I got it.

I finally got it! I am a little reluctant to share this but it made me so happy, I want to document it here.

Yesterday afternoon, over pink playdough,


I got my first unsolicited "I love you" from my child. We were building a snowman (a dough man, really) and his bed, and blanket, and table, and light and out of the blue, with no prompting or asking (which I admit, I sometimes do) , Ava said, "I love you, Mom."



It took 2 and a half years but the words felt just as sweet as I'd hoped.

It's my birthday, and I'm "It"

Today, I am 26 years old and I guess it's an appropriate day to talk about my self but first we have some unfinished business...

Thank you for all of your opinions. I think there is an overwhelming consensus to keep the shark. And that's exactly what I'm gonna do. The garage is a great option though I am seriously considering Chandra's idea to hang it in the bathroom just to see what our guests would say. But really the garage is great because we could still see it everyday, appreciate it's beauty, preserve it for proof and showing off, and it won't interfere with the decor.

But enough about the shark, let's talk about me. Wendy "tagged" me, which apparently means that I reveal 6 lesser known facts about myself. I really felt like I was scraping the bottom of the barrel to come up with these, so bear with me.

#1 I am an accomplished horsewoman

This is not me, I stole the picture off the internet, but this is exactly the kind of stuff I did.

I started taking horseback riding lessons when I was 7 and continued them for 7 more years. I don't know how my parents could watch but my sister Leah and I did some crazy stuff. We jumped in the ring but also cross-country (across streams and over trees and also man-made jumps in the fields.)

#2 My car blew up

My first car was a 1992 VW Jetta. I used that car like a closet on wheels in high school. I could dress myself for any occasion solely from the contents of the back seat and trunk. She eventually lost her power steering and on this particular day needed to be jump-started and the battery charged. My dad took on that job while my mom drove me to my voice lesson. While we were gone, my dad was letting the car run in the driveway after he'd jumped it. The mailman came to the door and said, "Your car is smoking." And my dad assumed he was talking about the exhaust and said, "Yeah, I know. I'm just letting it charge." And then he said, "No, like it's on fire-it's smoking!"

When we got home my dad met us outside and informed us we'd just missed the fire department. My car was literally melted on the inside and the engine was entirely gone, burned up. That day I not only lost my car but also 1/2 of my wardrobe.


#3 Few things give me more pleasure than lying in soft green grass when the weather is not too hot and not too cool.


And what stinks is that Texas has the yuckiest grass ever!

#4 I proposed to my husband. Twice.

He was really playing hard to get, I guess. I am surprised he didn't dump me, but he kept saying something about needing more time. I just kept telling him to hurry it up. Eventually he came around and here we are today. Everything turned out fine and I believe in the power of persistence.

#5 I do a mean (mean as in, really good and also as in, not very nice) impression of a retarded person.

I save this for my closest friends and family because it is very "authentic".

#6 I always want the lights on in my house.




This quirk drives Dan bananas. He constantly follows behind me turning off the lights and reminding me that I "left the lights on again!". I keep reminding him that I didn't forget, I left them on, on purpose. I don't know why but I like it when rooms are bright.


So there we have it. I "tag" Lori and Todd. I would like to see a separate post from each of you! And I also "tag" Lara.

My Shark Dilemma

My sister-in-law Wendy has a very funny blog, if you haven't seen it. If you have then you already know that. But at the end of each post she asks a question and then people leave the answer with their comments.

Now I know my readership is much smaller than Wendy's, but I am calling on you, my few special visitors, to help me out with this.

When Mom and Dad came down for Christmas they brought with them a bunch of stuff for us. It seems like every time they come, we make a list of the things they can't forget. So on this trip, they brought their drill (as usual) so we could hang some things on the walls, and they brought the TV they had replaced and didn't need anymore, and they brought some clothes for the kids from Chandra. And as a surprise, I guess, they brought this gem...




When we lived in Miami and I was about 9, we went on a deep sea fishing trip. The whole time I kept saying, "I got something! I got something!" We would reel it in and all I "got" was some half eaten bait. Nobody was having much luck and the time was winding down and the captain above yelled for us all to bring in our reels.

This time I yelled "I got something! No, I really do this time!" Something was definitely tugging on my line and I knew it was big! Everyone looked at me like the Boy Who Cried Wolf and my dad rolled his eyes. Then the captain yelled out that I did, indeed, have something, and he thought it was a Hammer Head shark. When I heard this, my initial reaction was to throw the whole pole into the ocean and start running. But I didn't. My dad helped me reel it in, and it turned out to be a four-foot Tiger shark. They threw him up onto the deck and as he flopped all around they stabbed him with a big spear thing. I ran inside the cabin because I thought I was going to toss my cookies.

I wish I had the picture and a scanner but in my mom's album there is a picture of the captain, me, and the shark, who turned out to be only slightly shorter than me.

Of course, my dad had the thing mounted. And I was glad he did. Really, how many people can say they caught a shark? My guy friends in high school were planning a deep sea fishing trip and I told them they should invite me because I could teach them to catch a shark. They of course did not believe me until they saw it...




But really, what do I do with this? It doesn't exactly "go" in my house. This is one of those things you want your parents to keep and never throw away because it's SO important, but you just don't want it at your own house. Like your baseball card collection that takes up an entire suitcase (Dan), or the boxes and boxes of "mission stuff" (Leah), or the wedding dress you still have stored at your mother-in-law's house (me, sorry, Linda! And it's not that I don't want it, just haven't had a great way to get it here!), or the shark your parents are no longer tolerating (me, again).

Dan thinks if I'm not going to hang it up, we should throw it out.




Now I'm calling for your opinions, what do you think I should do with the shark? Hang it up? Toss it out? Keep it in the closet?

got milk?

I really don't know what to do. I find myself at a standstill because I just don't know what to do!

I finally succeeded in getting Luke to take a bottle. It's a new fancy one (not really that fancy just different, to me at least). He takes it very reluctantly though. And he didn't want ANYTHING to do with it last night at 2:00 am. He had eaten at 10pm and 12 am and by 2, the well was dry...

I got him to drink both breastmilk and formula from the bottle and that makes me feel so relieved. My milk supply has increased some but not enough. So that makes me wonder, why I am doing this to myself?

I can't decide if it's about Luke or about me. Certainly there is no harm in feeding both breastmilk and formula or one or the other. But, if to continue nursing I have to attach myself to an electric pump every 3 hours and take 18 pills a day, why am I doing this? I think it's because I know Luke will miss it, and honestly so will I. And I am not a La Leche Leaguer, by the way.




I don't know what to do. Have I said that already? Part of me wants to stop pumping, stop the pills, and see what happens. Then I will feed him what I have and supplement the rest. But what if a few more days will bring it all back and then I won't have to worry with bottles or anything else unless I want to? Or maybe I should just wean him and switch to formula all together.

Through all of this I do know that I may have scarred my 2 year old for life. She saw me using the breast pump for the first time and her look of interest/disgust was priceless. She said, "What is dat, Mommy?!" I told her it was a pump to get milk for Luke. Then she climbed up onto the bed beside me to watch TV. Every minute or two she'd give it a sidelong stare with the same expression. Finally she said, "Dat silly, Mommy"

The Many Guises of Ava

Ava is a super-star...

A diva,

A joker,

An animal,

A smarty-pants.

A nomad,

With a 2 year old running the show, things can get pretty rough. We've reclaimed the household and it was easier than we thought it would be. It has been quite the transformation. And I am glad the investment of my college education payed off. The textbook "Therapeutic Recreation and Behavior Modification" has come in very handy. We started an extinction process. And the crazy, epic tantrums are almost as dead as the dinosaurs! Almost.

Her happy is happier and her mad is not so mad. She's still herself but with a more pleasant twist. We've always loved her, it's just now it's a little easier. Of course, it's not all peaches and cream and rainbows here. She's still 2 and a half and there is still whining and fits. But you can't knock progress!

Oh Luke!

Luke's 6 month checkup was on Monday,

He weighs 15 pounds 3 ounces (25%),

and is 28 and 1/4 inches long (95%).

He must take after his dad!

He has been loving the bathtub recently! Kicking and splashing and having a great time.

We have been struggling with the reflux problem. He really doesn't get enough milk. Nursing is such a painful process for him and because he can't get the milk down, my body isn't making enough anymore. It's just a vicious cycle. He is no longer sleeping through the night, waking to eat (or attempt to eat) 2-3 times a night. Even as a newborn he never ate like that. By 9 weeks he would sleep 9 hours a night. I was too spoiled, I guess.

He's taking his medicine, I'm taking my herbs. And we are praying that somethings will improve.

I just want to know that he's getting enough calories to continue to develop properly. The doctor advises that we not give him anymore solid food than we already are because his nursing would decrease even more.

We'll see what the next week brings. Perhaps some different medicine, some pumping, and if we're lucky, some improvement!

Today I am grateful for: Fenugreek

Christmas Vacation

It was so great to have Dan off of work for almost (not quite but, almost!) 2 weeks. And Mom and Dad stayed for a whole week as well. It really felt like a "vacation" even though we didn't leave home.

We did a few things to keep busy and entertain ourselves, including a trip to the bowling alley,



Ava had her own bumper lane and we bowled a game in the lane right next to her.



She was so excited! She just ran around and back and forth and kept saying, "I did it! I did it!"

It was stiff competition but I won by one point! (almost got me, Dan!)

2 of my favorite bowlers

We also went to the Houston Children's Museum. Our last visit was before we moved down here.

Just like last time, the "grocery store" was a big hit!


And this time, Ava tried her hand at face painting,


It was a good reminder to keep my make-up out of reach.


Ava, ever the cooking assistant, helped Grandma with dinner, her make-up mostly intact.



And again, Grandma and Ava worked together, this time to make a gingerbread house. Luckily, Mom didn't have any lofty intentions for the gingerbread house because Ava was VERY enthusiastic about the decorating.


Especially excited about putting "snow" on the roof.

A two handed job

Oooh, but look at these beauties our neighbor made and dropped off. I thought they were so cute and the house even has stained glass windows!



Our vacation also had it's fair share of relaxing,




Grandpa balancing,


Harry Potter reading (I've converted my father!), Harry Potter watching, and eating,




Unfortunately, the party's over and it's back to the grind. It was sure fun while it lasted though!