Drug Allergy Part 4

Our poor baby has had yet another reaction to medicine - and it's the worst by far. This one was caused by Amoxicillin, which she was taking for an ear infection. What started as little red dots the size of a pin point have exploded into this horrible looking (and feeling, I'm sure) body rash. It looks like an amoeba or something you'd see under a microscope in 7th grade Science class. Her face is swollen - to the point where I saw her at 5 a.m. this morning and went into a state of panic. We rushed her to the ER and they put her on some steroids, which actually have helped A LOT (these pics were taken a few hours after the steroids, so you can only imagine what she looked like early this morning). It's been a rough few months (and a rough 24-hours judging by how I look in these pics:)...

Funny Videos

We were videotaping Mia the other night trying to get her to sing her ABCs. She can sing the entire song, and it's just adorable. But, for some reason, whenever the video camera is on, she just won't do it! What we did catch on camera was her "showing off" a bit and trying to act funny as she was singing and then throwing a little temper tantrum as she tried to wrestle the camera out of my hands. You can hear her yelling "Daddy!" This is because whenever one person won't give her something, she yells the other person's name to let you know that she didn't want it for herself - she actually wanted to give it to the other person (yeah right). This shows another side to Mia that I haven't highlighted on the blog, yet. It's not all peaches 'n cream, as you parents know all too well :) Oh - and it looks like she's going to hit me at the end. She actually went for the camera but I was ready for her the second time. (Although we've been through the hitting phase - not fun.)



This second video makes me laugh, too. She runs up to Andrew, who must have had something sharp in his pocket because she then says, "Owww - my back!" I'm not sure why I find this one funny - I think it's because she just reminds me of a little old lady or a pregnant lady complaining about her back. And, Andrew just seems completely oblivious.

Nose, Keys and Wings

We took Mia to Wintergreen the weekend before last. Andrew was there all weekend celebrating his brother's birthday, so Mia and I joined everyone for the day on Saturday. It was the perfect day - 60s and sunny with lots of snow (they got 5 inches two days before). You didn't even need a jacket. We planned to take Mia to a little ice park they have for toddlers, but it was all booked. (Note - you have to get tickets online in advance - and it is the cutest park with a little innertube ride that pulls the kids in a circle on the ice. Kind of like the hobby horse ride, but they're in individual tubes.) So, we just hung out at the top of the slopes. Mia walked out of the lodge and announced, "Look! It's Nose!" She speaks her version of Pig Latin sometimes, where she takes the first letter and puts it on the end of the word - so "snow" becomes "nose" and "ski" becomes "keys." Her favorite part was the lifts. She thought they were swings and was completely fixated on them. There really is no "out of sight, out of mind" with her. Once she sets her mind to something, she'll mention it 100 times - even as we were eating lunch, we kept hearing about the swing ("wings"). And, Mia got to ride her first bus, which we had to catch to get back to our car. She LOVED that. People were laughing at her because she yelled "bus!" the entire time we were on it and would then cover her mouth and laugh, like "I can't believe I'm finally on a bus!"

Happy Birthday Aunt Sarah!

A little birthday wish for Aunt Sarah. We forgot to mail your card (sorry!). We hope you have a good day!

kkkkkiigffggggggggggggtttttttyyyynnnnnnnnybbbybbynynyybbybybybyby (That's a note from Mia - kind of funny how the last part looks like bye-bye.)

Note for all other viewers: Excuse the cheesiness; I had to keep Mia interested :)

Dancing Machine

Mia loves to dance. Last week, we were listening to Black Eyed Peas, and I showed her how to shake her hiney while dancing. It was even funnier that the song was "My Humps." She was dancing so hard, she couldn't keep her balance. Here's a bit of what we caught on camera. And, take a look at her shirt - she's wearing it with one shoulder exposed - like she's in Flashdance or something.

Ballerina Kitty Boots

Our friend Katie gave Mia this adorable skirt for Christmas. Mia calls it her tutu and wants to wear it everywhere. Mimi and Papa kept her last Thursday night and said she even wanted to wear it to bed. Here's a picture of her with the outfit she picked out to wear to Nana and Poppy's house a few weekends ago. She HAD to wear the "tutu," so I paired it with a black leotard and tights. I was going to put her little black shoes on with it, but she insisted on wearing her kitty rain boots instead (even though it was perfectly sunny out). I also love the way she pulls it up to her chest - it actually looks cute that way. We have a little Sarah Jessica Parker on our hands, I think.

On the Mend

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. We've been extremely busy this month - especially with my work. An update on Mia - we had our appointment at UVA Friday before last. We got a pretty good report. Her kidneys look good - that was our major concern. There are two minor things they think are causing these infections. It's a little too TMI to post on the blog, but she is on medicine for both. One of the medicines is working very well. The other seems to be working - but if it doesn't totally fix the problem in 3-4 weeks, Mia might have to have minor outpatient surgery. Let's keep our fingers crossed that doesn't have to happen. I can say that for the first time since October, she's feeling much better. We had our first negative culture in three months - so things are really looking up.