Showering Baby Rylie

Two weekends ago, Ashlee, Kristin, Gina, and I hosted a shower for my sister and baby Rylie!  We decided to do Allison's baby shower and Liliana's birthday party the same weekend to make it easy on our families, only having to come to Dallas for one weekend.  The morning of the shower was super hectic trying to get everything ready and also get the house in order for showings.  I decided to take Lily to the shower with me, and it was a horrible plan.  She did not nap in the car on the way, so she was exhausted and miserable the entire shower, and she wouldn't let anyone hold her except for me.  It sucked because I felt like I missed a lot of the shower, but Allison had a great time and it was really nice to see all her friends and celebrate baby Rylie! She got a ton of cute stuff!  Our aunt Barbara and cousin Kim flew to Dallas for the shower, which was super nice.  Kim had never been to Dallas or even met my kids before, so it was so great for her to come out.

I am so, so, so excited for my sister to have a baby and to become an aunt!  Only 9 more weeks!

Here are some pictures from the shower:

Frank's "loves" age 3.5

This list is pretty accurate, although there are a few omissions and one very random entry (snake?!).  Of  course, Mommy is #1.

Girls' weekend and mystery virus = 106 fever!

Last weekend a bunch of my friends from Houston (and one from Midland) came up to Dallas to spend the weekend relaxing and lounging by the pool at the Gaylord in Grapevine.  I had been really looking forward to this weekend for a long time, and I was so excited about getting away for a couple of days.  Friday morning, Liliana woke up with a slight fever.  She has gotten two teeth this week, so I figured it was just probably due to teething.  Her fever got higher and higher all day, and by 2:00 p.m. it was up to 103.8.  She also threw up a couple of times, but otherwise she had no other symptoms.  I came home from work early and took her up to the doctor around 4:00 p.m.  By that time, her fever had increased to 105.2  The doctor was very concerned, especially given her recent bout with pneumonia, and she had us go next door to the hospital for a chest x-ray.  I was at the doctor alone with both kids, and poor Frankie had to watch his little sister get the chest x-ray.  He was trying so hard to be brave, but he was very scared of all of the machines.  The doctor saw some "streaking" on the xray and gave Lily an antibiotic shot and sent us home with a prescription for antibiotics.  She told us to call her back in the morning and bring Lily in if her fever was above 102.  When we finally got home, Lily was tired, but she drank her entire bottle and went right to sleep.  I was really torn about whether I should go meet my friends or stay home with Lily.  I decided to go ahead and go meet them for dinner, but told Frank to keep me updated.  I was only about 15 minutes from our house, so it was nice knowing I was only a short ride away if anything happened.  I had a lot of fun with my friends, but a part of me felt like a horrible mother for leaving my sick baby to go out and have fun.

Friday night was filled with good food, great wine, and fantastic company.  We played a hilarious game and drank waytoo much.  It was a nice stress relief, but I woke up feeling horrible about not being with Lily.  She had no fever when she woke up, but by mid-day it was back up to 104.5.  At this point, I told Frank I would come home, but he said he was fine and told me to stay and have fun with my friends.  I could not stop worrying about Lily, and I probably should have just gone home at that point, but I stayed.  We had a nice day hanging out at the pool and a nice dinner out, but my mind was somewhere else and I was not able to relax and have fun like I had hoped.  I ended up leaving super early Sunday morning to go home.  We had an open house on Sunday, so we went to Southlake for lunch and to look at some houses.  Lily felt warm at lunch, and she was acting very fussy, so I decided to take her to urgent care.  In triage, they took her temperature and it was 106.2!!  The nurse immediately sent us to another pediatric urgent care center about a mile down the road.  Luckily, it was not busy at all, and they were able to see us right away and get to the bottom of what was causing this super high fever.  They took blood work, tested her urine, took another chest x-ray, and tested for strep and the flu.  Everything was negative.  The blood work showed that this was a virus and not bacterial, so we were just going to have to wait it out.  Her fever came back down to normal with medicine, and (thank god) it never went back up over 101.  Today, she is completely fine!  But big brother is now sick with a fever and vomiting.  I am praying that Frank and I are not next in line.

Liliana - 11 months!

Little miss is 11 months old, which means she will be ONE in just a few short weeks.  Her big birthday bash is only two weeks away, which is mind-blowing.  Mommy needs to get to work on the planning!  Thankfully I have Kiersten to help me!!  At 11 months, Lily is...

-still in size 3 diapers and size 6-12 month clothes.  She has TINY feet!  I went to buy her a couple of pairs of shoes from Nordstrom last week, and according to her age, she should be in size 4.  I took one look at that size and knew it was wayyy too big.  She is either a size 1 or size 2 depending on the brand.  It is crazy!  I think she is going to have tiny feet like her Nana.

-mobile...but still not crawling.  She can scoot backwards and she can roll around and scoot on her bottom.  She will lunge forward into a crawl position, but she has not quite put it all together yet.

-pulling up!  We had to lower her crib.  But she still doesn't love to stand and does not seem interested at all in learning how to walk.

--talks a lot, but really only says da-da consistently.  She says mama when she is sad, and she babbles na-na-na a lot.

-Baby girl recently got a new tooth and is now up to five teeth!  She is eating like a champ, almost exclusively table food now, and she loves spaghetti, quesadillas, and fruit.

-So beautiful.  So sweet and full of joy.  And HEALTHY!  We have had no health issues since she got her tubes.  Wahoo!   Let's hope that we can keep this streak going.

We love you so much baby girl!!!!

Broken Bow trip

Last weekend we headed north to Broken Bow, Oklahoma to go "camping" for the weekend.  It was a wonderful little getaway!  Broken Bow is only about a three-hour drive from Dallas, and it is a beautiful place with tons of trees and some pretty decent sized mountains.  We stayed in a really nice, big cabin complete with a full kitchen, a gorgeous stone fireplace, and a huge outdoor deck with a grill and hot tub (Frankie was SO EXCITED about the hot tub, ha).  The cabin was on more than an acre of land, so it felt really secluded, which we loved.

We arrived super late on Friday night because Frank was not able to get off work early.  Frankie slept in the car but we let him stay up on Friday night to sit by the fire and make smores.  He was in heaven.  He really loved the "wood house."  Saturday we went and explored Beaver Bend State Park, saw Broken Bow lake, went for family hikes, went in the freezing cold river, tried the paddle boats, and played air guitar with some brooms and mops.  Frankie really loved being outside so much and having so much freedom.  Lily loved being outside too.  We ate dinner on the deck, tried out the hot tub, and made some smores and jiffy pop for dessert.  Frank, Frankie, and I stayed up late telling scary stories around the fire.  On Sunday we went to a neat little place inside the park where you can ride a train through the forest.  Frankie loved it.  He had the winning ticket and won some cotton candy, and he was overjoyed.  It was about as close to camping as I am going to get, and we all really enjoyed it.

Sunday we arrived home around 4:00 p.m. and Frankie was so excited to give me my mother's day gifts!  Mrs. Kiersten helped him and Lily make me the sweetest presents, and my favorite was a wooden plaque with Frankie's handprints and Lily's footprints in the shape of a cross.  It is beautiful and something I will treasure forever.  Frank and Frankie also cooked me my favorite meal for dinner and gave me some beautiful flowers and a much-needed massage gift certificate.  I am a lot of things, but my favorite is being a mom.  I treasure my children more than anything in the world, and I am so blessed and happy that God chose me to be their Mom.

Life updates

We hired a nanny a couple of weeks ago, and we LOVE HER!  It has been so awesome to have her home with the kids.  It relieves so much stress and saves us all so much time.  There is no rush to wake the kids up, get them ready, and get out the door in the mornings, and I have my 20-minute afternoon commute back!  Mrs. Kiersten washes all the bottles, helps with the laundry, and leaves our house spotless every day.  She brings paint and crafts for Frankie and teaches him fun experiments.  She takes them to the trampoline park, the library, and the aquarium.  She has been flexible, reliable, and accommodating.  Frankie has been majorly testing boundaries during this adjustment period, but I think we are getting over the hump and getting into a new routine.

Lily is getting SO BIG!  She is still not crawling, but she can scoot backwards, roll, and otherwise maneuver her way across a room.  She is also starting to pull up, and she is finally showing some interest in standing.  She is also eating a ton.  She loves pasta, quesadillas, and pancakes.  She also likes peas, carrots, corn, blueberries, strawberries...and the list goes on.  She is a good little eater!  I am planning her first birthday party, and I cannot believe my baby girl is almost one.

Work is good but very busy!  I have jumped right in at the new firm, and things are going great. We are moving into our new office in uptown Dallas over Memorial Day weekend, and I am very excited about that.  I am loving the work and the people, so it has been a good change.

Our house is back on the market.  We have had a lot of showings, but no offers yet.  Fingers crossed that we get it sold soon!  Frankie got in to the preschool program at White's Chapel (our church in Southlake), so we really really want to make the move this summer so that he can start in September.  It is so hard to stay patient throughout this process, but I am really trying.

We are leaving tomorrow for a short weekend getaway to Broken Bow, Oklahoma!  I am excited for some good quality family time.  

Frankie's first funeral

A couple of weeks ago, Frank took Frankie to Arkansas for his Grandma Marion's funeral.  Frank was extremely close to his Grandpa Frank (whom he is named after), and Marion was Frank's third wife.  Frank kept in touch with Marion and the rest of that side of his family, and he wanted to take Frankie up to Arkansas to meet everyone, especially since he also shares Grandpa Frank's name.  The two Franks stayed with Alyce and Bruce and had a wonderful boys' weekend.  Alyce has a craft room, and she and Frankie spent hours playing in her "art studio."  He was so excited to show me all of his new art stuff when they got home!  He also spent a lot of time at the Parker Homestead playing with his cousin Kaiser, driving tractors, and playing in the dirt.  While the boys were gone, Lily and I enjoyed a girls' weekend at home.  We had fun, but we sure did miss our boys!