The Pledge

So I hate New Year's "Resolutions"... I'm not sure what it is about the term Resolution, but I'm just not a fan. I would like to use a different word... Pledge. What is a pledge? Here is the definition: a solemn promise or agreement to do or refrain from doing something. Plain and simple. I feel it is a much stronger word than resolution. 
This time of year is when everyone busts out what they plan to do for the next year... how many people stick to those 'resolutions.' My resolutions from 1999 probably still haven't been resolved! So instead of taking the whole year I am taking it month by month. 
If you are reading this, you are a part of my pledges. How is that you ask? Simple. My pledge is a solemn promise to do or refrain from doing things, and I am pledging not only to myself, but to you also. 

So, before you continue reading, do you want to be part of this? Can you offer prayer or support as I go through this journey? 

Here are my pledges for January 2013: 

Daily:
1. Pray
2. Read my Bible
3. Brush my teeth (yes, some of you may think this is gross... I should already be brushing my teeth daily... but I don't take care of my teeth like I should, and I'd like to avoid dental bills in 2013)
4. Read Paige at least 2 books (too often I get in the habit of letting her just look through the books by herself, I need to spend more time reading to her)
5. Eat at least 1 serving of fruits and vegetables a day (this is such a struggle for me!)
6. Refrain from having a TV show or movie in the background while I'm working. - Yes, it is "allowed" at my job, but I know my productivity decreases when I have something other than music playing... so I'm done with it.

Weekly:
1. Exercise at least 4 days a week.
2. Eating vegetarian at least 5 days a week. This is a big pledge for me and a struggle to say out loud. Jeremy and I had a good talk about this and we both strive to live a healthier lifestyle but we never hold each other up to that. Why only 5 days? We both like meat, but know that we need to cut down on how much we eat.
3. Practice playing guitar for at least 1 hour each week. (This is one I will be increasing each month)
4. Keep the TV off at least 3 weekdays and limiting time on the weekends.

Monthly:
1. No pop for the whole month! This will probably be the hardest one for me. I love a good pop...
2. Sticking to our budget. Oh man... Every month we set our budget and every month we go over it!
3. Eating out at work only 3 times for the whole month!
4. Calling my friends at least 2 times this month. I have three best friends that live too far away and I am horrible at communicating with them. This needs to change. I miss them, and I miss their guidance and love.
5. I will finish at least 3 books this month. The Kill Order by James Dashner, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Identity by Ted Dekker


There you have it. It may look like a lot, but I don't feel overwhelmed by any of it. 

3 Months.. really??

Whoa... has it really been 3 months since I've posted anything! Hmmm... what should I write about...

There really isn't much to update anyone on, and I'm not much for just writing about random topics either. So here's the update on the coolest and most beautiful kid on the planet :)

Favorite word: Shoes

Favorite toy(s): Little people and wooden puzzles

Best Friends: Kaylee and Ella (okay, she could have other friends at daycare, but I'm just going to say that Kaylee and Ella are her best friends because they have awesome parents who we are great friends with!)

Favorite food: Anything not nailed down to the table

Funniest thing that shouldn't be funny: Shaking her head 'no'

Favorite time of day (for mommy): Morning snuggles


I'm so ready for this Christmas with her! We recently had some very generous parents from our church who offered free babysitting so other parents could go out and do what they wanted (Christmas shopping, catch a movie, coffee date, brunch date, etc.). Jeremy and I took advantage and went Christmas shopping for Paige! I am so excited for her to open her gifts this year! I'll be interested to see if she is more into the paper, the box, or the toy! She is definitely getting spoiled this year and it's going to be great!

Someone asked me what I'm most looking forward to her opening. Well, we got her a new pair of shoes for Christmas(holy crap they go through shoes fast... 3 months... really... and my kid has some nasty stinky feet!)! So I'm really looking forward to her opening those! I'm also excited for the gift that my mom and dad got her! But you'll have to wait until Christmas to find out what that is :)

If you have kids, what are you looking forward to for Christmas with them this year?? Any presents you are super excited to give them?

Merry Christmas everyone!! (Even though it's still 3 weeks away it feels like next week to me!)

Year 1

Wow... 1 year....

Tomorrow my little girl, my "baby Paige" turns 1. This first year has been amazing and yes, as they all say, gone by so quickly! But I won't say it's gone by too fast. There are some things that I wish wouldn't change, but too many more things that I'm so glad are changing!

I went back through Facebook quickly tonight and pulled out a few highlights over the past year. Sometimes I wish I would've kept a better record of "fun" things she did over the past year, but that's what Facebook is for right? :)

August 26th, 2011 - Paige is born!
September 2nd, 2011 - Paige's first trip to Huntington
September 21st, 2011 - Paige'st first trip to the office
October 5th, 2011 - Paige's first trip to the zoo!
October 20th, 2011 - First 8-hour sleep
October 25th, 2011 - Paige's first day @ daycare
October 29th, 2011 - First night in her crib
November 14th, 2011 - Paige rolled from her belly to her back
December 18th, 2011 - Discovered her feet
January 9th, 2012 - Paige's first food - Bananas!
February 3rd, 2012 - the first of many ear infections
February 11th 2012 - sitting up by herself
February 26th, 2012 - Happy 1/2 Birthday!!
March 10th, 2012 - Paige is officially mobile!
April 5th, 2012 - First tooth!
April 14th, 2012 - Begins to pull herself up
April 22nd, 2012 - Graduates from army crawl to hands and knees!
April 28th, 2012 - First 12 & 1/2 hour stretch!
May 29th, 2012 - Paige gets tubes :(
June 15th - 18th 2012 - Paige's first road trip out of the state!
Early July 2012 - Paige begins taking steps
August 12th, 2012 - Paige's first plane ride
August 23rd (ish) - Paige is officially a walker - (at least walking more than crawling!)
August 25th, 2012 - Paige goes to sleep not know that tomorrow she will be 1!

Travel Days 3-6

So my goal was to do a post-a-day on vacation... ha! That obviously didn't work out!

Day 3: Top Pot Doughnuts, Woodland Park Zoo, Picnic @ Gasworks Park, Fremont Troll, Mariner's Game

Probably my favorite day of vacation! The day started with the best doughnuts I have ever had! Top Pot Doughnuts! These were melt in your mouth amazing. The Woodland Park Zoo is huge and absolutely beautiful! So many good things about this zoo. I love their exhibits, while it makes the zoo bigger, they give their animals lots of room! The lions were amazing, they were right up at the glass! The orangutans were a close second! I love orangutans :) After the zoo we had a picnic and did some sightseeing. Justin took us to Fremont to see the Troll under the bridge, so cool! Jeremy and I had been planning on Tuesday night being date night. Originally we had planned to have a nice dinner downtown and head to the Space Needle for the night views. At one point Jeremy mentioned something about going to a Mariner's game. He even went as far as to look up if they were at home and how much tickets were, I was kind of shocked. We decided that it would probably be out of our budget and decided not to go. So with Justin's help we did a lot of research into looking at places to eat downtown. But we never found one we really liked and there isn't much to do after 6 pm after the Space Needles closes down. It was shaping up to look like the amount we would've spent at a nice restaurant would've been about the same amount to go to the baseball game... so we went to the game! I was so excited! It turns out it was free t-shirt night too! It was an incredible game! Came down to the bottom of the ninth, 2 outs, man on third, and Eric Thames got one past the infield to win the game! Now, neither of us are Mariner's fans, but we were both on our feet for the ninth cheering them on! It was just one of those games, you root for the home team!

Day 4: Pike Place Market

Crazy crowded. It was a lot of fun, but probably would've been better with just Jeremy and I. We had Paige on the backpack carrier, but she didn't like being in there too long. But it was definitely something fun to experience!

Day 5: Space Needle, EMP/Sci-Fi Museum, Aquarium

Another packed day! We started with breakfast at Toulouse Petite. Simply fantastic! I would definitely recommend this place to anyone! I had the biscuits and creole sausage gravy with scrambled eggs and potatoes... ahhh... sorry, I was having flashbacks! We also had the beignets to share, crazy that those are considered breakfast. Our server was also a great up-seller... I was debating between the biscuits and gravy and the french toast (Creme Caramel French Toast) , and she said get the biscuits and gravy and order 1 piece of french toast... best.decision.ever. Anyway.. onto the rest of the day. We hit the Space Needle, amazing, breath-taking views. Seriously, how cool would it be to see mountains every day... The EMP/Sci-Fi museum was next... it was fun, but to be honest, I'm not a huge music fan and the Sci-Fi part was pretty small. So off it was to the Aquarium!! I think Paige enjoyed this the most. It was so much easier for her to see what was going on and be able to point to the fish.

Day 6: Flying home

Oh man... way too early! We were up at 4:00 am to get to the airport. We had a 6 am flight so we were thinking getting there by 4:45ish would be fine, seriously, how many people can there be at the airport at 6 am... TOO MANY!! I was a wreck from the time we entered the airport to the time we landed in Indy! We made it to our plane at 5:53am so of course we had to sit in the back and there weren't two seats together. Finally, we were able to get someone to move so we could all sit together! So the entire flight I'm freaking out about making our connecting flight because we only had a 45 min layover in Denver. We landed about 10 minutes early, good, right? Wrong! There was a plane at our gate so we couldn't pull in. So we finally get off the plane and make it to the next flight about 15 min before it took off. Now, all of this wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't have a 1-year old with us, who I was planning on getting milk and food for in between flights. Fortunately, I had some fruit/veggie pouches and she ate those, but she hadn't had any good solid food all morning! And on top of all that, she had been up since 4:30am (meaning only about 9 hours of sleep)! She didn't fall asleep on the first flight until after the plane landed and was up before the next plane took off! She did sleep in the car all the way home from the airport and then we had lunch/dinner as soon as we got home... and you could tell she was starving!

Overall experience: Seattle is beautiful!! We had such a great time! However, I'm not sure I want to travel that far with a 1 year old ever again! Paige is a great baby, and I still got stressed out with her! Plus we would do so much during the day that she was always in the stroller or backpack carrier because she couldn't walk by herself. I'm sure that was rough on her!

Thanks so much to my brother and sister-in-law for hosting and letting us baby wreck your house! :) The food was fantastic and you guys were awesome!

Day 2 - adjusting, food, more adjusting

Today was meant as a day for relaxing. I knew there would be some adjustment time for us, so we wanted to take it easy today, and it was beautiful!

Paige took a two hour nap this morning to help her adjust and was very happy and good through lunch, then took another two hour nap after this afternoons festivities (I joined her for the second two hour nap!). We were able to keep her awake until 7 before she became unmanageable and passed out before she finished her nighttime bottle! Hoping that she sleeps until at least 5 (6 or 7 would be best-case scenario!)

So this morning we stayed at Justin and Betsy's house to relax and had some breakfast. Paige's nap time was great for some vacation reading this morning! Around 10:30 we took off to meet Justin at his work (he worked 1/2 day today) and then Justin, Betsy and the three of us went to Skillet for lunch. So yummy! After lunch we walked to Cupcake Royale to pick up some delicious cupcakes to celebrate Paige's first birthday with Uncle Justin and Aunt Betsy! And then headed over to Molly Moon's for some ice cream! (scout mint in a waffle cone is amazing!). After that adventure we headed back to the house for nap time and more relaxing. Justin made some killer carnitas tacos for dinner, then we let Paige smash into her cupcake, put her to bed, enjoyed our cupcakes, and then played some Ticket to Ride.

So far the only disappointing part of this trip is the weather... It's hot here!! I was so excited to experience some cool Seattle weather! Oh well, at least it's not raining!

Tomorrow's agenda:
Woodland Park Zoo
Picnic
Freemont and/or Ballard
Date night for me and Jeremy while Uncle Justin and Aunt Betsy babysit!  

Day 1 - travel

So yesterday we began the adventure of taking our (almost) 1-year old on her first plane ride... Across the United States! I was getting more and more nervous as the day came but knew it would only be 6 hours of my life... Wow, I'm so glad it's over! Actually it went fairly well. The first leg from Indy to KC was completely full, I took a window seat, Jeremy took the middle, and some older guy with 8 grand kids took the aisle seat... He wasn't too creepy until he rubbed Paige's head at one point, after that Jeremy did a body block on him. :) but Paige kept trying to reach over to him so it didn't work out too well, she's too friendly! Paige kept going back and forth between Jeremy and I, never sitting still for more than a minute or two, grabbing at all the magazines and brochures in the seat. It seemed like we would never get to KC. But we made it with her only crying a couple times. 

Leg 2... KC to Seatlle (3 hours & 30 minutes). We didn't have to change planes in KC, so after everyone got off the plane we were able to move and find new seats (creepy grandpa got off in KC!). I asked one of the flight attendants if there were going to be extra seats this time so we could use the car seat. (We had gate checked it but since the tag said it was going to Seattle I wasn't sure if they would be able to get it). She was so nice and found out there were extras seats and one of the crew went and found the seat for us!! Yay Southwest! Bonus points!! Have the car seat was so great! Paige was getting so cranky before the flight took off so I started feeding her some dinner (at this point it was 5:30 our time and she had only taken an hour long nap the entire day). After about 5 bites of some food she passed out! She was asleep during takeoff and probably slept a total of 45 minutes. So after that it was more passing her back and forth between the two of us and letting her look around and smile at all the other passenagers. We had some great people around us! We did get her back in seat for about 45 min - 1 hour and she watched Monsters Inc on the iPad (no sound, just the movie). Then we let climb all over us again. About 30 minutes before landing the lady across the aisle said, "it's okay if you want to put her in her car seat and let her cry herself to sleep, none of us mind." It was so sweet! She could tell Paige was tired but wouldn't go to sleep! So just before landing we strapped her in and let her cry for a few minutes, restarted Monsters Inc (she loves that movie), and sure enough she fell asleep, just before we landed! So she only slept for the takeoff and the landing! As we were getting off the plane I apologized to the guy sitting in front of us and his response: "I have twins, you guys did great!" :) so thankful for understanding people around us! Overall it was a good experience, I'm just praying for extra seats on the way home! That car seat is a lifesaver! As far as the Time change... Well we are still working on that! Paige woke up right before we got in the car last night and ended up staying awake until 7:30 Seattle time. I was really hoping she would sleep until 6 or 6:30, but of course she was up at 4:30 (7:30 Indiana time - normal wake up time). She stayed in the room with us and kept trying to go back to sleep with no such luck. So at 5:30 we got up and let her play around for a while, gave her some breakfast, and put her down for a nap at 7:30! Hopefully the morning nap will be enough to reset her! Looking forward to a fun day!!

I can see!!

So yesterday morning at 9:00am I went into the "operating room" hoping to never have to wear glasses again!! Oh man, what an experience. I went through 20/20 Institute and I would recommend them to anyone! They were so nice, and their facility is beautiful! Drinks and snacks always await you when you come in and I can't tell you how many times I was asked if I wanted something to drink. Everyone was very thorough when explaining what they were doing, procedures, and making sure I didn't have any questions along the way. For 'medical' reasons I had to get the Bladeless LASIK. Something about not being enough depth in my eye for any possible future refinements... Whatever, I trusted what they were saying.

The procedure went about as I expected. Lay down, get your eye propped open, put numbing drops in, for the Bladeless they put this suction thing on your eye for like 20 seconds and it does it's thing, then the doctor peels back the cornea, they zap your eye for 10 sec, put some drops in your eye, and you done... Repeat with the next eye. The suction was weird. It was fine on my right eye, but kind of hurt on my left eye, not sure if they didn't prop my eye open good enough or what, but it was like a 4/10 on a pain scale. I was immediately able to see better after the surgery which was so cool!

After the procedure I went back into an exam room for the doctor to check my eyes and make sure they looked good. He said I might have a red spot on my eye called an 'eye hickey' from the suction and it might be there for a few days-weeks. They said that once the numbing drops wear off is when I'll start feeling the pain.

 I'm still feeling good as we walk out to the car and I'm thinking oh this is great, I'll just go home and sleep and everything will be great... Then the numbing drops wore off... Oh.my.word... I popped the extra Valium that they gave me hoping that would help me relax, I laid down and the pain came on so strong! I didn't understand how anyone was supposed to sleep after that, I was crying which almost made the pain worse! And I'm not allowed to touch my eyes, so they are watery and burning and I can't do a thing about it! I finally called them and asked if I could take some Tylenol PM since the Valium didn't seem to be working and they said that was okay. Finally, about 30 minutes later (almost a total of 1.5 hours after we left the office) I was able to fall asleep! Next thing I know I'm waking up and it's 4:00pm!

My vision was great when I woke up, my eyes were feeling a little dry (kind of like when your contacts dry up) but definitely no where near the level of pain after the surgery. I was even able to go pick up Paige from daycare! I do have an 'eye hickey' in my left eye that is quite noticeable but doesn't bother me too much. At my follow-up appointment this morning I found out I also have a bruise in my right eye but it's under the eyelid so it's not visible.

 Overall, I am very happy I got the procedure, it's amazing to be able to see, although sometimes I feel like I have my contacts in! The worst parts about the whole process - the pain after the surgery and the fact that I can't rub my eyes for a week!

The time I lost 5 seconds of my life

One of our "date ideas" was to donate blood together. I had a friend tell me they were giving away King's Island tickets for donating blood this past Saturday and I thought what a perfect incentive for me to finally donate! Jeremy is a pro at donating, he's done it multiple times and it's no big deal for him. So I made appointments for us and off we went...

We took Paige with us because we didn't think we would be there too terribly long. I made Jeremy's appointment 30 min before mine so I could watch her while he donated and vice-verse. I was actually feeling pretty good the whole time, I made sure to eat breakfast and lunch and had downed 32 oz of water before we got there. Jeremy finished in no time and grabbed Paige... then they called my name...

I get to the chair and I'm still feeling good, she gets my arm ready, gets the needle in... she did put the needle in a little too far and it started hurting a little, so she pulled it back... but no biggie. The blood starts flowing and I'm squeezing the little squishy thing every 5-10 seconds. She said I was doing great and would be finished quickly. As I'm getting close to finishing my arm starts to feel pretty weak and I start feeling a little light headed. She said I was all done, so she pulled the needle out, laid the chair back a little bit and grabbed me something to drink... I drank the Sierra Mist and laid back for about 2-3 min and started to feel better so she sat me up a little and I stayed for another 2-3 min and I thought I was feeling okay so I decided to head over to the snacks...

As I'm walking over to the snacks I get that rush to my head (you know the one you get when you stand up too fast). I'm thinking that I just need to get some food and stand still for a minute. I grabbed a granola bar and took a bite, as I'm chewing I start to feel a little nauseous. There was a lady standing next to me and she asked "are you feeling okay?" I think I said "I think so." Then I barely remember her saying "you don't look so....."

Next thing I know I'm opening my eyes to about 4 or 5 people around me. I'm on my back with a pillow under my head and my feed propped up on a chair...

Thinking about it now it had to have been about 10-20 seconds maybe?? All I know is I'm very thankful for the woman standing next to me because she caught me as I was going down. I'm sure I would've gashed my head on something if she hadn't been standing there. I'm also very thankful I didn't choke on the granola bar... not sure how I swallowed that...

Anyway, it is definitely one of the weirdest experiences of my life... I keep replaying it over and over in my head...

But I have my King's Island ticket and I'm sooooo looking forward to going!! I definitely earned it!

Date Nights/Family Nights

I've been telling Jeremy since the beginning of the year that I want to have more "date nights." These don't have to be 'get all fancy and spend $40 on dinner' dates, just fun things to do when we hang out together (like when Paige goes to bed and we end up just sitting on the couch watching TV). A lot of people have 'pinned' different blogs with suggestions for dates and I'm always inspired by them because they are so simple! So I told Jeremy that I wanted to create our own 'Date Night Ideas.' We came up with some great suggestions, but you'll notice that some of them include 'family night ideas' too. I also have been convicted lately of doing more things with Paige, rather than just her playing on the floor while the TV is on and Jeremy and I are playing with our phones (don't judge us!). We wanted to keep as many of these as cheap as possible, but did try to come up with a few that would be actual date nights with a babysitter.

Without further ado, here is our list (in no particular order):
1. Go to Bub's Burgers in Carmel
2. Go to IMA (We've lived here 4 years and still haven't been!)
3. Take Paige to the Zoo on a weeknight (they have all types of concerts throughout the summer)
4. Have a candle-light dinner after Paige goes to bed
5. Play board games
6. Play Wii
7. Go to an Indians game
8. Go walking at Fort Harrison
9. Sundae's (our favorite local Ice Cream Place)
10. Popcorn and movie night
11. Make chocolate chip cookies together
12. Plan our 10-year anniversary trip (yes this is 5 years down the road, but why not?! Make a list of places we want to go and start researching!)
13. Buy a map and mark where we have lived, visited, and where we want to go
14. Make a bucket list
15. Go to the dollar theater
16. Donate blood (this one scares the crap out of me, but Jeremy has been encouraging me to do it for a long time!) - Check 6-9-12
17. Volunteer at a shelter
18. Play game at Dave & Busters (or any arcade type place)
19. Get dessert at The Melting Pot
20. Go to Goodwill and pick out an outfit for each other
21. Go to a driving range
22. Go to a pottery place
23. Watch a TV series together
24. Go play a board game at a coffee shop.
25. Go walking on the Canal with Paige.
26. Take an art class together.
27. Play Racquet Ball at LA Fitness
28. Play Tennis at our local recreational/pool area
29. Go to a Pacers game downtown.
30. Rearrange a room.
31. Take Mac to board ripple Dog Park with Paige and let him go crazy.
32. Go to Whole Foods and get a slice of pizza.
33. Buy a 2 player Game App and play together.
34. Go to Saltire and buy a new board game and play it that night.

Do you have any other suggestions???

Tubes

Tonight as I put Paige to bed I held her for a few extra minutes just amazed at what God has blessed me with.

Tomorrow Paige goes in to get tubes in her ears. She has had 5 ear infections since February! Now I know most of you are going to say, 'oh, your life will be so much better' or 'it's a very quick and easy procedure'... did you feel that way going into the day your child was going to get tubes? I know it's going to better for her, I know she 'hopefully' won't have pain any more, I know they should help with all the ear infections, but guess what, she's my baby and she's going to have a surgery! So tonight my prayer goes something like this:

God, please be with the doctors as they place the tubes in Paige's ears. Please guide their hands quickly and efficiently and let this not be 'just another surgery' to them. Please be with Paige and help her not to be scared when they take her away from us, give her strength and comfort that you are there with her and that we are just outside waiting for her. Please be with Jeremy and I as we trust you and wait for Paige to come back into our arms. Amen.

Dear Grandpa

Dear Grandpa, Oh where to begin! So much has happen in the last 7 years since you went Home. The first thing I had to get through which was probably the hardest for me was my college graduation. I know you tried so hard to stay strong and wanted to be there for me, but I also know that you were in a much better place. I wish you could've been there. After graduation I moved up to Nebraska to go to Grad school at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. That place is windy! In January of 2006 Damon and Mandy welcomed their first child, a baby boy named Michael Solomon. He's 6 now and such an amazing boy, he's so funny and so smart! During this time frame Justin and Betsy moved from San Fransisco to Oklahoma. I think Justin wanted to be closer to the family down there and he was trying to finish up some college classes too. During my time in grad school I got married! Jeremy is such a wonderful man and you would've loved him! I wanted him to meet you before you left but we just never had a good time to come down, of course now any time would've been a good time. We got married in March of 2007, I wish you could've been there. Things in Nebraska were good for the most part, we liked the city we were in and had a great family that helped take care of us when we needed them. They hosted a graduation party for me when I graduated. I graduated in May of 2008, I wish you could've been there. A couple days after graduation we made the move back to Indiana and had to live with Damon and Mandy for about a month, or should I say got to :). About the same time that we moved, Justin and Betsy made a move to Seattle! Can you believe it... they are so far away now. They now have two "four-legged" kids who are so cute! You'd like them, their names are Dixie and Brody (but I can never remember which one is which!) Justin is finishing up college and graduating in December and Betsy is tearing it up with her artwork out there! After we finally got a place in Indianapolis I started working at Hobby Lobby and Jeremy started serving, we both just needed to get jobs right away. We got our first little one in October of 2008, don't worry, it was just a puppy! He's so adorable and fun, his name is Mac and he loves grandma! I bet he would've loved you too, he's the perfect size dog for you and he's so loyal! Damon and Mandy welcomed their 2nd baby in August of 2008, Micah Lynn, she has the prettiest blue eyes you've ever seen! She is a beautiful little girl and she's so funny. Her and Solomon are definitely 2 peas in a pod! Damon and Mandy are doing well, Damon is working hard as a youth pastor and Mandy is fabulous teacher, I'm sure you guys could share a few teaching stories! Mom and Dad are doing great, they are wonderful parents! They have a big camper that you would be super proud of and they camp out multiple times through out the summer. They even drove the camper all the way to Nebraska for my gradation! They go to Disney World almost every year now :) And finally, Jeremy and I had Paige in August of last year. She's amazing, I wish you could've been there. I remember you constantly, from the American flag pin on my purse, to the old car driving down the street, to the random person smoking a pipe on a nice spring day. You are everywhere. I love you and miss you.

The dreaded doctor....

So let's go back to February 3rd, 2012. I was so excited to have the day off. I had just finished working 10 hour days Mon-Thurs so I wouldn't have to go downtown on Friday and deal with Super Bowl traffic. I had lots to do on Friday because I was throwing a baby shower for a good friend on Saturday and hadn't really done much at all! So I wake up to Paige (as usual) and I get her changed and I feed her. After that she started coughing so much! I was planning to take her to day care for a few hours that day so I could get stuff done, but her cough really started to worry me. So I called the doctor and got an appointment scheduled and that's when we found out she had an ear infection in her left ear. Poor baby... but other than the cough I wouldn't have even thought about taking her to the doctor because she was acting perfectly normal! So we got the antibiotic and went back 2 weeks later for a check-up.

February 17th was the next check-up. At this appointment the doctor thought she heard something in her lungs. So this time we had to do a breathing treatment (incredibly hard to do by yourself with a six month old who can't sit still!) and she wanted to get a chest X-ray as well :(. All that came back was that now she had an ear infection in both ears... so on to antibiotic #2 and a follow-up appointment in 7 days.

February 23rd... yay! No more ear infection!!

February 29th... 6-month check up (not sure why we couldn't combine the 23rd and 29th appointments, but whatever)... Ear infection is back, on to antibiotic #3 and another check-up in 2 weeks.

March 12th... yay! No more ear infection!!

March 27th... Paige had been coughing again for the previous 2 days, to the point where she had to sleep in her car seat next to the bed because it's the only way she wouldn't cough all through the night - and the only way I could get any sleep. So we took her to the doctor again... and guess what... another double ear infection! So on to antibiotic #4, and since this is her fourth one we got referred to the ENT. The office called and the ENT appointment was set for April 11th so we didn't need to schedule a check-up with our doctor's office.

April 9th... The 4th antibiotic didn't seem to do it's job because Paige was still coughing pretty bad towards the end of the anitbiotic. Sunday night Jeremy was getting a little worried about all the coughing and I agreed. We called the doctor's office Monday morning to ask if we should wait until our ENT appointment or come in for some more medicine. We went ahead and took her in and this time she had to get a shot :(! Not only 1 shot, but I had to take her back on the 10th for a follow-up shot!

Today (April 11th)... 3:10 appointment with the ENT... pretty sure we will end up getting tubes, please just take a moment to pray for our visit and that all goes well. I'm not worried about getting her tubes if that is what's best for her, I just want to stop taking her to the doctor all the time! :)

Through all this Paige has been an amazing little girl! Other than the coughing and occasional grabbing of her ears you wouldn't even know she's sick! She is such a happy baby!

I don't want to miss a thing...

I used to think that I wanted to adopt a 3 or 4 year old because I didn't want to do the "baby" phase. I didn't want to do the diapers, I didn't want to deal with the spit up, I didn't want to deal with the midnight feedings, and no sleep... but now, I can't imagine missing this part!

I love love love love my baby girl. I love her big brown eyes (that look just like daddy's eyes), I love the smile on her face when she sees me after I've been at work all day, I love her baby smell, I love her little feet, I love when she falls asleep on me, I love when she reaches her arms up because she wants me to pick her up, I love watching her sleep, I love picking out cute little outfits for her to wear, I love watching her discover a new toy for the first time, I love feeding her (even though it's messy sometimes!)... seriously I could keep going!

Over the last week Paige has gotten much stronger sitting up. She can't sit up on her own, but if we sit her down she can stay there without falling over, it's so fun! She seems so close to getting ready to crawl, if we lay her on her belly she can turn in a full 360 degrees and she can go backwards! She's attempted to get up on her knees and you can see that look on her face like "oh, I should try to go forward, but I just can't yet." She's now had oatmeal, rice, bananas, peaches, and green beans! She's doing great with all of them! We just finished up some antibiotics for an ear infection and heading back to the doctor today for a check up, but she's doing great, you really couldn't even tell she was sick! She's still sleeping great, occasionally she will wake up in the middle of the night, cry for about 15 sec then go back to sleep and I can usually get an extra 30-60 min in the morning if I just put the pacifier back in her mouth.

Okay, enough bragging about my baby... I just love her so much...