"Daddy's Car Fall Down"

As most have heard by now on Wednesday Adam and Taylor had an accident during that early morning rain storm. That's a mother's worst fear .... right... one of them atleast. That one of theei children have been in an accident.

The details are heart wrenching... for me atleast. Adam had just dropped Kendall off at Nana's and was on his way to take Taylor to school. It was pouring outside and their was a driveway that was producing a river in the road. Adam didn't have time to stop and ended up hydroplaning. By the time he stopped hydroplaning he was heading straight toward a tree and his wheel was locked up. If his wheel wasn't locked up, maybe he wouldn't have hit the tree... then again... he may have hit it the tree sideways and cause more injury to Taylor. They ended up hitting the tree head first.

Several cars stopped to help and see if they wanted to get in out of the rain. Taylor was in hysterics and wouldn't get in any car. While waiting for the police, Adam asked Taylor if she wanted him to sing "Amazing Grace" and she said yes. So they stood in the road, Taylor tucked inside his jacket under a small umbrella singing "Amazing Grace." That just brings tears to my eyes. Amazing Grace is her 'night night' song... and a source of comfort since she was a tiny baby.

Luckily there was a little steel mill across the road. When I arrived to the scene, Nana had Taylor soaked to the bone wrapped in a towel in the steel mill trying to warm her up. She wouldn't even pick her head up to greet me. I know where my mom got her survivor kit lessons from and after involving my child, I will put a jacket and towel in my car for keeps.

From the look of the accident, they were really lucky. Adam's angels were there again. His angels are around so much, they are going to end up with names. The car we can replace (though we just paid it off last month... that just makes it more heart wrenching).

When we finallly got Taylor into Nana's car to head to her house, I asked Taylor if she was okay. She said no. She looked up at me and as innocent as can be said, "momma, daddy's car fall down." My heart broke for her.

Both walked away with minor bumps and bruises. Taylor's worst was the mark that her seatbelt left. Adam ended up with a jammed toe, busted hand (from going through the dash) and a badly bruised knee (already bad knee). All together, we are grateful.

Taylor talked for a day and a half about daddy's car falling down. Her then next statement was "daddy's car "stop" on tree" (with a hand slap at stop). She repeats herself over and over. That day she pointed out every tree we passed to make sure we saw that tree. That night she refused to sleep alone. She slept with me and still had obvious nightmares.

She's improving. She's back to her normal sleeping arrangements. Doesn't mention the accident as much each day. She's till panicked about getting in 'daddy's car.' She rides fine in "mommy's car." We are currently using a car from Papa (Adam's dad). So we now call it "Papa's car." Half way to school today, she stopped crying and seemed to get over it. She later told Adam, she liked Papa's car. Hopefully she'll be 'over it' come Monday.

It's hard when a little child loses trust in the world. How do you tell her it'll be okay... when you can't make promises. There may be another accident down the road, bad things happen. Tonight as i was rocking her for bed, she looked up at me and whispered "daddys car fall down" after not mentioning it all night. Again, it tugged my heart. The best I could come up with that my two year old little girl would understand is "all done." The tree is all-done. She seemed to understand that.

That night I thanked God for sparing my husband and my child that day and then with tears in my eyes, I prayed that he doesn't take my family away from me. They are my everything.

In the mind of a two year old...

So the other morning, Taylor had me cracking up. First conversation of the morning went like this...

Me: "Taylor, are you wet?"
Taylor: "No, not wet mommy. I dry."
Me: "Are you sure? I think you're lying."
Taylor: "Me, lion. ROOOAOAARRR."


We were able to get our Christmas tree and some decorations up this weekend. On Saturday morning, Taylor walks into the living room and see's the lit tree and say's "ohh pretty. Momma take a picture" and brings me my camera. So here is Taylor with our Christmas tree.

Again... same day... she found our Christmas nativity set. The night before she had the wise man in time out. But this is what I found the next day and thought was too halarious...

Baby Jesus in time out... atleast the wise men were still able to find him.

Fall Fun 2009

Now that I have kids, I think Fall is my favorite time of year. There is so much to do and so much fun. The following are blirbs and pics from some of our family activities.
Harmon's Pumpking Patch
We were really disappointed in Harmon's this year. We went one afternoon after it rained all morning and everything was put up. The pumpkins and hay displays were all missing. But we still managed to have some fun.
Taylor's first stop was the mechanical 'horsey.'

She enjoyed her first see-saw ride. Mom and dad rode too. Boy did it bring back memories. And quite a workout!

Lastly, Taylor found the little merry-go-round. She had to sit on every animal and wanted to turn it on. It turned out to be broke but... Daddy saves the day by pushing it round and round. Such..sweet moment.


Halloween 2009
For Halloween, Taylor was able to dress up and attend her party at school. They made trick or treat bags and went from classroom to classroom. Her bag was so full, she had to drag it to the car. Halloween night we ended up attending our church's carnival. It was so packed and chaotic... I'm not sure we'll do that again. Atleat not while they are young. We were home early but everyone was tired and okay with that. Kendall never did get dressed up in a costume. It was too hot to put her in anything. Taylor had a ball being a pretty ballerina.



Biltmore Trip to see Santa
On a whim, I decided to hitch a ride to Asheville with my sister's family with my two kids. Three adults, and four kids (including car seats, two strollers and multiple bags all rode in one van (Thanks Toyota). Taylor apparently hasn't grown out of her Santa fear yet. (Remember her christmas card last year) She cried the entire time. I had to hold her and she still cried. However, everynight during 'night night' prayers she thanks that "TaTa sat on Santa's lap." I"m not sure how we'll explain the Santa deal this year. I've mentioned Santa coming and bringing toys and she started crying.


The kids enjoyed running around the field, playing ball and eating ice cream.



We were able to visit the petting farm. Taylor had a ball chasing the chickens calling after them " I wanna hold you." Kendall was so good the entire trip... but just went along for the ride.

Corn Maze - Nov 2009
"We got lost in the corn maze" Yes, we took a toddler and baby into the corn maze. What were we thinking. Things started out real good. Everyone having a blast. THen after about an hour in wall to wall corn, we started getting ansy. Taylor half way through began having temper tantrums so Adam decided that we should just try and make our way out. What we were doing the first place, I'm not sure... I thought that is what the purpose of the maze is.... come out at the other end. I still got some good pics.
Girl with attitude...

Reading the map with daddy... "where are we?"

Soo tired... two babies, one carseat, one stroller.... what a family to do? Pile them in together. They didn't mind.

Thanksgiving 2009
Taylor got to help cook alittle. She enjoyed the eating part more, but who doesn't.

She enjoyed playing with Chandler during the feast.
Charles got practice on feeding Kendall.

She had a blast playing at Nana's with all her cousins. No pictures because the camera was left behind. And last but not least, Taylor and I attended her first Thanksgiving lunch at school. All the kids were dressed up as pilgrims.

Kendall's 6m well visit

Today Kendall had her 6 month well visit check up. Everything went well despite her getting three shots. She wasn't too happy about those, of course. She was 27 inches long and 15.12 lbs. She's actually lost alittle bit of weight since her 4 month appointment. Doc says she's right on track.

He is referring her to an opthalmologist (eye doctor) for her eyes. He called it esotropia. We have to wait and see what the eye doctor says but he thinks it can be corrected with just her wearing a patch. We'll see.

He also 'confirmed/agreed' that the mysterious rash she's had for the last two months is an oatmeal allergy. We've thrown out all the Aveeno products... actually just using them on Taylor instead. I'm hoping she'll grow out of it by 9 months. He mentioned that if she doesn't then he'll probably refer her to a GI doctor... not sure why though.

So insurance reenrollment is coming up at Adam and mine work. After today's appointment, I feel comfortable signing up for the higher monthly premium. It'll probably benefit us since we'll have all these 'extra' doctor visits and procedures. We sure could have used this plan this year with all that has gone on... probably saved us a thousand bucks.

Kendall is constantly on the go. She hardly sleeps, I suppose she's scared she'll miss something. She's already scooting on the floor, rocking back and forth on her knees and really getting around. However she's not even sitting alone yet. I keep telling her she can't crawl until she sits. But I'm not sure she's listening. We are slowly introducing solids. Because of her possible food allergies, we are being extra caution. She can only eat rice (as in cereal) until 9 months. We just started veggies last week. She's such a joy to be around.

Ahh... the stress... does it end...

This blog is more of a stress reliever for me. I hope I feel better afterwards... so I apologize in advance for the 'wahs.' We'll start with myself.

I had some dental work done last week to 'finish' off some issues. I was hoping it was the last of it and afterwards could resume my normal cleanings. But over the weekend my tooth started hurting pretty badly. I went in today and it turned out that part of the filling had chipped off and was shoved under my tooth and into my gum. I can assure you it felt as good as it sounds. However, the repair was 100 times worse. Despite four numbing injections of two different types and one injection going straight into the nerve of the tooth, the dentist still couldn't numb the tooth that was already aggrivated. I was between tears and climbing out of my skin. Towards the end, even just her touching the tooth caused severe throbbing. We are hoping it won't need a root canal. She said that my gum was pretty inflamed because of the chipped piece and that along with the work can make the tooth sensitive. So I'm on some meds for the next 24 hours but am hoping I'll be done with the dentist for a while.


Taylor is slowly killing us... by lack of sleep. This has been going on for about two months. She started out resisting to fall asleep. This lasted two weeks before I go so desperate I went out and bought all kinds of contraptions to 'help' her fall asleep. Then one night we did 'sleep bootcamp.' I established a strict bedtime routine consisting of specific books, a lullaby cd, a lava lamp, rocking, prayers and being tucked in. The first two nights were rough but then seemed to work well except momma had to do it. Well at some point, she wanted us to leave her lamp light on while she slept. She screams when we turn it off... so I started leaving it on. However, I'm not convinced it's helping her sleep. I turn it off when she's asleep. But she wakes up in the middle of the night screaming. So our issue now is not her going to sleep... but her waking in the middle of the night. For the past several nights, she'll wake up crying, screaming out and wanting to rock in the living room. She starts her temper tantrums and ends up waking the whole house. Sunday night, she was up for 3 hours. It's insane. I'm not sure what to do about it but this whole sleeping phase is by far the worse ... yet. We are all so desperate to get some sleep that we did the unthinkable last night. At 2:00 and we were all up, Adam and I decided to give her one of her paci's, thinking it would do the trick. It didn't. It's only meant for bedtime here at the house. She didn't take it to school and got it when she got in bed. We'll see how it goes tonight with it.


Kendall is so precious. She's such an easy going baby and so pleasant. She smiles at everything and especially when you talk to her. Poor baby though has had this crazy mysterious rash (off and on) for about 3 weeks now. It's the craziest thing I've seen and as a mother it is literally driving me nuts. It started the week she stayed with my grandma. I noticed these bite like marks on her belly and thought "nana must have flea's." Well by the end of the week (and she only stayed with Nana 2 days), kendall had these 'bites/marks' all over her back and belly and a few on arms and legs. I ruled out flea's because no one else in the house has any bites and we haven't seen any. On that Friday I realized the weekend before and the entire week I had been feeding her oatmeal. I was convinced she was having an allergic reaction. I stopped the oatmeal and they slowly went away with in a week.

Well fast forward two weeks... to last week. Kendall has eczema and I've been using Aveeno on her skin. I had used Aveeno for several weeks before we fed oatmeal to her with no problems. However, when she developed the rash, I stopped using it. Last Wed, her eczema was flaring so I decided to use the Aveeno. I used it Thursday too. On Friday, she woke with her belly flaring again. I assumed it was from the Aveeno. I've heard if they are allergic to oatmeal by mouth then you shouldn't use topical oatmeal either. I took her to the doctor and (not her ped but another doctor) said it didn't look like allergies. Her guess was either some kind of bites or a staph infection. (Adam had staph infection while I was pregnant) So she's on antibiotics for a staph infection.

So here's my dilema....

Description of the rash: Mostly on belly and back (few on arms and legs) A red splotch (size of dime) is present with a little white head bump (kind of pimply or bite like). When the redness goes down, her stomach has a very fine red rash on it, not including the bumps described above. These bumps with reddness come and go... usually in same spot but at times she pops out a new one or two or three.

I'm not convinced it's staph. If it is.. it's not typical. We are on day 4 out of 7 of the antibiotic and I'm not seeing a huge difference. I did see on babycenter.com some similar stories, but still not convinced. Not to mention.. if it is... how do I get it out of my house?

Bugs: This just gives me the creeps... what kind, where.. why are they attacking her and no one else. I've been searching for fleas and can't find a single one. Bedbugs.... we put tape on her bed and floor ... nothing so far. We may end up fumigating the house anyways... just to be sure. I should mention that her room is the room that patches lived in at one time (when the dogs and cats were inside). But again, we aren't seeing anything. I'm also thinking of calling our exterminator to come out and take a look. They said they could visit and just look around to see if they see any evidence of flea's.

I will say this.... I think (thought of this tonight) that I believe all this started when we got some clothes from melissa's. I washed all these clothes but wonder if something may have gotten in them while they were in Melissa's attic. I'm now tracking what she wear's and her breakouts.

Allergies: who knows... I think it's huge coincidence that it started with the oatmeal, cleared with the oatmeal, started with the Aveeno and is slowly clearing. We've stayed away from Aveeno... but i want to use it sooo bad to see if she has another reaction. However I'm scared because if it's an allergic reaction, they seem to be getting worse.

So what to do? where to go from here? Do we have bugs, do we have bacteria, do we have allergies? I'm not sure my pediatrician would know. I've thought about taking her to a dermatologist or demanding to see an allergist. I guess my plan right now is to finish the antiobiotic (Friday) and see what happens. If they are still there or pop up again, I may take her back in. I may end up trying the Aveeno on one spot to see what happens. And we may end up fumigating the house anyways, which brings on a whole new set of worries. How do you safely fumigate a house with an infant and toddler living inside. Pretty stressful stuff.

Day at the doctor

We officially accomplished two well visits in one visit today. Of course, Adam was with me. No way I could have gone solo. He had no choice but to go. :-) So here are the updates on my both chillen's two hours and four shots later...

Kendall - 4 month well visit
Height : 24.5 inches (75)
Weight 14.8 (50th%)
Head: 10 3/4 inches (90%) "huge" in our doctors words

Developmentally: right on track (rolling, cooing, laughing, etc)

He said Kendall looks great and no changes were made. He did confirm she does have eczema (really, so shocked). Regarding her eyes being crossed, he wants to wait until her 6 month appointment (which really she's 5 months old next week, so we only have 5 weeks to wait) and see how they are then. They seem to be alittle better just this week.

I showed him pictures of her allergic reaction. Apparently, I wasn't suppose to be feeding her oatmeal in the first place. Even though we did with Taylor, the recommendations have changed. How's a parent suppose to know this. His advice (strict advice that we'll follow is as this...) Begin rice once to three times daily. When she hits six months (not a day sooner) we can start with babyfood fruits and veggies. She's not to attempt multi-grain cereals (oatmeal, wheat, etc) until 9 months old. At that point if she still has a reaction, it'll be addressed then. So rice it is.

Kendall got two shots. She didn't even cry for the first one. It was amazing. I've never seen anything like it. The second one she cried for a split second but she did excellent.



Taylor - 2 year old well visit
Height: 34 in. (75%)
Weight: 28 lbs (50%)
Head: 19 3/4 in (94%) "Huge"

Developmentally: following conversation took place...
Dr. C walks into room...
Dr. C: Hey Taylor, how are you.
Taylor: gives Dr. Cope the eat sh*t look
Dr. C: Give me 5 (to Taylor)
Taylor: "STOP"
Dr. C: (shocked) Well my developmental exam is through.
Mom: Yup, she's two.
Dr. C: Definitely two.

Apparently she's right on track. Ha! That's my girl. She's also been described as a fighter and strong willed during the same exam. However I was so proud of her when she walked by herself with the nurse to get weighed and height measured. Such a big girl.

The other conversation brought up was I told the doctor she's recently been exposed to the swine flu. He laughed at me and said " I could have told you that, have you seen the waiting room." And yes... for all you mother's out there.... the waiting room was packed. I suppose this isn't the time to go to the doctor just to get a minor cold checked out. They'll leave with something much bigger.

So proud of both of them!

Kendall's allergic reaction

Last week Kendall broke out in this crazy bump like rash. At first I thought it was flea bites. But they continued to get worse and worse and no one else was getting bites. After about 5 days of it progressing, it hit me that we had started her on oatmeal a few days before the rash appeared. I should also mentioned that while she had the rash, she puked like crazy. She's a reflux baby but hasn't spit up like this ever. It was crazy. So I looked up and of course self diagnosed her with an oatmeal allergy. But the internet said a reaction would be exacty like she had. She's been oatmeal for 5 days and the rash and continued to improve. Yea! Though now I'm scared about what kind of allergies she may have. I'm hoping this is something that just didn't agree with her right now. But I'm worried she may have a wheat allergy or worse a gluten intolerance, which will change our eating habits drastically. See pictures below... I had taken these prior to realizing what it was... I was prepared to post them on here to ask people what they thought it was... bites, rash, eczema. But now I know. We see the doctor on Friday so we'll see what he says about that... along with her eczema and cross eyes. I'm sure I'll have something to blog about then.