What's Bedtime

It is more fun to undress ourselves than sleep. 

The Quiet and Imperfect Times

It is beautiful here! I LOVE having our windows open and hearing the birds chirp! Quiet and serene. Some of the best things in life are right here! 

Slowing down and enjoying what nature has to offer is something that I often times forget to do. As a mommy who also works it is hard to just enjoy my days off. Whether it is house work or random activities there's always this or that to do.

I jam pack my off days. Sometimes I feel like I am running around like a crazy person just checking off the next task instead of enjoying the beauty of what is at hand. I don't want to miss out on the little things and I want to be here for my daughter. Not just be here but I want to be more present in her life and life in general. I want to enjoy it. 

 

So I'm learning to let go of some things, like the pile of laundry that needs put away or the bed that needs made and the toys that need picked up. I'm trying to just enjoy things. And while today was not perfect it was good enough.  Just that the peacefulness of Spring and quietly hanging out with Juliana. Some things in life you don't even have to go anywhere for. Memories are made right here each day with my lovely princess. 

Happy Easter

We have been having so much fun that we don't get much time to blog anymore. As of late Juliana weighs about 18 1/2 - 19 pounds. She continues to run and outsmart us. Juliana is getting better at taking naps in her cribs (we co-sleep, so it makes it harder for her to want to sleep in her crib). We are going on fifteen months of breastfeeding. I huge achievement considering the first few months. Her best human friend is Sadie. They are so cute together! Juliana has the sweetest personality. she can be shy and hates for people to get in trouble.

This past week we had a fun little day visiting the Easter Bunny. We weren't planning on taking pics with them but it had been a long day, they were tired and a little hesitant to be left alone... so we stayed with them.

Easter weekend was pretty busy. First we went to the Nauvoo Fire Station for a pancake breakfast and Easter egg hunt. We got to see several friends there including Joanne and the kids. Below is a pic of Sadie (in red) and Juliana (in white) at the fire station Easter egg hunt. Juliana was so EXCITED! After getting a few eggs she just went running through the field.

After hunting for eggs at the fire station we headed back to let the boys out and then to Colista's for an Easter event. Jeremy BBQ some yummy food and there was also another egg hunt. She loved it!

We just LOVE this girl!

Lucky Charms

Here are two of my LUCKY Charms. I didn't get a pic of the pups, yesterday. Maybe this weekend I can take one with Ty in his St. Patty's scarf.

Also did you know today is Matt's birthday? Well it is! I haven't been real good about getting holidays and birthday things this year. Everything creeps on me. But I hope he has a GREAT day! He is the best. For one, he has to take care of not only Juliana but me too. Matt helps me with everything around the house, helps cook meals and provides for us. He is a jack of all trades. We are lucky he is in our lives! Juliana has the best daddy in the world. He is very hands on! Happy Birthday Mr. Matthew Clark, aka Lovebug!

Broken

Ugh... I am so sad! Juliana broke a tooth today. My day seems like a mess now. I know I can't keep her safe from everything and it could be worse. But darn it I hate it! for the next several years her tooth will have a missing corner. Poor girl. She didn't cry very long about it. But she runs her tongue along the partial tooth now.

Nuts and Sunshine

Our sweet Juliana is growing up. She can do quite a bit now. It is hard to get a pic of her because she is so fast. Always busy. She has six adorable teeth and I think very soon we will see another one or two. Haha who knows but she had been teething.

Juliana is such a go getter that she won't sleep much lately. But throughout the month of February she would get herself up and down into her swing to put herself to sleep. It was so cute! She loves to climb, stomp and talk on the phone. If you get a book she will pick out different animals and objects. She can also point out body features such as hair, eyes, noise, mouth, ears, belly button and feet. We recently bought her a potty chair and she has went in it about 5 times, although we are just acquainting her with it. Oh there is so much she can do.

On this particular day I found her quietly sitting in her baby bassinet. She was reading a book to herself. Of course when I got the camera she got up to examine the growth chart. She's always trying to figure everything out.

Throughout February she had many breathing treatments. Boy am I glad those are over. I hated given them to her.

Boy how life has changed. It is crazy and full of nutty moments, we are always on our toes trying to keep up and in the end I would not change a thing. She brightens our household everyday! 

Somebody is ONE!

Juliana is ONE! She is the cutest little person. Our princess LOVES to dance, wiggle and climbs everything! Juliana is an amazing girl. She is pretty patient with us and so loving. It is really hard to get a picture these days. She does not sit still for one moment. We thought she kept us on our toes before. Now we have to take on super powers to stay caught up with her. These are the best I could do for her monthly picture.

I put her up on the couch.

And she gets down.

We try again... cycle repeats itself for about fifteen minutes. She thinks its a game. Oh well... isn't she cute anyway?

I was scheduled to work on her birthday and since it worked out better for us we had her party on Monday, January 19th. We had it at the Klein Center and was baby Einstein themed. Thank goodness my co-workers helped me finish getting everything up. And Joanne made her cake and smash cake. It turned out great.

At her one year check up she weighed 17# 15 oz and about 29 1/2" long. During her exam she got her one year shots. I always hate that. After her shots I like to take her to the chiropractor. All was good until the next day when she had a runny nose. I figured it was just the shots and didn't worry so much. After picking her up from Joanne's and getting home she threw up several times. It looked rather strange so I just monitored her throughout the night. She didn't get sick the rest of the night so I took her to Joanne's and told her to call if she needed me to come back. I hurried home from work to get her. She had a pretty good day except Joanne said that she was a little congested when she would up from her evening nap. As the night grew later it seemed she couldn't get any rest. I had tried to give her medicine to help with her symptoms. But it didn't help at about 2:30 in morning I couldn't decide what to do. I felt we should go to my parents and maybe my mom could help, at least I might get an hour of sleep. Long story short after trying some things and nothing helping I decided we couldn't what she had been making noises with every breath.

We got to my mom's around five and Juliana was in respiratory distress. Thank goodness my mom helped us and we rushed to the emergency room. My mom came with and stayed until my dad could pick her up. It was nice to have her there. Juliana's O2 stats were low. They took blood, did various tests and chest x-ray. They also put her on oxygen, gave her an IV and breathing treatments. She was admitted for about five days. It was crazy. One test came back positive for strep. The ER doctor thought she had pneumonia too. But the pediatrician thought it looked like she had bronchial asthma with the strep.

We tried to make the best of it. The first night we all slept on the couch (we co-sleep, so there was no way she was going to sleep in the crib they had and I was not about torture her anymore than she had already been). She was hooked up to every machine in the hospital, not really but it seemed liked it. Every four hours they came in for breathing treatments. It was terrible sleep for all of us. The next day the staff brought in a toddler bed that I was able to get in with her.

Anyways I'm glad that is over with and she is on the road to recovery. The doctor wants her to do breathing treatments for two months. I'm hesitant because I don't want her to be on medicine for an extended period of time. But for now we are following the orders. She still seems to be congested a little. I catch her wheezing sometimes or coughing more than normal.