Being a Big Girl & A Big Owie

For our RS activity this Thursday, we are making some Valentine's day blocks and also doing a hairbow/flower exchange.  I am now the RS activities coordinator, so :).  I needed to get some more supplies for Thursday night plus get hair stuff to make and exchange.  Stacy, her daughter, Bella, Sydney, and I decided to venture out together.  Bella is just a few months older than Sydney and they both adore each other.  Sydney watches Bella and sooooo wants to be doing everything that Bella can do - sit up, walk, eat "real" food.  We were going to go to Joann's, Hobby Lobby, and Michael's to look for our supplies.  The shopping carts are itty bitty!  I am lucky if Sydney's carseat will even fit in the basket part - there are times I have to balance the carseat across the basket because it won't fit in the basket.  Sydney has been doing better at the whole sitting thing, but still likes to slump to the side after a few seconds.  I knew that in Joann's we weren't going to be too long, so I decided to try her out sitting in the shopping cart "big girl" style.  Worse case scenario is that she hates it, I carry her the rest of the time and next store I keep her in her carseat.  No need!  She loved it!  The back of the cart seat was high enough to support her and the belt fit right under her arm pits.  I strapped her in and we were off....She looked over at Bella, who was also sitting "big girl" style in her cart and started giggling and reaching for her.  (I do think it helped that she watched Bella sitting the same way.)

The blankets were there just in case we needed some extra support. 

Stacy & I debated what day to go on...Monday, but her husband, who works insane hours, was home, Tuesday afternoon, or Wednesday.  Since the activity is Thursday, I thought the earlier the better - so we knocked Wednesday off our list.  Stacy was worried about the weather on Tuesday afternoon, so we went Monday.  Good thing too!  Here is what I woke up to:

It was suppose to be in the 50's this morning, and get down to the 20's in the afternoon....hmmm, weathermen!....I actually listened to it sleet all night long.  They ended up cancelling school here and Jeff got a text saying that his office was closed as well.  Jeff went to the hospital and did a couple of c-sections, then was home the rest of the day!

The niceness of a snow day was short lived... Sydney has a "strawberry" on her right cheek.  She has one on the top of her head as well - Jeff has several on his forehead, so we didn't think much of it.  We have noticed that the "strawberry" has grown quite a bit lately.  Jeff felt it the other day and talked about how hard it was.  We have been wondering what to do about it...Jeff even was thinking that maybe it was more of a mole, because of the way it has developed.  Today we got a definative answer as to what it is....Sydney wasn't liking her green garden vegetables (I don't blame her!) and didn't want to eat anymore of it, she was smearing it all over herself and her pj's.  We took her out of her high chair to change her pj's and I noticed that she had a little dribble of blood from the "strawberry".  We wiped it, and wiped it, and wiped it.  Grabbed a tissue to put pressure on it, grabbed a few more.  From this new development, Jeff said that this is a "cherry angioma".  He had one similar to this on his leg.  It is almost like a blood blister, except it keeps "popping" and oozing blood.  He ended up having to go to a doctor's office to get his removed/fixed.

We ended up putting several bandaids on her face, but they kept leaking.

This is the 3rd one we put on.  It looks worse than it really is.  It is just a small spot that is bleeding.  This is just the bloodsoaked bandaid.  We finally got it to stop, so the last thing we wanted was to pull off this bandaid just to put a pretty one on.  In our luck, it would've started bleeding again.

Well, that bandaid was short lived.  About 2 hours later, the spot started bleeding again.  :(  Sydney fights us everytime we try to clean it or put any sort of pressure on it.  The more she fights, the more it bleeds.  Jeff ended up throwing her in the shower to help wash her up - she had blood everywhere - and to distract her while he put some more pressure on it.  She is now sleeping soundly with a new cottonball bandaid on. (Thanks Dad for the suggestion!)

With this bad weather, I am a little worried that all the doctor's offices will be closed again on Wednesday.  Jeff has already gotten the notice that his office will be closed again.  (He has a few c-sections again and then we have another snow (ice) day.)  I think he will come home with a few supplies to help with the bleeding if it starts up again, but hopefully we can either go to the pediatrician's office or find a dermatologist who can see her and fix it.

It is hard watching my little girl bleed and cry and not really be able to do anything about it.  Thankfully I got her "Red Dress" photos in before all of this happened!  Trying to see the positive! :)