adam's surgery

adam had to have surgery on december 23. that's right, 2 days before christmas. we went to the doctor thinking that it would have to be taken care of after christmas, but, to our surprise, they did it that day! it wasn't a huge surgery, but it's taking a while to heal. he had a pilonidal cyst. you can look it up if you really want to. since then, though, he has a hard time sitting for any extended amount of time. i feel bad for him; it would be lame having to lay down most of the day. the wound from the surgery is in a place where you can't have stitches because the skin moves too much and would tear around them, so we get to pack the wound...when i say "we" i mean "i". the first time i had to do it, it was really difficult. i wasn't expecting it to be so big (it's about 2 inches long and 1 ½ deep). we went for a follow up and the doctor says it's healing well and that he wished all of his patients' healing went this well. hopefully it finishes healing fast so adam wont hurt anymore.

2011

The year 2010 has come to an end. It was a very special year for us because it was the year that Maizie was born! She brings us so much joy and is such a great baby! :)

On the day of New Year's Eve, we thought it would be fun to go to the park and take Maizie down the slides and let her ride in the baby swing. When we got there, though, we discovered that the slides were wet and there weren't any baby swings. Sad! What else is sad is that we didn't really do anything else that day besides that; we just lounged around the house.

Once Maizie was asleep, we played a card game called cribbage. Emily won. Scott and Cody came by after 11:00. Scott saw my C# book, so we talked about programming for a while. Later on, Cody and I talked about how much common knowledge she and I lack since we didn't pay attention in school. The main thing we talked about was history. Scott and Emily both have much more common knowledge than Cody and I. The four of us ended up doing some history quizzes online, just for fun. We also had pumpkin pie, which Emily kindly made.

My New Year's resolution is to get my weight back down to 182 pounds, which is what it was at the beginning of my mission back in 2004. In order to get off to a good start, I waited until 11:59:50 PM, ran to the bathroom, and started urinating into toilet. By the time I was done, it was already the year 2011, which means that I was in the process of losing weight at the very beginning of the year. Awesome! When I was done in the bathroom, I went into our room and shared a New Year's kiss with Emily :) She was calming Maizie down, who was laying in her crib.

Scott and Cody left at around 1:00 AM. We went to bed shortly after that, but we stayed up for a little while using StumbleUpon. Here is one of the pictures that made us both laugh:

That's about it for New Year's Eve. As for New Year's Day (today), we woke up at about 8:00 because Maizie was ready to be up. Emily asked me to watch Maizie for 45 minutes so that she could sleep, so I fed her some puffs, baby food (pears), and string cheese. I had some pumpkin pie. After that, I let Maizie play for a while. When it was time, I had Emily take over while I laid in bed.

My nephew, Elijah, is homeschooled by my mom. He usually gets here on Wednesday and then goes back home on Saturday. Such was the case this week, so today was the day he went home. I was the one to take him home (I offered to so that I could set up his parents' wireless router). We left shortly after 11:00. He was really sad to go home.

I got back home shortly after 2:00. Emily and I just hung out for a while and then I got Maizie down for a nap. I hadn't intended to fall asleep myself, but that's what ended up happening. It felt nice to sleep! When Maizie and I got up, Emily was painting a footstool that she got from Scott and Cody a while back. She was painting it the same purple color as Maizie's dresser. After she was done with that, she made an awesome dinner! She described the dinner to me a few days ago and I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, but it ended up being very good! It was a salad with chicken, cranberries, almonds, an orange pepper, Mandarin oranges, and Asian sesame dressing. There was also pilaf rice on the side. Delicious!

After dinner, I did the dishes and Emily gave Maizie a bath and started rocking her. I ended up being the one to finish rocking her since Maizie seems to prefer me. I heard that baby's sometimes have trouble with their mothers rocking them to sleep because they associate their mothers with food and get distracted by that thought.

Once Maizie was down, we read Matthew 7 and watched some videos online. That about sums up our New Year's Day!

We're planning to move out of my parents' house sometime around May. We're not sure where we'll go, though. It will be interesting to see where the year 2011 takes us!

going for distance

this morning maizie was tossing and turning because her diaper was wet. so like a good, bleary eyed mom i got a new diaper and started to change her...on our bed. i think you can see where this is going. i got the new diaper under her but then i thought maybe some desitin would be good since she was a little red. while reaching for the cream i hear this "shhh-ing" sound and felt drops of stuff on my arm and foot. yes maizie was peeing, and not just letting the pee run out, she was pushing it out. she managed to get it all over my side of the bed, herself and me. i didnt know that girls could do that!! in other news, i have to go back to work on monday. after 12 days off its kind of lame.

8&9 month post

ok i am a bad mom. i neglected doing an 8 month post. not that i forgot about it; time for doing it just kept slipping away and before i knew it, maizie turned 9 months old. so my few lucky readers get two months in one post!

maizie has started saying a few things. sometimes she repeats things but mostly she says things at random. her favorite right now is "ooh". her other words are "mama", "dada", "wow" (which she said while i took a corner a little fast), and "uh-oh".

she graduated herself onto real food. she won't take baby food unless she is totally desperate. her favorite thing is string cheese.

she kisses her dolly...and then shakes it by the arm.

maizie pounces. she sits on her knees a lot and bounces, and then BAM she pounces on a toy. it reminds me of a kitten learning to hunt.

maizie thinks that nice furniture is there for her to chew on. i know that teething isnt fun, that's why we have spent a small fortune on teething toys and medicine. but our sweet girl prefers to gnaw on tables, chairs, and these glass knobs on a dresser at my mom and dad's house.

she has started standing by herself for longer periods of time. i think so far about 30 seconds has been the longest she has been able to do.

she LOVES books. she has one book that she plays with regularly and the only way she could open it was by throwing it around.

she is trying to walk. we bought her a little stroller to push around. she loves it!

maizie started climbing the stairs. she just cant figure out how to get back down.

she really likes fires. whenever we make one and the flames are big she can hardly stand it, and shrieks and laughs.

today maizie got her hands on a pear, and before i knew it she had taken 2 huge bites out of it.

worst. idea. ever.

i keep hearing about this "cry it out" method that works wonders for everybody's kids. i kept thinking someday we will try it. i thought today would be that day. and it was that day. we tried it. and we have dismissed it as something that will work for maizie...let's be honest, it wont work for us either. i was almost in tears, and in the end adam and i were fighting about who gets to rock her.
when we got in there poor maizie was standing in her bed sobbing, and then kept going back and forth between adam and me. like she wanted us both at the same time. she had a totally confused look on her face and was shaking. i got her for a few minutes while adam used the bathroom, and then she wanted him. i think she is totally pissed at me because i was the one who put her in her bed and left her alone.
adam is currently rocking her. every couple of minutes she lets out a sob. the worst part is i know that she is crying in her sleep. it makes me feel heartless, like i was totally abandoning her, and that, my friends, breaks my heart. i would rather have her sleeping in our bed til she's 10 than have her think we dont love her or that she is alone.

7 months

right now i am listening to maizie scream her self to sleep while adam rocks her...bedtime is not her best time. so this month maizie has been perfecting everything that she was doing last month and i feel like there isnt much to tell you about that is new.

her first tooth has FINALLY made its way to the surface! the second one is on its way but is taking its sweet time. fingers crossed, it will be here this week.

maizie has started blowing raspberries on people. it cracks me up! when i pick her up from day care she will always give me a huge hug and then a sloppy kiss with a raspberry at the end.

she has started doing a full body shudder when she eats something she doesnt like or gets a flavor she wasnt expecting.

she loves baby dolls. as soon as she sees one she has to have it. if another kid has it she will take it.

maizie is getting used to hearing the word "no!", and the phrase "maizie, thats not for you!". she listens most of the time and will move away from whatever she is going for, but sometimes she just has to have whatever it is.

she is learning to whisper. she will whisper "da-da-da-da-da-da", and then smile and giggle a lot.

she is also learning to recognize herself on the camera after we take a picture. she gets really excited anytime she sees the camera and starts to smile.

maizie is so much fun and she is learning so much so fast it just amazes me.

gah!

so i used to be crazy good at keeping all of maizies 10 million blankets and things folded and put away...i even had a special order in how i put them away. lately though i have gotten to the point where its the ultimate triumph to put stuff away. not just maizies, but mine and adams too. and i hate it. i think i used to be pretty tidy but since moving, and maizies arrival i let things slide. somehow there is always an excuse to justify not doing something. so i guess i have to take away my lame excuses and send myself to tidiness boot camp. here goes. no more "i will do it tomorrow", "i just got home from work", "maizie was crying all day and i had to take care of her" (we all know that crying kids can cry in their bed or on the floor just as well as in your arms). from now on i will pick something up when leaving a room and take it with me to put it away, and i will clean up as i go along in projects. wow my boot camp is the wussy kind of boot camp, hopefully it works.