Post-Tubes

Madeline has been so happy since her tubes last week. She has been playing and playing and playing! She has had a good week at school learning "slap-clap" (smacking her knees and then clapping) and playing outside in this beautiful weather. Her teacher said she is getting more rambunctious outside, going down the slide and running around. Two kids in her class have RSV, but so far she seems to have escaped with just a little cough. Fingers crossed RSV stays away from Maddie- she's already had a rough Winter!

Breakfast at Panera. Madeline ate her first bagel and loved it! Here she is staring at someone else's bagel.

Not sure why she looks so guilty here. Neither her or Stella are talking...but I'm wondering what they did.

Chris caught her by surprise here!

Ear Tubes for Maddie - girl

We took Madeline to the ENT on Tuesday. After all 6 shots of Rocephin last week (a very strong antibiotic), her ear infection hadn't cleared up. In fact, she now had a full-on DOUBLE ear infection.

The ENT took a look at her ears and reviewed her history. After seeing that we had tried 4 different antibiotics for the infections, he recommended tubes. Both my sister and I had tubes twice as a child after repeated infections.

We took her in this morning to the surgery center. I was pretty nervous about the anesthesia and the surgery, but everything happened so quick, I couldn't really get that worked up. The doctors took her back at 7:20 and the surgery was over by 7:30. Maddie woke up at 7:40 and we got to get her. We left at 8!

So far, she is acting totally normal. She ran around for awhile and then took a nap. She is eating great and smiling. The ENT let us know she had so much junk in her ear that he's not sure the past infections have ever really cleared up great. I'm so happy that she has clean, fresh ear nows!

A few photos:

Madeline in her ruffles in the waiting room.

Right when she woke up, sitting with mommy

4 years ago...

Everything was so crazy last week that I didn't get to give a shout-out to Chris- the best hubby a girl could ask for!

Our four year wedding anniversary was on Thursday (2/16). Crazy how so much has changed for us the last four year: we built a house, we got our first dog, both of us have gotten new jobs, traveled some amazing trips and, of course, MADELINE. It has all been wonderful!

Chris and I have literally been together since we were kids! We started "going out" when we were 15! He truly does bring out the best in me and I'm so thankful and so blessed for such a loving man in my life. He works really hard to provide the best for me and Maddie and he always knows how to make me laugh.

Happy four year wedding anniversary, Chris! Looking forward to many more!

Photos from St. Lucia

February 2008

The night before the wedding- sailing to our rehearsal dinner!

Zoomed out pic of the ceremony

Madeline's Trip to the ER

We had our first real scare as parents this week. Madeline had a febrile seizure on Wednesday night after dinner. We took her to the Kosair's Children's Hospital ER that just opened by our house. Her temperature had rose 5 degrees (from 98 to 103.5) in about 90 minutes; the spike is most likely what caused the seizure. The ER nurses ran a bunch of tests on Maddie to try to see what caused the fever spike, but so far the only thing they can tell is that it was just a nasty viral infection on top of her ear infection. So, we've been treating her fever the last several days. She's been pretty miserable not interesting in eating or drinking, but slowly getting better. Today was the first day that she was happy majority of the day- I think this means we are finally on the mend! I am so happy to see her smiling. Here's a little photo we snapped of her right before we went home Thursday morning.

All of the staff at Kosair's were wonderful with Madeline. They were very sweet with her. While we're fortunate to have the ER so close to our house, I pray we don't have to go back anytime soon!

Stella is 21! (or three)

As soon as we got married, Chris started asking for a dog. I was very skeptical because I had never had a dog, and I wasn't even really sure I liked them.

I asked him to wait a year so we could adjust to married life together in our new house. I secretly hoped he'd forget all about it. One year goes by and we celebrate our wedding anniversary. That very night he asked again for a dog. I realized then it wasn't going to go away. So, he researched and researched to the point he was driving me crazy. (If you know my husband, you know he is very deliberate and very thorough with his decision making.) Anyways, we found a breeder and drove down to pick out Stella when she was born.

This past week Stella turned 3. Even though most of the time she makes me crazy, she is still the sweetest dog. She is wild and energetic, but she is also very loving. She is fantastic with Madeline (as I type this, Madeline is sharing her pancakes with her.) and a great companion to me and Chris. I cannot say today that I like other dogs....but I know I love MY dog.

Happy birthday Stella!

Picking out Stella!

Bringing Stella home- Chris was so happy!

Letting her run around the front yard.

Family Photo

Stella- three years later.

Lazy Sunday

Madeline is super attached to Chris right now. A real daddy's girl. Last night she cried when he left the room. Twice. I have a feeling someone spoils her...

While I was at Kroger today, Chris snapped a few photos of her- so cute!

Peering out the window.

She looks so big to me in this one!

"Don't tell mommy I did that, daddy!"

One Year Pics

I know I posted the link to these awhile back, but we just got our cd in the mail. Here are some of Maddie's one year photos, if you didn't get to see them originally!

On a side note, the blog post below this one is from Danielle. She's trying to introduce her co-worker to a future mate on a really popular site, Kelly's Korner. (In case you're wondering!)