Piggy Flu

 (this picture was just too cute not to post)

It's hit our house.  When we took Eriks to the pediatrician yesterday he tested positive for flu and the doctor said that 97% of the cases the office has seen have been swine flu.  Since he has symptoms more typical of swine flu and not seasonal flu she's pretty sure that's what he has.  I called my doctor yesterday and asked what she wanted me to do because I have some underlying health issues that make me a high risk case.  She's prescribed Tami.flu as a preventative.  I don't have any symptoms yet.  Thankfully.  But I'm going to be taking a 1/2 dose for 10 days to keep me from getting it.  We're keeping an eye on Emi and thus far she's OK.  And so is Lane.  Eriks is almost over it.  Yesterday, he was acting like he was perfectly healthy.  Talking to people who know other people who have had kids with this strain of flu, this is about how their kids were too.  Sick with high fever for the first 24 hrs and then a slight fever for about 1/2 a day and then nothing.  Still highly contagious though.  Eriks only has a 4 day school week because of parent-teacher conferences tomorrow.  He was at school on Monday but got sick in the afternoon and came home with a fever of 103.  Tuesday fevers were in the 100-102 range.  Yesterday 99-100 (a.m. only).  Today, nothing - 98.1.  So he's been out of school the rest of this week and will return to school on Monday with lots of makeup work to do.  At least he'll be able to go trick-or-treating Saturday.  That was what he was most worried about.  I'm so glad he's not getting sick with it today because Halloween trick-or-twould bereating  absolutely out of the question and he'd be super upset.

I thought we'd avoid all this piggy flu stuff but apparently not.  Oh well.  At least it's not as bad as I had feared it to be which is really good.  Besides the fact that my daughter has developed an aversion to eating, we're OK here.  All of a sudden Emi has decided she doesn't want to eat.  She was having some issues last week moving her bowels and I'm not sure if that's why she doesn't want to eat.  She might be afraid of getting stopped up again and having pain in her tummy.  I figure that when she's ready and hungry enough, she'll eat.  In the mean time, I'll probably get some Pedia.sure to supplement to make sure she gets nutrients.

Hope everyone's kids are staying healthy.

Photos of the Kids

I had some miscellaneous photos to post.  Most of them are of Emi but one is of Eriks.  The 1st two photos that include Eriks and Emi were taken last weekend at Steak.n.Shake.  We went to run errands after church and before we made a dangerous trip to Sam's-Club we figured we needed to eat lunch 1st.  Emi loves to color.  She may be the artist.  Eriks is liking drawing more now but when he was Emi's age, he wanted nothing to do with it.  Emi on the other hand will sit and doodle for a long time.

The last 3 pictures are of Emi with a pigtail and bow in her head.  When she came home she had very little hair.  You can go to the old blog here and see what she looked like when she came home.  I was worried it would never grow.  It is still short, but it is growing fast and is now long enough to put the top part in a small pigtail and clip a bow.  Yesterday she was wearing blue & white.  The colors of our favorite NFL team who are currently undefeated.  It was so cute.  Most of the time she leaves it in her head but she also thinks it's fun to pull it out from time to time.  I think she's so cute with bows in her hair. 

Friday Halloween Playdate

While Eriks was away in school all day.  We got invited to a girls get together at Lisa & Briana's home.  Also at the party was Angela and her girls - Haylee and Laney, Lisa S. and Maisie and Amy and Mary Lin. 

The girls played for awhile and then we did crafts.  Emi is too small to do it on her own, but I had her help beat down the stuff we were gluing with her hand.  She was more interested in other stuff but what do you expect from an almost 21 month old?

The lunch was fabulous both for the kids and the adults.  Emilija devoured her PBJ and fruit.  The adult lunch was so good too.  I made one of my favorite snacks - Swiss & Bacon Dip.  It was a hit.  The dip was a favorite among our bunco group back in Little Rock and the recipe can be found here.

I do not like my little point and shoot but didn't feel like dragging my DSLR with me so unfortunately I didn't take many photos.  I did make treat bags for all the kids that were a hit too.  I like being crafty and so when I get the chance to make something cute, I do (see photo above - aren't they cute?)  Oh, I did not make the veggie skeleton.  That was made by Angela.  Just posted the picture because he was too cute not to.

Wild Thing...

...you make my heart sing!!!

This hugely silly girl was having a truly wild night after her bath on Saturday.  Her hair was everywhere and absolutely hilarious.  It's almost as if the bath completely gave her a second wind for the night and she was screaming/making loud noises and being her typical clown self.  These photos were just too cute not to share.

Emi is now giving kisses to all of us all the time.  This is a HUGE thing because she's learned that this is one of the ways we show love.  She hasn't gotten the concept of pursing her lips together to kiss, but she does the typical open-mouth sloppy, drool kiss her brother did when he first started giving kisses too.  She'll learn.  She even gives the dogs kisses.

Hoping to get some good photos of Eriks to post soon.  He's just so busy that I don't get around to taking photos of him.

Girly With a Twist

Emilija is a funny little thing because with her you never know what to expect.  She is our family clown.  She'll try and do anything to get a laugh and usually does.  I've always been the one with the sense of humor and I still have one, but she's proved to be stiff competition.

The week before last, she had finished breakfast and bolted into the other room.  Lane was home with me that morning because he had something he had to do so we were a little curious as to what she was up to this time and not even a minute later, we see this:

Now seriously, how can you not laugh at that??  She was pushing her doll in the stroller with one hand and waving Eriks' Ner.f sword with the other.  You can put a tu-tu on her which she loves, but she'll be kicking a soccer ball a few minutes later while wearing the tu-tu.  The pushing of the doll stroller and the sword swinging went on for a few minutes. 

There is very rarely a dull moment with Emi in our lives. 

Sneaky Little Thing

I'm about 90% positive that Eriks is going through a growth spurt.  He's already in the 75% percentile for height.  Well yesterday was a day where he ate everything in sight, often without permission.  I have no problem with him having a snack, but taking 2 full-size yogurts and a granola bar is a meal!

Lane allowed him to have the 1st yogurt and then went back out to continue mowing the lawn.  When he came back in he noticed he was eating another one.  This one taken without permission.  At about 4 pm, I came downstairs to start dinner.  I noticed that one of our dogs was trying to push the laundry room door open, but mysteriously it kept closing.  I knew someone named Eriks was up to something in there but didn't know what.  So I opened the door and noticed dog #2 in there with him.  Eriks was holding a little flashlight in his hand and chomping on a granola bar.  When I asked him what he was doing, he said, "Nothing" as he threw the last bit of granola bar on the floor for the dog to scarf down.  Like I wouldn't notice him doing it or the dog eating it.  So I asked him what he was doing again.  Hanging his head in a bit of shame he said, "Eating a granola bar".  He then proceeded to admit he took it without asking.  He was sent immediately to time out and told that because he took food without permission that he was not going to have any brownies from the batch I made on Saturday.  He's bummed but I'm hoping that he'll learn that he needs to ask for things and not just take them.

I was really mad when I first caught him but a few hours later when I told Lane what happened, I couldn't help shake my head and laugh at how pathetic the whole situation was.  I think I laughed because the look of sheer horror of being caught on Eriks face was priceless.  It was definitely a deer caught in the headlights moment.

Welcome!

Here is my new home!

I have fallen in love with blogging, although I must admit lately it has been a little lacking due to a very hectic schedule.  It's an outlet and a way for friends and family to know what we're up to.

So I wanted to give a little bit of background about my new blog.  I'm sure some of you who followed my old blog want to know how I came up with the name.  I know most people associate LA-LA-Land with that city in southern Califor.nia where all the celebrities live.  On more than one occasion my friends have called me LA-LA-Liene.  Not because I'm anything like the people in the real LA-LA-Land, but because we just do things like that (yes, we're weird).  So I decided that LA-LA-Liene's world is LA-LA-Land.  So welcome to my world!

For those of you who just found me, I've been the wife of Lane for the past 13 yrs and I'm the mom of 2 great, although often mischievous kids.  Eriks who is on the verge of turning 6 and Emilija who turns 20 months old tomorrow.  Both of our children came to us through adoption.  Eriks was adopted here in the U.S. and Emi was adopted in China.

Thanks for joining me on my next ride!