Yes, we're home from the hospital!

Last Friday I ran into a friend at the health department (Hi Greg!) when I had all the kids lined up for their H1N1 vaccines and he said, "You're out of the hospital?"  And it was then that I realized that we hadn't updated anyone.  Yes, we're out.  We were discharged a week ago Monday when she proved she could go extended hours without breathing treatments and could drink enough to keep her hydrated without IVs.  The second was the real test because fluids continue to be a challenge.  She has a hard time figuring out sippy cups, dumps open cups (and is so dang independent that she doesn't want your help in using an open cup), chews on bottles, and tips up straw cups so they don't suck any liquid.  She doesn't LOVE any particular drinks enough to work hard to get them. So I'm constantly in her face trying to get her to drink something and she's furiously shaking her head saying, "Nah!"  She is eating though... everything.  And making a disgusting mess of it while she does it.  I forgot how messy 2-year-olds can be.  It makes the boys seem so civilized.  Tonight it was spaghetti-os.  I don't have to draw a picture for you to imagine the outcome of that one.  I feel bad but I have to strip her down to a diaper at meals because undoubtedly she will be covered by the time the meal is over. Today at naptime I wiped her down really well and then threw her in our bed for a nap.  When she woke up I found dried food in the bed.  I couldn't figure out where it had come from because I scrubbed her pretty well... then I saw the culprit - the bottoms of her feet.  I don't know how it got there because I carried her from the table to the bed, but I saw other remnants of food there so I'm pretty certain that is where it was hiding.  Who thinks to wash the bottoms of their kids' feet after meals?? 

Anyway, so we returned home and she hit the ground running.  Other than her "smoker's cough" you'd never know she's been sick.  On Thursday she had an appointment in Chicago and afterward she made her first visit to the American Girl's store.  I... I mean SHE... loved it!  We played with babies for an hour and she is now saying "baby" quite clearly.

Saturday we dressed up the crew for trick or treating.  If you can't tell from the pics, Benji was Shamu and Elliot was Shamu's trainer (we went to Sea World this summer).  Miss Jada was a princess.  She was shivering in the cold and I'm sure she was trying to figure how what in the world we were doing, dressing her up and making her ring doorbells.  But after the first house she got the hang of it and was sticking out her bag and hooting at whoever answered the door.

Everyone wants to know if she's potty trained.  Well, sorta.  It's obvious she's been exposed.  I pulled out the potties and placed them around the house and I showed her how to sit on them.  She did her duty a couple of times when she first came home and then started resisting and so we let it go, figuring we'd revisit it when it gets a little warmer and when we're all settled.  Her tell-tale sign is that she grabs her diaper right before she goes.  So a couple days ago she went up to Jeremy and grabbed her diaper, obviously for him to see.  He asked her if she wanted to go potty and she nodded yes.  She grabbed his hand and practically dragged him to the bathroom.  He took off her diaper and she sat down and sat for quite awhile, reading a couple books.  She went, clapped for herself, was congratulated with a raisinette, and then went on with her day.  It doesn't get much easier than that!  This has repeated itself several times but is in no way consistent.  So we figure we're on the right track.

So that's about it.  In all, we're doing great.  She continues to be a happy, relatively easy kid.  She's curious, determined, and has a plan... all kind of scary things when dealing with a near-2-year-old but also lots of fun to watch.  She's holding her own with the boys.  They've each been bit a couple times but they've handled it better than I expected.  They love her so much and she thinks they're hilarious... and they appreciate the captive audience.  She continues to curse the dog in her native tongue but I also caught her petting him when she didn't think anyone was watching so I think we're getting somewhere with that as well.

Here's the latest pictures...