First step!

Working on taking that first step:


She did it:


Yeah!!!

Happy Birthday Lyv!

We've had a whirlwind last couple of months, so sorry for not posting in so long. Lyv is one year old today and we just flew back in from Texas this morning. I can't believe a year has passed since her birth! What an amazing year this has been for us! Lyv is our treasure! Here are a few pics showcasing her many faces from the last month:

A rollercoaster month

The last several weeks proved to be quite eventful for me. On May 11th, I'm proud to say I turned 30! The next week, Lyv and I flew down to Texas to visit my sister and her new little boy, Preston. Here is my favorite photo I took of him while I was down there.

While I was down there I started getting sick with fever and joint pain and it turned out that an immunosuppressive drug I was on for lupus had become toxic to my body and dropped my white cell count to a dangerously low level of 0.6. Upon arriving back in Denver, I was instructed by my doctor to go to the ER to be admitted to the hospital. I spent four days there in reverse isolation and had every test imaginable run on me. There was a real danger that I could have an infection in my body and with no white cells to fight them, that kind of situation can be deadly. I really dodged a bullet, because they could find no infection anywhere! (I like to think it was due to my obsessive hand washing I took on while I was around my newborn nephew). After I was released, I ended up going back to the ER two more times over the next 3 days. Now my doctors think I'm in a lupus flare and so they're trying to get that under control. All in all, I had fever every night for 12 days straight, I had 5 IV's put in my arms, I had countless blood draws and the bruised arms to prove it, and I lost 10 lbs. I'm now on high doses of steroids which have me feeling pretty good, but I have to remind myself that my body is still recovering from all the shock it endured. Thank you to everyone for your well wishes during this past week!

New office and play area!

This last weekend we finally redid our office area. We replaced all of the old cheap stuff with real furniture pieces; we sold our futon and our three desks; and we replaced our office chairs. We also put up a gate to keep Lyv out of the desk area and she has a nice big, open play area now for me to keep an eye on her while I work at my desk. It was so much work getting it all together and transferring everything, reorganizing the file cabinets, etc. But the final product is so nice and feels so much better.

9 months old

This past weekend was quite a big one for us! Lyv turned 9 months old and I celebrated my first Mother's Day with Lyv (outside my womb, that is). On Saturday we went to Heritage Square near Golden, CO. It is a small amusement park with a pay-by-the-ride setup. Which is perfect for us since Lyv couldn't ride anything. We did however, have some "old time photos" taken and rode the mini train around the park. It was a perfect outing for our little baby girl! And I just love how the photos turned out!
On Sunday (Mother's Day), Daniel made a big breakfast for us and gave me a gift certificate for a one hour massage. (perfect!!!)

In terms of development, Lyv is right on track. At her 9 month check up today, she weighed in at 20 lbs, 6 oz (75%) and is 29" tall (90%). She is starting to inch/lunge forward for objects that are a few feet away so it won't be long until she is moving all over the place. She eats solid foods and I often give her things that I am eating because she seems to handle it quite well. She loves the outdoors, but is still not a big fan of her car seat or her stroller. Short trips is about all she'll put up with. We have moved her to a bigger car seat, so no more infant carrier. She is a happy girl and lately has been really expressing herself vocally. She loves to growl, squeal, and yell. I have lots and lots of cute videos up of her so be sure to check them out by following the link to the right for "Baby Videos".

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! I took some portraits of Lyv earlier this week that turned out so cute! Follow the link to see them all.


On Saturday we had an Easter lunch and Egg Hunt at our house with some friends. Lyv was a wonderful hostess at the party and loved having lots of little friends around! Here are Lyv and I finding some eggs!Here's an attempt at a group photo with all the kids. Eight kids under the age of 3! This was taken within the the first few seconds of all the kids being set in place....

Very quickly they dispersed in all directions....

One last attempt to replace the children turned out to be fruitless. The first shot was the best! Too funny!

New Nephew

Last night my sister Amy had her little boy, Preston Andrew. He was born slightly premature weighing 6 lbs, 3 oz. He has had to be on a CPAP machine to assist his breathing for the last 24 hours but they are hoping they will be able to take it off tonight or tomorrow. I'm planning a visit in May and so I can't wait to see the little guy! Here's a picture of him before he was all hooked up:

Here's a picture of him all hooked up to the machine and with an IV in his arm. It makes me sad to see him like this but I've been assured that he is doing better today than he was last night and that the CPAP machine will be unhooked soon!!!

San Antonio

This past weekend we did a quick mini-vacation to San Antonio, TX. I had been several times as a kid, but Daniel had never been. My mom was able to come down and join us for part of the trip as well. We did two days at Sea World and of course visited the River Walk in downtown San Antonio, as well as The Alamo. We had a great time and enjoyed the 90 degree weather while it snowed in Denver!

Fun Weekend....

This weekend we went to a birthday party for Lyv's little friend, Ryder who turned 1. It was a pool party, so Lyv was all decked out in her pool gear. We had a great time and as always, she loved being in the water.

After the party, we stopped by some friends' house to say hi and Lyv got to play with her other little friend, Connor, who is 11 months old. They just loved each other! They couldn't stop with the face to face loving and kissing on one another! It was so funny and pictures just don't capture how adorable it was. Picture the two of them squealing, screaming, lunging, grabbing, kissing, slobbering... and a little biting and nibbling too. You can see some of the "love bites" on Connor's forehead here in this picture.


At home, Lyv always enjoys playing with her laptop that her Memomma and PaPa bought her for Christmas. She is no longer satisfied with just pushing the buttons though. She now picks it up, bites it, sucks on it, and has even thrown it off of her high chair. So much fun!

Life

In the world of Lyv... things are going great. She is happy most of the time and is getting more curious about the world around her all the time. She is eating a lot of different foods now and it is exciting to introduce new foods to her and to see her reaction.

In my own little world... my doctor and I are still waiting for a new medication I started 6 weeks ago to start having some effect on my joint pain. I still get pain on almost a daily basis and so even small outings like walks to the park are troublesome. It's a frustrating place to be because I want to get out and do things with Lyv and I also want to start exercising to help me lose some of this pregnancy weight, but I can't. In addition, it might be a few more months yet before the medication really starts to help. Grrr...

In other news, I finally hired some house cleaning help (refer to paragraph 2 for an explanation)! Oh my goodness... how wonderful to have someone clean my entire house! She is cheap, thorough, and fast! Let me know if you're interested in her contact info!

Did I mention that Daniel and I bought a used pop up trailer? (Once again, refer to paragraph 2 for an explanation). We are looking forward to taking it on the road this summer!
I also enjoyed a Mommy's Night Out this last weekend and did a 2 hour painting class. This is my resulting masterpiece!

Babbling and Moving!

Lyv has attempted some babbling "ga-ga-ga-ga", but hasn't seemed too terribly interested in developing those skills further. She definitely recognizes certain signs that I give (signs as in sign language), and sometimes I think I see her sign "milk" or "all done". Could just be my imagination, but I think she's starting to get it nonetheless. She isn't crawling yet but her sitting skills are pretty good now and she has figured out how to scoot herself backwards while she's on her stomach. Notice the picture below... she started out on the mat, then scooted herself backwards, then eventually flipped herself over.


Check out my videos link to see some recent fun videos of Lyv!

February flew by!

In February, Lyv and I flew to Dallas to visit my family. We had such a great time visiting my parents and my sister, brother-in-law, and niece Abigail. While there, I threw a baby shower for my sister who is expecting little Preston in May. We had a great time!

While there, we went to the Fort Worth Zoo. Lyv didn't last very long and soon fell asleep in Josh and Amy's double stroller! She's getting that front seat warmed up for Preston!We had a great time in Dallas, but we sure missed Daddy and we were glad to come home last week! Yesterday we went to the Downtown Aquarium in Denver for some family time. Lyv loved looking at all the fish!

Happy Valentine's Day!

6 months old

Lyv will officially be 6 months old tomorrow! We can't believe how time has flown by! It's crazy to think that this time last year I was pregnant and we were dreaming about life with our baby.

At her appointment this morning, she weighed in at 15lbs, 11oz (45th percentile) and is 26.25" tall (70th percentile). And for the record, her head is no longer in the 90th percentile, but is in the 50th percentile; so we can no longer say that she has a big head! She can sit on her own for several seconds, she can grab objects in front of her and pull them to her mouth, and she can roll over anytime she pleases. She eats oatmeal cereal, bananas, and carrots. She still has just the two bottom teeth. This last week she has been a lot happier and we feel like we've turned the corner from those terrible few weeks we had been having.

In addition to all these changes, I'm in the process of switching Lyv over to formula, and stopping the breastfeeding. I would love to continue to breastfeed her for another 6 months, but unfortunately I am having a lot of issues with my lupus. I have been struggling with joint pain for several months now and a low dose of prednisone is no longer controlling it. My doctor has wanted me to stop breastfeeding so that she could put me on a more powerful medication but like Lyv, I can be stubborn. For a couple of weeks now I've tried the "I won't do any physical activity or lift a finger for anything but Lyv" in hopes that my lupus will quiet down on its own. Unfortunately, even that was not enough. Emotionally, it has been quite hard for me to accept that I just can't keep doing this. But, I know that in the end I will have more energy and feel better physically to care for Lyv if I give up this one thing so that I can get on some medication to help my health. It's just one of those situations in life that you can't control, and you have to have a good cry over it and move on.

Sigh.... anyways, here's a pic of Lyv from my cell phone that I took last night. Representing some Philadelphia Phillies love!

From February 2011

Teething and Swimming

Let's see.... how to sum up the last couple of weeks? Here goes: Lyv decides she hates rice cereal, so we try oatmeal cereal and it's a big hit. Lyv is teething and has had an awful week filled with tears and crying over the whole issue. We took Lyv swimming for the first time this last weekend and she seemed to enjoy it. (How cute is she in her swimsuit?!) Lyv enjoys being read to, and is also close to being able to sit on her own. But really, the teething thing... seriously.... all consuming of our lives right now! It's dreadful stuff.

Also, I have a TON of videos on my youtube account... including swimming and eating videos. Check them out by following the link on the right to "My Videos".