Ellie's first Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Seriously - how cute is my kid? She could not be any cuter. She's a Bee! She's our little Ellie Bee. Look at those feet - they crack me up. I had some greeting cards made for Halloween with the above picture and sent them out to family. Hope everyone got it! Have a safe and Happy Halloween, everyone! More picture soon of Ellie's first time to hand out candy.

Pig for Pigg

WARNING: The following post contains graphic images that may offend vegetarians.

Yes, that is what it looks like. Meg Pigg next to an enormous barbecued pig. I tried to get her to bite the apple for this picture, but she declined. Meg and Ruben are getting married in two weekends so we threw a little shin dig at Bonnie's house for them to celebrate. I'm not sure the exact number of people that attended but I'd bet it was between 50-60. Good times. A lot of people came in town for it including the Piggs from Lubbock (had to give you guys a shout out on the blog). Ellie couldn't attend the party because it ran late so my parents babysat again. I keep wondering when they're going to make me start paying them.

Having everyone back together makes me miss all of my old college buddies, so I'm planning a "family reunion" trip for this summer. I think we're going to try to rent a beach house or lake house someplace in Texas. I cannot wait until all of our little kiddos are running around together. Since everyone wants to go, it looks like we're going to have to find 3 houses next to each other to rent. Either that or one big one that has ten bedrooms.

Ellie has a new way that she likes to sleep:

How strange is that? She sort of looks like a hostage. I went to her daycare at lunch last week and she had her lovey over her face like this. Tanisha, her teacher, said that they routinely pull it off her face when she's sleeping, but when they go back to check on her, it's right back over her head. Maybe I should get her a tiny little eye mask to wear at daycare? My girl needs her beauty rest.

And here she is sitting up like a big girl. It was the strangest thing... last Saturday, she wasn't sitting up and then on Sunday, she could suddenly sit up like she'd been doing it for months. When I took her into day care on Monday morning, I said, "Look what Ellie learned to do" as I place her on the ground. She sat there looking around and Tinisha said, "She can sit? She learned that this weekend?" Apparently so. I wonder what other tricks she's got up her sleeve that she hasn't let me know about yet. She can also roll her tongue now. So when I'm driving around, it sounds like I have a baby Chewbacca in my backseat.

I was trying to get this post out last night, but my night owl wanted to stay up until midnight. I was going to let her cry it out, but Lee had a felony one trial that started this morning so the timing wasn't great. She's usually pretty good about going to sleep, but I can't figure out what it is lately. She's starting to wake up in the middle of the night or at 5:00. She may be teething or hungry. I guess the only way to fine out if she's teething is to wait and see if she gets teeth soon!

Girls' Weekend

I haven't been really great with the picture taking lately. This is a picture from the arboretum last weekend. Poor Ellie (and poor me too). I feel like we'll never be well again. She's been fighting a cold and when she got home on Wednesday night, she was not in a great mood so I took her temperature and it was 100.2. I called the pediatrician and the nurse told met that they don't consider a child as having a fever until the temperature reaches 100.4. After a sleepless night, I took her temp on Thursday morning and it was 101.5. I knew she felt really bad because she usually eats and then wants to play, but all she wanted to do was eat and then go back to bed. So I packed her up and headed to the doctor's office. Luckily, I was able to get in with her regular pediatrician. He checked her out and did an x-ray of her chest to confirm she wasn't getting anything really nasty. And let me tell you how excited she was to be stripped down for that. I had to told her arms over her head so she couldn't move while they took the x-ray. She just looked at me and screamed - not even crying - just screaming. She was so mad.

She pretty much slept the rest of the morning and when she finally woke up in the afternoon, she was ready to play. I stayed home with her and we had fun visiting my stylist in the afternoon for a cut and color and then we took a walk because it's finally starting to feel like fall. They weighed her during the check up, and with all of her clothes and diaper on, she's 15 pounds 4 ounces. I'm guessing she'll be about 16.5 when she goes for her 6 month checkup. I also spoke with the doctor yesterday about the possibility of adding rice cereal to her diet. After talking to him (one other doctor, a nurse, a lactation consultant, 10 other mothers, and researching what the American Academy of Pediatrics says), I decided to hold off on letting Ellie try her first bite of cereal until 6 months. She's happy and she's not starving, so why rush it?

By Friday, she was a lot better. Lee went out of town to the dove hunt with his father and a large group at the Herradura Ranch. It's owned by Josh Beckett, Red Sox pitcher, and run by his father. This place sounds pretty posh - it came complete with a swimming pool and fine dining - so I don't think either of them were roughing it. My dad was out of town at a singing competition so it was a girls' weekend all the way around. On Saturday morning, Ellie and I went for a long walk and then visited my friend, Jill, the Kappa house mom at SMU. When I think of house moms, I usually think of our Zeta house mom, Poopsie, who was 101 years old. But Jill is not your typical house mom. She's an aerobics instructor and she keeps the Kappa kitchen stocked with candy and homemade bread. The Kappas just built a new house and - wow - I'm willing to bet that this is the nicest sorority house in the nation. From the art room overlooking downtown to the conference room with high speed internet hookups to the sun deck with lounge chairs... I may go back to school so I can be in a sorority again!

That night, Ellie stayed with my mom while I headed out with Bonnie, Kristine, and Chelsea for Meg's bachlorette party. We started off with wine and opening some gifties for Meg at Bonnie's beautiful new house and then dinner at Cantina Laredo. I know times have definitely changed when I'm the designated driver and we're headed out for a big night in my station wagon while Kristine holds my car seat base in her lap. Ohmygod. Did I really just write that sentence? We had a really great time and I can't wait for the big wedding shower this weekend!

On Sunday, Ellie, mom and I went to church and then I went to get a flu shot. This is where it all went wrong for me. I felt like I had been coming down with a cold and you're not supposed to get a flu shot when you're sick. When they asked me if I thought I was sick, I said no because I really don't have a lot of free time to be running back and forth to the grocery store pharmacy to get a shot. Word to the wise - do not get a flu shot if you're sick because it does make you sicker. Then Ellie decided that sleep was not something necessary on Sunday night so on Monday, I was a total disaster. All I want to do is curl up in bed and sleep, but life goes on.

Ellie has a new trick she's going to show everyone next blog... she can sit up now!! And it's not the halfway sit up where she has to use her arms for support. She's all the way up and she's so excited she can do it. I don't think she's close to crawling though. I feel like she's closer to walking than she is crawling, but we'll see. She can also put her paci back in her mouth now. Praise Jesus. Sometimes it takes her five minutes, but she works on it until she succeeds. That's my girl!

Little Pumpkin

First of all, we are SO EXCITED for the Erwins because they found out they are expecting a GIRL in February!! I have been sending girl vibes to Knoxville since I found out Nicole was pregnant, so it must have worked. Now Ellie has someone to go to Camp Marymount with. If Ellie goes, she will be the third generation Marymounter. My mom went one summer and never went back (Mom loves not camping), and I went for four summers with Nicole. But who knows - Ellie will probably want to go someplace in Texas with her school friends. When we die, Lee and I want to be cremated and Lee says he wants his ashes scattered on the 50 yard line of Neyland Stadium. I have no clue where I'd like to be scattered so I usually default to saying just dump me in the lake at Marymount. I'm afraid that if they did that, I'd become one of the scary stories they tell the campers like "Enoch and Erma" or "Cheryl". According to camp legend, Cheryl was the crazy girl who used work in the kitchen and started digging up dead bodies to use for meat in the spaghetti sauce. She now lives in the cave by the spring. If they dumped my ashes in the lake, they'd probably tell the campers if you chant my name three times and look in the lake at midnight, you can still see my face. And nobody wants to be remembered by a story like that.

I'm going to have to squeeze two weekends into one blog. We had a fantastic football weekend last weekend because all four of the football teams we were rooting for won: Texas A&M, Tennessee, the Cowboys, and the team playing Texas. This weekend we went 1-3 because only Tennessee won. I felt really old for the first time last weekend. It was the annual Texas-OU game at the Cotton Bowl. We've never gone to the game, but every year the Friday night before the game, we go to a party hosted by a club that Lee belongs to. When I got the invitation this year, I was shocked to see that the party that the party started at 9pm. Are you kidding me? I'm usually on my way to the Land of Nod by that time. Then I remembered that it's been at 9pm every year we've gone and I realized I just can't hang anymore. So sad.

During all of the football madness, Lee decided that Ellie needed a Jack in the Box so he went to pick her up one at a local toy store. While he was there, he thought that she needed a two-foot tall Cookie Monster too. He was so excited about giving her Cookie Monster, but when he pulled it out of the sack, this was the scene that unfolded:

If you can't tell, Ellie is not a Cookie Monster fan. Every time we showed it to her, she started crying. We took it back the next day and got her a much smaller Elmo doll. She loves it. I think I'm going to have to find a Tickle Me Elmo for Christmas.

On Friday night, Lee and I went to the Dallas Stars game. We got to view the game from a suite because one of the labs we use at work invited me. Job perk. My mom spent the night that night to take care of Ellie. The next day, Ellie, mom and I went to a market the mother's association was putting on at our church. Both of us proceeded to buy way too much stuff. Mostly for Ellie, of course.

On Sunday, we did what every parent with a small child does at Halloween - dressed her up and took her to a pumpkin patch. After church, we went to the Dallas Arboretum for a photo op. Right in the middle of church, I realized we didn't have Ellie's stroller because we had taken Lee's car instead of mine. We had Ellie's Bumbo so we could sit her up for pictures, so we rented a wagon and put the Bumbo in it so she could look around. She loved it. We took her Halloween costume so she could take pictures in it, but I'm not going to put those up on the blog yet. I have to keep some things under wraps. Check back on October 31 for her costume debut!

Now that Ellie is well from the stomach flu, I think she's getting sick again with chest congestion. I can hear her in bed coughing now. It's the same thing I'm just now getting over. Uuuggghhh. Poor kiddo. I get everything she gets at daycare and she gets everything I get.

Last but not least - Happy Anniversary to my parents. Thirty-five big ones today!

The stomach flu

Poor kiddo. She's had a rough week. On Friday night, Ellie had her first stomach flu. I knew it might happen since everyone in her day care seemed to be coming down with it. One little boy in her room even had to be hospitalized, so I was hoping she wouldn’t get it. But she did. She woke up crying at 1:30 AM on Friday night so I went into her room to put her pacifier back in her mouth. She spit it out and looked at me so I picked her up and when I did, I realized she was covered in vomit. And for the record – spit up is totally different than vomit. Spit up doesn’t smell like anything and vomit smells like I did after Chilifest '99 when I got on stage with Jerry Jeff Walker. I must have made an impression on him when he got off his tour bus and I asked him if he was going to play "Sangria Wine".

I thought she was better the next morning so I tried to feed her, but it all care right back up again. I spent most the rest of the day trying to get her to keep down some Pedilyte. The nurse at Ellie's doctor's office was so great. She gave me her personal cell phone number and even called to see how Ellie was on Sunday. By about 8 PM on Saturday evening, she was back to normal. My parents came over to celebrate my Dad’s birthday, and luckily she was back to being up and around to wish dad a happy birthday by the time he left. We had a really good time grilling out some dove Lee shot over Labor Day weekend.

By Sunday, Lee started coming down with what Ellie had and 24 hours later, I did too. We were all sick with the virus at some point over the last 5 days. I was the sickest on Monday night/Tuesday morning and to top it off, my boss was here on Tuesday to do my mid-year review so I had to come to work. My last review was on my due date. He sure knows how to pick ‘em. On the bright side, the stomach flu is a really great diet so maybe I dropped some more lbs.

I also had my bi-annual work physical last Thursday. I won’t go into all of the gory details, but they had to draw blood. If you’re a long-time reader of The Bright Spot, you’ll know that there is no way this story can end well. It took the tech 30 minutes to find a vein and then 5 minutes to fill 3 of the 4 vials that were required. I couldn’t take it after 5 minutes so she pulled the needle out and didn’t get the fourth vial filled. I’m sure I’m going to have to go back. Why me.

Lee also had an interesting Thursday last week. Sometimes he visits Ellie during the day. When he drove up at noon, ALL of the kids in the day care center were in the parking lot because they were having a fire drill. There are 8 babies in Ellie's class. It never occurred to me as to how they evacuate infants during a fire drill, but apparently, they throw 4 babies in one crib and 4 in another and roll them down the hall. Ellie was asleep when the alarm sounded and according to her teacher, she was not thrilled to share a bed with 3 other kids and be transported into the hot sun. All I could picture was that scene from the movie, Jackass, where they’re all in the shopping cart rolling down the street. I’m sure it was quite a sight.

Ellie had to get her 4 month shots on Monday. I did much better this time than last time (and so did she). She’s really been through the wringer for the last two weeks - first the cold then stomach flu then the shots. I bet she's ready to crawl back into the womb. According to the doctor, she’s doing great and is still in the 95th percentile for height at 25.75 inches. She’s 70th percentile for weight at 14 pounds and 7 ounces. I was a little disappointed with the appointment because her regular pediatrician is out because his wife just had a baby. We had another doctor who I thought was going to be really great because he's been a doctor for 35 years. I have so many questions about feeding, weaning, rice cereal, when she should start first foods, etc. Basically, it went like this:

Q: How long should I breastfeed?
A: However long you want. Don't kill yourself.
Q: Should she start rice cereal?
A: You're her mother. If it feels right, it probably is.
Q: When should I start trying to feed her rice cereal?
A: Whenever you want to start it.
Q: Does it seem like she's getting enough food at night?
A: There's no real formula for this. Every baby is different.
Q: Are you even a pediatrician?
A: No, but I stayed in a Holiday Inn last night.

Okay, that last part didn't really happen, but it should have. I know he's been around thousands of babies, but I've only been around this one, therefore I am clueless. So I am turning to the experts for help - other mothers. If you're a mother and I haven't asked for for feeding advice yet, I will. Here's my little Tootsie trying to stand up. I keep my hands close just in case she starts to tumble.