Very Sick Little Girl

November 20, 2014

Ally had the highest fever of her life – only 103 but very high for her.

I had been to the doctor with Becky, who has been very sick this Fall with a persistent and at times debilitating cough, and we went to grab lunch after the appointment. My cell phone rang and it was the school nurse.

Ally was in her office, crying, her head hurt and she doesn’t look very good, no fever, but I should probably come pick her up. This was at 2:12pm. School gets dismissed at 2:55 – I said I would be right there, and we left to go get her.  By the time I arrived at school 15 minutes later her fever had spiked to 102. I bundled her up and we headed home. I had planned to walk, but Ally was too feverish so I carried her the 4 blocks on my shoulders with her shivering the whole time. We got home and I took her temp again and it was 103. I called her pediatrician and they said to bring her in – I got an appointment for 5pm. Ally slept and thrashed and was burning up. I did give her Motrin and that helped after a while. Strep had been going around at school.  And her annual school choral concert was the next day, and she had a SOLO. But with a fever that high she could not go to school. At the doctor, the strep test was negative. Probably just a virus, keep her hydrated, lots of rest and keep up with the Motrin. If the fever rose over 104 call back and if it lasted for 4-5 days call back.

Ally was sick. I stayed home with her on Friday and Monday, then Becky on Tuesday, who took her back to the doctor, still just a virus, but by Tuesday Ally’s eyes were bloodshot, so we got a prescription for eye cream and were advised to keep her out of school since Thanksgiving was coming, it was a short week and she clearly was not back in good health.

It was a rough time for all of us. Ally was a trooper. She watched lots of TV – Spy Kids movies, and I watched Parent Trap with her – one of my favorite movies as a child, which she now loves. She had very little focus, but every day she did some reading and some math work. Her teacher said she should concentrate on getting better and refused to send homework home.

We left Wednesday (in a snow storm) for my parents’ house for Thanksgiving and she seemed better. But still not 100%.

I didn’t take many pictures during this period, but here are a few.

Working on math at the white board. I would make up problems for her to solve. We also opened up some of her birthday gifts and had fun – like with the 3-D pad of paper.

Happy as a clam snuggling with her Cloey on the couch.

Some old friends of ours from London came to Cambridge for a visit. Ally was to sick to join us for brunch, but we managed to get a picture of us moms in attendance – Lauren (London) in the back next to Becky, me, Hanh, Summer and Jenn.

I had been trying to pick out clothes for Ally for our big family photo shoot. The 3 of us were scheduled to have our picture taken on Sunday – right in the midst of Ally’s illness so we canceled that and I came up with plan B for our Holiday cards, which I got printed, address and returned addressed and arrived at our house 2 days before Thanksgiving! But – one morning Ally humored me for a bit a tried on clothes – I rigged up a pretend dressing room in her room.

In the end she wore something else – but it was fun for me for the 6 minutes she tried on clothes.

 

More couch time with Cloey, and for days Ally and I worked on the picture above in her coloring book, after 5 days we finally finished it!

Ally went back to school on Dec 1 – she missed 4 days of school and was out of commission for over a week.

The good news is she is all better now.

Penguin Party Prep

This year Ally had 2 (well 4) birthday parties! One with the Guat Girls at home on the 15th. One with mommy and mama in the morning on the 16th, one with friends at Jump On In on the 17th and one at school on the 18th! She was so thrilled.

This is the penguin party prep. Aunt Beth came to visit again this year and help celebrate for the 8th year in a row! Thanks Aunt Beth.

Aunt Beth went with the theme, and got Ally a cute penguin pad of paper and Penguin-0poly. (it’s a penguin themed monopoly game). Ally was pretty thrilled and they started in on a game right away while I decorated the cake.

Ally decided where to put the ice bergs, and Becky used her pasta machine to flatten out blue starburt0like candy for water/ice on the cake.

I frosted – 3 tiers, and the ice bergs. Lots of white buttercream.

Then it was time to place the penguins and the ice on the cake.

Ally was pretty excited about the finished cake. And I was proud of my handiwork.

Ally fell asleep with her puppy – and in the morning while Cloey and Becker were at Obedience School, Beth and Ally and I decorated the house for the party.

Ally had a vision for streamers across the opening, and she wanted to make fish for the “pin the fish on the penguin’s beak game”

Aunt Beth braided Ally’s hair before ballet – it was an amazing braid bun creation!

Beth loves Cloey too! While Ally had ballet, I picked up the balloons from the party store – 12 in colors Ally picked the week before.

Before the party I noticed the note Ally wrote on her new penguin pad. “I love penguins most.” That is a true statement. For snacks we had “penguin popcorn” which was popcorn with m-n-ms and gold fish.

The decorated house!

I printed out pictures of penguins off the internet and we hung them all over the house. Ally has her favorites in her room.  It looked neat.

Early Birthday Present

Last week Ally got a package in the mail. Of course we opened the box, and it was wrapped gifts, from Grandma Debbie and Poppy. Ally was kind of bummed when we told she would have to wait until her birthday which was over a week a way. So we called Grandma Debbie and Ally asked if she could open it early, once she had approval she opened the gifts on the phone with Debbie.

Ally was pretty happy with a new outfit and game – Clue, which we don’t have. We played over the weekend and of course Ally won!

I love that Cloey photo-bombed this picture!

School Related Post

Second Grade – it is certainly different than first grade. The conversations are deeper and more complex, assigned seats at lunch, more advance study and more peer pressure. We have a conference with Ally’s teachers later today and Becky and I are looking forward to hearing their impressions of Ally and understanding how she is doing in school from them. We think she is doing well. Hope they do too.

After gymnastics one day (at 5:00pm) Ally says to me “mommy, there is something I was to tell you. Some of my friends have a case they keep their pencils in at their desks.” Oh I said and asked if that was ok with the teacher and what friends had them. She told me and I said oh. Then she says “mommy, I was wondering if we could go shopping and I could get one.” I asked if she wanted to go then. YES – well Ally does not like to shop – for anything usually – so this meant it was a pretty big deal to her. So we headed over to Target and found a floral pencil case (very Ally) and I let her pick out some fun pencils from the dollar bin – one set was Halloween glitter colors and on sale for 13 cents! 

As you can tell in the picture above she was very pleased and super excited. She ran in the house to show mama, and then immediately loaded up the case. She faithfully keeps it in her backpack, and brings it to school everyday. She was happy to report that several more of her classmates have pencil cases too.

I was pretty happy to be able to fulfill her request. Recognizing social cues and wanting to be like others, but with your own style is an important thing to learn and adjust to. I’m sure as the years go by I wont be able to provide her with everything she asks for, but a pencil case – that we can do.

I’m the class room parent again this year, which means I organize a potluck breakfast for families a few times a year before school. Ally’s friend Maya helped us set up before hand, and so I snapped a picture of them before it got too crowded. Then – on the right was what I called “Miss Pat’s Posse” Miss Pat runs the before school program that Ally goes to every morning, and she is the Assistant Teacher in the 2nd grade English class. I thought it was so cute that this group of girls was sitting with Miss Pat, they would even save her seat if she got up for coffee or some food.  Of course, some of the girls, hammed it up for the party. Camila (in blue), Jaylinne, Alma B, Miss Pat, Ally, Maya, Olive (in orange in front) and Ellie(gray shirt very front). It was a fun event.

If you ask Ally what her favorite class at school is she will tell you gym. But if you ask her what her favorite subject is – she will say Math. I went grocery shopping Sunday morning and came home to the poster above. Becky said it was all Ally’s idea – she wanted to make a poster showing “How to add big numbers” Becky reports she only helped Ally with spelling – the layout and subject and examples and basically all of it was all Ally.

Then, on Veteran’s Day they played “Math Teacher”. I find it incredibly ironic that Becky is forced to play pretend Math Teacher on her day off from school. She is a Math Teacher in real life! Very very funny.

Day of the Dead

November 2 was the Day of the Dead. We attended the family exhibit we have gone to in years past at a local museum. It was just the 3 of us this year – we saw some friends there, but we had a good time as always.

After church we stopped for lunch – and as we rounded the corner we saw a wild turkey!

Very fun time.