Sweet Sounds

Sisters

Grandpa Ken

Kenny's grandpa is hospitalized in Abilene with liver cancer. His mom called us this morning to let us know. It is inflamed and that makes it painful for him to lay on one side. He has lost 35 lbs in the last two weeks. Please send thoughts and prayers his way. We will probably be heading back this afternoon to visit him.

On a side note, Kenny is on antibiotics for the third time in a month and a half. He had strep again! The doctor told him to start taking a vitamin and get more rest because he stays up too late. I've been telling him that for a while. Perhaps now he'll listen?

Goofy Girls

Time to get your fix of the cutie pies!

Shelby is staying awake now for longer periods of time, so I can get pictures of her with her eyes open. She coos when you talk to her and has started laughing, too. I'm trying desprately to get it on video, but I think the camera distracts her! She still sleeps in the bassinet beside our bed at night, but I have started laying her down in the crib in her bedroom during the evening when she falls asleep before I am ready for bed. That way she can start getting used to it and she seems to be taking to it just fine.





Autumn continues to love going to daycare and suprises me almost daily with something new. It took me forever this evening to figure out what "heppo" was. I was certain it had to be her purple hippo stool in the bathroom, but she was adamant "No, Mommy. Heppo." Turns out it was helper. I was making her supper and she wanted to be my helper. How cute is that?!

New Windows!

We had an opportunity come up to get our windows and the sliding glass door downstairs replaced, so we decided to bite the bullet and do it. Kenny will be the first to tell you, I despise parting with large sums of money (which to me is anything over about $300), but since we plan on being here awhile I figured we'll have plenty of time to pay it off. We both like the look of bay windows, so we had the front picture window replaced with a bay and had the window in the bedroom cut larger so a bay could go there as well. We had some trouble with getting the people here to install them, because the bay windows took longer to come in. The main guy would call us at 9 or 10 the night before to tell us the bays hadn't come in and they'd have to reschedule after Kenny had already taken the day off of work, but over the span of several days all the windows finally arrived and were installed. Below are before and after pictures of the front of the house.







Kenny and our friend, Keith, did a great job of repainting the front to cover where the trim used to be. The bays still need trim on the inside of the house and Kenny has plans for that. He does his best to describe them to me, but my imagination is limited, so I think he has given up trying. I'll post more pictures when he gets it done.

Autumn quickly figured out that she could




stand on her princess couch











and climb into the window.











Waving goodbye to Papa in the morning.

Tummy Ache

Kenny has a pain in his abdomen that started Saturday. It becomes more intense and then fades and seems to be worse when he eats. We thought maybe kidney stones, so he went to the doctor yesterday. The doctor didn't feel any stones and also thought appendicitis might be a possible cause. They took blood and told him to stay home and take it easy until they got the results back. He got a call today and the blood work didn't give them any answers. His white blood cell count was a little higher than normal, but not so high that they were concerned. They are sending him for a CT scan of his abdomen this afternoon and said it would be reviewed while he waits so that they can tell him what it shows. Please send thoughts and prayers his way and I will update you when we know more.

UPDATE: The CT scan showed swollen lymph nodes around his small intestine indicating an intestinal infection of some sort. They said for him to rest and drink lots of fluids. If it's viral, that should take care of it in a few days. If he still feels it after that, it is bacterial and they'll give him antibiotics. I can't hardly believe it would be bacterial because he was just on antibiotics last week for strep throat! I guess we'll find out. And the really weird thing is that he hardly ever gets sick. I hate to think what next week will bring - hopefully a healthy husband!

Dreaming Big

What will I be when I grow up?

Perhaps a leader with wise ideas to share. Listen and follow me!
Maybe I'll be a model. Watch me strike a pose.
I could be a dramatic actress.
"For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
Or maybe a great thinker. Einstein's got nothin' on me!

You all will just have to wait and see!

Discovery

The peephole in our front door is pretty big and in the evening when the sun is shining just right we get a rainbow in our house!

Acne vs. Eczema

Shelby has had the worst baby acne ever since she was born. Her little cheeks and chin have been red and bumpy. I figured any time it should go away, but it seemed to get worse spreading down below her ears, around the back of her neck, and even some on her back and chest recently. So, I started looking up baby acne on the internet. (Babycenter.com is a very helpful website. I've used it a lot starting with Autumn.) Everything I could find tended to agree that at this point the acne should be subsiding or gone. One of the articles, though, mentioned the possibility of eczema and that the incidence of an infant having eczema is higher if a parent has it. The light bulb in my head clicked on. I have eczema. I'll occasionally get an itchy spot that flares up, but it never occurred to me that her red bumps and my itchy spots could be the same thing. To test my theory I liberally applied my sensitive skin lotion to her little cheeks last night and this morning you could immediately tell a difference. The bumps were smaller and her skin was less red. I went ahead and applied some more this afternoon to really get around the back of her neck and she looks 100 times better. Her skin has much better color to it and looks less red and irritated.

I just feel bad now for not thinking of it sooner because I know just how badly eczema can itch. There were times I'd hold her up against my chest and she'd be upset and turn her face from side to side. I thought she was looking for her pacifier for comfort, but now I wonder if she was uncomfortable and itchy. Anyway, I'm hoping it is something she will grow out of.

Playtime

Take Me Out to the...Circus

There was a circus in town last week. They set it up behind the mall which is very close to our house. Kenny wasn't too excited when I first told him about it, but I promised it would be fun. He didn't recall ever having been to a circus before. It was a smaller circus, but they did have elephants as well as camels, llamas, and some goats that the kids could pet and feed. You weren't supposed to take any pictures inside the tent because the acrobats did all their stunts without nets or wires to hold them up. In the first picture, Autumn was waving good-bye to the elephants.





Autumn especially liked the trained poodles. "Puppies!" I flip-flopped between being impressed at their tricks and feeling sorry for the poor little things. Their fur was dyed pink and I think one must have been older than the rest. He didn't seem as enthusiastic about all the stunts as the others were. It was hot, so we stayed about an hour until the first intermission (Autumn and I shared her second blue sno cone of the month) and then headed home. I think Kenny ended up enjoying himself more than he expected to. It was fun for us to get out and do something different.

Red, White, and Boom

Autumn's daycare had a celebration day right before the Fourth. They did some outdoor activities, ate blue sno cones, and had a picnic. The teachers had made the kids t-shirts and hats. They were all so cute! Parents were invited to attend and I arrived as the kids were thoroughly enjoying their sno cones and then we went on a walk around the neighborhood. Kenny was able to take a longer lunch and joined us for the picnic, so it turned out to be a nice family event.

The video at the bottom was done at the beginning of the walk. I apologize for it being a little shaky. It was done with our digital camera. I also had a hard time getting in front of Autumn because of other parents that were there and I was carrying Shelby and the diaper bag! There is not a lot of action - you see the kids lining up to get ready for the parade. The blond woman in the striped shirt is Autumn's head teacher Ms. Glenda and the guy in the blue shirt and white shorts is Mr. Alan, an assistant teacher. I have another video from when they were actually walking together, but I promise the end of this one will make you smile!

Shelby's Lab Results

Our doctor's office called today and said Shelby's second blood test came back in the normal range. He called a pediatric endocrinologist at KU for a second opinion and they agreed that any problem there might have been seemed to be correcting itself. They did not think that any further follow-up was necessary. We are so relieved!

This-n-That

I am not at all a hot weather person. Summer has never been my favorite season and anymore it seems we go from winter to summer and back to winter without anything in between. This year I thought we had a fabulous spring and I'm a little in denial that it is June (almost July!) and summer is upon us. Lately, though, I can't decide if I would rather it be hot or rain because those seem to be the only options. The rain is cooler, but we have a leaky basement! Our seller's disclosure that we were given before buying the house said they had a problem in the basement bedroom, but it had been fixed. We moved in on a Friday and I think it rained the following Tuesday and we had instantly wet carpet in the exact area that supposedly had been fixed. If I had the former owners' phone number I would seriously consider calling them and saying, "Hey...NOT COOL!!" I hope it isn't raining as much back home and delaying harvest!

Today, I had my first follow-up visit since Shelby was born. Dr. Train said everything looked really good. My incision is completely healed over and I have virtually no pain. Shelby gets her first follow-up visit with her doctor tomorrow. We are excited to see how much weight she has gained back. She went from 7 lbs. 5 oz. to 6 lbs. 8 oz. while in the hospital, but since we've been home she has been eating almost hourly when she is awake and then sleeps in longer stretches, so I think she has to have gained her weight back pretty well. One concern we will be addressing with the doctor is her Newborn Screen blood test that was done at the hospital. We got a letter that said it came back abnormal and that she needed to be tested more for congenital hypothyroidism. The first step is to have the doctor's office redo the newborn screen to rule out a false positive. We are hoping that's all it is. If it comes back the same, I think she would be sent on to an endocrinologist for further testing. I took the liberty of looking up some information regarding hypothyroidism on the internet and that was the wrong thing to do. Although it is perfectly treatable, I just made myself really worried for a couple days. At this point, I've talked myself into not worrying until we get the second results of the newborn screen back because there is nothing we can do until then and it's all going to turn out fine anyway.

This is a semi-before picture of our swimming pool in the back. I say "semi-before" because at this point Kenny had already gotten the mostly submerged cover out, cleaned out the leaves, debris, and dead squirrel floating on top, and started draining it.

It is now empty, but dirty and is probably going to stay that way this summer. We are having some pool people come and look at it on Tuesday to give us their opinion on what needs to be done and show us how to take care of it with the chemicals and all that. Kenny thinks it needs a new liner because it looks stretched in some areas and the bottom needs to be levelled out. Liners are expensive and that is our main roadblock to getting it up and going this summer, especially after moving, a new baby, and me not working. I was looking forward to maybe swimming off some of the baby weight this summer in the privacy of my own backyard, but I may have to (gasp!) actually start running again...or something similar...later this summer. Definitely later this summer. :)

When Kenny first told me about the floating dead squirrel, he was completely grossed out by it so of course I had to go look at it. He was talking about how to get it out in the least gross way possible and I told him it honestly looked like he could poke it with a long stick and it may just freak out, come back to life, and take itself out of the pool. He was skeptical about that plan and told me I could scoop it out with the net basically just for being a smart-aleck. I said that was fine. That net has a long handle. I didn't mind scooping it out as long as he was at the other end holding the bag for me to dump it into. Again, he was not fond of my plan and ended up scooping it out himself.

I suppose that is all for now. I'll be sure and update you on the results of Shelby's blood work when we hear back.

Gainfully Employed

As many of you know, I have been waiting (and waiting and waiting) to hear back from Drs. Dyck and Rollenhagen regarding a potential job at their optometry office. They finally called on Monday and officially offered me the job! I think they do a lot less medical care than what we did in Clay just because of the proximity of ophthalmologists that they can send patients on to.

I've met both doctors and some of the staff and they seem like they'll be easy to get along with. They are what I would call a "family-friendly" office, so I don't have any worries about them not being understanding when it comes to the occasional sick child, etc. However, they are wanting me to start about a week sooner than I had planned on because one of the doctors is going to be gone that week and they thought it would be easier for me to get my feet wet when the office is slower. I still have to check with daycare about when Shelby can start, but I am already dreading having to leave her.

A side note to my Clay Center office ladies: My new office is open 8-5 Monday through Friday. No later evenings, no Saturdays, and they close the office from 1-2 for lunch. Don't be jealous! :) I miss you guys!

Autumn and Shelby

At first, Annie and I didn't think that Shelby looked like Autumn when she was born. Compared side by side, though, it's pretty undeniable.




Autumn




Shelby

Shelby Rose Joins Our Family

We were blessed with a healthy and beautiful baby girl! Our precious new daughter, Shelby Rose, was born on June 11, 2009. She was 7 lbs 5 oz and 20 1/4 inches long. Here are some pictures from our happy day!

Along with height, weight, and everything else they do in the OR, here she is getting her footprints done and then Aunt Annie held her close by me until the surgery was done.

Then, she was off to the nursery for a little while. The nurses put a bow in her hair and the family gathered around the windows to get their first look at her. We were happy that so many family members were able to come be at the hospital with us!

Autumn was excited about her baby sister. Kenny had brought her "baby" doll to the hospital, but she wanted none of it. Who wants a doll when you can have the real thing? Come on, Papa - hand her over!

Autumn is doing great as a big sister. She likes to pat Shelby on the head or wherever else she can reach and give hugs and kisses. She hasn't shown any jealousy when I've been with the baby, but she did try once to climb in Kenny's lap and stake her claim ("Mine!" as in my papa) when he was holding Shelby.

Autumn stayed with Clay and Peggy from Thursday evening until Saturday evening when we got home from the hospital. I could swear in those two days she grew four inches and gained 10 pounds. She just looks so big now compared to Shelby, it's hard to believe she was a full two pounds smaller when she was born! I have reluctantly stopped referring to her as my big baby. That makes me a little sad, but now we have fun big girl things to look forward to plus a new baby to love on, so off we go on this new adventure!

Update

I added Autumn's daycare picture to the post below.

1:11

I have had a hard time sleeping at night lately. Obviously, getting truly comfortable is difficult at this point, but at the same time I feel like I can't shut my mind off. My body feels tired and my eyes are wide awake. Two nights ago I fell asleep about 10 pm, woke up and changed into pj's about 10:30 and slept like a log the rest of the night. That was the first time in about a week and half. Usually, I toss and turn (and sigh and keep Kenny awake) until about 2 or 3 am. If he does fall asleep before I do, I end up on the couch because once he starts snoring I have no chance of going to sleep. The main problem with sleeping on the couch is that as soon as I actually do fall asleep, inevitably Kirby decides that's the time she wants to come sit on my chest and stick her whiskers in my face! One interesting note - I try not to watch the clock because I start thinking about how late it is and how once again I'm still awake, but I seem to have a knack for looking at it at exactly 1:11 am. I am starting to wonder if it is some sort of Lost-esque clue. If I could just figure out what it means maybe my sleeping problems will be solved. My brain does weird things on little sleep. That's all for now. It's 9:18 am....I'm going to take a nap.

One Year Ago

This picture was taken in May a year ago at Kenny's sister, Nikki's high school graduation party. My baby's getting big.

First Day

Autumn's first day at her new daycare was yesterday and she loved it! She was a very dirty and tired little girl when we picked her up. When we left, she was squirming around in Kenny's arms trying to get down, so he put her down as we were walking to the truck. She turned right around and started heading for the doors to go back inside. She's in the Toddler 2 classroom so most of the kids are 2 years old already, but she seems to do just fine with them and both yesterday and this morning a couple of the kids came right up to her and offered to share a toy.

This week's theme is "New Friends." They read stories and do activities that coordinate with the theme each day. They go over colors, shapes, numbers, etc. during circle time. Today she got to use water colors and they did a bean bag toss. The classroom also has their own outdoor play area with age appropriate toys so they are free to run around when the weather permits.

The daycare is run by the First Christian Church and all the teachers and staff we've met have been very nice. We feel lucky that they had an opening for her and they will also have an opening for the new baby in late July/early August because hopefully by that time, I will have a job and be ready to start working. I get more accomplished during my days now that she is at daycare, but I miss having her around. They have a colorful mural of Noah's ark that I want to take a picture of her in front of. When I get it done, I'll post it for you.

UPDATE: Here is Autumn's daycare picture. This is the best one we got because she kept running off to her classroom to play!

...Breaking News...

Autumn tinkled in her big-girl potty for the first time this morning! She managed to get her pants and diaper off all by herself (while standing in the hallway outside the bathroom), so I set her on her potty and told her to tinkle while I got a diaper out of her room. When I got back, she stood up and there it was! There were lots of high fives and "yay's." I know...it's one of those details that only Mommy and Papa get really excited about, but I thought I'd share anyway. We called Kenny at work to tell him. I'm sure it was the highlight of his morning. :)

Free Chocolate

I saw this online from a couple of different sources and thought I'd pass it along. Mars -makers of favorites like M&Ms, Snickers, and Milky Way - is giving away free candy. Each Friday, you can go to their website and if you are one of the first 250,000 people, they will send you a coupon for a free product. You can also give your email address and they will remind you a day ahead of time so you don't forget. So, even if you are not a candy eater, you could still sign up and if you get a coupon give it to someone else like...oh, say...me! Just kidding. Seriously, who wouldn't want free chocolate?

Cutie-Pie!

Here are some pictures of Autumn from last week.


She is a pasta lover like her mama and especially likes spaghetti - probably because she can make a big mess of it. Now she has started taking her bib off before she is done eating, so sometimes I take a pink bandanna that I have and tie it around her neck so she can't get it off. Other times, like here, she just doesn't wear any clothes. No clothes = no stains!

I made Kenny take a picture of us because we don't have a lot of pictures of me with her that I like. Usually I am the picture taker. This one came out pretty good. He took another one at this same time of the band-aid on her knee/my baby belly. She had tripped on the sidewalk when we were playing outside and got her first big girl band-aid.

This was another day when we went outside to play. We had beautiful weather last week for the most part and went outside to play almost every day when Kenny came home from work. She had worn this little dress all day, but the rest of the outfit she picked out on her own. Usually, she wears her sandals but on this day she refused and pretty much threw a fit until Kenny got her tennis shoes down. Then, she noticed the hat was on the closet shelf by her shoes and insisted on wearing it even though it was way too small for her head. It kept blowing off in the breeze and eventually she abandoned it outside. And then, of course, you can't leave the house without your purse. She's such a goof!

Antz!

Ugh. We have ants in our house. We saw them when we were looking at the house, but I thought it was no big deal. No one had been living here for a while, so we just needed to put out some ant killer stuff and they'd go away, right? Wrong. I swear they have more lives than a cat. I killed sixteen on the kitchen counter one morning...yes, I counted. That was not a typical morning, but still the longer they are here the more they gross me out!

Kenny got these good little ant traps and we put them around where most of the ants were congregating. I had one on the kitchen counter and it worked really well, so I moved it to my bathroom and it got rid of the ants there. I put it back on the kitchen counter, but it didn't seem to be working at all so I trashed it. We've been here about four weeks. According to the package, those trap things are supposed to work for three months. That's how many ants we have.

Apparently, it's a common problem around here, but that doesn't make me feel any better about it. Kenny spread some ant killer stuff on the lawn with the grass fertilizer and put it up close all around the house so they have to crawl across it to get in. Any other ideas for getting rid of the nasty little creatures are welcome!

Preparation For the Long Nights Ahead

Autumn has a head cold that came out of nowhere. Her little nose turned on like a faucet yesterday and her sinuses are so stuffy that she has tears running out of her eyes. I think head colds are the worst because anything else you can usually take something for and be better. Sinus stuff just has to wear off. We did give her a little bit of Children's Tylenol Cold last night and we had an awful night. Not being able to breathe well didn't help, but I think the cold medicine made her hyper. We tried everything and she didn't really settle down until about 2:30 am and then Kenny has to get up at 6:30 for work. Needless to say we were all grumpy and exhausted. She seems to be resting better for now, but we'll see how long it lasts.

I think maybe it's Somebody reminding us about what's to come with the new baby. Hopefully his or her nights will be easier than what Autumn's were when we first brought her home. She slept very well during the day in her bassinet, but at night just cried and cried from being gassy. The only way to calm her was to walk - not hold her while laying down, not rock in the rocking chair - walk. So around and around our house we went. I remember Kenny and our friend, Ken, were laying down our wood floors at the time so the carpet was torn up down the the underflooring and each night we had a little bit more wood floor to walk on as we made our circles. We thought that stage was never going to pass, but here we are with a walking, talking little girl and I wonder what happened to that tiny baby we brought home.

Hints of Things to Come

Autumn has officially reached her independent stage. At this time, it mostly consists of her answering nearly every question with "no!" The one exception is if you ask her if she wants to go outside (or "yi-yi") and you'll get a "yea." We found a new way today to get her to say yes. I had been wanting to go shopping for clothes because my baby belly is quickly outgrowing everything that I have, so we decided to go today just to get out of the house for a little while. Autumn had been eating lunch and this is how my conversation with her went.

Lindy: Autumn, are you done eating?
Autumn: No!
Lindy: Can Mommy wash your hands?
Autumn: No!
Lindy: We have to wash so you can play.
Autumn: No!

Finally, she's cleaned up and running around looking for Kenny because she loves to play with him and follow him around. From down the hallway I hear

Kenny: Autumn, do you want to go to the mall?
Autumn: Yea!

and she ran off to get her shoes.

Brand New Blog

I had thought about starting a blog long before we left Clay Center because everybody that we didn't get to see very often always asked about how we were doing and how Autumn is growing. Typical me...it never happened. Now that we have moved to Topeka, I figured there wouldn't be a better time. We have a new home, new jobs (well, hopefully I'll have one soon!), and in June we'll have a new baby - a lot of changes in a short amount of time. I'm going to try and stay on top of our news and activities for you all so keep checking back for updates, leave comments or questions about anything you'd like to know about, and feel free to share the web address with anyone who is interested!