Go Elmo!

Now that everybody is feeling up to par we're back to our busy busy schedule!

Drew worked through th weekend from 7pm to 7am. Sunday I did a photo shoot, it didn't go so great. We'll see how they like them I guess!

Monday we took the new car in to get it's windows tinted. The interior is black so we don't want the sun to damage it as well as protect the kiddo's eyes when they ride in the back. Not to mention the fact that it looks WAY better!

When we picked it up they had put a hideous sticker (basically an advertisement) between the tint and the glass on the drives side window so we couldn't pull it off is we wanted to, and it was quite annoying. Not to mention they didn't bother telling us they were going to put it there. I did some research to make sure it wasn't required by law and then called them and asked nicely if they could please remove it. He gave me a bit of a hard time, but I stood my ground. We took it back this morning and they fixed it. I made Drew go in this time since I had a feeling it had something to do with me being female and he was totally cool about it. Go figure!! Everything is all better now though!

Yesterday we went to music class and only one other kid was there (plus two of the teachers kids). So Taylor was a bit more active than usual. All of the kids intimidate her I think so she has a hard time coming out of her shell. She did run around a little and danced and played the instruments. She's very good at picking things up and putting them away!

After music class we went to Weight Watchers to visit everybody! Betty our neighbor and another friend Jen was there so we sat with them during the meeting. I can't weigh in or anything, but I can still sneak in once a month to visit, so that's fun. After we went to Subway for lunch and Taylor was being a total crackup. She was actually talking, giving big grins, and doing her normal antics in PUBLIC. She's usually so quiet in front of other people.

After lunch we ran to petco to get dog food. Came home and I started dinner. We switched off and Drew watched Taylor (and took her to the neighbors when he had to go to work) while I took Holden to dog class.

Dog class went rather well. He seems to be a little less distracted after his neuter, though it will take a while for all those hormones to leave his body. I don't know if I mentioned, but we had been segregated from class because there was an incident that appeared like he was being aggressive with a hyper active male dog. There was a biting incident from a different Great Dane (older unneutered male) in the second class so the instructor wanted to be safe by keeping us separate. It's quite embarrasing, but I understand the caution. We're hoping next week to start introducing him to other dogs to see how he does. Personally I think it was all a big misunderstanding. He was rude when he ran up to the other dog who was facing away, and the other dog (understandably) turned around and growled at him and Holden's hackles went up which is where the instructor came in. Immediately there was a reaction and we were separated and I think it has Holden (and me!) on edge. When hyperactive dogs come by I automatically tense up and I think he can sense that. Well, we'll see how it goes I guess!

This morning we went to take the car back in, then Taylor and I met my friend Sara, and her daughter Caden and we went to go see Elmo Live! It was so much fun! I have a few little pictures but it was kind of hard to get some good ones. We were in the second row so all of the carachters were really close! The Count even came up and touched Taylor (and Caden) and she thought that was way cool. She was dancing and clapping, and watching everything. It was a 90 minute show with a 15 minute intermission, I couldn't believe she was so well behaved during the whole thing! Of course she was asleep within about a minute of getting in the car and she was OUT. We had lunch afterwards and she never even woke up with me carrying her around and laying her down in a booth. That's NEVER happened. Anyway, here's some pics! It was kind of hard to get a lot of pictures because she had to stay in my lap the whole time.

Taylor (giving her grumpy face), Caden, and I


Taylor sucking her thumb and eyeballing something Caden has.
ELMO!!



A little video of one of the dancing scenes.


Disney on Ice is coming at the end of April, I think I'll look into taking her there also!

When we got home Taylor ate, then took another little nap. I started Dinner, and Drew watched Taylor while I took Holden to get his staples out from his surgery. Drew is at work again, but at least they are working 6 hour shifts instead of 12!

Tomorrow we have playgroup at Chuck E Cheese, and I think Friday we finally have a day with NO PLANS, yeah!! I have another photo shoot Sunday, but that's my last one for a while!

On the Baby Bean front, I think I've been feeling some flutters here and there on occassion! Otherwise nothing too exciting. I know I havent' taken any pics yet, I need to do that before I get too much further a long. That will be a task for this weekend! I'm not really showing yet, but my gut is definitely beginning to spill over my pants a smidgen!

So, that's about it for now! Hope all is well with everyone.

OB appt., and a new blog feature!

My OB appointment went great yesterday! I checked out perfect. I managed to keep my first trimester gain to 3 pounds and my blood pressure was 98/60. The bean's heart rate was 160 bpm. Other than that it was uneventful, I had a pap (ewwwww) and that was about all my appointment entailed. I go back on March 16th for an exam and some blood work. In April we should find out the sex, yeah!!

I've also added a new feature to Baby Blog! It's a little chatbox that you can leave me messages on, or even chat like an IM if I'm online at the time! If you don't have blogger to leave me a regular comment you can just type in your name and leave a message on the box. Pretty nifty, eh?

Not sure how often I'll be around as Drew works 12 hour shifts for the next couple of weeks. He started tonight, so we'll see how it goes! Taylor is finally feeling better, but she did have a little bit of a runny nose today so I hope she's not coming down with something else. We have her humidifier going in her room and fingers crossed. She's also been little miss whiney pants lately. I'll be glad when this phase passes (oh please, please let it be a phase!).

We don't have much planned tomorrow, but we do have a birthday party to go to on Saturday. I'm doing a photo shoot on Sunday!

I snagged this picture of Taylor (with a full toothy grin) and Drew today, thought I would share!!


I'm off to finish folding some laundry, then I'm going to bed! Taylor has been getting up at 6 or earlier lately and I'm in much need of some SLEEP!

On the mend and a car

Everyone is finally starting to feel better in this house!

Taylor started eating well again Saturday, she still had the big D for a couple of days, but it seems to be all cleared up now. Of course now we are fighting the sleeping on her own thing after her being sick. She got used to falling asleep in our arms and put up a fight for us last night. We won! Well, sort of. It still took over an hour for her to go to sleep herself, haha.

Yesterday I got some ME time and did a little bit of stamping (that was nice!), Drew hung out with Taylor and cleaned up the garage a bit. We need to get rid of a few things before we can park two cars in the garage again. I'm thinking it's time for a garage sale soon!

Today we went car shopping. We pretty much knew what we were after but wanted to check out some other options as well and test drive to see how we felt. In the end we went with what we had planned on. It fit all of Drew's specific requirements and my two (room for kids, and preferably a sunroof, lol).

So we welcome to our household a 2008 Pontiac G6 V6! It has 18K miles on it, and we ended up with an excellent price. We compared some of the older models and found that the value leveled off dramatically after the first year, it was only a slight difference in price between 2006 and 2008 and we opted for one with low miles and still under the warranty. It was originally sold in March 08 and it has a 3yr/36K bumper to bumper, and a 5yr/100k powertrain warranty. As long as GM doesn't go out of business, eh??? We drove both the 4cyl and V6, and felt the V6 was more sturdy and had better power (obviously). The gas mileage was negligble (only about 3mpg difference). We are okay in LA, but who knows where we could get stationed at next. We intend on keeping this car as long as it will last (kind of like the zx2!) so we wanted one that was going to be sufficient no matter where we lived.

Most importantly, it accommodates Drew's loooong legs, and two rear facing car seats! We are hoping that by the time the peanut is born, Taylor will have hit 20 pounds and can forward face, but we'll see. If not, at least we know they will both fit!

As long as the Zx2 is running (which it's torn apart at the moment getting new tie rods) we are going to each drive a car to save on gas mileage and give the Trailblazer a break. It's been driven hard this year and needs a well deserved break!

Here's some pics of our new wheels:

This cool drivers info center in the dash tells us temp, time, and radio, as long as how many MPG we are currently getting (keep drew from having a lead foot, just kidding!). It also tells us the tire pressure in all 4 tires and other tidbits of info about the car.






That was our excitement for the weekend!

I'm off to give Drew a haircut while Taylor is taking a nap. Not sure what his schedule will look like this week....we shall see!

Love to you all!!

-Us

Rough week, and baby bean pics

I finally managed to escape into the back room and scan the baby bean pics, so first thing is first!! Of course these are from about 3.5 weeks ago so the peanut is much bigger now!

Profile view.


Bum to the right, head to the left. Looks like this bean is going to have chubby cheeks like his/her sister!

On the sickie front. Taylor is finally feeling better today. She vomited up through last night. I took her to urgent care because I was worried about her hydration and they pretty much said "yes, she looks a little dehydrated. Go home and keep giving her fluids". Thanks. Really. Like that's what I haven't been doing this whole time! Sheesh.

We had a rough night last night. She was wanting me to snuggle with her and I was SOO tired and not feeling well so I was lying in bed with her. Holden wouldn't stop whining and crying and he usually lays on his bed quietly so I let him out of his kennel and he came in the bedroom and got on his bed. About 2AM I hear this horrendous noise FLY out of bed and see Holden hitting the door, Taylor is screaming because it scared her, Drew comes running in and turns on the light and there is blood EVERYWHERE. Apparantly Holden was trying to move and his e-collar (the big plastic cone to keep him from licking his stitches) hit a box on the dresser and fell on him which scared him. We aren't sure if he was bleeding before or after the incident, but there were quite a few spots all over so we think both. He was most definitely actively bleeding at the time though.

So, Drew is trying to clean up, I'm trying to calm Taylor down who then starts vomiting all over, Holden was standing there bleeding all over the carpet and terrified to move with his collar on. It was like a nightmare, only nobody was sleeping. We get Taylor cleaned up, Drew and I switch so I can try and get a pressure wrap on Holden. Of course he is so deep chested it wont stay on so I slow it down as much as possible then we put him back in his kennel to lay down. At least he wasn't crying this time around.

We got cleaned up as much as possible (definitely work for the steam cleaner) and Drew goes back out in the living room and I lay back down with Taylor (I'm feeling pretty sick myself at this point). Sometime in the next hour I wake up and swear I see Taylor falling off the bed so I freak out and scream and dive half way off the bed to catch her. She was still passed out (well until I yelled) right in the middle where she had been for the past couple of hours. Drew came running back in and my heart was pounding and I was shaking like crazy so I had him take her and get her back to sleep to go in her crib. Luckily she went back down fairly easy.

This morning Taylor woke up a little before 6 and I got up with her. I still wasn't feeling well and she was still acting tired so we layed on the couch and dozed on and off for a bit. About 8 she started whining and crying and I could barely see straight. Drew got up and took over so I could get a bit more sleep. I was afraid to get off the couch because I was so nauseous so I rolled over and passed back out. I guess Drew fed her breakfast and they both went back to bed as well until he had to go to work about 10.

Before he left he took Holden out potty and gave him his pain meds and breakfast and the poor dog was still bleeding pretty bad (a good drip every few seconds). He went back in his kennel but didn't lay back down for over an hour. Just sat there panting (a sign of pain).

He brought her out to me and we continued to nap on/off until 11:15 and got up and she had lunch. I was feeling a little better by this point. Called the vet to let her know Holden wasn't doing so well and she had us bring him back in. Taylor and I got dressed, loaded Holden up and went back to the vet.

She thinks he might have a clotting problem, however we decided just to treat the symptoms, keep a pressure wrap on him for the week instead of testing for it. Hopefully he won't need another surgery again and if he does at some point, I'll have him tested before it's done. We also switched his pain meds since the ones he was on can also aggrivate clotting issues.

We got back home and Taylor was tired so we put on some cartoons and she fell asleep in about 20 minutes in my lap. I put her in her crib and I fell asleep for a nap as well. Drew got home and when Taylor woke up we had dinner, she got her bath and went to bed. So she finally had a day with no vomiting, lets hope tonight goes better than last!!

No plans for the weekend I don't think. Drew has to go back working 12's Monday so he's going to relax and I'm going to try and steal a day (or at least a few hours) to escape for some me time as well.

SO glad it's Friday!!!!!

Sick, Sick, Sick!

Well it's been an eventful couple of days here!

Yesterday morning I got up and had breakfast (cream of wheat made with milk, brown sugar, walnuts and dried cranberries) while I fed Taylor. About an hour later I was feeling kind of dizzy and slightly nauseous. I thought maybe it was just more morning sickness and stayed curled up on the couch cuddling with Taylor.

About an hour after that she fell asleep in my arms and I got up to put her in her crib and almost fell over. I got her to her crib and immediately had to run to throw up, and continued until there was nothing left in my stomach. I crawled into bed with the room still spinning. I called to cancel the walk I had scheduled with my friend that afternoon and was dialing the OB when Drew came in and told me the milk was bad. Ugh!! I never noticed that it tasted funny but my taste buds haven't exactly been up to par lately anyway.

I slept for a couple of hours and was feeling better, though it took a while longer to get completely back to normal.

Also the past couple of days we noticed that Taylor has been extra cuddly and her appetite has been down a bit. We thought maybe it was her teeth until last night when she started to run a bit of a fever. I gave her a bit of Tylenol and she went to bed a little later than normal as she fought sleep for a while.

About 3 in the morning she started vomiting and woke up. Drew was trying to get her back to sleep but she wasn't going so I got up to try. About 4am I was sooooo tired, so Drew switched with me to get her down the rest of the way. She woke up again at 5:30, and again at 7:30 obviously not feeling well.

Drew got up with her this morning and was trying to feed her breakfast and he came and woke me up about 8 to tell me she was throwing up everything he was giving her (and he wasn't feeling so hot himself). She refused to eat so we sat on the couch and I gave her some pedialyte which the first little bit she vomited up, but was able to hold down small amounts after that. No music class for us today! Drew went back to bed hoping he would wake up feeling better.

She took a couple of short naps and still refused to eat but would sip on water and pedialyte. I had put a call in to the nurses station and they called back and pretty much just said to keep her hydrated and watch out for a few things. She's been pretty subdued all day long, she ate a little bit of banana around 2:30 and vomited that up, so we held off any food again for a while. This evening she finally held down some cheerios and a bit of applesauce with no vomiting so that's good. She did have a little bit of loose stool but not completely watery.

Drew ended up going to the base hospital to see if he could get put on quarters for the evening. He also was having issues from both ends so he came home and went back to sleep. Him and Taylor napped on the couch while I ran and took Holden to dog class.

I snapped a quick pic as I was leaving because they looked so cute (albeit sick, poor things!)



On a somewhat happy note, we're probably going to go look at some cars this weekend. The Zx2 is having some problems and it's starting to become unreliable. Not to mention it has no back seats (and if it did one infant seat barely fits in it). We've managed to get another year out of it after the flood so we feel pretty pleased with that. So we're going to look for a slightly used 4 door econocar that will hopefully last as us as long as the Z did (or longer!). We'll probably still keep the Zx2 so Drew has something to mess with when he has the time. We'll see I guess.

Well I'm off to bed, don't know how long I'm going to have to sleep since Taylor isn't feeling well still. Hopefully her appetite is up tomorrow. She's so small as it is it makes me nervous when she doesn't eat. I have to get up at 7 as well to take Holden to get neutered and tacked. Hope that all goes well!

Post again when I can.

Me

Surprise!!

Yes, yes, we're all alive and well. Things have been busy around this house, one thing after another it seems. Drew's crazy shifts are over, for the week at least. They are suppose to start back up soon.

A few highlights of the last week and a half.

Taylor's music class was on Tuesday. She did much better this time! She played with the music blocks and even ran around a little bit. She danced and put things away when she was suppose to. She even refused to hold my hand at one point when we were all walking in a circle, so she got to stand in the middle while we all walked around her. She thought that was great fun. We're looking forward to class this week!

Tuesday night I took Holden to dog class. It went well, we switched to using the head collar on him because I feel like I have better control over him. Speaking of which, he's scheduled to get Neutered and his stomach tacked (to prevent what happened to Cossie) on Wednesday. He's been a bit on the dominant side lately so we figured it was about time. Cossie is tired of getting humped I think.

Wednesday Taylor and I went Stroller Skating at the rink with play group! It was a trial thing that the skating rink did with us to see how it went. There was a great turn out and the rink owners were pleased so I think it will be a more regular thing. I hadn't been on roller skates in AGES! It took me a little bit to get the hang of it again, but it came back to me. It helped to have a stroller to get me balanced. Nice little bit of exercise too.

Here's a few pics and a couple of videos for you! She's getting really getting good at walking!












Thursday I had to go to the dentist for my 6 month cleaning so Drew met me there to keep an eye on Taylor. After waiting half an hour to get called back I went in and when she went to take x-rays I told her I was pregnant and she said she couldn't do ANYTHING. Not even the cleaning until I'm out of my first trimesters and even then I need to get an okay from the doctor. Sheesh! I wish I would have known that before I went in. It didn't dawn on me to say anything before since I thought it would only effect the x-ray portion. Oh well. I have another appointment for the beginning of March.

Friday we went to Dallas to go to a few places that we don't have around here. We stopped at Ikea, The Container Store, and a big fish store to check out their fish! Taylor was in a horrible mood almost all day and it made things kind of rough, but we survived the day!

Saturday I had some clients come for pictures. It went okay I guess. The kiddo was pretty sleepy and not wanting to smile much, but i think we got a few keepers in the end. Hopefully the parents are pleased.

Today we took it easy for the most part. We're both pretty tired after a crazy week. We did stop and go to the NW Louisiana Home and Landscaping show and picked up a few cards and some pamphlets for ideas. They had some REALLY good cinnamon roasted pecans there. Yum.

Tomorrow Taylor and I meet one of our friends for a walk, Tuesday back to music class and dog class. Wednesday we'll take Holden to get the chop chop and I'm watching my friends kids while she takes one of them to a hockey game (her hubby is gone so she has her hands full) We'll see what the rest of the week holds!

Sometime this week Taylors started saying "baby" so every time she sees a baby or a kid she says "baby, baby!" It's pretty cute. She also says "got got" which sounds more like gaga. Drew chases her around the house and says "got you!" so she started saying got got back. Now when she has something in her hands she calls it "got got". She's also been trying to say bird, but she just says b.

So here are the words she says that we can think of at the moment:

night night (nigh nigh)
book (booh)
bath (bah)
baby (BB)
got got (ga ga)
kitty (key)
meow
dog (doggadogga)
ooh
fish (psh)
Hi (a very dramatic Hiiiiii!)
bug (buh or bee)
mouth (mou)

She knows nose, eyes, mouth, and lots of household items even though she can't say them. She's getting pretty good at feeding herself with a spoon, in fact, she insists on it. She's mostly eating finger foods that we can find since she wont let us feed her with a spoon and while she does good, she misses a lot as well. She LOVES berries... any kind. Blueberries are probably her favorite, but she also loves strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. She would probably eat a whole block of cheese in one sitting if we let her as well. Her weird milk think (the hives only where it touches the outside of her face) seems to be gone. We were trying to hold back most dairy products for a while (the ones that bothered her the most) and I tried giving her some yogurt this week with no hives when it got on her face! So that's fantastic. Makes me feel much better, that's for sure! Her next well baby appointment wont be until she's 15 months.

On the baby bean front, I'm feeling pretty good. My food aversions seem to be going away and while I still don't have a ton of energy I don't feel like I need to sleep all the time (although we all had a nice morning nap today!). My next appointment is on the 18th. I was 11 weeks yesterday... I can't believe the first trimester is almost done already! It seems to be flying by this time! I guess when you are busy with one munchkin it makes it go by faster.

Here's a few more pictures. I have more to process, but I wanted to get an update in and post what I had while I had a chance.

Taylor in her super cute skirt:


Getting ready for Valentines Day (Holden is not to thrilled about this whole sign thing)Taylor didn't want to have much to do with it either, but at least I got ONE shot, even if she wasn't looking at the camera!


That's all for now! My apologies for taking so long to get an update going. It's 12:30am now, so I'm going to BED! My turn to get up tomorrow with Taylor so I better get some sleep while I can.

Love to you all and I'll try and post again soon!