Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday to my #1 Dad! I know I'm a day early, but I doubt I'll get the chance to give you a blog shout out tomorrow since we'll be on our way to celebrate with you. Hope you have a wonderful day and a great year! I love you!

Ally's 1st Christmas Recap

Ally's first Christmas was a great success! She was a little under the weather on Christmas Eve with a bad cold and an earache that I think was related to teething pain. We ended up skipping church because I decided it was more important for her to get in a good nap. Once she was up, we packed up all of our Christmas presents and drove over to the Martin's house. We had a fun evening and a nice meal together (I love me some honey baked ham!) and we put Ally down to bed in their pack and play so we wouldn't have to rush home. Sadly I ended up falling asleep in an armchair around 9pm so we ended up going home pretty early anyway.

This is Ally sitting in her new 'Ally-sized' armchair in front of our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. It was a gift from her grandparents.

Here is Ally in front of the Martin's tree discovering all the exciting gifts underneath it!

On Christmas morning our little early bird was up at 5am so she and I watched a showing of A Christmas Story on TBS- I love their 24 hour marathon! We got Matthew up around 7:30ish, cleaned up, and headed back over to the Martin's house for breakfast and gifts. We ended up putting Ally down for her nap as soon as we got there. We enjoyed Ray's delicious egg casserole and the famous monkey bread with mimosas then we dug into the gifts- and there were a lot of them! Ally woke up midway through the festivities.

Here she is opening her first Christmas present ever! She was more interested in the bow than the actual gift.

This was our best attempt at a family photo- Ally did not like her hat and Matthew was hiding.

Here's a shot of the whole Martin clan. Ray, Ally (who refused to look at the camera), Dot, Dee, Matthew, me and Brian.

After our gift feast we all played with our new toys and just hung out enjoying each others company. Matthew, Ally and I went home in the late afternoon to relax. Our car was packed full of gifts and we spent a long time unloading and organizing while Ally napped.

She had lots of fun later that evening with all of her toys! The little blocks she's holding in this picture are some of her favorites!

Mom & Dad gave Ally this nifty little car- it makes some great noises! Morrison wasn't too sure about it though and was actually trying to bite the steering wheel in this picture.

Daddy & Ally both woke up happy the morning after Christmas!

We all went down to the beach with the dogs on Friday afternoon- it was pretty chilly and windy though so Ally got all bundled up- isn't her hood the greatest!?

Here is our sweet girl in a cute new outfit that she got for Christmas.

The rest of our long weekend passed by too quickly. We had the Martins and our friends Tony & Megan over for an evening of Mexican food and Mexican train dominoes on Friday night. A good time was had by all- we went through four bottles of wine to prove it! On Saturday afternoon we had a farewell lunch with Brian before he headed back to Charleston. Later that evening Ray & Dee were kind enough to come over to babysit Ally while Matthew and I went over to some friend's house for dinner and some fun Wii games. It was the first time either of us had played and I think Matthew is hooked. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a Wii in our future!

Sunday was lazy- I had too many late nights and early mornings over the Christmas break so I decided to skip church (again) and take a nap while Ally was napping. It was so nice to climb back in bed after putting her down! I napped for two hours and it was totally worth it! We did venture out in the afternoon and did our part to support the economy with trips to Babies R Us and Target. Matthew is off work for a while so he's home today working on projects. I'm working today and tomorrow and then we're off to San Diego for a week with my family and a late Christmas. It's hard to believe that it will be January of 2009 when we return!

A few other Ally related happenings that are worth mentioning... she will definitely be crawling any day now. She can now push herself into a sitting position from her belly and this morning I found her sitting up in her crib for the very first time! I'm sure it's just a matter of time before she's pulling up on the rails. Guess I'd better lower that mattress again! Finally- her 5th tooth has just poked through the gums- it's on the top right side and explains why she had a few really grumpy days last week.

Thanks for checking in- hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that 2009 will bring many wonderful blessings!

Martin Family Photos

The Martins at our favorite restaurant- The Winehouse

Ally with her Uncle Brian

Merry Christmas!

December 24th- Christmas Eve. How the heck did that happen? I don't know if it's becuase I'm perpetually sleep deprived or because the days are just so busy and full with Ally, but it seems like time is just flying by these days!

Ally is still sick with a terrible runny nose and like most babies- she hates to have her nose wiped so we play some crazy cat & mouse games trying to clear away the buggies. She had such an awesome week last week- she consistently took over 30 oz. of milk each day and was eating one or two servings of purees. Due to the congestion and runny nose this week she's back to her normal crummy days- only taking approx. 24 oz of milk and no purees. It feels like a setback to me and I'm so discouraged even though I know the reason she's not eating is because she can't breathe. At feeding therapy yesterday her therapist commented that Ally has made a lot of progress since she first saw us and she is confident that once she gets over this cold it's all going to start coming together again. I sure hope she's right. It was amazing how good and happy I felt last week when she was doing so well. I realized what a heavy load all of my stress and worry is to carry around all the time. I hope to be rid of it for good very soon as she continues to improve!

Today is a short day at work thankfully so I'll have time to get Ally home and down for a nap so I can finish wrapping presents. We're planning to attend a children's service at church this afternoon then go over to the Martin house for Christmas Eve dinner. Hopefully our little grump-muffin will cooperate and enjoy the festivities.

Last night Matthew's brother Brian came over to hang out with us and have dinner. While we were playing with Ally we somehow got on the subject of leaving sweets out for Santa. I mentioned that we'd have to leave carrots out for the reindeer as well once Ally was old enough to appreciate it and they both laughed at me. Apparently the Martins never left any food for the poor old reindeer since they never came into the house! What kind of family did I marry into? No carrots for the reindeer and they wait until Christmas morning to open all of their presents!!! Horrors!!! I've forced them to adopt a new tradition and open at least one gift on Christmas Eve and I guess I'll have to force them to be a little more considerate of Santa's furry friends too. Our Ally is going to be an animal lover so she'll want to make sure Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Donner, Comet, Cupid, and Blitzen are well cared for!

We're planning to exchange gifts on Christmas morning, stuff our faces with Ray's famous egg casserol and monkey bread, take the dogs to the beach since it's supposed to be fairly mild outside, and enjoy a nice long nap! Sounds like the perfect day to me.

Merry Christmas to all- enjoy the long weekend and lots of fun with your families!

Running on empty....

I am completely out of juice. After a weekend of 4:45 am wake up calls from my darling little angel we decided to change things up a little bit today and get up at 4:23a.m! I don't know what's going on, but it's killing me. To top it off, little gal has developed a nasty runny nose (just in time for Christmas) and her face was caked with dried buggers this morning. She did not enjoy me trying to wipe/ pick them off either or the fun session of bulb suctioning that followed. Poor baby. After feeding her a bottle I tried putting her back down to bed to see if she would go back to sleep. As soon as I too slipped back between the sheets she started carrying on again. Matthew was kind enough to get up and sit with her for a 1/2 hour while I stayed in bed. I wish I could tell you that I slept, but sadly I just laid there and stared at the ceiling fan.

I was in such a state of sleep deprivation this morning when I left the house that I left my purse at home! I have no driver's license, no cell phone, no lipstick, etc. Today was also the morning that I decided to cut down to only one pumping session a day- it was nice to not have to worry about it this morning, but my boobs are now killing me since it's been over 12 hours since my last pump. (Sorry if that was TMI!) Hopefully this won't last long. I plan to be completely done by New Year's Eve- just in time for a good bottle of wine to celebrate!

These pictures were taken Saturday morning in a sweet little Juicy outfit that was an early Christmas gift from Ally's great grandparents- Bob and Christa. I have some more new pictures to share, but my camera is also in my purse so I can't download them this morning. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the chance.

May the days leading up to Christmas be filled with lots and lots of holiday cheer- and sleep!

More fun with prunes!

During Ally's second experience with prunes I accidentally planted a spoonful right on her upper lip and she looked like a little Hitler so I ran to grab the camera but by the time I got back she'd smeared it and the Hitler effect had disappeared but she still looked pretty funny so I snapped away. If you look closely you can actually see her two top teeth coming in!

She looks sort of devilish in this second picture...

Prunes, glorious prunes!

Please ignore my silly commentary and terrible cinematography on this video. It's hard to hold a camera, feed a baby and narrate in a normal voice when you're so excited!

We have a 'Well Baby'!

Ally had her 9 month well baby check on Friday and was pronounced developmentally on target and healthy with the exception of her eating difficulties. She's up to 16 pounds and 13 ounces (a gain of 7 ounces in the 3.5 weeks since our last visit) which is only in the 10th percentile but at least she's still gaining weight. That was the measurement I was most concerned with so I sort of spaced out on recording her height and head circumference, but they were within the norms.

We thought we were going to get away with no shots on this visit, but I'd forgotten that she needed a flu shot so we visited the immunization clinic after our appointment and proceeded to momentarily upset our sweet girl. After a few wails and some tears she was back to her normal cheery self. She did have some feeding difficulties throughout the rest of the weekend as well as some serious constipation issues (sorry if that's TMI) which may have been a side effect of the shot, but we seem to be back to normal as of this morning thankfully.

Matthew and I had the privilege of working in the nursery at church yesterday morning and got to play with Ally and the other 6 kiddos in there. It was fun to see how she interacted with them. She seems to be really mellow and didn't even get upset when a little girl crawled right over her to get to a toy! I think it bothered me a lot more than it bothered her.

All in all, it was a nice weekend together! Christmas is now right around the corner and the holiday madness is in full swing. I have an office party to attend this week and we have a dinner party and a holiday open house this weekend. Matthew's brother Brian comes in town on Saturday so we'll be spending a lot of time with his family in the coming week and a half. I still have a little more Christmas shopping and wrapping to get through as well as a nightmare trip to the post office to knock out so it's sure to be a busy week! Thanks for checking in!

Mommy didn't do a good job holding the camera straight on this one, but it was such a sweet smiley face that I posted it anyway.

Ally was not a fan of the hood on this shirt. While trying to pull it off she toppled over and bonked her head on the floor which made her like the hood even less!

She loves to dump over the little wicker basket that we use to stash her toys. I imagine it will be a long time before she understands the concept of putting away a toy before bringing out a new one!

Ally really loves this activity table and is getting quite good at standing/ leaning on her own to play with it. Sadly, Matthew and I have now memorized all the annoying little songs that it plays and torture each other with our renditions!

That's one happy girl! She loves to play with her daddy.

Happy Birthday Matthew!

We celebrated Matthew's 31st birthday this past Saturday. I am excited that we are the same age for 4 months of the year until I am once again the old lady of our relationship! We had a lovely dinner at One Fish, Two Fish, a favorite Virginia Beach restaurant, with Ray, Dee, and Dot followed by cake, ice cream & presents at our house. Sadly, Ally was in bed before any of these pictures were taken but she enjoyed the dinner time celebration with us.

The cake was dark chocolate on dark chocolate so I was easily able to avoid eating any of it since I'm not a dark chocolate fan.

Matthew received lots of fun gifts- highlights of which were a new faucet for our 1/2 bath, a cool stainless steel trash can for our kitchen, and a docking station for his Sirius satellite radio to put in my car so he can move his unit back and forth between cars. Happy Birthday baby- hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed celebrating it with you!

Goodbye workplace lactation!

I'm sitting here in my office blogging one handed as I pump at work for the last time. Beginning next week I will cut down to pumping only twice a day and will finally be free from lugging around the surprisingly heavy and cumbersome breast pump. I can't tell you how excited I am to be free of it! I've slowly begun the weaning process and plan to stop completely by the New Year.

If Allison would still nurse I'd be more than happy to continue, but since she quit that at two and a half months I've been exclusively pumping now for nearly seven months! I never thought I'd make it this long so I'm proud of myself, but I'm also really ready to be done with the whole mess. I hope I'll get the chance to successfully nurse another child sometime in the future so I can really get the full experience, but for now..... Adios awkward moments when someone ignores the sign on my door barges into my office while I'm pumping! See ya later sexy pink nursing cover! Goodbye workplace lactation!

NINE months!

Ally turns 9 months old today! Amazing how time flies. With the holiday season upon us, I keep finding myself thinking back to this time last year... I was big and pregnant, Matthew was deployed, and there was no Ally around to brighten our days yet. She's made everything about this holiday season more fun so far! We celebrated her 9 month birthday with a children's Christmas party at the squadron and her first visit with Santa Claus!

Here we are together all ready to go to the party. Ally wore her sweet Christmas dress and tights!

This year we have an angel under our tree!

Her first experience with Santa was not a very good one! I think it was the beard that scared her because she normally doesn't react like this with new people.

She was in much better spirits back at home so we had a little photo shoot.

My sweet little gal

Still chewing on anything she can get her hands on- including furniture!

What a little doll!

Later that day she discovered how much fun it was to make silly smooshed faces! I thought it was hysterical!

She's started making this silly face a lot recently too.

The smiley face is still my favorite!

The rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful. Matthew was away on his trek to Florida in Dee's car so Ally and I took advantage of his absence and did a little bit of shopping for his birthday which is coming up on Saturday. He'll finally be 31 too! We have lots of birthday and holiday activities coming up over the next few weeks so I'm sure the rest of December is going to fly by. Before we know it, it will be 2009! I'm going to do my best to not get too carried away with the activities and enjoy the remainder of 2008 while I can.

New Shoes and other happenings

Ally has new shoes! Two new pairs of Robeez arrived in the mail yesterday. They're both way too big but they actually stay on her feet so she is wearing them anyway.

Ally had lots of fun in our big recliner yesterday- she was up on hands and knees rocking back and forth and flopping onto her belly while giggling the whole time. The pictures don't do it justice, but it was really cute!

This funny face is something we've seen a lot lately- she'll scrunch up her nose and breath through it really rapidly... we think she's trying to imitate the dogs!

More new shoes!

A silly self portrait

Ally also has some new teeth! Both of her top front teeth have started to poke out over the last two weeks. She handled it like a champ again with very minimal fussing. I've been trying to get a picture of them, but they are very hard to capture.

Ally has been on a new medication for her acid reflux for a week now. It's hard to say if it's making any difference as we're going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment. I think she may be arching her back and screaming a little less during feeding times, but she still pushes the bottle away and gets very easily distracted. Feeding her continues to be my greatest challenge every day. She's still not eating any pureed baby foods yet even though we try to feed them to her every day. Feeding therapy is pretty discouraging and I'm not sure how beneficial it's been thus far. On Tuesday we spent our entire hour long session feeding her one ounce of formula! Our therapist still believes that as soon as the reflux is under control everything else will fall into place.

I spoke with Ally's GI doctor earlier this week and he still wants to schedule her for an upper endoscopy which enables the physician to look inside the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum (first part of the small intestine). The procedure is used to discover the reason for swallowing difficulties, nausea, vomiting, reflux, bleeding, indigestion, abdominal pain, or chest pain. Matthew and I aren't wild about the idea because it will require her to be under anesthesia for 30 minutes or so, but we'll most likely relent if we don't see any significant improvement from this new medication within a few weeks. Everyone keeps telling us that most babies spontaneously grow out of reflux and colic by their first year so we hope that will be the case with Ally too. She'll be 9 months on Monday so we don't have too much longer to go.

Matthew will be attending his squadron Christmas party solo tonight because we had a miscommunication with our most trusted babysitters- Pop Pop and Grandma. They ended up being out of town so I'll be home tonight with Ally and enjoying some lazy time on the couch after she goes to bed since I don't have to work tomorrow. I'm sad to miss out on the party, but happy to take it easy. At least I didn't have to buy a new dress this year!

On Saturday, Ally and I will attend the squadron Children's Christmas party. Santa arrives on a helicopter- it's always a huge hit! Matthew will be driving his mother's car down to their home in Florida this weekend so he'll have to miss it.

That's it for now- thanks for checking in with us!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

We just had a pergola built onto our deck so we decided to light it up for Christmas! The pergola still needs to be stained to match the rest of the deck, but we figured no one would notice at night.

Our pretty tree- the lights are on, but they didn't show up very well.

Our house all decked out for Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Martin household! We decided not to waste any time decorating this year so we can enjoy the entire Christmas season in our home. On Saturday Matthew went to fetch our Christmas tree while I dragged all the ornaments, lights, wreaths, window candles, garlands, and kitchy knick-knacks out of the room over the garage and got to work. Two trips to Lowes later, our home now smells like fresh evergreen and is beautifully lit up outside. We only needed 6 new strands of lights, 4 extension cords, 5 indoor timers, 2 outdoor timers and a box of icicle light clips!

Daddy & Ally enjoying a snuggle

Ally was particularly fascinated by this ornament hanging low on the tree

Mo & Gus are still trying to get into the Christmas spirit!

We took advantage of the nice weather and enjoyed a walk on the beach

And through the park

Ally was so cute in this outfit that I decided to take her picture

She sure does love the camera!