Outside

Charlotte loves playing outside and now that it's cooling down slightly we've been going out in the afternoon.  She loves watching for birds and picking up  leaves and bringing them to me.  I'm looking forward to more and more time outside this fall!  With an active little one it's a good way to burn some energy!

Found a leaf!

Bringing it to me

Changed her mind! She's going to keep it!

Pointing at Luca when she spotted him

Wondering why Luca walked right by her

Look at how long and curly her hair is getting!

Sweet, sweet little girl

It's so nice outside....

If you follow me on Twitter you saw on Friday that we got new patio furniture.  We decided to go ahead and get some nice furniture since we found a really really great sale at the beginning of March.  We were super excited and couldn't wait for our furniture to come in.  Don't you hate it that most fun, furniture-type purchases you have to wait a long time for after you  make the purchase.  Frustrating!  But, Friday was the day that our new furniture was coming in so we were excited.  And you wouldn't believe how much we've already enjoyed this new furniture.  It has comfy pillows instead of just plain metal and a chair that rocks....it's lovely! And the weather has been just perfect for enjoying it (other than the yellow layer of pollen that was covering all of my wonderful new furniture about, oh 5 minutes, after it was delivered!). 

Friday after Jason got home I took some pictures of he and Charlotte on the new couch...

Look at that face.  What's she so excited about?!?!

Luca's coming!!

And Luca is probably enjoying the new furniture the most.  He loves having a new, comfy nap spot!

Puppy Love

On Tuesday I had my camera out and got to capture this sweet picture of Jason's triumphant return home from work.

Let me just tell you, he's a rock star when he gets home! :)

And then Jason had this adorable mini photo shoot with Charlotte ALL BY HIMSELF while I was getting things ready to go to dinner.  He did a FANTASTIC job and I'm very jealous that he solicited all of these smiles by himself!

You can't see the initials on her bloomers but they're there.  This shot is just so sweet to me! Nothing cuter than little girl bloomers peeking out!

Slacker....

It's amazing how little time you have to blog when you have a child.  I always thought that I had a lot going on but with Charlotte mostly mobile now and my starting to get involved in the community my time has become increasingly stretched thin.  And because of that, this is going to be in list form.  :)

1. I apologize for my slacker-ness with Cooking Through The Pioneer Woman's Cookbook.  I didn't realize that I had missed a bi-weekly post (Friday before last) until this past Wednesday and then I meant to put one up this Friday and forgot that also.  But I've already got one scheduled for next Friday so we'll play catch up then!

2. Mom and I finally arranged to have a serious photo session (not really, but one where we took pictures for a while) with Charlotte in her dedication dress.  This is one instance where it's good that she hasn't really put on much weight since she was 6 months old!  Despite the fact that Charlotte was super unhappy throughout the shoot I absolutely adore some of the pictures.  We might try again when it's prettier weather so that we can take some outside, we'll see.

Thought I'd lead with this one so that you can see how happy she really was.  :)  This is just her slip.

3. Our child definitely has attitude! :)  She loves being the center of attention (first child, of course!) and will do anything for a laugh.  She will also get upset if we take something away from her or tell her she can't do something.  Although, her pouty face is so cute we're just not sure that we're ever going to be able to punish her!

4. Some of you have asked about Luca and I wanted to give you an update.  When he first showed symptoms of his herniated disk the vet warned us that it could be possible that he might never walk again.  And the day after his surgery he couldn't, but by the next day, when we got to take him home, he was hobbling on his back legs pretty well.  The nurses were amazed at his quick ability to recover.  Since then he's been home and was isolated in his crate for two weeks.  The only time we got to get him out was for us to pick him up and take him outside or pick him up to sit in our laps.  We are now at three weeks out and Luca is doing amazingly well.  He jumps up onto the couch and off of it (he's not really supposed to be doing that but he jumps before we can stop/catch him).  He can run outside or inside for the most part as long as he's going straight.  The only real problem that he still has is on turns.  He can't quite get the back of his body around fast enough to make sure and so he ends up skidding (on the wood floors) or kind of tripping (outside).  This doesn't hurt him or slow him down at all though.  Thank you so much for your prayers as he's gone through this struggle.  There are so many others going down so many scarier paths but this was a scary time for our family since Luca was really our first child and is so important to us.  We are so thankful that he is recovering so well.  

The day after his surgery.  He couldn't walk and still had an iv.  You can see his incision on the top of his back.

In his crate.  At least he has a view and gets to be in the den with us!

But, to be honest, he has to deal with his sister treating him like an animal at the zoo.  Not really the most fun.

Now he's out and has to deal with his sister outside of his crate!

A lot of time he still prefers to be in his crate even though the doors open.  Must be the Restoration Hardware blanket that he loves and was mine until I, lovingly (and possibly bitterly), handed it over to him.

Luca's a huge fan of being able to jump on the couch since Charlotte can't quite reach him once he's up there!

7. Please pray for Layla Grace's family.  Layla passed away this week and her celebration of life was today.  This little girl was precious and so young and she was taken by a type of cancer, Neuroblastoma.  This is the same type of cancer that one of my friend's died from in high school and so I'm especially heartbroken for this family.  Please remember her parents and her two older sisters in your prayers.  I can't imagine the difficulty that they're having dealing with this.

6. We are going over to Kelly and Tripp's tonight and I'm so excited! Some of our other friends, Jenni and Travis, are also coming so there will be four little girls there tonight.  It will be a madhouse, I'm sure, but I can't wait to watch the girls have fun and to enjoy some grown up fun!

What a Week

Whew! I am so ready for this week to be over!  It seems like so much has gone wrong and it's been such an overwhelming week.  I'm praying desperately that this week is about to get better.

If you follow me on Twitter you will have seen that my aunt and cousins were in a car crash last night.  Normally I would call it a car accident but someone 100% across the line in the oncoming lane of traffic and hitting them head on isn't an accident.  Thankfully they were all treated and released last night and, although they are sore and shaken up today, they are all alright.

You will also have seen that we have had a scare with Luca.  On Sunday we noticed that he was lethargic and was fearful of jumping up on the couch or our bed.  However, on Monday he was pretty normal and even had fun on a long walk in the snow with Jason.  On Tuesday he was fine also but a little more hesitant to jump.  Yesterday morning after Jason left for work I saw that Luca was shaking pretty badly and so I called the vet and took him in.  After thoroughly examining him she found that he didn't exhibit any signs of pain during the examination but his stomach was tight and so the doctor felt like he might have eaten something.  She did some tests including a full blood scan and everything returned normal results and so she sent him home yesterday afternoon.  However, when Jason picked him up he noticed that he was limping very badly (he was walking normally yesterday morning).  Jason had the vet reexamine Luca but she felt like it was just his kneecaps (Yorkie's have kneecap problems) and so she gave him some pain medicine and told us to have him rest.

Last night Luca was limping but was getting around ok.  We laid him on a heating pad on our bed while we watched American Idol and while we knew he didn't feel good we thought he had just sprained his knee or something.  When Jason got up and took Luca out he couldn't really put weight on his right leg.  By the time I got back downstairs with Charlotte Luca couldn't put any weight on either of his back legs and I rushed him back to the vet.  After doing some contrast radiographs (??) she determined that he had a herniated disk and they referred us to a regional hospital for surgery.  When the vet told us she was hopeful that Luca would be able to walk again we really started to worry.

We are so thankful that my parents live so close and are so willing to come and take care of Charlotte.  Knowing that she was in such good hands today, while we took care of Luca, really helped ease our burden.  We took Luca over to a neighboring town where the hospital was and spoke with the vet there.  They performed the surgery this afternoon and Luca is currently recovering at the hospital.  They said that the surgery went very well but they have not minced words about the fact that his recovery will be long and hard.  We got to go and see him after his surgery and he looked so sad laying there under the towels trying to wake up from surgery and get warm.  They will keep him pretty sedated tonight and will wake him up gradually tomorrow.  We will go visit again after Jason gets home from work tomorrow.

There are so many things that we're thankful for.  For a regional vet hospital that's so close where the vet has performed 3000 of the surgeries that Luca needed.  For a vet that referred us quickly and told us exactly what we needed to.  For parents who can come quickly to take care of Charlotte.  For the technology to repair something like this.  For friends who bring you hot chocolate and bagels because you're having a bad week.  For such a great hospital that is staffed 24 hours a day and will let us come visit after office hours (we were so impressed with this facility!).

It has been a really stressful day to top off a really stressful week.  We are feeling better though now that Luca's surgery was successful and he is recovering.  We hope that since he's so young he will recover quickly and regain his ability to walk quickly.  Another blessing was that when I got home and tried to feed Charlotte this afternoon she started nursing again and so her nursing strike, hopefully, is over.  We had been planning on going to the coast this weekend to watch my dad get a very big honor and, sadly, we aren't going to be able to go so that we can be here for Luca.  We hate to be missing out on that but will definitely be there in spirit.  Hopefully today was the last stressful day for a while and things will be getting better quickly.  We so appreciate your prayers and thoughts over the past few days.  Please continue to pray for Luca's recovery and my ability to do everything for him that he needs during the day while also taking care of Charlotte to the best of my ability.  I'm a little nervous about how I'll be able to handle that when I'm here by myself.

The other day I mentioned that a negative about this technological age is that it's hard to avoid reading information/opinions that you don't want to read or that are false.  But I think the benefits far outweigh the bad.  It made me feel better this morning to be able to tweet about Luca and know immediately that we had so many people praying for us.  The same goes for blogging.  I've received numerous generous comments from my post the other day about Charlotte's strike and everything I read was so helpful and encouraging.  I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends in real life and in blogworld.  Thanks for praying for us, encouraging us, and sharing our trials with us!

Fat Tuesday and other ramblings

There are a lot of things that I want to say and I don't really know how to go about saying them.  So much has happened over the past few days and I'm having a hard time processing.  So let's start with the lighter topics...

Snow.  We've got it.  Since Friday it has snowed in some fashion every day except for Saturday.  This is the fourth time since the beginning of December that we've had (as my weather-loving husband likes to say) "measurable snowfall".  We live in Alabama.  We usually don't see ANY measurable snowfall in a winter, much less this much.  It's beautiful, yes, but we aren't equipped to handle it.  Jason was off yesterday for President's Day but his work was delayed this morning because of the roads.  Jason and Luca enjoyed a walk around our neighborhood in it yesterday (see the picture above and yesterday's Tale a Day picture) but I haven't really been able to get out in it since Charlotte is still too young.  I hope that it snows like this in a year or two when she can actually get out and play in it.  Until then, I'm done with snow.  I would rather not see it any  more this winter. Come on spring!

Fat Tuesday and Lent.  In case you missed it, today is Fat Tuesday and tomorrow is Ash Wednesday denoting the beginning of the Lenten season.  Even though I'm currently a Baptist, I grew up Methodist where an emphasis was put on Lent and giving something up for Lent.  The idea is that you give up something that you are focusing on too much or something that is detrimental to you and when you are tempted to give in to that something during the next six weeks you focus on God instead of giving in to the temptation.  At least, that's what Lent means to me.  So starting tomorrow Jason and I are giving up chocolate (yes, I talked him in to it, but he did agree).  I'm also going back on the no soft drinks and fried food plan that I used back in the fall to help rid myself of most of my baby weight.  I'm hoping that I can really take my dedication to God to the next level over the next six weeks.  So, please don't tempt us with chocolate if you can help it and don't get offended if we refuse your kindhearted offers of chocolate!

 

  

  

Charlotte.  She's still not totally over her cold which is kind of freaking me out.  Her nose is still runny although she's not really coughing anymore.  She still hasn't had a fever either.  I was going to call the doctor to see about taking her in today but they're closed all day due to the snow/ice.  If she's still like this tomorrow I'll call.  She's acting normal (when she plays) but I don't think this should still be hanging on.  She also has decided to go on (what I've found is called) a nursing strike.  It's been pretty emotional for me since I've been nursing this whole time without incident.  Now we're trying to figure out if we can weather it and if she'll pick back up or if we should just wean her at this point.  From what I've read online babies don't usually wean themselves until their at least 18 months and when they do they're happy about it, not fighting against it, so I don't think this is her weaning herself.  I think she's just having a bad reaction to my reaction from being bitten or it has to do with her cold.  If any of you have dealt with something like this and have any advice or encouragement I would appreciate it.  I feel totally out of my element thinking about switching to formula just because I have no knowledge about what to do or how to mix it or anything (if you have advice about that I would also appreciate that).  The feelings of being in over my head in making the switch and trying to convince myself that Charlotte isn't rejecting me and that I didn't do anything and trying to map out the best plan for all of us has me a little (or a lot) overwhelmed and emotional.  I've also developed a cold over the past few days so I feel cruddy too which, I'm sure, isn't helping any.

The UAH shooting.  I'm still really heartsick over the whole tragedy.  Just thinking about all of the people affected and the families and children is tearing me up.  I know that when I don't know what to pray for the Holy Spirit intercedes on my behalf but I feel like all of my prayers now are like that.  It's hard to not get consumed in reading about the shooter and everything that's being said about it.  In one way that's why this technology age is so detrimental.  It's hard to get online and not be tempted to look at stories about it and people's opinions and some people are so off base that you just want to scream.  It's hard to skip over people who are being ugly and judgmental when they really have no clue about anything.  Please join me in praying for the situation and people affected.

Sorry that this was disjointed and possibly a little too personal at times.  Sometimes I wonder about how real I should be on this blog.  Not necessarily because of who out there in the yonder might be reading it but because of whether I want to be that honest with people who know me in real life.  But, I think that I will want to remember how I felt about things and I hope that someone else can identify with me and either help me or let me help them.  Besides, sometimes it's nice to remind yourself and others that you're not perfect and that you don't expect yourself or anyone else to be either. 

Jump! Jump! Jump!

Charlotte is quite the jumper!  She absolutely loves getting in her jumper, jumping up and down, and playing with her toys!  She has a book on her jumper that she loves flipping the pages of and she especially loves her veggies that are attached with strings!

Charlotte also adores her brother, Luca!  When he comes in the room her face lights up and she squeal in delight!  He's a little afraid to get very close to her jumper because he'll be sniffing her feet or legs and she will start jumping up and down hitting him in the head!

This smile just melts my heart! Even if it is for Luca!

This is such a fun age!

Charlotte's First Polo's!

In my blogging hiatus I haven't gotten to post yet about Charlotte's most recent gifts, her first Polo outfits!  Memma found some items and figured that Charlotte MUST have them.  I totally agree!  They are just too cute!

Luca's wondering what all this pink is for!

Here's Luca while I was taking pictures -- rolling around on Charlotte's rug.  One of his favorite past times!

Let It Snow

I mentioned yesterday that Jason was hoping to get some substantial snow for his birthday.  He didn't get a lot but enough to get out and take some pictures!

Our daffodils bloomed early.  I think they regretted that yesterday.

Luca was trying to figure out what this stuff was and why the wind was blowing in his face.

If you blow up the picture you can see the snow on his mouth.

The snow was on his mouth because he was trying to eat it

Here he is waiting at the door wanting to get out of this mess while his parents just wanted to take pictures of him playing in it!

Snow Day! Well...sort of!

So I spent most of this afternoon on the phone in a meeting.  That happens at least a few times a week and so I've gotten used to it.  The thing that made this meeting even better was that I got to stare out my window at really large snowflakes coming down the whole time!  So, I know those of you who live up North wouldn't really consider what we got snow since none of it stuck and it was really just snow flakes who melted as soon as they hit the ground, but it was still pretty to me!

Since Jason was off today he took Luca outside and played with our new camera during the snow.  Luca isn't a huge fan of anything wet falling on him and apparently he's not a fan of pictures either because Jason said he would run away from him when he tried to take his picture but Jason managed to snap this one that I just had to share.  I might have had three years of photography classes but I think my husband did a great job with this picture! :)

I hope you enjoyed your day!