Ten on Tuesday

Wow has it been a long time since I had time for a Ten!

1. I love my new job! Even though there is much more work, it is well worth it and my class is awesome. We are getting into our groove and really working well together.

2. Two days until the Wiggles - hopefully Brenna won't be afraid of them. I am hopeful since she loves to dance to all of the songs and sings along quite a bit too!

3. Thank goodness for furnace fixers who know what they are doing!

4. Having a wireless router is very convenient, I can sit on the couch, load grades into my gradebook, catch up on blogs, watch tv, and most importantly spend time next to my husband when I would otherwise be banned to the upstairs computer to complete my work!

5. I love that Brenna is really a little person with thoughts and feelings now. Not that she wasn't before but her personality is truly developing and she is definitely every bit of 2 that she can possibly be.

6. Day care keeps telling us that she is very well-behaved and they love her. I'll take that news any day!

7. Pain tolerance is apparently high in this little girl. We were in the ER over the weekend for a pretty serious ear infection that she didn't complain a bit about. The good news in all of this is that her tubes are still in their correct locations and working very well.

8. B likes to "read" her bedtime stories now. I start the sentences in her two favorite books and she finishes them, sometimes even telling the whole sentence before I have a chance to start. She is either very intelligent or we have read these books entirely too much. I am hoping the intelligence factor wins here.

9. I found some pictures from the summer that I love (taken by my awesome aunt!). Brenna is so lucky to have this photo - we have one when she is only 2 months old also - it isn't often that you can be part of a 4 generation photo.

Mommy and Brenna


10. I am happy that I can update the blog a little more often. I am trying especially since family and friends don't get to see the little girl too often!

Here's to being better about blogging. My goodness if my friend can move to another state and still manage to blog in the middle of it all I really have no excuse. Now if only there was enough time left in my day for a little scrapping...

Bad, bad, very bad blogger!

I have not fallen off the face of the Earth but I have been a very bad blogger...while this is far from my longest stretch, I had been doing pretty well keeping up-to-date, and then, well, life has been rather busy. Not as busy as my friend Marie, who, by-the-way, just had a baby and is doing better keeping up with her blog than I am. That is just sad on my part! But congrats to the Taylor family and welcome little Charlie. We are very excited to meet you!


All-in-all things are good.


School is winding down. Monday will be the beginning of the last 9 weeks of trying to get as much done as we can before testing and before the end of the year.


Brenna has been healthy (knock on tons of wood) and hasn't missed any day care days since tube surgery!! This is week 5 I am happy to say. We had a follow-up, no fluid, no infection....great news even though one tube was blocked. We are hoping that a second round of drops has taken care of the problem. Back to see the Dr. in about 2 weeks to make sure it is clear.


Sean hasn't had any major travel days for the last three weeks which has been nice. This week begins a new round but it was nice that he could be home for a few weeks in a row. It is nice too that he isn't usually gone for more than a night or two. Managable, especially with the weather being a little nicer.


I got to sleep for an extra half hour this morning because my wonderful husband took our daughter to day care. 30 extra minutes of sleep are sooooo valuable! Thank you!!!


I have started walking daily and doing my best to eat more healthfully. It is time. I can't set any kind of good example for Brenna while continuing on the path that I was on. I am not healthy and I have chosen to do everything I can to make a major change as far as my health is concerned. So far I am doing pretty well. It's challenging to make myself go for a walk everyday but I have been making myself go, even when I really have no desire. While today's walk wasn't long at all since it was a little chilly and Brenna was cold...apparently it isn't fun to be bundled up in the stroller when you want to be free. Mittens aren't fun when you want to be free either. So cold hands won today. At least we were able to get some fresh air.


I love springtime in Ohio...oh wait...it was 32 this morning...stupid groundhog.


I have been thinking about the bazillions (sometimes I think this may be more than a fair estimate) of pictures we have taken of Brenna and what to do with them all. I was great when she first came home....I printed all 400 (and I'm not kidding) that were taken before she came home from the hospital. And then I printed a few more. And diligently placed them in acid-free photo albums that had room for a little blurb about each picture (I even actually wrote something). And now I am looking thru folder after folder of photos that I have uploaded and don't really know where to start. I think scrapbooking would be great but there are SO MANY pictures~just of Brenna. First I think to myself "I'll do one of her days in the NICU", then I change my mind and think "maybe her first year" in an album. The task seems so big and there are so many little and big milestones that I don't want to leave anything out. Every moment filled with worry and hope and joy...how do you capture all of that in one or two scrapbooks? I want to do something that is more meaningful than just print, stick, write. I want something that she will treasure and that we can look back at and remember.


My dilemmas are this: 1 ~ where do I start, and 2 ~ what are the essential tools that I need to get started. The scrapbooking aisles in the stores are a little overwhelming when you don't even know where to start. If you are into scrapbooking....where do you start? what are your "must-have" tools? what advice can you give a beginner?


Here are a few photos to update any need for a "little girl" fix!

Tuesday 10-Spot ~ Wednesday Edition

1. We had an ice storm last night...made the morning commute interesting and the afternoon commute rather pretty.

2. Brenna is 1 week post-tube surgery and is doing wonderfully. No major drainage and they don't seem to be bothering her in the least. It also seems as if she is picking up more words. I wonder how differently things sound to her now.

3. I am doing well on my reading list to this point. I was able to read both Gathering Blue and The Messenger over the weekend. The great thing about young adult fiction is that it is usually a quick read for me. I feel like I actually accomplish something when I can manage two books in one weekend.

4. Needless to say, between the Birthday Celebration for Liam (I can't believe he is 7 already!) and the Cleveland Auto Show (very helpful in allowing us to do research for our next vehicle), I didn't accomplish much else this weekend. NO Laundry...it's going to haunt me this weekend for sure! A little cleaning. Lots of time just the three of us which was fun.

5. Today was almost another SNOW DAY. Almost.

6. Brenna has learned the art of being a tattletale. Already. Someone at daycare today had gas and the teacher asked "who has gas" in a fun way. Brenna pointed to the little boy and calling him by name, said "osh gas". Oh My!

7. I am so looking forward to the summer when we can have lots of play dates with friends! The school year has been great so far but I do miss the time spent with friends. It just seems that there is always something going on that keeps us all from spending time together.

8. I am on to The City of Ember beginning tonight, after Big Brother of course!

9. Did I tell you that pucker kisses for the first time (complete with the sound effects), from our little munchkin, are wonderful?

10. I would like to learn how to take better photos with the digital camera. It seems they are always too close, bright, not bright enough, and always on the unnatural side. I know that our camera is capable...it's the user that's not doing so well...suggestions are welcome!

The Tubes

Today was the day...Brenna had her ear tubes put in early this morning.

This was our day:

Up early~had to be at the hospital by 6:00 this morning to get checked-in. Good thing we got up early...the snow piled so high that Sean wasn't able to get his company car out of the driveway. His original plan was to meet us at the hospital so that when surgery was over he could head on to work, things didn't quite work out that way. Luckily we were able to barrel thru with the Jeep.

After registration we were able to hang out in the waiting room for a while. It was nice because B was able to play and get a little exercise instead of being stuck in a room on a bed where she couldn't do much.

About 6:50 they came out and took us back to the prep area. B changed into these very stylish doggie/balloon jammies along with some very bright yellow socks and a super cool hat!


The nurses did all of their checks, the anesthesiologist came in, her Dr. came in. It was a very busy and a little bit of a scary time for her because she wasn't really sure what was happening.

At 7:25 Daddy got suited up for his role as the blue man complete with hat, a blue zip-up suit, footies and a mask. I wish I had thought to snap a photo! Then at 7:30 Sean walked B down to the operating room where he was able to stay with her until she was almost asleep.

By the time he got out of his blue man suit and met us (Grandma, Uncle George, Nonny, and cousin Kaitllyn, and me) about ten minutes had passed.

We had just enough time to go over to the Starbucks (right across from the waiting area in the hospital) to grab a quick cup of coffee and get back over to the waiting area, by the time we got back and were getting settled the Doctor was out to get us to take Sean and I back to see her. We asked how it went of course: she had lots of fluid in both ears but she did very well. We asked how long it would be before she started waking up and he said "she's already awake"!

We were taken right to the recovery room where a nurse was trying to calm B while trying to get the pulse ox back onto her hand (B was NOT having it). She was crying but only because she was in a strange place with new people and it was part of the effect that the anesthesia had on her, not because she was in any pain.

There was a little bit of drainage from her right ear but nothing major and barely anything from her left ear.
It took about ten minutes to calm her down and get her to start taking fluids (in the form of Orange Pierre's Popsicle). As soon as she was done with her double popsicle and some juice, we were able to get her dressed and take her home. She was in a great mood and by the time we got her out to the waiting room she was ready to visit with family and wanted to get down and start playing again. The sheet we got from the doctor said that normal activity typically resumes within 6-24 hours...with B it was about 60 minutes...if that!

We were home by about 9:15-9:30, Brenna chowed her breakfast, played for a while and went down for a nice long nap like she would any other day. Just a little tylenol to take the edge off. Grandma came with us to spend a little time and make sure the little girl was ok and that I was ok too. Sean was able to head out after we got Brenna settled in at home (by then the driveway had been plowed).

This whole process was a lot less traumatic than I thought it would be. Probably more so for Sean & I than for Brenna.

All afternoon she played and ate and was very much herself! We couldn't have asked for a better outcome!

Sometimes I think there is just no stopping this little girl!

It will be interesting to see how the tubes work for her. We are hopeful they will do the trick and she will be back to her healthy self relatively soon.

Brenna's Ten

1. It's Tube Time
So the latest in the Brenna ear infection sickness saga is this. After many months of infections and/or constant fluid the decision to go ahead with tympanostomy tubes has been made. Hopefully it will make a difference for her. Ultimately we just want her to have some relief from the pressure and pain that she has been experiencing and avoid more antibiotics if at all possible. It's a little scary knowing that she has to go through this but looking back at the last 19 months, I guess this is our "piece of cake." What's a ten minute surgery to a little girl who was so early and managed to champion through a hemangioma the size of hmm...I'm not sure what to compare it with...but it was kinda big. She's a pro of course. Mommy and daddy on the other hand don't handle these things very well. I keep hearing from other parents what a difference it will make and how much better off she will be once they are in. The other bonus is that the doctor said that she won't have any restrictions when it come to water in her ears. Yea for baths and swimming without cotton balls or ear plugs...yeah, like she would keep those in...sure she would. Next Wednesday is the day so stay tuned for updates.
2. I just found out that my good friend Marie is in the beginning stages of pre-eclampsia. Thankfully, Taylor V 2.o is due April 4th and it seems "the boy" is being a little more cooperative than Brenna when it comes to staying cozy and warm for the duration. I'm sure this is rather difficult for her and for BJ because they are in the midst of selling a house, moving and raising an adorable, yet very busy 2 year old. I know how difficult it can be but I also know the joy that comes from the the challenges that pre-eclampsia sometimes presents. Here's to "the boy" staying exactly where he is suppose to for as long as he needs to! :P
3. It is very cold again...not as cold as last week when we had a "cold day" instead of a snow day, but cold just the same. Too cold to take the little girl outside for a walk. What do I think the weather should be like in Cleveland in February? 70 and sunny...nope, that is saved for my dear San Diegan brother. What's the weather today FPIII? Let me guess...70 and sunny as usual?
4. I had the best time watching Brenna play tonight. Watching a 19 month old play when she thinks no one is watching is great. She was washing her dishes in her little kitchen sink, opening and closing the door to her little kitchen's microwave, just exploring in general. Pretending to talk to Nonny on the phone. I'm amazed every day by how quickly she is changing and how much she learns.
5. She has learned to turn her plate over instead of giving it to us when she is done eating. While I appreciate that she is learning cause and effect, I'm not so sure how I feel about this:
B: aaa done (Her version of All Done)
Me: Give mommy your plate please (I grabbed it to keep her from turning it over).
B: (holding tightly with both hands) Et Go!
Me: I'm thinking to myself wait a minute, I'm the mommy, I get to tell you to let go, you don't get to tell me that!
6. Laa loo is the best thing that comes from our daughter's mouth! Especially when she says it and we don't have to say "Brenna, say love you" I'll take "laa loo's" any time any day!
7. Uncle Freddy now has a name... Brenna say Freddy: "Bweddy" She knows exactly who he is in pictures and sometimes kisses the picture or the phone if we are talking to him or leaving him a message.
8. My daughter is learning about taking care of babies. Unfortunately, while she loves and kisses her baby (mmwaaa), she often carries it by the foot, drops it on its head, smashes it into the play stroller and baby carrier that came with it, she hasn't learned that you have to be careful with babies and that it really isn't polite to drop your baby on her head. She does love to pick it up, give it hugs, rock it, pat its back (while saying "aaaa" and "beeby"), and puts one of her blankets on it...very cute.
9. B spent the day with grandma because fever=no day care. They played and snuggled and will do it all over again tomorrow. Grandma is teaching her to look thru something and say "I see you". She does her little girl version of "see you" annunciating the you very precisely, just as she does with yes. It's YYEESSS. Not es, s, or yeah, but Yyesss.
10. Yea for Nilla wafers.