president's day weekend

after enjoying a three-day weekend with brett (since the stock market's closed on president's day, he had the day off yesterday), we are back to business as usual. our miss stella started coming down with something saturday evening, and she progressively got worse, so i guess it wasn't the best weekend ever or anything like that. saturday afternoon we took her to the maple grove library to play in the kids' section. she loves it. we ran into our friend matt v. who was there with his two little kids. i checked out a few books (p.d. james) while brett watched stella, and then we enjoyed some coffee at dunn bros. just down the road a little ways. one of my favorite stores, loft, was just a few doors down, so while i browsed the racks, brett followed stella around, who was loving the store maybe just as much as i was loving it! she was imitating how i look through the clothes, and she even had some fun with daddy trying on sunglasses.

having some animal crackers while mommy and daddy sipped their coffee

brett tried reading her books, but she was too curious watching what other little kids were doing :)

glamorous

sunday she woke up even more sick and, since we had missed church last weekend due to bad roads because of the weather (or was it two weeks ago? i can't remember), we asked my sister susie if she could watch stella during the 11:00 service since she and jesse were going to the 9:00 service. she said yes! we dropped stella off at my parents' house (they are currently visiting jared and corinne in doha, qatar, and susie and jesse are house sitting for them), and she was delighted to see susie and jesse. later that evening, we watched the season 3 finale of downtown abbey. stella was not interested in going to bed, so we finally got her out of the crib, and she sat on my lap as we watched the show. at the point when mary is holding their newly born baby in the hospital, stella ran to the tv and started yelling with excitement about the baby. she then ran over to pick up her dolly, brought the dolly over to the tv, and held dolly up so she could see the baby, and said, "dolly! look! baby!" it was so cute! she sure loves babies these days.

monday morning brett made french toast for us. stella was coughing and her nose was running a lot throughout the day. i put her down for a nap, and she woke up only about 30-40 minutes later with a huge bloody nose. while brett calmed her down, i set to work on treating the blood stains on her crib sheet, two blankets, a stuffed animal, and her shirt. three washes later and treatments of shout stain spray and boiling water that i poured directly on the stains before putting them in the wash, i was able to get most of the stains out. she didn't nap the rest of the day, so we put her down early, but she wouldn't fall asleep. brett and i took turns going to her room to rock her. finally we took her out of the crib so we could listen to her breathing. she was taking lots of (what we thought to be) shallow breaths and, ever since our hospital visit with her last year in february, we are a little nervous when she gets upper respiratory colds. we pulled out her "sami the seal" nebulizer that we got from the hospital last year, and gave her a treatment of albuterol. this seemed to loosen up her cough. our neighbor is a respiratory therapist at the u of m hospital, and brett went next door to ask her if she'd listen to stella breathe. she came over, and even though she didn't have her stethoscope with her, she said she thought stella sounded ok. she gave us a few pieces of advice, and left. stella woke up again at midnight; i held her for what seemed like forty-five minutes or so, and then she slept until 7 this morning. she woke up with another bloody nose. :( she is napping now, and i hope she naps longer today and doesn't wake up from a coughing fit.

sometimes parenthood is so challenging. brett and i are so tired. we are bummed because we would've liked to have taken advantage of brett's day off yesterday to do something fun as a family, but it just didn't work out that way with stella being so sick. today stella and i are missing bsf and our first bsf fellowship at one of the discussion group member's homes. i was so looking forward to it, but i believe God does everything and allows things to happen for a purpose.

this morning she had a little burst of energy. she pressed a button to start some music, and started dancing to what sounded like alvin and the chipmunks music! i love how she zones out at the end and starts playing with her toes.



thank you to all who commented and offered encouragement on my post about stella not napping well. i think it was a fluke because she ended up napping two hours both saturday and sunday, and only napped poorly yesterday because of the nosebleed and being sick. i value your feedback and i loved all the suggestions.

congratulations to my cousin, erin and her husband, tim, who welcomed their son, crosby into the world yesterday morning. he was born 9 weeks early and weighed 4 lbs 7 oz. hooray for babies!

weather tidbit for ya: it's 3 degrees here. yay, february!