Monsters, Inc.

Is it too early to decorate for Christmas? I am just dying to get decorations up. I don't have anything fancy but I did notice today two good spots to put up wreaths on the front of my house. So sad how I get so excited about that. Definitely a sign of getting older.

Peyton is giving me gray hairs on a daily basis. Today her adventures included propping a part of the gate that we use to lock up the dogs against her red wagon and climbing up the gate into the wagon and vice versa. I finally had to move the wagon onto the grass so she wouldn't keep hitting her head on the sidewalk as she climbed out of the wagon. She has been practicing going down steps and I will brag a little about the fact that she is and has done pretty darn well with learning how to sit down then scoot down the step. That said, she has taken a few tumbles down entire flights at my parent's house. Thank goodness the only steps we have are to the basement (basement door now has two bolts on it) and steps from our front porch to the sidewalk. Today she miscalculated how close her feet were to the edge of the step and took a tumble down. Now, I have always been a klutz. As you guys know, I have the weirdest luck too. Deer crossing anyone? As I watch Peyton grow, I am close to coming to the conclusion that Peyton may just have inherited my luck. Remember the rare hemorrhagic eye virus? I mean, really? Really? I digress. So Peyton fell down the front steps today but she was able to break her fall by landing into the flower pot that I have on the bottom step, then tumble down the the ground. Thankfully she emerged with only a small scrape on her arm. She got up, I dusted planting soil off of her face, and she walked down the sidewalk, looked back at the steps with her eyes raised obviously wondering what the heck just happened, and then continued on to the wagon. The child has no fear.

Also, Peyton has now discovered the awesomeness of movies. She has never been a fan of the TV which has been ok with us. Every now and then she would watch the Einstein dvds for brief periods of time which was great for me when I needed to clean. Well all of a sudden about a month ago she is just the biggest fan of the movie, Monsters Inc. I actually bought this movie for myself a few years ago. So crazy to think that my own daughter would come to watch it. Craziness. So now the game room is 100% Peyton's room. We have it set up with a large flat screen tv, dvd player, two couches, and a makeshift coffee table thinking we would use it for rainy days and Brad's xbox. How silly we were to think we would have an big kid room in the house. It actually is perfect for Peyton. We moved her special chair to the room, put the pillows on the floor to help her climb off the couch (when I say climb, I mean fall), scattered her toys and blankets around, and boy she is set for life. She loves that room and runs in there several times a day to watch her Monsters movie. She even does the "scary feet" moment in the movie. So adorable. Also a great break for us while we try to eat and such. Good times!

Happy Halloween!

I am so bad at this! Since I lost my camera (and because of Peyton's meltdown), I was not able to get many pictures but here are a few....

What a big girl!

Brad and I received some sad news this past Thursday that I had suffered a miscarriage and needed surgery on Friday to help the process along. The surgery went well and the staff at St. Vincent's hospital could not have been any more kind and helpful; they were truly amazing during a difficult time. The chaplain came to see us after the procedure and said a few prayers and provided us with information about grief and how to embrace it and accept it. I am so appreciative that she came by; the visit truly helped me. We look forward to having our next baby at that hospital, and hopefully it won't be too long from now.

Brad has been incredibly supportive during this time which I definitely need. As a mother, I definitely went through the whole list of 'what-ifs' and searched for mistakes I may have made that could have caused this to happen. Brad has constantly reassured and comforted me. Although he readily admits he may not be the most sympathetic person, he definitely has come through for me and I could not appreciate it more.

So we are doing ok and resting at the house. Peyton is with my parents for the weekend so that will give us some alone time that is much needed right now. I do get choked up every now and then when I think that I will never be able to hold this baby in my arms but I understand that there was a reason why this happened. And Brad is always there to give me a hug when I start to cry. So, thanks to our faith and our strength, we will be ok and we are dealing with it as well as we can.

4th of July

Peyton and I headed down to the lake house on Wednesday to celebrate the 4th. Brad had to work Thursday and joined us late Thursday night. We had a total of 15 people (and four dogs) at the house for the weekend - super crowded but super fun! My paternal grandparents were able to make the drive from Concord, N.C. along with my uncle Marshal (dad's bro), aunt Anna, and cousin Wainwright. We haven't seen them since December of last year so they were very excited to see how much Peyton has grown since then. Peyton absolutely adored all the attention throughout the weekend and hit another milestone for everyone to see! She took one step all by herself!!! Granted, it was a very wobbley step and she most likely didn't intend to take it on her own, but hey, it counts in our books. I just cannot believe she is almost walking. Crazy!
On the night of the 4th, 10 of us piled into the boat and went over to the amphitheater (located next to the lake where they often have concerts during the summer) to watch the fireworks. For some reason (we blamed the economy) the fireworks weren't as good as usual but it was still fun to watch. Peyton wasn't even the slightest bit fazed by them which surprised us all. While anchored, the boat was rocking at a perfect pace and Peyton eventually fell asleep on my chest. I love it when she does that and it sure is a rare event for it to happen.
I now completely understand why parents blame their children on giving them gray hairs. Peyton ventured off to the stairs many a times this weekend and just loved climbing up them. However, it's when she is at the top that gray hairs sprouted from my head. She would peak over the landing at the top of the stairs and decide that she wanted to climb back down. I tried to teach her how to do it the right way but that's similar to teaching a dog not to bark - just ain't gonna happen (well with my dogs at least). She would attempt to scoot down like a toddler would and this is not good for a infant who still doesn't understand the concept of center of gravity. The inevitable happened and Peyton tumbled forward and did a flip in the air after bouncing off the step. Thankfully I was only two steps away and caught her in mid air. Good Lord child. Give your mom a heart attack why don't you? We both cried for a second and then I burst into uncontrollable laughter for whatever reason as the rest of the family rushed to the steps to see if Peyton was ok. Oh boy, parenthood.

Loving the baby pool!

Peyton's beautiful blue eyes!

Peyton "helping" me clean up.

Sorry I haven't updated in a a few weeks. We have been super busy with work and taking care of sweet Peyton. She is still doing great! We are working on eating solid foods and while she has progressed, we still have a ways to go. I am just amazed at how she completely lost her interest in baby food after she got sick. She is eating carrots, bananas, applesauce, and peas every now and then. She only finishes an entire container a few times a week, but it's progress. She does love her bottles though, boy! I think she has lost a little bit of weight, which is not too worrisome since she is incredibly active. She still looks like a chunky monkey!

She loves the baby pool we got her a few weeks ago; she is definitely a water baby. I am thinking it won't be long before her daddy teaches her how to surf! I believe she is not too far away from walking. She still gets a little nervous when I try to walk her with just one hand instead of having both of my hands in her hands. When I take one of my hands away, she immediately plops herself down. I wish she was always that careful! However, she has no fear looking over the side of the bed, ugh, and loves to rough house with the dogs (don't forget that in addition to our two very large dogs, my parents have three large dogs so she is constantly surrounded by huge puppies!). I already plucked one gray hair out the other day!

She is still sleeping pretty great. Usually goes down around 8 - 830 then wakes up about 8, so 12 hours which is awesome to us! Last Saturday she slept until 10 am!!! Amazing. Every now and then she does wake up in the middle of the night or she wants to stay up late with her mom and dad, but we cannot complain; we have been so blessed with her sleeping through the night since 6-8 weeks old.

On June 14th, my grandfather passed away. He had been suffering from Alzheimers for the past 7 years and it was incredibly difficult to watch him suffer from the disease. Although we are all devasated by his passing, I find myself relieved because I know he is in a much better place and is his happy self again. Grandpa was an incredibly independent man and it was so hard to watch him become so dependent on everyone and everything. He was a navy pilot for 20 years, even flying his own plane after his retirement. I always felt that he and I were extremely close and cherished every moment we had together. I am also so incredibly happy that I got to introduce him to Peyton last October. Peyton and I are flying down to Florida in July and I was hoping Grandpa would still be around then by unfortunately during his last few weeks, his health declined rapidly. Yet, I have some pictures of him with Peyton and I am truly blessed that I will be able to share them with Peyton as she grows up.

Ok, this is a rather poorly written entry but I am exhausted and should be getting to bed soon! I will update more later this week!

9 month check up

Peyton had her nine month check up on Wednesday and it went pretty well. She weighs 19 lbs and 13 oz (down to 60th percentile from 75th) and she is 27 inches long (30th percentile). So in other words, she is short and stocky! The did a fingerprick to check her hematocrit and calcium levels, and those are both good. I wasn't aware of this procedure, but they also took pictures of Peyton's eyes with a special camera to see if her eyes are developing normally; those results will take several weeks and I was told that if we didn't hear anything then everything is perfect. Pretty neat.

Developmentally Peyton is right on target. I discussed the whole eating finger foods then turning blue because she chokes so easily thing with the pediatrician and she was somewhat concerned since Peyton has also been less interested in eating stage two foods since she got really sick in the beginning of May. She said that Peyton may actually have reflux and that could also explain why she dropped from 75th to 60th percentile in weight. Obviously, Peyton is getting enough nutrition, especially since I have been offering more bottles with her decrease in foods so the pediatrician is not too worried. She laid out a plan regarding Peyton's diet and what it should be like at 12 months, and we will be working on that for now. Other than that, everything looks great!

Oh, I did forget to write an entry on Peyton's hearing test - she passed with flying colors except for two tests with her left ear (three tests were done on each ear, so a total of 6 tests in all). The audiologist believes it is because Peyton still has fluid behind the eardrum in her left ear from when she got really sick with the sinus and eye infections. So Peyton will have another hearing test done in 3-5 months just to make sure. We are fairly certain that Peyton's hearing is perfect, but as the pediatrician reminded me, we don't know what caused my hearing loss so we will have to watch Peyton's closesly.

Other than that, Peyton is doing fantastic and growing perfectly!