Play-Dough

Ok, I promise this is my last post for the day! I am on a roll with three in a row in only one night! Here is Rosalyn playing with play-dough for the first time...

Rosalyn is 19 months old Tomorrow (Friday 3/27)

A few pictures...

18 months ago

15 months ago
12 months ago
9 months ago

6 months ago

3 months ago

Today

I cannot believe my Rosalyn will be 19 months old tomorrow! Oh my goodness, where does the time go?!?!?

Here is my monthly journal entry to her...

Dear Rosalyn,

I am so in love with you...it amazes me how my little girl can so tightly grip such a huge chunk of my heart. You are the sweetest, most precious, and perfect gift and some days I still can't believe you really are mine. I loved you before you were born (really even before you were conceived...your Daddy and I wanted you so much) and I remember thinking my heart would quite literally burst directly out of my chest when I first held you on your birthday. Thinking of that moment, when time stood still a brief moment for us, brings big tears to my eyes. You are such a busybody these days...always on the go and chattering nonstop about something! You are still a good eater and sleeper, as usual. You have 12 teeth now and are quite a little chunker these days! You weigh over 27 lb and you are 32 inches tall. Your hair is almost long enough to pull it all back in one ponytail! You can say lots of words...you add more to your vocabulary every day! Today you said "berry" for the first time. We were eating strawberries after supper and you said "berry" (more like "bewwy") and nodded your head "yes"...of course I couldn't resist giving you a few more (even though you had already had a pile!). You have been using the potty like a big girl sometimes! You are a sweet, loving little girl...always ready to give a big hug or kiss. I love seeing your little personality emerge. You are sensitive and get your feelings hurt easily sometimes, but you have a smile on your face within just another second! However, physically it takes a lot to hurt you...you fall and bump your head all the time but you rarely cry...you just hop right up and brush it off. You are fiercely independant, refusing help many times, but to see the look of pride on your face when you "figure it out" is priceless! You have been carrying your "baby" everywhere (even to bath and bed)...you are sweet to her, always rocking and singing and feeding her...so precious. You love to climb..you have made my heart flutter several times over the past few weeks with your "adventures" in furniture climbing! I love looking into your sweet, smiling, hazel eyes! Your Daddy and I love you so much sweet angel. Even though he doesn't write you journals, I hope you always know he loves his babygirl more than anything in the world. You are truly the biggest joy of our lives!

Love,

Mommy

Mississippi

On the way to Hammond..she was getting bored and refused to look at the camera!

Just a minor meltdown...it was quickly fixed with a kiss and "pas"!

Alan and the two Jasons being silly

The girls!

Jason and Rosalyn on Grandaddy's 4-wheeler...she loved it!

Rosalyn and Grandaddy

Playing at Mamaw and Papaw's house

Still playing!

Being a sweet (and sleepy) little angel on the way home!

Hope you enjoyed those pictures!

We had so much fun on our little trip and Rosalyn was WONDERFUL...I was so impressed! Not that she is usually that bad or anything, but she can be a little, um, high maintenance. I guess she gets it honestly though. :)

Friday

We left Friday at noon for our leisurely drive East. We stopped by my parents for a few minutes then hit the road. We stopped to eat lunch in Beaumont at the Chinese Buffet. Rosalyn liked eating fried rice! After that one hour lunch/bathroom/diaper change/gas up stop, we drove the rest of the way to Alan and Kelsey's straight through. We got held up in a little traffice jam in Baton Rouge, but otherwise did well. We got to Alan and Kelsey's house in Hammond at 6 pm, just as they were arriving home from work. We all went out to eat at a yummy place with BLT pizza then visited at there house for a few hours. We left Hammond at 10:30 pm headed for Brookhaven. We arrived at Mamaw and Papaw's house in Brookhaven at about midnight. They were wide awake and anxious to see Rosalyn...they argued over who got to sit beside her at the table as she ate a midnight snack! It was hilarious and she warmed right up to them despite not having seen them in 4 months. We all went to bed at about 1 am.

Saturday
After getting up around 9 am, we ate a yummy breakfast followed a few hours later by a yummy lunch! Way too much eating on this trip! Rosalyn and I then left to meet up with "The Aunts" which we thoroughly enjoyed! A while later, we picked up Jason and headed over to Grandaddy's house to visit for a few hours. After arriving back at Mamaw and Papaw's house around 6, I made a quick Wal-Mart run with Kellie and Kelsey. After all that, we just hung out and visited and ate Taco Bell for dinner! Bedtime was a little earlier at 11 that night!

Sunday

Sunday was a lazier day...we just stayed at Mamaw and Papaw's house all day and visited with them and my other family that live near by. Of course, too much food was consumed on this day as well!

Monday
Monday morning, I got up and went to Wal-Mart with Mamaw. After getting back to the house, we fed Rosalyn, let her take a nap, and packed up. We left their house at about 2 pm and went to spend the rest of the afternoon at Grandaddy's house. After visiting with Grandaddy for a few hours, we headed back to Hammond. We got there at about 6:30 and went to eat dinner with them before leaving for Texas. We left Louisiana at 8:30 and pulled into our driveway at 12:30 am! We were all tucked into our own beds by 1:30 am! We really enjoyed our visit, but there is truly no place like home!

boring :)

Not too much going on around here since my last post! I worked all day Wednesday and today was a "lazy day." I cleaned some today and cooked dinner (baked tilapia, red potatoes, green beans, and pears) and of course took care of my little sweetheart the whole time, but otherwise we just chilled out all day. Last night, my cousin Anthony came to visit and spend the night. He was on his way to Galveston for work. We are SO glad he stayed here...it was lots of fun to sit and talk!

Tomorrow we are going on a trip! We are leaving in the morning to go to Mississippi (where my granparents and most of my extended family live). We are making a stop in Louisiana overnight to stay with Alan and Kelsey...I miss them and can't wait to catch up in person! We will be back on Tuesday. I will try to post then with some pictures!

Crazy Night Last Night!

I had to work yesterday until 8:30 pm. Jason had his annual night gun qualification (which he absolutely cannot miss) at 7 pm. This was not a problem, because my mom was planning to be at our house at 6:30 to babysit Rosalyn until we got home. However, she got stuck in an impossible traffic jam trying to get to our house. It was also impossible for anyone else to get to Jason and Rosalyn in time due to traffic. Soooo....he had to bring her to me at work (while my dad sped through Houston to get to the hospital to get her from me). I know at some jobs having a toddler in tow is not a huge issue, but my job is definitely not one of those! She was with me at work from 6:45 pm to 7:30 pm which was basically a disaster! I had just received a fresh post op patient (which means I have to stay with that patient to monitor her at all times) when the princess arrived. Jason was running so late that he had to hand her off to an officer friend that he works with in the ER and that friend brought her up to me. Seriously, it could have been worse I guess. I tried to "lock her up" in a small patient area that had a TV and big windows so I could watch her, but she refused. Fortunately, another nurse was able to entertain her for a bit while I cared for my patient. It was majorly stressful, but it all worked out ok in the end. Rosalyn didn't mind at all...as soon as she got to me, you could see her little wheels turning just eyeing all the equipment and supplies she could possibly explore. My dad arrived just in time and saved the day...thank you! Poor Nana ended up stuck in traffic for about 3 hours. This was probably (okay, definitely) one of the most headache-inducing parenting moments ever!

We all got home safely last night by 10, thankfully! After eating dinner and putting Rosalyn to bed, we both relaxed and breathed a big sigh of relief!

So far, today has been much better!!!

Rice Pudding

This evening after dinner, Rosalyn and I made some yummy and easy healthy rice pudding for a snack. She is finally old enough to "help" a little bit, but she mostly just stole and ate the ingredients (see photos below).

Rosalyn's Rice Pudding (one of her favorite snacks!)
Makes enough for one hungry baby + a few bites for mom
Note: I make it different every time, so here are lots of variations in the recipe!

1/2 cup instant white or brown rice
1 cup of water or milk or a combo of the two (I do 1/2 milk and 1/2 water)
1 tablespoon of butter or margarine
1 tablespoon of honey, sugar, or brown sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
1/8 teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract
1 dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, or allspice
2 tablespoons of dried fruit or raisins

Mix everything together in a bowl
Microwave for 5 minutes
Let it sit in the microwave for a few minutes
Stir and enjoy!

Stealing and Eating Raisins!

Goofy Smile with A Mouthful of Stolen Raisins

We had an otherwise mundane day, almost boring! It is rainy and dreary here so we didn't get out at all....stayed in PJs all day long. Hopefully the weather will clear up so that we can go out and play tomorrow!

Below is a little video of Rosalyn eating her bedtime snack tonight (apricots, puffs, fat free chocolate pudding, and milk). You can see the chocolate pudding smeared on her face! She was being so silly...one minute singing or laughing and the next minute throwing a fit! Thanks again Nate and Tami for letting us borrow your Flip recorder!

By the way, you should hop on over to www.nateandtami.com to see how sweet baby Cayden is doing...he has grown and improved so much since his birth 10 weeks ago! Nate and Tami finally got to hold him this week. Please keep them all in your prayers as they work to get Cayden big and healthy enough to come home...what a sweet day that will be!

We had a fairly uneventful day today. After Kindermusik, we bought a few more summer items for Rosalyn. It is starting to get warmer here and her 18 month clothes are getting quite snug, so I need to finish my shopping and get her clothes switched over soon! We got home around noon and Rosalyn ate lunch (turkey and sweet potatoes) and took a nap until 3...I also took a little nap! I have been in a terrible habit of napping and then staying up way too late because I have insomnia (I wonder why?!?).

Anyway, after our nap we cooked and ate dinner with Jason before he left for work (BBQ chicken, mac & cheese, broccoli, crescent rolls, and bananas). Uncle Jason came over to play for a while and he is spending the night with us tonight....he is sitting beside me now commanding me what to play on Napster, lol! An eclectic mix of Pat Green, Eminem, John Mayer, and Third Eye Blind.

We are still waiting on Rosalyn's blood test results from last week (Tues 3/3). The lab is telling the doctor that the test takes two weeks, so hopefully next week we will have results. It is frustrating, but I know it takes time to run immunology stuff. The Zyrtec is helping some at this point, but not enough. She is still coughing most of the night and day plus horrible runny/snotty nose, puffy eyes, sneezing, etc. Tuesday night, Jason and I were up for two hours (1 am-3am) just listening to that horrible, barking cough with no breaks in between. She coughs, whimpers, coughs, whimpers...but usually doesn't totally wake up thankfully. We may have to try another medicine, but we'll see. There is carpet in the bedrooms and it will be coming up very soon to be replaced with hard flooring, so hopefully that will help also. I am ready to figure out something because this is crazy! I feel kinda bad complaining because I know there are much, much worse things in life than a toddler with allergies and believe me I am enormously grateful that she is otherwise fine, but I do not enjoy seeing her sick!

Gotta work tomorrow...hopefully, it will be a good day. It usually is a good day and I really do love my job and my coworkers so no worries!

First of all, thanks for all of your sweet comments about my last post with Rosalyn's video and our "chore list"--I got some good suggestions!
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Today, I got my hair cut and colored, yay!!! It was in desparate need of some attention. I will try to post pictures soon! I also SO enjoyed my visit with Lisa...we needed a chance to catch up!
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After my hair, I went to Babies R Us to exchange a couple of things and get Rosalyn some 24 month spring/summer stuff. Everything I have purchased at this point is Carter's brand...my favorite! I am trying to buy everything "potty friendly" since we will hopefully start that process this summer.

So far I have:

5 play dresses with bloomers
2 play outfits (short sleeve shirts/capris)
2 pajamas (short sleeve shirts/pants)

Obviously, I have a lot left to purchase to make it April thru September!

I still need to buy:

few more play outfits (short sleeve shirts/shorts)
a few nicer outfits/dresses for church and special outings
socks/shoes/sandals
few more pajamas ( short sleeve shirts/pants)

I love buying her clothes each season! Thankfully, we basically only have two seasons in our area or I may need to take out a loan! I am planning to go to the Carter's store soon to buy the rest.

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After BRU, I went to Wal-Mart to get groceries. I only cook about 4x/week. I am at work until 9 pm 2 nights/week so no cooking then and we usually go out to eat or eat frozen food or sandwiches 1 night/week.

Here is our menu for the next two weeks....

Chicken Tortilla Soup
Avocado and Tomato Salad
Cheese Quesadilla Wedges
Peaches

Santa Fe Tilapia
Parsley Red Potatoes
Green Beans
Rolls
Cinnamon Pears

Sticky Chicken and Rice
Peas
Rolls
Applesauce

Sweet and Sour Chicken
Carrots
Egg Rolls
Pineapple

Salisbury Steak
Mashed Potatoes
Corn
Rolls
Strawberries

Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
Green Beans
Garlic Bread
Mandarin Oranges

Crock Pot Pork Chops
Egg Noodles
Butter Beans
Corn Bread
Applesauce

BBQ Chicken
Macaroni & Cheese
Broccoli
Crescent Rolls
Bananas

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If you haven't noticed by now, I am a list maker :)

Tues 3/10

Happy 24th Birthday, Uncle Alan!!!

I know your Birthday is really tomorrow (the 11th), but I have to work then so I am posting this now. We love you and miss you so much! I am so blessed to have you in my life and grateful to have spent the last 24+ years as your sister....you are one of my best friends (and one of Jason's, too). We think you are the best brother and uncle ever and I hope you have a wonderful day! :)

Here are a few favorite pictures...

New Video!

Thanks to Nate letting me borrow his Flip Video Recorder, I have a new video of Rosalyn to post!

I love this little recorder--it is so easy to use!

Enjoy...



Today, we spent the day cleaning and then went out for Mexican food with my parents and brother. I think after spending half a day cleaning, I have decided to make a daily/weekly/monthly chore list. Our house isn't really that bad--we definitely pick up, sweep, clean kitchen, do laundry, etc. on a daily basis--but I have found that some chores seem to really sneak up on us!

Here's what I have so far...

Daily Chores:

Clean Kitchen
Wash Sippies
Empty Kitchen Trash and Bathroom Trash if Needed
Wipe/Straighten Bathroom Counters
Put All Laundry in Hampers
Make Beds
Put Toys/Books Away
Straighten Up Living Room, Dining Room, Hallway
De-Junk for 10 Minutes

Weekly Chores:

Scrub Bathrooms
Laundry
Change Sheets
Dust Everywhere
Mop/Sweep/Vacuum Floors
Scrub Kitchen/Clean Refrigerator


Monthly Chores:

*I will assign a "Monthly Chore" to each week of the month.
Clean Ceiling Fans
Clean Baseboards
Clean Windows/Blinds and Doors
Organize Pantry and Closets

So, this is what I think the week will look like...

Monday: Daily Chores + Scrub Bathrooms
Tuesday: Daily Chores + All Laundry and Change Sheets
Wednesday: Daily Chores + Dust Everywhere and Mop/Sweep/Vacuum Floors
Thursday: Daily Chores + Scrub Kitchen and Clean Refrigerator/Microwave/Oven/etc.
Friday: Daily Chores + Monthly Chore of The Week
Saturday: Daily Chores
Sunday: Nothing Except What is Absolutely Necessary!

What do you think? Am I missing any area? If you already have a "system" like this, I would love to know your ideas and what works/doesn't work for you!

Tomorrow, I am going to get my hair done! Yay! Conveniently, my hair stylist is also my best friend so I will get some much needed girl time also :) After I am finished with my hair and eat lunch with Lisa, I need to go to the grocery store and run a few other errands before coming home.

Strides 4 Stroke 5K Walk

Today Rosalyn and I participated in the Stride 4 Stroke 5k Walk/Run at Rice University in Houston. 5k = 3.1 miles in case you didn't know. It is an annual fundraiser for stroke research/awareness and is sponsored by The Methodist Hospital. We had to get up really early (6 am...early for us!) to meet our group from my work, but Rosalyn was very good. There were seven of us total...three of us work in PACU and the other four were our children :) We enjoyed walking along the beautiful grounds of Rice and ate lunch there also (chicken sandwiches, fruit, and potato salad...yum!). Lots of people brought their animals along, so it was fun to look at the different dogs and cats. After the walk and lunch, we played for a while (there were lots of bounce houses, mazes, face painting, etc) and then we went home! Rosalyn was really worn out...she slept part of the way home and for two hours when we got home.

Here are a few pictures!

Getting Ready to Walk!

In the bounce house with Mrs. Angie... Rosalyn loved all the sweet attention from my co-workers and I really appreciated their help--managing a determined 18 month old at a big event is hard work!

Our Little Group!

After naptime, all three of us went to Houston to a special nursery to buy two Chinese Pistachio trees...more on that later. We ate at Cracker Barrel for dinner. Jason and Rosalyn are in bed now...I suppose I should go to bed also since it is really almost midnight!

Friday 3/6

Helping Nana Get Dressed

Sweet Smiler

Look at those chunky legs!!

Chicken Taco Soup...Yum!

Rosalyn and I got up at 8 am this morning...I was hoping to sleep until 9 am but apparently Miss R had other plans. After finishing breakfast (milk and raisin oatmeal), we watched Noggin for a short time before getting ready to go to "story time" at the library. We arrived at story time and all was well until about 5 minutes into "Green Eggs and Ham." Basically, my child turned into a monster. I am not sure what happened, but she just started screaming and being so disruptive that we had to leave! I was mortified...Rosalyn was having a total tantrum, kicking, screaming, back arching, the whole nine yards! I am not quite sure what set her off, but it was not pretty. So we got settled in the car and went on to the grocery store to get stuff for dinner. She was pretty naughty at the store, but mild compared to the library. After getting home and having a quick snack (crackers and juice), I layed her down for a wwaayyy early nap...she slept for 3 hours! I guess she was tired! Jason and I were talking about it this afternoon and realized she has been this way in the morning for three days now and it starts about 30 minutes after receiving her morning dose of Zyrtec. I think it is making her sleepy and irritable. Seriously, her behavior has been so uncharacteristically terrible that we were at shocked! Starting tomorrow, I will be giving her the full dose of Zyrtec one time a day...at bedtime! Our doctor had recommended splitting the full dose and giving it twice a day, but I am afraid this routine is not going to work for us! Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day!

When she woke from her nap at 2, everything was fine. She ate lunch and played. My mom came over to visit and get dressed for a school event tonight. Rosalyn of course loved seeing Nana. After everyone left, she and I played for a while before bedtime. She went to bed early tonight at 7:30...I am going to try to go to bed early also. We are doing the Methodist Hospital Stride 4 Stroke 5k walk in Houston in the morning, so we have to get up super early (6 am, yikes!!!). My unit at work has a team...the Peri-Op Piranhas, lol!

On a side note, the nurse from the pediatrician's office called me today to let me know that they expected the blood test results to be in Monday or Tuesday.

I posted a picture above of our dinner...it was really good, filling, cheap (under $20 to make the entire recipe including garnish and corn bread), and SO easy so I thought I would post the recipe. It would be perfect for a crowd!

Chicken Taco Soup

Easily Serves 8 Adults

1 rotisserie chicken

1 can pinto beans, undrained

1 can black beans, undrained

1 can yellow corn, undrained

1 can white corn, undrained

2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can chicken broth

1 package dry taco seasoning

1 package dry ranch dressing mix

salt and pepper to taste

cheese, sour cream, and avacado to garnish

cornbread

1. Remove skin and bones from chicken and tear into bite size pieces.

2. In a large saucepan, mix together chicken, beans, corn, tomatoes, broth, and both seasoning packets. Add salt and pepper if needed.

3. Bring to a boil, stirring well.

4. Reduce heat and simmer until ready to serve.

5. Serve with cheese, sour cream, avacado, and corn bread.

Delish!

I will try to post again tomorrow!

18 month appointment

We went for Rosalyn's 18 month check-up today...

She officially weighs 26.75 lb (80%) and is 32 inches (55%). Her head is 19.5 inches (off the charts, as usual). Our measurements that we did at home last week were a little off since she wouldn't be still for us!

We are concerned about some significant allergy issues she is having--basically a persistant cough and runny nose since October despite multiple treatments. Her pediatrician said it is quite uncommon that she has had four sinus infections already with the first being prior to one year of age and that this is a big red flag pointing to possible allergy issues. We have started her on Zyrtec 2x/day and we also had blood drawn today to check for allergies. Hopefully we will have those results soon. She is too young for the traditional skin prick allergy testing. We are to return to the office in a couple of weeks if the Zyrtec is not working so that we can get a prescription for something else.

She also got two shots...DTaP and Hepatitis A. She did pretty well with the shots and blood draw...cried for a minute then seemed to totally forget about it.

Our pediatrician said she is otherwise healthy as a horse and growing perfectly. She was very impressed with her talking/motor stuff/etc. According to her, Rosalyn is a super smart, sweet, happy little girl (with a very runny nose!)...which we already knew :)

We came home after our appointment and ate turkey burgers and homemade oven-baked onion rings...yummy!

Rosalyn's Tree

It was SO cold today! I don't think Ros was very happy out there!

Sweet Dreamer

One Year Ago...

Can't you tell I am such a reminiscer...it drives Jason crazy!

Today we planted a tree in the front yard for Rosalyn. I think this a great tradition and we are planning to continue it with any possible future children.

Jason's grandmother, Mrs. Phyllis, bought the tree in Rosalyn's honor so we had a "planting party" this evening :). I cooked a yummy dinner that would have made Paula Deen proud considering the amount of butter I used to prepare it. We had Poppyseed Chicken over Egg Noodles, Squash Casserole, Green Beans with Bacon and Onion, Deviled Eggs, Yeast Rolls, Sweet Tea, and Cake Balls for dessert. I used all of my weekly extra WW points at one meal...yikes! Mark, Brannon, Marilyn, Brooke, Mr. Jay, and Mrs. Phyllis all came over to eat and visit. We also got the tree planted, but it was way too cold to get any good pictures...I was just trying to hurry back in. You can barely see a limb from the tree in the picture above of the three of us! It was a really fun day.

In the other picture of Rosalyn sleeping, I just snuck into her room and found her with her leg propped up...silly girl!

Funny/New things R is doing this week:

When she is crying/having a fit she quite dramatically covers her face with both hands.

She imitates me counting and tries to hold up her fingers appropriately.

She will point at something (milk for example) and nod "yes" to indicate that she wants it.

She pooped in the potty twice over the past couple days. However my attempts at letting her wear panties yesterday afternoon were futile...she peed in every pair I put on her and she didn't mind one bit!

She has taken to standing hands free on the seat her riding toys and dancing to music...she thinks it is a funny game and it gives me a heart attack...I just know she is going to break her neck!

She is eating with a spoon and fork pretty well with little/no assistance. She still uses her hands about 50% of the time.

She has become very maternal to her baby dolls. During her waking hours, you will hardly find her without one in her arms. She sits them beside her when she eats and makes them sit on the potty alongside her. She will "love" them, kiss them, put them in her old baby swing, rock them night-night, and pretend to feed them a bottle. She also likes to undress them, but hasn't figured out how to put the clothes back on. It think is really sweet to see her be so loving and nurturing to something...it makes me feel like I am doing at least a halfway decent job at mothering her.

I am working Monday and Wednesday this week...I will try to post on Tuesday after Rosalyn's check-up.