Friday, March 24, 2006

Look at me now!







Nessa often looks at us as she smiles and makes new discoveries or performs new tasks such as standing to play with toys or pulling herself up to stand by the couch. She's learning so many new things every day and it's lots of fun!



I just deleted 278 photos off of our camera card

after downloading them and backing them up of course!

I just thought I would share that we only end up posting a fraction of the photos that we actually take... I think that's a good thing since apparently between the two cameras we've taken over 300 photos already this year!

I just thought I would share ... now on to posting more photos. :-)

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

End of winter photos


Well, I certainly hope these are the last, fun in the snow photos I'll take this winter! :-)


Megan was off of school this past Friday and it was a wonderfully warm and sunny day so Megan, Nessa, and I went out to play before the snow from the day before melted away.








Our three adorable cats in the rocking chair


Back to normal


Now that Nessa and the rest of us are healthy again things are getting back to normal around our home. Nessa was really much better already last Wednesday when we took her in to the doctor at the same time Shawn went in (we just scheduled two apt. times next to each other with the family doctor). It's kind of Murphy's Law of taking baby to the doctor -- when I finally decide it's gone on long enough and it's time to get things checked out then things start getting better -- in fact, usually about the time we're getting ready to head out of the house to the clinic is when I realize we don't really need to go, but, of course, at that point we go anyway.


Nessa stayed cranky for a few days after she started feeling better though. There may be lots of reasons for it, but I think one of them is that she suddenly got her appetite back. She made up for all of the lost nursing time during the previous two weeks by turning into velcro girl! She also started eating her usual three meals plus snacks as well. Nessa also started waking up again at night and demanded to eat (and then she sometimes thought it was play time @@).


Thankfully things are truly returning to normal now with more regular nursing, eating and sleep times. Nessa is also spending a lot more time pulling herself up on the furniture (and on mom) although she still gets a bit frustrated when it comes to getting down so that she can go somewhere else to play.





We're so happy to have our happy baby back!

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Megan's new reading glasses


Here's a picture of Megan wearing her new reading glasses. I hope they work as good as they look! :-)



Nessa's first kitchen love note


Some of you may know that the white board in our kitchen has turned into a place for more than simple messages to each other. We routinely leave "love notes" on it for others. We've all actively left messages for each other. That is, all of us that know how to write have left messages. And until recently the messages have all been to those of us that can read. :-)


On Sunday Megan left this message for Nessa and I wanted to share it.






For those that need translation, it says:

Dear Nessa,
I love you Nessa. I hope you get better soon. Happy early birth day. You are a great little sister. Extra love from your big sister.
Love, Megan

Poor baby!

The last few days I've been wanting to post about Nessa feeling under the weather, but I've been too busy snuggling her ... and I SO enjoy those snuggles. Sadly, today Nessa still doesn't seem to feel like her regular happy self but she also does not want to snuggle. :-(. In fact after totally wearing out her mama (even with help from her dad who is also home from work sick) she finally chilled out in front of a baby einstein video while in the exersaucer and was happy for the first time all day! Go figure!

Nessa has been having minor cold symptoms on and off for awhile now and has also been running a fever on and off while fighting the virus. She also hasn't been eating or nursing as much as she normally does so I've been worried about that (some days are worse than others this way). Nothing has been really troubling symptom-wise though and every time I would think it was time to take her in to get checked out she would seem to be really doing better. Today I finally called and we're going to have the family doc give her the once over tomorrow afternoon since Shawn has an apt. then already (yeah for family docs). I'm really starting to miss my happy baby. :-(

As I said it hasn't all been bad though as I've gotten lots of snuggles and there have been happy playful moments here and there (photos from yesterday to be posted soon). And amazingly she has been sleeping really well the last few days, so again, go figure!

The rest of us have been recovering from colds as well to one extent or another -- so send us some healthy thoughts!

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

All dressed up


And no place to go...






This is what happens when your big sister picks out your clothes ... at least mom and dad get to enjoy how adorable you are!



General updates

It's been awhile since we did a post full of tidbits updating everyone on us ... so here goes ...

Shawn has as usual been quite busy at work. The big news is that soon he will be working for Business Objects -- without every changing jobs of course as Business Objects is in the process of acquiring Firstlogic (April 3rd is the transition day I believe). We hope and expect the transition to go smoothly. The other recent news is that Shawn is now a member of our church council at Good Shepherd Lutheran church. Oh, and Shawn continues to be amazed at his near enjoyment of keeping a tidy kitchen ... that at and Tami's inability to follow a recipe. ;-)

Tami -- hmmm, what's new with me other than I again have to clean the oven due to recipe problems. :-) Well, I'm busy online a lot between ebay sales and my involvement in online lists. I'm also at the very beginning stages of the process to hopefully begin a local ICAN chapter (www.ican-online.org) here in the La Crosse area again. I've also been exercising as much as I can fit it into my schedule, and although I get frustrated at my lack of finding a set schedule I do manage one or two yoga or yogalates classes a week and doing a combination of aerobic and strength training on the machines at the fitness club at least three days a week. My arms and hands are also getting a work out many evenings as I wind down after the girls are asleep by slowly making my way through War and Peace.

Megan attended her first sleepover birthday party recently and while she had a blast the rest of us were treated to a grumpy girl much of the rest of the weekend. Megan recently finished an acting class through the community theatre and enjoyed putting on a small play for all of the parents the last day of class. Megan is also excited to be registered for her first choice in Girl Scout Camp -- The Sophisticated Ladies -- they get makeovers and a limo ride -- my how camp has changed! Megan's other big news is that she will be getting reading glasses as soon as they're ready (I'll post a pic soon). Megan will likely also be getting additional vision therapy to help train her eyes to work together in the near future. Megan is as excited as I am at having a bit of information about what could be causing her some extra challenges with her reading. We have a couple more appointments to go to before we know more details though so we'll share more when we know more.

Nessa -- well, you'll get a full update in a few weeks when she turns one!!! And of course as she's the one changing and growing the most, I'll continue to post lots of pics. Nessa seems to learn new things every day. She's starting to pull herself up around the furniture or other objects more often, but is still fairly timid about it so I think walking is still a ways off (and I don't mind!). Nessa loves to play games with us and her happy and interesting faces always fill the rest of the house with laughter. Lately it seems that I can't catch her best smiles when I take pictures though so you'll just have to believe me that sometimes her whole face lights up! Nessa is pretty watchful about where her mom is too and once started crying when I put on the same sweatshirt I had put on right before I left for a few hours that Saturday morning! She does; however, love to watch and play with other kids and has enjoyed some time at the fitness center childcare while I work out and this Sunday spent some time at the nursery without either of us there with her.

So many changes every day...

Tubby Time












Friday, March 03, 2006

SO BIG ... and Nessa's rose



One of Nessa's new fun games is the ever-popular, "Sooo Big!"





Not only will Nessa respond by raising her arms and waiting for us to say "so big" when we ask her how big she is, but if she's in the mood to show off or start a game she'll raise her arms and wait for one of us to catch on that she's ready to play.



And, what do you do with a two week old Valentine rose?

I thought I should let Nessa get a closer look at her rose than we did on Valentine's day (although I should have taken pictures then too). She had fun for a few minutes before the petals fell off and I cleaned it up and encouraged her to move on to another, more appropriate, toy.




Rock-a-bye baby


Tuesday night we thought Nessa was just a little fussy -- then when she fell asleep while Shawn rocked her we thought, oh, she's really tired. And then while getting her ready for bed we realized that she was also a bit warm. Yep, a fever. I guess it had to happen eventually. (This is the first time she's had a noticeable fever or illness more than the slightest of sniffles.)









Nessa has continued to have a fever on and off since Tuesday night. Most of the time it has been a low fever, but Wednesday night it was quite high and even with the help of Tylenol she wouldn't settle down until about midnight. Before that Nessa slept on and off in my arms in the rocking chair or recliner and it reminded me of when she was a new little baby and often fell asleep in my arms.


She doesn't have any other symptoms of illness and at time has been her usual happy and playful self. While we want her to feel better the extra snuggles and having her fall asleep in our arms is nice.

Uh-Oh William, mom caught us!


Well, Shawn always says William is part Lab!

Nessa loved the attention from William and it did get me to laugh. However, I didn't think it was funny a few minutes later when William jumped up onto the high chair tray!