Choo-choo!

Today we went up to Grapevine and happened to run into Thomas!  There was a huge Thomas the Train festival going on, and Frankie was in heaven.  We rode a train, went to a petting zoo, played with the bubbles, watched clowns, and saw a ton of trains.  Frank was smiling huge the entire time we were there.  We had just been planning to go up to Main Street in Grapevine and walk around--we had no idea Thomas the Train was in town.  It turned out to be a great family day.

An extraordinary ordinary day

Today was one of those magical days where I spent the entire day with the kids, and we didn't have any meltdowns, temper tantrums, or other catastrophes.  Frankie LISTENED to me, and I truly enjoyed his company all day.  We laughed, we played, and we shared lots of hugs and kisses.  We started the morning off bright and early with some cinnamon rolls and saying goodbye to Daddy who was off to spend the weekend at a ranch.  Then we watched "Frozen" for the second time in two days.  Frankie LOVES that movie, and luckily I really like it too and would not mind watching it over and over.  Then I took them out to BJs to meet Ashlee and Kristen and their two precious babies.  I think this may have been the first time I have ever taken both kids to a restaurant by myself, and it went surprisingly well, complete with two poops, two incidents of Frank falling backward and knocking over his chair, and lots of baby talk.  Shockingly, neither kid fell asleep on the car ride home, and they both took wonderful naps when we got home after lunch.  After naps, we headed out for ice cream which we took up to the playground.  Frankie got a cone with strawberry ice cream, and he promptly dropped his ice cream scoop on the ground when we got to the park.  He started to cry and get upset, but luckily I was able to improvise and give him some of my oreo cookie frozen yogurt instead.  We played at the park on this beautiful day for almost two hours, with almost an hour on the swings.  Lily has only swung a couple of times before, and she is so funny, I can't tell if she enjoys it or not.  She just sits there completely still and silent, looking around.  She didn't smile, but she also didn't cry. I think it may be because she spent so much time in a swing as a baby, and it is just soothing to her.  She looks like a little peanut in that swing.  After the park, we came home and played outside in the back yard and then ordered pizza for dinner.  It was a beautiful day, and I spent some great quality time with the kiddos.

Liliana - 9 months

I know that she is actually almost 10 months, but we are going to go ahead and do Liliana's 9-month post today because she finally had her 9-month doctor's appointment today.  She continues to be a very dainty girl.  Here are her stats:

Weight:  16 lbs 11 ounces, 20th percentile

Height:  27 inches, 17th percentile

Head size:  16.75 inches, 13th percentile.

At nine months, Lily is...

-wearing 9-month and 12-month clothes and size 3 diapers.  

-drinking 4 bottles a day, averaging about 4-5 ounces per bottle, and eating three meals a day and one snack.  We have started to give her some finger foods, and she especially loves puffs.  She also likes tortillas, bread, and peaches.  She still eats a ton of jarred baby food, and her favorites are sweet potatoes, bananas, pears, and peas.

-clapping, waving, and nodding her head "yes" and "no"

-babbling da-da-da, ma-ma-ma, and lots of other funny sounds.  No official words yet.

-trying very hard to move, but no crawling yet.  She will reach for things while sitting, plop on her tummy, and then promptly roll over.  You can tell she is getting curious and anxious though, so who knows when it will happen. 

-She now officially has four teeth, and she just recently found her tongue.

-Favorite things:  bath time, being outside, big brother, books, bottles, puffs, music.

-Least favorite things:  poopy diapers, taking medicine, when big brother takes away her toy.

She went in today for a routine checkup, but she woke up congested this morning and her doctor saw fluid in her ears, so she put her on preventative antibiotics to try to prevent another ear infection.  We are hoping to get an appointment with the ENT pediatric specialist next week.  Otherwise, everything else looked and sounded great.  

Liliana is a joy.  She is such a happy baby, and she rarely cries.  Someone stops me almost every day to tell us how pretty, cute, beautiful, etc she is.  Most people think she looks like Frank (Daddy) or Frankie.  She is sensitive but tough, easy-going but particular, and very, very loving.  Happy 9 months baby girl!

Balancing act

I sure do love these two little munchkins.  Ever since I went back to work after my maternity leave, Frank and I have been trying so hard to find our balance.  We often feel like we are just treading water, like we are sleepwalking through our days, like the weeks pass by in the blink of an eye, and like we are not taking time to stop, listen, and enjoy these moments.  Right now, at this time in my life, I am trying hard to figure out ways to give us more of those moments.  First, I left my toxic job and have entered a much more relaxed, positive environment, where I feel like I can thrive and be the kind of lawyer I want to be without the stress and resentment I harbored for so long at my old firm.  Next, we have decided to take the kids out of day care and hire a nanny.  We are having a girl come by tomorrow for a "test run," and I am really hoping that we love her and that it works out so that we can hire her and make her a part of our family.  Having a nanny will save us the one-hour + per day we currently spend dropping off/picking up at day care, the 30+ minutes in the morning rushing to get the kids ready for day care, and the inconvenience of having to miss work when a child is too sick to go to school.  I know having a nanny is not the answer to all of our problems, but I do think it will save us time, which is simply the most valuable thing to me these days.  Finally, we are still planning to put our house back on the market and make the move to Southlake.  I feel like that is where we are supposed to be, and I cannot wait to get into a bigger house, with a huge yard for Frankie to play in, and for so many more memories to be made as a family.  I have prayed so much in the last year for all of this positive change, and I am so excited to see what the future brings for our family. I continue to pray that we find the right balance that works for us.

Presidential suite

We stayed at the Hilton while we were in College Station.  I had originally booked an executive suite, which had a king bed and a separate room with a pull out couch for Frankie.  When we checked in, they told Frank that they did not have that room available, so they upgraded us.  We went up to the 11th floor--the Hilton Diamond floor--and were pretty excited to see they had put us in the Presidential Suite.  I even took a picture of the door.  However, it turns out that the presidential suite at the College Station Hilton is not ideal for families.  It is basically a small room with a king size bed and a staircase leading up to an ENORMOUS jacuzzi.  It probably would fit 20 people.  Frankie said, "oooh, we have a pool in our room!"  Obviously, this would not work for us.  We ended up "downgrading" to a junior suite, which worked out perfect because it was a huge room with a pull out couch for Frankie.  I told Frank this is probably the only time that we will ever turn down an upgrade to the presidential suite!

Miss Lily Mae kept waking up that night, which she rarely does any more.  I finally ended up putting her in the bed with us (which we have NEVER done), because I felt like she just wanted to be comforted.  She slept better then, but we slept pretty horribly because we kept worrying about her.  It turns out that she got one of her two front teeth!  The other one is also hot on its heels, and it will probably be here in the next couple of days.  She has been grinding her teeth together, which is a maddening sound.  I can't wait to see my little princess with two front teeth!

Monte's finally home!

On Saturday, Monte and Amanda were presented with the keys to their mortgage-free, custom home in King Oaks, just outside of College Station, Texas.   The organization responsible for making it all happen, Operation Finally Home, hosted a big presentation ceremony for Monte, and we (our family, my parents, my grandparents, and Frank's Mom, Andy and all of his sisters) went out to College Station for the big day.  We were joined by hundreds of other neighbors and supporters.  Monte's new home is gorgeous.  It is on a one-acre lot in a wonderful neighborhood, full of live oak trees.  I actually like the neighborhood so much that we are considering purchasing a lot there and building our future retirement home there.  Frank really wants to buy a ranch, but I personally do not see the need for so much land--it just seems like a lot of work and maintenance.  I would rather buy a few acres in this community, so we can feel like we are in the middle of nowhere (it does), but you are actually only 10 minutes from College Station.  Being back in that city is always special, since Frank and I met there.  It was really neat to take our kids there for the first time, and I am so excited that we now have an extra special reason to go back often.

Monte and Amanda love their home, and our entire family is so thankful for all of the wonderful people who helped make his dream a reality.  Monte seems more comfortable and positive every time I see him, and I truly think he is going to go on and live a wonderful life, with a wonderful woman by his side.  I love Amanda, and I think she is such a strong woman for standing by him throughout all of this.

It was great to spend some time with Frank's family, and it is the first time in several years that all of his siblings were together.  Mimi and Naila in particular really bonded with Frankie.  Frank's Mom and Andy stayed in Dallas for a few nights before heading down to College Station, and they baby sat for us one night so that we could have a date night.  Frankie really seemed to bond with Grandpa Andy.  Overall, it was a wonderful weekend celebrating a hero and his well-deserved home!  I am so excited for Monte to have a fresh start in such an awesome place.

Counting our blessings, sweet baby girl

Liliana came home very early Sunday morning after spending four full days and nights hospitalized with pneumonia.  Praise God for watching over our sweet baby girl.  My mom had told us that Lily was not feeling well Monday afternoon and again on Tuesday, and we suspected that she may have another ear infection, since she has had so many recently.  However, we were not too worried about her, and we were mainly concerned with getting home before 7:30 so that we could see Frankie before he went to sleep.  When we got home, Lily was sleeping in her car seat in our bedroom.  My first thought was, "oh great, this late nap is going to totally mess up her schedule, and I am going to be up all night with her."  Such a horrible thought.  Ten minutes after we got home, Liliana woke up and cried and when I went to pick her up, she was on fire.  Her legs, her arms, and her head were SO HOT.  We started searching the house for a rectal thermometer to take her temperature, and we finally find one that showed a fever of 105.  I was skeptical that this was the correct reading, but we knew she was extremely hot and she was also acting very lethargic, so we decided to take her to the emergency room.  She threw up on the way there, and Frank started to get very worried.  He took charge, and I am so thankful that he knew something was seriously wrong and made us hurry.

The ER took her temperature as 104.5 and immediately took us to a room and began running tests.  She tested negative for flu and RSV, but her chest X-ray showed what appeared to be viral pneumonia.  She was already on antibiotics for her most recent ear infection, so the hospital staff decided we needed to be admitted.  Lily was given an IV, and Frank and I both cried as the nurses tried multiple times to find a good vein.  The Las Colinas hospital does not admit pediatric patients, so we had to be transported via ambulance to Children's hospital in Dallas.  I got to ride with Liliana in the ambulance (although I had to ride in the front seat), and Frank followed behind us in his car.  That 15 minute drive was probably the worst 15 minutes of my life.  Liliana was connected to machines monitoring her oxygen level and heart rate, and I kept hearing the machine beep, which I knew meant that one of those measurements was dangerously high or low.  I could not see her, and I was just praying over and over to God to watch over her and keep her safe.  I was so relieved to finally make it to Children's.  Liliana was diagnosed again with pneumonia, and she was put on oxygen with a breathing tube, given fluids through an IV, and given breathing treatments every four hours.  She continued to spike extremely high fevers for the first two days in the hospital, and on Thursday morning she went back up to 104.5 and her heart rate soared above 230 and her face started to swell.  The doctor was very concerned that her heart may not be handling the treatment and illness, and she ordered an EKG and another chest x-ray.  This was probably the second scariest moment of this whole ordeal.  By this time, Frank and I had basically been awake for almost 48 hours with our baby girl who would not sleep unless it was in our arms, and now the doctor was telling us that our sweet baby's heart may be having trouble.  I started to imagine the worst possible outcome, and I completely broke down on the phone with my mom.  She was originally going to fly out Wednesday, and she pushed her flight back to Thursday and then again to Friday upon hearing this news.  She went up to the hospital on Thursday so that Frank and I could rest at home and get some sleep.  It was a much-needed break, and while I was at home sleeping, we found out that Lily's heart was fine.  Her heart rate went back to normal, and her face also went back to normal.  Again, such a blessing from God.

Thursday, Lily started to get better.  She was weaned from the oxygen, and by the end of the day, her fevers had almost completely subsided.  On Friday, she was able to completely remove the breathing tube and her IV.  She also started to smile and play a little bit, which was a huge relief.  All of the nurses remarked that she was feisty, stubborn, and beautiful.  But it was a shame that none of them up until then could see her sweet, silly, and joyful side.  She fought the nurses on EVERYTHING, but especially the medicine.  She would throw her head back, scream, kick her legs, move her arms, spit, and basically do anything to thwart their attempts to give her medicine.  She quickly earned a reputation for being a fighter.  And she can give a mean stink eye.  One of the male doctors told us to google "ridiculously photogenic baby," because he was convinced that she looked just like the baby in that picture.  I know I am biased, but I think that Lily is prettier.

On Friday and Saturday, Liliana's breathing had pretty much returned to normal, and the main thing keeping us in the hospital was Lily's very low food intake.  She was completely refusing solids, and she was really struggling to consume liquids too.  She learned how to shake her head "no" during this whole ordeal, and she did it frequently every time we offered her a bottle.  We knew she had to pick up the liquid intake in order to leave, so we tried everything we could think of to get her to drink.  Finally, by Saturday afternoon she really started to act more like herself, and she also drank a good amount of formula.  My parents relieved us at the hospital from 1:30 to 7:00, and we just had a feeling that we were going to get to go home that night.  Around 11:00 p.m., they finally released us.  We came home and opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate.

This week was one of the hardest weeks of my life.  We still do not know why or how Liliana could get so sick so quickly, but it was a very emotional and trying time as a parent.  We also felt so bad for Frankie, who was scared for his sister and confused about why Mommy and Daddy were not home for so long.  It was both a blessing and a curse that this happened right on the heels of our vacation.  It was wonderful having my Mom here to help out.  I really do not know what we would have done without her.  She helped Frankie retain a sense of normalcy, and she helped relieve Frank and I at the hospital so that we could get some rest.

We are so happy that our baby girl is home and healthy!!

Finally feeling better with Mommy!

Sweet kisses from Daddy

poor baby girl with her breathing tube and IV

first teddy bear from her Daddy

visit from Papa and Frankie and loving her new pink balloon

finally smiling again on day #4!

someone is feeling better

loving her pink balloon

Celebrating seven years!

Last week, Frank and I celebrated our seven year anniversary in New Mexico.  We had been planning to go to Italy, and then Belize, but we decided at the last minute to do something much more low key, and I am so glad that we did.  It was the perfect trip for us to reconnect and spend some good quality time together.  I thought that this trip was a great way for me to transition from my old job to my new job, to focus on the positive, and to have some fun.  Little did we know that God was using this time to help strengthen our bond so that we would deal with the enormous test we faced immediately upon our return (that will be my next post).

We headed out of town Friday night and Nana and Papa came to Dallas to watch the kids.  We decided to drive out to Santa Fe, which I normally would hate, but for some reason a road trip sans kids sounded pretty exciting to me.  Frank and I used to take a lot of road trips when we were dating, and I really wanted this trip to be about getting back to that place in our relationship before the stress of kids.  And we definitely did.  We stopped in Midland Friday night and spent the night with the Vestals.  It was great to see them and their beautiful home.  We left Saturday morning and had a wonderful drive out to Santa Fe.  We were listening to Willie Nelson on Spotify when we came across his version of the song "the Scientist," and I quickly became obsessed with it and wanted to listen to the song over, and over, and over.  Frank got sick of it, but for some strange reason I really connected to the song, to the music and the lyrics.  The whole time we were on the road, I kept thinking "we're going back to the start."  We can get so caught up with things in life that simply do not matter--wealth, recognition, work, fashion, cars, new houses.  Stress of a dirty house, or a busy job.  I really want to take our life back to the start, to our roots, to the things that really, truly matter.  After this week with Lily, that has become even more apparent.

Anyway, we finally made it to Santa Fe Saturday afternoon, and we settled into our hotel and had a wonderful night of drinks and dinner.  Frank said that he wanted us to not worry about money on this trip, so I enjoyed several glasses of $20/glass champagne.  It was heavenly!  We stayed at the Four Seasons, and it was a gorgeous hotel.  We had a great view of the mountains from our balcony, and a wood burning chimney in our bedroom.  I think our absolute favorite part of our room was the heated floors in the bathroom.  The weather was perfect during our stay, and we got to enjoy clear blue skies and amazing sunsets every single night.

Sunday we ventured into Taos to ski for the day, and it was quite the adventure.  The drive from Santa Fe to Taos was gorgeous, but we were a tad hungover, and I started to get nauseous and was starving by the time we arrived.  Taos is really just one mountain, and it was packed with skiers.  I hated having to park, take a shuttle to the base of the mountain, wait in a huge line to rent our equipment, and carry our equipment to the lift.  We were so spoiled in Park City staying at the Waldorf, where they took care of everything for us.  I just do not enjoy messing with crowds, and so my experience was off to a pretty poor start.  We started on the bunny slope, and I was so terrified to go down the first "hill," that I froze at the top and begged Frank to come back up and help me.  I soon got over my fear of that run, but after awhile Frank encouraged us to go on a really long green run that went nearly to the top of the mountain.  The ride on the ski lift alone was harrowing, and I couldn't even manage to get off the lift correctly.  The ski lift operator had to stop the lift because I did not get off, and he yelled "Don't jump!!"  Let's just say that I pretty much hated skiing down that long green slope, and I soon declared that I was done with skiing for this trip.  Frank went down a few more runs by himself, and I am glad he got to enjoy some skiing without me.  I loved skiing in Park City, but I think it is just too hard for me to go for one day and remember what I am doing--I need a few days to warm up and get into it.  We ventured back into Taos village for dinner and enjoyed another gorgeous sunset on our drive back to Santa Fe.  Monday we had a couples massage at the hotel and went into downtown Santa Fe to do some shopping, more champagne drinking, and plenty of eating.  It was a really cute city, and I was surprised by how much we enjoyed ourselves.

On Tuesday, my Mom called me in the morning and mentioned that Lily was not feeling well and was coughing a lot.  I heard her crying in the background on the phone, which is very unusual for her, especially at that time of day.  I figured she probably had yet another ear infection, and I spent a large part of the drive home calling her doctor and trying to get her an appointment with the ENT specialist.  We were rushing to get home so that we could see Frankie before he went to bed, because we really missed him a lot.  Little did we know that we were really rushing to get home so that we could be there when Lily woke up with a 105 degree fever.

Overall, the trip was absolutely the refreshing and relaxing vacation that Frank and I needed to strengthen our bond and get back to our start.  I love Frank so much, and I am so proud to be his wife.  We have come so far in the last seven years--two beautiful children, a wonderful home, and so many adventures together.  There is no one in the world I would rather share these adventures with, and I look forward to spending many more anniversaries together exploring the world.  Although, there is a very good chance that our kiddos will be coming with us on our next trip, because right now I cannot imagine ever leaving them again.

Sunset view from our room

gorgeous drive to Taos

high road to Taos

mountains

finally see some snow!

Anniversary trip 2014

beautiful view

handsome hubby

just us

gorgeous sunset

sunset

another gorgeous sunset

Rio Grande at sunset

Four Seasons Santa Fe

beautiful church in downtown Santa Fe

love the message in this church

happy to be back in Texas!

Taos mountains at sunset

cheers!

sitting next to our fireplace

view of the mountains from the resort

champagne lunch in Santa Fe