. . . with mint frosting

Ever since MaryP was very young (about 2 weeks old), we have said that her favorite artist is Vincent Van Gogh. We liked listening to Don McLean's song Vincent because not only was it a nice song, but Elaine would quiet down and listen to the whole thing as content as a bug in a rug.

I still like the song, though we don't listen to it nearly as much.

Now Woodine is taking a cake decorating class. She brought home a

beautiful cake on Tuesday with white dots and pink flowers. I was reminded of a time when Gertrude and her "Sweethearts" date Hhil Punter made a cake resembling the namesake of MaryP's favorite song. Gertrude, do you have any pictures of that cake?

My family and friends are so talented, creative, and fun to be around. I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for blessing my life and lifting me up in big and little ways all throughout my life.

And for all those that get the title of this post, I'm still trying to get my Masters in Biochemistry Wife to make a cellular peptide cake for me (with mint frosting of course.)

Fever Gone

Well, the fever is gone for now... I hope it doesn't come back! The pediatrician said it could be viral, but the real verdict is, we don't know. I felt justified in my confusion that he too was a little perplexed by the duration of the high fevers. I actually really like out pediatrician here and we talked about different possiblities of what it could have been, but on Friday for her well baby exam she was back to her normal, happy, busy self. So, I don't have any great answers which is frustrating and I'm just hoping we don't have to deal with this again anytime soon. And I'm so grateful to have my happy girl back. *This picture is from before Christmas - but I haven't downloaded any recent ones!

Fevers

I'm a novice at this whole child/sick thing. I'd like to consider myself to be a reasonable person. I don't rush my child to the ER with a fever of 101. I don't freak out over a stuffy nose. But we've had three fever episodes recently that have me baffled. All right you veteran moms - I need affirmation that what we're dealing with is not crazy.

So MaryP in the last 4 months or so has had 3 episodes of high fevers with no other symptoms. Zero. Not a stuffy nose, sore throat, ear problems, cough, vomiting, nada. The first time it happened she was in the 103.something range, I gave her some tylenol and her fever jumped up to 104 - so yeah, we went to the ER. And they did all of those horrible tests and found - nothing. The fever lasted a few more days, and she did eventually get a cough/runny nose, so maybe that fever was a prelude to the cold. Fine, I can accept that.

Then a few weeks ago she spiked a high fever again - and I wondered if she had an ear infection - I could tell she didn't feel great, who does with a fever - so I took her in to the doctor. She checked out clean - no ear infection. Nothing wrong. That fever hovered between 102.5-104 for about 5 days. Two doctors visits (we had to go in a second time since it was persistent) confirmed that she was hunky-dory, minus the fever.

Yesterday Wood noticed she was acting sick so we took her temp - 103 and sent her off to bed with some motrin. He stayed home with her while I went to church. She was sleeping when I got home and woke up shortly after we finished dinner. She was burning up and shaking so we took her temperature again - 105.7 (rectal temp). Um, what?! So, off to the ER we go. And after a whole lot of waiting, some tylenol and motrin, and a catheter later we head home. No UTI. We did skip the chest X-ray since we'd already been there so long (don't get me started) and we were pretty (very) confident it wasn't pneumonia since she doesn't have any other symptoms. Zero. Nada. Zip. So it's the next day now. She is sleepy and not as energetic, but I wouldn't classify it as lethargic. Her fever is hovering between 101 (much, much better) with tylenol and motrin, and 103. I think for today we're just going to keep a close eye on her. This one also appears to be symptom-free (minus the aches and pains of the fever). I'd almost feel better if she got a runny nose or something like after the first one so that I'd have an idea of what is going on. I'm grateful that she is otherwise fine, but how do I know when to get worked up about it (ok, I'll get worked up about 105.7 every time) and when to say "hmmmmm....just another high fever."

Anyone? Thoughts?