Sick Baby

The past 2 months have been hard on Evie. She is just not getting a break! Cold after Cold. Diaper area issues. Fevers. Ear Infections. Conjunctivits. My poor baby girl.

About 2.5 weeks ago (April 5) we went in since she had a few days of a fever of 102. Day care called me on a Monday I believe and I went and picked her up early because she had a fever. She still had it on Tuesday, and had stuff in her eyes, as well as green stuff coming out of her nose. Took her into the pediatrician. They had to scrape ear wax out of her ear just so they could look in it! One they could not get a good look at, but she was freaking out when they scraped that one. Ear infection and conjunctivitis and a fever = antibiotics.

2 weeks later (April 19) I brought her in since her eye goop was still there and a lot greener. She still had a cold, may have been a different one since I think we had a 1-2 day break over the weekend. Gave us eye drops for her conjunctivits. Cleared up very soon after that. But the cold was still going on.

Yesterday (April 25), I got a call from day care. She has a fever of 101.7. YIKES! She is drinking her bottles at day care fine and is nursing fine. Just was not interested in solids yesterday. She had tylenol when we first got home and motrin before bed since it lasts longer. She did not sleep well. But did not have a fever this morning! But that is normal for her, if she has a fever it usually pops up late morning / early afternoon.

Kind of waiting to see what I should do. Maybe this is just one long continuation sickness and I need to bring her in to get better meds for her. Maybe these are all unrelated and I will be the paranoid mom. Plus our copay is kinda high, they always comment on it when I leave. And I don't want to bring her in when they will say...just wait a few days. Ehh best bed to call the nurse's line. Going to do that now.

Evie Art Projects

I got inspired by this blog, Paint and Prozac, to do some art projects with Evie.

Last weekned we did our first art project. In a soup container, we put some paper around the edge. Put some paint in the bottom of the container with 4 marbles. Secured the top. And let her have at it. She had fun shaking it, rolling it, and knocking it over. It generated some great art!

Today was a snow day. So we wanted to do another project! Put some paint on paper. Put it inside a ziplock bag. Evie got to squish and play with it. And generated some great artwork! Here is the finished artwork before I took it out of the bag. Second picture is the finished project!

Jambalya

On Fat Tuesday Nick made Jambalya for us (great day to have it)!  Was sooo good.

Tonight I had to make it myself since it was soo good the last time.

He based it off this recipe, my changes will be italicized.

Simple and oh so yummy! Just takes some time cleaning the chicken and chopping up the veggies. (OK after loading the picture, I see why people make sure the bowl is clean)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, cleaned and cut up into large bite sized pieces
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound smoked sausage, sliced into circles
• 1 large Vidalia onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped thyme
• 2 cups long grain white rice
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 (14-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
• 2 1/2 cups chicken broth, we found that you really need 3 - 3 1/2 cups
• 1 dried bay leaf
• Shrimp, about 1/2 pound, deveined, shelled, etc
• 1 tsp cajun seasoning
• sprinkle of cayenne pepper - depending on how much spice you like
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions (we left out since we forgot)
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (we left out since we forgot)

Directions

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add chicken to the Dutch oven and brown on each side, about 8 minutes total. Remove to a plate and reserve.

Add sausage, onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic, and thyme and saute until translucent and sausage is browned, about 8 minutes. (you may want to brown sausages seperately like chicken)

Stir in rice, tomato paste, diced tomatoes, broth, bay leaf, and reserved chicken, and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, and cook on low, covered, for 20 minutes. Add the cajun seasoning and cayenne pepper.

Last 10ish minutes, add the shrimp, once the rice is almost done since the shrimp does not take long to cook.

Turn off heat and let rice stand, covered, 5 minutes. Remove bay leaf. Fluff rice with fork and stir in green onions and parsley.