Mother's Day

Paul did a good job of making my 1st mother's day a special one. He tricked me into thinking he hadn't done anything at first though. He got me a new really cute notebook for all my recipes as well as a Hamilton Beach pan where you can cook a bunch of pancakes or other stuff (I don't know the official name) and a movie. He also wrote me a thoughtful card. For dinner he even made this new dessert, doesn't it look beautiful. I had bad allergies all day, but overall it was a great day. We had our neighbor Susannah and her daughter Payton over for dinner since her husband was on alert.

The Simple Things

It's funny to me that we spend money on toys at all because kids typically love the simple things in life. Hayden absolutely loves to watch me vacuum our home. Today she was having a blast in her exersaucer jumping around and the second I turned on the vacuum she was locked in. She also just discovered the washer and dryer and has really enjoyed watching these as well. She loves to stand up and put her hands against them, although she still needs some help so as not to fall over.

Sick Again

Just when I thought Hayden was getting over her cold her rash started, which turned out to be allergies (oh and by the way Zyrtec usually makes children drowsy, but Hayden happens to be the 2% of kids that it makes hyper, she didn't take a nap during the day for 2 days!) and now that we have the rash under control her cold came back! Last night she woke up at 10pm and her nose was so stuffed. So we pulled out the aspirator again and went to work. The only problem was it wasn't getting anything out. Paul kept saying, "huh, I guess there is nothing in there" as she is struggling to breath. I finally look at the aspirator only to see a whole in it. Luckily we have great neighbors who let us borrow theirs last night (after boiling it of course). She slept an awesome 12 hours, but then woke up to sealed shut eyes. So I took her to the Dr. again just to make sure it was normal to be congested for 3 weeks. He said she probably had a back to back virus and to keep her hydrated and use the saline rinse. As he examined her he kept saying how strong she was as she thwarted his attempts to look inside her ears and throat. I'm glad I'm not the only one that struggles to hold her down, she is seriously strong!

Good/Bad News

Paul went on alert yesterday and found out that he will be going back to "the shop." This means that instead of pulling 6-7 alerts a month, he will only pull 2 alerts and the rest of the time he will have a normal 7:30 am to 4:30 pm job. He will conduct training rides and other training I believe. This is really good for the following reasons 1) He will usually have weekends off and actually be able to attend church again 2) It is a good career progression and will help him get to a good next assignment and 3) He will be home at night and I won't have to be alone with Hayden. But no situation is perfect here's the reasons I am not excited about this switch 1) Hayden will need to be at the babysitters every Tuesday and Thursday (before Paul was home on these days at least half the month) 2) We will not be able to save as much of my pay check because it will go towards childcare now 3) Paul would sometimes have a week off at a time because he pulled all his alerts and did his training at the beginning of the month, it was nice to have him home during the day and 4) I was really excited to enjoy the summer and go biking or just get out during the day with him on his days off, but now he will be at work.

So while I am proud of him for going back to the shop, I am sad about it too. Oh well!

Allergies

Hayden has had a round dry spot on her torso for the past couple of weeks and I kept thinking it would just go away with the application of aquaphor. Then a couple more appeared on her front and back. So today I finally took her to the clinic. I had read about eczema and it did not sound like she had that. The Dr. agreed with me and believes she is developing allergies! How sad! I am still nursing her which I was hoping would prevent this, but she will probably get my crappy genes anyway. My allergies have caused me so many problems, I hope that hers are not as bad. It's sad to think that your imperfections have to be passed on to the next generation. Anyway, they also weighed her, she is 17 lbs 8 oz. Also I asked about why she sweats so much (seriously, she is a sweater) despite keeping our house at 65 degrees and the Dr. said it is most likely due to a high metabolism. So that will be nice for her in the future!

Growing Up Too Fast

Today I gave Hayden a bath and after I put her in the crib to put lotion on. The next thing I knew, she has her hands on the side of the crib and she is pulling herself to her feet! On Monday, she did the same thing while holding on to Paul's shins, but I thought Paul helped her out a bit. Well today she did it all on her own. The only problem is that after she gets done pulling herself up, she thinks she can let go of the rail and stay standing! She had a couple of crashes, oooops.

Blue Eyes

I wanted to post this picture because it really does capture how blue her eyes really are! I never in my life thought I'd have a blue eyed girl! But I do love them. This also shows her poor nose. She has been really congested this last week and I have made good use of the aspirator! Hayden definitely views this as a torture device and I feel awful using it on her, but it has to be done. When I finish clearing her out she cries, "ba, ba, ba...." it's like she is telling me how much she hated the whole experience. Paul usually begs me to stop because he cannot stand to hear Hayden screaming, he thinks I like to torture Hayden with the aspirator just like I like to torture him by clearing away his unibrow!