I woke up yesterday morning with an absolutely horrendous headache. By 1:00 I was freezing and could not get warm and dizzier than all get out. It was all I could do to get through the work I was doing. Around 2:30 I went from my absolutely freezing state to being hot but still dizzy. Sarah had told me to leave work at 3 to get a jump on the long weekend, and I probably wouldn't have taken her up on it if I hadn't been feeling so crappy (I didn't get in until 11:15 because Kate had her physical). I left around 3:20 and after sitting in horrible holiday weekend traffic for a while got into bed at 4:40 - and didn't really get up until 11:30 this morning! When I got home last night my temp was 102.2 and when I checked it a few hours later it was 103.4. I felt like SHIT (sorry, there's no other way to say it). Jay got up with Kate this morning and I took over from 8-9 while he got ready to go out, and then Kate and I went back to sleep at 9. Other than that hour, I slept the other 18. Isn't that INSANE??? Clearly I was a. sick and b. sleep deprived. Needless to say, here I am at 10:30 and not tired at all.

 

I'm feeling better now in terms of my head - the headache and dizziness subsided this afternoon and my fever was gone ~2:00. Now, though, I'm getting a sore throat. So all this comes back to Kate, who we now know had a mild case of hand, foot, and mouth disease. The doc yesterday morning pointed out that she had pinpoints on the soles of her feet that never turned into the full blown HFMD rash, and she has some spots around her mouth as well. Her fever lasted exactly one day...Early signs of HFMD are a fever followed by a sore throat...Apparently it's very rare for adults to get it, but it is highly contagious, and maybe my immune system isn't set up to fight this particular virus. Lovely. We'll see if I end up with any telltale rashes - wouldn't that be pleasant?!? Actually, cases in adults are generally very mild and last ~3 days, so that's good. Or maybe I just have some other random bug.

 

Kate's physical went ok yesterday. She was really tired and cried the entire time, so that made the whole thing far less pleasant and leisurely than it might have been. She 23.5 lb (not quite 50%) and 31.5in (50%). She had to get two shots, and on top of the fact that no one ever likes shots, her crabbiness just made it horrendous. She regrouped pretty quickly, but she was not happy. I dropped her off at daycare and that just made her day worse - she was so upset with me. She's been doing really well at daycare and runs into the room to play on most days. I think that yesterday she thought she was going to be home with me all day since we'd been playing all morning (her appt wasn't until 9:40), so daycare was an unhappy surprise - plus she was tired and had just had two shots. I'd have cried too.

 

So I really think that Kate would take 2 naps everyday if she could. I guess that M-F she just pushes through the pain in the morning while she's at daycare, but seriously, on the weekends she sleeps the entire day. She napped today from 9-12 (she was up at 7) and then from 2:45-6; she happily went to bed at 8 (slightly later than normal). Um, hello Kate, your parents would like to see you on the weekends! She'll do it again tomorrow and Monday, I guarantee it. It's amazing how much she'll sleep, because she always sleeps a good 11 or 12 hours overnight. CRAZY. She's pretty old to be wanting two naps, but the doc said not to worry about it, so we try to not mess with her too much on the weekends; for whatever reason, this kid needs her sleep. The thing is, having to accommodate 6+ hours of naps both days pretty much shoots down any major plans and as I mentioned, doesn't give us much time with her. A definite bummer.

 

OK I'm off to bed - hopefully I'll be able to sleep...

It's been an interesting week. My dad, Linda, and my grandma were here last weekend for a quick visit. It was a nice weekend, and I was so happy to see my grandma. She lives in Wisconsin, and I never know when I'll see her next. It's actually worked out to be every year for the last three years, but that was after a few years of not seeing her at all. She stayed with us, and I was glad to have her around. She's 79 now and in great health but you just never know about how things will go. Anyway, it was a really nice weekend, and it was great fun showing off our new house on Saturday.

 

Things are going well with the house, by the way. As of last week we had a foundation, so we're hopeful that the framing will get started in the next couple of weeks. The weather has been dreadful, though, so things have repeatedly been delayed to allow for the ground to dry up a bit. I think we're probably 1 1/2 - 2 weeks off schedule at this point. I've never been one that cares all that much about the weather forecast, but I'll tell you that I'm paying attention these days! The weather really impacts the schedule until the roof is on, and we're nowhere near that point. I've stopped by the lot on my way to work a few times, so between those visits and our weekend visits we've taken a lot of pictures. They're on two different cameras, but once they're organized I'll post the progression. Jay and I are so excited about it, and I'm spending more time daydreaming about decorating as the reality of a brand new and nearly empty house sinks in. Very fun indeed!

 

Jay took Kate to the doctor last Thursday for an ear re-check, and the doc said she was totally healthy. Kate had a great weekend with no indication that there were to be problems...then Monday morning she woke up at 5 with a 99 temp. Not high enough to talk about, but unusual and worrying nonetheless given her recent recurrent ear infections. That afternoon the daycare called to have Jay pick her up early because she had woken up from her nap with a 101.5 temp. We were so frustrated - what the heck was going on?!?! We knew she couldn't go to daycare on Tuesday, so we booked the back up care that Microsoft covers. That worked out great! Jay had booked Kate for a physical (18mo ) yesterday morning, but instead it turned into a sick visit. The doc (same one as last week) said she either had strep (RapidTest was negative) or hand foot and mouth disease (a few confirmed cases at the daycare). Just great...but the thing was that she was not feverish anymore and had a great day. By the time I got home yesterday evening I was totally unconvinced that she was sick at all. However, since the doc had made those suggestions we thought it was best to keep her home again today. Again we used the back up care, and ignoring the fact that there were some issues with timing this morning it again worked out great. It's clear, though, that she is NOT sick, so tomorrow she'll be going back to daycare. Jay rescheduled the physical for Friday morning so we'll see what the doc has to say about all of this. I'm of course glad that Kate is feeling better, but it's weird that she was sick on Monday and had so much inflammation in her throat on Tuesday at the doc's. Who knows...

 

Work is going really well for me. I'm enjoying my position and getting to know my co-workers. My boss (Sarah) is really happy with the work I'm doing, and I feel like I'm actually being pretty effective. My technical background is really nice - Sarah has a totally different background (public health) so between the two of us we can cover a huge breadth of topics. The other project manager that worked for Sarah was fired last week (ugh!), so I've been moved to a different project (check it out here) - one that's much higher profile and much more important to the company overall. It's exciting yet daunting because it's so complex, but it's great not least because I'm getting to really work side by side with Sarah. We are two peas in a pod, I swear; we were laughing the other day about how well we get along. I think we're a good team, and it's so nice to like her as a person as well. We have a new person starting on the 2nd, and it seems like he's going to be great. Sarah also has a new boss (the Chief Commercialization Officer) who is fantastic and is clearly going to have a huge impact on how we do our work, so we're both excited about having him around to help mentor us. I'm so glad to be working - as difficult as it's been for our family to adjust to it's definitely been the right decision for me and for all of us, really.

 

OK, that's it for now.

Kate wasn't really ok to go to daycare yesterday, but we sent her in anyway. Isn't that awful?? Her temp wasn't that high when Jay dropped her off, and we figured that they'd call us to get her as the day went on (101 degrees is their trigger to send a kid home). But nope, no call. Then things got crazy at work for me and Jay, we both had to stay late, and Claire picked Kate up for us. When I picked her up and got her home her temp was 102.3, so who knows if the daycare just never realized it or if it had gone up higher since she'd left. Jay and I were so upset last night, we felt just awful but we had no options. Claire couldn't watch her all day, and Microsoft has a benefit that provides in home care for sick children, but the service was unable to find someone to come in (we booked the time with them Sunday late afternoon). How many back up options are you supposed to have for these things?? So we sent her in to daycare and I'm sure we accumulated bad karma for doing that. She's such an innocent victim...

 

Anyway, after I saw that she still had her fever last night I said, that's it, we're going to the doc in the morning. This morning she woke up crying at 5ish and had the fever still and I thought, I cannot send her to daycare today. So I took her to the doctor where they confirmed that, yes, in fact she has two ear infections again ("how weird" that the doctor on Friday pronounced her perfectly healed!). We went to Walgreens to fill her antibiotic prescription, came home and had a snack, and she went right to bed. I'm hoping that she sleeps the day away - she needs it and I can get more work done. It's not great that I'm home today, but it's not that big of a deal and Kate already was sacrificed yesterday; it just couldn't happen again today. The antibiotics should help dramatically today, so I'm expecting that tomorrow she'll be happier and at daycare with no problems.

 

Back to work...

Kate and I survived our time without Jay with little difficulty - thanks in large part to help that Claire gave me Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Kate's doctor proclaimed her ears "fluid-free" yesterday morning, so that was great...until the afternoon when I picked her up with her runny nose and today when she started a fever again. Really?!? *sigh* Hopefully it doesn't turn into new ear infections and importantly I hope she's able to go to daycare on Monday. I absolutely cannot take the day off from work and neither can Jay. *crossing fingers* Maybe lots of sleep today and tomorrow will help push it out of her system quickly, whatever it is.

 

Jay got home ~8:30 this morning. Kate was taking a nap so we chatted for a bit before he hit the sack. Kate and I went to TrU later on to get her a little picnic table. We're keeping it inside for now and will move it outside as the need arises. She doesn't have anywhere to sit and color, and eventually we'll get her a table and chair set but now is not the time. She loves her little table, it's just perfect for her. We spent a ton of time outside today, and Claire and the girls dropped in for a bit this afternoon. The girls all had fun blowing bubbles and running around, although Molly took the opportunity to play with Kate's toys (inside) while no one could bother her since we were all outside. I thought that was pretty funny - she's so cute!

 

Jay and I are hanging out tonight. We actually went to Blockbuster and rented a movie! I literally don't know the last time that happened; it was definitely in Seattle, and I think it was after Kate was born, but maybe not. He's out right now getting dinner (carry out Italian), and we're looking forward to catching up and relaxing together.

 

Tomorrow morning we're planning to go see a college friend and hubby, but we'll have to see how Kate is, I guess. Hopefully we can go - our friend is pregnant and we haven't seen her in a long time, and - bonus - we're meeting her very close to our lot. The hole for our foundation should have been dug this week, and we can't wait to see it. They were supposed to dig on Tuesday but we had so much rain Sunday and Monday that the construction manager couldn't tell us whether they'd be able to. Luckily the rest of the week was dry and sunny, so I'm sure it got dug. We can't wait to see it. We have an odd shaped lot and our house is on a curve in the road so it's been hard to envision exactly where it will sit and its orientation to the rest of the houses. The hole should help a lot in firming up our visions. Ooo, I can't wait to see it!