Lately

Tuesday night, the dreaded cough returned. I started her on her albuterol inhaler several times a day, and while it didn’t really get rid of the coughing, she never started wheezing or panting. Friday morning, I planned on taking her in for her flu shot, so I made an appointment for the doctor to take a look at her. Dr. Vargo (who is one of the best peds ever!) heard a crackle in her right lung that he couldn’t get comfortable with, so he gave her a breathing treatment. (She acted like a feral cat when they came in with the machine. It took a call to daddy and the help of the respiratory therapist to get her to take it.) The doc still heard the crackle, so he sent us for a chest x-ray. (Thankfully, she acted like an angel and fully cooperated for the x-ray, including taking off her shirt and dress, climbing up on the table by herself, and laying down on her tummy.) They didn’t see a big, defined wedge of fogginess in the lungs like you sometimes do for pneumonia, but it was more than just mucus and something to take seriously. So now she’s back on antibiotics and being treated for light pneumonia. Will it ever end?!?! We didn’t get our flu shots as expected (for which she is ESCTATIC!), but we did learn that she is now 40 inches tall and weighs 36 lbs. She’s still coughing but less often, and we’re using this slow, inside day for potty training. More on that lovely topic later.

And some other Toohig Tidbits…

Shockingly, even though my child is surrounded by loved ones from the North, her Southern roots- and accent- have proven to be very thick. She was riding along with Grandma and Peggy recently, and as they went up a hill, she said, “Hill- that rhymes with ‘heel’- like on my foot!” As much as Grandma tried to correctly pronounce the two words for her, she insisted they sounded the same. I can’t help but laugh out loud every time I think of that story!

When we were drawing a picture of a house the other day, she asked me to draw a kid in the window, and then she put a piece of tape over the window to be the glass. She said, “It's important to keep an eye on the children.”

She loves to call Peg by her whole name- Peggy Philbin.

I was covering her with kisses one morning, and she said, “That's enough hugs, Mommy. Get outta my face.” Well okay then! But then she also told me, “You're my best friend.” I guess I’ll take the nastiness for the sweetness. A preview into her teenage years? :)

She told me one morning, “If I'm upstairs in my bed, my arms aren't long enough (to reach you), but if I'm in your bed, they're juusst right.”

One night at bedtime, she said she wanted to say our ‘thank you lords.’ Confused, I said, “Sure, go right ahead.” She closed her eyes, bowed her head, and said, “Thank you, lords, for everything. Amen!” She’s also started interjecting during our bedtime prayers. As I say, “Help us to be good friends,” she’ll pop up with, “I AM a good friend!” “Help us to be patient.” “I AM patient!” Or as I say, “Please let Baby Girl know how much we love her,” she’ll say, “I love you too, Mama!”

Meeting Baby Andrew

On Wednesday, Helen Grace and I met Baby Andrew MacDermant for the first time. {His mommy is Mrs. Hope, and his big sister is “Baby Emily.”} He was born reaaallly early in the morning last Friday, so he was itty bitty and smelled oh-so-good! The four of us girls often get together for lunch or dinner, so Andrew is going to be the shining star as the only boy! HG was really good with him and was tickled pink when Mrs. Hope asked her to “watch him” for her for a minute. Welcome to the world, Baby Andrew!

While Mama’s Away

What a crazy week we’ve had. I was in Nashville for training Sunday afternoon through Tuesday night, and then John left on Wednesday morning for an overnight business trip. Thank goodness our weekend is manageable!

John texted me this pic on Monday morning. I think HG slept very well, but I’m not so sure about Daddy.

John and HG met all the grandparents at Newk’s Monday night for dinner. They had a big ole time with lots of twirling and racing down the sidewalk, but Spiffer said at one point, HG patted her on the leg and asked, "Where's my mommy?" Once I got home, she has enjoyed reminding me that I went on a trip to go to training.

John sent me this audio of HG singing her new favorite song, “Go Tell It On the Mountain,” on the ride home from Newk’s.

I’ll refrain from posting the pic he texted me of HG sitting on the potty (and she may or may not have been screaming and crying), but he was very successful in at least getting her to sit and try and they even had a little action. I’m thinking I need to let him take over the potty training- maybe tough love is what it’s going to take!

While Grandma’s Away

Grandma and Peggy go to Aruba for a week of vacation every year, and Granddaddy and Spiffer get tickled pink to have Helen Grace for a whole week! They pull out all the stops for play and entertainment, and of course, we have a hard time to get HG to leave their house and come home at night. :) Here are some pics from their week together.

Fun with shaving cream And play doughApparently, a Windex obsession is an inherited trait. Just kidding, Spiffer! I told her that I was thankful since it skipped my generation! And the girl is now all about Barbie. This one is from the Barbie Mermaid movie, and she can convert to a mermaid and her hair turns pink in ice water.

Gymnastics!

On Saturday night, Helen Grace and I had a girls’ night out with Aunt Rachel and Courtlyn. We had dinner at McAlister’s and then headed to the Forum to see the Olympic gymnasts’ tour performance (women’s team, men’s team, and trampoline team, plus Nastia Lukin). The girls “flipped” out to see them dance and perform, although I think I was geeking out the most, and honestly, HG was probably more excited about having Courtlyn ride in the back seat with her! We had so much fun getting to visit with our girls and watching the show together. If we didn’t already have high odds of broken bones with our little daredevil monkey, we for SURE do now! :)

Ready for the show to start!JORDYN (Weiber) on the bars!!!

Zoo Boo 2012

Helen Grace spotted the Zoo Boo billboards a month ago, and we haven’t stopped hearing about it since. Of course, we had to be there for the first night this past Friday. Our little Tinkerbell was there with her bells on, ready to go!

{She has been telling us for months she wanted to be a green fairy, which turned out to be Tinkerbell. This the easiest Halloween costume to date, thanks to a quick trip to the Disney store!}

I had a feeling that she’d shirk half her costume, although she’d been very excited about wearing all of it. She didn’t disappoint and refused to wear the shoes or wings out of the car. She chose to take the wand, but I carried it for most the night. I’m hoping that she’ll have a change of heart for the actual night. ;)

She was too excited to eat when we first arrived, so we headed to the rides and then the dance party. Thanks to the teenage rap music and crazy strobe lights, we didn’t stay there terribly long, and we checked out the ghouls in Primate Canyon and then hopped on a haunted hayride. {Warning to other Memphians that are planning on going to Zoo Boo this weekend: There will be some people that jump out at you while you are looking at the dinosaurs! Luckily, HG was more startled by my scream than the actual scary guy, and she didn’t seem to be upset by it. I’m just thankful that I didn’t have to go to the bathroom because it scared me to death- ha!} We finally convinced her to sit down and eat for a minute, made a quick swing back by the disco, and then literally had to drag her out of there around 9:30. Needless to say, she was not ready to go!

Another successful year of Zoo Boo!

She kept running around saying, “Zoo boo! Zoo boo!” Dancing queen  Checking out the graveyard…she is quite brave (not like her mama). Waiting in line for the hayride To entertain us while we waited, Batman was creating ice sculptures with a chainsaw… Finally on the hayride!!Ballet moves under the disco ballLovey in mouth = Time to go

Toohig Tidbits

I caught HG laughing like a fool at her daddy the other day. John was pretending to be sleep walking and running into walls, and she was about to bust a gut. She now tries to copy him and run herself into walls and furniture. Her daddy will be taking her to the ER for any accident as a result of this game! But the two of them were having a ball together. :)

 

Spur of the moment on Wednesday afternoon, we headed to the playground to meet Lawson. A little girl there showed HG some new “lessons” (tricks), and while I about had a heart attack, I’m proud of HG for being brave.

We had awful weather on Wednesday night. I spent a good bit of the tornado watch time in the bathroom in a stalemate with my strong willed child over potty training. For the record, it took her daddy showing some tough love, but we got some tee tee action! Then, I put HG in the bed with us and kept the tv tuned to the news while she wound down. We talked a little bit about tornados, and she was sorely disappointed that we didn’t have to take shelter in the closet. Now she hasn’t stopped asking to go to the Children’s Museum so she can take a better look at the wind tunnel/tornado there. Gah! Anyway, I enjoyed the extra snuggle time with my cuddle bug.

Ummm, where is Mama going to sleep?

While I was sitting across from Helen Grace at the kitchen table Friday morning, I had a moment of ‘where’s my baby girl?’ She’s so big and acts (most of the time) like a little lady. She gets more self sufficient by the minute.

Saturday morning, we went to a make up dance class at Stars in Motion (the fire truck came to visit her MDO class on Thursday during dance time)  in preparation for their Nutcracker performance in November, and then I dragged her along to the Apple store to fix my iPhone. We grabbed some lunch at Chick-fil-A while we were out, and while she wasn’t excited about it, she minded me and ate all her food before she played. And then she came out of the play room without a fuss (which is unusual) when I asked her to and behaved through a trip to the bathroom. So this was her treat…and maybe Mama got a little treat too….

Pledge of Allegiance

I have heard Helen Grace reciting the Pledge of Allegiance a bit lately as she’s been learning it at school, but it has been pretty fuzzy/hit or miss. This week, our friend, Rachel, sent us a video of her kindergartener, Courtlyn, leading the pledge for her elementary school. HG thought this was the coolest thing and watched it a ton of times. Afterward, I turned to her and asked if she could do that. And THIS is what I got. My mouth was on the floor.

{Please excuse the fingerprint-covered camera lens and Mocha making his appearance in the middle of the video. Life at the Toohigs.}

Petting Zoo

Today, instead of story time, the Olive Branch library brought in a Happy Times petting zoo. It was a beautiful, sunny day, although a bit windy and a little chilly in the shade, but after our crazy morning with playing car ring-around-the-rosy, Helen Grace and I were hell bent to get there. (John’s car battery was dead this morning, so he took my car to work. Then, Granddaddy picked up HG and me and took us to Grandma’s so we could borrow her van.)

Lawson was there too, so HG enjoyed pulling him around for a bit. She didn’t want to feed the goats and sheep, but she was all over the other animals. She buzzed like a bee from one cage to the next, over and over again. After she knelt down to grind some corn, she got the knees of her pants wet from the damp grass. She was none too pleased about that and wanted to go home to change pants, but I got her distracted by going inside to find a book. (I love that my girl loves to read and has so much fun at the library.) We read a few Halloween and Thanksgiving books, and then she decided she wanted to go to Newk’s for lunch.

As soon as the two of us pulled into Newk’s parking lot, she started asking who we were meeting for lunch. The girl can’t be pleased to just eat with her 'ole mama! She was happy enough though when I said we could eat outside. We had a great time dancing to the shopping center’s music while we ate, and I squeezed in a bunch of hugs and kisses while she flittered around me. Silly girl!

“Nuh huh, I’m not touching that.”