DON'T TOUCH THE CACTUS!

What a weekend! We finally reached an agreement with the owner of the house we were hoping to rent on Friday afternoon (a week and a half after we turned in the offer/application)! I'm getting excited about moving, call me CRAZY. We kept with the momentum and had a yard sale on Saturday. We were really hoping to sell the golf clubs, desk and stroller. Of course we didn't sell any of those things but did get rid of quite a bit of the small stuff. I listed the golf clubs and desk on craigslist and already sold the desk and have someone interested in the golf clubs. The only reason I wanted to sell the stroller was because Eric ran over it and now the back wheel is warped. We got so hot being outside all morning that we decided to go to the pool Saturday afternoon.

Sunday morning, Emory woke up with a rash all over her back, stomach and legs. She had had some patches on her upper back for about 2 months that I just assumed were eczema because they came and went but never really spread or got too big. Of course they were nonexistent the day of her 9month checkup so the pediatrician didn't see it but he also said that it was probably nothing. It got progressively worse last week and then Sunday morning it was EVERYWHERE! I tried to think of everything that we had done and everything that she had eaten and couldn't think of anything out of the norm. It was still there Monday morning so off we went to the pediatrician. When he saw it he said "Is that it? That looks like eczema and a heat rash. HaHa." I thought I was going to kill him. This is the child that has only had one cold in her life, she never gets sick (knock on wood), and all of a sudden she is covered in red patches. Is that normal? Is it an allergy? He said that most likely it is what it is and gave us a prescription cream and told me to keep her settled and cool. She is a 9 month old and we live in the desert. How am I supposed to keep her settled and cool? However, the cream seemed to really help because it looked so much better this morning.

In an attempt to keep her cool, we went to Noah's yesterday afternoon to play in his kiddie pool. Emory and Noah are future TROUBLE makers. Emory kept putting her face in the sprayer on the pool and just laughing. Everything was going great until, Noah grabbed the cactus. Poor thing (and poor Christa)! He grabbed the new growth of a prickly pear cactus. For all of you Southerners, that means the equivalent of TINY splinters that only go halfway in. She had to knock him out with benadryl and pick each one out with tweezers. The pediatrician (the same one that laughed at me) told Christa that if she couldn't get them all out, she needed to take him to the ER. Can you imagine the drama and trauma of taking a 12 month old to the ER for a TINY splinter?

In an attempt to keep Emory cool and out of trouble, her friend Rhonnie came over to play this morning. They do very well together and enjoy taking toys and sippy cups away from each other. It's funny to watch because if one of them has something, all of a sudden the other one thinks that he or she must also have it. I guess it's just the beginning of jealousy. We might be in for it when the terrible twos set in.

Since most of Emory's friends are just a little older than she is, they teach her new tricks. Currently she watches them walk (and run and climb). She is very close, but not quite brave enough to let go yet. I'm not sure I'm ready for her to walk just yet. The boys have turned into "toddlers" and she's still my "baby". I don't want her to grow up just yet, these past few months have gone way too quickly. Besides, it's hard enough to keep up with her crawling, I don't know what I'll do when she's walking.

Wow! I just kept going and going didn't I. Sorry for the neverending post, it feels like we had a neverending weekend.