Every night Kevin reads a story to Sarah before she goes to bed. The other night Kevin was wearing a fleece vest and as I got ready to put Sarah on his lap he unzipped the vest so he could snuggle closer with her. This was the end result:
Sarah started walking last week! For a month now she has been walking while holding on to one of our fingers. She just wasn't brave enough to let go. Then last week I was walking around the house with her and she saw some toys so she let go of my hand and off she went. Now she walks almost all the time. She still uses the furniture and walls to stand up but once she's standing off she goes. Sarah is so proud of herself and has the biggest grin on her face whenever she walks. It's so amazing to see the joy all of us get from her accomplishments. I am so excited for this spring and summer when we will be able to do so much more with her new mobility.
Kevin and I had a very romantic Valentine's Day at home. First, Kevin had roses delivered to me at home. I must say they were some of the most beautiful roses I had ever seen. After Sarah went to bed at 6pm we set up a card table in our room and decorated it with a velvet tablecloth and some candles that Kevin had bought. We got all dressed up for each other and Kevin got take-out from Red Robin. We ate in our room by candle light and listened to soft romantic music. For dessert Kevin bought a mini chocolate cake from one of the top bakery's here in Denver. It was so nice to just be by ourselves in our room and not have to worry about anything else. We were able to just focus on eachother. It really was one of the best Valentine's Day we have celebrated.
Lately Sarah has been entertaining herself with our clothes. One thing she loves to do is go into our closet and pull down all of Kevin's ties. Once she has them all down she throws them all over the floor. It's cute to see her buried in his ties.
Another past time of hers is opening my sock drawer and climbing in and out of it over and over. She thinks it's so fun to just sit in it then climb back out and do it over again. I must say she is a cutie sitting there.
It's so fun to see her get so much entertainment out of simple things.
Well, Sarah has the croup for the first time. She had a runny nose on Monday and I thought it was teething stuff going on. By the time Wednesday rolled around she had a fever and dry cough. I took her to the doctor (my doctor had the day off so I saw another doctor in the same practice) and they suspected the flu so they took a culture. I had to hold her down while they stuck a big long swab up her nose, it broke my heart. The test came back negative and was told it was a virus they could do nothing about. Yesterday she was the same for most of the day until she woke up from her afternoon nap. She went downhill quickly in the afternoon. She was constantly out of breath and her cough sounded like a barking seal. It was so much tighter that it had been earlier in the day. She winced everytime she coughed and I could tell it really hurt. She also had a high fever again. I called the doctor and they had me come back in. Luckily this time I was able to see our regular doctor. She had a temperature of 103.2 and had lost 1/2 a pound from the day before because she won't eat and she is hardly drinking anything. They hooked her up to a monitor that measures the oxygen level in her blood. Her numbers were good so she was getting enough oxygen. Then they listened to her lungs and they are clear, thank goodness. The doctor was able to hear her breathing and coughing and finally he said that she had the croup. She has it pretty bad. He gave me some steroids to help reduce the swelling in her throat and make breathing easier. Then he told me all about the croup and gave me a handout describing what it is and how to treat it. Unfortunately it is a virus so there's nothing we can do to make it go away faster but there are things we can do to help her breathing.
So far we have been managing pretty well. Her cough lessens and worsens many times throughout the day. A couple times today I got the bathroom all steamy and we sat in there for 5-10 mintues to help her breathing. It did help. She also cried off and on throughout the day because her throat hurts so bad. I kept up with Motrin to help ease the discomfort and keep her fever down. It will take 3-4 days for the fever to go away and about a week for the cough to disappear. So we are staying home until she is better. It is so hard to see her so sick. It breaks my heart but she is strong and is handling it pretty well all things considered.
On January 31, Sarah turned one year old! I can't believe how time has flown by. She no longer looks like a baby and is all toddler. First we held a small family party for her on her birthday. I made cupcakes and we gave her a rocking horse for her present. It's so cute, it sings a song and talks and winnies. When it sings or talks its mouth moves along with the sound. When we first gave it to Sarah she gigled and laughed at it for 20 minutes. She would wiggle her hips and dance any time it made noise and she kept kissing and hugging it. She hasn't got the actual rocking motion down yet but that will come in time. She still loves it anyway. Her bedtime is usually 6pm (that's always been her choice) and we kept her up until 8pm that night. By the time we got to the cupcakes she had no interest in them and just wanted to go to bed. The next day I tried again and she loved the cupcake that time.
Last Saturday, February 2, we had a big party with all her friends. Kevin made balloon animals for all the kids (he and his mom taught themselves how while Kevin was in high school) and I made a pretty professional looking cake. I bought a star cake pan and a bunch of Wilton's frosting tips and bags. Two weeks before the big party I made a trial cake and practiced decorating it. By the time I made the cake for the party I had some idea of what I was doing. Sarah loved having all her friends there and we had such a good time visiting with everyone.
Ok, so here I am again. Sorry about all the time that has passed since I last posted. We got caught up in the holidays and lately I have been consumed with sorting and organizing our home. One of my New Year resolutions is to go through all our stuff that's in storage and hasen't been open in forever and get rid of everything we don't need. It's taking a lot longer than I think. Sometimes I come across boxes full of junk that I have no idea why we hung onto for so long and other times I come across stuff from my childhood and I get wrapped up in going through the memories. I've got a lot done but I still have a long way to go. It feels so good to finally purge our home of unwanted and unnecessary items.
Our Christmas was great. We spent two weeks at Kevin's parent's home in Wichita, Kansas. It was so fun to watch Sarah look at all the presents. When it came time for her to open the presents she was more interested in the wrapping and boxes of course. Her big present that we got her was a walker from Fisher Price that is shaped like a car. Sarah loves it and it has really helped her in learning to walk. Speaking of which she is very close to walking on her own. For a few weeks now she walks everywhere with us as long as she is holding on to one of our fingers. Last week she got brave and has started to let go and take 10-15 steps on her own before she sits down.
Kevin got me an 8gig Zune mp3 player. I LOVE having it. I can watch movies on it if I want to but I mainly use it for my music and audio books. It is so nice to listen to while I am cleaning the house or running errands (yes I am one of those annoying people who listens to it while I drive). But I do keep the volume down so I can pay attention to traffic.
I tried to get Kevin a meaningful gift this year and I think I accomplished that. For his 18th birthday he was given a beautiful print of the space shuttle preparing to launch. It was not framed and has been rolled up in a tube for 13 years. I took it to Michael's and had it framed really nice for him. He loved it so much that he got emotional when he saw it. Mission accomplished.
Anyways, I will try to do better at posting regularly. I know how much I enjoy reading all your blogs and I'm sure some of you have been frustrated with my lack of posting.
