Nothing says "Happy Mother's Day" like a bouquet of flowers and a box of gourmet cupcakes, wouldn't you agree?
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Not to mention that my wonderful husband made me french toast for breakfast, took me out for lunch, and later made me grilled filet mignon for dinner. It was a great 2nd Mother's Day :)
I had a total parent freak out moment today. It was not pretty. I told you earlier about how my daughter likes to play with all the stuff in my bathroom drawers. Well today, I was getting ready to go on a mommy/daughter shopping date while Haley played with the contents of my bathroom drawers at my feet. I finished putting on my make up and, since Haley was happily playing on the floor, left the room for no more than a minute to get something from the kitchen. When I walked back into the bathroom, I found Haley sitting on the floor with an open bottle of glucosamine/chondroitin supplements laying on the floor, and one slightly gnawed on pill in her hand. She had gotten into one of the cabinets where the forgotten supplements had been stored months ago. My first thought? FREAK OUT.The supplements themselves are to lubricate joints. I bought them awhile ago to help my sore knees because of all the running I do, and I only had a few left in the bottle. Apprently the bottle is not child-proof, as I learned the hard way, and Haley zeroed in on it like a kid in a candy store. I have never had her eat anything potentially dangerous before (besides the odd crumb of food or piece of fuzz she finds on the floor here and there), but I knew this could possibly be a very dangerous situation. I wasn't sure how much of the supplement she had eaten, but I was pretty sure she hadn't swallowed a whole one since the pills are humongous. All I could think of was to get whatever she had eaten out of her, so I ran over and scooped her up and stuck my finger in her mouth to try to get her to gag. She very quickly went from happy girl, to screaming confused girl. She gagged some, but not enough to get anything out. By that point, Haley was also freaking out because she didn't know what she had done to deserve a finger down her throat. I set her down, calmed her, and looked at the pills. From what I saw, it looked like she managed to gnaw off the end of one pill (roughly 1/4 of a pill). This was a good sign because it didn't seem like she ate an entire pill. I read the side of the bottle and, while it didn't warn about poisoning from the supplement, it clearly stated "keep out of reach of children." Yeah, too late for that. While I didn't think there was too much danger because of the small amount she ate, I just couldn't be ok with "thinking" she was ok, I had to know. And that is how the Poison Control Center became my new best friend. I dialed the number and blurted out "My 14 month-old ate part of my glucosamine supplement, is she going to be ok???" to the nice, calm lady on the phone. She told me not to worry, glucosamine is not toxic and wouldn't cause her any harm. I was so happy I wanted to kiss the Poison Control rep. All of the fear and anxiety instantly melted off the minute I heard my daughter was going to be ok. I added the Poison Control number to my contact list and hope that I never have to call them again. My daughter may be thankful for me this Mother's Day, but I'm more thankful for her.
 This is what our life has been full of for the past few months. Medicine droppers. As you can see, we've started quite an impressive collection of different shapes, colors, and sizes of droppers to give Haley medicine. It began with an ear infection and it all went downhill from there. We first noticed something wasn't quite right with our daughter when she became unusually whiny. She's a very happy baby, even when she's sick, so it was extremely unusual that she began whining as much as she did. Me being the parent that shrugs most things off as just having a "bad day" decided that she was just tired. My husband, who is quite the opposite (he made me ask the pediatrician if Haley's hiccups were normal when she was a newborn) talked me into taking her in for a check up. It turns out that my poor, newly minted 1-year old had a double ear infection. Haley had never had an ear infection before, so I knew it was only a matter of time until they found her, especially with the history that my husband had as a child - multiple ear infections, 8 sets of tubes, and several surgeries. No worries though, they'd give her some medicine and everything would heal up I thought. A week and one antibiotic later, we were back to visit Haley's pediatrician only to find out that both ears were still infected. Fast forward 4 more antibiotics, an allergy medication, several bad diaper rashes, 3 shots, and a partridge in a pear tree later and my poor baby still has yet to shake the double ear infections, and now she has pneumonia from all of the drainage. This poor girl can't catch a break. To her credit, she is a trooper and she handles things better than I would if I had a double ear infection, allergies, and pneumonia at the same time. It amazes me how much such a little person can put up with and still keep a smile on her face. I just hope she doesn't have to put up with it much longer. She has an appointment with a specialist on Monday to look at her ears and decide whether or not she needs to get tubes put in. At this point, I just want whatever will make her feel and hear normally again. I just wish it hadn't come to tubes, even if thousands of other children across the world have been in her same tiny shoes.
When I first got pregnant with my daughter, I wasn't sure what to expect since I had never been pregnant before. All I knew is what others had told me, and one thing they warned me about was the cravings they had when they were pregnant. We have all heard the story of how pregnant women get sudden urges for crazy foods like pickles and ice cream, so I was prepared to suddenly have an intense need for peanut butter and chicken nuggets, or something along those lines. As my pregnancy progressed, I still no cravings. At one point, I had an amazing lamb dish at a fancy restaurant when I was travelling. It was the best lamb I had ever had and I wanted more. But then, it wasn't like I HAD to have lamb at that very moment, I just wanted that same dish again because I had enjoyed it so much. I ended my pregnancy without eating even one pickle, much less with ice cream. Enter pregnancy #2. In the past 2 weeks, I have had so many cravings, it's insane. It would be nice if I could settle on one food that I really craved and just buy a lot of that food, but unfortunately, my cravings vary from day to day. So far, I've wanted: - Hot dogs. I never want hot dogs. They're not healthy and probably have just as much nutrition as a car tire, but one day, I just had to have a hot dog. This is how my husband guessed that I was pregnant.
- Tacos (authentic ones). This craving actually caused me to go online and drool over a local Mexican restaurant's online menu. Sad, I know.
- Cheetos. I mean, when aren't Cheeto's delicious?
- New York pizza. This was a very inconvenient craving because I wasn't like I wanted New York style pizza, I wanted the actual slice of chicken and broccoli pizza I had gotten in New York years ago when I had gone on a road trip with friends.
- French Fries. McDonalds satisfied this craving. The fries were delicious, but I think what I really wanted was the ketchup since my ratio of ketchup packets to fries was 1 to 2.
I had a couple of friends tell me recently that they craved salads and vegetables. I'm not one of those women. Luckily, I'm still able to run, so that's what I'll be doing until I get too big. Afterall, I hear it's not too healthy to gain all 30 pounds within the first 8 weeks of pregnancy. Now to find some snacks....
 I got my first peek at baby #2 today. At only 6 weeks old, Two doesn't have much in the way of features yet (he/she still has a LOT of growing to do), but I got to see the little heart beating, and it was just as amazing as the first time I saw my little girl's heart flickering away on the monitor. Life is so beautiful.
This is my daughter. At 13 months, she has more toys than a Toys R Us. In fact, she has so many toys, that her toys have been given their own room so she can make as much of a mess as she wants to and I don't have to worry about cleaning up. What does she love to play with? Anything that is not a toy.
My child makes a toy out of candy wrappers, tupperware, hair ties, and little pieces of paper that she finds on the ground. Her greatest victories are when she crawls around the living room or kitchen and finds that little something that you dropped under the recliner, behind the bookshelf, or any other place adult hands can't reach. She will find your dirty sock and drag that thing around the house like it is a new toy.
 Her new favorite morning activity since outgrowing her Johnny Jump Up is to follow me into the bathroom as I'm getting ready for work, and open my bottom drawer to play with whatever she can find. Her favorite toy in the drawer is a gallon bag that I keep a bunch of random stuff in. This is a bag that I throw my odds and ends into - the stuff I don't want just laying around the bathroom. In the bag, there are old bobby pins, 6 different tubes of travel toothpaste, toothbrush covers, Tums, deoderant, and extra contact cases. To me, the bag is full of a bunch of random junk that I don't want to throw away. To Haley, this bag is full of fun toys.
 Every morning while I get dressed and put on my makeup, Haley crawls over to the drawer, pulls out the gallon bag, and dumps its contents on the bathroom floor. She then proceeds to spread everything that fit so nicely into a gallon bag all over the bathroom floor while she plays who-knows-what with my bag of junk. I never stop her because she's having so much fun with such simple little objects and it only takes me a couple of minutes to scoop everything back in the bag in preparation for her to scatter them across the floor the next day. With a whole room full of toys that light up and make noise, she'd rather sit on the bathroom floor and play with my travel toothpastes. If only the rest of us could appreciate the simpler things in life, I have a feeling the world would be a much happier place.
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I started a tradition of posting belly pictures every 4 weeks when I was pregnant with my daughter, so this is week #8 to start us off!
