Abby, Zoë and Enzo

Abby was chomping at the bit waiting for her appointment this morning.  She couldn't get her shoes and coat on quickly enough when I told her it was time to go.  In short, she doesn't need glasses.  She does have slight farsightedness and a slight stigmatism, but nothing out of the ordinary for her age.  If she still has these issues in a couple of years then it may be something she needs glasses for.

While we were waiting for the dilation drops to do their thing in Abby's eyes, we checked out the choices of frames for Zoë's glasses.  People have recommended staying away from the metal frames and glasses with the nose pads for kids, which is all they had for Zoë's size so we're going to look elsewhere for the plastic frames and then get the lenses prescription filled in those frames.

Yesterday evening Abby and I declared that today would be a cozy pj day.  The girls got showers in the morning and then dressed in their pj's.  Downstairs they got to watch a movie while breakfast was made and then finished it after they were done eating.  After Enzo finished having a morning snooze, he and I took a run to Wal-Mart - on our list was gatorade (for Daddy), bananas, and cheerio's - and yes, we stayed in our pj's.  After this, Enzo and I took a shower and soaked in the tub then got right back into some jammies.  We had had a nice potato chickpea soup for lunch and just took it easy today.

The shortened nursing thing has seemed to do the trick and Enzo's looking better this morning.  He woke up at 2:00 a.m. and 5:00a.m. nursed and I rocked him back to sleep.  This morning, when he woke up I offered him some kix and mashed banana after nursing and he was thrilled to have that.  Zoë informed us she was starved too and ate oatmeal with the rest of us.

After coming home from the Home Depot build, Chris and I got to cleaning.  We have hardly been able to touch the bags of clothes from our stay down in Mass., not to mention all of the other stuff.  I've especially not been much help, what with trying to get Enzo better.  Once Enzo went to sleep I put him in the ergo (still want to keep him upright for today) and enlisted Abby's help to get our many loads of laundry folded and put away.  Zoë had put herself down for a nap on the mattress, which was still in the living room so we just let her rest.  Once Enzo was up he made a diaper mess while having snack so I got him cleaned up and let him soak in the tub, while Abby helped Daddy vacuum everywhere.  Once Enzo was out of the tub I gathered all of the clothes and other items that anyone has touched in the past few days to get washed as well.  Enzo and I did the dishes, washing and rinsing them in the hottest water possible (Enzo stuck to his little bowls of non-scalding water).

With everything picked up, washed up, and cleaned up, we're all feeling a bit more perky just to have things looking and feeling neat, clean, and healthy around here.

I called the dr. as soon as we got home as they had said that they wanted to see him again if he threw up anymore while we were down in Scituate, so in he went this morning.  We saw Mary, who said she thought he probably was at the end of it and told me to start the pedialyte regimen again and then work up to mixing half unflavored pedialyte with half breastmilk (to total 1oz.) to get some calories in him - he's lost one pound since Tuesday morning - and get his stomach accepting the breastmilk again by giving it in small doses.  She also gave me three pedialyte 'special' cups, which were clear with blue twisty straws, and they came with powder packets of pedialyte inside of them.  This way, even if Abby doesn't get this, she'll have a cool cup too.  She also gave me four of the anti vomiting tablets to take home and told me to give one to Zoë as soon as I got back to the car - Daddy and the girls were waiting for me downstairs in the car - and then in an hour I could start her on her own pedialyte regimen.

We swung by Wal-mart on the way home to pick up some more pedialyte and then I washed the cups and started Zoë and Enzo on their 10 minute intervals of drinking their small amounts.  They both kept these down after 2 hours so we increased the amount to 1oz.  Both of the kids were getting upset by now that they couldn't have anything to eat, unfortunately Enzo doesn't understand as well as Zoë can.  Another two hours went by without event, which meant that Zoë could have a couple of saltines and Enzo could start having half and half pedialyte and breastmilk.  Enzo drank some, but was pushing drinks away by now and crying for crackers.  Luckily Mary called to check in and I mentioned this and she asked if he wanted to nurse - I said, "Of course he does!" so she told me to nurse him for less time than I normally would and then offer him a saltine to distract him from his milk being taken away.  She said if he did well like that for the rest of today then he could nurse normally during the night.

I planned to sleep on the couch inclined with Enzo and the girls wanted to sleep in the living room too so we brought their toddler mattresses down and set them up in the living room to sleep.  Enzo had been sleeping and woke up around 8:30, nursed and went back to sleep.  He woke again, whining at 10:45 pm, and vomited.  At first I was very discouraged and scoured the web for anything about toddler vomiting.  I decided that the vomiting was probably because Enzo filled his belly beyond what it was ready for at the earlier nursing.  He's gone back to sleep and the next time he wakes I plan to let him nurse, but keep it to two minutes per side and then get him to sleep.

Zoë woke Chris up at about 5:00 this morning with, "Daddy I don't feel well".  Before he could get her to the bathroom, she got sick in bed - on Abby.  Chris grabbed her up to get her to the bathroom in the event she had more in her, and she got sick again just before the toilet.  He wiped up the bed with Abby's pajama top (she was already messy, right?) so that it wouldn't soak in, wiped up the bath mat with wipes as best as he could and then came to enlist my help.

I put the mat in the downstairs tub, sprayed and wiped the floor, and helped Chris strip the bed so we could put the sheets and mattress pad in the washer.  After this I tended to the downstairs needs, as Enzo was crying and we didn't want to wake Matt and Caitlin.  We were all up, and felt like the worst house guests (probably because we had been!) so we just started packing up to leave, as well as cleaning all of the messes.  We just wanted to get our sick germs and mess makers out of poor Matt and Caitlin's house!  Matt had woken up and saw us out.

The upside of leaving so early in the morning was that we caught a really pretty sunrise over the water on our way out of town.  We were amazed, though not entirely surprised, that we hit so much traffic once we neared the city, it being only 6:30 in the morning.  It wasn't as bad as it could have been though and we got through the bad areas before it got really congested.  We needed a potty break and a few of us in the car were actually hungry for breakfast, so we pulled into the sonic.  After pottying was done we went through the drive-through (all that was open) and just got a few breakfast items.  Zoë was upset that she couldn't have anything to eat, but especially as she'd already gotten sick once on the car ride (luckily she made it into the plastic bags Chris had set up for her) we had to deny her.

Enzo has been up and down since being here - he vomited bile in the middle of the night - so I decided to keep him in the house and not join Chris and Matt on the train ride into the city.  We were all supposed to go and hang out while Chris had his appointment at the Italian Consulate, but the girls stayed with Enzo and I instead.

Caitlin told us there were some toys in the guest room, where we were sleeping, so the kids and I hung out in there while the girls played with the abundance of little people toys.  They were good about keeping the correct little people things with the correct toy, such as the pilgrim and food stuff with the mayflower type ship, and happily played until we heard Chris and Matt get home.  We had tried to set up the Wii per Uncle Matt's instructions, but had no luck, so he set it up for them as soon as the girls had helped clean up the toys in the bedroom.

We had some soup and bread for lunch, and pizza for dinner - the girls were happy about this.  I planned for Enzo and I to sleep downstairs on the sectional so that he could sleep inclined and so that his middle of the night crying wouldn't be heard by everyone else.  Zoë and Abby were happy about this, because they got to sleep in the bed with Daddy instead of on the floor in their sleeping bags.

We lef this morning for our visit down to Matt and Caitlin's.  Enzo's night was rough, but more because he wanted to nurse and was told no, as apposed to up being sick.  The pediatrician had said that if he hadn't vomited for such and such a time then she'd say it was fine for him to make the trip.  So Chris again asked Matt what he thought about Enzo staying at their house and him and Caitlin didn't mind.  The drive ended up being the best thing for him as he slept just about the entire way down.

Enzo ended up being completely afraid of the cat and dog, but tolerated them if he was being held.  Caitlin's school kids were still there, so Uncle Matt showed us some of the Wii games, which the girls are hooked on already.  Chris and Matt went out to get us some sandwiches for lunch and then when the daycare kids were gone Zoë and Abby rushed over to get started playing dress-up.

Enzo woke up vomiting this morning.  At first Chris and I thought that maybe it was the chicken he'd eaten last night (that's what was in the throw-up), but were later convinced otherwise.  I put a call into the pediatrician's office, as Enzo continued to vomit whatever went in, and they told me to give him 1 teaspoon of pedialyte (thank goodness we had some on hand) every 15 minutes and if in an hour and a half he hadn't been able to keep those doses down then I needed to bring him in.

Well, an hour later I was calling back - he hadn't been able to keep it down.  At the office he was given an anti-vomiting dissolvable tablet and more instructions to keep him on the pedialyte regimen and gradually increase it.  We went on like this, with Enzo gradually being able to take more and more in and even munching a few kix and bites of mashed banana.  Late tonight he got sick again.  Another conversation with the doctor on call, and more pedialyte regimen, lets hope it works as we're supposed to go down to visit Uncle Matt and Aunt Caitlin for a few days starting tomorrow.

With Enzo being sick, Chris took both girls to Zoë's eye appointment this morning.  I was shocked when Chris walked through the door an hour and a half later telling me that Zoë needs glasses.  Also, they want Abby to come in to get her eyesight checked as well, being that the girls are identical twins and probably have similar eyesight.  Zoë is farsighted and needs the glasses for things like reading, schoolwork, watching movies, etc.  The notes said that she could wear them just for the up close work or all the time.  Abby's appointment is scheduled for Monday, the 8th.  I opted to wait to pick out Zoë's glasses until then as well.

Zoë and Abby were invited to Naomi's birthday party out at Mendem's Lake.  Naomi is one of the girls in the homeschooling group and had her birthday party at her grandparents home on the lake, which is currently frozen.  I had the girls wear their snow pants in the car and then get their coats and such on when we got there.  We arrived at the same time as two other families, about half an hour after it started, and unfortunately the few kids that were outside went inside as we were finishing getting all of our snow gear on.  There was no way that I was getting them all undressed just to dress them again when the other kids went back out, so we just played in the yard on our own for a little bit and soon enough the others came back out.

With some other parents joining us, I felt safter letting the girls go out onto the lake.  Katrin, who is Naomi's mom, said that her father had drilled a hole to check the depth of the ice and deemed it safe.  Still there were plenty of slips and falls, but they were all followed up by lots of laughs.  In the yard Enzo had not ventured to take a step on his own, and wasn't thrilled with me pulling him in the sled, so I'd put him in the ergo and he was content to watch the other kids playing.  Finally though I had to pull the girls in from the ice to go warm Enzo, and the rest of us up.  Zoë and Abby were able to talk some of the other girls into going in, so they were fine with it.  They spent a long time playing downstairs and pretty much only came up when it was time for cake and ice cream.  The girls gave Naomi the cards they had made for her when it was present time and then played for a while more before it was time to head home.

I have to say, I loved that we were at a birthday party, with plenty of other little friends, in the middle of the day on a Monday... and it wasn't even a holiday.

Some of the moms in the homeschooling group decided to start a monthly mom's time out and today was the first outing.  Zoë and Abby stayed home with Chris, while Enzo and I headed into town to Me&Olie's.  I ordered a chai and a cookie and took Enzo to the little area downstairs, where we were all meeting.  It was nice to be able to let Enzo roam around, write with chalk on the chalk board, play with the truck that was there, etc., while I sat and joined in the discussions.

Of course there was plenty of getting up to go after him once he decided the hallway was more exciting, but we ended up being there a lot longer than expected, from 2pm to just before 5pm.  Enzo did very well and even got to enjoy a couple of bites of my oatmeal chocolate chip cookie.

Grampy came over this evening and took us out to dinner as a late birthday gift to me.  We decided on Ixtappa, the mexican restaurant in town.  Zoë and Abby each decided that they wanted the bean burrito kids plates, Grampy got the Ixtappas trio, which is three enchiladas with three different sauces, Chris got the veggie green burrito, which turned out to be really tasty, and I ordered the baja chalupa.

Zoë and Abby's meals ended up being spicier than the adult meals, something in the beans and rice we think, which was unfortunate because the refried beans and rice was what I'd counted on feeding Enzo.  He had some, but then started trying to spit it out.  We ordered a peachy (non-alchoholic) drink that the girls really enjoyed, even Enzo got to taste, and headed home, where the kids got to read some stories with Grampy before bed.