(Road)Trippin'...Trip Trip Trip Trippin'

So I've been on two big trips recently! In March John and I went to Peru to visit friends, and it was also our fifth anniversary when we were there.

John put out a "ridiculous" wish on Facebook for a trip to see his missionary friends there, and his dad and grandma granted his wish! It was so super generous of them!
It was a long 17 hours of traveling to get there, but it was nice to be together.

The tourist trap market

Vince keeps a few "pets" including 3 small alligators!

The guys going off to work on the jungle property building a home for Vince and Megan

And the girls going off to the local resort pool :)

Dinner out then walking around one of the many plazas in the city

Cindy and John- people doing great work for the Lord

A Catholic cathedral in the plaza. The lights change colors.

At the zoo. One ugly monkey.

A pretty Mink

The trick porpoise

A day at the zoo/park

Church on the Mortimer's property

The whole family except Melissa got cutoff!

Motorbikes and Motorcars are 99% of the transportation

A Sunday afternoon river ride

Tributary of the Amazon

The Iquitos Hunting and Fishing Club

Holding a sloth at the Serpentarium on the river

John with the sloth

A Macaw!

A Night Monkey. So so sweet and cuddly!

John harassing the night monkey

Baby alligator

World's ugliest turtle- the Leaf Turtle

Mostly one way streets to keep the traffic safer since there aren't really any traffic "laws"

A squatter's village

We had an awesome time. We did a lot of cool things, but for me my favorite part was probably spending a lot of time talking to the missionaries and hearing all their touching amazing miraculous stories over 40 years of mission work both in Mexico and Peru. Man have they trusted God! They have done some really scary things and been extremely flexible. God has provided for them and done such wonderful works!

Then about six weeks later Sophia and I drove to Maryland to visit my mom and do some sightseeing around the greater DC area. It took two days of driving. That part was kinda tough. Thankfully we flew home. But I got to see a lot of really cool metro areas and really beautiful natural scenery...and a lot of historic architecture. I hope to return someday without kids so we can really delve in deeply to the ton of things the area has to offer.

Driving Day 1

Hotel Night 1

Driving Day 2. Thank God for the DVD player and Curious George

Then we got there and Mimi drove us instead!

With Mimi at last!!!!

We are chocolate

And took strolls

Crossed over the Potomac lots of times

Figured out the Metro

Got served chilled coffee

Played on sculptural merry-go-rounds in the "Innah Hahbah"

Even mom

Perused the National Aquarium

They have a HUGE sea turtle

Little eyes and hands in wonder at the anemones

So happy to take a picture. Ha!

Found some play mates

But mom's the best one

Had a lovely time at the local park

With Mimi

Gave mom an arm workout

Watched a seal show at the National Zoo

Looked at elephants while eating popcorn

Saw birds

Sat on the brass panda

With Mimi too

Got a cool hat

Loved the zoo carousel for 2 or 3 trips

Picked the giraffe even though it was stationary

Switched to the moving horse for round 2

Had the most delicious cupcakes. Not just hype!

Because I just had to take a pic

Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Tidal Basin. All the cherry blossoms had dropped :(

First Mate Sophie

Sad excuse for a selfie

Saw the monument from almost everywhere we went

Dept of Agriculture

Grave of JFK, Jacque O and 2 children

Lee House overlooking Arlington National Cemetary

Maybe my grandma's relative?

Of course the White House. Which looks small in comparison to the other grand architecture around.

Sniffing flowers

Hanging on the barricades at the White House

Loving life

How has it been 10 weeks since I've posted? I've thought about it many times but to be honest always find something else to do. Clearly my enthusiasm for blogging is waning. But I do want to keep this up as my digital scrapbook of sorts.

John and I have settled on a church. We are happy and healthy at Upward Church Pensacola. I did not think we would be at a "trendy" church, but this one is relevant while still being conservative and biblically sound. quite a combination really. Sophia loves her preschool class. We both volunteer periodically, John with media and me with nursery. At first I was off-put by watching sermons via simulcast but the content is so rich that I do not mind at all now. Our pastor is a great teacher who is well-rounded. This is not an "I'm ok, you're ok, let's all be better people" preacher. This is not a "hell-fire and brimstone" preacher. He is a wonderful middle ground. We are working on getting more in fellowship with the other members. We have been attending the marriage small group that meets twice a month and have made some casual friends this way.

John is soon finishing his last general studies course and will begin the radiography program in late June. The summer is only one class so it should be fairly convenient for our family and his work schedule. I'm ready for his 2 years to start so that it can be finished!

I am still working my same job and still content there. I find my work meaningful even though at times it can be stressful. Nothing is particularly difficult except managing to fit all the necessary tasks into the day. As with all jobs, as time passes we are expected to do more tasks with the same amount of time. It is just about prioritization and learning that pretty much never will everything be done.

Sophia can hold conversations as well as any 4 or 5 year old. She is fairly brave at trying new things. Recently I have been taking her to an open play session at a gymnastics facility and she LOVES it. She loves the bars, trampolines and rope zipline. It really is a kid's dream. She has started spontaneously telling us she loves us and giving hugs and kisses. Before it was in response but now she initiates it. I will often feel little arms squeezing my legs. Heart melting.

Things we will be working on hopefully this summer are a big girl bed, potty training and ditching the pacifier. We are already down to sleep times only with the latter. Potty training is a miserable failure at this point. Sophia had some pretty significant bowel issues and she now associates the potty as a negative painful place. Poor baby, it was really awful. She is now also denying when her diaper needs changing and crying about diaper changes. She has potty PTSD, lol. I have resorted to bribery with small chocolate candies in hopes that might entice her to at least sit on the potty! I have to remind myself that potty training is not a moral issue. I feel the social pressure for her to be potty trained and paci free. But who cares what strangers think! She is advanced in a lot of other ways so I feel bad for thinking I need to rush in these areas. Everyone says there's no point in trying training until they're ready. It seems at least among my circle of friends that potty training later and later is becoming more common. I certainly know some 3 year olds who are not fully or maybe not even at all trained.

The other big fun in our life is that for our five year anniversary, John and I visited Peru! We stayed with and visited a 3-generation missionary family there. They have been friends with John's parents since before he was born. We were away from Sophia (14 hours away!) for 8 days! She actually did just fine. She was with her great-grandma who watches her several times a week and she did not even cry for us. We did talk with her on the phone multiples times while we were away.

But- that trip deserves its own post with lots of photos, so I will save it for another day.

Hope ya'll had a great Easter!

Daddy/Daughter date night at Chick-fil-a

Sassy girl

Our 5th anniversary, dinner in Peru

My MOH got married! This was her shower

Mmmm mmm ice cream

She loves bowling!

PS- My labs have all been fine. Hoping to be cleared at the end of June.

In sickness

Quick update on me- my hormone levels are negative. I will be tested monthly until June and then can hopefully move forward.

Ok, onto more recent matters.

Let me say that, I know everyone is probably experiencing some level of sickness this winter. The cold and flu season has been especially potent. We at the White House have been fairly fortunate. We just had colds. But Sophia's cough lingered for quite a while, waxing and waning.

And then, one morning two weeks ago, just after she woke up, she coughed so hard she gagged herself into vomiting. Poor thing. So Papa took her in to our pediatrician. He diagnosed her with double ear infections, probably from chronic sinus drainage from the cough. This was her first time with ear infections so I felt pretty lucky. He prescribed a 10 day course of Amoxicillin. All was well.

Then, 7 days into her antibiotics, she randomly slept til 9:45. This is not totally unheard of for a growing toddler. She'd been off her routine the day before. I just thought she was catching up. She acted fine all day.

The next day, she woke for the day doing the cranky/pain cry. I went in, and could tell she had a mild fever. It was 100.4, So along with her Amoxicillin, I gave her some Tylenol. And then she threw it back up on me. Great. Well, she must have kept down enough of the Tylenol because her fever went down and she acted fairly normal. But when she woke up from her nap, she was hotter than before and very pitiful. Temp was 101.4. I immediately was concerned for the flu and called the doctor for an appointment the next morning.

Again, the fever came down with Tylenol. We tried again before bedtime to give Tylenol and Amoxicillin. Vomit again. I really needed that fever to stay down so we tried Tylenol again. Same result. So, we just let it be. No one got much sleep that night. Sophie ended up spending a couple hours with Papa in the living room, then a couple hours in bed with me. Finally about 2am I woke up and she was on fire. I stripped off her fleece footed jammies, poor thing was so sweaty. I finally got Tylenol in her that she kept down, and I think we got a 2 hour stretch of sleep.

By 8 am it was time to get ready for the doctor. She actually was a little better and did not feel very feverish, so I held off on meds. At the doctor her temp was 99.9. He took a look and listen, and determined it was likely not the flu. Just a bad cold. No meds. Ears were pretty clear.

So Friday we continued our Tylenol, Motrin, herbal cough syrup routine. Things didn't really get much better, except no more vomiting. Friday night passed the same as Thursday. Poor baby was clearly miserable. Coughing, sniffing every 5 seconds, low-grade fever, achy.

I worked Saturday and since it was not the flu, went ahead and had Papa take her to great-grandmas. Well, when we picked her up that evening it was clear to me that things were worse. She kept asking to go home, her poor eyes were red and dark, she was moaning constantly. I decided to take her to the after hours peds clinic. She needed at least something to help her rest.

We had an excellent experience there. Flu and Strep swabs were negative. Pediatrician there said she had a lot of fluid behind her ears and that may be what made laying down uncomfortable. She also listened to her thoroughly. She said she appreciated fine crackles in her lungs and wanted a chest x-ray to see. Thankfully that was done in the same building and was read within 20 minutes. She said Sophia had a viral pneumonia. What virus had caused it, she wasn't sure. There are quite a few going around right now. But her oxygen levels and breathing were fine. She said that she was going to put her on two antibiotics, to cover if it was possibly a bacterial pneumonia also. I asked about meds for her racking cough, but she said cough meds weren't safe until 3 years old.

Sophia also had a slight rash on her trunk that I mentioned to the doctor, but she did not seem concerned.

My poor baby has never looked so puny

A tiny lead apron 

She did really well!

The face of misery. She has quit whining at this point she was so tired.

The 24-hour pharmacy had a 2 hour wait, so we decided to pick up her meds the next morning. It was already 11pm. We continued with Motrin for the aches and pains and the herbal cough syrup. That night passed roughly too, until about 3 am at which point she slept a decent amount until about 10am. But when I got her up and gave her a bath, I could see that the rash was worse.

Sunday morning, finally some rest

She's had a rash once before after a 24-hour fever and I know lots of viruses can end with a rash. I put a call into our doctor just to check, all things considered. I did not hear back. But, Sophia actually got better on Sunday. She ate a little, smiled and played some. The fever was gone. She was still on Motrin and herbal cough syrup and now antibiotics. Her cough was still racking, but not constant.

She only woke up twice, both before midnight, then slept til 8am. But when she did get up, I could see that the rash was much worse. I called our doctor and got an appointment for that morning. They may not have good after-hours service but their weekday service is great. They are a small practice in an old facility and there's only about 5-6 employees total. But I will take the older facilities for the quality time they spend with us and the same-day appointments.

Anyway, our pedi looked her over well. She still had a lot of fluid behind her ears "blue ear" he called it. But with the rash pattern, which was all over including palms and soles, but most concentrated on arms and face, he decided she likely had Fifth's Disease. He also looked over the radiologist's report from Saturday night. He was not so sure Sophia had pneumonia. And if it was a viral pneumonia, the antibiotics were unnecessary. He said her symptomatology from a few days ago sounded like the flu, or a flu-like illness, and that can turn to pneumonia. He left it to my discretion whether or not to complete the antibiotics. I did ask if he thought she could have anything for cough. He agreed to give her something.

The reason FDA put the black label on cough syrups for kids is because of the high potential for overdose. All the reactions kids experienced were in settings of overdose or improper use. The solution was weight-based rather than age-based dosing. The age-based dosing was too broad of a range. The FDA asked the drug manufacturers to do clinical trials for weight-based dosing, but due to high cost they declined. So instead, they're no longer safe OTC. But, being that I'm a nurse and he trusts me to strictly follow the dosing instructions, he gave me some cough syrup for her.

So now, we just treat the cough and the aches, and wait for it to pass. Fortunately she's no longer contagious, unfortunately when she was in the nursery Wednesday night she probably was. We are notifying our church.

It's been an un-fun 5 days for us, and especially her. It's very hard to see your kids, or any kid, sick. I'll be glad to put this chapter behind us.

Sunday morning after a bath

I could see the rash spreading

Monday morning. Things are worse.