What a Week!

I have been a little out of touch over the last week because life has been crazy - some planned events and some unexpected activities! I think the best way to review the week is with bullet points.

• Monday - We hosted a Christmas cookies exchange with some mom's and their little girls (one little brother tagged along because his dad had to work late - he didn't seem to mind being the only boy). We ended up with about 8 different kinds of Christmas cookies - that is the way to make the perfect plate of Christmas cookies without having to bake them all!!
• Tuesday - We had a wonderful, lengthy playdate with a friend who is the sister of our babysitters. She is in 4th grade and the girls had a BLAST playing with her and I really enjoyed my visit with her mom who is a dear friend of mine. Tuesday night, Kevin had a client event so he had to work extremely late. The girls and I had an early dinner and the girls hit the sack by 7.
• Wednesday (here is where we took a detour in our plans) - We were going to have an easy day at home getting school work done and playing, but little Daphne Jane had other plans. She woke up with a fever. . . AGAIN. . . and I took her to the doctor just thinking her ears were not clearing up from the previous ear infection. By the time we got to the doctor, her fever was 103.3. The doctor checked her ears - while she thought they looked clear, she didn't seem totally confident. She kept saying, "I think they look okay." They did a flu culture, strep culture, and took a urine sample, but of which came back negative. The doctor asked another doctor to come in to look in Daphne's ears to confirm and that doctor also said, "the right one looks great and I think the left one is okay." They were concerned, though, that she had such a high fever when she was still on her antibiotic from the earlier ear infection. They sent us to the hospital to get some blood work done. About an hour later, the doctor's office called telling me to take Daphne to the hospital immediately - her white blood cell count was really high. I dropped the girls off at my friend, Cherie's house (thank you Cherie - you are a God-send!) and drove Daphne to the ER at Progress West. Kevin met me there (my sister came later to check in and then picked up the girls to take them home and put them in bed). After attempting 4 times to get her blood, the nurses finally got a sample to send away for a blood culture. They gave her a 24 hour antibiotic and sent us home about 6 hours later. She still had a high fever - 104.4, but the doctor thought we could manage the fever ourselves with motrin. No one slept much that night - Daphne was awake and crying about every hour and a half.
• Thursday - I already had plans to take Norah and Lucy to see the Nutcracker performed by the St. Louis Ballet. Kevin really thought we should go ahead and go and he would take Daphne back to the doctor (they wanted to see her first thing in the morning). The girls had a blast at the Nutcracker - although, Lucy started to get antsy after about an hour. It was an excellent production! Daphne ended up having another ear infection - not sure if it was missed but the 3 doctors the day before or if it just came on all of the sudden. She is now on a new antibiotic - hopefully this one works. My sister and I took my mom and grandma to see White Christmas at the Fox. We went to dinner first and then to the show - it was wonderful and we had a great time. We didn't get home until almost midnight and then Daphne was awake again. . .A LOT, so we didn't get much sleep that night either.
• Friday - We hung out with my grandma and mom in the morning. They headed out after lunch and we cleaned and cooked like crazy (well, I did. The girls just played and rested). We had our new pastor and his family over for dinner. We had a really great time. They have 3 girls, too, right around our girls' ages!
• Saturday - Kevin and Lucy did some Christmas shopping then Norah and I did some. I baked and wrapped presents then we headed out to another Christmas party with the Goods, the Bohlmanns, and the Biggers.
• Today - Church, of course. The girls' classes had birthday parties for Jesus - complete with cupcakes! We are headed to yet another Christmas party this evening.

Whew! I'm exhausted after reliving all of that! I should add - Daphne woke up from her nap on Friday a totally different baby. She was happy and playful and HUNGRY!!

Now we are prepping for another crazy week!

Are you ready for Christmas?