Daddy!

Daddy made it! He was like a celebrity this weekend!  These videos are from his first few minutes home!

There was lots of this:

p.s. Sally hasn't even tried to get on the kitchen chairs this weekend...hopefully it stays like that for quite some time!

Exactly where I'm suppose to be

At Yoga our instructor often says, "You're exactly where you're suppose to be." Yes, Yes I am. I'm exactly where I'm suppose to be.  I think about that when I get to greet Sally in the morning. I think about that when I get to share breakfast, lunch and dinner with her.  I think about that when I feel a little flutter of excitement when we know Daddy's home. I think about that on the rare occasions{this is Daddy's special time} I get to be the one to put Sally to bed and those last few silent moments of the day where we're just rocking and snuggling, there really is no greater feeling.  I know I'm exactly where I'm suppose to be when we're in Church and the Homily seems to be directed right to me, or that we meet new couples at church who we have numerous coincidences with, like having had an 8am college class together.

I especially thought about it yesterday, as I was sitting at Children's Hospital Urgent Care waiting room.  No, it definitely wasn't where I wanted to be, but I knew it was exactly where I was suppose to be. I was suppose to be there, because I'm a mom and a mom is there to care, comfort and calm her child when they need you most.

Sally loves to stand on the chair at the kitchen table.  She's been doing it for a while.  However, when she tries to climb on the table she gets in big trouble.  She knows this.  When she starts to get up on the chair and I give her, the look,she smiles and says "SIT DOWN!" She knows, oh, she knows.  Yesterday morning, she wasn't climbing on the table, but she was standing on the chair.  The chair got pushed away from her feet and she fell.  On the way down she hit her head on the chair and then landed on her back hitting her head on the hardwood floor.  She's fallen before.  She's cried before.  I like to believe myself to be a fairly calm mother who doesn't overreact about the little bumps and bruises that happen.  They're going to happen.  She can't live in a bubble.  However, this cry was different.  It wasn't just a cry because she got scared, or she needed an extra kiss and squeeze from her mama.  This cry was full of pain. I grabbed her blankie and boo boo bunny and we snuggled on the couch and watched Elmo.  She didn't cry hard for long, but her whimpers lasted a little longer than normal.  I moved her arms, legs and head around to make sure she didn't break anything.  She was fine.  About 10 minutes after her fall she jolted up and the split second before it happened, I knew, I knew she was about to throw up everywhere.  She did. 

Then I started to turn on survival mode.  Long story short, she's fine.  After waiting at Children's for two and a half hours, TWO AND A HALF HOURS!! The Doctor said she was fine.  He didn't need to run any tests all signs showed she just had a bad fall and threw up because of the excitement of it all.  She didn't have a concussion because she would  have needed to throw up more than once and wouldn't have been able to keep food down.  She didn't have anything going on internally because she didn't show any signs of being tried or dizzy or slurred speech.  The doctor said, "If anything this fall served her well, she's one of the more advanced toddlers I have seen in quite some time.  Are you sure she's not two yet?"

Around the two hour mark, Sally kept coming to me and saying "Bye Bye." I know, I wanted to leave too, but I told her we had to see the doctor first.  When we finally saw the doctor, Sally looked at him said, "HIIIII Doctor!" Looked to me and said , "Bye Bye Now Mommy."  In her mind, she saw the doctor, now let's get out of here!  She performed all of her tricks for him so that we could get out of there as soon as possible.  We will follow up with our pediatrician on Monday, otherwise, we're good to go!

I feel the worst for Reid.  How helpless he must have felt being an airplane ride away.  We did our best to keep him at ease by sending him pictures and videos throughout the whole process.  It'll sure feel good to have him home tonight and we can rest in his arms and let all our worries float away.  It'll be exactly where we're suppose to be.  Back together again!

Here's a picture of us waiting to see the doctor.  I think this was only the one hour mark.

Here's a quick video we sent to Daddy...about 15 minutes before she fell.

Here's to hoping for a drama free weekend!

Double Time

Since we're going on the 4th day without Daddy, we thought we'd do a post that involved him...only one more sleep!

Here's what happens when Mommy is gone working out and Daddy and Sally have dinner together...



Boots

Sally loves putting her boots on.  She thinks this means she gets to go outside and "walk."  She's also getting to the age where she has a voice about what she does and does not want to wear.  If she could, she'd wear 'dots' {polka dots} every day! She picked out the boots with this outfit and thought she was so silly!

"Did Mom really let me put these on in the house?!"

"Go Go Go Faaaast"

Here are my boots that Reid got me for my birthday.  They were wonderful last week when everything was melting.  Can we please go back to the melting weather?

We're hoping to find a pair for Sally for the Spring.  She wasn't able to walk last year at this time so it will be interesting to see how she does, come Spring and all the muddiness goodness...

Books

Sally loves her some books.  She had plenty of reading time over the past two days with all of the snow we received.  Here are her current favorites:

This one is filled with Nursery Rhymes.  She automatically turns to this page because she loves the "Girl." She'll hug her and kiss her and point out all of her parts.  My favorite is that Sally thinks she has mittens on because of the way her hands are drawn =)

Sally received this book from her Aunt Jane, she knows a good book when she spots one.  This is one of those books to help teach counting and each page has different items that you can pull off of the page.  Sally is very attached to the Kitty that is on the first page. She'll carry it around all day and ask to take a nap with it.  It's just a little piece of cloth.  She has been doing a great job of counting lately. 1-2-3-4-5-6-NINE!!! I think 9 is her favorite number, she's not too concerned about 7 and 8.  I'll have to remember that for when the day comes that she's trying to decide what number jersey she should pick for a sport.  A very important decision when you're in junior high!

Happy Reading!

**Only 3 more sleeps until Daddy gets home.  Let's pray for no more snow until then...or at least no more snow plows to come by...ooofta!

Answered Prayers

We got great news from our Doctor on Friday! Sally has outgrown her kidney reflux.  Let me repeat that, Sally has outgrown her kidney reflux! AMEN!!

We like our Urologist, Dr. Aliabodi. He has that sparkle in his eyes like Santa Claus.  From the first time we met him (July 2009), he's been very positive and encouraging.  He does a great job of putting his patients at ease.  Sally loves to repeat his name over and over.  When he walked in the room he had a big grin and said "It's gone, no more." He said he couldn't believe it himself.  He had to check and double check before he came to see us.  We "dodged his knife!"

Sally had reflux on both sides.  It's graded from 1-5, 5 being the worst.  Sally had a grade 2 on the right side and a 4 on the left side.  She's had this since I was 12 weeks pregnant (that is when these organs develop).  Last year, when there was no change, the likelihood of this being gone in a year was very slim.  The likelihood of someone outgrowing a grade 4 is very slim.  Needless to say, our prayers have been answered.

She finished her last dose of antibiotics yesterday.  I think she's going to be a little sad.  As I stated before, she loved to take her medicine.  Whenever I'd open the closet where her medicine is located she'd shout "Meddddacininine, Sit down!" She knew she would always need to sit down before I gave it to her.  Maybe I'll have to give her a dose of water in the little syringe each day =)

Here are a few pictures of the "easy" part of our day at the doctor.  She started with just an ultrasound to get some pictures of her kidneys.  We then moved to another room where she had to get a catheter, fill up her bladder, pee on the table, all the while being held down so they could get x-rays of the whole process.  She got her sucker, she didn't cry the entire time and by the time we walked out of the doors, she hadn't even remembered what had happened.  She was focused on making sure we were headed to Grandma's house next.

They had a TV perfectly positioned with "Sid the Science Kid" on

Getting her gown on, proud of her bracelet on her left arm!

Dumb snow shortened our trip home this weekend.  We decided to come back Saturday night to avoid getting stuck in the snow, or having a 4 hour trip back.

Girl's Week this week, Daddy is flying out to Tucson this morning...if it's not delayed...

Overcoming Fear with Faith

For the longest time Sally would not crawl through the tunnel. I was the last person to force her to go through...I'm claustrophobic.  She now has no fear and gets excited when it's time to take out the tunnels at ECFE.

Side note, we have a follow up for Sally's Kidney Reflux.  Here's where we were at last year.  This time around, it is much more telling, either she'll have surgery or she won't. I doubt there will be much more waiting. To help with her test today we're going to see if we can give her a sucker, something she doesn't often get, but can help her forget about what's going on around her and to her.

No matter what the results, we'll face it head on.  With a lot of faith and trust, we'll get through it.  It would be a whole lot worse!

We're off to visit Grandma, George, Nana and Grandpa after the Doctor's visit!  Happy Weekend!

Whaaale

I'm fortunate that two nights a week I get to sneak out and do workout classes with my Girlfriends.  Reid loves this alone time with Sally.  He usually has a funny story or a picture to share with me when I get home.  We've watched this video numerous times, you can't help but laugh! Enjoy!

Love and other things

We have a tradition of getting Famous Dave's for Valentine's Day.  The rational is that we don't want to try and navigate the busy restaurants, but we want to do something fun.  Since I'm such a great wife and I know that ribs are Reid's favorite meal we first decided on Famous Dave's and have continued to get it for four years now.  We usually get takeout, but we decided to venture out, especially since it's been so nice here!

It was great that Famous Dave's is a very kid-friendly place.  Sally had many kids to entertain and many kids to be entertained by.  She also loved that there were pigs everywhere!

My Valentine's!

Girlfriends!

He figured he better 'go big or go home,' and her certainly didn't want to go home!

You know you love being a mom when you go in the car without any kids and it takes you 10 minutes to realize you've been rocking out and singing to kids music.  You really know you love being a mom if this has happened on more than one occasion!

Love her and her giggles!

Very Blessed! xoxo

C is for Cookie!

I love this first picture. Sally had her buddy, Lucy, over for the Superbowl. Since it's kind of like a holiday we gave them dessert too. We told them to sit down and they could have a cookie.  I think we could have told them to roll over and play dead too =)

I've known for some time that Target gives out free cookies to kids.  I haven't taken Target up on that until last week.  Sally has a very good memory with associations.  She'll recognize where we are in the car and say what she's about to see.  Church=Jesus, ECFE=Lucy and Library=Goose (a Mother Goose stuffed animal at story time).  No matter how much time lapses between each visit, she'll remember.  So I don't want her to assume that every time we go to Target she gets a cookie.  On this particular visit she was extra antsy and I had an extra long list and Daddy was getting new contacts so I stooped to that level.  By the look on her face, she was glad I did!

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, how can you not share a treat on this day? Plus we got the cookies from our friends, Kyle and Laura.  Laura is a dietitian, so they must be healthy, and ok to eat in moderation, right Laura? =)

"I Looooooove Valentime's Day!"

Our Valentine!

Happy Heart's Day! Lots of pink, red and hearts today!

Sally has gotten some really cute headbands for gifts, however, she won't have anything to do with them.  I only got this headband in because I distracted her when I put it on.  3 seconds after this picture it was ripped off.

We hope you all have a wonderful love filled day! We're blessed to have so many people to love and care for as well as so many caring and loving for us!

p.s. Did you know yesterday was World Marriage Day? Give your significant other an extra smooch today ;)

One step at a time...

This is how Sally was, all day yesterday. So much to say! You can just see the wheels spinning, spitting out all the words she knows.

She's gone down the stairs a few times all by herself and never has it taken her this long.  I'm glad I was able to record our conversation, will be fun to look back at it some day!

**Happy Birthday to Marc, today! Happy Birthday to Joe Joe, tomorrow!  Happy Birthday to Laura, Sunday!**

Have a great weekend!

Bless You

Love this quick take of our caring little one.  Reid didn't believe me that she knew how and when to say "Bless You," so he does a fake sneeze.

Here's another video of her craziness right before bed when she gets to run around in her onesie. She knows she can't get away with much with two parents watching so she quickly delivers the forbidden remotes =)

21 months and a day

I didn't forget, I just didn't remember until after I had published the post yesterday.  Can you believe she's going to be two, TWO!, in just 3 short months? Can you believe we'll be well into Spring in just three short months?!

These two pictures show a lot of "progress."  First of all the hair, and then the fact that she can totally use a spoon, all.by.herself!

Minnesota Blood

My mom took me shopping on Saturday for my birthday gift. I felt a little bit like Pretty Woman!

While I was out, Reid was back at the fort with Sally. He took her outside to play and would send me pictures throughout the day. We all know that Dads play differently. Take a look at one of the first things he did with Sally outside...

He said she loved it.  She would laugh and laugh and ask for it again and again!

Throughout the weekend she would ask to go outside every chance she could.  She loved learning how to shovel and to pile snow in a bucket.  She refused to come in...was out for over an hour, smiling and laughing the entire time!

Start 'em young!

Miss Monkey! Our friends Pat and Tiff gave us this when we first found out we were pregnant with Sally.  They know our love for Monkeys =)

A quick video of her piling the snow in the bucket!

Pizza Party

On Friday we had my whole family over for pizza.  We were celebrating birthdays, January, February and March! It was so nice out this weekend! We had to get out and enjoy the sunshine and melting!!

Grandma!

Lucy has two fun frilly skirts, she brought one for Sally!

Pink Princesses! Too busy to sit still!

Copying everything "Miam" {William} does!

Jump!

Thank you Grandma and George, for the pizza and cake!

One of my favorite parts of my day

Sally has become very much a Daddy's Girl! She especially loves how he reads to her. He's so much crazier than her boring Mama =)

I love being off to the side or in the other room and listening to how the two of them interact!

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Meggers!!

One of my best friends got engaged last night, Meggers!!

If you've ever met her, you'd understand how very much deserving she is of love! She is a selfless person who is always genuinely excited for everyone else.  She's the first to call to congratulate if something exciting happened, and she's the first to call if you need someone to listen.  She's an amazing friend and I'm so so blessed to have her in my life! I couldn't be more thrilled for her.  Dan, you're one lucky guy! Congratulations you two!

You'd think these next two pictures have nothing to do with Meggers, or "Marsh" as Sally calls her, but on one of her visits she brought Sally this train.  It's one of her favorite toys.  She likes to bring the kitty for a ride. 
**both pictures were taken on my phone and it doesn't do so well with movement!

Doe Doe's House

Sally loves going over to visit our wonderful neighbor Delores! She has a cat that Sally adores (don't worry, I'm keeping an open mind and letting Sally make her own decisions on likes and dislikes).

"Hi Kitty, Hi Kitty, Hi Kitty!"

She recently started watching a little girl, Andie. Love snuggling with an infant!

Check out Sally in the background

Sally is also a big fan of Andie.  She doesn't like to leave the baby behind and often throughout the day, out of the blue she'll tilt her head and say "Baby Andie?" Meaning, can we go visit?!

Brown Eyed Beauties

We were having some fun this weekend with the webcam! Some are just plain scary!

Check out my teeth! Sally didn't like this one!

Sally is a concerned citizen!

This is our favorite! As if she doesn't have big enough brown eyes =) She looks a lot like the picture below!

We're off to the Starkey's for a play date!

**Happy February!! Dear fellow Minnesotans, we made it through the worst...right?!**