Category: Daily

Alaethia is finally taking her before-bed nap so I thought I’d update real quick. (She’s also finally better, thank you for your comments!)

I’ve been way too enthralled in my Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book that I haven’t had the urge to get online. That, and I’m afraid I’ll go into a random site and the end will be ruined for me. That site I linked in one of my previous blogs — the one they mentioned on CNN — was the real thing, pictures and all (which is why they probably took them down. I went back the next day after I linked it and it wouldn’t show the pics, then the site wouldn’t load at all.). So…I know who’s going to die since I saw the very first line when the site loaded. I’m on pins and needles, anxious to know when this character will meet their untimely death. *sigh* It’s been great so far; very action-packed. I can’t wait to finish reading it.

I’m writing mainly to document Alaethia’s 6-month-birthday :). (I shall update about this weekend later.) I can’t believe this little lady’s already been with us this long, and at the same time it feels like she was never missing from our lives.

My poor girl’s already had her first virus and has had at least 3 different colds. I’ve learned that when she’s at her fussiest, when her bottle nor rocking her will put her to sleep, slipping a blanket or wash cloth over her eyes will put her right to sleep. She never took a pacifier, which is great since this is the month I would have weaned her off it anyway. She maneuvers her walker with ease now that her feet lay flat on the floor. Her crawling is getting much better, but it’s still not a true crawl — yet. She likes to “feed herself” when it’s time to eat. She gets food everywhere so it’s a good thing she loves her bath time.

And separation anxiety? I didn’t know they could suffer from that at this age; she screams as soon as she loses sight if me. Even if someone else has her and she’s being walked around (which she absolutely loves), she won’t stop crying until I get her. Then she’s all fine and dandy as if nothing ever happened.

She’s still taking 4 ounces of milk, loves water in sippy cups, and is going through an I-don’t-want-to-eat-anything-stage. Before that though, her favorite food was squash.

She’s my only child who’s slept in a crib and before catching the Roseola Virus, she’d been sleeping anywhere from 5-7 hours a night (if she’d fall asleep at 2am — her usual bedtime), would wake for a bottle and diaper change and would sleep another 4 hours. Now we’re back to her waking every 3-4 hours, but we’ll hopefully get that fixed along with getting her to sleep earlier (she’s been crashing at 1am now. Mama needs more sleep!).

Her temperament is just wonderful. She’s even more sweet and beautiful than I ever imagined she’d be.

I thought Alaethia’s fever had finally broken and gone for good, but then we woke up at 7am and she was back at 102.4°. Mom came over to watch the kiddos while I showered and then Aly and I left to the doctor’s office. I told the doctor about my concerns; how I thought she may have strep and that she developed this weird rash on her back. She said the rash was just dermatitis and there were no signs of a cold or Strep. I told her how the diarrhea and vomiting happened only that one time. She probably had the virus Rachelle had the first day, then she caught another virus since her immune system was already compromised. She said the only thing she could have would be a virus called Roseola. To summarize: it’s a virus that lasts anywhere from 3-7 days, but usually only 3 days. After the 3 days of having fevers of 103°, she’d develop a rash. It wouldn’t be itchy or painful, but it would mean that she’s at the last stages of the virus. The rash would show up in little spots or patches, some with a ring around them. She told me to keep doing what I was doing, only instead of alternating Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours, to give her her usual dosage of Tylenol, then give her the Motrin 15 minutes later. Her fever’s actually subsided twice today!

I kept an eye on her body all day just watching out for the spots. I gave her her meds at 7 and 7:15pm and started getting worried when the fever wasn’t going down. Then, almost in front of my very eyes, the spots started showing up:

When her fever was still at 102 half an hour later I gave her a nice bath (while answering a survey about fruit…stupid telemarketers!). She felt cheerful and much cooler afterwards, thank goodness. She’s been doing pretty good and actually sleeping for longer than 10 minutes again, poor baby. I’m waiting up till 1am so I’m sure to give her her medicine.

Other than that, I did laundry and helped the boys clean up their room. It was a disaster. They let it get so bad that they just don’t even feel like tackling it anymore (kind of like when I’d let the dishes pile up, heh). I’d gone into their room and Eenan was sitting on the floor surrounded by toys. He looks a little sad, so I ask him what was wrong. He sadly waves his hands over the mess and says, “I can’t find Jaylen. I don’t know where he is.” My heart stops, even though I clearly saw him leaving with my dad-in-law. I wouldn’t put it past one of them to get lost in their pigsty of stuffed animals.

They kept fighting and whining, so I sat in their tiny red chair watching them until they’d done a little over half. If I hadn’t done that, they would have strangled each other. We moved some stuff around and every thing’s much more organized now. Too bad I didn’t get a picture of it in it’s clean state…it won’t last long.

The boys are both sleeping over at Mary’s tonight. They usually take turns but they both went today. Mario’s finally home. He’d actually been getting home early every day this whole week, so I cut him some slack and tried not to complain when he said he was staying out with Chris and Jorge. Tried being the key word…I’m clingy when I’m PMS’ing =\.

Okay, gonna start getting ready for bed so I can give Aly her meds in a bit. Goodnight!

I’ve got to start off with these stories I heard on CNN when I woke up this morning.

First, there’s one where a mother was driving recklessly and was way over the alcohol limit. When they stopped her they discovered that her children were surrounded by crap…and cockroaches!

Police said more than 100 roaches were crawling all over Nava’s Ford Mustang and that amid the trash, open food containers and alcohol bottles was a 1-year-old child and a 3-year-old child.

“They were soaked and covered in urine and their own feces, and there were cockroaches all over the car. The officer says when he reached in to unbuckle the child, three roaches ran across his hand — they were just everywhere,” said Jacksonville Beach police Sgt. Thomas Bingham.

Full story here.

I don’t understand how a CAR can become infested with roaches. And to have the children in that filth?! Ugh!

Another one was one John brought to my attention two days ago, before it even came out on CNN. He found it on one of the gaming websites he frequents. I thought it was a joke when he told me. A mom and dad neglected their 11 month and 22 month old babies because they were addicted to video games, namely Dungeons and Dragons. I didn’t even know people could be so…stupid, for lack of a better word.

Michael Straw, 25, and Iana Straw, 23, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts each of child neglect. Each faces a maximum 12-year prison sentence.

Viloria said the Reno couple was too distracted by online video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing “Dungeons & Dragons” series, to give their children proper care.

Police said hospital staff had to shave the head of the girl because her hair was matted with cat urine. The 10-pound girl also had a mouth infection, dry skin and severe dehydration.

Her brother had to be treated for starvation and a genital infection. His lack of muscle development caused him difficulty in walking, investigators said.

Full story here.

I can’t believe that. The little girl weighed 10 pounds and is 11 months old! Some babies are born at that weight! God I can’t even believe it. I hope they serve the full 12 year sentence. And that they’re never allowed to play video games or reproduce again!

And the last one…I still don’t know if it’s true or not, but CNN.com linked two websites that supposedly have Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows spoilers. One of them was shut down, but the other is alive and kicking and looks to be legit. My curiosity overcame me and I clicked on the link…and regretted it instantly! I only read the first line, but if it’s true then I figured that was going to happen. I hate it though :(. I scrolled down and supposedly the person’s scanned the chapter titles and chapter art. I browsed through a few of those because it was too tempting. I saved the link and AFTER I’m done with the book I’ll check out the site and see if this person was for real. It looks real, but you never know. John is dying to scream out all the “spoilers” he’s seen so far, but I threatened his life so he’s keeping his mouth shut.

[EDIT @ 12:07pm] I’d linked the wrong site…I only linked the CNN one, instead of the “ZOMG SPOILERS” one. Again, BE CAREFUL! I’m not posting this to ruin the book for any one, by any means. I’m posting it, so that, like me, you can check the “facts” of this site AFTER you read the book! [/EDIT]

If you’d like to view the site or save it for later like I did, here’s the link. I’m warning you though, BE CAREFUL WHEN OPENING THE PAGE! The very first line (okay, the whole thing) contains a major spoiler, so watch out!

I really can’t wait till Saturday! I won’t be waiting in line with everyone else in my family at 12:01am at Walmart, since I reserved mine from Target and I’m sure they’re not going to be open at that time. Poo. I wouldn’t want to be driving around at that time anyway (I keep repeating this to myself as consolation, kthx).

I had planned to spend at least two straight days reading. I was even going to have meals cooked and ready for microwaving so I wouldn’t waste any time and Mom had agreed to babysit since she’s here all day anyway, but all that went out the window when I remembered I’d agreed a few weeks ago to go with Mary to her company picnic at the lake. Damn! And on Sunday Noelia and I have to go to the Baptism class for Alaethia (which lasts for 3 hours). Double damn!

As for my little Alaethia…she’s the same. Her fever went only as low as 100 last night but at least she got to rest. I’ve been alternating Tylenol and Motrin to keep her comfortable but this has gone on too long. I’m taking her back tomorrow morning. I bathed her around 8pm tonight and when I was drying her up noticed a bumpy rash on her back. Now I’m thinking she’s got Strep Throat, or Scarletina, or both. She hasn’t thrown up or had diarrhea at all since yesterday and she’s been eating very well, thank goodness. But the darn fever won’t break. She hasn’t gone below 100 today either. My poor girl :(.

I’ve been alright. I guess it was just nerves making me feel that way yesterday. I didn’t want to have Aly around town feeling the way she did so Mom watched her while John and I went to Walmart (where John returned some stuff and bought a game) and then to Target. I’d been planning to go and get the boys a few more school supplies — since they’re really inexpensive right now — and some T-shirts they liked (which were $5) on Friday, but we went today instead before they ran out. They were in love with their shirts. John owed me $5 so he paid me back with FOOD! Some chocolate chip cookie dough Pop Tarts and Dreyer’s brownie chunk ice cream. I know I said I was going to start a diet…but I’m going to start PMS’ing soon and I’m not a happy camper during that awful time without chocolate…

It was another rainy afternoon today and it was cool, so we took full advantage and everyone was outside enjoying the breeze. Alaethia especially loved it. Later on we went over to Mary’s since Big Mario bar-b-q’d. Then Jorge, Mario, Mary and I discussed Harry Potter LOL.

Well, my Aly’s asleep and is feeling really cool (!) so I’m going to take her temperature and hopefully we’ll have a few good hours of sleep. I haven’t slept more than 4 hours the past two nights, and last night was even worse because I kept getting up to check on her. Tonight, she’s sleeping in my bed. I love it…last time I tried having her sleep in my bed she clawed at and kicked me, so I couldn’t cuddle her. But now that she’s already asleep she has no choice!