Fall, Pumpkins and Redskins....

Before I launch into my weekend recap I want to tell you about the best Monday morning I've had in a long time. Allison has been fighting a cold and has been really snarky (my word for snotty & nasally) and she decided it was time to get up at 4am today. Why in the world would this make for a good start to my day you ask? Well, Matthew is leaving today for a conference in Las Vegas and I know he's really going to miss Ally so he decided to get up with us today. We crept up to her room together, had a big hug and kiss fest, changed her and cleaned all the dried buggies off of her nose (lovely!) While I was working on feeding her the first bottle of the day Matthew and I watched the Saturday Night Live episode that we'd DVR'd over the weekend. I loved that Tina Fey and Sarah Palin both made guest appearances in the same episode- too funny. I digress.... anyway, we hung around watching TV, talking and yawning until about 5:45 when Matthew went back to bed and I actually had to start getting ready for work. Although I'm really tired this morning, I'm thankful that we had that time together as a family today- it was a special treat for us all.

It's officially fall here in in Southeastern Virginia. We had high temps in the low 60's this weekend and lows in the upper 40's and it felt great! We had some pretty strong winds on Saturday and Sunday so it felt a lot cooler. We turned the heat on for the first time since it got down to 67 degrees in the house and poor Ally had little ice cubes hanging for feet! What better fall time activity than a visit to a pumpkin patch?!?

We bought 5 pumpkins! One for each of us including the dogs! I think we'll only carve one or two of them, but we sure had fun picking them out together. Ally liked picking at the grass & the straw too. After visiting the patch and running some other errands we came home in time to sneak in a quick walk before it got totally dark. We all bundled up against the wind- Ally was snug as a bug in the BOB.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning then brunch with Bonnie. Ally was very snarky yesterday as wasn't a good eater so I spent much of the day battling with her to take bottles. We still found some time for some fun though and a little photo shoot in this adorable outfit from Grandma Dee that it is finally cool enough to wear.

At our home, Sunday equals football. Given Matthew's obsession with the Redskins, it was only a matter of time until Ally became a fan as well.

It was a fun and tiring weekend for our little pumpkin. Ally and I will certainly miss Matthew this week while he's away in Las Vegas but we're already looking forward to another fun weekend together soon. Hope it is fall where ever you're reading this from and that you're enjoying it as much as we are!

4 Day Weekend Fun

Matthew and I were both lucky enough to have Friday and Monday off of work for Columbus Day. We had a nice lazy day on Friday- n0t leaving the house until 1:30 in the afternoon to take Ally to her 6 month well baby check up- a month late! She astounded the doctor with her mad skillz- okay, not really, but he did say she looks good and seems to be hitting all of her developmental milestones on schedule. We've discovered that our daughter is actually a string bean- her weight (15lbs and 4 oz) is only in the 25th percentile but her height (27.5 inches) is in the 75th percentile! She's long and lean- with any luck she'll be blessed to retain that physique throughout her lifetime.

We had friends over for dinner on Friday night and feasted on steaks, mashed potatoes, green beans, and rice krispie treats all of which was washed down with 3 bottles of wine! I was the worst hostess ever- I abandoned my guests at 10:30pm to go shower and go to bed since I had to be up at 5am the next morning to go into work for an inventory. They were showing no signs of leaving and were enjoying conversation with Matthew so I didn't see any reason to break up their party but I did feel like a schmuck leaving. It sure didn't keep me up though- I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow!

After 6 grueling hours in dusty, dirty warehouse hell on Saturday morning I returned home to rescue Matthew from his morning with our early riser daughter. He did a great job playing Mr. Mom for the morning. We set out to purchase our new stroller (described in the previous post) and then took it for a test drive at a local art festival. Saturday night we went out to dinner with friends at Luna Maya, an awesome restaurant that has somehow escaped our attention for the last two years.

Sunday morning we did church and brunch then headed back home to watch the Redskins devastating loss. Matthew hung around the house to watch more of the games and I made a trip to Babies 'R' Us will Allison.

Monday was another beautiful day so we decided to take advantage of it and take the dogs to the beach for a morning romp. Looks can be deceiving though.... even though the weather was sunny and beautiful, the mosquitoes and biting sand fleas (whom we have never encountered before) joined forces to cast a dark cloud on the morning- or more specifically, a dark swarming cloud around my head! The beach trip was short lived but the boys didn't seem to mind- they still had fun and got some exercise. Next we went to Homearama- an annual home showcase where Matthew likes to gather inspiration for future projects.

Here it is, Tuesday morning and I'm back at work- longing for another 4 day weekend.

Ally is so strong!

It's hard to tell, but she is up on hands and knees in this picture!

It looks like she's giving kisses, but she's actually trying to bite me with her two teeth!

Hamming it up with Daddy

Standing in Daddy's lap all by herself

We love this adorable denim dress!

So happy she finally grew into it!

Go Redskins!

Playing with Mommy

All Hail The BOB

We broke down and purchased a new stroller this weekend. Not just any old stroller mind you... but a BOB Revolution- the awesomest stroller to grace the sidewalks and shopping malls of suburbia! I truly don't know how we've lived without it for so long. It glides effortlessly over the pavement and turns on a dime. The swivel wheel in the front makes navigating tight spaces and large crowds a breeze but it can also be locked into the forward position which is safer for actually jogging. The sun canopy comes down far enough to be functional and it even has an emergency brake wrist strap in case the stroller happens to get away from you while you're running. Best of all, when it's folded, it actually fits into the back of the car with plenty of room to spare! I just can't say enough about this wonderful addition to our garage paraphernalia!

We've been looking for a BOB on Craig's list for months now- even expanding our search to other far away cities where various family members reside. Few BOBs come up for sale and the ones that do are all still very expensive. One website that we visited while researching jog strollers said that once you've shelled out the money for a BOB you keep it in the family even once your kids have grown out of it and that they're often passed down or gifted to others. So, big brother in law Brian... if you ever have little ones of your own, we've got you covered!

I was amazed to discover that the BOB even has a car seat conversion kit... had I known this, I would have purchased it in the beginning and saved myself the hassle of the travel system set that we got.

All hail the BOB!!!

Ummm, yummy barium!

Ally had her video swallow test yesterday at CHKD, our local children's hospital. Even though she had to ingest some nasty, nasty, nasty white paste of varying consistencies, she performed like a champ and we were able to confirm that she is protecting her airway- meaning there is no liquid/ food going into her lungs when she swallows. While this is good news, it means that we are back to square one and still don't know what is causing her eating issues. The specialist we saw suggested an endoscopy of her esophagus and stomach next. I'm hoping to explore some other options first since I don't particularly like the idea of putting her under anesthesia just yet. Hopefully we'll get to meet with the doctor again next week to develop our plan of attack.

It was nice to have the day to spend with Ally yesterday- we got in some good play time once we returned from her appointment. She's made some amazing progress over the past 48 hours- I first caught her up on her hands and knees for a few seconds on Tuesday afternoon. Since then she's repeated the action several times for longer periods of time, she lunged forward from the position for a toy she was trying to reach, she can spin on her stomach in a circle (I'm waiting for her to start break dancing any day now) and she's just becoming less stationary in general. This is an exciting stage, but a little nerve wracking too. We'd better get started on the baby proofing soon!

Here are two pictures from play time yesterday. Don't you just love Ally's fashionable hat?

Our Big Night Out

Here are two pictures of Matthew and I on our big night out away from home. First one was taken on the pier at Marissa's wedding. It was a little windy so I have some crazy hair going but it was beautiful. Our bed and breakfast was right behind us directly across the water.

Here we're standing outside the reception venue just before sunset. Gorgeous!

Two Shout Outs

Congratulations to the Dixons on the arrival of Noah Andrew on October 2nd. What a beautiful family! Katelynn & Hannah are happy to be big sisters. Nicki is recovering nicely after her 3rd natural childbirth! (She's my hero!)

Congratulations also to Marissa and Brock Beatty- married on October 4th in Cape Charles, VA at a gorgeous marina. I didn't get a lot of good pictures of the event, but here is the lovely couple saying their vows.

And here is Marissa with all the men. She looked so beautiful in her custom made gown!

Congrats again to the Dixons & the Beattys- I'm so happy for you all and wish you nothing but the best!

Seven Months Old

Ally turns 7 months old tomorrow! It's hard to believe that much time has gone by since she arrived. She recently graduated from the panda bear class to the polar bear class at day care and is now surrounded by kids who are becoming mobile and starting to scoot & crawl. She's sitting up by herself for longer and longer periods of time and topples over a little less than she used to. Yesterday she got up on her hands and knees for the first time- it was very brief, but I happened to catch her do it so I clapped up a storm and she was very proud of herself.



One fun new game we've started to play involves a Tupperware bowl filled with some rings or little toys. I hand it to her and she dumps it out. Every time she dumps it she gets a huge smile on her face and giggles. She hasn't mastered refilling the bowl yet but we're working on it.



Ally has become fascinated by water- both in the bath tub and the sink. Last night she learned how to turn on the kitchen faucet and was absolutely mesmerized by the water flowing out of it. When I turn on the bathtub for her at bath time she goes positively nuts and squirms all over the place trying to get out of my arms and into the water. It's really cute.



Matthew and I spent our first night away from Allison last weekend. We attended the wedding of a friend on the Eastern Shore of VA. Thankfully we were only about 45 minutes from home so I wasn't too panicked. We left our girl in the competent care of her Grandma and Granddad Martin. They came over to our house on Saturday afternoon to pick up Ally and the dogs (the really had their hands full!) and took them all back to their home. She ate fairly well for them, napped a little bit, slept through the night, and let them sleep in until the late, late hour of 5am on Sunday morning! We called to check in only once (although we thought about it a lot more often!) and enjoyed our night away. We stayed in a beautiful bed & breakfast in Cape Charles and enjoyed sleeping in until 8am in the crisp white sheets with the down comforter! It was heaven. After breakfast we were ready to get home to all three of our babies so we headed home and were reunited with our family by noon. I'm sure we'll get better at leaving her behind occasionally, but for now 22 hours was long enough!

Last week Allison went to see the pediatric GI specialist at Naval Medical Center Portsomouth. We had a great experience! The doctor spent about 45 minutes with us taking the most complete history I've ever seen. He agrees that something is going on with her since she's still not eating solids, hasn't been able to switch to a high flow nipple without gagging, arches her back and screams when we try to feed her, etc. The most common theory at this point is esophageal dysphagia which is the fancy name for a swallowing disorder.

We got a referral to CHKD, the local children's hospital, for a barium swallow test. They put some barium into her food then take Xrays to see where it goes and if it's going to the right place. Our appointment is tomorrow- I'm taking the day off work because it's supposed to be a pretty time consuming procedure and they only do it in the mornings so I'd miss too much of my day anyway. We probably won't get any concrete results for a few days and we'll have to go back to the GI specialist at Portsmouth to discuss them. I'll do my best to update the blog again on Thursday though with the preliminary results.

Thanks for checking in!