Preach It

Baby's 2nd Easter

I realize I missed the boat on this post being in any way timely, but I had to share some snapshots of my precious girl on Easter Sunday.

Last year, she was a teeny tiny 2 month old. We attempted church, but I spent most of it rocking her in the lobby.

Oh, the changes a year will bring.

This year, we opted to skip church all together. Maybe next year. Instead, we spent a relaxing weekend at the lake house with family and watched C hunt for plastic Easter eggs for the very first time. She was adorable.

She was greeted on Easter morning by a new Elmo (wearing bunny ears), some books, and some Beanie Baby bunnies. But, her favorite part was the pink Easter grass.

Then, we "hunted" Easter eggs. Instead of candy, we filled her eggs with some of her favorite treats - Cheerios, goldfish, and Babybel cheese! There were two special eggs that had new finger puppets in them. It really is so much fun to watch her experience things for the first time. She spent the rest of the day opening and closing eggs, putting them into her basket and taking them back out, and carrying her basket all over the place. So much fun! Thanks to my Dad, the whole day was well documented.

Happy Easter :)

14 Months Old!

I'm a bit behind these days, mostly because we stay busy running around and playing all day long. C turned 14 months old on the 23rd. Not that I feel the need to elaborately celebrate each month birthday, but we needed an activity. These days, we are antsy if we can't play outside and it was unseasonably cool (that one day) as well as crazy windy.

So we went shoe shopping with Aunt Mallory (where C threw multiple shoes into a nearby trashcan) and then got ice cream. Not a bad day at all!

Check out her sassy new bangs!

It amazes me each month how much she changes. She really is a tiny little person now, personality, moodiness, and all. She has opinions. She understands directions. She chooses to ignore the word "no." 

She walks runs all over the place. She is independent. She takes my hand when she wants to and pushes it away when she doesn't. 

She dances to music. She makes music with bells, shakers, and drums. She bangs on tupperware and pots and pans. 


She loves to chase me and to sneak up to Daddy and Banks. (If you say the word "sneaky," she tip toes and giggles).


She still loves her fuzzy blanket more than anything. We left it at my parents' house last weekend and they had to overnight it to us. It was a big deal.


She is a pretty good eater most of the time, but chooses to survive solely on milk, cheese, goldfish crackers, and Cheerios some days, and that's okay too.


She loves Beanie Babies. She puts them into her Easter basket or a bag or a box, carries them around, and takes them back out. It's a good thing we saved all of ours! Unfortunately, we completely devalued them by removing the original tags. There goes her college fund...


She loves a ball. She throws it. She kicks it. She sits with it in her chair. Any ball will do, but her favorite is a little soccer ball she got for her birthday.

She knows no boundaries. She will attempt to climb over any barricade, puts her leg through the baby gate, jumps out of her chair. She also falls a lot. These go hand in hand.


Banks is her best friend (and depending on what she is eating, she is his). She sits on his bed, lounges on him, pets him with play silverware, feeds him some of everything she is eating, and chases him around all day gently placing things on his back (wash cloths, socks, toys). 

She loves Kindermusik. She lights up in class and repeats what she learns all week long. Her favorite thing to do is ride around the room on a beach towel, singing songs while I pull.  We will miss it so much this summer.


She talks constantly, though not much is English. She says "doggie," "daddy," "momma" (working on "mommy"), "uh oh," and "weeeeee." She says "weeeee" all day long, especially when she's having fun. Instead of "vroom," she says "weeeee" when playing with cars or anything with wheels. She says it with arms raised as I pull her in the wagon. It is, by far, my favorite sound in the world.


She is everything I hoped for and so much more. I wake up to her smile each morning and rock her to sleep with giggles each night. I am thankful every day I get to be her mom.


Fourteen months old and growing, and I've got a ringside seat. I am utterly in love with this sweet, kind, funny little girl. 

Teething is a Bitch

C is cutting not one, not two, but THREE teeth right now, one of which seems to be some type of molar. This baffles me. I was not expecting molars yet.

Obviously, this is uncomfortable for her and, since it is very hard to explain to a 14 month old what is happening and that it will eventually go away, she wakes up every three hours screaming in pain. 

So, I give her Advil or Tylenol (in rotation) and rock her back to sleep. This process sometimes takes 10 minutes, sometimes 2 hours. Sometimes, I give up and take her back to bed with me and we watch Sesame Street on my iPad. And she is overwhelmed with excitement to be up and playing. And so my day starts at 5:00.

I feel like the mother of a newborn again.

The end.

Through Her Eyes

Sometimes, I think about how my daughter will see me as she grows up.


Honestly, she may never know the professional me. My life before hers is irrelevant. To her, I am Mom. I am changer of diapers, washer and (occasional) ironer of clothes, scrubber of dishes. I am mac and cheese chef, maker of pancakes, filler of sippy cups. I am boo boo kisser, tear wiper, lullaby singer.


While my suits and tailored dresses collect dust in the back of my closet, my daily wardrobe involves yoga pants and t-shirts, food stains and diaper cream. My hair is dirty and my makeup routine has been reduced to mascara and a cheap concealer/foundation combo I found at Target.


I look forward to trips to the zoo, carousel rides at the mall, and afternoons at the bookstore. Kindermusik is the highlight of my week. But, I wouldn't have it any other way. I actually get to spend my days playing peek-a-boo, reading books, and playing with blocks. I get to watch my daughter discover the magic of bubbles and sidewalk chalk. I get to kick a tiny soccer ball across the backyard. I get paid in toothy smiles and upside down giggles. My life is perfection.


Some days, I'm beyond tired. Some weeks, Husband is across the country for work and I begin to feel as if I am living on a secluded island of motherhood. But, then, I remember that instead of sitting in an office all day, I'm spending my entire day with this tiny, wonderful, sweet, and funny little girl...

...and I no longer care if I am seen as a professional, because all of the energy I spent on my work, I now get to spend on my daughter. I have no doubt that she will know the real me. She will learn so many things from me, some on purpose, others not so much. But, being known as "Mom" is by far the most fulfilling job I've ever had. I'm just glad I'm lucky enough to get to hold that title.

The Baby and The Bunny

We visited the Easter Bunny for the first time this week. Last year, C was a tiny six weeks old, so we didn't attempt the photo opp; but, this year, she loved him!

I had a feeling she would given the fact that, like all her favorite things, he is fuzzy. But, there was still the slight chance she would be one of many babies crying in terror in the photo (which I still find adorable).

She opened her mouth wide and giggled as we approached the big bunny. She willingly left my arms for his and, as I stepped back to entertain her for the camera, I found I was not needed. She was perfectly happy petting him! She posed for the camera and then cried when I picked her back up.

A few minutes after, she slowly walked over to his chair and peered around the corner to see if he was still there. She really is the sweetest thing.


P.S. I'll have to take a close up of the precious Easter outfit she is wearing. My mom made it for her and it is smocked with three fat bunnies with big bows on their heads. My mom has super powers. 

Happy Easter!

Perspective

Today, we had our last appointment with Dr. Theos to assess the progress of C's hemangioma. It has reached a point where medication is no longer effective, and it will begin to go away on its own. So, after we wean her off of the medicine over the next two weeks, C will officially be finished with her treatment! We won't go back to see Dr. Theos again until this time NEXT YEAR. It's not totally gone yet, but the changes we've seen over the last year are drastic.

I remember noticing the tiny little mark for the first time as we dressed her to finally go home at five days old. Husband and I looked closely, thinking at first it was just a scratch from her fingernail, but then noticing it was a birthmark. No big deal. It was a tiny little birthmark.

But then, it got larger... and darker... and raised. So, at her two week appointment, I asked our pediatrician what it was. He told me, then wrote it down so I could remember it (and google it a million times). It was a hemangioma. At first, we were terrified. (Just google it and you'll see why). There was very little positive information available online, if any. I found site after site with horrifying photos and before and after surgery stories. Our little girl had already fought to be here and we weren't signing her up for surgery. We felt hopeless. Then, finally, we were given hope in the form of Dr. Theos at Children's. 

She was patient and kind and conservative with her treatment. Surgery was always the very last option after trying everything else, and we appreciated that. So we started a thrice daily regimen of a blood pressure medication, increasing the dose as she gained weight and adding in a strong steroid cream for a couple months. Suddenly, it started to go away. Like magic.

So now, nearly eleven months after we began treatment, her hemangioma is a small mark beneath her hair and we are on the brink of eliminating the 11:30 feeding. Wow. What a difference modern medicine has made in our little love's life.

Day 1 of treatment (5-11-11)

After 10 1/2 months treatment (3-23-12)

3-25-12