Lost and Found

Back in November I lost my camera. Could not find it to save my life. I thought either the men that came to clean the ducts had swiped it or I had left it on the plane. I could not recall any other place it might have been. Then on Sunday of this week, I went to the garage to get a bag that had been living in there for quite some time... November, apparently. I finally needed something that was in it. As I was pulling that something out - there lo and behold was my camera!!! Aaaaah!!! YIPPEE! Just in time for the arrival of MAE.

Now, I have a far nicer camera (thanks to the FIL!) that I use to take most of my pictures (and all of time, since November.) But prior to that, I enjoyed being able to take the small Elph camera with me in the purse/diaper bag. My nice camera is much larger and space consuming, and expensive! so I'm less inclined to tote it with me just for a trip to the mall in the off chance I will need to capture something adorable Ace has been doing. So instead the camera phone has been that substitute, a sub par option, but one that I lived with for 10 months. :)

But then it was found! YAY! Which means the pictures on it from last November were also not gone forever... so on that thought... enjoy the sampling of what was once thought to be gone forever. ;-) which includes Loving Husband and I on Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Ace at 14 months old; on a plane, eating out, at Grammie's, shopping for our remodel, and playing with a bat at Auntie Becky's house.

Grum was right!

About what? Well we had our gender ultrasound on Friday, and we found out that our little one growing happily inside is in fact A GIRL! We couldn't be more thrilled and happy... but how is my grandmother right? Well, rewind nearly 2.5 years ago when we had our last gender ultrasound and found out Ace was a boy. I called my grandma to tell her that we were having a boy! We were excited, thrilled, and happy! The first thing out of my grandma's mouth (while she was all of those things!) was "That's ok, the next one will be a girl." Yes, the FIRST thing she said was to inform me that the next one would be a girl... and then of course she congratulated me on a healthy baby boy on the way. :) But I never forgot that and it kind of is bittersweet now that she's no longer here to hear the good news... but I love that she was right! :)
Our little girl is growing and healthy just as she should be. Her heart looks great, her brain is growing and developing as it should, and all her organs are working and functioning. She was modest at times, but she did her job and let us verify that she really is a she! :) Her heartbeat was 138bpm, the calmest either of our babies' heartbeats have ever been! She does love to wave at the camera though. :)

I personally have only gained 8lbs so far. With Ace at this stage in the pregnancy I had gained 15lbs. :) So having a toddler is certainly keeping those extra pounds off, hehe. We discovered that the placenta is over the front of my stomach, but that's nothing more than noted. Since I did not have a c-section with Ace, then it is a non issue with my second pregnancy. However, it does explain why I didn't feel her until later in the pregnancy whereas many second pregnancies women report feeling the baby as early as 14 weeks. I didn't feel her until 17 weeks. But she has some adorable feet and legs to kick me with - and she is a squirmer now!

She's still small enough right now that she can do lots of flips and circling around in there, so she enjoyed flipping over and around throughout the ultrasound, which was fun to be able to watch her movements. :) It was great to see her! We are hoping to see her again in a few weeks, as we're hoping to be able to do a 3D ultrasound closer to the due date. Just have to see if it will be covered by insurance.

Flashback Friday

Happy Birthday, my dear friend! A flashback to 2002 which was the first time in YEARS that I was able to celebrate with you on your official birthday. :) It's certainly still a rare occassion, but I am glad that we are still able to see each other as often as we do. I hope this decade for you is fabulous! Here's a look back at all our fun!

Year Two in Film

Ace born 8lbs and 21" long.

One Year old 18.10lbs and 30" tall.

Two Years old 23lbs and 34.5" tall

Can't wait to see you grow even more, little man!

Two Years Old

Happy Second Birthday, Ace!

I cannot believe that I have a two year old. I am destine to say that phrase indefinitely I'm sure as he continues to rapidly age before my eyes, evermore pointing out that I too am doing the very same thing. It's true, as of today, I have a two year old! Wow! What a year (two of them in fact) it has been. Every day is a joy, even as we begin to explore independence, tantrums, time outs, and 'no'.

Firsts in this 24th month of life: a new illness, a trip to Swasi, more vocabulary and sentences.

Ace is flourishing and is enjoying talking more and more. He's still a very polite little guy and says please most of the time, still often needing the prompt of 'what do you say?' but otherwise very happy to ask nicely after remembering. :)

To date at 2 years old he has 16 teeth, he is only lacking his final set of molars and I feel those are on their way in pretty soon. On the grandparents scale he weighs 21.8lbs with a diaper, at the doctor fully clothed he weighs 23.4lbs. So while he's still skinny according to the doctor's charts he's still ON the chart, so that's great! Height wise we'll know in another few days when we take him in for his 2 year check up.

Ace's last month has been filled with adventure of various kinds. His first long plane trip to Hawaii, where he enjoyed his first trip into the ocean and playing in the waves and sand. He had another overnight with Pop Pop and Gran that he enjoyed immensely and never once cried (in fact when mom came to get him he kinda said hi but was back to roaming around and playing!) He did a great job and his independence and comfort with them is growing and we're all so glad he's at ease with them.

Ace is an outdoor boy. He loves LOVES to play in the water, loves to eat his cereal outside. In fact he will wake up and say "I'm hungry. Cereal? Outside? I eat cereal outside?" It's adorable to see him remember and recall things that he's done only once or twice and to clearly want to do them again (regardless of the weather outside at the time.) :) He loves to go to the park, run around in the backyard, and is even getting more comfortable with the neighborhood kids playing with and/or around him.

Ace knows most of his colors, loves to play with balls, and enjoys doing 'school' with mommy on a regular basis during the week. He knows the letter 'A', 'G', and 'J' and tries to spell out his name 'A-D-N' it's pretty cute to see him learning and soaking up this knowledge. Ace can count to 3. He also can recognize most of the numbers 1-9. He consistently knows: circle, square, triangle, and heart. He also randomly chooses to remember diamond. He LOVES to read. We read at least 5 books a day, minimum.

His current favorite toy is his Tiger that he made for Sabria's 2nd birthday. He traveled with us to Hawaii (a very specific request!) and he went with Ace to the grandparents for his overnight adventure. Tiger sleeps often in his bed, but he's not typically a cuddler of the tiger - just likes to have it near, sometimes uses it as a pillow. He also is very into dinosaurs and loves to 'raaaarrr' as the dinees do. Although just the other day he started to call them 'dineesaurs' so already he's outgrowing the cute words he's developed :( He also enjoys playing with cars, balloons, and balls. He loves to throw balls, kick them, throw them at dad and asks dad to juggle them on a regular basis.

He still absolutely loves the movie Cars. He also loves Toy Story and Madagascar on a frequent basis. He wants to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse nearly every morning and I appreciate that they teach him shapes, colors, and counting.

In the sleep department his naps are doing fine - often an average of 90 minutes sometime after 1pm. Sleeping in the night still continues to involve one wake up session. The process of getting him to sleep reverted drastically back in June for some unknown reason and so that process is starting to slowly become easier again - with him not crying when we leave the room. We are hoping that now he's getting these antibiotics to cure him on being sick that he'll be sleeping better as a result as well. We'll see!

Ace has had quite the adventurous and developmental year. It has been a wonder to watch him expand his world, vocabulary, and love of everything around him. He's such a great joy to our lives and we're so thankful that he's happy, healthy and growing up into a great kid. Good bye to Baby Ace and hello little man! Here's to a great third year, where you get to become a big brother, live in a new state (for a short period of time), and hopefully potty train! ;-) Happy Birthday, Ace!

He's growing so fast... see for yourself! Eighteen Months, One Year Old, Six Months Old, One Month Old

20 Weeks - Half Way!

Yay! The half way mark! So excited that I am now half way through this pregnancy. It hasn't been too bad thus far - the morning sickness was less than pleasant - but it's over so that's fine :) I survived! We are officially entering the beginning of the 6th month of pregnancy. We are 20 weeks away from being an official family of four!

From this point forward, baby will put most of her (or his) energy into gaining weight and, apparently, so will I! Loving Husband is also doing his part. ;-) Hopefully, Ace will as well! So far I have gained 10lbs. Right now baby weighs approximately 10½ ounces and is about 7 inches long, about the size of a can of Red Bull or a cantaloupe. Interesting difference in comparisons there. :)

If this baby is a boy, the testes have begun descending from the pelvis into the scrotum. If it's a girl, her uterus is completely formed and the rest of her "parts" are in development. Won't s/he love that I'm sharing all this when s/he's 15 years old? haha.

And now for the belly fun!

Jackie & Dave's Wedding!

It could not have turned out to be a more perfect day. The weather that was drearily forecasted to be awful for the last week - was completely wrong! It was sunny, in the 70s and blue skies as the bride walked down the aisle. The ceremony was lovely and the wedding party looked great (even Groomsman #2 who collapsed right as Dave was starting to recite his vows! Oopsie!)

The reception was lovely, the food was tasty (especially the cake!), and the craftiness was awesome. There was dancing and great merriment to be had. Loving Husband and I even got to stay on the dance floor during the Anniversary Dance for one extra 'round' now that we've been married for 6 years. :) The traditional festivities for cake cutting, first dance, and bouquet and garter tossing was grand. B even caught the bouquet!



It was a lot of fun and I am sure that the Bride and Groom are so glad to have all that planning behind them and were happy to enjoy their special day that went off without a hitch. :) Congrats to you both! We couldn't be more excited for you!

Precious Moments

My son continues to surprise me and make my heart melt on a regular basis. These are just a few of his latest moments that I was preserve so that I can remember them when he's an unruly teenager. ;-)

 Ace loves to say his prayers every night and will even say his own "Jesus...Amen" It melts my heart to see him fold his hands in prayer and pray to Jesus.

Today while reading Gossie we came across the page where after exhausting a search for her boots that are missing the story reads with a picture of Gossie with a tear coming out of her eye "Gossie was heartbroken." Ace stops and says "Gossie hartbroken ... Dad go fix em. Fix Gossie!" It made my heart melt - it was so sweet. He was quite concerned, I had to show him that Gossie wasn't sad anymore after making a new friend and finding her boots. He's got such a good heart! I hope he keeps that as he gets older!

Ace also really is enjoying singing songs around bed time. He even has started to sing along with them about a half a beat behind and every other syllable included. :) He says "Mom you sing 'B-I-E' song' (The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me...) Hehe I love it. :) Sure I can!

I love him!

Coned!

Yup my cat Nickolas was sentenced to 3-5 days in the cone. Gasp! What on earth did he deserve such punishment? Well, he tangled with a raccoon and lost. Siiigh. At first after hearing the scuffle we thought he had escaped unscathed... unfortunately for him and our checkbook, we were wrong.

This all started last Tuesday when I noticed Nick was losing hair around what appeared at that time to be a weird scab. Hmm. Then when Loving Husband looked at it, the scab had fallen off and it was a pretty deep flesh wound. LH thought he might have been shot with a bb gun... but I had distinctly recalled that he was the slobber on his side a few nights before. Siigh

So the vet was called, the appointment was made and on Thursday of last week we took him in. (Yes, the same day I took Ace back into the doctor due to his latest round of vomiting.) We took him in and the vet assessed that she would need to sedate him to examine the wound, ya think? Haha - this cat hates the vet - and when he's wounded? haha of course he had to be sedated. So Ace and I left Nicky there to be fixed up and to get his rabies shot while we were at it, with a quote ranging from $250-$350.

It ended up being the lesser amount, plus a 10% military discount! Neato and that included the shot, the antibiotics and the stylish new cone he got to sport for 4 days. It turned out that it was just a puncture wound, most likely from the raccoon as we suspected. However, it wasn't very deep and didn't require the drain (which would have tacked on the extra cost.) Nicky was none to happy when we picked him up. In fact that night I don't think he even laid down to sleep he was so agitated with the cone, and the whole shebang.

The next worry for me was his medication, they were tiny pills (about the size of birth control pills) but both our cats are AWFUL with pills. Last time they were attempted was in 2006 and it was AWFUL. Thankfully, Nick is our easier of the two cats to give pills to. So Ace and I headed to the pet store after his doctor's appointment and bought some pill pocket treats. We've completed 16 rounds of medication with 12 more to go and have had zero issue with the consumption of the meds.

The second day of his cone-sentence he managed to (apparently in a fluke) get his cone off. I was a tad worried he'd become a pro-escape artist in all things cone related... but apparently it was just the once. We did give him freedom during eating times to go cone free - which meant that we had to watch him eat and wait for him to finish - I was glad when the 4 days of that were over.

He did eventually learn to relax and calm down with the cone. In fact he looked pretty cute curled up on our bed sleeping with it on. The wound is healing and is much smaller and the hair has started to grow back, so our little Nick is going to be a-ok. Our cats though are forbidden to be out after dark now for a long while. In fact the night that we brought coned-Nick home, I had put Tort outside after he had finished his dinner so that Nick could finish his in peace... and I heard hissing and went outside and this giant arse raccoon was staring Tort down and would not budge as I approached it. I manged to get Tort inside who was going to 'brave' the beast and fight 'em!! (Sorry Tort, if Nick can't do it... you certainly can't. I don't mean to be a discouraging mommy - but Nick is the badass in the family.)

So we've got a wild beast of a raccoon that needs a new home (or grave) so that my cat's can be free and cheaply wander the neighborhood. We don't need any more $250 jaunts to the vet any time soon!

Bad Bacteria

That's the simple explanation of what Ace has been diagnosed with: bad bacteria. The more complex and mildly disconcerting is that it is Clostridium Difficile Infection or more commonly referred to as C. Difficile or C. Diff.

What?! You didn't realize he was sick (aside from the party cancellation) ?! Yes, unfortunately this has been an on going issue since he woke in the middle of the night on July 23rd vomiting off and on for 90 minutes. He finally fell asleep around 5am and when he awoke the next morning while his diapers screamed 'flu' - his attitude was 100% happy. It was perplexing, but we were glad he seemed to feel ok. We figured the diapers would correct themselves in time, as they had the other times he's had a flu bug.

Tuesday the 27th rolls around... the day before we leave for Hawaii and he throws up one time in the afternoon after having nothing to eat in 6+ hours. Again his mood was fine, aside from the actual vomiting that he hates, he was 'fine'. I called the doctor anyway, that didn't seem normal to me, and we were leaving in the morning to go to Hawaii. Our doctor stated that it seemed like a routine bug, his diapers would take up to 10 days to right themselves.

Hawaii was a blast, his appetite was (not uncommonly) picky and minimal. He had pretty awful diapers once a day, every day we were there - but nothing excessive, and always he seemed fine. The flight home on Sunday, August 1st his diapers even improved (which was a blessing since he had those on the plane!)

Tuesday the 3rd he woke up and urpped on my shoulder. Then proceeded to eat a big breakfast and was happy the rest of the day. The diapers reverted back to extremely 'sick and flu' like. Hmm a tad unnerving but again his mood still was good. His appetite after breakfast on Tuesday thru Friday was pretty worrisome. He often is a bird eater, but the only thing I could for sure get this kid to eat was nuggets. Siigh. But still his mood was 'normal.'

Saturday the 7th - he woke sad. It was the first time in this entirely drawn out process that he didn't feel good in his behavior. Although even that eventually improved and he was pretty happy toward the end of the evening.



The 8th, 9th, and 10th - I was so encouraged! His appetite returned in full force (and then some!) and his diapers started to correct back to normal - albeit still not 100% healthy - but that takes time and we were trending in the right direction. He was happy, he was seemingly back to healthy - perhaps it was just a lengthy flu bug.

The night of the 10th he threw up again like the original time back on July 23rd. SOMETHING was not right. I waited an extra day (our pediatrician is only in the office Tuesday/Thursdays) and took him in. She was perplexed, not too worried and wanted to run some tests on his stool. The only 'abnormality' at that time was his bowels were 'racing' when she listened to them.

We returned the sample on Friday and on Monday evening the doctor called with the diagnosis: C. Difficile. Sadly I missed the call because I was ironically changing another poopy diaper. She left a detailed message and so it was nice to have the ability to replay that.

Today we will be picking up an antibiotic called Metronidazole that is being specially compounded for Ace. Compounding drugs is what they used to do pre-WWII all the time. It wasn't until after that they were mass produced and manufactured. It used to be patients had their drugs compounded for their specific needs/as they were needed. The reason Ace's drug has to be compounded is because they only 'sell' adult doses of the drug and they only sell it in pill form. This particular antibiotic (like many) can't simply be tossed in a pill cutter and given to the child or add some water to create a liquid. The Ph in the drug can be broken down and rendered ineffective. Therefore, the medication for Ace is being created from the root level and measuring out the correct milligrams into the the correct milliliters in order to create a liquid form of this medication. This process of course isn't automatically covered by insurance, but can be submitted and usually is reimbursed. Ace will have to take this antibiotic 4x a day for 10x and hopefully that will eradicate the C. Diff from his system.

I have been told by his doctor that we all have C. Diff in our system. It only becomes an issue when the good bacteria in our system is compromised. Often C. Diff takes over one's system ironically after the individual has recently been on an antibiotic. As far as where Ace got it from or why his C. Diff decided to 'take over' is unclear.

Since I am pregnant they want to run the test on me as well to ensure that I also do not have it. Although I am not exhibiting the symptoms that come with it - so they don't believe I have it - but just to be safe for me and baby - best to double check. The only way to transfer C. Diff is fegal matter to mouth - so as long as we thoroughly wash our hands after poopy diapers all should be a-ok.

Please pray Ace responds well to this medication and that he doesn't have any allergic or adverse reactions to it. Hopefully he'll be feel like himself again by his birthday!

19 Weeks

The clock is loudly ticking down the time until we find out if we're carrying a Baby Mae or a Baby T :) less than two weeks and we'll know. We're very excited that the time has finally arrive to know. Although I feel I've known all along. So I'm either reallly right or really wrong.

However we will continue to wait patiently to find out on the 27th. Until then Baby continues to expand in my belly. Baby's crown to rump length is 16 cm or 6.3 inches. Baby weighs about 300 grams or 10.5 ounces. This week the baby is the size of a sub sandwich! Baby is able to grasp things now, hopefully not too hard, can't imagine anything in there being comfortable to yank on for her (or him) or me for that matter. ;-) Baby's kidneys are fully functioning and producing urine this week. Goodie lots of practice for the diapers that are in our future!

Life is good, I'm feeling good, and Baby as far as we know is a-ok. Still feeling him (or her) moving around in there. We're half way next week! Yippee!!! :)

Welcome Kaylee and Ethan!

The much anticipated arrival of Blana's twins has finally happened! Yes, we've all been waiting and hoping for their safe and healthy arrival into this world and they made quite a debut this week. And they did just that, arrived safe and healthy - not even a trip up to the NICU was required! High APGAR scores! Good weights! What blessings!

Now all of us anxious fans who were waiting their arrival were kept in the dark for a bit of time... and I can't just sit idly by when friends of mine are in labor. I have to be doing something and so I began the task of making them baby hats. I love to be busy while my friends are in labor with something crafty, because it gives me something to concentrate on. As I crochet those little baby hats for each of them, it gives me time to pray for them individually for about an hour (give or take... I do have a busy toddler to still entertain now.) So as we all awaited information, I crocheted and put together a little welcome basket for the twins. :)

Meanwhile back at the hosptial... after quite some time, a sampling of delivery methods, and different birthdates, the twins finally arrived happy and healthy. I was able to go and visit them on Saturday at their home and spend some excellent quality time with the twins and their parents. So now I'm proud to introduce them.

Kaylee Elizabeth
Born August 10th, 2010
Weighing 5lbs 12oz

Ethan Tyler
Born August 11, 2010
Weighing 6lb 10oz

The happy family of four

Ethan is quite the sleep monster, and is so cuddly! Kaylee makes the most adorable faces and has the most precious hands (that is far from an exhaustive list of their cutness!) They are both a joy to be around and their parents are pretty darn blessed! Congrats, Blana!!!

The Non-Birthday Party

Ok so life has been crazy this past week. Lot of things happening around here! What was supposed to happen last Saturday was Ace's Second Dinorific Birthday Party!! Mom had spent Friday night crafting this creation for his second birthday cake. I went to sleep late excited to see his excitement at the party to his fancy cake. Alas he woke that morning with a bug... a continuation of existing illness... reflux??? We're actually not sure (a post on these specifics to come later.) However, suffice it to say that he was in no mood to party and so the party was cancelled. He was a clingy bear to his dad most of the morning.


However, not all fun was lost on that day. While he felt pretty sad in the morning. I wanted to still get his balloons blown up, he loves them. I knew that they would lift his spirits some. We also revealed his cake to him and he was pretty excited about his 'dinee cake' which made me happy that he liked it and that he was smiling about something. And without fail after a while, the balloons were the first thing to eventually make him smile after a rough morning.



We still invited the grandparents to brave the (maybe) germs. We had them over and BBQed lunch. In one sense it was good it was just the 5 of us... BBQing in the rain for 25+ would have been less ideal for the chef.

Gran and Pop Pop brought over a present for Ace and he enjoyed it (and still is) immensely. He did some drawing with Gran and we watched a few movies while they were over including The Land Before Time, can't have a dinorific birthday without a dinosaur movie! :) He enjoyed it.


Sadly, due to him being sick first thing in the morning (he threw up twice) his diet was pretty bland for the day. We decided cake certainly would not be ideal on a delicate stomach, so he had to wait until the next day to consume some cake. Of course when he woke on Sunday he was back to 100% and enjoyed snacking on the cake in a very savage fashion with his father... we had a lot of extra cake and no one else was coming to eat it - so the boys got to go to town. Ace still was very clean about the whole thing, made his dad very proud. In fact quite disturbed when some got onto his finger, but recovered after a quick napkin wipe.


So while my boy did not have a blow out bash, that's ok. He still seemed happy enough and got to spend it with some of those that mean the most to him.

18 Weeks

We have movement! There likely has been movement prior to this, but I haven't been willing to call it just yet - I started feeling some 'movement' (or gas bubbles ??) starting back around week 14, but since I wasn't positive one way or another - I wasn't willing to assign baby movement to it. However, this past week baby has really started to move and even push against my stomach - I think a large part of that is the actual uterus contorting funny, but some of it is the baby pushing.

Baby's crown to rump length is 15 cm or 6 inches. Baby today is the size of a mango, yum! Baby weighs about 250 grams or 8.5 ounces. Baby is sucking and swallowing and Baby can hear us now, so s/he's getting to enjoy movies that Ace watches, and listening to her (or his) mom and dad and brother talk to him (or her).

Only a couple more weeks until we find out if it's a boy or a girl, and we're super excited to confirm what we think is in there. :) The belly continues to expand and I continue to enjoy the 'honeymoon' phase of pregnancy. It's getting a bit harder to carry Ace around, but not impossible. He still enjoys kissing the belly and alternates whether he thinks it's a brother or a seester. More often than not it's a seeter though. :)

Second Birthday Cake

Time for another birthday cake! This year I went with the theme of 'dinosaurs' - my son is obsessed with them. He loves them. He calls them 'dinees'. We have quite a few. So of course I was on the hunt for a cake design to make his cake this year special. Since last year his cake was such a hit, I didn't want to make that a one time thing - so I went on the hunt for a good design. After searching and reviewing several ideas and techniques I settled on this cake design. Officially it's a dragon and not a dinosaur, but the effect is the same. :)

I followed the design of the cake carving based on the instructions, deviating a little bit (aka I didn't use ding dongs in my cake, I just created extra large cake 'muffins') I required 3 tubs of frosting to frost the entire thing between piecing the cake together for construction and then also covering it in green frosting. Sorry I forgot to take a picture prefrosting.

After I got him all frosted (taking 2 tubs to get it fully frosted) I then broke out the spray 'paint' food coloring. I hadn't used this medium of food dye before - but man was it fun. :) I used a darker green and orange and did some shading and spot placement on the dinosaur.

Then I made some fondant using the recipe that I used last year... leaving some white for the eyes and dyeing the rest orange for the dinosaur's spikes. Just used a knife to cut the spikes out and simply set them on the cake. After that was complete I frosted the entire board, and spread dyed coconut around it to create grass, along with some brown sugar for sand, and some colored blue sugar to make the lake and placed the volcano down... and wala the cake was complete.



Aside from cake baking time, construction, frosting, etc.. took about 3 hours off and on with me taking small breaks in between. Not too shabby. I finished it off by 'painting' with food coloring a '2' on the volcano and his name on the dino's leg. Sadly the only ones that got to enjoy it was our little family and Gran and PopPop because when our son woke the day of his party, he was sick. :( But the cake was tasty... even though the birthday boy had to wait until Sunday to enjoy any.