Welcome to Hell

Just when I thought this summer couldn't get any hotter, I was dead wrong. For those of you not melting away in thePanhandle, let me just fill you in. The last two days have been 109 and 111 degrees outside. That's not an exaggeration. And as anyone who has been dumb enough to manage landing a July/August due date will attest, it already sucks being fat when its hot outside, but when its hotter than the surface of the sun you really begin to consider any possibility that will get this show on the road a little faster.

And some of you may remember that I'm apparently a sweller when I'm with child. Last time my feet reached ridiculous proportions, and this time is no different. It seriously hurts to flex anything below the knee. Add to the fact that the heat does wonders to cram in even more water molecules to my already fat feet and you have someone who is about as mobile as the mom on What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Since I finally got a pedicure today, I'll share pictures of my hammy gams, but rest assured, the pics aren't nearly as impressive as seeing them in person.

The right foot, note the permanent creases at the toes and ankle.

Left foot, and Cleo's ass. Apparently fat feet feel awesome against a furry cheek.

Side view. When I went for a pedicure today, everyone within a three chair radius was staring at me. Next time I'm charging admission.

And for those of you who are worried that this is dangerous, yadda-yadda, rest assured, my doctor is not the slightest bit concerned. As a matter of fact, my previous doctor wasn't concerned when I swelled with Taylor either, this is just apparently how I roll. And if one more person tells me to cut out salt, I'm liable to stab someone with a fork. Trust me, I came to that conclusion on my own weeks ago, and after several weeks of eating bland food I'm a little testy.

Strep Wars

Well, after our stinkeye diagnosis on Sunday, we were told that Taylor could go back to daycare as soon as her eye isn't gunky anymore. So, last night with her eyes looking normal again, we got her little backpack all ready to go back to school today, and that's when I realized she was feeling like quite the roasty toasty little marshmallow. Great.

Upon checking her again early this morning, I decided to go ahead and take her in to the pediatrician seeing as how the fever wasn't improving. And shocker, she has strep, again. This is the fourth time in less than 3 months. I know what you're thinking, rip the damn tonsils out and be done with it! Trust me, I tried convincing our ENT doctor to do just that when Taylor went in to have her tubes reinstalled. But as you may recall, she doesn't do them on kids this young unless absolutely necessary because of the major risk of hospitalization from dehydration.

So, on the advice of our pediatrician, I started investigating the possible sources of the infection. First call, daycare. Alas, no kid up there has had strep in the last few months except ours (hey, at least we're not sharing it with everyone, right?). Second stop, the vet. In rare cases cats and dogs have been known to be strep carriers and can infect the kiddos in the homes they occupy. The vet said that Cleo didn't exhibit any signs of strep, but went ahead and gave her a shot of antibiotics just in case.

Lastly, we have poor Jody. Tonight he started complaining of a sore throat, and after taking a peek it does look like he has a little pus pocket on his right tonsil. As I write this he's hanging out at urgent care to see if he's got the plague too. It would almost make sense if indeed it is him, because Taylor didn't start getting sick until he started venturing out of the house for work again. Either way, we'll know something soon. It would be ironic if he has been the one spreading the "love" the last few months, because he's been the one placing most of the blame on the cat and campaigning for me to find her a new home. They love each other so much.......

Regardless, Taylor is once again on antibiotics, and our ENT doctor is aware of the newest infection. She gets re-swabbed in 2 weeks to make sure the antibiotics did their job. If she is still streppy then, we will have to remove the tonsils and just deal with the consequences because it means that her body's hanging onto the strep no matter what. If not, we will just continue to watch it and if she gets it again this year we can have them out at our discretion. So, keep your fingers crossed. I want my kiddo to be strep-free again, but I really don't want to do another surgery this soon.

Sure, they look all innocent and cute, but one of these two has been causing a LOT of trouble around here.

Return of the Stinkeye

Last night I noticed Taylor's eyes were looking a little glassy, and there seemed to be a boogery substance in the corner. I chalked it up to allergies, but in the back of my mind I thought, "gee, I hope that's not going to be pinkeye......." I could start up a 1-800 psychic hotline with those skills. Sure enough this morning as I caught her trying to break into a can of Pringles for breakfast, she turned to look at me with an eye that would make Rocky Balboa proud.

After a brief visit to urgent care (I'm pretty sure they have our information stored into the frequent flyers area of their database), we got a confirmed diagnosis. So, alas, at a time when I really don't need to be taking off work I will be bumming around the house with my little cyclops tomorrow.

In a funny turn of events, I called my stepdad to relay this information (if you recall, we shared the stinkeye with him last year) and to lament that we wouldn't be passing the bug to him as well this go-round. He learned the same lesson I did last year though, don't mock the stinkeye, that's apparently the quickest way to guarantee you'll catch it.

Summertime

As anyone in the Amarillo area can attest, we've been literally roasting up here the last few weeks. The highs have been around 105 degrees (that's actually not an exaggeration), and it's just been absolutely MISERABLE outside. So, as a result, we've been cooped up in the house and bored half to death. Not that we haven't tried to stay entertained, we have been watching lots of movies (mostly animated) and reading lots of books. Well, let me rephrase that, we've been reading a few books lots of times.

"Green Eggs and Ham" for the eleventy-billionth time.

Finally, after being too lazy to get it set back up, Jody and I had a little scrap of motivation, enough at least to fill up our tiny, but mighty, pool. After filling it the last time, we had to empty it out after a week or so due to overall gunkiness, and have just kept enough water in it not to blow away until we were ready to rock and roll again. Did I mention that aside from being hotter than the deepest pits of hell, it's been windy as crap here too? I guess I had a wistful idea that the wind here would die down eventually (yeah right), at least so that our pool wouldn't be full of dirt within 48 hours. Finally I gave up on that pipe dream and decided it was time, wind or no, because if nothing else I was getting a mad case of cabin fever.

Then came the problem of who was going to crawl in that sucker with Taylor. Usually I'd be first in line to volunteer for a little float time, but given my current state and shape getting my big self up from the ground is a little like watching a turtle trying to get off its back. And Jody, god bless him, is usually too wiped out to feel like chasing after her in a tiny body of water. Then I remembered, Taylor has a pint-sized homie who lives just a few streets away! So last night Beau and his mom Meagan came to play in the pool (Well, Beau and Taylor played, Meagan and I supervised.). The kids had a great time, and in keeping with tradition, super-mom here forgot to take pictures until after the kids were out of the water and all cleaned up for the night. But trust me, they had a ball.

Beau making his move for a goodnight kiss........

Success! Watching two two-year-olds is really highly entertaining.

Uninspired

The weeks are counting down, and my weight and swelling are steadily climbing up. I've reached the final stage of pregnancy - fat and lazy. It's like pulling teeth to motivate my big ass to do much of anything these days. That said, be happy there's a blog post here at all today!

In keeping with tradition, my feet and ankles have yet again swollen to ridiculous proportions. I was hoping to escape the ridiculous edema this go-round, but alas, it just wasn't in the cards. The only difference is that this time I have had a couple of days where my blood pressure is a bit on the high side. It's still not high enough to warrant bed rest (thank god), but just the same its enough that I have to start being more careful.

Das foot

Das Cankle. Pictures really don't do it justice.......

As far as baby preparations go, we have been slowly getting our shit together and have gotten sort of ready (at least ready enough that Ava won't have to wear a gunny-sack or sleep in a dresser drawer). My uber-talented friend Layci once again came through with some hella cute letters to hang above the crib:

Now, we just have to get said crib assembled so that I can hang these bad boys! So if anyone would like to come and help us rearrange furniture, so that I can get going on this, just let me know!

Taylor has been relishing her summer so far, she has been spending a lot of time in our mighty pool (a lot of this time is spent screaming and pointing, "A bug! A bug!" until they are all scooped out). She is talking more and more each day, she still sounds a bit like mush-mouth from Fat Albert, but hey, its a start. Plus considering the fact that she hasn't been able to hear for squat in the last few months I'm just content with the fact that she's talking, period.

Not a very high quality photo, she kinda resembles my late grandmother in this one. But I thought it was super cute that she dragged her baby to the table to share her breakfast. She kept putting her grapes up to the doll's mouth, lol!

Heck yeah, rockin' the float time. I'm soooooooo ready to be able to park my big butt in this pool too. Only I'm afraid if I tried it right now I wouldn't be able to get back out. True story, I very nearly got stuck in the bathtub the other day.