two non-vision-impaired mice. see how they make themselves comfortable in my home.

so lexi's much, much better. lincoln ended up getting sick, too (i'm pretty sure he had what lexi had) and he ended up missing a day of school, but now he seems to be just fine.
we emptied out lincoln's piggy bank for the first time over the weekend. he hasn't had it his whole life- only about 2 yrs. there were 11 dollar bills in there (!) and a whole bunch of change. we haven't taken the change to be counted at the bank yet, but we took his dollars and let him buy whatever he wanted (and/or could affford) at dollar tree and walmart. it was his first experience picking out his own things and paying for things himself. when he made his first purchase, he requested that the lady give him back the money once she counted it to make sure it was enough. he wasn't happy that it was gone forever (now maybe he understands how i feel ALL THE TIME!). he bought a plastic snake, plastic dinosaur, whoopee cushion, fart putty (this goop stuff that makes fart noises when you squish it in its container. absolutely hilarious for a 4-yr-old boy!), some candy, a sword, some bubbles, and a magnifying glass. it seems like maybe there were one or two other things, but that's all i can think of right now. i think his selections were pretty dang hilarious.
i forgot in my last post to say that lexi, at 6 months, is only 12 lbs 3 oz and 24 3/4 inches. isn't that crazy tiny!!?? of course, that was after she had been sick for a few days. we go back next week to get her shots and she could be more by that point, since she'll be feeling better (at least she should be!). so she's in the 10th percentile for length and not even on the charts for weight. it's so crazy having such a tiny baby. she's still in some 0-3 month clothes and still too small for several 3-6 month things. i bought her cold weather stuff in 3-6 and 6-9 and she won't even end up using the 6-9 month stuff! i know there's still lots of cold weather left, but there are some things i can't imagine her fitting in to anytime in the near future!
two mice were found in our house last week. freakout begun immediately. it took us 4 days, but we finally got one of them. now we're just waiting for his (her?) friend. pleeeease God, let it have been the female that's already dead! mouse babies in my house would make me evacuate. BLAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we didn't tell lincoln that there were mice in the house, for obvious reasons. on the third day, however, i was woken up by a frightened, wide-eyed little boy. "MOMMY! THERE ARE SOME MICE IN MY BEDROOM!" ...i acted surprised, "What?!" "THERE ARE TWO MICE IN MY BEDROOM!" ..."What were they doing?" "I THINK THEY WERE PLAYING! DADDY NEEDS TO GO KILL THEM NOW!" (little did he know that we had been TRYING to kill them for days. we had to pretend like we had killed them both before lincoln would go to bed that night.
holy cow. is it 6pm already? i haven't even finished making dinner. where did this day go??

i must.

i have been avoiding my blog for quite some time. i have so much stuff to write about and i know that i don't have time to sit down and write about it all. and, of course, in the process of avoiding the blog, more stuff piles up about which i should be writing. you see, it's a vicious cycle. think of this as a blog written in only the important details, kind of like cliff's notes. they're mel's notes.
my sister Mitsi got married to Josh on New Year's Eve. it was a beautiful ceremony and quite a fun party afterward.
the kids and i went to visit my aunt and uncle (and cousin, too) in plano for a few days last week. scott was supposed to have a job out of town for about a week and a half, but it ended up being put off for a while. since we had already made plans to go visit and i had already promised lincoln some fun outings, we went ahead and took the trip. it was lots of fun but we were ready to come home and see scott!
lexi is really sick. she has RSV and an ear infection. it's so pathetic. she just coughs and coughs and gasps for breath... she doesn't sleep well but it's pretty much all she wants to do. she's had a fever for several days but just started showing really bad symptoms yesterday. we had a dr's appt this morning to have her 6 month shots, but obviously she wasn't able to get them. RSV is the leading cause of pneumonia in children under 12 months. her dr. doesn't think she will end up in the hospital because of the RSV, though. he was pretty confident that she will be able to get over it on her own, but we just have to keep a close eye on her. hopefully she'll be well and back to normal in about a week or less. she's just plain miserable. it's pretty hard on us, too, but i'd deal with crap any day over having my babies feel poorly.
last night was a fun night. we got a new fridge. so we waited till the kids were both asleep to bring it in the house and transfer all the stuff from the old one. scott had to take the back door off the hinges to get the new fridge inside. then the water line from the old fridge didn't fit the new one, so we had to turn the water off to the house, but the line would NOT stop dripping. we finally got everything moved into the new fridge as 6 towels got soaked and overflowed with water. then scott went to put the back door (which is a super heavy solid wood door) back on and one of the hinges got bent. he tried to kick the hinge to bend it back but he accidentally kicked the door and broke a piece of it off. so he tried to move the hinge but it wouldn't fit on any other part of the door. about an hour later, our door wad finally back up. then he had to deal with the water leak. and lexi was randomly waking up since she couldn't breathe. it was a fun night. bet you're jealous.
i'm going to take advantage of the fact that my kids are asleep and there is no house work that needs to be done. ok, so there is, but i'm not doing it tonight!

the latest... and, oh- Merry Christmas!!!

so, Lexi had a Gastrografin Enema yesterday. it's very similar to a Barium Enema... they put some liquid stuff into her large intestine and took x-rays of her belly while it was in there so they could make sure there were no problems with her intestines. it was awful, but it didn't last too long (from start to finish the awful part was about 20 minutes, plus there was about 10-15 minutes of prep). the reason her dr. ordered that particular test is not only because he could get a good look at her insides that way, but it would also clean out her intestines so she could kinda start fresh.
we got good news that her intestines are completely normal! no problems whatsoever. and since then, she hasn't had any of the issues she had been having for the past few weeks... good news all around.
we've had a good couple of days worth of Christmas celebrations. we're not quite through with all of our planned festivities, but everything we've done so far has been quite fun. yesterday we were with scott's family. we had lunch, went to the candlelight service at church, opened presents, and played some games. today, we spent the entire day at home. it was uh-maz-ing! it's something we haven't done in a lonnnnng time and i thoroughly enjoyed it. we opened presents first thing this morning (i got a KitchenAid mixer [!!!]), then proceeded to play with all the new toys for a couple of hours, then had a big delicious meal, and played some more. now we're all winding down and preparing for the next couple of days worth of fun.
i have more about which to blog, but lexi is grumpy and in need of her next meal so i guess i'll have to finish up later.

a tiny update

i took Lexi to the doctor today. we don't know anything else yet, but she's having some tests run tomorrow. it doesn't look like scott will be able to go with me (he has a job that HAS to get finished. it was supposed to be finished today, but it is going into tomorrow now. go figure!) so my mom will go with my for moral support.
her dr. just wants to make sure that there isn't anything wrong with her intestines. he didn't seem too concerned but noted that it was something he really had to do even though he wasn't that worried since it's been 18 DAYS!
btw, he said he thinks she's currently got the record of any patient he's ever had (that's this young). not one contest we were aiming to win!
so we should know something for sure tomorrow. well, we'll at least know if there is a problem with her intestines. if there's nothing wrong, i don't really know WHY she hasn't pooped in almost 3 weeks.
thanks everyone for your prayers.
anyway, i will update again tomorrow assuming i get the opportunity!

that's just not right.

sooo Lexi hasn't pooped in almost 18 days. we've used every home method possible (suppository, enema, juice, prunes, water, karo syrup- you name it, we've probably tried it) and i took her to the doctor last wednesday. they did an x-ray and didn't find anything wrong. so, we were given a prescription laxative and told that if she hadn't gone in 2 or 3 days to bring her back in. i called on saturday and they told me to wait till the weekend was over. she's been on the med more than 4 days and still hasn't gone. tomorrow we have to go back to the doctor and she is going to have another x-ray and probably have more tests done.
she seems to feel pretty well most of the time, though she's not super happy as often as she was a few weeks ago.
anyway, i don't know what kind of tests (if any) she'll have to go through tomorrow and it makes me sick just thinking about having to see her in pain and not being able to comfort her (there's no way those tests could be pleasant!).
i haven't been really worried about her until today. i'm starting to worry that maybe it's not just a weird freak of nature thing but that something might actually be wrong with her. never in my life have i WANTED to change a poopy diaper, but right now it would make me downright excited.
please pray for her (and me) tomorrow and in the days to come. i mean- she can't go without pooping forever!!! i certainly wouldn't have thought that she could go almost 3 weeks without pooping, though!
i will update when we know more. or if she just plain poops :)

Tagged

i was tagged by candace to post a picture from a past Christmas.
these are from 2004...

Lincoln's first Christmas. he was 4 months old in these pictures.

i tag michelle... hopefully she will get time to do this. she's a pretty busy lady.

baby it's cold outside.

i guess i need to learn the words to that song pretty quickly since matt and i will be singing it at my sister's wedding reception in just a few weeks. and i probably should also learn the song that we're singing during the ceremony. i suppose i could be doing that instead of piddling around on the internet... but alas, here i sit, wasting some of the precious quiet time that i rarely get.
lincoln is sooo excited about Christmas. he is keeping up with what date it is (every day: "mommy, is today december 5th?" or whatever day it happens to be). and then he proceeds to ask me what day Christmas is on and then how many days are left. we haven't been to Christmas Lane to see lights and visit Santa yet, but we will get to that within a week or so.
lexi had cereal for the first time last night. we skipped over rice cereal and went straight to oatmeal. lincoln hated rice cereal and then it was difficult to get him to want any other solids, so i figured i would just go straight to baby oatmeal with lexi since lincoln loved it so much. well, she LOVED it! she ate about half of what i prepared for her and i was pretty impressed by that. she took itsy bitsy bites for about 10-15 minutes before she finally got impatient and angry and wanted to nurse. it was a pretty great first solid food experience. we're going to start giving her cereal every day for a couple of weeks before we start introducing vegetables. i can't believe she's ready for that already!
she seems younger than she is... i suppose it's because she's so tiny. a week and a half ago, she was 12 lbs & 23.5 inches. i know of babies who were born at about that size! she's growing well, though, so that's good. she's in the 20th percentile for weight and the 25th for length. it's weird having a little one since lincoln was always in the 75th for length and 80-90th for weight. he's still taller and bigger than most kids his age. he's the youngest kid in his pre-k class and he's one of the tallest.
so today i am running a million errands (having my phone fixed or replaced is one of them. the earpiece totally stopped working, so people can hear me but i can't hear them [or anything else for that matter]), then i have rehearsal, cast party dinner for the musical, getting the last of my things together and packing up for my trip tomorrow. lexi and i are going to the austin area tomorrow for my sister's lingerie shower. we'll be in austin all of about 16 hours before we head home. i have to be in clyde by 1:30 on sunday to get ready for the last musical (HOORAY!) so it'll be a seriously hectic weekend. i will be SO glad when it's over!
my dirty house is calling my name (though i wish it was calling the name of a maid or anyone but me for that matter!)
and i have to go put lincoln in his room to watch a dvd on the computer so i can wrap some Christmas presents in the living room!