Vacation San Antonio

Sorry about the blog silence. We were out of town on vacation and I am not comfortable telling the Internet that we were not going to be home.

So we just got back from our family vacation to San Antonio. We went with Mike's family. One day we went to Sea World. Another day, we visited The Alamo. We were going to go check out the Riverwalk but it was sooooooo hot!

I managed to get a few pictures with my phone. I didn't even take my other camera. I knew it would be nearly impossible to take pictures while tending the kids.

Here are some of our picture from Sea World.

Azul dolphin show. They has acrobats, high divers in beautiful costumes, tropical birds, and several dolphins. The trainers and acrobats got into the water with the animals during this show.




We sat in the splash zone, but we never got splashed. I was actually looking forward to getting splashed because it was sooooo hot. Probably best that it didn't happen though since Noah was asleep in my lap.

Later, we went to the Shamu show. It was late in the day so we say up at the top of the stadium, far away from the splash zone. More on this in a minute.

In this show, the trainers did not get into the water with the animals. They stood on small decks to interact with the animals.





Emily liked it when Shamu slid up onto the deck.



For parts of the show, there was a baby swimming beside the mom. Big baby. Really big baby.

This pic is not very good, but see that tail fin sticking up in the middle of the pic? That's actually a bad sign.




Because this is what happens next in the splash zone.





And then. Then. THEN! They lowered a big ball on a string over the pool. And this giant orca whale jumped completely out of the water to touch it!!! Seriously!





And in case you're wondering what happens next, all the water splashes out of the tank. Not really. But close.




Besides watching a couple shows, we also rode some rides.














And we even saw some Sesame Street characters live and in person. Awww!





We were so hot and tired by the time we left, but everybody had a good time at Sea World San Antonio.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Read more »

These Pics Are Classics

Tonight was Noah's first time to try mom's spaghetti.


I started out giving him little bits on a spoon but it didn't end that way.




His sweet little hands were making us laugh so hard.




He was just shoveling that food into his mouth with two hands.




And he was making the cutest mmmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmmmmm sounds with every bite.




Noah says mom makes the best spaghetti around.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Read more »

Happy Mother's Day 2011

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. A special shout-out to my wonderful mother and mother-in-law. I admire both of you very much and am blessed to have you in my life. I love you!!!!!

I had a wonderful day with my beautiful two children. It was not at all lost on me that this was my first Mother's Day as a mother of two. I am very blessed!





After church this morning, we went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with Nanny, Poppa, Aunt Cherry, Uncle Gary, Madison and Mason (and the rest of Oklahoma City). After the meal, Mike and I shared a piece of dulce du leche (caramel) cheesecake. It was sooooo good.




When we got home from lunch, I wanted to try to get a couple mothers day pics. You can see how that went. Oh well. We were together and that's what counts.

For Mother's Day, I wanted a new windchime. We went to a couple stores last night and finally found this blue bird. So cute. It's perfect.




I also got this cute little whirligig. Emily and I found a place for it beside the flower bed last night.




I'm so thankful for my two kids!!!!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Read more »

Noah - By The Numbers

9 - Months old, today.

20 - Pounds, plus

12 - Ounces.

40th - Percentile in weight.

27 - Inches long, plus a half inch.

50th - Percentile in height. That's a huge increase from his 6 month appointment. The Dr thinks the last one was a misread.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

12 - Month clothes size.

3 - Size diapers.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-






6 - Teeth!

4 - Teeth on top.

2 - Teeth on bottom.

1 - Drooly baby boy.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

4 - Bottles a day now.

4 - Ounces each.

16 - Ounces of formula a day.

16 - Ounces a day is okay.

20 - Ounces is preferred by the pediatrician.

3 - Meals a day. Right on track. Make it healthy!

0 - Cows milk, until age 1. Milk products like cheese and yogurt are okay.

0 - Eggs and peanut butter at this age, too. Allergy risk. Zero honey as well.

3 - Fave Foods: Applesauce, Sweet Potatoes, Vanilla Wafers! He likes many other foods too.

2 - New foods tried today: rice and refried beans. He's a fan!





-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

10 Special Things about Noah

1: Happy boy.

2: Laughs SO hard at his sister!

3: Sleeping better now, both at naptime and at bedtime.

4: Likes to dance to George Strait, especially the song "The Fireman"!

5: Cruises all around the kitchen in his walker. He is getting a lot better at controlling his direction of travel.

6: Sits well without support. Likes to roll to get to whatever it is he wants.

7: Loves the pacifier now. I think we have seven pacis now so there is always one handy.

8: Still likes a blanket when he goes to sleep. Rolls all over the bed at night!

9: Handsome just like his daddy.

10: Very much loved by his family!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Read more »

PVC's

Premature Ventricular Contractions.

PVC's are basically early "premature" heartbeats that originate in the lower chamber "ventricle" of the heart. The heart squeezes "contracts" before it is full of blood so less blood is pushed out to the rest of the body. (This is why my blood pressure registered low on my BP cuff when I was having the irregular heartbeats.)

PVC's are common and not usually cause for concern. They could be caused by stress or an overload of caffeine or other stimulants.

Even the number of episodes of PVC's that I have was not cause for concern. But it's the strings of 2-5 irregular heartbeats in a row that is causing the doctor to investigate further. (And even then he did not seem concerned and said these things were "very rarely" serious.)

So next week I will go back to the Heart Hospital for a Heart Echo. That's an ultrasound of the heart. Out of an abundance of caution, he wants to check to make sure there are not any abnormalities in my heart muscle or valves etc. "But it's probably fine since this arrhythmia just started."

He also gave me a prescription for a very low dose of beta blockers that I can take to see if it helps reduce the number of episodes of PVC's that I have.

The nurse and I really bonded over talk of IUD drama and how long it's going to take to see the electrophysiologist. She started to say that they only read the results of the Heart Echos a couple times a week, but she said she would make herself a note and call me as soon as she got the results.

So that's the update from the cardiologist. It's way more than I intended to type out with one finger on my iPhone, that is okay.

Two more things:

A) The nurse did an EKG on me and I asked her if it registered a skipped heartbeat. Yep!

B) The doctor listened to my heart with his stethoscope and I had a PVC while he was listening too.

C) Just for fun, here is a pic of me at the Heart Hospital this morning. Ha ha!







Thanks for all the prayers!!!

Read more »

It's Not All in My Head

I knew it was not all in my head. I could feel it happening. I know you didn't think it was all in my head either.

The cardiologist's office called this afternoon to let me know that the doctor reviewed my Holter monitor results and would like to refer me to an electrophysiologist in the same office.

The nurse said the monitor did show that I was having some early heartbeats. Early beats are common, but I had some episodes where several beats in a row would be early/irregular. In some cases, I had up to five beats in a row that were off.

So I will still go see the cardiologist in the morning so that he can give me the detailed results of my test. And I will go see the electrophysiologist in mid-June.

All the wait-and-see gets really old. But what can you do? The doctors are just too busy! The nurse said "if it makes you feel any better, the other electrophysiologist in our office is booked until July!"

A) No, it does not make me feel better.

B) Do I really want to see the electrophysiologist who is only booked up to June if the other one is booked up till July? Is the other one better? Hmmm?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Read more »