Drivin' Fool

Here is a video of Ella driving her car. She is getting so close to walking on her own....she just hasn't turned loose yet. But boy, when she's behind this thing, there's no stopping her! She loves to drive it around all over the house. She even scoots it over when she wants to change directions. Smart girl! Hope you all enjoy this video. She decides to take a pit stop at the end to push the buttons on the surround sound receiver. Crazy driver!

5K

From left.....Lu, Me, Larry and Joannie

Yesterday, I ran a 5k with some of my friends from work. It had been awhile since I ran one, so I must admit I struggled a little bit :) But it felt good to finish, and my favorite people from work ran it, too. In fact, my friends Joannie and Lu finished first in their age groups! I have slowly started running again, and it's a good feeling!

The Past Few Days.....

The past several days have been very busy. Ella had her tubes put in on Friday and everything went very well. She did pull out her first IV, so they ended up having to stick her several times :( It makes me so sad thinking of that, but the good thing is that at that time, she was high as a kite on Versed that they had given her before they started the IV. She was quite funny. She was rambling and laughing with her eyes like half-open. They gave her the Versed by mouth and waited for it to kick in before they took her from us, thank goodness. This way, she didn't care that they were taking her from Mommy and Daddy....she was too loopy! Dr. Krenning said she had another active infection in the right ear, and she was still on an antibiotic, mind you.....so this was even more assurance to us that she needed the tubes. Dr. Krenning also said that when she made the incision in the ear drum, all kinds of gunk poured out....yuck! (sorry to those who are weak-stomached!) She had several different IV meds including Propofol, Fentanyl, Ketamine and Robinul...not to mention the pre-op Versed. We did have to stay at the hospital for awhile, though, because she had some of those common efffects from the Robinul....flushing, tachycardia, increased temp. They were very careful to watch that since we were worried about the MH, although she didn't get anything that would even cause that. ANYWAY.....we got home after about 5 hours at the hospital. Ella took a LONG nap and woke up doing wonderfully. She still has some bleeding/drainage out of that right ear which is to be expected, but today is the last day for the eardrops and she seems to be doing great. We take her in Friday to get the tubes checked and to make sure everything looks good. I am so glad it is over. While everything went beautifully, it is still unnerving to see your baby hooked up to an IV and groggy on all of those meds.
We were still able to enjoy a wonderful weekend, though. Ella was still a little tired on Saturday, but other than that had no ill effects from Friday's happenings. Here are some pictures, in random order, of the rest of our weekend!

We enjoyed a beautiful walk in the park and Cooper enjoyed playing frisbee with Tom. The weather was absolutely gorgeous so we took full advantage!

Cooper tends to keep running and doesn't want to give the frisbee back!

Ella thinks Cooper is pretty funny :)

Walking through the park. Post frisbee time as you can see by Cooper's face!

My family :)

The trees provide a perfect shade over the sidewalk. What a great day.

We couldn't go to the park without stopping at the swings for Ella. She loves them!

This is the face I saw as I was walking behind the stroller with Cooper. Sweet girl!

The kid in Tom decided he needed to try these monkey bars. He did pretty good...definitely better than I could do!

This is from another walk we went on......love this squinty-eyed grin!

Another fun thing we got to do this weekend was the annual Trivia Night sponsored by the church school. It is such a fun time....they have a theme and prizes go to the best table decorations/costumes. This years' theme was Trivia around the world. We decided to dress up as tacky tourists and decorated our table with a sort of European theme. We had a tin-foil Eiffel Tower, flags, baskets of bread and wine, and plenty of good food and drink! There were seven of us at the table, including our friends Joannie & Adam. And out of 25 tables...we won 1st place for our table decs/costumes! But on the flip side, we came in dead last for trivia. That's right. 25th out of 25 tables. Oh well...we didn't care. It was SO fun! Check out our costumes!

LOVE the fanny pack, Tom! And the socks with sandals.....Nice!

Joannie and Adam. Adam actually dressed up as a Frenchman. I thought the scarf and the moustache was a nice touch!

My husband. He looked so funny. The flat billed hat and the too short shorts made for a perfect tourist look.

Jean-Claude (Adam).

It was a busy but fun weekend. We are looking forward to more Spring weather this week. The only bad thing is that now the grass is growing FAST...especially with all the rain we've had! Oh well.......I am still welcoming this gorgeous weather with open arms!
Hope you all have a great week!!

Laughing

This video is actually a month old now, but it took me that long to figure out how to upload a video! Hope you all enjoy this. It's funny because she goes from cracking up to crying (at the very end). Tom calls her our little drama queen :)

Movie Quote Fun

Ok...so I stole this idea from my friend Monique and thought it would be fun to do a version of my own. I am such a movie lover I thought I would put a few of my faves out there. And for those of you who haven't looked around on IMDB...it is the BEST resource for any movie info you want! Tom and I have always loved it and have it on our favorites list, but I had no idea it had a whole section for movie quotes. How FUN!!

Anyway, this is how it works:

*Pick 5 of your favorite movies
*Go to IMDB and find a quote from each movie
*Post them on your blog for everyone to guess
*Readers leave guesses in the comments - no cheating!
*Blogger fills in the film title once it’s been guessed

April's movie quotes:

1. "They beat up on a weakling, and that's all they did. The rest is just smoke filled coffee-house crap. They tortured and tormented a weaker kid. They didn't like him. So, they killed him. And why? Because he couldn't run very fast." (A Few Good Men- Liz L.)

2. "Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?" (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation- Liz H.)

3. "My biological clock is TICKING LIKE THIS and the way his case is going, I ain't never getting married!" (Yay!!! Finally someone got this one! My Cousin Vinny- Katie Burgess....my fellow movie lover!)

4. "The question isn't "what are we going to do," the question is "what aren't we going to do?" (Ferris Bueller's Day Off- Monique)

5. "Well, if you must know, it was because he was very jealous, and I had these days of the week underpants." (When Harry Met Sally- Liz L.)

A Change in Plans

Well, it turns out that Ella will have her tubes next Friday instead of on Monday. We ran into a bit of a complication. It turns out that Tom's uncle had something called Malignant Hyperthermia which is a genetic disorder that can cause life threatening reactions to inhaled anesthetics, like isoflurane or sevoflurane, which is what Ella would have had for her tubes on Monday. Usually a procedure like that is so short that all they have to have is the inhaled meds rather than IV meds. After speaking with Dr. Krenning at length, we decided to be safe and have it done at the hospital (instead of the outpatient surgery center) and instead of having an inhaled anesthetic, she will be receiving Propofol IV which has no danger of triggering the MH. The chance of this even being a problem for Ella is rare since it would be her GREAT uncle who had the problem, but we are playing it safe. The bad news is that she will have to have an IV, but rather than take ANY chance with the other, this is the route we have decided to take. It is such a scary thought. So it has been moved to next Friday morning. There is genetic testing for this condition to see if you carry the gene, but the most dependable is a muscle biopsy (ouch!). For now we will just be sure to take the safe route with any kind of surgeries (hopefully this is it!) but have thought about some testing in the future. I just wanted to keep you all posted.....boy, nothing can be easy, huh? :) We are just so grateful that we found out about it in advance. In the meantime, Ella is doing great....the antibiotics must be working because she is as full of energy as ever! She hasn't tugged at her ears in over a day, so hopefully the infection is on it's way out.
We're off now to get ready for a play date! Have a great weekend!!

Bummer

Well, after many months of battling ear fluid and one infection after another, Ella's doctor has decided it is time for tubes. Bummer. I was really hoping to avoid this, but now I'm ready to do anything to make her better. I must say, though, working for a brilliant ENT, knowing she'll be doing the surgery is such a blessing and a relief. I have worked for Dr. Krenning for almost five years, and have seen hundreds, probably thousands of kids undergo this procedure....but somehow when it's your kiddo, it feels different. If there is any Doc I would trust my daughter with, it is her. I have absolute confidence in her opinion and in her abilities. I am so lucky to work for a Doctor that I trust that much. It will certainly be a relief not to have to worry ALL of the time about if she has fluid in her ears, if it is affecting her speech development, etc. I did find out though that all of this fluid in her ears could possibly be effecting her balance, which could in turn be part of the reason she isn't walking yet. Don't get me wrong...she's close but she just hasn't turned loose yet. This really doesn't worry me....after all I was a year old before I started walking.....but I want to know that there isn't a specific reason holding her up....I want to know that she is just taking her time because she's not ready...not because she can't. She will have her surgery (such a big word, really, for such a small procedure) on Monday. I figured, the sooner the better. As for now she is on an antibiotic for the double ear infection so hopefully the first dose will kick in soon and will knock the fever and the discomfort for her. It's funny because as a parent, you think you are doing everything to make sure your kids aren't at risk for developing problems like this. Healthy parents, check. Healthy pregnancy, check. Breast-fed baby, check. Non-smoking environment, check. I guess this goes to show you that no matter how much you think you are doing everything right....stuff happens! I think I am rambling now, so I will leave it at that. Just this worried Mommy thinking out loud.
Hope you all have a good day. And good luck to all you Mom's out there that are dealing with this same 'Ear' issue!!

A Girl's Gotta Look Good!

(don't you love the "Hey, Mom...the flash is too bright" squint?)

I was finally able to get a ponytail into Ella's hair. She's always had tons of hair, but absolutely would NOT let me put a hair band in it. I suppose she's finally given up, and I am so happy that she can wear a ponytail now. My mom calls her Bam-Bam Flinstone. TOO cute!! The first time there was a lot of, well, screaming as I put it in. But the second time worked better as I played the Backyardigans theme song for her. She didn't even move an inch when I put it in. How cute is this??

Our little Minnie Mouse. Aunt Jen and Uncle Adam brought Ella back some Minnie ears from their recent trip to Disney World. I can't believe she actually left them on. This is right before bedtime....can you tell? Thanks to Uncle Adam and Aunt Jen for this perfect photo op!

The Next Coca-Cola Campaign

We walked into the living room to find this last weekend. Apparently, Ella got a hold of my soda from lunch and was sucking it down at record speed. One year old and already loves Diet Coke....she's my daughter for sure!