Just mention of that number conjures up images of House...
Anyhow...
Anna is 13 months old today!
She is finally walking (she "officially" walked on June 5th)
She is still nursing (up to 4 times a day...yikes...Adele self weaned just before she turned 13 months old!)
She has stopped saying most of her words, except for "baa" and "this"
She loves to buzz her lips
She likes swimming...most of the time
She likes her bath (again)
She wants to do whatever her big sister is doing
She is falling more and more in love with her Daddy by the day
She loves to swing, and, thanks to Adele has discovered what fun it is to twist your swing up and let it unwind!
She still loves bananas
She loves yogurt-especially Greek yogurt with Strawberry Jam or Apple Butter
She loves Sunbutter
She got all sorts of ooh's and aah's at the farmer's market yesterday because she was eating vegetables (she kept threatening to eat the green onions and green garlic...until I gave her a cucumber, which she really ate an entire end off of!)
Happy Birthday, Sweetie!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Happy Father's Day
Just in the nick of time...
Love you, Daddy, Bapa and Grandpa! Thank you all for being such wonderful fathers!
Love you, Daddy, Bapa and Grandpa! Thank you all for being such wonderful fathers!
Surgery Update
Anna had her surgery on the 14th. She did very well. She actually had two hernias right next to each other, but the doctor was able to repair both by making them into one larger hernia to repair. (Which provides the only worrisome news-it sounds like she is definitely at risk to develop more of these kind of hernias in the future, especially since she already had two.)
Despite panic attacks on my part as I put Anna to bed on Monday night, the hardest part of the entire ordeal was waiting at the hospital for an hour and a half before her surgery...I was so nervous about how we would entertain our starving, bored baby for so long. Fortunately, if Anna was hungry, she didn't really show it. Once we got to the hospital, that is.
Our morning really started around 4 AM when Anna was up screaming, wanting to nurse. For an hour and a half. Normally I might have given in by the time 5:30 rolled around and she was still up, but I had no choice this time. Unfortunately, she woke up Adele in the process, so we had two girls to try and get back to sleep. Fortnately, Adele did manage to go back to sleep on her own, so Daddy and I took turns with Anna. (At one point, Anna was even playing in Adele's room while Adele slept...Daddy sure is a risk taker if you ask me!)
At 6:00, I relieved Daddy and decided to make some coffee. Poor Anna begged and begged for a sip! I decided I'd better eat breakfast so that I could function at the hospital, and Grandma was kind enough to take Anna out in the back yard to play (in her bare feet, on the wet grass, bless her heart!) while I scarfed down my cereal! She and Grandpa stayed with Adele (and had a McDonalds date!) While Daddy and I headed to the hospital.
Our friend, Brian came to pray with us before the surgery, and lucky Miss Anna had a bucket of toys waiting in our pre-op room. The toys were fun for a few minutes, but just as Anna was getting fussy, Daddy found the ultimate toy: Push cars. There were motorized cars, regular push cars and even a "pimped out" jeep. Anna spent a good long while "Zooming" with Daddy, and then when the nurses came to take her away, they took her in the car she'd been playing in. Mommy and Daddy were definitely more stressed out at that point...poor Anna had NO idea what she was in for...she just thought she was going for another ride!
I was pretty much a nervous wreck during the entire process, but once we were able to see Anna in the post-op room, I felt all of my tense muscles relax...and was left with sore joints everywhere! I think Daddy was pretty much the same way.
Anna, though. Anna was fine. She was a little crazy coming out of her anesthesia, and would suddenly push away from me and try to climb across the room, but mostly she just slept. And drank apple juice. Out of a sippy cup. A lot of apple juice. Out of a sippy cup. Score one for the hernia! We brought that sippy cup home with us. She also harbored no ill will against the push cars, because as soon as she saw those out in the hallway, she wanted to go for another ride!
I was nervous that Anna would need to re-learn how to walk (She had a caudal, which I think is almost the same as an epidural, but I'm not going to actually go there...I just googled "caudal block" and saw several sites with cautions warnings about placement, etc....eek!) but she did just fine, and actually was up and walking around during the 12 to 16 hours that the caudal was supposed to still be in effect.
She had a tube in her wind pipe, and was very hoarse for the day or so after the surgery, then she became very congested. I am thinking now that her cold/likely sinus infection is unrelated to her stint in the hospital, but am not certain.
She has a little star of surgical tape covering her stitches (the incision is about an inch across or so) and she picks at it whenever it is not covered. I'm not sure if it hurts, itches or is just fun to play with. Anna is such a happy go lucky girl that it's pretty tough to tell if she is in pain.
I have pictures from our adventure at the hospital, but they are stuck in my phone at the moment. We did get to bring home a few souvenirs, including some books to share with Adele though!
Despite panic attacks on my part as I put Anna to bed on Monday night, the hardest part of the entire ordeal was waiting at the hospital for an hour and a half before her surgery...I was so nervous about how we would entertain our starving, bored baby for so long. Fortunately, if Anna was hungry, she didn't really show it. Once we got to the hospital, that is.
Our morning really started around 4 AM when Anna was up screaming, wanting to nurse. For an hour and a half. Normally I might have given in by the time 5:30 rolled around and she was still up, but I had no choice this time. Unfortunately, she woke up Adele in the process, so we had two girls to try and get back to sleep. Fortnately, Adele did manage to go back to sleep on her own, so Daddy and I took turns with Anna. (At one point, Anna was even playing in Adele's room while Adele slept...Daddy sure is a risk taker if you ask me!)
At 6:00, I relieved Daddy and decided to make some coffee. Poor Anna begged and begged for a sip! I decided I'd better eat breakfast so that I could function at the hospital, and Grandma was kind enough to take Anna out in the back yard to play (in her bare feet, on the wet grass, bless her heart!) while I scarfed down my cereal! She and Grandpa stayed with Adele (and had a McDonalds date!) While Daddy and I headed to the hospital.
Our friend, Brian came to pray with us before the surgery, and lucky Miss Anna had a bucket of toys waiting in our pre-op room. The toys were fun for a few minutes, but just as Anna was getting fussy, Daddy found the ultimate toy: Push cars. There were motorized cars, regular push cars and even a "pimped out" jeep. Anna spent a good long while "Zooming" with Daddy, and then when the nurses came to take her away, they took her in the car she'd been playing in. Mommy and Daddy were definitely more stressed out at that point...poor Anna had NO idea what she was in for...she just thought she was going for another ride!
I was pretty much a nervous wreck during the entire process, but once we were able to see Anna in the post-op room, I felt all of my tense muscles relax...and was left with sore joints everywhere! I think Daddy was pretty much the same way.
Anna, though. Anna was fine. She was a little crazy coming out of her anesthesia, and would suddenly push away from me and try to climb across the room, but mostly she just slept. And drank apple juice. Out of a sippy cup. A lot of apple juice. Out of a sippy cup. Score one for the hernia! We brought that sippy cup home with us. She also harbored no ill will against the push cars, because as soon as she saw those out in the hallway, she wanted to go for another ride!
I was nervous that Anna would need to re-learn how to walk (She had a caudal, which I think is almost the same as an epidural, but I'm not going to actually go there...I just googled "caudal block" and saw several sites with cautions warnings about placement, etc....eek!) but she did just fine, and actually was up and walking around during the 12 to 16 hours that the caudal was supposed to still be in effect.
She had a tube in her wind pipe, and was very hoarse for the day or so after the surgery, then she became very congested. I am thinking now that her cold/likely sinus infection is unrelated to her stint in the hospital, but am not certain.
She has a little star of surgical tape covering her stitches (the incision is about an inch across or so) and she picks at it whenever it is not covered. I'm not sure if it hurts, itches or is just fun to play with. Anna is such a happy go lucky girl that it's pretty tough to tell if she is in pain.
I have pictures from our adventure at the hospital, but they are stuck in my phone at the moment. We did get to bring home a few souvenirs, including some books to share with Adele though!
Grandma and Grandpa Snuggles!
Grandma and Grandpa came to visit on the 11th, which coincided with Uncle Tim (and family)'s return from Disney, as well as with Anna's surgery, so we had a busy few days around here!
Thankfully it wasn't all hustle and bustle, and we had plenty of snuggly moments with grandma and grandpa! Unfortunately, not many of the cutest got caught on film (orin pixels?), but here are a few that made the cut:
Thankfully it wasn't all hustle and bustle, and we had plenty of snuggly moments with grandma and grandpa! Unfortunately, not many of the cutest got caught on film (orin pixels?), but here are a few that made the cut:
Holiday World!
Finally...
We had decided that this summer we would go to Holiday World for a family vacation. We hadn't planned out when to go-we were just waiting for "good" weather. On June 4th we (well...Brian,) drove Uncle Tim and his family to the airport for their Disney World trip, and Adele started asking about when we were going on our vacation as well.
On the 5th, Anna started walking "officially". She had taken steps before, but she finally realized that she could walk for many steps at a time. We think it had something to do with the fact that cousin Andrew walked like nobody's business while they were here. We also realized that our Wednesday evening was free, so we decided to celebrate Anna's newest skill with a vacation! We found a sitter for Cookie and were able to leave the next day!
We stopped in Edinburgh to eat lunch...and shop. Daddy entertained the girls on the rides while I spent our vacation money and then some:
Adele didn't sleep, but Anna took a nice nap on the ride from Edinburgh to Santa Claus!
Snuggle Time!
Adele's Bed!
Trying out the hotel pool:
I think she likes it!
Our first night in town, we went to the downtown Santa Claus area and went to the Christmas shops. The Post Office with the giant Santa holding a package out front was a big hit!
The girls sat in old fashioned desks at the Santa Claus Museum and wrote their letters to Santa!
Driving the sleigh
Post office:
Tuesday morning we spent some time in the Candy Castle before the park opened. Adele officially made it onto Santa's "Good List" after video chatting with Elf Olivia in the North Pole. *She just has to work on going to bed for mommy and daddy!
The first ride of the trip! Bumper Boats!
Flying High!
Not Mommy's favorite ride...definitely not one to go on right before lunch!
Raging Rapids (you can see pasty Mommy in the black swimsuit/cover, Adele's back is to us, and she's shorter than the chair) This was in the Holiday World side, but we got plenty wet-there were waterfalls that would spontaneously dump water on us as we floated past. It was hot out, so the ride felt great!
Sleepy Anna!
Don't let the previous picture fool you, Anna had a blast and went down as many (if not more!) slides as Adele!
She loved the splash pad as well!
I don't usually like the splash pad, but it was so hot that this one felt great!
Safari Sam!
Ice Cream Break!
See, Daddy was there too!
Holidog!
More Random Pictures:
Sorry for the sideways pictures. I thought I had fixed them, but if I go back and do it now, I'm sure I'll never actually get this blog published (you know...so I can write about the ten million other things that have happened this month!)
We had decided that this summer we would go to Holiday World for a family vacation. We hadn't planned out when to go-we were just waiting for "good" weather. On June 4th we (well...Brian,) drove Uncle Tim and his family to the airport for their Disney World trip, and Adele started asking about when we were going on our vacation as well.
On the 5th, Anna started walking "officially". She had taken steps before, but she finally realized that she could walk for many steps at a time. We think it had something to do with the fact that cousin Andrew walked like nobody's business while they were here. We also realized that our Wednesday evening was free, so we decided to celebrate Anna's newest skill with a vacation! We found a sitter for Cookie and were able to leave the next day!
We stopped in Edinburgh to eat lunch...and shop. Daddy entertained the girls on the rides while I spent our vacation money and then some:
Adele didn't sleep, but Anna took a nice nap on the ride from Edinburgh to Santa Claus!
Snuggle Time!
Adele's Bed!
Trying out the hotel pool:
I think she likes it!
Our first night in town, we went to the downtown Santa Claus area and went to the Christmas shops. The Post Office with the giant Santa holding a package out front was a big hit!
The girls sat in old fashioned desks at the Santa Claus Museum and wrote their letters to Santa!
Driving the sleigh
Post office:
Tuesday morning we spent some time in the Candy Castle before the park opened. Adele officially made it onto Santa's "Good List" after video chatting with Elf Olivia in the North Pole. *She just has to work on going to bed for mommy and daddy!
The first ride of the trip! Bumper Boats!
Flying High!
Not Mommy's favorite ride...definitely not one to go on right before lunch!
Raging Rapids (you can see pasty Mommy in the black swimsuit/cover, Adele's back is to us, and she's shorter than the chair) This was in the Holiday World side, but we got plenty wet-there were waterfalls that would spontaneously dump water on us as we floated past. It was hot out, so the ride felt great!
Sleepy Anna!
Don't let the previous picture fool you, Anna had a blast and went down as many (if not more!) slides as Adele!
She loved the splash pad as well!
I don't usually like the splash pad, but it was so hot that this one felt great!
Safari Sam!
Ice Cream Break!
See, Daddy was there too!
Holidog!
More Random Pictures:
Sorry for the sideways pictures. I thought I had fixed them, but if I go back and do it now, I'm sure I'll never actually get this blog published (you know...so I can write about the ten million other things that have happened this month!)
Weaning
I knew that we would have a setback in the weaning process after Anna's surgery, but the following set of pictures more clearly depict just how "great" the weaning process is going...
Thank goodness for Adele!
This was actually taken at the Max and Erma's in Edinburgh where we stopped for lunch on our trip to Holiday World (oh, wait...you don't know about that trip yet, do you! Bad bad mommy blogger!)
Thank goodness for Adele!
This was actually taken at the Max and Erma's in Edinburgh where we stopped for lunch on our trip to Holiday World (oh, wait...you don't know about that trip yet, do you! Bad bad mommy blogger!)
Friday, June 3, 2011
Operation
On Thursday, we took Anna to the hospital to meet with a pediatric surgeon to discuss her hernia. He decided that it is indeed a hernia, and she will be having surgery to remove it on June 14th (insert prayer request here). Surprisingly, Daddy and I are both at ease about the procedure. I know that it will be tough to see her go into surgery and possibly even worse once she's out, but it is a simple surgery, and an outpatient one at that!
So, Thursday night, Adele and I were "building" doll house furniture from a set that Anna got for her birthday. I had put the couch together and handed it to Adele, who inspected it closely, turning around in her (cute little) hands. Suddenly, she announced that the couch needed an operation.
Hmmm....
I didn't think Daddy or I had said anything to Adele about Anna's surgery, but it was possible that she overheard us talking with Miss Jenny about it, but even then, I didn't think I had used the word "operation". I asked Adele if the couch was hurt, and she just stared back at me.
Perplexed, I did the only thing I knew what to do...I asked Adele to "say more about the operation."
She went on to say, "you know, like some hearts or flowers, or some colors"
Oh. Decorations. Yes, the couch definitely needs some decorations. Nevermind your mommy, who is obviously more upset about this little surgery than she lets on. The funny part is, the couch was about the fifth piece of furniture we had completed, and Adele had not mentioned "decorations" until that point...
So, Thursday night, Adele and I were "building" doll house furniture from a set that Anna got for her birthday. I had put the couch together and handed it to Adele, who inspected it closely, turning around in her (cute little) hands. Suddenly, she announced that the couch needed an operation.
Hmmm....
I didn't think Daddy or I had said anything to Adele about Anna's surgery, but it was possible that she overheard us talking with Miss Jenny about it, but even then, I didn't think I had used the word "operation". I asked Adele if the couch was hurt, and she just stared back at me.
Perplexed, I did the only thing I knew what to do...I asked Adele to "say more about the operation."
She went on to say, "you know, like some hearts or flowers, or some colors"
Oh. Decorations. Yes, the couch definitely needs some decorations. Nevermind your mommy, who is obviously more upset about this little surgery than she lets on. The funny part is, the couch was about the fifth piece of furniture we had completed, and Adele had not mentioned "decorations" until that point...
Anna's Party!
Last Sunday we had Anna's birthday party! We had a pretty large group of friends and relatives turn up to celebrate with us! The weather was perfect "pool" weather-and we had our baby pools and the sprinkler ready!
Aunt Jenny and Dee Dee were a tremendous help with preparing the food, and Uncle Michael and Bapa had some great play time with the little girls! It was quite the whirlwind weekend, but (I think) everyone had a great time!
"Let's get this party started!:
Cake Time!
"Now that's more like it!"
"Can I get a little help here?"
"Is this mess sufficient?"
Presents!
Poor little thing just about fell asleep on the swing sitting between Aunt Dee Dee and Michael!
Her "Howdy" cow from Mommy and Daddy
(She looks happy here, but shortly after this picture was taken, she fell off, and is now afraid of Howdy...it's a good thing Adele is still fearless!)
Check out Bapa's Blog for more pictures!
Aunt Jenny and Dee Dee were a tremendous help with preparing the food, and Uncle Michael and Bapa had some great play time with the little girls! It was quite the whirlwind weekend, but (I think) everyone had a great time!
"Let's get this party started!:
Cake Time!
"Now that's more like it!"
"Can I get a little help here?"
"Is this mess sufficient?"
Presents!
Poor little thing just about fell asleep on the swing sitting between Aunt Dee Dee and Michael!
Her "Howdy" cow from Mommy and Daddy
(She looks happy here, but shortly after this picture was taken, she fell off, and is now afraid of Howdy...it's a good thing Adele is still fearless!)
Check out Bapa's Blog for more pictures!
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