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. 🙂

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!

Today was a very exciting day for us. Around 8:40 pm Kylie came up to Mommy and wanted to put on her new Dora underwear. She said “On Mommy.” Then she proceeded to take off her diaper and tried to put them on but she needed help so Tiffany helped her put them on. Then Kylie said, “show baby,” meaning she wanted to show her reflection her underwear. Tiffany helped her step up on her stool and Kylie looked in the mirror. Tiffany then told Kylie that if she wanted to wear her new underwear she should try to go potty on the big girl potty. Kylie said okay and Tiffany put her on the toilet where she kicked and played like normal and then asked for a wipe. Tiffany went to get a wipe for her and while she was walking back heard a noise that sounded a lot like someone going pee. So Tiffany stuck her head in the door with a great big smile and asked, “Did you go pee-pee?” and Kylie looked back with a great big smile and said “Yeah.” To which Tiffany replied with “you’re so big! Mommy is so proud of you!!” Kylie then responded by saying, “big girl” with a huge grin on her face then said, “hug?” which of course Tiffany gave her a huge hug and kiss. 🙂 Tiffany was so proud of her (and Daddy is too!) and happy that she did it, and Kylie was so proud and happy for herself. She kept kicking her feet and giggling.

Kylie has been expressing a lot more interest in using the toilet lately, and by that I mean she actually asks to use the potty. At which point we will place her on the toilet on her little seat and she will sit there for a while before stating she is done. In addition she is becoming more aware of herself and the going to the bathroom process. It is no unusual for her to go off to a secluded corner with a toy or book for a while and then miraculously need to be changed. As such, Tiffany wanted to see what would happen if Kylie were to wear normal underwear. So today we picked up some Dora the Explorer underwear for her and when they got home Tiffany asked Kylie if she wanted to try wearing a pair of them instead of a diaper. Kylie agreed and the experiment began, and in Tiffany’s words here is the result:

After dinner, she wanted to use the potty, so I sat her there and asked if she wanted to try on her underwear. She put them on with my help and at first said “nylons.” I explained that they are called underwear. She said, “oh, underwear.” So I decided to let her wear them for a little while to see what she would do if she had an accident. Well, we were in the living room and she wanted to watch Cinderella. Well, Mimi put on Sleeping Beauty since it was in the VCR. So, Kylie was standing on the floor next to Mimi who was sitting on the couch. She was there for a few minutes and then came over to me and wanted up. As I was picking her up I felt that her leg was wet. Since she had her milk in her hand, I thought it may be condensation. It wasn’t. She had an accident and didn’t say a word or even act like it bothered her. So, we went into the bathroom and cleaned up and put on a pull-up. So, we were looking around the floor to see where she leaked at and she just so happened to pee into Mimi’s slipper. That is the only place it landed. It was pretty funny.

So I guess Kylie is not quite ready yet to go without a diaper, so we will just have to continue on and let her go at her own pace. It is good that she is showing interested in the toilet however, and we have informed her day care of this and they have noted it and let Kylie sit on the toilet there as well.

Today I received some information about Kylie and an incident involving a balloon from Tiffany. It turns out that Kylie was playing with a balloon in the living room when she accidentally let it go and it floated up to the ceiling out of her reach. She then walked over to the other side of the living room and walked to her chair, where she then said “get me high” and proceeded to carry her chair over to under the balloon, stood up on it and grabbed the balloon. She then climbed back down and carried her chair and the balloon back to the other side of the living room and put her chair back. This all happened around 4pm today and ever since she has been purposely letting go of her balloon and using the chair to retrieve it, at one point even commenting “too short” before standing on the chair to reach the balloon. She did all of this on her own without anything being said by Mommy or Aunt Sissy, who were both present to witness it. On one occasion the balloon had moved away from her while she was trying to reach it and Aunt Sissy made a comment to Kylie saying that it had moved, to which Kylie replied by promptly climbing down and re-positioning her chair under the balloon again. It is so fun to see her figure things out and solve issues. A child’s cognitive development is a truly marvelous thing to behold.