6 Years Old!

A little behind on asking Aubs the yearly questions, but better late than never! ;) Still so hard to believe I have a 6 year old! She is so precious, smart, funny, beautiful. Such a joy and blessing to us!!

1. What is your favorite color? Pink & Purple
2. What is your favorite toy?  Barbie Jeep
3. What is your favorite fruit? Peaches
4. What is your favorite tv show? I can't figure that one out... I don't know... The Second Cake Boss!
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Pizza
 6. What is your favorite outfit? Dresses
7. What is your favorite game? Sims
8. What is your favorite snack? Cheeto's
9. What is your favorite animal? Cats & Dogs
10. What is your favorite song? Starships- Nicki Minaj
11. What is your favorite book? Elsa & Anna Frozen book
12. Who is your best friend? Kaley
13. What is your favorite cereal? Cinnamon Toast Crunch
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Sit around in the shade (hahaha)
15. What is your favorite drink? Juice
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Patrick (got a new one since last year lol)
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Pancakes with syrup & butter
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Purple Cow
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Veterinarian

5 Years Old!!

I can't believe my first baby is 5 years old today! She is SO smart, beautiful, loving, funny, etc etc! Life would be so boring without Aubrey Claire! We're going to do the "Question" game now! :)

1. What is your favorite color? Purple
2. What is your favorite toy?  Barbies
3. What is your favorite fruit? Bananas
4. What is your favorite tv show? Astro & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Pizza
 6. What is your favorite outfit? Lee Lee's shirt
7. What is your favorite game? Hide & Seek
8. What is your favorite snack? Graham crackers & Bananas
9. What is your favorite animal? Patrick & Kittens
10. What is your favorite song? Mama's Broken Heart- Miranda Lambert
11. What is your favorite book? The Froggy that has a soccer ball book at school
12. Who is your best friend? Grace
13. What is your favorite cereal? Cheerios
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with the neighbors on my trampoline and swingset
15. What is your favorite drink? Apple Juice
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas & Halloween & Easter
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Patrick (even though he is missing :( )
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Waffles & Syrup
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Pizza
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A Pet Shop girl (hahahaha!)

5 months!

The months just keep flying by! Our little (big) guy is 5 months old already! Here's what Mr. Evan is up to these days!

• Weight: between 16.5-17 lbs (weighed 17lbs 2oz on Friday, the 1st, but lost weight over the weekend while sick & got down to 16lbs 7oz. Weighed 16lbs 8oz today (the 7th)).
• Height: 26 inches
• Eating 5-6 oz every 3 hours during the day
• When healthy, usually sleeps 9 straight hours at night.
• Changed his bedtime up and now is OUT by 6:30. 
• Usually sleeps 6:30-3:30/4:00, wakes up to eat, & goes back to sleep until around 6-6:30.
• Had strep throat again, another ear infection, and Norovirus. NO FUN!
• Had tubes placed today! Hoping for NO more ear infections!
• Tested to see if he was a carrier for strep because a new doctor thought he was (momma knew he wasn't, been there/done that with Aubs). Test came back normal, he is not a carrier. Just a strep magnet like Aubs :(
• Wearing size 3 diapers. They are a bit big on him but I was afraid he would outgrow the 2's before we finished a new case. 
• Wearing size 3 month/3-6 month/6 month/ and some 6-9 month clothing
• Still taking medicine for his reflux and we're still thickening his bottles with rice cereal. 
• VERY happy baby.. always smiling, even when sick! 
• SO laid back! Everyone comments about how calm & happy he is :)
• Still trying to sit up by himself. Still supports himself with his arms and leans over some. 
• Started eating baby food! So far he's tried home made avocado & bananas. He's also had store bought baby food & has tried sweet potatoes, carrots, and apples! He LOVES to eat!! :) He tries to grab my hand to get the spoon to his mouth faster!
• Usually takes 3 naps a day, 30-60 minutes in the morning, 1-2 hours around lunch time, and 30-60 minutes in the afternoon.
• Loves when his big sissy reads to him :) 

Can't believe just a few more weeks and he will be HALF a YEAR old!

4 months

I completely missed doing a 3 month post for Evan :( And I'm about 2 weeks late on his 4 month post. Sigh! Oh well, better late than never, I suppose! Evan turned 4 months old on December 30th! I can not believe how fast he is growing up! Here's what he's up to now!

• Weight: 14 lbs 9 oz
• Height: 24.25 inches
• Eating 4-6 oz every 3 hours during the day
• Sleeps anywhere from 6-9 hours straight in his crib at night
• Usually goes to bed around 7-7:30
• Does really well sleeping when he is feeling well! Unfortunately, that hasn't been often lately :( 
• In his 4 months of life, he's now had strep throat 3 times, croup, RSV, & 4 ear infections :( 
• We go to the ENT this Wednesday to already see about getting ear tubes placed!
• Wearing size 2 diapers
• Wearing size 3 month/3-6 month clothing
• Still taking medicine for his reflux and we're still thickening his bottles with rice cereal. 
• VERY happy baby.. always smiling, even when sick!
• Has the cutest belly laugh!
• I can almost always get a big belly laugh out of him by smelling his feet & saying shooooweee! ;)
• Rolled belly to back for the first time on December 1st
• Rolled back to belly for the first time on January 7th
• I sat him on the floor sitting up by himself on January 4th & he didn't fall over! He isn't a pro at it yet, but can sit up & pretty well for a good minute or so on his own!! So shocking to me- he is doing things so much faster than Aubrey did.
• In the 38th percentile for weight, but already weighs 1 oz more than Aubs did at 8 months!
• Coos/talks all the time :)
• Loves his jumperoo & piano play mat
• Is SO in love with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!
• Will be starting rice cereal on a spoon this month (having his tongue clipped first). 
• Such a good baby & a huge blessing to our family! :)

2 months

I'm a few weeks late on posting Evan's 2 month update.. big shock there haha

• Weight: 11 lbs 3 oz
• Height: 22.5 inches
• Eating 3-4 oz every 3 hours during the day
• Usually sleeps a 6 hour stretch at night in his crib, wakes up for a bottle, and goes back to sleep
• Has slept through the night twice
• Wearing size 1 diapers
• Wearing size 0-3 month/3month clothing.
• Already got strep throat from Aubs, which landed us a 3 day stay in the hospital! :( 
• Still taking medicine for his reflux and we're still thickening his bottles with rice cereal. 
• Started smiling & does it all the time.. He is a happy baby!
• Getting stronger neck muscles and doing well with holding his head up
• Cooing :)
• Meeting all of his 2 month milestones already, even though his adjusted age is only 1 month
• Doing great at daycare (Wed-Fri)
• Loves smiling at his big sister who loves him so much! :) 

I can't believe he is already 2 months old.. time is going by so fast! I love my little chunky monkey so much!

Aubs :)

I've been meaning to do this for a while, so here are Aubrey's "20 Questions" answers at age 4 :)

1. What is your favorite color? Purple & Pink
2. What is your favorite toy?  Barbies
3. What is your favorite fruit? Bananas
4. What is your favorite tv show? Fireman Sam
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Peanut butter & jelly sandwich
 6. What is your favorite outfit? I don't know
7. What is your favorite game? Daddy's new game (computer game)
8. What is your favorite snack? Pretzels
9. What is your favorite animal? Patrick (lol!!)
10. What is your favorite song? Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
11. What is your favorite book? Dressed for the Ball (Disney Princess book)
12. Who is your best friend? Maggie, Ethan, Charlee, Devan, & Grace
13. What is your favorite cereal? Honeycombs
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play on my trampoline
15. What is your favorite drink? Apple Juice
16. What is your favorite holiday? Easter
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Patrick & you (mommy lol!)
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Cinnamon Rolls
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Strawberry Rolls (..? we had these at her party, I guess she's thinking back.. ? lol)
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Artist, Nurse, & a Teacher

Evan 1 month

Obviously, I haven't blogged in FOREVER. I am just writing this so that I can look back on it in the future. I need to do a blog about Aubs these days too. That girl is a mess! Here's all about little brother's first month though :)

• Weight: 8 lbs 9 oz
• Height: 19.75 inches
• Eating 3-4 oz every 3-4 hours. 
• Just moved to size 1 diapers (can still fit in some newborn diapers but we have a ton of 1's so we made the switch).
• Wearing size Newborn clothing.
• Having lots of trouble with reflux. 
• Will have a swallow study done soon to check on all of that. 
• Following in big sister's footsteps and has been to the doctor every week of his life :(
• Besides the nasty ole reflux, doing great. He is a very good baby!
• Still sleeps a ton. Has maybe 30-60 minutes of straight awake time once or twice a day.
• Is much better with tummy time than Aubs was. He tries to roll over already & doesn't scream the second we lay him down, like a certain little someone did ;) 
• Total tummy sleeper. Hates laying on his back. Favorite place to sleep right now is on Mommy's chest. 

Can't believe Evan is already a month old. Aubs is such an amazing big sister & Evan has fit right into our crazy little family :) 

Three Years Old!

Sadly, I am almost 2 months late on this post, but hey, better late than never right? We have been very busy around here & it's time to document what Aubrey is up to at 3 years old! She turned 3 on July 7th & I can't believe she is growing up so fast! She is a complete joy & make mine & Nathan's lives 10000000000x better!!! So, here is what Aubs is up to at 3 years old!

• Goes to bed between 8:00 & 8:30. During the week, we wake her up at 7:30 for school. On the weekends, she will often sleep until 9-10.
  
• Loves to eat! Some of her favorites include: chicken nuggets, macaroni & cheese, fruit snacks, any kind of bread, cheese, crackers, hot dogs, strawberries, apples, grapes, broccoli, pizza, & much more. She is NOT a picky eater at all!
  
• Favorite drinks are chocolate milk, Capri Sun (she calls it Sun Juice), sweet tea, & apple juice. She enjoys the occasional sip of coke too (eww ;)).
  
• Talks NON STOP. Seriously. And the things she says.... she is hilarious!
• Smartie Pants :) She can spell her name, tell you her full name, count to 30, count to 10 in Spanish, knows her birthday, knows a lot of colors in Spanish & other random words (up, down, open, close, witch (lol), hello, bye, etc), learning how to write her name, & just completely amazes me more & more every day!
• Is very good at critical thinking. The other day she wanted to use our Swiffer mop. She wanted a sweeper thing to put on it & I told her they were all gone. She walks away & comes back a minute later with a paper towel & says here mom, this is the same size, we can just use this, LOL.
  
• Has a very big imagination. She loves to play with her Little People toys & will just make up little stories for them allll day long!
• Also loves to read & be read to!
• Started "real" Preschool on August 15th :)
  
• Weighs 24 lbs & is 34.5 inches tall. 10th percentile for height, not on the charts for weight.
• Stillllllll battling constant strep infections. Hoping ONE day we get to the bottom of that. She's had it 9 times since the end of January. Anytime she stops an antibiotic, she has strep again within a week :(
• I asked her today her favorites & this is what she told me. Favorite color: Green. Favorite food: Bananas Favorite Number: 1
• Her favorite color usually changes with what color outfit she has on ;)
  

Overall, Aubs is the best thing that has ever happened to us & we are so thankful & blessed!! She is our little dream come true!!!!

Aubrey Quotes

Aubrey is at such a fun age. I honestly wish I could just record her 24-7 (except maybe when she's being bad ;) Which luckily is rare. She is a very good kid!). She constantly has us cracking up at the things she says or does! Here are a few recent things that I wanted to write down so I can remember one day!

• Nathan took Aubrey with him to Lowes this weekend. They were walking through the garden department & a sprinkler was going. Aubs got very serious and said LISTEN DAD. It's a SNAKE! Nathan tried to explain to her that it wasn't a snake, but a sprinkler. She refused to believe that. She kept insisting that it was a snake because it was saying ssss ssss ssss. Nathan said several people were giggling over this situation :)
• We built a flower bed this weekend in our front yard. It was getting close to Aubrey's naptime & I told her we were about to have to go in for naptime. She said I want to nap out here, in my NEW bed, my FLOWER BED. ;)
• Whenever you ask Aubrey why Mommy goes to work, she replies "to make money to buy me new clothes!"
• This morning Aubrey wanted to watch a show that I am not a fan of. I told her no & she said "But MOM, it's COOL!". Umm yes, she's 2, not 13!!
• One day Nathan hadn't shaved. Aubs felt his face & said Eww, Dad, your face is dirty!

I know there are more stories that I'm forgetting! She is just so funny & smart! She definitely has my attitude haha!! Not sure if that's a good thing or not ;) As usual, she's getting over being sick. She had strep throat AGAIN. O-M-G. That makes January, February, March, & April that she's had it!! EVERY month since she had her tonsils out in December!! Not a happy momma! She also got Strep while on an antibiotic for a sinus infection. So now we think she's immune to another antibiotic =\ Her doctor put her on a new antibiotic that she's never had before. Hopefully we won't deal with strep anymore this year!!! We've had ENOUGH!

I can't believe it's May! Time just fliesssssssss by! I'll have a 3 year old before I know it!

Aubs These Days :)

I feel like I haven't done a "What Aubs Is Doing Now" post lately, so here we go. It will be very random, as I try to think about allllllll the things she does now. She is one busy little girl!!

• She can count to 20 in English, 10 in Spanish
• She can spell her name & will tell you her name is "Aubrey Claire Williams" which actually sounds like "Aubee Cware Will-lems"
• She can tell you how old she is when you ask her. Also, if you ask her what her favorite number is, she says "2". I think another favorite number is "28" though. She will randomly say this number often. Example: I asked Nathan what time it was, Aubs said "It's 28".
  
• Despite her little size & lack of growth, the kid LOVES to eat! Some of her favorites are chicken nuggets, cheese, popsicles, ice cream, Dora snacks, poptarts, cookie cereal, & definitely candy (wonder where she gets that from?? :) )
• She calls every place ___ house. Examples: Chick Fil A= Chicken House & Play House (lol she really says it just like that as we drive by... hey mommy, that's the chicken house AND the play house!). School= School house. My work= Marilyn, Cassidi, & Shelly's house (girls I work with. I guess she thinks they live there lol). Cici's= Pizza house. The list goes on & on. It's too cute!
• She mostly calls us Mommy & Daddy, but has been shortening it to Mom & Dad some lately. It's kinda sad, lol It makes her seem a lot older!
• She talks NON STOP. She asks 10 million questions a day, usually the same question repeatedly. I try to remind myself that she is inquisitive & learning... when I really want to just strangle her sometimes ;) It really is funny to think back to before she had her 1st set of tubes & I was soooo worried that she only said 3 words. Oh to go back to those days sometimes... ;)
  
• She has been paci free since Valentine's Day!! This was a huge deal in our house! It actually went a LOT easier than I thought it would! She was watching Dora (as usual) on Vday night & it flashed back to the past... one of the characters, Benny, was a baby & had a paci. Aubs thought this was so funny. I said oh my goodness Aubrey, Swiper (another character lol) swiped your paci & gave it to Baby Benny! She loved the idea & I quickly turned around & said DITCH THE PACI to Nathan! She will now tell you if you ask what happened to her paci that Baby Benny has it. :)
  
• Sometimes I ask Aubs what her favorites are. Here are her recent answers. Food: Chocolate (haha!), Number: 2, Color: Pink
• She is obsessed with Dora the Explorer. I don't mind it since she actually learns from it. She also has recently started liking "Wugwats" aka Rugrats :) I loved that show when I was younger too.
  
• She has known all of her shapes & colors for quite a while now.
  
• We let her start staying up a little later in the past month or so. She now goes to bed between 8-8:30. During the week, I wake her up at 7:30 to get ready for school. On the weekends she will usually sleep until at least 8.
  
• She loves playing outside. Today she told me "I LUB my swingset Mommy!" :)
• She is full of funny quotes. Some of the most recent ones I can remember:
  

Me: What should Daddy get from the store?
Aubs: Dora Snacks, Crackers, Ice Cream, oh & some Beans. lol So random!

Aubs: Mommy, I'm counting the pickles on your arm! (Pickles= Freckles!)

• Another big milestone in our house, Aubs is officially night time potty trained! She has been daytime trained since October. I am so glad to be done with diapers for a while!!

Well, that's all I can think of for now. She is so much fun & I feel so blessed to be a mommy to such a smart, beautiful, sweet little girl!

As usual, this blog entry wouldn't be complete without a sickie report @@ We were in Texarkana this weekend & I thought Aubs felt warm. I checked her temp and it was 101.6. She seemed to be doing okay. She went to bed that night around 7 & woke up at 5:30am whimpering in her sleep. I got her up & she instantly fell back asleep on me. She was so clammy & kept whining in her sleep :( When she did wake up, she was sooo pitiful. Very lethargic, could barely walk, etc. We rushed back to Hot Springs to take her to the doctor (no pediatricians were open in Texarkana on Sunday). The verdict? Aubs has strep throat, AGAIN!! This is the 3rd time she's had it since having her tonsils & adenoids removed in December. I am sooooo not happy!! It's just insane that she keeps getting it over & over, especially with no tonsils!! She's on another antibiotic & has to go back to the doctor next Tuesday to be rechecked to make sure the antibiotics are actually working or if the strep is just never going away. Hopefully we will get a good report!

Oh and on another medical note, we have an appt scheduled for Aubs at Arkansas Children's Hospital June 8th. She will see the endocrine specialist & hopefully we'll get some answers on why she's not growing. It's not that noticeable to us, but whenever she is around my bff's kids, it becomes VERY obvious. All of my friends kids are bigger or the same size as Aubrey & Aubs is 19 months, 13 months, & 6 months older than them :( Definitely praying about that situation!

Hope everyone has a great week! My doctor is out of town this week for Spring Break, so it should be a nice laid back week at work for me! :)

Tired

I am so TIRED. I feel like I can never get enough sleep. We have been so busy lately. We have been going to Texarkana just about every weekend because I have a lot of people wanting to do pics there. It's fun, but exhausting!!

This weekend we are going back again. I'm doing some pictures & we're also going to Catelyn's 8th birthday party!! I can't believe Catie is going to be 8. She is growing up too fast, along with Aubrey & the rest of my bff's kiddos!!

I am hoping to do some pictures of Aubs soon. I have barely been taking pics of her lately (besides cell phone pics) and that is sooooooo unlike me! We have just been on the go go go!!

I am ready for June ;) My grandma is coming down & I'm taking a week off to spend time with her. We're also having Aubrey's birthday party in June so that my grandma can attend. I loveeee planning birthday parties!! We're going to have it at the same place we had her 1st birthday party. Aubs wants a Dora party this year, so that's what she's going to have. Of course I would rather have a different themed birthday party, but it's HER birthday party, so who am I to tell her no Dora party!? It will be a cute Dora party ;)

I have pictures scheduled for almost every weekend from now until May... so I am one tired, busy, & blessed momma!! :)

Busy!!

As usual, I've been super busy & haven't had time to update. And as usual, I'm going to try my best to be a better blogger!!!! lol We'll see. My goal right now is to blog once a week! I think I can do that!

It seems like every time I update, Aubs is sick. Well, today is no different. I took her to the doctor this am and she has strep throat, again. I also brought up to her doctor that she doesn't seem to have grown any since she turned 2. He pulled up her growth chart on his computer & said Wow, yes, there is a problem there. She has always been little and on her own little growth curve, but she has completely dropped off the charts :( He is referring her to see an endocrine specialist at Arkansas Children's Hospital. He said it will probably be near the summer before they can get her in. He also did some labs on her today, to check her immune system. She could have an immune deficiency which could be why she KEEPS getting sick over & over. Those labs should be back in about 2 weeks. I just pray everything is okay with my sweet little girl!

We have been on the go-go-go lately! I have been super busy doing pictures. I am LOVING it!!! Me & Nathan have been praying very hard lately about some changes we hope will be happening for our family soon. I know if it's meant to be it will happen... it's all in God's hands!

Me & Aubs went to my parents house this weekend & we had a great time! Aubrey just loves her Nana & Papa so much! It makes me so happy to see them together :) I am blessed to have great parents who are also wonderful grandparents!!

This is all for now, I will try try try to be a better blogger!!! :)

Snow Day

As usual, I've been a very bad blogger. I have been so incredibly busy lately. However, today is another "Snow Day", so I am at home with Aubs, who is still sleeping away. I figured now was a good time to get back on track with blogging!

Aubrey is getting so big :) I can't believe she is already 2 & a half. It is like talking to a little adult with her now. She says some of the funniest things & makes us smile every day :) 6 weeks to the day after her surgery, I had to take her to the doctor & found out she had strep throat. I was not a happy momma. I thought having her tonsils out was going to help her not get it as often. Grr. Her doctor also told me her tube in her right ear was not functioning. This really made me not a happy momma. It's been 6 weeks!!!! Anyway, he put her on omnicef for the strep throat. Well, 10 days later, she was still sick. She now had a nasty cough, nasty green/yellow snot, & was wheezing. So, back to the doctor we went. He said she had a very bad sinus infection, which the omnicef should have been treating as well. However, she's been on this antibiotic so many times, her body's bacteria was not responding to the antibiotic anymore. Wonderful. I figured Aubs would start becoming immune to certain antibiotics since she has been on them SO many times. :( He switched her to a different antibiotic and she seems to be getting better now! :) He also said her other tube looked like it wasn't functioning now either. I will be so mad if she has to get ANOTHER set! Oh & my little shrimp weighs 22.4 lbs lol :) Her Valentine's Party is on Monday & I'm looking forward to being there!

Another reason I have been so busy lately is because in January, I launched my photography business, Fancy Photography (www.fancyphotography.org)! It has been so exciting. I absolutely love photography & it is an amazing feeling to be doing something that I truly love! I've had a great response in business in just a month & it has definitely kept me busy! My dream is that one day I can quit my job as a nurse & just be a full time photographer :) My wonderful hubby made my entire website for me. He is very good with that kind of thing! I told him we were the perfect team lol So if any of you are looking for a reasonably priced photographer, you have found one! ;)

Anyway, as usual, I'm going to try to be a better blogger.... we will see how that goes! haha!

Christmas & More

Christmas:

Christmas was so exciting this year. I thought Christmas was exciting when I was a kid, but I think I enjoy it 100 times more as a parent. I couldn't wait for Aubrey to wake up on Christmas morning! She was really into Santa Claus this year & asked everyday if Christmas was here yet so she could open presents. I finally had to wake Aubs up at 8:15am, I couldn't wait any longer! With the first present, she was still kind of out of it. It didn't take her long to get into the groove though! She was so cute! "What's in it?" she would ask as she was opening each present! She was very excited about all of her new things. Nana & Papa got her clothes, slippers, dvds, & went in half with us for her big Santa present. Aunt Lee Lee got her tons of Dora stuff, including Dora games, a Dora snuggie, & Dora tattoos. Uncle Kurt got her a Barbie car, which was a BIG hit! Me & Nathan got her clothes, some different toys & games (walking/barking puppy, toy toaster, Dora memory game, Candyland, Chutes N Ladders, easel, etc). Nathan's mom & stepdad got us some dvd players for the car. Her big Santa surprise was waiting outside :) Santa (aka Mommy/Daddy/Nana/Papa) brought her a brand new swingset!! She had the biggest smile on her face when she saw it! Now, whenever she wants to go play on it, she says "I go outside play on Santa surprise!" :) I was taking her outside to play on it Sunday & she said "I close my eyes again, Santa surprise!" hahaha I made her close her eyes when I took her out there on Christmas morning ;) So, all in all, Aubs is spoiled rotten, our house looks like Santa threw up, & we have one happy little girl :) We were very glad to be able to spend the day with my family!

More:

One of the scariest things ever happened this past week. Me, Nathan, & Aubs were goofing off & I had Aubrey on my back & I was on Nathan's back. Well, Aubs went to get down so I backed up to our bed so she could lower herself down. I was still holding onto her arm & she kinda pulled back & popped her wrist pretty hard. She started crying of course, so I was holding her & trying to calm her down. All of a sudden, she went totally limp, her head flopped back, & her eyes rolled into the back of her head. It was SOOOOOOO SCARY! I started freaking out!!! ALL nursing skills went out the window & Mommy freak out skills took their place!!! I tried shaking her & she wasn't coming to. By this point, I am bawling, scared to death!!! Nathan grabbed her from me & kind of shook her/hit her on her back & she came to. Oh my gosh, seriously, soooo scary. I'm not sure if it was some weird reaction to pain or what, but I hope I never have to see that again!!!

The same night as the passing out episode, I accidentally let Aubrey see her Barbie car from Uncle Kurt. Ooops! Nathan was putting it together in the living room. We had put Aubs to bed already. I heard Aubs on the monitor, so I went to check on her. She said she needed her medicine, that her mouth (throat) was hurting. I said okay, let's go... and let her walk right into the living room, the SAME living room where Nathan was putting the car together! I hurried her back to her bathroom & said "She didn't see anything!". Seconds later, Aubs said "That's MY pink car!!!" LOL. The next day she asked where her pink car was & I told her she was dreaming ;) LOL!!

I tried to take Aubrey's paci away on Christmas Eve, but that was a failed attempt, LOL. I was hoping that since it was Christmas Eve, I could bribe her to go to sleep without it "Santa won't come until you go to sleep!" Unfortunately, this did not work out in my favor. It all began earlier in the night when she noticed her paci had a "boo boo". Somehow it got a lil tear in it. I told her that she should throw it away. She carefully placed it on top of the trash can lol. When she wasn't looking, I took it. When she asked for it again, I told her she had thrown it away. I put her to bed at 7:15 & over two hours later, at 9:30, she was STILL awake. I finally gave in & gave it back to her. She was asleep within 5 minutes. It's crazy to me how fast just a lil piece of rubber makes her go to sleep! We had gotten bad about letting her have it all the time again when she was so sick. So, we have her back down to just naptime & bedtime. Hopefully we'll be able to kick those soon enough. It's HARD!! We tell her during the day when she asks for it that Swiper swiped her paci's. She thinks this is hilarious during the day. At night, if we try telling her this, she no longer finds it funny, at all. Sigh.....

So, last night, Aubs randomly started calling her baby doll "baby sister" hahaha! It's the funniest/cutest thing ever. She talks to her baby & says different things like "Come on sister, time for bed!" or "I want to take baby sister to school with me". She switches between saying her baby's name is "Baby sister" or "Balerie". lol! I'm really not sure where the baby sister business came from. Too bad that's the only baby sister she'll be getting for a while. I would love to have another baby in the next year or so but daycare is too expensive for two little ones & we have way too many bills for me to just stay at home. Boo. Maybe in another couple of years or so.

We're going to Texarkana this weekend & I can't wait. I'm ready to hang out with my BFFs!!! :) We always have a great time together! We will also be visiting with some of Nathan's family. Well, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!!

The Whole Family on Christmas :)

Aubs seeing her swingset for the first time!!

She LOVES her new car!

"Dreams" do come true!!! ;)

Opening presents!

A picture we took before Aubs popped her wrist & ended up passing out. UGHHH SCARY!!!

Good Day

Today was a very good day. Aubs is feeling a lot better, yay!! She is still running a low grade fever, staying right around 100.5-101.0, but at least she is acting like herself again! We had a great day as a family today! We spent lots of time watching Dora, as usual. She counted to 5 in Spanish today which is something I didn't realize she knew how to do, lol. Since she was feeling so much better, we decided to go eat Chinese & then go look at Christmas lights afterwards. Aubrey is in LOVE with Christmas lights this year! It's so cute to hear her gasp & oooohh & awww over all the different lights. :) She has been so cute & funny today. Sometimes I wish I could keep a constant video camera on her!

Some funny things she said today:

With a very pitiful face, she came into the living room & said "Mommy, Daddy told me nooooo".

On our way to dinner, "Mommy, my mouth doesn't hurt anymore. It's ALL BETTER!"

Me, "What's your name?" Aubrey, "Aubrey Williams Claire" hehehe... when I asked her again later she just said "Aubrey Williams" which is pretty much the cutest thing ever to hear her say :)

I know there was more, but that's all I can remember right now. This is why I wish I had a constant video camera on her ;) Hope everyone else had a good day! Here are some pictures from today!

I love her eyes!!

Cutie pie!

:)

Christmas Fairy ;)

Eating Chinese!

Catch Up

As usual, I've gotten behind in blogging =\ Ughhh!! I hate when that happens. Things have been crazy the past few months here. Like I said in my last post, Aubs had been super sick since October 25th. After my last post, Aubrey had 9 days where she was off of antibiotics & then she got strep throat. I called her ENT to tell him about Aubrey being on antibiotics almost non stop since October 25th & he said it was time to take out her tonsils & adenoids & reinsert tubes in her ears. So, that is what we had done this past Tuesday, on December 14th. It was quite an experience. We had to be at the hospital at 5:45 am.

Aubrey was happy as could be. Poor little thing had no idea what she was in for! (right before they took her back!)

Her surgery began around 7:10 & her doctor came to give us a report about 7:50. He said her tonsils were "rotten". Once they got her into recovery, they brought us back. It was heartbreaking!! I have never seen Aubrey look SOOO pitiful!! While in recovery, she started to desat (oxygen saturation dropped, normal is 95-100% & her's dropped to 85). That was a little scary to watch! The nurses rushed around & got oxygen on her asap. Thankfully it came back up pretty quickly. Since Aubs is only 2 & so little (she only weighs 23 lbs), she had to stay for at least 8 hours after the surgery. She was not drinking or eating anything, so we ended up having to stay overnight so she could keep getting IV fluids. As long as she had her pain meds, she did okay.
(high on pain meds!)

You could tell when the meds were starting to wear off though :( She would get so sad/fussy/mad! When she woke up on Wednesday, she drank some chocolate milk & ate a little bit of pancakes & scrambled eggs. This was enough to get us a discharge from the hospital! We got home around 8:45am Wednesday afternoon. She has done pretty well the past few days. She is slowly starting to eat & drink a little more. Her diet has mostly consisted of pudding, yogurt, ice cream, milkshakes, & popsicles. She started running fever (100.8) last night & it has continued to tonight. I called her doctor & they said to just make sure she was getting plenty of fluids. Hopefully, once she is completely healed from all of this, she will barely be sick anymore!!

Christmas is right around the corner & I can't believe it! Aubrey has a ton of gifts under our tree already. It's just so hard not to spoil her! I can't wait to see her face on Christmas morning :) She is really into Christmas this year. She LOVES Santa Claus. Sometimes she calls him Santa Claus, other times she will say "I sat on Christmas' lap" lol If you ask her what Santa says, she quickly replies, HO HO HO! If you ask her what presents she wants Santa to bring her, she either says "HO HO HO!", "Christmas tree", or "Christmas". lol!

(click to view bigger, crazy how much she grew/matured from last year to this year!)

I can't believe she is almost 2 & a half!!! WHERE IS TIME GOING! My baby is getting so big! She is so smart, it amazes me! I know all moms think their kids are smart, but she really is very advanced for her age. Makes this momma proud!!

Well, as usual, I'm really going to try to be a better blogger!! So until next time... :)


P.S. Please pray for Nathan's cousins baby girl. Reagan was born on November 21st & is at Arkansas Children's Hospital. Her heart valves are reversed & she has holes in her heart. They are doing heart surgery this week sometime. I can't imagine how scared/worried/stressed Nathan's cousin Ryan & his wife Ruth are. Any thoughts & prayers are very appreciated!!

Sick, Sick, Sick

Well, the cooler weather has hit & as usual, that brought on some sickness for Aubrey. It's been B-A-D. I hate that she gets SO sick!!! :(

It all started two weeks ago. I took her to the doctor on October 25th (Monday). She had an ear infection in her right ear & tonsillitis. She was put on antibiotics for 10 days. I took her to her ENT doctor the following Monday, November 1st. I wanted to talk to him about taking her adenoids & tonsils out. She constantly has sinus infections, throat problems, & she also sleeps with her mouth open & snores, which is a sign that adenoids are enlarged. He said he wants to wait until she is closer to 3 or 30 lbs. He also wants to see how her ears do over the fall/winter. He said her right tube is still working, but her left one is not working at all. So, that was pretty much a wasted visit. I was kind of aggravated that they had me come in & pay our $35 copay for something they could have told us over the phone (waiting until she was closer to 3/30 lbs). On Wednesday, November 3rd, Aubrey had finished her antibiotics, but was doing very, very bad. She had an asthma attack on Saturday, October 30th. Her asthma was out of control. She was coughing/wheezing almost non stop. She also woke up Wednesday with a gunky, swollen left eye. So, back to her pediatrician's office we went. He diagnosed her with a sinus infection, pink eye, & a severe asthma exacerbation. He put her on a Z pack for her sinus infection, some eye drops for her pink eye, & a round of steroids for her asthma. The eye drops cleared her pink eye up very fast. The Z pack seemed to help with her sinus infection some. She still had some congestion with greenish snot but not as bad as it was. The steroids helped her asthma slightly. She was still having very bad coughing episodes with wheezing. So, once again, yesterday (Monday, November 8th), we headed back to her pediatricians office. She finished her steroids/Z pack on Sunday & just wasn't doing well with her asthma. Well, she now has a VERY bad left ear infection. He said it was one of the worst he has seen & it looked like her ear drum was about to perforate. :( The bad thing is, she developed this awful ear infection while ON antibiotics. Not a good sign at all. She lost a little over a pound in 5 days. Her doctor said babies/kids her age should never lose weight. He thinks her asthma is so aggravated right now by ALL of these infections she's had over the past 2 weeks. So, Aubs got a rocephin (antibiotic) shot & is on yet another oral antibiotic, Augmentin for 10 days. She has to go back to see her pedi on Monday, November 22nd to see how her ears are & see how her asthma is doing & make sure she's gained weight back. Yesterday, she weighed less than she did at her 2 year appt in July :( She weighed 22 lbs 2 oz yesterday & weighed 23 lbs 6 oz last Wednesday. Her pedi said if she has even just one more ear infection this fall/winter, he will tell her ENT she needs tubes reinserted immediately. If we have to do this, her ENT will likely do her adenoids & tonsils at the same time. Honestly, I'm just ready to do it ALL & get it over with. I feel so bad for Aubrey that she has been so sick.

I've left out a lot of details but this is all just off the top of my head right now. I'll try to post again soon about Halloween (she missed out on trick or treating due to being sick but was able to go to a fall festival & trick or treat at the mall on the 29th) & other random things. Please just keep Aubs in your prayers if you can! Hoping for good news & better health at our next appt!!

Big Girl

This week was a big week for Aubrey! It seems like she went from being my baby to a big girl very quickly this week! Here's some new things she learned & did for the first time!

• Learned how to pedal her tricycle by herself
• Converted her crib to a toddler/daybed
  
• Started telling me she had to go pee in the potty... and actually went!
• Went down the big slide at the park all by herself (she used to be terrified!)

It's amazing to me how fast Aubs is growing up. I barely even remember when she was a little baby anymore. It's sad & exciting all at the same time. I love watching her grow.. she is so smart & cute! :) Here are some pictures of her new exciting adventures from this week!

Manners

I love when children use manners & are so polite. I am very proud of Aubrey because she has been doing AWESOME with using her manners lately! She almost always says please when asking for something. It's very rare that she doesn't say thank you after getting what she asked for. She also says excuse me if you are in her way. She says Bless You if you sneeze (sometimes she even says this if you cough, lol). We are now working on Yes & No Ma'am/Sir. She sounds so cute while saying it! Two of my favorite "manner" stories of Aubrey this week:

1. One day this week, we were out back playing. Aubrey went down her slide & Parker was standing at the end of it. She almost hit Parker while sliding down & she said "Excuse me, Parker!"

2. Last night, she sat down to eat dinner. I already had her bowl of food on the table & she looked at me and so sweetly said "Thank you for the food, Mommy!" and I said "You're welcome, Aubrey!" & she said "Thank you thank you!" again. hahaha :) That's more appreciation than I even get from Nathan when it comes to dinner! ;)

We've had a great weekend together. Aubrey had a blast on Friday spending the day with her Nana! Nana brought lots of presents from her & Papa. Aubs loved all of them! Great weekend!

Sassy!

I can't believe, at the age of 2, my daughter already has smart mouth answers, lol! It really is quite funny. Today, on our way home from work/daycare, I asked her what she had for lunch. She looks at me like I am sooo stupid & in a very sassy tone says, "Food, Mommy!". hahaha!

Another funny Aubrey quote from this weekend:

Nathan was in the bathroom & Aubrey ran to the door & said "KNOCK KNOCK!" Nathan said "Who is it??" & Aubrey instantly replied "AUBREY, DADDY!" hehehe.. Nathan asked "What are you doing?" and she said "Watching Dora & Boots!!". Nathan said "You can't be watching Dora if you're in here..." & she said "OH!" and took off running back to the living room to finish watching Dora. :)

Aubrey is sooooo Dora obsessed lately. She is constantly saying "I wanna watch Dora and Boots!" We only have one Dora dvd right now. She has watched it probably 50 times, in the past month. lol She has seen it so many times, that she says what is going to happen, before it even happens! We just signed up for Netflix, so she'll be getting her own Dora deliveries soon. Last week, while driving to daycare, Aubs was eating some fruit snacks. She put one in her mouth & said "Yum, yum, delicioso!" Then, last night at dinner, she pushed her bowl away from her and said "Empuje" which sounds like am-boo-hey & it means push in Spanish. Sooooo funny!

More Aubrey quotes to come later this week I'm sure... she never fails to make me smile with the crazy things she says! :)