"...I'm glad to finally see some progress."

Monday, March 23, 1992

     We had Daniel Simpson over for dinner yesterday. We "adopted" him after the Pughs left. It's been a long time since we had an adopted single. He stayed til about 3:00 so we had time for a short nap. Ez. didn't sleep during church so she slept all afternoon.

     Yesterday we had our first try-out preacher. Tim Jorgensen from Memphis. I looked him up in my Harding yearbooks–he graduated a year after me. His wife Rebecca is a piano teacher but she's currently secretary at the in vitro clinic at UT med. school. I talked with her at the fellowship after the eve. service. She's 32 & he's 36 & they've only been married four years. They're waiting til he gets out of school to start a family. I assume he's done soon or he wouldn't have applied for the job. He was a good speaker I guess but I want to hear the others before I decide (like it's up to me). They did put some questionnaire sheets in the song book racks asking members what they thought about him. I assume they'll do that every time.

     Ez. slept all night but she was up til after 10:00. We had to let her cry herself to sleep (I did tonight too). We were taping her because she was sitting on the couch with me & Guy was in the kitchen and she grabbed hold of the back cushion and pulled up on her knees to see him. She did it over by her toy basket today but I only saw it once. Maybe she really is going to skip crawling all together. I was beginning to worry about her not pulling up so I'm glad to finally see some progress.

     I got a little more of her dress cut out tonight. Since she slept til 8:30 this morning I didn't put her down for a morning nap. I thought she'd go to sleep right after lunch but she just wanted to play. It was almost 2:30 before she went to sleep then I took a nap too. I woke up at 4:00 & she slept til a little past 4:30. I really should go to sleep but it's just so hard to fall asleep when Guy's not here. If Ez. wasn't here I'd just stay up and watch tv til I fell asleep. I have to watch for a long time to get sleepy so it doesn't help when I don't settle in til 11 or later.

     Oh, Ez's hives came & went all of Sat. and part of Sun. We gave her the Benadryl through Sun. night. Haven't seen any more since Sun. morn. so I guess she's over them now. I'm glad.

"It drives me crazy."

Sunday,  March 22, 1992

     Thank goodness Guy felt ok when we go up Sat. morning. Ez. slept til nearly 8:00. After lunch we went to the mall & looked around. We got Ez. a denim jumper (25% off, Oshkosh) at Sears. They had this new thing set up at the far end of the mall (by Hess). I guess you'd call it a ride. It was an enclosed thing with about 12 seats in it. Guy went on it. It had a screen inside & they closed the whole thing up and it moved around on these "lifts" or whatever. It had an airplane ride & a roller coaster & race car & I forget the other one. Guy said it was ok.

     Ez. enjoyed going around the mall. She was tired cause it was nap time & we figured she'd fall to sleep on the way to Wal-Mart but she didn't til we were almost there. I was tired by then too–I guess from walking around the mall. We had to stop at Farm Fresh on the way home & Ez. & I stayed in the car even though she wasn't asleep. She took a nap when we got home & I tried to but Damion was playing in the back yard next door making too much noise. I'd tried to take a nap that morning when she did but mr. music next door woke me up. In case I have never mentioned it before, the neighbor on the other side practices on his clarinet every night and most of the day on weekends with very few exceptions. I don't know which room he's in but we can hear it in every room in the house. It drives me crazy.

"I hope I haven't made her have allergies for life now."

Friday, March 20, 1992

    It's the first day of spring but yesterday felt more like spring than today does. Elizabeth turned 11 mos. old yesterday. She's still not trying to pull herself up even though she'll stand & hold on to something if you put her there. Hopefully, it'll be like chewing–all of a sudden she'll do it one day. She's getting better at drinking from the cup except she won't do it herself. I decided to give her milk to her only in the cup at lunch, starting day before yesterday.

     The week didn't turn out like I expected. Guy ended up coming home every night. Mon. at 8:00, Tues. at 8:30, & Wed. at about 7:15. Of course that disrupted Ez. every night. With him getting home so much later than usual she didn't get enough time to spend with him. I was putting her to bed early Wed. night & was just doing a final diaper check when he got home. She wouldn't settle for him just saying goodnight. I held her on my lap while he ate so she wanted to eat too. We gave her a couple of crackers. Guy put her to bed every night cause she wouldn't let me once she knew he was home. But last night was worse because he had duty but she was still watching for him to come home.

     I finally had to let her cry herself to sleep while I was doing my medicine. Thank goodness she did. She woke up a little before 5:00 this morning for about 30 min. then slept till 8:00. Oh, last night I decided part of her problem was teething. The bottom left molar started out over a week ago then disappeared & is now trying to come in again. I used Anbesol twice but it didn't last long so I finally gave her some Tempra.

     Since she slept late I was going to keep her up all morning but she was acting really tired so I put her down about 10:00 & it didn't take her long to fall asleep. Now I'm debating whether I should take a nap or not. Guy's supposed to have the aft. off but he'll probably need a nap cause he was on watch til midnight last night.

     Wed. morning Ez. & I went to get our hair trimmed. She did really well. She sat on my lap. I saved the hair in an envelope. She took the tiniest snips from the front and cut the back even all across. No bangs. Don't know how long we'll be able to use the barrettes though. The past few days she's discovered the one on the right and keeps trying to pull it out. I think I'll try just pulling it all straight back on top. Anyways she started getting fussy toward the end when I was getting blow dried. It was getting close to lunch & the only nap she'd had was on the way there–less than 10 minutes. But she did pretty good. For the first time without Guy going with us. I don't think I'll be going back there though. It just costs too much. It's gone from $15 to $17 and they'd told me over the phone that Ez's would be $5. But it came to $23 instead of $22 so I don't know who's was a dollar more. Anyway, you can get a haircut for $10 at Hair Cuttery which is right over her by Farm Fresh. And I may wait til we go home next Thanksgiving to get a perm again.

     I finally got around last night to getting started on cutting out our Easter dresses. But I only got the main part of Ez's cut out. My back gave out & I didn't feel like bringing the stool up here. I guess I should get to work on that now instead of napping. Easter is four weeks away & I'll probably need every minute to get both dresses done.

Later:

     Well, today was pretty much a waste. Guy got home about 11:30 & the first thing he said was "I'm sick." There's been some kind of virus going around the ship all week and it finally caught him. He went right to bed, slept til after 2:00, got up & ate some soup then went back to bed til 5:30. Meanwhile, Ez. slept til almost 12:30. I tried to put her down for a nap between 2:30 & 3:00 but it was nearly 4:00 before she went to sleep & I had to wake her up for supper. When I was reading to her before her nap, I noticed a red place on the left side of her neck & thought she'd scratched herself. She has such sensitive skin the least little rub & her skin turns red there. It was still there a little later & looked larger & like it had little helps in it. I thought it might be hives so I came & looked it up in the book but it didn't wasn't didn't say what to do about it. By the time I went to look at her again it had spread down her jawline to her chin. I figured it was a food allergy but she hadn't had any new foods today. Yesterday she had some yogurt that was mixed berries–blue...straw...boisen...& raspberry. She'd had only blueberries before so it could've been any of the other three. Before I called the per. I took her clothes off to see if there was any other places. There was one in the crease of fat above her left knee on the inside. It had also spread around the right side of her jaw.

     When I talked to the nurse she said it sounded like hives and that it could take up to three weeks to have a reaction like that to food. But since she had that berry yogurt yesterday that was probably it. She said to give her 1 t. of Benadryl four times a day. It could get worse but it should clear up in 24-48 hours.

     By the time she went to sleep & I could go to the store & get back it looked like it was all gone. But while she was eating supper a place came up under her left eye and one like a streak around her left arm from upper to underside around the outside. So I gave her the Benadryl then. She took it fairly well from the medicine spoon. The places went away after supper and I didn't find any more at bedtime.

     When I went to the store I also got some toddler cookies. We'd been giving her vanilla wafers for the past couple of weeks and I looked at the box for ingredients and there's eggs in them. She's not supposed to have eggs before a year. So the hives could be from that. I hope I haven't made her have allergies for life now.

     She had a hard time going to sleep tonight, I think partly because of her molar and partly cause Guy didn't play with her tonight. When it was four hours from when she had the Benadryl I gave her some Tempra. This bottom left molar started coming in last week then disappeared. Now it's sticking way up but it's like it's stretching the gum out & not breaking through. The first one came out really fast. The top right one has two or three points through. The top left isn't even bumpy yet. I just checked the baby book & she's still about 2 mos. ahead in her teething.