Lena's First Birthday Party!

We had a great time celebrating Lena's first birthday today.  We held her party at The Scoop, the ice cream shop in downtown Middleville.  It is closed for the season but the owners rent it out for parties.  I thought that would be perfect since our house isn't really big enough to handle a party like this.  I tried to do an "ice cream" theme.  

It was a beautiful day today.  Sunny (not warm, but sunny!) and clear.  I was worried that all of our Hoosiers would be stuck at home today because of snow or sleet or something like that, so I was thrilled the weather actually cooperated with me for once!

Lena playing with a balloon.  She had so much fun walking around, "talking" to people, and playing with whatever she found.  I could really tell that she was having a blast (and I'm not just saying that!)  

Lena with Aunt Hilary.  Aunt Hilary and Grandma Sheryl were so wonderful to come up early to help me decorate and stay late to help me clean up.  Thanks so much!

Lena and Mama.  I got my hair cut on Thursday.  It's a little shorter than I was expecting, but oh well.  It's always nice to change it up every once in a while.

The kids played the game "Pin the Cherry on the Sundae."  The "cherry" was a red Coke bottle cap with a push pin glued inside it.

Our happy birthday girl, dancing to some music. 

Lena playing with her best bud, Madelyn.  They found the plastic sundae bowls quite interesting.  (This was before the gift opening!)

Lena in her birthday-decorated high chair a few seconds before she started ripping off the decorations and eating them.

Opening presents.  We had some great little helpers who brought Lena the gifts to be opened and helped throw the paper away.

Daddy helped Lena blow out her candle.

Eating her birthday cake.  I was so worried that it was going to be the biggest mess ever, with cake smashed into her hair and shoved up her nose, but she did a great job.  She grabbed it by handfuls, but she managed to get about 90% of it in her mouth!  Clean-up was a breeze!

I had no idea how much work it took to plan a party like this one, and I wouldn't do it every year, but I'm glad I did it.  Lena seemed to really enjoy herself.  I think everyone else had fun too.  Thanks so much to everyone for coming, especially those who drove 2 hours+!  

And thanks also for all of the wonderful gifts!  Lena didn't even take a nap after we got home because she was having so much fun playing with her new toys and "reading" her new books.

Today we're thanking God for a wonderful year with our precious daughter and we can't wait to see how great the second year will be!

Happy Birthday, Lena!

Happy Birthday, Lena!!

I can't believe my baby is one year old today!  Wow, what a year!  It has been so great.  We are having a party at 3:00 at The Scoop in downtown Middleville.  It's going to be lots of fun, so I hope everyone can be there.

I'll post lots of pics of the party after the clean-up is done.

Kitty Cats and Ink Pens

Here are some random around-the-house pics I have taken in the last week.

Sunday after church.  Trying to attack the kitty.  She was trying to climb up the back of the couch.  She tries to climb up everything!

It was a nice sunny day.

Last Wednesday before leaving for Bible study.  She grabbed ahold of that pen and would not let go.  It's been one of her favorite toys lately.  She is a dead ringer for Bob Dole in this pic. :)

Gotta love the wide-open mouthed smile.

I've been busy making party preparations for Saturday.  I can't believe she is almost one!  Crazy!

The other exciting thing that has happened this past week was that we purchased tickets to see the Cardinals play the Cubs in Chicago.  Yay!  It was pretty stressful; I was stuck in the virtual waiting room for four and a half hours before being allowed to make a purchase.  The game we originally wanted, Saturday, April 18, sold out so I had to settle for the Sunday evening game, the day before my birthday. :)  I am so excited!  It will be great seeing the Cardinals again and I am looking forward to my first game at Wrigley.  And Grandma Sheryl is looking forward to babysitting Lena while we are gone.  It's a win-win!

Today Lena and I are off to shop for birthday cakes.  I hope she doesn't mind that I am buying a cake instead of making one.  Mama loves to cook, but hates baking.  Trust me, it will turn out much better this way!

Hope everyone can make it on Saturday.  It's going to be lots of fun.  Let me know if anyone needs directions.

Lena's One Year Portraits

We got Lena's one year portraits taken last week.  The digital copies arrived in my mailbox today.  Click here to see them: 

Lena's One Year Portraits

The files are small so they are not meant for printing.  If you would like to order prints, let me know and I can give you the access code to the website and you order them from there.

I'm pretty sure we have the cutest little girl on Earth!  I just love these pictures.

Aunt Hil's Visit

Aunt Hil has been trying to visit since New Year's Day.  But ever since, either she has been sick, or we have been sick, or it snowed too much for her to travel, or we already had plans for the weekend.  But FINALLY, she made it this past weekend.  Yay!  We really enjoyed her visit.  We hung out at home on Friday evening and watched a movie (The Secret Life of Bees) and some ghosty shows on tv.  On Saturday she and I went shopping while Jim watched Lena at home.  It was fun for me to get out for a bit without Lena.  We hit Penzey's and overloaded our scent glands (we always leave there sneezing!), went on a hunt for cream of asparagus soup (success!), and had lunch at a Mexican place (Tres Lobos on 28th Street).  

Aunt Hilary had lots of fun playing with Lena.  And Lena had fun too!  She loves it when people come to see her.  

We will see Aunt Hilary again in two weeks when she comes up for Lena's birthday party.  The invitations will be sent out this week (sorry so late!)  Just so you know, it will be Saturday, February 28 from 3 to 6 pm.  I hope everyone can come.

Oh, and also I updated Lena's Look-A-Like Meter.  It's down at the bottom of the page.  Before it said that she looked more like me by 6%.  Now it says she looks more like me by 11%.  Pretty slim margin.  I guess she just looks like Lena!

Engagement Day

Happy Engagement Day, Jimmy!  I love you!

(We got engaged on February 11, so we celebrate that instead of Valentine's Day.)

Like the background I picked for the occasion? :)

The Winter Grill

Today was beautiful!  The sun was shining and it got up to 61 degrees.  It felt like spring and we enjoyed it so much that we opened some of the windows in the house this afternoon.  When it came time for dinner, Jim suggested we grill out.  I thought he was kidding at first, but then I thought, "Why not?"  His dad gave us some steaks the last time we saw him so Jim fired up the grill and threw them on.  It was so nice!

Grilling in the middle of February with snow on the ground!

Our side dish was grilled snowballs :)

We know it won't last long, but we were so thankful for this warm day.  We needed a break to get us through the rest of this long winter.  

Madelyn's Birthday Party

Today we went to Lena's friend, Madelyn's, first birthday party.  Madelyn is exactly three weeks older than her.  We had fun watching Maddie open her presents, eat cake and ice cream, and play with her new toys.  I didn't get any good pictures of the girls together.

Lena checks out Maddie's sleeve.

They have a really big picture window in their living room that Lena just loved.  That girl loves her windows!  She enjoyed sitting on the back of the couch and watching the cars go by the house.

Happy Birthday, Maddie!  Thanks for inviting us to your party!

Lena's Hospitalization

So, as many of you have probably heard, Lena was hospitalized on Monday for dehydration.  She started projectile vomiting on Saturday evening and wasn't keeping down much solids or liquids.  On Sunday I called the pediatrician's after hours number and the nurse there told me it sounded like Lena has a stomach virus and just try to feed her more slowly so that her stomach doesn't revolt.  It was hard because we could tell that she was hungry and thirsty, but if we let her eat and drink like she wanted to, it would just come right back up.  On Monday morning we called the doctor's office and they said to bring her in.  When we got there, we learned that she had lost about two pounds since her last visit (January 5.)  It didn't take long for the doctor to determine that Lena was really dehydrated and she sent us straight to the ER to get some IV fluids.  We were upset that she was bad enough to have to go, but we thought that she would perk up pretty soon after getting some fluids replaced and we would be released.  In the ER, they inserted her IV (so hard to watch that Jim and I were both in tears when it was done) and took some blood to run some tests.  After about an hour of IV fluids, the doctors told us that the blood tests showed that her blood sugar was low and her electrolytes were off.  They decided to admit Lena so that she could continue getting IV fluids throughout the night.  

The dehydration had made her really lethargic and sleepy.  All she did on Monday was lay there, never smiling or talking, and she slept most of the day.  She was only comfortable in my arms, so after we were settled in our hospital room, Jim ran home to pack us some overnight bags and feed the cats.  (When we left home, we thought we'd be gone an hour, tops!)  Monday evening was pretty tough because Lena was hungry but not allowed to eat any food.  She cried and screamed and cried some more.  She was allowed to drink Pedialyte, but at a much slower pace than she would have preferred.  We had a really great nurse th

at night.  When she heard Lena crying so much she brought her an orange popsicle.  She loved it!  When I put it in her mouth, she bit off a chunk of it and almost gagged, so I learned to just put it near her mouth so she could lick it.  She was so funny eating that popsicle!  The way she stuck her tongue out and licked that thing reminded me of giraffes at the zoo!  That really calmed her down and she actually slept pretty good that night.  There was no way she was going to sleep in the scary torture chamber-looking crib they had, so she slept next to me in the small hospital bed provided for parents.  While she slept pretty good, I did not.  I started feeling the onset of the bug during the night.  

The next morning Lena started perking up quite well.  She tried to play with the doctor's stethoscope when she came to check on her.  The doctor (not her doctor, but the one on call) was the first doctor that saw Lena after she was born and she actually 

remembered her!  She is very nice.  She told us that the blood test they took very early that morning (yes, another needle poke!) came back normal and that we could probably go home around dinnertime.  Yay!  Lena really seemed to get her energy back.  She wanted to play with everything, was smiling, and talking to us too.  It was so great to see her back to her normal self again.  Unfortunately, the better Lena got, the worse I got.  I felt like I was the patient, lying there in the hospital bed trying not to get sick.  It was such a huge relief then, when Jim's mom and sister, Tammy and Amy, showed up.  They had taken the afternoon off work to drive up and help us out when we came home from the hospital.  It was nice having someone to entertain Lena while I tried to rest before we went home.  At lunch that day, Lena ate solid food and kept it down just fine.  We were finally discharged about 4:30 that afternoon.

Lena's entire arm had to be strapped to a stiff board so that she didn't bend her elbow and kink the IV.  I took this pic on my cell phone (yay for me figuring out this technology!)

We had a little setback yesterday when Lena got sick a couple of times.  We realized that the only time she would get sick is when we had given her formula.  So we stopped giving her formula and are giving her lots of Pedialyte to make sure she stays hydrated.  We had a follow-up appointment with her pediatrician this morning and she said to hold off on the formula for now.  She said we can try it at half-strength tomorrow and see how it goes.  

After having a pretty rough day yesterday, I am starting to feel better today.  I actually ate a little bit today and haven't been running to the bathroom every five minutes!  I've been really weak and am hoping to get my strength back soon.  We are just praying that Jim doesn't get it as well.  Although he just called me on his way home from class and says he's not feeling so great.  Oh no.  Please pray for Jim!

Thanks to everyone who prayed for Lena.  We really appreciate it.  It's never easy to see your little one in discomfort.