Bath Routine

I think I've finally gotten a hair bath time routine down for the baby.  It involves using  5 different products on her hair.  That may be extreme but it works for me and the baby.    First I use a hair oil  and massage it in her hair and scalp and comb through any tangles with a pick.  Then I use Sebamed shampoo followed by Sebamed conditioner.  After rinsing out the shampoo and conditioner, I put in a leave-in conditioner and finally massage in a scalp anti-itch emollient.  I finish it all off by fluffing up her hair with the pick.  It really doesn't take as long as it sounds.

I discovered the Sebamed line of skin and hair products completely by accident when I went to Costco online thinking I was ordering a different product that had been recommended to me by a friend.  I didn't realize I had ordered the "wrong" products until later but discovered I absolutely loved their lotions, cleansers, shampoo and conditioner.  They are soap and alkaline free and are the same pH level as skin.  I've not found anything that works nearly as well on Carley's very sensitive and dry skin and the the shampoo and conditioner really soften her hair.  Now I just go direct to their website where I can order their line of baby products.

http://www.sebamedusa.com/

Fun Times at Pirate Island and Circus Circus

Now that the baby is doing a lot better, I'll post some pictures from our recent trip to Vegas.  We ate at a restaurant called Pirate Island, a kids pizza place with, you guessed it, a pirate theme and an arcade.  We had fun but let's just say you don't go there for the food.  We also went to the "Adventuredome" at Circus Circus and had a blast.

Sick Baby

We went to Las Vegas for a short vacation last weekend.  On the long drive home on Wednesday the baby started coughing, a horrible sounding cough.  She ran a fever all night and kept coughing.  I took her to the doctor Thursday morning where she was running a fever of 102.  The doctor checked her over, ears looked good, lungs sounded okay, throat was inflamed.  She wasn't coughing while the doctor was examining her but when I mentioned that she had a bad cough he decided she needed a chest xray which showed her lungs were "streaky", as the doctor put it.  The diagnosis was bronchiolitis and we were sent home with the instructions that if she got worse bring her back.

Well, unfortunately she got worse.  On Saturday Blain took her back to the clinic where her oxygen levels were right on the border of putting her in the hospital for the night.  Instead Blain had to take her to the hospital for respiratory therapy.  They suctioned out her nose and throat and did a nebulizer treatment and sent her home with a nebulizer.  It's pretty easy to do though Carley doesn't care for it much.  But she's weak enough right now that she's not fighting it too hard.  That will be a good sign when she starts to really fight it.  It's so sad to see your baby who is normally very active and loud just laying there.  We think she's over the worst of it, though, and hopefully will soon be back to her normal lively self.

Update:  The baby is now laughing and waving at her reflection in the mirror in the bedroom.  She's not fully recovered but is doing much, much better.  It is such a reflief to see her doing well.

Drama at the Dentist

Today we took Lindsey and Sam for their 3rd visit to the dentist.  The first 2 times, Lindsey did great, no problems.  Sam, on the other hand, has always had issues with the taking of his x rays.  On the first visit he bit the hygienist and on the second visit they weren't able to get any x rays on him at all. 

So this time I thought I'd try bribery.  I told them both that if they had a good visit with the dentist and did everything that was asked of them, we would go for ice cream afterwards (and, yes, I do see the irony of bribing children with a sugary treat if they're good at the dentist).

As so often happens with Lindsey and Sam, when one has a good day, the other will have a bad day.  Sam did fine.  It took a little bit of coaxing for them to get his x rays, but he did okay and allowed it. 

Lindsey, on the other hand, had a bad day.  Although she let them take pictures of her teeth and she even let the dentist exam her, no amount of coaxing or bribing could get her jaws unclenched for the cleaning. 

The bad news is the x rays and exam revealed a cavity so she has to go back for a filling.  We also discovered that her "six year" molars have already come in.  She got all her baby teeth early (she had 8 teeth when we got her in China at 9 months old), so true to form, it seems she's getting her permanent teeth early.

When we went to get ice cream for Sam afterwards and Lindsey didn't get any, she took it pretty hard.  Lots of screaming, crying and angst.  I told her that she would have a chance again for ice cream when she has to go back to the dentist to get a filling in 3 weeks.

She's a 22 Pounder!

Carley has had a bad cold for a few days now with a bad cough at night.  So after several sleep shattered nights with her waking herself coughing then crying, Blain took her to the doctor today.  She's fine, just a bad cold.  The big news is they weighed her and she's now 22 lbs 3 oz.  So at 14 months, she's just 4 lbs lighter than Sam who's exactly 3 years and 2 days older than her.  That explains why when she pushed him out of her way a couple of days ago, he went sprawling to the ground.  Poor Sam, he's so tiny, but he's so darn cute that I think he'll still have plenty of attention from the ladies when he gets older.

Fun Saturday Night at Oma's

Widgets

I can't believe that I couldn't find something more constructive to do with my time on a Friday night then download a couple of free widgets (what do you think of the spinning globe? see if you can find your red dot on it).  Recap of the week - work, sick kids, work, lunch with friends, work, TGIF.  Note the retirement countdown widget at the bottom of the page.