Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to Mommy B!! That's right everyone, she turned 28 years old today... and she's just as pretty as she was when I met her over 10 years ago. This past week was the 10-year anniversary of our first date as well. Even though we've only been married for 3 1/2 years, we've known each other for over a decade.

It's hard to believe it's been that long, but time flies when you're having fun. In fact, Mommy B still has a T-shirt I had made for her that reads: "B&E: Having more fun than you since 2-22-03" OK, so we didn't start officially dating until 2003, but we've been having fun together since we first met. I mean, how many people end up getting married after the guy moons someone on their first date? In my defense, I was only mooning them because they mooned us first - but Mommy B still hung around anyway.

As a birthday present, Mommy B got to go to work at 5:30am today. How fun! However, a transformer blew at the hospital shutting down all the OR's - which meant they couldn't perform any surgeries. Translation = Mommy B got half a day off! So she picked me up from work on her way home and we had a lovely little lunch date. We don't really get dates (of any kind) all that often down here, so it was nice to spend time with her while Ru was at daycare. The rest of the evening consisted of putting Alli to bed and me making dinner - which is just about the same as every other night.

We've been through a lot together over the last 10 years, and I couldn't imagine spending it with anyone else. She became my best friend a long time ago, and I'm so happy that I get to spend the rest of my life with her. I knew long before we ever had children that she would be a great mom, and of course she has turned out to be the best mom in the world. Even though Alli has my blue eyes, I can still see her mom every time I look at her. I can see the love and affection that she displays for Alli every day, and it warms my heart to know that Alli will always have a little part of that inside her as she grows into a woman.

Happy birthday hun... I love you more than you know.

Cartoon of the Week

"For the last time, I cannot make it to your family's Christmas gathering tonight." Seems about right. So many things to do, so little time to do it all... I agree Santa, I totally agree. We made our trip home with very few hiccups along the way (thank goodness!), and it was great to see family, but we're glad to be back here and getting back into our routine and our life. I'm sure there will be more to blog about later, but, since the opportunity has arisen for me to get a nap in this afternoon, that's exactly what I plan to do.

Here we go!

The countdown is on... Tuesday afternoon we'll be packing up the Pilot and heading back to the homeland for a week of Christmas fun with our families. Some of you might recall our last trip to Ohio with the whole family... and how much fun it was. And by fun I mean driving all over the place, everyone getting sick, spending two days in the bathroom, just to drive all the way back to Charleston again leaving a wake of destruction in our path. I'm praying to whoever is up there that it doesn't happen again - but you just never know, do ya?

Speaking of great timing, I've actually gotten ill the last two times I've been back to Ohio. Hmm, I'm noticing a trend here. Followers might also recall that Alli's teeth decided our trip home was a good time to bust through, making her quite the miserable little girl. Well, fast forward 6 months or so, and those damn teeth are at it again. We've been able to see her bottom two molars making their way to the surface for the last few days, and yesterday was the "big day." And no, I don't mean that they popped through - they're still working on that. I mean the big day of hurting.

Alli was fine yesterday morning, but we could tell she was a little on edge as the day progressed. After she woke up from a late nap (after only sleeping for about an hour), she was screaming bloody murder. We tried everything - bottle, lying her back down to sleep more, her frozen teething foot, walking her around outside in the cool air, everything. Nothing was working as the tears poured down her cheeks. I looked in her mouth and could tell that her bottom molars were making their presence felt... big time. They looked like jagged glaciers breaching the surface of the ocean. Think of them like a circular scalpel getting pushed through your gums from the bottom-up - that's how they must've felt to her. We were able to eventually calm her down with a fudgsicle, a Pedialite push-pop and a drive around the neighborhood with our live-saver (Elmo) on the DVD player.

Once her mouth had cooled down, she was much better the rest of the evening and slept like a champ all night. She was back to her normal self this morning, which was a relief for single-Dad-E in the mornings. I'm hoping that means the worst is behind us and she can finally start putting those big honkers to good use - bring on the Christmas ham, Alli wants some! I swear to whoever is up there, all Mommy B and I have to do is mention that we're making a road trip and her teeth just pop right in. Maybe we should do it again when we get back so she can just have all her teeth in already. I'm really hoping the worst is over and we dodged a bullet by a couple days... because I really don't feel up for dealing with a fussy baby the entire time we're home.

But enough with the doom and gloom. In all honesty, I'm really looking forward to getting to spend Christmas with our families. It's been five years since we've spent Christmas in Ohio, and we've really missed our families during the holidays. There are a lot of people who are excited to see our little walking Alli Ru, and I'm glad that she'll get to spend time with them as well. Who knows, she might even get to see some good ol' Ohio snow!

We'll have to give a full report once we get back to Chucktown - but just be warned that it could be a week or so until we post again. I hope everyone has a great holiday season and everyone gets home safe and sound!

Picture with Santa.... then... and now...

We went to get Alli's picture taken with Santa last weekend... and it turned out to be the exact same Santa she had her picture with last year! Well, duh, I mean of course, there's only one Santa... but, you get my point. =) Here's her picture from last year...

And now, here's the one from this year... can you believe how different she looks and how much she's grown in just one year??

Cartoon of the Week: Two for the Price of One!

Love the dog's point of view for Christmas... oh boy, this is so Scarlett. Thank God she hasn't used the tree as a indoor toilet though. This is what she does ALL.THE.TIME instead...



A lil bit of everything...

Seems like we're getting behind on blogging. And for our what, 5 people that actually read this and check it regularly, we're sorry. It's been quite the adjustment getting used to my new schedule, which in turn has made Eric and Alli's schedule quite different too. We're also busy with trying to prepare for Christmas, mainly, the drive back to Ohio. I know we mentioned before that this is the first time we'll be driving back home for Christmas, and we're definitely excited. My mom has promised me the best gift ever... her waking up with Alli each morning and letting me sleep in. She's even going to let us use her brand new bedroom furniture, in her room upstairs, and sleep in the guest room while Alli sleeps in my old room, so we really won't hear her and can just get some rest. I think that's better than any Christmas present I could ask for, I am really looking forward to it. On the flip side, we have really slacked on decorating around here. I guess it's because we know we're leaving a week from tomorrow, and we'll be in Ohio for a week, so there was really no point in getting our house all decked out here when we won't be here to enjoy it. So, we have a tree, with lights, but no ornaments. It's the thought that counts, right? Alli and I were hanging out with our cul-de-sac friends this afternoon and their mom even mentioned to me, "What, Eric's not putting up all the lights this year??" We are usually the only house in the neighborhood to put up a bunch of lights... not this year. I feel like a bad Buddy Elf, I really do love Christmas. Next year, we're going all out again, I'll make sure of it.

Speaking of next year, it's hard to believe by then we'll have a crazy two year old lil girl and a 7 or 8 month old little..... baby. =) I know so many people are waiting for us to slip up and share the sex of this one, but it's been fun so far. I even got a bribery letter from my grandparents today, it was so cute. It's going to be hard though being around our family next week, especially because here at the house we've been calling baby by it's gender and talking to Alli about her future little brother. Or wait, is it her future little sister? It's also hard to believe this pregnancy is halfway over. It's flown by, and I've absolutely loved feeling the flutters and movements in my belly again. We're just having trouble figuring out names again. We had a few girl and boy names we liked, but we're still not sold on them. I guess we still have some time to figure that out.

Alli has been growing and becoming more of a toddler every day. She laughs and is SO ticklish, it's more than entertaining to tickle her and hear her giggle and giggle. Both of her bottom molars are now in, meaning she's up to ten teeth. My goodness. She should be eating steak by now! Her top left will probably be in by the end of the week too. She loves to take off her socks and shoes, and then try to put them back on too saying "shuuuues, shuuuues." She likes to "ssssss" like a snake, "woof woof" like a dog, "quack quack" like a duck, and "woof woof" for anything that looks remotely like a dog (as in, horse, reindeer, etc.) Ha. We'll teach her. She's getting even better at "telling us" what she wants by pointing, babbling and nodding her head when we get the right thing that she wants. I can't believe how big she's getting. I feel like we say that all the time, but, it's true. We go back to the doctor with her on Thursday to see how her ears are doing. We're hoping for the best!

And, that's all for now folks. Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the holiday season.

Whew!

What a week or so this has been for us. Where to begin? Let's try the beginning...

After Alli's lovely reaction to her medication this past weekend, I was hoping that things wouldn't get any worse. Well, it's been a roller coaster ride this week to say the least. Alli finally started improving Monday and Tuesday, and has been her normal happy self ever since. Her rash has all but disappeared and she's been on her normal sleeping/napping schedule all week. Mommy B and I felt a couple molars break the surface of her gums last night, so add those to the list of things she had to be miserable about. I swear this kid's going to need braces by the time she's 5 years old. But I'm glad to see she's back to her happy, healthy self. It broke my heart to see her in pain like that.

Wednesday rolled around, and it was Mommy B's turn to be under the weather. She was having hot and cold flashes, felt terrible and achy and was running a low-grade fever. Not good for a pregnant lady. Her doctor said they thought she was just exhausted and needed to rest - so that's what she did. She came home from work early and took some medicine and hit the bed. I picked Alli up from daycare and tried to entertain her that evening so Mommy B could sleep. Then Mommy B did something she hasn't done in over 5 years - called out sick from work. We decided it would be in her best interest to take the day off and try to sleep in and get rested. Well, what a difference a good night's sleep makes.

As I took Alli to daycare Thursday morning, the coolant light came on in my car. I figured it was probably about time to add some more for the winter, so I came home and popped the hood. It was at that time I noticed some coolant leaking onto the garage floor. I began jacking up the car to take a better look, and that's when something on my rear tire caught my eye. I examined my tire to find out that the tread was literally separating from the sidewall. Well, merry friggin' Christmas to me - looks like I know what I'm getting this year!

I put some more coolant in the car and limped it over to have new rear tires put on. $370 later, I'm riding smooth again. It's still leaking a little coolant, but I'll see what I can do myself to fix it before I go drop a couple hundred more to have someone else fix it. So I guess it was a good thing Mommy B was home yesterday to cart me around. I basically called off work too, so we decided to finish up some shopping while my car was being worked on.

With Mommy B feeling better and my car finally safe to drive, we headed off to our anatomy ultrasound together. Everything looked as healthy as can be and we're tracking one day off our expected due date, which is awesome. We actually decided to find out what we're having this time around, but we're going to keep it a secret until they're born. I asked Mommy B if she was up to the challenge of keeping a secret for another 4+ months, and she said she could do it. We didn't find out what Alli was going to be at all, and it was a great surprise the day she was born. But I have to say, I'm pretty happy we decided to find out early on #2. This way we get to start picking names and begin the bonding process even earlier - which is pretty cool.

So as you can tell, things have been all over this week for all of us. Hopefully we're in for some smoother waters this weekend - it would be nice to actually put some ornaments on our Christmas tree.

Cartoon of the Week

Only 17 days until Christmas is here! And only 12 until we head back to Ohio for the holidays for the first time since we've moved down here to Charleston... so excited for Alli to see everyone again and maybe even see some snow??

Maybe we'll actually decorate the tree today... it's only been sitting up in our living room for 4 days now, bare, with no decorations and the only love it's gotten is from a nosy dog named Scarlett who likes to lick the sap off the tree and break the bottom branches. We've had a tree in the house every year since we've had her... what's the deal dog????

Can we catch a break?

Yesterday morning, I woke up not feeling the greatest. I just chalked it up to me still adjusting to these new hours, not really eating the greatest dinners the last few nights, and just being overly tired from Alli not feeling great over the weekend. Once I got to work, I continued to feel just "not quite right", had the chills, and eventually, a co-worker took my temperature and it was 101.6. They told me to go home and get better. So, off I went. I called the OB office, just to let them know my symptoms... achy, chills, fever, exhausted, and told them my situation of the new job, Alli being sick, etc. They told me they thought I was probably just overly exhausted, as pregnancy can take a lot out of you as well, and to go home, take some Tylenol, drink plenty of fluids and rest. I slept on and off all day yesterday... thank God for my wonderful husband who picked up Alli from daycare, took care of her all afternoon, and me, as he ran to the grocery, got the essentials for a sick wife (Gatorade, Sprite, grilled cheese & tomato soup!), and proceeded to give Alli a bath and put her to bed. To say I'm thankful and grateful for him would be an understatement.

Today, I woke up with a lot more energy, although now with a sore throat. I took the day off to re-coup, and hope that I'm ready to go back in tomorrow to finish out the week. I'm hoping I'm through the worst of it, and we have our appointment today with the OB so we can talk about everything then. We also have our anatomy ultrasound this afternoon, which Eric and I are so excited for. We can't wait to see our little baby M!

Now let's hope for some good vibes and no more sickness for this house!!

Time for a rally!

No, I'm not talking about the "Occupy Wall Street" kind of rally. I pity those dumb, hippy protesters camping out with their signs thinking their grassroots campaign is going to change the well-oiled machine that is the American economic system. In the words of Dr. Phil, "How's that workin' out for ya?" Changing the world, are ya? Yeah, didn't think so...

Anyway, I'm talking about the turn-your-hat-inside-out, momentum-swing-in-the-opposite-direction, bring-out-the-rally-monkey type of rally. That's right, we're no longer down-in-the-dumps defeated like Mommy B's last post. Alli woke up yesterday morning and her rash had significantly subsided. You could still see them, but we can tell they are well on their way to healing up. She acted as if nothing was wrong all day long while at daycare, and was great last night too. She got her usual sleep the last two nights, and was looking even better this morning.

So, I think Sunday was the worst of it and we're finally out of the woods. Another piece of good news is that she hasn't been grabbing her ears at all and hasn't had a single drop of snot since Saturday. We go back to the doctor next week for one last checkup on her ears, and if things look good she can get the last of her one-year shots (only a couple months behind, no big deal).

Yes, the Christmas tree is still bare, but at least our little Alli Ru is feeling better! We'll probably have to wait until she falls asleep each night before we can work on decorating it, otherwise I have a feeling she'll be a little too eager to help, if you know what I mean and I think you do. Even though there still appears to be some teeth popping through soon, things are finally settling down a bit and returning to some resemblance of normalcy.

AND... only 19 more days until Mommy B's favorite holiday of the year... CHRISTMAS!

Defeated

Alli woke up today with a rash/blisters on her face, elbows and diaper area. The ones around her butt... ugh, let's just say, I cried right along with her today while she was trying to go #2. They look so painful, I can't even imagine. We think this all came from the antibiotic course we got Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. She had Rocephin shots three days in a row in hopes of kicking the ear infection in the butt and getting rid of it once and for all. However, it seems like she's experiencing an allergic reaction of some sort. She's still eating, no fever, just these blisters. We also can feel her two bottom molars trying to make their way through right now (great timing, teeth.)

To say I (we) feel defeated would be an understatement. On Saturday, we were as high as a kite, went to get the Christmas tree, went to the Daniel Island Festival to grab a few Christmas presents, went to the Parade of Boats on Charleston Harbor... it was a busy day but she had a great time. Today comes around, and here we are, down and defeated. Neither of us have showered today, we've gotten nothing accomplished, and our bare tree still sits in the living room with neither of us really feeling the spirit or the energy to decorate it. At least Alli's afraid to go anywhere near it (don't know if that's really a good thing, but it's good that she doesn't want to touch it!), but needless to say, we haven't gotten far with the decorating. We're hoping the blisters get better by tomorrow, or at least not any worse... if Eric thinks they are bad in the morning we'll try to take her back to the doctor tomorrow afternoon. We're trying to stay positive... she has had absolutely no snot, which she was having a lot of before, and maybe the antibiotic is working, despite it's other effects on her. It's just defeating to try something that you hope will be the right choice for your baby, and then this happens. And what if she still has the ear infection when we take her back in a few weeks? Then we put her through all this for nothing. It breaks my heart.

Hopefully things start looking up... it's been a rough day.

Cartoon(s) of the Week

The first one made me laugh because it's exactly how Mommy B and I felt up until last week. It seemed like everyone else was getting into the "smart phone" market and we were getting left behind. Even my dad has a Droid X-Y-Z something-or-other... and he's almost 60! Mommy B and I got tired of telling people that we couldn't get whatever they were sending us because we still had "dumb" phones.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't really see the need to get rid of my old one - but if Mommy B was going to get an iPhone (thanks to Alli giving her old phone a bath in dog's water dish), I might as well get one too. I'm still getting used to it, but Mommy B has already downloaded a dozen apps and will randomly say "Name an actor who's famous for dancing in movies. Quick, I only have 10 seconds left in Fast Money!" Damn you Family Feud app, you've already turned my wife into a phone zombie...

I stumbled across the second cartoon yesterday and it instantly reminded me of Scarlett. In case you can't read it, the first frame says "Rover, do your business" as the dog goes flying out the door. The second frame is Rover happily sitting next to a sign that reads "Dog kisses 5¢" Even though Rover appears to be a Lab of some type, I have to say that our Golden is quite the lover dog too.

My parents stopped by our house for a couple days this past weekend to get an Alli Ru "fix" (because we're only 9 hours away, ya know) and Scarlett was in heaven. She loved jumping on my parent's bed in the morning as if to say "Hey! The little human is awake and so am I, that means it's time to get up!" And given that the combined surface area of my father's hands could cover a small village from a rain storm, she was thoroughly enjoying some good ol' fashioned butt rubs. Any time he put his hands on her, her tail would start going 'round and 'round like a wind-up toy.

Even though she's still getting used to not being the only child anymore, we still love our li'l rescue dog... crimpies and all.

13 months old, 18 weeks along, 2 new phones, 3 shots of Rocephin...

Whew... I know we're behind on posting. It's been a crazy few weeks with me starting my new job and getting adjusted to the new schedule, hours and routine. I'm now working in the pediatric holding area, where we prep and prepare patients before they go into surgery. That being said, the OR usually gets started around 7:30am, meaning the patients need to be there at least two hours early to get registered, IV's or medication if necessary, consent signed, paperwork up to date, meet with the surgeon and anesthesia team, etc. My new hours are 5:30am to 2pm. It's a love and hate relationship... I am not too fond of getting up at 4am each morning, but clocking out by 2pm and getting Alli from day care each day makes up for it. And getting to have dinner as a family, bath time as a family, and putting her to bed as a family... nothing beats that.

Alli turned 13 months old this past weekend, and to say she's growing and learning and amazing us more every day would be an understatement. She weighs in at about 21 lbs now, and is literally running all over the place. We had our first "conference" at school to check in and see how she's doing, and the teachers say she's right on track. She will play by herself for quite a while, loves putting things in containers, taking things out of containers, stacking, pounding, etc. She is quite the ham, loves smiling and laughing... especially giggling for her daddy, and loves to be tickled. Pointing to things she wants is a new favorite too... which we've actually really started to enjoy as well, as it makes it much easier to figure out what she wants or needs. She's very "talky", just rambles and babbles on and on. She's just a constant busy body. But that's okay, it keeps us on our toes!

Speaking of her being into everything and keeping us on our toes... Alli decided that Thanksgiving Day was a good day for my phone to take a bath in Scarlett's water dish. Needless to say, Dad-E and I got to venture out with her on Black Friday (what a treat!) to the Verizon store. It was time for our 2 year contract to be up anyway, so we got to sign a new contract, got a discount on new phones... and finally joined the "smart phone" world. We weren't planning on it when we got there, but the video and picture quality on our new i-phones are amazing.. and with Alli growing, running, talking and as goofy as she is, we don't want to miss a minute. We won't want to miss a thing for baby M #2's arrival and growing either.

And speaking of Baby M, we're just flying right along in this pregnancy! We're 18 and 1/2 weeks along now... and have our big anatomy ultrasound scheduled for next Thursday. We're so excited to finally get to see our little one through ultrasound, and make sure all is going well. We will keep everyone updated!

And speaking of healthy babies and wanting all to be well, our poor Alli Ru has been fighting an ear infection since her birthday. We honestly didn't even know she had one, and the doctor took one look and said it was a "raging" ear infection and needed to be treated with antibiotics. So, we did our 10 day course of Amoxicillin, went back to the doctors 2 weeks later, it was still bad, started our 10 day course of Omnicef, went back yesterday, and the doctor rates it a 7/10 on the "bad-ness" scale. So, now we do a 3 day course of IM Rocephin (shots), and go back in two weeks again to see how things are looking. IF the Rocephin didn't help, we will then need to meet with an ENT specialist and see about getting tubes placed. It's just emotional for me, I think because I now work in the area where we see all the patients and families get prepared for surgery. I know she'll be fine, we have some of the best doctors here at MUSC, and I just want her healthy. She never seems to be "sick", still eats like a champ, doesn't pull on her ears, etc... so it's hard to say we want her "better" when it doesn't feel or seem like she's sick.

So, there you have it. Our life in a nutshell this past week... I know you've missed us. =)