21 months

Yep, we are now only 3 months away from Brynna's 2nd birthday. Yowza!! I can't believe it's coming so soon!

So her stats for 21 months:

we did both of these at home over the weekend so they are completely unscientific (lol) and there is a large margin of error, I'm sure ;-)

weight: approx 24lbs
height: approx 31 in

ever my petite little munchkin. We were even at Wal.mart the other day and I had an old man comment on how cute she was followed with "what is she? 9 months?" I almost laughed! I just responded with a "nope, she's almost 2" and went on my merry way.

Since we did our spring clean over the weekend, we went through her closet and took out anything under 18 months. While 12 mo stuff still fits, they are getting pretty short (pants are now capris and tshirts tend to show her belly a bit). We are no where near 24 mo size yet! Maybe by next spring?
She's still in size 5 shoes, but I don't think for much longer. Her flipflops (that seems to be our go-to shoe these hot days) are fitting just right, so I'm thinking by September or her birthday we will go to the next size.
Diapers are all the same- size 4 'sposies and our normal CD.
Her vocan continues to explode! Everyday I swear she learns more and more words and is now putting some together like "go outside" and "play Kino" It's been exciting to see her learn :) Although just this morning she may or may not have tried to copy daddy when he said f*ck. Thankfully she can't really say "f" yet!

Since Batman got home, she's had a new favorite toy to play with. He brought her home a little stuffed horse that says "I <3 Texas" on the side. She takes that thing with her EVERYWHERE. She still loves playing with her babies though and we bring out her tea set every few days and have tea parties on the back deck. Puzzles are becoming a fast favorite again as well. We've also expanded our morning tv show to include Kipper sometimes! (she watches one show while we eat our breakfast- I hope this doesn't make me a bad mom?)
We've been playing outside more and more (obviously, since it's summer and all). One of our local parks has a huge splash pad and we spend at least one day a week there, sometimes 2 or 3. She's really been enjoying tot time at the library too! I'm hoping that all this interaction with other kids helps her socialize a bit. Since we stay home a lot, it's really all she gets other than Sunday School at church. I feel bad that we don't know more moms with kids that we can do playdates with. Any one of you want to move to Idaho so we can play?

She still has the irrational fear of all things bugs, although it's calmed down a little this past month. Now instead of freezing and being completely terrified, she'll run away and yell "bug, bug, bug!" I'm hoping she doesn't have this complex for life like her mom.

And that's all I can think of... Here are a couple pics from the last month:

Visiting Daddy at work

With our 95 yr old (great) grandma (Batman's Dad's mom)

At the Pancake House waiting for a table

Teaching her baby to play the piano

At our local splash pad

At the Snake River Stampede (yes we LOVE rodeo!)

July 4th with Daddy

In time out (yes I have to hold her there... not quite getting it yet)

Enjoying a yummy treat compliments of Auntie Amber!

Sitting on the front porch

Heartfelt thanks

Thank you all for your kind words, encouragement, support and prayers! They have meant a lot to me these last few days.

My dad's meeting with the mayor has been postponed for the moment, as the mayor has other things more pressing at this time. They are supposed to call him this week to reschedule. Until then, he assumes he's on paid admin leave.

My parents met with a disabilities lawyer this afternoon and he feels they have a very strong case, should they need to proceed. At this point they are waiting to see what, if anything, the union is going to do.

So now it's just a waiting game. I know in my heart things will turn out alright, even if that means my dad no longer is working (maybe early retirement?). God will see them through as he always has and does.

As far as Batman, Little Miss and I- we had a great weekend of "spring" cleaning and organizing. Our house feels like it's back to normal again ;-)

The other shoe just dropped

It feels like the last year we've just been waiting for it to, and I think it finally has...

Serious prayers needed! Sorry this may be long and rambly... As you know, my dad was in an accident a year ago (Sunday is the anniversary) resulting in severe brain trauma. To be honest, he is a walking miracle. In less than a year he regained almost all his normalcy, including going back to work full time. While it has been a struggle at times, he has perservered. Yesterday, he was called into a meeting where his supervisor (and others) informed him they are recommending to the mayor his termination (he works for the city of redmond washington). The final decision is on the 27th, until then he is on paid admin leave. They handed him a letter in which stated all the reasons they had come to this decision and while many are justifiable, ALL OF THEM are due IN FULL to his injury and current disabilites (when he came back to work is was recommended he return to light duty or part time to ease into things, but they did not allow this and it was either full time or termination then... obviously he chose to go back to work). None of his disabilities were taken into account when the board came to this recommendation. There was a complete disregard for the fact that he still continues to have neurologic issues that damper some of his work. This is a man who has spent the majority of his life serving this city. He has worked there for 34 years, grew up in the town, went to school there and made it his goal to better the city through his job. Until his accident and resulting injuries, he has NEVER had so much as a single mark , on the contrary has been an exemplary employee, even one people turned to with questions and concerns even though that was not his job. The whole situation makes me sick... and angry. It just seems like there should be SOMETHING illegal about how they are handling the situation and my father's career and life. Sorry this is so long, but it helped to get it all out. I'm just so MAD and wish there was something I could do to fix it...

Home again, home again

Well, this post was supposed to go up Monday. However, I apparently hit the save button and not the publish button... lovely. Here it is anyway:

We spent the weekend a couple hours north of here in McCall for our annual family vacation. It was a pretty glorious 3 days with lots of sunshine and family fun!

We headed up after Batman got off work on Thursday evening. The cabin we rented was gorgeous! {And for sale! If only I could afford the $500K price tag ;-)} And fit the 9 of us that made it (Batman's youngest brother and his family couldn't get the time off work + my SIL is preggo and sadly miserable this time around). We had a campfire the first night and did some reminiscing, stayed up way too late and fell into bed sometime around 2am.
(This is problematic when you have a daughter who refuses to sleep past 6 am even when she goes to bed 3 hours past her normal bedtime)

Friday dawned bright and early. We ate breakfast, played outdoor games (ladder golf, horseshoes, bocce ball) and went for a long bike ride (which B was NOT a fan of!).

                                                  Batman and A being crazy!
 We went to the lake for the afternoon, after some very short naps (including Miss B's 30 min wonder), went swimming and played in the sand.

This mama did a little relaxing in the shade though because a) the lake water is snow run off = freezing cold = not fun to swim in and b) I was miserably sick the whole weekend (aftermath of the whole handm, foot and mouth debacle + catching Brynna's sinus infection).  Friday night, I tried a home remedy of an alcohol induced slumber to try and rid myself of the sickies, but to no avail. The campfire was fun though. We did more reminiscing and had a good bunch of laughs ;-)

Saturday everyone seemed a bit on edge, so we all laid low for the most part. We walked around town,

went swimming at the ranch pool,

baked some goodies for the evening and tried to keep the peace ;-)

Sunday we packed up all our stuff, returned the cabin keys and headed to tourist central for breakfast aka The Pancake House. And while the food is good (but not anything spectacular), the wait time for a table and then the service was TERRIBLE. Like beyond belief. As in, we won't be going there. Ever. Again. Which is sad, really.
And then after we headed on home.
And that's our weekend in a nutshell. Happy Monday!

Well, here it is Wednesday night when I'm trying to put out another post... guess that one will have to wait a couple days...

It just keeps getting better

Please note that the title is dripping with sarcasm.

Now B has a sinus infection. Our whole house has been a cess pool of sickness going on 3 weeks now. It's been lovely. Really.

So for the first time in her life, Brynna is on antibiotics.

Which is a story in itself. And maybe I'm just being an over concerned, know-it-all, mom here, but to be honest, I'm losing confidence in our pediatrician.

Yesterday, when we went in he kind of gave us the brush off, "I'm too busy today" appointment and it really kind of irked me. I felt kind of like we were wasting his time since she is just "on the edge" of it being considered a sinus infection (nose yuckiness for 10 days and 3 days of eye conjuctivitis). I'm kind of wondering if he forgot that it's people like me that KEEP HIM IN BUSINESS?!

And then he prescribed B amoxicillin, which is completely outdated for sinus infections. There are SO many better products out there that DON'T require a full 10 day dosage before working effectively. Working in a peds office for 5+ years through HS and college, I do know a thing or 2 about meds and antibiotics (not trying to toot my own horn, just stating a fact). And it just seems silly to me to put a child on amox for 10 days when zithromax or augmentin are only 3-6 days and work SO. MUCH. BETTER.  Why play around with the bug for 10 days to see if amox will kill it? Why not bring out the PROVEN big guns from the beginning? I blame it on the state we live in... it being underserviced and all (aka considered rural). While there are many fine doctors that practice here, many things just seem a bit outdated.

This has been a bone of contention with me before when Batman has been sick and had to go on antibiotics. They prescribed the same thing. And MOST of the time, he's had to get another script for something stronger.

At least my mom works for our "Seattle ped" and can call in the big guns for us if she is considerably better by Monday.

*sigh*

Inevitable

Contrary to what I thought, I did not have coxsakie when I was child. Which means, like any virus, I can get it as an adult.

And since Brynna had it last week, it was inevitable that I would get it.

And I did. Complete with nasty throat postules, runny eyes and nose and overall ickiness. Wanna see? Look below... (be warned it's kind of graphic)

So this weekend, which was supposed to involve spring cleaning and yard work and Insanity, has been a major bust.

Forgive me as I wallow in my pain...











See the nasty? There are a couple on the sides you can't see that are ulcer-ish that hurt like the dickens!

Batman's surprise

You didn't think I'd forget, did you?

So Batman is a big HUGE fan of having fires in the backyard. Not the "burning your house down" kind, but the "sit around, have a couple beers and good conversation" kind. For the past 5 or 6 years we've had this dinky little fire pit that has sat on our deck. We'd huddle around it, praying it was far enough away from the house not to catch anything, and have a great time with friends and family. Winter or summer doesn't matter. We'd get it going and it was almost like camping, only without all the packing, driving, unpacking, set up, repacking, more driving, etc.

So me in my BRILLIANT wisdom thought how nice it would be to have an in-ground fire pit in the yard. And then that expanded to a cobblestone patio too. Me and my grand ideas...

Anyway, it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. It was a TON of work (not difficult, just a lot of manual labor), but well worth it.

And Batman was REALLY surprised. He had made a couple guesses as to what my project was (swing set, fountain), but he was blown away when he came home and saw it (which of course also made it worth all the work).
Here are a few pictures on the transformation:
I forgot to take an official "before" pic, but this was is sort of close. I had only dug out the perimeter and a small section of the grass

Almost all the grass gone!

(the "hole" is about 12 inches deep, just for a point of reference)

In went 6 inches of road mix gravel

Then a few inches of sand (and obviously Little Miss helped out)

 The mostly finished product (sorry about Kino's butt in the background. He was terrorizing my neighbors chickens), just needs a layer of sand to hold the pavers in place.

And the finished product. We took for a test drive on Saturday and it's pretty awesome ;-)

Just disregard the fact that we need to mow...

Insanity

Yep, you read that correctly. Batman and I have officially started 60 days of suck. After doing p90x (well almost) all the way through, I thought I was in fairly good shape. However, it did NOT prepare me for the craziness that is Insanity. We did the fit test yesterday and as "simple" as that was... it really kicked my a$$. We both are trying to get in the best shape possible before my brother J's wedding in September. So hopefully this will get us there.

I will update as to how things are going periodically. And hopefully those updates will be about how much better I feel and look and now about how I want to die every minute of every work out...

And I may or may not post my before and after pics...or maybe just on my other blog ;-)

Celebrate Independence!

Happy 4th Y'all!

We are spending the day at my IL, bbqing, swimming and hanging out! So much fun and the weather is great! Clear and 95! Perfect :)

Pics to come... hopefully ;-)

Fantastic

Batman arrived home late Wednesday evening, hence the blog hiatus. And it's been GLORIOUS! I almost forgot how nice it was to have him home ;-)

We've chilaxin' and swimming and just spending time together these last few days. The base gave him 5 days off before in-processing on Tuesday so we've been making the most of it. B just LOVES her daddy and I can tell she missed him. He seems to be her go to choice most of the time lately, which makes his day :)

Gotta run... update on my project soon, now that Batman has seen it (and was pretty blown away btw)!