We Have (Another) New Niece!

Welcome to the family, Addison Elaine! Here is a funny photo of her yawning. What a sweetheart!

Addison, niece #6 on my side of the family, was born yesterday, August 9th, to Kory (my step-brother) and Nicole K at 8:01am. She was 8lbs 6oz and 20.5" long. Chase is still the only boy in his generation on my side! He will forever be DOOMED at family gatherings. ;)

Around We Go!

Chase got a new toy from his Grandpa W right before we left for California, so when we got back we put it together kind of as a reward for being such a trooper on the trip. :)

Anyway, the toy is kind of a walker where the walking part revolves around an activity table. I managed to capture on video the first time Chase discovered he could MOVE. His facial expressions are priceless (you don't need to view this with sound... the face says it all)!

California... Vacation?

We spent the last week in California for my brother, Jeff's wedding. Here's a photo taken of the 3 of us with Jeff, his then fiance/now wife Julia, and my adorable niece, Rhianna:

The wedding was absolutely beautiful... picture-perfect on the beach in La Jolla, CA. I hear the reception was nice, too, but we weren't there to see it. We spent the evening with Chase in the emergency room instead.

Yes, after he spent the entire wedding with his head buried into my shoulder, completely unresponsive to everyone and everything, we took him back to our hotel room, took his temperature, and called our doctor. She said to take him to the ER so that's what we did. When we got there his fever had risen to 103.7 and they rushed us right in.

Our poor baby had to have an IV put in, which took them three attempts while Brian pinned him down and I cried in the corner. He then had X-rays taken (to check for pneumonia) and blood drawn. They pumped him with antibiotics and fluids, and by the end of the night he was looking and acting much better:

The next day we had to go back for a follow-up visit (since we obviously couldn't follow up with his regular doctor!) and blood test results. The tests looked pretty normal and just indicated some sort of viral infection. So we've been drugging him with Motrin and Tylenol every 2 hours since to keep the fever down.

He had a rough couple days, on top of being exhausted from all the activity and the time change. By Friday he was doing much better so we took him to the beach just long enough for me to be able to snap a few photos of his first experience at the ocean:

I have to say, though, that my kid is one heck of a trooper. His strength through it all seriously amazed us. But now that we're home... Brian and I need a vacation!!!!

My photos are posted in our Photo Album, but since my parents were also in CA with their cameras (and are even more trigger-happy than I am), I didn't really bother taking pictures at any event where they were present. As soon as I get their photos, plus the ones the wedding photographer took, I will post those as well.

I'm an Inspiration?

I don't know if I've ever been called an inspiration before, but someone called me that today and I am just glowing as a result.

Remember when I joined Curves? Well I am proud to report that since joining I have lost almost 30 pounds (27.5, to be exact). I now weigh less than I did before I was pregnant! So a lady at work asked me what I was doing to lose weight and I told her all about my experience with Curves. Well, she told me today that she joined last week, and that I was her inspiration. What a wonderful compliment!

I won't bore everyone with all my Curves babble, but if any of you other women out there are interested in learning more about it, contact me and I will tell all. Sometimes I think I need to be their spokesperson because I'm a walking advertisement, anyway, the way I go on and on about it. It's such a great program!

So, anyway.... If you happen to see someone miraculously walking on air today, it's probably me. ;)

Thunderstorms

Last night we got some pretty incredible thunderstorms. I absolutely love thunderstorms. They started around 8:30 and we turned the lights out and just lay in bed watching and listening.

After about an hour Chase woke up... not because the storm scared him, but because he hasn't been sleeping well lately (he's teething again) and the last few nights he's woken up several times. We let him cry for about 1/2 hour because he wasn't screaming like he was scared, just moaning and fussing. After 1/2 hour we said, "well there's no way he's going to be able to go back to sleep with the storms going on" so we went in and got him and brought him into bed with us. He wasn't afraid of the storms at all.... He was completely intrigued. Every time there was a huge flash of lightning or crack of thunder he would just stare in wonder. It was so amazing.

After the storms started calming down we put him back to bed and he went right to sleep. It is just amazing to me.... You would think the huge flashes of light and loud banging would scare a baby that doesn't have any idea what's going on... but he actually enjoyed it, too. It was so amazing to share that with him.

The storms lasted several hours. It was so cool. The Chicago area lost a lot of power last night and our internet went down but it was so worth it!

7 Months!

Chase turns 7 months old tomorrow! Here is his 7 month photo.

Click here to compare it to his 6 month photo!

You can also see a slideshow of his month photos on Chase's Info Page, FYI. [Update 1/18/08: This page no longer exists. If you would like me to email you a slideshow of the progression, let me know!]

Random photos taken over the last month are now in our Photo Album (labeled "Chase: 6 Months - Misc."), FYI.

New Toy

I'm blogging from my new toy! I have been in dire need of a new computer for awhile. The one I had been using was a desktop and was about 6 years old. It was soooooooo ssssllllooooowwwwwwwwwwww....

I decided for my next computer I wanted a laptop vs. a desktop so I could take it with me to my theatre company's rehearsals/performances/etc. So we headed to Best Buy yesterday and bought my new toy. My favorite feature: IT'S RED!