Under the weather

Joey woke up sick on Christmas Eve morning with a bad chest cough. It progressively got worse throughout the day and Christmas was not a very fun time for her. By Christmas night she had a fever of 102. She was such a good trooper, she never cried just slept the day away. We took her to the Dr. Friday morning and she was diagnosed with RSV and 2 ear infections. All of this in addition to teething. Still she has not been crying, just sleepy and wanting to snuggle. She is such an amazing little girl.
As of today, her ears are still bothering her, the cough is still wet and she is still terribly congested, but it doesn't appear to have migrated into her chest. That is good news. The not so good news, Steve and I are not feeling so hot now!

All I want for Christmas...

Josephine's two bottom front teeth came in on Christmas Eve/Christmas day. Still too small to capture on film, but out enough for you to feel when she bites your nose!

Merry Christmas

From our family to yours..we hope that your holidays are filled with magic and love!

Baby it's cold outside...

Here is a photo I took of Josephine on Tuesday morning. We were going into work for a bit and the car dashboard thermometer was saying that it was a cool 14 degrees outside! So we put on our new snow cover from Nana McRae.

Here kitty, kitty...

Josephine and Reggie are slowly becoming friends. She finally took an interest in him about 2 weeks ago and he has been gracious enough to let her get close and smack him around. She is trying to pet him, but just doesn't possess the motor skills just yet. She grabs handfuls of his hair with one hands and swats with the other. Steve and I are trying to teach her the word "gentle", but I'm sure it will be awhile before she gets the meaning. Reggie is being such a good sport. So good in fact that at 530am I heard Joey waking up and looked over at the video monitor to see that Reggie had decided to join her in her crib! I woke Steve up and he went to correct the situation. We always knew this was a possibility, I'm glad that Reggie waited at least 5 months to act.

Merry Christmas

Sorry to be out of touch, we have been very busy getting ready for the holidays. We had a nice visit with Nana and Grandpa McRae last weekend. And we finally got around to visiting Santa this weekend. You can tell from the picture that Josephine was not very amused, but at least she didn't cry. The line was a bit long and she started to fall asleep when she was only 5 kids away from picture time.

Pop-pop VanWegen flew into town this weekend and we will get to see him at Gigi's house on Wednesday. We will be spending Christmas eve at Gigi's and Christmas morning at Grammie's. We will finish out the special day, just the three of us at our humble home.

Rainy Day

Rain, rain go away...you make for such a dreary day!
I was totally stir crazy today. Even with work and Josephine to keep me busy, the overcast sky and cold rain just put me in some kind of funk. Needless to say my jog has been rained out. Also rained out was our trip to see Santa Claus today. I am determined to take her this year to get her picture taken as she is still really good with going to strangers. The good news is that Steve has decided not to go to yoga tonight so I will have a bit more "me" time this evening, which is just what I need.
Joey had been doing well in the crib and still is for the most part. However the last few days she has gotten back into her normal routine of waking between 3-4am. We are working on a better nighttime routine and hopefully in another month she will be more consistent with sleeping through the night.
Oh, today she actually took interest in one of the cats (Reggie) and attempted to pet him. He wasn't really feelin the love though.

Tuesday's child

Josephine is still on antibiotics for her ear infection and they have the pleasant side effect of diarrhea. Poor thing, she HATES the medicine and I'm not sure that she feels any better as she has been a bit fussy all week.

We had a nice weekend. One of our best friends from San Diego, Kim, came over for dinner on Friday night with our other friend Trimble. Then we had our annual holiday open house party on Saturday and Joey was the honored guest. She was so well behaved and was happy to give everyone a chance to cuddle with her. She was the perfect host! As soon as our guests left we piled in the car and went to see the outdoor light show at the park near us. We also got our first snow on Saturday, not even enough to cover the ground, but enough to make the lights look pretty.

Sunday was my 31st birthday. Our good friend Brooke came over to babysit for us and we got to go to do dinner and a movie. I miss going to the movies. We saw 4 Christmases, and it was very cute. It was a nice day.

Today Grammie came down to watch Joey while I went into the office for a meeting and got a 4 mile run in. Grammie was gracious enough to make dinner for tonight as well. She is too good to us. Speaking of grandparents, Nana and Grandpa McRae are coming down to visit us this weekend.

It's a long one...

Again, I apologize for my lack of posting. I enjoyed having so much time off and I got a little lazy and a bit backed up with work! I'll try to give you all the highlights and a few pictures to catch you up.

We had a nice, low key Thanksgiving at Gigi's house with Grammie and family. Food and company were both exceptional. Josephine sat at the table with everyone else and eyed the food. Next year I'm sure she will be all over it! Friday morning, Grammie watched Joey while Steve slept in and Kyle and I hit up a few stores. We were just doing our part to stimulate the economy!

Saturday Josephine turned 4 months old and to celebrate she helped Steve put up the second Christmas tree, the main one in the living room (the second tree in the master bedroom is the "disney" tree and was put up the weekend prior to Thanksgiving). Steve also decorated the outside of the house which includes an inflatable Santa Mickey (new this year).

Sunday we made the huge transition of moving Josephine from the bassinet to the crib. I have been sleeping in the guest room next to the nursery this week so that I can be close to her. We got off to a difficult start and were up several times the first night, but have settled into a more "normal" routine since. She is still getting up once a night, usually somewhere between 3-5a.

Monday marked another developmental milestone...Joey put her toes into her mouth! This "first" was fortunately caught by Daddy. Today we went to the pediatrician for her 4 month check up to find out that she has an ear infection and is confirmed to be teething. Now she is on antibiotics for 10 days and will have to go back in 2 weeks for her 4 month shots. Her stats are: 27.25 in long (off the chart length...they measured twice to make sure it was correct), 15 lbs 15 oz (95%). She continues to grow like a weed at least one inch a month!

So that is all that I can think of for now, I'm sure that I missed something. I promise not to let so much time pass between posts!

Happy short work week!

I'm so glad that it is a 3 day work week. I am even happier that it is Thanksgiving on Thursday, it is may all time favorite meal! Steve took this week off, so he watched Joey today while I worked from home, it was nice to get so much done.

This past weekend we started celebrating Christmas. We put up the "disney" tree in the master bedroom and got Josephine a new toy. We had been talking about getting her an exersaucer for a few weeks now and we finally bit the bullet this weekend. So far, she is overwhelmed by all of it, but is starting to really like it.

Wednesdays are the loneliest days

Sorry again for leaving you hanging for a week without a single update. Wednesdays seem to be the magical day when I remember that I need to reach out and update the world on what has been going on in our little corner of it. Why Wednesday? Because it is the first day of the week that Josephine goes to "school". I miss her like crazy on Wednesdays; I even watch videos of her and look at her pictures while I am in the office. This blog is therapeutic in that way...it helps me get through my Wednesdays.
This weekend training for the Princess 1/2 marathon official started with a 3 mile jog. Sunday we were back at Trimble's visiting with her and our good friend Amalie who is in town for a few days. Josephine also had her first trip to Ikea over the weekend. This week so far has been low key...she slept almost all day Monday and then came into the office with me on Tuesday.
Big milestone: Last night she slept for over 8 hours for the first time ever!

Cut it out

Last night we had another first...the first diaper blowout so bad that the onesie had to be sacrificed and we cut Josephine out of it. Oh the mess that this little girl can make!
Today we are writing from our good friend Trimble's house. She has had to take some time off of work this week so we came down today to keep her company. Right now everyone is taking a nap except for me (always seems to be the case).

Hump day catch up

I can not believe that I have let so many days pass without posting. We have been very busy. Josephine seems to be doing much better and Steve and I are continuing to fend off her cold. They had some good bonding time on Saturday and I got to take a nice long nap, which was heaven sent! Steven had to go into work on Sunday so Gigi came down and spent the day with us. She was gracious enough to help us pick up a bit since Grammie was coming down on Monday.

Grammie spent Monday night with us and got some alone time with Joey while I went into the office to work on Tuesday morning. She is so fantastic to have around, not only good company and a great help with Joey...but she cleaned my entire kitchen, did the laundry and swept the porch. She is also heaven sent!

Today is a "school" day for Josephine. They report to us that she is a very independent little girl and would rather spend time by herself than be held. I'm not quite sure that they have connected to her. While I agree with her being independent, she gets that from me :), she comes alive when you talk to her and give her attention and plenty of people in my office hold her and I have yet to see her complain.

Ready for the weekend

We have no big plans for this weekend, but I am ready to have Steve around and getting some down time. Josephine is now on medicine to treat her congestion and I have been blessed with her cold. However, the pharmacist says that I shouldn't take anything because I am still breastfeeding. So while Joey gets better, I remain sick. Have I mentioned that I think this is the curse of daycare!
The weather here is gorgeous today to I took this last opportunity to dress Joey her is cute little jean skirt from the GAP. I hope that the kids get to go outside today, I'm 90% sure that they won't take the babies out...but she just loves to look at the trees. So this is my hope for her.
Big developmental news this week...Josephine grabbed her foot yesterday. We are continuing to work on sitting in the bumbo and we actually got her to sit in the highchair this week as well. She also has gotten better about grabbing toys and actually holding on to them. She is getting so big and changing so much.

Just another day

Back in the office again today but Joey is at school (aka daycare). I had to go have bloodwork done this morning for my diabetes and while I was there I got the call from Steve that daycare was down to one bag of boob milk. I was glad that I was still close to home and that Steve had done the drop off this morning...I would have been kinda upset had I driven all the way there and had to turn around go home and then come back. But it all worked out perfectly, cause I got to see Josephine again before going to work. She looked a little sad sitting in the swing, but smiled really big when I came over and started talking to her. There were a ton of kids there today and all the older kids were sitting in the toddler area (literally 5 feet from the nursery) singing nursery rhymes. From what I could see there were only 3 infants there, one in the exersaucer, one being held and Joey in the swing. She was sucking her thumb and looking sad, but focused on the singing. I knew that she wanted to be part of the group. She is a very social little girl and enjoys singing and nursery rhymes. My heart melted and if could have stayed there all day, I would have. I know that I don't spend every minute giving her attention when she is with me on the days that I work from home, but to see her not getting much attention at daycare made my heart hurt. I know that I only saw 5 minutes of her day and I am sure that she gets a ton of attention while she is there. She also needs to learn that she can't have every one's undivided attention 24/7. While I know these things to be true, it doesn't make it any easier to take when she has that sad look on her face. The good news...I get to pick her up from "school" today. I can't wait to see that smiling face again, it is the highlight of my day.

Weekend Recap

We went to the cornmaze on Saturday with Gigi. It has been an annual tradition with Kyle and I and when Steve moved back from St. Louis he started coming too. We always do girls against boys and Steve usually wins, this year was no exception. Joey had her first hay ride on Saturday as well as went down her first slide.

Sunday we had a nice lunch with our friends Liz, Shane and Maggie. They got to meet Joey for the first time and it was nice to hang out and drink Mimosas. Not drinking for over a year has not been hard, but from time to time I do miss the occasional cocktail.

Monday we worked from home and went to the pediatrician as the cold seems to have gotten a bit worse and is causing severe congestion. Today we did our patriotic duty and voted and now we are in the office working (I'm working, she is sleeping). This afternoon we are going to try and meet up with our friend Brooke for free Starbucks and Krispy Kreme for anyone who voted.

Happy Halloween!

We hope that you had a safe and fun one. Back in the pre-Joey days, Halloween on a Friday night was big...a great excuse to party. This year we dressed her up and took her over to our neighbors house and then brought her home, undressed her and spent the rest of the night handing out candy and watching tv. She had a special Halloween onesie she wore to daycare too. It was sad to look at these two articles of clothing and think...one at least got a full days wear in, but the other saw it's 15 min of fame and then it is done, she'll never fit into it again. Do we keep it for the second child or pass it on to someone else?

She slept all day at daycare yesterday and had a slight fever when she came home. She has been very congested lately as well. I hope this is just a small cold at that is passes quickly. A lot of people told me that she would get sick as soon as she went into daycare, but I didn't believe them, could they all have been right?

Today we are off to the corn maze with Aunt Gigi, weather should actually be nice. I'll let you know how it goes.

Getting close to something big

We are on the verge of sitting up, so close. I had her in the bumbo seat this morning supported by some blankets and she was doing a really good job of supporting herself once I got her upright. I am trying to do this to help strengthen her core, because during tummy time she just gets comfortable and sucks her thumb.

I think that she is definitely teething as she has started gumming her hold hand and drooling quite a bit too.

She is changing and growing so much every day, it is just amazing to watch. She has very strong legs and like to stand up on them. Grammie advised us not to let her do this, but she really enjoys it and given the lack of developing the "crawling" muscles...we think she might be an early walker.

I'm also happy to report that she has been sleeping rather well lately too. All good news to report on the Josephine front.

Happy Day!

Josephine has been especially happy today. Maybe it is because I decided not to take her into the office and took a long lunch with Aunt Trimble instead. I hope she is just as happy in daycare tomorrow. Here is a photo taken this afternoon and I posted a new video of her "talking" taken at the same time.

We learned something new last night, Josephine LOVES to be naked. Well, honestly we did already know this...but rarely does she get it outside of tub time. Occasionally I will take an extra long time changing her diaper, but that is about all she gets. Last night due to an unfortunate diaper blow out that was close to tub time and coinciding with our dinner time, Josephine got pseudo-naked time (that is she got to rock out with just a diaper on). Now our nephew Max gets scheduled naked time the same way and he loves it too, but I had no idea Joey would love it so much. She gurgled, cooed, screamed and ranted so loudly...we had never heard her carry on so much. I think that we will try it again tonight as well.

low key Monday

We had a nice weekend. We had to scrap our plans to do the annual corn maze with Gigi and Grammie at the last minute on Saturday due to the weather, so we rented some movies and spent most of the day lazing around the house as it was a cool, rainy day. Sunday had an extra early start as Steve was off to run the Marine Corps Marathon 10k. Josephine and I surprised him at the finish line, and although he did not say he wanted us there I think he was really happy to see us. The rest of the day was movies and naps followed by dinner with our good friend Sherri who did an amazing job running the full marathon that morning.
Today, as with most Monday's, I'm looking for the motivation to begin the work week. I owe you all some pictures, I will try and post them today or tomorrow. In the mean time I will continue to sit here and go back and forth with staring at Joey and staring at the laptop, eventually I will find my motivation with one.