Home Safe

The surgery went well. We got to the hospital a little after 7, we played in the room until a little after 9. I took her down to the pre-op room. I was with her in there until a little after 9:30. They brought her back to us a little after 10. When they brought her back she was very upset and angry with us and for about 45 minutes all she did was scream and cry. Then she feel asleep and when she woke up she was much better. When we got her home she was as happy as can be. She went to sleep about 1:30 and has pretty much been asleep since then. (it is now almost 6) She will wake up for a few minutes talk in her crib and then go back to sleep.

Hopefully tomorrow she is her normal happy, busy self.

6th Hospital Bracelet

Tomorrow morning we are off to the hospital again. It will be Alyssa's 6th hospital bracelet. This wouldn't be a big deal if she was older, but that is a lot for 10 months. To be fair some of them were just for blood draws but still...a 10 month old should not have that many. 1. When she was born (the only one she SHOULD have). 2-4. Blood draws for Jaundice. 5. When she was sick and would not eat in 24 hours. And now the surgery.

Today I got two calls, the first one was a nurse giving me her pre-op instructions and asking the admittance questions. These questions are usually geared towards adults so it was interesting to say the least to answer what her hobbies were ( I said climbing and getting into everything). Then the insurance lady called me. Her words were " This surgery will be covered 100% after your deductible is met". I thought that was great and was thinking with all the doctor visits and her birth that shouldn't be that much. She then tells me it will be over $2,000. I was surprised but I would pay any amount to make her better. So there goes any money we might have been getting anytime soon.

I know deep down that she will be okay, and that this will help make her better, but still makes me nervous. Sometimes being a mom is hard.

I am grateful that today the power went out and I was not able to take Alyssa to daycare. We spent the day together. We had a lot of fun snuggling and playing on the floor. She also had a blast playing in the cabinets, bathrooms, stairs, and anything else she could get into.

Well off to rest before our day tomorrow. If you have time please say a little extra prayer for my baby tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

This was probably one of the best Christmas' I have had in awhile. I was very apprehensive going into Christmas and had told many people I was not in the Christmas Spirit. But when you have a 10 month old loving every gift you hand her it is impossible not to get into the Spirit.

Last night we went over to Chris's brother and sister-in-laws house. The whole extended family was there so there were 7 kids under the age of 13 and close to 20 adults. I sat on the floor most of the night watching Alyssa walk around. She would walk to someone, as soon as they would look or talk to her she would drop to the floor and crawl back to me. People were amazed that she was walking. When we opened presents she wanted to play with everything. Even the clothes came out and were put on her head while she crawled around. I promise she only had water to drink!!

This morning she woke up with a lot of congestion in her chest so she was up at 5:30. I was not thrilled with being up so early, I thought we had a few more years before we were up that early on Christmas. So Chris stayed up with her while I went back to bed until almost 8. When I got up we ate creeps and Skyped my mom. She talked to us while we finished breakfast and then watched us open presents.

Alyssa sat in my lap and I helped her open each present. One of the gifts she got was a teddy bear. When I pulled the bear out she grabbed it and gave it the biggest hug you couldn't help but tear up a little.

After all the opening Alyssa went down for a nap and Chris and I unpacked all the toys from boxes and straightened up.

At 2 this afternoon we went to Judy and Chas's for Christmas. You should have seen the amount of presents. It was amazing. The kids (4 of them) took over an hour just to open their presents. Alyssa got a lot of fun toys and now our house looks like ToysRUs. She was so tired by the end of the Adults opening presents that she had to go lay down and take a 30 minute power nap while Chris and I ate some food.

We got home and she played for a few minutes and then was out like a light.

Christmas is over and 2009 is almost over. It has gone so fast and yet so slow at the same time.

Chris told me this morning that I gave him the best Christmas present ever when I gave him Alyssa. I have to agree, having a child and seeing the joy through their eyes brings a whole new meaning to Christmas.

I have an amazing husband and a wonderful daughter and a great set of extended family and friends. I can't wait to see what 2010 has in store for us.

Merry Christmas to all and don't forget the reason for the season. I will post pictures tomorrow when I load them onto my computer.

Mixed Emotions

As Christmas keeps getting closer I keep waiting for that Christmas spirit to hit. Before the miscarriage I could not wait for Christmas I pictured waking up Christmas morning and bringing Alyssa down to open her presents. Smiles on all of our faces as she spent more time with the paper than the gifts.

Since the miscarriage I have mixed emotions about Christmas. I am still excited for Alyssa's first Christmas but at the same time I can't wait for Christmas to be over. I think I'm ready to move on. When I was first pregnant I was thinking of how I would look at Christmas and how the clothes I had to pick out for people to give me would not fit anymore. Now those clothes will fit and in a way it will be a reminder that I'm not pregnant.

I think the other thing keeping me from the Christmas spirit is my work. But I'm not even going to take the time to post about that because I'm off work for two weeks and have promised myself that for that time I will not think about work.

So with those thoughts Merry Christmas and may it be filled with wonderful memories and may 2010 bring even more good ones.

Fun Night

Last night Justin and Becca came to spend the night. They arrived after Alyssa had gone to bed so we got to spend some time with just them. Justin played some X box games with Chris. Becca went between helping me bake and playing with all of Alyssa's toys.

This morning both kids were up at 7. So at 7:15 I crawled out of bed so that they could get up. About 15 minutes later Alyssa was up and ready to go for the day. It was soo much fun to watch Justin and Becca play with Alyssa. Alyssa had so much fun chasing them around and getting all of their attention. Becca loved playing "mommy" and was carrying her all over the room. I sat on the couch and read a book most of the morning watching over the top of my book.

It really reminded me of why we moved back to Missouri. As it is freezing cold out and we have had a dusting of snow for the last week. There are times where Arizona seems like a nice place to move and I know that Alyssa would be very loved there and have lots of loving family around. But on the same hand I'm so happy that she will know her cousins on this side. We get to see family at least once a month and all the kids are so happy to see Alyssa walk through the door. I can't wait to see how the friendships form later on in life.

Playing Adult

Last night Alyssa went to the grandparents, Chris and I got all dressed up and got a hotel room. We went to the Symphony to hear them play Christmas music. It was AMAZING the music was great and both Chris and I spent the first few songs thinking about how we can't wait until Alyssa is old enough to bring her. Because of a miscommunication between Chris and I we ended up with a second set of tickets so we invited some friends. This made the night even better because we were dressed up together and so we went out afterwards. We went to a bar that I love to go to. We had a few drinks and some food and a lot of laughs. After that bar we went to another. Really I did not need anymore to drink, but I did have two more drinks. I am paying for the drinks this morning but I had a lot of fun.

When Chris and I woke up this morning we talked for about three minutes and then we said okay lets get up and go get our baby. That is what we did and it was GREAT to walk through the door and see Alyssa with her arms outstretched for me.

Being an Adult that gets dressed up is fun to do every once in a while, but I will take my sweat pants and sweater for the rest of this week!

Doctor

Last night I had to go to the doctor. It has been four weeks since I had my D&C for the miscarriage and this appointment was supposed to be to make sure all was good, answer any questions and then to tell us the results of the testing they did on the baby.

I got there and he told me that there was not enough tissue to test the baby. In some ways I'm happy, but in other ways it feels like I will always question why? He thinks it was due to low levels of progesterone and as soon as I get a new positive pregnancy test that I should call them so blood work can be done and we can get the levels tested.

All in all it was a good appointment and I'm glad it is over with and I can move on. It was great to be able to come home to my smiling daughter and wonderful husband!

Now my next goal is to get through next Tuesday, then my stress level should be even lower!

First Semester Down

Well my first semester of college is over. I have finished all the work. One class I will end up with an A in. The other class will either be a high C or a low B. Either way I'm happy and glad that those two classes are behind me. I have three more classes before June, then I'm going to take the summer off. We will see how the next few classes go.

10 months

Dear Alyssa,

You are 10 months old today. Happy 10 month birthday big girl.

Each day my love for you grows more and more. You now eat only table food. If we offer you baby food you get very offended and will swing your arms around so that we can not get the food in your mouth. You also will not eat off baby silverware. It must be a big person spoon or fork. You are eating so much more theses days and I think your favorite thing to eat right now is anything with bread or a tortilla. You have four teeth up top and 2 teeth on the bottom. I think you are working on more bottom ones right now but only time will tell.

You can now stand by yourself and will do so for up to 45 seconds before you lower yourself to the ground. You are a climber and will climb on anything we let you. At Tammy's you are not allowed to be without socks because you climb the slide. You also love to climb stairs.

You are also into everything you can open the cabinets and if we open the dishwasher you are to it faster than we can get the dishes in it.

You are also so very happy. When we go out to eat you get every person in the place to wave at you and you give them big smiles and waves. You love to wave bye-bye to people.

The other thing you do is love to look at pictures of yourself. You will see one and say "Hi baby" you will also say "Hi momma" and "Hi Dadda" these make your dad's and my day so bright.

The only thing you are still not good at is sleeping. You do not like to take naps and we are very lucky if you sleep an hour. At night you are getting better and sleeping closer to 12 hours, but are still up twice a night in that time.

I love you baby girl and can't wait to see what month 10 brings with Christmas and the New Year.

Love,

Mommy

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Pictures:

Monday

Today was a sad day to go to work. After having four wonderful days off it was back to the grind of work. Luckily I only have 14 more days until Christmas break. Alyssa was also sick this morning and so Chris had to take her to the doctor who confirmed that she has another ear infection. This is her third ear infection in four months. I think she is taking after her Uncle Michael. We knew this ear infection was coming when yesterday she was such a CRAB all day and then did not sleep well at all last night.

I have to admit I had some pangs of jealously when I went to pick up her 3 (yes you read that right) prescriptions after work. The lady in front of me had a baby that had just turned two and was picking up her FIRST prescription ever. I thought boy is that lady lucky.

Then I came home and we had dinner, then Alyssa decided that she was going to be happy and Chris and I had so much fun with her for an hour before she went to bed. I will leave you with some pictures

Good Times

Today was a much better day that I expected it to be. I am so lucky to have such an amazing daughter. She was so good today. She sat at the table for close to two hours eating everything from crackers, to mashed potatoes, stuffing, and even some turkey. She then had whipped cream for dessert.

She made everyone smile and they were amazed at how well she played in the small space she was allowed. Her older cousin Justin was a great babysitter while I was able to just sit on the couch and watch. She smiled and played with her Godmother Amy and showed everyone how she can dance and babble.

She had not taken more than a 30 min nap all day so at 5 we started to have a melt down, and Chris and I headed out. She was asleep in the car before we got out of the neighborhood. We got her home and laid her down in her crib thinking she would sleep for about another hour then get up. Well she has been asleep for over 2 hours now. I'm worried she is going to sleep until 10 and then want to get up and eat and play. I guess Chris and I are going to have to draw straws on who has to get up early with her tomorrow!

I hope your Thanksgiving was more wonderful than you thought it could be as well.

Thankful

Today I made my students write what they were thankful for. Since they are first graders it was pretty simple and straight forward, mom, dad, friends and no school.

As the students were writing I was thinking about what I'm thankful for. I think the thing I am most great full for is my close family and friends. The first time it really hit me about how much our family and friends cared about us was at Alyssa's baptism in June as I stood up there in front of the church and saw that our family and friends took up one whole section it made my heart swell with joy.

The second time it hit me was when I found out about the miscarriage. Not even all friends and family know about it but the ones that did helped and stepped in with open arms.

As I sit and reflect over the last year of my life I have had the happiest moments and some of the saddest. Every day and I look at Alyssa and my heart grows bigger. I think about how lucky I am and how awesome God is.

I heard a quote the other day and every time I get upset I think about and has helped me get through many days so I thought I would end with that quote.

" In the end everything will be okay, if its not okay it isn't the end"

Emotions

(This is a picture I took hoping to share with my family when we told but will never share that way!)

This has been a hard weekend but a fun one all at the same time. I thought I was getting better and over is the wrong word, but moving forward until this weekend.

It started Friday morning when I woke up and knew that I should have been 10 weeks. About the time with Alyssa that I started wearing maternity pants.

Then on Saturday Chris and I went out shopping, while out we stopped by a store to get a keepsake box to put the ultrasound and cards we got while I was pregnant. The lady that was trying to help asked two times what the occasion was. I tried to avoid it the first time but the second time she asked I said "Well it is for the baby that we lost". It shut her up and she left us alone. As I said it I felt the tears start to form and I really just wanted to leave the store. But I powered through and I'm glad I did because the box is beautiful.

Today I had to go run some errands. I went to Sears to buy some new pants because all my old pants are two sizes two big, but as I'm shopping for these pants I realize that it is right next to the maternity section (who knew Sears had a maternity section!! And why did two women have to be shopping in it while I was there!) I was excited to be buying small pants but that kick in the gut hit me that really I should have been in that section.

I then had to go pick up the keep sake box and BOTH women at the store were pregnant. Another kick in the gut as I'm picking up a box to put things in for a baby I will never meet.

After that I left the mall and went to Target where I think it was pregnant woman shopping hour.

The only place I did not see pregnant women everywhere was Walgreens, but that could have been because I was only in the store 3 minutes.

I'm sure that Godfrey is not on a pregnant women overload and that I just never noticed them before, but boy it is a kick in the gut and hard.

The next thing that will be hard is Thanksgiving. We were supposed to tell Chris's family at Thanksgiving and every time I open Alyssa's closet I see the shirt she was going to wear.

I am hoping after Thanksgiving I can move forward a little faster.

Christmas is something I have been looking forward to since Alyssa was born and I'm not going to let the miscarriage change that.

Then it will be the new year and time for new beginnings and hopefully a new baby before 2010 ends.

Empty

As I sit her pumping milk that I have to throw away because of my surgery today it makes me so sad.

I have asked myself 100 times why did this happen. I know the statistics and that 1 in 4 pregnancies end this way and I know deep down and in my heart that there was nothing I could have done to keep the baby I still wonder why. I mean we weren't even trying for a baby, when we found out we were pregnant it was scary and a shock. In fact at one point I even made the comment that things would be easier if I wasn't pregnant right now.

Now I think back on that comment and want to cry. Because now that I'm not pregnant I miss it more than anything. I would take the added stress of finances just to know that I would be a mommy again in June.

There is a huge part of me that wants to jump back up on the horse and try again as soon as the doctor says it is okay. There is another part of me that is scared out of my mind to get pregnant again. Then there is the third part that says, just wait awhile and go back to your plan of trying this summer.

Right now we are leaving our options open and said we would talk about it after my next doctor's appointment.

All I know right now is I don't like the empty feeling I have inside.

Numb

Well we went back to the doctor today. As the ultrasound tech took us back she asked "How are you doing?" I said "Well I guess I could be better". As she started I knew right away that the heart had stopped. She didn't talk to us at all this time during the ultrasound and it was very fast. She did two measurements and the baby was 2 days smaller than what it was on Friday. She also checked twice for a heart beat and there was none.

She asked if there was measurement issues last time, and I said, yes we were there for a conformation to a miscarriage and she said, so I guess you know that there was no heart beat. I said yes and started to cry. She left and we had to go back to the waiting room. That was SOO hard to sit there waiting for the doctor, I think the tech felt bad and got us quickly and took us to an exam room.

On my chart she wrote that we knew that there was no heart beat. The wait for the doctor seemed to take forever.

He confirmed everything and I will have a D&C tomorrow. I will go back to work at noon on Friday because I have to have a meeting with my boss on Monday and do not have everything in order for that meeting. I think it is crap that I feel the pressure to go back but I guess in a way it will get my mind off the baby.

I am so thankful for my friends and family they have shown how much they love and support us through phone calls and conversations. I am also so thankful to have Alyssa, tonight she feel asleep while I was giving her, her breathing treatment. I held her for an extra half hour. She is an amazing baby and I know that someday she will make an amazing big sister, I guess for now she will just have to enjoy being an only child.

Can only go up from here right?

Today was probably one of the hardest days of my life. I know many in the blogging world don't know my whole story. I will fill you in on parts. I have been struggling with my job since the 6th week of school. Today was probably the worst in not the students but with administration. I really don't want to go into a lot of detail but I feel that threats were made that should not have been made.

Also I got some of the worst news I think I have ever gotten from a doctor today. No I'm not dieing but part of me is. I never knew what it was like to go through a miscarriage, and now that I do I don't ever want to feel it again. I hate the unknown, am I going to start bleeding? Will I need a D&C? How many days will I take off work?

So to sum up my feelings I am going to write two letters.

Dear Baby I will never meet,

Baby I loved you more than you will ever know. You were not planned and I was very scared when I found out about you, but I was very excited to met you. I bought your big sister a big sister shirt that she will not get to wear to tell all of the family that would love you.

I was so excited to see you last Friday on the ultrasound. You had made me so sick over the last few weeks that I knew you would be nice a strong and healthy. As soon as the ultrasound was turned on I could see your heart beating. I was so excited, but as the ultrasound went on I knew something was wrong. My fears were confirmed when they told me that you were measuring two weeks too small. The doctor told me that you still had a chance but he wanted blood work.

I was very optimistic all weekend, but today my fears were confirmed and they told me I was going to lose you. I am sad, and angry. How can you tell me your there, make me lose my milk supply and then just disappear? How can you show me your such a fighter by hanging on and then just give up?

I have heard so many women ask themselves did I do something wrong, and I know deep down that there was nothing I could do to save you, but at the same time I do have that nagging feeling of "What if I hadn't been so stressed?", and all the other what if's that go through you head.

Baby I love you and I can't wait to met you when I get to heaven, you will always have a place in my heart.

Love,

Mommy

Dear Alyssa,

You are now 9 months old. You are the light of your daddy's and my life. You are into EVERYTHING! There are times we comment that we miss our baby that doesn't move. You can crawl up the stairs, you can walk holding someones hands, you cruise furniture and are just amazing.

A few weeks ago you started swimming lessons. You love the water and can go under water. You are so good at kicking your legs and splashing. You are not as big of a fan of floating on your back but if you are anything like mommy someday you will love it.

At your 9 month check up you weighed 18.6 pounds and 28 and a half inches long. He also said that since your wheezing wasn't getting better we would start breathing treatments. Those are given 4 times a day, and you already (4 days later) sound SOOO much better. I am excited to see how much better you can get.

I am hoping you stay healthy for the next few weeks and that your smiles just keep melting my heart because I need all the love I can get from you.

Love,

Mommy

New Trick

Have to share what Alyssa learned today.

Can things slow down?

As I type this title I don't really mean it. But things have been SOOOO busy lately of the last 5 nights I have not been home to put Alyssa to bed 4 of them. That is hard for me and her. But I think right now is a good time for me to be away from her. I came down with a bad cold on Sunday and it has gotten worse each day. Since I came down with it on Sunday I was probably contagious Friday and Saturday. So hopefully she won't catch this cold. I left work early yesterday and I think I will stay home tomorrow so that I can really feel better for the weekend.

Also I need to get caught up on my college classes because I have been gone so much I am behind in those classes as well.

Lets see what the next few days bring.

Money

I have always wanted to be a stay at home mom. But my desire to be a mom outweighed being a stay at home mom.

When Alyssa was born I knew I could not stay home. I told everyone with in the next few years I will be able to stay home. After another rough year with students I want to stay home next year. For the last two nights I have spent over an hour staring at our budget. There really isn't much we can cut out. Chris and I have always lived within our means. Last night as I laid in bed crying I asked him "Why couldn't we have lived a really extravagant life style the last few years? It would make it so much easier to cut things out?" Chris laughed and told me next time we will try that.

So until I win the lottery(that I don't play) or some how figure out a way to cut our already small budget in half I guess I will continue to be a working mom.

If only I can figure out how to get a easier class.

Sick Again

My poor baby just can't seem to get and stay healthy. She was healthy for 5 days. On the morning of the 6th day she woke up coughing and with a runny nose. By the time I picked her up from daycare at 2 she was grouchy and had only eaten 4 ounces. So off to the doctor we go. She has a double ear infection and another virus. The doctor gave us medicine for the ear infection and told us there was nothing she could do for the virus. I told her I was concerned about the number if times she has been sick. She told me it was part of a baby being in daycare. The other thing that I noticed at the doctor is she is not gaining much weight. At her 6 month check up she was 17 pounds. Friday she was 17 pounds 11 ounces, and she had just drank 8 ounces. I guess she will be wearing 9 month clothes for awhile longer( since they go up to 20 lbs).

Chris and I are very lucky that when she is sick she is still pretty happy. She had a great day yesterday. Her cousins came over and ran around and were loud and were having a blast. She sat and watched them, crawled after them and laughed at them. She had a lot of fun.

Her new thing is to laugh at everything. This morning Chris went to get her up while I was still in bed. I could hear her laughing and laughing at Chris. When I got up I asked what he was doing and he said nothing.

She has also started to cruise the furniture to get to things. She walked with Chris's help today, I think that her walking days are closer than I want them to be.

Pumpkin Patch

Today Alyssa went to her very first pumpkin patch, well okay it was all of our first time at a pumpkin patch.

We took a wagon ride, picked out pumpkins, got back on the wagon and rode back. Everyone that saw Alyssa thought she was cute. She was able to get a lot of smiles at others and even saw some kids from her daycare there.

It was a lot of fun to take her to the pumpkin patch. Next weekend it is off to a corn maze and Grant's Farm again for a Halloween night. She gets to wear her costume for Halloween night.

On another note this is my 100th blog post. For something I didn't think I could keep up, I'm very happy to see that I'm at 100!

Dear Alyssa

Dear Alyssa,

You are now 8 months old! I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. It seems like just yesterday I could not wait for you to be born.

You have now slept through the night 98% of the time for the last two weeks. Sleeping through the night for you is going to bed between 6:30-7 and getting up to eat between 3 and 4:30 then sleeping until about 6:30. Mommy is enjoying getting a full nights sleep.

Last night you woke up at 3:30 and were coughing so much that you could not fall back asleep. I brought you to bed with us and you went right to sleep. I thought about taking you back to your bed, but you hadn't slept with us for over a month and I wanted the cuddle time so I kept you in bed with us until I had to get ready for work.

You are eating more table foods. You love saltine crackers with a passion. We give you the whole cracker and you just go to town on it. You still could care less about the baby food solids. Some days you will take them, other days you are not interested.

You can now crawl really fast across the floor and Daddy and I love to pick you up from daycare because you will see us, get a big smile, clap your hands and then crawl across the floor as fast as you can to get with us.

You also can pull up on everything! You want to try to start climbing, and we are not thrilled with that. I think you are going to be a climber.

You have been very sick the last few months. I have said a lot of prayers for you to get healthy and this week ( though it is not over) looks like you might avoid the doctor.

You are such a happy baby and I love spending every minute I can with you. I cannot wait to see what the next month brings.

I love you baby girl!

Love,

Mommy

Whine

This is going to be a very whiny post so I understand if you don't want to read it. Today is Monday and already I can't wait for the week to be over (that is never a good sign).

This morning started out good. I did not have to be to work until 9, so Alyssa and I both took a morning nap. +2 points

I dropped her off at daycare at 8:15 and hit construction on my way out of Alton. -1 point.

I then went to the wrong location for the meeting. -1point.

Therefore I got to the meeting ten minutes late. -1 point

It was then so cold in there that I could not concentrate. -1point

This was the second time I heard the lecture so even though I could not concentrate I was able to do the activities. +1 point.

Lunch was given to us. +1 point

We got out at 3 ( an hour earlier than I get out of school). +2 points

Go pick up Alyssa and she has a rash all over her body. -2 points

Call the doctor and they tell me they can't see her and that the nurse will call me back. -0 points I guess

Go to Walgreen's to pick up her other prescription and it is not ready and their computers are down. -1 points

Doctor calls back tells me that he thinks it is a viral infection and should get better in two days. -1 point

Babysitter calls to tell me that one of the girls at daycare has been exposed to H1N1. -1 point

Chris is able to pick up prescription and dinner. +2 points

Alyssa is some what happy for the evening and goes down easily for bed. +1 point

I get all my homework done for the night. +2 points ( an extra one cause I got 14/15 on a quiz)

So if you are keeping track of points I am actually up two points for the day but it sure feels like a down day.

I know I should be grateful that Alyssa is healthy enough that Chris and I can both go to work, and that she did not have to spend any time in the hospital and that she is a beautiful loving child. But I feel that her body has to be tired. She has been sick for two months straight without a break. I know that has to take a toll on her body. I would love to pull her out of daycare for a few weeks, let her get healthy and stay healthy for a week or two and then put her back in daycare. She might not be as sick since her body would have time to heal and relax a little. But I can't do that until at least Feb, so until then I suck it up and do what I can to make her happy and comfortable.

Okay I think that is enough whine for one night and now I think I need a glass of wine. :-) and maybe a good nights sleep. Hopefully tomorrow is a +10 day.

Sleeping through the night

Alyssa started sleeping through the night last Monday night. On Friday she got really sick and ended up at the doctor AGAIN. He gave her abuterol. These meds make her wired. Last night she was up until 8:30 crawling and playing all over the place. Needless to say she was up twice last night. I'm hoping once she goes off the meds on Friday she will go back to sleeping through the night. I am also hoping that she will be healthy and stays healthy for a few weeks.

She is really crabby today and the only thing that makes her happy is watching the TV with wild designs on it while playing music. So I have resorted to the TV babysitter!

Hope you weekend is going well.

Sleep

Three nights ago Alyssa got up 4 times during the night. She would eat for less than 3 minutes and then go back to bed just to be up an hour or two later. I was tired and grouchy. Two nights ago she was doing the same thing, I said enough and Chris and I laid there in bed at 2 in the morning and listened to her cry for an hour and twenty minutes. Sunday night she only cried for about 15 minutes, we thought, yes we are on to something. Then yesterday she woke up with a NASTY nose and a bad cough.

Last night she went to bed at 7 and by 7:45 she was up crying. We comforted her and feed her some more and put her to bed. She did not cry again until 5:00 AM!!!! I heard her moving at 11, and 1 but she would just cough, roll around and go back to sleep. I did not have to get out of bed until 5. It was SOOO nice, especially since last night it got down into the 40's and it is cold.

The bad news is since she got up at 5 and now at 7:19 she is asleep again. I can let her sleep until 7:35 then I have to wake her up and go to work. Hopefully the cough and cold will go away soon and we can have a baby that sleeps through the night AND is healthy ( wishful thinking huh?!)

Lets see what tonight brings.

Zoo

Today Alyssa, Chris and I went to the zoo to meet some people that I talked to my whole pregnancy. They are all women that delivered babies in Feb. There were four other babies there. Alyssa who is usually the smallest of a group was actually one of the biggest. Some of the babies were walking with help, some still couldn't sit up without help but they were all adorable. Alyssa enjoyed looking at them, and Chris and I enjoyed talk to other people that had children and close to Alyssa's age.

We were there about 3 hours and probably would have been there longer but the rain that was supposed to come over night and early morning was on its way. We got in the car just as the rain started, and it was NOT a light rain.

We got home and Alyssa decided that since she saw one of her friends walking she wanted to try it. She has now taken Chris's and my hands and walked us across the floor. She has also involved Vinnie in a game of chase, they both loved it.

Here are some pictures from today.

Busy, Busy

Life has been crazy busy some good busy, some bad busy. This weekend we went to Grant's farm with Alyssa. It was too nice of a day to stay home. Chris and I had a lot of fun, Alyssa could have cared less about the animals but she did love looking at all the other kids and babies that were there. She also enjoyed playing with her stroller.

On Sunday I got to go to the Fox theater to see an orchestra perform Broadway pieces while Chris and Alyssa went to a family birthday party.

Monday and Tuesday have been work and then I have spent two hours both nights working on school work. The good news is I'm done with one class, the bad news is I have another class that I haven't started yet. :-(.

Tuesday was a bad day at work the kids were crazy and I was stressed. I'm going in today with a new behavior system for those few kids that were disrupting my class and I hope that it works. Wish me luck.

Okay off to finish my morning routine so I can make it to work on time.

TGIF

It is FINALLY Friday! This week has seemed to last at least 2 weeks. Monday seems like weeks ago. Since Monday Alyssa has gotten an ear infection and a cold. I have written five papers and taken one quiz. I have taught school five days and Chris has worked five days but had to take off once to take care of Alyssa.
This weekend we don't have any big plans. We do have a family get together with the Knights, but other than that, I plan on just relaxing as a family. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nice so we might get out of the house and go do something fun. I will try to get a head on school work but my main focus this weekend is family.
I hope you all have a good weekend too!

Should do vs doing

What should I be doing right now? I should be writing a paper for my grad school class. What am I doing? Checking my facebook, writing a blog and thinking about bed.

To be fair I have already watched a lecture, wrote one paper and edited another paper tonight. I have put in two hours of work, but there is still that last paper. It is due Friday, so it isn't like I can put it off until the weekend. If I was like my friend Chelsea tomorrow night about 11pm would be a good time to start it. However I'm not Chelsea and I have a 7 month old daughter that thinks sleep is for losers so I have limited time to do it.

I'm not as overwhelmed as I was a few weeks ago even though I'm sitting at 22 students, have not had a healthy household in a month and am taking two grad classes. I definitely don't have a lot of "extra" time, and I do think all the sicknesses is coming from not having a full nights sleep in over 7 months and staying up late( Ha HA 10 is late?!).

Okay now that I have rambled and said nothing I will go start my paper, that will make me feel a little better, and then I will go to bed.

Runner

This year I have a runner in my class. For those of you non-teachers that means I have a kid that thinks it is okay to leave a classroom and run away from all teachers and staff. My runner laughs as they are running.
He has run away from four teachers at the school including the prinicpal. Yesterday he ran out of the building because I was outside and he wanted to be out there. The teacher that was supposed to be watching him had to run after him. At one point I went to help her because she had run out of her shoes and was out of breath. It was not funny at the time, but now I think it is kind of funny to see her chasing after this kid who can beat her hands down at running.
So now for my laughing and making her chase him I owe her a drink, I might throw in a pair of running shoes too. Though I might need them for myself as the year goes on. ( He still hasn't run from me yet.)

Acid Reflux

Acid Reflux is something that I have thought Alyssa has had since she was born. When she was really little she would throw up all the time and spit up after every feeding. As she got older it slowed and mostly stopped. I thought she out grew the reflux.
She is now 7 months and still not sleeping through the night and still won't take a good nap at daycare. So I started looking back into reflux. I took her to the doctor on Friday and he said yes it sounds like reflux before I could even finish decribing her syptoms. He put her on the highest dose of meds he could for her age. Wednesday night was the first night she took them. Thursday she took a 3 hour nap at daycare and only woke up twice in the night for me. I think we are on to something. I know it will still take awhile before she fully sleeps through the night since she is used to waking up, but I feel like we might be much closer!
I look forward to this night dearly and can not wait, I think it will make both of us much happier!

7 Months

Dear Alyssa,

You are 7 months old today. This last month has brought lots of challanges and changes. In one week you got two teeth, a bad stomach virus, a new car seat, started to sit up on your own and crawled.

You now love riding in your new car seat. You can look out the window and will spend up to an hour just looking out the window not making a sound.

Your teeth are adorable but sharp. When you smile really big your teeth show and it makes everyone that you see smile.

Yesterday we went to visit your great-grandparents and it made their day, maybe even their week.

You are still not sleeping through the night and though I am not thrilled about that, I have to say if that is what I have to do to keep such an amazing baby I will do it.

You love to put things in your mouth but not food. You will put socks, rags, paper in your mouth no problem, but we give you a grahm cracker and you bang it on the table and not eat it.

You have learned to sit up on your own and you will roll sit up look around, lay back down and roll again.

Mommy and Daddy love you so much and can't believe how much better our lives are with you in it.

Right now you are laying on the floor ripping apart the paper and are so happy that I want to scoop you up and not put you down.

I love you baby girl. Happy 7 month birthday!!

Visit to Great Grandma's

When I was growing up I was very lucky. I knew all four of my great-grandmas. The first one did not pass away until I was 7 with the last passing away when I was 22. I have wonderful memories of each one of them.
Alyssa has two great-grandmas and two great grandpas that are still alive. One set lives in California. She was able to meet them in July.

The other set lives about 2 hours away from us. She has met them a few times over her life time. Yesterday we deiced to go visit them. We have not been to their house since Alyssa was born because over the summer grandma had a stroke and has been in a rehab facility since June. She is now home so off we went.
Alyssa only took a half hour nap on the way down there so we were nervous how she would behave once down there. I don't know why were were nervous, she was her wonderful self. She let everyone hold her, she took another short nap and played all over the floor.
She made both of my grandparents smile many times and I think they really enjoyed having her at their house.
When then came home and she slept the whole way home, making her one wonderful child once we got home!

Over whelmed

Just a little over whelmed. I have picked this semester to go back to school for my masters. When I was in college I worked full time and went to school full time. So I figured I can do my masters ( only 6 hours a semester) and teach.
I know I can do it but right now as I look at the first assignments due I'm over whelmed. I have 5 papers and two quizes all due by the 11th. Some of them are group assignments, some of them are just answering questions and some are true papers.
I know once I get into the swing of things I can do it, but I know that some nights are going to be long and some weekends are not going to be enjoyed because I'm sitting at my computer typing papers.
I have told myself I don't have to get A's no one cares what your GPA for your masters are but I do have to get at least a B.
I have to do that on top of making sure that I have enough stuff planned for school. I'm so lucky that I was able to stay in first grade because that will help a lot. I know what to do and how to do it so I don't have to do as much planing.
The thing that doesn't understand that I have work to do is Alyssa. Right now Alyssa went down for bed at 7, but then woke up at 7:40 and is still fussing. Chris is trying to calm her so that I can work on my classwork but it isn't working.
Hopefully all the stars will align for the next two years and I will come out a stronger person with a wonderful masters degree and a great daughter that sleeps through the night!

Bad Sleeper to Horrible sleeper

It has been a slow process but Alyssa has gone from just being a not so good sleeper to a horrible sleeper. For the last week she has taken at least 40 minutes to put to bed, sometimes an hour and a half. Then she is up 3-5 times a night. Last night she was up only once but that was from 12:40-2:20. That is as bad as 5 times.
I think part of it has to do with her sleeping in a swing at the babysitters. I'm going to talk to the babysitter today.
I worked so hard this summer to get it so we could just lay her down and she would go to sleep. She was doing wonderfully at it. I go back to work and within in less than a month of me being back at work she is back to were she was or not worse than were she was at the beginning of summer.
She is down for a nap right now but I have to wake her up in ten minutes to leave for work. I would love to take a nap because after she finally fell asleep last night all I could do is lay there and think about things. I was awake for another hour after she was.
I have read 5 sleep training books, I have talked to countless moms. Some things work for a few weeks, some things Chris and I aren't comfortable with doing.
I can't wait for Alyssa to sleep through the night! I read that 1 in 6 babies does not sleep through the night until age 1. I think that will be Alyssa.
So for now think good thoughts and hopefully I will make it through the day.

I'm better Chris is not

Today I woke up feeling totally fine. I got up at 8:30 and was wondering what I was going to do all day. Well at 10:30 I got a call from the babysitter that Alyssa was throwing up and having the runs so I went to pick her up. Of course after I picked her up she has not had one problem what so ever. But I called the doctor and they said that that is normal and it could last 7-10 days.
Chris called at 3:45 to tell me he was coming home. Now that is really early for him so I asked why. He said he was sick. He is now asleep on the couch in the front room, I tried to tell him to go up to bed, but I think that was too far of a walk for him right now.
Alyssa is up in her crib supposed to be taking a nap but I hear her playing. I will let her play for another few minutes and then get her up and take her to target with me to get some things.
I will be back to work tomorrow, Chris will be home sick. Tomorrow night will be a serious spray and clean down of things so that none of us get another round of this awful bug. I will also be doing a big clean of my classroom tomorrow, because I hear it is going around school as well.

The flu

I am at home sick with the flu. It is only August and I have the flu! Alyssa went to daycare this morning so I can sleep all day. It is weird to be at the house without her but I have NO energy to take care of her. Hopefully I feel better by 3 when I have to go pick her up!

First Time Parents

Well you can call Chris and I first time parents. I blogged on Friday night about taking Alyssa to the ER with what we thought was an ear infection. Well turns out she is just teething. Last night I was feeding her peas using my finger, well she bit my finger and I felt the two bottom teeth poking through.
I still think she had a little virus as I have not felt good all weekend and she still is still a little off, but I think more than anything it was the teeth causing her pain and making her not feel good.
I'm sure there will be many more moments in her life that we over react but at least as she grows up she will know we love her more than anything and want the best for her.

ER Visit

Alyssa started not feeling well Wednesday. We thought it might be teeth. She got worse Thursday, still wondered if it could be teeth. Today she refused to eat and threw up twice at day-care. I picked her up, tried to take her to two urgent cares both wouldn't see her because she was too young.
So after a phone call to an after hour nurse off to the ER we went. We signed in at 7pm. By 7:30 we had seen the doctor and were just waiting for the discharge papers. We walked out of the hospital at 8:10. Not too bad I have waited at the doctors office longer.
The doctor said it was just a virus and that she would get over it. I'm sure he went back to the nurses station and told them about the crazy new parents who brought their daughter to the hospital for crying and throwing up once.
I don't regret going because I know if we didn't go I would have worried all weekend. Now I know that the only thing we can do is give her love and I don't have to worry that she might be suffering unnecessarily.
She is asleep right now so I'm now off to bed myself so that I can get up with her all the times she gets up tonight.

Thursday

( The picture is what I want her to do all night, but know she won't)
I'm so glad it is Thursday night! This week has not been as long as last week, but Alyssa has decided that sleep is over rated and woke up every hour last night. That makes for one tired momma in the morning. She would not calm down for Chris no matter what he tired. I think she might be getting teeth, that is the only thing I can figure because she isn't running a fever, her nose isn't stuffy and she doesn't seem sick. But if she is teething it is going to be a LONG week because you can't even feel the teeth in her mouth and her gums aren't swollen.
Tonight she was asleep I put her down, she woke up 5 minutes later and SCREAMED for 40 minutes, nothing worked, not holding her, not leaving her alone, not trying to feed her, not giving her the pacifier, finally I told Chris to get the Tylenol. He put it in her mouth and she was asleep within 2 minutes. I don't believe that Tylenol can work that fast, so what fixed her crying spell? Will she sleep tonight? How can I make her feel better? So many questions and not one answer.
The only good thing is I have an extra half hour of plan time tomorrow and an assembly tomorrow morning. I might be asleep for both! On a side note I am becoming addicted to soda in the morning to get me through the day. Alyssa needs to sleep through the night before I start gaining weight from all the soda I drink to stay awake.

Off to a good start

We have been back to school with students for almost a week now. I think we are still in the honeymoon period but so far I can't say anything to bad about my class. I don't see the issues I saw last year, though I do have one or two that will keep me on my toes.
Alyssa has also been at a new daycare for the last two weeks. Alyssa is loving it. She likes watching the older kids, they play with her give her toys and just love her up. Yesterday the babysitter sent home pictures of Alyssa with a note thanking us for picking her to watch Alyssa for us. That was really comforting since all of you know I have such a hard time leaving her every morning.
Now I do have my one complaint. Alyssa is STILL not sleeping through the night. For about 5 nights we got away without feeding her, we would just put the pacifier back in her mouth and she would go back to sleep, now for the last 4 we are back to eating at least once and sometimes twice a night. I don't know what to do, if we don't feed her she just cries and cries. I know it can't last forever she won't wake up at 18 to eat in the middle of the night will she?

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. I have a list of 21 first graders. 16 showed up today. I have two that I'm going to have to keep my eye on. But I didn't have anyone cry, I didn't have to send any to the nurse and none that peed their pants. So I would say all in all it was a good day.
I forgot how tiny they are when they enter first grade. I was telling them how to sit in their chair and I had one raise her hand and say "But my feet don't touch the ground." now mind you these are not "normal" chairs these are little kid chairs. It is also amazing to see all my kids from last year, they all look so big.
It was nice to be in the same school for a second year and have a class from last year that comes by to see me.
I am tired tonight but not too bad. What is even better is that tomorrow is Friday and so that means that only one more day until the weekend.
Hopefully I have enough rules and games to last the day tomorrow, otherwise I will have to think on my feet! Okay off to see how many can write their numbers.

Dear Alyssa,

Dear Alyssa,
You are now six months old. I can't believe how fast you have grown. Just last night we put you in your bouncy seat and realized that you don't fit, your legs are to long and you can reach and pull off all the toys.
You have found that you don't like hats. At the begining of summer you would wear the hat and be happy. Now as soon as we put the hat on your head you pull it off. You can roll all over the floor and your crib and are up on all fours ready to crawl.
You are enjoying eating solids. You will eat oatmeal for the babysitter but not for me. You like peas, green beans, and squash. You LOVE peaches and pears.
Everyday when I go to pick you up from the babysitters you give me the biggest smile and it makes my heart melt. When I go to put you down you snuggle into my shoulder and make it so I don't want to put you down.
I love you baby girl and can't wait to see how you grow over the next six months.

Love,
Mommy

Working Mom

Being a working mom is hard. I read many women's blogs that seem to manage working and being a mom pretty easily. But everyone of those blogs also has one or two every so often that they question if working is really what they want to do.
Today as I dropped Alyssa off at her new daycare I barely made it through telling the lady all about Alyssa and out the door before I started to cry. I called Chris and told him I didn't think I was cut out to be a working mom.
I got to school and had meetings all day with my wonderful first grade team. During one of the meetings I was busy typing lesson plans and helping to organize things for the start of the school year. One of my teammates looked at me and said, "You can't tell me that you aren't meant to be a teacher, look at you".
I thought about that comment a lot today. I do enjoy teaching when that is what I actually get to do ( not all the other political stuff). I also know if I stay home I would miss my adult interaction.
However I couldn't help but all day think about Alyssa too. I couldn't wait to call to check on her, think about all the smiles I was missing and in fact started to miss her so much pulled up pictures on my computer to stare at. Every day at work I think about how I'm going to miss her first steps and words.
I wish I could have my cake and eat it too. I would love to work with school aged children and stay home with Alyssa but I know that isn't possible.
What I want right now is to start my own daycare, because then I could see adults, teach children and still be at home with mine but I do know that with that comes downfalls, not much vacation, and lots of diapers.
What does the future hold? I have no idea, but I do know that right now I look forward to walking into daycare at the end of the day and see Alyssa give me a big smile and snuggle into my shoulder.

School

School starts tomorrow. I am so nervous. I haven't been this nervous in a long time. I don't know what grade I'm teaching, I have to met with the principal and an NEA rep tomorrow.
On top of all that we just changed daycare providers and Alyssa can't start her new one until next week so she is going to spend the week with my mother in law. This is great because she is close to my work however the last three times Alyssa has been over there she has cried pretty much the whole time. Now I'm going to leave her for 4 days nine hours a day. I hope she is happier.
I can not believe how fast the summer went by. It seems like just yesterday I was walking out of school to start summer. This summer Alyssa has learned to roll over, roll across the floor, sit up by herself, laugh and play peek a boo. She has traveled to Ohio, the lake, and California. She has seen both sets of great-grandparents, all of her grandparents, great aunt, great uncles and 2nd cousins.
It has been a busy and very fun summer. If the school year flies by half as fast as this summer it will be over before I know it.
Alyssa will be 6 months on Thursday. I will write more about that later. Now off to enjoy my last hour of summer before bed. :-(

Baby Led Weaning

I had never even heard of this term a week ago. But for the last two weeks Alyssa has hated eating baby food. So after doing some research on line I found this idea. That babies really don't need baby food. So starting two nights ago we started giving Alyssa regular food. She has eaten, apples, broccoli, banana, and watermelon. She really like apples and broccoli.
I give her the food and I get to sit and eat while she eats so I don't have to keep stopping my meal to feed her, she loves it!
I will keep you updated on how it goes over the next few weeks.

A few Things

1. I had to cut Alyssa's clothes off of her the other day! She had such a big pooh that it came out the front and back of her diaper and there was no way I was going to get the outfit over her head without getting things EVERYWHERE!

2. She is getting so big, she is sitting up by herself for up to about 15 seconds. I'm so proud but can't believe she is getting so big.

3. We went for family pictures yesterday. We had a few good family pictures but when it came time to take pictures of just her she did not like it and after about 20 minutes of trying everything we had to just give up. I guess we will just stick to taking pictures ourselves.

4. I have to go back to work in 2 weeks. :-( I am so sad. I can not believe how fast summer has gone it feels like each week goes faster and faster. I hope this school year flies by as fast as summer did.

Okay off to fold laundry before she wakes up from her nap.

California

So I have been in California for the last week. I had to travel by myself since Chris had no more vacation days.
I was as nervous about this as I was giving birth. I have traveled enough to know that sitting next to a screaming baby for a flight is not fun at all.
We had to take two planes each way because we had a lay over in Dallas Texas. Alyssa did AMAZING. She never once cried louder than what just my row could hear. She slept at least a few minutes of each flight. She had more fun looking at the string that held her pacifier and the straps on my shirt.
Once in California she also did a fantastic job every day she missed at least a nap or two. She got to met a lot of new people including her great-grandparents, great-aunt and uncle and second cousins.
Her love for dogs also came through. She LOVED the dogs everywhere we went. In fact we got video of her laughing at one of the dogs on the trip.
I can't believe how well she did on the trip. She is amazing baby I am so lucky to have her.
And on that note I hear her awake through the baby monitor so I must go get her.

Heart Break

Yesterday I had to get my car worked on. I called my mother in law to watch Alyssa for me so that I did not have to take her to the car dealership. I dropped her off and I went to the dealership.
I was gone about two hours. As I pulled up back to my mother in laws house Alyssa and her were sitting outside. I could see Alyssa and I thought "ohh she looks so tired" as I got out of the car and closer to her I realized that she might be tired but the eyes I was looking at were eyes that had been crying. She had cried for almost 2 hours. And not just cried, SCREAMED. My heart broke. I picked up my little girl and almost started crying myself. I sat in the chair and just kissed her and held her tight.
It makes me not want to go back to work. I am already getting sad about the thought of returning to work, and when I see that it makes it even worse. Alyssa is over at the babysitters today so that I could pack and clean the house before our trip tomorrow and I called to check on her about an hour ago. The babysitter said that she was asleep and had been fine all morning.
I'm glad that she is happy, and I will know if she has been crying when I go to pick her up in a half hour.
As I have sat here for the last half hour, catching up on blogs and e-mails I ran across one about a man who lost his daughter. I sat here in tears thinking I want to go pick up my daughter right now!
Going back to work in August I think will be harder than when I went back to work in March. It will be harder because I have gotten to bond with her more, and because it isn't just 10 weeks, it is 10 months!
It will be a long ten months and I can tell you I will look forward to every weekend. Hopefully sometime in the near future I will not have to return to work and will be able to work with my daughter and future kids by my side!
I love that girl more than I ever thought I could!!!

Okay now that I have rambled and not really said anything I'm going to go call the airlines to make sure all is good for tomorrow and then count down the minutes until I can go pick Alyssa up.

Life with a 5 month old

Today started at 5:20 am. Alyssa figured it was time to get up and play she laid in her crib and talked to her self and dozed off until 7:20. Most of that time I was awake in my bed listening to her talk and dozing when she dozed.
She has still been very crabby today because she isn't caught up on her sleep yet. So being the wonderful mom that I am I decided that today would be a good day to try the Benadryl that I'm taking just in case the flight to California gets to long for her. I gave her the medicine and then held her. In about ten minutes she could no longer hold her eyes open and though she was still fighting staying awake by moving her hands it was getting slower and slower. Watching her reminded me of watching a toy run out of batteries. Then once she was asleep I got worried. What if she stops breathing, what if she has an allergic reaction. So Since she went down an hour and a half ago I have been running upstairs every 15 minutes to check on her. Each time she has been perfectly fine, but I still have to do it.
But I have been productive in the other 14 minutes of that time, I have family pictures scheduled, I have a appointment for my car tomorrow, I have called chase about our property tax, I have ordered 95 pictures from Walgreen's to work on my scrap book, eaten lunch, and I have taken a shower.
I'm hoping she will wake up happy because we need to run to target, Walgreen's and the DMV to renew my car.
Well off to check on Alyssa again and then do 14 minutes of cleaning the kitchen!

4th of July

Yesterday was Alyssa's first fourth of July. She was not thrilled to say the least. She went over to her grandma's for dinner. She took a nap and slept through the b-que. Then we went over to Sharon's as soon as we got there Alyssa had a major melt down and we thought we were going to have to leave. We finally fell asleep and slept for about an hour. She was then able to make it through the fire works. But since it was raining it was really hard to see the fireworks and so we left before there was another melt down.
She has now been extra crabby today but that is to be expected since she didn't go to bed until almost 11 last night and was still up at her normal time this morning.
Her next big holiday will be Halloween!

Baptism

Alyssa was Baptized at Atonement Lutheran Church on Saturday. It was a big event with my brother, his girlfriend, my mom and her husband all coming in for it. We had almost 30 people at the church service and would of had more if my grandma hadn't had a stroke a week before.
For the two days before I kept telling Alyssa that they would pour water on her head and that she didn't need to cry it was like taking a bath.
The talks must of worked because she didn't even whine while up in front of the church. She did spit up on my arm some, and she did try to eat the blanket that was presented to her, but no crying.
Now me on the other hand; I almost did cry. As I was standing up there I was looking out at all the people that had shown up to support Chris, Alyssa and me. It is amazing and wonderful to see and feel how much Alyssa is loved. And the best part about it? Is there are even more people that love her that weren't able to make it for one reason or another!
We had a party to celebrate afterwards. There was good food, lots of fun conversation and good cake. Alyssa was exhausted by this point and fell fast asleep on my shoulder.
She had a wonderful day and I am so thankful for the love that we have of our family and friends.