Stop and Smell the Roses or Tulips

Charlotte took some time to smell the Tulips

It has been awhile since I updated my blog and I have good reason....OK maybe not but when you have a 1 1/2 yr old who lives and breaths to play outside then what is a mama to do? So that is pretty much where we spend our afternoons. The morning I try and get the house in order and get my "chores" done so we can spend the afternoons outside. I usually leave the kitchen for the afternoon because Charlotte can play outside while I do that because it is easy to keep an eye on her from the kitchen. So anyway I know everyone is dying to know what we have been up to..... Yeah right....but I am going to make you suffer through it anyway. This is going to be a long one! This is the shirt everyone hates except for me and Charlotte. What is so wrong with it?

OK so we left you last time hanging about Charlotte's doctor appointment. We went back and found out that she does in fact have a auto immune deficiency. It is called Selective deficiency of IgA. It is nothing really serious It sounds really serious but in reality it isn't. Basically she has a low level of a protein in her blood that helps prevent infections like colds, sinus infections, bronchitis,diarrhea, etc. She can get these things easier then other kids but once she does have them she has all the antibodies to fight off the infection. Our pediatrician said most kids that have this either have a lot of symptoms or they have no symptoms at all, and so far Charlotte really hasn't had any symptoms. She was only sick once this winter with the flu and we all were sick so she didn't have a fighting chance on that one. She may eventually outgrow it and we also found that it is passed down through families. I am guessing it is my side of the family because Jim is never sick and my side of the family there always seems to be something wrong with someone. I am going to be tested just to see if I am right. So that is what we found. She gained a pound and a half back and the doctor said she wasn't as worried about her weight. She just wants me to try getting her to eat more often. She called it "failure to thrive". Nothing like making you feel like a horrible mother when they say that:) I have tried everything to get her to eat. She just picks at her food and really will only eat a few bites of anything and then she just plays with the rest. I have tried everything to get her interested in actually eating, but nothing works. She is to "busy" to eat. We stop everything and sit at the table to eat, even snacks, but she still won't eat more then a little at a time. I am not going to worry myself to death about it. I am just more aware now of how much she is eating. So that is the gist of it. She is fine and so far she has not had any problems with it. She will be going to see the immunologist sometime in the next two weeks. I will update when we get back from the appointment.

Last month Jim came to me and said he was getting some chicken eggs from a guy at work and he was going to hatch them and raise chickens. I told him was "absolutely insane, and that he was not going to hatch chickens and raise them because I would end up being the one to raise them", and I do not want to raise chickens. Our neighbor has raised chickens every year we have been here and they are the worst animals I can think of. First off they smell, and I don't mean they she kind of smell bad. They stink! Chicken crap is disgusting and the smell will seriously make you want to cut your nose off and stuff the remaining holes with cotton. I think you get the point that they stink! Second they are noisy, especially if you have a rooster. Our neighbor had a rooster for one year. Every morning at the ass crack of dawn that stupid bird would start in with the coooock a dooddlle do crap. He is very lucky I didn't go over a butcher the stupid thing myself. So that is smelly, noisy, what else could there possibly be? OK # 3 They are stupid! That is a big one. Gunner (Our dog) is almost as dumb as a chicken so there is no doubt in my mind that Jim will set up the chicken factory and Gunner will spend his days trying to figure out how to kill one of them so he can chew on it. And last but certainly not least is the fact that Jim will not take care of these smelly, noisy stupid birds, I will end up doing it because of his work schedule, and I do not want to raise chickens. So that was what I told Jim when he said that he wanted to do this. I thought that was the end of the conversation. The next week I went down into our basement and I was looking for something and I hear this"" cheep cheep"" at first I thought it was a mouse. as I started to look around I noticed a very bright light coming out of an old diaper box. Well can you guess what was in the box? Oh not "A" chicken, 11 chickens and there were three more in the incubator next to the box. I am not sure what made me more upset the chickens or the fact that Jim thought it was OK to put a heat lamp into a cardboard box.Nothing like burning your house down over chickens! So as of now the chickens are still here. I am hoping they will be going away soon, but I have a feeling they are here to stay. At least Charlotte get a kick out of them. I let her hold them and she usually drops them when they move. They are cute right now, but I am certain they will not stay that way and I know one of them is just dying to be an early riser. Oh how I love my husband and his brilliant ideas!

The black "Chicken" of the family. The only black chicken all the rest were light brown. My friend Devin just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who she named Sydney. She allowed me to take some pictures of her so I could practice my baby photography skills :) OK I am no where near professional or even semi professional but I am learning and really enjoying it. It was a lot of fun, but it would have been a lot better if I had a sitter for Charlotte, and if the light had been a little better. (It was a rainy cloudy day) I had a lot of fun though and I learned a lot. I have been doing a lot of reading and I am taking a photoshop class. My niece Erin gave me a copy of Photoshop Cs2 and Photoshop Lightroom so it has been a lot of fun learning how to enhance my photos. I am finding that I really enjoy doing this and it gives me something to work that is just for me. Since Charlotte was born I don't do a lot of stuff for myself so this is something that is just for me. Here are a few of the pictures I took. Devin also has a two and half year old little boy Nickolas. They all came over last week and Charlotte and Nic played together. It was really nice and Charlotte had a blast. They rode together on the powerwheels ATV. It was so cute. Charlotte held onto Nic around his waste and he was so good with her on the back, but he wanted to drive fast so he asked for her to get off and then he rode around the yard and almost crashed on several occasions. It was pretty funny. He is a sweet kid and Charlotte loves playing with him. It was a good day. Sydney

This last weekend we had a lot of fun. It started off with a trip to the greenhouse. Charlotte loves going there. She loves all the flowers and she especially loves the the little wagon she gets to ride in. I really need to buy that kid a wagon. I keep saying that but I would like to find a used one. A brand new wagon is like 70 dollars. Crazy! SO anyway then we came home and Jim built the raised garden boxes and we planted our garden. We are going to have a really nice garden this year. WE have a really nice selection of veggies and fruits. We even got a nice apple tree. That probably won't produce much if anything this year or next but when it does it will be nice. It is a honey crisp apple tree. Those are really good apples. After we got that done we had to rush to get to Laurie and Herbie's daughter Sylvia's graduation party. She graduated from college and is going to be an elementary school teacher. We didn't get to stay long but I got some nice pictures of the three of them together and we met a cute little puppy who's name was Molly. Charlotte didn't really care for her though. She has a little to jumpy and she nipped at her a few times. SHE was just being a puppy but Charlotte didn't understand and really didn't care. We came home and had a relaxing evening outside and finished up the garden. I planted some flowers out front and then it was off to bed. I think that should cover it. It has been busy but we have had a lot of fun the past few weeks. The weather is getting nicer and we are spending every minute possible outside. I will try to keep this more up to date in the future. That way you won't have to read until your eyes burn.

Laurie, Sylvia & Herbie

Laurie & Sylvia Molly the cute little puppy we met

She is showing Jim her "Button" Future Gardener We stopped to get a picture with the totem pole This is how she spends her mornings.

Notice the shoes over the feetsy jammies The flowers I planted in the front of the house

The garden we planted this weekend. The raised boxes are really nice and makes it a breeze to weed.

2lbs

It has been awhile since I updated this blog so since our last visit I have been to Indiana to visit Faith and had a really nice time with everyone down there, I have turned 29, I found out I have a large cyst on my ovary, Charlotte has gotten four more teeth, Celebrated Easter with Jim's family Charlotte got a huge easter basket.Jim has been put on meds for his blood pressure,Started to potty train Charlotte, We have planned a trip to Chicago with Dave and Monya for Jim's birthday, My dad is driving again...... The biggest news I guess is Charlotte went to the doctor last week and she has lost two pounds. Our doctor was concerned and wanted to check her bloodwork to make sure everything was OK. So the following day we had to go to the hospital to have her blood drawn. It was a horrible experience for both of us. They had two people (a man & a woman) help "Hold her down" while they took !five! vials of blood. It took them forever to get the blood they needed. They didn't get a very good vein and instead of just trying to do it over they decided to just stick with the vein and basically let the vials fill up one drip at a time. Charlotte screamed and cried the whole time. I felt so bad for her. Both of the technicans were pretty heartless throughout the whole thing. They didn't try to help calm her down and then the guy actually looked at the woman and asked if "she" was OK.....because she was holding Charlottes arm and leg for so long so she couldn't move. So when we finally got done we went up to the third floor to see Janet. My lactation consultant after Charlotte was born. She had a book of mine that I let her borrow and we decided to stop and see if she had it. It was so funny to see her. She hadn't seen Charlotte since she was about three months old. It made me long for pregnancy again. She asked when we were coming back to visit. I told her it would be awhile yet. We would like to wait till Charlotte is about two before we start to try again. After that we went back down to the gift shop and Charlotte got a new stuffed dog. When we were in Indiana Faith had a little stuffed dog she called Abby and Charlotte loved that little dog, so we picked up the new dog and named her Abby. So that helped with the crying and put the smile back on her little face. She now has to sleep with Roofus (Bis) and Abby. It is very cute. We haven't heard back from the doctor yet but I should hear something today or tomorrow. I will post when I find out something! I have started to potty train Charlotte and so far it is going pretty good. I started having her wear the baby legs legwarmers when we are at home. At first I thought they were the dumbest thing I have ever seen, but they are so nice for her to wear now that we are starting to potty train. It makes taking her training pants on and off a breeze and when she is running around without a diaper on it keeps her legs warm. This is proably third product I have changed my mind about since we have had a baby. There have been a few things that before CHARlotte was born that Jim and I would look at and say "How stupid is that, we will never use that." We would laugh at whatever it was and walk away. Now I find myself embarssed buying these things:) we have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen and breezeway because I have found that if I let her walk around without a diaper that she realizes what is happening when she starts to pee. She has went on the potty 3 times so far. So we are on our way to being potty trained. This is only the beginning so we have a long way to go but it is start. We went this last Saturday and had Jennifer Hagans do Charlotte's pictures again. She is the one who took the awesome pictures of her when she was about 7months old. I love the way she does her pictures. She not only captures the way Charlotte looks, but she also captures her personality. She has sent me a few proofs to show me how they are turning out. So far I must say, that I love them! Here a few for everyone to see. When I get all of them back I am going to ask everyone to tell which ones they would like copies of and the sizes, so I can order just the ones I need. Last time I ordered a ton of pictures and everyone wanted the same one and then I had a bunch of extras so this way I won't have to waste a bunch of money on a ton of pictures that no body wants. My dad is doing better. HE is driving again but I am not entirely sure he should be, but he won't listen to me. I am starting worry that he may be showing the early signs of Alzheimers. I am not kidding either. He is forgetting a lot of things lately and it is starting to really worry me.

To Aunt Faith Love Charlotte

To build or not to build

I am getting so sick of saying that things have been crazy but that is the only word that makes any sense. My dad is out of the hospital and we are trying to convince him to move in here but it is becoming a hard sell. We had a contractor come and give us an estimate of adding onto our house. It was a lot more then we had expected it would be. We would have to sell his house and even then it would just barely cover the cost. I don't understand how adding onto a house can cost just as much as the house itself. It is cray. So for now I am driving back and forth to his house three times a day and he is becoming more and more demanding. It is almost like he has become the kid and I am now the adult. It is starting to wear me down, but what else can I do.

DOWn WiTh THe SiCKnesS

Charlotte' dress from Uncle Charlie amd Aunt Karyn...... She looked really cute

I want to go to Aunt FAith's!!!

THe very cute bag that Aunt Faith bought for Charlotte's birthday

She is all girl! She loves carrying her bags around. she loves baby dolls. She has a cute knitted poncho that she has to wear every chance she gets.

Life has been pretty crazy around here, but I guess that shouldn't be a surprise anymore. My dad has been in and out of the hospital and is now currently "In" the hospital. He has had two surgeries in less then a month and he has become so weak that he couldn't stay home by himself. I had to go my Aunt Shirley's funeral last Tuesday and when I came back after the wake to check on him I found him on the floor. He had fallen and couldn't get him self back up. It was a total life alert moment. This is why they make those things. He really should have one. I got him up and back to bed and told him if he had to get up that he needed to call me. I got up early to go over and check on him and this time I found him in the bathroom on the floor. I called the doctor and Jim helped me get him to the car. We took him back to the hospital and they finally admitted him again. He will now be coming home on Tuesday with a life alert button. They have also set up meals on wheels for him and a home health nurse will be coming in 3 times a week. The big news is we finally decided to have him move in with Jim and me. We are going to build three rooms onto our house for him. He will have a living room, bathroom, and bedroom. We have the contractor coming this week to look at our house and see what he can do and how it will cost. We will be selling his house. I Have been trying to get him to agree to this for over a year, but now he realizes that he really needs to do it. He just can't stay by himself anymore. If he doesn't do this he will probably end up in a nursing home the next time so he wants to do it before that happens. We are also going to be adding a extra bedroom onto the other side of the house too, and the whole back part of the house will be moved out ten feet. I will finally have a bigger kitchen. We will be using the money we get from his house to pay for all of this but it is still going to be a lot of work, but when it is done I will feel so much better that my dad is right here with us and I will be able to take care of him.

Now onto the good news. Jim and I got our first night alone since Charlotte was born. Our friends Laurie and Herbie came Friday morning and took Charlotte to their Son's (B.J.) basketball tournament in Fon du lac. They spent the night up there so we had a whole day and a half to ourselves. I was pretty freaked most of the time, only because it was the first time I have ever let anyone take her over night. From what Laurie told us Charlotte had a really good time. I was glad she had fun. Jim and I really didn't do much. It was nice to just be home and have quiet. It was so weird, less then two years ago we couldn't imagine having a baby and now we don't know what to do with out her. Charlotte needs to get out and interact with other kids her age so it was a great experience for her. I can't wait until summer when we will be able to go to the park and she will be able to play with other kids. Needless to say I got to sleep in on Saturday morning. (8am:0) The bad news in all of this is just before Charlotte left she had a bit of a cold but it wasn't anything horrible. Laurie didn't have any problems with her being sick while she was gone, but when she got back all hell broke loose. It started last night about an hour after she went to bed. She woke up screaming and I could get her to settle down. I finally got her back to sleep and then every hour after that she was awake. I finally brought her into bed with me and Jim and she slept for about an hour and a half. Then when daylight came so did the vomit. She couldn't keep anything in her stomach, not even water. I cleaned the floors with the shampooer about four times, I did three loads of laundry, gave Charlotte three baths, and changed both her clothing as well as mine about four times. She finally fell asleep in my arms around noon and slept for a good hour. Now this evening she has been able to keep some Cheerios down and a bottle of water and formula. She has gone to sleep for the night and she has been asleep for about an hour so I am keeping my fingers crossed that the worst is over, and she will sleep through the night. We both need a good nights sleep.

SOME LIKE IT WARMER THEN BELOW ZERO

Today we are having a heat wave here in the great state of Wisconsin. It going to be 49 degrees which by most standards is still really cold but here in Wisconsin you will some crazy person with shorts on. I guarantee it. It is going to be really nice to be outside and not have your nostrils freeze shut. It is funny how in the fall when it is 49 degrees out we feel like we are freezing but in the middle of winter when it hits 49 we feel like it is a tropical heat wave. At any rate it will be nice to get outside and enjoy the warmth for a few days and then reality will hit again and we will all realize that it is still the middle of February. So enjoy it while it lasts!

Last night we made homemade pretzels. I was sure this was going to be a very difficult undertaking. I was wrong. It was the easiest thing to make ever. It was fun and they were really good. I think I will make them the next time we have lasagna instead of garlic bread or bread sticks. If you have always wanted to make homemade pretzels give it a try it is a lot easier then you would think.

Jim and I went out by ourselves for the first time since Charlotte was born. It was nice but we both missed having Charlotte with us and we really didn't know what to do once we were done eating. We didn't want to go see a movie so we just went and rented a movie from the movie store and then we went and picked Charlotte back up. Monya asked why we were back so soon. We told her we didn't know what to do with ourselves. It was just to much to ask us to do since it was pretty much the first time. Better luck next time.

Did you know??

OK I posted this on facebook but I thought I would post it on here too. 25 random facts, goals,wishes, etc, about myself. It was actually kind of hard to think of 25 random things. So now I want everyone to do the same. Leave me a comment with 12 random things about yourself. 1. I wish I wore glasses 2.contrary to popular belief I am a very good cook! I love to cook. 3. I love to draw and I am good at it. I started going to school for commercial art but life got in the way, and I didn't get very far. I wish I would have stuck it out, 4. I like that I have grey hair 5. I am more comfortable with my body now then I have ever been. I want to lose weight, but my will power is very weak, and since I have had Charlotte I am happy in my own skin. 6. I wish I lived in Washington State 7. I hate talking on the phone 8. I have wanted to be pregnant since Charlotte was born. I enjoyed being pregnant, but hated everything that came with it. I will not be getting pregnant anytime soon though so don't ask! 9. I judge public bathrooms by the smell of their soap, no matter how clean they are if they have crappy soap then they are crappy! 10. I am a very organized person. I didn't say my house was spotless, just organized! 11. I want to take classes for both Photography and cake decorating. I had so much fun doing Charlotte's cake I want to get better at it. I love photography and I now a lot about different aspects but I want to get better, and be able to put it all together so I can take great pictures of Charlotte. 12.I love my car. I will never by anything but a Volkswagen ever again! Go ahead and laugh!! 13. I absolutely hate doing laundry. give me any other household chore but that! 14. I didn't want a big wedding, I wanted to elope (St. Lucia was my choice) but Jim wanted a big wedding. Guess who won! 15. I love staying up late, it is my alone time and I also like being alone 16. I hate people who are not polite and people who do not know how to use good grammar! It drives me crazy! 17. I went to Florida and never went to Disneyland:( 18. I am pretty sure Mint Ice cream was the best invention ever. 19. My favorite holiday is Halloween, but I always look forward to St. Patricks day because it is the only time you can get corn beef and cabbage 20. I have to have socks on all the time. I hate being barefoot. even during labor I kept my socks on:) 21.I didn't think I would like being a mom. I was so wrong. 22.I love the fact that Jim still holds my hand when we are in the car. 23.I wear my watch on my right hand even though I am right handed. 24.I want to spend a month in Hawaii, I would like to rent a house on the beach. really I would rather just buy a beach house in Hawaii nu I am pretty sure that 25. I didn't want to go out with Jim when we first met. I am glad I did it anyway. He has turned out to be the best man for the job:) OK and now the thing I love the most! The way Charlotte smells. I am sure it is because I am her mother, but I love the way she smells. It is a little weird but she has a wonder sweet smell to her. Since the moment she was born I have loved putting nose in her hair and just being close to her.