What a WEEK!

Holy moly. It's been a while since i updated. I feel like I should title the blog "Wow. long time no blog" or just have that be the title for each update. Being mommy to a little one is exhausting!

She had her February appointment with the Birth-to-3 ladies. They were very pleased with her army crawling and she even got into what they call a "bear walk" pose. they are going to continue to see her on a monthly basis just to make sure she stays on track. And seeing as how each time they come and give us a few exercises to do with her and she responds amazingly. Last time we got her on her knees and rocked her back and forth over her knees and soon after she was army crawling! So we saw them last week and got a few more things to try with her and what does she start this morning? CRAWLING! (click here for a video!) I got her to crawl for 5 or 6 feet at a time by having her crawl towards a box of cheerios. lol.I tried just having her follow a trail of cheerios but the dog caught on pretty quickly and ate them all up before she could get to them! Silly puppy. My mom was video chatting with us on skype and she got to see Kaelyn crawl too! And the upside is that Kaelyn went to sleep a whole hour earlier than normal! I could have gotten her to bed earlier, but she wasn't in her jammies and needed a diaper change. So that woke her up. She's getting so big so fast that it's hard to believe we are already thinking of guest lists and invites for her 1st birthday! and she kinda gets two because we go home the weekend AFTER her bday to compete in the worlds largest trivia contest (Click here for the 90fm trivia web page). I'm sure that we'll see a few relatives that can't make the drive to our place (2 1/2 hours from our hometown) and she'll get a few extra presents and maybe a cupcake! lol. Did i forget to mention the huge freaking snow storm we got on sunday! 12.5 inches of snow dumped on us in one day! The closed down the interstate and even monday morning on Jeremy's drive to work he saw so many cars in the ditch. It was probably not a good idea to take the interstate to work seeing as how the on/off ramps weren't plowed worth a dang, but he made it to work okay and he came home so we could finish shoveling out what the plow shoveled into our driveway. lol. It has certainly been a week so far and its only Tuesday! I cannot WAIT to see what else the week has in store for us!

Much love and happy winter!

Lara and Kaelyn

spring is almost here!

Monday was Kaelyn's first Valentines day! It's crazy! 10 months old and now we are closing a chapter, very soon, on her first year!! In 6 short weeks we can say Bye Bye to having a baby and say hello to having a 1 year old!! We can plan a birthday party and start thinking of walking and her first trip to the park across the street, playing on the swings, taking her on her first trip down the slide, watching her walk barefoot in the grass.

I got super hopeful for the weather to stay nice and bought a container of bubbles. Kaelyn was not much for the bubbles last summer/fall, it was more of a fun thing for Odin to jump up and chase after and catch with his mouth. Yay!

I had an AVON meeting today at a cafe/coffee shop down the street and the ladies were all enamored with Kaelyn. "She's so sweet!" "Awwww,...... what a cutie pie!" Hee hee. There is something about hearing how cute your child is that makes your day. After the meeting, we ran to walmart for some supplies for dinner and light bulbs for the kitchen. A trip to walmart is almost ALWAYS a fun time because my coworkers LOVE when she waves her chubby fingers at them. And she LOVES to chatter and jabber at people and scream at them when they don't notice her waving and clapping at them.

Kaelyn got up and did a "down ward dog" type pose this morning. So, I can only hope that means that she is getting closer to REAL crawling and maybe even cruising along the edges of furniture.

We have our Birth-to-3 assessment tomorrow. Another follow up with Natalie and Mary. It was a great time last time, to have reassurance that she is on track and doing well by someone elses standards. We'll see what they think of REPEATEDLY being told Kaelyn has low muscle tone (hypotonia) by St. Paul Children's and Kaelyn's family doctor. Just because she isn't going to fight you when you move her legs, doesn't mean she has low muscle tone, right? That's the only confusing thing.... Birth-to-3 says one thing and SPC and our local doc says another. Who to believe?

I'm blogging from the bathroom where Kaelyn is splishing and splashing in her tub. I better go and scrub her down and rinse her off. time to get ready for bed time!

I will most definitely update the blog after Birth-to-3 ladies leave.

Lots of love,

Mommy and Kaelyn

where were you when?

There are always moments in life where you know it will be a major even that, later in life, people will ask "Where were you when you found out?"

Today I was channel surfing, landed on CNN to see what was going on and amazingly there is a party on the streets of Cairo, Egypt because Mubarak has stepped down. I only pray that we can leave them, as a country, to fix their own mess and not step in with out giant "hero" complex and muck it all up for them. I mean, i'm all for stepping in when the need is there, but We have so many problems in our own country, I think we need to throw a little focus on fixing up our country before we go fixing anybody elses country!

Anyways, CONGRATS EGYPT! I was so happy to hear that Mubarak realized he was hindering (not helping) his country. Where were you when you heard?

a good day all around

Oh my goodness. I think our spell of middle of the night waking up to nurse is OFFICIALLY OVER! Kaelyn slept in today until after 9:30!! I got up at quarter after, went to the bathroom, let the dog outside, fed him, grabbed a "lactation cookie" and peeped in and she was awake and playing with the stuffed little Tigger she loves. She was smiling and happy and it was a great way to start my day off.

We putzed around in our jammies until my friend KIM had to post on her facebook status about cupcakes for her bday. Now, even though I am eating healthier to lose some weight, I still indulge every now and then. I perused the google for interesting cupcake recipes until i stumbled upon THIS GEM. I have NEVER EVER baked cupcakes or cookies from scratch. Nope. I usually get the box from betty crocker where you add egg, oil, and water. I don't want to toot my own horn, but YUMMMM. I highly recommend these DELISH cupcakes. I'm starting to make some FUN foods. To bake more, cook more, so that when Kaelyn is older, I have something to teach her besides noodles and kraft mac n cheese. lol. I am sending the majority of the cupcakes to work with the hubby since I don't want that many evil, cellulite-giving, tempting treats in the house for me to fall of the bandwagon with. I'm pretty proud that I have been able to eat well, exercise often and be healthier for Kaelyn and any future children I may have. Yay me! and Jer's co-workers get to reap the benefits!

Kaelyn had a SUPER fun bath. Jeremy ran it and made bubbles with her baby shampoo. Kaelyn's new thing is that she tried to eat the bubbles. lol. she didn't quite understand why she put them to herlips but nothing ever went in her mouth!! Super cute!! I got pictures but have to upload them. I have a sleepy cuddle bug in my arms and have to put her to bed now so I will blog more later!

OH! and I got an email from "the gene pool" support group for different genetic disorders and I am very hopeful that this will be a good fit for us.

So far away from home

I'm sitting on the floor in my bathroom with the laptop while kaelyn takes a bath. Someone's diaper was far too much for any amount of wipes to handle. So bubbles toys will distract from the head to toe scrubbing she just got. (we aren't a fan of having our hair rinsed and can't yet discern why mommy wants us to look UP when the big blue cup is over our head. )

Anyways, after a fun filled day of church and superbowl, friends and festivities, I woke up today feeling sick. HOMESICK. I see all the pics of people back home, my mom and my sisters and can't help but feel that they all grow closer by the day to each other while I am 2 1/2 hours away from home raising the start of our family and living our "married lives" together.I know it was our choice to live here and don't get me wrong, I love my home and my husband and Kaelyn and Odin. But there comes a time when you wish you could just pop over to hang out with family for the afternoon. Do lunch, drop Kaelyn off so i can get a haircut in peace. Instead a weekend usually is required for any family function because we have to drive 2 1/2 hours to get there! Then the dog whines in our ears 1/2 the way home, Kaelyn wakes up hungry, I haven't breast fed in well over 3 hours and the night we get there is a total wash. Saturdays are booked up with seeing all of our family in one day so nobody feels left out and sunday is the reverse of friday. back up to go home and then tackle the laundry from the weekend, calm Kaelyn down from all of t he excitement.

It probably would be better if I weren't a social hermit. After all, I am blogging from the bathroom on a Monday morning. Can't really go too far in the truck since it has horrible mileage and Jeremy has the car at work with him 30 minutes in the OTHER direction of the mall. I never was the best at making friends. and the ones from high school have either A) changed too much and we drifted apart or lost touch..... or B) we are close but in different states so a lunch date or hanging out at the movies is impossible. There have been friends I've made up here, but besides mutual friends, I've got Jeremy and he works and then Jen and she works 5:30 am to 2pm then takes HER little girl home to stick to their routine. And the other one I attempted to befriend, well lets just say that my husbands job "all that money" made me a bitch, my miscarriage turned me into a pity party and I was using it for attention (or some such non-sense) and I gave birth to a "F*$%ing ugly baby" so she really isn't anybody I would spend ANY time with, much less let a negative influence around Kaelyn. Ugh. I guess it's like i live in a vacuum. If there were a mommy group in the area maybe I'd get to branch out and socialize, but there's not. so its pretty pointless in hoping. As much as I'd hate to leave Jen and Donnie and our goddaughter, someday I'd love to move back home, but knowing my luck, by then everyone would have changed more and i'd be right back where i started. OY. lol Anyways, i'm sure kaelyn's hiney has more wrinkles than a california raisin so I'm gonna log off and hope that if anybody reads this, they have a good day. Embrace and love your friends and family. So you dont feel so POOPY and jealous when facebook pictures make you homesick.

All of our love (and appologies for being debbie downers)

Lara and Kaelyn

SUPERBOWL CHAMPS!

It was a great day. WOO! Kaelyn slept like a doll last night, but we had to wake her up a few hours early because we went to church. (Early service because we aren't exactly up to getting her riled up at the contemporary service our church has at 10:30). We came home, and I cut up veggies for a veggie tray for the SuperBowl party we were going to. Then I cleaned up the veggie mess (leaves and peelings and little bits of broccoli EVERYWHERE LOL) only to make ANOTHER mess baking football shaped cookies. I really DO need to get a pic of them. they were pretty cool! Chocolate frosted sugar cookies with green and yellow lacing! Yep. CHEESEHEADS BABY!. We headed over to our friends house to hang out and watch some pre-game and let Kaelyn play with their baby who is 5 months younger. She is our god daughter and the girls are, we hope, going to be best buds! :D

Once the game came on another couple came over so it was 3 couples and 2 little girls, and one dog. lol. Zeus the dog had QUITE the time entertaining us all and getting little treats here and there when someone ate carelessly and dropped something. lol. The game was sure a nail biter and both Jeremy and our friend Donnie were on the edge of their seats. LITERALLY. :D After the halftime show we had to keep the cheering, screaming and sofa-coaching to a dull roar because Kaelyn's friend was asleep. She doesn't mind the noise for sleeping, but who could sleep with 6 rowdy adults getting riled up over fumbles, interceptions and extra points? The Black Eyed Peas were underwhelming. I guess I'm not really a fan to begin with so it would have taken QUITE a LOT to get me to say I was impressed. When all is said and done, it was a good game, we are taking the Lombardi trophy back to Lambeau where it belongs. BOO YAH! We had a pretty good night. Kaelyn fell asleep on the floor in the 4th quarter and roused only to get put in the car seat and to come in the house when we came home. It was fun once we got back into town because all the fans were leaving the local bars/restaurants and the college students were walking back to campus and wearing cheese head hats and foam fingers so we drove past and honked. (Kaelyn slept through that too!) came home and did a victory dance. "green and yellow, green and yellow, green and yellow" hee hee.

Great day. GO PACK GO! oh, and Aaron Rodgers is superbowl MVP. :D

Later folks. thanks again for reading my blog. Feel free to comment and become a fan or follow this blog!

Lara and Kaelyn

p.s. I had to wash my championship shirt just a few minutes ago because at her last diaper change, Kaelyn URINATED on me. And she did it like a boy, sprayed up and everything. Ugh. Didn't want the chemicals in her pee to bleach my shirt. someone said urine bleaches clothing.

Anyways, i'm falling asleep at the laptop so I'm gonna head to bed.

Check out this song! Green and Yellow. love it.

10 months old today

We had a great day yesterday. Just chilled out, snuggled up and took a nap. I wore my bathrobe and she only wore her diaper so it was a little skin-on-skin bonding which calms her down quick and we can get some quality snuggles in! Inevitably, it ended up in a nap, but hey, she's a cutie and has this trick where one minute you are looking at her in AWE that you are a mommy to this cute little baby and the next.....ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...... :D

She slept AMAZING last night too. Went down around 12 (yes MIDNIGHT, she's a night owl. YOU try getting her to sleep before 11 and let me know how that works. lol) She woke up a few times fussing but I went in, rolled her to her tummy and let her grump it out a little. She went right back to sleep in less than 5 minutes each time! AMAZING! No more 3am scramble over the dog and tripping over a pair of shoes to calm her down! I'll just keep up what we have been doing!. Amazingly, she loves having her crib side lowered and we are learning a little that crib mattresses are bouncy. So now, we are just eating some cheerios (Kaelyn is) and I'm having toast and getting ready to shower and head out to work. I have tomorrow off and it's SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!!! We are probably just going to go to church and hang out until we head over to a friends house to watch the game. I'm a little relieved that it's not at our house. lol. Less mess, less dishes, and less cleaning up before hand so the house is "presentable" for company. My dad and step mom have requested a QIK video from us so I suppose we will do that and a couple of pictures to celebrate her 10 month milestone after work. YAY! I just felt like doing a quick update today since it marks 10 fabulous months of motherhood. All the puke and poop and drool and sleepless nights were so worth every gummy (and now TOOTHY) grin she gives. She even claps at me. 24/7. Even when its inappropriate! (like when I nearly break my hiney tripping over the dog or when she's in her walker in the bathroom when I'm getting ready for the day and I poke myself in the eye. hee hee hee. What a doll!

Anyways, i hope to have a good update tomorrow after the SUPERBOWL!! GO PACK GO!!

busy week, busy weekend ahead

Oh lord. This week has certainly been a busy one. Kaelyn learned to stand up in her crib, making Jeremy and I put her in her pack and play over night until we could lower her crib mattress without fear of injuring ourselves. (I didn't want to imagine what 3am crib lowering would do to us. lol) She has slept TWO nights in her crib, like an angel! It appears that this mommy is getting her good sleeper back!

I work tonight and tomorrow and then Sunday We have friends coming over for the big game. WOO HOOO! Probably gonna make some Packer cookies. I tried a recipe for Black-bottom banana bars last night but they were WAY too dry, not something I plan on making again. I think instead of grilling out on "the George" we are gonna do pizza. easier on me and less mess.

Kaelyn is developing a bit of clinginess where I am concerned lately. And as much as it warms my heart, I know its a very bad habit to get into and even harder to break. As it is, we are putting her in her crib when she isn't fully asleep so she's been crying it out a little. It breaks my heart and sometimes causes me major discomfort since I am still nursing, but it has to be done, so we are giving it a try.

When my niece was here she was coloring with crayons she got from the restaurant where we had lunch. one of them made it into my laundry. (probably my fault for grabbing towels off of the kitchen table and not checking everything. lol.) So i have blue crayon all over a load of laundry. YAY! or not. lol. better go clean it out! I'll be sure to blog later! but for now, here is a picture of my goofy girl eating at her highchair! Cheerios and nanners are down the hatch and we are ready to play! Full force dont' you know? Should be a fun day! Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment! We'd love to hear fro you!

UPDATE: just got a call from St. Paul Children's and Kaelyn's thyroid function test results came back normal! Thank the lord! Wooo hooo! Now we REALLY have something to celebrate on Sunday.

what a busy busy week (or two) its been!

Sorry for the lack of updating. its been NUTS! We went home for Grandma Lucy's funeral after the NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (GO PACKERS!! SUPERBOWL BOUND BABY!!!) She was 90 years old, she lived a good and full life, so it wasn't the same as most funeals i've been to. Grandpa Robert was young, Charlie and Chris were young, Grandpa David was still young. All of them were taken TOO SOON. Whether it was cancer, lung issues, killed by a drunk driver, or a tragic mistake, these peoples funerals were SOOO different from Grandma Lucy's. This one truly was a celebration of her life, because boy did she live it. We came home Tuesday night and cleaned furiously in recovery mode from the game and last minute packing for the funeral because the in-laws were coming up for to watch my husbands cousin play in a local peewee hockey tournament. And as luck (or karma) would have it, I was up on Friday morning at 7 am sick. For the record, no i am NOT pregnant. Although me feeling better by 3 was suspicious to some family members. lol. It was the first time when I was sick and Jeremy was so pressed at work that he was unable to come home to help with Kaelyn. So she had some quality time in her pack and play, nursed a little here and there, and was in general, a good baby for me. I felt SO GUILTY though because normally I get down on the floor and play with her, we listen to toddler tunes on the computer (Kaelyn has her own Pandora play list and we listen to it so often its the one that loads now every time i log in!) and we snuggle and she was kind of on her own. Not only because I was sick, but just in case it was contagious, I didn't want HER to get sick. As it turns out, I'm pretty sure it was something I ate, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out what it was that made me sick. But that's neither here nor there.

We went to the hockey tournament where Rapids beat the pants off of Altoona 4-1 (I think. ). We relaxed and went to dinner saturday night, watched a movie at home, relaxed sunday morning until they packed up, gave last kisses to Kaelyn and left to go back home. We weren't without company though because my mom, sister, and niece came up so that I didn't have to go to Kaelyn's appointment at St. Paul Children's Hospital by myself. I'm sure I would have done just fine, but I have never driven there by myself and with Kaelyn and the stroller (because its a LOT of walking from parking, to radiology, to genetics and back to parking and she's getting heavier by the day) and the diaper bag, and getting her in and out of clothes, It's so much nicer to have a 2nd set of hands to help out. As it turns out, Her renal/bladder ultrasound was awesome. YAY! She is right on track for meeting milestones timely if not early for NORMAL children, so she is beating all of the suggested times for Down's Syndrome Children. It makes me one very happy mommy. The reason that they are looking at her and following her as a Down's Syndrome child is because of the extra piece of chromosome 21. And she has SO LITTLE in what researchers are calling the critical range, we are not sure what, beyond the eye shape and other facial features will be affected. THey checked her heart, kidneys, bladder and all are awesome. They drew blood yesterday to check her thyroid and we should hear back this week or early next week hopefully. We thought we'd have to wait for a call for the renal/bladder ultrasound results, but Rebecca (nurse and in charge of DS Clinic at SPC) found us waiting in the lab lounge for her to get her blood drawn and told us it was all fine. PHEW! How often can you say that someone went out of their way to find you before you left the hospital to tell you your results to set your mind at ease!. Now we are just praying for a normal thyroid screening. Unlike the kidneys and bladder and heart (where once they are normal they never need to be tested) Kaelyn will need to have her thyroid checked on a regular basis.

I had such a fun time with my niece coming too though. We colored, I painted her nails (toe and finger nails) and we made a valentine's day present for her mommy and daddy). Her being big enough to want "CRAZY hair" and painted purple nails and to do crafts, makes me excited for the day when I can do these sorts of things with Kaelyn.

OH! I nearly forgot, all the night nursing? DEFINITELY a growth spurt. Between the 19th of December and yesterday 2/1/11 She went from 16#15oz to 17#10oz. Nearly a pound? She usually gains a pound a MONTH! and here she is growing that much in about 2 weeks? Makes me feel much better about letting her nurse as needed at night. although I think i will start giving her a breast milk BOTTLE at night because it is NOT good to fall asleep nursing a baby with TWO TEETH....YOWIE! Tonight we will hopefully have her crib mattress lowered because she learned how to pull herself up on the crib rails. Previously she tried using the cribs bumper pad and never got anywhere. lol. Last night I let her crab a little in her crib in hopes that she would calm down and go to sleep. and she was crabbing each time i checked on her. I finally got up to go to the bathroom and what do i see? Kaelyn standing up in her crib. So we pulled the pack and play out and in her room so that we could have her sleep somewhere safe until we get her mattress lowered.

Speaking of crabby, Kaelyn is starting to get fussy so I gotta go! Maybe I can get some MUCH needed cleaning done today!

Thanks for stopping by to read! I'm blogging in the hopes of SOMEDAY finding someone with partial trisomy 21 like Kaelyn, another mom or dad to talk to. It's not common, its pretty rare. If you are out there LET ME KNOW! I'm WAITING! lol

All of our Love

Lara and Kaelyn