12 hours later...

Here's what our kitchen looked like this morning (Thursday morning, as I'm posting this at 1AM!) after all the prep-work we did yesterday (Wednesday) - taping, moving, etc:




Here's our little helper in action (I let her loose where the stove goes!):



And here's the final result, complete with hand-scrubbed floors. 12 hours of painting and cleaning and our kitchen is probably the cleanest it's ever been. And, yes, it confirmed that I really indeed do hate to clean!



And I say Farewell to yet three more tan walls, just a personal mission of mine :D

New Toy!

We went shopping at a few second-hand stores the other day, and this was Victoria's find...

Portraits in the Park

I (Rod) am in the process of taking tons of photos....one of which will hopefully be used in my next tattoo. I have spoken with the most talented portrait tattoo artist I have ever seen (Tom Renshaw). He said, "Take a s@&tload of pictures and send them to me. I will find one that works." I have seen his work, and I trust his opinion. If you would like to see some of his latest ink, go here ---> Tom Renshaw

These are some of the recent photos I have taken in Lexington today. Enjoy

Wordless Wednesday

I NEED ADVICE!!

Okay, this one has nothing to do with the family or Victoria, it's all about me. I need honest feedback on the new specs. I have two months to change my mind on them. I just can't decide if I like them or not, so I'm asking what you all think.

Honest opinions, please! If you hate 'em, tell me! If you love 'em, tell me that, too!

4th Fun

Victoria and I had some new friends over for a girl's night in on the 4th (since Rod was working mucho overtime, of course).

Before they got to our house, V helped me make some fresh guacamole.

The girls decided they were going for a walk... (click on the picture to see it larger if you can't see them ).
They got all the way to the end of the driveway before we had to lure them back with food!

Some things never change

Last year...

This year...
nevermind the "baby's first thanksgiving"

Cool Pics

Trying this one again!

Hot Days, Fun Times!

Victoria having fun with her new sprinkler...
(having some technical difficulties with this one, check back soon)

And I'm thinking we should nickname her Forest (as in, "Run, Forest, Run!")

New Toy

Summer already?!?

It seems we pretty much skipped spring and went full into summer around here. I think my lillies are the only ones around that haven't even bloomed yet. For that matter, nothing in our yard has bloomed! That may have more to do with lots of shade than anything else, though.

Here's how our days have been spent:

Playing in (and cleaning!) the pool on the deck...

Playing with the patterns on the floor.

Just lookin' cute and havin' fun!

Slowly getting better

Victoria's demeanor seems to be improving, though she's still coughing and stuffy.

Here she is in an outfit Busha bought for her months ago. It's a 2T and supposed to be capris!

She is growing, though. Many of her 2T and 24 month outfits don't fit anymore, which is good news for Kasia and Moira, I think!

Quick Update

I took Victoria to her regular pediatrician this morning just as a follow up to make sure everything was okay. Her cough is still not sounding very good, a little 'barky' still. But the nurse practitioner said it's completely normal, and that croup takes 4-5 days to run its course normally. She did listen to Victoria's lungs to make sure it hasn't gone into her chest, and luckily it hasn't. She's still cranky, her throat is still swollen and irritated, which means she's not really inclined to eat much of anything (except Jello with fruit!).

Today brought beautiful weather - 83 degrees, low humidity, and sunny. Being outside helped both of us to cope with the attitude that comes along with a sick 2-year-old. :-)

A (Thankfully) Unfamiliar Place

Where were you at 6:30 this morning? Sleeping? Taking a shower? Watching the morning news?




Here's where Victoria and I were:
Look like fun? It wasn't too bad, for a 3 hour stint. Victoria's been running a fever the past few days, and this morning she woke up crying with a major barking cough. So off to the ER we went, and it's croup. She got a breathing treatment and some oral steroids, they watched her for a little while then sent us home. Oh - she did get some popsicles and Teddy Grahams, too :)

She's already had one nap and is just pretty content to lay around all day. Here's hoping it works its way through quickly and she's her normal chipper self soon.

When it rains...

Strange things happen. While up north this weekend, we stopped a friend's house from burning down. The morning after a light rain, the electric cable running from his house to the pole fell down. The surge started a tv in the back bedroom to start smoking! Had we not been staying there, it probably wouldn't have been caught in time.

We had a bad storm here two nights ago. Before going to bed, I shut down the office desktop computer, and thought after that up north experience, I'd better turn off the power right at the surge protector. Somehow in doing that, the power supply cord got fried. At least we hope that's all it is.

Bad luck or good luck? I choose to see our luck as good - it could've been worse on both accounts!

And now, a few stray photos from our Florida vacation. Can't wait till it's warm enough to swim in Michigan! Though friends were uncovering and cleaning their pool yesterday, so maybe that day will come soon!

Gone again...

Well, here we are. Another weekend away from home. I guess it's officially summer when Rod's days off are packed with visits with friends and family. One of these weekends maybe we'll just hang out around our house!

When I was pregnant, I would post the "Your baby at X weeks" from the parenting site, which would talk about how far along the fetus was.

Now, I get updates like this (from BabyCenter):

By 30 months, your child can name a few body parts, some colors, and even a friend or two. Her memory and speaking ability work in tandem. Help out by expanding on what she says. If she says, "Dog sleep," you might say, "Yes, Spot is curled up and fast asleep in his doggie bed." She can't imitate your complex language patterns yet, but her brain is absorbing them. Every time you repeat her words or expand on them, you're giving her memory practice.

Wow. This morning at the playground, Victoria asked some other girls, "You wanna come play playground with me?" I think her verbal skills are quite a bit ahead of her physical skills, as she still sometimes seems a little clumsy, but she's a smart cookie!

Also sort of an odd duck, as I told her the other day, when she was "snuggling" with the dishwasher!

No new pics, as we're on the road, sorry.

Last Days of Vacation

Finally getting around to updating after vacation. We decided to head over to the Everglades for a while, hoping to see a gator. It didn't take long...

We Are Home

Well, after a "long story" at the airport, we made it home. However, Kristin's bag did not. You may be wondering what the picture is about....well, I was looking for her bag. It is somewhere in Lima, Peru. Just a comical end to a pissy day. With Spirit Airline, you definitely get what you pay for. The flight was cheap and so was the service.....I guess beggars can't be choosers!

Just some photos

Happy Mother's Day

A few one-liners courtesy of Victoria:
(At the airport) "Look, an airplane!", "Look, another airplane, and another airplane and another airplane!"

She's big into expressions...
"I'm so happy today!", "I'm so happy to see you!", "What a beautiful day today!"

The condo has a screened in porch. V was putting her hands on the screen, stopped, said, "Hang on, I'll be right back!" Went running into the kitchen, grabbed a few pieces of fake fruit out of a bowl, brought them back and proceeded to "feed" them to the screen saying, "Here you go, sweetie!"

I'm going to try in the next few days to get video of her new phrase when she starts to panic in the water (when her feet are floating out from under her, for example): "I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay!"

And sitting by the little river by the condo, "Look! El Rio Rapido!" (thanks to Dora for teaching V how to say the fast river in spanish). We met some people in the pool who were talking about learning basic phrases so we learned that the river is much more Despacio (slow) than rapido.

Pompano

We spent some time on Pompano Beach and then down the A1A for some Mediterranean food. A bit windy, but that made for some fun surf. As aways...couldn't pull the little fish out of the water. The video is from yesterday. We are trying to get her more acclimated to being in the water on her own and under the water as well.

Guess Where We Are

Flight was great. Victoria was on her best behavior and has been rewarded by much pool time. Tomorrow is a day at the beach and more Captain for Dad!

A new doctor

Well, after reading Brynna's account of their less-than-fun times with teeth last month, I decided to make some calls. My regular dentist said a while back that they don't see kids until they're at least 3. I called Victoria's pediatrician last week to see if they had any recommendations for ped. dentists. After feeling slightly bad because they said they start to see kids at the age of 18 months, I got over it and made an appointment. So this morning, Victoria and I met Dr. Hollman. We talked all the way there about what he was going to do, and brought Mickey along for support.

The Doc was great - I sat in the chair, V in my lap, and Mickey on her lap. The doc first laid Mickey back, checked his teeth, then sat him up on the counter so he could "watch". Victoria did very well - he got out the mirror, checked her teeth, used a little pointy thing just to make sure there weren't any cavities on her back teeth. No cleaning, just basically to get her comfortable with going, and to make sure there wasn't anything going on I wasn't aware of.

Victoria got a glowing report - everything looks great, spacing between her teeth is actually a good thing, as it means the adult teeth will have room to grow when they come in.

There is still the slight possibility that her permanent teeth may have incurred some damage when she was in the NICU (the meds and oxygen preemies get when in the NICU sometimes can do damage to the permanent teeth as that's when they're beginning to form), but we won't know that for another 4-5 years.

And now a photo...