Sick Kids )-:

The last few weeks have been a bit upside down at our house. Lots of germs. 

Little Brother K had a bad cold that turned into bronchitis meaning lots of juggling childcare and work schedules to care for a sad little boy. Just as he started to feel better... JJ came down with what (we thought) was the same thing. But then things changed. She woke up one morning and her face was very swollen. I called the doctor who asked us to go straight to Emergency. The doctor there figured it was a virus and sent us home. Later that day she developed a rash all over her torso, the swelling continued, and the fever would not go away. Back to the doctor for tests. Long story short it looks like it was probably Scarlet Fever. Thankfully JJ has responded very well to antibiotics and is now back to her regular feisty self!

I'm very behind on work and laundry and, well, everything. But I have remembered to take a few ((hair)) pictures in the last few weeks and will update here soon.

In the meantime, here are before and during pictures of JJ's poor swollen face (it was even more dramatic in real life, you'll have to trust me!).

Before getting sick

Waiting for the doctor; swelling mostly in the eyes and nose at this point. 

Back home, more swelling, sad face...

Now back to her usual feisty self, with a few extra eye wrinkles left over
(extra wrinkles on both of us....!)

There IS such thing as too much bling! (on one head, anyway)

I was so excited that my Snapaholics order arrived just on time for the weekend. I was literally itching to get that bling into JJs hair. We finally had a chance on Sunday afternoon to sit down for some hair time. I'd already put all the new bling away into a sectioned container, all sorted by colour, shape and size.

I asked JJ to choose her what she wanted. She immediately gravitated towards a large pink airplane-shaped bead. Now this hadn't come from Snapaholics. It actually came from a pipe cleaner bracelet she'd made at her day care centre, and she liked the bead so much she dismantled the bracelet to add it to the hair bead collection. So following her lead, I chose pink and clear beads to coordinate with and highlight her chosen focal point.

Long story short, I got carried away. Remember those 99 twists? Well, they had turned into about 130 twists once the flat twists from the front were out and regular twists were in. And then I was putting 3-5 beads plus a snap on each twist. I started with the twists at the front, and totally planned to keep on going.

See the airplane bead?

But even with all kinds of new bling I was soon running out of pink and clear beads. No problem, I thought. I'll alternate sections - a white and clear section, a green and clear, a blue and clear, etc.

See the pretty sections I was working on?
See how much fun she was having swinging her beads around?

Speaking of fun, I was having so much fun.........! Until Daddy D came home from his soccer game. He took one look at JJ and said "WHAT ARE YOU DOING???!?". I stopped - I had no idea what he was talking about. He continued: "She can't even hold her head up - you put way too many beads on there!" Now Daddy D is quite prone to exaggeration so I didn't take him very seriously. And JJ piped in "No Daddy It's ok, I love the beads".

I took a long look. Although she could hold her head up, there were just too many beads on that 3-year old head.  It totally pained me to take beads off, but I did. I left a snap on the end of all of the twists at the front and every couple of twists at the back, and I left in the "focal point" braid with the airplane bead, and a few other beads here and there.

I left in more beads at the front...

...and mostly snaps at the back

Post hair time chillin' with K!

New on the to-do list: once the small twists come out, I CAN'T WAIT to do some larger braids or twists and put my longed-for 4-6 beads at the end of each one!