Halloween and the Worst Game Ever

First off, we are so sad cause our #1 ranked Longhorns lost to the Red Raiders last night in what was a Hail Mary bid for the win by Tech. We went to Hooters with our friends Zander and Sarah to celebrate Zander's 27th birthday (Happy Birthday buddy!) and we had a great time until the end. It was a very close game and we were really disappointed by the way the Horns played. I have to begrudgingly hand it to the Raiders...they played a damn good game and man, can those boys run!!! I still think they must have greased themselves up since Texas had a hard time making their tackles on them. The Raiders were slippery as eels! We had two opportunities to sock it to the Raiders and we missed them both: a possible interception was dropped at the last second and the Horns failed to bring the player with the winning touchdown out of bounds with only 2 seconds to go. Colt McCoy's face matched my own as we stared in disbelief. [sigh] I have to keep telling myself it's only a game, but losing still sucks. The Horns have played a good season so far and we will see where they rank in the next day or so. As the commercials say, every week can change the season. We'll still probably get the Big 12 championship and Michael thinks that it is still possible for us to make it to the National Championship, but I doubt that. We shall see! Alabama, USC, LSU and all the other top ranked teams could still lose big :o)

In other happier news, Halloween was a blast! Well the part that came AFTER the three hour long doctor visit complete with bloodwork, chest xray and attempted collection of a urine sample, anyway. Billa's fever came back and since it was Day 4 with a fever, Dr. Patil wanted to see her again. So Mommy left work early and took Sybilla to the doctor. Pray you never have to get a chest xray for your baby -- it's not pretty. The xray tech was asking me about Sybilla's name which is a medieval name shared by one of the queens of Jerusalem from between the second and third crusades. Well that segued into him telling me about the medieval torture device they were going to place my child in to get her xrays, something called a pigglestack (AUTHOR'S NOTE: I took the time to actually try and find the correct name and a picture of this device...it is really called a Pigg-O-Stat, but I like pigglestack better so we're sticking with it. On another note, I think the child in the picture has been doped because the minute those damn plastic shields close, the child enclosed starts screaming bloody murder).

The Pigg-O-Stat is a Medieval torture device. AKA Pigglestack in the Guerra household.

They literally strapped my kid into this plastic device that held her arms over her head and spun her around so they could get the angles they needed. Sybilla's screaming just about made me morph in Maniac Mommy and claw the xray staff to bits. Anyway, the good thing about having been in the doctor's office for three hours was that we got all the results while there and then discovered that Sybilla did not have a cold, but a virus called Roseola. Basically, it's a high fever for three or four days followed by a red blotchy rash all over her body. When Dr. Patil examined her the first time, there was no rash. By the time we left, there was a rash, so Dr. Patil was able to identify it. Once the rash is there, the baby is no longer contagious, so we were free to go visit the Marino family for Halloween fun!

And fun we did have! Madeleine had so much fun trick or treating and Sybilla got Mommy and Daddy lots of candy. Daddy was a little too honest at the first house we went to and Mommy had to educate Daddy about how trick or treating with babies works: you collect the candy for BABY, and then Mommy and Daddy eat it when they get home. Madeleine's little brother Cameron did NOT want to get dressed in his dragon costume but once we made it to the first two houses he finally figured out the equation: costume = candy! He was very polite too... Madeleine would say trick or treat, they'd get their candy, and the homeowner would get a big "Dank oo!" from Cameron. He'd been sick too, so Cameron and Kellie headed back to the house while Anthony, Michael and I continued to take Billa and Madeleine to a few more houses. Everyone loved Billa's monkey costume and we got some great family photos. Michael and I decided to go as gypsies to play to Billa's organ grinder's monkey. As the Hooters saying goes, delightfully tacky yet so refined :o) Please check out the album here!

Sybilla the Monkey!

I realize I haven't really blogged about Sybilla's growth lately, so here's a quick recap: we weighed in at 21 pounds at the doctor's office on Friday and we are only 8 months and 2 weeks old now! Yes, she has outgrown some of her 12 month stuff and I am having to buy her 18 month old stuff. We have pretty much gone through the majority of the hand me downs from Madeleine, so Mommy's going to have to start forking over cash for clothes now. Boo :o(

We also have two teeth coming in! The left one is pushing up faster but they are both there, making up for lost time. We've also gone to formula half the time now. When I got really sick a couple of weeks ago, my milk production suddenly dropped and I haven't been able to bring it back up. Billa only nurses for a few minutes anyway, and she's taken to the formula well. We're still nursing at night and in the morning and on weekends, but I have accepted that formula is ok. It wasn't that I ever had a problem with it, it was the price of formula I had a problem with. I am thankful at least that I don't have to buy the special Alimentum kind like my friend Robyn... I've been saving all of my Similac coupons for her since that stuff is twice the price of the regular! And that's the little can!! Ouch!

And finally, if you haven't voted, go vote! I don't care who you vote for, just get out there and exercise your right. The men and women of the armed forces aren't giving their lives so that you can sit on your keister and twiddle your thumbs. So go vote!

Until next time,
K & Co.