Random Goings-On

A couple of weeks ago, my new friend "TT" (the other single foster mom in my neighborhood) came over to visit with her 3-month old foster daughter "Twin" (I chose this blog name because she has the exact same skin complexion as Evie, and also has the same name as Evie's brother; I thought "Sister" might be confusing because she is not actually related).  I had taken the afternoon off of work to take Evie to school orientation, so we were home early and able to entertain visitors at a normal hour during the week.  TT went through a couple of boxes of infant winter clothes I had (thanks mostly to Becky, Amy, and Priscilla) and borrowed about half of them.  I'm glad that my semi-hoarding tendencies are helping a fellow foster mom out!  It was nice to have some adult conversation, especially with someone who understands the craziness of foster care.  TT seems like a very positive person (I try not to surround myself in any negativity), and I have a feeling that this is going to be a great friendship. 

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The next Tuesday afternoon (Evie's first day of school), I got a text from TT saying that she was just told that day that she couldn't bring Twin to an adoption meeting she was going to that night, and asking if there was any way I could keep her for a couple of hours.  I was planning on taking Evie out for ice cream to celebrate the first day of school, but figured I could just take the baby along, too.  (I decided to go ahead and do dinner at the ice cream parlor, too, since it would be 6:00 by the time we got there).  I ended up meeting her in the parking lot at my work at about 5:15, and she said, "She'll be ready to eat about 6:00, and just so you know, she hates the car."  Twin screamed for the whole 15-minute ride to pick up Evie.  We went and had dinner and ice cream, I fed the baby while we were there, and I must say I handled the juggling like a champ.  ;)  Twin was much happier on the way home, probably because she had a full belly. 

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I usually go to Zumba at the gym on Friday mornings, but a couple of weeks ago I decided to sleep in (or go back to bed after taking Evie to school).  Instead, Evie and I went to "Family Zumba" that evening because my favorite Friday morning instructor was also teaching that night.  She had a great time, but complained that she was tired after about 40 minutes of class.  The instructor totally called her out on it, though, and then she picked up the pace again. 

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I had to take the afternoon off again this week to pick up Evie from school at 2 and then return for preschool testing at 3.  We went and visited my friend in her classroom at the intermediate school next door in the interim.  The testing only took less than 30 minutes, so I looked at the gym schedule and I saw there was a dance class for 3-11 year olds, so we headed over and she had a great time at the class by herself while I ran on the treadmill upstairs.  They started and ended the class with "Let it Go", so I'm sure that that helped.  Afterwards, we went over to visit TT and Twin.

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Speaking of Let it Go, THIS.

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Evie has pretty much had a constant cold for the last almost six weeks.  She'll get better for about three or four days, and then the coughing, sneezing, and yellow snot is back.  I'm now wondering if it's more allergies than cold.  But whatever it is, it has sent her into asthma flare-ups, and she has been on three rounds of steroids to control (once at pediatrician, once at pediatrics after-hours care clinic, and once in ER - at 2 am after coughing every 1-2 minutes for two hours). 

We have also made an additional trip to the after-hours clinic when one Sunday at the grocery store Evie's left eye began watering constantly and the skin on her entire forehead and cheek around the eye turned red.  When she complained that her throat also hurt, I started worrying that maybe she was having an anaphylactic reaction to something and didn't know how to articulate that her throat was closing up.  Freaked me out.  They said it was probably a sensitivity to something she touched in the grocery store, and sent us on our way with allergy eye drops and a prescription for Zyrtec.  It all cleared up by the next day. 

THEN I got a call from the school yesterday to go pick her up because she had a 100.6 degree fever.  I brought her home and the fever was down below 100.  She slept for 3 1/2 hours, and the fever was back up over 101 when she woke up.   She still had a little bit of a fever this morning, so I kept her out of school again today.  She has mostly felt fine today, but her temperature has fluctuated a bit, so I'm not sure what's going on. 

We have an appointment with the pediatrician in the morning to discuss if we need a different control plan for the asthma, to discuss the possibility of this being allergies vs head cold, and also now to see if we can figure out what the cause of the fever is.  I actually have an inkling suspicion it may be walking pneumonia because her breathing is crackly, too. 

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We went up to Greenville to visit a friend of mine last weekend, and then went to an apple orchard in North Carolina with her and her three girls.  The trip was the same day as the ER middle-of-the-night visit.  I decided to go ahead and go because she was feeling better and had steroids to control the wheezing, and my friend's husband is a pediatrician so I knew we were in good hands up there, too.  The girls had a great time together, and Evie was fine.

 She didn't end up going to sleep Friday until almost 10:00 - when regular bedtime is 8:00 - but still got up at normal time of 7.  So she ended up falling asleep on the way home from the apple orchard, and slept for almost FOUR hours, when I had to drag her up out of bed.

And the girls put on a dance show.  So fun.

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Evie LOVES school.  Last Sunday (the first weekend after she started school), she said no less than ten times randomly, "I'm so glad/excited/happy I'm going to school tomorrow!" And often tagged on, "I miss Miss A [her teacher]!"

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Happy weekend, everyone!