Ahhhhh ... the beach

We had a wonderful time with Grandma Betty at the beach this weekend. The weather was perfect, the food was delicious, and "Mom" was as sweet and generous as ever. We really miss her living here in Columbus, but we sure are enjoying having an excuse to run away to the beach so often! A rare apperance of Tyler on the beach.

It was not all fun and games for poor Tyler though. Apparently he caught what Annagrace had and was in bed most of the weekend with a fever and everything. He didn't feel well on Thursday, but being the wonderful, sweet husband and Daddy that he is, he didn't let it get in the way of Annagrace and I going to the beach for my birthday.

Annagrace LOVED the ocean, the sand, and the pool. Unfortunately, my hatred of sand was not cured on this trip. (Aunt Laurie - this is where you are supposed to step in and take over - the dirty stuff) I tried, I really tried. I got down in the sand with her, tried to make a sandcastle, and filled and emptied the bucket over and over. But, she kept getting it in her mouth, in my ear, down her swimsuit, down my swimsuit. I just got disgusted! But the worst part was her poopy diaper the next day - like a brick, it was LOADED with sand (I was tempted to take a picture LOL). I felt so sorry for her, it must of felt like sandpaper coming out! BUT, I would do it all again, in a heartbeat, just to see her smiley face when she found two sea shells all be her self. She fell in love with those two shells, one in each hand. She wouldn't put them down to go in the pool, to change clothes, or even take a nap. She slept, on her belly, on top of her hands, grasping her two precious shells. All I could do was smile - she is truly my daughter.

Looks like we need an agent ...

My Birthday

A couple of weeks ago, I completely forgot my birthday. I was side tract with planning Annagrace's first birthday party. When I remembered that it was coming, I just shrugged and said "oh well, no big deal." I thought I had come to the point that I didn't care about my birthday anymore, but when the today actually rolled around ... I woke up wanting a fuss. Is that selfish? Should we ever out grow loving our birthdays?? I totally embrace my age - 28 (but then again I am still in my twenties, I may change my mind in another 20 years) and am not ashamed to celebrate it. We are celebrating by going to the beach for the weekend, but I still want a fuss TODAY, the actual day!

But my birthday isn't just my BIRTHday, it's also my driver's licence renewal date and our car tag renewal date. So, I spent my morning renewing everything. (On the upside my driver's licence picture is stellar!) Luckily, the bad stuff was sandwiched between two fun things:

1. I took Annagrace to a local jewelry story so she (ended up being we) could be in their newest commercial for a Mother's Day special. (I will elaborate in a separate post)

2. Tabitha called and invited us to Monkey Joes. We've never been before b/c Annagrace was too little. But, we decided to try it out today. And we had a blast

Afterwards we headed home and I guess my sister understands the fact that everyone needs a little "fuss" made over them and sent me these -

Thank you Carol!! Tulips are my fav! I also received several birthday cards with some goodies inside, so I'm headed to treat myself to a pedicure!!

Odds and Ends

On Sunday we went to Atlanta to pick up Grandmother and Granddaddy from the airport. They were returning from their trip to my brother's house in Utah. Annagrace was so excited to see them. I put her down and she walked to them, grinning from ear to ear. We MISSED THEM SO MUCH!! I know they were only gone a week, but I am so used to seeing my Mom almost every day, so a whole EIGHT days was pretty hard for us. On the way home Annagrace had fun exchanging sunglasses with Grandmother.

She didn't feel good, but she was happy to see them.

Last night we went to dinner and Grandmother decided to give Annagrace a bone to chew on. I guess she got her confussed with Missy (her dog).

104.4 update

After another doctor visit and another trip to the hospital for blood work, we got a call at 9:00 pm from the doctor (how awesome is he that he followed through even though it was so late!!). Annagrace has Coxsackievirus! It's a big nasty word for a viral infection that causes: sores in the back of the mouth (explains the decreased appetite) and high fevers. THERE IS NO TREATMENT OR CURE it just goes away on it's own in 7-10 days. We just have to treat the fever until it goes back to normal.

We also found out:

1. Annagrace did not have an ear infection

2. Ear infections should never cause a temp higher than 101.

3. Fevers from vaccinations only last one day.

4. The poor baby has 6 teeth trying to break through all at the same time which explains the runny nose and abundance of drool lately.

104.4

We have a sick baby on our hands. She was perfectly fine and healthy for her one year check up on Thursday, but a few hours after we left the doctor her right eye got really watery and red. I figured it was just allergies but it wasn't any better by Friday afternoon. We went to the doctor's office again, the nurse took a quick look at her eye and called in a Rx for some eye drops. Perfect ... but wait ... three hours later she felt really hot. I did the nasty hinney temp read and got 103.9. I immediately started Tylenol and Motrin. By Saturday morning it had come down to a tolerable 101. You could tell she wasn't exactly herself but pretty close. This continued all day Saturday and Sunday. Just after Tyler headed off to work Sunday night, she started getting fussy, and she is NOT a fussy baby. Nothing made her happy. I got worried and took her temp again and it was 104.4. I called Tyler, he came home, we called the 1-800 Nurse help line then decided to head to the ER. I began changing her out of her vomit stained clothes when, her entire body started shaking with chills. (With a family history of seizures at high fevers, I got really scared). I finished dressing her and the shaking stopped so we bundled her up and headed to the ER.
Her temperature was still 104.4 when they finally called us to the back, so they gave her a Tylenol suppository and sent us back to the waiting room. THREE HOURS later, she was diagnosed with an ear infection and we were sent home with a Rx for Amoxicillin. We didn't get home until 2am (she still hadn't slept a wink). She finally fell sleep around 3, but she was back up at 6 this morning. We aren't out of the woods yet, but she is getting there.

Checkup

Her one year birthday was followed up with a one year old check up and vaccines today. She screamed ... cried ... then I cried ... handed her a toy and a cracker ... everything was okay again. But her doctor did confirm that Annagrace should be eating more table food from the meals "that I cook at home." I gave her a "what is that" look. She laughed and said "the meals that you WILL be cooking at home." So, full of guilt and shame, I cooked dinner tonight, a baby friendly dinner. We had beef tips in gravy, mashed potatoes, and English peas. Annagrace liked the peas at first but became obsessed with the spoon and mashed potatoes and wouldn't have anything else to do with the peas. She would hand me the spoon, I put a small glob of potatoes on it, hand it back to her, then she would put it in her mouth. This continued until all of her potatoes were gone. I tried to hide a few peas in the mashed potatoes, but she wasn't fooled. She would spit them right back out.

Today was just a good day, well after the doctors appointment anyway. It was, what I call, one of my "good Mommy days." One of those days that I fully enjoyed being a mom, enjoyed my baby, enjoyed playing with and teaching her, and enjoyed helping her become a big girl (no matter how much it kills me). We had fun playing with her new barn and working on animals and their sounds. She has duck down (lips puckered into a beak and all). She learned cow today and will actually moo. She also knows what a pig is but hasn't figured out how to "oink" yet.

(Blogger is currently messed up, I will post pictures later)

BIRTHDAY

We started out the day by heading over to Tabitha's to say goodbye to Heather, Max, and Ezra. They are moving to Texas tomorrow. We will miss them so much! I can't believe it's already time for them to go.

Max got a farewell haircut.

Caden . Tabitha . Max . Heather . Annagrace . Candi

Then we headed to a park for a 1st Birthday Photoshoot.

Afterwards we went to Olive Garden for dinner. It is Annagrace's favorite restaurant because of their yummy bread sticks. I was so proud that she ate an entire bread stick without chocking or gagging. So, it is her "new" food for the day. The actual eating of a bread stick isn't new, but the fact that she did it by herself without me breaking it up into tiny pieces is NEW. (So, it counts!) She also gobbled down chunks of potato that I pulled from my soup.

ROUND 2

Our second attempt at cake smashing. Well we were successful with the smashing part, but not the eating part. She absolutely refuses to eat it. I don't understand it, but it's not the worst thing ever - a child that doesn't like ooie, gooie, sugary foods?!?!?

She also opened ONE more present. It was a special Mommy present. The book is You are my Wish come True by Marianne Richmond. It is the sweetest book, it made me cry in the middle of Target (granted it doesn't take much for me to cry) so I couldn't leave the store without it. I don't know that I'll actually let her touch it for another year or two though. I wrote a note to her in the front and I want it to be our special book, not a throw around the living room and chew on book.

All in all it was an excellent day. Annagrace was worn out by the time we finished with the cake and conked out.

Practice makes perfect

We are going to the beach for my birthday next week and are so excited!! I'm excited that it will be warm enough to take Annagrace in the water and play in the sand. I want to get down in the sand and build a sand castle with her. If you know me or have ever been to the beach with me, you know this is going to be the ultimate test! I LOVE. LOVE, LOVE the beach but I hate sand on me. I know, I'm crazy, I've embraced the title. I even pay the hefty rental prices for the nice chairs that the cabana boys rent out, just so I don't have to lay in the sand. I YELL, and I mean YELL at anyone who sits on my chair and gets sand all over it. I don't know what it is, I just don't like it stuck to me, scratching me, getting in places sand shouldn't be. So, I'm trying to over come this so I can truly enjoy every aspect of the beach with my daughter. I'm planning ahead, telling myself how much fun it is going to be to build a castle. The Biglers gave Annagrace a sand bucket (along with some other fun outdoor toys) for her birthday, so we are practicing shoveling the sand in. I'm really looking forward to it ... for now.

FoOD, FOod, fOOd

Well, I feel like I haven't been giving Annagrace enough food. NO, I'm not starving her. I mean solid big people food. I have a fear of her choking (mainly due to my Mother) so I have kept her on crackers and small pieces of bread. So this week I decided she is going to try at least one thing a day. Yesterday was hot dogs!! And she loved them, so they might become a regular. I know it's not the healthiest thing, but it's a start.Today was bananas. I've given her some before but she didn't have any interest in it. She will eat them out of a baby food jar, but not straight out of the peel. She started off just squishing it through her fingers, but eventually she did eat it and liked it. Luckily I thought ahead and let her eat the banana in just her diaper and right before bath time.

Birthday Party Continued

1st Birthday Party

Today was Annagrace's 1st Birthday party and she had a blast. The theme was Polka Dots and she was the Polka Dot Princess. Here is the cake, absolutely DELICIOUS, I was very happy with the way that it turned out. The bakery did an excellent job. Getting all dressed up for the party

Waiting for her guests to arrive.

Party underway
Just looking so cute waiting for her cake, ready ... set ... SMASH!! However, she didn't like the taste of the cake. (Is that possible?? Can she be my child and not like cake??)

Then we changed clothes and opened presents

BUT, we had to try on the new swim cap and swim suit. We CAN NOT wait to go to the beach. (Get ready Grandma Betty, you might just end up with weekly guests!!)

Even Lucy dressed up for the occasion.

The kids also played in the bubbles, drew on the back porch with side walk chalk, and enjoyed Annagrace's new swing set. I will post slide shows and videos tomorrow. I am tired and the pictures are uploading way to slow right now ... I'm going to bed.

I know ... I'm shameless

But please go vote for Annagrace!!! The contest requires there to be 50 contestants and it didn't meet that goal so they relisted everyone and started the vote count over at ZERO. (which is good and bad, there were some kids with hundreds of votes!!)

http://www.americancontests.org/index.php

I know it looks all tedious because you have to register and they want you to look at advertisements. But, if you just register once you can log back in any time and vote again. And you can skip through the ads by just scrolling to the bottom and click on "just vote." They don't require you to look at or fulfill the ads before you can vote.

THANKS!!

7 YEARS

I can't believe it has been 7 whole years since the day I was sealed for time and all eternity to the man of my dreams. Tyler is truly a wonderful husband and I have enjoyed every day of our marriage (fights and all). What hasn't killed us, has only made us stronger. So, to celebrate today, Tyler got off early and we went to an early movie, Leatherheads, and then went to Carabba's for dinner (with a little shopping in between). Carabba's has kind of become a tradition for us. Last year I was 8 1/2 months pregnant when we went to dinner, on our anniversary. We were eagerly awaiting the arrival of our little baby girl. We had celebrated 5 long, childless, anniversaries up to that point. Sitting in the booth, across from my love, with my pregnant belly rubbing the table has to be one of the most precious moments in my entire life. It was such a culmination of events - I just couldn't stop smiling the whole night. Tonight I just can't help but think about how truly blessed I am ... I am married to my best friend and I have such a wonderful, healthy, HAPPY baby. What more could I ask for??

Just a Swingin'

Well Tyler completed the new swing set a couple of weeks ago but Annagrace hasn't been able to really use it b/c we didn't have the baby swing yet. We were trying to wait until her birthday, but Tyler gave in today and took Annagrace to Toys R Us and bought one. She absolutely LOVES it! She stayed in it forever tonight. I can't believe that a child of MINE actually likes the outdoors!! But, it is nice to know that I can go work in the yard now and have a safe place to keep her busy and non fussy.
This picture cracks me up. When Tyler brought the camera out, he told Annagrace to "smile." And this is the face she made!!

???WEEDS???

So, I am a girly girl through and through. I HATE the outdoors, hated girls camp (every minute), hated PE, hated the dirt, the bugs, the heat ... and most definitely hated yard work! My mom spent HOURS everyday in the flower beds that surround my yard, when she lived here. They are now consumed with WEEDS. And frankly, I didn't care. When people come over, I closed the curtains over our sliding glass door, and no one was the wiser. I never went out there so why does it need to look pretty?? Well ... I don't know what came over me this week. I looked into my back yard on Sunday and felt almost personally insulted that these stupid weeds have INVADED my back yard! How dare they?? So, Mom came over on Monday and together we began our war against the weeds. We got about 2/3 of the flower beds done - filling 5 LARGE trash bags!!! But, now I'm addicted, I've been out there every afternoon. Even now with tired, sore, swollen fingers, and sore, barely bendable legs I'm thinking about how I will be back out there again tomorrow as soon as the Grandmother gets here to watch the babe. Maybe it's a motherly thing, I want the yard to be pretty for Annagrace to play in, I don't know??? I'm just going with it. (I will post the before/after pics when I finish!)

Ezra

We went to visit baby Ezra on Sunday, he is so cute!! Annagrace would just grin from ear to ear when she would look at him, but then Max would side track her and she would take off after him. But, Ezra is just so tiny and sweet. It makes me want another one (hehe) or maybe for Annagrace to just shrink back down again.

Max was too heavy for Annagrace to push ... making her very frustrated. I love that he is "cheese"ing anyway though.