Sleeping Arrangements

At Nana's house we have three beds in one room.

Hannah's bed...



Leah's bed...



My bed...



How 'bout that, eh?

Hannah and her Allergies

When Hannah was about 9 months old. Maybe 10. She ate a hunk of frozen peach in one of those little mesh things. And got a hideous rash around her face and all inside her mouth.

No more peaches for Hannah.

When Hannah eats anything with jelly on it she gets a redness anywhere it touches around the outside of her mouth.

No more jelly/jam for Hannah.

A few weeks ago Hannah grabs my spoonful of peanut butter while I was answering the door. All around her mouth and everywhere she drooled (she had on no shirt) there was a red rash. Lines all down her tummy. Within probably an hour of that we had an appt at an allergist for Dec 12th. (Yesterday)

So yesterday, Drew, Hannah & I headed off to Casper. (There is – of course – no allergist in Rawlins. Imagine that.)

At the appointment we went over everything that happened before and they did a standard scratch test on her back with the addition of peaches and watermelon.

The results are that she is allergic to peanuts.

And dust. Yes – dust.

And cats. That’s right. We have two cats. We won’t within the next 48 hours or so. Maybe today.

If you know me at all, you know – I love my cats. I’ve been crying on and off about it today but there really is no choice to be made to me. I love my cats but not enough. Hannah’s comfort and health obviously come first.

If she didn’t touch and love the cats so much that would help. But it’s just not the case. Hannah LOVES the cats and (unfortunately) they actually love her back. They like to lay on her, rub on her, snuggle with her. She likes to rub her face in them. That kind of thing.

Probably 2 days ago I said to my mom – Something is not right with Hannah. It’s been 2ish weeks and something is just off. I’m not sure what to do. In the end I decided that we’d go to the allergy appt and then go to the regular doc this week to find out what’s up if the allergies weren’t the problem.

But guess what I realized on the way home yesterday? That’s exactly how long we’ve had the new kitten. Hannah picks that kitten up about 100 times a day and carries her around the house. Rubbing her face in the kitten heaven only knows how many times. So OF COURSE it got worse since the kitten came.

Sigh.

As far as the severity of her allergies goes, it’s not life threatening – the peanuts because she has no breathing issues at this point. But with each exposure to peanuts it will get worse. He said we don’t need an epi-pen now but that we’ll need to talk about that when she goes to preschool/school. (because that’s obviously the place where she’s gonna get accidental exposures)

The dust. I don’t even know where to go with that. We live in WYOMING. Oh my word. Of course dust is just everywhere. There is no escaping it. He did tell me when I do things like vacuum she needs to not come back in the room for at least 45 minutes to let everything settle.

I need a new vacuum cleaner designed with Hepa filters. It would be better if we didn’t have carpet. (Easier said than done.)

I think that is all. Oy.

Drew took this picture about 5 minutes into the 15 minute waiting period. You can’t see the cat one very well because of the lighting but it got just as bad as the dust one. And they all got worse than what you see here in this picture.

The peaches one was just the slightest pink dot. With most of them you can see they didn’t react. There were 23 spots in all.

ETA: He thinks she’s growing out of the peaches thing. He said to try them again later.

Tidbits

*These are all thoughts I had or things that happened between 5 am and 6 am in my bed this morning*

***

When Hannah tells you she wants to snuggle in bed – she means lay next to her. Not touching. I can rub her hair, sometimes hold her hand.

When Leah says she wants to snuggle in bed – she means fully body contact. Encircled in arms.

***

Leah: All four of us are in this bed and I don’t even feel squished!

(I certainly did.)

***

Hannah might ask for a duck to hold at 5 am. And she’ll mean the hard rubber ducks from her bath toys. Of course.

***

When you ask Hannah what an animal says – do not be fooled. She knows them all but she thinks it’s HYSTERICAL to say “meow” to every animal. Probably because it makes me laugh every time. She just gets this mischievous look on her face and I can’t help it.

****

Hannah:  one two thee four five!

Drew: WHAT did she just say!?!?

Me: She counted to 5. You know. Like every one year old does. One two three four five.

Hannah: six!

Me: That’s a new one. Seven!

Hannah: eight!

Me: Nine!

Hannah: Ten!

Me: Well okay. She counts to 10 like every one year old does…

***

Some things about this age are exhausting but really – life is so simple. They’re needs are pretty simple. They may not wake me up at 5 am to play with ducks in my bed later, but the worries are gonna get more intense. Today I will enjoy their simple needs.

Productive Napping by Hannah

Hannah was supposed to be napping. It was quiet for awhile and then I heard her playing but she wasn’t calling for me so I was just enjoying the quiet. After awhile I say to Drew, “Go tell her she can get up. I don’t think she napped but oh well.” And a few minutes later I hear Drew exclaiming, “HOLY CRAP!” So I come running and this is the sight that greets me:

I said, “Hannah! That was so naughty!” And she started to cry and got in the rocking chair in her room (at least she didn’t color that!):

When I undressed her for a bath, I found this:

She clearly stuck that marker right in her belly button. What goes on in her head??? LOL!

So that’s a blue permanent marker. A little keychain one. I had it in my pocket. (I was crafting and using it to mark some things.) I think it must have fallen out. Well… CLEARLY, it fell out.

The walls and the bed and the floor are all cleaned up. Rubbing alcohol wiped it all right off. No big deal.

Her skin, however… it will fade eventually but the last incident just faded. And I need to take Christmas pictures. There is some on her neck and under her chin. Someday she’ll not have permanent marker right?

The sheets and the pillowcase, and that shirt went into the garbage. It’s a shame because she loves that shirt. She rubs it and says “Blankie shirt!” because it feels just like her blanket. Sad.

Oh and just so you know. I only have 4 permanent markers. She’s gotten in 3 of the 4 in the last 4 months. Watch for the orange one to make an appearance soon… *smacks head on desk*

Humankind

We must remember that those mortals we meet in parking lots, offices, elevators, and elsewhere are that portion of mankind God has given us to love and to serve. It will do us little good to speak of the general brotherhood of mankind if we cannot regard those . . . around us as our brothers and sisters.
~ Spencer W. Kimball

*Happy Sigh*

Snuggling with Daddy before school

CHEESE!

Hannah has clearly gotten the idea behind saying cheese. She even points at the camera and asks me to take pictures. Her face looks pretty much like this in every picture lately (except the grouchy ones. hehe.)

It used to look like this when she said cheese. She’s much more into it now, eh?

PS I swear I do her hair. I can’t do anything about her walking around with a blanket on her head half the time though. So. Stinking. Cute.