Happy Anniversary to US!

Today is Doug's and my wedding anniversary. It's number two for us, although we've been together for just over six years. We had sort of talked about doing some things together on the weekend, eg. dinner, but it managed to get away on us and nothing happened. We did manage to exchange gifts and that was nice, however no fancy dinner or anything. I got Doug some cologne (I seem to keep buying it for him, but the guy that talked me into was really sweet and plus they work on commission in the department stores, etc. But I digress...) and a Jack Kerouac book (his journals, actually). Doug doesn't seem to read a lot of fiction; well, technically it's non-fiction, but he doesn't read anything that could be described as leisure. So I am making him do it. I'll even place it in the bathroom for him!

Yesterday we took the kids to the park for a bit. Hayden got to go in the swing, which he loves and Kes ran amock everywhere else. She ran around in the grassy areas and then it got kind of windy so we left. Later that night, as we were getting everyone ready for bed, Doug asked me to come look at the back of Kestrel's neck, which she was scratching. The first thought that went through my mind was not a good one: headlice. She was scratching so much she was bleeding. She is a terrible picker - she once had this sore on the side of her nose for about three months because she wouldn't stop picking at it. I frantically inspected her head - since her hair thinned out so much recently that was easy - no evidence of nasty crawly bugs. Then it was revealed to me that she was also scratching along her panty line and when I looked, there were raised welts (hives). So we dosed her up with Benadryl and gave her a nice bath and spread the affected areas with Ozonol. All was well and she went to bed and we pondered what the allergen could be. Hmmm......

Somewhere around 1am, I went to roll over and thought "Man, Doug's taking up a lot of bedspace", but when I went to move the covers, another being moved with it and I realized that Kes had crawled onto the end of our bed and was sleeping between our legs on top of our covers. I got up and returned her to her own bed. A couple of hours later I realized that she was back. This was unusual because she has been sleeping through the night for quite awhile and I can only guess that it was because her little IKEA star light burned out and she was scared. Anyway, I left her there the second time, but covered her with some of our blanket because it was chilly last night. I did not hear her come in the room or feel her climb onto the bed either time, so I must have been dead asleep (a rare occurrence). In the meantime, Hayden fussed a couple of times and I got up and gave him his soother which seemed to convince him to stay in his crib. GOOD NEWS: Hayden has slept through the night in his crib about four nights in a row, so dare I hope that this is a trend? He gets up around 6-ish, which is fine by me because I can usually get him back to sleep in our bed for another hour. I am a happy Mom. For now.

When we all got up, Kes was absolutely covered head to toe in hives. Her face, her arms, her legs, her torso, everything. She even told us her gums were itching. To me, that is indicative of something that has been ingested, but we could think of nothing she ate that was new. We had hotdogs at Costco, and Doug thought maybe they changed the sausage, but then I would have reacted for sure. I noticed my nose, eyes and throat were a little itchy yesterday, so I am guessing it was grass pollen and perhaps she inhaled some. Either that, or it was the cherry blossoms she picked, but that one seems obscure to me. Gah! Allergies suck and I hate seeing my babies suffer with them too. Even Hannah has been having some trouble.

So you can't really see her skin all that well, but the expression on her face is enough to get the picture. Misery through and through. Benadryl does that to a person.





Since I owe you a photo, here's one of Hayden feeding himself. Yum!