Who has time for even-steven?

The differences from having one child, to two children (or more) amazes me.  I consider myself a pretty great mom.  However, MCO's birthday is around the corner, and I still don't have invites to send out.  With Buggy, the invites would have been sent out a month in advance.  I had all of her party plans/ideas finalized by the time invites hit the mailbox.  Tonight I am making them darn it!  At least I have a theme and a special birthday shirt (I'm having made) for her.  Buggy didn't have a custom shirt.

Poor MCO.  This isn't the first time I slacked on stuff for her.  She still doesn't, and will never have birth announcements sent out to family and friends.  I feel I made up for it by sending out baptism invites with her picture on them.  Buggy did have the traditional birth announcement, but no picture with her baptism invites.  Buggy also had everything new.  To babies, this doesn't matter.  It only matters to us parents. 

My feelings on this---
1. If I have it, why waste money for something I already have.
2. I'm not going to junk up my house with more stuff that they will out grow or out use 
3. Sharing is good.  It's a good skill to learn and use.

And you know with the first one, you always get the monthly/special holiday pictures done.  With MCO that isn't the case.  She hasn't even set foot inside a studio.  I can honestly say I didn't have time for this one.  MCO had colic very bad as a baby and wasn't really happy till she was 4 mos.  I'm not going to pay for pics with her crying in all of them.  Then, we had to fly to Illinois to take care of my mother on hospice.  But don't think she doesn't have just as many pictures, if not more, as Buggy.  (I take tons on my camera.)  I do think it's important for her to have her 1st birthday ones done at the studio just like Buggy.  We already have an appt to do so. 

Is it that parents don't have the time like they did with the first?  Maybe I had more focus on just Buggy, and now that I have two my focus has to be split?  It's not a who-do-you-like-more thing because I love both of my girls the same, but different!  Whatever the answer may be, I know my parents didn't do the even-steven thing either.  (Well, sometimes my dad at Christmas would make sure we had the same number of gifts, but never the same things.)  It's great not doing the same things for both of them.  I don't want my girls to grow up having even-steven everything.  I think that events/things should be special to them and shouldn't be even-steven.  And I hope Buggy and MCO won't grow up and compare what I have and haven't done for them. 

My little infected monster (MCO has Roseola)

Yes, MCO has it.  And I feel like I have infected all of the state.  Last weekend she had a very high temp (104.3).  She woke up in the middle of the night (or could have been early morning...I was too tired at the time) and was so hot to the touch.  It was like she was burning me.  I gave her some meds and got her down to her diaper.  Could this be the result of teething?  Where was this coming from?  She was find just a little bit ago.  I scrambled to find the thermometer in the dark so I could find out how high this thing was.  Half way through taking her temp the battery died.  Awesome!  I waited forever (45 min feels like forever with a sick little one) to see if the meds would bring it down.  She was still in her diaper and nothing seemed to work.  I packed her up to make the dreaded ER trip.  By the time I got there she had started to cool off.  It was 2:30 a.m. and I did not want to get back into bed after 5:30 only to have buggy up and ready for school at 7.  So we headed home.  On the way I bought a new thermometer.  Since I have my new van with tons of room, I took her temp in the parking lot of the store.  Down to 101.3.  Great!  This next day would be a rough one.

Her temp was up and down for the next 2 days.  After not being able to control it anymore we made a trip to the ER on Valentines day before any of us ate dinner.  Even the meds they gave us in the ER check in didn't seem to help much.  Temp was still in the 104's.  They ran a flu test and took some urine.  (That was one of the most horrible things to do to her and she hated every min.)  Everything came back negative.  She was good to go after spending 5 hours of our night in that stupid, small room.  Only thing they said was to watch it, and if it got higher to come back.  Otherwise we were to wait till Friday (today) to call her docs if she had no change.

Tuesday came and went with not much of a change.  She slept all day and was only awake for 2.5 hrs of the day.  Long enough to eat twice.  Poor thing just wanted to sleep, so I let her.  Wednesday morning and the high temp had finally come down.  99 was a great number to see!  She made up for only eating twice the day before and was more tired than usual.  Whatever it was was leaving her system.  WRONG!  After picking Buggy up from school, I noticed a rash had started on her belly.  No big deal---maybe something agitated it.  MCO went down for a nap and woke up with a rash from head to toe.  She looked like a little infectious thing.  I felt so bad for her, and for me.  What was this all over her body?  Chicken pox?  No, it was Roseola.  It's a rash that is viral.  It comes to be after a high temp (the reason the ER docs couldn't find anything wrong) and can hang out for a couple of hours to several days.  It's pretty common in children and only infects children under the age of 4.  Needless to say I have contacted Buggy's school and we won't be going to church on Sunday.  We are quarantined until this silly thing passes.  I am happy to report that the rash is already clearing up.  I don't see it lasting more than a day or two more. 

Oatmeal, Oatmeal, Oatmeal

Every morning is the same here.  I can expect Buggy to wake up between 6:30-7:15.  She climbs out of bed and makes her way to my room.  "Good morning mommy!  My tummy is so hungry for oatmeal."  Every morning the same request.  :)  I'm happy that she is not requesting pop-tarts (not that she even knows what those are), or some kind of breakfast that requires a lot of time preparing.  Every morning it's oatmeal with sprinkles.  She loves it, and it's so easy to make.  Instead of regular old sugar I use the crystal sugar (sprinkles) to make it more fun.  And she just loves it.  On rainy days I use all of the colors and make a rainbow.  Most days it's a request for pink. 

After eating oatmeal for a few days I try and mix things up by making eggs in a basket, toast and yogurt, or pancakes.  Buggy just looks at me and says "I don't want junky eggs" or "My tummy doesn't like that!".  Since when are eggs junky?  I would have been thrilled if my mom would have made me eggs in the morning.  I would have been jumping up and down over the sight of pancakes.  But not my Buggy.  Oatmeal it is.  Oatmeal every morning.