On Friday, Julia and I spent the day grocery shopping for two nights of entertaining/dinners over the weekend at our house. On Friday evening, our friend, Andy (the doctor I used to work with at the U) came over for some grilled ribs, grilled veggies, corn muffins and a brownie dessert.
On Saturday, our friends Jenny and Eric and their son Noah babysat Julia for a few hours (more than we expected) to test drive some vehicles. We drove a Nissan Rogue and Toyota Rav4. Both vehicles have their pros and cons and we haven't made a decision yet about which one we want. We are leaning slightly more towards the Rogue, but that could change within the next hour. When we got home, Julia was all smiles and had a great time with Jenny, Eric and Noahman (his daddy's nickname for him). Noah is 6 months old and it is so fun to watch him and Julia interact. Noah was showing off by cooing and babbling and smiling while Julia showed Noah how to jump in her Baby Einstein exersaucer. Jenny said Julia was very well behaved, but did steal toys from Noah's hands when he picked them up. Julia seems to do that to everyone and Noah is working on his reflexes and reactions. I am sure Noah will learn and just steal toys back from her when he is a little older. It was so fun to see Noah and how he is developing and remembering that Julia just went through what he was currently learning to do. What a difference 2 months makes in babies! Noah is a cutie pie though and his big smile and bright blue eyes definitely melt the heart.
On Sunday, we ran some errands and just kind of vegged out at home. We all took naps in the afternoon and then Julia and I went for a nice long walk to the park by our house. We swung on he swings and also watched some older boys playing some odd game where they hit each other with a tennis ball while running around on the jungle gym and other playground equipment. Julia was greatly intrigued by their game and shenanigans that we could have sat there for hours watching.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to share for this post. I am sure there will be some next weekend when we celebrate Mike's first Father's Day!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
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).
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.
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
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Wisconsin, Celebrations and Teeth!
This past week/weekend was so much fun and busy. There were a lot of happenings that I am just going to bullet them and cut out the chatter and other stuff that probably bores a lot of people!
- On Thursday, May 28th, Julia got a third tooth! Her first two teeth came in around 4 months on the bottom and now she has a third tooth next to those. We think she might be getting a fourth on the other side, but that has yet to be seen
- On Friday, May 29th Mike and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe that it has been 5 years already. Some days it seems longer; other days it feels just like yesterday. So much has happened since then! What did we do to celebrate? We took a 6 hour car ride to Wisconsin with Julia and ate at McDonald's (twice-needed to stop twice for feeding and potty breaks).
- Also on Friday, May 29th, the Stephany family welcomed a new member, Thomas Joseph. (My first cousin once removed; Julia's second cousin-I think that is how it goes). We were actually going to Wisconsin for my cousin Jenna's baby shower and Thomas was not supposed to make his appearance until June 30th, but he had other plans. He was born healthy and breathing on his own. He weighed 5 lbs; 10oz and we got to visit him in the hospital. Such a little peanut and such a cutie!
-On Friday, May 29th we spent the night in Sauk Prairie, WI visiting Mike's parents. Mike's dad is still recovering from all the events of the past 2 months and we wanted to visit and have them see Julia. She was a delight and a ham as always and hopefully brought some cheer and get well feelings to Gary.
- On Saturday, May 30th, we drove to Campbellsport to visit my family. We had lunch with great-grandma Voelker, Grandma Stephany and cousin Ainsley (Aunt Heather and Uncle Dave were at a wedding). It was a fun time.
- On Sunday, May 31st we visited cousin Jenna, cousin Nate and new cousin Thomas in the hospital. We of course brought them their gifts because they need the supplies!
- The rest of the weekend was spent playing with cousin Ainsley, Grandpa Stephany, daddy, Aunt Heather and Uncle Dave.
- On Monday we took a nice long 6 1/2 hour trip back to Minnesota and then rested. We were beat. Below are pictures from our fun weekend. Remember to vote on the new poll to the right!
-In other news, Julia has started to show some separation anxiety. She is getting especially clingy to mommy and prefers to be held by me. Even when Mike is holding her, she will reach out for me to take her. I try not to give in, but sometimes those big, brown eyes just melt my heart and I have to take her. She also shows her protest when I leave the room for even a second.
Some morning play time at Grandma and Grandpa Mock's house
Julia's healing touch for Grandpa Mock
Cousin Ainsley and Julia playing at Grandpa and Grandma Stephany's house
Ooooo...what is that?!
Ainsley is SOOOO BIG!
Julia's side pose position (again, such a ham!)
Wow, you can stick that whole block in your mouth?!
Ok, my turn to try to get the whole block in my mouth.
Julia and Great-Grandma Voelker
Like my hat? The front says "Future Badger"
Uncle Mike, my daddy is not going to be happy that I have a Brewers hat on. He is from Illinois and is a Cubs fan!
Grandpa Stephany playing with his litte grandgals.
Julia and Ainsley enjoying some morning fun in their PJs.
More PJ fun!
Cousin Ainsley, Aunt Heather and the Ham (I mean, Julia). :)
- On Thursday, May 28th, Julia got a third tooth! Her first two teeth came in around 4 months on the bottom and now she has a third tooth next to those. We think she might be getting a fourth on the other side, but that has yet to be seen
- On Friday, May 29th Mike and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe that it has been 5 years already. Some days it seems longer; other days it feels just like yesterday. So much has happened since then! What did we do to celebrate? We took a 6 hour car ride to Wisconsin with Julia and ate at McDonald's (twice-needed to stop twice for feeding and potty breaks).
- Also on Friday, May 29th, the Stephany family welcomed a new member, Thomas Joseph. (My first cousin once removed; Julia's second cousin-I think that is how it goes). We were actually going to Wisconsin for my cousin Jenna's baby shower and Thomas was not supposed to make his appearance until June 30th, but he had other plans. He was born healthy and breathing on his own. He weighed 5 lbs; 10oz and we got to visit him in the hospital. Such a little peanut and such a cutie!
-On Friday, May 29th we spent the night in Sauk Prairie, WI visiting Mike's parents. Mike's dad is still recovering from all the events of the past 2 months and we wanted to visit and have them see Julia. She was a delight and a ham as always and hopefully brought some cheer and get well feelings to Gary.
- On Saturday, May 30th, we drove to Campbellsport to visit my family. We had lunch with great-grandma Voelker, Grandma Stephany and cousin Ainsley (Aunt Heather and Uncle Dave were at a wedding). It was a fun time.
- On Sunday, May 31st we visited cousin Jenna, cousin Nate and new cousin Thomas in the hospital. We of course brought them their gifts because they need the supplies!
- The rest of the weekend was spent playing with cousin Ainsley, Grandpa Stephany, daddy, Aunt Heather and Uncle Dave.
- On Monday we took a nice long 6 1/2 hour trip back to Minnesota and then rested. We were beat. Below are pictures from our fun weekend. Remember to vote on the new poll to the right!
-In other news, Julia has started to show some separation anxiety. She is getting especially clingy to mommy and prefers to be held by me. Even when Mike is holding her, she will reach out for me to take her. I try not to give in, but sometimes those big, brown eyes just melt my heart and I have to take her. She also shows her protest when I leave the room for even a second.
Some morning play time at Grandma and Grandpa Mock's house
Julia's healing touch for Grandpa Mock
Cousin Ainsley and Julia playing at Grandpa and Grandma Stephany's house
Ooooo...what is that?!
Ainsley is SOOOO BIG!
Julia's side pose position (again, such a ham!)
Wow, you can stick that whole block in your mouth?!
Ok, my turn to try to get the whole block in my mouth.
Julia and Great-Grandma Voelker
Like my hat? The front says "Future Badger"
Uncle Mike, my daddy is not going to be happy that I have a Brewers hat on. He is from Illinois and is a Cubs fan!
Grandpa Stephany playing with his litte grandgals.
Julia and Ainsley enjoying some morning fun in their PJs.
More PJ fun!
Cousin Ainsley, Aunt Heather and the Ham (I mean, Julia). :)
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