Zoey update

Zoey has finished her first full week of daycare, and other than one "bad report" day, she has adjusted quite well. She goes to a home daycare with 3 other little girls - Ava, Savannah, and Sydney. Not all of them come every day, so it's been great for Zoey (and the other girls) to get a lot of attention from Miss Theresa.

Zoey now takes two solid "meals" a day - cereal in the mornings at daycare, and a fruit and/or veggie in the evenings at home. Her list of foods she's tried is now up to: sweet potatoes, peas, apples, carrots, pears, peaches, green beans, broccoli, and mangoes. She loves them all! The only one she's really made a face about were the carrots, but she ended up eating them anyway. Peaches seem to be her favorite (mine, too!). There is no better smell in the world than a little baby after she's had a meal of peaches. What a sweetie! She also tried a spinach- and apple-flavored puff, but she wasn't quite sure what to do with it, so I guess we'll have to save those for later.

I've also discovered secondary uses for her baby food. A few months ago, I stocked up on Earth's Best organic purees when I found some on clearance, so I have a cupboard full of just about every variety imaginable. I had plans to try out a healthy lemon-berry muffin recipe, but discovered this morning that I was out of applesauce, which the recipe called for. I didn't really want to go get Zoey out to go to the store AGAIN, so I got the bright idea to search through her baby food, and see if I could find something that would work instead. Sure enough, I found a jar of pureed apples and apricots, so we'll give it a shot and see how it turns out.

Zoey is also babbling up a storm, eating her toes, and spending more and more time on her tummy, on her own initiative. I think it's just a short matter of time before she starts to crawl or scoot! She's also sitting up really well unsupported, but she hasn't figured out how to get herself to the sitting position without help yet. She also surprised Mama today when we were playing on the floor of her nursery - I was helping her stand, as she likes to do, when she leaned forward and used her hands to support herself on the second shelf of her changing table. She can't pull up to it by herself, but she sure can stand for a long time if she can steady herself on the table! Eeeeek! She's also extra-drooly these days, so I don't know if she'll be popping a tooth soon, or if she'll be one of those months-long teethers. Only time will tell!

Ten on Tuesday (actually, 12)

1. Do you listen to the radio in your car?  If so, what type of station do you like?
Oh yes. In fact, the car is pretty much the only place I listen to the radio (because my iPod is never charged). I mostly listen to country, but also go between 60s/70s rock and the top 40 stations.

2. What is the best concert you have ever attended?
Big & Rich at WeFest 2009. Other than "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" and their song that was on ESPN's College Football Gameday ("Coming to Your City"), I knew absolutely nothing about Big & Rich, or the Muzik Mafia, or Cowboy Troy, or any of their entourage. They totally blew me out of the water and put on an AWESOME show! I'm now a devoted fan.

3. What is the most embarrassing concert you have ever attended?
I don't go to that many concerts, and the ones I do go to are artists I really love (seriously--it takes a LOT to get me to go to a concert like a normal person*), so I'm not really embarrassed about ones I've attended! However...if you go waaaaaay back to around 1992ish(?), my mom took me to Tulsa to see Billy Ray Cyrus, live and in concert. That's probably cringe-worthy, right?


4. If you could have the singing voice of anyone in the world, who would it be?
Miranda Lambert or Patsy Cline, or the chick from The Band Perry.

5. You’re auditioning for American Idol.  What song do you sing?
Uh, yeah...you wouldn't catch me auditioning for Idol, but if someone held a gun to my head and made me....then maybe "American Girl" by Tom Petty.

6. If your previous weekend had its own soundtrack, what would be a few of the songs?
That's a hard question! Not to be too lame, but probably "Happy Birthday" because we celebrated my mom's birthday. I can't really think of any others, except OH!, that "Sound of Sunshine" song ESPN is playing during the Little League World Series coverage. It's catchy!

7. Most annoying television show theme song ever:
Hands-down, Married with Children. "Love and marriage, love and marriage...."  (Shoot me now.)

8. Are you and your significant other music-compatible?
No way. When I first met Aaron, he only listened to god-awful techno and trance music. Most of that is like nails on a chalkboard to me. He's since broadened his musical horizons and now listens to a lot of indie rock, with a little bit of rap/hip-hop thrown in there. Me? I'm a country girl through and through. I like really old-school country, like Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, 80s country like I grew up with, a very few new country songs, and of course, anything my man TK sings. I also love classic rock, blues, 80s power ballads, and the occasional booty-dancing club hit.

9. A song that brings me back to middle school:
Tag Team's "Whoomp, There it Is!"

10. A song that brings me back to high school:
"Hoochie Mama" by 2 Live Crew

11. A song that brings me back to college:
"It Wasn't Me" by Shaggy, or anything by Outkast and Ludacris. (I wasn't always so proud of my country roots!)

12. A guilty pleasure song:
Boys From Oklahoma – Cross Canadian Ragweed (oh yes, thanks for the reminder, Roots and Rings!)


*  I had the amazing experience of attending WeFest 2009 as a VIP/guest of a certain someone's record label. It ruined me forever from going to concerts like a regular person. If I can't go in style, and hang out backstage/amongst the tour buses with all the beer I can drink, I don't wanna go!

Daycare

Zoey started daycare this morning! I thought it would be harder than it was, but honestly, it wasn't that bad! Her provider now has four kids she watches, and two of them don't come on Mondays, and the third one was sick today, so Zoey is there all by herself for the day! I think it will be great for to get used to the surroundings without the other kids there, so I'm feeling good about that. I haven't texted Miss Theresa yet to find out how she's doing, but I plan to do that at lunchtime. Hopefully all is going well, and she isn't throwing any fits! :-)

5 months!

Zoey turns 5 months old today, and her grandma turns 708 months. (Happy birthday, Mom!) Our happy girl continues to amaze us with all the new things she's learning and doing! Here's a short list of what she's been up to lately:

- Learning to sit unassisted! She's gotten so much better at balancing in the last week or so, and she can now sit by herself for about a minute or so...or until she reaches for something and topples over in a fit of giggles. :)

- Eating. As I mentioned a few posts back, Zoey is now eating baby food purees once a day. So far, we're still on sweet potatoes, peas, and apples, but next up are mangoes and green beans! We've also got bananas, squash, peaches, carrots, pears, and prunes (eww) stocked in the cupboard for her.

- Becoming mobile. This child has the ability to somehow get from one side of the room to the other in no time flat, without actually crawling yet! Seriously, I'll put her down on her blanket, and I'll turn my back for a second or go to another room quickly, and when I come back, she's on the opposite side of the room, totally pleased with herself. :-)  I have a feeling crawling is not too far away, followed closely by teething. We haven't spotted any up-and-coming toofers yet, but gnawing is her new favorite pasttime, so we shall see..

- Waking up happy! When Zoey was a little younger, every time she woke up, no matter how long it had been since her last feeding, she was crying. It was just a part of our lives back then. In the last 4-6 weeks or so, she's really done a complete 180 in that department! She now wakes up happy and smiling, cooing and babbling. She doesn't hesitate to squawk at us, though, if she deems we've taken too long to come and rescue Her Highness from her crib!

Zoey has become such a pro at anything we throw at her - weddings, church services, restaurants, long car trips, outdoor festivals, etc....so much that we have decided to really tempt fate, and we've planned our first camping trip with Zoey for Labor Day weekend. We'll make our annual trek out to the badlands at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota, and brave tent camping with our baby beast. I told Aaron that it will either be really awesome or really awful. We're hoping for awesome, of course, and I really have no doubt Zoey will have a blast. I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures and stories when we return!

Happy 5 months, baby girl! We love you!

Whew!

That last post was pretty long...sorry! But, really, it was good for me to write everything out and I'm starting to feel more at peace with the fact that I was unable to breastfeed as long as I would have liked.

Anyway, moving on...

I thought it was time that I posted an update on our cloth diaper situation. Basically, I broke the cardinal rule of cloth diapering: I bought a whole "stash" without trying 1 or 2 first to make sure I liked them. So, I had a whole closet organizer-full of *beautiful* custom-made diapers for Zoey, but we really only liked the fit and function of a few of them. My wonderful friend Kristen came to my rescue and a.) suggested I sell off the ones I don't like on Diaper Swappers, and b.) loaned me some GroVias, FuzziBunz, and newborn prefolds (for absorbency), to see how I liked those. Once I tried the GroVia on Zoey, it was like the cloth diaper heavens opened up and the angels were singing. What a GREAT diaper!

Soooo...I now had the conundrum of what to do with our old diapers. I didn't want to spend all that money AGAIN on new diapers, nor did I want to go back to disposables, because the whole point of buying cloth diapers in the first place was not to have to buy any more sposies! Well, thanks to Kristen's awesome suggestion about Diaper Swappers, I've sold off the vast majority of our custom-made stash at or above the price I paid for them originally! Wahoo! I was also able to score a few gently-used GroVias off there to go with the new ones I bought. Let's just say the money I made off our old diapers didn't stay in my PayPal account for long!

I have a couple of other new announcements...

One, Zoey starts daycare on Monday. *insert sad panda face* Even though I know we've found a great provider, it's still hard (and costly! blarrrrgh!) to leave your little one with a stranger. Monday also brings the end of my parents' summer-long stay with us, and we're going to be really sad to see them go. They will never know how much Aaron and I appreciate them spending their summer in North Dakota so that Zoey didn't have to go to daycare when I returned to work in June after my maternity leave. I would have been a total basket-case!

Also, I received the great news today that I am now a paid writer at OnceAMonthMom! I applied for the position about a month ago, and after a pretty rigorous "assignment" (doing a mock menu), plus a Skype interview, I passed the test and am now onboard the OAMM writing staff! I'm so excited, not only to be able to write about my favorite topic (haha), but also because OAMM is growing by leaps and bounds, and being a part of that is just so cool!

Our breastfeeding story...this is kinda long

A year ago, I thought I was invincible. As my pregnancy hormones ramped up in the first trimester, my rheumatoid arthritis symptoms went away, and I totally pushed out of my mind that diagnosis I got just a few short months before finding out I was expecting. It never crossed my mind that I wouldn't be able to breastfeed my baby for a year like I hoped to do, or that pumping wouldn't go as it should, or a myriad of other "what-ifs". I just figured things would go well, and I'd be able to feed my baby as nature intended. I knew a lot of women struggled with breastfeeding, but I naively assumed that I wouldn't be one of them.

Pregnancy drew to an end, and I started to remember the reality that was my RA. Realistically, my symptoms would come back, possibly even worse than before, and I'd have to take meds that weren't safe for breastfeeding. But, once I held my precious Zoey in my arms, all thoughts of anything but warm-snuggly-squishy-newborn thoughts left my head. Nursing went fine in the hospital. She wasn't hungry yet, per se, but she was able to latch well, and she made enough wet/dirty diapers to keep the nurses off our backs.

When we got home, things were a whole different story. My milk hadn't yet come in, and my baby was STARVING. Ranting, raving, mad, give-me-some-damn-food-woman, hongry. The few drops of colostrum she was getting were supposed to hold her over until the mama milk factory kicked into production, but she was having none of it. In a moment of desperation, I gave her about an ounce of formula (damn you, formula companies, for sending out all those free samples to expecting moms!). She eagerly drank it, but then the guilt set in, and Aaron griped at me for giving her any, and well...we were just a hot mess. I spent a good part of our first couple of days at home frustrated and bawling, because my baby couldn't get enough to eat, and therefore screamed her fool head off, but everyone was basically telling me that formula was poison, and it would ruin our breastfeeding relationship, blah blah blah. (Side note: I'm crying right now as I type this, however many months after the fact. It was a tough time, for sure!)

On Tuesday morning (Zoey was born on Saturday morning), our wonderful doula and lactation counselor, Rhonda, came by for a visit. My milk still hadn't come in, and Miss Fussypants was in the middle of one of her colossal fits of rage. Rhonda could clearly see I was about to lose it. She suggested that Zoey and I go take a nap together, skin-to-skin, and she sent Aaron out to the store for a nipple shield to see if that would help Zoey latch on longer so she could get more colostrum. Well, wouldn't you know, when Zoey and I woke up from our nap, I was leaking milk all over the place. Praise the Lord! We basically never looked back from that point forward--Zoey was a great nurser, and we never had latch or supply issues, and everything was peachy-keen, for the most part. I was still in denial that my RA symptoms would ever prevent me from breastfeeding.

Our only "problem" was that Zoey was such a frequent nurser. It was a rare occasion for her to even go 45 minutes to an hour without eating during the day. Even though it was a little bit of an inconvenience, I loved the time with her, and never thought much about it until Aaron's family came to visit over Easter weekend. Their comments and suggestions made me start to doubt my ability to adequately feed my child, and made me wonder if we were doing something wrong, or if my baby was abnormally hungry, or what. (And if they're reading this, please know that I don't hold anything against you - I know everything that was asked or said was coming from a completely innocent place and you meant nothing by it - it was just another internal struggle I encountered as we tried to find our way with breastfeeding.)

Also around this time, I started pumping to work on my freezer stash. I had bought a gently-used Medela pump from Zoey's doctor's wife, who had only used it when her youngest was in the NICU for a few weeks, then she passed it on to me. I struggled to even get an ounce, even pumping when my breasts were full. I kept telling myself that it would take some time to get used to the pump, or that once I was away from my baby, I'd produce better for pumping, etc., etc., but I always had it in the back of my mind that some women just do not produce for the pump, at all. Their supply is fine for their baby, but not so much for the pump. I seriously worried not about my RA symptoms at that point, but about what I would do when I returned to work. My baby would have to eat, and I would have to pump, and the whole thing was stressing me out.

The very day Zoey turned 8 weeks old, she and I attended a bridal shower at a local park. My friend Tiffany asked me how my RA was doing now that I'd had Zoey, and I commented that things couldn't be better. We were just trying to get her used to a bottle with what little milk I could pump in preparation for me going back to work. I kid you not, by the time the shower was over, my wrist hurt so bad that I could barely lift Zoey and get her car seat back in my vehicle. Driving home was pure torture, and I pretty much spent the rest of the night and all day Sunday in and out of the fetal position because my pain was so bad. I know it's hard to believe - it's just a wrist, right? - but unless you've been there, it's impossible to describe or relate. I couldn't even pick up my baby, and that hurt worst of all.

First thing Monday morning, I called my rheumatologist's office, hoping they would give me a shot of Prednisone or something that would be a quick fix for the pain, because long-term treatment would require a whole slew of laboratory tests and office visits and patient education before committing to anything specific. Unfortunately, my doctor was on vacation, and when his (awesome) nurse talked to him for me, the only thing he could suggest was maxing out my dosage of naproxen (Aleve). Even a small dose of naproxen is considered "iffy" for breastfeeding, unlike ibuprofen or acetominophen...and a huge, horse-sized dose like I was instructed to take was definitely unsafe for Zoey. I had to make a decision right then and there--I did not want to stop nursing my baby, but I also had to be able to physically take care of her.

Oh, and did I mention that Zoey and I were supposed to be leaving for our trip to Oklahoma in 2 days? And that I'd be flying alone with her? And that she was supposed to get her 2-month shots the day before we left? Oh, and that we'd be staying with my parents, who were insisting we go to church with them, but who clearly did not understand the fact that my child cannot go a whole church service's length of time without nursing? And the conservative Baptist church they attend surely would not condone breastfeeding during the service? Annnnd...we were also traveling to Tulsa to visit my extended family (a 3-hour trip by car)...and I was dreading having to insist that we stop to feed Zoey every so often if she wasn't asleep...have you traveled with my father? Oh my heavens. I was absolutely overwhelmed.

I felt like the cards were stacked against Zoey and I continuing breastfeeding, but the bottom line was, I had to do something to help my pain so that I'd be able to take care of her. I started taking the naproxen, and we stopped breastfeeding on May 16, 2011, when Zoey was 8 weeks and 2 days old.

She handled her first vaccination like a pro, and we made our trip to Oklahoma just fine. We went through a lot of bottles and a couple of different types of formula during our trip, just trying to figure things out, but overall, Zoey handled the transition like a champ. I was able to get quite a bit of time with just me and Zoey during that trip, and I have to admit that I spent the majority of that time crying. I was so sad about having to stop nursing, and I felt like a total failure. I still kind of do. I keep wondering if I had just "stuck it out" a few more days with my RA pain, if the flare-up would have subsided, and I would have been able to keep nursing all this time. Then again, Zoey may have had to go on formula anyway when I went back to work, since I wasn't producing squat when pumping. A bunch of what-ifs that I'll never know the answer to.

I hate the judging looks I get from breastfeeding advocates when I tell them we aren't nursing anymore. I don't usually feel like giving the whole story, so I know they're thinking we just gave up, we didn't have enough support, I'm a selfish mom, so on, and so forth. My heart just about broke in two when Zoey's doctor was praising me for breastfeeding, and I had to tell him we were now on formula. I got that look from him. (By the way, quitting cold turkey was the worst thing I could have possibly done for myself - not only was it physically painful, it was emotionally painful, as well. That sharp drop in hormones when I quit producing milk just about sent me to the looney bin. At the very least, I should have bought stock in Kleenex - I was a crying mess for a long time!)

Anyway, I just wanted to give my breastfeeding struggle a voice. Writing it all out has been somewhat therapeutic for me, and my number one goal for our next child is to nurse for longer than 8 weeks, but to also know that if I can't, because of my RA, then not to beat myself up about it and feel like a miserable failure, because that's pretty much what happened this time. I'm still bitter about it and hard on myself. I need to be confident in my ability to feed my baby, and not worry so much about what others think - I need to be my baby's best advocate, and regardless of the situation or people involved, I need to have the courage to speak up for her needs, and put my insecurities aside.

If you made it through all this, thanks for reading. :) A lot of tears were shed while writing it, so if anyone has any similar experiences or words of encouragement, I'd sure love to hear them.

Me time

If there's one thing I struggle with as a new mom, it's taking time for just myself. I breastfed Zoey for her first 8 weeks of life, and she was a very frequent eater, so it was literally impossible for me to be separated from her for more than 30 minutes or so. (Seriously. A quick run to the convenience store was about the only "alone time" I got during those days.) The one time I tried to get my hair done on a Saturday morning turned into a disaster. She wouldn't take the bottles of pumped milk I left with Aaron, so basically she just screamed for 2 hours while I was gone and I had to cut short my day out. That said, I really miss nursing and wish we could have continued that much longer. But anyway, that's for another post. Even when we stopped breastfeeding, I still felt guilty about leaving Zoey for very long...partially because I just didn't want to be apart from my baby girl, but also partially because Aaron was finishing up his Ph.D., and he was really busy. I always felt bad leaving Zoey with him when I knew he had work to do. So, all this to basically say that until very recently, I haven't had much time to myself.

I'm not necessarily complaining, because I didn't even realize I wasn't taking the time for me until Aaron said something a couple of weeks ago. A friend of mine had asked me to go out for drinks and shopping with her one evening after work, and I mentioned it to Aaron to make sure that he would be home to take care of Zoey while I was gone. He encouraged me to go, and said, "I feel like for every one thing that you do where you leave Zoey with me, I get to do 10 things. Take some time for you and go out and do stuff!"

Once he said that, I realized he was right. I could probably count on one hand the number of hours I'd been separated from Zoey (not counting work) since she was born. And 90% of that time was all because of Liz's wedding day when I was with the other bridesmaids getting hair and makeup done most of the day while Aaron and Zoey had daddy-daughter time. So, yes, I went with my friend that evening, and we had a great time. We shared a pitcher of beer and an order of wings at the Cay, and then made a quick run through TJ Maxx and the mall before they closed. Since then, I've had a hair appointment and an evening bridal shower sans Zoey, and I have to admit, it's been good for my soul to spend some "fun" time with other adults, not having to worry about bottles and diapers and feedings. (I still miss her every second I'm without her, though! I don't think that will ever change!)

Zoey's eating adventures

Somewhat on a whim, we decided to graduate Zoey from just cereal to baby food purees. She's now getting one single-ingredient fruit or vegetable puree each night, and she LOVES them! So far, she's had sweet potatoes, peas, and apples, and she hasn't shown a preference for any of them--she just eats them all! Mama prefers apples, because they don't stain her outfits. :-p  I suppose we'll just have to start feeding her naked, because even a bib doesn't catch the mess she makes...as seen here when she got a fistful of peas and decided to rub it all over her face!

Is there a doctor in the house?

Oh yes, there sure is--just not the kind you're thinking of! :-)

As I mentioned before, Aaron passed his dissertation defense back in July, and he is now officially Dr. Kennedy! UND's summer graduation was held last weekend, so we had a bunch of friends and family in town to celebrate!

Aaron's family arrived on Thursday, so that evening, we had them over for a cookout (my dad grilled his famous chicken), and Zoey got to meet her great-grandparents for the first time! Here she is with her Great Nana:

Friday was the actual graduation ceremony. Here is Aaron with his advisor, Dr. Xiquan Dong:

Unfortunately, we had to get to the graduation venue over an hour early in order to get a good seat, so by the time the ceremony actually started, Zoey was "done" with having to sit still and be quiet...lol.

We stayed long enough to watch Daddy walk across the stage and get hooded (thank goodness Ph.D. grads were first!), then she and I joined about 8 other mommies and restless babies out in the lobby to wait for the ceremony to conclude. Oh well! We got to see what we came for! I'm hoping to have some more (and better) family pictures that our friends Feng and Rona took. (Also: this picture is as prime example of why I'm suddenly motivated to get back on the weight-loss bandwagon. Yikes. I still look very pregnant!) :-(

Our good friends from college, Michael and Kristen, drove in from Minneapolis that afternoon, with their 11-month-old daughter, Sarah, in tow. (Zoey's BFF!) We're so glad they were able to come celebrate with us! After graduation, the whole gang went to L'Bistro for dinner. It was good, and probably one of our better L'Bistro experiences, quite honestly, but Grand Forks is REALLY missing a family-friendly upscale restaurant. We have Toasted Frog, but it's 21+ only. Sanders is definitely not somewhere to take a baby or toddler. L'Bistro has the ambience, but the food is lacking. Bummer. We are getting a Ruby Tuesday soon, so even though it's a typical chain, it's at least a little nicer than Applebee's or Texas Roadhouse.

The gang at L'Bistro:

Zoey did great, even if we did keep her out past her bedtime...

Saturday was the long-awaited shindig I've been planning for Aaron. We went all out for this party - I rented a pavilion (they call them "shelters" up here) at one of the city parks; we got two kegs of beer; the lunch was catered; and a local bakery made a great cake, plus fruit and cookie trays. The only problem? It was supposed to rain allllll day. Yeah. I left Zoey with Aaron for the morning, while I first headed to Happy Harry's to pick up the Boulevard and Honeyweiss kegs we had ordered. I got to the park, got out of the car, and realized they had only given me one tap for two kegs. Back in the car, back to the liquor store, pick up new tap, back to the park. Slight panic when I realize that the pavilion is wet, even underneath the roof. Fortunately, the rain stayed pretty light, so we were able to use a broom to get rid of most of the standing water. I kind of got organized and got some decorations going, when my parents showed up to help. They were a huge help! Mom and I arranged the tables and got the decorations set up, while my dad got the beer kegs ready (of course!). The only major snafu (other than the weather, which turned out to be fine--we'd rather be confined to the pavilion because of light rain than roasting in the heat!) was with the caterer. 100%, without a doubt, the ONLY reason why I went with them over other options was because they grill their food on-site, rather than preparing it beforehand and serving it in warmers. Well, when I called the guy to confirm everything the day before, I warned him of the rain, and apparently that equals no grilling. Honestly, it wasn't a big deal, and the food was still great, but it could have been better, and I would have liked to have had that communicated to me so I wasn't totally surprised the day of, when the food showed up in chafing dishes. Oh well. Here are some pictures, of course...

 

 

 

Homemade laundry soap!

I feel like little miss Suzy Homemaker or something now (or Michelle Duggar, lol!), but I just made my first batch of homemade laundry soap! You wouldn't believe how cheap and EASY it is!

I found all the ingredients at Wal-Mart, and spent $7.24 total, which included 2 bars of Fels-Naptha soap (don't worry, I'd never heard of it, either), a box of Borax, and a box of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda. All of those things were found in pretty close proximity on the detergent aisle. I made a double-batch, and still have tons of the Borax and washing soda left for future batches.

Laundry Soap

1 bar Fels-Naptha soap, grated
1 cup Borax
1 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda

Stir ingredients together in large storage container (that can be sealed). Use 2 tbsp per load for non-HE machines, or 1 tbsp for HE.

The friend I got this recipe from said once in awhile, she feels the need to use vinegar in the rinse cycle (she just puts it in the fabric softener dispenser on her washer), but otherwise, she LOVES this detergent! I'm excited to try it out, and super-excited because it's sooooo much cheaper than the regular stuff!

Still here

I'm here, I promise! Lack of posting can be partially attributed to being so dang busy getting ready for Aaron's big graduation weekend extravaganza, and also partially because I've been kind of down in the dumps. Good friends of ours, Adam and Tiffany, lost their precious baby at 20 weeks into her pregnancy, after being diagnosed with a cystic hygroma at their routine ultrasound. Their ordeal has really made me realize just how blessed and fortunate Aaron and I are to have a healthy baby girl that we get to love and hold every day. It's so hard to post about trivial stuff when you see your friends going through such a tough time. Tiff, if you read this, know that you have been in my prayers constantly, and I know that you and Adam will meet your little one again someday in heaven.