Diseased

Hannah was sent home from school yesterday with a fever. Last night she developed a rash with her fever and by this morning when I was home with her she had quite the rash spreading and a fever that still persisted. So off to the doctor's we went. Diagnosis...strep throat AND chicken pox!!! WTF??!! She has two different rashes, one that is just a bunch of red bumps in lots of places including her booty which is a strep throat rash, plus a culture was done and it confirmed the strep throat. Additionally she has round circle shaped rashes in several areas with little bumps or blisters in the middle which is the chicken pox. We had to be escorted out of the doctor's office through the back door...I was laughing. B/c of the chicken pox she is contagious for a week and cannot go to school until next Wednesday!!

You are probably wondering how did she get both of these things at once and aren't there vaccines for chicken pox? Well I have no idea how she got both of these things at once! She had her chicken pox vaccine at one but was suppose to get her booster at 4 and did not b/c she was getting her urinary reflux surgery at 4 and so the doctor and I decided to hold off on her 4 year old shots so she won't be tortured with them in addition to the trauma of the surgery. Last month I scheduled her for her 4 year old shots in June...obviously a little too late. So her pox won't be as bad b/c of her first shot at one but she will still get them. She CANNOT scratch them b/c if she breaks one open and gets bacteria in there it will go straight into her blood stream and she could get a bacterial blood infection...which she already had when she was one and was hospitalized. So lets hope this does not happen again!

Good times in the Morrill House. Poor Hannah.

Easter is the BEST!!

Hannah has always loved Easter in her 4 years of life. She pretty much talks about it all year round. And Easter this year did not disappoint. We started off our Easter festivities on Saturday by going to the "Breakfast with the Bunny". Hannah was very excited to see the Easter Bunny and was happy to take a picture with him/her (what is the Easter Bunny a boy or a girl?). I was worried that Samantha might be scared of that bunny, but just like her sister was she very happy to see the bunny.



Hannah also took pictures with many other "characters". Here is McGruff the Crime Fighting Dog and below that is some random bear that Hannah AND Samantha LOVED. Again I am so happy Samantha was not afraid of these "characters".





After the breakfast we went off to participate in the parade. Really it is just a walk around the neighborhood behind a fire truck with the Easter Bunny on it and in the back is the Band-Uh. Regardless it was fun. Hannah rode her bike the whole way and I was proud of her.



Finally it was on to the Easter Egg Hunting. Samantha grabbed her Easter basket like it was a purse over her shoulder and went off to get the eggs. She was like an old pro, yet this was her first year hunting for eggs! Once she got out into the field of eggs though she put her basket down and would walk to get the eggs and then walk back to place them in her basket. Each kid could only get 3 eggs but how could we explain that to Samantha. So each time she turned around after dropping her eggs in the basket, Adam would grab 2 or 3 and throw them back out into the field of eggs. Each time Samantha would come back to drop more eggs into her basket, she would kind of pause and look into her basket. I was beginning to wonder if she was thinking "Is there a hole in this basket, where are all these eggs going that I keep putting in here?".







Sadly this is the "best" picture I could get of both of the girls together with their Easter baskets. They refused to both look at the camera or smile.



There were lots of other activities to do that day including:

Face Painting


Cookie Decorating:


And of course cookie eating:


Jumpy House:


And more pictures with the Easter Bunny:




Blowing the Easter Bunny kisses:


I have more pictures from Easter Day, I just haven't downloaded them yet or edited them. But as soon as they are done I will post them.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yesterday Hannah asked me if I had anything green to wear for St. Patrick's Day. I told her I don't think I do b/c I don't really have green in my closet. She said I could wear her green clover necklace that her Nali sent her (thank you Nali) on St. Patrick's Day so that I don't get pinched by the Leprechaun. I thought this was really sweet. Well I managed to find pants last night with a green hue to them (more like olive but they will do) to wear today. This morning as I am leaving for work Hannah hears me and yells "Mommy!". So I go running into her room..."Mommy, are you going to wear my clover necklace to work so that you don't get pinched by the Leprechaun?". Ahhh...how sweet. I told her I found some pants that were green so I was o.k for today. So I turn to leave and she then yells again "Mommy!". I come back and she says "Do you get to search for the Leprechaun's gold at work today too?". I laugh and tell her that she can search for me at school to which she goes into a long a story about how she is only going to borrow the Leprechaun's gold for about a week and then will return it to him. To this I am wondering why can't she keep it? We could sure use that gold. :)

Periodically Tulip wacks her tail in so much excitement that she cracks the end of it open and blood goes all over the walls as she continues to wack her tail against the wall. This results in a lovely "murder" like looking scene in our house as there is blood all over our white walls. Usually it takes us a while to figure out she did this as she goes all over the house spreading her tail blood. Yesterday, was a day she did this. When we discovered it I quickly started cleaning it up. Hannah sat right next to me saying "you missed a spot, here is another spot you missed, oh and another". Thanks Hannah. Then in a little bit she said with much excitement "Mommy can I help you?!" Sure, so I gave her a wipe and away she went helping me clean the bloody walls. About a minute later Samantha came toddling up, looked at what we were doing, grabbed a wipe and started rubbing the walls too! It was so cute! So there were both of my girls happily helping me clean the bloody walls. My mom says I am super lucky to have such good helpers, which I know I am. She said when they are older, they can clean the house while I just sit there on the couch saying "you missed a spot". :)

In Need of an Update

So it's been a while. I feel like there is a reoccurring theme to my blogs...I post on a regular basis for a while and then there is a loooooooong pause. So when I come back from my loooong pause I usually have a lot to share, so here I go:

Samantha has started taking care of things including her babies...



and Tulip:


She loves to drag her blanket around and tuck Tulip in and she loves to take care of her baby. I still remember when Hannah started doing this. It is the point when they become one of the older kids in the Infant Room at school and start copying the teachers taking care of the smaller babies in there. Samantha holds her baby, pats it, wraps it in her blanket, and then every now and then gives it a little love bite. Well this baby that she takes care of has no hair and at school there is a little baby boy who also appears bald, although he has a little bit of hair. Apparently Samantha was taking care of him one day, helping him with his pacifier when all of a sudden she took a bite out of his left cheek! Poor guy! They said she was super quick. They didn't understand why he was the only little boy she would go after and why she wasn't biting when they would expect her to bite...perhaps out of frustration or when she was mad. Well it took me about a week but when I saw her taking care of her baby one night it occurred to me that she thinks this little bald headed baby is also the almost bald headed baby boy at her school. So we obviously don't let her bite on her baby anymore. Silly girl. Although I can't blame her b/c she has 8 teeth coming in at the same time and she almost has all her teeth (minus her 2 year molars).

A little while back we went to the park and Hannah loved going down the slide in a little different way:





Just thought those were funny pictures.

A lot of our blossom trees have really started blooming and we have started to refer to them as "snow trees", because I mean come on doesn't it look like it just snowed. Hannah loves to find these trees and yell snow trees!



My mom and Hannah had a great time knocking down the flower blossoms and pretending it was snowing on them:



Right across the street from Hannah's school is a huge field full of yellow flower weeds that are growing tremendously tall. There are also tons of ladybugs. Hannah's class took a "field trip" there and she has not stopped talking about it since. So last week we took a few trips across the street after school and enjoyed looking at the ladybugs. This is usually the view of Hannah I would get when I would turn around and find her looking at a ladybug.


Samantha would get really excited about the ladybugs. She would stand there and point at the ladybug and stamp her legs all excited as if to say "do you see that little thing, it is moving!". This is all just before she would try to lean down and squish it while attempting to pick it up. It was really hard to get her to stop doing that.


At one point I was looking at a ladybug with Hannah when I turned around and found Samantha with a weird look on her face and I knew she had something in her mouth. I quickly pried it out and found out she was chewing/sucking on a slug. Lovely.

Here are some wonderful sister moments:




Hannah and Samantha are really interacting a lot more now and it is really heartwarming. Above Hannah was picking Samantha some flowers b/c she kept pointing at them and Samantha was really happy to get these flowers from her sister. They were so happy that they hugged...awwww.

Yesterday we went to the Farmer's Market for "Pig Day" and there were pony rides. Yeah I know...you are probably thinking what is pig day?...yeah I don't know. But Samantha took her first pony ride:



She loved it but I am sure she thought she was on a big dog. Hannah of course loved her pony ride...she had been talking about it all week b/c she knew that there were going to be pony rides at the Farmer's Market this weekend.


After the market and then gymnastics we went to Woodstock's for lunch and Samantha and Hannah enjoyed watching the pizza being made. Samantha kept trying to climb up over the glass...I think she wanted to make one herself.



Finally today West Plainfield Station Fire Dept had its annual Pancake Breakfast. We had a yummy breakfast and enjoyed playing there for some time. Here is Adam cooking...



So I am all caught up now...hopefully I can stay caught up. :)

Do you get good reception with those?

Adam picked Samantha up from school the other day and they had styled her hair:





I think it is adorable but Adam kept asking her if she got good reception with those things on her head. When I told Hannah that they use to style her hair like that when she was in the infant room she said "I know Mommy, Daddy already told me that." Well excuse me!

Samantha is a pro walker now. She is walking all over the place...it is really amazing how fast she picked it up. When Adam and I left for our mini vacation she was still crawling, but walking here and there. Well just 3 days later we come back and she is a solid walker!

In other Samantha news...Hannah came up to give Samantha a hug yesterday morning and Samantha decided to chomp down on Hannah's cheek. Hannah came into the kitchen (where I was) crying hysterically with her hand over her cheek. When she moved her hand there clear as day were Samantha's teeth marks...all 11 of her teeth! She really gave it good to Hannah. I felt so bad for Hannah but at the same time I was trying not to laugh as I iced down her poor cheek. Samantha came into the kitchen and was looking at the scene with an expression like "What did I do?". Poor Hannah.

All was good between the sisters by the evening when the two enjoyed body slamming into the huge stuffed animal cow Samantha has in her room. They did this for about 10 minutes together, laughing and giggling...hilarious. I think this is going to be a love/hate relationship between the two sisters.

Samantha's Walking! Hannah's makin' Woodstock's Pizza!

Samantha decided that Saturday afternoon would be a good time to throw caution to the wind and let go of the walls/couch/furniture/toys/people/etc. that she has been leaning on for a long time now to walk and go at it on her own! She is VERY slow and VERY cautious...like her Daddy...he-he...but she is a walkin' girl! Here is some proof:

Whoa...this is a little scary...do I have it?


I'm comin' at you Mom!


Catcha' later I am outta' here...


Comin' back at you with something in my mouth...see how skilled I am...I can do two things at once!


Maybe I don't like this...


Nope...I got it...I am good.


This morning Hannah and I went on a tour of Woodstock's Pizza with several other kids and their moms. It was organized by the mom's group I use to be a part of when I was off of work with Samantha. They were nice enough to let Hannah and I join them today. Hannah loved it! Pizzasaurous (as it is called in our house) is her favorite!

Wow! This fridge is cold...but fun. :)


The pizza toppings and mini pizzas they got to make:




Pulling on the pizza dough


Hannah working on her mushroom and olive pizza:




The finished product only had a few mushrooms and olives...which I thought was funny considering how much she loves both of those ingredients. I found out later she wanted to make sure the other kids had enough...isn't that sweet!


Hannah proud of her finished product...well at least before it went into the oven. Yummy!

Just Call Me Detective Morrill

As some of you may or may not be aware last Sunday night we had our stroller stolen from our front door! I was pissed! Although we did not discover that it was stolen/missing until Thursday when we were in need of it. We started looking everywhere and quickly realized that in was not in our posession. I then started thinking back to the last time we used it and remembered that on Sunday night Adam was removing our storage box on top of the Volvo so I decided to take the girls for walk. I took Samantha in the stroller, Hannah rode her bike and Tulip & I walked. When we got back we put Hannah's bike in the garage but I pulled the stroller up to the front door so that I could unload Samantha. Obviously we forgot the stroller out there.

Fast forward to Thursday when we can't find it and I realized that someone must have stolen it from our front door. I was so upset and I felt to violated that someone had the guts to walk up to our door...which isn't that easy to get to, and take it. That night I looked on Craigslist and did a search for Graco Strollers. I looked at a lot of Graco stroller being sold but none of them were ours until I ran across a Graco stroller posting that was put up on Craigslist Monday, so the day after our stroller was stolen, and it was posted as being in Davis for $40 and what do you know, it matched our stroller (our stroller is blue and yellow plaid...Aggie colors)! Our stroller is 4 years old and so that pattern is not made anymore. The advertisement said that it was almost brand new, willing to trade for a girl stroller, was expecting a boy. That didn't make too much sense to me, why WERE they expecting a boy and not anymore. And when you looked at the pictures the posted the stroller looked in good condition (we keep our strollers looking good) but the wheels looked really worn, which ours were really worn...I mean we have had it for 4 years! I kept studying the pictures and finally decided to email the person and ask if it was still available.

On Friday morning I posted on "Facebook" that my stroller was stolen and was really upset at what the world was coming to that someone needs to steal a stroller from someones front door. Under the advice of wonderful Tara I filed a police report that my stroller was stolen and that it had some distinguishing marks. I also let them know that I was pretty sure it was on Craigslist and I was waiting to hear back from the person to see if it was still available. While the Specialist that took my report was very nice she said without the serial numbers there was no way to prove it was mine. That sucks! I was not happy b/c of course I did not have serial numbers...all you peeps out there with strollers/trailers or any other kid items or anything that can be stolen, write your serial numbers down b/c I ran into the same problem when my bike trailer was stolen.

So by Friday afternoon I still hadn't heard from the person so I emailed again asking if was still available. That night after the girls were in bed I checked my email and low and behold the girl had emailed me back and yes the stroller was still available!! She wanted me to call her at a number she gave me and told me that if I can't get a hold of her at the number to give her my phone number. I didn't know at that point what I should do and my assistant detective Adam told me to reverse number search the phone number on "Google" to hopefully come up with an address b/c the phone number was clearly a Davis number. So I googled the number and when I saw the address and name that came up I felt my heart jump into my throat and I felt sick...it was my next door neighbor...like right next door!!!!! That house has always been ghetto and the older lady that owns it really has no clue what goes on in her house...plus in the 7 years we have lived here we have barely spoken to her b/c she is kind of reclusive. Her grandson lives with her and he is strange and always brings all sorts of strange people by, girls go in and out of that house a lot and you never really know who is visiting and who lives there. The rest of the neighborhood isn't thrilled with the lady either. I was sure one of those delinquent kids that go in and out of that house had stolen it and she probably had no idea this was even happening under her roof. I was at a complete loss and didn't know how to handle the situation now that I was fairly sure it was my neighbor that had stolen our stroller! I called my friend Denise who is a police officer for advice. She said to email her back, not to call her and find out what her address is to confirm it is my neighbor. She also said once I do that to get the police to do a standby and come with me to mediate the situation b/c they do that all the time.

So this morning I emailed her back and told her what time would work best for me and asked her what worked for her and where did she live? I did this about 9:30am. Bear in mind that all last night I was shaking I was so mad/nervous/shocked that this was happening to us and my stomach was in knots. I could barely sleep. Around 11am this morning I got a call from the Specialist that took my report and she said she found the Craigslist posting I was talking about and was pretty sure it was my stroller too. She asked me if I had contact the person and I told her my whole story about how I had and how I reverse searched her phone number and discovered it was my neighbor! She seemed pretty impressed with all I had done...you don't mess with me! She asked me to forward her the emails I had with the girl and she also looked up the address and came up with the same one. She said she would give the girl and hour and a half to respond back and if she did not then she would come over there and get my stroller back. I was shocked! I couldn't believe the Davis PD was all of a sudden coming through for me! I later found out my wonderful neighbor who is a dispatcher with the Davis PD had called and followed up with them on my case even though she is out of town! She rocks! It truly is all about who you know in this world.

So exactly an hour and a half passed and I get a call back from the Davis PD asking if she had emailed me back. She had not so she told me she and an officer were going to come to the house and get my stroller back. I would have to identify it and they wanted to know if I wanted to press charges. If I did the stroller would be taken as evidence and held until the D.A. figured out if they wanted to try the case. I went back and forth on this but Adam really wanted to press charges b/c he said it was not about the stroller but the fact that these people came onto our property and stole from us and then tried to sell it. Plus this way it would be recorded that something had happened so that if in the future something else happened we would have this to help us.

I saw the specialist and the officer arrive and they walked straight over to house. I was so nervous b/c I had no idea what was going to happen! I was especially nervous b/c I was scared that for some reason it wouldn't be our stroller but I had to keep thinking it had to be b/c there was too many clues that it was. They were over there for over 20 minutes and finally there was a knock on our door! I opened up the door and there was the officer and there was our stroller! She said you recognize this? Of course I did! It totally was our stroller distinguishing marks and everything. She asked if she could come in. She explained that the lady who owned the house of course had no clue this was going on. She had let this 16 year old pregnant girl and her 19 year old husband live with them b/c they were homeless and the girl was pregnant. This couple was brought into the house of course by her grandson...I believe...it even sounded like the officers were confused. Anyway, at first they didn't own up to it but really quickly they told the whole story. The 16 year old pregnant girl wanted to take the fall for it all but it came out that her 19 year old husband was the one who came up to our door and stole it and then she put it on Craigslist. The grandmother who owns the house was mortified and was worried about what her neighbors would think of her...personally I really don't care about her, she needs to know who she is letting stay at her house and what is going on under her roof! The office told me if I pressed charges this 16 year old pregnant girl would be arrested and I didn't want to do that to someone who is already in a bad situation and as the officer said they did confess real quick. I told her my main concern was that I wanted this on record somewhere in case something else happened since this house was so shaddy. They agreed with me that the goings on in that house were weird but told me that this was a case on file with the guilty parties names and everything so it was definitely on record even if I didn't press charges. So I made the call not to send a 16 year old pregnant girl to jail...I was hoping I could only send her 19 year old husband since he was the one that actually stole it but the officer said both would be arrested. Those 2 are lucky I am so nice. The officer gave me her card and said I could call her anytime if I feel there is anything weird going on with the house or anyone it and she would be right over. She gives someones a pass once but definitely not the second time. I felt very comforted by this. The highlight of the whole thing was when the officer told me, "Hey by the way nice detective work on your part". I felt so proud...so that is why you can call me Det. Morrill.

Hopefully they realize they shouldn't mess with me anymore and all will be over. It was also be nice for the lady that owns the house to come over and apologize to me, but I doubt that will happen. So we have our stroller back...and all is well. The whole neighborhood came out for the action that ensued here this afternoon and all are shocked at what happened. But as I said hopefully this won't happen again. Thanks for all the concern by everyone! And of course I couldn't have done all my detective work without all the help I got along the way.