New addition to the family coming soon!

I am happy to say that we will soon be.........getting rid of my Dodge Stratus car! No, we are not expecting our 2nd child (tricked you, didn't I?)....it is WAY too early to even be thinking about that (at least in our opinion). This weekend we went new car shopping. We went to the car lots today (Sunday) to avoid the salespeople and carefully look at the vehicles we are considering. Sorry Uncle Jim, it won't be a BMW like the recent addition to your family (we don't have a money tree that big). Julia has taken control of the money tree in our yard. We are looking to get a small to mid-size SUV. We are focusing on Toyota, Honda, and Nissan brands. No decision yet, but probably have the new addition within a month or two. Of course the vehicle has to be kid friendly and have a lot of safey features. It also needs to be easy to get a little kiddo in and out of (it is tough getting Julia in and out of the Stratus).

On Saturday, I worked at my MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) church group garage sale. We didn't have any rain for about 2-3 weeks and of course the day you DON'T want it to rain, it rains of course. Despite the wetness and cold, the turn out wasn't bad. The sale was a part of a huge neighborhood sale. Mike and I donated a whole bunch of items to the sale (a great way to get rid of our old lawn mower and other stuff). All the proceeds will go toward our groups next meeting sessions/semester year starting in the fall. After my shift at our sale, I hit one garage sale. I didn't want to walk around in the rain, so I just drove by a home on a side street (off the main area where most of the sales were) and found a house selling tons of girl's clothing and toys! I hit the jackpot! I bought tons of 9-12, 12 and 18 month clothes for Julia. I pretty much cleaned the place out. I also got a steal on some Mega Blok toys. A whole bin of Bloks and accessories for $5! I also purchased some other toys for Julia. I was happy to get the clothing (which we desperately needed) and fun toys for Julia (and Mike and me) to play with.

Julia playing with her new Mega Bloks

Julia playing with her Mega Bloks kitchen (with daddy's help)

Safari Mega Bloks

Flower Power PJs!

Even though the rain was not a welcome sight at the garage sale, it was nice for our lawn and garden. My garden is doing very well. Everything has started to sprout which is a great sign. The much needed rain should definitely help the little seedlings thrive.

Julia is 8 months old! She continues to advance on solids and we started her on small pieces of cheese (slightly softened in the microwave), bread and pieces of banana. She was a little hesitant about the cheese, but once I showed her how to chew it, she loved it. She ate a lot during her first try. She is getting very good at feeding herself too (finger foods of course). She still isn't too fond of meats though even when we grind and mash up the meat we are eating for dinner or lunch. Maybe she will be a vegetarian, but I am sure once she gets to eat chicken fingers she may change her mind! She loves yogurt too, especially raspberry flavored yogurt. Julia's third tooth continues to push through without too much protest from her. She is handling it well. No tooth on the other side yet like we thought, but that could pop it's head out any day too. No crawling yet, but Mike and I make sure she gets plenty of tummy time to practice. She wiggles her legs and arms and does a great job of army crawling on the floor. We have put her in a crawling position only to have her plop her butt and belly down within a minute or two. She is perfectly content not crawling yet, which is fine with us because we aren't quite done baby proofing the house! She will crawl when she wants to and on her own time.

Mmmmmm! Cheese!

Practicing some crawling

Some have asked how I am doing with my leg and blood clotting stuff. I continue to take the blood thinning medication, warfarin, and am finding that it is difficult to get in the therapeutic range. How frustrating! Almost every Friday I have to get my blood drawn and checked for my blood thinning level. The people who work at the lab I go to know Julia and me very well. They love seeing her and greet us as if we have been there for years (think Cheers and the "Norm!" greetings). They know all about Julia and her medical history as well as mine. It is kind of nice to have the "lab family". There is always someone who holds or plays with Julia while another person draws my blood. They love seeing her and watching her grow. My leg still bothers me, but this is to be expected. It is common for there to still be pain and annoyances after a clot due to inflammation and damage to the vein where the clot is/was. I wear a tight stocking on my leg everyday to help with the blood flow. If I don't wear it, my leg gets sore and really hurts. I have learned to live with it all and make sure I get plenty of walking and exercise to keep the blood flowing well.

Mike is doing well himself. He is in a golf league every Wednesday evening and his team is undefeated. He enjoys it a lot and it is always nice to get away for a while.

Daddy being silly with Julia