I love you.

This little girl got her first pigtails a couple days ago.  And she said,"I love you," to her Daddy last night.  I was out running, so I missed it, but Mom and Jason swear that she said it.  Traitor.

The UTI That Wasn't

I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that our kids haven't had to deal with my illness in their life so far.  To my knowledge, we have never measured a fever in either one of them.  They have had minor colds, but nothing very dramatic.  The most significant illness we have had to date was Vivienne's bout with some sort of intestinal bug a couple weeks ago.  She had pretty bad diarrhea for almost a solid week.  Miles got it for about 24 hours, but quickly recovered.  Neither of our kids had a fever throughout the whole ordeal, and I'm thankful for that.

After Vivienne's diarrhea had finally passed, I started to worry that she had a urinary tract infection.  She started crying when I took her out of the bath tub and was clearly indicating to me that the pain was coming from "down under."  The next day, I called the advice nurse, who recommended that I go ahead and bring her in, just in case.  So we all packed up and were at the doctor's office about 20 minutes later.

At the pediatrician's office, they stuck a little bag to her with adhesive.  The purpose of the bag was to collect her urine.  It hung out of her diaper on the side, and we just needed to wait for her to pee.  She seemed irritated by the bag, but she was very pleased with the bottomless supply of apple juice in a juice box (a first for both kids).

Miles also did his part to show her how to down that juice box.

After about half an hour, Vivienne filled up her little bag.   The initial results didn't show any sign of a UTI.  They cultured the urine overnight and called the next morning to inform us that she was all clear.  We couldn't figure out why she had started crying so badly that night after that bath.  We never saw any other signs of her having a UTI, and it's been smooth sailing for about a week now.

A Couple of Runnin' Fools

The past few weeks at the Fox household have been very good for running.  Yesterday, Jason ran in the Greensboro Half Marathon as part of his training for the Richmond Marathon (coming up next month).  He beat his previous PR for a half marathon, running it in 1:23:11.  Considering this is only his second stand-alone half marathon race, that's pretty darn good.  (Ignore the fact that he's raced 4 stand-alone marathons, at least 7 Half Ironmans and 4 Ironmans, but apparently running a stand-alone half marathon is different?  He says,"It's an all out sprint.")  Anyway, Miles, Vivienne and I are ridiculously proud of him.  Way to go, Daddy!

A couple weeks ago, I ran 35 miles.  Last week, I ran 37 miles (42 miles total, if you include the 5 miles that I walked with Pam one day), including a 9-mile long run on Sunday.  Yesterday, I ran my fastest double-stroller 6-mile run at a 9:03 pace.  Today, I ran 10 miles (sans double stroller) at an 8:57 pace, which may actually be my fastest 10 miles ever (I can't remember my record from before the babies were born or even really what my middle name or social security number are anymore).

I'm officially training for a half marathon next month.  My goal is to beat 2 hours, which I was not able to do in my previous 2 half marathons (which were just over 2 hours).  We'll see what happens!  Wish me luck!  (Jason is going to run it with me, so that will be a "rest day" for him.  Show off.)

Forrest Gump would be proud.  (Miles and Vivienne, you'll have to Google that.  "Googling" is this term we used to use for looking things up on the internet.)

Fall Garden

I have really enjoyed working in our yard this year.  We had our sod installed, and I have spent many, many hours planting over 50 plants (all perennials) in our beds.  Now that Fall is here, my plants are changing and I am loving it.  My shrubs have all grown since they were first planted, and some things are starting to flower.  The ruby loropetalum, knockout roses and azalea have all bloomed.  My roses seem to be getting a second wind this Fall - they already bloomed all summer.

My camelia is growing buds, and I can't wait to see it bloom for the first time.  I have forgotten what color flowers it should have, but I believe they may be pink.  We shall see!

The sugar maple is just starting to turn.  I can't wait to see it in a few years after it has had time to mature.

At the Farmer's Market, I picked up some ornamental cabbages to plant around the Japanese maple.  I know it's weird, but I have always thought that cabbage is such an awesome plant for landscaping.  It's fun that I now have a yard to ornament with some cabbage!

I also used a coupon to buy a flat of pansies from a nice local nursery.  I planted them last weekend, and I can't wait to see them fill in.

Little Lady Godiva

I am happy to report that with a bit of "airing out," Vivienne's diaper rash is much improved today.

Note:  No carpets were harmed in the "airing out" of this baby.

Our Little Lady Godiva

Stomach Virus

(You should be thankful that I am not including any photos in this post.)

Since last week's vomiting episode (which luckily only happened once), Vivienne has had pretty bad diarrhea.  It started on Saturday morning, and it's still going strong.  Miles had a small bout of it, but he seems to be on the road to recovery.  After this all started, I quickly abandoned our cloth diapers for disposable ones.  With the cloth diapers, I felt like I was spending half the day up in our bathroom dunking diarrhea diapers in the toilet - NOT FUN. 

We have been using the BRAT diet - bananas, rice, applesauce and toast.  We're also giving them yogurt.  Miles is loving that he can eat all these bananas.  We usually withhold the bananas from him (much to his dismay), because he has issues with constipation.  This week, eat AS MANY BANANAS AS YOU WANT, BUDDY!!  I would welcome a little constipation at this point.

Yesterday, Vivienne developed a diaper rash.  To me, it looks like a pretty bad case of diaper rash.  Our babies have never really had much diaper rash, so any sign of it looks severe to me.  She doesn't have boils or anything like that (which apparently they can get?), but it's really red and obviously very tender.  I think the acidity of her poo has been irritating her sensitive skin down there.  She would scream whenever I would change her diaper (which you are supposed to do very often when they have a diaper rash - again, NO FUN).  I'm not using regular wipes on her - just using cloth wipes with water and slathering on the A&D ointment.  It seems to be helping.

Yesterday, I was "airing her out" (aka letting her run around like a half nudie) in the front yard while we waited for Jason to come home.  I'm supposed to allow her to be as dry as possible, and apparently airing her out is the best way to do that.  I have blankets all over our family room floor today so that she can get a little more air down there.  Hopefully she doesn't have too many accidents.

I called the pediatrician twice this week - once to ask about the diarrhea and then again to ask about the diaper rash.  They don't seem too concerned about either one, so that is relieving.  They said that our babies are probably slightly contagious, especially at the onset of their symptoms, so I have been keeping them away from other kiddos this week.

Hopefully we're back to normal poo soon.  I never thought I would be able to discuss poo so openly and without feeling nauseated.

"Kitty Cat!!"

Miles and Vivienne have their first official word - kitty cat.  They have said "mama" and "dada" for a while now, and they would repeat other words after we say them, like duck, done, dry, more, etc.  For the first time, it is very clear to us that they know exactly what a kitty cat is and they say "kitty" each time they see Noah or Chloe.  Of course, it comes out more like "titi" (no comments, please) in a very high-pitched voice.  I guess they raise their pitch because we typically raise our pitch when we say "kitty cat."  I must admit that it is ridiculously cute.  A couple weeks ago, I think Miles was holding a plush kitty at the Marbles Museum and calling it a kitty cat.  I was surprised that he recognized a plush cat so clearly.

What a patient titi.