Bumps & Bruises (And Blood & Fevers)

In case you can't tell by that lovely title, we're having some fun times around here! Let's break it up day-by-day:

Thursday: Charlie's first big fall. Charlie-Bug has thrown us for yet another loop in the past week or so...she has become a serious climber. The minute she enters a room, her eyes do a quick scan and she immediately zeroes in on anything she might be able to climb onto. Ottomans, stools, the couch, windowsills, whatever. We even caught her trying to climb into our Ikea shelving unit. When you combine her new love of climbing with the fact that she has pretty much the worst sense of balance ever, disaster is the clear result.

Up to no good...

...but so very pleased with herself!

So back to Thursday...Charlie took a fall from the couch onto pretty much the only area of the living room floor that isn't covered in padding. She landed directly on her forehead...ouchie! Fortunately she was okay after just a few minutes of crying and I managed to remain pretty calm and resist all urges to head directly to the hospital (I did call my friend Kristen for advice, though!). We feared Charlotte would have a huge bruise the next day, but her little head actually didn't look too bad:

Friday: No fun for Charlotte or Jensen as they had to get blood taken to check for anemia and lead (apparently this is something most docs have you do between 9-12 months?). I was expecting a heel prick or finger prick...nope! Each baby had to give two vials of blood. Fortunately, my mom had come with me to help. Unfortunately, she couldn't handle being in the room while her grandbabies got stuck with needles, so while I held Jensen during his procedure, my mom took Charlotte outside. (No, not outside the room we were in. Outside the entire building...she didn't want to hear any crying!) Jensen continues to amaze me with his toughness...he made a very sad face and whimpered a few times, but that was pretty much it. Charlotte, on the other hand, was in full drama mode and started screaming and struggling the instant the tech began to tie the rubber thing around her arm. Poor little Bug.

Saturday started out okay...we made our first trek to The Little Gym and the babies had a great time. Jensen was Mr. Social Butterfly and made friends with all the kids (and their parents!). Charlotte enjoyed putting pretty much everything she could find into her mouth. Brian and I were wincing the entire time thinking about all the germs she was ingesting. (And that, in case you couldn't tell, is some very obvious foreshadowing!)

Later that day we gathered at the Shelton's house for a celebration honoring Mema's 80th birthday. Charlotte and Jensen enjoyed their first hot dogs, but Charlotte didn't enjoy her second injury of the week: A fall off one of the rock steps in the backyard which resulted in a nice, big scrape on her chin:

Sunday: The calm before the storm. We had a nice, relaxing day at home, then Grandma and Grandpa came over to watch the babies while Brian and I met up with some friends for a crawfish boil.

Ew. Crawfish are gross.

Monday: Charlotte took the kind of afternoon nap where you just know something's not right...sure enough, when I finally woke her up, she had a temperature of 102.9. One trip to the doctor later, she was diagnosed with Hand, Foot & Mouth. (Sounds made-up, right?) Basically, she has a fever and blisters in her throat. The best part is that it's very contagious (Thank you, Little Gym!) and there's nothing you can do except give Tylenol and wait it out. She is, as you can imagine, pretty miserable.

So that brings us to today. Waiting for Charlie to feel better, and watching Jensen like a hawk for any signs that he's not feeling well. I'm figuring that him catching the virus is unavoidable seeing as how they share everything (i.e., take things from each other and put them directly into their mouths), but I can hope, right?