A couple weeks ago we went to Des Moines to visit Georgia's cousin Derby. Many of you know about Derby and her struggles. She recently spent 3 weeks in the children's hospital but didn't find any answers to her current situation. You can click on the "Derby" link to the right to read more about her. Her family would certainly appreciate any extra prayers she can get.


Here's Ben and his older brother Matt who was in town for the week.


Georgia and Derby playing in her hospital crib.



I was amazed at how Georgia seemed to understand that Derby is sick and how to be careful with her. All day she kept giving her gentle hugs.

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Georgia climbed up on my desk chair and, I assume, reached for the kleenex box, fell and hit her head, I assume, on the edge of the desk on her way to the floor. She immediately had two big bruises on her forehead so I had her wear this cold gel mask.

Offering "Maxi" some corn on the cob.

I call this Georgia's impression of Grandma Cindy getting her picture taken. :) The Fluegge's know what I mean.

Daycare is closed this week so I've been home with Georgia. On Wednesday we went to Deanna Rose Farmstead with my sister and her kids. Some lady gave us left-over bottles of milk that her kids didn't finish off. (That was a confusing sentence. The bottles of milk were for the goats, not for the lady's kids) So Georgia got to feed the goats. She thougtht that was really fun and I think she would have stayed all day just doing that.

Here she is with her cousin Riley.

I think that's the prettiest flower I've ever seen.

There's a new area at Deanna Rose, or at least I hadn't seen it before, that is educational. Here we are learning about how the Indians lived and how they ground corn. Or at least I think that's what I read on the sign.

Georgia loves to walk so I didn't even bother bringing her stroller. I knew I'd end up pushing it and chasing her. My sister brought a stroller for her son and every time we tried to put Georgia in it, she'd hop out and walk. So she walked the whole place. By the time we left she was tired and wanted to go home. She took a 4 hour nap! This is at least double her normal nap length. I thought it seemed odd but I knew she'd exhausted herself. I finally went in and woke her up and found that she was running a fever. That night she was so cuddly because she felt crummy. She slept on Ben's chest for 2 hours and when I went over to try to pick her up to take her to bed, she put her hand back behind her and, with her eyes still closed, said, "get back mommy" and went back to sleep. The next morning she woke up at 4:00 and when I went in to get her, I said, "Oh, you're hot again" and she moaned "yeah... get daddy" Her fever was 102.7 and when it got up to 104 I took her to urgent care. They tested for strep and the flu and those came back negative. When I told them that she was drooling really bad and was complaining of her tongue hurting, they said that Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease is going around. They didn't see any sores in her mouth but as of this afternoon she now has the sores so I'm pretty sure this is what she has. She is in so much pain and won't swallow. She won't swallow her saliva and it's so painful for her to drink and eat so she's doing very little of both. We've been alternating Motrin and Tylenol but they don't seem to be helping much. I tried to put Orajel in her mouth but she bit my finger so hard that I don't want to try it again. Yesterday her tongue hurt so much that she kept sticking it out and wanted us to kiss it and make it better.

On a lighter note, here are some the fun things that Georgia is doing now.
She's really taken to singing. She sings along with most songs, trying to say the words that she hears. She can sing Happy Birthday almost completely on her own. She's also "reading" her books, memorizing the words that go with certain pages. My favorite is when she reads her potty training book and gets to the last page and says "bye bye diaper. Hello potty".

She gives compliments now. The other day she said "oh, I like your pants mommy!" Later she said the same thing about my shoes. She says it in such a way that she makes me feel good about my outfit. :)

Last week she poo pooed in the potty for the first time. I cheered for her, told her good job, you're a big girl. We called Grandma and Aunt Amy to tell them the good news. The next day Ben was in the bathroom and Georgia went in and said "GOOD JOB Daddy!" (He's going to kill me for writing that.)