All hail the queen

We've decided to start warping her mind while she's young.....bwaahahaha!

And the answer is....

(C) An ear infection.

Although she acted pretty normal for most of the day yesterday, Elizabeth was up for most of last night and was obviously in a lot of pain. A trip to the doctor today quickly revealed she had an ear infection. We'll pump her full of Tylenol and Amoxicillin and hopefully she'll be better soon. The amazing thing is that, although she was out of sorts and a little grumpy yesterday, she was still smiling and playing quite a bit, which is why we kept thinking she was just teething at first. Guess she hasn't learned the art of high drama yet from some of her other family members...

The next round of the guessing game will include a variation of Name that Tune...we'll try to, "Name that illness in ___ nights." Hopefully, we'll get it down to less than 2 next time!

At the doctor's we did find out that Elizabeth now weighs 16 pounds and is 26.75 inches long at almost 9 months. That puts her in the 25th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height.

I'm afraid we have no grumpy pictures for Aunt Amy. For some reason, when we were awakened at 11:00, 11:45, 12:30, 3:00, 4:30 and 6:00 last night, we didn't think to pull out the camera and take a picture of the screaming baby.

So, instead I offer the following comparison of a picture of Elizabeth in her swing taken about a week ago (8-1/2 months) compared with a picture of her at 4 weeks. My, how she has grown!

The guessing game

David and I are very alike. We're both Type A, anal personalities, which is probably why we get along so well. When problems arise, we both like to quickly: 1) assess the problem, 2) identify the possible solutions, 3) select a solution and implement it. No time for wishy-washiness, just fix the problem and go on to the next one. You probably could have guessed that when our wedding took place 5 months after we started dating. :)

However, this outlook on life is not always possible with a baby. Today, Elizabeth was Ms. Grumpy Pants, which is completely unlike her. She's normally a very happy baby who sleeps and eats fairly well. But today, she wouldn't eat, she wouldn't sleep, and she screamed bloody murder all the way home from church. It made us truly appreciate what an easy baby she normally is!

So, when your baby is "out of sorts," you start playing the guessing game. She has a stuffy nose....is that making her feel bad? She still has no teeth....could they actually be coming in? Does she have an ear infection with no other symptoms? Or, is she just grumpy? Aack! Our normal "divide and conquer" way of handling life doesn't work if you can't figure out what is wrong. In fact, I was just left feeling completely helpless. I kept asking her to just tell me what was wrong so I could fix it, but no doing. Fortunately, she went to bed fairly easily and is sleeping soundly now. Hopefully, she'll be back to normal tomorrow!

He's on a roll

Not only did Jonathan get straight A's last semester, but last week he was elected "Student of the Week" by the teachers on his 6th grade team, the Explorers. His school's motto is: "Where character counts." And the Student of the Week is someone who is nominated and elected by the teachers because they exemplify the motto. We're so proud of him! He's turning into such a great young man!

Jonathan goes in on Tuesday to get his braces. He already had his spacers put in last week and 2 teeth pulled the week before to get ready for them.

Here are the "Before" pictures we took of his teeth:





No denying the boy needs braces! We can't wait to show you the "After" pics!

Yum....sweet potatoes!

Notice the extra spoon on the tray. Elizabeth now uses her own spoon while she eats to "help." This contributes to most of the mess!

Things that melt my heart

Being a mommy has made me much more sentimental. It started at the very moment they placed Elizabeth in my arms at the hospital, when I just teared up and started to cry. Now, I even cry at the mushy e-mails and commercials!

There are several times everyday when I just look at my family and realize how truly blessed I am.

I love watching David with Elizabeth and Jon. David has always been a wonderful husband, and he is just an incredible father. Watching him with the baby makes me fall more in love with him everyday. We're blessed that he has been able to stay home with her, and it really has created a special relationship between the 2 of them.



I also love watching Jon interact with Elizabeth. We worried before she was born about how Elizabeth would affect him (somewhat in a negative way), but I never imagined what a positive effect she would have on him.



Aren't they starting to look a lot alike?

He loves to play with her and make her smile and laugh (which he always seems to be able to do). He even lets her give him big wet kisses:



Well, I'm not sure how this blog entry turned so sappy, but I have to tell you about a special moment this morning. I was pumping on the floor next to Elizabeth's crib, while she was sleeping. She woke up and pulled down the bumper to play our morning "Peek-a-boo" game. When she saw me there, her mouth opened into a big gummy grin, and she clearly said "MAMA." Her first word! Now, talk about a mommy's heart melting...

Watch out!

Elizabeth is still not officially crawling, but she's definitely mobile. She's learned to move herself around through an odd combination of rolling, scooting, pushing herself backwards, stretching, grunting, and sheer willpower. Nothing is safe, and I think Scarlet has learned that the dog is not her biggest threat in the house:




Elizabeth also has learned how to move herself in and out of a sitting position. And, this week, David found her up on her knees in her crib, trying to get a good look over the side:




Needless to say, we had to lower the crib mattress after that!

Let it snow!

Yesterday, we had our first measurable snowfall of the winter. It really didn't qualify as much - the less than 1 inch of snow barely covered the ground for a short period of time before the sun melted it later on.

We brought some snow inside for Elizabeth to play with. She felt it for a little while, pulling back from the cold:



But ultimately, she decided it was more fun to dump the snow out and try to eat the bowl. :)

We then put her in her snowsuit for the obligatory first picture in the snow:



I'd like to tell you about the tremendous fun she had, but she actually seemed pretty unimpressed.

David made an interesting observation....why is it we run out to get her 1st picture in the snow, but we didn't have the same urge the first time it rained?

All aboard....but barely

Last night, David and I had plans to go to Bardstown, KY to ride the My Old Kentucky Dinner Train to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary, which will be tomorrow (January 16). We'd been looking forward to a great date night for a long time. David, being the meticulous planner that he is, had coordinated everything. He even had made arrangements for a high school girl from down the street to come and watch the baby. She had watched her once before, so we didn't think she'd need a long introduction, so we asked her to be there at the time we had to leave - 3pm. At 5 minutes 'til 3, David started getting nervous. I told him she would be there. At 3pm, he called her cell phone - no answer. At 5 minutes after 3, David went down to her house (2 doors away) - nobody was there. At 15 minutes after 3, we started trying to come up with a back-up plan. My mom had to work, my dad and Pat were out of town, and a desperate call to a good friend of mine wasn't successful, so we decided to take the baby with us. Fortunately, after we loaded her in the car and headed out, David thought to call the Train folks - they don't allow children under the age of 5 on the train. Great....we decided we would have to re-schedule and headed back to the house, very disappointed. However, when we got there, the missing babysitter had arrived! Although she was 30 minutes late, we managed to quickly go over instructions, jump in the car, and race to catch the train right before it left. We had a wonderful time. Of course, I never realized how much our lives could be at the mercy of a 9th-grade girl until now!

One year ago today...

One year ago today...my beautiful niece Brooke was born. Happy Birthday, Brooke!



One year ago today....we had our "big" ultrasound and found out we were having a baby girl! We were so excited to know the girls would grow up together.

One year ago today....a friend of mine who shared my TTC (trying to conceive) journey with Elizabeth, helping analyze temperatures, CM, OPK and pregnancy test results, miscarried. She is still trying to get pregnant again. My heart aches for her today. Sometimes I don't understand God's big picture, but I have to take solace in the knowledge that God is good. And, I pray she will be pregnant again soon.

Life is full of ups and downs. I'm glad we have each other to share them with.

Straight A's!!!

Jonathan brought his report card home yesterday, and he had straight A's. He even had 100% averages in 2 classes. We're so proud of him! He has adapted to middle school like a champ.

His elective subjects for this new semester are modular tech (a fancy version of shop that includes computers) and art. He has to choose a project for mod tech and he's trying to decide between 2 computer projects and a project that involves designing and building a bridge. Since he has 2 uncles that graduated from Georgia Tech and are now doing computers, as well as me being a Structural Engineer from Tech, we've decided it's time to go ahead and teach him the "Ramblin' Wreck"! On a sidenote - David has told me the "Ramblin' Wreck" is not an appropriate lullaby for the baby....sheesh! :)

Speaking of the baby, Jon is a fabulous big brother. Elizabeth absolutely adores him. She squeals and smiles everytime she sees him. Here are some pics from playtime tonight:





Elizabeth is also learning new things daily. She now knows her 2nd sign - the one for the word "yeah". She demonstrated this when I put teething medicine in her mouth...that really made her excited! She also is now getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth, so crawling is just around the corner!

8 months old

Elizabeth turned 8 months old yesterday. She celebrated her birthday by staying up late visiting with Aunt Beth and Robyn (the cousin who has claimed credit for her tongue fascination). This was not by her parent's design, but instead because Elizabeth refuses to sleep or eat if there's any other option that might prove to be more interesting. Here is Elizabeth playing with Robyn:



Fortunately, this resulted in Elizabeth sleeping in late (until 9:00), for which we were very grateful. She normally wakes up between 6-6:30am, even on Saturdays! When we got up, we found Lyra keeping Jon warm in his bed.



Yes, he really was under there!

The baby was asleep also, but she woke up as soon as she heard the camera trying to take her picture (refer to the previous comment about not sleeping through anything!).

Finally, I must share with you cute pictures from our play time before bed tonight:





Smiles and giggles all around. What a great way to end the day!

Planning her attack

Things have gone very smoothly with introducing Lyra to the household. Lyra is a great dog. She's extremely well trained - she doesn't jump, doesn't bark, and doesn't chase the cat. Plus, she's just like a big white teddy bear. Even I am falling in love with her.

Scarlet, however, remains unconvinced. Although Lyra pretty much ignores her, I think Scarlet is secretly planning her attack. Something tells me it will be aerial....



We think Elizabeth is teething. Of course, we've though Elizabeth was teething for the past 3 months, and she has yet to actually get any teeth. But, she's starting to drool and chew a lot. Plus, she was pretty fussy this evening. Fortunately, the Hyland's teething tablets and Tylenol did the trick. Hopefully, those pearly whites will pop through soon.

Jonathan heads to the orthodontist tomorrow for the first step toward braces. Teething and braces all in one week. We sure have a wide variety!

Our newest family member

Jonathan's dog, Lyra (pronounced "Lee-rah"), came to live with us today. She is a beautiful pure-bred Samoyed. She is well-trained and very well-tempered. Jonathan is very excited to have her living with us and is already doing a great job taking care of her. Elizabeth voiced her pleasure with a loud squeal of delight...she's definitely an animal lover.

How am I doing with it? Well, as most of you know, I am not a "dog person." I have never owned a dog before, and I really could have done so forever without regret. However, I am a "Jonathan person," and I truly believe this is the best thing for him. So, given the circumstances, I am dealing with it pretty well.

I am definitely doing better than Scarlet:

Happy New Year!

This was taken yesterday afternoon. Baby New Year (Elizabeth) was asleep by 8:30pm, and mommy wasn't too far behind her!

Hope everyone has a wonderful 2006!