A Little of This and That

Madeline’s got this new obsession when we go shopping. She is very fascinated by the mannequins in the stores and has started to ask me to take pictures of her posing with them. The other night she and I went on a little shopping trip together and this is when I noticed this new quirk of hers.

Here she is:

You can’t really tell from the picture, but she has her hand on her hip doing her little pose. She had originally wanted to sit in the mannequin’s lap, but I told her that I wasn’t going to reposition the mannequin so she had to settle for posing next to it.

I can’t recall why she only had half of her hair fixed. I’m sure it had something to do with her little rebellious streak that she has going on right now. I think I was just happy that her clothes weren’t completely mismatched so I ignored the hair.

While on our shopping spree we found some mini-Christmas trees that just happened to be in a bunch of different colors. It would have been difficult to pass up a pink Christmas tree for Madeline, and since I had been thinking it would be fun to put a little tree in her room I bought it for her. I also bought a blue one for Anthony’s room. He didn’t seem very excited about it, but I know someday if Madeline her very own pink Christmas tree and he didn’t have his own it would be a problem. We bought some mini-ornaments to go along with the trees, and Madeline had a good time decorating both of them.

She redecorated her tree repeatedly for the first few days, so that alone made it a great investment! Unfortunately Anthony has also taken a liking to the trees and I have to spend a great deal of time telling him to stop messing with the trees. Here’s Anthony starting to go after Madeline’s tree.

And since some of you may be wondering how Anthony’s doing with his croup I figured I’d updated on that too. Thankfully he hasn’t had any more really scary breathing episodes in the middle of the night, but he is still sick. The steroid that the doctor gave him in her office is wearing off, and we’re not really seeing a lot of improvement in how he’s doing. He’s still got the stridor going on as well. During the day he’s his usual active self, but at night it’s a different story!

For the past few nights he’s had a hard time settling down and staying comfortable at night. The vaporizer in his room doesn’t seem to be having much effect on him either. I’ve been spending a lot of time holding him and rocking him. He sleeps just fine in my arms, but the moment I try to put him in his crib and leave him he wakes up and starts to scream. The screaming causes his throat issues to get worse, and then we’re back to square one. Also, for some reason, Anthony has decided that he only wants me to rock him, so David can’t even offer me much help.

Finally last night I was so tired of sitting in his room and not being able to leave him I just broke down and brought him to bed with me. Madeline had a nightmare while I was dealing with Anthony, and David had gone into her room to lay in her bed while she settled down. Of course he ended up falling asleep, so I just left him and let Anthony take his spot in our bed.

It wasn’t quite the same sleep that I am used to, but I was getting desperate for some relief. Anthony was so sweet it was hard to be too upset about my lack of sleep. He wanted to be sure I was still with him in bed, so he finally reached out and put his hand on my arm so he could feel me. Melt my heart! I have to admit that I can see why parents end up keeping their kids in bed with them, because it is so sweet to have them passed out next to you looking all angelic instead of wreaking havoc like they normally do during the day!

When I woke up this morning I rolled over and saw Anthony sitting up in bed next to me smiling. Yeah, I’m not a morning person but that sight made me reconsider whether I could be a morning person.

Tonight is looking like it could be another rough night. We’re hoping that Anthony starts to see some relief soon because we miss our sleep!