General Update

I haven't posted for almost a week, and I don't have any pictures to share, but here's what is going on with us.
I am almost completely well. I still have a bit of a cough. I also had an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon yesterday, and the ankle x-rays look the same, so I am going to keep using the ugly elastic sock as needed. I don't have to go back and see that doctor for 3 months unless I develop pain or unusual swelling. That is good news.
Alexa got a fever Friday night, and had a fever off and on all the way through Monday night. She had a really bad day Monday, the fever was high and she wouldn't eat or drink. I almost thought we were going to have to call the doc again. Tuesday morning she came into our room about 5 am and got into bed with us, and when we all woke up we discovered huge bloodstains on the sheet because Alexa had a bloody nose. It stopped bleeding shortly after she woke up, but she had runny nose from the cold, so all day we had major amounts of bloody snot. (Maybe I should put warnings on my posts when they are about things like this!) She did eat a lot of food and drink yesterday, so it seems we have survived the worst of it.
Also this weekend we got one of the raised bed boxes that David built me filled up with dirt and planted with potatoes and onions. We planted the rest of the seed potatoes in the side yard because they can't be stored until next year. The ground here is a solid clay under about 3 inches of soil, so we will see how the potatoes do.

Air-dried

Alexa got herself into the dryer last night, and we had to take a picture before getting her out and closing the door firmly. I am pretty sure this is not a safe place to play!We took Alexa to the doctor on Monday and he took off the splint. She wouldn't walk on it for most of Monday, but by Tuesday she was limping around and today she is walking more normally. She does still limp a tiny bit, but the doctor said this should go away soon. Meanwhile I got a sore throat on Sunday and it got worse on Monday, Tuesday I got a fever to go along with and by Wednesday I was so miserable I went to the doctor. (Yes, we have been to the doctor 4 times in the last week!) They took a culture of my throat which was negative for strep, but sent it off to the lab to see if there was some other bacteria in there. They gave me antibiotics anyway and I am feeling somewhat better today. I don't know what is wrong with my immune system lately, but I guess I should start taking echinaccea regularly or something because I don't have time to get sick, I have to take care of Alexa.
Sorry for the whining...

Cheese!

Here is Alexa with her splint. She has a hard time staying off of it, she tried to ride her Rody anyway.
And I made mozzerella and ricotta cheese today. They are fairly simple to make. The ricotta is made from the whey left over from the mozerella. Then I made pizza crust and we had pizzas with the mozzerella. They came out really yummy.

And on our second day in Portland

Alexa fell off the bed in the motel room and hurt her foot. I didn't realize this at first because she isn't really good at telling me where it hurts, but after a while she tried to stand up and screamed in pain. So I had to get a lady from the front desk to help me get everything out to the car because Alexa couldn't walk and I couldn't carry her and pull the suitcase and carry the other bags. Then I called her doctor from the car and they said they don't even do x-rays on Saturdays so I needed an urgent care or a hospital. However, at this time I am in Portland and I don't know where a hospital or urgent car is, and neither did the guy at the gas station who didn't speak or understand English very well. I couldn't reach David by phone because he was in the meeting, and I couldn't reach anyone else by phone to look up a hospital on the internet for me. I started driving anyway, and saw a sign for a hospital, and there we went. They took x-rays of her foot, but no broken bones. Apparently the bones are really rubbery still and difficult to break at this age, but she was in pain from it, so they splinted it and she has to crawl or be carried for a week, or until her doctor says she is ok. We only spent 2.5 hours in the emergency room, had a 20 minute screaming spell-which I thought was surely major internal injuries, but turned out to be hunger, and emerged with most of my sanity intact.

Mommy and Alexa in Portland

We took a family trip to Portland because David wanted to attend an APS meeting. (American Physical Society) Alexa and I went along to shop and eat out and stay in the motel so we could swim. So Friday morning we left at 6:00 am to drive to Portland and we dropped DH off at the college. Alexa and I went to Dennys for breakfast because we didn't plan ahead well enough to find a better restaurant for breakfast. Here you can see Alexa building towers with the creamers.
Then we went shopping at Pumpkin Patch in Clackamas Town Center. We needed a swimsuit that would fit Alexa's skinny, long little body. This is about as good as it gets when you still have to wear a swim diaper to the pool.
We spent the rest of this very hot day in the air conditioned hotel room. It was somewhere in the upper nineties in Portland yesterday.

Tinkertoy Swift

This morning I made a Swift out of tinkertoys. I have seen this done on my Ravelry site, and I need to wind some yarn into center pull balls, so I decided to try it. It was really easy and it worked well. We had some success yesterday in the potty training department. On two separate occasions Alexa signed that she needed to potty and then did! The first time she went on the potty and the second time I didn't believe her at first so I didn't take her soon enough and we only got a small amount actually in the toilet. I can't tell you how excited I am about this seemingly small victory. Alexa also ate two raw carrots yesterday, she just picked them off the counter where I had put them after washing and peeling and carried them around chomping bites off. This again is really great because she doesn't usually like to take bites off of things, especially hard things.

Early to Rise

We were at the Indoor Park yesterday where they have this funny farmer toy. If you put the farmer on the bed and turn the knob his bed flips up and launches him out the window into the garden. I always wondered how farmers got up so early.

Colorado Trip

We remarked several times this weekend that we only seem to get together for funerals. This is me playing Memory with my cousin Sally's girls Maya (blond) and Madeline (brunette) who I met Saturday for the first time. They are 8 and 7 years old respectively. My grandpa and grandma's house. It was an old schoolhouse that they added on to and turned into a house. This is not the front. I got distracted and forgot to take a picture of the front. I spent 2 summers here when I was young. I have a lot of good memories of those summers. I am sad to realize that I won't be visiting here anymore probably.

Here is my nephew Aiden (and Simone in the background). I haven't seen these two for about 18 months. They grow so quickly at the age. Aiden is one month younger than Alexa.
My Mom and my brother Cody with the picture he painted her for Mother's Day.
Aiden looking longingly at the chocolates. I brought a few of these fancy chocolate truffles home for David.
Simone with Aunt Holly petting her soft bunny coat.
I was glad to see my family and to get to attend my grandma's funeral. One of the funeral speakers read those verses in Proverbs about a virtuous woman and how she cares for her husband and family. I really liked that since my grandma's life really was centered around grandpa especially, but also her family. One thing that I will always appreciate is that I had sort of old-fashioned grandparents-they grew a lot of their own vegetables and grandma canned the fruit and veg for the winter. I remember making jam with her in the summer, snapping peas, canning peaches. Fortunately my mom also knows how to do this stuff-so she can teach me now that I am trying to do it myself.

Alexa reading

Alexa has been making some funny new sounds lately. She babbles a lot when playing. At the end of the video she is trying to get David to rock.

I am headed on a quick trip to Colorado to my grandma's funeral. I have to fly out of Portland very early tomorrow morning. I will be back Sunday.

Playgroup at the Park

We had playgroup here at the park today. We only had two families besides Alexa and I, but it was an incredibly perfect day weather wise. Here are Alexa, Doyle and Clinton playing with the swings. Alexa and Zooey sharing a sippy cup.
Doyle and Clinton.

I include this photo of Jessica and myself to remind me that I should get on with losing that other 20 lbs, I should not slouch, and I have no idea why I was making that face.
Zooey.
Alexa looking up at Mona who is taking the picture.
And just to let you know, my grandma died Saturday night. Grandpa died in November, and Grandma has been going down hill fairly quickly since then. They had been married almost 70 years. I will miss her.

More warm weather

This is Alexa smiling for the camera. Kind of a funny face she makes. 20 minutes spent happily pulling up bits of grass and pulling the blades apart.