ER visit and some new chicks

We received a call from Reagan's daycare saying she woke up from her nap and half of her face was really swollen. They thought she possibly had an allergic reaction to something. We ended up taking her to the ER just to make sure everything was ok. She was given prednisone and benedryl and that seemed to help. I thought about if she ate anything new or if we changed detergents/soaps, etc. I did use a different detergent but that was like two weeks prior and I assume that she would have had a reaction sooner. I did end up re-washing everything including sheets, towels and clothes with the detergent we used to use, just in case. The next day she woke up and her face and eyes were so swollen. She looked horrible. She was acting fine though so we gave her the prednisone and benedryl and it seemed to help. That Saturday, she woke up and she looked great. She then went swimming and had hives develop all over her legs. Sunday she was back to normal. It was very weird. We will probably never know what caused it. She didn't have a fever or anything so I don't think it was a virus.

During my last post I mentioned we found a baby chick on the ground in the coop. I am happy to say Eddie, the chick, is doing great. A few days later we went out to the coop and another chick was following its momma around. We ended up putting Eddie underneath Momma and the three have been inseparable ever since. It is so cute to watch the mother hen teach her chicks how to eat and how she protects them from the other chickens. Just yesterday Tim went into the coop and found a brand new chick laying on the ground. We did the same thing we did with Eddie. We put the chick in the incubator, will put it under the heat lamp for a day or two and then try to move it outside and put it under a hen.

Avery's last day of kindergarten was May 30. I can't believe she will be in 1st grade in the fall. I really appreciate all of the help she received from her teachers, specialists and therapists. I know the beginning of next year is going to be a little rough for her with new teachers, new kids in her class and new routines to learn but she will get the hang of it eventually, just like she always does.

Last year around this time we were getting ready to go on a vacation to Union Pier, Michigan with the family. We aren’t going to be going on vacation this year. We are going to be remodeling our kitchen. We are knocking down two walls and making it an open concept. I am not looking forward to living through the renovations but it will be awesome when it’s done. I am just scared of what problems we are going to run into along the way.

Our chicks born around Easter are getting so big! We put them out in their new temporary coop. They can see the other chickens but there is a fence between them for protection. Chickens pick on other chickens that are smaller than them so we cant move these 4 into the other coop until they are the same size.

Cutest pic ever. Snuggling with Momma

We are able to have baby chicks in the coop with the bigger ones because their mom protects them and attacks anything that tries to come near them. 

Happy Memorial Day! Don't I look awesome?

Reagan was not having it

Reagan's trip to the ER

 

I tried to keep Reagan occupied

 

This is how she woke up the next day

 

The next day Reagan was fine until we went swimming and then her legs looked like this

Momma finished her Scarlett and Chewie paint by numbers. They turned out pretty good. It will be one year on June 15 that we said goodbye to Chewie :(

 

Momma says she is sorry to crush my dreams but this isn't happening

I made a cute book in Kindergarten. I even smiled for every picture!

 

 

I am not a morning person!

Thanks to my teachers, specialists and therapists. Also thank you for everyone who donated to March of Dimes

Mother's Day and March of Dimes

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the March of Dimes March for Babies, either by walking with us or donating money. We really appreciate it. Thank you to Terri, Greg and Lauren for walking with us. It rained in the morning and was a little too cold to bring Avery. Maybe next year! (That’s what I say every year but it always ends up being too cold!)

 We hope you had a great Mother’s day! Avery made me some very cute items at school and daycare for me. When I took them out of her bookbag, she was so proud of them. It was so cute. And one of the items includes her school picture and we all know how awesome that picture is.

Tim had to work Saturday so Avery and I visited my mom along with my sister and her family. We took our annual picture with my mom.

Tim had to take his Mom’s gift over on Sunday when she was away to surprise her when she got back. Avery and I didn’t get a chance to see her and take our annual Mother’s Day pic yet. Hopefully we will get over there sometime this week and take one.

I  don’t think I mentioned this yet but around the week of April 18 we ended up getting 7 (yes mom, 7..you only knew about 6) more chickens. We had to wait until after we got back from Disney World because the chicks have to stay inside under a heat lamp for 8 weeks until they are fully feathered. We now have a total of 10. We got 3 gold laced wyandottes chicks from a nursery in North Royalton. These chicks will eventually lay brown eggs. Tim wanted Easter Eggers which lay blue/green eggs so I received a text one day when I was at work that said “don’t kill me but I ordered 3 more chickens through the mail and they should be here in a few days”.  Tim is turning into the crazy chicken guy and you thought I was going to be the crazy one! So we ended up getting those shipped to us a few days later.

Then that next week, our neighbor told us that he had a hen and rooster. He ended up eating the rooster but didn’t want to eat the hen because she was too small so we decided to rescue her. I am not sure how old she is but she looks like she should be laying eggs soon. Since she is fully feathered, we put her in the coop, separated from the other chickens. She ended up somehow knocking over the fence we had separating her so she is now integrated with the rest of the flock. She was very timid and scared at first. She would stay far away from the other chickens and was scared of humans. She is getting little less scared of us and the rest of the birds but she is definitely at the bottom of the pecking order. She is finally starting to eat treats that we give her.

Lounging on our new hammock. Not sure I could get any pastier

Mommy and one of our new chicks. I am scared of them because I know they grow up to be big chickens

These are the chicks daddy ordered in the mail

Here are all of the chicks at a few days old

Just sitting around on the toilet holding Lily

Making Cinnamon Streusel bread

Mommy left me alone for 5 minutes and I managed to get glue AND glitter in my hair

Look what I made mommy for Mother's Day. I decorated this little keychain and decorated this flower with my school picture in it.

I made her a handprint flower bouquet at daycare

It was Grandma S's birthday a few weeks ago. I got to see Kassidy, Michael and Makinsley too

I finally got my class picture. They forgot to include it with my order so mommy called and we got one in the mail. Mommy said the names of kids in my class and I pointed to all of them.

Here's a close up..I am the cute one sitting in the blue chair

See, I told you they get big. They are already much bigger.

Celebrating Mother's Day with Grandma B

I got a cape from the March of Dimes that says "Proof Miracles do happen". Chewie wanted to try it on.

Lauren, Greg, Terri, Tim and I

This is the Hillcrest Hospital team photo. This photo was taken by Jackie Ludwig. She is a nicu nurse at Hillcrest Hospital, where I spent the first 132 days of my life. She also participated in the March of Dimes parent support meetings that Mommy and Daddy went to. She has twins that were also in the nicu when they were born so she talked about her experience. She is an awesome photographer at http://www.brittanygidleyphotography.com/