Our Little Libra

On October 5th, our new little girl graced our lives. 

Seen here looking like an alien.  I'm not really squishing her face that much; she's much cuter now that she's not confined to my uterus.

She's proven to match her horoscope - positive [always smiling] and outwardly expressive [always 'talking'].

Playing Dress Up

Detective Ivy on the job.

Look out movie stars everywhere, there's a new star in town. 

The paparazzi caught this up-and-coming star right in our living room.

Belated Easter Greetings!

Late picture of Ivy's Easter.

And, a photo from the royal wedding festivities we held at our house, which really entailed me making an impromptu hat over a cup of coffee just prior to getting back to our backyard fence project.  Ivy is shown here envying my mad hatter skills.

More Catch Up

Here Ivy is all dressed up for her friend, Leif's, 1st birthday party.

God's gift to teething children - frozen peas.

Delinquent

Admittedly, I have been very delinquent with my posts, but, truly, it is only because I have been out enjoying my life.  Still, that is no reason to deprive you of the enjoyment that is my daughter, so I will try to rewind the clock and bring you pictures from my last post forward to fill in the time gaps....

Here's a start.

I'm not sure who was happier when it snowed - my father-in-law who found the opportunity to make his granddaughter a snowman, or my daughter who loved to adore the new addition.  I've already posted something similar, but thought this was also a cute photo.

Skipping March....

In April we made our longest road trip yet.  Ok, so it was only a 5 hour ride, but still, Ivy was excited to help pack.

Fashionista.

Here are some of Ivy's recent digs.

Equestrian Sporty. (outfit from a coworker of Jason)

Taste of India. (outfit provided by a different coworker of Jason, authentically from India)

Sports Fanatic. (seen here on Super Bowl Sunday in one of Jason's old sweaters)

Brave Little Ivy.

Here is brave little Ivy in her surgical gown. 

Don't mind the caboose coming out the back.

She was so brave going into the surgery suite.  The anesthesiologist said she was inquisitively looking around and taking it all in right up until the gas made her fall asleep.  She wasn't as quiet waking up, but who can blame her.

We had our one week follow-up and the doctor said eveything looks good.  God bless all good physicians - we seem to have had great luck with our pediatrician, obstetrician, and otolaryngologist.

The Secret to a Restful Night

Hello all you new mothers and fathers out there (and to those you find this blog post absolutely useless, I do apologize).

Ivy will be having ear tubes placed in both ears on Monday. The procedure is considered 'surgery' and for that, yes, I am freaking out. After literally visiting the doctor every other week since about October, we decided she would very likely be a happier baby if we had the procedure done.

In preparing for the procedure, which requires her to eat nothing (including water) after midnight the prior night, we have been trying to find the perfect overnight scenario to get her rested without a milk bottle in the middle of the night or early morning.

Until now, Ivy has always been a very good night sleeper, often going down at 7pm without a fuss and sleeping (at least, not waking Mom and Dad) until 5:30am the next morning. Since the latest ear infection that has been around now for several weeks and the numerous antiobiotics to attempt to resolve it, she has had a very frequent habit of waking around 2am and relentlessly wailing. We've slowly been weening out a multitude of issues, only one of which I will share at this time.

Often when she woke recently, she had completely drenched her onesie and pajama outfit. She tends to drink a lot of water with dinner and then gets a light bottle before bedtime stories. Well, we noticed that it happened only sparatically, even though she generally had the same amount of drinking fluid before bedtime. Well, we found out, that she often didn't pee through her clothes on BATH nights!!! That's right, we are pretty certain that at bathtime, she takes the time to take a pre-night pee in the bath water, thus expelling just enough fluid as to not overwhelm her nighttime diapers.

So, my friends, the lesson is, that no matter the time and effort that bath-time may require at night, it can be well worth a restful night.
 We still have other issues to iron out before Sunday night, but at least we have tackled one of our many foes.

Maniac...Maniac...

Needed to show you this dancing queen...

Seasons Greetings!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours.

We had a fantastic Christmas celebration with our families and are off to a great start to the New Year.

Here's Santa Claus with the rosy nose and jelly belly.

 Here she is again making some music on her new xylophone set.

 Jason's dad was gifted a very clever snowman kit, which Ivy tried on before we had a snowman to model it.

 Ivy had a fabulous time in her new tunnel and tent, one of her many Christmas presents.

 Here is the snowman all dressed up.  Jason's dad was so excited to get it constructed for Ivy.  The temperature and snow wasn't behaving properly so he had to help the snow along a bit with some water, but it turned out great.  Now that the snowman has melted, Ivy keeps pointing to the spot on the deck where her snowman once was, and we keep telling her Grandpa will come back to build her a new one soon.

 We dressed Ivy in all of her snow gear and let her meet her snowman face to face.  She's been big on open lip kisses, which you can see in the picture is what she is trying to gift her new friend.  Once she smacked her lips on the snow, she was a bit taken aback by the cold.

 We didn't make the trip to the mall Santa, but Ivy got her chance to tell Grandpa Schreiner that she should be on the nice list this year.

 Jason, Ivy, and I really enjoyed having the families here to celebrate Christmas.  Might look like chaos below, but we enjoy nothing more.