Wonderful Night

The weather was perfect tonight so Bella and I got some time outside.  The intention was to play with sidewalk chalk, but we ended up just wandering around in the yard and having fun, and of course mommy just had to take a bunch of pictures :)

Little angel in the leaves.

Bella being silly and getting ready to go in the house to "sneak up" on the dogs.

Weight Gain

So we all know that Isabella is petite, I think she wants to stay our little baby forever ;) Yesterday was the appointment at the Growth Clinic, it didn't go too well.

First step: get her weight and height - she was 21.4 pounds and 32 1/2 centimeters. I knew deep down the weight definately wouldn't be enough and so did my mom, I could tell by the look she gave me when we saw the weight.

Second step: go back to the waiting room and wait for the dietician. I LOVE the dieticians at the U of I, seriously they are all super sweet and full of information. She was very happy with the diet we are keeping Isabella on, but had to let us know that the weight gain was bad. Bella gained about 3 grams a day, for a normal child her age they gain about 5-8 grams per day. The last time we were at the Growth Clinic Bella gained 10 grams per day. She has had about four ear infections since her last visit which impacted her eating, we know this is a big reason to her low gain. The dietician gave me some more ideas for high calorie snacks, instead of milk in her oatmeal try half and half, add half and half to her milk, give her yummy marshmallow cream to dip her fruit in, add brown sugar to cream cheese and put it on crackers. So I left there with some more ideas at least.

Third step: go back to the waiting room and wait for the doctor to call us in.

Fourth step: we meet first with a very young looking resident. He was so great with Bella and she loved him. She sat so still while he looked her over, good news, the last ear infection is actually clearing up on it's own. The throw up on Monday was probably just a little bug and nothing to be concerned about, her leg was looking much better and he wasn't surprised Bella had a reaction like that. The bad news, she gained barely anything. After talking with him he went to grab the doctor, Bella LOVES her :) She is so thrilled with Isabella developmentally, she even told me that I should be happy about her very strong attitude, it's a good thing :) Ok, so why can't the doctor come live at our house and take over when time out consists of me practically sitting on Bella to get her to stay in one spot? Which I was told I should only have to do a couple of times, I think we will try having a time out chair for Bella.

So now we are meeting with our regular doctor next week to discuss having tubes put in Bella's ears. Hopefully that will happen quickly and her appetite will come back and she won't get sick as much with ear infections at least. We go back to the Growth Clinic on Dec. 16th, if she doesn't gain well then we will discuss giving her appetite stimulants. I know it all sounds like so much and is her being so small such a big deal?? I mean she did grow about an inch taller!

Yes, it is a big deal. Her growing taller is a good sign that she is definately getting good nutrients, but she needs more to get the weight up. If she were to get the flu badly, she has no weight to lose, it's as simple as that. We would be in the hospital for sure. So Bella, your daddy and I are going to figure out all of the super fattening recipes we can, be ready for some super yummy stuff ;)

Throw Up

This morning was a hard daughter/mother morning.  Bella had eaten her usual little muffins and I was getting ready to get her coat when she said, "mommy", in her scared little voice.  Next thing I know she was throwing up all over herself :(  Here I am, alone with her and the person in the house with the weakest stomach.  But I'd heard from so many people that they are fine when it's their own child throwing up, so I thought I would be fine.

I called Jonnie immediately to let her know I wouldn't be in, as I'm telling her this and standing by Bella in her chair covered in puke I was trying so hard not to gag.  So that was one rushed phone called.  Then it was Kyle's turn, poor Kyle, he got to hear my lurching and trying to get our daughter out of her chair and into the bathtub.

In then end I threw up as well, twice, and throwing up is the worst thing in the world to me.  Bella threw up a couple more times and thankfully hasn't anymore today.  Hopefully it was just a 24 hour bug, I feel fine, I'm just a weakling and definitely not the mother that can clean up her child's puke without getting sick as well.

Tomorrow afternoon we go to the Growth Clinic at the U of I so hopefully Bella's throwing up didn't really mess with her weight gain at all!

A Book and A Movie..

Last night we watched the Incredible Hulk, it was so good!  I was surprised, it wasn't a movie I was dying to see, but I really loved it.  Liv Tyler is so gorgeous and I LOVE Edward Norton.  Definitely a movie worth watching!

Now onto the book I read in a matter of about four hours total.....TWILIGHT....oh my god, I am so totally hooked!!!!  I'm anxiously awaiting my roommate to get his lazy butt up so I can grab the next book from him :)  I just want to dive back into the world of Edward and Bella for a few more minutes before I get into our day today!  Stephi and Kim I totally understand your obsession and I'm right there with you :)

Vaccines

I HATE taking Bella in for her shots.  This time Kyle came, I made him, it was his turn to be the bad guy and hold her down for them!  We met with a doctor who is replacing Bella's old doctor because we couldn't see the wonderful doctor Bella will now have due to the fact that she is currently on maternity leave.

We weren't thrilled with the new doctor.  He just seemed unsure of himself, we have thought that Bella has another ear infection, he confirmed that there is fluid in her right ear but wouldn't give us an antibiotic because he thinks it will clear up on its own.  Well thankfully we have our appointment at the Growth Clinic on Tuesday because Bella keeps complaining about her ear and I know it won't get better on it's own.

When she got her shots we had to go next door to get some blood drawn, thankfully!  Once we got over to the MedLabs Bella was frantically trying to get her pants off, when I pulled them down one of her legs was all swollen and red and breaking out in hives from the shots.  So that was horrible and we had to get her Benadryl to take care of that.

Then she got to spend the rest of the day at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  When I picked her up her other leg seemed a little swollen around where she got the shots.

This morning when I got her up I was SHOCKED by her leg!  The bump was HUGE, red and hard.  She had a temp of 100.7, so I gave her Tylenol and took her to work with me rather than to school, then I took the afternoon off so we could be at home.  Her leg still looks horrible, she is beyond upset though from her leg, her ear and she is just miserable :(  We'll get through it though Bella is a trooper!!

I can do it!

I can sew a button onto a coat!!  I'm sure most people have already done this in their lives, but this was my first one and it was for Bella's coat, so it was a really big mom moment ;)  I now know successfully take care of Bella's coats, in the button sense :)

Bathtime...

It's been quite a while since Bella has willingly taken a bath.  She finally is loving them again for some odd reason!  Yay, now I get more fun bath pictures to scrapbook :)

Excitement

So my sister Jenn is pregnant with her second little one, baby Shim (the nickname given due to the fact that we don't know what she is having :)). According to my mom Jenn went to the hospital yesterday afternoon because she was having some pretty hard contractions, she was sent home early evening.

McKayla was born 21 days early, so if Shim wants to go along with the early bird arrival like his/her sister tomorrow would be 21 days early. Come on baby Shim, you must be done cooking and ready for us to all meet you :)

I hope for a fast delivery like McKayla for Jenn, she is a champ!

Party, Party, Party!!!

Enjoy the photos documenting Bella's 2nd Birthday party :)

YOUNKERS ROCKS!!!!

So I headed to Younkers on my lunch hour where I found this, quite a few other outfits that aren't online to show off for some reason ;) And my favorite thing that was in the sale section but not on sale, but the girl was a sweetie and gave me 50% off of it anyway, this :)

Isabella is going to have an amazing birthday with her family hanging with her and my amazing find of her 50% off gift and of course this, I would say we will have one extremely happy two year old on our hands Saturday, I can't wait!!!

The Look...

This is one of my favorite photos of Isabella, taken in Houston, TX at a bridesmaid luncheon. It was one of the best weekends we've ever had and got a bunch of great pictures. Thank you Stephanie and James for getting hitched and including us in your amazing day :)

I submitted this photo to a photo contest a while ago and totally forgot about it. I just received news that it was chosen as a finalist for the contest!! We have a chance at winning a $25,000 bond for Isabella to receive when she turns 18, it's so crazy :)

Our hopes are in check though, there are a lot of finalists, but it's still cool that this photo was picked at all :)

Monopoly....

The stupid game that McDonald's brings around every year and becomes my obsession for some ungodly reason! I now have people just bringing me the little game pieces at work to try to help me win SOMETHING...

My brother Larry is really to blame for all of this, he got me sucked into it a couple of years ago. We had the million dollar match but our sister Missy "accidentally" threw away Boardwalk. After this realization my brother John seriously wanted to go diving through the city dump to find it. I just couldn't bring myself to do that, yes it's a million dollars, but just a chance to win it.

Darn you McDonald's...............I will see you at lunch.

Don't be too grossed out my StephiW, I'll stop chowing on the greasy crap after the game is over, thank god for my running to offset the five million calories I am intaking!!

The Devil - My Love

  Milo - my lovely black and white cat, he ADORES me.  Seriously, he always has to be right beside me when I am home, he always has to lay on me at night when we go to bed, he even likes to be in the bathroom when I shower......it's edging on creepy right now!

When I get home he is excited to see me and occasionally jumps up for me to grab him.  Well tonight I was focused on Isabella and didn't realize my little Milo decided to jump up for me.  He instinctively dug his claws into my chest which resulted in the following picture, OUCH!!!!

Kyle just stared on, speechless by what he saw.  It happened so quickly, Bella didn't even realize what happened.  I cleaned my wounds and now have ugly scratches on my chest, but I still say he is not a devil cat :)

Tough Girl

So we enjoyed our afternoon yesterday at Coralridge mall. My mom went with Isabella and I so Bella could go to Build A Bear for the first time AND ride the carousel :) She thouroughly enjoyed both, although the Build A Bear concept was a bit strange to her, so I basically built the bear for her and thankfully Bella loves it. The carousel was very exciting for her, she was laughing and so happy at first, then she got kind of scared when it kept going.

We ended our adventure with Bella lugging her bear in it's house through the mall. NO ONE could help her, she was bound and determined to get her bear to the car by herself! We made it and got some cute pictures along the way :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISABELLA JEAN!!

So today is our beautiful girl's 2nd birthday!  She is getting so big and I have so much fun planned for her today :)  She enjoyed a birthday breakfast of cinnamon and spice oatmeal, plus a donut!  Then Bella got to open her presents from Grandma & Grandpa sent from Oregon.  She loves her new pillow and really LOVES the dresses grandma made for her, she just HAD to put one of them on right away :)

We also had a huge milestone today..........Bella went potty on her big girl potty!!!  We were playing downstairs and she told me she wanted to go potty.  So we headed upstairs and I was SHOCKED when she got off of the potty and there was actually pee in it :)  Yay for Bella, hopefully we'll keep this up!

School Pictures

LaPetite Academy is such a wonderful place, Isabella absolutely loves it there. One of my favorite things is that they do "school pictures" every year. This year on the day of picture taking when I picked up Bella everyone was so excited to tell me how wonderful she did. She was the one in the Toddler room that marched right up to get her picture taken, posed and was happy :)

So I've been extremely anxious for them to come in so I could see how fabulous she did. Yesterday morning they had them for me and I was THRILLED, my little peanut looks so old in these pictures!

Cousins

I am so blessed to have such a large family, the best part is watching Bella play with her cousins. She is old enough now that I think she feels like she can take part. She may be a little bit behind them still but she has a great time and loves them so much :)

Fun at the Park

We are LOVING the fall weather! Bella and I are enjoying walks to the park and she is having a blast playing. She goes down the slide all by herself now, she is such a big girl :) Now if only we could get Kyle's work schedule worked out so he would get off earlier and he could do this fun stuff with us!