Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Maezie is sooo close to walking!
I forgot to mention that Maezie, our just-turned 8 month old, is up and crusing around furniture already. She's been crawling for over two months now, and has started pulling up on everything she can. She's starting to let go with one hand while she reaches for the next piece of furniture while she's cruising around. She tears up the living room floor if you hold her fingers and she walks. She's fast!! I'm pretty sure it won't be long and she'll be walking on her own. Then it will be a whole new world of messes at my house!!
Been Awhile ...
Ugh. So I thought I would be doing really good at this whole blogging thing, but apparently not!! Oh well. I'll try and recount the last month I've been away from the blog.
Christmas was fabulous. My family came to stay for the week right before Christmas and that was lovely. I sure love having them stay in our home. My Dad cooked his traditional giant pot of homemade chili and to me, that always signifies Christmas. It snowed while they were here, so my Mom took Kyleigh out to play in the snow and taught her how to make and throw a snowball. Important stuff for a kid to learn, you know. My folks got Kyleigh some really great Christmas stuff, and I got a lot of games for gifts, as requested. Kyleigh got several zoo animals. They're little figures that she can hold in her hands, and she's been carrying them everywhere. Kyleigh simply LOVES animals, and my Mom sure knows what Kyleigh likes!! There's two sizes of several of the animals. A "mommy" zebra and a "baby" zebra, a "mommy" elephant and a "baby" elephant, and also a "daddy" giraffe and a "baby" giraffe. The giraffe is a "daddy" giraffe instead of a "mommy" giraffe because it squeaks when you squeeze it, and the squeak hole is located right under the tail, and we figured that daddies tend to "squeak" more often than mommies, right?? (Who designed that giraffe, anyway??) Fun stuff! My sister Cathryn taught me and my other sister Stacie how to knit while she was here. I got a knitting loom thing for Christmas and then was also taught how to knit using needles. It's pretty exciting to make something. I think I have about three or four scarves going right now. Going yarn shopping is a BLAST! I had no idea it could be so fun and Hobby Lobby is my new favorite store! I think I'm going to try and find someplace to take sewing lessons this summer. My Mom got me a sewing machine a few Christmases back and I've never learned how to use it. But I can only imagine that if knitting a scarf is this much fun, that sewing dresses for my girls and making curtains and such would be all the more fun!!
My mother-in-law sent a neat vintage spinning top for Christmas for the girls. It's giant, and you pump it up and it spins and hums/whistles while it twirls around. Kyleigh says it sounds like a train. Then for Christmas we got Kyleigh several toys that she has REALLY enjoyed and that was so fulfilling!! (Getting your child something that makes them really happy is such a wonderful feeling. I can totally see how some people might go overboard with that and get their kids everything!!) We didn't spend a ton of money this year or anything, but we got her a couple of things that she is just really loving. A Little People princess castle that's similar to a dollhouse, and a Little People airport that came complete with a little airplane, helicopter, and taxi cab. Kyleigh calls the helicopter a "helitocker" and the taxi cab is a "taxi truck". She's having a lot of fun with that too. It snowed this year so we even had a white Christmas, and I had tons of Christmas decorations up. It was really nice. :) I think next year will be even more exciting because Kyleigh will know that Christmas morning is coming and that she will get to open presents. Matt and I are still debating on whether or not we are going to let the girls believe in Santa Claus or not.
I was planning on sending out "Happy New Year" cards this year instead of Christmas cards, and had all the ingredients to make little goodie bags for all our friends. I was going to make fudge (thanks Renee, for showing me how!) and other various sweets to be divied up and passed out in cute little snowflake baggies to all our our buddies out here. Then I got sick. REALLY sick. And so no cards went out, and no goodies got made. Sorry, everyone. I think I'll send out Valentine's goodies and cards instead.
New Year's was NOT so much fun. *sigh* The day after Christmas I came down with mastitis. I was running a high fever and was in a lot of pain. I've had this several times before, so when it happened this time, I just called the doctor and got them to phone me in a prescrip for an antibiotic. Normally it takes about 2 days on the antibiotic and I'm feeling much better, but that was not the case this time. After 3 days on the prescrip, not only was I not any better, I was much WORSE. The pain was excruciating, and to any of you reading this who has ever had a breast infection while nursing a baby - you KNOW the pain. But this was different. Way, way, way worse than any of my previous mastitis experiences. There was a huge lump in there, like HUGE. Like seriously, the size of one of those apple pie things from McDonald's. And holy crap did it HURT!! I actually went into the doctor on the 30th and he felt around and said, "are you sure it's not just a plugged duct?" and sent me home with instructions to continue on my oral antibiotic and call him if I ran another fever. I was so mad!! Sure enough, I ran another 103 that night, and called the office the next morning. I guess the first doctor (who was not my usual doctor but was the guy on-call that day - Dr. Chang) didn't believe how serious I was about the pain and the fevers, but the next day's on-call doc was Dr. Lorenz, and he DID take me seriously. So seriously, in fact, that he had me go to the ER that evening and be admitted to the hospital for observation, pain relief, and IV antibiotics. Apparently, if mastitis goes on for too long, it turns into an abscess, which has to be surgically drained. If the infection gets out of control, it can start leaching into your bloodstream and can affect your entire system. Since my infection was on my left side and directly over my heart .... well, you see what I mean.
So, I spent two days in the hospital with an IV in my arm, and that's where I spent New Year's Eve too. Apparently, they had me on some "heavy duty" antibiotics. My nurses kept calling them the "big guns". It wasn't an altogether unpleasant stay. Since I am still nursing Maezie, she had to be in the hospital with me, which wasn't any fun for either of us. Nor was it very restful, but oh well. Then I got discharged and home health nurse came into my house once a day to administer another dose of IV antibiotics. So I had that stupid IV in my arm for a week! Ugh! I'm doing much better now, and so far, the infection hasn't come back. The lump isn't totally gone, but it's really close to being gone and it's very small now.
Special thanks to the Adams family for watching Kyleigh. Penny went with me to the ER when I had to check in, and stayed with me until after midnight on New Year's Eve. She helped me with Maezie while the doctors were examining me and what-not. Then she went home to get a few hours of sleep and then showed up at my house at 6:45 the next morning to take care of Kyleigh while Matt went to work. The Adams' are my landlords, but they are now also probably our closest friends out here in Farmington. They are just amazing and take SUCH good care of us. I honestly have NO idea what I would do without them.
My pastor's wife dropped by the hospital and brought some kind of a smoothie she made. OMG it was delicious. All it was made from was ice, almonds, bluberries, and bananas. No milk. It was heavenly. My friend Franny from church came to hospital to pick me up and drive me home. Several folks from the church brought meals by to help out while I was down. I love our church - Calvary Chapel. I need to buy some thank-you cards while I'm out and about today.
My Mom came out the same day I got discharged and ended up arriving shortly after I got home from the hospital. *relief* There is just nothing like having your Mommy with you when you don't feel well, you know what I mean?? Even if you're 26. She's incredibly helpful and put my house back together for me and helped me with the kids while Matt worked. It's so wonderful that I have a loving mother who is not only willing but ABLE to make the trip out here in a day's notice to help me if something goes wrong. I pray that someday I can be as loving and sweet and helpful to my own daughters as my mother is to me.
Anyhow, the same day the nurse discharged me, we left to go on our annual Donaghey side family reunion/ski trip in Taos. But that's another entry altogether, and I've been sitting at the computer for too long already. So I'll make that post later. :)
Blessings to all, and Happy New Year everyone!!
I'm pretty sure we have already reached our annual out-of-pocket maximum for our insurance. And it's only January. Bet they love us!
Christmas was fabulous. My family came to stay for the week right before Christmas and that was lovely. I sure love having them stay in our home. My Dad cooked his traditional giant pot of homemade chili and to me, that always signifies Christmas. It snowed while they were here, so my Mom took Kyleigh out to play in the snow and taught her how to make and throw a snowball. Important stuff for a kid to learn, you know. My folks got Kyleigh some really great Christmas stuff, and I got a lot of games for gifts, as requested. Kyleigh got several zoo animals. They're little figures that she can hold in her hands, and she's been carrying them everywhere. Kyleigh simply LOVES animals, and my Mom sure knows what Kyleigh likes!! There's two sizes of several of the animals. A "mommy" zebra and a "baby" zebra, a "mommy" elephant and a "baby" elephant, and also a "daddy" giraffe and a "baby" giraffe. The giraffe is a "daddy" giraffe instead of a "mommy" giraffe because it squeaks when you squeeze it, and the squeak hole is located right under the tail, and we figured that daddies tend to "squeak" more often than mommies, right?? (Who designed that giraffe, anyway??) Fun stuff! My sister Cathryn taught me and my other sister Stacie how to knit while she was here. I got a knitting loom thing for Christmas and then was also taught how to knit using needles. It's pretty exciting to make something. I think I have about three or four scarves going right now. Going yarn shopping is a BLAST! I had no idea it could be so fun and Hobby Lobby is my new favorite store! I think I'm going to try and find someplace to take sewing lessons this summer. My Mom got me a sewing machine a few Christmases back and I've never learned how to use it. But I can only imagine that if knitting a scarf is this much fun, that sewing dresses for my girls and making curtains and such would be all the more fun!!
My mother-in-law sent a neat vintage spinning top for Christmas for the girls. It's giant, and you pump it up and it spins and hums/whistles while it twirls around. Kyleigh says it sounds like a train. Then for Christmas we got Kyleigh several toys that she has REALLY enjoyed and that was so fulfilling!! (Getting your child something that makes them really happy is such a wonderful feeling. I can totally see how some people might go overboard with that and get their kids everything!!) We didn't spend a ton of money this year or anything, but we got her a couple of things that she is just really loving. A Little People princess castle that's similar to a dollhouse, and a Little People airport that came complete with a little airplane, helicopter, and taxi cab. Kyleigh calls the helicopter a "helitocker" and the taxi cab is a "taxi truck". She's having a lot of fun with that too. It snowed this year so we even had a white Christmas, and I had tons of Christmas decorations up. It was really nice. :) I think next year will be even more exciting because Kyleigh will know that Christmas morning is coming and that she will get to open presents. Matt and I are still debating on whether or not we are going to let the girls believe in Santa Claus or not.
I was planning on sending out "Happy New Year" cards this year instead of Christmas cards, and had all the ingredients to make little goodie bags for all our friends. I was going to make fudge (thanks Renee, for showing me how!) and other various sweets to be divied up and passed out in cute little snowflake baggies to all our our buddies out here. Then I got sick. REALLY sick. And so no cards went out, and no goodies got made. Sorry, everyone. I think I'll send out Valentine's goodies and cards instead.
New Year's was NOT so much fun. *sigh* The day after Christmas I came down with mastitis. I was running a high fever and was in a lot of pain. I've had this several times before, so when it happened this time, I just called the doctor and got them to phone me in a prescrip for an antibiotic. Normally it takes about 2 days on the antibiotic and I'm feeling much better, but that was not the case this time. After 3 days on the prescrip, not only was I not any better, I was much WORSE. The pain was excruciating, and to any of you reading this who has ever had a breast infection while nursing a baby - you KNOW the pain. But this was different. Way, way, way worse than any of my previous mastitis experiences. There was a huge lump in there, like HUGE. Like seriously, the size of one of those apple pie things from McDonald's. And holy crap did it HURT!! I actually went into the doctor on the 30th and he felt around and said, "are you sure it's not just a plugged duct?" and sent me home with instructions to continue on my oral antibiotic and call him if I ran another fever. I was so mad!! Sure enough, I ran another 103 that night, and called the office the next morning. I guess the first doctor (who was not my usual doctor but was the guy on-call that day - Dr. Chang) didn't believe how serious I was about the pain and the fevers, but the next day's on-call doc was Dr. Lorenz, and he DID take me seriously. So seriously, in fact, that he had me go to the ER that evening and be admitted to the hospital for observation, pain relief, and IV antibiotics. Apparently, if mastitis goes on for too long, it turns into an abscess, which has to be surgically drained. If the infection gets out of control, it can start leaching into your bloodstream and can affect your entire system. Since my infection was on my left side and directly over my heart .... well, you see what I mean.
So, I spent two days in the hospital with an IV in my arm, and that's where I spent New Year's Eve too. Apparently, they had me on some "heavy duty" antibiotics. My nurses kept calling them the "big guns". It wasn't an altogether unpleasant stay. Since I am still nursing Maezie, she had to be in the hospital with me, which wasn't any fun for either of us. Nor was it very restful, but oh well. Then I got discharged and home health nurse came into my house once a day to administer another dose of IV antibiotics. So I had that stupid IV in my arm for a week! Ugh! I'm doing much better now, and so far, the infection hasn't come back. The lump isn't totally gone, but it's really close to being gone and it's very small now.
Special thanks to the Adams family for watching Kyleigh. Penny went with me to the ER when I had to check in, and stayed with me until after midnight on New Year's Eve. She helped me with Maezie while the doctors were examining me and what-not. Then she went home to get a few hours of sleep and then showed up at my house at 6:45 the next morning to take care of Kyleigh while Matt went to work. The Adams' are my landlords, but they are now also probably our closest friends out here in Farmington. They are just amazing and take SUCH good care of us. I honestly have NO idea what I would do without them.
My pastor's wife dropped by the hospital and brought some kind of a smoothie she made. OMG it was delicious. All it was made from was ice, almonds, bluberries, and bananas. No milk. It was heavenly. My friend Franny from church came to hospital to pick me up and drive me home. Several folks from the church brought meals by to help out while I was down. I love our church - Calvary Chapel. I need to buy some thank-you cards while I'm out and about today.
My Mom came out the same day I got discharged and ended up arriving shortly after I got home from the hospital. *relief* There is just nothing like having your Mommy with you when you don't feel well, you know what I mean?? Even if you're 26. She's incredibly helpful and put my house back together for me and helped me with the kids while Matt worked. It's so wonderful that I have a loving mother who is not only willing but ABLE to make the trip out here in a day's notice to help me if something goes wrong. I pray that someday I can be as loving and sweet and helpful to my own daughters as my mother is to me.
Anyhow, the same day the nurse discharged me, we left to go on our annual Donaghey side family reunion/ski trip in Taos. But that's another entry altogether, and I've been sitting at the computer for too long already. So I'll make that post later. :)
Blessings to all, and Happy New Year everyone!!
I'm pretty sure we have already reached our annual out-of-pocket maximum for our insurance. And it's only January. Bet they love us!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
More Kyleigh-isms
So there are some more Kyleigh-isms that I thought of.
She has names that aren't quite right for lots of characters:
Winnie the Pooh = "Poop Bear"
Eeyore = "Yore"
Piglet = "Piggie"
Sleeping Beauty = "Sleepy Duty"
Cinderella = "Cindergrella"
She'll drop her little Winnie the Pooh toy, and say "Oh no! Poop! Where AAARRRRRE you, Poop? Poooo-ooooooop?"
She's precious. And she's changing day by day. It's hard to believe how big she's getting. Parenthood is so fulfilling, but when you realize how fast it goes by, it's so sad!
She has names that aren't quite right for lots of characters:
Winnie the Pooh = "Poop Bear"
Eeyore = "Yore"
Piglet = "Piggie"
Sleeping Beauty = "Sleepy Duty"
Cinderella = "Cindergrella"
She'll drop her little Winnie the Pooh toy, and say "Oh no! Poop! Where AAARRRRRE you, Poop? Poooo-ooooooop?"
She's precious. And she's changing day by day. It's hard to believe how big she's getting. Parenthood is so fulfilling, but when you realize how fast it goes by, it's so sad!
Monday, December 08, 2008
Kyleigh-isms
So my little Kyleigh has some pretty darned cute words and phrases, if I do say so myself. Because I know that I will forget them, I want to write them down while I'm thinking about it.
She'll walk around making an animal noise, say a "neigh" or something, and then ask herself, "Are you being a horse?"
She has a very good memory and can usually repeat things she hears on TV. She watches the little kid shows on Nickelodeon or Disney, and I'll hear her say little catch phrases from them. Sometimes she'll say, "Do you hear that? It sounds like an animal in trouble!" (from Diego) or "It's ok, Boots." (from Dora) or "I have an idea!" (Imagination Movers). It's really cute. I'm not sure that she knows 100% what she's saying, but it's still pretty cute!
She pronounces "pajamas" as "pajamanamas". I'm pretty sure that's my favorite of all!!
When she's feeling particularly sweet, she'll come up and give us a kiss and say, "Love you so much!" If that doesn't melt your heart, I don't know what would!!
When we're driving around in the car, I'll sometimes ask her what Maezie is doing so I can find out if Maezie is sleeping or not. Since Kyleigh is front-facing, I can see her in my little kid-finder rearview mirror, but Maezie is still rear-facing so I can't see her. So, I ask Kyleigh, "What's Maezie doing?" Her usual answers are, "She's sleeping." or "She's happy" (which means she's awake and smiling) or once she even said, "She's snoring" because I guess Maezie was asleep and breathing really heavily. But then today I asked her, "Kyleigh, what's Maezie doing?" And I watched in my rearview as Kyleigh looked at Maezie thoughtfully and then said, "Is she being a giraffe?" Which CRACKS ME UP!! When we taught Kyleigh what a giraffe says, we would stick our tongue out really far. Maezie has a habit of falling asleep with her tongue partially hanging out of her mouth. She "sucks" on her tongue (mimicking nursing) while she's sleeping. So when Kyleigh said that Maezie was being a giraffe, it meant that she was asleep with the tip of her tongue hanging out of her mouth. Hilarious!!
I know there's more things to add to this post, I just can't think of them right now. So I'll add them later. :)
She'll walk around making an animal noise, say a "neigh" or something, and then ask herself, "Are you being a horse?"
She has a very good memory and can usually repeat things she hears on TV. She watches the little kid shows on Nickelodeon or Disney, and I'll hear her say little catch phrases from them. Sometimes she'll say, "Do you hear that? It sounds like an animal in trouble!" (from Diego) or "It's ok, Boots." (from Dora) or "I have an idea!" (Imagination Movers). It's really cute. I'm not sure that she knows 100% what she's saying, but it's still pretty cute!
She pronounces "pajamas" as "pajamanamas". I'm pretty sure that's my favorite of all!!
When she's feeling particularly sweet, she'll come up and give us a kiss and say, "Love you so much!" If that doesn't melt your heart, I don't know what would!!
When we're driving around in the car, I'll sometimes ask her what Maezie is doing so I can find out if Maezie is sleeping or not. Since Kyleigh is front-facing, I can see her in my little kid-finder rearview mirror, but Maezie is still rear-facing so I can't see her. So, I ask Kyleigh, "What's Maezie doing?" Her usual answers are, "She's sleeping." or "She's happy" (which means she's awake and smiling) or once she even said, "She's snoring" because I guess Maezie was asleep and breathing really heavily. But then today I asked her, "Kyleigh, what's Maezie doing?" And I watched in my rearview as Kyleigh looked at Maezie thoughtfully and then said, "Is she being a giraffe?" Which CRACKS ME UP!! When we taught Kyleigh what a giraffe says, we would stick our tongue out really far. Maezie has a habit of falling asleep with her tongue partially hanging out of her mouth. She "sucks" on her tongue (mimicking nursing) while she's sleeping. So when Kyleigh said that Maezie was being a giraffe, it meant that she was asleep with the tip of her tongue hanging out of her mouth. Hilarious!!
I know there's more things to add to this post, I just can't think of them right now. So I'll add them later. :)
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Do I really have the right to feel this way?
So ... we have been talking lately about re-homing our black lab. This sounds terrible, but the honest truth is that she just annoys me. I TRY to not be annoyed at her, but it's impossible. At this point, I think we'd all be happier if she was in a different home. She's a really sweet dog and she's well-trained, it's just that her personality and mine don't mesh anymore. She needs a home where she could be the center of attention and get the affection she deserves. I've put a few ads online like on craigslist and such, but I'm being very picky about who will get her. I don't want her ending up abused, in a shelter, or miserable. She gets a good life here, even if it's not great, and I won't give her to anyone unless they can provide her with a BETTER life than what she has here.
Anyhow, so I had a family respond to my ad and they wanted to come by and meet the dog. They have four kids, ages 6, 5, 3, and 19 months. They seemed really nice over the phone and sounded like they would be able to provide the kind of home we're looking for. We scheduled them to come by at 4:30pm on Wednesday.
They showed up at 4:15 and stayed until 6:15. *sigh* The parents were REALLY nice. They bonded right away with the dog. But their kids ... well, I just hope that I never let my children behave this way. (And if anyone who reads this ever catches that happening, PLEASE let me know so I can fix it.) First off, when you're trying to make a good impression on someone, you probably want to look your best, and if not your best, then at least decent. The kids (and parents for that matter) were in mis-matched, fairly dirty clothes. Not like they were poor or anything, just like they didn't really care what they looked like. Not that you need to dress up to go and visit a dog, but you'd think that when someone is wanting to find a "wonderful" new home for their dog, you'd want to make your home and everything that comes from it fairly presentable. Right?? Maybe I'm just expecting too much out of a family that has four kids ...
Anyhow, so their kids came right into the house and petted the dog. (That was good.) After about 30 seconds or so, the dog became uninteresting and the kids headed straight for my den and started playing with all my kids' toys. (Not so good.) The parents just sat down in the living room and were talking with me and getting to know the dog. (Good.) But they completely ignored their children, who were demolishing my den. (Bad.)
Now, if the kids had stayed in the living room with their parents, and then started to go toward the den and the parents had said, "Oh no kids, those are their toys, we aren't going to play with them," then I would have said, "Oh, it's no problem! Let them play!" Or if the kids had asked me, "Can we play with your toys?" then it would have been FINE!! But they didn't. They just headed straight for the toys and started playing. (Oh, and if I had already known these kids, if they were friends of ours or something, they wouldn't have needed to ask, but these people were strangers!) The 3 year old boy was putting lots of the little toys in his mouth. Then the kids found some balls and brought them back into the living room to throw for the dog. I think that between the three of us, their parents and I asked the kids to NOT throw the balls in the house (it riles up the dog) about 723 times. Not to mention, those were supposed to be KID balls, and not dog balls - but I didn't mention that to the family, so I guess that's my fault. But now all the balls that are meant only for the babies have dog slobber all over them. Fabulous.
Meanwhile, the parents are telling me about their last dog who also happened to be a black lab. They said that the dog was really big and jumped on the kids, so they had to put it on a chain in the backyard when the kids were outside playing or they were leaving to go to town. They apparently live outside of town on some acreage. The last time they had chained the dog to the stake in the yard, they had gone to town for a few hours and by the time they came back the dog had wound her chain up and twisted it in on herself and choked herself and they were very sad. (I'm thinking to myself - "even though they say that the only reason they chained the dog was so she wouldn't jump on the kids, what's to stop them from chaining my dog??")
The 6 year old boy came to me (ME!) several times to tell me that his brother wasn't sharing the toys with him. The toy he was referring to (the first time) was a set of dominoes. So I got up, went into the den, and suggested that one boy play with half the dominoes on the fireplace hearth (no fire, obviously) and one boy play with the other half of the dominoes on the table. They didn't like that idea, but I was fresh out of ideas after that so I just told them to share and walked away.
I also wanted to show the parents how the dog is well-trained to not snap or bite when you feed her treats. I had run completely out of dog treats, so I decided to grab the next best thing - a bag of pretzels. Ok, so maybe not the next best thing, but it's what I could grab quickly. So I showed them, using pretzels, how to make the dog sit, stay, shake, etc for her treat. I also showed them how gentle she was when she took treats from people's hands. So then of course all the kids wanted to try. That was fine! But then they started eating the pretzels. The parents said nothing. And the kids didn't just eat a FEW pretzels, oh no, they ate darn near the whole bag. All the while, they're also feeding the dog pretzels. Again, both the parents and I had to ask the kids several times to stop feeding the dog before they finally did. Their parents finally did tell them to stop eating the pretzels, but not because they were someone else's pretzels and they hadn't been polite and asked, but because they needed to save room for dinner. (!!!)
These folks were really nice, don't get me wrong. But they just stayed, and stayed, and stayed.
To their credit though, when it came time to leave they did make the kids pick up the toys in the totally trashed den.
After they left and my kids were in bed, I cleaned up the den. I clearly remember the 3 year old having tons of toys in his mouth. I picked all of Maezie's toys that she usually puts in her mouth and not knowing if the toys had been in the other kids' mouths, I decided I had better just wash them all. The balls that had been in the dog's mouth and the other toys of Kyleigh's that had been in the kid's mouth all got a good spray down with Lysol Disinfectant. Then just for good measure I ran the can of spray over all the toys on the floor in the den.
I'm pretty sure my house is going to smell like "Clean Breeze Lysol" for about the next year and a half because of all the spraying, but at least I feel better about it. Feel like it's cleaner in there.
So, I'm irritated. Something tells me that even though these folks were really nice, they are just not the right family for ME to pick for the dog. Not that the dog would necessarily be unhappy with them - she seemed to bond to the father right away - but because I don't think I could handle her going to live with them. And I'm irritated at their kids and at the parents for not controlling the kids. So they drove a 30 minute jaunt into town to see this dog and let me "decide" if it's the right fit for the dog or not, and I feel pretty bad about not choosing them, but I just don't think they're the right family for my dog.
Did I mention I'm irritated that I had to clean all those toys? ... Yeah.
Do I have a right to feel this way??
Anyhow, so I had a family respond to my ad and they wanted to come by and meet the dog. They have four kids, ages 6, 5, 3, and 19 months. They seemed really nice over the phone and sounded like they would be able to provide the kind of home we're looking for. We scheduled them to come by at 4:30pm on Wednesday.
They showed up at 4:15 and stayed until 6:15. *sigh* The parents were REALLY nice. They bonded right away with the dog. But their kids ... well, I just hope that I never let my children behave this way. (And if anyone who reads this ever catches that happening, PLEASE let me know so I can fix it.) First off, when you're trying to make a good impression on someone, you probably want to look your best, and if not your best, then at least decent. The kids (and parents for that matter) were in mis-matched, fairly dirty clothes. Not like they were poor or anything, just like they didn't really care what they looked like. Not that you need to dress up to go and visit a dog, but you'd think that when someone is wanting to find a "wonderful" new home for their dog, you'd want to make your home and everything that comes from it fairly presentable. Right?? Maybe I'm just expecting too much out of a family that has four kids ...
Anyhow, so their kids came right into the house and petted the dog. (That was good.) After about 30 seconds or so, the dog became uninteresting and the kids headed straight for my den and started playing with all my kids' toys. (Not so good.) The parents just sat down in the living room and were talking with me and getting to know the dog. (Good.) But they completely ignored their children, who were demolishing my den. (Bad.)
Now, if the kids had stayed in the living room with their parents, and then started to go toward the den and the parents had said, "Oh no kids, those are their toys, we aren't going to play with them," then I would have said, "Oh, it's no problem! Let them play!" Or if the kids had asked me, "Can we play with your toys?" then it would have been FINE!! But they didn't. They just headed straight for the toys and started playing. (Oh, and if I had already known these kids, if they were friends of ours or something, they wouldn't have needed to ask, but these people were strangers!) The 3 year old boy was putting lots of the little toys in his mouth. Then the kids found some balls and brought them back into the living room to throw for the dog. I think that between the three of us, their parents and I asked the kids to NOT throw the balls in the house (it riles up the dog) about 723 times. Not to mention, those were supposed to be KID balls, and not dog balls - but I didn't mention that to the family, so I guess that's my fault. But now all the balls that are meant only for the babies have dog slobber all over them. Fabulous.
Meanwhile, the parents are telling me about their last dog who also happened to be a black lab. They said that the dog was really big and jumped on the kids, so they had to put it on a chain in the backyard when the kids were outside playing or they were leaving to go to town. They apparently live outside of town on some acreage. The last time they had chained the dog to the stake in the yard, they had gone to town for a few hours and by the time they came back the dog had wound her chain up and twisted it in on herself and choked herself and they were very sad. (I'm thinking to myself - "even though they say that the only reason they chained the dog was so she wouldn't jump on the kids, what's to stop them from chaining my dog??")
The 6 year old boy came to me (ME!) several times to tell me that his brother wasn't sharing the toys with him. The toy he was referring to (the first time) was a set of dominoes. So I got up, went into the den, and suggested that one boy play with half the dominoes on the fireplace hearth (no fire, obviously) and one boy play with the other half of the dominoes on the table. They didn't like that idea, but I was fresh out of ideas after that so I just told them to share and walked away.
I also wanted to show the parents how the dog is well-trained to not snap or bite when you feed her treats. I had run completely out of dog treats, so I decided to grab the next best thing - a bag of pretzels. Ok, so maybe not the next best thing, but it's what I could grab quickly. So I showed them, using pretzels, how to make the dog sit, stay, shake, etc for her treat. I also showed them how gentle she was when she took treats from people's hands. So then of course all the kids wanted to try. That was fine! But then they started eating the pretzels. The parents said nothing. And the kids didn't just eat a FEW pretzels, oh no, they ate darn near the whole bag. All the while, they're also feeding the dog pretzels. Again, both the parents and I had to ask the kids several times to stop feeding the dog before they finally did. Their parents finally did tell them to stop eating the pretzels, but not because they were someone else's pretzels and they hadn't been polite and asked, but because they needed to save room for dinner. (!!!)
These folks were really nice, don't get me wrong. But they just stayed, and stayed, and stayed.
To their credit though, when it came time to leave they did make the kids pick up the toys in the totally trashed den.
After they left and my kids were in bed, I cleaned up the den. I clearly remember the 3 year old having tons of toys in his mouth. I picked all of Maezie's toys that she usually puts in her mouth and not knowing if the toys had been in the other kids' mouths, I decided I had better just wash them all. The balls that had been in the dog's mouth and the other toys of Kyleigh's that had been in the kid's mouth all got a good spray down with Lysol Disinfectant. Then just for good measure I ran the can of spray over all the toys on the floor in the den.
I'm pretty sure my house is going to smell like "Clean Breeze Lysol" for about the next year and a half because of all the spraying, but at least I feel better about it. Feel like it's cleaner in there.
So, I'm irritated. Something tells me that even though these folks were really nice, they are just not the right family for ME to pick for the dog. Not that the dog would necessarily be unhappy with them - she seemed to bond to the father right away - but because I don't think I could handle her going to live with them. And I'm irritated at their kids and at the parents for not controlling the kids. So they drove a 30 minute jaunt into town to see this dog and let me "decide" if it's the right fit for the dog or not, and I feel pretty bad about not choosing them, but I just don't think they're the right family for my dog.
Did I mention I'm irritated that I had to clean all those toys? ... Yeah.
Do I have a right to feel this way??
Random Allison Happenings
So ... Maezie has been army crawling for about two weeks or so now, and WOW! It sure makes a difference in how much I have to pay attention to what Kyleigh is doing! We usually give Kyleigh snacks in a little plastic bowl, and she carries them around the house and eats them, or leaves them in the den in her "snack corner", or she sometimes dumps them out all over the floor. But now that Maezie is crwaling, dumping Kix all over the floor is NOT ok. Maezie has radar for Kyleigh's snacks, somehow, and crawls straight for them!
Maezie is getting pretty quick with the crawling now and can go from room to room if she wants to. I can't believe she's going to be 7 months is just a few days!!! It goes by SO fast!
Kyleigh is hilarious! Lately her new thing is putting her stuffed animals in her crib. (We're moving her up to a "big girl" bed later on this month!) When I put her in her crib for naptime or bedtime, she knows she's not supposed to come out of the crib, but she does it anyway. Usually I leave one or two stuffed animals in her crib with her. When I go in to check on her, there's usually at least one or two extras in there. Just now I went to check on her and found her asleep with ALL of her stuffed animals in her crib (we're talking 15+). She climbs out and dumps them over into her crib, then climbs back in. It's pretty funny!
Christmas decorations are up now, including the tree, and it's so nice. I really love Christmas time! My cat thinks the tinsel on the tree is just about the most fun thing ever. We have floor-length curtains and the Christmas tree is in front of the window. Apparently the lights make the tinsel reflect funny things on the curtains, because the cat has been attacking the tree through the inside of the curtain for about 45 minutes now! :)
Tomorrow I'm going to make a big post about my fabulous husband and his job, but tonight I'm too tired.
Maezie is getting pretty quick with the crawling now and can go from room to room if she wants to. I can't believe she's going to be 7 months is just a few days!!! It goes by SO fast!
Kyleigh is hilarious! Lately her new thing is putting her stuffed animals in her crib. (We're moving her up to a "big girl" bed later on this month!) When I put her in her crib for naptime or bedtime, she knows she's not supposed to come out of the crib, but she does it anyway. Usually I leave one or two stuffed animals in her crib with her. When I go in to check on her, there's usually at least one or two extras in there. Just now I went to check on her and found her asleep with ALL of her stuffed animals in her crib (we're talking 15+). She climbs out and dumps them over into her crib, then climbs back in. It's pretty funny!
Christmas decorations are up now, including the tree, and it's so nice. I really love Christmas time! My cat thinks the tinsel on the tree is just about the most fun thing ever. We have floor-length curtains and the Christmas tree is in front of the window. Apparently the lights make the tinsel reflect funny things on the curtains, because the cat has been attacking the tree through the inside of the curtain for about 45 minutes now! :)
Tomorrow I'm going to make a big post about my fabulous husband and his job, but tonight I'm too tired.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Is it really almost Thanksgiving already??
I can't believe the holidays are just around the corner! Christmas music is blaring from stores and decorations are going up ... ahhh, I LOVE Christmas. The music, the family, the snow, the lights, the crisp air, the general festiveness ... But it has come REALLY quickly this year. Seems like it gets quicker and quicker each year. (Has anyone checked? Maybe they're shaving days off of each year and hoping we won't notice.) Time really does fly when you have kids!
Maezie is full-on crawling now. She's actually getting pretty fast already! I know that Kyleigh didn't start crawling until after she was 8 months old, so for Maezie to be crawling this well at 6 months is pretty surprising. Kyleigh walked at 9 months, so I'm assuming that Maezie will probably walk around that same time too, if not earlier. I'm going to be busy very soon! She also sits up on her own without support but hasn't quite mastered being able to sit up from a laying down position. Her first two teeth are on their way. Her bottom middle left tooth will be poking through the skin in a matter of hours, and her bottom right one won't take but a few more days now.
Maezie is still in the bassinet in our room. I know, I know, she should have been out of that thing several months ago - but she likes it! And so do we. It has a great vibration feature on it that Maezie REALLY likes and we use it all the time. (Like we bought rechargable batteries for it because that's how often we use it!) But now that her motor skills are so advanced, we really can't have her in there anymore so we are going to have to move her up to the crib. Kyleigh is still IN the crib now, so that's a bit of a problem. My parents are giving us the bunk beds that I used to sleep on as a kid (aww!) for the girls. When they come for Christmas they'll be bringing the lower bunk with them. So until about a month from now, we don't have anything to move Kyleigh into. So she'll be staying in the crib and Maezie will be in the pack 'n' play until the big girl bed gets here. I'm hoping that I'll be able to take apart the vibration thing and somehow re-attach it to the pack 'n' play. I ordered a little mattress and some pack 'n' play sheets so that it will be a comfy bed for Maezie. (Sorry Kyleigh, I know you used to sleep in that thing while you were in daycare, but I didn't know until recently that an extra mattress and sheets existed for it!) The pack 'n' play will also be in our room for awhile. Until Maezie is ready to give up her night feeding completely, I don't think it's wise to move her into Ky's room.
I'm a bit nervous about Kyleigh being in a big girl bed. Not because she'll fall out, but because she'll never go to sleep! She can climb out of her crib now, but she knows that she's not supposed to. So most of the time, she stays in there and eventually falls asleep. But what happens when there are no more crib rails to signal to the child, "stay in here"?? Hopefully it won't be too bad of an adjustment. I'm going to go out and buy Dora or Tinkerbell sheets or something that will maybe, possibly, if I'm lucky, entice Ky to stay in the bed when she's supposed to be.
Thanksgiving is just three days away. (Excuse me, but wasn't it just Halloween like last week??) Matt has to work ALL DAY LONG on Thanksgiving Day. I can't believe that!! Grrr! So I was thinking that I might just skip the holiday cooking since he'll be gone all day anyway (and it's not like Kyleigh and Maezie would know they were missing anything) but then I decided that since he's got to work all day long that I'd better cook up something wonderful for him to come home to. He'll be in definite NEED of a nice Thanksgiving Day meal by that time, I'm afraid. I cooked my very first turkey EVER last year for Thanksgiving, and it came out SOOO amazing! I think I'll try that again, and maybe have some mashed potatoes, creamed onions (that's an Allison family tradition that Gloria started) and green beans. You can't go too wrong with that. And it just isn't Thanksgiving for me if there isn't any Chex Party Mix, so I'll be making that too, I suppose. I hope I can find a smaller turkey this year. We were eating leftover turkey for a long time last year.
Well, if I don't post again before then, Happy Thanksgiving to all! Blessings be upon you from our mighty Lord and Savior, to Whom we are thankful for all things. :)
Maezie is full-on crawling now. She's actually getting pretty fast already! I know that Kyleigh didn't start crawling until after she was 8 months old, so for Maezie to be crawling this well at 6 months is pretty surprising. Kyleigh walked at 9 months, so I'm assuming that Maezie will probably walk around that same time too, if not earlier. I'm going to be busy very soon! She also sits up on her own without support but hasn't quite mastered being able to sit up from a laying down position. Her first two teeth are on their way. Her bottom middle left tooth will be poking through the skin in a matter of hours, and her bottom right one won't take but a few more days now.
Maezie is still in the bassinet in our room. I know, I know, she should have been out of that thing several months ago - but she likes it! And so do we. It has a great vibration feature on it that Maezie REALLY likes and we use it all the time. (Like we bought rechargable batteries for it because that's how often we use it!) But now that her motor skills are so advanced, we really can't have her in there anymore so we are going to have to move her up to the crib. Kyleigh is still IN the crib now, so that's a bit of a problem. My parents are giving us the bunk beds that I used to sleep on as a kid (aww!) for the girls. When they come for Christmas they'll be bringing the lower bunk with them. So until about a month from now, we don't have anything to move Kyleigh into. So she'll be staying in the crib and Maezie will be in the pack 'n' play until the big girl bed gets here. I'm hoping that I'll be able to take apart the vibration thing and somehow re-attach it to the pack 'n' play. I ordered a little mattress and some pack 'n' play sheets so that it will be a comfy bed for Maezie. (Sorry Kyleigh, I know you used to sleep in that thing while you were in daycare, but I didn't know until recently that an extra mattress and sheets existed for it!) The pack 'n' play will also be in our room for awhile. Until Maezie is ready to give up her night feeding completely, I don't think it's wise to move her into Ky's room.
I'm a bit nervous about Kyleigh being in a big girl bed. Not because she'll fall out, but because she'll never go to sleep! She can climb out of her crib now, but she knows that she's not supposed to. So most of the time, she stays in there and eventually falls asleep. But what happens when there are no more crib rails to signal to the child, "stay in here"?? Hopefully it won't be too bad of an adjustment. I'm going to go out and buy Dora or Tinkerbell sheets or something that will maybe, possibly, if I'm lucky, entice Ky to stay in the bed when she's supposed to be.
Thanksgiving is just three days away. (Excuse me, but wasn't it just Halloween like last week??) Matt has to work ALL DAY LONG on Thanksgiving Day. I can't believe that!! Grrr! So I was thinking that I might just skip the holiday cooking since he'll be gone all day anyway (and it's not like Kyleigh and Maezie would know they were missing anything) but then I decided that since he's got to work all day long that I'd better cook up something wonderful for him to come home to. He'll be in definite NEED of a nice Thanksgiving Day meal by that time, I'm afraid. I cooked my very first turkey EVER last year for Thanksgiving, and it came out SOOO amazing! I think I'll try that again, and maybe have some mashed potatoes, creamed onions (that's an Allison family tradition that Gloria started) and green beans. You can't go too wrong with that. And it just isn't Thanksgiving for me if there isn't any Chex Party Mix, so I'll be making that too, I suppose. I hope I can find a smaller turkey this year. We were eating leftover turkey for a long time last year.
Well, if I don't post again before then, Happy Thanksgiving to all! Blessings be upon you from our mighty Lord and Savior, to Whom we are thankful for all things. :)
Monday, November 17, 2008
Update on Miss Maezie
My little baby is growing up! Just in the last few days she has mastered sitting up unsupported, rolling around like a little barrel, and chewing on things. She can even eat graham crackers now!
Today she took her first "crawl". It was only two little scoots forward, but it was exciting! I'll have to post pictures soon when I catch her in the act of doing it again! :)
Today she took her first "crawl". It was only two little scoots forward, but it was exciting! I'll have to post pictures soon when I catch her in the act of doing it again! :)
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Halloween 2008
Playing at the bean bag toss
Kyleigh was a cute little kitty cat for Halloween this year. Daddy stayed at home with Maezie so that she could snooze while Kyleigh and I went out for trick-or-treating. We only went to two houses (two of our neighbors) and then also went to our Calvary Chapel's Fall Festival. Kyleigh had fun there playing the games and getting candy. We even won a cake at the cake-walk! It was a lot of fun. I like that our church provides a place for kids to dress up (not scary costumes though!) and get candy, stay off the streets, and a Chrsitian message to boot! :)
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Adventures in Potty Training
So .... I've been reading up on the potty training basics. Everything I read says that Kyleigh's probably not quite ready yet, but almost everyone around me is pushing me to start potty training her. So we're trying.
I showed her with one of her baby dolls how it takes a drink and then pees in the potty, and then gave the baby a treat for peeing in the potty. (It's one of those dolls that has a hole in it's mouth and under-region and liquid goes right through them!) So we took off Kyleigh's diaper and had her sit on the potty, but she didn't pee so she didn't get a treat.
Now she's running around the house with no diaper on. Just a shirt. In the last year or so, I've never seen her pee with her diaper off, only with one ON - so I'm hoping that she'll decide to pee in the potty!! I have her little trainer potty out in the main part of the house and have a timer set to go off every ten minutes. Each time the bell dings, I have her go sit on the potty. So far nothing's happened.
I hope this works. Potty training is big stuff.
***UPDATE***
So I had Kyleigh sitting down to go every ten minutes, and she was naked. Finally after two hours of nothing, I asked her to put back on her "big girl" panties (the real cloth ones with Dora on them) instead of being naked. She put them on and promptly peed in them. Fortunately she wasn't standing on the carpet so it was easy to clean up.
*sigh*
She's not ready. We'll try again in another month or so.
I showed her with one of her baby dolls how it takes a drink and then pees in the potty, and then gave the baby a treat for peeing in the potty. (It's one of those dolls that has a hole in it's mouth and under-region and liquid goes right through them!) So we took off Kyleigh's diaper and had her sit on the potty, but she didn't pee so she didn't get a treat.
Now she's running around the house with no diaper on. Just a shirt. In the last year or so, I've never seen her pee with her diaper off, only with one ON - so I'm hoping that she'll decide to pee in the potty!! I have her little trainer potty out in the main part of the house and have a timer set to go off every ten minutes. Each time the bell dings, I have her go sit on the potty. So far nothing's happened.
I hope this works. Potty training is big stuff.
***UPDATE***
So I had Kyleigh sitting down to go every ten minutes, and she was naked. Finally after two hours of nothing, I asked her to put back on her "big girl" panties (the real cloth ones with Dora on them) instead of being naked. She put them on and promptly peed in them. Fortunately she wasn't standing on the carpet so it was easy to clean up.
*sigh*
She's not ready. We'll try again in another month or so.
Maezie at (almost) 6 months
Two days after she was born
4 months
A week ago
Snuggling in Kyleigh's crib with the catMaezie Grace is our little sweetheart. Kyleigh was always a fairly somber baby, and Kyleigh's not really very ticklish. Maezie is just about as opposite as you can get of that! She loves to smile and be smiled at, she's very ticklish, and she laughs all the time. Kyleigh was always so independent, even at this age, but Maezie wants her one-on-one time with Mommy and Daddy and if she's not getting enough she's sure to let you know!!
She's taller than Kyleigh, at least so far, and appears to have darker hair and eyebrows than Kyleigh too. We think that Maezie looks more like me but has her Daddy's darker hair, and Kyleigh looks like her Daddy but has my lighter hair. :)
She doesn't like baby food (by this age, Kyleigh was already eating all kinds of baby food!) and refuses the bottle completely. She'd rather have Mommy's milk, and that's IT! We joke that we traded a good eater (Kyleigh) for a good sleeper (Maezie). Oh well. It's amazing how every kid is so different!
Maezie loves to be held and snuggled, loves both her parents (she's very attached to Mommy, but what baby isn't at this point?) and is fairly particular about strangers holding her. She really enjoys interacting with Kyleigh and just giggles and laughs every time Kyleigh comes near her.
She's just recently learned how to really reach for toys and hold them for long periods of time. She chews on everything and drools constantly. Everyone asks if she's teething, but no, she's just always been a drooler. She's within a week or two or being able to sit up unsupported, I would guess. She lays on her back and pushes with her feet so she's kind of "scooting" around on the floor. I'm not entirely sure that she's doing it on purpose to get somewhere, I think she just enjoys the sensation.
Maezie is such a joy! She's so sweet and smiley all the time! It really makes Matt's day to come home from work and get a big smile and giggle from his little Maezie Grace.
Kyleigh at Age 2
Kyleigh is full of energy, slightly defiant, and fiercely independent! She climbs things, runs everywhere she goes, and can make an asbsolute wreck of the house in about 4 minutes flat! Her hair has finally grown and is very curly! It's so cute! I just gave her her very first haircut yesterday, and it was only a trim to get the ends back to looking nice again. Everyone remarks on her curly hair. She's really a beautiful kid, if I do say so myself!
She's talking in almost full sentences now. She can pretty easily convey her thoughts and ideas, although she's not as socially interactive as some kids her age. She's more independent and thoughtful about things. (I think she gets that from her Daddy.) She's very smart and very athletic.
Her favorite shows right now are Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, and the Doodlebops (ugh). She loves to read books, play with her Little People (and their cars, airplanes, and fire trucks) and she has some little hand-sized animals that she loves to carry around too. She loves playing outside and going to the park, although it's quickly getting too cold outside to do that for much longer.
Kyleigh is beginning to really like her sister a lot. Up to this point, she really didn't interact with the baby much, but now she's kissing on her and talking to her and bringing her toys. It's pretty cute. :) We're starting up (again for like the 4th time) with potty-training. *sigh* This is a long process. She's definitely smart enough, I think she's just choosing not to learn. Oh well.
She tries my patience a lot, but for the most part she's a sweet kid and I can't wait until she gets just a little bit older where we can start really having conversations and doing projects together! Homeschooling her will be really exciting! Matt wants me to start with her when she turns 3. We'll see how that goes.
And that's a quick update on our sweet Kyleigh Abigail.
Catching Up!
Ok, so I know that it's been FOREVER. Yes, even over a year. There are so many times where something fun happens at my house and I think, "Oh, I so want to blog about this!" But that would mean that I would have to update my blog, add new pictures ... it just seemed like there was too much to do to even get started. So, rather than dig in, I just procrastinated. (Procrastination is something I'm very good at, just ask my Mom.) I'm sure that I'm going to leave out lots of important things and will have to edit this post or add another one with extra details, but I'll do the best that I can.
So ... since the last time this blog was updated ....
September 2007 - We took a vacation to Estes Park, Colorado and spent some time with the Allison side of the family. When we came back, we found out we were pregnant again! I started throwing up two days later, and that continued every day for the next 4 months. Hooray for pregnancy hormones!
October 2007 - My friend Julianna came to visit us and we had so much fun with her! We also got a visit from Grandpa and MeMe (my parents). Kyleigh was a little fairy for Halloween and went to our Fall Festival at church. I started taking Kyleigh to a "toddler playdate" that is held at our children's museum here in town. It's every Wednesday from 10-12. She has a blast! We ended up meeting Amanda and her daughter, Savannah. Savannah is two months younger than Kyleigh! Amanda and I are good friends now.
November 2007 - We found out that our landlord was trying to sell the house, and might possibly sell it out from underneath us, so we began to look for a new place to live. For Thanksgiving, I cooked my very first Turkey Dinner. The turkey came out so amazing! Right after Thanksgiving, we got a visit from Pop Pop and Nay Nay, Matt's father and step-mother. They had so much fun playing with Kyleigh!
December 2007 - We found the Adams family. (No, not Gomez and Morticia.) Steve and Penny! They had a house for rent. As we got to know their family, we decided to move into their house and knew that they would become much more than just landlords. Around the middle of the month, our electicity surged and literally fried our hard-drive on our computer. We lost everything. The computer didn't boot up AT ALL and there was nothing that could be done to fix it. I took out our old hard-drive and sent it off to my friend in Houston, Chris. He's a computer whiz and was able to recover lots of our old documents and pictures from it! He did this for us because he's a good friend, and if I had taken it to the "Geek Squad" or something, the same work he did would have cost us $hundreds$!! We thought we had lost our pictures of Kyleigh as a baby forever, but Chris managed to recover almost all of them. (We know better now and have a backup external hard drive!) Christmas was fun that year. Kyleigh opened her presents. We got her a baby doll to play with, since she would soon be having a baby sibling!! The Donaghey family came to visit us for Christmas and we all had a great time. Right after Christmas was my last time to throw up with pregnancy morning sickness! Hooray!
January 2008 - With the help of my Mom and our friend Allen from church, we moved into our new house. New Year's Eve was spent with my Mom in our new house (we actually moved in a few days before Jan 1) and even though there were boxes everywhere, we still had a good time. Around the middle of January, we found out we were having another baby girl! Farmington got lots of snow in January, and Kyleigh and Matt had a lot of fun playing in it! They made a big snowman together!
February 2008 - Kyleigh's hair actually had begun to grow enough that by Valentine's Day, she was able to have a little ponytail on top of her head for the first time!! Pigtails followed soon after. (Keep in mind she was 19 months old at the time!) Kyleigh and I became the best of buddies and did everything together. We were close before, but as she started being able to talk and interact more, we started having a lot of fun together. She was my constant sidekick!
March 2008 - I started counting down the days until delivery! Ugh! I was cleaning the house like crazy and "nesting" in preparation for the birth of our second daughter. Auntie Stacie and MeMe came to visit this month too! We got our tax return that month and with it, bought a new computer and got internet again! Woo hoo!
April 2008 - The wintery weather was mostly gone, so we started to play outside more. We took Kyleigh on several hiking trips in the mesas out here and had big fun. We started to become better and better friends with our landlords, and even made the decision that if I was to go into spontaneous labor before my scheduled C-section, that Penny would be the one to watch Kyleigh until my Mom could get here! We are SOOO thankful for the Adams family. In the late days of the month, I planted a bunch of flower seeds in the flower garden in the front of our house. Zinnia's, Mexican Zinnia's, and some wildflowers. They came up like crazy! My sister Cathryn graduated from college too!!
May 2008 - My mom and dad got here on May 4th. My C-section was scheduled for May 6th. So I tucked Kyleigh into bed on the night of the 5th, and cried because I knew it would be the last time that I would get to do that for a few days. (Until my stay in the hospital, I had never spent a night away from Kyleigh.) I also cried because I was nervous about having another baby, and was scared that my relationship with Kyleigh would change ... so many emotions! The next morning, we left the house at 4:30am to head to the hospital. My dad went with Matt and I because it was his "turn" to be there for the birth. He ended up not being able to come into the OR with us, but he got to wait in the nursery! ***Maezie Grace Allison*** was born at 8:09am on Tuesday, May 6, 2008. She was 19.5 inches long and weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces. Oddly enough, that was EXACTLY my height and weight when I was born! She was healthy and happy and we were so glad to meet her! We came home from the hospital after two days. Grandpa and MeMe kept Kyleigh at our house during that time. Pop Pop and Nay Nay had also come to be there for the birth. Kyleigh enjoyed playing with them, and they and my parents enjoyed eachother's company. They got to be around at the hospital shortly after Maezie's birth, and that was nice. It was the first time Jim got to be present for the birth of a grandchild! :) We got adjusted to having a toddler and a newborn, and I slowly healed from the surgery with no complications. My mom stayed until the end of May to help me out, and I was so thankful for her! I know I couldn't have done it without her help. I wasn't even allowed to lift Kyleigh or drive a car until a full three weeks post-op!
June 2008 - We settled into life as a family of four. Maezie started sleeping through the night this month! It was amazing! There were several days that month that she slept 10 and 11 hours straight through and I had to wake her up to nurse! Kyleigh didn't seem to be bothered by the presence of her new little sister. She gave her lots of kisses, and only had (seriously) two small times of jealousy. We were so blessed! I celebrated my 26th birthday this month. My mother-in-law, sister-in-law Laurie, and nephew Kalel came to visit us for a week! It was so great to have them here. Kyleigh had lots of fun watching Kal and playing with Gloria and Laurie. We have a little neighbor girl across the street named Samantha who is only a month older than Kalel, and they played well together during that week that they were visiting! During the month of June, we were informed that Matt would be switching Safeway stores. He was working for the Safeway in Aztec (10 miles from Farmington), and now works for the larger one in Farmington. I started inviting Samantha to church on Sundays with me, and she loved it. Her whole family is "un-churched" so it was the first time she had really been to church and heard the gospel!
July 2008 - The first week of this month brought Auntie Stacie and Auntie Cathryn for a visit! They got to see Maezie for the first time and really enjoyed visiting. Matt and I had our 3rd wedding anniversary on the 3rd! We celebrated Kyleigh's second birthday on the 13th!!! She got lots of fun new things to play with - a bike, a tent, a bubble machine, and lots of other little fun things. MeMe came to visit and Kyleigh had all kinds of fun toys to open from MeMe and Grandpa too. Her favorite was a little hand-sized Elmo and Grover. She carried them around everywhere for days! (They even went to bed with her!) Near the end of the month, I was finally healed well enough that I could start really doing heavy labor, so I planted my very first ever veggie garden!! We amended the soil with lots of organic compost and Matt tilled it up for me. I planted : watermelon, zucchini, green beans, lima beans, soybeans, sugar snap peas, corn, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, bell peppers, dill, cilantro, and basil. Everything came up and grew fabulously! Except for the bell peppers and dill. They didn't grow well. Samantha and I started doing Bible studies here at our house in the afternoons. She went to Calvary Chapel's Vacation Bible School, and accepted Christ there!! :) She now goes with me every Sunday to church, and calls Calvary Chapel her "church home". It's so awesome!
August 2008 - I was finally healing really well from surgery. We spent lots of time hiking and taking the girls to the park.I finally got an appointment with the eye doctor and got my new prescription and contacts ordered! Hooray!
September 2008 - In the first weekend of September, we went to Denver for our annual Allison family reunion. We went to the Scottish Festival in Estes Park. It was nice to go again for the third year in a row, but with two kids it was really difficult and Kyleigh was bored and scared of the loud noises most of the time. I think next year we'll skip the festival but still of course go to the family reunion! Gloria (the m-i-l) came with Matt and I as we took our two girls to the Denver Zoo. Kyleigh had a great time seeing all the animals! It was fun! We got to see my b-i-l Scott and his two teenage boys, Christopher and James. Those boys are growing up so fast!! We stayed with my sweet sis-in-law and her husband Ron and son Kalel. Kyleigh enjoyed playing on their stairs! A little later in the month, Grammie Pammie Early and MeMe came for a visit. Matt had to be out of town for over a week for work, so my Mom and Pam were there to help out so I wouldn't be all alone for a week! We had big fun! We watched the Olympics and enjoyed Nastia Liukin, Michael Phelps, and Shawn Johnson! :)
October 2008 - I had been secretly planning my Mom's surprise 50th birthday party for a long time! The party was scheduled for the 18th, so on the 14th, my Mom came up to New Mexico and helped me and the girls make the long drive to Abilene. Matt wasn't able to come to the party because of his work. We made the drive in two days to try and break up the amount of time the girls had to be in their carseats. We took them to the Albuquerque Zoo where Kyleigh had so much fun! The party in Abilene was a huge success! Lots of my mom's family and friends came in from out of town to help us celebrate. It was really neat getting all those friends and family to meet my two girlies! I got to see lots of my old friends in Abilene - the Early's, the Herbs, the Walkers ... seriously this list could go on and on! Another one of them is my old friend Erin, and her and her husband Josh have a daughter named Jadyn who was born on the same day as Kyleigh, only about 6 hours before! So we got the girls together to play at Chick-Fil-A. I got to see my friend Kristi too - she's pregnant with a little boy and due in a few months! We also got to see our friends the Watsons. They have two boys about my girls' ages. Jake is about 4 months older than Kyleigh, and Jack is about 6 months older than Maezie! The kids had fun interacting and playing with all of the boys' toys at their house! After a week in Abilene, it was time to make the long drive back to Farmington. The girls hated the carseats, but mostly it was an uneventful two-day trip back. My mom's good friend, Gary, and his wife live here in Farmington and oddly enough, have a son who goes to school in Abilene! Gary is a pilot and they have a small plane and were already planning a trip to Abilene the day after we got home, so they offered to come and pick up my mom and take her with them! So she got to take a short 5 hour plane ride home with friends! :) Matt really missed us while we were gone, and he was so glad to see us when we got home! And the girls and I were glad to see him!! Right after we got back, we ALL got sick. Matt got it the worst and had to go to the doctor for bronchitis and a sinus infection. Since he can't rest all day and has to go to work, we decided it was best that he went on antibiotics so he didn't get pneumonia or something worse. I got it the next worst and have been all congested and gross, and the girls just had a tiny bit of a runny nose and fevers for awhile!
Ok, so for now - I think that just about wraps it up. I'm sure I'll think of like twenty more things to write on her later, but that's enough for now!
So ... since the last time this blog was updated ....
September 2007 - We took a vacation to Estes Park, Colorado and spent some time with the Allison side of the family. When we came back, we found out we were pregnant again! I started throwing up two days later, and that continued every day for the next 4 months. Hooray for pregnancy hormones!
October 2007 - My friend Julianna came to visit us and we had so much fun with her! We also got a visit from Grandpa and MeMe (my parents). Kyleigh was a little fairy for Halloween and went to our Fall Festival at church. I started taking Kyleigh to a "toddler playdate" that is held at our children's museum here in town. It's every Wednesday from 10-12. She has a blast! We ended up meeting Amanda and her daughter, Savannah. Savannah is two months younger than Kyleigh! Amanda and I are good friends now.
November 2007 - We found out that our landlord was trying to sell the house, and might possibly sell it out from underneath us, so we began to look for a new place to live. For Thanksgiving, I cooked my very first Turkey Dinner. The turkey came out so amazing! Right after Thanksgiving, we got a visit from Pop Pop and Nay Nay, Matt's father and step-mother. They had so much fun playing with Kyleigh!
December 2007 - We found the Adams family. (No, not Gomez and Morticia.) Steve and Penny! They had a house for rent. As we got to know their family, we decided to move into their house and knew that they would become much more than just landlords. Around the middle of the month, our electicity surged and literally fried our hard-drive on our computer. We lost everything. The computer didn't boot up AT ALL and there was nothing that could be done to fix it. I took out our old hard-drive and sent it off to my friend in Houston, Chris. He's a computer whiz and was able to recover lots of our old documents and pictures from it! He did this for us because he's a good friend, and if I had taken it to the "Geek Squad" or something, the same work he did would have cost us $hundreds$!! We thought we had lost our pictures of Kyleigh as a baby forever, but Chris managed to recover almost all of them. (We know better now and have a backup external hard drive!) Christmas was fun that year. Kyleigh opened her presents. We got her a baby doll to play with, since she would soon be having a baby sibling!! The Donaghey family came to visit us for Christmas and we all had a great time. Right after Christmas was my last time to throw up with pregnancy morning sickness! Hooray!
January 2008 - With the help of my Mom and our friend Allen from church, we moved into our new house. New Year's Eve was spent with my Mom in our new house (we actually moved in a few days before Jan 1) and even though there were boxes everywhere, we still had a good time. Around the middle of January, we found out we were having another baby girl! Farmington got lots of snow in January, and Kyleigh and Matt had a lot of fun playing in it! They made a big snowman together!
February 2008 - Kyleigh's hair actually had begun to grow enough that by Valentine's Day, she was able to have a little ponytail on top of her head for the first time!! Pigtails followed soon after. (Keep in mind she was 19 months old at the time!) Kyleigh and I became the best of buddies and did everything together. We were close before, but as she started being able to talk and interact more, we started having a lot of fun together. She was my constant sidekick!
March 2008 - I started counting down the days until delivery! Ugh! I was cleaning the house like crazy and "nesting" in preparation for the birth of our second daughter. Auntie Stacie and MeMe came to visit this month too! We got our tax return that month and with it, bought a new computer and got internet again! Woo hoo!
April 2008 - The wintery weather was mostly gone, so we started to play outside more. We took Kyleigh on several hiking trips in the mesas out here and had big fun. We started to become better and better friends with our landlords, and even made the decision that if I was to go into spontaneous labor before my scheduled C-section, that Penny would be the one to watch Kyleigh until my Mom could get here! We are SOOO thankful for the Adams family. In the late days of the month, I planted a bunch of flower seeds in the flower garden in the front of our house. Zinnia's, Mexican Zinnia's, and some wildflowers. They came up like crazy! My sister Cathryn graduated from college too!!
May 2008 - My mom and dad got here on May 4th. My C-section was scheduled for May 6th. So I tucked Kyleigh into bed on the night of the 5th, and cried because I knew it would be the last time that I would get to do that for a few days. (Until my stay in the hospital, I had never spent a night away from Kyleigh.) I also cried because I was nervous about having another baby, and was scared that my relationship with Kyleigh would change ... so many emotions! The next morning, we left the house at 4:30am to head to the hospital. My dad went with Matt and I because it was his "turn" to be there for the birth. He ended up not being able to come into the OR with us, but he got to wait in the nursery! ***Maezie Grace Allison*** was born at 8:09am on Tuesday, May 6, 2008. She was 19.5 inches long and weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces. Oddly enough, that was EXACTLY my height and weight when I was born! She was healthy and happy and we were so glad to meet her! We came home from the hospital after two days. Grandpa and MeMe kept Kyleigh at our house during that time. Pop Pop and Nay Nay had also come to be there for the birth. Kyleigh enjoyed playing with them, and they and my parents enjoyed eachother's company. They got to be around at the hospital shortly after Maezie's birth, and that was nice. It was the first time Jim got to be present for the birth of a grandchild! :) We got adjusted to having a toddler and a newborn, and I slowly healed from the surgery with no complications. My mom stayed until the end of May to help me out, and I was so thankful for her! I know I couldn't have done it without her help. I wasn't even allowed to lift Kyleigh or drive a car until a full three weeks post-op!
June 2008 - We settled into life as a family of four. Maezie started sleeping through the night this month! It was amazing! There were several days that month that she slept 10 and 11 hours straight through and I had to wake her up to nurse! Kyleigh didn't seem to be bothered by the presence of her new little sister. She gave her lots of kisses, and only had (seriously) two small times of jealousy. We were so blessed! I celebrated my 26th birthday this month. My mother-in-law, sister-in-law Laurie, and nephew Kalel came to visit us for a week! It was so great to have them here. Kyleigh had lots of fun watching Kal and playing with Gloria and Laurie. We have a little neighbor girl across the street named Samantha who is only a month older than Kalel, and they played well together during that week that they were visiting! During the month of June, we were informed that Matt would be switching Safeway stores. He was working for the Safeway in Aztec (10 miles from Farmington), and now works for the larger one in Farmington. I started inviting Samantha to church on Sundays with me, and she loved it. Her whole family is "un-churched" so it was the first time she had really been to church and heard the gospel!
July 2008 - The first week of this month brought Auntie Stacie and Auntie Cathryn for a visit! They got to see Maezie for the first time and really enjoyed visiting. Matt and I had our 3rd wedding anniversary on the 3rd! We celebrated Kyleigh's second birthday on the 13th!!! She got lots of fun new things to play with - a bike, a tent, a bubble machine, and lots of other little fun things. MeMe came to visit and Kyleigh had all kinds of fun toys to open from MeMe and Grandpa too. Her favorite was a little hand-sized Elmo and Grover. She carried them around everywhere for days! (They even went to bed with her!) Near the end of the month, I was finally healed well enough that I could start really doing heavy labor, so I planted my very first ever veggie garden!! We amended the soil with lots of organic compost and Matt tilled it up for me. I planted : watermelon, zucchini, green beans, lima beans, soybeans, sugar snap peas, corn, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, bell peppers, dill, cilantro, and basil. Everything came up and grew fabulously! Except for the bell peppers and dill. They didn't grow well. Samantha and I started doing Bible studies here at our house in the afternoons. She went to Calvary Chapel's Vacation Bible School, and accepted Christ there!! :) She now goes with me every Sunday to church, and calls Calvary Chapel her "church home". It's so awesome!
August 2008 - I was finally healing really well from surgery. We spent lots of time hiking and taking the girls to the park.I finally got an appointment with the eye doctor and got my new prescription and contacts ordered! Hooray!
September 2008 - In the first weekend of September, we went to Denver for our annual Allison family reunion. We went to the Scottish Festival in Estes Park. It was nice to go again for the third year in a row, but with two kids it was really difficult and Kyleigh was bored and scared of the loud noises most of the time. I think next year we'll skip the festival but still of course go to the family reunion! Gloria (the m-i-l) came with Matt and I as we took our two girls to the Denver Zoo. Kyleigh had a great time seeing all the animals! It was fun! We got to see my b-i-l Scott and his two teenage boys, Christopher and James. Those boys are growing up so fast!! We stayed with my sweet sis-in-law and her husband Ron and son Kalel. Kyleigh enjoyed playing on their stairs! A little later in the month, Grammie Pammie Early and MeMe came for a visit. Matt had to be out of town for over a week for work, so my Mom and Pam were there to help out so I wouldn't be all alone for a week! We had big fun! We watched the Olympics and enjoyed Nastia Liukin, Michael Phelps, and Shawn Johnson! :)
October 2008 - I had been secretly planning my Mom's surprise 50th birthday party for a long time! The party was scheduled for the 18th, so on the 14th, my Mom came up to New Mexico and helped me and the girls make the long drive to Abilene. Matt wasn't able to come to the party because of his work. We made the drive in two days to try and break up the amount of time the girls had to be in their carseats. We took them to the Albuquerque Zoo where Kyleigh had so much fun! The party in Abilene was a huge success! Lots of my mom's family and friends came in from out of town to help us celebrate. It was really neat getting all those friends and family to meet my two girlies! I got to see lots of my old friends in Abilene - the Early's, the Herbs, the Walkers ... seriously this list could go on and on! Another one of them is my old friend Erin, and her and her husband Josh have a daughter named Jadyn who was born on the same day as Kyleigh, only about 6 hours before! So we got the girls together to play at Chick-Fil-A. I got to see my friend Kristi too - she's pregnant with a little boy and due in a few months! We also got to see our friends the Watsons. They have two boys about my girls' ages. Jake is about 4 months older than Kyleigh, and Jack is about 6 months older than Maezie! The kids had fun interacting and playing with all of the boys' toys at their house! After a week in Abilene, it was time to make the long drive back to Farmington. The girls hated the carseats, but mostly it was an uneventful two-day trip back. My mom's good friend, Gary, and his wife live here in Farmington and oddly enough, have a son who goes to school in Abilene! Gary is a pilot and they have a small plane and were already planning a trip to Abilene the day after we got home, so they offered to come and pick up my mom and take her with them! So she got to take a short 5 hour plane ride home with friends! :) Matt really missed us while we were gone, and he was so glad to see us when we got home! And the girls and I were glad to see him!! Right after we got back, we ALL got sick. Matt got it the worst and had to go to the doctor for bronchitis and a sinus infection. Since he can't rest all day and has to go to work, we decided it was best that he went on antibiotics so he didn't get pneumonia or something worse. I got it the next worst and have been all congested and gross, and the girls just had a tiny bit of a runny nose and fevers for awhile!
Ok, so for now - I think that just about wraps it up. I'm sure I'll think of like twenty more things to write on her later, but that's enough for now!
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
I'm now an official member of the Gravy Club!
So today I have reached an important milestone in my life. I have made old fashioned cream gravy. Although I feel quite proud of my achievement, my husband doesn't seem to share my joy quite as much. He just must not understand how truly hard it is. :)
My dad (hereinafter referred to as the "Gravy Master") is an exceptional gravy maker. He can make it on the stove or over a campfire and it always comes out perfect. So this morning (Matt's day off) I decided to make biscuits and gravy, and who did I call for instructions? Of course, the Gravy Master. He graciously took my call even though he was at work.
Now he's always said that gravy takes a lot of practice beofre you get it just right. My first attempt was many months ago, and it came out tasting like flour. It was thick and disgusting, and even though it looked like gravy, it tasted nothing like it. We threw it out right away.
My second attempt was this morning shortly after the conversation with Gravy Master. He said, "Cook the flour and oil until it starts to smell like baking bread." Well, I forgot to put the lumps of meat in the concotion, first off, and I also managed to forget the seasonings. Apparently these ingredients contribute greatly to the "baking bread smell" because my first attempt this morning - I kept waiting and waiting for that smell. The mixture kept getting darker and darker, and finally it DID smell like bread - but burning bread. I figured that must have been the thing I was waiting for, so I took my now dark brown goop off the stove to wait for it to cool and add milk.
Just to make sure, I called the Gravy Master again and ask if it's supposed to look like diahrreah? He says I might have burned it a little. Hmmm .... Well I added the milk anyway, hoping the milk would turn it to the right creamy color. Nope. It wasn't supposed to be the color of beef gravy, was it?
I made the decision not to posion my family with this "crappy" batch and threw it out. (Meanwhile Matt comes by and says, "So they'll be ready by lunch then?") Haha! Then I started my second batch. I remembered to add the seasonings and the meat, and VOILA!! After a few minutes of cooking, it certainly did smell like baking bread! The rest of the process went by smoothly, and the gravy came out excellent. Not even a lump. :)
So, thanks Dad, for the advice and directions. I am now an official gravy maker. :)
My dad (hereinafter referred to as the "Gravy Master") is an exceptional gravy maker. He can make it on the stove or over a campfire and it always comes out perfect. So this morning (Matt's day off) I decided to make biscuits and gravy, and who did I call for instructions? Of course, the Gravy Master. He graciously took my call even though he was at work.
Now he's always said that gravy takes a lot of practice beofre you get it just right. My first attempt was many months ago, and it came out tasting like flour. It was thick and disgusting, and even though it looked like gravy, it tasted nothing like it. We threw it out right away.
My second attempt was this morning shortly after the conversation with Gravy Master. He said, "Cook the flour and oil until it starts to smell like baking bread." Well, I forgot to put the lumps of meat in the concotion, first off, and I also managed to forget the seasonings. Apparently these ingredients contribute greatly to the "baking bread smell" because my first attempt this morning - I kept waiting and waiting for that smell. The mixture kept getting darker and darker, and finally it DID smell like bread - but burning bread. I figured that must have been the thing I was waiting for, so I took my now dark brown goop off the stove to wait for it to cool and add milk.
Just to make sure, I called the Gravy Master again and ask if it's supposed to look like diahrreah? He says I might have burned it a little. Hmmm .... Well I added the milk anyway, hoping the milk would turn it to the right creamy color. Nope. It wasn't supposed to be the color of beef gravy, was it?
I made the decision not to posion my family with this "crappy" batch and threw it out. (Meanwhile Matt comes by and says, "So they'll be ready by lunch then?") Haha! Then I started my second batch. I remembered to add the seasonings and the meat, and VOILA!! After a few minutes of cooking, it certainly did smell like baking bread! The rest of the process went by smoothly, and the gravy came out excellent. Not even a lump. :)
So, thanks Dad, for the advice and directions. I am now an official gravy maker. :)
Thursday, July 26, 2007
How the cat taught me the lesson of never using generic brand trash bags ...
So here it is, nearly 12:00am, and I'm not even close to going to bed. My husband is out of town working tonight, so it's just me and Kyleigh (and two dogs and a kitten).
Poor Kyleigh was crying, and I went into her room to investigate. She was only half awake but seemed in pain. I gave her some homeopathic teething tablets (she's finally cutting her left bottom front tooth) and tried to pat her back to sleep. Then I noticed a not-so-pleasant smell coming from her crib. I saw the cat sleeping there, so I picked him up, and sure enough, he smelled like .... well, he hadn't properly cleaned himself after a recent #2. *sigh* Fantastic, I thought, I have to wash the cat's butt at 11:00 at night. This is a first though, normally this cat is impecably clean. So I put the cat out of Kyleigh's room and continued patting her back to sleep. I kept smelling the smell. *great* So I started pulling stuffed animals out of the crib and smelling them one by one. Three of the five stunk. Woo hoo. So I put those in the hallway - they'll have to be cleaned. Poor Ky just couldn't seem to fall completely back asleep. I figure the smell must be in her crib. I leaned down into the crib, but can't seem to locate anything on the sheets. I moved her to the other side of the crib and within three pats she was out like a light. I'll wash the sheets tomorrow, even though I can't smell anything on them. Better than waking the poor child up completely when there's a perfectly good side for her to sleep on.
So - yes, the story gets even better - I went out to clean the cat. Put on some disposable gloves and, er ... cleaned the cat. He looked quite undignified, but didn't put up too much of a fight. (Now I know how poor nurses must feel.) I got him smelling all nice and "Dial Antibacterial Lavendar" fresh, and he ran away looking as though he felt slightly violated. Now he's hiding from me. So then I went to start a load of laundry and wash the blankets (which don't smell but I'm washing anyway) and the stuffed animals. One stuffed animal, a puppet Elmo, is not "machine washable", so let's just say that poor Elmo is no longer with us. The others are happily getting soaked on the "heavy soil" cycle.
After all this, I sit down and pull up google to see if my little three month old kitten could already be spraying, and to find out what this nasty smell was and how to keep it from coming back. Apparently, spray smells like urine, which is NOT what this smelled like, so at least he's not spraying. (Note to self - call the vet tomorrow to schedule the neutering.) One of the cat sites I was looking at said that sometimes poor feline hygiene can be attributed to an overly dirty litterbox, and that a quick and easy correction was tidying up, and washing the litterbox out with "mild" soap (can't I please use BLEACH?) and not using scented cat litter (what? I have to smell natural cat odors all day?). I decided that maybe I'd just ignore that last part for now.
So, now it's 11:30, and I'm cleaning out the litterbox. The kitchen trash was only half full, so I took the whole canister outside with me, in addtion to the litterbox. I very carefully dumped all the insides of the kitty litter into the only half-full trash bag. Then I took apart the box and went and sprayed it down good with the hose. Decided I'd leave them to dry while I took care of the litter.
Tied up the handles on the trash bag, started pulling it up out of the canister ... and yep, you guessed it ... 11:45pm .... and I'm cleaning up spilled garbage, kitty litter, and other *unmentionables* off of my front porch after the generic brand kitchen trash bag I was using ripped and spilled its contents everywhere.
So now that I've hosed off the front porch, swept up the mess, bleached the broom and dustpan, and put the kitty's box back together with some fresh (but scented) litter .... I'm finally able to come inside and relax - after scouring my hands with Dial, of course.
Next I'm going to go on ebay and find a "kitty toilet training litterbox" that actually trains the cat to go in the potty on its own ... eventually not requiring litterbox anymore ...
I know what I'll be dreaming about tonight ...
Poor Kyleigh was crying, and I went into her room to investigate. She was only half awake but seemed in pain. I gave her some homeopathic teething tablets (she's finally cutting her left bottom front tooth) and tried to pat her back to sleep. Then I noticed a not-so-pleasant smell coming from her crib. I saw the cat sleeping there, so I picked him up, and sure enough, he smelled like .... well, he hadn't properly cleaned himself after a recent #2. *sigh* Fantastic, I thought, I have to wash the cat's butt at 11:00 at night. This is a first though, normally this cat is impecably clean. So I put the cat out of Kyleigh's room and continued patting her back to sleep. I kept smelling the smell. *great* So I started pulling stuffed animals out of the crib and smelling them one by one. Three of the five stunk. Woo hoo. So I put those in the hallway - they'll have to be cleaned. Poor Ky just couldn't seem to fall completely back asleep. I figure the smell must be in her crib. I leaned down into the crib, but can't seem to locate anything on the sheets. I moved her to the other side of the crib and within three pats she was out like a light. I'll wash the sheets tomorrow, even though I can't smell anything on them. Better than waking the poor child up completely when there's a perfectly good side for her to sleep on.
So - yes, the story gets even better - I went out to clean the cat. Put on some disposable gloves and, er ... cleaned the cat. He looked quite undignified, but didn't put up too much of a fight. (Now I know how poor nurses must feel.) I got him smelling all nice and "Dial Antibacterial Lavendar" fresh, and he ran away looking as though he felt slightly violated. Now he's hiding from me. So then I went to start a load of laundry and wash the blankets (which don't smell but I'm washing anyway) and the stuffed animals. One stuffed animal, a puppet Elmo, is not "machine washable", so let's just say that poor Elmo is no longer with us. The others are happily getting soaked on the "heavy soil" cycle.
After all this, I sit down and pull up google to see if my little three month old kitten could already be spraying, and to find out what this nasty smell was and how to keep it from coming back. Apparently, spray smells like urine, which is NOT what this smelled like, so at least he's not spraying. (Note to self - call the vet tomorrow to schedule the neutering.) One of the cat sites I was looking at said that sometimes poor feline hygiene can be attributed to an overly dirty litterbox, and that a quick and easy correction was tidying up, and washing the litterbox out with "mild" soap (can't I please use BLEACH?) and not using scented cat litter (what? I have to smell natural cat odors all day?). I decided that maybe I'd just ignore that last part for now.
So, now it's 11:30, and I'm cleaning out the litterbox. The kitchen trash was only half full, so I took the whole canister outside with me, in addtion to the litterbox. I very carefully dumped all the insides of the kitty litter into the only half-full trash bag. Then I took apart the box and went and sprayed it down good with the hose. Decided I'd leave them to dry while I took care of the litter.
Tied up the handles on the trash bag, started pulling it up out of the canister ... and yep, you guessed it ... 11:45pm .... and I'm cleaning up spilled garbage, kitty litter, and other *unmentionables* off of my front porch after the generic brand kitchen trash bag I was using ripped and spilled its contents everywhere.
So now that I've hosed off the front porch, swept up the mess, bleached the broom and dustpan, and put the kitty's box back together with some fresh (but scented) litter .... I'm finally able to come inside and relax - after scouring my hands with Dial, of course.
Next I'm going to go on ebay and find a "kitty toilet training litterbox" that actually trains the cat to go in the potty on its own ... eventually not requiring litterbox anymore ...
I know what I'll be dreaming about tonight ...
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Pictures of Kyleigh
Kyleigh and Mommy in the windy (but beautiful!) mountains of Colorado!
Just being cute ...
Kyleigh's birthday cake at her party in Lincoln, Nebraska ... What a MESS!
Kyleigh and her daddy at a restaurant in Aztec, New Mexico ...
Her first time eating Lasagna ... She LOVED it!Kyleigh's turning ONE!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLEIGH ABIGAIL! It's so hard to believe how fast it goes by. She turns one tomorrow, July 13, at 6:48 pm. *wow* She's a blessing! Parenthood is really tough, but it's so worth every minute. I just absolutely love being a mom - and now that my husband has this new job, I get to be a stay at home Mom for good!!
Some things about Kyleigh: She's been walking for over two months already. She can count to three (which is SUPER cute to hear, by the way); she's still a petite little thing and doesn't even weigh 18 pounds yet!! She's still in size 3 diapers, and has just now graduated to a size 3 shoe. She also has three teeth - one on bottom and two on top. She loves to play outside - LOVES it!! She's a really good eater and loves to eat vegetables! Her favorite is green beans. She's not a very good sleeper though - and still usually wakes up at least once a night and she's really hard to get down for naps sometimes.
She can say lots of words already and knows the meaning too, including - Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa, Grandmom, puppy (comes out like "puh puh"), kitty, duck, ball, yummy, num nums, night night, shoes, oops, "Lamby" (her stuffed lamb toy that my mother-in-law gave her), no, uh oh, juice, milk, all done, hot ... I'm sure there's a few more, but that's all I can think of right now.
She claps her hands and says "yay!" when she gets excited. When you put sunglasses or a hat on her, she smiles and says "pretty pretty!" When she's upset or sleepy or just feeling cuddly, she comes to me. When I pick her up, she leans up against me, tucks her arms underneath her and lays her head on my shoulder and says "Mommy's baby". She knows how to give hugs and kisses. She follows the kitty around the house and says "meow, meow". When we see other babies in the stores, she points and says "baby!" and then usually proceeds to say "hi!" to the parents (or anyone who happens to be standing nearby and is looking her direction!) She's very social. When she's holding a phone or especially a cell phone, she holds it up to her cheek and says, "hello?" Sometimes during the day while Matt is at work, she roams around the house looking for him, saying "Daddy? Daddy?" She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth and I have to make sure she's not eating things she shouldn't. She now knows what I mean when I tell her to "spit that out!" and put my hand up to her mouth. (She reluctantly relinquishes whatever small treasure she's put in her mouth!) She knows what "sit down" means because I always have to tell her to do that in the bath tub. Sometimes she even tells me "no" when I make her sit down.
Her absolute favorite toy right now is a ball. She LOVES balls of just about any kind. When we're at the grocery store, she sees watermelons, apples, onions, and other various produce items and says "BALL!" and then gets really mad if we don't put one or more of them in the cart. I think watermelons are her favorite "balls" and she always throws a fit when I don't get one. (NOT looking forward to the terrible two's, just FYI) For her birthday we got her a Dora the Explorer blow up tent thing where the bottom is filled with balls - like those kind we all used to play in at McDonald's. I got the idea from my friend Robin, who had one for her daughters Jinjer and Olive. Kyleigh was loving playing in it when we were visiting last. (Thanks, Robin!)
Being a mom is amazing - and I'm so thankful for her! I hope that the Lord will allow us to have several children. I think Kyleigh would make a great big sister someday.
Some things about Kyleigh: She's been walking for over two months already. She can count to three (which is SUPER cute to hear, by the way); she's still a petite little thing and doesn't even weigh 18 pounds yet!! She's still in size 3 diapers, and has just now graduated to a size 3 shoe. She also has three teeth - one on bottom and two on top. She loves to play outside - LOVES it!! She's a really good eater and loves to eat vegetables! Her favorite is green beans. She's not a very good sleeper though - and still usually wakes up at least once a night and she's really hard to get down for naps sometimes.
She can say lots of words already and knows the meaning too, including - Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa, Grandmom, puppy (comes out like "puh puh"), kitty, duck, ball, yummy, num nums, night night, shoes, oops, "Lamby" (her stuffed lamb toy that my mother-in-law gave her), no, uh oh, juice, milk, all done, hot ... I'm sure there's a few more, but that's all I can think of right now.
She claps her hands and says "yay!" when she gets excited. When you put sunglasses or a hat on her, she smiles and says "pretty pretty!" When she's upset or sleepy or just feeling cuddly, she comes to me. When I pick her up, she leans up against me, tucks her arms underneath her and lays her head on my shoulder and says "Mommy's baby". She knows how to give hugs and kisses. She follows the kitty around the house and says "meow, meow". When we see other babies in the stores, she points and says "baby!" and then usually proceeds to say "hi!" to the parents (or anyone who happens to be standing nearby and is looking her direction!) She's very social. When she's holding a phone or especially a cell phone, she holds it up to her cheek and says, "hello?" Sometimes during the day while Matt is at work, she roams around the house looking for him, saying "Daddy? Daddy?" She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth and I have to make sure she's not eating things she shouldn't. She now knows what I mean when I tell her to "spit that out!" and put my hand up to her mouth. (She reluctantly relinquishes whatever small treasure she's put in her mouth!) She knows what "sit down" means because I always have to tell her to do that in the bath tub. Sometimes she even tells me "no" when I make her sit down.
Her absolute favorite toy right now is a ball. She LOVES balls of just about any kind. When we're at the grocery store, she sees watermelons, apples, onions, and other various produce items and says "BALL!" and then gets really mad if we don't put one or more of them in the cart. I think watermelons are her favorite "balls" and she always throws a fit when I don't get one. (NOT looking forward to the terrible two's, just FYI) For her birthday we got her a Dora the Explorer blow up tent thing where the bottom is filled with balls - like those kind we all used to play in at McDonald's. I got the idea from my friend Robin, who had one for her daughters Jinjer and Olive. Kyleigh was loving playing in it when we were visiting last. (Thanks, Robin!)
Being a mom is amazing - and I'm so thankful for her! I hope that the Lord will allow us to have several children. I think Kyleigh would make a great big sister someday.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Been a long time! Oops!
My mother reminded me that it was time to post. Holy smokes I should have done it a long time ago!! I can't for the life of me figure out how to post an image as our main photo, so I suppose posting them on the post itself will have to work! There's our little one - getting so big!
Kyleigh is a little over seven months old now. It's AMAZING how quickly she grows. She's such a sweet heart. :) She's almost always laughing and smiling and having a good time. What a blessing! We're almost scared to have another child. She's so great that surely the second one would be a holy terror!
She is almost crawling, and is starting to pull up on stuff. Baby proofing the house is something we've got to do now!
It snowed here last night, about 4 inches or so, and they're expecting more today and tonight. Oh, the joys of living in Nebraska. *sigh* It takes a few weeks to melt, and seriously, the DAY after everything finally melts, it snows again! I think there's pretty much been constant snow and ice for the last two months now. I'm tired of snow and ready for Spring already! Being from West Texas, I never thought I'd say that. But this stuff is annoying to drive on, takes forever to melt, and it's not like we're in a mountainous (or even hilly) place where we could go skiing or sledding or do anything FUN with it. Plus I'm looking forward to Spring when we can take the dogs to the park and show Kyleigh how to play outside. She'll be old enough to toddle around and explore the outside world by the time Summer gets here. How exciting!!
Poor Matt got the stomach flu the other day. Having a sick husband is terrible, but having a sick child is so much worse! And apparently, he gave it to Kyleigh because she's been throwing up all morning and hasn't kept anything down. She's sleeping now, but it certainly worries me. I'm praying that she'll get over this super quick and start being able to keep down the Pedialyte we keep shoving down her. I'm going to go and take care of her and clean up all her toys now.
I'll try and post more often ... sorry!
Monday, December 25, 2006
The Allison Family's New Christmas Tradition
The Holy Spirit came last night and spoke to my husband. We were just getting packed up to leave to go look at Christmas lights. He said, "You know, wouldn't it be neat to go and give a Christmas card to the people that have to work on Christmas Eve?" And although we didn't really have a plan as to how to do it, we decided that it was something from God and we would carry through with it. So we packed up Kyleigh and all our spare Christmas cards in the car, and I wrote them while Matt drove around looking for places that were open. (This was all around 9:30 or 10:00 last night.)
The cards said:
"This is just a silly card to cheer you up while you work on Christmas Eve! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May God bless you. Our family will be praying specifically for you tonight as you work."
(We also put the name of our church and its phone number on the back.)
All in all I think we dropped off a little more than 10 cards and we didn't get home until close to midnight. But it was fantastic.
When we got to our fourth place, it was my turn to go in and hand the attendant the card. There was a line of about 3 people ahead of me. So rather than cut in line, I just stood and waited my turn. When I got up to the man, he said, "How can I help you?" And I said, "I don't need anything. My family just wants to wish you a Merry Christmas since you have to work on Christmas Eve! May God bless you!" and I handed him the card. His eyes welled up with tears and he said a broken "thank you, Merry Christmas." It was awesome!! A few times when Matt went in to give the card it was to "rough" looking men. They looked at him kind of funny, but then when they understood he was just bringing them a gift, they got a look of gratitude on their faces and every one of them shook his hand. Another place we stopped looked pretty scary. The cashier had a long line of really rough looking people, all buying late night booze and liquor. Matt just marched right in, up to the front of the line, handed the card to the cashier with our little spiel and turned to the line of about six people and said "Merry Christmas!" and got six Merry Christmases right back!
Next year we've vowed that we'll have our cards prepared ahead of time, possibly with some homemade cookies or treats. By that time Kyleigh will be walking, and she can help us hand the cards out. The year after that, we'll take homemade pictures that Kyleigh drew/colored in addition to our cards.
It was so amazing! Thank you Jesus, for this opportunity.
Merry Christmas everyone! God bless us all!
The cards said:
"This is just a silly card to cheer you up while you work on Christmas Eve! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May God bless you. Our family will be praying specifically for you tonight as you work."
(We also put the name of our church and its phone number on the back.)
All in all I think we dropped off a little more than 10 cards and we didn't get home until close to midnight. But it was fantastic.
When we got to our fourth place, it was my turn to go in and hand the attendant the card. There was a line of about 3 people ahead of me. So rather than cut in line, I just stood and waited my turn. When I got up to the man, he said, "How can I help you?" And I said, "I don't need anything. My family just wants to wish you a Merry Christmas since you have to work on Christmas Eve! May God bless you!" and I handed him the card. His eyes welled up with tears and he said a broken "thank you, Merry Christmas." It was awesome!! A few times when Matt went in to give the card it was to "rough" looking men. They looked at him kind of funny, but then when they understood he was just bringing them a gift, they got a look of gratitude on their faces and every one of them shook his hand. Another place we stopped looked pretty scary. The cashier had a long line of really rough looking people, all buying late night booze and liquor. Matt just marched right in, up to the front of the line, handed the card to the cashier with our little spiel and turned to the line of about six people and said "Merry Christmas!" and got six Merry Christmases right back!
Next year we've vowed that we'll have our cards prepared ahead of time, possibly with some homemade cookies or treats. By that time Kyleigh will be walking, and she can help us hand the cards out. The year after that, we'll take homemade pictures that Kyleigh drew/colored in addition to our cards.
It was so amazing! Thank you Jesus, for this opportunity.
Merry Christmas everyone! God bless us all!
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Kyleigh's First Christmas Eve!
I can't believe it's already Christmas! It's really exciting! Of course Kyleigh has no idea what Christmas is, and she'll probably be eating her wrapping paper tomorrow morning instead of furiously ripping it off her presents, but that's alright.
It doesn't really feel like Christmas. I'm not sure if it's because Matt and I are just starting our new lives together and haven't really established a tradition, or if it's because I'm away from Texas (where I've had Christmas for the 22 years before I was married), or maybe because I didn't have time to put up a lot of Christmas decorations this year. Or maybe it's because the movies "Scrooged" and "Mickey's Christmas Carol" aren't on! Can you believe that? I think I've watched those two movies for YEARS every Christmas. It's tradition! We checked our cable and neither of them are on. *sigh* Oh well. I'm sure by next year, when Kyleigh knows who "Santa" is, and knows that wrapped presents contain something she'll like, Christmas will be much more exciting. By that time she'll be walking and talking up a storm! Yikes!
Well, we're about to go drive around and look at Christmas lights! (That's a Christmas tradition in the Donaghey family that we're going to make a tradition for Kyleigh!)
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! :)
It doesn't really feel like Christmas. I'm not sure if it's because Matt and I are just starting our new lives together and haven't really established a tradition, or if it's because I'm away from Texas (where I've had Christmas for the 22 years before I was married), or maybe because I didn't have time to put up a lot of Christmas decorations this year. Or maybe it's because the movies "Scrooged" and "Mickey's Christmas Carol" aren't on! Can you believe that? I think I've watched those two movies for YEARS every Christmas. It's tradition! We checked our cable and neither of them are on. *sigh* Oh well. I'm sure by next year, when Kyleigh knows who "Santa" is, and knows that wrapped presents contain something she'll like, Christmas will be much more exciting. By that time she'll be walking and talking up a storm! Yikes!
Well, we're about to go drive around and look at Christmas lights! (That's a Christmas tradition in the Donaghey family that we're going to make a tradition for Kyleigh!)
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! :)
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