Friday, December 19, 2014

Sophia is 2!

A couple weeks ago Sophia turned 2. She had a great party filled with friends and loaded with gifts. I was a bit apprehensive about a child having to share their birthday with the Christmas season, but so far it has worked out fine.

At her pediatrician appointment she was 36 inches tall. Apparently this is the height of the average 3 year old. So we're still hanging out in the upper 90th percentiles for height.
She was 26.8 pounds, putting her in the 50th percentile for weight. Which is why she needs 2T tops, but 24 month pants are the right length but roomy in the waist. She could still wear 18 month pants if they were long enough.

It's no wonder she's skinny. She eats like a bird. Also typical toddler. Unless of course it's a sweet, and then she'll want a double portion. Just like her mama.  :)

She continues to be a little mockingbird dictionary. I think her longest sentence so far was "No mama, don't take my socks off, my feet get cold." I hear a lot of "No mama, don't do this, don't do that." Don't sing, don't change my diaper, don't put my lotion on, don't wipe my booty, don't pick it up. I know she just likes having some control.

She also sings a lot these days. I think she has my knack for remembering lyrics. She can sing all the ABC's, and knows most of Itsy Bitsy Spider. She has a big repertoire of songs she knows parts of. It's so cute just to catch her playing and singing to herself. She especially likes Jingle Bells right now.

We are still dealing with the typical toddler stubbornness. One thing I find particularly frustrating is that if you catch her doing something she has been told not to do, and it's something she needs to stop doing immediately in order to avoid danger or disaster, she has the ability to completely ignore you. Today she stuck her hand in the fish tank after repeated warnings not to. When I caught her, I yelled very loudly for her to stop and take her hand out. She kept swishing her hand happy as a clam. Oh my, that made my blood boil.

This year she would have nothing to do with Santa. Wouldn't even look at him. She can certainly be very bashful at times.

The next big things to tackle are potty training (we are already working on that some), ditching the paci and moving to a bed. Since we no longer need to do these things in preparation for a sibling, I've pushed back the timeline to maybe 2.5.

We are in a time of sleep regression. This happened last year when we traveled for the holidays. It's hard to get back in our routine. Plus we've had a cold and are possibly teething. I try not to resort to CIO unless I am sure there are no legitimate reasons for the waking. So until this cold is gone we'll be up once a night, sometimes twice. Thankfully it's not for long.

Sophia continues to be our joy. She is such a blessing.















Tuesday, November 25, 2014

In Waiting

No, I'm no longer waiting for the pathology report. It came in, and was confirmed as a partial molar pregnancy.

So, the waiting begins until we can try for a sibling. I will have my labs measured Monday and then weekly until they are back to normal (zero) and then I'll need monthly labs for 6 months to ensure they stay normal. Then, we will get clearance to try again.

I already feel very un-pregnant (except those 5 pounds I gained) so I'm hopeful this is a sign that my HCG is dropping and will drop to normal and stay there.

If not, we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

I also get to have a chest x-ray, just to make sure that there's none of those peskily multiplying cells anywhere else in my body.

I'm thinking I should use this year to get fit and in the best shape possible for the next go-round. My gut could really use a flattening.

So it's not the best outcome, but certainly not the worst. Glad to have a plan and start on it.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

In Joy and In Sorrow

So I've debated even sharing about this. But if the outcome had been different, I definitely would have shared. So, I thought it only fair to share the not-so-pretty too. I also didn't want this to be a "woe is me" attention seeking type thing. But, this blog is a bit of a journal for me and I certainly want to log this on the timeline of life.

John and I decided a bit ago to go ahead and start trying to expand the family. We definitely want Sophia to have a sibling. Last time it took about 3 months, and we figured almost 3 years apart would be good spacing.

Well, things happened quickly and on October 16 I found out I was pregnant. I surprised John the next night by having pumpkins carved with the birth years of our current and soon-to-be family. Unfortunately one of them had gone out in the 15 minutes I had them lit, and he didn't even really notice at first. He just thought I carved pumpkins without him and was disappointed. After I spelled it out for him he was happy of course.

We decided this time around to wait to tell our families until we saw them in person, since we were planning a trip to see them on November 20. My midwife does not see patients until 8-10 weeks and my 9th week fell on the November 19. It would be good to have our first appointment and then share.

Around week 7 (3 weeks after we found out) I started to experience the normal pregnancy things. Nausea, bloating, fatigue, food aversions and all the wonderful first trimester things. (Sarcasm and loathing fully intended).

Then, early the morning of the 19th, around 2am, Sophia woke up and John went to check on her. I woke up too and knew things were not right. A trip to the restroom let me know I was bleeding a little. Not much, but no one wants to see that at all. I was much too far along for implantation spotting. Being a nurse, I knew that if indeed this was the beginning of a miscarriage, there really wasn't anything to be done. I didn't see any reason to brave the inconvenience of a middle of the night trip to the ER. They'd only be able to tell me what was happening, not stop or fix it. So after some disappointing Googling, prayer, and a Melatonin so I could hopefully sleep some, I went back to bed.

At 6am I woke again. More blood, but still not anything resembling a hemorrhage. My first appointment was that afternoon at 3:50. I called the answering service for my midwife at 6am. The only thing they could do was page the on-call MD and it was not my midwife. I knew the only thing they could do was tell me to watch and wait or, go to the ER. Instead I elected to leave a message for the staff when they got in to see if I could get an earlier appointment. Ten minutes after the office opened no one had called :( I mean, my message did say I was bleeding! By that time, the bleeding had actually stopped.

The office politely told me they did not have any openings but would talk to my midwife when she arrived. They called again at 10 to say my midwife had been in a delivery that morning, was just getting in, and they did not have any earlier appointments. At 1pm my midwife called to check on me. She had just gotten the message, unfortunately. She again said they were full but if I felt I needed to be seen earlier, please call. At that point I was fine to wait.

I arrived at my appointment, prepared to be told bad news. My blood pressure was unusually high. My exam was fine, no fresh blood, no signs indicating labor. My ultrasound, however, was not fine. This early I'm not very good at interpreting ultrasounds. I saw 2-3 black areas, in irregular circular type shapes. There was no "there's the baby, or the heartbeat is right there, see?" My midwife got her doctor to come look at the ultrasound. Apparently the ultrasound did not look typical for normal miscarriage or molar pregnancy, although they leaned towards the second option. But they were 99% sure there was not a living baby in there.

However, the tissue area was large and the doctor advised that if I waited to see if a miscarriage would occur naturally, I could experience heavy, prolonged bleeding and possibly hemorrhage. They wanted me to have labs drawn for my HCG levels, because if they were too high, that would be a good indication of molar pregnancy. So I went right away to the lab. Twenty-five nervous hours later, my midwife called to say that indeed, my levels were very high and in range for molar pregnancy. They offered a re-test to see if the levels were increasing or decreasing, but ultimately they still recommended at D&C so that I could avoid prolonged bleeding and, more importantly, tissue could be sent to pathology. I was anxious to quit feeling like I was pregnant when indeed I was not. With my HCG levels so high, I was really feeling icky.

Probably the scariest part came in pre-op, when the surgeon told me he felt almost certain it would be a molar pregnancy on the pathology report, and if so he would consult with the GYN oncologist via phone about my case to make sure he was using the best course of treatment. Because if you read the link above, you know that in some rare cases this can turn into...cancer. But more likely to him, sometimes even after the tissue is removed, the body continues to make HCG like it would for a pregnant woman, and then some. In his experience this can almost always be stopped with a one time dose of methotrexate. This is a chemo drug. But he assured me that in one dose it does not make you sterile or make all your hair fall out.

The second recommendation for molar pregnancies is that you refrain from getting pregnant again for a year. He has had patients not wait, and more than often the outcome is not good. There's a higher chance for miscarriage and recurrent molar pregnancy. And I never want to have another one of these. But it makes me sad that, at the soonest, Sophia will be 3 and 1/2 before she has a sibling.

So, my procedure was scheduled for lunch the next day, at the outpatient surgery center at the hospital. It's a fairly quick and straightforward procedure, but it does require general anesthesia. I was calm until the recovery room. Through the whole thing, John and I had been disappointed, certainly, but not devastated. With my medical background, I know these things happen, and really quite regularly. I am certainly not alone in suffering a miscarriage. My mother, mother-in-law, cousin, two friends and countless others have walked the same road. If affects everyone differently. With things being so early, we are just sad at the missed opportunity at what could have been. Other than getting choked up, that's about all that happened.

Well, anesthesia is known for releasing inhibitions anyway. So about 15 minutes after waking up, I was ugly crying. Thankfully John was there. I was mostly just mourning my place in life at the moment. I did not want to be there, recovering from surgery, losing 9 hard weeks of carrying a baby, facing putting off having another baby for a year, and possibly taking one shot of chemo. After about 30 minutes the anesthesia was wearing off more and I started to recover. I may have more crying in the future, who knows. But for now I feel reconciled to what has happened.

What is hard now, is the waiting. The report should come back sometime next week. Thankfully we are away visiting family, unfortunately not sharing happy news, but having a good time nonetheless. That occupies my mind. The best result would be that despite the odds, it was not molar. The second best would be that it was molar, but my HCG levels fall appropriately on their own and no further intervention is needed, the third option would be that is was molar, my HCG doesn't fall and one dose of methotrexate is needed. The fourth option, I'd rather not consider, and that would be that it turns cancerous. Even then the treatment rates are extremely good.

My HCG levels would be monitored no matter what, until they return to normal. But if it is molar, they will be monitored for quite a while and I think maybe even for several years in order to be cautious. I'd prefer not to live with that nagging feeling.

No matter the outcome, this is in the the Lord's hands. It did not take him by surprise. I try not to borrow worry from tomorrow, it's not scriptural :) So for now we wait. I will update again once I know the results and have a better idea of what the next steps will be.




Saturday, October 25, 2014

Can't think of anything catchy to put here

So 10 weeks since I've blogged. I don't want to say I've given up. I think about blogging, but something else always seems more enticing.

The latest thing to steal blogging time is my new sewing and embroidery machine. My old mechanical sewing machine died. I thought I was going to have to wait until Christmas to get a replacement, but my super thoughtful and generous father-in-law had John order me a brand spanking new one! It's computerized and it also does embroidery!!! I love it!

It's the Brother LB-6800 Project Runway. It sews like a dream. I can't tell you how much I love having a sensor for low bobbin thread, a semi-automatic threader and an automatic thread cutter. The embroidery part takes a little more getting used to. There are some quirks I'm still learning, but I've made lots of things already. Now I can add embroidery to pillowcase dresses and I collect plan shirts by the gobs just so I can personalize them!

Tuesday we go to orientation for the Radiography program John is hoping to start in June. There are only 25 seats and over 50 applicants. He will receive his number at orientation. We are selfishly hoping a lot of people don't show up or drop out for some reason. We've already been wanting to start this for about 18 months, but when he decided that the 2014 starting class was already full. If we had to wait a whole other year that would REALLY stink. It's a 2 year program as it is.

Sophia is almost 23 months old. We'll be having another birthday party soon! She is still sharp as a tack. She can hold conversation about as well as a 3 or 4 year old, but most strangers don't get to see that because she clams up around new people, for the most part. She's very discriminating. She has to feel you out first :)

I started trying to potty train, but she's not consistently excited to do it. So, she may sit on the potty once or twice a day, or sometimes not at all. I've decided not to worry about it for now. Two is going to be a big year for her anyway. It will likely entail ditching the pacifier (Heaven help us all), moving to a big kid bed, and potty training.

I think we've reached a stage of independence with her that I really like. It's sad because I know even now I'm just helping her grow to where she won't need me at all. But I do enjoy having a child who can walk, talk, and for the most part, feed themselves.

I'll do a more thorough Sophia update when she turns 2 and we get her checkup. But here are a few of her latest :) She is IN LOVE with the zoo these days.








Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Putting feet to faith

My heart is at times so heavy over the violence occurring in Israel and Iraq, and the plague in West Africa.

To be honest I know that none of this is really new. Violence and destruction has been occurring in these areas for some time. But it does seem to be increasing, or at least getting better media coverage.

But for some reason this time around it has really stricken me.

I just went and got my healthy baby out of her crib after a long nap in a dim air conditioned room that she shares with no one. She asked for milk and I simply had to pour some from a jug conveniently located in our fridge. She asked for lunch and told me she wanted corn. I had to but open our pantry and all her wants and needs were supplied. I can take her to church anytime I want and no one wants to hurt us because of that.

When I hear about innocent children sleeping on the ground, being bitten by insects, in the raging heat, with little to no food and water, and becoming ill, sometimes to the point of death, because of their lack, it just hurts me. To think there is a mother dying inside because her child is asking for food and water, and she has none to give, it makes my insides die a little too.

I have hardly anything compared to some, but I have almost everything compared to most.

So today I shared some of my almost everything, by giving to help in the Middle East conflict through Samaritan's Purse. I know they're also helping in Africa with the Ebola outbreak and I'm sure they're helping in Israel too.

Most of my life, being brutally honest, I've wanted the Lord to tarry. I wanted to grow up, be married, have children. I still want to see Sophia grow up. I want to have more children. I want to live and enjoy life. But more than that, I want peace. I want heaven on earth. I truly now know that Christ's return is the best thing I can hope for. Until then I will pray for strength for the journey for those who are in such turmoil. I will help. But dear Lord, if you're listening, come quickly.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Sunday afternoon naps

I'm the only one in the family not taking one today. Although now that it's too late to start, I kinda wish I had taken one.

So when I ran out of Downton Abbey episodes to watch, my thoughts turned to my little red-headed step child of a blog. Of course Sophia decided immediately to try and wake up early from her nap, but after replacing her lost pacifier and a bit of rocking and soothing, she's fast asleep again.

I think of so many blog topics, but I never write them down and so when I actually sit down to write, all I can think of is updates of what's been going on in our lives, rather than witty observations on current events or deep soulful outpourings of thought.

Sophia continues to amaze and entertain us daily. She is active and spunky. Her poor little legs look like I've abused her with all her bruises and scrapes from running into things and falling down. Her beautiful skin tone deepens with every trip outside. For now, she's almost a blonde-haired brown-eyed girl. In the back where her hair is thicker it's more brown, but her wispy tufts at the top are definitely golden in she sunlight. She also now likes to have her toenails polished. She will sit still while I do it. Yay for me!

John continues to work on the shaved ice truck. Believe it or not July and August are two of their slowest months (especially as far as neighborhood sales) because it is so hot, people are not outdoors much. They do still have events booked, so it's not terrible. He likes his job. Recently he completed all the testing to get into the Radiography program at our local college. The classes do not start until next summer and technically it's already full, but he is on the alternate list and the adviser feels almost certain he will get in as very rarely does everyone who's qualified follow-through with actually starting the program. I'm trying not to be anxious about him being an alternate. If for some reason he couldn't get in and we had to wait until summer 2016, I just don't know what we'd do. It seems like we've waited so long already.

I continue to work 3 days a week. As it is with all jobs, our duties at work continue to expand. There's always more I's to dot and more T's to cross. Sometimes we just have to nod and smile, while knowing that realistically, not everything they want done can be done. I still like my job :) I had an opportunity to take on the same type of job in another company, but for now I turned it down. As long as my job has hours for me, I think I'll stay put. We are fully staffed and looking at possibly hiring 2 more full time workers. That doesn't particularly bode well for me, but I won't fret about what hasn't happened yet. This year our company employees got merit raises based on a formula calculated from our annual review scores. I got a stellar review and may have gotten the maximum raise percentage, but because I'm "as needed" staff, I'm not eligible for a merit raise :( My boss was honest that our company wants all their as needed staff to come on full time staff. Oh well, I don't want to do that. So I'll just keep my same pay rate. If in time that really starts to irk me, I can negotiate for a raise or look elsewhere.

For a minute I thought "Well forget doing a great job if it doesn't get you anywhere". But then I remembered "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord and not to men". So I'll continue to do my best.

We're also going through a bit of change in our church life. Long story short, our church does not have a Pastor right now. I'm not sure if they're looking for another one just yet or just taking time to regroup. We've been having guest pastors fill-in for now. The whole situation has been painful and saddening for us. I learned from John that even prior to this, he'd been considering/feeling that it might be time for us to move on. I was surprised to hear this. As with most big change at first I felt nervous and resistant to the change. But now that I've had time to process it, I'm ready, and maybe even a little excited. I will be sad to leave our current congregation and feel a bit guilty about it to be honest. But I'm also hopeful that our next church family will be a place where we grow and share even more than we did where we currently are.

I know that the primary function of a church is not socialization or even good works. The primary function is to glorify and worship God. But one of the many other functions is the fellowship of believers. We really only have one couple at our current church that we are in fellowship with. There are 3 other couples in our age range there, but none that we have "clicked" with. It is hard to start and maintain friendships when there isn't some common gathering time and place, besides the actual church service. I think we are hoping our new church home will have some groups geared toward younger married couples, with or without children.

John and I have also been taking on a new fitness program for the last month. It is a 60-day challenge through Beach Body fitness. John's mom has recently become a Beach Body coach after doing her first challenge, and graciously provided for us to try it. Part of the challenge includes drinking Shakeology. It's seriously the best protein powder drink I've ever tasted. It's still no Chick-fil-a milkshake, but for all the protein and nutrients in it, it tastes pretty darn good. I'll be sad once our 3 month program is over, because there's a reason it tastes so good, and it's high quality ingredients. So it's also high money. I mean, really high money. And we may be the exception, but we've had a lot of confusion and frustration with the customer service and product side of Beach Body. For the amount you're paying, a lot of their online system is archaic and it's very easy for them to make mistakes. But for now everything is supposedly straightened out.

We are looking forward to more family visits this summer. My dad came, John's mom is coming, and hopefully John's dad also. Sophia and I went and saw my mom a few weeks ago. She did pretty well on her first plane ride.

We are also hopefully doing ISR lessons when a convenient time slot becomes available. I've seen and heard amazing things, and I'll be sure to let you know how that goes!

Of course I can't post without sharing a least one Sophia photo. So here's one of my recent favorites.


Sunday, June 1, 2014

Sophia is 18 months!

No, I promise I won't be one of those "She's 29 months old" people. In fact I'm excited that for the next few months I can say "She's 1 and a half".

Life with Sophia is so much fun. John and I love watching this little human learn the world.
Life with Sophia is also tiring. There's a lot of things to teach and protect a little human from when they're learning the world.

Right now Sophia is learning to sing. It's so cute. The three songs she tries to sing mostly are "ABC's" "Twinkle Twinkle" and "My God is so Big," a song they sing in her Sunday School class.

She's also a bit of a daredevil. She loves to swim and often wants "down" while in the pool or ocean. Today we took her in the bay where the water is calm, and she had no problem walking away from me right into the water, all the way up to her chin and often past that. She is not happy to be in her baby float either, she wants full use of her arms to splash and move, and that ring around her just gets in the way!
I tried a Puddle Jumper on her, but she is still a little too small for that. She couldn't really move her arms at all and just stood in the living room crying.

Sophia is pretty good at walking, and can even do small stairs. She still needs a hand to hold on bigger steps. She's pretty good at walking in the sand and in the water. She still can't make the whole way to the ocean alone, it's too tiring. She can walk pretty fast, but still isn't full on running yet.

We had our first ER visit this quarter. Sophia was throwing a tantrum in the store, and apparently when I took her hand and tried to get her to stand up, her radius popped out of the socket. Unfortunately for her I didn't realize this for about 2 hours. Thankfully the hospital I work at has about a zero wait most of the time, so we were seen quickly. After triage, getting to a room, and then the nurse assessment, she started acting totally fine and using her arm again. The PA told us about Nursemaid's Elbow and how it probably reduced on it's own. Apparently it's pretty easy to reduce manually also. So two days later when it happened again at home (while trying to put on the blasted Puddle Jumper) I reduced it myself. And now we are very careful with Sophia's arms. :)

Did you catch above that she hurt her arm during a tantrum? Yeah, she's got a quick temper. Fortunately I read that is pretty common. She will scream and cry at the drop of a hat over the most random things. At home I just ignore it. In public it's not so fun. I know I'm supposed to keep my cool, but that's very hard. I try to play the distraction game without giving in to the fit. Tantrums are neither of our finest moments.

The amount of information this kid takes in everyday is amazing. Literally she learns a new word every day. She's quite the mockingbird. I decided to keep track for the last 2 months of all the words she uses or repeats easily, and the total as of June 1st is 190. And since my mom didn't believe me I'll list them all
:) And I didn't count twice for phrases that involve the same word in more than one.

Names: Mama, Papa, Mimi, MawMaw, Grammy, Hali, Jeff, Ben, Coco, Eby, Ernie (she says his name again now!), Sophie, Madison, Dora, Dale, Emma, Mike, Connor, George, Graycie, Tonya, Jesus.

Numbers/Colors: One, two, three, yellow. And she will count 123 on her own.

Commands: Please, thank you, you're welcome, up, down, come, hush, ok, yay, uh-oh, byebye, hi, hey, hello, no, ok, careful, night-night, off, clean up.

Foods: Cracker, cookie, apple, nana, milk, juice, water, chicken, bacon, baba, broccoli, yogurt, ice, egg, cheese, breakfast, bite, orange, coffee, mango, pepper, potato, candy.

Animals: Puppy, doggy, ruff-ruff, bird, owl, monkey, bunny, rabbit, froggy, zebra, bug, snail, lion, giraffe, turtle, kitty-cat.

Clothes: Socks, shoes, boots, diaper, paci, dress, hat, necklace, earrings, pants, glasses.

Body parts: Nose, toes, button, feet, booboo, hair, teeth, fingers, eye, ears, arms, legs, hands (and she can point to all of these).

General: Fire, poo-poo, Amen, pretty, hot, cold, what, book, raining, phone, baby, ball, bath, shower, outside, coming, sunshine, light, chair, medicine, mail, car, truck, airplane, carseat, seatbelt, flowers, bubbles, home, nice, window, door, pillow, slide, awesome, bucket, toys, strong, box, blanket, tv, bed.

Phrases: Come mama, I see you, I love you, I love (papa/mama etc), I know, what's this, Hi (baby/mama etc), no ok, bless you, touch it, have it, good girl, good boy, good morning, careful (Eby/baby etc), hi five, oh yeah, oh boy, big girl, I sorry, excuse me, happy day, I got it, where are you (Sophia/mama/papa etc), I got your phone.

So yes, she's a bit of a talker :) Lucky for me it doesn't really matter that I did not teach her baby sign language, because she caught on to talking pretty fast. We almost always know what she wants. Along with knowing more actual words, she also talks a fair amount of babble. It's cute :)

And finally, Sophia's favorite things list: being outside, sitting in adult chairs or kid sized replicas, candy, opening mail, pointing out airplanes, climbing around in the car, pushing the doll stroller and playing in the water.

Happy 1.5 years baby girl. Here's to many more.




Monday, May 5, 2014

Here I go again on my own

That song is just running through my head.

But you see, the thing is, I'm not really alone. And I can't do very much alone, even if I think I can.

In Sunday School this past week we were discussing free will versus free choice.

It was complicated.

But mostly I was reminded, I can't do it in my own strength.

I can't be a good enough employee, mom, wife, friend, volunteer, Christian, exerciser, nutritionist, blogger, none of it!

Far too often I forget this. I think of all the things I should/could improve on and it overwhelms me.

I was also reminded that even if I'm a great employee, mom, wife, friend, volunteer, Christian, exerciser, nutritionist, blogger etc., it matters NOTHING. Because my righteousness is as filthy rags. Only the work of the cross matters.

Does God command me to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him? Yes he does!
But that is not what gives me salvation. It is the work of Christ. If it had anything to do with my filthy self, it would be tainted.

Our conversation had me questioning why we do certain things- like preach the Gospel to others, or help our fellow man, or honor our parents, or live with integrity. If salvation has nothing to do with my will and everything to do with Christ's work, why try? Because God's inspired word says to. But I could preach til I turn blue, help as much as Mother Teresa, do everything my parents ever wanted, and never sin, and if Christ had not quickened my dead spirit-man through salvation, I would die and spend eternity in hell.

John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Eph. 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
 

Just let it sink in how much you are dependent on Him.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

A trifecta of sorts

So I did have a run of three things this weekend, but I wouldn't call them wins.

Unless I've won a terrible award that no one wants.

Now that it's all in the past I'm more reflective and less upset, but still I thought y'all might get a kick out of my suffering (in at least one of three stories).

Tuesday I dropped my phone in the toilet. I put it in a dry-out bag and Thursday everything seemed fine. Except then it wouldn't charge. So Friday I took it to a local place that does repair (I'm about to bash you on the Internet Techshell), and explained what had happened and my presumptive diagnosis that the charging port had fried. The gentlemen was a non-native English speaker and although we seemed to have a bit of difficulty with clarity, we came to a consensus that they would check it out and give me a call. I signed an estimate that listed "water damage, port" and said $49.95. I in no uncertain terms asked that they call for anything over the estimate and before any repairs were made.

John got a voicemail that evening that the phone was ready, they replaced the charging port and the battery and the cost was $80. I was upset but decided to deal with it Saturday when I picked the phone up.

I went into the store Saturday and explained my problem immediately to the nice young girl who was in  that day. She was unsympathetic except to say "I'm sorry no one called you but all we can do is take out the new parts if you want." We went round and round. I wanted to know what the problem was with the phone, was there any water damage as discussed, why did both parts need repair, and why she was acting like it was no big deal that they went $30 over the estimate without calling. I was informed that the technician would not be in for another 1.5 hours and they could either call me (not an option, John was at work and they had my phone) or I could come back and find out what the technician said. She said she could not reduce my bill any and when I asked to speak with a manager I was told he was on vacation and there was no manager present at their other location, but again, they could take down my name and have one call me.

I decided to go ahead and fund something to busy myself on that side of town for an hour and a half. When I returned I had a baby who was nearly ready for a nap. The same blonde told me the tech said my phone would neither charge or hold a charge and so both parts needed replacing. I guess I did not need the water treatment I was initially told I might need. Anyway, this part was XX and that part was XX and my total was $96.XX. I nicely explained to her that yesterday on my voicemail and this morning when I spoke with her earlier I was also told $80. She explained that that was before it was "rung up" with tax. I asked her if there was $16 in tax. "That's just the total" I was told. We went round again about a signed estimate, no phone call, bad customer service, likely communication error with the guy who wrote my estimate due to possible language barrier etc. She re-ran my numbers again giving me a "discount" and that my total was $80.53. I explained again that this was the total from the beginning, $30 over the estimate, and I was just not happy with that. I told her to go ahead and take out the battery as that was an easy fix I can do myself. I heard her whispering to the tech then she came out and we bantered some more. I explained if this was there idea of customer service that I would take my business elsewhere in the future. I explained that they had made a mistake by not calling me and that I had told her on my first visit that day that I would be ok with $10 off for a $70 total. At this point she relented, told the tech to leave my battery in and charged me $70 plus tax. She did say she was sorry for the miscommunication and my problem, and I thanked her for finally being willing to do something about it.

But there are 3 things right?

I drove straight home, trying to get Sophia to her nap. When I came in the house, I found dog poo on our rug. Upon closer inspection, it was spread across a couple feet of our rug. And there were some streaks on the tile floor. How did it get smeared?

Sometimes the things that are supposed to help you do the opposite. Say for instance when your dogs (who had adequate outdoor time to potty) poo on the floor and then your Roomba robotic vacuum runs over it. And over it. And takes it with it. And then you have a toddler who won't nap because you had her out past nap time, and a floor you desperately need her to stay away from. And an expensive vacuum with dog crap ingrained in every nook and cranny of it's underside.

And then you feel the urge to binge eat sweets or binge drink. I chose the former.

Then you clean your carpet and the vacuum. Only even though you were walking a fine line between getting rid of every trace of poo so you're not vacuuming it into your floor ad infiniteum, you somehow manage to damage your expensive vacuum so that it no longer does what it's told.

So by the time Saturday was done I was ok, even though I'd done about $175 in damage to electronics.

Then Sunday on the way home from church I stopped for gas. I took out my debit card but left everything else in the car. When I was done refueling I tried to open my door. No luck. Somehow even though I exited the car, ALL my doors were locked. My keys were in the shut off ignition, my cell phone was on the seat and Sophia was in her carseat.

Initially I did not panic, but only felt inconvenienced. I knew John was at work. I went in the gas station and asked the clerk for a phone. I called John to see if he could tell me the number on the back of our insurance card to call for roadside service. He did not have his wallet on him. He could Google it but I should try  1-800-Geico. Tried that, no luck. Asked the clerk if the computer right next to me had internet service they could use to lookup the number. Nope. I asked if they had a phone book. Yes. A small business only one. Found an ad for the local Geico which had the option to connect to roadside service. Got a rep who could not find the address of the gas station because it was new. She understood the urgency of the situation and asked if I'd called the police. That had not occured to me since I thought I could get someone there in 20 mins or so and the car was parked in the shade and they day was overcast and humid.  After about 10 minutes of phone calls she told me she could only find someone 45 min away. Not good enough. Hung up and John called me back to say call this number a friend of a friend with a locksmith service. Called him. 20-25 minutes away but at this point 15 mins had passed in phone calls. He told me he would come but call if I ended up calling the police. Went to finally check on Sophia. She was quiet, smiling at me behind her pacifier, holding her water sippy cup. But I could see her hair was sweaty and her cheeks were pink. I started to get a little emotional and worried. The clerks in the store did not offer any kind words or sense of urgency or danger. I hope it was because of a possible language barrier and misunderstanding of the situation.

I decided to go back in and call the police. I just did not know if another 20 minutes would be safe.
You see, there's this horrible awareness video (I won't even put the link it's so gut wrenching) about forgetting kids in a locked car and the heat stroke and death that can ensue. I saw it and bawled. I kept thinking of it. So I called 911. Dialing those numbers alone is enough to make me cry, especially since I was feeling very alone and helpless, but I didn't want to cause a big scene.

The operator was very nice and within 5 minutes, likely less, a fire truck with lights and sirens was speeding towards us. The lights and sirens only made me cry worse, try as I might to hold it together. I knew Sophia was fine, I knew it. I just couldn't help it.

In less than 1 minute they opened the locked door and Sophia was out. They agreed she was fine, canceled the EMS they called as a matter of protocol, and mostly asked me a few times if I was going to be ok. They were done and gone within about 5 minutes. They did nicely ask me to call them right away next time and skip the locksmith, and tell all my friends to do the same.

I took me about 10 minutes sitting with Sophia in the car to recover. But she was just fine.

So yeah, it wasn't the greatest weekend for me. But in the end I was thankful again to have a happy, healthy baby.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

What Baby Wore [WBW] A fashion post

Sophia is so happy for Easter she just can't stand it, as you can tell.

I think she's thinking something like "Ugh, mom, these clothes are so juvenile"





Feather clip- Hobby Lobby, T-shirt- Circo sold at Target, applique custom made, Pants- handmade by mom, Sandals- Gymboree.

This feather clip is no more- Sophia ripped it off and destroyed it on the way to dinner. Nice.

Friday, April 4, 2014

I'm still alive

Have I really gone 6 weeks without an update? So much has been going on. Namely, I’ve been working

full time hours and trying to maintain a household. That keeps me quite busy. Not to say there haven’t

been moments where I could have squeezed in a blog post, it’s just that lately I find myself preferring to

do other things. Things like reading blogs instead of writing them, surfing Facebook, crafting, watching

television or cleaning.


Speaking of crafting, these are some of the things I’ve been up to lately:


I made two pairs of ruffle pants, and then my friend appliqued coordinating shirts:



I made a neck tie for John to coordinate with our Easter outfits:


So I’ve gotten lots of sewing practice in. I’m nowhere near a seamstress, but I’m also nowhere near as

rusty as I was. We won’t talk about how many times I had to seam-rip, adjust, and rig the pants.

I made a quick wreath for our door for Easter:


We also won’t talk about how the tutorial I read should have mentioned painting or in some way

covering the cardboard ring you cut out as the base, as there is no way to hide it completely using only

one size egg. Or what is the best way to lay out the eggs so that your wreath looks somewhat uniform.

No, we won’t mention that.

As for the watching television that takes up blogging time:

Have you guys seen this show? I love it! My mom led me to it on Netflix. I enjoy British dramas and I also immensely enjoy midwifery culture. It’s glamorous to me.

So after I was all caught up on that series I figured I might as well take the plunge on Downton Abbey.


I’ve only gotten to the end of season 3. I hated the end of season 3 BTW [Oh and if you want to watch

online, the only place I found it is Amazon (1st 3 seasons free with Prime)].


I’ve also gotten in 2 trips to the beach. Both days it was still really a bit overcast and cool. I am SO over

this extended winter. Highs in the 60’s is not what Florida people want in April. We have had just a few

days the temp got above 75, and even fewer where it was 75, calm, and sunny. Boo! How am I going to

be tan for Easter?


Thankfully Sophia seems to enjoy the beach. The first time we went this year and I sat her in the sand,

she didn’t move for probably 5 minutes. It was a very foreign feeling to her I guess. It was funny. But

now she’s up and moving, although she crawls a lot more at the beach than anywhere else. Easier on

her given the terrain. She never crawls at home.


We had her 16 month (15 month but late) checkup recently. She’s still in the 90th+ percentile in all areas.

She is up to about 65 words now and has a few 2 and 3 word phrases. She is in to climbing. She will

climb onto the kitchen table and the bathroom counters if she gets a chance. We are working on letting

her know the table is not allowed and for the bathroom we just keep the door closed. I do let her climb

onto furniture and into chairs. She also really likes to stand on a chair by the counter in the kitchen and

watch me cook or do dishes. Basically, she is very into being as adult as possible. Thankfully she is also

still into being rocked before naps and bed. I very much cherish those times.


She is keeping wings on our feet and smiles on our faces. And maybe bags under our eyes, ha!

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Don't be hatin'

I was at work one morning, conversing with one of the nurses. She's pregnant.

I wasn't sure how far along she was, but she didn't look very big.

She was sitting at her computer, inputting her assessments. Only she was having to stop every few minutes or so.

She was having contractions! We talked a bit more, turns out she was 3 days from 40 weeks. With her first. She'd had irregular contractions the night before, and her last office visit the day before had shown she was 2cm and 100% effaced.

But she came into work. It being her first, she didn't think she was in labor. She was planning to go natural, prepared to go overdue, have a long labor etc.

Only at work her contractions were regular. When I was talking with her they were 4 minutes apart. She said they were painful but she was calm and breathing through them. She was working on getting her paperwork complete because she felt she wasn't going to finish her 12 hour shift (it was about 11am).

I was telling her she was doing good by keeping busy and keeping her mind off it. It could still be awhile, it's going to get much worse (although I always include that everyone is different and feels different sensations as they labor), early labor is easy etc etc.

Well about 45 minutes later she was getting a bit more serious looking. She handed over her patients and went to Labor and Delivery.

I don't know all the details from there. Only that we checked on her about 1-2 hours later and per her family she was 7 cm and said to tell us that she was "dying".

She had her just shy of 7 lb baby at about 2pm. After a 4-6 hour labor, 3 of which she worked through.

I told my husband that when she came back from maternity leave I was going to punch her.

He told me not to hate just because she had the labor and delivery I wanted.

Even my midwife would tell you that she and anyone like her are an exception to the rule.

 But I still begrudge her a little. 

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Dirty Mouth? Clean it up!

So Wednesday Sophia and I were at a friend's house having a mom/daughter playdate (she has a little girl 7 months older). We were in the nursery sorting old clothes (so that I could pick out some to borrow, score!) when Sophia started gagging.

I looked over and Sophia was spitting and it was a bit foamy. I then realized there was a small decorative soap in her hand, with a chunk out of it.

Of course I snatched that away. Poor baby girl was gagging and spitting and her eyes were watering.

Then about 2 seconds later, she full on blew chunks. Only about 1/3-1/2 a cup, but she was quite frightened by the whole thing. She's never vomited before.

She looked so pitiful, trembling, foaming, eyes watering, gagging, puking.

Thankfully it only lasted a few seconds.

But she was pretty sedate for awhile after her ordeal.

If only she were old enough to truly remember it. Then if I threatened to "wash your mouth out with soap" she'd actually take that as a serious threat with dire consequences.

It was both pitiful and just a little funny.

Monday, February 17, 2014

My No-(Sham)poo Experience

So a few weeks ago I saw a blog post link on Facebook. I'd heard about the "no-poo" method. But this post made it seem healthy, inexpensive and convenient.

I'd already tried to start shampooing my hair less, as another blog I read mentioned how over-shampooing can actually cause increased oil production due to stripping off all your natural oil with shampoo and your scalp over-producing oil to compensate.

I have always struggled with oily hair and facial skin. It IS getting better as I age, but my hair still looks its best when shampooed daily. But maybe I was helping to perpetuate this vicious cycle?

So I started shampooing every other day and using dry shampoo or baby powder on the off days. I was warned there would be an adjustment period. But overall it went pretty well. The off days were'nt "great" hair days but they were far more tolerable than I thought.

So I decided "what the heck?". Baking soda is cheap. The blog said to use straight baking soda and rub it into your scalp. They also used apple cider vinegar mixed with water as conditioner. I didn't try their conditioner as my hair wasn't dry enough to need conditioning during my trial.

It was a bit weird not having a nice lather whiles scrubbing. I also had to be extra careful to rinse my hair really really well. I would say that at first my hair really did seem to have more body. But as the 5th day approached it started to have more "buildup" than body. Upon further research I was probably approaching the "oily" phase a lot of people experience until their hair adjusts.

I probably would have kept on with it except one problem. It caused me to break out!

Yes, apparently my skin does not like pure baking soda washed over it. I would never classify myself as having sensitive skin. I've only had itchy rashes a total of three times now, and once was an allergic reaction to medication (SO not fun!). The second time was over Christmas when I washed/dryed my clothes in something my skin did NOT appreciate (perhaps that was baking soda related too?).
And the third was trying out the no-poo method.

At first I didn't realize that was the culprit. I thought I'd worn something I washed over Christmas but had failed to re-wash in my own detergent. But on about the 4th day I realized my chest was extra itchy right after washing my hair. And it hit me- the rash came just about the same time I started the baking soda routine.

I was a little disappointed. I wanted to be able to go a couple days without "washing" my hair and it not look like an oil slick. But alas, not at the expense of an itchy rash (which I still have more than a week later).

I did some research and while it's not possible to be "allergic" to topical baking soda, baking soda (especially in large quantities) can be a skin irritant to some. The only alternatives I saw mentioned was some other clay mud but you have to get it online or at a health food store. That defeats the inexpensive and convenient part to me.

I also saw a few posts warning that baking soda can very much irritate or burn the skin and is a simple household chemical, not a natural beauty wonder product.

I told my hair stylist about all of this, and she gave me a suggestion for my next experiment. She told me to get a 1 liter bottle of scented shampoo and cut up a small red onion into then let it marinate for 2 weeks. After that I can use it daily or even just weekly if I like. It will help repair damage and replenish oils. She says her mom has been using it for a year now and won't go back.
She learned the trick from a friend's grandma who stated they would use a red onion poultice on their hair 75-100 years ago to keep it looking healthy.And your hair won't smell like onions.

As soon as I have more data on that experiment I'll let you know!

Monday, February 3, 2014

Accustomed

So I got rather "spoiled" by my lack of work over the past couple months. But alas, my bank account and savings account have also been "spoiled" but not in the same way I have. So when an opportunity for a lot of work arrived, I had to take it.

So, out of the 28 days of February, I am working 21 of them. Two of them will be only 6 hours and 2 of them will be only 4 hours (weekend days). But still, after being home a lot, that is a lot of time away from home for me.

So this morning I dropped Sophia off at great-grandma's, I tried not to cry. First because she still clings to me when I drop her off. She doesn't go as happily as she does at grandma's. I did make it better this morning by putting her down by some toys instead of handing her straight to great-grandma. She didn't cry.

But, I will be leaving her with either John or great-grandma for some portion of the day for the next 8 of 9 days. I have every Wednesday off and one of two weekend days off (except this weekend when I work both). It's hard to think about. I tried to think of doctors, hospital pharmacists, even just regular full-time workers who have their kids in daycare 40+ hours a week. To be honest, it didn't help me. That's just not what I want for myself or Sophia and I'm not going to feel bad about earnestly desiring and even demanding it. I'm not going to feel bad about sacrificing friend's expensive wedding gifts, co-workers sympathy plants, Thirty-One parties, Scentsy parties, dinners out, or even mission projects. I'm not sacrificing precious time with my daughter just to be able to afford the things society thinks you should. No judgement here if you want to work full-time and have nicer things. That's totally your choice. It's just not for me.

But, my more-rigorous-than-normal work schedule is not about saving for a cruise or buying new clothes. We're down to it being a necessity of keeping the "four walls" covered at this point after a lean couple of months for my job. So I'll suck it up and be grateful for the chance to play a little financial catch-up. But I'll still be missing my Sophie.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Parenting is the start of second guessing

I guess I've lost a little of my enthusiasm for blogging. I have more enthusiasm for "real" life these days. That's not so bad really.

But tonight I was talking to a friend of mine who's sister just had a baby. Her sister was induced at 41ish weeks. The baby didn't tolerate the induction very well and she had to have a c-section. My friend was saying she's sure her sister has some "mommy-guilt" about being induced and that leading to the surgery. I told her parenting is the beginning of a lifelong journey of "what-ifs".

What if I wouldn't have been induced?
What if I would've tried harder to breast feed?
What if something's really wrong and I'm just letting him/her scream?
What if he has a food allergy reaction?
What if I picked the wrong daycare?
What if vaccines give him/her problems?
What if they aren't eating enough?
What if they're eating too much?
What if the food isn't enough variety?
What if I hold them too much?
What if I don't hold them enough?
What if they're a bully?
What if they're too shy?
What if they aren't developing quick enough?
What if they have an ear infection?
What if it's something really serious?
What if they do poorly in school?
What if I'm a bad example?
What if I lose my temper?
What if I'm too lenient?
What if they break my heart?
What if they're irresponsible?
What if I can't give them all I want to?
What if I could have done better?

For me at least, those first few months of parenting are filled with SO MANY QUESTIONS. And that's coming from a maternity nurse! There are soooo many decisions to be made, and lots of them don't have clear cut answers. And you'll hear so many different suggestions for the same problem. And they all have worked for someone. But you have to figure out what works for YOU! and YOUR baby!

That's the thing. In Christ He equips us to be the parents our kids need. But it is such a monumental task. We all do the best we can. Some days your best is just getting by, spending the day in jammies, no bath and eating takeout. Some days you'll have it together and get out for a walk, go to the park, do a craft, clean the house and make dinner (at least I hear some moms can do all that in one day!).
A lot of times you have to just take in the options then go with your gut.

For instance even just now. Sophia is starting to get a cold. She's congested. I made sure she had some Tylenol, a bath, a nice full belly and warm PJ's. She went to bed fine, but woke up an hour later. John put the humidifier in her room. I aspirated her nose, checked for fever, gave her a bottle, some Hyland's teething tablets (she's still not fully cut her top molars) and the other half of the bottle she didn't finish at bedtime. She finally quieted down as I was rocking her. Then after a few minutes she decided she wanted to get up and walk around the room and be awake and play. I tried to get her to cuddle and rock again. Nope.

So I decided to just put her in her crib. Poor thing, I felt she wasn't going to sleep at all unless she was just totally exhausted. And I'm going to have to be up with her tonight so I want some rest too. I know it was miserable for her, but I just let her cry. She cried about 30 minutes. In the moment of hearing it it feels like forever. But now she is quiet.

She hasn't been consistently sleeping through the night for about 3 months. Some nights she does, but that's becoming the exception and not the rule. To be honest, I can get up once maybe even twice a night and it doesn't even phase me. But getting up 3 and 4 times a night is tiring for sure. It's just seemed like every time I'd resign myself to doing cry-it-out bootcamp, it would be inconvenient. We'd be going out of town, she'd be kinda sick, breaking teeth, other reasons. Sleep bootcamp is not all that fun for parents either, initially. But it has rewards :)

So last night she was up 3 times. I wanted to let her CIO the second time, but John thought she sounded hungry and so he fed her. Plus he can't sleep through her screaming. Between 8:45pm and 7:20am she had 3.5 cups of milk. Crazy! So then I start second guessing the CIO. I'd sure hate for my baby to be awake because she's hungry. But maybe she's just using the bottle for a crutch? She should be able to make it through the night at this age. She has been able to since she was very young.

So today I made sure to offer her more food and milk during the day. I stuffed her as full as I could. Which isn't easy because she's either being very picky or very willful these days. Lunch involved a lot of tears and me yelling once, ashamedly.

But now I'm trying to remedy months of poor sleep while Sophia is fighting a cold. Another inconvenient time! But I'm determined to get us back on track, soon!

So educate yourself, go with your gut, and try not to agonize over every decision! There are too many of them to be made to major on the minors.

Here's to happy parenting and a full night's sleep!

Monday, January 6, 2014

Christmas Recap 2013

    So it's been a bit since I posted :) Although work has been slower than ever, life seems to be busier than ever (at least busy enough to keep me from blogging). I've been doing a lot of thinking about what things might need to go away once our family expands even more. These moms who blog daily while being responsible for multiple children and working full-time: Kudos to them. They are more disciplined than I and require less sleep.
    Anyway, we had a great Christmas season. I had a plan all devised to save ahead for Christmas this year, but with work the way it has been recently for me and the way it always is for John, it just wasn't possible. Thankfully through another's generosity and just moving funds, we were able to give everyone we love at least a small gift. It's funny that even though we purposed to have a small Christmas, we ended up having a big one. John says the biggest he can remember in his adult life. Our families are so gracious.
    Not that it's about gifts, because truly it isn't. I almost felt guilty at all the things we received. I confided that to my mother-in-law on Christmas morning and she advised me that "I don't know why, but He put me here and not there". Insinuating that she was not going to feel guilty at where God had placed her in life vs. where some others might be. I agree with her. Although I know He does place us where He does in part so we can bless others. But I digress.
    The Saturday before Christmas we exchanged gifts with my mom and grandma in our hometown and that's when the gifts started. I guess it's probably considered tacky to brag about your gifts, especially as a grown adult, but I got so many things I love and I love the people who gave them to me. A short list is that I received 4 maxi skirts, 2 infinity chevron-print scarves, a watch, glitter gel polish for my DIY gel mani kit, stainless steel mixing bowls, sheets, a sewing machine, a sound bar for our TV, a Coach purse, a high-grade ched knife and magnetic knife strip and an afternoon at Painting with a Twist. And taken out to lots of wonderful meals, and served lots of wonderful home-cooked meals. My I'm a spoiled girl!
    Sophia got gobs of things, even though we all tried to tell ourself that she's young and won't remember it. Actually we did good and only got her two small things. But the grandparents and great-grandparents couldn't be stopped! She got lots of toys, several books, a mini guitar, a motorized ATV (she isn't big enough for it yet but she sits on it), and several cute outfits. She got another Mud Pie outfit and I just love it! They're more expensive than I would by (although we get them on Amazon for much less than retail prices), but they're sure cute and a nice treat!
    John got lots of gift cards to Lowes (he wants to build a rabbit hutch)and a couple other places, Vibram shoes, 2 t-shirts, 2 new Tervis tumblers, some K-cups, beef kerky and footed pajamas. The latter he has talked about wanting for a long time. Weirdo! :) If there's any gifts I left out please forgive me. We received so many it's embarrassing I can't remember them all. But I was glad to receive them all!
    We had a wonderful time in the Tampa area, even staying an extra day! My in-laws and I get along great. They even take me out dancing. They all enjoy dancing and know John doesn't, so they fill my dance card. We went salsa dancing one night and swing dancing another. We enjoyed my sister-in-law's annual Christmas Eve party. This year it was Minute to Win It themed. So fun! My father-in-law took us out shooting (although I just watched this time around), popped us kettle corn and took us out for a very extravagant Christmas buffet in St. Petersburg Beach. My mother-in-law treated me to Greek, two rounds at the Ale House (I ate the Nutty Brother dessert twice in one week! But I shared!) and IHOP brunch. I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention something...
    New Year's Eve we had dinner at my mom's house with some friends of hers and some friends of ours. Then she kept Sophia overnight while we went downtown to watch our local "Pelican Drop" and fireworks. New Year's Day my grandma put out the last and final huge holiday spread.
    And that's good because I've gotten a holiday spread of my own. Right across my gut. Five pounds worth. I'm aiming to have that gone when I zip up my bridesmaid's dress February 1st. Back in the saddle again. This year I puposed to use our DSLR to take photos rather than relying on phones. I'm so glad I did. I got some lovely photos, and I'll share just a few.
At MawMaw's House

MiMi and Sophie

She still LOVES Uncle Jeff!


Feeding Grammy

With Grandpa and Great Grandma at the shooting field

Taking a walk with Great Grandma- and wearing my ear protection like a champ

Shoot em up

Eat em up

Eat her up! She's eatin it up!

Sunny windy day

Grandpa's baby peacock, Peep

Christmas morning with all the girls- note the matching jammies

Opening presents- the start. Couldn't see the floor when we were done :)

Oh! A Box!

Playing with mommy's purse

And her mini Minnie guitar

The footed jammies!

Our little family Christmas morning

Christmas dinner buffet

On a balcony at the Don Cesar

My love

Naptime with Grammy

Swing dancing!

Grammy bought Sophie a twirly skirt!

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