a day off...

For those of you who don't know, our youngest daughter Avery (20 months) has been battling with severe eczema since the summer. She is allergic to milk, eggs, and nuts, she has digestive issues, and she hasn't gained much weight at all since she was about 8 months old - she's only weighing in at 20 lbs or so.

At any rate, her eczema had pretty much cleared up over the past few months and we thought we were ready to start moving on...I don't think anyone can fathom the stress that goes along with a baby with severe eczema until they've lived through it. It doesn't sound that rough, but it has beat us up pretty bad as we've watched our little girl miserably scratch her arms and legs until they bleed and we've listened to her cry inconsolably and we've watched Kyla sit on the floor with her fingers in her ears so that she won't have to listen to her sister cry. I know some people have it pretty rough with kids that have life-threatening ailments, and believe me, not a day goes by that we don't give thanks that we're not dealing with that. However, this has been the reality we've lived in.

So, I'm not trying to complain or throw a pity party. I started this post just letting you know that I took today off of work. But then I felt the need to explain why.

Anyway, so Avery's eczema flared back up again on her arms, legs, and ankles and even a little on her neck this time. She had bronchitis a while back and is getting a few new teeth - and we're learning that stuff like that will make it flair up again. The past two days were a nightmare for Sarah - Avery pretty much cried all day long unless she was being held. And of course, with a four-year-old at home, Sarah has a few more things to do than sit around and hold Avery.

So, I took today off to give Sarah a break and to spend some time with the kiddos. Sarah got to take Kyla out for some much-needed mom/daughter time and they headed to a friend's house from church who has a beautiful garden where they had a tea party and ate muffins. I stayed home with Avery, who seems to be doing much better now that her teeth don't hurt as much. It was pretty hilarious because she was falling asleep on my lap while I was reading on the computer about planting a vegetable garden (future posts on that to come) so I laid her down on the couch.

Now, mind you, this is the child who required a pitch-black room with zero noise to fall asleep for the first 18 months of her life. Not today! Two hours before her nap time, she conked out on the couch in broad daylight while I talked on the phone and went through a ton of papers! Anyway, the rest of my day included a trip to the park, hiding Easter eggs in the backyard, cooking chicken chili, baths for the girls, and bedtimes. Now, I just realized that I'm 12 minutes late for American Idol! Gotta go make sure Dave Cooke and Carly make it through...