Extra Extra . . . Read All About it . . . . Pickles to the Rescue!

So I'm happy to report that Livi is feeling much better this morning as well. We haven't been brave enough to take her off the cocktail (Motrin/Tylenol) but her spirits are better today.
So in my effort to get her to eat ANYTHING, I went all out and held her in front of the kitchen cabinet and said you can have anything, but nothing caught her eye. So then I took her to the fridge and granted her the same privilege. . . and to my surprise, guess what she picked . . . yup, she went straight for the pickles. So I'm thinking is this a good idea. I mean she hasn't eaten anything in a few days, is vinegar the way to go. Then it occurred to me, this could be the ticket to make her thirsty enough to want to keep drinking. So pickles it is!

So after a few pickles she decided she wanted to look through the cabinet again. This time she insisted that she wanted a pediasure. Again, I ponder is pickles and pediasure really a good combination. . . . sure, why the heck not. What could be better than pediasure in a time like this. So here she is enjoying her winning combination.

I'll let you know how this turns out. . .

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone . . .

Ok, so the rain is not completely gone, but we are down to some light showers instead of thunderstorms. What I mean by this is that my girls are getting better! Juliana finally slept last night and this is the face I woke up to!!! And even better than that her temperature was only 99.2!!!!! We had been waking them up at night to give them the Tylenol/Motrin cocktail, but we made a family decision that if Juliana actually fell asleep - NOTHING SHOULD WAKE HER UP! So she had Motrin at 10pm before she fell asleep and nothing since then! YEAH!!!!
Livi on the other hand is still sporting a fever, but definitely not as high and she's getting her spunk back. Livi really had us worried. She had no energy to play or even to argue with me. You know, just very out of character, but happy to report that I'm starting see my sassy girl back this morning. She is still not eating anything but seems to be drinking more.

Keep praying!

Sicky Girls Update

So basically RSV has been kicking our butt. Here we are on day 4 and not much has changed. We are still swimming in snot, coughing until we turn blue and if we don't continue our Tylenol/Motrin Cocktail the fever comes back with a vengeance!

So here is a little snapshot of my adorable patients. As with everything else, they each have such strong personalities that even though they both have RSV, they are very different patients.

Juliana is a much more compliant patient and pretty easy to keep happy. She loves to lay out on the couch and cat nap the day away.

I guess she takes after her father because here is Roger also enjoying a cat nap. And in case you didn't notice, yes that little bundle in the lower left corner is Olivia. Who will not on her own accord lay down for a nap. She is determined to fight and stay awake.

Only that sometimes she loses the fight and ends up falling asleep in some compromising positions.

On to their eating habits. While it is very common with RSV to lose your appetite, Juliana apparently did not receive that memo. She (very thankfully) has continued to eat pretty much as she normally does. This for example was her dinner: Ground Turkey, Brown Rice and Black Beans.

As you can guess, Olivia did get the memo on appetite loss because she hasn't eaten much of anything since Tuesday. Since Tuesday, I believe she's had a spoon of macaroni and cheese, maybe half a pack of fruit chews and a forced spoon of mashed potatoes. The picture below was her dinner for tonight . . .

Hey - at this point I am thrilled if she will just keep drinking and I'm thinking there has to be some nutritional value in M&M's, right?

If only I were an Octopus. . . .

Please don't misunderstand the title. What I am longing to be is an Octopus, not to be confused with Octo-mom. But seriously, ever since I spent the first few weeks with Juliana, I have always longed for more arms. It seems that as a mother, arms are always lacking. In the first few days I needed 1. to hold the baby, 2. to hold the bottle and 3. to use the remote or the phone. But as they get older the demand for arms increases exponentially. Anyway, this will all become a lot more relevant as you continue to read.

So for those who don't know, both the girls have RSV. Yes, I said it RSV and I don't mean RSVP - ha ha. Anyhow, it sucks! It is like having the worst cold of your life complete with fever up to 104, chills, enough snot to fill a bath tub and horrible chest congestion. It started on Tuesday for them. Roger took day one, I took day two and three and now Roger is bringing it home and staying home with them for day four of RSV.

So the following is how they woke up this morning, yes with more fever. . . (and yes, those are cool wash cloths on their heads, not babushkas)

And then as the day progressed I thought I should take them back to the doctor and make sure there was nothing else to do. I mean seriously when I was a kid EVERY time we went to the doctor we left with a shot in the rear and a prescription. I'm so tired of the "let it run it's course" advice. I want something that will kick this virus' booty! Or just give me a placebo pill that will make us think it's kicking it's booty! Well, I knew it. Livi had some wheezing, so here is a picture of her doing her breathing treatment.

And here is where Octopus Mom (not Octo-mom) would have rocked it out. So here I am holding her mask with one hand and scratching Juliana's back with the other (because she is desperate for a nap and scratching and squirming). Then Olivia decides I need to hold the ipod. So I go on for awhile juggling back scratching, mask and ipod. So I guess Olivia found this humorous because now she is insisting that I hold her juice, then her doll. I thought, if I were an Octopus, I'd show you! And I'd still have 3 hands to spare! Okay, kind of rambly, but this was my thinking at the doctor.

Pray for a quick recovery or a genie that can give me 6 additional arms!

The Amazing Brooks Babes!

What a fantastic weekend. So much to share about my beautiful babes. Where to start . . .

1. The Potty Princess!!!!! Don't get too excited, but we are officially on the road to Pantyville with Olivia. She is really into the panty wearing part of things - I mean who could blame her. They are much softer than those stinky diapers and the kid has some amazing panties. So we started on Saturday and ended the day with 3 wet panties. Sundays stat was only ONE wet panty at the end of the day!!!!!!! Of course I don't trust her out of the house with panties or while she is sleeping, but we are definitely making some serious progress. And she has a great mentor. Her good friend Faith at daycare is a year older and Olivia totally looks up to her. So she wants to do everything "Faithy" does, only she can't say "Faithy" so she calls her "Fee Fee". It makes her sound very sophisticated, like she has French friends. Anyhow, here is my potty princess showing off her new "peedy" (translation = pretty) panties.

2. Huge Juju news. So, my Juju is brilliant as you know and although she can't talk we've been exploring other ways to figure out what she is saying. Often times you can look at her eyes and figure things out, but sadly sometimes we don't catch on fast enough. So we were looking into buying her a switch to communicate. It's basically a button she can push with a pre-recorded word or phrase. So, while we were at Disneyland, we found these Mickey buttons that you push and it says "Oh Boy!" and a Goofy one that says "Gawrsh". So we literally told her while we were feeding her that when she wanted more juice she needed to push the button, and we showed her how to push it. Before we knew it, she was pushing for juice. Sometimes we thought it was a fluke, but then she started pushing it repeatedly until she got the juice and then she would stop. She is amazing and I can't wait to until the day when she can communicate all that goes through that beautiful mind of hers.

And these are my little girls watching tv together. Olivia has been extra affectionate to her big sister lately and it's so adorable. If they aren't together Olivia is constantly asking for "shissy" (translation = Sissy) or "Juju".

And here are some fun pictures we took at the park today. As you can tell the sun was rather bright, but after I saw them I actually thought they looked pretty cool. You can actually see the rays of sun radiating though my little munchkins! I love these girls!!!!

And this is just a little clip of Juliana on the swing. She was having such a great time and giggling so much. Unfortunately we took this video with my phone, so quality not so good, but I think you'll enjoy!

Go Girl Power!

Check out the video below. It features a story about Ingrid Harding - Founder of Girl Power & our friend - as she tells the story about her beautiful daughter Sarah and how Girl Power came to be. She is an amazing woman who continues to inspire our family! Go Ingrid and Go Girl Power!

Disneyland!!!!!!

Brace yourself. . . there are a lot of pictures here (and this isn't even half of them) so feel free to scroll quickly through. This is our trip to Disneyland. For those of you who know Juliana, you know that this was a pilgrimage of sorts to go and visit her one and only love . . . . Mickey Mouse. While we weren't able able to get any really great shots of Juliana with Mickey, rest assured, she was HAPPY. I think she had a permanent grin the entire 5 days we were there.

Here we are on our first morning in California. Look how cute we look in our matching shirts.

Nick, Eddie & Phillip
Laura & Gary

Omi & Opi

Here we are

Here we are on our first day in Disney. Sadly it was a pretty cold and rainy day. We didn't last too long that day.

Here is my valiant husband trying retrieve the sword. My brave knight! Here is Juliana on the first ride we rode, the Pinocchio ride. Do you think she's impressed?

Here is Livi. Could her eyes be any wider?

And this was by far Olivia's favorite ride. I believe she rode it a total of 4 times. Gotta love the classics

Here they are nice and dry again after a very wet day. I guess they didn't get enough of that mouse yet.

Here we are outside the first night watching the fireworks from our hotel.

As you can tell from my face they were amazing but unfortunately my camera didn't do well with the flash and all. But trust me, they were awesome!

This was the next day when we were allowed out without babies. So we got to ride some great big kid rides. Here we are on Space Mountain. Did baby Roger actually shut his eyes?

This is the mob of people that was at Disneyland on New Year's Eve! We actually waited in line for the Indiana Jones ride for 130 minutes! UGH! And while we were fighting the crowd, Juliana spent the day with her Godmother being silly!

Okay, I've discovered that these pictures may be completely in the wrong order, but hey, how would you know. So here is a picture of our favorite breakfast. "Mouska-Pancakes"

Here is Juliana and Daddy on the Dumbo ride.

Here is Juliana and Gary on our favorite ride - It's a Small World!

And here is Olivia with Mickey Mouse. Unfortunately at this time Juliana passed out for a nap. Olivia enjoyed every second of her time with Mickey. He even kissed her hand!!!

And this was the highlight of the trip. This was the Playhouse Disney show, where all their favorite characters came out and they played all of Juliana's favorite songs! Again, sorry for not photos of my girls but somebody, whose name we won't mention (ROGER!!!!!!!!!!) gave our camera to my nephew who was not sitting near enough to catch some good pictures of their reactions, but trust me they were priceless!

This is Olivia's favorite show - Little Einsteins

Here is Gary and Juliana on the Carousel

This was a neat 3D show we went to.

Here we are outside of California Adventure in the "A" from California

And here is just another of many of Juliana and her enormous smile with her Nino Gary! Gotta LOVE that smile!