Miss is Sick :(

Posted on by Amy
Today Miss played in the pool for the first time. She had a wonderful time, but after playing hard for a few hours, we sat down to have a snack and wait for my hubby to get done playing a round of golf and join us for dinner. As I was encouraging Miss to eat her snack and drink some water, and feeling quite puzzled as to why she was refusing both, she got a funny look on her face and promptly vomited her lunch all over me. I was very surprised, as she has never been sick before, and hasn’t thrown up since she used to spit up as a tiny infant. I think I froze for a moment, not knowing quite what to do with myself or her. I recovered rather quickly though and took her into the locker room to shower the vomit off both of us (kind of lucky really that, if she had to throw up all over herself and me in public, she did it while we were wearing bathing suits and had showers readily available for our use). She seemed to perk up rather quickly, after she recovered from her own apparent surprise about throwing up. So we went back out to continue waiting for my hubby. Shortly after he arrived, once I filled him in on the vomit drama, we began discussing ordering dinner vs. getting food to go so I could get her home (at that point we weren’t sure if we were dealing with a virus or a one-time random vomit). I was just about to say that I really thought we should just go ahead and take her home just in case, when she proceeded to vomit again all over me. We did a repeat of the shower and I got her dressed in dry clothes to go ahead and go home while hubby ordered dinner for us to go. After we got home, I went upstairs to change out of my stinky, vomitty bathing suit and came back downstairs to see my hubby giving Miss her sippy cup full of milk!!! Well, I don’t need to tell you that the milk came back up within a few minutes, all over my hubby this time. At that point, after cleaning himself up, he volunteered to go get her some Pedialite while I finished cleaning her up for the third time and got her to sip a little bit of water. Needless to say, Miss had a little bit of a rough evening. Though in between bouts of puking, she seemed almost her normal cheerful self, just maybe a bit subdued. She did manage to keep some Pedialite down and got a bath before bed.
At first I was thinking the sickness had something to do with the pool, really just because we happened to be there when she first got sick. Now I am wondering if she caught a bug from being around so many people this past weekend. We went to a family reunion in Iowa for my husband’s family to celebrate his grandmother’s 90th birthday. There were about a zillion people there, spanning four generations. It really was a great time, so to make up for sharing all the gross details of Miss’s pukey evening, I’ll also share some great photos of Miss’s more fun times this weekend.
She got to run and play on my hubby’s cousin’s farm.




She did so much running and chasing other kids that she fell down a lot. She has some lightly skinned knees to prove it. But my tough girl never even made a peep about getting scraped up. She just got back up, sometimes with a bit of assistance but usually on her own, and kept right on running and playing.

I just love that she is tall enough now to hold my hand while she walks beside me. Every time she reaches her little hand up to hold mine I just melt.
At the big birthday party she danced to a song her uncle wrote and had some birthday cake.



She got kissed by her “Cousin Brother.” This adorable guy is Miss’s age-mate cousin in my husband’s family. He is just shy of 2 months older than her. In my hubby’s family, 10 of the 12 grandchildren have age-mate cousins, which we call “Cousin Brothers” and “Cousin Sisters.” The youngest baby (who is about 2 months old right now) will be our Baby Girl’s Cousin Sister, and there is just one little guy who doesn’t have a cousin his same age. Anyway, here is Miss getting a kiss from her Cousin Brother (maybe he got her sick?!?!)
Or it could have been any one of these other little ones 🙂 I just love this picture of my husband’s 90-year-old Grandma with all 21 of her great-grandchildren, ranging in age from almost 13 to about 4 weeks old. Miss is right up near the top of the photo, being held by her oldest cousin.
Hopefully my girl will be feeling much better tomorrow! I hope all of you have had a wonderful holiday weekend.

When in Doubt, Flex!

Posted on by Amy
Ahh, the Muscle Flex. Miss started doing this particular move a few months ago. At first it was hard to get her to do it on command, particularly when her Daddy had the video camera out to capture the move. So initially any time she did it, my hubby and I clapped wildly and cheered to encourage her to do it more. As a result, she turned the Flex into a two-part move, where the first step is the muscle flex, followed by hand clapping. Then she added another component, the fist pump (or to those with a cheerleading background, the “Fight Motion”). So for a while it always went like this, Muscle Flex, hand clapping, fist pump. Over time she decided the applause wasn’t necessary, and she has streamlined the move to be just a Muscle Flex and then a fist pump. I crack up every time she does this. The facial expression that accompanies the Flex is the best. Unfortunately, she is much more willing to do it when the camera is not around (of course) so I don’t have many good photos of the Flex move, and none of the fist pump. But here are a few I do have, in various stages of the Flex:




That last one is my favorite! Anyway, her new thing is to do the Flex at very unexpected times. Like when we’re checking out at a store or a stranger comes up to speak to her when we’re out somewhere. I’ll say something like “Can you wave Hello?” or “Say Hi!” Miss will have the shy, bury-her-head-in-my-shoulder thing going on for a second. Then our of nowhere, Flex!!! Fist pump!! And it looks so odd, I’m sure, to someone who doesn’t know what she’s doing, that I always have to explain that she’s flexing her muscles. Of course this always gets a laugh, even if it is sometimes an uncomfortable chuckle as the stranger shuffles away, but I always give Miss props for her flexing. I love it, and find it so funny that it’s now her go-to move when she’s feeling shy. What better way to say, “I’m confident!” and “Don’t mess with me!” ???

Finally, the last few photos are just an add-on while we’re on the topic of muscles. Here are Miss’s first attempts at a medicine ball dead lift.

That’s my girl!!

Sweaty and Determined

Posted on by Amy
Yesterday it was 94 degrees here. It was fabulous. Lots of people around here were complaining about how hot it was, but I was just thankful that we had a breeze and relatively low humidity. Having lived in North Carolina and knowing what it’s like to feel as though you have to chew the air when you step outside at 7 am in May, I will certainly not complain about a very warm but pleasant day here in Wisconsin. Except to say that it really wasn’t so nice that our air conditioner stopped working yesterday. That part wasn’t so pleasant. Fortunately, I have discovered my pregnancy uniform for the rest of the summer. The loose, cotton dress is a must-have for hot days while very pregnant. I have purchased several now, and found them to be the utmost in comfort when it’s hot. I was still sweaty yesterday, as was Miss, but it was a what-a-fun-day-outside-playing-hard kind of sweaty, which is a good kind of sweaty. And speaking of playing hard, Miss has been working hard on being able to climb up onto the couch all by herself. She gets so determined to do it and just doesn’t give up. Yesterday my hubby caught some fun photos of her sweaty little strawberry-stained self persistently working to get up onto the couch and right into his lap (I did give her a little boost as you can see). She’s such a Daddy’s girl.








Success!!!

A Great Weekend

Posted on by Amy
This weekend was wonderful. Yesterday was what my mom might call a “Red Letter Day” meaning that it was full of great happenings and special occurrences. I got a great haircut, finally bought some new family room furniture (a sofa and leather recliner), and officially entered the third trimester. To top it all off, my hubby and I went to a great Mardi Gras/French Quarter themed party last night at our local country club and danced ourselves silly to an exceptionally talented local band. Seriously, the instruments they played included the keyboard, guitar, drums and bass to start among the four band members, and then they added in a washboard, two different saxophones, a flute, an accordion, a trumpet, and a tuba for crying out loud! All of these instruments were played by one or the other of the two lead members of the band, plus the bassist played the ukulele as well. Anyway, the music was wonderful, we met lots of nice people, and we had a blast dancing the night away. New haircut and third trimester belly photo (the hair is a bit of a mess as this was taken after the night of dancing):

Although I was quite sore today from all the dancing last night, today was just a good day. It was over 90 degrees here (in May in Wisconsin!!) and sunny and breezy. We went to the country club for a great lunch, got a lot done around the house and yard, had a great dinner at home and of course spent lots of time outside playing. I didn’t take any photos outside, but here is one of Miss this morning. She is so stinking cute in just a tee shirt and diaper, and when she’s outside and all greased up with sunscreen, sweaty and dirty, I swear I could just eat her up, dirt and all!
To top it all off, as I type this my hubby is out buying ice cream for us to eat while we snuggle on the couch and watch a movie. What could be better??

I’m Obsessed

Posted on by Amy
Obsessed with the book “The Girl Who Played With Fire” by Stieg Larsson, that is. I have been spending every available moment (basically just nap times and bedtime) reading this book. It is even better than the first book in the trilogy “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” which was a really great book. So anyway, I am not going to take the time to do a big post because I’m almost done with the book. But I’ll share some fun photos I’ve gotten recently.





This is Miss running, a fairly new skill. Notice she has her tongue out as she concentrates to round that corner. . . She gets that from me 🙂 Now back to my book!

An Anniversary, a Park Playdate, and a Rowing Machine

Posted on by Amy

Yesterday was my hubby’s and my second wedding anniversary. The traditional gift for the second anniversary is cotton. I got him a new (mostly) cotton golf shirt, which he desperately needed. Then we went out for a nice dinner at a local wine bar. I miss wine. But I did greatly enjoy the “Around the World” cheese platter (all pasteurized, I checked!). And the tapenade appetizer. And my entree. And dessert of course. But I digress. In honor of our anniversary, here are some photos of the wonderful day my beloved and I got hitched.





Yesterday Miss and I also met a friend of mine and her son at the park for a playdate. It was a beautiful day and Miss had a great time playing with my friend’s little boy, who is only five days older than she is. She got to practice lots of sharing. She loved playing in the sand. There was one toy in particular I enjoyed watching her play with. It was a bulldozer-type truck toy that she alternated between making truck noises and pushing it in the sand and putting the handle of the toy over her arm and carrying it like a purse. I couldn’t catch the truck-purse carry in a photo, but it was quite cute. Speaking of photos, I forgot my camera again and only could get some not-so-great photos with my phone. However, my friend did remember to bring her camera and she generously sent me the great pics she took and said I could use them here, so thanks K!! The park we went to had a very cute play area especially for toddlers. Unfortunately Miss and K’s little boy had very little interest in playing on the toddler equipment. They went straight for the big-kid stuff, complete with twisty slides, a hanging bridge, and a climbing wall. They didn’t play on all those things of course, but they enjoyed climbing up and down the steps and crossing the bridge a lot. After lots of hard playing it was time for lunch. We got out a blanket and had a picnic, which was great fun except that Miss really did not want to sit still and eat. The only thing that kept her seated for a short time was the strawberries that K brought. Miss had very little interest in the sandwich, banana, and raisins I brought for her lunch. K was the woman of the hour with her strawberries, which she generously shared (as you can see from the photo in which Miss had her mouth full of them). Overall we had a great time with our friends.





I have recently come to discover that my very favorite pregnant exercise is the rowing machine. Love, love, love it. It is low impact, but really a great workout. It works core muscles as well as targeting some specific muscle groups (shoulders, back, arms). I can get on and row a while as a workout in itself, or I can row a bit and then do some other exercise(s), then row a bit more, etc. It helps me to focus on trying to relax all my muscles except the ones I need to use to do the exercise, and consciously relaxing my muscles is something I’m practicing to be prepared for labor. I love to do pilates too, and often pick a workout from the CrossFit Mom website, but when nothing else is interesting to me, I can jump on the rower, get in a great workout and feel good all day.

P.S. Several months ago I blogged about possibly getting a minivan. I couldn’t do it. Well, I probably could have, but after much thought and shopping, my hubby and I decided that a minivan would not quite suit our needs (very large roadtrip vehicle capable of towing a boat). What you see in the background of the above pictures is our solution to the new vehicle dilemma, the Ford Expedition. I love it and have not had a moment’s regret about getting it. Best vehicle I’ve ever owned. It’s fabulous for roadtripping, and I don’t have to drive a minivan. Enough said. Of course, you could call it a “Swagger Wagon” if you want to try to give it a funny name in an attempt to make it cool. This commercial is pretty funny (click the above link if you want a good laugh).

Spring is Back!!

Posted on by Amy
Hooray!! After several weeks of yucky, cold, dreary weather, spring has finally returned. We took full advantage of it this weekend and had tons of fun. Miss is now running and loves to play with her new ball. She is such an outside girl.
Miss still loves to pick up sticks. Now she picks them up and hands them to me until she has something of a collection.





Miss has had lots of fun with her lion push toy on the driveway. She also learned that it works fairly well on the grass. I have to say I’m quite proud of how tough she is. She was pushing the lion on the grass and tipped it over, doing a face plant on the grass. She didn’t even make a fuss; just got back up, got the lion back on its wheels, and went on her way.






I got a fair bit of weed-pulling done this weekend and my hubby got most of our garden planted. And Miss and I took a long walk this afternoon, just soaking in the sunshine. I love spring here. Bring on the summer! Only about 3 more months until Baby Girl arrives!

Better Late than Never

Posted on by Amy
Happy belated Mother’s Day!! We had a wonderful weekend. On Mother’s Day we had a nice relaxing morning playing in PJs and then got dressed up to go out for a nice brunch. I almost made us late for our reservation, because I couldn’t stop taking photos of Miss in her adorable dress. I love that she can wear dresses comfortably now that she is walking, and she was really hamming it up with dancing, flexing her muscles, and playing while I snapped lots of photos.






Over the weekend I took my camera in to the store where I bought it because I have been having some problems with it. Turns out it just needed to be cleaned a bit and it is working good as new. While I was in the camera store I purchased a new macro lens for my camera, which is something both my hubby and I have been wanting. This lens allows me to take super close-up shots (or not so close up) with a large aperture (very low f-stop setting). I had some fun experimenting with the lens today.


Finally, my last post gave me the kick in the rear I needed to just get the growth chart project done. I got out my practice canvas and experimented a little and then jumped in and painted the growth chart in two evenings. I used stencils to put Miss’s name at the top, but otherwise I did the rest freehand. It’s obviously very amateurish, but I am quite proud of it (the right side isn’t cut crookedly, it is kind of curled up a bit, not sure how to get it back to flat). It will match pretty well in her room and she will always know that her mom made it for her. Now on to the next projects: ruffly summer pants for Miss, crib sheets, a dust ruffle, a Boppy slipcover, and other nursery decor for Baby Girl, and eventually, another growth chart for her room too!