Shutting It Down

OK, our new site (growingkumquats.blogspot.com) is ready and rearin' to go! Hope to see you over there. :)

We're Moving!

I'm sure for any of you who know us, that sounds like it's time for our annual move, right? Not this time! Thankfully, this move is only in cyberspace. We are quite happily staying put in our Kansas home. I've recently been giving the future of our blog a lot of thought. When I started blogging, I really intended it as a way to keep in touch with family and friends after we moved from Chicago to Charlotte. It never crossed my mind that anyone else would ever happen across our blog - or be interested in reading it. As I've noticed I'm getting more readers (yay!), it has made me think more about privacy. My other concern is that the practice & hospital have been doing a fair bit of advertising for Ian (yay, again!) and I want to be sure that no one looking for information on their potential surgeon stumbles across my little blog. Not that I talk about how crazy Ian is or anything... It's just not what this blog is about and, honestly, Ian is very uninvolved with this. (We talked about it yesterday and he said he couldn't even remember the last time he read it.)

SO... for these reasons, I've decided to move our blog to a new home, whose address doesn't involve our names: growingkumquats.blogspot.com. On this new blog, I will not refer to Isabelle, Ian or I by name. That way, I can continue to post candid thoughts and reflections, but still maintain some privacy.

The best thing about this is that we finally have a move that involves no boxes or packing whatsoever!

Not Me! Monday -- Stellan Style!

MckMama's sweet baby boy is not doing well. I actually just began reading her blog about a week ago when I wrote my first Not Me! Monday post. It was just after her MckMiracle baby was admitted to the hospital for SVT. It has been a long, long week for their family. This Not Me! Monday post is dedicated to sweet Stellan.
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I have NOT been thinking about that baby boy constantly since hearing his story.

I do NOT feel such a strong connection to this family and baby, even though we have never met and I have only just started reading her blog.

Like Heather said, I do NOT think of sweet Stellan every time I hold my baby, who is almost the exact same age as Stellan. I also did NOT get choked up reading the post announcing his healthy birth when I realized he was born 3 days before Izzie, was the exact same length, and weighed only .9 ounces more than her. And I did NOT just get choked up writing that. And my heart does NOT ache for MckMama every time my healthy baby jumps, laughs and smiles at me.

I have NOT been hounding Ian with questions about cardiac pathology and what does XYZ mean and what are the implications and pros and cons and on and on... I also have NOT talked so much about this baby boy that Ian thought he was the son of a friend from my moms' group.

I have NOT been checking MckMama's Tweets and blog on my phone before I go to bed at night, first thing when I wake up, and about every hour in between. I have NOT been filled with worry every time I check and desperately pray that he will be healed.

There are so many things I have NOT done this week. I also have NOT been amazed and touched to see the number of people writing words of encouragement on MckMama's blog and wondered how many other people like me are out there, praying so much for this family, but haven't written to say so. I also have NOT been inspired by the number of people who have been moved to prayer, turned to God, and treasured their families more dearly because of poor Stellan's struggle. I have NOT been afraid that this was Stellan's mission on this Earth and I have not fervently hoped there is still a great amount of work for this boy to do.

Please keep Stellen and the entire Mck family in your thoughts and prayers.

A Very Happy Friday to You!

It's Friday again (times flies!) and time to play along with Noob Mommy and share some things I'm happy for on this "beautiful" Friday.

1. First and most important BY FAR is that my sweet niece, Hannah, had an appointment with the pediatric orthopedist this morning and learned that she does not currently need any treatment for her hips. She will need to have another ultrasound this month, but at this time, she's doing OK. Thank the Lord!
2. A close second is that my Ian passed his oral board exams!! I am thrilled that he will not be going AWOL for months at a time to study in the basement.
   
3. As mentioned in the other post, the baby and the big kitty are making peace. Now that the baby is good at holding things as she flails her arms around, I've been giving her the kitty's favorite toy to shake around for him. He ALWAYS brings his toy to Ian & I to play with him (much like a dog would), but yesterday he took it directly to the baby!
4. Izzie is definitely on the mend; there are only some small spots from the staph infection still visible. Phew!

That's about it for now. I hope you all have a wonderful, happy Friday!

A Thousdand Words Thursday...a day late

Apparently, I'm having a little trouble lately coming up with my own blogs, because I've decided to play along with everyone else's. Truly, there are a lot of mommies out there with neat ideas for regular blogs. So, this week, I'm starting to participate in The Mom Jen's "A Thousand Words Thursday." Unfortunately, I didn't get around to downloading my pictures until today! Oh well. :)

I mentioned a month or so ago that there has been a lot of sibling rivalry between the baby and the big kitty. Here's my picture for this week that speaks volumes to me, if not to everyone else. I'll call it "Peace in the Home." :)

Rest in Peace, Uncle Jack

I received the sad news on Tuesday that my "Uncle" Jack passed away earlier this month. It's interesting how news like this can sometimes hit much harder than you'd think. His death has been heavy on my heart and I thought I would share a bit about him and why he meant so much to me.

Uncle Jack was a dear friend of my father's. I have to admit that I don't know the family stories nearly as well as I wish I did, but my understanding is that my dad and Uncle Jack went to seminary together. My father was a Redemptorist priest before he met and married my mother. Anyone who knows anything about Catholics will know that leaving the priesthood was not exactly a popular move - neither with his brother priests nor with his family. Not to mention that there was quite a large age difference between my parents. (For the record, Izzie will be locked in a tower indefinitely if she ever thinks of having a relationship with a man that much older than her!) It took a long time to reconcile with his family, which meant that for most of my childhood, we had little contact with my extended family. That made our extended family of friends very valuable. Uncle Jack was a particularly valuable friend because he was one of the few of the Redemptorists to stay in contact with my father. He and a friend would come down to visit us every Fall. I remember it was Fall because they would always stop at Eckert's Orchard to go apple picking on the way to Farmington. They would bring us lots of apples. That's the major impression of him from my 8 year-old self.

They remained friends until my dad passed away about 5 years ago. (Hard to believe it's been that long!) Uncle Jack concelebrated my dad's funeral Mass. Uncle Jack and I have exchanged Christmas cards for years, but this became even more important to me after my dad's death. For whatever reason, I wrote to him about some doubts I had regarding what I should do with my life. He wrote me back saying very encouraging things that were so much like what my dad would have said. He also said that regardless of what I chose to do, he knew my dad would have been very proud of me. Even though we didn't correspond often, knowing Uncle Jack was out there was kinda like having a bit of my dad still with us. I hadn't realized that per se until I heard of his passing and felt like I just lost the last bit of my dad I had. I said this to Ian as I was holding Isabelle and he told me I had part of my dad sitting in my lap. Since she was born, I've thought a million times that I wish my dad were here to meet Isabelle. I like to imagine that she knew him in Heaven before she was born.

I'm sad to have lost my uncle, but I know he has joined his old buddy in Heaven. I'm sure they're up there right now laughing about old times and enjoying a pint. Slainte!

Hooray!!

Happy day! Ian passed his oral board exams! That is the last of very many hoops for him to jump through in his training process. We are finally DONE! :)

Drama... Blurgh

This has been such a long week! I feel like it's gone on for ages, but it's only Wednesday. (Right? It is Wednesday, isn't it? Well, it's after midnight, so I guess now it's actually Thursday...) Anyway, Ian was out of town from Thursday - Tuesday for his oral board exam. We don't have the results yet, but I'm PRAYING that he passed. I'm so eager to put these exams behind us! Passing is far from a sure thing, so I'm trying to be prepared for any outcome, but I am hoping!

On Monday morning, Izzie woke up and I changed her diaper as usual. Totally normal. About an hour and a half later, I changed her again and she'd developed a ton of redness in her diaper area, including a serious red spot with a blistery center. What the heck?! How can something like that happen so quickly? So, I made an appointment with the ped and actually got in to see the NP within the hour. Lucky me! I was told the baby girl probably had a staph infection. I took the topical antibiotic the NP gave us and happily went on our way. Ian, however, was very concerned when I called and told him about this. This is where everything went downhill. Poor Ian was under a lot of stress Monday as he prepared for his exam on Tuesday morning. All that studying tends to pull up more complicated - and potentially dangerous - scenarios. He's spent enough time in the burn unit to have experience dealing with some of those worst case scenarios. I got very nervous when he said that he was concerned. I usually get frustrated with Ian for not getting worked up enough. Anyway, Izzie was acutally looking better for most of the afternoon. Around 5:30, though, she had another diaper change and looked remarkably worse... like 4 times worse. There were new big red, blistery patches and other bumpy areas. Poor baby! Then I was worried how much worse she might get by the morning, if it could change so much in just about 4 hours. Plus, I wasn't sure a topical antibiotic would really work, since it was in her diaper area. I figured that the odds of her "washing" it off or me then wiping it off too soon were probably pretty good. After talking with Ian, my brother who is an ER nurse, a friend who is a pediatrician, and the on-call nurse for Izzie's pediatrician, we all decided it would be best for me to take Izzie to the ER so someone else could take a look at her that night. We were very "fortunate" (i.e. Ian made a call) and got in to see someone pretty quickly and found out that the baby girl was fine. She did have an infection, but it was progressing normally and this NP agreed that the topical antibiotic should do the trick. Two days later, she's looking WAY, WAY better.

After reflecting on our Sunday activities, I've decided to blame this whole fiasco on the changing table at Babies 'R Us. I have to confess that it never occurred to me that I should clean my hands before changing her diaper. It does make sense, though... especially for those tables that are in bathroom stalls. I'm sure there's lots of ickiness on the handles. I have learned that lesson and I will be much more careful about that now! So, it seems we've really had a lot of drama over nothing. It's funny to write this and see that it all truly has ended up not to be a very big deal, but it sure took an emotional toll on me! I'm pooped! I can't even tell you how happy & relieved I was when Ian finally got home last night. I am so glad my little stint of single-parenthood is over!!

Not Me! Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did NOT have a mini shopping spree at Target on Saturday in spite of the fact that I gave up "frivolous spending" for Lent. That non-existent shopping spree did not include a ridiculous amount of baby-related things because I decided it was not frivolous if it was for the nursery... or clothing that the baby would wear and then pass on to her cousins... or Easter presents for the girls... or a good deal on diapers. And I absolutely did NOT decide that I shouldn't buy all of the items in my cart, but then purchase them anyway because I was too tired to go through the cart and actually put some things back.

I also absolutely did NOT follow this up with a trip to Babies 'R Us on Sunday to look for a high chair, even though that was one of the items purchased (out of laziness) at Target the previous day. I also would never have proceeded to walk out of BRU an hour later with a full bag of goodies that did not include a high chair. I also most certainly did not justify making the BRU purchases (buy one, get one 50% off!!) by planning to return the Target items that I was too lazy to remove from my cart.

There also is NO WAY that I would have suggested my very cranky child and I come over to a friend's house for dinner... especially not when my baby has decided the appropriate behavior at someone else's house involves crying and screaming to the point of turning purple and nearly vomiting. Knowing this, I most definitely did not drag my baby from church to brunch to BRU to KMart (tornadoes are coming! we need a radio! and a sleeping bag! the Red Cross said so!) to dinner without letting the girl have a proper nap all day long.

AND I absolutely, positively did not stay up WAY later than I should to write this blog, knowing full well that, best case scenario, the baby will be waking up in approximately 6 hours.

Nope! Not me!!

Happy Friday... again!

I've been a total blog slacker lately! For some reason, I've been really tired and haven't been able to put together too many coherent thoughts. :) But, it's Friday again, so I thought we'd do another round of Noob Mommy's Happy Friday fun to help me get back in the swing of things.

• We went to the zoo today and had a great time! It was a bit chilly and crazy-windy, but it was still nice to get out. We went with the moms' group and got to see some folks I haven't seen for quite a while, so that made it extra fun.
• Izzie (I'm trying out a new spelling... we'll see) is sleeping through the night AND in her crib! What a big girl! I really can't believe it. We FINALLY finished painting the nursery and have officially moved her in. (Pictures will be coming soon... I still have to do the decorating part. I have most everything; it's just a matter of actually hanging the curtains & pictures & such at this point. Hoping to have it done before she leaves for college...) She has been awesome. She really has only had 1 night since we moved her over that she's woken up. Here's hoping I didn't just jinx myself...
• My big girl is also loving eating solid food! Seriously, how is this girl growing so fast? We just started trying out rice cereal about a week ago. (What else would an Asian baby start with?) She did pretty well and took about 3 tsp the first day, but then was very uninterested for the next couple. I decided to take a couple days off was feeling very lazy and didn't even try for the next couple days. Yesterday and today, though, she's eaten her entire little bowl (~1 TB dry) and really probably would have eaten more if I'd tried.
• We just had a little thunderstorm... really it was about 5 minutes of rain, thunder and lightning, but it was great. I love thunderstorms and I'm excited we'll be having more of them now that Spring has sprung!
• I am feeling particularly thankful that Izzie is such a healthy baby. We're having some worries about sweet Hannah's hips and that has just made me reflect on what a miracle it is that any kid is ever born healthy.

That's it for now! Happy Friday, everyone!

Happy Friday!

It's Friday, which I still love, even though I don't have a regular job anymore. I thought I'd participate in Noob Mommy's Happy Friday fun. There have been some things that have made me very sad this week, so I'm hoping this will help me focus on the positive.

1. We finally got the rest of the blinds for our house installed!! No more paper shades for us. We're classy now. :)
2. I finished painting the baby's bathroom. (Really, I'm kinda bummed I haven't finished painting her room, but at least I did finish the little bathroom nook, so that's something!)
3. The weather is GORGEOUS!! Record highs yesterday and 75 today. I'm loving it. As my friend, Heather, said, if we were still in Chicago, we'd be looking forward to a couple more months of icky weather.
4. We found out Ian will be off for Easter, so we'll be able to go visit Ian's family & the bazillion Filipino friends in Midland who are excited to meet the baby.
5. Isabelle is taking a real nap this morning. Lately, she's been snoozing for about 15 minutes at a time and only if I was holding her. Right now, she's sleeping soundly in her swing.
6. Speaking of sleeping, the baby girl is consistently sleeping until about 6:30 - 7 every morning. Hooray!
7. I'm planning on going to a Girls' Night Out tomorrow with some ladies from my moms' group. I've had scheduling conflicts with all the other GNO's so far and I'm really looking forward to finally getting to go. (Hoping I didn't just jinx myself... Ian's on call this weekend, so I can go as long as he's home to take care of Izzie.)

Happy Friday, everyone!

Big Girl!

Isabelle is 4 months old today! It's hard to believe she's growing so quickly! I feel like the 4 month birthday is a kinda big one... closer to 6 months than newborn. She's such an awesome, fun, happy baby (most of the time). We are both so thankful to be her parents. Some highlights of life with Isabelle lately... She's smiling and laughing a ton. Every morning, she laughs and squeals when she wakes up & sees us. I don't know where she gets that - Ian and I definitely are not morning people! She loves to chat up all of her little buddies and tells them tons of stories. She's been rolling onto her side for a few weeks now and she just rolled onto her belly for the first time today! She found her feet recently, so grabbing onto them has really facilitated the rolling onto her side. She always seems to grab one foot and then flops over to that side. This week, she's started blowing raspberries, too. She cracks up when I do it back to her. Cute girl. :) Those are the biggest fun things she's been doing lately. She's also been showing a very strong preference to be held by Ian or I. Flattering and all, but it's been a little tough to have her freak out if someone else tries to hold her. We actually just went out with only adults for the first time since she was born. It was so hard to leave her because she was so, so upset. We're hoping to go to Midland for Easter and I'm nervous about how she'll be with everyone. I know Ian's family is so excited to see Isabelle and I'm worried they'll be hurt or disappointed if she doesn't go along with being held by everyone. Hopefully, she'll be a lovely, smiley angel like she is at home. I guess we'll see in a few weeks!

Oh - you may have noticed that she & her elephant have a different background this month. That's because her crib is in the middle of a little construction zone. Yes, we're FINALLY painting the nursery!! I'm SUPER excited to finally get it done! We've been working on it since Saturday, but it's been a little slow-going. Ian's oral board exams are coming up at the end of the month, so he hasn't had a lot of time to spare. He did take care of Izzy while he was studying last night, so I could work on the room. I just need to do the edging around the ceiling (I was hoping I could stall and Ian would just do it...) :) and do a second coat on 2 walls and I will be dunzo! I truly can't wait. I'm hoping that by this time tomorrow, the nursery painting project will officially be completed. We're getting the blinds for the rest of the house (Izzy's room plus the basement) installed on Friday, so her room really will be done very soon. I think it'll be just in time. We're planning to head back to Springfield again (we can't stay away!) because Aunt Cortney & Uncle Dave will be visiting next week. I think that should be enough time for the paint fumes to air out and then we'll be making the big shift of moving Isabelle to sleep in her room. Time is flying!

Sweet Girls

This past weekend, we got to travel to Springfield again to visit with our sweet nieces... and their parents. :) It was Ian's first chance to meet Hannah, who turned one-month-old while we were there this weekend. She's growing so quickly! Apparently, Emma is turning out to be an awesome big sister - naturally. She loves the baby and is always concerned about where she is. Isabelle loves her cousin Emma, too. Izzy always smiles when Emma's around. Unfortunately, Izzy generally did not have a good visit this time around. Who knows about the mysterious ways of babies, but there was something that upset her about being at Kev & Mandy's. She was super-fussy all the time we spent there. Blah. BUT, Emma was the sweetest, most precious big cousin ever. Izzy has a little ducky she loves and a lovey blanket. Emma similarly has a lovey and stuffed animal she loves so. One night when Izzy was crying and crying, Emma brought Izzy's lovey to her. That didn't work, so then Emma brought Izzy her ducky. Throughout the visit, she also tried giving Izzy bottles and Hannah's paci. :) Basically, everything Emma finds comforting. Sweet girl! I'm so happy for Izzy that she has two wonderful Costello cousins who are so close to her in age. I hope they're always so sweet to each other. :)

My Sweet Little Valentine

For Valentine's Day, I thought it would be nice to give Ian a good picture of "his girls" for his office. Then, I thought it wouldn't really be nice to leave him out of the photos, so it became our first family photo session. The baby girl was so good - especially considering we did this in the middle of her naptime. We didn't get any huge smiles, but there were some little ones. She was generally very serious and curious about all the things to see. Here are a few favorites...
Ready to be a ballerina!

Casual family shot.
In her beautiful Christmas dress from Uncle Dave & Aunt Cortney
Our formal family shot (complete with a small smirk from the baby girl).

You can see the rest of our pics here. Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's weekend!

Fuzzy Brain

Oh, I'm a mess today. So, Izzy has her first little cold. :( Poor baby girl. Even though we were 99% sure it was just a little cold, I took her to the doctor today. She's been grabbing her ears a lot and I wasn't sure if it was because she'd just found them or they were hurting. I just wanted to make sure, especially since she's still so little. So, when I was trying to take her to her appointment, I drove to my OB's office instead of the pediatrician's! Heavens. I didn't realize it until I was in the parking lot of the medical complex, trying to figure out where the best place to park would be... trying to remember which side the office was on... oh, right. Not even here. :) Oy. I did make it to the doctor and during the exam, I realized I'd put the poor baby's pants on backwards. I mentioned this & the office mishap to the PA and she asked if I've been getting enough sleep. Apparently not. :)

So, that made me think about my sleep last night. I normally have pretty involved, complicated dreams, but last night's was ridiculous. Some of the highlights included the following: frantically trying to catch a train (a Chicago Metra one, incidentally) to Rolla, MO, with a large group of random people in my life; carrying my screaming baby while running across the train tracks, hopping on the back of the train & climbing up onto the roof; being shot at by the blind guy from American Idol (thankfully, he's blind and not a very good shot); my neighbor being shot & killed by Kelly Ripa (Sorry, Sheila! If it helps, I was devastated) but then turning out not to be dead after all. Like I said, just some of the highlights. :) Maybe that's why I'm so tired today!

Taking Questions...

I've been all about the questionaires lately! I think I've just come across a lot of them, but it's also nice to take some time and be reflective. That's been a little more difficult to do post-baby, but is still important, I think. So, here's an interview game I got from my friend, Heather. I agreed for her to ask me any 5 questions and I would post the answers on my blog.

1. If you could have a date night with your husband, and could do anything or go anywhere without any worries about Izzy, what would you do? Where would you go?

If there were no limits on anything, I'd totally go to Paris for the night... eat at a fabulous bistro, watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle, and eat a crepe. We were able to go to Paris a couple years ago and it was amazing how wonderful it was for us. Beyond the fact that it was Paris and therefore fabulous, we both found that the way the French culture "encourages" (i.e. forces, in some cases) you to slow down and savor moments was so what we needed at the time. I think that was especially true for Ian. We went right at the end of his 5-year general surgery residency and when we left the US, he was pretty beaten down, tired and bitter. I used to tease him when we were on vacation that after a few days, "my old Ian" would suddenly reappear and he'd be the happy, laid-back, positive guy I fell for ages ago. I think when we were in Paris, he finally really understood what I meant and was able totally appreciate eating slowly, just sitting in a cafe and not doing anything but watching and chatting. The other thing I'd love for a date night is to stay in a hotel. That was our big thing when we lived in Chicago. For birthdays and such, we'd go out to eat somewhere nice in the city and then stay in a hotel that night. For one, it was beautiful not to have to drive back to the 'burbs when we were full & sleepy. Mostly, though, staying in a hotel always made it feel like we were really having a get-away. It's really hard for Ian to let go of work and what's going on with his patients unless he's physically removed from the area. If we stayed in a hotel, it was easier for him to disconnect from the hospital. And for me, I just love hotels. :)

2. If you could pick one song that most represents where you are in life, what would it be and why?
Gosh, this one is hard! Here's my answer for now, but I'm reserving the right to edit it if I think of a better one. :) I think "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" might be it for a few reasons. First, thanks to the Wizard of Oz, it makes me think of Kansas and that's the physical answer to where I am in life right now. :) Second, it makes me think of Isabelle. I read somewhere that if you play a song frequently to your baby while he or she is still in the womb, it will be very soothing to them after they're born. I wasn't sure that I believed that, but figured I may as well give it a try. It was hard to pick a song I wouldn't get tired of and finally settled on Iz's medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World." For the record, it has totally worked. So, that's the song I most associate with her and she is absolutely the focus of my life right now. Finally, I sometimes feel like I must be living in that place where happy little bluebirds fly. I feel very richly blessed. [In a way it's hard to say that because so many people struggle in so many ways and I always feel hesitant to say something like this and imply that God somehow loves one person more than another... see #4 - particularly about me making my head spin - but I am so very thankful for all of the wonderful things in my life.] To borrow a phrase from a friend, I feel disproportionately lucky in life. I have SO much to be grateful for that when I stop to consider it, I sometimes feel like it must be a fairy land that will disappear in a poof at some point. :)

3. If you had to shop at only 3 stores for the rest of your life, which three would you choose and why?

1. Super Target (which would take care of all basic needs, food & Starbucks) :)
2. Gap (specifically, the Super Gap on Michigan Ave that has all the Gaps - maternity & baby included - under one roof and would thus provide us with clothing forever)
3. Macy's (It has everything! Clothing, furniture, housewares, accessories, shoes, etc., etc. Oh, how I miss you!)
   

4. What is your biggest pet peeve? What habits do you have that may be irritating to others?
It really drives me crazy when people are very critical of others and I'll include bigotry and prejudice in with that. Ignorance is usually part of that, which is also frustrating to me. Ignorance itself is not a problem, since we're all ignorant of various things and no one can fully understand anything. I get totally frustrated when people are not open to learning or seeing another perspective and choose to remain ignorant. I think that so much conflict would disappear if we used more time and energy to really try to understand each others' context, values and so on. I have a really hard time forming strong opinions about a lot of things because I get wrapped up in varying perspectives to the point that my head spins. So, it really bugs me when I run into people who do the opposite and won't consider the world from someone else's perspective. Goodness, I'm sure I have plenty of irritating habits. I think the two biggest are procrastinating and letting myself get overwhelmed easily. The procrastination one is pretty straight-forward. For the other, it's not uncommon for me to give Ian a long list of all the things that are wrong and tell him the sky is falling. God love him, he's so patient and does his best to help me sort through it all, but I'm sure I try his patience!

5. If you had to uproot your entire family and move out of the country, where would you choose to live and why?

Although I've never been there, I think I would go to Nice, France, for purely selfish, impractical reasons. I've always loved France (see #1) and I've always wanted to live by a body of water big enough that I can't see land on the other side (any ocean, sea or Great Lake would do). Besides, look at this! How could life not be fabulous here?? :)

If you would like to play along here are the directions:
1. Leave me a comment & your e-mail address saying, "Interview me." If you dare.
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (You get to choose the questions.)

The first five 'askers' get the interview!

3 Months!

It's hard to believe how quickly our baby girl is growing! She's 14 weeks old already. I meant to do this post last week, but a GI bug got the better of me. Now that we're over that, here are some highlights of life with Isabelle lately...
She's so fun right now! She's babbling like crazy and has lots of great stories to tell all of her "friends" every day. She's also smiling and squealing a lot and I've heard her laugh a few times. It's funny how many new things she's started doing over the past couple of weeks... rubbing her eyes when she's tired, pulling things into her mouth, grabbing toys dangling above her, trying really hard to roll over, etc., etc. She really loves her little activity mat. She's been spending quite a bit of time on it lately, kicking, babbling, & swinging at her toys like crazy. She's so alert to everything around her. I love to see her furrow her little brow when there's something new and see her wheels spinning. We've had some glorious weather for the past few days and we took advantage of this on Saturday for our first family trip to the zoo. This entailed a lot of brow-furrowing. :) We had an awesome, close-up look at the giraffes because one of them seemed to be closer to the rail than she was really supposed to be. :) (Thank goodness it was a giraffe and not a bear or a lion or something!) She was giving some food to the adolescent giraffe. So cute, right? One of the other recent highlights (and the most major one, of course) is that Isabelle and I got to travel to Springfield to be there for the birth of my new niece, Hannah Sue Costello. Hannah was born at 9:56 pm on Thursday, Jan. 22. She's such an adorable little peanut. She's almost the exact same size Isabelle was when she was born - just 1 ounce lighter. We're hoping to get back down there soon so Ian can meet our sweet niece and, of course, spend some time with Mandy, Kevin and Emma!

A Sensational Sequence

My friend, Heather, found this fun letter game where you're given a letter and make a list of 10 things you love that start with that letter. So, she gave me the letter "S" and I'm having trouble cutting it down to 10. So, heck with 10. I'll just explain the top 10 and throw some others out there. Here's my list (in no particular order) of things I love that start with the letter "S." If you'd like to play, just post a comment and I'll give you a letter!

1. Spouse

I feel very blessed to have such an amazing husband. He is my very best friend and a true partner in life. He makes me laugh every day and he has a calm energy that is such a nice balance to my neuroses. :) We'll be celebrating 11 years together in a couple of weeks!

2. Siblings
My siblings and sibs-in-law are my dearest friends (well, plus Ian). I am so thankful to have such a great family, who are so supportive and loads of fun. I feel very fortunate that the only issue I have with my sibs is that we don't live as close together as we would like. I sincerely hope we're able to change that someday. I hope that Isabelle will be able to have siblings that grow into friends, as well. I think there's nothing in the world like the bond of brothers and sisters. (Ian's siblings are pretty great, too!)

3. Sophia
This sweet girl is my second niece (how do I have 3 already??) who is now 15 months old. She's the first grandbaby on Ian's side of the family. Isn't she so beautiful? We got to spend some quality time with her (and her mommy, Naomi!) after Isabelle was born. It was so wonderful to have some time to get to know her, since all of our previous visits had been quick and with a lot of other family around. She is so precious and I'm looking forward to watching her to continue to grow... and I hope she and Isabelle will be good friends!

4. Smiles
Any smiles are wonderful, but I especially am in love with Isabelle's. There's nothing in the world like the feeling of seeing her eyes light up and receiving a huge, gummy, dimply, open-mouthed smile. I get a little teary-eyed just thinking about it. :)




5. Stories
I would say that my favorite pastime is reading. I'm pretty content to read any genre of story, as long as it includes well-written characters. I think I've got to be the world's worst book critic, because I generally like everything. It's very rare for me not to finish a book once I've started. My love of stories extends to people, too. One thing I love about being a counselor is the chance to really be present with someone and hear their stories. I am a fan of narrative therapy and I do believe that the stories we tell about our lives have an incredible power over how we feel about ourselves and the world. I've seen some awesome healing happen by people developing new stories of their lives.

6. Spas
What I would give to go to the spa regularly! It encompases some of my other favorite "s" things, like stillness, silence, solitude & serenity. I adore massages, pedicures and all those good things, but I think that just sitting somewhere peaceful and still is as rejuvenating. Well, maybe not QUITE as much as a massage... :)

7. Snuggles
I can't think of a better activity than snuggling up on the couch to watch a movie with my husband... or laying in bed with a sweet purring kitty snuggled next to me... or having a sweet baby frog fall asleep snuggled on my chest. Ah, simple pleasures!




8. Sea
I love the feeling of looking out across water you can't see the end of. I also love feeling the wind and hearing the waves. I always said I wanted to live near big water (if a sea wasn't possible, I could probably make do with a Great Lake). It's ironic that I've ended up in Kansas, but I've assured Ian he could make it up to me by hooking me up with an apartment in Nice... or perhaps Hawaii... ;)



9. Sleeping In/Snoozing
I am SO not a morning person. I adore waking up in the morning, knowing I don't have to get up yet and going back to sleep. When I was working, it seemed like the time between when Ian left for work (poor guy) and I had to get up was some of the best sleep I got and I think that's because they were sort of stolen moments. It's been harder with the baby, but sleeping in on the weekends (see also #1 & #7) is one of our favorite activities.


10. Starry Skies/Storms
I couldn't pick between these two! They're both sky related, right? One thing I love about where we live now is that it's super-dark and I can see a bazillion stars. It's probably not great for security, but it is an awesome view. :) Very, very different from Chicago & Houston! I also love a good thunderstorm - assuming I'm safe and warm inside! That also contributes to some good sleeping. I have a noise machine app on my iPhone and I like to go to sleep listening to the thunderstorm sounds. It's nice to be back in the Midwest where we have some truly great thunderstorms.

And the rest of my list...
11. Songs
12. Sunshine
13. Snowflakes (that stay on my nose & eyelashes)
14. Sales (I love a deal!)
15. St. Louis (We miss you!)
16. Sangria (Yummy!)
17. Soft things (I'm a bit obsessed with thread count & liquid fabric softener)
18. Saturday (even though I don't work anymore)
19. Summer (relaxing, swimming, vacations, fun times)
20. Spring (especially in North Carolina)

Sibling Rivalry

I'm pretty sure Connor hates the baby. He's been relatively tolerant of her so far, but we went out of town this week (to meet sweet baby Hannah!!) and he has been impossible since I've been back. I think he's very unhappy that I didn't leave her. For the past few days, he's been bringing his favorite toy to me every time the baby starts crying, I feed her or I change her and demands I play with him immediately. He cries and cries when Isabelle is crying, which makes everything even more stressful. It would be a pretty thought to imagine that he's worried about her, but it really seems like a competition to see who will get my attention. I've tried hard to make sure to pay attention to him when Izzy isn't immediately requiring my attention, but then he's not interested. I even held her on my lap and tried playing with Connor, but he just walked away. For 2 of the 3 nights since we've been back, the baby slept through the night. Hooray! Unfortunately, I did not because of the cat. He starts crying around 4 am, tries to knock over my lamp and runs on the shower door, which is SUPER loud. We've had to lock him in the closet (which is in the bathroom) and then also close the bathroom door because he's so loud. The double door does help the noise a bit, but I think he's going to get locked in the guest room tonight if he does this again. At least that's on the other side of the house. I feel very sad for the poor kitty. I wish I could tell him I love him just as much as ever, but the baby requires more attention. :(

Tirade

I started this blog to keep our family & friends updated on our lives after Ian & I moved to Charlotte. I discovered that I enjoyed writing and it was a nice way for me to take a step back and reflect on things. There is also something cathartic about writing sometimes. I try to be pretty positive, but today is about venting and catharsis, just so you know.

I am so frustrated right now. I was supposed to be going to Springfield today to visit Kevin, Mandy & Emma, but everything is taking FOREVER to get done, so there's no way I'm going to be able to leave today. I hope I'll be able to leave in the morning, but who knows? It drives me crazy because it's not like I sleep late, go to sleep early or sit around all day, but still NOTHING gets done. I'm exhausted because I feel like there's never time to take a break and if I ever do stop doing things, I can't help but think about all of the things that I'm so far behind in. Normally, I feel guilty about it, but today I'm just feeling angry. So here are some of the highlights of the things particularly driving me nuts at the moment...

• I have yet to even start on the thank-you cards for things since Isabelle was born. That includes starting a list of all the people I need to send cards to.
• I made sure to order birth announcements as early as possible because I felt I needed to send them out before our Christmas cards. Otherwise, the cards & letters would go out and the birth announcements would be pointless. The announcements have not been sent.
  
• I got Baptism invitations for all of our family members and took the time to write in all the information & address the envelopes, but never had a chance to send them. What a waste of time (and money) to have done any of that at all.
• I still have not mailed a single Christmas present to any of my family members. I drove myself crazy making sure all of the gifts were purchased and almost all were wrapped before Christmas, but lost my steam when all of Ian's family was here. I finally got the gifts wrapped & ready to mail and then realized that I can't carry the gifts and the baby, so I can't go by myself to send them. Ian's been too busy at work to help me, so they've been sitting in my car for a couple of weeks. I sincerely hope the cold weather hasn't damaged anything.
• I also haven't mailed birthday presents or cards for December birthdays.
• I took down all of the Christmas decorations from the upstairs part of my house (which is where we spend all of our time), but I haven't touched the basement.
• I have yet to wash any of the linens from all of our guests who left about a month ago.
• The rest of Isabelle's nursery furniture arrived last week. I was so excited about getting the nursery done. I have not yet 1) done anything about getting the rooms painted or 2) assembled any of the bookcases. So, now they're just one more thing stressing me out and ugly boxes taking up space in our house.
• I want to take Isabelle's newborn and premie-sized clothes with us to Springfield so baby Hannah can use them, but I haven't gone through anything yet.

I think there are about 50 more things, but the baby - who has only slept for about 10-15 minutes at a time since about 7 am - is crying again, so I guess that's it for now. Ian just left for a conference in Las Vegas, so I'm really on my own. I sure hope tomorrow's a better day.

Phew...

Did I say that I had such an easy baby? Did I jinx myself with that? For some reason, Isabelle's been much fussier than normal over the past couple of weeks. Maybe she misses all of our visitors. :) In the past few days, though, she's started screaming for about 30-45 minutes several times a day. She used to cry pretty hard, but the screaming is new. Now she does that, has big fat tears and cries so hard she chokes herself. Poor sweet baby. Until now, she's really been very easy-going and I was always able to identify an easy reason for her to be crying. We've been only swaddling her at night for the past month, but I've gone back to swaddling her during the day. Today, there were two times that it seemed like all I could do was to wrap her up, hold her tightly, sing songs and rock her until she wore herself out. Unfortunately, one of those times was when I was having my car serviced. :( Uncle Kevin made a good recommendation of giving her some Mylicon drops for gas. We gave that a whirl tonight and so far, so good. I hope that will be our miracle cure. It's interesting that she just seems to have a wider variance in her moods now... the other end of this screaming & sobbing is that she has times where she grins and giggles so much, it cracks me up, which cracks her up, etc., etc. What a roller coaster!

In happier news, we're looking forward to Isabelle's first trip away from Wichita this coming week! She and I are going to Springfield on Wednesday to visit her Aunt Mandy, Uncle Kevin & Cousin Emma AND to welcome her new cousin, Hannah, on Monday! I'm having a bit of family withdrawal after our 2-month guest marathon, so I'm really excited to see them. And, of course, we can't wait to meet sweet Hannah. I think it'll be so strange to see a baby who's smaller than Isabelle. (Incidentally, I brought a meal over to one of the ladies in my moms' group, who just had a baby a few weeks ago. I thought then that it would be strange to see a smaller baby, but he was actually the same size - within about 2 ounces - as Izzy!) My baby girl will seem so big! It's truly amazing how quickly she's growing. Even though she's still small, she's really starting to get chubbier. She definitely has the double chin down and I do believe she's working on a third. :)

New Perspective

"I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink... I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me." (Matthew 25:35-36)

So I was reading this little booklet we got from church for Isabelle's Baptism about sharing the faith with your child and it references this passage in terms of parenting. That had never occurred to me before. Almost any other time I've reflected on this passage, I've imagined adults. I think this reframe hit me at a perfect moment and has helped me refocus a bit. Isabelle's had a bit of a cranky week, so it was very good for me to take a step back and think about what a blessing it really is for me to have the opportunity to feed her when she's hungry and so on... even if that involves a lot of screaming at 3 am. Really, she's been sleeping fabulously for the past 3 nights (probably just jinxed it!), but she's been SUPER cranky in the evenings. It all started the day she got her first round of shots, so I assumed she wasn't feeling well and that's why she was cranky. Unfortunately, it's continued for several days. She's been in a fantastic mood in the mornings - full of smiles, totally attentive to toys and books and eager to share her opinions of lots of issues. For some reason, this dies down after her mid-morning nap and continues to go downhill for the rest of the day. Sigh. BUT, I am so thankful for her and I'm doing my best to soak up the morning fun and snuggles in the evening (once she finally falls asleep). It's not too hard, really... she is such a precious little girl. :) I totally love that she's smiling more, although I have to admit that I'm a bit jealous of her daddy, who seems to be her favorite smile recipient. I do get better snuggles, though, so I'll take it!(Caption: Isabelle got this precious little "My First Christmas" book where you can put all these pictures like "eating Christmas dinner," "opening presents," etc. Well, we got the book after the tree was already up and it has a page for "helping decorate the tree," but we didn't take any pictures of that. So, we staged some. :) We each posed with Izzy and had her pretend to decorate the tree right before we took it down. Shhhhh....)

New Look

So, I'm a little bummed about my blog. I learned a couple months ago that it's possible to customize blogger templates, so I decided to give that a whirl. Never one to do things the easy way, I ended up spending HOURS one day fiddling with HTML codes and made a new template. Suddenly, every blog I saw had fabulous templates that were WAY cuter than mine. Boo. So, I've dumped my homemade template in favor of a fancy one. The other thing that's a bit of a bummer is that I'm totally obsessed with one particular design... the one my sister-in-law, Jill, already has on her blog! I love you, but darn you, Jill, for getting it first! :) The good thing about using pre-set templates is that it won't be as big a deal to change it, so I don't have to commit to one forever. So, this is our new look for now. I thought the dark background would be good for the pictures of the baby girl. Hope you like it! :)

Two Months!

It's hard to believe, but the baby girl is two months old already! I'm not sure if "two months old" means 8 weeks or two calendar months after she was born, but she now has both of these covered. She's really doing great. She's grown so much! She's about 10 lbs now. Here are a couple pictures that give an idea of how much she's grown. The first one with the giant elephant (from her titas!) was taken when she was just over a week old. The second one was taken last week, at the 8-week mark. What a big girl! She's going to make that elephant look little in no time!

This week was the first one with just the little family for quite a while. It's been kinda fun for Ian and I both to have more one-on-one time with Isabelle. We've mostly been taking turns with her as we've worked on cleaning the house after our months of visitors. :) Today, we went to a brunch at church and met some new folks... and learned that there really are other Filipinos in Wichita! We met one Filipina and she told us of others... We'll see. We've been officially invited to the Valentine's Day party. While we were eating, this lady came up to us and said she'd been watching Isabelle since we first brought her to Mass. She said she couldn't believe how much she'd grown - she was just a tiny little ball the first time she saw her. Today, she looked like such a big girl. She really was the hit of the brunch. There really hasn't been a day we've gone to church and not had some stranger stop us and ask about her. Such a popular girl!