Sunday, December 30, 2007

Early, Early Morning...

being silly with Daddy

rear view

being wild with Tuck (look at her little curls :)

Yes, it's true that I'm posting at 6:50am on a Sunday :( Gabe went to stock the store early and was trying to be sooooooooo quiet as he shut the front door; but immediately, she started crying to let me know that she's done with this sleeping thing. Oh, and by the way, it was only 5:45am at that point. So, we're up and Teletubbies are on and her snack is keeping her happy, and I can blog. Today should be cold and rainy here-we'll just stay in doors, thank you very much. Probably web-cam-it a few times with the fam :) But, Gabe, is heading to the Redskins game. He's very excited and I told him I'll even try to watch at least half of the game; that made him happy. The picture above is from last night. Maddie got a new pj outfit from Nonnie and Grand Jer and it's too cute. That's what the pic is. She was so funny last night because the feet of the pj's have little sticky treads on the bottom and when she walks on the hardwood, it sort of sticks and she just cannot figure it out. I told Gabe I need to video tape it because it would be fun to watch with her when she's older. Tomorrow night is New Year's Eve and then it sort of feels like life can get back to normal. Holidays really mess me up with days and time. I feel like everything's a blur and that I never know what day it is. You probably feel the same. So, that's all that's happening here currently. We're well and ready for the week.

Friday, December 28, 2007

We're alive!

Hello All,
Sorry it's taken so long, but we are finally on the mend and feeling more like ourselves. Maddie is DEFINITELY teething though, so we're still dealing with a cranky baby lots of the time. We've been laying low and getting rest and now we're better. Today is my Mom and Jer's wedding anniversary and it's also Gabe's Mom, Sandy's, birthday. So, lot's to celebrate today! This weekend doesn't really have any plans for Maddie and I, but Gabe is going to the Redskins game on Sunday. He's excited and then New Year's Eve we are going to this restaurant in DC that we went to a couple of years ago. It's sort of a piano bar/restaurant with great food. We made a reservation and we're excited because as you all know this holiday season has not gone according to plan! So, now we have something to look forward to. Yeah :)

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Where to begin?....

Well, as our family knows, we have had the toughest 3 days of our lives. Let me start by saying that Gabe, Maddie and I are all home...in Virginia :( Not that we don't love our home, just that our plans have been drastically changed. Let's see, in the past 72 hours we have: watched Maddie projectile vomit on a plane from Baltimore to Oakland(Thursday)-but which stopped (thank God) in Kansas City, Missouri, been seen by the paramedics at said airport, checked into a Hilton to watch her, taken her to the emergency room at Saint Luke's hospital in Kansas City, rented a car, found out she had ear infections in both ears as well as a 100 degree fever, decided to drive home to Virginia, visited 2 different Walmart's to get baby stuff (antibiotics) for the long road trip, drove as long as we could on such little sleep, watched Maddie start throwing up again in the car, stopped for the night in Booneville, Missouri to stay at a Holiday Inn, where Maddie only slept for 6 hours, woke up and began driving to Virginia again, realized it was going to be such a LONG drive, called airline and booked tickets back to Baltimore that day (Friday) from Saint Louis, waited in that airport for over 2 hours for our flight, flew home (she slept; thank God), came to our house and tried to rest, woke up the next day (Saturday) and watched her all day until around 7pm when she started violently vomiting (very scary) at which point we called the pediatrician's after hours number, while waiting for them to call back (took forever) we decided to load Maddie in the car and take her to the hospital, she vomited again-major, so we called 911 and they sent an ambulance. I sat in the ambulance with her and Gabe followed in my car. We were taken to Alexandria Hospital (where she was born) and she was seen. It was determined after several hours, medicines, more throwing up, diarrhea, a failed attempt to catheter her to check her urine, that she may just have a bad tummy bug. We were sent home at around 10pm last night and we put her to bed. I went out to find a 24 hour pharmacy to get her medicine. The end to yet another very loooong day. Currently, she is sleeping and taking an anti nausea medicine that they give Chemo patients (safe for babies) and I am finally having a cup of coffee and trying to process all of this.
Let me say this; I never knew I had it in me to deal with so much. From being incredibly sad about not being with my family over Christmas, to letting people down that we planned on seeing, from watching Maddie be hunched over, so sick and looking at me for help and there's nothing I could do, to the total sleep deprivation I'm experiencing-I just didn't think I had this in me. People tell you that when you have kids and they get sick, you are able to deal with it because it's your instinct, and I've come to learn how true that is. I also couldn't stop thinking that if something was really terribly wrong with Maddie (more serious than a stomach bug), how would I even deal with that? It makes me really feel for people that have had sick babies and have had to watch them be poked and scared at hospitals. It's the most horrible thing to watch and hear-your baby crying for you to help them and you can't. So, here we are. In Virginia and if today goes well (no vomiting or visits to the ER) then I'm hoping to get in the Christmas spirit. Just not quite feeling that way right now. Thank you so much to Gabe, Mom, Jer, Dad, Claudia, Lizzy, Justin, Dan, Jen, for all of your advice, thoughts and prayers. You couldn't mean more to me.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Life of the....

PARTY! That's Maddie. We just got home from the Dog School Christmas party and it was a really nice time. Maddie had a blast. She was visiting, carrying around large dog water bowls that were for sale, carrying various bags of dog treats, stopping to visit me for a snack, and then off again. Let's just say, she's not too shy :) It was fun to see everyone and the food that Gabe chose was awesome. Lot's of fun and now off to bed. More packing to do in the morning, and Gymboree too. Oh, and the treadmill was great! We'll see how sore I am in the morning :)

Sunday, December 16, 2007

GameDay/Family Day


Hello All,
We are having a nice quiet Sunday at home together. We ran errands this morning (Bed, Bath & Beyond, and Safeway) for new sheets (to help with Gabe's sleeping prob.'s) and ingredients for my chili that is cooking in the crock pot as I blog. Yesterday, Gabe worked his booty off (biggest retail day of the year for Dog School) and Maddie and I hung out and watched the treadmill assembly guy put the new treadmill together. Yeah! Can't wait to use it tomorrow! So, it's chili and cornbread for dinner and then maybe watch a movie-well, I'll watch a movie and Gabe will be watching the Redskins. Oh, did I mention that this morning when we were out running errands, he dressed Maddie in her Redskins sweater/jacket and that he was in a matching shirt? Here's the picture just so you can see what I see :) We leave for CA in a few days and we're so excited. We've started doing the laundry and packing.

Monday, December 10, 2007

12-10-07 (Very loooooooooong post)

Maddie is 14 months old today :) We had a good weekend. On Friday night, Gabe's parents watched Maddie for us so that we could go out to dinner and to a movie. Dinner was fabulous. We didn't know where we were going to eat, but we found a really great restaurant and were pleasantly surprised at how much we liked it. Then, we went to see "Fred Claus." What a mistake! The movie itself was pretty funny; at least from what I saw. As we were entering the theater we noticed that the majority of patrons were teens, but not ones that drive. The ones that got dropped off by their mom's or older sisters and they're meeting up with boys that I'm sure their mother's don't know about. It was EYE OPENING! And not in a good way. We saw the worst display of manners in kids and it made me think. It made me wonder what happened to the world? When did teens (who definitely should know better) decide that being mindful of others around them doesn't matter? I know teens are selfish and immature (hey, I was one of them) but I don't remember being a total jerk in public. If you know me at all, I'm always concerned about the type of person Maddie will grow up to be. She's beautiful and I'm always thinking of how I will convey to her that how she looks on the outside needs to match her inside. At the forefront of my mind is the fact that it's my job to teach Maddie to think of others before herself, help when she can (even in the smallest way), and say "please and thank you." As I watched these teen girls wearing low cut shirts and very tight jeans, I thought how scary that age is for their mothers. How do mothers deal with this?!? I'm so very protective of Maddie and seeing these kids with so much freedom... Then, Gabe and I talked and we remembered being out at movies at that age and not acting that way. These kids were on cell phones during the movie, talking, running up and down the aisles, changing seats constantly; needless to say, it was incredibly distracting and Gabe and I finally decided to leave. We didn't ask for our money back-we were just ready to get home. On the walk to the car, Gabe said "That's why Maddie's going to private school." I know that wouldn't solve anything-but it was a funny thought. It made me really see how much things have changed since I was a young teen. Strange. Well, we hadn't been to a movie in probably 6 months and now we remember that 7:30pm movies on weekend nights are not worth it!
On Saturday, Maddie and I drove out to visit Alexa, Andy and Ella at their house. The girls played and had fun and then Maddie and I headed home. Gabe had to work. I'm sure you can imagine how busy he is with the Christmas season here. Sunday was pretty relaxed. Gabe went to open the store for a few hours, Maddie napped and I went to church. We had a great lunch together and later Maddie and I ran to Michael's for more art supplies. When there, we ran into a teacher I used to work with. She was always one of the ones I didn't really get along with. She's very gossipy and nosy. She also sort of turns every conversation into a negative and even though I only talked to her for 10 minutes, her negativity shined through. She made me uncomfortable when I worked with her, and she did it again last night. When we first ran into her, Maddie started crying her eyes out (which is very rare) but they say that children can sense if people are good or not, and I thought that was really telling. Plus, this woman asked me "So, what have you been up to?" And, I sort of looked at Maddie and said "She keeps me pretty busy." She looked back at us and said "What else have you been doing?" And, I felt dumbfounded. Like, what do you think? She has always sort of acted like a martyr for having a child and then choosing to work, but like many of us know in today's world-it's not a competition between working mom outside of the home, or working mom inside of the home. Either way, it's work. Some things never change, but I felt like it was God's way of reminding me why I don't miss working at that school. That's right, I still don't miss it!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Snow

It's snowing in Virginia today! Love it. It's been snowing here since around 10am and it's still coming down. It's about 30 degrees outside, but that is nice because it feels like winter. Maddie is pretty enamored with the snow. She was laughing and pointing out the sliding glass door. She thought it was really funny when Tucker was out in the snow :) We went to her dr. for her 2nd dose of the flu shot. It went fine. She cried very little and then we went to the grocery store. On the way to the doctor, a car was next to us that had a very interesting license plate.
If you have trouble seeing it, it said "NOHNIE" which sounds a lot like Nonnie, which is what Maddie calls my mom! How funny is that? So, Maddie was very bundled in the car. And that looked like this:
Love you all.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Anatomy of a sneeze :)





ACHOO!!!!!!

Ticket


Hello All,
I got a ticket yesterday for the first time in a long time! So frustrating; especially when you have a baby and two dogs in the car! I got pulled over for "evading a traffic light" which in normal words means that I cut through an abandoned parking lot to avoid the light that takes 200 years to turn green. I want to add here that Gabe taught me this trick and had it not been for him, I'd never had tried to use the parking lot in the first place. He felt bad when I called to tell him. So, I got a $50 ticket. Bummer. Today Gabe is going to the Redskins game with our friend Zac. It's the first game since Sean Taylor got killed and Gabe keeps saying he feels like he's going to a funeral and not a football game. Afterwards, he's bringing Zac home where a bunch of us will be waiting to yell "Surprise!" It's his 30th birthday and his wife, Faith, has put this together. I'm bringing Maddie and hoping she'll be a good girl. It starts at 5, and Gabe and I figure we'll leave around 8pm and she can sleep in the car on the way home. So, that's our day today. Have a great Sunday!!!