Just a quick update. We went to the doctor today. Mallory is now 19 lbs. 11 oz. I was right. She did go through a growthspurt. The good news is that her body sped up, and her head slowed down. ;) She is 30 inches long and in the 75 percentile. Her head came down to the 75 percentile (from 90%)…no more bobble head. Her weight is still only in the 25 percentile so she’s a long, skinny baby…but at least she’s not a long, skinny baby with a big ole head.
Developmentally, she is on track with her due date not her birth date, which I guess technically means she’s ahead. That’s good. She got three shots (poor baby). But she did really well. I had to hold her hands down. The nurse said at this age they sometimes react by reaching down and grabbing the syringe…apparently, that is not a good thing. So I was holding her arms, the nurse was giving the shots, and Mallory was turning red and crying. I felt so bad. After the third one, I picked her up…I swear the child wasn’t breathing. It was one of those where their mouth is wide open, their face is beat red, and you just know that as soon as they can get that breath, a sound that could rival Mt. St. Helen is going to come out. Eventually, she caught that breath and just started squalling. But the amazing thing was that almost as soon as I got her up to my chest, she laid her head on my shoulder and stopped. The nurse said she did really well (in her non-kiddie voice…I honestly don’t think I have ever heard her real voice). She said that one of the shots burns really badly when it goes in. I said, “She’s a tough cookie.” The nurse agreed.
Only one negative outcome. Remember the gap between her teeth that I talked about last time, and how it was suppose to be a good thing? Well, too much of a good thing is bad. Her gap may prove to be a little more than the other teeth and braces can handle. Of course, we wouldn’t do anything until her permanent teeth come in, but oral surgery is a possibility. We’ll see. That’s several years down the road.
All in all, a good visit. We go back in 15 months.

I know, I know. I can’t believe it has been so long since I blogged (much longer for Johnathan…in case you’re counting).
So much has happened in the last 6 weeks. Mallory has learned how to stand up all on her own. They have told us at daycare that she has taken a couple of steps for them…for us?…not so much. That’s okay though. Once she starts walking, it’s all over but the crying.
She has gotten two teeth on the top. They are so far apart you could drive a mack truck between them (but I hear that’s a good thing…we’ll see). She still refuses to say “mama”. Yes, I said “refuses”. When she does say it, I get all excited and then she looks me right in the eyes, smiles and says “dada”. Jerk. A sign of things to come, I guess. Other signs point to the fact that she’ll be a tomboy. She is running over all of the boys in her class. She tackles them, steamrolls them, and I actually saw her grab one by his waistband as he tried to crawl away from her. Her teachers say they have to watch her closely because she has no fear. (Great.)
Other than that, I can’t really think of anything that stands out. We had her first birthday party. It was fun with a lot of kiddies “running” around. She dug into her cake, and after some prodding from a “friend” she put it all in her hair.
We go to the doctor this week so we’ll see how she is progressing. I think she has just gone through a major growth spurt lengthwise (she may grow into that head yet). I’ll let you know how it goes.
Now, on to Kylie. After some work on her grades, she got to go to prom. She picked out a beautiful dress (I’ll refrain from ranting about the dresses “they” design for teenage girls to wear and how inappropriate they are…trust me, that IS me restrained). She went with “this kid named, Andrew”. Somehow, he has ended up being her boyfriend now. I was in Seattle so only Johnathan got to meet him. However, Johnathan has said that if he had thought it would turn into something more than just prom, he would have given his “I have a gun” speech (every boy needs to hear one of those in his lifetime). Anyway, she looked like a pretty princess.
Junior year is now behind us. One more to go (yeah, like it ends when they graduate from high school). This summer she plans to work…a lot apparently. She has worked every day for the last week or week and a half. She’s trying really hard to pay off her car. It’s good to see her take so much initiative.
Now, for the question of the day. “Did she load any pictures?” Well, of course. I added Kylie’s prom pictures to her folder. I added some to Mallory’s 10 month folder. And I created Mallory’s 11 month, 1st birthday and 12 month folders (wait until you see the rocking horse video…cracks me up every time). At least I hope they all load. As usual, they are queued up…and I’m going to bed. Good night!!

I uploaded the videos I promised…or at least I set them to be uploaded. Each one takes a while, and I’m going to bed. So hopefully, they all will load for your viewing pleasure. I added one in Kylie’s album and 6 in Mallory – 10 Months.
Just remember…no matter how badly Johnathan talks about him, Cole is a good dog. ;) (of course, if all of the videos don’t load, you’ll have no idea what I’m talking about)
Good night!!

I am so ready for the end of cold and flu season. We started April off right with croup. I went out of town for one night, and Mallory kept Johnathan up all night long. (Don’t feel too sorry for him, he took off work the next day…but Mallory went to day care). He said that her nose was so stopped up that she just couldn’t breathe very well. She was okay for the next couple of days, but that weekend she kept a fever between 100 and 101 (spiked to 102.5 one time). And I guarantee you that the child did not stay awake for more than 45 minutes at a time. She also didn’t eat well. She would cough really badly (didn’t sound like a seal though), and she would whimper like her throat hurt. One time she got mad and just started kicking (no, I’m not worried that she’ll have a bad temper…why do you ask?) On Monday, the fever had broken, but we went to the pediatrician anyway. We told him that we came for a visit since we hadn’t seen him for over a month. :) He said she had croup. Great. He gave her steroids for her sore throat (it was all red). As he was emailing the prescription to the pharmacy, he said, “Now, this is a liquid steroid.” I said, “Good…cause she doesn’t do pills very well.” He didn’t even look at me. He just chuckled, nodded and said, “Funny.” I thought so. We kept her home until Thursday. When we got to the day care, there was a notice posted on the door that one of the children had croup. Yeah, that would have been nice to know a little earlier. Anyway, she has since recovered, but it was really sad. You could tell that she just didn’t feel well. And how do you explain a sore throat to a 10-month-old?
The second tooth is coming in. It took it a little while longer to actually come through the skin, but it has finally made it. I think the tooth fairy is on rapid fire now. She’ll have a mouth full of teeth before long. Just enough to terrorize Elizabeth. :)
I uploaded some pictures in Mallory – 10 Months (I have lots of videos but for some reason I couldn’t get them to load tonight…I’ll try again soon). Mallory wore her camo dress the other day (thanks, Papa and Katninny). It’s really cute. But then she decided to have some fun. She hid in her highchair and the woods near our house. See if you can find her in the pictures.
Let’s see…what else is new…oh yeah, I whacked all my hair off. It’s about up to my chin. You’ll see a picture of it. I was just so tired of it. The only way I really liked it was in a ponytail, and a ponytail is just not appropriate for all occasions. It will take some getting use to. It has been about 6 years since the last time I cut it short. It’s hair. It’ll grow. She was able to take off 8 inches and still leave me a decent amount. I want to donate it. Locks of Love requires 10 inches, but I just didn’t have the patience to go for another 2. My neighbor said that there is another organization that will take 8. That’s where she donated. But until I can get the information from her, my ponytail is riding shotgun in an envelope.
I have to share something that I found disturbing. I have noticed recently that more and more women are talking on the phone in the restroom at work. And I don’t mean near the sinks. I mean, in the stalls, doing their business. I heard one say that she had to step away from her desk to talk on her cell phone because she has to be “professional”. Hmmmm…how ironic. But this takes the cake. I walked into the restroom before leaving work, and I heard elevator music. My first reaction was, “Are you kidding? They’re piping music into the bathroom??” Then, I noticed that one of the stalls was occupied. (Are you thinking what I’m thinking? “Oh, surely not.”) Then, I heard, “Thank you for calling Southwest Airlines. All of our representatives are busy. Please stay on the line…” Yep. To top it off, she left without washing her hands. She’s one of “those”…you know, the kind that doesn’t wash her hands…and doesn’t care if a customer service rep hears her pee.

Ten months old and we finally have a tooth! I noticed yesterday that the first one was about to erupt. There was already a hole. Then, this morning, she “bit” my nose (I prefer to call it a “kiss”), and I felt a sharp little thing. How cool!
Something else I did yesterday was put up new pictures and videos. Kylie now has her own folder. I added a couple to Mallory – 8 Months and I created Mallory – 9 Months. Enjoy! As soon as the tooth is visible, we get pictures of it.

Amazingly enough, Mallory has an ear infection. We started seeing “stuff” come out of her ear (I’ll spare you the details), so we assumed that they were “draining properly”. Well, I got a call from day care stating that Mallory had screamed and pulled on her ears when they laid her down to change her diaper. . . great. Johnathan called the ENT. Apparently, the tubes are not for drainage. They are for ventilation. If “stuff” is coming out, then there is an ear infection that needs to be treated. . . super. The good news is that we can use the post-op drops that we got from the ENT. Hopefully, we can avoid more antibiotics. We have been doing the drops for 3 days now. She seems to be getting better. The “stuff” has stopped coming out. She is sleeping very soundly. And she’s tugging at her ears less. That’s a good sign.
She’ll be 10 months this Saturday, and I can’t believe how fast it is flying by. It seems like just yesterday when she was this tiny thing that really didn’t do much. Now, you can’t take your eyes off of her, or she’s pulling the dogs’ hair and turning over plants. It’s funny for me to turn my back, just for a second, and hear these little hands slapping the hardwood floor because she’s crawling as fast as she can to explore the world around her. And man, is she fast. Our new favorite game is her chasing me around the couch. . . both of us crawling. It kills my knees so she’s actually faster than me. But she loves for me to jump out and say “boo!” She just belly laughs. The game she plays on her own is “Look, ma. No hands!” She pulls up on something, lets go and sees how long she can stand. She’s really good at this one. The funny thing is that she’s not cruising. No steps whatsoever. She doesn’t seem to care about walking yet. Just standing. And she still doesn’t have any teeth (that will be important later in this blog). She is gnawing on anything she can get into her mouth, even her own hand. But no teeth. I just know that, one morning, we’re going to get up, and she’s going to have a mouth full of teeth. But for now, nothing.
Johnathan had a birthday last week. That man is so hard to buy for. I thought about getting him a Wii. . . but his brother and his mother have one. And the only time that we really have time to play is when we hang out with them. . . so we’ll just mooch off of them for a while. Instead, I decided that a night away from home would be fun. I booked us a night at Opryland Hotel. Lindsey and Tonja offered to keep Mallory (I actually remember some begging and pleading in there somewhere). So I whisked my husband away for a night away from teenagers and baby monitors (although I did text with Kylie to make sure she made it home okay in the ice and snow). It was nice. Very nice. Every time I have ever been to that hotel, I have looked up at the balconies and thought how cool it would be to sit up there and overlook one of the atriums. So I made sure that we had an atrium view (we even had to sacrifice and take a handicap room where the only difference was a bigger bathroom. . . we managed to get though it). We got there in time to check in and have a glass of wine before walking to dinner at a restaurant in the hotel. Dinner was excellent. Then, we got to sleep a little late the next morning (any parent knows what a luxury that is when you have an infant). We thought it would be more fun to order room service for breakfast rather than get dressed and go out. We ate with the balcony doors open, listening to the indoor waterfalls. Then, we had coffee out on the balcony (ah, a dream realized). The only regret was that it wasn’t long enough. But it did make us realize that we need to get away more often.
Kylie has been working a lot and spending every second she can hanging out with friends so we don’t see much of her. That’s a teenager for you. She’s on Spring Break this week. She and I went to lunch the other day (sushi, her favorite). And today, I’m leaving work early to meet her. We’re getting pedicures (time to start wearing flip flops). She stays up really late. . . then, sleeps really late. It’s so funny. She spends a week screwing up her sleep schedule, then, struggles to work it out when she goes back to school. That’s a teenager for you.
I’ll close now with a funny Mallory story. I walked into day care one morning, and her teacher said, “You have a fighter on your hands here.” What?? It seems that the oldest child in the class. . . we’ll call her Elizabeth. . . is “bullying” the other kids. Well, apparently, Mallory got her fill. She was pulling up on one of the gates and Elizabeth started pushing her. Mallory went at her red-faced, claws out, mouth wide open, yelling “aaaaaarrrrrrrr”. She was mad (and not gonna take it anymore!). The teacher said that if Mallory had teeth, she would have hurt her (little blessing. . . thank you, God. . . because Elizabeth’s parents are lawyers, haha). When I picked her up later that day, I asked how things were between Mallory and Elizabeth. The teacher said they were “cool”. Elizabeth needed to be put in her place. . . and Mallory was just the girl to do it. So it appears that our little princess has no problem standing up for herself. And she has her dad’s temper – long fuse with a big bang at the end.

I guess I should catch you up on the last couple of weeks. The ear infections continued, so we finally went to the ENT on the 21st. One ear was clear, but the other one was half full of fluid. He gave us options: 1) wait until she got another infection 2) put her on antibiotics (preventatively. . . of which I am not a fan) 3) tubes. He recommended tubes. We went to the pediatrician the next day for a “well” baby visit. He also recommended tubes. So the following Monday (2/25) I made the appointment.
They were able to get us in a lot faster than I ever thought they would. Only a week later. . . which was good because we were back in the pediatrician’s office on Tuesday (2/26). Yep, another ear infection. So basically, we hit all three of the ENT’s options. Very, very frustrating.
Her surgery appointment was at 6 am on 3/3. Of course, they say no food after midnight. Ever tried withholding food from an infant? They don’t like it. . . and they aren’t big on your excuses. So the night before, I put her down for a nap around 6:00. By 9:00, I had to wake her up. I fed and bathed her and put her down around 10:00. We were pretty comfortable with that timetable because she usually eats around 7:30 and sleeps until 6:00 or 7:00 am. We got up around 4:00. . . okay, okay, 4:15. . . and were out the door by 5:15. Johnathan simply changed her diaper and loaded her up in her pajamas and bunny slippers.
She slept all the way there and for a little while in the waiting room. Once she woke up, she wanted to play. Johnathan had her standing his lap looking at him, but she found someone else to play with. There was a couple, probably close to our age, sitting across the room. Apparently, they and Mallory were playing. They would make faces and she would get “shy” and duck down in Daddy’s lap. Then, she would peak around his arm, smile really big and get “shy” again. It was hilarious. At one point, he laid her down and she struggled up with her “abs of steel” because she couldn’t see the couple anymore. The guy said she was “simply beautiful” and had a “million-dollar smile”. . . but we already knew that. ;)
They called back and we met with the first nurse. Then, the anesthesiologist came to talk to us. Very nice. Then, we saw the ENT. Finally, the last nurses that actually came to take her away (haha, heehee, hoho). By this time, hunger and grumpiness had set in. But she went willingly, with only a hint of a scowl.
We went back to the waiting room and sat down at 7:00 am. They called us back at 7:15 am. Wow, that was fast! Everything went well. The ENT said that she had a good bit of fluid on her ears so she should feel a lot better now. Then, we were called back to recovery. . . where the grumpiness had turned to full fledge anger. She was not a happy camper. We fed her half of a bottle. Then, she fell asleep. We stayed about 30 minutes for them to check her vitals a couple of times and to make sure she didn’t puke. Once everything checked out, Johnathan went to work, and I went home (after a stop to Walgreen’s for prescription ear drops).
When we got home, she took a nap, but that child did not stop “talking” from the time we walked in the door to the time I put her in her crib. She was smiling and everything. It’s funny. I wonder if she was amazed to really be hearing things, as they should be, for the first time, or at least the first time in a long time. We go back to the ENT in 3 weeks (post-op). We’ll keep you posted on her progress.

Okay, I was notified yesterday that there actually were not any new pictures in the 7 month album. My bad. I uploaded a couple last night. Also, I added more videos to the 8 month album.
One thing I failed to talk about in my last blog was Mardi Gras. Johnathan, Kylie and Mallory all experienced their first Mardi Gras this year. I think they all had fun. We definitely racked up in beads. Kylie was disappointed that she didn’t see any “weird” people. I explained that you have to go to New Orleans for that. ;)
It’s really an educational experience for those that have never been. If you have never been, something you should know is that we tailgate for parades. Everyone shows up early. And, true to Louisiana culture, there’s lots of food. The parade in Dad’s town started around 2:00 pm. He got there around 9:00 am to start cooking. We went around 11:00 and had to weave around barricades…the party had begun. Some take it a little more seriously. Along the parade route in Slidell, there were RVs that had been there for about a week (gotta get a good spot). In Dad’s town, there were tents in grassy areas. Your first Mardi Gras is a true rite of passage. However, every Mardi Gras has a category called “The Most Interesting Thing I Saw”. This year, it was a port-a-john in the back of a pickup truck…with spinners. Now that’s class. If only the camera had been with us (sigh).

So why has it been so long since I’ve blogged? Well, let’s see. Mallory has had essentially the same ear infection since Christmas. We get to see her pediatrician every other Monday. Same routine. We get an antibiotic. We take it for 10 days. Three days after we complete the antibiotic, she spikes a fever, gets really grumpy and doesn’t sleep. Oh, and there was a bout of bronchialitis in there too. That was fun. At least she didn’t end up in the hospital like our neighbor’s baby (very sad. . . but she’s okay now).
What else? Oh, yeah. Johnathan went on a youth retreat. A couple of days after coming back, he had a sore throat and really high fever. You’ve heard the story. Turns out he had strep throat. . . which apparently is very common when you have mono. He has to be the only 30 year old with mono. Question is, where did he get it? Hmmm. . . . ;) Anyway, most women that have ever been married or lived with a man know how they can be when they get sick. I got the semi-hourly report of temperature and a complete rundown of symptoms. I finally had to say, “I get it. You’re sick.” Of course, that was on day 4, I think. (I believe I earned the right to pick on him. For all intents and purposes, I was a single mom that week. Longest week of my life. . . promise.)
Then, Kylie complained of a sore throat. By the time we got home that night, she had a fever – 100.3. We had small group coming over that night so I sent her upstairs and took her chicken soup. The next morning, it was up to 103.3. We had an early appointment with the pediatrician to talk about next steps with the ears, so Kylie drove herself to the doctor. . . growing up stinks. ;) After we were done with Mallory, Johnathan took her home, and I went to meet Kylie at the doctor. They said she had some kind of bacterial infection so they gave her antibiotics. Then, the doctor was feeling around on her neck and said her nodes were swollen. “Have you ever had mono?” Oh, brother. So I explained the situation. Her spleen checked out okay, but they are running the test just to be sure. We should hear back by the end of this week.
In case anyone is wondering. . . or even cares. . . I tested negative – which actually prompted my darling husband to tell me that meant I had no reason to be tired. Yes, he’s still alive, but only because I have decided that I don’t want to be a single parent.
All that to say, I’m worn out. I am the only one in this house that has not been sick. . . so far. God forbid that I do because then I would just be sick on top of taking care of all of the whiney people in my house. ;) Just kidding. I love them all…even if they are pitiful when they’re sick.
I did upload pictures and videos. I added a couple to the 7 months. I uploaded all of our Mardi Gras stuff and started the 8 months album. There is a video of her first crawling moment, but at the moment, I’m confused as to where it copied from the camera. It’s late, and we’re going to bed. I’ll try to find it tomorrow night and get it loaded. Sorry.

Has it really been that long since we last posted? I tried to hold out, but I think Angie has me pegged. Actually, my bet is that after I post, she’ll feel guilty… wait scratch that… get defensive, and will have something written before long. It’s not like there isn’t a million things to talk about… (Just for the record, I was on the phone with her when I wrote this… so hopefully that means I won’t be on the couch on Valentines Day… no guarantees.)

Let’s start with this… Happy Valentines Day. Mallory actually got a card this year and it was cute. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but we have pretty much worked all the details for Mallory’s future husband. Our good friends Rich and Leigh have an adorable boy named Brady who is about 10 months older than Mallory and who sent her a Valentines Day Card, asking her to be his valentine. Mallory had a little trouble reading the card, but once I had her sound out the syllables, she smile really big and then got shy. I think she’s happy with our choice. :)

OK… it’s official… Mallory has started crawling… She’s been trying for a while, but just couldn’t get much traction with her legs… she actually spent more time in reverse than drive, though she did get pretty good at getting to what she wanted backwards. Then on Tuesday we noticed that she was actually moving forward a bit and on Wednesday I stayed home with her (long story… I may go into it later) she figured out how to get into 2nd, and now we have a new problem… she’s mobile. I imagine our weekend will be spent buying and installing safety and containment devices throughout the house. There is video of her achievement which will hopefully be posted soon.

On top of that, I’m pretty convinced she’ll be walking in the next few weeks. She has figured out how to pull up on stuff, and is getting pretty good at it. When she decided to start cruising around the living room, I thought I would be smart and surround her mat with cushions from the couch. She proceeded to crawl toward me, pull up on the cushions, and yell at me. At one point I was convinced that she was going to successfully scale the 2-story cushion barrier and continue on over. She really likes standing up… she really hates being contained. I let her complain for a good 45 minutes and then went to her rescue. She had worn herself out so 2 minutes later she was asleep in my arms.

The sickness in the Brandon household continues. Angie’s boss refers to our house as the petri dish. Mallory just wrapped up her 4th (or was it 5th) ear infection. This time she got 3 shots, wait I’m sorry…. injections, over a little less than a week. We are meeting with an ENT to talk about options (including tubes we assume) next week. Kylie was feeling bad Tuesday night, and woke up Wednesday morning with a 103 degree temperature. She went to the doctor and they sent her home with antibiotics… thankfully she started feeling better this morning.

I had strep throat a few weeks back, and then the doctor called a few days later to “check on me” and to let me know “oh… by the way, how’s the mono working out for you?”… yeah, I have mono… best part is that either I’m so used to being tired that mono is nothing, or I don’t have any symptoms. Aside for the week I spent with strep in bed, I haven’t really felt bad… maybe they got it wrong… maybe it just hasn’t hit yet… oh well. Probably got it from one of the kids at church drinking out of my can/bottle. I think to pay them back, I’ll keep letting them. :)

Ok… that’s probably enough for now. I don’t want to steal all of Angie’s thunder. You are going to post, right honey??? I hope everyone is doing well, and check back for the videos… we’ll try to get them up soon.