Tubes

Well, Gretchen got her ear tubes yesterday... It was scary for us but after she slept off the anesthesia, she seemed good as new again! Whew!

No more sleeping! (April 2007)

We have had a busy month! We took Gretchen to the zoo for the first time. We had some unseasonably warm weather one weekend so we took that opportunity to see the baby polar bear at Brookfield Zoo. Gretchen was pretty thrilled to see an elephant. And because she has a beanie baby goose, she really wanted to get close to the geese walking around Brookfield. Last weekend we went to Great America for a preview night. While it wasn’t Gretchen’s first time at Great America (Six Flags), it was the first visit that she could enjoy Great America (and boy did she!). We took her to the little kid’s area and she actually went on a ride by herself. Steve and I were white knuckled, ready to jump the fence to get her if needed. Of course she was fine and enjoyed every minute of the ride.

Gretchen’s favorite word these days is OUTSIDE. As in “I go outside?” We bought her a sandbox/water table that she really likes to play with outside (she has learned to say sandbox as well). She enjoys moving all the sand from the sand area to the water section of the table. She can spend an hour doing that! We also got her a little picnic table for the yard though now she would rather climb into our patio chairs. Sigh…. You see all these things in March’s pictures.

We’re still doing some home improvement. We finally got our foyer tiled and hope to have the kitchen and family room floor replaced in May. We also started a real vegetable garden in the backyard. We had been doing container gardening for the last few summers but we decided to really do some growing this year. We planted broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, string beans, zucchini, and peppers. I can’t wait for the summer now!

Gretchen has been battling constant ear infections for the last 5 months so we saw an Ear Nose and Throat doctor. It turns out she’ll be getting tubes in her ears May 9th. We’re a little nervous but we think it’s the best thing to do considering the number of ear infections she gets and since it’s a vital age for language development. The fluid on her ears could be compromising her hearing and thus her language skills. It will be interesting to see how fast she learns words after the surgery (yes, tubes in the ears is surgery) since she’s flexing her vocabulary muscles daily. My favorite example of this happened last weekend. I told Gretchen to go see Daddy one morning to wake him up (I know, I’m mean). She went in and said “Wake up Daddy”. Then she said “No more sleeping”. Steve and I were shocked. We didn’t teach her that but she learned it from somewhere! We really have to watch what we say.

After her surgery, I’ll post here to let everyone know how it went! Until then, keep our little pumpkin in your prayers….

March Marches On

Well, we started the month with the stomach flu – Gretchen hardly suffered, Steve and I were sick as dogs. Sigh…. A few days later, Gretchen dozed off at daycare, fell off her chair and split her chin open. She got her first set of stitches. Poor thing! Gretchen’s vocabulary is multiplying daily. She remembers so many words now and uses them appropriately. Her personality is really starting to show now. Along with all the fun stuff with Gretchen, we are also starting to see some tantrums now when she cannot get want she wants or can’t verbalize properly what she wants. Luckily, a random “Hi Daddy” or funny song (she makes all kinds of little noises) makes up for all of the little tantrums.

We finished up the month with a little home improvement. We replaced the carpet that was flooded and tiled my bathroom (Steve did all the work). Hopefully by the end of April, we’ll have new flooring in the foyer and kitchen/family room!

I did post some new pictures for March so check them out!

Stitches

Well, it's official. Gretchen has gotten her first stitches. Poor thing was eating lunch at daycare and nodded off. Apparently she fell off of her chair and hit her chin on the table. Steve took her to the Acute Care Center down the street from daycare to get two stitches. The cut is a line at the base of her chin so it's not extremely noticeable. I'm glad Steve took care of it because I would have been a basket case. My sweet baby has stitches..... Sigh.... Good thing she has a high tolerance for pain! If she is anything like Steve was a child, she'll be getting stitches often in the coming years.

February Blahs

What a month February was! We started strong with the Bears going to the Super Bowl! And it was all downhill from there…. Gretchen is recovering from her third double ear infection of the year. Gretchen seems to have a high tolerance for pain since she seems in pretty good spirits most of the time. I have had to put a lot more hours in at work due to a CRM project so Steve and Gretchen have had a lot of bonding time together. I miss her terribly but she seems quite comfortable in her daddy’s arms. Daycare is going much better for Gretchen. She seems to be enjoying her time at KinderCare. However, we had two biting incidents where another child got into her personal space. While I was mortified Gretchen bit someone, there was a very, very small part of me that was happy she can defend herself. Finally we had a little sump pump failure and flood the rounded out the month with a hectic rush to dry out the basement. I can honestly say I am looking forward to March! New pictures are posted here.

Heartbreak in Chicago

We had Gretchen all trained to yell touch down and throw her hands up in the air but sadly the opportunites were few on Super Bowl Sunday.

What a way to start 2007 (January)

It has been a whirlwind month for us. We started the New Year sick: I caught a cold while Steve and Gretchen suffered through the flu. Once they recovered from that, Gretchen caught my cold and it turned into a double ear infection and pinkeye. I ended up with bronchitis and a sinus infection…. Sigh.. Needless to say I didn’t a lot of pictures but I was inspired to start this web log! My goal is to at least update it monthly with pictures and maybe an anecdote here and there about the little one. I’m also playing with putting up videos through You Tube (scroll down and you can watch one from October 2006). Feel free to add posts though I think you have to give them your name and email first…. I hope everyone likes this format. We’re going to try it out for a while.

Anyway, Gretchen is a regular chatterbox though we often pine for a translator since we cannot decipher most of it. She is starting to run a little or at least “trot” especially when you need to put her coat on her! She has developed an Elmo/Sesame Street habit. She was already a fan but while she was sick I let her watch quite a bit of Elmo. Now I get a nightly request for Elmo as she points to the TV. It could be worse – she could be watching Power Puff girls!

Next month I’ll have some new pictures and a video.

Gretchen Misses Her Mama

In October I went to a conference in Arizona for three days. I was kind of sad to leave Steve and Gretchen behind. To cheer me up, Steve sent me a video of Gretchen every day. The one posted below is my favorite!

Copycat

I got this blog idea from a friend at work. I saw her weblog about a year ago and have been thinking about doing one ever since.... I'm finally getting my act together. It seems easier then my webpage from several years ago. I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to email me with ideas if you have them....