Aha Moment Video

A few weeks ago Marcus and I recorded our Aha Moment for Mutual of Omaha's campaign. We met downtown and recorded our message inside a small trailer on 6th street. We thought about how we wanted to share a message of hope for other couples struggling with infertility. We were "interviewed" by the nicest Mutual of Omaha worker who asked us some really thought provoking questions. She did a great job and after editing, our message was created. Our story has a bigger message about faith and trusting things unseen and at times unfelt. I don't know that that faith-based message really conveyed after all of the edits were placed, but I pray it gives hope to others. We were asked to bring a prop and brought this photo of the blessing we fought to receive.
Before you watch the video, let me just say that I look awful. It is very humbling to share it here and if it were to be chosen as a national commercial, I might just die. The overly awful smile at the beginning was a joke- they asked us to smile really big and I think I overdid it.

Enjoy the video here and remember, I look much better in real life! Of all days to forget to wear blush!

Running Partner

Marcus has a new jogging buddy! He dreams of the day when Abby will jog the neighborhood or local 5K with him. For now, she is his seated sidekick. They recently took their first job together and Marcus was super nervous. He stopped and checked on her every 2 minutes. She would just sign "more" and he kept on going.
They are working up from a 20 minute stroll so that hopefully Abby can ride in a real race with Marcus this fall.

Mystery Illness Solved

I called the pediatrician this morning to see if I need to bring Abby in since the small red bumps were still there although the fever was gone and the antibiotics were out of her system. They looked her over and explained she has a viral infection that she likely picked up on Tuesday and was on the last leg. These little bumps look like ant bites and are all over her! They expect them to go away in the next few days. Poor thing, she had to go through surgery while sick!
I'm just glad it wasn't Roseola or Hand-Foot-Mouth. Both of those would have been more serious and required more time out of school. Momma needs to get some work done!

Tubes and Mystery Illness

We got the call around lunchtime yesterday that Abby's tubes would happen Wednesday morning at 6 AM. A few hours later, Abby's school called telling me she was running a fever, not eating and wanted a second nap where she just stared at the wall for 45 minutes. I left work, Marcus cancelled his business dinner and this was our baby. She was running a fever of 100-101, very lethargic, and disassociated from everything. She also had a mild rash on her torso, face and feet. The pediatrician's office told us they thought it was viral (since she was on antibiotics still) and to give her Tylenol if it reached 102. The surgeon said to bring her in if it stayed below 101. She didn't eat much dinner, went to bed normally, and was up just a few time sduring the night, possibly from the storm. We left the house at 5:30 with a fevered and lethargic baby for tubes. The general consensus of the nurses and doctors was that she has a viral infection coming on or was having another antibiotic reaction and the tubes were the timely solution to get her ears better and take her off the medication.
We did get a couple of lively moments while waiting on the doctors. Abby wore her special princess pajamas from our friend Johnna for surgery. I wanted all who met her to know how special she is.

Dr. Briggs came out after 8 minutes and we waited another 10 or so while they woke her up and came to get us. The absolute worst part was the taking her away from us crying. The best part, was feeding her milk in recovery.

We drove through CFA for breakfast and dropped off her prescription for drops and then came home. I took a nap and Abby slept on Marcus for another 2 hours. She woke up a much happier baby. Love bedhead at lunchtime!

This afternoon Marcus napped and Abby and I had her fitted for ear plugs for swim lessons next week and since she was feeling well, we went to McDonalds to play.

We have a brand new McDonald's near our home and this is their playground and isolated play area. It is amazing! The toddler area is below the big kids steps and just perfect for her.

It has been a ROUGH 24 hours, but I think we are on the mend! Ears are better and the fever has disappeared. Who knows what was attacking her system! Abby should be back at school tomorrow and ready for swimming on Monday.

Shooey Shooey

My Mom bought Abby these CUTE shoes from Target and we loved them. Loved them until they developed the yuckiest smell known to man! We eventually had to just throw them out because they smelled so bad. In the shoe saga, I would tease Abby and say Shooey Shooey when I took off her shoes. Now, if I say the word Shooey, she smells her feet! ha!

Abby's New Pool

We pulled out Abby's pool this week and I wonder if we'll go 24 hours without her in it for the next 3 months. It has so many fun activities- she can slide, be sprayed, roll balls down the side, throw balls through the rings, float around, walk and lay in the shallow water! We placed it under the shade tree, so it is just perfect for post-nap fun! We'd love playmates to come join her. Anyone up for the pool?

Ice Cream, You Scream!

After Abby's doctor's appointment on Friday, we all enjoyed an ice cream cone at Freddy's. Abby knew just what to do having had one cone before.

Since we were going home afterward, we let her have fun with it and not worry about melting, her bib, or the table. We had lots of wipes on hand and just rode home bare chested.

Her and Daddy were laughing at each other the whole time. Here she is showing him her mouthful of creamy goodness!

Don't let this face fool you, the following video shows how "spirited" she can be. We take the highs with the lows and love everything in the middle!

Be sure you watch it until the end- that is the best part!

Glorious Sunday

It was a glorious Sunday morning for us as Abby walked from the car into church and to her classroom without any fuss. We have waited and prayed for this day for about a year. We have left her screaming, had them pull her from our arms, missed half our class playing with her to ease her in, tried dropping her off solo, and even been paged and brought her upstairs to our class. This Sunday, she wanted to go! No bottom lip when we entered the building or crying when we entered the kids area. We want our baby girl to love the Lord, to rejoice in her time with Him and to want to learn about Him. This is a big step toward that- when your child hates your church, Satan has a big door to walk in and remove the whole family from church. I am so grateful we are beyond that stage!
After church, we walked through the Garden of Hope on our church grounds. It is a beautiful flower garden with a waterfall and this meaningful sculpture. Abby sat right down and wouldn't take her eyes off Jesus.

If she only knew how long he has been holding our hands, and

walking beside us.

Marcus has spent his lunch hour in this garden more than once where he prayed for a little baby girl to walk around with him.

Today, that baby girl held his hand as they walked around the garden smiling at her Daddy the whole time.

A glorious Sunday, indeed!

Party Girl

I feel like the headline of every weekend should be Fun Filled Saturday! We are so blessed to have so much fun together! We took Abby to the park this morning to swing before it got too hot. She could "weeee ing" for hours. We cap it at 30 minutes! She just chills, doesn't speak, doesn't move, and smiles. We'll ask her "more?" and she'll sign more or say "weee ing". We left the park and ran to Target for various necessary items including something to contain all the little toys taking over Abby's room. We found the classic plastic bins on the open bookshelf to be the best option. So, we came home and while she played in her room, we sorted toys, cleaned out some baby toys, and also pulled out her 18-24 month summer clothes.
After lunch and naps, we went to our friend and baby sitter's Mary's graduation party. Mary's Dad and Marcus are coworkers. Mary graduated from HS this morning and her parents threw a big party in their backyard this afternoon and evening. Abby took a few minutes to warm up!

Mary has a swimming pool, so Abby and Daddy took a little swim.

After the pool, Abby practiced drinking water from a real water bottle. You can see how strawberry blond her hair looks when wet in this picture. I love this color- it reminds me that God hears even the smallest requests.

After swimming, she spent lots of time on their hammock. It was her second of three swings of the day! She was a happy girl!

She also played with balls and decided to hang out in the ladder in their garage? Her poor little dress was too big! She is wearing 18 month clothes in most things, but this dress was just too big! Poor thing, Momma made her show off her ninnies all day!

We came home from the party in time for baths and bedtime! I hope everyone had a great summer Saturday!

ENT Consult Appointment

We met with Dr. Briggs this afternoon and he agreed with our pediatrician's recommendation to put tubes in her ears. It is such a minor procedure and should eliminate the ear infection cycle we are stuck in! Not only is her right ear still infection (week 3), he could see the damage from the ruptured ear dum, and her left ear had fluid building. His office had some FUN waiting room toys and Abby enjoyed hanging out in there. She played with another little girl in the room who was so kind to hand Abby her ball over and over as Abby threw it around. Abby loved her.
Being in the patient room required more creative thinking from Mom and Dad to keep her occupied. Daddy came up with a great toy! A blown up glove makes a funny balloon.

We are expecting a call on Monday to schedule the surgery for next week. We want to get them in before swim lessons the following week.

Wii Love Pizza and Cake

Last night our friend Mo and Jessica came over for pizza and Wii tennis before they head up north for a summer vacation for their extended families to see their daughter Ellie. It happened to be Ellie's 6 month birthday so we celebrated with cake! This sweet girl is now almost 12 pounds and just as cute as can be. She was happy hanging out with us and just giggled at Marcus when he made faces with her.
Happy 6 months sweet silly Ellie! We are loving watching you grow and learn.

Drinking from a Straw

At Abby's 15 month appointment, her pediatrician recommended that we transition her to a straw cup. I thought getting her to the hard topped cup was the goal, but she said the straw was best for her teeth and mouth formation. We've tried the cup on numerous occasions and it finally hit last weekend. So, at lunch this weekend she really wanted a "big girl" cup like we had. Panera had a small juice cup and it became her water cup. Since it was just water, I let her be more free and explore the cup and how spills happen :) She pulled the straw in and out and loved poking her finger in the straw hole and feeling the water.
She would turn it on it's side and watch the water move. She is still learning to drink without pulling the cup upside down. She did that a few times with her water cup at lunch and it spilled cold water on her. She learned real quick how cold the water was and how to make it spill or not spill. The look on her face when the ice cold water spilled inside her shirt was priceless!

Shaking the cup was also great fun for her. The sound of ice jiggling in the cup was pure joy!

This is classic, such an Abby face. She wanted to squeeze the cup and turned to not get caught by Daddy, but watched him out of the corner of her eye. So funny!

Down the Tubes

We met with Abby's pediatrician this morning after breakfast at Chick-fil-A to follow-up on her ear infection and that nasty little booger is still around. Her pain tolerance must be so high- she is happy and easy with a bad ear infection in one ear and what appears to be some fluid in the other ear. As a side note (to make me feel better in case you are judging), the infections are coming from internal drainage and not external water like the bathtub or swimming pool. Collectively, we made the decision to have tubes put in her ears. It seems every time she gets runny nose, an ear infection follows. Since she doesn't show signs of an infection, we miss it until it is really bad. Her allergy to a class of antibiotics makes fighting it hard and twice now we have come back to the doctor after doing a round of medicine and it is still there.
We also discovered that her ear drum had ruptured due to the pressure last weekend. We were at lunch with our Moms in town and Abby threw up her milk which was strange. Then, when we put her in car after lunch we noticed her right ear was FULL of drainage. It was nasty- something only a mother could tolerate :) Since we were running other errands, I used a ball point pen wrapped in a wipe to clean it all out. She sat still and let me.

Yea, so that was what was in her ear that popped out when the pressure was too much and the drum busted. I thought Marcus was going to cry when she told us that. He felt awful. We are surely first time parents- we apparently should have called her so that we could have applied antibiotic drops to her ear. I'm always so nervous to call on silly stuff and just thought the medicine was working and the drainage coming out was a good thing. She sure felt better afterward!

We have our tubes consultation on Friday afternoon and will schedule the surgery soon after.

Classic Summer Weekend

This has been a great Memorial Day weekend with sunshine, swimming, Shrek and summer foods!

Kyleigh and my Mom spent the weekend with us. K is like a second Mom to Abby and was so helpful! I took her to Target before she left and let her pick out anything she wanted to say thank you. She picked shoes- that's my girl! We swam for 2 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday. We bought Abby a $2 float at HEB and she is so happy in it. She doesn't talk- she just sits back and takes it all in. Very unlike her!
She loved dropping the diving sticks and having Kyleigh get them and bring them back to her. She loved it unless Kyleigh took off too fast and splashed all over her. Then she smiled and coughed. I might get a tan this summer!

Saturday night we ordered pizza and when Abby went down we snuck off to see Shrek 3D while Mom stayed home with Abby. It is a cute movie and the 3D was fun.

Surprisingly, there were maybe 20 people in the theater. I was expecting a crowd!

Sunday after church we grilled burgers and had Chocolate Chip pie! After swimming and naps, we had fried chicken and crashed early. All fun stuff! Hope your weekend was also wonderful!