More Christmas

Well, after our exciting Christmas Eve, we weren't quite sure what to expect for Christmas day. But I'm happy to report we had no more excitement of the variety had the night before. We waited until the roads were nice and dry and drove over to Mimi and Papaw's house. Elizabeth loved the wrapping paper!

And she jumped right into her puzzle of her name. Elizabeth is a very long name.

And she played with her "laptop."

Watch out for the shark in that upper right hand corner...
It smells blood!

Isaac and Alec got some cool instruments for Christmas. They were so sweet to share with Miss Elizabeth. (She had gotten a little warm with the tights and corduroy dress so we were down to our onsie here.)

Four generations.

And Uncle Dennis brought his guitar and we sang Christmas carols.

The next morning Elizabeth checked out the table and chairs Mimi and Papaw got for the grandkids. What a big girl!

After our wonderful time at Mimi and Papaw's we came back home. Since we had been gone for two nights instead of the zero we had planned, the Christmas "plan" was a bit off. So instead of doing a big Christmas Morning thing for the three of us, we kind of just opened some presents, had some lunch, opened some more. We have also decided to save some of what we were going to give E until a little later - our families have been just so generous, that she is covered up with new toys right now. Santa did fill our stockings. Elizabeth equally enjoyed the sippy cup in her stocking and the cliff block running supplements in mine.

But the most exciting thing for Elizabeth was her Daddy's Wii! She was just so excited!

Then, we got dressed to go to our last Christmas celebration with the Sanderses.

Cousin Boston was there! It took Elizabeth a little while to warm up to everyone, but Boston is everyone's best friend. Even with his handicap, Eric can hold two babies.

Elizabeth was all about stealing Boston's toys, but she was willing to share her sippy cup.

Looking for trouble...

What a cutie!

It was well past E's bedtime, but she wasn't having it. We did put the babies in pjs but that didn't convince anyone to go to bed.

E stayed up until we got home at 9:15 last night - that's a record!

We had such a wonderful holiday - thank you so much to our wonderful family!

Our Christmas Eve Adventure

We had a Christmas Eve to remember this year! The day started out as planned. We gave E one of her gifts - a babydoll and stroller - early. She likes pushing the stroller around but really isn't too interested in the baby doll yet.

Then we got ready to over to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Azle, west of Fort Worth. Elizabeth wore her fancy black velvet pants and red ruffle onsie.

We intended to come back home that night and wake up and do Christmas morning at our house before going over to Mimi and Papaw's. But the weather was snowy and icy so we decided to pack our bags in case we needed to spend the night.

After getting on the road, it became clear we would not be driving home that night.

Almost to Grandma and Grandpa's, we ran off the road and got stuck. Here's our view as we waited for Grandpa to come rescue us.

Elizabeth did pretty well, even though I insisted she wait in the carseat just in case another car came off the road and crashed into us.

I don't have any more pictures from Christmas Eve because after we got rescued, the real excitement began. After Grandpa depositted E and I safely at the house, he and Eric went back to try and get our car out of the ditch. Unfortunately, during the process, Eric's finger got slammed in the car door. He didn't realize it right away, but a few minutes later he noticed the tip of his left ring finger was no longer connected to his hand. It was in the glove though. So they headed to the emergency room where the doctor decided it wasn't enough to reattach. Once they left the er it took them hours to get home b/c of the crazy icy roads. Finally, around 11:00 they made it home and we ate dinner and opened presents. Little E missed this part of the evening. Eric did great. He hasn't been in that much pain and is pretty much able to do everything even with the dressing on his hand. We go next week to an orthopedic surgeon to figure out what, if anything, needs to be done now. He did tell me he doesn't think he should change any dirty diapers, though.

The next morning, while we waited for it to warm up enough to melt the snow, E had a great time playing at Grandma and Granpa's. Grandma got out tupperware and spoons and it was a hit!

And Coco was very interesting to watch from behind the glass.

And Uncle David and (almost) Aunt Sam entertained E thoroughly.

Although not quite the Christmas Even we had planned, we did end up having a wonderful time. Definetly a Christmas Eve to remember.

Feeling Better!

Elizabeth had a great day! She is a whole different kiddo than she's been the last week! We went back to Dr. D yesterday who confirmed that she did in fact have a double ear infection (very common with RSV) but that the RSV was pretty much done. No more nebulizer! So we've now got three doses of antibiotic in her for the ear infection and she's a happy girl. Sleeping well, appetite back, happy girl! Yay - we're ready for some Christmas!

Reading

This video is from over a month ago, but I just found it on my camera. We were trying to get some video of her walking right when she started. But she had her own plans. I think it's so sweet!

And in other news, Elizabeth seems to be on the mend. She had only barely a fever today and was happy and feeling good almost all day. Still doing the nebulizer treatments 3 times a day, but I think we're over the worst of it!

Sick Again

Miss Elizabeth is sick. Again. Thank you daycare germs! She went to school Monday and Tuesday but came home acting like she had a cold. I had to go out of town for work Wednesday, so when she woke up with a fever, her Daddy stayed home with her. She seemed to be getting worse and she was wheezing so he took her to Dr. D on Thursday and we found out she has RSV. It's a respiratory virus that causes the smallest airways in the lungs to narrow. Although older kids and adults can get it, it manifests merely as cold symptoms, while babies under two get the fun airway narrowing. We have to give E a nebulizer treatment every 3 hours, which seems to help. And she's on a combination of tylenol and motrin to keep her fever down. She's not feeling up to eating and green blanket and paci are permanent fixtures this week.

Here's a pretty picture of Mommy and Elizabeth with the nebulizer. At first she absolutely hated it, but now she's such a good patient girl.

That's it, E! A martini will make you feel better!

Hopefully she'll be better by the end of next week so we can enjoy all of our Christmas festivities with our family!

Walking

Look at her go!

Our Baby is One

Well this post is long overdue. Elizabeth is one! She is doing all kinds of amazing things. Here's a list of stuff about Elizabeth at one.

1. She's walking! All over the place - it's the cutest thing ever. Sometimes she walk out of the room and pause - trying to decide where to go next. It's a whole new world of freedom. She still falls down some but she is a walker!
2. She has 6 teeth - four on the top and 2 on the bottom.
3. She's a good eater - but wants to do it all herself. Yogurt and canned vegetarian refried beans are about the only things she'll let me feed her on a spoon. Everything else she wants to be able to pick up herself. Our standbys are macaroni and cheese, peanut butter sandwhich, Mimi's muffines, cheesy broccoli rice, mandarin oranges, bananas, pineapple tidbits, goldfish, graham crackers, and of course cheerios. She's still not a fan of meat (but then since I don't cook it she doesn't get much opportunity at home, but at school she's not a fan.)
4. We're working on getting rid of the bottles. She's down to two a day now - in the afternoon and at bedtime. I think we've made the transition to milk instead of formula now - this past week we were making a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture to try to ease her into it.
5. She sleeps with her pink bunny lovey and her fuzzy green blanket. In the evenings when we go up to her room to play in there before bath and bed, she goes right to her crib and pulls them out and then carries them and rolls around with them on the floor. They make her so happy!
6. She says dada and mama - she doesn't really use them specifically for me and Eric yet though. She also has her special word for kitty, and will sometimes repeat "itty" when we say kitty. She says "buh" for book. And says "upupup" when we go up the stairs. She also knows a cow says "oooh".
7. She has just started putting the correct shapes in the holes of her shape sorter. It takes her a minute to figure it out, but she definitely gets that the shapes will fit in some holes and not others.
8. She's good at drinking out of the sippy cup, but still isn't sure milk is supposed to be in there. She's drink quite a bit of water though. She also throws in on the ground pretty much everytime she takes a sip.
9. She's a super happy and giggly girl, except when she's not.
And she's one! I plan to add more later, but I hear her getting up from her nap. Here are just a few recent pictures.

Poor Baby

I haven't had a chance to post all about Elizabeth being 1 because she's been a sick little girl since last Sunday. We thought it was just a cold and then went to the doctor who saw the beginning of an ear infection. Then went back to the doctor after 2 nights of 103+ fever and the doctor diagnosed it as sinusitus. But then today - 6 days in - she developed a rash all over her torso. A call to the doctor and then confirmation by internet research tells us she has roseola - a common viral infection babies and toddlers get that includes a high fever for several days and then a rash when the fever breaks. The good news is that it's one of those that you get once and then never again. And boy is that good news - no one in our house has been sleeping all week. Hopefully the rash means the worst is over. Of course we were started on antibiotics when they thought it was an ear infection/sinusitus and the dr has said to continue for the rest of the 10 days. But since we know she has a virus that will not be affected by antibiotics and we know the antibiotics make her feel bad, we're just not sure what we're going to do about that. Urgh. I'll post all about the wonderful things our one year old is doing later this week when we're hopefully feeling better.

Cake!

Elizabeth's First Birthday Party

Saturday was Elizabeth's first birthday party! I was a little worried (actually very worried) because she had been a grumpy bunny all morning and early afternoon. But as soon as her first guests arrived she was so excited! She did great with all the people (and no afternoon nap!) We're so lucky to have all of our family right here to celebrate with us. Thanks to everyone for such a special day!

Here's birthday girl in her ladybugish dress before the party.With Mommy and Daddy.
Tissue paper!
Good picture of the whole outfit.
A little bit of food.

Elizabeth has figured out the little cake is for her!
Riding the horsie with Mimi.
Showing Aunt Mique the cool rattle. Uncle Brian was excited by the bongo drum.
A pile of babies! Juliette with her Mommy and Daddy, Brian and Mique with Isaac and Boston's mama Jen.
There's Boston! With his Grandad Mike. And Daddy behind him.
Mamie and Poppa and Dennis and Ann (not pictured) came too!
There's Isaac!
Grandma and Grandpa came too! And Gerry (Mikee too, but no picture).
Opening Presents.

Opening presents is hard work!
Hi Boston! I got a duck!

I didn't get a picture of all five babies at once - but here's four of them (Elizabeth had an outfit change after cake - pictures below). Juliette and Alec and Isaac.
There's a video I'll post later. She started out pretty timid with her cake, but then figured it out!

We had a great party! Thanks again to everyone for sharing it with us!

Mommy and Daddy got Elizabeth this car for her birthday. We went ahead and gave it to her today even though her birthday isn't really until Tuesday. She got to take two rides to the park in it today!