Ellowyn video dump

That's right folks, Ellowyn knows her body parts.  She knows head, hair, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, hands, feet, belly, diaper and sometimes eyes.  Ok yes, diaper is not technically a body part.  Allow me to remind you that the topic at hand is not in fact my ability to distinguish clothing items from body parts but rather is actually THE AMAZING ADORABLENESS OF MY DAUGHTER.  Behold.



And this mess isn't even that bad.  It's up to her eyebrows, yes, but she did manage to keep it out of her hair, which is impressive considering that stuff up on top of your head makes an excellent napkin don't you know.






What's really cool is that Ellowyn is now not only very often comprehending what we are saying to her, but she's also showing us in various ways that she does understand.  She can nod/shake her head to indicate yes/no and does so in context and with purpose.  She can follow simple directions.  She also has quite a few words now including mama, dada, grandpa, KK (for Aunt Katelyn), baby, giraffe (which you heard her say in the body parts video), all gone (which she said in the eating video), all done, bottle, poop, ball (in the walking in mommy's shoes video), bubble, bug, dog, duck, uh-oh, book, tickle, hat and probably a few others that I'm not remembering right now.

Oh and there's this:



Ok folks.  I've saved the best for last.  If you can watch this next video without smiling then you officially have no soul.

Farm visit

We recently went with a group of friends to visit a place called Crowe's Nest Farm.  It's a working farm that is also a wildlife conservatory.  It was really cool!  They had the normal farm animals: cows, pigs, chickens, horses, donkeys, goats, etc.  Plus also they had tons of exotic wildlife like buffalo, ostriches, snakes, spiders, turtles, peacocks... I'm sure there was a lot more, but we didn't get to stay as long as we would have liked due to a certain someone needing their nap.  I definitely want to go back, though!

Cow milking demonstration

Watching the buffalo on the hay ride

Holding hands with friends

Watching the pigs wallow

Weigh in - 8 months

Ok.  This month was kind of a bust.  I didn't lose any weight.  Or rather, more precisely, I gained two pounds on my beach vacation and then spent the rest of the month losing those two pounds again.  

If you add the 18 pounds I've lost on my 30 pound challenge to the 7 pounds I lost before that, I'm down 25 pounds from my heaviest weight.  Saying it like that makes me feel a little better.  :-)

I think the trick to busting out these last few pounds is going to be my diet.  I know I've been saying it all along, but this time I really mean it: this month I am getting serious about my intake.  

I guess I've gotten to the hard part because it seems like I'm going to really have to work for this last bit of weight to come off.  I just need to buckle down and power through to the end and then maintenance will be easier. 

I lost 0 pounds this month. Since I started 8 months ago, I've lost 18 pounds, putting me 12 pounds away from my goal of losing 30 pounds.

Finger painting

Beach trip 2012

It's getting to be an annual thing.  We've been to the beach 3 summers in a row now and every time is a blast!  It always takes the girls a bit to warm up to the waves, but once they do they love it.  We went to Port Aransas again: the drive is not too far and the waves are nice and calm, so it's good for us even if the beach is not the most beautiful.  We went with my parents, my sister, and her boyfriend.

The view from our balcony.

This is the boardwalk that took us from our hotel to the beach.

They held hands all the way.  Mira wanted to make sure Ellowyn didn't fall off the edge.

Aunt KK and Ellowyn making "drizzle castles".
If they gave awards for "awesome sand play ability" Katelyn would have them all.   

My dad and Brian feeding the seagulls.  They would fly in and take food right out of their hands.
Unfortunately, they would also poop on your head.  

Jumping over the waves.

Hunting for hermit crabs with Grampa.  Grampa is the best hermit crab finder on the beach.

Watching the dolphins at the Texas State Aquarium.

See how Mira's got her arm around Ellowyn, pointing the dolphins out to her?  Has your heart melted yet?

Ellowyn plays a game called "Pile on Grampa".  He is so good with the girls; they are lucky to have a Grampa like him.

The pool was nice too, when the girls got tired of the waves and sand.

A couple of days while we were there, my dad volunteered to stay with the girls while they napped so that Brian and I could go to the beach kid-free.  On those occasions, Brian taught me how to boogie board.  Wow, it was SO MUCH FUN.  I didn't have to worry about whether the girls were drowning and I could go out into the deep water with my husband.  Together.  Alone.  It was wonderful.  And then the boogie boarding: So Fun, you guys.  It was one of the first times that I got to really put my new strength and endurance to use at an enjoyable activity, and let me just tell you... physical activities are so much more fun now.  No pain and more capacity for enjoyment before tiring.  So yeah... boogie boarding with Brian was the highlight of the trip for me.

Easter 2012

Better late than never...

Easter was pretty good this year.  It was the first year that both girls were actually able to hunt for eggs.  I was impressed with how quickly Ellowyn caught on.

Three egg hunts this year: one in my backyard with some of my mommy friends, one at Mira's school, and one at my parents' house with my mom and dad, my sister, and my cousin with her 3 children.

Unfortunately, when my camera's memory card bit it, I lost most of my Easter photos.  But I had a few that I took on my phone...

At my house.

At my parents' house.

For me, the most memorable bit from this Easter was that, at one point during an egg hunt Ellowyn got her hands on an egg stuffed with M&Ms.  (Which is fine.  I don't mind if she eats M&Ms on special occasions.)  But I was watching Mira hunt eggs with her friends and so I wasn't paying much attention to what Ellowyn was doing and when I look over she has chocolate from her forehead all the way down to her chin.  Every inch of her face is covered in chocolate.  And I'm not even exaggerating.  Only Ellowyn could make so much mess with the candy that's supposed to "melt in your mouth, not in your hand".  I got some super adorable photos of it too... on my camera's funked out memory card.  When I found out I lost those photos, I almost cried you guys.  I seriously almost cried.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.

Oh hi there.  What's that?  You have something to say to me?  You say you think I haven't been blogging enough lately?  You are at an utter loss for words regarding my complete disregard for your need to be supplied with a constant stream of adorable little girl photos?  I see.  You're right.  I've let you down.  

Hey I have an idea!  I bet you'd love to hear some excuses!  Boy, I've got this covered.

Ok first, my camera's memory card funked out.  And I lost a bunch of pictures because of it, including most of my Easter pictures.  So then Sad Panda.  And I got all bummed out about it.  So then I decided that maybe I'd feel better about losing so many photos if I just pretended that my blog didn't exist. 

Plus also, I've been trying to adjust to all these new medical treatments and I've just been figuring out what living with arthritis in my spine for the rest of my life is going to mean.  I guess you could say I've been focusing on me a bit.  

I also haven't been blogging lately because... well frankly... I've been too busy enjoying myself.  Ellowyn is getting to be so much fun, now that she's really truly not a baby anymore.  And Mira and Ellowyn are in this groove lately where they are actually getting good at being sisters, which is so amazing to observe.  And now that Mira's out of school for the summer, we are staying busier, seeing friends more, doing more playdates, more crafts...  Which is awesome, but it also means that by the end of the day I am often too tired to drag mildly entertaining words out of my brain for your enjoyment.  

But now I do have some catching up to do.  And I have a series of posts in mind that should get us up to date.  I hope to have them up in the next week or so.  And rest assured, I got a new memory card for my camera so there will be loads of photos.  Stay tuned...

Weigh in - 7 months (plus a health update)

This month, I've been continuing with the group fitness classes at the gym.  I'm doing a class called "Strike".  It's like kickboxing, except they give you a weighted staff to wield like a weapon.  Pros: feeling like a total badass butt kicker. Cons: If you don't keep up with the choreography, you're likely to get clobbered.  The class is really fun, and I frequently feel like my arms are made of jello, so that's always entertaining.

I lost 2 pounds this month. Since I started 7 months ago, I've lost 18 pounds, putting me 12 pounds away from my goal of losing 30 pounds.

While we're on the topic of me, I'll update everyone on my psoriatic arthritis.  I started treatment about 2 months ago.  I take a chemo drug (methotrexate) once a week.  It makes me feel a little nauseated and headachy, but I've discovered that if I take it at night before bed then I sleep through most of it.  In addition to that, I also get IV infusions of immunosuppressant (Remicade) once every 4-8 weeks.  That has to be done in the doctor's office and takes about 2.5 hours each time.  So it's a bit of a time commitment.  

So far, I have not had any adverse reactions to the immunosuppressant.  I haven't gotten sick at all, despite the fact that both girls have been sick since I started taking it.  So I am hopeful that that will continue.  

Especially since I feel SO GOOD!  I can't believe how much of a difference this is making for me.  My pain is about 99% gone.  (Every now and then I'll feel a little stiffness in my hip area, but nothing even remotely close to the crippling pain I used to have.)  I feel better than I have in years.  And not just physically.  I feel happy.  Part of that, I'm sure, is the fact that I'm no longer in chronic pain.  But another big part is because of the many many people who have come forward to be supportive and helpful as I go through this.  Every time I have an infusion, I have to get a sitter for the girls and so far, every time I ask (on Facebook), I have had an overabundance of friends chiming in saying they'd happily take the girls.  It's really taken a load off my mind, knowing that I will never have to struggle to make this treatment plan work.  And it's also made me realize how extremely lucky I am to have so many wonderful people in my life, stepping up for me and asking nothing in return.  I am so thankful for all of you.  

So... we still have to monitor my liver (because the chemo drug I'm on can cause liver toxicity) but barring unforeseen complications, my treatments are going wonderfully well.  This is a medical regimen that I will likely have to be on for the rest of my life, but as of right now, saying that no longer intimidates me.  I feel like this is very doable, especially for the results that I'm getting.  

Weigh in - 6 months

This month I've lost 4 pounds, which means I'm (over) halfway to my goal!

I'm really happy to see the pounds are coming off more easily now.  I was worried that I wouldn't lose much this month, what with the back pain, the steroid injection that left me unable to work out for a week, and all the stress of the diagnosis.  (Read this, if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

I haven't changed my diet much this month, but I have made a change-up in the workouts.  I'm now officially addicted to the group fitness classes at my gym.  On Mondays I'm doing a Core Strength class (cuz everyone keeps telling me toning the core will help with back pain, although I don't know how much that applies to arthritis pain... whatever, it can't hurt) and on Thursdays I do a Cardio Kickboxing class.  There's another Kickboxing class on Wednesdays that I sometimes make it to, but the Monday and Thursday classes I'm pretty consistent about.  And then in addition to the classes, I'm working out on my own once or twice a week (elliptical and/or rower).  

I have to say... I am starting to feel... a little buff.  Just a little.  Like the teeniest bit buff.  Not in the way I look, but in what I am capable of.  I am noticing that I can do things that I couldn't do before... and do them easily.  Such a good feeling.  

Although speaking of the way I look, I have had 4 different people tell me this month that I looked like I had lost some weight.  So I must be looking a bit better, anyway.  It's hard for me to see because when I look in the mirror I only seem to see how much further I have to go.  So it helps a lot to hear that other people are noticing a difference.

I lost 4 pounds this month. Since I started 6 months ago, I've lost 16 pounds, putting me 14 pounds away from my goal of losing 30 pounds.

Mira's dance class - videos