Things were a little out of sorts this past week and kinda took me for a loop. Pearson was out of town for a couple of days. Normally, not a big deal but since he hasn't been out of town in awhile I was trying to re-figure out being a single mom. My biggest gripe (besides missing my honey) is taking care of Ditka. Two things of significance happened this week.
The first, Mae has FINALLY learned the sign language sign for "more." Oh my goodness, I almost fell down I was so excited. There is a parenting philosphy out there that says that we should teach our kids sign language so that they can better communicate with us at a young age. I guess the theory is that children can sign quicker than speak. I decided that I wasn't going to go overboard on sign language and teach her two signs. The two being "more" and "all done." I started doing it at six months when I introduced solids. I would give Mae food and if she was done with the food in front of her, I would ask if she wanted "more" and sign the sign for "more." Or I would say "all done." This, me making silly gestures in her face, has continued (ok, maybe not as religiously as I should) for the last eight months. Also to note, kids in our play group have been doing it for months. I gave up all hope Mae was ever going to sign and realized maybe she would be the kid that would develop verbal cues before signing cues and thank goodness, I didn't waste a whole lot of time doing other signs. Unitl yesterday! She finally did it while I was feeding her pumpkin bread. She did the sign for "more." As I said, I nearly fell down.
The second significant thing. Mae has finally gotten sick. She has had a cold before but nothing really affecting her sleep or required a call to the doctor and a visit to children's on the weekend. Mae has Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. My poor sweet girl has been miserable all week and I have been chalking it up to her getting some teeth. It all started on Wednesday when I picked her up from Johanna's [Grandma C.] place. Johanna said she had been fussy all afternoon and all she wanted to do was to be held. She also thought she felt warm. I thought so too. When I got home, I took her temperature and in fact she had one - 101.5 to be exact. I put her to sleep and she woke once through the night but put herself right back to sleep. Thursday morning I woke up to her still having a fever but it was only 99.5 - pretty low grade. I chalked it up to teething but canceled our appearance at play group to be on the safe side. That day Mae did not nap and was beyond fussy. She cried, didn't really want to eat and wanted to be held. I have NEVER ever, in my short 13 months of parenting, asked Pearson to come home early. I did on Thursday. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to. On Thursday night, she slept horribly and was up on and off throughout the entire evening. Friday morning her temperature was normal and in fact she seemed in better spirits. Again, I chalked it up to teething and decided to take her to "college." (Ughh, I am feeling so guilty about that now). At college she was great and her happy go lucky self. We came home and I tried to put her down for nap but she didn't want to sleep. I got her out of her crib and fed her pumpkin bread for a snack (she gobbled up a healthy amount and this is when she used the sign for "more" for the first time). I also noticed that her tongue was white and she had red sores on her tongue. She refused dinner and was up every hour and half throughout the night.
Saturday morning I had had enough and decided to call the doctor. The doctor said it was either two things herpes or hand, foot, and mouth disease. Since there was nothing that they do for either she told me that I could just wait it out or if I wanted a proper diagnosis I could go to the after hours clinic at Children's. I hung up and said, "well we are just going to have to wait it out." BUT then my brain started worrying BECAUSE we were planning on having friends over for brunch tomorrow for Pearson's birthday and were supposed to go to a kid's Halloween Party. Since hand, foot, and mouth disease is contagious, I feared Mae was going to infect a whole mess of kids. As much as I wanted to have everyone over and see everyone, I just couldn't do that to other parents. So with Pearson in step, we headed to Children's Hospital in Bellevue. We were in and out in 30 minutes (blew my mind) and had the diagnosis that Mae in fact has hand, foot, and mouth disease.
All plans have been canceled and we are officially going to be lame for this Halloween season.
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