Valentine's Day or Bust...

My Valentine's Day began at 2:24 AM, when I was jolted into awakeness after my sweet Sassy girl came barreling into our bedroom gasping for breath. While sparing you multiple horrifying details, let me just say that that is no way for anyone to be woken. Ever.

Sassy scared the hell out of me, quite frankly. I was fully prepared to take her to the emergency room. She had never struggled to breath like that before. Tyler managed to calm me down, as only he can do in situations like these, and we did what we needed to do to get her upright, comfortable, calm, and breathing more normally. We even managed a few additional hours of sleep.

Come morning, Tyler left for work as usual, and the girls and I tried to make sense of the rest of our day. Sassy knew immediately that she was going to be unable to go to school that afternoon, and she was horribly upset. Devastated, really. In the mind of a four-year-old, missing your Valentine's Day party is about as bad as news gets, I suppose.

We hung out in pajamas for a while, but had to get dressed before Sassy's 11:00 doctor's appointment. She was fully aware that she was not going to be going to school, but asked if she could wear her "party outfit" anyway. Who was I to deny her? She got all dolled up, but even her beautiful little outfit couldn't make her glassy eyes look bright. She wanted to take a few pictures, so I did, knowing that she was not really in the mood. We had talked the day prior about taking pictures in their new Valentine's outfits, so they were both excited to do so.



I still thought she looked beautiful, but she was definitely missing a bit of her sparkle...



She did enjoy modeling her newest headband from JillyBean Designs...



And, to the doctor we went. We narrowly avoided having to do breathing treatments with Miss Sassy, with her O2 sats hanging at 92 for a while. Finally, they perked up to the 96-97 range, and we were sent on our way with a script for an oral steroid and the usual croup list-of-things-to-do. Here's my pretty girl waiting at the docs office (via cell) rather than her classroom party. Sad face.



The last thing I wanted was to make Sassy more upset, so I fibbed to her. Bad mommy. I told her I had a visit for work, but really I had to go to her preschool anyway and serve my head room mom duties. I helped her into some comfy clothes, gave the girls a small lunch, and headed out.



Cupcakes needed to be served. Crafts needed to be made. Goody bags needed to be handed out...



The one positive thing was that I was able to "swing by" Sassy's classroom (or so I told her... am I horrible or what??) and pick up her Valentine's to bring her home. That definitely got a big smile out of her!



After nap, Tink was ready to go outside and take her Vayenton pictures...



She was so sick of being cooped up in the house all day- she spent a good five minutes letting her little legs dangle and sway.



Isn't she just the cutest little munchkin?



She looked so cute in her new hair clip by Phinnie & Pais- we love it, Stephanie!!



I had a little of that same fabric left over from the coffee cozies, so I made Tink a little heart shirt to wear.



Don't you just love the many facial expressions of Tink? As challenging as she can be at times, she truly is my little joy bubble!



I heart this girl:



So, yeah... our Valentine's Day wasn't all it was cracked up to be. But, in the end, I spent lots of time with my three Valentine's, so all was well this year!

Oh, and now you know why my girls are wearing Christmas shirts in their Valentine's Day picture. Just in case you were convinced I had lost my mind...