Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween!

Last night Rendon brought home a pumpkin from work, saying "I have to carve this for a contest at work". I have to admit, I was excited! I haven't carved many pumpkins (maybe 2?), it just wasn't something we did when I was younger...So we brainstormed, trying to think of something really cool to do, but easy. We didn't have any of the necessary tools or fun patterns. We hadn't bought any pumpkins to do ourselves, I had just been too busy with Carolina's costume, her halloween party, a last minute ladybug tutu order, and work. Carolina stayed with Haley Wednesday afternoon for a hour or so, and they were doing their pumpkins and from what they said, she couldn't have been less interested. So overall I wasn't too bothered by not doing one. But still excited about this contest at Rendon's work. Afterall, it's a competition, and I'm all for winning something (turns out it's a Starbucks card, I'm more a Caribou Coffee girl, and Rendon is trying to like coffee, but it'll do!). Rendon absolutely loves The Nightmare Before Christmas, so we did the easiest character--Oogie Boogie. Sally and Jack are just too skinny for our novice carving skills! I drew him on, Rendon did the main carving, and I did the fine tuning. So here he is!

005 Oogie Boogie Pumpkin

Couple videos. Carolina was cracking me up yesterday at lunch. Saying "mmmmm mmm" like the sandwich was the best darn thing she'd ever eaten. It was just turkey and provolone, so easy to please! Excuse the shirtless-ness, she was having an ice pop afterwards, and that's just a shirt ruining activity no matter how hard you try for it not to be...


If you've been to SeaWorld, then you know what she's doing with her hand here. If not; At the Shamu show they have you put your hands together and move them up and down saying 'Shamu Shamu', to have a whale come to your side of the arena and splash his tail, soaking the 'Splash Zone'. We have season passes, and we just went Sunday night, so Carolina knows who Shamu is. Usually if you ask her about shamu, she says "OH NO!!! Shamu!", or if she sees a poster (which are everywhere in San Antonio)


Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Photos Galore!!

.wow. On the way home from work tonight gas was $2.09...yes $2.09!! Almost makes me excited to fill up the tank....almost....

Today was the Halloween Party for Carolina's playgroup. Haley and I were the hostesses (pretty much meaning we did the goodie bags and sweet stuff) Everyone brought a dish of some sort. The kids had a lot of fun, although I'm not sure they ate a lot of food, but us moms enjoyed it! They all got their dose of sugar though! Unfortunately, we didn't get many pics of the kids during the party, we were at a different playground than usual so they were all about exploring. I had quite a few cupcakes left, and didn't want them tempting me at the house, so I dropped them by Rendon's work, and by then he was off, so we went back to the park to get some pictures. The horse stables are across from the park, and we thought they might be useful in getting some smiles out of Carolina--since she wasn't much in the mood, she was 'ALL DONE!' with her tutu at that point. She's never seen horses up close and personal, but she wasn't scared at all! The two horses in the corral closest to the road were very friendly, and didn't run away when we came up. Exactly the opposite! They kept leaning under the bars to get grass and Carolina quickly figured out to pick the grass and feed it to them!! She's like a little mini horse whisperer! We've never been around horses with her (seeing that I'm crazy allergic) so that impressed us that she almost immediately figured it out. We were a little worried that she might have a reaction to them as well, but she didn't seem to. Her eyes got a little red, but not sure if that was because she was so tired or what. But she didn't get any asthmatic symptoms. One of the handlers told us that this Saturday they're having a special day for kids to come and take rides on the horses etc. I obviously can't participate in that, but Rendon might take Carolina back since today she could only see them through the bars.


On a different note, we saw the Pediatric Pulmanologist on Monday *finally*, and things went well. They gave us a rescue inhaler similar to ones older kids and adults use, almost like a cross between the nebulizer and regular inhaler. But it doesn't have to be plugged in or anything, so it's much easier to take with us rather than lugging the nebulizer everywhere and hoping there will be a plug available if we need it. Eventually we'll also be able to give her nightly treatment through it as well, but the doctor doesn't want to change too many things on her at once, so we go back in a month so he can see how she's doing, and then we can make the switch. We're also adding a powdered medication into her nightly pulmicort; It dissolves and she inhales it along with the pulmicort. We're really hoping to avoid any more courses of oral or injected steroids, seeing that she's had so many in the past year. In addition to stunted bone growth, they can also contribute to osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and diabetes. It seems to have affected Carolina's height, she has fallen off on her percentage curve quite a bit. She is now 32 inches tall, 24th percentile (in comparison to 70th to 85th percentile she was following up till feb. or so) and 21.5 to 22 lbs (it seems to depend on which scale she is weighed on), 4th percentile (same). The doctors say that is normal, and though current studies don't pan out into adulthood, they do show kids seem to catch back up to their curve and/or peers during their second year (as in second year of receiving steroids, not age). But I guess you never can really tell if it affects their 'ending' height since there's no real way to know how tall they *should* be....I'm rambling....


SO enjoy the MANY photos!! I couldn't help myself :-)


halloween cupcakes
Haley and I made the cupcakes-we're not professionals so no one is allowed to send these to Cake Wrecks ;-) haha Poor things, they started melting in the the 'lovely' San Antonio sun right away.
Spider
Haley did the spiders...
Ghost
I did the ghosts...
My attempt at a bat....
And we both contributed to the bats...I take responsibility for the oddly cut outs...bats are a difficult thing to freehand in fondant with a knife....
We had quite a bit of fondant left over...and the guys were slightly annoyed we just made all the cupcakes, but wouldn't let them eat one. So we made a cake, and tried our hands at draping fondant over the entire thing. We also tried to make the fondant 'marbled'. This was the result...
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Some of the bees that crashed the party. This cup got left unattended for a few minutes and about 10 bees decided to die happy in the punch. Here you see one contemplating whether it would be worth it or not...
Bee Punch
Little LadyBug! I made the Tutu, antenna hair bows, and the wings. Target made the shoes and shirt, Neiman's made the leggings. I say this because all day people were asking where her costume came from.
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A LadyBug and a Quarterback went up the hill....
Ladybug and Quarterback
One of my favorites!
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Off in her own lil world
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On the seesaw with Daddy
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First look at the horses! (Manual focus can be tricky with a fast toddler...)
First look at the horses
Checking to see if we see the 'Horrrrse, horrrse, horrrrse?!?!'
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'Here-ya-go'
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This was taken three minutes after she first saw the horses (camera's clock doesn't lie!)
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They loved her....kept following her....and she loved that!
Woah

Hey there!
The one and only time she actually pet one. The white horse was close enough for her to pet a lot, but she wouldn't. This was the only time the brown one really got low enough, and she reached right out and pet his nose. I was amazed she seemed to know what to do!
Awwww!
Offering them some grass.
'
The brown horse took the grass...The white horse settled for an antennae.....She let go quickly though, no antennea were harmed in the making of this photo.
mmm...antennae
Thought this was cute.
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She wanted to go IN with them.
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The tutu doesn't stand up well to all the running around. It got more and more bunched as the afternoon went on. Luckily, I just have to brush my fingers through it to fix it before Friday.
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Curious Horse
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The horses needed some more grass.
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Time to go home!
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

She's a talker!

Carolina has definitely hit her vocabulary explosion. Sadly, I didn't start counting or keeping track in the beginning, and now she says way to many for me to list! Recently, she has begun to recite some of her books. She started with the "Teddy bear, teddy bear" book, then the "I help" book. Now she has quite a few that she will babble through, with a few of the actual words from the book. She loves to gather a stack of books, and take them to 'her chair' to read. I'd been waiting to catch the "tay bear, tay bear" on video, so I grabbed the camera again tonight, and she actually continued reading! The first video is her doing the end of her pile of books. The second is after I brought the others to her (figured I needed to knock them all out while she was on a roll, haha).


On the potty training front, we made some good progress yesterday. No peeing into the potty yet, but lots of willingly sitting and checking to see if she 'I pee pee'. Her baby also went potty multiple times throughout the day. Seems Carolina is more intent on training her baby rather than herself. Today however, she woke up with a fever, and though it went down with tylenol and motrin, it kept coming back slightly higher. She doesn't have any other symptoms yet, so hopefully her body fights it off and we will be able to get back to PT.


She also can administer her breathing treatments to herself now, Yay! This helps out a lot, in the morning especially, so while she watches Oswald or Mickey she can do her medicine while I make her breakfast. Then it's ready when she finishes the breathing treatment. It is working out to be a great routine, even if it means she eats breakfast on the couch watching the end of her cartoon.....


ANNNNNDDD, the computer is fixed!! :-)










Thursday, October 16, 2008

Just something women like about a pickup man...

"Well I got my first truck, when I was three

Drove a hundred thousand miles on my knees

Hauled marbles and rocks, and thought twice before

I hauled a Barbie Doll bed for the girl next door

She tried to pay me with a kiss I began to understand,

There's just something women like about a PickUp Man"



And that's exactly the song that came to mind when I saw the photos Haley took while she watched Carolina tonight. Even if Carolina doesn't seem to like Tanner very much in the pics, trust me, she loves him. They bought Tanner one of those powerwheel trucks today, so it was a new toy to them both....which meant they BOTH wanted it. Not only that, but Haley said they were fighting over the front seat, haha. Apparently, they would sit side by side , then Carolina would sit IN Tanner's lap, then she would attempt to push him out. The pictures pretty much tell the story themselves.


First Ride
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And the madness begins!
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One of Tanner's many well intended hugs, and Carolina's refusal to accept...
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Forced into the backseat
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Reclaimed his spot...if only for a moment...
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Tanner is in the pic too...look closely, you'll see his arm UNDER her.
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Switching drivers
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maybe not...
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maybe so...
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(This one just cracks me up)
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He was determined!!
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And she's a stubborn one!
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oooo, such a pitiful face!!
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(her foot looks huge here, lol)
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I just love the looks on both their faces, Tanner is concentrating on his 'target', and Carolina is giving him the sideways glance. From what Haley told me, there was an ACTUAL kiss *gasp* after this shot, but the flash didn't go off. oh well...

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So that was the sequence of events--yes, the pics are in order, with a few omitted that were pretty simialr to the previous picture. Not that everything inbetween isn't hilarious on its own, but I find it pure comedy that they're amicable in the first pic...fight all the way through...but make up in the end!! All at once now "awwwww".