July 4th Weekend

I can't really recall the last time I spent Independence Day in the US.  Even before we were married I spent the holiday in Canada in 2004 and 2005.  I know we've spent it here once since we've been married because B had to work but I cannot recall which year it was.  I can tell you that I have been to the Toronto area 3 times, and it has always been over the July 4th holiday.  The first time I went we did the sightseeing bit and now, we just go to relax and enjoy being with family that we only really see on major holidays or other family events.

We left for Canada on Saturday, July 3rd and since B had to work earlier in the day we only drove the hour to his parent's place and stayed overnight there.  We got up and dressed and left for Ajax (in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) as Canadians call it) around 11am and arrived around 2pm.  Y did well on the car trip there, only really asking to get out in the last half hour of the drive.  We stayed there until Tuesday at noon and had an awesome trip.  We took Y to a park which had a splash pad (an added bonus) and swimming and got to have lots of laughs with family.  I only wish it could have been longer!  Y had a blast and even slept really well for us at night (it can be a toss up when she is in an unfamiliar place).  She proved to us that she has a very sharp memory for a 22½ month old, she remembered her cousin's girlfriend whom she had only met once a few weeks earlier and even remembered the game that they had played together!  She would repeat every one's name that was there because we have a picture of each family member on a photo board in her room and when asked to point to a specific person, she can do it with no problem.  I'm so glad she had the opportunity to spend time with them and get to know them better!

Thanks to Aunt J and Uncle R for letting us stay with you guys and feeding us yummy food (still raving over those chicken fajitas).  Thanks to S & J for letting us have the bigger room while we were there and for B & S for coming to see us and go swimming with us!  It was definitely worth the trip.  Love you all!

Total Slacker

I have no real excuse as to why I haven't blogged in such a long time, in fact this may be the longest absence I've taken from blogging since I started blogging. Honestly I've had every intention of coming to post an update but just never quite got around to it now. And honestly I'm probably doing it now because on Sunday we leave for Utah and it may be another two weeks before I get the opportunity to post again.

I do think I should update you on the rest of my trip in North Carolina though. The day after my last post we went to spend the day with my grandma and on the way home Y began vomiting - she only did it once but boy was there A LOT of it. Once we got back to my parent's house I peeled her out of her clothing, took apart her car seat (harnesses and all), and had to wash everything! I even had to clean the seat in my mom's van because some of the puke seeped through the holes where the harnesses come through at. I have never seen so much come out of someone so little! She really didn't eat much the remainder of the day but she did want to nurse and she had been able to keep that down. So I figured I would give her a bottle before bed because formula is more filling than breastmilk. Well she drank the entire bottle (4 oz) and half an hour later I was peeling her and myself out of clothing because she vomited again. Now a few other members of my family had been sick and it had passed within 24 hours and Y didn't have a fever so I wasn't panicked at all (B was though, and understandably so). But just as a precaution I called her pediatrician the next morning, Friday, and informed them I was out of state but Y was sick and they gave me some helpful advice. Y and I layed down for a nap and when we woke up she was burning with fever (it's about this time that I start to panic), I give her Tylenol and the fever eventually breaks, I call the doctor back and they recommend Children's Motrin. So I begin alternating Tylenol and Motrin and each time the fever would break and return after a few hours - This went on for 3 days. Finally on Monday morning before we were to leave for the airport to come home, the fever breaks but she is still very fatigued and sleeps pretty much all day (which wasn't a bad thing on the plane). On Tuesday morning I begin to notice a rash appearing and my thoughts instantly go to the infection she had before which caused a secondary rash to develop but I realized this rash was different from that one in many ways. So I turn to the trusty internet and start researching common rashes in infants and came across Roseola and found that to match her symptoms exactly, apparently it's fairly common but I had never heard of it. Thankfully it has passed, it lasted exactly a week from start to finish and I'm fairly certain that she would have contracted it on the plane because the incubation period is 10 days and that is exactly how long it took her to become sick.

Needless to say, we didn't have a whole lot of fun for the remainder of the trip and didn't get to see a lot of the people who were on my list to visit but we had an awesome time nonetheless. But I must say we were definitely glad to be back home with B. I'm pretty sure we missed him as much as he missed us!


As for pictures, I did take a few but unfortunately I had my camera on the wrong setting and most of them came out blurry and bad. But I will share this one, it is of one of my roomates from VT and her son - he and Y are 3 weeks apart with Y being the older of the two. It was great to see them in that I haven't seen her since our wedding almost 4 years ago!

To Grandmother's House We Go...

On Saturday, December 13, Y and I packed up our bags and headed to the airport. Our flight was scheduled to leave at about 3pm. The day started out pretty smooth, we packed, left for the airport, said our goodbyes and made it through security without any problems. I will say that going through security with a 3 month old, a diaper bag and a carry-on, plus having to remove your coat and shoes is not a simple task. Luckily I had a very nice TSA agent help me move all of my stuff to an area where I could sit and take my time getting everything situated. So after getting all that straight I put Y in her BabyBjorn and we were off to find our gate. We were flying out of a brand new terminal at the airport so I was not familiar with it at all but boy was it pretty cozy. When I reached the gate I quickly realized that I was supposed to go to the bathroom before going through security so that B could hold Y while I went...so let's just say we had fun figuring that one out. But we did figure it out without making any mess at all! Anyway, our flight was about 25 minutes late leaving Detroit so when I made it to Chicago I had just enough time to change Y before boarding my plane for Raleigh. We arrived in Raleigh on time, however, when I turned my phone off airplane mode I had a text message from my brother saying that they had a flat tire before they even left the driveway (they had just bought new tires). He sent me another message saying he had borrowed my uncle's car and that they were on their way. So when I looked at the current time and the time that he sent the text message I figured that I at least had another half hour/45 minute wait before they made it to pick me up so I went to the bathroom and changed Y again because just as we were landed she left mommy a nasty little present. So while in the middle of changing Y I get another text from him saying that they are almost there and that they would meet me, they must've been flying to make it there that quickly. So then I begin to rush and I hurry to baggage claim where I see 2 of my 3 bags already off the carousel with a lady that works for Southwest standing beside them. So I walk up to her and she asks if those are my bags and I tell her yes but that one is missing. My luggage arrived, my pack and play arrived, my car seat (the most important item to me) did not arrive. I look at the lady and ask, "so my car seat is lost" and she looks at me and replies, "no, it's not lost it's just not on the plane, but we'll find it." Now correct me if I'm wrong, but last time I checked if you don't know where something is...then it's LOST!!! We go to the office and fill out all this paperwork and they give me this crappy "loaner" that I have no idea how to use, luckily my brother was able to figure it out. So anyway, I finally get my car seat back 36 hours later at 2am in the morning. As we're leaving the airport my mom gets really sick but we make it home safely. Apparently whatever my mom was sick with everyone else in the house had already had so by Wednesday it was my turn. Now Y had been going through a stage where she wanted no one but Mommy and then going to this far away place which is loud and has so many people that she has never seen before in her short life was probably a bit much for her. But it took my being sick for her to really open up to the rest of the family and from that point on she played with everyone and was great. Needless to say the week flew by for us and before we knew it, it was time for us to leave. Well thankfully for us we managed to make it to the airport safely but we were not excited to leave 60/70 degree weather for the frigid Michigan air. A couple days before the Midwest had been pounded by a huge snowstorm so when we got to the airport we found that my flight to Chicago had been delayed about an hour. This put me in a panic because I would barely have enough time to de-board my plane and board my other flight. That proved to be nothing to worry about because before I even left Raleigh my flight to Detroit from Chicago had been delayed two hours. We make it to Chicago and I find myself with 2 hours to burn, Y sleeps through all of this. Then they keep telling us that our plane is on it's way and will be here soon, blah blah blah. An hour later it finally arrives and we end up sitting on the plane for another 20 to 30 minutes going nowhere. We finally land in Detroit at 1:40am, I rush straight to baggage claim, wait at least 20 minutes for the carousel to start moving, collect 2 of my bags and find that the 3rd bag is nowhere to be found. They lost my car seat...AGAIN!!! I am royally ticked at this point, so we get in line to report it missing and there are about 40-50 people ahead of us. As it turns out, everyone on our plane that checked a car seat, their car seat was lost. I'm sorry, but how do you lose every car seat on a plane along with the luggage of 40 people when the plane was delayed 3 hours? They can't say that they didn't have time to get it on the plane...I think this is the case of lazy baggage-loading-people. But through it all I must say that I have an extremely patient husband who waited there until 4 or 5 in the morning knowing he had to get up at 6am and go to work. I also have an amazing baby because though it all, she never cried. I was horrified of flying with her because of the ear popping but she never cried once. She never needed the pacifier, the breast or the bottle, it just didn't bother her! So I guess my luck was balanced by my misfortune. We got our car seat back by noon but Southwest Airlines will definitely be hearing from me. That was a long story...here are some pictures from the trip.

100

This is post number 100, woohoo!!! Hard to believe that I've posted that many times in less than a year. I guess with the pregnancy I had quite a lot to say, not to mention I actually had time to say it all. Sometimes I miss having all that free time, or at least being able to dictate my own schedule. One day that will happen again, it'll probably just be many years down the road when we've had all of our kids and they've all started school. Anyway, now that that's out of the way, lets get down to the nitty gritty.

Y had therapy today and she is doing exceptionally well!!! Her therapist is pretty amazed at the progress she has made and kept talking to Y telling her that it is all due to mommy's hard work. As I thought about that tonight, I thought about how wrong that therapist really was. I mean, sure B and I do her stretches and exercises with her but we honestly can't take credit for her quick progression. There has been a higher power at work in all this. Before she started her physical therapy she was given a priesthood blessing by her dad, granddad and uncle. Many prays have been offered up, diligently, on her behalf. So as much as I would like to, I know that I can't really take the credit for this. Even in a minor case of torticollis it would take a minimum of 3 months to correct and we're looking at just one month of therapy when all is said and done. We've been at this for a couple weeks now and her therapist said today that she can't see Y showing any preference any more. She is able to move and support her neck on both sides pretty evenly. We're extremely grateful for this blessing.

As for other news...Y LOVES television, much to my dismay. I dunno, maybe I'm just weird, but I really don't want her to watch TV. I hadn't really noticed her watching it really until sometime late last week. I had her sitting on my lap facing forward and I picked her up to turn her around so that I could play with her and she kept her head turned toward the television. Whenever I would turn her so far around that she couldn't see it, she would get very upset. This gave us a good laugh for a little while I must admit. But we've noticed her watching it a lot since then. She also likes to look at this chime that I have hanging in the house, she also likes it when we make it move so she can hear the noise. She is talking and smiling all the time now and brings more joy to our lives than I ever thought possible. She's up to 6 pairs of shoes now (like mother like daughter). She has officially worn every piece of 0-3 month clothing that she owns, which for those of you who haven't seen her closet, is no small feat. I take her home to NC for the first time in 2½ weeks, and I am extremely nervous about traveling with her. I have a 1 hour 15 minute flight (30 minutes in the air) from Detroit to Chicago, then a 1 hour layover, a 1 hour 45 minute flight from Chicago to Raleigh and then a 1 to 1½ hour drive home from the airport. Hopefully she's a good traveler because I don't wanna deal with a screaming 3 month old. I am really looking forward to her meeting her PopPop as well as her uncle, aunt and cousins. In talking to my mom, I mentioned how different it would be for Y. She's really not accustomed to being surrounded by so many people, typically it's just me, her and B. Another huge difference will be the noise level. With only 3 people in our house, you can imagine that it's pretty quiet...well back home it's is completely the opposite. Always loud and something is always going on. Babies are resilient so I am sure she will adjust fairly quickly but it will still be very interesting nonetheless.

Well it's my bedtime so I will say goodnight and leave you with only one picture for now! Goodnight!

This is what they mean by, "Sleeping like a baby."