« April 2008 | Main | June 2008 »

May 27, 2008

yummy lemon pound cake

Andy asked for a lemon cake for his birthday so at my sister's advise I searched on epicurious and read some reviews. I found one I thought looked good and wanted to pass it on because it was SO yummy and I highly recommend it.

I didn't have the pan they asked for so I made mine in a loaf pan (did I mention I made it twice this weekend!) but next time I'll double it and make it in a bundt pan.
I also didn't use the lemon verbena but used the extra lemon zest.
The first time I made it I used the glaze that was recommended but it made the cake soggy and was REALLY lemony. The second time I searched for my own glaze and found this one and it was so good. Instead of vanilla I used some fresh lemon juice till I liked how it tasted. Because of the butter it hardened over time so I think it would be really good drizzled over the finished cake.

The girls wanted to eat the lemons that were left over and Julia did not like it at all, I think this is why!!

This is probably a really easy recipe to most of you but I'm not really a baker so I am very excited when a recipe turns out and is really good. If you are a lemon lover like us then you will love it!

Posted by JennR at 1:46 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

birthday weekend

We spent this weekend celebrating Andy's birthday. I'm especially excited because its his last year in the twenties and then he'll be THIRTY. LOL I'm so over the ribbing I receive for being in my thirties first and I'll be glad when he's an old man too. :)
We went on a great date together and it was a nice reminder of what good company my husband is, without little ankle biters around.

On sunday we went on a hike at Cloudland Canyon. I had wanted to check it out for when my dad and his family come for a visit. Mostly I wanted to see if the girls could handle the .6 mile hike down into the canyon and then back up.

It was really gorgeous up there and the whole time I kept thinking, we have to come back in the fall. I bet the trees are breathtaking.

The girls did awesome! All the stairs you see us going down, we also had to come up again. Of course on the way we passed people who would make comments like, "wow, I feel sorry for you," and "you know you'll have to carry her all the way back up don't you?" (talking about Julia). I already had Caroline on my back and the plan was not to carry anymore children!

On the way back up we let them sit whenever they wanted and we took our time. At each break instead of resting Julia entertained us with some dancing. LOL

Towards the top when it got pretty difficult I sang with Julia to distract her. It's amazing how much energy " A Spoon Full of Sugar" and "Jingle Bells" can give you! We got lots of laughs over her singing. She was a trooper and I was pretty proud of them.

When we were driving home Julia said, "That jungle didn't have very many animals mommy. There were no tigers or monkeys, only puppies." (referring to the many dogs we saw on the hike)
LOL

It was a very fun relaxing weekend without much obligation. Although my calves are killing me from the 400 stairs we walked up and down!!!

Posted by JennR at 9:13 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

May 20, 2008

stranger danger

My Lizzie is very friendly, almost too friendly. If you've been at the park with us you will have probably witnessed her striking up a conversation with other parents at the park. Or she'll just awkwardly stand by another family until they engage her in conversation or their child goes to play with her. I vainly find these moments sort of embarrassing, especially when the family starts to eat their lunch or has snacks and she continues to be in their space and stare. At this point I usually call her away and encourage her to go play.
So this past Monday was no different. After about an hour of hanging out at the park I notice that Lizzie is hanging out on a bench across the park with a grandmother who had brought her granddaughter to play. Is the granddaughter there visiting as well, nope, just my daughter and this lady. She would leave and play a little bit and then come back and visit so I finally called her over. I asked her what she was chatting about and she said that the lady had given her a piece of ice. I said, WHAT!?!?!? Why in the world did she give you ice and Lizzie told me it was because she said she was thirsty. Needless to say she sat on the bench in time out with me for a bit. I sternly told her that we DO NOT take food or anything to drink from people we don't know and from now on she wasn't to talk to people unless mommy was talking to them or unless we knew them. Not to even mention my frustration that my daughter probably dropped some not so subtle hints to this lady about how yummy her water looked!
I've talked to a few moms since this incident who have confirmed that no this was not ok! Andy doesn't see it as a big deal but I do. He thought it was pretty harmless, even with my comments that it could have been vodka on the rocks. LOL
So its brought on lots of thoughts of how to set boundaries with Lizzie. I have to be honest, I am usually more self conscious than anything when she is talking to other parents but I have to say that her feeling free to talk to strange men makes me the most uncomfortable. I feel uncomfortable even typing that since its jumping to conclusions about people, but isn't that my job as a mom of THREE GIRLS!
When do I tell my kids that there are some people in the world who aren't so nice and might want to take you from your parents. I'm afraid it would freak her out. I realize its hard to ask for feedback on a topic like this one since each child has a different personality and can handle different things but I would love to hear what other moms have done.
My sister recommended a book which I read some of online and freaked me out.
I also found a berenstain bears book which seems like it might be age appropriate but I'm not sure if I should get it and treat it like a casual topic or if we should have a talk and then read it.
So by now if you think that I am way over thinking this then you are probably right. But with Lizzie if I give her too much info she will obsess about it and I don't want her to be overly fearful, but I do think this topic of dangerous strangers needs to be introduced and I'm not sure how to do it. Any ideas???

Posted by JennR at 9:19 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

May 10, 2008

Good times by all

Celebrating mother's day a tad early with my mom took us out to coolidge park for lots of running, carousel riding and yummy ice cream!
I'm heading off tomorrow for a day trip to Atlanta with friends, baby included, to hit IKEA, Trader Joes and Anthropology. Happy mommys day to me!!!

Once we had our third I realized that in family picts its a success if everyones there not if everyone is looking!!

(can you see Julia's death grip?)

Posted by JennR at 10:47 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 8, 2008

Febrile Seizures

So 2am Tuesday morning found us waiting on an ambulance after experiencing a febrile seizure with Julia. As the week has gone on and I have shared this experience with friends most have said they have either never heard of them or wouldn't know what to do during one. I wanted to give a very real account of what the experience was like for us; one to help me get past this horrifying experience and two on the chance that someone might read it or discuss it with someone and know what to expect if they have to unfortunately experience one with their child.
My nieces have each had febrile seizures (it runs in the family) the most recent of which was this past Dec, so my sisters description was with me while I was holding Julia and I think that provided me with some sense of sanity. The little knowledge that I had kept me from going crazy.
Let me preface this account by saying febrile seizures are completely harmless most of the time and my goal is not to strike fear into the hearts of other mothers. I myself am currently trying not to live in fear. 1 in 25 children experience them ranging from ages 6 months to 5yrs. The older you are when you have your first one the less likely you are to have another one, so the likelihood of it happening again to Julia is extremely low. This fact has not kept me from going into her room every night just about every two hours to feel her head though. I'm hoping and praying for the paranoia to fade.
So Sunday afternoon Julia was developing a pretty good cough. Every cold she gets usually is in her chest and coughing for her is nothing new. Monday her breathing sounded labored to me and the cough was worse (we found out later she had croup). About 1:30 that night we woke up to coughing and Lizzie calling to us since Julia had just thrown up. I went in there and she was burning up. We have seen temps of 103 and 104 in our kids so her radiating heat was not shocking and I estimated her temp at nearly 103. I was using the touch method. She washed off in the tub and we gave her motrin and put her back down. I was concerned about how hot she was and was going to go back in after the 3am feeding to feel her. But at 2am we woke to more coughing and she had thrown up again. Still burning up and wanting to rinse off again so I decided she should have a tepid bath to lower the temp which she hated of course. I got her to lay back in the little amount of water that was in the tub to rinse her hair. She was looking at me and seemed like a blank stare and I started to say her name and she was staring at the ceiling and jerking ever so slightly. I pulled her up by her shoulders and said her name over and over. I got her out of the tub and onto my lap and Andy came to the door of the bathroom and I told him to call an ambulance. I held her there on the floor of the bathroom alternating between calling her name and crying out to Jesus. The experience for me was indescribable. She was shaking and her eyes seemed to be moving all around and her lips were turning blue and other parts of her face were blue. I held her head to the side and continued to wipe the saliva from the side of her mouth and inside I was on the verge of losing it. I did have thoughts of my sister though and I remember she told me when she held Isabelle during one of her seizures she thought- so this is what its like to hold your child while they're dying and there's nothing you can do. Even though I had that thought there was another part of my brain which remembered, ok Isabelle's lips turned blue too and she pulled out of it. So it was all these quick thoughts at once. I was pretty sure it was a febrile seizure but still terrified. I think it probably lasted about 30sec-1min and then she went completely limp and peed all over me. This too didn't really surprise me and again it was like I had a check list in my mind from my sister's experience knowing that now we were in the stage where she would be unresponsive. Seizures zap them of all energy and it seemed like she essentially passed out. I handed her off to Andy to get dressed for the hospital and he put a diaper on her and held her on the couch. Her skin was very pale and her lips had no color but she was breathing and I thought well we're breathing so that's a good sign. We considered just driving to tc thompson ourselves as we got a bit anxious waiting but decided not to. We were unable to wake a friend to come over to be with the girls and didn't want to push the issue so I went alone to the hospital (that was not a guilt trip!!! LOL). Although I did get the third degree from several friends for not trying harder and I so appreciate our community of friends. I told Andy when I left that if they did invasive testing for whatever reason I was going to call him and we were going to start waking everyone we knew! We were both ok with this arrangement. By the time the paramedics got there she would get eye contact again and cried when I put her on the stretcher and one paramedic commented that a crying baby was a happy baby to him.
The hospital itself was fairly uneventful, they didn't even do blood work. Although the paramedic did an iv in the moving ambulance which made me very nervous and I said, "you're doing that HERE!?!?" but that was probably the worst for her. She was diagnosed with croup and febrile seizure. Apparently they are very common and not alarming unless a child seizes for over 10 minutes, YES 10 MINUTES!!! I would have freaked then. But the reality is that the seizure is the body's way of protecting itself which seems so strange to me because visually it looks like anything but harmless!!
We were home by 5am that morning and Julia had fallen asleep in the ER finally after a popsicle and playing with my cell phone taking pictures of the room. The Dr was surprised I was handling it so well but he didn't know that every time he left the room I cried and I just laid in her bed with her and cried. I do think though that once again hearing my sister's account helped immensely.
For at least that first day I cried when I walked by the bathroom and could play it back in my mind and I had a hard time sleeping. She has had a fever each night and while I know the likelihood of a repeat is slim to none I can't help but be so anxious. I keep seeing these blue lips and vacant eyes. Not trying to be melodramatic just saying its taking time to get over that minute of my life.
Things feel like they are slowly returning to normal, I mean mostly inside my head. Because the next day for her it was like nothing happened. She still has a cold but is also still fighting with her sister and acting her crazy Julia self.
It's so strange. I told Andy that the more time that passes and the more I talk to our dr or read about it the sillier I feel since its so "normal". But it didn't feel that way when it happened and I feel like we are still dealing with it.
It's not even recommended to call an ambulance when it happens. Calling your Dr office to let them know it happened is enough, unless it last for several minutes then you are supposed to seek medical care. My sister said she doesn't care what they say she calls the ambulance everytime, I think I would be the same way. I was also talking to a friend of mine who is a nurse yesterday who agreed that seizures were one thing that still made her nervous as a nurse but that she remembered the ER nurses used to be annoyed when parents brought their kids in for febrile seizures because it wasn't necessary. I thought, those nurses need to hold their own kids while their lips turn blue before they pass judgement on other parents.

Posted by JennR at 12:28 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack