Sara's other eye and Gracie's 16-month check-up

So this morning my right eye starts HURTING. Badly. I immediately remember how bad the iritis got in my left eye a month ago, decide that I don't want to miss another week of work (we can't afford that anyway) so I call Dr. Snook and get an appt. at 1:15. He looks and says I have the beginnings of a corneal ulcer, good for me for catching it so quickly, and to save me some money I can just use the same drops I was using for the iritis and then he gave me a sample of something else to use. Should be perfect in a week. He even put those awesome orange numbing drops in my eye. *sigh* That stuff is addicting, no wonder they won't prescribe it. Out the door 11 minutes later after just my $25 co-pay. Dr. Snook is awesome. (Free ad for him: He rotates between offices in Denton, Lewisville and Plano, accepts virtually every insurance, and he even does glasses and contacts exams! http://www.northdallaseye.com)

Then at 3:00 was Gracie's 15-month well exam and shots. We've had to postpone this a few times due to her always getting sick the week of her appointment. So now at 16.5 months she weighs 24lbs 7ozs (just above average for her age-group) and is 33in tall (in the top 5% of her age group!). Dr. Conger is not concerned at all about her weight because she is SO tall for her age. Everything looks fine, she's on an 18-month level developmentally (teeth, dexterity, habits and vocabulary)! The only thing of concern is the fluid that she has carried on her ears for over 6 months now. Before we go to an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist (which will cost us a ton of money because Gracie's insurance has anything to do with her ears on a separate $5750/year deductible), Dr. Conger wants us to add an inhaled steroid (Pulmicort) to her nebulizer and do it twice each day for one month. Back in October, she had us start giving Gracie a nosespray in the mornings to try to ease the pressure in her ears and therefore decrease ear infections, which actually worked. Since the nosespray idea was a success, she believes that by treating her airways and lungs and opening them up more it will further decrease the pressure and hopefully reduce the fluid in her ears, if not get rid of it entirely. So we will try this before we worry about tubes. If the Pulmicort does nothing after a couple of months, we will then go to the specialist. But if there is even a little improvement, we will continue with the Pulmicort until the fluid is gone, and then at that point probably continue the Pulmicort a few times each week to keep it that way. So pray that the Pulmicort works! We are so thankful to have such a great doctor for Gracie who is so willing to work with us and reduce cost by not always jumping into a "quick-fix".

I'm going to try to remember most of the words Gracie is saying now, but there are a LOT of them: Mommy, Daddy, Nanny, dog, ball, poo-poo, hi, bye-bye, that, now, juice, more, no, bubble, bath, and several more. She says sentences: "Hi Mommy (or Daddy or dog)", "Bye-bye poo-poo" (we flush her poops down the toilet and she waves bye to them), and "No juice". She shakes her head no and nods yes in answer to questions (which I love because I can actually have a sort of conversation with her... so cool!). She can point to her belly-button, nose and mouth and gets her ears and eyes mixed up but tries really hard. =) Still sleeping well in her toddler bed, but she hasn't attempted to get out of it in the middle of the night so I don't think she knows that she can. She is officially in all 2T-size clothes now; 18- and 24-months sizes are just not long enough for her. Our big girl!

I make edible cakes, too!

You know I make diaper cakes.... well I am also starting to try new techniques in edible cake baking and decorating, too! I volunteered to make the cake for my friend Brandi's church baby shower. The nursery theme for baby Myer is "Enchanted Forest", with woodland creatures, so I was trying to figure out how to get them onto the cake. I went and bought the wall stickers for the nursery so I would have something to draw from, and then in my online research I discovered the buttercream transfer method. Essentially it involves tracing a design with icing on wax paper, freezing it, and then pressing it into an iced cake. It was hard and took a long time, (since I did five transfer designs) but it was a neat technique to get the exact pictures I wanted onto the cake. If you want more details on how I did this and good recipes for both buttercreams needed, let me know and I will forward them to you.

The shower was a lot of fun, and the cake was great (if I do say so myself =P). If you need a cake for an occasion, let me know and I would love to make it!

Gracie and I had a great time today visiting Great-(great)Grandmother in the hospital, and then hanging out with Gran and the dogs (plus Dash). Enjoy some pictures of Gracie playing around in her very smiley mood and in her pretty Sunday dress! =)

Dash was running laps and Gracie was cheering him on.. so cute!

1st Bluebonnet Picture Attempt

Amber told me about a park in Coppell with a bunch of bluebonnets (thank goodness, because I was about to drive Gracie down to Ennis and that wouldn't be fun!), so we went there today since it was so pretty.

Not a wonderful idea. Gracie was being very clingy, didn't want me to walk two steps away from her to take her picture, and the only way I could get her to look at the camera without crying was to give her some puffs, so then her hand was in her mouth. *sigh* Oh well, here is the best I got today, I'll try again later this week.

What do you think of the green dress and bow? Should I try that again, or just go with a white t-shirt and jean shorts?

Easter!

Happy Easter! Church this morning was great... last Easter was the first time we attended Northview and it was great to see how the church has grown! As usual, Brother Ken gave us a powerful message; today he started a new sermon series on hope. I can't wait for the next few weeks!

Yesterday we went to my Dad's house to visit with him and Angela and Grandma Mary. Gracie had so much fun running around the house and backyard playing with Dash and toys. This afternoon we just spent relaxing at our house and had a nice family Easter dinner. Here are some pictures, with Gracie in her beautiful Easter dress!

Chillin' at Grandad & Grangi's

Today we went to my dad's house to visit with him, Angela and Grandma Mary who was in town for Easter. Gracie has a great time playing with everyone and with Dash. Here are some pictures of our nice, relaxing visit.

Annual Family Pictures

Here they are! Big thanks to Dad for scanning them in for me today. I am so pleased with these! I thought they came out much better than last year's. This year I put us in light blues and dark purples to match Gracie's beautiful dress she got from the Jones' for her birthday. My favorite is, of course, the one of her and I. That is now my new very favorite picture. =)

Update

Alrighty, well I'm moving right along on my new diet/fitness plan. I've been eating really well in the mornings, sticking to low carb, low calorie foods every two hours and drinking lots of water. Then I get off work at 1pm and have a million errands to run and end up not eating again until dinner, at which point I'm so hungry I cave in and eat a burger or something equally not good for me. But I'm still remaining within my calorie limit for each day, so that's good. The next boot camp session doesn't start until May, I think, so until then I am going to go to a couple of classes at the gym, a boot camp conditioning and a mat pilates class. They are both in the evening, so I will have to see how that works. Yesterday I walked for 45 minutes on a treadmill, watching the end of the Ranger game. It was great; time went by so fast I had no idea I'd been going that long! So that was really good. I will jump on the elliptical today, perhaps they'll have the Rangers game on again to make it go by faster!

I'm thinking of getting my hair cut. I'm ready for something different. I'm scared because I've had the same style since high school, pretty much and I'm just used to it and like it. But I really don't want to go very short. I have a "no shorter than my shoulder blades" rule, and I really don't want short bangs. I don't know what style that leaves for my hair, as it's so fine and thin and just sits there but I will try to figure something out. Oh well. Just stay tuned for something new.

Gracie is good. She is saying so many words and is so active right now. She says Hi and buh-bye and juice and boo-boo, and of course bubble. =) She flushes her poo-poos down the toilet and waves bye-bye to them. Building the potty-training foundation. That would be incredible if we could go for awhile without diapers before we have another baby, but we will let her set her own pace with that. She just got over another ear infection. *sigh* Tubes are on the way, I'm sure. Oh well we'll face that when we come to it.

We had our annual family pictures taken a couple of weekends ago and we just got them back, so as soon as I get them scanned in I will post them up here. They are GREAT. =)

I hope everyone has a great Easter holiday!