Inlaws, birthdays, bunnies, airplane rides and earrings(Is that a bit much??)

I swore I wouldn't get this behind again...but here I am!! I have TONS of pictures to post so in the interest of time and my own personal laziness, I am going to download them to shutterfly and post the link! Ghetto, I know but I have to resize eveything before I post it here and that would take way too long.

Darren's parents(John and Carol) were here for about a week a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty excititng for Ayla. It was the first time that she totally understood who they were and that they were coming. She had so much fun with them. She adores her "Grampa John" and spent lots of time following him around and watching him. She got "Gramma Carol" to read her lots of stories, which is one of her favorite activities.

We went to Kobe Steak House for dinner one night with my parents, John & Carol and Tom & Sabrina - it's amazing food! They cook at your table and do all kinds of tricks...it was fun and Ayla was mesmerized. We celebrated Tommy and my mom's birthdays too. Yum-yum-yum!!

We also got Ayla's ears pierced while they were here. I did it once before when she was 4-5 months but they were crooked and I ended up taking them out that same night. It wasn't planned at all - we happened to be walking through the mall, I asked her if she wanted to get her ears pierced and to my surprise she said "yes". It wasn't very dramatic at all. I asked her several times if she was sure she wanted them - I even took her to potty and came back. She was sure. She picked out the little pink "diamonds" and sat very still while they cleaned and marked her ears. I put her on my lap and put my arm around her so she couldn't raise her arms up and that freaked her out a little, she started to fuss and 1...2...3....SNAP! They were done. She cried for 3 seconds....long enough for them to hold up the mirror at which point she went from Waaah to "Oohhhh, pretty!" She's a girly girl, that's for sure!! At any rate, they're adorable and so is she. I'm really glad we got them done while she's young enough that I can take care of them. They've been really easy so far and she doesn't touch them at all.....no grubby hands touching them = no infections!

BUNNIES!! Crazy as it is....we now have two bunnies. We have a black bunny named Ming-ming and a white bunny with brown spots named Sprinkles. They are sweet, cute, litter trained and Ayla loves them. We were considering getting her a bunny for Easter and in our research learned that they do better in pairs. As crazy as it sounds, bunnies are kind of hard to find in Omaha and with Easter coming up, we got them when we found them. They aren't as much work as I anticipated and because they're litter trained, they're virtually smell-free. VERY convenient. Ayla loves to feed them and pet them.


Last week we flew to St Louis for a very dear friend's first birthday! Happy 1st birthday Kendall!!! Ayla was great and we made the whole weekend about her. We flew in on Friday and checked in early. We hung out at the hotel, swam, had lunch, napped.....fun day. Saturday was rainy but fortunately Kendall's party was indoors! It was soo fun. It was at a carousel park. We roda on the carousel a bunch of times, played, ate, had cake. It really was a great time. Ayla cried that night because she wanted to go back to Kendall's party and see Jenni(Kendall's mom). We also went to the children's museum which is 10 times the size of ours. It was fun for all of us!! We also went to a kid's movie, playground, the mall, more shopping, the Arch and swam about 10 times! Ayla liked being on the plane and was very well behaved. I'm sure it helped that the flight is only 50 minutes :)

I also had an HSG this month. It is a test where they fill your uterus and fallopian tubes with dye and through radiology are able to check that everything is open and shaped correctly. I got the all clear. The type of miscarriage that I had in November is kind of rare and carries some weird risks of recurrence. Anyway, all is clear and April will bring doses of clomid and hopefully a baby soon after!

I think that covers our last month or so in a nut shell. I'll post links to pictures this afternoon!

Lots of updates

Yikes....I've been really bad about posting updates!! I'm actually not even quite sure where to start.

Hmm, last week on Thursday Darren flew to St Louis for some college basketball tournaments - Creighton of course, he tries to go every year. I made Ayla a sticker chart full of things we'd do while he was gone and thought that would help her to understand when he was coming home. We put stickers on "wake-up", "nap time" and "bedtime" boxes so that she'd be able to see that after 3 bedtimes and wake-ups, daddy would be home. When we dropped him off at the airport, it was heartbreaking. She had her arms wrapped around his neck and was sobbing. It wasn't a two year old tantrum cry, it was a very sad cry...she didn't want her daddy to go.

On Friday, we got flowers. I got an amazing spring arrangement. It had tulips, lillies, gerber daisies, roses and lots of other flowers too. It was gorgeous and so fragrant. My entire living room and dining room smelled of fresh flowers. Ayla got a smaller vase with two pink carnations, she was so excited to get flowers from her daddy. We love him so much!

When we picked him up on Sunday, she was very excited. We spent the day together and had a great time. We both were very glad to have him home!

On Monday, Ayla spent the day with my mom, I had my HSG test at Bergan. Of course she had a great time. As for me...not so much. During the HSG, they fill your uterus and tubes with dye and basically verify that there are no blockages or abnormalities. Mine came back clear, which is great but it HURT!!! Yikes, I don't want to have to do that again...EVER. Anyway, we'll be on clomid next month and keep our fingers crossed.

Yesterday was my mom's 55th birthday! Man, she's getting old. When I told Ayla it was her birthday she said "Let's make her a cake" she's so matter of fact sometimes. So we made a cake. I don't think I've made my mom a cake since I was 13 or something. Crazy enough...it was really fun, even exciting. We baked, forsted and sprinkled and then hand delivered our cake. We stuck around to sing and of course EAT cake too. It was a good time. I love how a child makes things fun and exciting again.

After Ayla had cake and ice cream and whatever other junk food my mom decided to give her, she was energized to say the least. She put on a little show for my mom, dad, Darren and I. For 20ish minutes she danced and sang. Her hits included "Wheels on the Bus", "Hokey-Pokey", "B*I*N*G*O" and several others. FUNNY doesn't even begin to describe her show. After every song she bowed and said "Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you". If one of us weren't clapping or paying attention, she called us out on it. I am going to get video of this very soon and then I'll post it, so funny.

My inlaws are coming this afternoon. We haven't seen them since Thanksgiving. Ayla is excited and can't wait for them to get here. We've already called them once to see when they'll be here. I know Ayla will love having them here, she's been talking about them all morning.

Tonight Ayla has her Spring Program at school. I hope she's as animated as she was last night. We'll video it so I can post her debut. I also plan to have lots of other pics from the weekend with our inlaws in town so I'll post those as well.

Living in a winter wonderland!

It's crazy to think that two weeks ago I was posting pictures at the park, and one week ago we had a day that hit 63*. Today is blizzard-like. We are covered in snow and as ready as I am for spring, it's still beautiful!




This is our park, we were just there last week

Driving home through my neighborhood

Another park very close to our house

Ayla's trip to Children's Hospital

It's been another one of 'those' weeks here in Splonskowskiville. Monday was a very normal day for us. We ate, played, napped, all was well. Ayla went to gymnastics on Monday night as usual and had a great time. About 10 minutes after we put her to bed I heard wretching and went in to find her and her bed covered in vomit. Ugh. As those of you with children know, sometimes a kid will randomly puke with no reason and go on their merry way as if it never happened. Weird but true! She was acting normal so I bathed her, changed her sheets and tossed her back in bed. Ten minutes later...same thing. Hmm, I had her back in the tub before her hair was even dry from bath #1.

Basically from that point on, it didn't stop. She had it coming out of both ends and couldn't keep anything down at all. In the morning, I called my mom to bring some sheets/blankets from her house because we had gone through five, yes FIVE sets of sheets, countless blankets and towels and I couldn't keep up. We were using them faster than they could be washed and dried. By early afternoon on Tuesday, I had taken her into the ped. Poor kiddo had Rotovirus. She was dehydrated and admitted to Children's Hospital for fluids.

It took 4 sticks to get her IV in because her poor little veins were flat and fragile from being dehydrated. That was a horrible half hour and I wasn't even in there, Darren was! Once they got her IV in, they started her on IV fluids and gave her some iv medication for nausea. She had gotten SIX HOURS of fluids before she was hydrated enough to even pee. She was such a sad little pumpkin. At about 10pm she started perking up quite a bit. The poops had slowed down, she wasn't vomitting and she was finally hydrated. She played a bit in her room and we were able to take her home at about 11pm.

I don't think it is standard to send a kiddo home like this but we really wanted to take her home. We knew she'd rest better and feel more at ease. Because Darren and I are "medical" people, they let us go. Thank goodness!!

This is shortly after iv meds, they made her tired Playing with Papa

Sitting on GiGi's lap

Relaxing in her bed, finally able to keep some gatorade down

Finally got to get rid of the diaper too....yay for no liquid poops!!

I think we have a "Fancy Nancy" in the making.....

Have you ever seen or read the "Fancy Nancy" series of books? They're very cute and Ayla really likes them. They star a little red headed girl...maybe 4ish who loves to be fancy. She dresses fancy, speaks fancy, eats fancy etc. It's comical because her fanciness(if that's a word) is based on toddler/preschool aged standards.

Today Fancy Ayla made her debut and let me just tell you, she was looking FANCY for sure! She thought it was so fun and was dancing and singing. I'll have to video next time but for now I have some pics




Looking sweet, working the camera

Check me out

She's got the moves too

Simple picture but adorable dimple

The princess on her "throne" Hahahaha!!

Have a happy Monday........................

Crabby, crabby make me HAPPY!

We decided, kind of last minute to have a few familiy and friends over for the game on Sunday. We had just gotten a 20lb box of King Crab legs and figured we'd do crab for dinner. These are the BIGGEST and BEST crab legs I have ever had, ever! We had 8 adults and went through about 10lbs.

Here they are...ready to be grilled
Seriously scary!

We had huge piles of shells left at the end


3D half-time event


Can't leave baby Cady out of the fun!

LOVE!

Daddy horsey....hahahaha!!!

I am soo glad that we ended up having a little get together. We are truly blessed with fabulous family and friends!!!

Super Saturday...

God heard my prayers and blessed me with a spring-like day in January! Saturday, we had a high of 53*!! AMAZING! We packed up the dogs and the jogging stroller and headed to the park! I didn't care that Ayla and the dogs were going to be full of mud, I didn't care that we would all have wet pants from the knee down and I didn't care that the inside of the minivan would look like mud wrestlers had gone for a ride. We NEEDED to feel the sun on our skin and the wind in our hair. We needed to breath in the cool fresh air and run. We did! So amazing, we were there for almost 2 hours. We put Ayla in the jogging stroller and did a lap around Memorial Park. We played on the playground euipment and even the dogs joined the 'dog party' in the middle of the park.

Ayla on the twirly slide

Bouncing
Here I come!
Weee-eeeee
There were about 10 dogs to run and play