Holiday Snapshots

Here you go Magnolia fans. A little peek at Magnolia's Winter holiday!

Bounce, Bounce, Bounce

I think the bike and helmet were the biggest hit!

I love this photo. Seriously, she acted like everything that came out of her stocking was simply amazing!

We loaded, I'm mean Santa loaded, the little artist up with art materials.

She kind of looks sad here, but she really was pretty excited to get her new toy stuffed with a plastic bottle!

Magnolia enjoying some of the purple carrot juice in her stocking, and listening to Daddy read her new book.

Lounging around the house on Christmas Day.

We joined the Luangaphay family at Jesikah's family cabin over the weekend. It was a great little get-away, and Magnolia and Pennington both seemed to enjoy each other's company.

Happy Pennington

Magnolia was discussing milk, toes, and possibly fingers from the looks of it with Pennington.

"Bike!" "Hat!"

And it begins...

Maggie's really feeling the season now after a very exciting evening with Grandma and Grandpa Crist, Omah and Opah, Cousin Issac, and Uncle Jake and Emily. Her and Issac seemed to really enjoy each other's company. They jumped like crazy little monkeys all over our bed with Boston. Zac said he peeked at them while they were playing in Maggie's room, and Issac was helping Maggie blow her nose!

Maggie fell asleep very quickly after her family left. You could tell she was exhausted from having soooo much fun!!!!

Thanks to all our family for a wonderful evening.

(Grandma Crist-Did you get good pictures of Mags and Issac? We didn't get any good ones:(

If so, could you send me some to post on the blog?)

Quick Ear Update

Magnolia and I saw Dr. Beck yesterday for her post operation check up. Ears look perfect!!!!!! She even has a cold right now, which would have typically meant her ears would have been a mess. They also completed a hearing evaluation, which she passed with flying colors! It was so interesting to watch the hearing evaluation. She did the hearing probs and the sound booth. I asked the audiologist how children her age typically do (I know many families in our program have to go back and have their child sedated to complete a hearing evaluation). He said Maggie was unusually good, and quite smart! Mid-test she looked over at him, and said her little "hi." He told her that flirting wouldn't help her pass.

Have you ever been out walking in the snow?

Magnolia poses on the "I" bench

The Smiths

Magnolia and her daddy

"No!" (Snow)

Hello Walk

Here are some pictures of our snowy stroll down "Hello Walk" on the Admin Lawn. Looking out onto the admin lawn covered in snow is one of my most favorite sights to take in.

The whole family, minus Gramma-Gramma who didn't feel she could travel and opted to stay home with the dogs instead, headed to Moscow to see Auntie Hailey graduate. We had a great family weekend, full of lots of Moscow fun! We enjoyed eating at our favorite places, walks around campus and we went to the basketball game where Maggie saw Joe Vandal for the first time. She didn't take her eyes off him the entire time she was there. She kept looking at her Joe doll, which she needed to take to the game, and then at Joe down on the court. She'd say "Joe!" and point at him with this serious look on her face, like "Oh my gosh! He exists in real life!" It was quite possibly the cutest thing ever.

Did I mention that we flew to Moscow? Well Maggie and I flew anyways. Maggie did excellent on the flight. Many people on the flight complimented her. I was actually quite surprised at how well she did. She made small talk with the people next to us, read her books, enjoyed some complimentary juice, basically acted like she'd been flying her whole life. Well except for when her diaper leaked on the flight there and she peed all over herself and her Mommy, or when she had a last minute poopy diaper that almost held up the plane from leaving Moscow on time.

But Seriously, what's an airplane ride with a one year without a little poop and pee????

Post Op

Magnolia did great! And as you can see from the video, she is still doing great.

We arrived at the clinic at 7am. They checked Maggie in, and sent us back to the post op area to get all Maggie's info. The nurses gave Maggie a piece of princess paper with her name spelled out in glitter glue with stickers, so she was already thinking these people were pretty cool. Dr. Beck carries each of her children back on her own, so she joined us after a moment, and Maggie went willingly into her arms to head back for surgery. The nurse stopped back by a few moments later to tell us that Maggie didn't even cry!

It only took about 10 minutes, and Dr. Beck carried an unconscious Maggie out of the surgery room and laid her in my arms. Zac and I looked down at our limp daughter, that shockingly was still sucking away on her pacifier, and couldn't help but smile. She woke slowly, and didn't seem too disoriented---just mad. She looked at Zac and signed/said "all done." We offered her some juice which she gulped down, and then we were told we could leave, simple as that!

Now she's climbing up on the couch, poking her dog's eye and trying to get into my purse. That's my cue to go...

A Cheese Story

A few nights ago Zac and I got even braver, and decided to give Magnolia a few bites of our pizza. Of course pizza has cheese. Maggie didn't seem to be too excited about it, but ate most of what we gave her. We again haven't seen any of the common reactions to the allergy, and can assume at this point she HAS OUTGROWN THE SOY AND DAIRY ALLERGY!!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight for dinner Zac was cutting up some cheese slices, and all of a sudden Maggie shouted "Cheese!" and pointed to the cheese. Zac and I both looked at each other, wondering how she knew what it was, but then decided to offer her a piece---she inhaled it! We gave her one more slice, which she also inhaled. Apparently she likes cheese.

We were so overjoyed we decided to celebrate with a slice of strawberry cheesecake that Sara had brought over for us. Our family actually sat together and shared some dessert (I told Maggie this should have been her first birthday!)

Besides the immense joy we feel about the positive results of the soy/dairy reintroductions, we are also very excited for the results of the tubes Maggie will have inserted into her eardrums at 7am! I've seen many children's speech and language explode after they get tubes, and we are hopeful Maggie continues to make progress in this area as well. During the few months that she was fluid/infection free she had a gigantic language spurt, and now has a vocabulary of around 70 words, and is combining a few words on occasion. I can generally understand what she is saying, but it can be difficult for others a lot of the time. We definitely see her speech (articulation) become much more unclear when she isn't hearing well due to the ear infections. Knowing the importance of hearing during this period in development helped us make this choice about going ahead with tubes.

Tomorrow we may have a new little girl. A dairy eaten, soy eaten, pain-free, hearing little gal!

We've ran into a lot of little things in these first 16 months of parenthood. Zac and I have been pushed to some extremes that a lot of new parents don't experience. We have both exhausted our sick and vacation leave through all these illnesses Maggie has had, we've gone completely broke paying for hyper-allergenic formula, doctor visits, prescription after prescription of antibiotics, and dairy-free/soy-free foods that Maggie could eat.

Parenthood is not easy, and I don't think it should be. It's the greatest most life changing thing anyone could ever do, and anything that really alters you comes at a cost.

I'm so proud of myself for continuing to advocate for my daughter. For trusting my intuition starting with that feeling that something just wasn't right when my baby would scream every time I breastfed her, or for heading into the doctor's office every time I just "knew" something wasn't quite right with her, and realizing that my daughter was suffering from chronic ear infections.

I'm so proud of my husband for stepping up and becoming an admirable father, who thinks of his daughter first, and has made so many changes in his life to be the best parent he can be.

I'm so very proud of my little girl. Who didn't have the easiest start, but probably doesn't even know it, because she's just so happy and finds joy in all the little things each day!

Congratulations Us!

Tubes on Tuesday

Dr. Beck didn't hesitate. Magnolia isn't responding to antibiotics and her ears are still really bad after five days of being on the third, much stronger, antibiotic. The procedure will last around 10 minutes. She will have to be sedated (gas), but will wake up in our arms. Apparently only 1 in 10 children continue to get ear infections after tubes!!!!

Body Parts

Ears

Speaking of ears, I took Magnolia in to see a nurse practitioner today because she was running a low grade fever and pulling at her ears again. After she had the flu in Early October she had gotten an ear infection which quickly spread to both ears. One round of antibiotics cleared that one up, but then a few weeks later, after a couple nights of Maggie not sleeping, screaming for no reason, pulling at her ears, etc. we took her back in to discover that yet again her left ear was infected. After 5 days on Amoxicillan Maggie was switched to a stronger antibiotic, because she wasn't getting any better. We completed the second antibiotic on Wednesday. Today both her ears are still red, and her right ear has a lot of fluid. Good thing we are seeing Dr. Beck, Pediatric ENT, on Tuesday don't you think?

Fingers

Eyes

Hair

Nose

I asked Magnolia to show me her ear so that I could do a post about her ear infections, but she thought it would be best to show you all even more body parts. She knows everything from head, to elbow, to toes!

I'm thankful for...

This child ate the ENTIRE day!

Boo with Uncle Brad

The Boys

Daddy, Mommy and Magnolia

"Mommy, stop taking my picture and HOLD ME!"

The Feast

• Mommy and Daddy
• My bugsy
• My dogs that tolerate me rolling on them (most of the time)
• Grandparents
• Aunties
• Friends (Especially Emma)
• Teacher Chris
• Peppa and Doudou
• My Blanket
• Babies that go "Nigh-Nigh"
• My Purse
• Apples, bananas and other snacks

It's THAT Time of Year!

Magnolia made her winter gifts for her grandparents and great-grandparents yesterday. They turned out soooo freakin' cute. I'm trying really hard not to keep them for myself:) You guys are going to love them!

Since this is Moo's first holiday season, where she'll be a little more responsive to what's happening, Zac and I realized we better step it up with some new holiday tradition. We'd been slowly moving further and further away from the whats and whys of the holidays. I'm sure we aren't the only ones guilty of this, but still, it's hard to admit. We are coming back to this though, as we process and solidify who we are as a family.

I read an amazing article recently that lets you evaluate the holidays from a personal context, and what you want to convey to your child. In addition, the article included ideas on how to do this in a culturally diverse and environmentally friendly way---it was a great article.

To begin, Zac and I discussed what we remembered most about the holidays when we were children. Here's some of my most important memories...

Hailey and Sara: Remember those late nights, laughing and giggling in bed together, after we opened our Christmas Eve gift? Remember laying around in PJ's all day, eating coffee cake, then board games in the evening? I know we were all pretty into the "stuff" we got then, but looking back, it was more about that time for us to just "be" with each other, because we didn't always get to see each other as much as we would have liked.

I want to convey this to Magnolia during the holidays---the joy of her family. Of loving and being with those that she's closest to.

Oh, and Grandma's MILLIONS and MILLIONS of APPLES! I learned something new that made me really appreciate all those apples she made us hang on her tree. I have a whole new love for apples, and can't wait to work them into our holiday.

In addition to these old traditions Zac and I are excited to try some new stuff as well. We are hoping to find our yule log and have a nice cozy fire, with some fresh snacks and some good company for Winter Solstice, this year the solstice will fall on December 21st.

We're going to try and give gifts with real meaning. Gifts we make, and gifts that come with a good cause. We're also using all those old grocery bags to wrap gifts this year!

So this year will be a new year of sorts. A year to take from the old and bring to the new. A year to renew, respect, appreciate and to love. A year to welcome what's to come...light, growth and more love.

Happy Holidays

Magnolia is Getting a BABY!

A baby cousin!

He, he, he! This was all Sara's idea if it freaked any of you out!

Baby Smith is due 6/14/10. Baby Smith is 11 weeks along now, and doing just great. Sara's feeling good too. I got to join Sara and Brad for the ultrasound this morning, then Sara and I enjoyed a day off together---looking at baby stuff, getting lunch and enjoying a movie.

FYI...Maggie didn't like Auntie Sara holding Marley this weekend, and insisted he get down and Aunt Sara hold her; this should be interesting!

Hellllloooooo???

Where is everyone? Has everyone grown tired of reading about the most beautiful little girl in the entire world?!?! I didn't think so.

Let me know what you like reading about. What you like to see Maggie doing.

If you've never commented before, haven't commented for awhile, etc., etc., now is the time!

Also, I spent all last evening looking at my first few blog posts on Mag's blog. You should definitely go back and take a peek at how much Magnolia has grown. I was telling Zac last night how I read about little things from those old posts that I had completely forgotten about!

Storytime for Mommy and Daddy

Maggie's teacher organized a parent night for us this evening, where Miss Tammy, one of the librarians at the Boise Public Library, came to speak to us about early literacy. We were served dinner as Miss Tammy shared lots of great information, and then our children joined us, after they enjoyed a nice dinner together, for an evening storytime. I was shocked how well all of them did as we approached their bedtimes, and just in general changed up their evening routines.

Maggie enjoyed it quite a bit, as did we!

Have I mentioned how lucky we are to have Chris as Maggie's first teacher?

Famdam Weekend!

Auntie Hailey, Mags, Mommy and Auntie Sara

Uncle Brad kindly accepted a big kiss, although Maggie's mouth was full of food!

Magnolia has enjoyed spending lots of time with her family this weekend. On Saturday, she spent the day with Grandma Tara while Mommy and Daddy went to the U of I/BSU football game. It wasn't such a good football game, but of course it's always good to be a Vandal. Maggie played with Boston and Bookin (her dog and Grandma's cat) at Grandma's house, and enjoyed a nice long walk with Grandma. She also mastered climbing all the way up Grandma's stairs. Today we went to lunch with Auntie Hailey, Great Auntie Julie, Auntie Sara and Uncle Brad. Maggie was giving all her family members big smooches. She also had a nice big blow-out towards the end of the meal---always fun. Auntie Hailey graciously offered to assist Mommy with the clean up job! Much appreciated Auntie Hailey!

Fall Semester

These are some of the things Magnolia has been up to at school this semester. She absolutely adores her friends at school. She talks about many of them all throughout the day. She has become very independent in the classroom, doing many things for herself. Of course, she continues to explore, learn, play and grow each day!

putting away her dishes

cleaning up the mess that comes along with learning to do something yourself

painting

more painting

watching the fish

getting picked up by Mommy and Daddy

going to the museum

buggy rides

playing in the sensory table

*see below for another new post*

In The Kitchen

Finally! Her apron is on, and she did it all by herself!

Sometimes accidents happen in the kitchen, like you completely drench yourself when you are "washing" your dishes!

Maggie has been very busy in her kitchen lately. Whenever I'm cooking something, I'll make sure that she can "cook" that as well. I add oats, noodles, and other foods to her kitchen regularly. Her favorite is when we fill up her sink with water so she can "wash." She washes everything--including herself. She also eats the bubbles, yum, yum, yum!!