Eye Update

Piper complained about her eye hurting pretty regularly for a couple of days after her injury.  Then she only talked about it hurting when she didn’t want to do what we asked her to do.  Even though we had a rough start with the eye drops, Piper quickly allowed us to give her eye drops like a big girl (so long as she received a Dora sticker right after the drop). 

Piper had a follow-up appointment with her eye doctor yesterday.  She was very disappointed to start out with some dilating eye drops, but she quickly recovered.  Piper’s eye doctor said her eye had completely healed and said that we could stop the antibiotic eye drops, and Piper yelled “YAY!”  Since Piper was already dilated, the doctor went ahead and did a full eye exam, and declared Piper to have 20/20 eyesight and otherwise perfect eyes.  He did say that Piper is going to be nearsighted (no surprise as both Gary and I are) and that we need to bring her back before kindergarten and then regularly thereafter so that we can make sure we catch the nearsightedness right away to put her in glasses and avoid her squinting at the board in the classroom, etc.

After the eye appointment, I did not have enough time to take Piper home and go back to work.  I knew that I could take Piper to work with me and at least get a few e-mails out.  Piper was thrilled to learn that she was going to go to work with me for about an hour.  She literally strutted down the halls in her sunglasses and wearing her backpack.  She didn’t talk to many people, but she warmed up a bit before we left and we even walked around seeing a few people before leaving.  While in my office, I set her up with one of my guest chairs and a plant stand, and she had her snack and helped me work by putting some foam stickers on a foam background. 

I don’t know how I would have made it through the afternoon without her. 

Again

It’s probably my fault.  This morning when I got to work, I was unusually excited that all I had on my calendar was lunch.  The last two weeks I’ve had way too many things on my calendar.  I was pretty cocky in thinking that I was actually going to get some work done today instead of running from one location to another.

I quickly learned why that line of thinking is never good.  That line of thinking tempts fate entirely too much.  See, earlier this morning as I was spraying Penelope’s head with one squirt of the kid-safe detangler that I’ve used on the kids for two years, Piper started yelling that I sprayed her in her eye.  First of all, I did not spray Piper in her eye.  Secondly, I don’t think she was close enough to get the slightest bit of detangler in her eye.  I won’t say that Piper is a drama queen, but I will say that her apparent over-reaction to the detangler was not that surprising to Gary or to me.  Her eye was a little red, but then she had been rubbing it and screaming for a while, so we assumed that it should be red.

I was at work when Miss Sally called later and said that Piper was still complaining about her eye and that it was red and swollen.  Gary and I called Piper’s eye doctor, and were advised to take her to the local eye emergency room. 

Another emergency room trip.

But then eyes are pretty important. . . .

In the end, they checked the pH of Piper’s eye and she didn’t have anything chemical going on in her eye.  She does, however, have a corneal abrasion (or, as I describe it, a scratch on her eyeball).  We don’t know how she got it, but I think that she probably got it when she was rubbing her eye.  Regardless, the good news is that even though she is hurting a bit right now, she should be as good as new in another day or two.  In the meantime, we treat her with antibiotic drops to avoid infection and some artificial tears to help keep her eye nice and moisturized. 

Maybe THIS is the last ER trip we will make for a while. . . .

At least Piper seemed to enjoy the attention from the doctors and nurses (most of the time) and the unfettered access to my cellphone.

She’s Walking

Tonight I put Penelope down in her room and she walked about 10 feet.  I don’t think that either of us expected it.  As soon as she started walking, I started yelling, “She’s walking!  She’s walking!  She’s walking!”  Gary immediately flew up the stairs but didn’t make it in time to see her walking that time, but she quickly took another few steps so that he could witness it all firsthand. 

Despite the fact that she is my fourth child to walk, and the fact that a 12-month-old starting to walk is hardly anything extraordinary, I can’t help but be incredibly proud of her.  I’m probably way more proud of her than is reasonable, but I can’t help it.  I’ve felt this way when each of my kids started walking.  It’s just amazing to me that little babies turn into little kids.  I can’t even begin to imagine them turning into anything bigger than little kids. . . .

Penelope’s First Birthday Party ~ Post Four

The kids couldn’t wait for Penelope to open up her gifts!  We had to keep reminding them that the presents were for Penelope and NOT for them.  I don’t know that they ever really understood that concept, but they do seem to realize that Penelope’s toys are hers and that they can only play with them if she approves.

If you could say that Penelope had a favorite gift, it would probably have to be Dolly (we are so original with names) from Nana and Papa. . . .

But she also enjoyed her cards and all of her other great gifts.

She even got some help from Grandma and Henry to put together some of her toys!

This finally concludes the first birthday party photos!  Thanks again to Cathy and Amanda for these photos!  Back to our regularly scheduled blogging activities after this. . . .

Penelope’s First Birthday ~ Post Three

It’s taking me way too long to get these birthday photos posted!  I’ve been pretty busy at work, and then we’ve had a busy weekend.  Piper, Rosemary, and I went to a princess birthday party yesterday, Piper and I went to the grocery store (it was her turn), we’ve played outside, we’ve gone to Costco and out for yogurt, and last night Gary and I even got to fish an English pea out of Henry’s nose using a bulb syringe and a pair of tweezers.  Fun stuff. 

Anyway – here are some more photos from Penelope’s birthday party, the cake edition.

As soon as Penelope saw her smashcake, she had no hesitation.  She knew that it was hers and it was going to be good.

She dug right in. . . .

And then she started shoveling the cake into her mouth, which was a source of great entertainment to the big kids.

At one point the big kids could no longer control themselves.  They had to have a little taste of Penelope’s cake.

Penelope really loved her cake!

And boy was she a mess to clean up.  It took both Gary and I to get her clean.

As always, thanks to Amanda and Cathy for the awesome photos!  I think I’ve got one more post from the birthday party, and hopefully I’ll get that up early this week and move on to current life!

Penelope’s First Birthday Party ~ Post Two

Penelope had a lot of family and so many great friends come to her birthday party.  Here are a photos of some of the party guests. . . .

Thanks again to Cathy and Amanda for the awesome photos!

Penelope’s First Birthday Party ~ Post One

Penelope’s first birthday party was this past weekend.  I think it was a great success!  Penelope had a great time – and so did Gary and I, and the big kids.  I hope that our guests enjoyed themselves as well. 

I’m absolutely thrilled with how everything for Penelope’s party turned out.  For this post, I’ll focus on the “party things” and save the guests and events for later posts.  Unlike the kids’ birthday party, I was actually able to take some of the photos in this post myself.  Luckily, Cathy and Amanda were kind enough to serve as photographers for the party so that I could focus on the party while knowing that the party would be properly photographically documented. 

I started the process for Penelope’s birthday party by contacting Kristy with Allison Powell Designs.  I gave her some vague idea of what I was thinking for Penelope’s birthday party – pink and gray, maybe some yellow, birdies, etc.  In response, she sent me some fabulous party printables!  I can’t say how much I love what she designed for Penelope’s party. 

I received digital files of every type of party item you can imagine, and I used almost all of them.  You will see them again and again in the party blog posts.  Kristy’s design served as the inspiration for our entire party.

My biggest worry was the cake.  I knew what sort of cake I wanted, but just wasn’t finding the right person to make it happen.  I worked very hard on finding just the right person to make the cake.  I got very, VERY lucky when I found Malinda Nichols.  All I did was send her a copy of the invite that Kristy designed and a few links to cakes I found on the internet and liked . . . and I got this. . . .

Malinda also provided a fabulous smashcake for Penelope!

Penelope’s party hat was designed by Prop Shop Boutique using the decorative papers provided by Allison Powell Designs.

I think that the whole party set-up was just perfect for Penelope.

When we were kids, for our birthdays, my mom let us pick out what we wanted for dinner and for dessert.  My brothers and I ALWAYS asked for spaghetti and strawberry cake.  Always.  I’ve wanted to incorporate strawberry cake into our kids’ birthday parties, and finally found a way to do that by using the cake recipe for cupcakes.

It just made everything seem more like a birthday party with the strawberry cake around.

For our party favors, I ordered some fabulous bird-shaped bird seed favors from Nature Favors.

And the most important decoration was for Penelope.  She was very stylish in her custom retro ruffler from Rae Gun! 

The retro ruffler was nicely complimented by a bib from Bean Pickle Sprout.

Penelope seemed to approve.

What a happy baby!  I just love everything about this birthday party – especially the birthday girl!

More soon. . . .