Pictures from yesterday

Thanksgiving at the Baldinger's was wonderful! The food was wonderful and it was nice to spend time chatting and hanging out with them. Taylor loved Thanksgiving dinner also, she REALLY likes green beans! She had turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a little bite of pumpkin and apple pie.









We hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving as well!!

Love, US

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I can't believe that it is Thanksgiving already.. where has this year gone?????

We're headed over to our neighbors in a bit, but I wanted to upload a couple of pictures and videos for you!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day full of friends, family and of course.. food!!!!


She climbed up on her car (backwards) all by herself! She hasn't quite figured out how to push it with her legs yet though.


Happy after lunch! Look how big those teeth are getting!

I read about a recipe for Oreo Truffles so I thought I'd try to make some to give to local friends for Christmas.... YOWSA... I taste tested... FOUR TIMES and they were GOOD! Don't tell my Weight Watchers leader, haha!! Drew had to polish off the ones that were left over from the boxes and he wasn't feeling too hot after, either.

All Done!!

All finished painting the living room! It took most of the day because we had to move furniture, tape off more stuff, and get it all painted. Here is the finished result!






What do you think? Yes? No? Nice try? Not even close? I don't know.. it's definitely.. INTERESTING!

Off to get Taylor started on her bedtime routine!

Keeping Busy!

We've been a busy bunch this week!

Monday Taylor and met my friend Sara (and her baby Kaden) for a walk. We usually meet a couple times a week to walk laps around the mall to get some exercise and chit chat. We got home and I proceeded to paint the kitchen! Here's the completed project:


The bad news is after all that work, today I started painting the living room, and it clashes with the kitchen!!! When we were looking at swatches it looked like it was going to be okay, but once it got on the wall it didn't work so well. We decided we liked the living room colors better, so the kitchen will get redone in a more "gold" shade of yellow. Pics of the living room are to follow.... we still have one more color left to paint, but it's interesting! Think 3 different bold colors, partial walls, odd angles. It's definitely an out of the box paint job, but I think it will work once we tie it together with the kitchen.

Here's Taylor checking it out after it was finished and dry. Okay, really she was looking at her reflection in the window!



Tuesday we went to Weight Watchers as usual.. I'm down another 1.4 lbs.... yay!! I'm hoping to keep my buffer so I can enjoy Thanksgiving dinner!

Wednesday we ran some errands, stocked up on a few groceries and what not. It was also pretty chilly Wednesday evening so I broke in the fireplace! It had never been used before, and it was difficult to actually do it, but now that it's done, boy are we loving it! In fact, we're sitting next to it now while I write this blog, mmm.. toasty!



On a sad note, I packed away a bunch of Taylor's clothes that were too small. Some of my favorites were in there, but I guess she's bound to grow eventually! She at least got a lot more use out of them then some kids do since she's such a petite kid. I also packed up her jumperoo which she still likes the toys, but since she became mobile, she doesn't like being confined any more. As I was cleaning the pieces and putting them in a box, the toy ring was on the floor and she was playing with it, so we decided to leave that part out for now. The funny thing is, she climbed in the middle where the chair used to be to play... but when the seat was acutally in it she didn't want to have anything to do with it anymore! Silly girl.


Speaking of toys, I had picked up this big blow up slide off of craigslist for five bucks. It has a big are a at the back which can be filled with plastic balls (like the ball pits at McDonalds or ChuckECheese) or in the summer you can fill it with water to be a little wading pool. It's too cold for water and we don't have the plastic balls so we blew it up and brought it inside today. Nothing like playing with big outside toys in the house! She really liked it though, she sat at the top and bounced up and down, then slid down with Dada at the bottom to catch. She did go face first once that ended in a bit of rug burn on her cheek. Oops! Nice catch Dada!!!



Today Drew had the day off so we hung out at home getting some painting done for the most part. I went out for a few supplies, and Drew went out later to pick up some wood and a couple of fish for his tank.

An update on the past week as far as the baby whisperer technique... it's working! Bed time is fairly easy, anywhere from 5-25 minutes from when we put her down, but the important thing is that there is little to no crying, and she sleeps from 7:30 pm until 6 or 7AM! She's been doing it all week long, yay!!!! Nap time is still a bit of a struggle, a lot more crying, but when she finally quits fighting it, she rolls over, puts her thumb in her mouth and goes to sleep.

Unfortunately she's been fighting a cold for the past few days so having a snotty nose hasn't helped her going to sleep much. Every time she puts her thumb in her mouth she can't breathe through her nose. We have the humidifier set up in her room and I use the bulb syringe on her nose before bed/naps to help her out. She LOOOVES that let me tell you, and she's big enough to fight back! She does wake up at night, but doesn't have a problem putting herself back to sleep now.

She's doing well other wise. She's getting brave and starting to let go while she's cruising. She can stand on her own for a few seconds at a time now. Sometimes she tries to clap at the same time, but that doesn't usually end good. She's getting all sorts of bumps and bruises from falling and whacking herself on things. We try to keep it as baby safe as possible in here, but you know the drill. Good thing they bounce!

Here's a couple more pictures from the week. We don't have big plans this week, other than Thanksgiving with the neighbors! I want to finish painting the living room tomorrow, and Tuesday Holden gets off kennel rest, so he's going for a LOOOONG walk. Poor dog needs some exercise and more training because all this kennel time has done little for his manners.

Snotty nose, and dog hair stuck to her face, but really... who's looking past those beautiful blues???


Beware: Killer dogs ahead.

I think they are concerned.
Alright, stayed up past my bed time yet again... but blog complete! I'll post pics of the living room masterpiece when it gets finished! Goodnight!

Sorry!!!

Call me a slacker, I know I am!

This posting will probably take me all afternoon, but I WILL get it done today!

This week has been a definitely challenge. We're trying a new technique for getting Taylor down at night to teach her how to sleep on her own. It's working fantastically for bed time, not so much for naps. The bigger of the two problems is that she is still night waking several times a night. A good night being 3 times, a bad night being 6 or 7 times. Until about 3 or 4AM she tends to go back to sleep fairly easy, but that we have to go in there at all gets old REAL quick, not to mention neither Drew or myself know what day it is anymore.

So, tonight we (I) start a modified technique which includes leaving the room when she's settled but still awake. She's not going to like this one bit, but hopefully it will work. The technique is by the Baby Whisperer, an it seems to work great for a lot of people. It's a happy medium between the attachment parenting method (co-sleeping, baby wearing, etc.) and letting them cry it out (which made things 200 times worse and two weeks to undo the trauma).

I have a feeling it will be a long night, or 5, but I'm hoping our consistency will pay off.

Oh yes, Drew is back on swing shift, so while it helps to have him around in the morning so I can do a few things sans baby, I'm back on my own for the night routine. I guess the pros/cons are the same for each shift. I'm just SOOO thankful he doesn't have mid shift!

This morning was fun, I had a dentist appointment at 10 am to have a root canal! Fun!!! I left at 9:30 with Drew in the nursery with a screaming Taylor. I'm not sure who wanted to be where they were more... I probably would have happily traded my root canal for the screaming baby. It actually wasn't so bad, but now that my novacaine has worn off it's definitely a bit tender. The worst part was getting the injections.. yikes. It was mostly time consuming and tedious.. I guess I'm also one of those rare people who have a 4th root in that molar, most people have 3. Lucky me.

On the developmental front, Taylor has her two bottom teeth now! She's crawling like a crazy girl, pulling herself up and not only standing, but CRUISING the furniture, and climbing!! She pushes her little car up to the fireplace hearth and climbs on it! An accident waiting to happen I tell you.

Standing almost completely on her own (with a little help from Cossie)


Such a patient boy
Getting into trouble (with a smile on her face!)

Wayyyy happy about that toy box! (see her teeth??)
Still happy!!


She's working on how to feed herself. She holds the spoon in one hand, and picks up the food with her other. Sometimes she puts the spoon in the bowl, she'll get the hang of it some day. I started trying to make her baby food, and she does well with fruits and veggies, but the "dinner" type meals aren't going so well. She doesn't seem to like the consistency too much. I try and offer her a little of whatever we're eating depending on what it is so she can try new stuff and learn how to feed herself. It can be quite the mess sometimes!

She's also very talkative. Who knows what she is really saying but we think Baa is Bath (it might be baby or bug as well), Pshh is Fish, and Na Na Na Na is Night Night. Then there is of course Dada, Mama and Dog.

After the last visit to the pediatrician, I decided to do my own milk trial with her. I cut milk out of her and my diet for the last week. She has been in a very good mood, but that might be a coincidence since her second tooth came in right around the same time. So it's been a week and today I'm adding milk back to my diet to see how she responds. If she seems to be comfortable and still in a good mood in another week, then I'll try giving her some again, I'll start with cheese first since it's less likely to get on her skin, then go from there.

Oh Saturday we had a wonderful afternoon with the neighbors. We went to some gardens and I took some photos for them, and they returned the favor! I'm still working on processing them, but I do have a few to share!



N




Drew's ALS graduation was Friday, it was neat, though Mr. Doesn't Like to be Proud Guy thought it was a big to do for nothing. I happened to enjoy it. I'm still working on the pics from the Grad, but here he is at home right after looking all spiffy!







I can't really think of anything too exciting to type about at the moment. I do have some pictures that I'm going to upload and share. Like I said, I still have some I'm working on, but I'll get there. Here's a video from yesterday also!!!




Well, it's 9:41.. it only took an hour for Taylor to fall asleep on her own (with me coming in to lay her back down). As I was typing this sentence she woke up, but only for 2 minutes. I had to put her down twice and leave the room before she stayed asleep. I hope it gets better than it has been!

I'm off to bed while I can.

Well Baby!

I took Taylor for her well baby exam yesterday afternoon. She weighed in at a whopping 17 lbs 1.5 oz., and she's 27 inches long. She's in the 10th percentile for both of those, but she's on the same curve she was at 6 months so the doc says she's doing great, she's just petite. I was really hoping she would hit 20 pounds by the time she turned 1 (can you believe she's almost 1?????) so we could get her in a front facing car seat. She's grown really tired of looking at the back seat.

We also have some milk issues that I brought up with the pediatrician. Basically, it seems that milk products turn her skin red, and sometimes give her hives wherever it touched, but as long as it doesn't get ON her skin, it doesn't bother her. We had attempted to give her a supplement of milk based formula and without her even eating any, she broke out in a rash where the formula had gotten on her cheeks. Yogurt does the same, it gets a little bit red, and maybe a hive if it gets on her face while trying to feed her, and the big one was Gerber yogurt drops, a little dehydrated yogurt treat. They almost immediately turned her very red, and gave her several hives where she had touched them to her face. She seems okay with cheese, but it's a bit easier to get into her without touching her face. With all of the products, as soon as you wipe it off, it goes away within 10 or 20 minutes. She doesn't seem to show any intestinal upset with any of these.

So, I brought this up with the ped. and she said that it's not a true milk allergy, but a contact dermatitis from milk. She also said to continue giving her milk products, just try not to get it on her face, and of course hold off on straight whole milk until she's at least 1. Ehhh?????

Since she hasn't been sleeping so great lately, I've decided to do my own trial. I'm cutting her off of milk products, and I'm avoiding milk products for 2 weeks. Irritibilaty can be a symptom of an allergy (of course so can teething), and she's definitely irritable. I figure it wont hurt either of us to go milk free for a couple of weeks to see if there are any behavior/sleep changes and then I can start slowly introducing the mild milk products back and see what happens. We started today, so far, so good.

I also went back to the dentist today about the crown he did before we left. It's been bothering me still and he said that he thought I might need a root canal in that tooth. Essentially, it had a crack, and when he burred down the tooth to fit the crown it likely cracked from the vibration of the drill to the root causing it to be sensitive. I wasn't convinced, so I had him check it again today. He explained it a little more in detail, particularly where I was feeling pain. He said I could put it off maybe a month, maybe a year, maybe 10 years. He said it really depends on what I want to live with pain wise, but that it's not emergent, but he recommends doing it. After some thought I decided while I'm not in a lot of pain now (only when I eat or drink certain hot/cold things and it gets up on that side), if I'm going to most likely need one anyway, why live with any pain? So next Thursday I go in for a root canal. Ugh.

I felt bad that I went back to hear him tell me the same thing twice, but seeing as this is my first crown (and will be my first root canal) my experience hasn't been so great. He completely understood and said he'd be more than happy to refer me to an endodontist for a 2nd opinion, and he could dig up some studies for me. I told him that was okay, that I'm sure he's right. After I got home I did do some research anyway and found that it is true that about 10% of cracked teeth that get crowned result in needing a root canal anyway. Interesting stuff!

I'm off to bed, I'm goign for a walk in the mornign with my WW friend, and then we go to Drew's ALS graduation, yay!!!! Apparently he's in the "smart class", the Honor Flight. I guess thats the title they get if they get the best grades. So proud of him! Of course, Monday he starts back to work, on 12 hour shifts! BOO!!! Hopefully they aren't on them for long!

What a week!!

It started off all fine and dandy with Monday, nothing exciting, just hung around the house, ran a couple of errands and so on and so forth. Then came Tuesday.

We got up at 5am so Taylor, Holden and I could hit the road and take Holden for his surgery in Dallas. His appointment was at 9:45 for the consult, and surgery following, and Dallas is a good 3 to 3.5 hours away so we had to leave early. We made it with 10 minutes to spare. Taylor slept for a little bit in the car so that helped.

The good news was that the orthopedic surgeon checked out Holden and said that he didn't think he needed both shoulders done. Just the right side which was the one exhibiting the symptoms. He said he would take x-rays again just to be sure and he would let me know. So we signed our consent forms, left our deposit and headed over to the outlets to see if we could start a little Christmas shopping.

After about an hour Taylor was getting fussy and I was getting hungry (I fed her while we were in the parking lot at the surgery center) so we went off to find some lunch. While I was looking for a place she fell asleep. I ended up going to a place called Souper Salad (which is like a Sweet Tomatoes, or a Souplantation). I left her in her bucket and brought her in with me still sleeping.
About half way through lunch she woke up and she felt hot so I took off her sweater and left her in her onesie and sweat pants to cool off.

After I finished I fed her some more food and then we went back to the outlets for a while. They doctor called about then to say that they only had to do one shoulder and that we could pick him up in a few hours. Taylor was very subdued and she still felt warm, but was generally acting okay. We made it back to pick up Holden at 4:45, and by then she was really fussy and still hot. She was throwing an absolute fit in the waiting room, which is very unlike her. I was getting concerned that she was still warm and took off her sweat pants and left her in her onesie.

We got back down to the car, loaded up Holden and headed home. Unfortunately we hit all the 5 pm traffic in Dallas and it took us about 5 hours to get back. By the last hour, Holden's pain meds had begun to wear off and every time I would hit a big bump he would yelp which would scare Taylor (who was in and out of sleep) and she would scream for 10 minutes. Just when she would finally calm down I'd hit another bump and we'd start all over again. I was SO glad to get home!

When we got back Taylor was asleep again so I put her in her crib but she only slept for a short time before waking up fussy. She wouldn't go back to sleep so I ended up letting her sleep with us just so we could get an hour or two of shut-eye. At 5 AM I woke up with her close to me and she was on fire. I grabbed a thermometer and took her temp and it was 103.6 so we headed to the emergency room.

Once we got there, the triage nurse took her temp again which was at 104.3 that time. They admitted her and then ran all sorts of blood work, took x-rays, got a urine sample. It was really miserable. She does not like getting her blood drawn, and she doesn't have very good veins (like her mama), so after only getting a very small amount they ended up having to prick her thumb for the rest. All the tests came back normal so they told me to continue alternating motrin and tylenol and have her checked by the pedes clinic on base on Thursday.

Her fever fluctuated from 101 to a max of 104.5 on Wednesday. At the high point I was very worreid and put her in a tepid bath and called the nurse on base. She said to monitor for signs of distress, otherwise keep doing what I was doing. Taylor wouldn't let me leave her side even for a second, she was like another appendage all week. Although it's getting a little better now (but not much).

Thursday we went in to the pediatric clinic and the doctor ordered more blood work and wanted us to stay there until she had results. Again, they couldn't get blood so they had to prick another finger. Taylor was absolutely screaming. I feel so bad for her when I can't do anything to help. She ended up falling asleep (probably from exhaustion) while we were waiting for the doc to come back. When she did, she said the blood results showed it was most likely a virus. She said she was the right age for Roseola, and that the fever should break in a day or so, and when it does to not be surprised if a rash shows up all over her body.

Thursday night she still had a fever and wasn't sleeping. Not anywhere except on my chest anyway. We both slept on the couch Thursday and Friday, it seemed the only place we could get comfortable. The one thing that's nice about her being sick is that she cuddles with me! She's just not really a cuddly baby, and to have her snuggle up next to me to go to sleep just melts my heart. I wish it was under better circumstances though!

Friday her fever finally broke, she was still fussy, but seemed well enough to take out trick or treating around the block. We just went to a few houses, told them we didn't need candy but we wanted to say Happy Halloween. She was the cutest little ladybug on the block.

Yesterday she seemed normal temperature wise, but she was fussy yet again, and when I gave her a bath I thought I saw what looked like a rash starting on her torso. She went to bed and actually slept through the night (well until 6 this morning...and then went back to sleep until 9!!)

Today she was fussy again, whining, crying, temper tantrums, the works. I noticed she had a bit of a rash on her face so I took off her jammies, there it was, a rash all over her torso, a little on her arms, not so much on her legs. It's not suppose to itch or anything, but it looks horrible. I took pictures but I can't get them off my camera this second so I'll try and post pics up tomorrow of stuff when I can get to the other computer.

The rash should clear up in a day or two and she'll hopefully be back to normal. She also has another tooth getting ready to pop through so I'm sure that's not helping her overall demeanor. It's been a rough week for everybody!

Drew has one more week of ALS left, and I'll be glad when he's done. Between having to give him time and space to do homework, deal with a pup that has to be kenneled and can't go out except on a leash, and a sick/fussy baby girl, it's been a looooong week!

Alright, i'm off to bed, I will undoubtedly be up in another hour with a little one so I should sleep when I can. G'night!