Sunday, April 29, 2012

Talking Points

Evelyn is learning her w's...and it's my most favorite thing she does right now.  It melts my heart, it's so cute (and I'm not biased at all!).
(bonus points to whomever can name what is playing in the background)

Here's another of her talking while playing with her farmhouse.
 As you can see, she's becoming quite the talker (although, of course she stops when I start videoing) - and she only has one volume.  I'm told she sounds a lot like her Mom at this age...that can't be true!

Friday, April 27, 2012

It's in my Genes...

...taking pictures of someone falling down, tripping, basically anything funny to only the observer, that is.  My Dad was (IS) the king of this.  For example, when we went to Hawaii as a family about 9 years ago, my Mom and sister were kayaking in the ocean.  As they approached the beach, something happened and their kayak overturned - dumping both of them out onto the water/sand.  My Dad, rather than swooping in to help them up or helping to keep the kayak from continuously ramming into them, opted to take pictures of the whole ordeal.  But it's funny - because now we can all laugh about it (and they are laughing in the pictures, so that makes it ok, too). (I can hear them all laughing as they read this as well...years later, it's still funny).
(apologies...this is a scan of a picture in a calendar - this was the pre-digital pictures era)
So it's in my genes.  To see my daughter playing blissfully on top of her little scoot car/walker...to watch her lean forward to play with the fun things on the front - knowing full well she was going to eat it because she would lose her balance.
 
 
 
 
I'm not a bad mother, really.  One day she'll appreciate it - when she's taking pictures of her kids as they fall on their faces.  And she got right back up.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Dear Daddy,
I am so excited to celebrate your birthday for the first time today!  You are the best Daddy in the world.     
I like to play and wrestle with you.  I like how you sit with me on the stairs to catch me when I try to be too big and climb them.  I like it when you fly me in to Mommy for my massages.
 I like how you take me on bike rides and runs.  I like how you always check the doors to make sure they are locked at night so that we are safe.  I like it when you sing me silly songs.
I like that you tell me and Mommy and we are beautiful.  I like how you make me laugh.  I like it when you read me books.
 I like how you make my baths every night.  I like shooting hoops with you.  I like when you make me laugh, and then be silly again so that I will keep laughing. 
I like swinging with you in the back yard.  I like it when you let the little man tickle me.  I like it when you shoot me like a rocket ship. 
When I grow up, Daddy, I want to meet a boy who is just like you.  You are the most perfect, funny, sweet Daddy.  I love you.  
Happy Birthday, Daddy!
This was Evelyn's birthday present to her Daddy this year...
I had the idea to do this a few months ago.  When it was time to actually take the pictures, of course she decided to strike on naps that day, and Dan decided to come home early from work.  So I was trying to get a non-napping 11 month old to pose for pictures during a window of about 5 minutes while Dan was showering after his run.  It went much better than it could of - but not how I envisioned it going!  If you look closely at the 'Y' picture, you can see she's half crying in it.  I almost put the full on crying melt down picture in, but decided this one was too cute to not include.  This is something I would like to do and update for as long as she will let us.  Dan has it hanging in his office at work now.

It's hard work to not eat and play with paper while my Mom is taking pictures...
I just love this picture...with her "I'm all about Daddy" shirt, being big and trying to climb the stairs.
Happy Birthday, Dan!  We both adore you and love you with everything we are!  I hope you had a wonderful birthday!

Monday, April 23, 2012

Videos of the Week

Here are some videos we took this week of Evelyn...constant source of entertainment!

In this one, we were trying to get her to make her new rolling her r's sound...but she instead showed us her new laugh.  She now does this all the time, it's hilarious.
Here's the actual r rolling...a new favorite sound.
And we're getting close to walking...not sure how I feel about this.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Crazy Storms

We are having some crazy storms down here in south Texas today!  As I was getting out of bed for work, I got a text from our nanny.  She was stranded in Aransas Pass (where she lives - a little northeast of us) where they had 3-4 feet of water on the roadways.  At first, we were just going to wait it out and see if, with a couple of hours, she could get down and I could still go to work.  However as we started watching the radar and weather reports, it was pretty clear that this wasn't going away quickly, so I told her to stay home.  Everything that I needed to get done today can be done from home (other than some advising appointments that can be rescheduled).  Not long after that, our skies here in Corpus started looking like this:
 
 
 
That was about the same time that we got a campus alert from A&M-Kingsville that there were tornadoes around there.  Fortunately, it's just been a lot of rain and thunder at this point (it's been about an hour since these were taken).  We've gotten about 2 inches of rain in the last 3 hours.  We have some trees that need some good rain, so I'm excited about that!  The tornadoes can stay away, though.

The best part of the day, though, is getting to spend it playing with this sweet face...

Sunday, April 15, 2012

11 Months...30 Days to 1 Year

It was another month of many firsts for you, baby girl!  This last month, your personality has really started to take shape.  You are extremely curious and love to people watch.  Some of your favorite things that people do are drop things and fall.  You belly laugh hysterically when that happens.  You have also started playing such a fun game...the drop everything, watch it fall, and watch us pick it up game.  You have also started to clap and sign bye-bye this month.  You have started to sign bye-bye to anything that you are done with - dinner, a toy, pretty much anything that you don't want to do anymore, you wave bye-bye to.  One of Mommy's favorite stories from this month is that one evening I was praying with you about the urinary tract infections you have been having - you had numbers 2 and 3 this month :-(.  I was saying that when we resist the devil, that he has to flee from us, so in the Name of Jesus we say "bye bye" to the enemy and his plans to harm you.  You then started waving bye-bye.  It was so simply precious.  This month you have started to climb the stairs on your own.  Fortunately you do not do this consistently yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.  You also insist on having a spoon in your hand every time that you eat.  You try to put pieces of food on the spoon then feed your self, or just wave it around as you eat.  You also hold it straight up in the air with one hand while you drink with the other.  You have started cruising along the furniture, so it's only a matter of time before you are taking those first steps.  We moved you from your infant bath in the big tub to just being in the big girl tub for your baths.  The first few nights you were not a huge fan of this, but now you love it - especially being able to scoot around and explore the whole bathtub.  You love music - whether it's on the tv, the radio, in movies - all kinds of music.  You have started to dance whenever you hear music, and sometimes you will clap.
 It warms Mommy and Daddy's hearts in church when you raise your hands and clap as we worship.  We so desire you to have a heart to openly worship Jesus.  You received a drum for Easter, it was your favorite toy!  You love to play with the mallets and bang on anything you can find.  You have definitely started communicating with us more this month.  You haven't quite caught onto the signs that we are teaching you (hungry, thirsty, all done) - but you have found ways and specific babble sounds to tell us you what you want sometimes.  It definitely helps to understand what you are wanting or needing!  You babble and talk all the time, and sing when songs are on.  One of your new favorite toys are straws.  You will hang on to straws that we knot up so you can chew on them for days.  You went swimming again this month, the first time since you were four months old.  You sort of liked it, but we took you right before nap time.  You also went to a baseball game for the first time this season (you went before when you were two months old).  You loved watching the people and playing with David's bubble gum.  We took you to your first kid's movie this month, The Lorax.  It was more because Mommy and Daddy wanted to go to a movie together - but you loved it (especially when they were singing).  Daddy also shared with you his love for basketball in new ways this month.  You experienced your first March Madness (and almost won the kid's pool of our family pick'em game, as well as the outright title in Mommy's work pool).  You also went to your first NBA game in Houston - we went to see the Rockets play the Suns.  You watched the game for a while, but you really loved watching all of the people around you.  You continue to amaze us with how much you learn and do every week.  We can't believe you are going to be one so soon!  Life was fun before you, but you find new ways to bring even more joy into our lives every day.  Thank you for being the sweet, precious girl that you are.  We love you so much!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Weekend in Houston

Once every semester, I have to travel somewhere in the state for a Board of Directors meeting for one of the professional organizations I am involved with.  It's a necessary evil but it's not quite as unbearable because since Evelyn was born, she and Dan have come with me.  It's made for some weekends away as a family, which is always fun!  This semester, we headed to Houston.  After Evelyn and I's morning spent in the doctor's office, she slept quite a bit of the trip there.  We stopped in a little town called Hilje for dinner and a big smokehouse that I have always wondered if it was good.  There are always tons of cars outside of it (it's right along the highway) - so we decided to try it for dinner.  It was ok...it's no Rudy's (I know...total chain restaurant, but it's seriously my favorite BBQ).
Evelyn enjoyed her dinner of turkey, green beans, mandarin oranges, and cheese!
Evelyn and Daddy at dinner
(she has to hold her own spoon while she eats now - won't eat without it)
I had to get a picture of this...these were the faucets in the restrooms.  Only in Texas.
We made it to Houston in good time, and got settled into our hotel room.  We brought Evelyn's pack and play for the first time (rather than letting her sleep in between us in the bed).  She was still fighting a low fever, and wasn't a huge fan of falling asleep the first night.  We have gotten to the point of giving her a bottle, rocking for a few minutes, then laying her down awake.  She'll usually fuss for a little bit, but fall asleep pretty easily.  She did the same on Thursday night, only she just got quiet and laid there - she didn't fall asleep.  As I was crawling into bed, I bent over her pack and play to check on her, and she was WIDE awake.  That brought on the tears, and every time we would move in the room, she would start crying again.  We finally got her down about an hour later, and she slept pretty well.

On Friday morning, she woke up earlier than normal - which I didn't mind because that meant I could see her for a bit!  Dan had run downstairs to grab some breakfast before I needed to take off, and when he got back Evelyn wanted his bagel more than her own breakfast.
Fortunately for her, Daddy shares!
While I was at my meeting, Dan and Evelyn had all sorts of fun.  They took a walk in the park next to our hotel (P - we stayed at the same Hilton you did for the Trials!) and found some fountains to play in.  She LOVED it - watching the other kids running around, getting her feet wet, all sorts of fun for a little girl!  After a nap, they found a mall for lunch and apparently saw Steve Nash (NBA player for the Suns).  Not long after they got back to the hotel, I got back from my meeting.  It was about 30 minutes before nap time, so we decided to take her swimming.  She loves her baths, and she loved swimming the first time we took her, so I have been looking forward to taking her again.
She was a little skeptical at first, then decided it was fun to splash. 
Then Mommy ruined the fun by deciding it was time to take her underwater for the first time.  That, she did NOT like.

After a quick bath when we got back to the room, it was time for a nap.
Sweet, sweet angel. 
 She took a really good nap (we had to wake her up after 2 and a half hours), which was good because we were planning to go to the Rockets-Suns game and knew with a 7:00pm start it would probably be a late night.  Our hotel was right across the street from the Toyota Center, so it was perfect.
We rode up the longest escalator that I have ever been on to get to our seats...
Then found some dinner...
I put a napkin on Evelyn's head because she was in her moby and I didn't want to drip ketchup on her!
The found our seats...
Evelyn was all wide-eyed, just taking it all in!
A family picture!
Evelyn had her dinner during most of the first quarter - it helped to keep her entertained.  Daddy got to watch the game and hold her while I fed her.
She also tends to eat better when she has something to watch/look at/be distracted by.
Dan's going to kill me for posting this picture...he thinks he looks hammered (which he is not).
Daddy introducing his little girl to his beloved basketball.
Evelyn loves chewing on straws (which is the red thing she is chewing on above).  We lasted through halftime, then decided not to push her so we headed back to the hotel for a bath and bedtime.  She did MUCH better getting to sleep on Friday night (thankfully!).

Saturday morning, we got up and had breakfast and decided to go back over to the fountains so that I could take some pictures and see her get so excited.
Heading to the park in my stylin' poolside gear.
She wasn't as excited about the fountains today.  Of course...I had a camera this time.  It was also close to her morning nap time (you think we'd have learned from swimming yesterday).
Daddy and Evelyn getting ready to get into the fountains.
Half excited, half not.
Really, really not excited.
She finally let Daddy put her feet in - but that was all she was having.
And we're done.
She sat and watched the other kids and the water for a little while.
Here are the fountains...
She finally let Dan sit down next to one of the fountains - but she wasn't having the water.
The water was a little cold, so I think coupled with it being close to nap time, she just wasn't real excited about the fountains.  We headed back to the hotel, so that she could have a good nap before we had to check out of our hotel, and find something fun to do for the day.  She wasn't so much into napping. 
Dan was watching a movie on his iPad - Evelyn wanted in on the action.
Dan tried to get her down while I took a shower and got ready, but we decided after about an hour (and about 20 minutes before check out time), that we would just pack up and hit the road home. We figured she would get a nap in then, and we could get home with some time to play and just relax at home.  We found a fun hole-in-the wall Mexican restaurant in El Campo on the way home.  It reminded me of one of my favorite restaurants back home - La Familia....mmmm.  They didn't have a baby beef and cheese, but it was still good!
Here are some highlights of the videos we took over the weekend...
 
All in all, a good weekend...despite a crazy start to the trip on Thursday!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Two in Three

We have another urinary tract infection.  This is her second in less than three weeks' time.  Poor baby girl.  

She was pretty fussy on Wednesday morning as I was getting ready to head to work, and that morning Amber texted to let me know she had a low fever.  We started the fever reducers right away, and I went ahead and called to make her an appointment for Thursday morning just in case it didn't pass through the day.  We were planning to head to Houston on Thursday afternoon - I had a Board of Directors meeting for one of my professional organizations there, and Dan had taken Friday off so that he and Evelyn could come with me and we could spend the weekend in Houston.  My plan was to cancel my 9:30 class, but still make it out for my 11:00 and 12:30 classes since her appointment was at 9:00 (the first possible appointment of the day!).  Well...that's not quite how it turned out.
Here we are waiting our turn in the waiting room...
We got in to see Dr. Leshin fairly quickly, and he was fairly certain it was another UTI.  I was too, as everything was the same as before - and I had taped a plastic baggie to her the night before to try to catch her urine.  It was mildly successful, at least enough so that I could see that her urine was pretty cloudy.  I had just changed her diaper before we left, and she hadn't had a lot to drink that morning, so he opted to cath her to get a urine sample rather than wait for her to pee in a bag.

Side note: I absolutely HATE watching her go through that. 

Unfortunately, they couldn't get anything from the cath, so we ended up bagging her anyway and started pushing fluids.  Those of you who have ever been around Evelyn know that if she doesn't want something, she's not taking/doing it.  And she didn't so much want water (Gatorade, Pedialyte, juice....) that morning.  Her nurse kept coming in about every 15 minutes to see if she had urinated, but she hadn't.  After about an hour, I realized I would also be cancelling my 11:00 class, and we were well into Evelyn's normal nap time.
Here we are about 30 minutes later....looooong past nap time.
Poor baby was exhausted, her fever was coming back up, and she's stuck in a doctor's office with a baggie taped to her inside her diaper. :-(  She was so snuggly...and did end up taking a couple 5-10 minute snoozes (between nurse checks for pee).  After two hours, they decided to cath her again - and got nothing, again.  It was awful.  So they put another bag on her and sent us home to come back when she had gone.

We came home and sent Amber home...since I clearly wasn't going to work at all now!  I then gave her a bottle hoping that she would drink that since she was so exhausted (we have actually eliminated her morning bottle...).  Not so much.  She did sleep, though, while I posted my classes' assignments on Blackboard.  She woke up after about 20 minutes, so I checked her diaper/bag.  She had peed (yay!), so we headed back to the doctor's office.  Of course, it couldn't be that easy.  The bag wasn't incredibly full, but there was a good ounce or so in there.  By the time we got into the doctor's office to let her nurse remove the bag, all but like 3 drops (seriously) had leaked out into her diaper.  Fortunately, those 3 drops were enough for them to tell that her urine is infected - it just isn't near enough to tell what bacteria is causing the infection through a urine culture.  So Dr. Leshin started her on another round of antibiotics, and we follow up with both her normal pediatrician 2 days after she finishes her antibiotics.  The bad news (other than having a new UTI) is that they will have to cath her again in that visit to culture that urine to be certain the infection is gone.  Since they weren't able to determine what bacteria is causing the infection, they can't be certain that the bacteria is sensitive to the antibiotics prescribed.  We'll also be following up with her pediatric urologist (probably in May - it's crazy hard to get an appointment with him).  We just hate watching her go through this.

We did make it to Houston...more on that when I can get pictures uploaded. :-)

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!
I hope you have had a wonderful day celebrating our risen Lord!!  JESUS IS ALIVE people - today, right now!!  I've been really thinking about that today - asking the Lord to challenge me to live in that reality every day, not just on Easter.  Remember this joy...remember this awe...remember the messy simplicity of it all.  I really missed our old Bethel family today (my church in West Lafayette) - I think it was a combination of knowing it was Pastor Jim's birthday (shout out!) and the excitement of knowing the kind of worship service they would have had today.  I was really excited to see this posted by one of them on Facebook (sorry, it's a Facebook video - so I can't share it fully here - hopefully this link works, though!):  Click Here  Torre (the girl singing) sang at our wedding - she is one of a handful of young ladies that I had the pleasure of knowing when I worked with the youth and college ministries at Bethel.  When I watched this - I bawled.  Partially because it was so incredible (you can see pieces of the drama to the right...I would have loved to see it all) - partially because I was so proud of Torre, she's all grown up and more beautiful then ever - but partially because I missed this particular church family of mine.  I miss the spirit of worship in that place.  I miss the open invitation for the Spirit to move, at whatever cost.  I miss the people.  I really try not to compare churches - because I know that every one is different, and that God has placed us here for a time for a reason - but it's really hard sometimes.

Sigh - OK...onto what was wonderful about today - celebrating our first Easter with Evelyn!  We went to church this morning, and had to wake her up early to go to the early service, so we opted to wait on the whole Easter bunny business.  Side note:  it's so odd to be on the parent side of this perpetual lie that we tell our children.  After church, we had a quick Skype date with my parents, younger sister and her family before Evelyn took a mammoth nap of 3 hours!  The 3 hour nap was actually perfect for the rest of our day, so we didn't wake her up.  After her nap, we took her outside to do the Easter bunny gig.  Here are some pictures of the fun:

 Tons of fun, girly things in her Easter basket - and she loves the drum the most.
Mr. Ware (my high school band teacher) would be so proud!
 I just want to hold it all - and play my drum.
 I do enjoy eating a pinwheel as well.
 Had to get rid of the drum to play with the eggs!
 I LOVE this picture!  My sweet baby girl!
 Pardon the snot running down her nose...she and I are allergic to something in our backyard that is blooming right now.  We both get runny noses and scratchy eyes out there.  Ugh.  It's only April.
After playing outside for a while, we came inside for lunch, then Skyped with Dan's family while we dressed Evelyn up in her bunny gear.  I found this a while back, and it was way too small for her now.  But it was cute - so, sorry kid.
 I love this picture because she was actually jumping...but her face is hilarious.
I finally changed her out of the too-small bunny gear, and we headed to the ballpark to watch our local minor league baseball team, the Hooks.  We met some friends from church there and had a really fun afternoon.  The weather was GORGEOUS - just a little breeze off the bay and in the 70s.  A great way to spend our Easter afternoon if we couldn't be with family!

We hope you all had a fantastic Easter!  Maybe next year we'll be closer to family!