EarlyWorks Children's Museum

Today Lillian and I went to the EarlyWorks Childrens Museum with some friends and had some good tiring fun. They have a special touch and learn section for preschoolers called biscuits backyard and that's where we spent most of our time. It has a garden, grocery store, huge water table, and puppets.

The first 20 minutes we were there all Lillian wanted to do was climb up and down the two stairs. I finally got her interested in other toys.

Harvesting the crops

Lillian and Lily the Cow

There is also a construction area with tons of different blocks and trucks.

The cutest construction worker 

another construction cutie

Kyleigh the future Boeing Engineer

There is alsoa talking tree that tells you a story. I thought it might scare Lillian but she liked it. 

Diaper Rash/Yeast Rash/Eczema

We have been so blessed with such a healthy baby. Lillian has never been sick, other than a runny nose and cough which we always attributed to allergies or teething. She has only ever been to the doctor for well visits.

Sometime in June Lillian had a diaper rash that didn't seem to look bad or even bother her. Other than typical diaper rash treatment (Desitin, "air out", well towel instead of wipes) we didn't do anything about it. At her 15 month check up I asked the doctor about it since it still hadn't cleared up and he said it looked like a yeast rash up on her belly and just prescribed a topical ointment called Nystatin. We filled it and used it for a few days and it cleared right up. Well about 3 weeks ago it had come back and after a week it was getting worse to the point she was scratching at herself. She screamed when we changed her diaper. It looked horrible and I felt so bad for her. The severity would come and go but I hated it for Lillian so I called the doctors office one Friday after hours. The nurse called me back and was super awesome and helpful. She never once made me feel bad for calling in for just a diaper rash. She read Lillian's file and said she told me to just refill the Nystatin and she called in another prescription for something called Colestipol. This was a powder we had to mix with Balmex and it basically created a barrier over the Nystatin so her urine or a wipe wouldn't wash it off before soaking in enough. I asked the Pharmacist if we had to buy Balmex or would my Boudreaux Butt Paste work the same and he said to get the Balmex because it is thicker. I bought it because I wanted it to go away but I'm pretty sure diaper rash cream would have been fine.

Four days later we are not seeing any results. She is still scratching and in pain. At one point went through the Nystatin before our insurance would let us refill it again. Basically the Nystatin was just a prescription brand of an OTC anti-fungal or yeast cream like Monistat so I bought a CVS brand of that. Kevin calls the doctors office on a Saturday morning as soon as we know they will answer and they set us up an appointment with the on call doctor for 11:00 am. We see the doctor I tell him what has been going on he says the prescriptions should have cleared it up and since they aren't s he looks at it and says it looks like now it is just a skin irritation. I mentioned she has eczema and she says that's what it is so he prescribes a steroid called HYDROCORTISONE VAL 0.2% CREAM. We quickly filled that prescription and used it for two days and POOF soft as a baby's bottom again (literally). I am so thankful the rash has finally gone away. Since then she has had a small diaper rash here and there but no big deal (sensitive skin I presume) and I refilled the Hydrocortisone cream just to have on hand for other small eczema spots. We had a friend recommend Curel Itch defense lotion to use to help with the eczema and that has been helpful. It was a huge bottle for only $9 which beats the prices of OTC eczema creams.

I wrote all of this out for my future benefit but also for any other mommies out there dealing with diaper rashes. There are sooooo many creams out there to use and everyone has an opinion on which is best. The best one is the one that works for your child. We started with Desitin because that was the only kind I had heard of when we registered for Lillian and still have the same little squeeze bottle from her birth. And I bought the Boudreaux Butt Paste to have something different when I thought the Desitin wasn't working and also the Balmex because it was on the prescription. Also from my experience don't hesitate to call the doctor with questions, even a diaper rash. Diaper rashes can become a yeast rash or simply eczema and each one has a different treatment. Hopefully your pediatricians are as sweet and helpful as ours.

Ps. One huge benefit of this experience was some potty training. With Lillian running around diaper-less I was constantly asking her if she wanted/needed to go potty. She didn't go every time (she usually shook her head no after a few seconds of trying and I knew that meant she didn't need to) but she did a few times and only had one accident at our house. It got her interested and use to the potty (she use to be terrified of it) and now she goes before bath and even one time "requested" to go. I told her we needed to change her diaper before bed and she ran to the bathroom and pointed to the potty. I went ahead and put her up on it and she went! I haven't tried legit potty training yet as she only goes if we ask her but I am hoping we are getting close. A few techniques we are using for now are

-We give huge praise when she goes and she claps for herself as soon as she is done. No bribery needed yet.
- I put her on the seat before every bath
- I let her flush
- She is allowed to watch mommy go and then she gets to try after mommy. (3 times I have done this and she has gone)
- We can always tell when she is going #2 so I tried to get her to the toilet as soon as I notice but I think it scares her and I don't want to get her backed up so I wait until she is done and ask if she went "poopy" and after the first few times she started modding yes so I say let's go change it and she walks to her changing table in her room.

Lillian Lately 16-17months

I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with happenings with a toddler running around now but Lillian has been doing/saying things lately that I want to remember later. Some good, some bad, and some funny.

- Doing great on sleep. Still two naps a day but I think we are going to try and skip the morning nap every other day to get down to one. We tried that today and she only slept an hour and 15 mins for the afternoon nap and I would rather it be at least 2 hours so she gets enough sleep.
- I clap my hands twice to get Lillian's attention sometimes instead of yelling at her. Well it has back fired and now when I tell her "No" or that she can't have something, she claps at me twice and when I get on to her for clapping she does this thing with her eyes where she blinks slowly and just stares at me. It is so funny.
- We are working on using utensils when eating and she loves doing it by herself but makes a huge mess. She usually turns the spoon upside down before it gets in her mouth. She likes to dip her spoon in her food like it will just stick to the spoon no naturally the only thing she ever actually gets in her mouth is yogurt. Here is a video of her self-feeding yogurt.
- Speaking of yogurt I think Lillian has a slight lactose intolerance. The couple of times I have given her Greek yogurt (half of a small container) she spits up. She also drank about 12 oz of milk really fast and spit up about 30 minutes after ingesting it. This could be why she spit up so much when I nursed her.
- Lillian is a clumsy kid. She walks fine but somehow she trips a lot. She also will walk without looking where she is going or she'll back right up into something and fall down. If there is a pair of shoes lying around Lillian will trip over them at least once. Poor thing busted her gums once already, and has run into a couple different tables multiple times.
- This past Sunday Lillian got promoted to the toddler bible class instead of baby. She would always cry when we dropped her off and picked her up. This Sunday though she cried when she was dropped off but didn't look like she had been crying when we picked her up. We were so proud. I think in the toddler class they get to get out of the seats at some point so she feels more comfortable not being contained. Girl does not like being restricted.
- She finally cut some more teeth this month. 4 molars at once. Making it a total of 10 teeth. By the time she gets them all in she is going to start losing them again.
- We have noticed lately when Lillian wants something instead of pointing she sticks her hand out like she is grabbing something. Super cute it looks like the sign for milk (which we never taught her) to give you an idea.
- Lillian started sitting at her big girl table to eat. Makes more of a mess but she loves it.

Here are a couple random pictures of the last two months as well if you haven't already seen them on facebook or instagram. Our picture taking has slowed down a lot compared to when she was a baby. Don't worry I'll fix that.

first "whale spout"

Cookie baking for Daddy

(Extended) Family Time

This last week we had quite a bit of family time with some extended family. Kevin's oldest brother graduated from Flight school for the Air Force in Enid, OK this weekend so Lillian and I traveled up to Nashville to see my parents and sister. We were there for a few days so Saturday we headed up to Kentucky to visit my Pawpaw (my mom's Dad) and a couple cousins.

Lillian LOVES (love is an understatement) blueberries. My Pawpaw has one blueberry bush and we go to pick some of our own. Of course any that Lillian picked was placed directly into her mouth and never made it in the basket.

After we got back from Nashville Kevin's Aunt and Uncle came for a quick visit while they were headed to Atlanta. I think Lillian enjoyed all the attention and she definitely got spoiled. 

Aunt Robin played blocks with Lillian although Lillian didn't let her build much before she came crashing through

Aunt Robin also made us Gammy's cookies. Deliciousness!

Lillian was spoiled with a few bites of cookies from everyone.

To win Lillian over all you have to do is let her see your iPhone. 

We are so thankful for such awesome extended family from both of our families

Pool time

Kevin's sister-in-law got Lillian this really cool pool that had a couple water features to it for her birthday. We finally blew it up today and it is legit! Thankfully daddy got it out of the box and noticed it's not a blow up by mouth sort of thing and ran to Walmart and got an air compressor. It still took about 30 minutes to blow up but well worth it. We had some friends over to test it out and it was a hit.

This pool had balls to throw through those hoops, ring toss, a slide, and a sprinkler on top!

no tears were even shed after this wipe out!

Sisterly love!

Lillian and Hagen had more fun walking up and down the ramp than in the pool

Cookie Baking

Lillian and I decided to surprise Daddy with his favorite Chocolate Chip cookies today. I called his grandparents and asked for the recipe and to my luck we had all the ingredients. (I'd give you the recipe but then I'd have to kill you!) I got to mixing and stirring and beating and something just didn't look right. I scooped them onto the baking sheet and let them cook. 10 minutes later they were still in dough balls. Something was definitely not right. I had to ruin the surprise and sent Daddy an email with pictures of the failed batch.

they were very crumbley

I knew I had all the ingredients right and asked Kevin what I did wrong. He immediately thought the shortening could be bad and he was correct. Expiration date of Oct. 2013. YUCK! I preceded to throw out that batch and headed to Target for more ingredients. When we got back home I let Lillian help me. It was her first time baking cookies! 

This little sneaky sneak kept stealing the chocolate chips

right out of mixer too! (Don't worry we wash our hands very well while baking.) 

first taste...

and of course she was a big fan. I asked her how they tasted and she said "MMmmm" and preceded to sign more. I loved making these cookies because they were a special treat for Daddy and a fun memory with Lillian.