The Land of the Living

After a long, sick weekend, we are happy to be feeling better! Alan caught the dreaded bug on Saturday. It was terrible for him. Helen had revived a little but was extremely grumpy and very tired. Knock on wood, I haven't gotten the bug (yet). I feel that it is inevitable at some point. If not this bug, then some other one down the line. I know that I have no defense against the dreaded daycare germs. My time will come. At least Alan will have a great deal of sympathy for me when it happens!

We were unable to have any Easter festivites. That was sad as Helen's current favorite thing to do is pick up Easter eggs. Below is how we spent most of Easter day...watching Baby Einstein DVDs over and over and over and over and over again. Thankfully, Alan recovered sufficiently to watch Helen for me to go to work for a few hours. Believe me, I needed the break-even if it was to catch up on my hours at work.

Today Helen felt much, much better. She still had extremely grumpy moments, but she'll be ready to head back to daycare tomorrow. Helen is a certifiable toddler now. She wants things her way, and she wants it NOW! Today she decided that she wanted to push the stroller when we went out for our walk. She put her friends in the seat and took off down the street without hesitation. I'm just glad to finally see a smile on her face after many days without one.

Off in the sunset...headed towards healthy days of fun!

Still sick

Helen is hanging in there with her first stomach bug experience. She is still throwing up everytime something other than water hits her stomach, but (fortunately) water/gatorade is staying down. Our pediatrician told us to try her with some bland solid foods every six hours. If she throws it up, try again 6 hours later. Hopefully, she'll keep some food down in the next few tries. However, I'm becoming a pro at directing the projectile vomit to an easy to clean surface :) The saddest part is that Helen is very hungry. If she sees me eating, she starts crying for a bite. Everyone knows how much she likes to try a bite! Please feel free to post any advice you have about surviving these stomach bugs. I know a lot of you readers have been through this many, many times!!

The wonderful world of throw up

It has been an interesting night for us. It all started very routine. Helen went to bed around 8. Alan and I got ready for the next day, watched a little tv, etc. Right before bed, I always check on Helen...tonight was the reason why I do that. Throw up everywhere! Our poor little sweetums has come down with some kind of bug. Of course, sleeping in her own nasty, smelly throw up didn't bother her one bit! We woke her up to get the bed changed and to try to clean her hair as best as we could. So, began a night of adventure.

She threw up every half hour or so from 9:30-3:30. Hopefully, the worst is over and we can start giving her fluids when she wakes up for the day. Keep us in your prayers :)

Sweetest Girl

I'm finally getting caught up on some great pictures we have been taking. Helen is really starting to develop a sweet personality. I'm so glad that we have her as she makes us incredibly happy. She loves to play, and (just like her Daddy) will contemplate each and every toy she has. She is a bit meddlesome, but for the most part, she responds when we say "no." The workers at the daycare call her the babysitter as she dotes on all of the younger babies. One day, while I was there, one of the babies was crying, and Helen went over and gave him a hug. I was shocked, but the workers said that she does it all day long! It is rare for her to cry without an obvious problem that can be easily solved. What she hates the most right now is when we don't give her a bite of what we are eating. She LOVES to eat and will try everything!

Today we attended the church of my best friend. It was really fun as the nursery was state of the art. They even took our fingerprints in order to drop her off! After church, we went to Helen's favorite resturant, K&W, or as Auntie Terry calls it Gummer's (as in you don't need teeth to eat there.) She feasted on chicken, fish, mashed potatoes, beets, green beans, mac n cheese, bread, mexican cornbread, okra (boiled and fried), jell-o, and of course egg custard!


Sweet Helen....so happy!


Mischevious

Thanks to Gymboree, Helen loves to crawl in and out of this box.

Pretty dress that she wore to the Egg Hunt last week

Play time

Helen's favorite thing to do lately is to bother Dora endlessly. Here she is butting in on Dora's favorite place, her window that looks out to the bird feeder. It is awfully cute, though, because just one touch on Dora's fur and Helen erupts in giggles.

Figuring out my name puzzle

Swimming Days

It has become a favorite activity for us to go swimming in an indoor pool. Helen loves to splash! In this picture, she is enjoying drinking from her new cup. Such a big girl!

Getting ready to jump in the pool!

First Easter Hunt

Helen loves hunting Easter eggs! This video also shows how well she is walking now to all of those who don't get to see her often. She is a pro! Walking is now her number means of getting around. She can also stand up from sitting without pulling up, so even when she falls, it's right back to walking.

Preparing for Easter

I don't like this big bunny!

But I do like picking up eggs!

Saturday at Gymboree

It sure was good to finally come home and spend some time with Kim and Helen. Kim won a silent auction from the church for a month of Gymboree, where she goes and kind of rolls around and walks on mats and does other play things that are supposed to be good for her development. It's looks fun, too! So we all went on Saturday and shared in the kiddie fun.

She loves playing peekaboo, especially in this purple tunnel. She went through the tunnel today for the first time today. Kim normally takes her on Monday's, so she was there again today.

She loved carrying and shaking the maracas.


She especially loves crawling on Daddy. Always good for a squeal!

-AW

Adventures in traveling

I made it there. And I made it back. Barely.

In between was a great week to be in Washington and in Sedro-Wooley, where I traveled to on business again. The weather was just amazing. Sunny and almost 60 in the day. Not a drop of rain while we were there. I took my camera this time to show some of the surrounding areas.

However, flying into Cincinnati for our first connection was the most white knuckled experience I have ever had flying. It didn't help that the amazing video of a plane nearly crashing in Germany that I saw on the morning news that same day was practically the same thing that happened to our smaller regional jet. Windy, rough turbulence from an incoming storm caused our little jet to bounce around. As we were about to touch down, I wasn't sure if the left wing tip or right would touch first as we listed back and forth. I think one wheel may have touched down, but we quickly took off and tried again. Better the second time.

On our return trip we had great weather and great views of Mount Rainier at sunrise. But bad weather in Cincinnati had us landing on snow covered runways. No issues there, until we found out that our return flight to Greenville was canceled. Since a blizzard was expected the next day and all other flights were getting delayed and canceled, we decided our best option was to rent a car and drive home. We were able to get a 4x4 Explorer and made the trip without much further incidence. The snow turned to rain, and the mountain driving had dense fog at night, but we made it home before midnight. Safely.

Whew!

On My Own

It has been a great week here in SC! I thoroughly enjoyed having my parents here to help me with Helen while Alan is away. Helen was also on her very best and happiest behavior. She loved having her grandparents here to provide non-stop entertainment, lots of cuddling and teaching, and egg custard pie! Yes, Helen is now eating like a Johnson. She especially loves egg custard but is also a fan of jelly biscuits and corn casserole. Sadly, she will go back to bland baby food land now that Mommy is back in charge. It hasn't started yet, though. Alan's flight from Cincinnati got canceled, so he and his co-workers are driving to Greenville. To say in the least, I'm quite tired, so I got some BBQ for myself tonight for dinner. OR should I say Helen got BBQ for dinner. She practically ate the entire plate for herself. I don't think that she is going to give up regular food without a fight! As long as she eats healthy 80% of the time, I can save the remaining 20% for grandparent spoiling occassions (and times when Mommy is too exhausted to care).

Helen is feeling much better again. I think keeping her out of daycare this week really helped. I've also learned more than I have ever cared to learn about thrush. For a few days, the future of my continued breastfeeding was hanging by the skin of its teeth. However, I persevered and we are back on track to make it to her first birthday before weaning. I will admit that I'm weary of the whole nursing thing, but I've come this far and everyone who knows me knows that I achieve my goals, irregardless of how assanine they are (the marathon is a case in point, followed closely by my clogging recital).

I apologize for the lack of pictures. Alan took the camera to capture the beauty of Washington state. We missed some pictures of very happy moments with Grandmama & Papa, but I'm sure Helen will produce some pretty big smiles when she sees her Daddy tomorrow.

A day of play

What a beautiful day today.
We all went out and about to do some errands and have lunch while still making time for Helen's much needed naps (after keeping tired parents up late last night). This afternoon we went out to the backyard to try out the little playset I acquired. Helen thought it was kind of fun, but Kim decided she wanted to go to a bigger park nearby. I thought that with all the wind we had today, maybe I could try out my kite that I found in storage recently. I think about wind a lot, so I've been waiting for a chance to try it out. Well, I got the kite up, but without a helper that had a spare hand and dying winds, it didn't work out too well. Yet another reminder of why you won't find any wind farms in the Southeast. It'll have to wait for our next beach trip!

But all is well that ends well because we ended the day with grilling out for the first time this year. Of course we tried out some steaks from the freezer, grilled some asparagus, and baked some sweet potatoes. Delicious fun!

-AW