Little princess was finally feeling better by Monday morning, which was great news!  There’s nothing worse than knowing your little one isn’t feeling well and not being able to fix it.  It’s even harder when you really don’t know what’s wrong in the first place.

After a long day at work, I got to go to my weekly pilates.  It’s an hour where I can let everything go and just relax.  Hubby called about half way through, which I knew had to be an emergency.  The pups were running around the back yard like puppies, which they are not, and our big guy suddenly fell and couldn’t get back up.  It was almost as though his back legs were paralyzed.  It was really scary.  I drove home as fast as I could so that hubby could take him to the emergency vet.  The initial x-rays looked ok, which suggested a soft tissue injury.  The vet thought it looked like a slipped disk.  They kept him overnight so they could give him IV steroid and medication for the pain and do serial neurological testing to monitor his progress.  If he got better, we’d be able to just watch, but we would need to do more imaging and consider surgery if he didn’t improve or got worse.  We were so relieved when we got the call the next morning that he was up and walking!  He’s still very weak and will need 4 – 6 weeks of very strict rest, but he will hopefully regain his full strength and make a full recovery.

By Tuesday, the stress of the weekend with a sick little princess and the events of Monday night had taken its toll.  I woke up that morning with a terrible sore throat and by the evening I had a full blown fever.  I was under the impression that it was just a bad case of tonsillitis (strep test was negative) until the rash appeared on my hands and feet on Thursday.  Then I found out my niece had been diagnosed with with coxackievirus (hand, foot, and mouth disease).  By Friday, my little man and dad had it too.  It’s been absolutely awful!  The rash isn’t the itchy kind, but rather the painful kind.  My feet felt like I was walking on thousands of little knives.  I was so thankful that little man never got the high fever and his rash never seemed to bother him.

It was probably the worst timing for everyone getting sick (not that there is ever a good time) because our entire family was flying in from out of town to celebrate my grandmother’s life and place the headstone on her grave.  It was wonderful to have everyone here.  I made special dresses for my niece and little princess for the occasion.  I used the most adorable butterfly wing panels in DBP with coordinating fabric from 42 Custom Fabrics to make their special Solis dresses by Sofilantjes.  This is quickly becoming one of my favorite patterns!  It’s a deceivingly quick and easy sew (my kind of pattern) and it works with all types of fabrics.  I just love how well the dot coordinate brought out the whimsy of the butterfly wing panel.  They were definitely a hit!

I also got to sew up the most adorable sunflower fabric CL strikes from Splashings of Fabric.  They are so soft and charming and absolutely perfect for the coming warmer weather!  I paired them with a dusty rose CL from Purpleseamstress Fabric as trim to make the Nori dress from Elliedactyl in tunic length.

I had been wanting to try this pattern for a while, but hadn’t quite found the right fabric.  This was definitely it!  I will certainly be making her a few more!  It was a bit fabric intensive, but worth it!  I paired it with the Puperita bubble shorts to complete the outfit.  The result was gorgeous!

I was able to get the next set of swim gear using the chain mail swim from 42 Custom Fabric for our upcoming water park adventure.  I made little princess a rashguard from Boo! Designs swimmers and the circle skirt from A Sparkly Baby’s swimmy suit.  I really love both of those patterns because of how versatile they are.  All of the options allow for tons of mix and match combinations!  She had such a blast posing for “cheese” while her brother slept.  She even got her swim goggles for the full effect.

Hopefully I can get a few shots of little man in his swim gear next week now that he’s feeling better.  For now, just some shots of a little knight and her trusty companion…