Lots to catch up on!

Well, there is much to catch up on, what a year so far! Unfortunately this winter we have really struggled to stay healthy. In late Jan., Shelby came down with a viral bug called Roseola. She was miserable for about a week, running temperature and then had the rash afterwards. Needless to say we were not getting a lot of sleep because she just could not get comfortable; and Drew had to go to DC for a few days for his Iraq debrief, so it was just me & Shelby. I felt like I had a newborn again the way we were up every few hours. We got over that cold and enjoyed a few healthy weeks, and then came down with croup & an ear infection this past week. Boy what a doozy that has been. This is Shelby's 1st ear infection and I don't wish to repeat this experience anytime soon. She did not sleep at all Tues. night, we were literally up with her all night until 8am Wed., when I think she just finally gave out from exhaustion. She'd have sleep spurts throughout the night of 10-20 minutes, but then wake up crying & in pain. We had no idea it was her ear until we saw the Dr. on Wed. No wonder she was so miserable. Today (Fri.) she is feeling much better and eating some. Her ear seems to be much improved & she is sleeping better too, which means I'VE been sleeping more as well. We are very much looking forward to warmer weather, hoping that will improve things on the health front.
For Valentine's Day, Leslie & I took the girls to the Dallas Aquarium for a little field trip. They really seemed to enjoy it! There were lots of things to see and I thought it was all great except for the snakes. Could certainly do without those (since I am phobic). So, Shelby & I just went past those glass aquariums really fast. Drew & I also traded date nights with Brian & Leslie and actually went out to dinner by ourselves. Boy, was that nice! Actually had some conversation and could eat dinner together, at the same time, instead of one of us feeding/tending to Shelby. It was really nice and we look forward to doing that again.
Let's see, what Shelby is up to these days....well she is finally coming off her strike from foods that she had just stopped eating for awhile. She is doing well with her fork & spoon, especially with things like oatmeal & pudding that stay on the spoon pretty well. Her favorite toys are puzzles, stackable cups, alphabet blocks, and her baby doll. of her latest words are gross, Shelba, Abba, house, baby, turtle, frog, mouse, sleep, sheep, and bird. She has also been saying two-word phrases recently such as bye-bye momma, da-da sleep, Abba's house, baby sleep, and nigh-nigh da-da. It is so fun to hear her picking these things up and in a sense begin to communicate a little more with us. But we still have a lot of pointing and grunting from her when she can't quite tell us what she wants or needs. We're looking ahead to a busy March and hopefully warm weather very soon! Hope everyone is doing well!

Hmm, pudding!! My favorite dessert!

Forget the snack cup, I'm just going for the whole box! Yum!!

At the Dallas Aquarium...ready to see some fish!

Momma & me in front of the waterfall. I was quite fascinated with this.

Our two little maestros at the piano...a favorite thing to do.

Here Da-Da, let me help you work on this Jeep for Mr. Winn.

My new Tonka truck & San Diego, CA trip

Shelby has a new favorite toy to push around the house - a Tonka dump truck! We used Christmas money from Gma & Gpa Bomar to buy her a dump truck because she had so much fun with Mason's over Christmas. She loves it! She likes to load her big, white bear in it and push him around as well as try to climb in it herself. Even Maduro likes to climb in it. We survived our trek to San Diego, CA this past week with Shelby. Boy, flying with a toddler is NOT that much fun. She didn't scream or cry, so looking back on it I guess it could have been worse. She was just very squirmy and chatty and didn't sleep going out there, except for about 30 minutes when we had descended from one flight and while we sat in the airport waiting to board our next one. Of course she woke up right before boarding! Thankfully, coming back she did better and slept on one leg of the flight - I think I was Drew's hero for a time, he was so happy that I'd gotten her to sleep. We had a great time in CA though outside of the flying. We went to the San Diego Wildlife park and got to see lots of neat animals, ride the carousel and take the safari ride through the wildlife park. Shelby seemed to enjoy it all, laughing at the animals and the many kids that were there - she is at that phase of loving to see other babies & kids. She was pretty tired afterwards, don't even think we made it out of the parking lot before she was asleep. We also took her to the beach and she thought the sand was pretty neat. It was pretty cold that day, so we couldn't get in the water or anything; but she seemed to have fun just running around and flapping her arms like a bird (one of her new things - she did this a lot in the airports too, anywhere that she had a lot of room to run around). She also enjoyed lots of walks with her grandparents and a couple of dinners out - one fancy restaurant and a pizzeria that had a fish tank, which she really enjoyed watching. So, we're back home and getting ready for February - hard to believe January is almost over. That's all for now!

Pushin' my bear in the dump truck, woo-hoo!


Those are some large ears you have Mr. Rino.

I'm not too sure about this carousel ride.....


Sacked out after a long day at the zoo.


Come back birds, I want to chase you!

Me & da-da at the beach.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Well, I am quite behind on blog updates! 3 holidays have passed since I last wrote! We enjoyed a quiet Thanksgiving at home since Drew had to work that Fri., then headed up to OK to visit my family after he got home. Had a fun weekend of football and eating leftovers. Shelby spent a week with Granny & Granpa in Dec while I went to Puerto Rico to visit my best friend. She had a baby in September and I was dying to see her and meet the lil one. It was a lot of fun and I had a nice little break from being Mom...we didn't do much, just lots of talking & hanging out & playing with the baby, which I thought was perfect. Then I went to OK to see my lil munchkin and we spent a week there through Christmas. This year was so much more fun since she & Mason could open their presents and were more into it. Shelby had quite the cold since Thanksgiving...we finally went to the Dr. after she had it for over 5 weeks. She did really well, letting the Dr. check her ears & lungs. He gave us an antibiotic and said it probably was a sinus infection. It does seems like she is finally getting over it. Thank goodness, I'm tired of wiping her runny nose! She has been chatting it up quite a bit these days, oftentimes just babbling as if she's telling me something really important...I just agree with her and pretend like I know what she said. But she has been saying a lot of words lately, often repeating a word right after she hears Drew or I say it. SO we are watching carefully what we say! Lately we've heard truck, cheese, kick, cold, out, go, trash and football is known as "ba-ba". We're really getting a kick out of this phase, definitely keeps us on our toes. We're headed to CA to visit Drew's family in a couple of weeks and I'll be keeping Abby again starting mid-January when Leslie returns to school. I think Shelby will be happy to have her playmate back! She has seemed to wonder where she's been. All in all we had a blessed holiday, so much to be thankful for with Drew home. We're looking forward to 2008 and all that it brings!



I like reading books with Granny.

Mom, look I gathered some leaves!

Mom's lil Snuggle Bunny!!

Dad & Shelby watching some football.

Mom calls this my lime sherbet outfit - the shirt is from Auntie Meena, so cute!

Shelby tickling Mason....she would say "diggi-diggi". Cracked us all up!


I like Mason's ATV he got - vroom!!

I could barely get her to be still for a photo.

Ready for the OU game! (unfortunately they lost and badly...sigh)