Papa’s Birthday

Today was Papa’s birthday, and so Kylie, Mommy, Daddy, Mimi, Aunt Sissy, and Grandma all went to Papa’s work and played a trick on him. Considering today is Halloween and Papa’s birthday Kylie filled up Papa’s truck with balloons and then helped everyone wrap Papa’s truck with black yarn, making a big spider’s web on it, we then placed various sized fake spiders all over it. We then called Papa and told him to meet us outside because we were all going out to lunch for his birthday, and we hid so he couldn’t see us. When he came out we all jumped out and said Happy Birthday. Later, when Papa was ready to leave work, it took him 45 minutes to get into his truck! Pictures of Kylie filling up Papa’s truck can be viewed here.

Personal Trainer Session

Wow! Am I beat! I had my personal trainer session this morning at Bally’s and it was an intense workout. My trainer, Janet, used mainly my own body as the weights and had me doing activities that continually kept my heart rate up. I had thought that I was doing a pretty good workout on my own, but after this morning I realize that I wasn’t pushing myself hard enough. I was more tired after this work out than any other so far, and I can see how having a personal trainer would be very beneficial, the only problem is they are really expensive. I guess I will just have to wait and see how this trail month goes.

Posted in Ed

Zoo Boo

Tonight Tiffany, Kylie, Taylor, Erica, Aunt Sissy, and Daddy all went to the Detroit Zoo Boo, and considering we went last year we think this may become a yearly tradition until the girls are too old for it. Kylie dressed up as Tinkerbell and Taylor went as Snow White, Mommy, Aunt Sissy, and Erica all dressed up too and they can all be seen in the October Gallery for year 3.

First After-work Workout

Today was my first day going to Bally’s after work, and I have to say I think I like going in the mornings better. I feel like I didn’t get as good of a workout this afternoon as I did in the morning. The gym is also less crowded in the morning, and I seem to like that more as well. I didn’t have any trouble getting to use the equipment I wanted or anything like that, I just feel like my morning workout was better. I will try to arrange my schedule so I can go more in the morning.

First Morning Workout

This morning I got up at 6am and was at Bally’s by 6:30 for my first morning workout. I mainly just did some cardio work as I think that will be best for now to try and help to burn some calories. I have to admit that after my workout I felt really good throughout the day. I felt more focused at work and a lot less stressed as well, I was also a lot more awake. Even though it is rough getting up even earlier than normal, I think the benefit is worth it. Hopefully I can keep this up and it will help me along my weight loss path.

Posted in Ed

Late Birthday Gift

Today Kylie and Tiffany got me a late birthday gift, a one month membership to Bally’s. I have been trying hard since I have come home from Minnesota to lose weight and to get into some shape other than round. And though I have lost a nice amount of weight by using a customized Slim Fast plan, recently I have hit a plateau and am having a very hard time falling below 268 pounds, which I am happy with considering what I was when I started. If I could lose another 20 or even 50 pounds though, that would be really great! I know I need to try and work in exercise now, but it is really hard to get the motivation to do so. Hopefully with an actually gym membership I will be more motivated to go, as it is costing money. Here’s to hoping!

Posted in Ed

Croup

Kylie gave Tiffany a little scare last Sunday, here is Tiffany’s recounting of it and the situation that followed:

On Sunday night (the 14th) I put Kylie to bed around 7 because she was saying she was tired and wanted to go to bed, which was weird in itself, but I figured if she were tired then I would put her down. However, it wasn’t going to be a quite night, she woke up at around 10 crying. I let it go for a minute, thinking she might just be crying out in one of her dreams, but then it didn’t stop. It was a bit of an unusual cry, so I went upstairs to see what was wrong, and when I got up there she was sitting up in bed. I told her to lay down and I opened up the side door so I could rub her back because that usually helps her to calm down and fall back to sleep. But when she laid down and I started rubbing her back I noticed that she felt warm, so I then touched her head and found that she was burning up. I called down to mom to get me the Tylenol and the thermometer, and when I took her temperature it was 103.3. When I found out her temperature was that high I tried calling the Dr’s office, but the line was busy. I kept trying to call but the line was busy for about 15 minutes, and by that time Kylie was in my bed with me and I checked her temp again and it was 103.5, her temperature was rising! I was about ready to go to the ER when I finally got through to the Dr’s office. The nurse told me not to worry about Kylie’s temperature, but to watch her breathing. Well Kylie was a bit shaky when first got to her and she was breathing pretty fast, which was normal as she had been crying, but it did sound like she may be having trouble breathing or that she was scared. The nurse told me to wait an hour and a half after the Tylenol and see if her temperature goes down, and that even if it went down a bit, it was going down. If it got to around 102, then she would be able to sleep a bit more comfortable. Well, it took a while, but it did go down and about 2 hours later it was 102.5. Not much better, but down. However, it was not good enough for Kylie to sleep well and she was up almost the entire night, therefore so was I.

On Monday morning (the 15th) I took Kylie to see Dr Waier. He said that she had croup. It is an upper respiratory infection that is pretty common in children. Many children are actually taken to the ER instead of waiting it out and going to the Dr the next day. I was glad that the office had a 24 hour hot line to tell if you should take your child to the ER. The cold air actually helps a child with croup, as does steam (the coughing anyway). The doctor prescribed Kylie with a twice only dose of steroids. He said it was to help keep her air ways open, since this illness can cause a closing of the windpipe. She will be allowed to go back to daycare once her fever has broken. Which she has had only low grade fevers today, so since I am off tomorrow, Thursday (the 18th) looks to be promising.

Some other notes from her Dr.’s visit:

Dr Waier was very impressed again at how well behaved she is and that she doesn’t cry. She will even stick her tongue out when he wants to look in her throat. He also asked if she snored, and when I said “yes, why?” He said because she has really large tonsils, which I am thinking that means she may have to have a tonsillectomy sometime down the road if they are already large, we will have to see. He also said she had very waxy ears which he had to clean out and was impressed that she let him do it. He said that only a handful of 2 year olds will ever let him do it. 🙂

New WordPress

Updated to the new WordPress 2.3, but this time I did using subversion. I had to first install subversion, which with Gentoo is ridiculously easy. I only decided to use subversion because Gentoo has masked WordPress due to some older issues and I got tired of updating manually. This is actually my first experience using subversion and I have to say it was pretty easy, just as easy as emerge in fact. So far it appears as though this release still has the same bug that the previous version had, i guess I will have to work on it.

Public Potty

Earlier today Kylie demonstrated that she is definitely on the potty training path, as she asked Tiffany to go to the bathroom while they were out at a restaurant. Here is how Tiffany describes it:

So, we were at Lonestar having dinner with Mom, Sissy, Aunt Jo, and Uncle Steve (it was their birthday dinners – their birthdays are 3 days apart). We were about half way through dinner when Kylie looked at me and said “Potty Mommy.” So I said okay and grabbed her diaper and wipes from my purse and got ready to head to the bathrrom. She wanted to walk there on her own and on the way everyone we passed looked at us and smiled or said how cute she was (she had on her cowboy boots on). When we went into the bathroom I helped her pull down her pants and take off her diaper. Kylie then looked at the potty and turned to me and said, “No, fall in.” Which I then said, “No, Mommy will help you,” and I then straddled the toilet and sat her in front of me while I held on to her. And to my surprise she went potty! I really wanted her to go, but I didn’t know if she would because she wasn’t on her potty seat and this was her first time on a potty without it. I was so proud of her! We washed our hands, and then walked back to the table. She had a great big smile and said “Me potty!!” 🙂 I was so happy for her. Everyone asked if she really went and I proudly said “yes!”

Looks like we are well on our way to potty training. This is, however, a path that we fully intend to let Kylie lead us down at her own pace. We are so proud of her current progress!