The Madhouse

This will be a long one since I haven't blogged in a bit and since a lot is changing rapidly with us...

Things are really crazy at our house and not for the obvious reason. (Lia's the low maintenance one at the moment.) Kira has a ridiculously bad case of the hives. Her hives have hives. She's so itchy and miserable. They cover her from head to toe. Her eyes, feet, and ears are swollen. I can't stand it. The doctor says it's an immune system reaction to several infections recently including ear infections and a really bad cold. She's on antibiotics for the ear infection (which seems to be working) and prednisone for the hives (which seems *not* to be working). I was sitting in the loft last night at 1:30 AM feeding Lia and I could hear Kira crying "Mommy" in her sleep every few minutes. Anyone who wants to know what heartbreak feels like, that's it.

The weekend before last (and before the hive invasion), we had the best weekend with Kira we had had in a long time. It seems she has finally settled in to the day care routine and her grumpiness has subsided. She is really thriving. Her signing and verbal vocabulary have both skyrocketed. (We did signing with her before she went to school but she only ever learned one sign from us. She now knows about 60 signs that we know of and who knows how many more that we don't. I think she is motivated in her learning by the other kids.) She simultaneously signed and spoke the first two-word phrase she ever formed in her life: more cheese. Only her spoken version of that is "mo chee." Really cute. Then later that day, she picked up her shoe and said "shoe." (Nothing new - that was her first word months ago.) But then she picked up her other shoe and said "more shoe." (Ok, "mo shoe.") I was really impressed at the use of the words she knows to convey a concept like that. She can't say or sign the word "another" or anything similar, so she said "mo shoe." These are a couple of examples of many, many ways she's shown really rapid learning and development since starting school.

My excitement over Kira's development exceeded my discomfort with her constant runny nose and cough since starting school. Now, however, our collective misery over her hives trumps how fun it is to see her signing every animal and food, etc. she sees. I hope she's better very, very soon.

Lia is great. Not much to report as she (like all 3 week olds) just sleeps, eats, and poops. She is a very contented baby and it is wonderful spending time with her. She, like Kira before her, is a very easy baby to be around, crying little and eating and sleeping a lot. Her appearance has changed a lot since birth since the swelling around her eyes has subsided. (I'll post more pictures when I have a bit more time.) I think she looks a lot like Kira. Opinions vary about whether she looks like Jason or me, but most seem to think she favors Daddy. She is sweet and happy, and I feel so lucky to have our family completed with this healthy, beautiful, happy baby girl.

Jason's doing great. He's such a great father and the whole thing seems to come very easily and naturally to him. He's very busy at work and has some travel coming up, so we are missing him at home. Hopefully that will slow down soon. I'll be off work until May so really the girls are pretty much all I have going on right now. That's all for now - Lia wants fed.