-year-old to help me with that! Since she goes over to my friend Lisa's house three times a week, she gets to see Lisa's little man swaddled, rocked and nursed a lot. With that being said, she is now practicing her own "mommy skills" by asking us to swaddle her bunny so that she can sit in an infant bouncy seat and rock it to sleep. It is so precious.

I also got a wonderful reminder of how good our God is this morning. My wonderful friend, Brianna from high school, instant messaged me to see how we are doing. We don't see her often and she hasn't heard about all the changes we are facing. She just wanted to know if there was anything she could pray for right now. It felt so good to know God put us on her heart so that she could support us through prayer.

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we did yearly family tradition of going to Spooner Farm's Pumpkin Patch. I was hoping for more opportunities to get some cute pictures of Mollie, but she just wasn't into the Patch thing. Her favorite things of the day were: seeing the bunnies, sitting in her cousin's stroller (she never likes the stroller, go figure!), and riding a pony. We thought it would be a major melt-down when her pony ride was over, but she was so good about it.

Messy Girl!

Does anyone have any tips on teaching your toddler to be a neat eater??? Mollie is such a mess! Summertime was nice, because I could gets her all undressed before eating and then wipe her down when she was all done. These days it's too cold for that, so it's getting a bit complicated! Bath-time is all but required after a bowl of oatmeal, as you can see in these pictures...

Influenza

Mollie woke up with "sick symptoms" yesterday morning. Because she was exposed to strep over the weekend I decided to take her in to the doctor right away. The strep culture was negative, so they decided to do a flu test (didn't even know such a thing existed). Unfortunately, it came back positive.

The doctor offered us an anti-viral, Tamaflu, because within 48 hours of onset it can significantly reduce symptoms and reduce the active phase of illness. I decided to give it to her, even though it cost us $44 out-of-pocket (thanks to lovely self-employed insurance). It was money well spent! Mollie had her first symptoms at 8am yesterday and had her last known fever yesterday evening. (Although I think she had a few fevers during the night, because I heard some whimpering over the monitor.) She woke up symptom free this morning and is acting back to her old-self already! Praise Jesus! (And thank you Tamaflu!)

The flu is very scary, especially with h1n1 this year, but we have found that there are things you can do to reduce the seriousness of symptoms. According to Mollie's doctor the keys are: catch it early, get right into the doctor if you suspect the illness is more than a cold, take the anti-viral, and take daily vitamins (poly-vi-sol for little ones).

Just thought I'd share our experience. Hope it helps relieve some fears of the flu and helps you handle it quickly.

PS- According to the material distributed by our doctor's office, influenza and h1n1 symptoms do not include vomiting. The biggest indicators of the flu are high fevers, muscle aches, icky noses, and coughing. (Yes, scarily similar to a bad cold!)