Allergic Reaction

I'm so behind on blog posts! There's been a beach trip, a birthday party, summer nights, swimming all alone by a 2 year old, thoughts about Brooks and funny stories galore to document. But tonight, we are dealing with something we've never had in the Tucker house. An allergic reaction to a food for poor little Kate.

Denny and I went on a fun double date last night(yay!) and before we left I changed Kate's diaper and noticed a little red raised place on her belly just under her diaper. Looked at it and chalked it up to her diaper rubbing. However, this morning Kate woke up covered in a bumpy rash. It was getting worse every half hour. I called and got her an appointment for 11:15. She couldn't sleep for her morning nap and by the time we left the house, bumps were covering her entire body. She was still eating and playing and had slept through the night, but I was convinced it was chicken pox. Cabin fever was already setting in for me:) Thoughts of being trapped in this house for up to 16 days with my two wild women was about to send me over the edge!

Within a few minutes of being examined the dr said it was definitely not chicken pox! It was an allergic reaction to something she ate. We re-hashed her diet and mine and nothing really stood out. I had a 'shorty' margarita last night w/ a lime in it, but since she was showing a little rash before we left, I don't think that's it. For breakfast Kate had oatmeal (as she does every morning), lunch was turkey, cheese and a banana(very common lunch) and dinner was ham and pineapple pizza and a peach(all foods she's eaten alot). The doctor told me that even if she's eaten 10 peaches, the 11th one can cause a reaction. So who knows what it is. Until her 1yr checkup on the 28th, she cannot have turkey, eggs, shellfish, peanuts, peanut butter, peaches or pineapple. At that appointment they will draw blood and have it checked for allergies.

 Tonight she started a low grade fever and was extra clingy. She's on benadryl every 6 hours. I just want her to be okay and feeling well again. Will you pray for Kate?

Kate's 1st Birthday Party

Oh just 6 weeks overdue on this post!

We celebrated Kate's 1st birthday with a watermelon party! It's one of her favorite foods! She makes yum yum noises when she eats it. And she eats a lot of it!

On July 21st, we planned on having a backyard pool party like we did for Macy Brooks. The weather was not in our favor all day. It rained off and on with little sunshine in between. At 4pm, the bottom fell out and we scrambled to make the inside party ready. It ended up being okay, just not my first choice! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, except for Kate:( It was pretty overwhelming with everyone inside and you could tell she felt it. There wasn't a whole lot of smiles coming from the birthday girl. Kids were having fun running and playing so we couldn't really set Kate down anywhere. I was scared she'd get trampled!

Sounds silly, but I was really bummed about her birthday party clothes! I found her the cutest watermelon bathing suit! It is adorable! But, I didn't have anything fun to wear for an inside party. I almost put her in that suit anyways, but never did.

I saw this watermelon 'keg' thing on Pinterest and the theme took off from there. We were able to make it and put lemonade in it for the kiddos. They loved being able to get their own drinks.

These are rice krispie treats made to look like watermelon slices. Aren't these cute? 

We used these white frames and put 1 picture from each month of her life. I wanted to hang them outside, but we just placed them around the living room instead.

Mom and Dad gave Kate this gorgeous butterfly for her room. It was perfect timing to use for party decor!

I sent each family home with their personal watermelon

One of my favorite decorations was this watermelon tutu I made for Kate's high chair!

Her smash cake

Birthday girl! Where's your smiles, Kate??

Kate and her Nini

 

Papa Bob and Gigi

My favorite part of the party was how everyone gathered around to watch Kate eat her cake. She loved her cake and finally started smiling!!

Around 6:15 the rain began to slow. We were able to swim with some remaining party guests. The kids had so much fun! 

Around 6:15 the rain began to slow. We were able to swim with some remaining party guests. The kids had so much fun!

Happy Happy Birthday love! Sorry you weren't able to have a lot of fun at your first birthday party! I hope there's many more birthdays to come! I love you!!

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Kate!

Hi sweet baby girl! It's your 1st birthday! This has been the fastest year of my life. I try to soak it in, but it continues to fly by! I want to freeze you and your sister right now:) Both of you are at amazing and fun ages, just stop growing right now!


You still love your Momma! yay:) Daddy says you are "mommy-fied," but don't worry, he's just jealous! I have never seen a kid love their Momma as much as you love me. If I'm around you are by by side. While every once in awhile I really need someone else to hold you, I really do love how you love me. You go all out. We got off to a rough start, but I have fallen more in love with you every single day. My heart often feels like it will burst I love you so much!

You have such a sweet and fun personality. Hundreds of facial expressions cross your face daily. And they're all so cute:) A glance your way from others and you light up. Your eyes are a hazel color....some days they are more blue or gray and others they are green. Your hair is really coming in and sticks straight up on the crown of your head. It's very light and fine.

You're already saying several words, "Mama," "Dada," "uh-oh," "bye," "hello"(while holding your play phone to your ear!) "dog," and I've heard "night night" one time. Smiles come very easily! We always ask you "How big is Kate?" and your arms go straight up. Clapping your hands, waving and playing peek-a-boo are 3 of your favorite activities. I'd say your specialty these days are giving (very!) open-mouth kisses. It's more of a lick really:) We ask for kisses and you almost always hand them over. Sometimes you get really close and jerk your head away. We call you a "trickster" and you just laugh! You've been making up all sorts of silly games recently.



















You're crawling at high rates of speed. You can pull up if things are at the right height and there's something to hold onto, but it's not constant yet. The 2 bottom teeth are still your only ones. There are no other teeth in sight.

I have to say you're most favorite activity is Eating! We're all done with baby food, you eat what we eat. I'm pretty sure most of your bites go down whole. You grab by the fistfuls and shove away. You also reach for the biggest pieces first! Wonder where you get that?? (Daddy). You had your first 1/2 juice, 1/2 water at the beach and chugged it! I haven't seen you refuse any foods just yet. You still nurse(I cannot believe it! Never thought we'd make it to 1) in the morning, sometimes afternoon and before bed.

When you're trying to fall asleep you put your paci in and make little tiny mmmm sounds with little breaks in between "mmm  mmm  mmm" It makes Daddy and I smile every time! I think you're very smart. You catch on to things after only seeing them 1 time. And we all know you're a little manipulative:) But you showed us that shortly after birth!

Kate, you still love to cuddle! Makes Momma happy! For a mobile baby girl, you still sit calmly in my lap! We went to Daddy's reunion last month and holding you on the plane rides was easy. You never asked to get down. I'm not used to this, but I love it! Macy Brooks was always trying to get away:) Speaking of MB, you adore her! She can do things to you that you probably wouldn't tolerate from anyone else. She loves you so much and tells you so daily! Sometimes "Kate" comes out sounding like "Tate" so Daddy and I call you that occasionally! You also hear "Katie-Kate," "Katers," "Baby Kate," and "baby girl."

 

 I enjoy thinking back to your birthday one year ago. It was incredibly long and super hard, but it's your story! You have your own special story. I accomplished a big goal with you going all natural. We did it together! God has a specific purpose for you. I look forward to helping you discover what it is. I pray for you every day, Kate! I pray you will grow to know and love Jesus and want to live your life for Him. I love you so much sweet girl! Happy Happy Birthday!

Coversations with MB

I'm not exaggerating when I say Macy Brooks is one of the funniest people I know. She makes me laugh out loud every day. EVERY. DAY. She has a great sense of humor.

She's also one of my favorite people to have conversation.

Lately she's very concerned about growing big. The reason she wants to grow big is so she can feed her babies. Which I find funny, because she hasn't seen me nurse Kate in several months since Kate eats in the morning before MB is out of bed, at nap after MB is in bed and at night before I go to bed. So anyways....here's our conversation multiple times per day.

MB: Mommy, I want to feed my babies with my boobies.
ME: Well, you have to grow up and get big. You also have to find a man that loves you and loves Jesus. After that you will get your special rings (what she calls our wedding rings) and get married. Then you can have your own babies and feed them with your boobies.

MB: ok! so how do I get big?
ME: eating healthy foods, exercising and getting plenty of sleep
MB: Let's go eat fruit so I can find a boy who loves Jesus.

Ha!! Now we will be eating at the table and as she's putting green beans in her mouth.... "Look mommy, are my boobies growing?" or "I'm getting big!"

Sometimes when I go in her room in the mornings I say "Good morning, did you sleep well?" and all she says is "Am I big now?" Love the concerns of a 2 year old!

The best is when we meet random people and she tells them she'll find a man that loves her and loves Jesus and get special rings and get married! They look at her like she's crazy:)

Love that GIRL!!!!!!

Bye Bye Paci!

Tonight was a big night for Macy Brooks! We delivered her pacis to Baby Emily (our friend and neighbor who is 6 months old). No more pacis! What a big girl!

 

Earlier this week we made a paper chain to count down the days before we handed over the goods. Each day she'd tear one off and we'd talk about it over and over:) She never complained or said she didn't want to. Macy Brooks was completely on board with our plan. 

After dinner tonight we loaded up in the stroller with a bag of pacis and our baby doll and walked over to Emily's. We walked in and she handed them right over to Ms. Katie and baby Emily. That was that!

She gave baby Emily a hug and it was over with!

Doesn't Emily look happy about all her new pacis? She's such a sweet pea. I hope her and Kate will be good friends, they are exactly 6 months apart:)

I brought her a treat for the stroller ride home- a big fat brownie:) We told her over and over how proud we were and what a big girl she was! We are very proud of the little lady you are becoming!

Kate says, "Where's my brownie?" Love that crazy hair!

On the way over, I got super sad all of a sudden. Where is our baby? Her paci was the last 'baby' thing about this girl! I'm not sure I'm ready for all the baby to be done. No more diapers, crib or pacis! What is going on??? I love that she's growing into a sweet girl, but I truly love the baby and toddler phase and it's quickly coming to a close. Makes Momma sad:(

Macy Brooks, I am very proud of you. You did a great job falling asleep tonight! It took you about 30 minutes which isn't unusual. While we were reading Little Mermaid you said "Look Momma, no more pacis for me!" It was sweet! It was a little like you were trying to talk yourself into this being a good thing:) I'm interested to see how nap time goes from now on. Naps seem to be on the verge of disappearing. I hope not having a paci doesn't send naps to never never land. We both need them!

You are very smart! I could not possibly love you more! Thank you for wanting to rock tonight, Momma needed it:)

I love this picture of Macy Brooks running home with her dog, not a care in the world! I love this girl!!!

Kate's 9 month Appt & a Trauma

Kate had her 9 month appointment on May 9th. She weighed 17 1/2 lbs and was 27 in long. Things were going great and she checked out healthy!

We didn't get very far into the appointment before we were all traumatized.

She was weighed and then I stripped her down and laid her on her back so the nurse could mark the table paper at her head and foot to measure her length. The nurse quickly walked away from the table after making the lines. I was still there and Macy Brooks asked for a book out of the stroller. I believe I took a step back and turned to reach the book for her. It took half a second for Kate to flip from her back to her front. When she rolled to her belly there was no more table left and she landed on the tile floor on her stomach and of course hit her head on the floor. She screamed and the nurse and I turned to find her face down on the floor.

It was awful, awful, awful. She cried hard for a good 10 minutes and had an instant huge bump on the right side of her forehead. I cried for 3.5 hours. I COULD NOT STOP. I was so hurt for her, upset with myself and sick to my stomach that something serious and irreversible was going to be wrong with her.

I snuggled and nursed her and she calmed down. Macy Brooks made her smile and laugh which made me feel a lot better. Dr. checked her over and said she looked okay and didn't need to go to the ER. I must have asked him 39 times if he was sure. While he finished the appt (no shots) I was captive in the chair with a coke to keep from passing out and/or throwing up. The nurse had to tend to me while the check up continued. He almost didn't let me drive home because I was so pale and weak, not to mention I could not control the tears.

WHY ON EARTH DID I STEP AWAY FROM MY ROLY POLY SWEET PEA ON A HIGH SURFACE?????????

DUH!!!

There was so much going on between the 2 of them, answering questions for the nurse, smiling at Kate and keeping MB from melting down after sitting in the waiting room for 45 minutes. I temporarily lost my mind. And Kate took full advantage to teach me a hard lesson:( Poor thing!

When I called a few girlfriends that afternoon they all said the same thing...."it's okay, it happens to every kid."

Well, nothing like this ever happened to Macy Brooks. She never fell off anything high or had anything traumatizing happen. I could cry about it writing this post:( It was terrible! Don't walk away from your babies, mommas!! Even for 1 second, because that's about how long it took for Kate to hop off the table. Kate, I'm so sorry I wasn't taking the best possible care of you! I promise to do better and never let anything like that happen again!! I love you:)

Anything like this happen to anyone else??