The Storm

I feel like I just survived something big. not a war, that's not the right word. storm maybe? like we have been in a boat, thrashed around in a severe storm the past week and finally the waves have calmed and we see the shore. yes that's more accurate.  (maybe because it was this past week's bible study though- about Peter in the boat and walking on water. either way, it's a good picture painted. )
Tuesday I broke down and took Ainsley to her pediatrician. She needed a breathing treatment or something to help her breathe better. We spent an hour in the dr's office, getting her tested for RSV and getting a breathing treatment. You would have thought the sweet nurse (who i went to nursing school with) was sawing ainsley's leg off the way she screamed over having an oxygen mask held in front of her face. not even strapped on. just held there so she could breathe the medicine in. geeezz. 
she tested negative for RSV but was diagnosed with another form of bronchiolitis. she also said she was developing bilateral ear infections. she gave us an antibiotic for the ears and told me to just suction her out as much as I could. to keep her fever down with tylenol and motrin. that it was going to get worse before it got better. and it would last probably about 2 weeks. great;) looking forward to this!  Of course this all happened when philip is scheduled to work 4 12 hours shift in a row (we see him a total of 40 minutes when he works back to back shifts), has one day off, then back to work. Single moms- I admire you soo much. I don't know how you do it on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.  the second night ainsley was up from 11-4/5 I thought I was going to pull my hair out. It was 1 am and I was driving around the neighborhood in my hoodie and house shoes trying to get this child to just sleep. texting philip that I would rather work his 4 shifts than be here by myself. 

We tried to move some stuff one day while Philip was sleeping, but A wouldn't let anyone hold her except me. she would scream if they tried. at first it was sweet. about 24 hours in, not so much;)  anyway, enough whining. we survived! she is almost back to normal. she played today finally. she would bring me books to read to her. she would play and then come lay her head on my shoulder. then play and come back. but at least she played. and no fever in 24 hours. she took her night time bottle for the first time in 4 nights tonight. we are making progress:) 
 We can see the shore and are about to jump out of this sickness boat and roll around in the sand:)  Thank you thank you to my parents and family and friends who have helped me with her. or have been praying for her/me this week. It has made such a difference! 

oh, and this happened. 8 inches- chopped off and donated! 

We're Moving!

Today we closed on our new house!  The story of how this all fell into place is pretty amazing.  Philip is always browsing houses. He is constantly looking online and when we drive around, just looking at them. He is the dreamer of the two of us. I am the realist:)  A few months ago he told me we needed a plan. that I needed to decide if I wanted to live in Lexington or Georgetown. This was a hard decision because I have always envisioned myself living on the farm in Georgetown. And we still may eventually. But it surprised me to realize that I wasn't ready to leave my life in Lexington. My friends who stop by, girls i meet up with to go on a walk, my bible study, our church, preschool for Ainsley one day, planet thai (just kidding). I just felt like moving to gtown, I would lose a lot of that. and i've finally found my niche here. so that was decision #1.  Decision #2- do we want to have next baby in this house, or a bigger house? if this house had a basement, or even some more storage, I would love to stay here. We love this house. We love the location. but it has no space. we store so much stuff at my parents right now. it's crazy. so no way could we have another baby and everything it would accumulate, here.  So once I made those decisions, Philip felt better about having a 'plan'.  He found this house on Zillow. He showed me pictures. he is always showing me pictures of houses and I usually am just half-looking at them. But this house looked pretty awesome. In a neighborhood I have for some reason been drawn to every time we drive through it.  We agreed to pray about this house and the decision to move before we even went to look at it.  And that decision has made the biggest impact.  Once we both felt like we should go look at the house, we called the number to see when we could come look at it (for sale by owner). The girl who answered told us she was actually close to the house and could meet us there in an hour. I had been baking all day and was a mess, but we went over there to see it!  Gloria was so incredibly sweet and in love with her old home. After we left, we both just knew this was going to be our new home. I love it. and that is big for me, because I didn't even love this house when we bought it. change is hard for me and I don't deal well with it. but asking God to come into this decision gave me peace about it.  We talked everything over with our accountant (aunt ellen) and decided to put an offer on the house. After some back and forth, we reached a price that we were happy with. the seller wasn't:) but his wife convinced him to sell it to us:) i knew I liked her!  The next day at work, i told my manager that we were buying a house and selling ours. She told me that one of the managers there was looking for a house in our current neighborhood. to tell him we were putting ours up for sale. so I went to talk to him and he said he would be interested in coming to see the house.  the week after christmas him and his fiancee came over to see the house (we had to take the tree down on dec 26 and i was devastated). when they left, philip and I both looked at each other and said 'they don't like it'. I felt pretty deflated. but not too discouraged, it would have been too easy to have him buy it.  well he texted that night telling us that they loved the house and would talk to bank on monday and see what they could do. We were beyond excited. He has now signed a contract and we will close late February. God is so good. and answered our prayers in amazing ways. I told the guy who is buying our house that God had just worked this out perfectly and he said he agreed. And when I told Gloria that we sold our house without a realtor she said 'God is so good'.  We are so amazed at how much God cares for every aspect of our lives. at how if we just give decisions to Him, He will take care of them far better than anything we could have ever done on our own. in bible study last week, it was the parable of the mustard seed.  faith that small, moving mountains. 

keys to the new house! 

soooo- we are moving! we have some boxes packed and need to pack so many more. we have furniture and rugs ordered. We don't have to be out of this house until end of February, so we have time. which is soo nice. especially because ainsley is a sick little babe right now. she has bronchiolitis and bilateral ear infections. she had to get a breathing treatment and is just pitiful. :( 

“I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." matthew 17:20

11 months!

11 months! are you kidding me?! Ainsley has been on this Earth for ELEVEN. MONTHS. I honestly just can not believe it. I ordered her birthday invitations and teared up when I was addressing them. I can't handle her growing up so fast! :'( 

11 months-- wahoo!!! 

loves playing peek-a-boo

i need a water break mom

weight/height: she hasn't been back to the dr, so not sure.  She seems so big yet so tiny all at the same time. 
size: she can wear some 9 month clothes, but is mostly in 12 month clothes or 9-12 month.   still wearing size 3 pampers cruisers during day and side 3 pampers nighttime diapers at night.  nicknames: beanie, big girl, stinker, monster, Jo-Jo(pop), Sugar Bear (nana) 
physical: she still has blue eyes! I am surprised they didn't change, but love it because they are gorgeous.  Her hair has a slight reddish tint, and is still shaggy. She is starting to get a mullet that we might have to trim up soon.  She now has FOUR teeth. her two middle bottom teeth and her top two eye teeth. she's our little vampire. wondering when her top middle teeth will appear? 

eating: She still takes a bottle 4 times a day, usually around 6oz. She eats fruit/yogurt after 1100 bottle and eats her dinner of vegetables around 500pm. She LOVES ravioli. I have to hide veggies in her pasta to get her to eat it. She gets bites of whatever we are eating. she still loves fruit the best. she is now using her sippy cup with a straw, and loves ice water. 

sleeping: for the most part she has dropped her morning nap and only takes one nap in the afternoon. She goes down around 1/130 and sleeps until 3-4. or some days she sleeps for 30 minutes. any day I plan to get stuff done during nap time, it's like she has this sixth sense and decides not to nap;)  She goes down to sleep anywhere between 7-8 and wakes up around 7-730. she's getting better about finding her paci in her crib and not crying for me to put it back in. 
new things: she walks everywhere. it is the cutest thing watching her walk around, practically running sometimes. we're like 'she's so tiny and running!'  she can stand up without holding on to anything she HAS to have to have something in her hand at all times. so she walks around holding various things she finds around the house; pot holder, deck of cards, remote, etc.  she is getting so good at 'sharing'. she will offer her toy, food, or paci to you and laughs when you take it or pretend to eat it.  she has started 'dancing' where she squats down and back up. not 'twerking', ANN. just dancing.  she gives the best hugs, especially in the mornings.  she LOVES playing with jackson and sharing her toys (and food) with him. she has tried to play with Maya but she isn't having it.  she loves waving at people she says 'DaDa' with purpose, but thats the only thing she knows what she is saying. although several times we think she says her version of 'Jackson'. i swear she does.  after her bath is over, we yell 'cleanie beanie!!!' before we take her out of the bath and she gets so excited she throws her toys and kicks her legs. excited is actually an understatement.  she has started pulling the monitor into her crib and playing with it when she wakes up. it makes for an interesting view when i turn the camera on and see an eye ball staring at me  still loves books. especially loves flap books.  she high fives, thanks uncle bubby

RUNNING to the bath tub