Looking back on 2012

Twenty-twelve was a big year for us.  Most of life's happenings have already been documented on the blog but here's a few you might have missed.

• We put our dream home on the market so Mike could have a shorter commute when the baby came.  Thirty-five days later we had a signed purchase agreement to sell and no where to go.

 

• We packed up our entire life into two PODs, shipped our dog off to my parents, and moved into a hotel for two weeks - let me remind you I was 7 months pregnant.  And it was the middle of tax season.

•  After a whirlwind tour of more than 20 homes and a vast internet surf for apartments/rentals that accepted dogs over 45 pounds, we settled on a home in Cascade.  Every aspect of the home is different than our first and we are slowly changing pieces until we love every square foot.  Aside from the major outdoor face lift, a few changes in paint has helped me feel more settled.  Next on our list will be complete demo of the kitchen and laundry room.  Eventually....

• Three weeks after we moved into our new home, I went into early labor and gave birth (without an epidural I remind you) to the sweetest most curious baby girl we could have asked for.

• After a shorter than expected stint in the NICU, we were able to bring Lily home to meet her puppy and they've been best friends ever since.  Every day Lily continues to amaze us as she learns new things and makes new messes.  

 

We are excited for what 2013 has in store for us.  Happy New Year!

Our very own spaz

Now that Lily is mobile, our lives have really been turned upside down.  The days of putting her in one place and expecting her to still be there one second later are completely gone.  She is everywhere she's not supposed to be - pulling herself up on the toilet, in Diesel's food bowl, throwing clean laundry on the floor, trying to climb up the stairs - and my personal favorite - stuck in the space between the couch and the chair.  She goes from one toy to the next creating a tornado like wake throughout our house.  And poor Diesel.  Some of the time she's antagonizing Lily...dropping toys in her lap.  But I'd say most of the time she's just trying to keep her toys out of Lily's reach.  You can watch their love-hate relationship here.  I think the most exhausting part for us is that Lily doesn't nap much so getting anything done around the house is impossible.  Mike looked at me today and with total seriousness said Obviously she's possessed by the devil.  We're lucky if Lily takes two half hour naps a day.  It's a miracle if she sleeps for more than an hour.  If she does sleep more than an hour I usually go in to make sure she's still breathing since it's so unusual. 

Christmas Craziness

Our long weekend of Christmas celebrations started out Friday with a bang.  While I was changing Lily's diaper at my parents, she had a coughing fit, turned purple, and stopped breathing (I think I did too).  We dropped everything and took Lily into the Vicksburg ER.  Turns out she had a fever of 100.7.  They hooked her up to a nebulizer to help with her wheezing.  At first she liked the fog coming out and was trying to catch it until they strapped the mask to her face.  Then it was thrashing and screaming until they were done.  After that they had to draw her blood which I'm not sure was worse for me or for her.  Not only did I have a hold of her but so did two other nurses in addition to the one drawing the blood.  Post the blood trauma my mom took her for her chest X-ray.  I couldn't bear to see her strapped into the chair and Mike couldn't be in the room with radiation.  They ruled out pneumonia and diagnosed her with bronchialitis (bronchitis for babies).  In addition, the doctor walked Mike through the X-ray which showed a huge bubble of air in her stomach.  He told us she would either puke it up or poop it out.  And she did.  Puke it out that is.  Later that night she got Grandma, Diesel, and most of Grandma's dining room.  She's been on antibiotic for a few days now and her coughing has gotten better and she seems like a brand new baby.  Needless to say - not the greatest start to our Christmas weekend.

Lily got a hospital gown

Nurse Mary let her play with the pulsax

Saturday we did dinner with Mike's family at Fieldstone Grill - so yummy.  In all the madness of making the trip to Vicksburg we realized we'd forgotten an entire basket of Chrismtas gifts.  Good thing Uncle Brayden came to the rescue and dropped them off Sunday to celebrate.  We did our gift exchange with the Hoys on Sunday afternoon and then Aunt Hollie drug me to the mall to help her with last minute shopping.  On Christmas Eve we did dinner at Sakura, a Hibachi grill and Lily LOVED it.  She couldn't take her eyes off the chef as he cooked our food and made fire in front of her.  Christmas morning Lily was spoiled by the Sundstrand family with more gifts than mom and dad.  My aunt and uncle came over for Christmas munchies (finger foods instead of dinner) and then Mike and I headed home.  Somehow we managed to fit all but one of our gifts into the car.  We even had room for Diesel and Lily.  Mike has to work the rest of the week but I'm lucky enough to be off until the 2nd. 

Dinner @ Sakura

Cousin Megan

Merry Christmas Eve

Look what Santa brought!



Santa Baby dislikes her slippers



My Santa Baby





Lily's Christmas Pageant

Lily's daycare put on a Christmas pageant for all of the little ones.  Even Lily participated.  In this video she's wearing a gray striped sweater and white leggings.  She gets picked up by the angel.

Hoy Extended Family Christmas

Last weekend we were able to get nearly all of Mike's mom's side of the family together to celebrate Christmas.  This hopefully annual event was only missing two families.  And we were actually able to capture a really great photo of everyone who came!  The holidays are my favorite time of year!

Extreme Home Makeover

Our "extreme" home makeover is almost complete!  The roof is done, all the new windows have been installed and trimmed, siding is all up and insulation is all in.  We are now just waiting on our new garage doors and gutters to arrive and be installed and then we have some random trim painting to take care of here and there.  And of course - deciding on a new color for the deck.  Comments on that welcome. 

Before....

After!!!



Never a failure

I was sitting at the bar with one of my co-workers last night at training and we were sharing our fears about not having our shit together as first time moms.  We joked that somehow our girls always got fed and bathed however our fridge was usually empty and the house was probably a disaster.  She looked at me and said - how did our parents do it?  At the time I said I didn't have a clue but during class this morning I stumbled across this article about how moms can't ever fail and a light bulb went off.  Our world today is different than it was when we were growing up - especially the working world.  As full time moms and full time career women we struggle to divide our time and not feel guilty for sometimes lacking in one place or another.  You can read the entire article on Pregnant Chicken but I thought I'd share a few of my favorite highlights.

We live in a time when we can google everything, share ideas, and expose our children to amazing opportunities, but anyone that implies that they have it figured out is either drunk or lying (or both) so don’t be too hard on yourself.

Like a true skill that needs to be mastered and perfected and if we don’t get it right we think our kids suffer for it and that's hard shit to keep up with. That's not to say other generations didn't have it tough or think parenting was important, but there just wasn't the same level of scrutiny that could be liked, tweeted or instagramed all at once.

Hotlanta

I'm currently in Atlanta for a national CPE conference to keep my license up to date (and of course learn everything there is to know about taxes).  Which means Mike is at home with Lily by himself.  So far so good - no panicked phone calls, no major disasters, and no trips to the ER - at least as far as I know.  It does however sound like someone is a little excited about Christmas. 

Sundstrand's Thanksgiving

Here's a view into a very typical Sundstrand/Racette holiday.  Lots of food (and drinks), lots of laughs (and shouting), and now lots of in-laws (and babies!).  It's always hectic - you never know who will be there for just cocktails or perhaps just for dessert - or who will just make appearances by facetime.  Either way, holidays with all of my cousins is something that I look forward to every year.

Lots of snot

Poor Lily came down with a pretty awful cold last week.  She's had a bad couch and runny nose since last Monday.  We kept her home from daycare on Friday and she was actually able to get some good sleep.  Typically she only naps for 30-45 minutes two or three times a day.  She slept 14 hours last night and took two 1 hour long naps today.  Her cough is much better but the snot is never ending.  She's been much happier this weekend.  We were able to run some much needed errands and clean the house this weekend!

Lily isn't too big of a fan of being fed off a spoon.  She loves to feed herself puffers and cut up fruits and veggies but she typically turns her nose to baby mush out of a jar.  However, turns out she'll feed herself if the mush is all over her tray.  I looked away for 2 seconds and when I turned back around I found the entire contents of her food all over her tray while she was trying to scoop it into her mouth with her hand and spoon.

Now that Lily can crawl she tries to pull herself up on everything....the bottom step in the basement, the Christmas tree, the bathtub - you name it - she's tried it.



In a different life I would have made a living being a photographer.  In this life I'm glad I still know how to work a camera to take silly shoots with Lily.