Beautiful Blogger

My lovely friend Desi, from Oliva Carolyn (go check out her blog!)nominated for this Beautiful Blogger award.  Desi is a dear friend and her daughter, Liv, is just a few day younger than Arianna.  That being said, we have spent our fair share of Friday nights chatting on Skype about the newest phases that our adorable daughters are going through :)

With this award I'm supposed to do the following:
1. Thank the person who nominated me for the award.
2. Copy the award and place it on my blog.
3. Link the person who nominated me for this award.
4. Share 7 interesting things about myself.
5. Nominate 7 other beautiful bloggers.

Here are 7 things about me...I will let you decide whether they are interesting or not :)

1. I was born in Washington state and raised in California, then Illinois. 

2. I met Jeremy, my fiance (and Ari's Daddy) in the DORMS :)

3. Jeremy proposed at 5 AM the morning of my (first) baby shower.  It was so cute and such a shock!

4. Ever since the first day of Arianna's life, I found myself thinking about how excited I was for the second baby(weird, I know).  I still think about this all the time and I really looking forward to the next one :)

5. I am a teacher for Early Head Start. The teacher title is kind of misleading in my opinion, I am more like a caseworkerfor families with children ages 0-3.   I have 7 families that I do weekly home visits with, and I like my job, a lot. 

6. I double majored.  I have a degrees in Early Childhood Development and Psychology.  If  I ever went back to school, I woud love to be on OB nurse.  I love babies and the whole birthing experience.  I am horrible and science and math, so if I couldn't do this, I would get my Master's in Social Work.   

7. I am an only child.  Most people tell me that they "knew" this right away, after a single conversation with me.  Not sure if that's a good thing or not..lol

Here are some blogs I love...Some are friends and some are random people, whose lives I like to read about :) Either way, I check all of these on a daily basis.  And I'm only doing 6 :)

 Twice Blessed

Harper's Happenings

The Momologues

Dear Baby

Motherhood Uncensored

Baby Foreste

Sick Again..

I have had no time to update lately because we have a sick baby and a sick dog too! We have had 3 doctors visits, one trip to the ER and 2 vet visits in the past 3 weeks. Arianna was wheezing and have a tough time breathing on Tuesday night, we headed to the ER and she was tested for RSV and Influenza. Luckily, both came back negative and we were told she had a bad cold. She just got off a ten day course of antibiotics last Thursday for sinus and ear infections. So, she wasn't any better by this morning and had a high fever, again. So, after another trip to the Dr., we found out that she has another ear infection and is now on a different type of antibiotics. This will be the 3rd one she has been on in 2 weeks. Poor girl. I have to smile though because she saw a different Dr. than her normal one, and he is usually very straight-faced and to the point and Jeremy said he kept talking about what a great, happy baby Ari was, and that most 6 month old scream while their ears are being messed with and Arianna just smiled at him the whole time :) I don't know if ear problems are hereditary, but I had them a lot when I was younger...and Jeremy had none. Although, his sister had them quite often. Hopefully Arianna will get better soon...and stay better for a while. Our dog, Josie has a really bad UTI (we noticed she was peeing blood last week)and after urine samples and X-rays(and lots of $$$), she is being treated with antibiotics. The vet ordered more for us and wants us to give her a second course of them since the UTI is so bad. In addition to all that, my car had an $800 problem last week which just added to the stress. Wedding planning is also another stressful part of my days...It's NOT fun. At all. In fact, if we hadn't already paid a number of down payments on different things for it, I would consider calling it off and just getting married at the courthouse. Honestly. What a pain in the ass. There are a few more things I could complain about but I will stop now. I am glad that Ari and Josie are both on the road to recovery. Hopefully things get a little bit better next week. I should mention that Desi and Liv came to town with Desi's Mom, and we went to visit them at their hotel and took the girls swimming. It was fun and the water was much warmer than the water at the YMCA. Our friend Kira was in town too, so she got to see Arianna again. It had been quite a while, probably since Arianna was like 2 months old and if I remember correctly, she slept the entire time. It was good to see Kira and we did some reminiscing about our trip to Miami and all the shenanigans that went on while we were there:) :) We had a funnnn girls night out on Saturday for Megan, Desi and Dani's birthday's. Our night started out with a pure romance at Dani's and ended at Flannigans, the local dive/karaoke bar, haha. Oh wait, it ended after Desi, Dani, Kira and I made a 3:00 Taco Bell run, lol. It was a really good time and it was great to be around all the girls again, like old times. What wasn't so great was getting up the next morning at 8:00 with lively and energetic 6 month old. I can say with certainty that I miss quite a few close friends that don't live in Marquette anymore...I think part of me also misses that stage in my life too. I don't think it would be the same if everyone still lived here because we all(most of us) have grown up jobs now and we wouldn't be going out 3 nights a week like we used to. But, I really do miss a number of people that used to be daily fixtures in my life up here..

ANYWAYS...We are looking forward to getting a walker for Ari, we think she will get a lot of use out of it. She loves to stand and right now she spends a lot of time in her Jumperoo. I looked at the consignment store and they had one there, but she was charging $40 for it. Granted it was a nice one that I am pretty sure is priced at around $70 at Target, but I know you can get a brand new walker for about $50, so I thought $40 was a little high.
Ari's 6 month appt. last week went well, I didn't get to go because my loaner car had a dead batter so I was stuck in Munising at work until 4 PM. Her head isn't flat on the back anymore, and you can't even tell where her bald spot was. She needs more tummy time (she hates it) and everything else looked great. I don't have the paper in front of me but she was either 24 or 25 inches tall, which is in the 25th percentile and she weighs around 16 lbs., which was the 50th-75th percentile. I don't remember her head size, but it was average. She is getting really good at holding her sippy cup and she is enjoying any solid foods we give her. She particularly loves applesauce and peas. My Mom just sent up a bunch of organic baby food that comes in bags instead of jars and some organic applesauce that was pink, which I have never seen before. It was really good though! Arianna ate the whole jar. A few hours later when we gave her Tylenol for her fever, she also threw it all up..but at least she enjoyed it on the way down. She also threw up this morning when I tried to give her Tylenol. Not sure what that is all about. In the package from my Mom were a whole bunch of cute clothes from Baby Gap. Thanks!! It was a nice surprise! We are looking forward to seeing Lynn and Pat Jacobson tomorrow morning, they are making a trip up to Marquette to see us and Pat will get to meet Arianna for the first time ever. We are planning on going out for an Upfront Fish Fry later that day. YUM. That's all for now, who knows when I will be able to update again.

XOXO

And the Sneeze Gets the Laugh

6 months and a Letter to Arianna Lynn

Even though it's 2 days early, I am doing the 6 month post today, because we have a pretty busy weekend!

Arianna is has turned in to quite the bubbly and happy little baby. She isn't showing any signs of stranger anxiety yet and will happily be passed around to anyone who wants to hold her. She is sitting up on her own for the most part and enjoying the freedom of it! She likes every solid food we have tried so far; peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, and applesauce. She is pretty quiet, she coos a lot but hasn't learned how to scream or shriek yet! She chuckles softly, quite often, mostly when we kiss her belly or say silly things to her. She loves when I say the word Hank, in weird or funny voices. Haha, what a weird kid. She gets up on her knees during tummy time but doesn't succeed in scooting forward yet. As of last night, she successfully holds and drinks out of a sippy cup on her own! She sleeps through the night but is a terror when it comes to actually getting her to sleep at bedtime. We need to work on that! She prefers to sleep on her belly for naps and bedtime. She is pretty stubborn, like her Mom and Dad! She won't take naps at all while she is at daycare, unless she falls asleep in the swing, which is NOT allowed. So, as soon as they move her to a crib, she wakes up. She is at daycare 4 days a week from 12-4, so not too bad. They love her there, she is still the only girl and despite the fact that she won't nap, they always tell me how good she does and how she is still happy by 4 PM. Her teachers have also told me what a clean and neat eater she is. Funny, it isn't really like that at home! I love when I pick her up from daycare and she is hanging out with all the other babies in some sort of semi-circle and they are all babbling away and talking with eachother. This happens often and it is so CUTE. I guess I could say my favorite thing is when she gets so excited to see me walk through the door to pick her up from "school". Arianna loves to chew on her lower lip and she does it in most pictures! She also likes to suck on her two fingers, which lately are in her mouth ALL THE TIME! She doesn't always smile for me now, she likes to choose whether she wants to smile for Mom now. My old tricks that use to never fail me don't always work anymore! She loves to stare at the camera, especially the blinking light. Arianna loves kisses and makes the funniest faces when Daddy kisses her, probably because his facial hair tickles her! Sometimes it makes her mad and she cries, haha. She also likes to hold on really tight to me and bury her head in my neck when she is upset and it's nice knowing that simply being so close to her Mommy comforts her. She is loved by so many people and it shows in all the gifts that is always getting!! From my coworkers knitting her homemade hats and blankets to our college friends buying her cute clothes from the Skate Shop and Old Navy, to our parents friends and coworkers sending gifts from across the country, she is a spoiled girl! The last thing I will say is that Arianna is the sweetest most adorable baby in the world and it makes me excited for our next one!! I don't know if it's because she is so good or what, but it's all I think about :)



Dear Arianna,

I can't believe you are 6 months old already!! It has been a fun and exciting 6 months with you so far! You wouldn't believe how much time Daddy and I spend talking about how much we love you, how cute you are, how big you are getting, etc! We love you soooo much! You have come so far from being the sleepy little 4-week early baby that didn't open her eyes for her first month of life! I will tell you again, even though we tell you daily that you are the best thing to ever happen to us. Although we don't get as much sleep, and Daddy got rid of his X-Box and Mommy doesn't get to spend all her money shopping for herself anymore, we can't imagine what our lives would be like without you. You make us smile every single morning when you wake us up, no matter what time of night or morning it is. You are the most laid-back, cheerful little baby I have ever seen. We love you so much and can't wait to see what the next 6 months brings :)

Love,
Mommy


Get ready for picture overload! And, there will probably be a lot more after this weekend when my friend Desi comes to visit with Olivia! We are taking the girls swimming together at the hotel pool. My gosh, it makes my heart melt just thinking about the two of them splashing around in their swimsuits :)

Still Sick Baby...

So I updated last week and talked about Arianna's sinus and ear infections. Well, she had a really high fever this weekend, like 102.5 on Saturday. So I called the on call pediatrician (not our normal one, but from the same office) and he talked to me about giving her Motrin and Tylenol and alternating the doses bla bla bla. I told him her current weight (16 lbs!!) and he gave me the correct amount of each to give her. He said if her fever doesn't go away, to bring her in on Monday. Well, she had a high fever for the rest of the weekend, into Monday morning. So I made an appt. and had Jeremy bring her in. The Dr. first said that the Amoxicillin wasn't working at all, so she will be put on a new antibiotic that tastes awful. She then told Jeremy to never mix Motrin and Tylenol (even though LOTS of people do this). She also told him that the dosages we had been giving her were completely wrong. This irritated me. It's not the first time that 2 doctors from the office have told us completely different things. Get your shit together, so you are at least telling parents the same stuff. That's what I have to say about that. So, I went to give her the first dose of this new antibiotic on Mon. and she barfed everywhere. All over me and everything. She threw up everything that was in her belly. Awesome. So I call the Dr. office AGAIN and tell them, and ask them if I should give her another dose or what. They said no and that next time I need to give it to her over a 10 minute period of time (it's only a 1/2 teaspoon full). Well this was a huge pain but I managed to do it. She gagged each time I gave her a little bit, but managed to keep it all down. So I was happy that we were successful and I tossed the old antibiotic into the garbage and went to bed.

Fast foward to this morning. Jeremy called me at working asking where her medicine was. I said, "the fridge..". He told me that he could only find the old one in the fridge. WHOOPS. I had thrown the new meds away on accident the night before. LOng story short, they were out of the fridge for 12 hours and "ruined". Jeremy had to pack up the baby before he went to work this morning and go to th pharmacy AGAIN. Won't make that mistake again! Hopefully her meds start to kick in and her ear and sinus infection FINALLY go away.

XOXO

Swimming!

Arianna had her first Parent and Tot swim class at the YMCA today. Jeremy and I got her all packed up and headed there at about 10:30 this morning. We had a lot of fun..The water wasn't too warm, so I could see why she yelled at first, but by the end of the class she was fine, as long as she had her little green frog toy in her hand. Here are some pictures and videos! She was tired and due for a bottle so she wasn't in the greatest of moods but she didn't scream the whole time, so it's all good. By the way she is feeling much better and is pretty much back to her normal little self!

Sick Baby

So Arianna has had a stuffy nose for a few weeks now. We thought it was a cold but it's lasted for quite a while now. She hasn't been crabby at all, maybe once in a while at nighttime and we just attributed it all to teething. After a pretty rough night Monday, and a runny/congested nose that was still present, I decided to schedule a Dr.'s appt. She went in today with Jeremy while I was at work and I got a phone call from him afterward telling me that she has a sinus infection and ear infections in one ear for sure. The Dr. didn't even check the second ear because Arianna was screaming so loud from them having to hold her head down, and they already knew that she was going to go on antibiotics, so it just wasn't necessary. I feel so bad that our poor girl has been sick this whole time and we didn't know. Hopefully good ol' Amoxicillin will do the trick and heal her up quickly!

Solids!

Well, I am happy to say that I am feeling much better. Also, we could not be more grateful to our friends who helped with Ari this weekend since she was banned from being around me. I feel so accomplished, I made lots of homemade baby food today! I started with green beans this morning. It was just Arianna and I, Jeremy was taking a nap and she sat in her highchair and played/watched me the entire time! Now, as I have said before, we were waiting until 6 months to start solids (just a few weeks away) butttt... I kept looking at the pureed organic green beans and Ari was just staring at me, like she knew that it was yummy food...so I went in the bedroom and talked to Jeremy and told him I was going to let her try some. He was so tired from this hellish weekend that he said it was all good and went back to sleep. I called my parents on Skype so they could see Ari's first taste of real food (and the new highchair) and Ari tried green beans! She really liked them and it was super cute. She kept grabbing the spoon and chewing on it and of course the green beans were everywhere. I didn't take a video but I managed to snap a few pictures with my phone! So, this week is green beans and as you can see in the picture I have a whole tray of sweet potatoes that we will be trying next week. Then peas and carrots.

Other Ari news..she is getting better each day at sitting up! If you look at the first picture, there is nothing around her even helping her sit up. I can't believe how old she looks.. It's crazy she she will be 6 months old in just a few weeks! She is still sleeping like a champ and did great spending the night at two different houses this weekend ::deep sigh of relief:: At least our friends won't be scared to take her again if they ever have to. I was a little nervous that she would have them up all night because her routine was all thrown off. But, I think this is one of the good parts of not being on a super strict routine, is that the baby is able to adjust easily to new situations. Oh, she liked to put herself to sleep by chewing on a blanket (weirdo) but she is going down much easier than she has in the last few months, so it's great for us!
Arianna is still liking daycare (we think) and she gets lots of attention there (still the only girl). We love when they send home little art projects that the babies did at "school". So cute :) So, I will leave you with some pictures while we get back to baby food making and football.

XOXO

New Year's and a Sick Mama

So sorry that it has been so long since a blog update! First of all, I want to make sure and thank Jeremy's Mom, Lynn and her family for watching Ari for the long New Year's weekend. It allowed Jeremy and I to work and make lots of money New Year's Eve and we also got to hang out with our good friends who were in town that weekend. Arianna has been doing great. She still has a little cold but I heard thatit is pretty normal to get sick a few times right after starting daycare. I went out and bought a bunch of organic veggies on Thursday, the first step in the process of homemade babyfood. I went to the Co-Op in Marquette and they had everthing on my list, except butternut squash. Sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, and for some reason I am forgetting the rest. Haha, oh well. We were also suprised with a high chair that arrived on our doorstep on Wednesday, thanks to my Mom and Paul! We love it and so does Ari!! Now, for the reason that I have not been able to start making baby food yet...

I had Red Lobster with few coworkers for lunch yesterday and picked up Ari from daycare right afterward arond 3. We came home and layed on the bed to take a nap together. Around 4, I woke up to a really bad stomachache. I have never thrown up so many times in my life. Luckily, I told Mandi and she and Sara were over to to the house in a matter of minutes to get Ari out of here in case it was the flu. Jeremy was at work and Mandi was able to get a hold of him to clue him in. At this point I had a fever and couldn't keep anything down. He sent Megan to the house to scoop me up for a trip to the ER. They filled me with fluids and did lots of tests. At first they thought it was for sure the flu but I guess some of the labwork came back with some weird results and now they are thinking salmonella or food poisoning. We will know in a few days. Megan stayed with me at the ER while Jeremy got out of work and got more baby supplies ready to bring to Mandi's since the Doctor told us to keep the baby away from me and our house if possible. Mandi was nice enough to keep Ari overnight and now Kristen and her Mom are watching her today since Jeremy had to go into work for a few hours. Sorry if I am rambling haha, but I am pretty tired and not thinking as straight as I usually do. Anyways, I am feeling much better now and I am sooo thankful for our friends who were so quick to help us out. Thanks guys :) I will try to update with some pictures soon!

5 months (a day late)

Merry Christmas to all!

We we had a big winter storm headed for Marquette, so when the time came to leave to go see Jeremy's family in Menominee, (2 hours south), we decided against it. We were going to be there the 24th-25th. So, we had a quiet and low-key Christmas Eve here in Marquette yesterday. We made homemade pizzas and had a few drinks :) Our baby that usually sleeps 12++ hours per night was up on and off every few hours until about 1. Jeremy said it was all the anticipation for Christmas Day, ha ha. We all woke up around 8:30 AM and Jeremy had hives all over his body. He also was ver naseaus and got sick a few times. He took Benadryl for the hives and went back to bed. He is still sleeping...
So, Arianna and I hung out, took a walk to get the mail (see pink snowsuit picture), took some 5 month pics and now she is sleeping. What a quiet Christmas morning! My parents are flying in from Chicago tonight, their flight comes in around 9:30. Hopefully it is able to land in Marquette, our storm warning lasts until about 7:00 PM tonight. It will be nice to finally see some members of our family.

So....

5 MONTHS!!!
Here's what's going on:

-Arianna still tries to put anything and everything in her mouth. all. day. long. It's funny actually, although I will say that Jeremy got me a new North Face jacket, which is black..well this is not a good color when you have a drooling, teething, infant. It has white stains ALL over it, haha.

-We are working on sitting up, it seems as though we are still pretty far from being able to sit up without a boppy behind her back though. This doesn't bother me at all, like I have said before, I am not really one to rush milestones.

-No teeth yet, tons and tons of drool though, we pretty much have to have a bib on at all times now. This used to be for spit-up, which has gotten much better, but then the drool started.

-Arianna shrieks and yells now, not in a bad way, very happy sounds, it's just loud!!


-I think her favorite spot/time is her changing table. She is always so happy on there, and if she is crying, no matter how hard, she always stops when she is put up there.

-That brings me to my next point, diaper changes are becoming increasingly difficult. Arianna wiggles and kicks, tries to roll and grab everything in sight; her feet, the diaper, your hair, your shirt, her shirt, etc. wigglebunns is what we call her :)

-Still in size 3-6 months clothes for most stuff, I think she will fit into 6 months clothes soon though.

That's all for now, here are some pictures of our cute (not so)little peanut

Just Hangin' Out in My Robe

Just Hangin' Out in My Robe

Quick Update

Here are some recent pictures. Arianna is such a goof. I love her crooked little smile. For those who are wondering, we aren't giving her solids until 6 months. Our pediatrician said it's best for the babies' immune systems and and lessens the chance of allerg issues if you wait. There is lots of research out there to support all of that, so it's fine by us. Not to mention, Ari is doing fine with gaining weight, eating, sleeping, etc. I am not really in a rush to start solids. Little Peanut let me sleep until 9:20 AM today. It was so nice :) That's all for now.

Awww

So, some of these are from a few weeks ago, she just happened to be wearing the same PJ's as she was tonight. But, she can feed herself an entire bottle now!! Without help! Of course we don't force her to do this and we still cuddle her at every feeding..the pictures in her crib were just because I wanted to really see if she could do it with no assistance a few weeks ago. Aw, Peanut's getting so old!

Phew.

Arianna is back to napping. At least 2 very long naps a day. Now, instead of rocking her to sleep, which takes longer and longer as she gets older, I put her on her belly. She usually fusses and little and passes right now. Lately she coos herself to sleep. It's pretty funny, sometimes it will go on for up to 15 minutes or so. Here are 2 videos of her making her little noises.


-

Another thing, she loves to stare at the TV. There are so many pictures of her where she is gazing so peacefully, and it's because there TV is on in the background. I try to turn it off as much as possible when she is awake. I am pretty sure that Jeremy doesn't, haha. The reason I bring this up is because we had a meeting at work a few weeks ago and this topic was discussed at great lengths. I always knew that kids weren't supposed to watch any TV at all if they are under 2 years of age, but I never really knew why. I know that Arianna isn't actually watching the shows, it's obviously just the light and sounds that she likes, and I don't blame her. Before I sum up everything I learned in my meeting, let me add that I got 4 e-mails from various people/coworkers a few weeks ago about the nationwide recall on Baby Einstein DVD's. Not as good for babies as everyone thought. I always thought they were cute. They play catchy little songs and show chickens and firetrucks and other random objects on the screen. So, at this meeting, this is what I learned :

-more likely to have delayed language skills

-TV overstimulates the infant brain

-Time in front of a TV takes away from time when baby could be interacting with others/toys/etc. (come on though, we all know it's not possible to play with and interact with your baby for all of their waking hours, especially working Mom's who have to shower and get presentable looking)

-adult words are almost completely eliminated when the TV is on in the room and for every hour it's on, children hear something like 500-1000 less words from adults..this explains the correlation to the language delays

-linked to ADHD (so are a lot of things)

These two excerpts came from the e-mails that were sent to me

TV watching "rewires" an infant’s brain, says Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis lead researcher and director of the Child Health Institute at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Wash. The damage shows up at age 7 when children have difficulty paying attention in school. "In contrast to the way real life unfolds and is experienced by young children, the pace of TV is greatly sped up." says Christakis. His research appears in the April 2004 issue of Pediatrics. Quick scene shifts of video images become "normal," to a baby "when in fact, it’s decidedly not normal or natural." Christakis says. Exposing a baby’s developing brain to videos may overstimulate it, causing permanent changes in developing neural pathways.


"Even a child playing with its own fingers has the neural patterning that comes from bending, flexing, stretching and grasping. Scientists tell us that the brain develops in completely unique ways between birth and three years. As a kiddie viddie baby sits "mesmerized", neural paths are not being created. This is crucial brain development that stops by age three."

WOW. There was so much more too, but I really don't remember it all and I kind of feel like I am writing a research paper, haha. So, I feel a little guilty. Not that Ari is parked in front of a TV all the time, but all the material we were given said even small amounts of time in front of the TV can be detrimental. I will say that it was pretty nice to be able to set her bumbo seat on the floor with the TV within her view, and know that I could go put my makeup on, make the bed, take the dogs out to pee, etc. I guess I will be trying even harder now to keep her from watching it. It's such a good babysitter though haha..I am sure it will be even harder when she is 1-2 and LOVES cartoons. Oh well, at least I learned something useful at work, that I can apply to my own life. Even though it's kind of depressing.