Rolling on

This week started with Baylee the same as usual. Baylee still has ear infections. We went to the doctor again. After some discussion, we are still trying to get this set cleared up before we go on to the ENT, as we both think that she may have never gotten rid of them really. But we are reaching the end of the available antibiotics for kids her age. We are still hopeful and have until next week. I'm ready for the battle to be over.

Baylee turned 10 months old. She is still trying to master walking. She's doing great and continues to constantly try. This ultimately led to Baylee's first shiner. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. The coloring is actually worse today(3days later). She whacked it on the tub, it was all a bunch of bad timing pretty much. She cried for about a minute and half and then went on about her business. Poor kid has wiped out a lot. Part of it has to do with the fact that she tries to off road over stuff when she can't even walk on flat surfaces that well yet. This resulted in the bruise and bump on her forehead earlier that day. Our little bruiser was on a roll that day!

We learned to put things "in" this week. She still doesn't like that; it's not as much fun as taking them out, but she plays along probably just for my sake. We spent most of our time inside. We had some very crazy storms this week and A LOT of tornado warnings/watches. Friday night we had a really bad storm that blew over trees and of course more flooding. Thank goodness our power only flickered and never went out, we were just without internet and cable. We didn't recieve the worst of the storm due to us being in town and surrounded by buildings and not trees. On the way to the pond yesterday, we saw a good bit of damage outside of the city. Some HUGE trees had fallen over or broken, it was amazing to see the damage. We also went and checked out the river, it was beyond it's boundaries and rushing scarily fast. We were glad to be in an apt building at that point.

On to fishing, well, it was very hot and humid. We caught a few fish. We did figure out some of the monsters are catfish. The largest fish we caught was a catfish. It's hard to say whose fish it was. It was my line, my setup, my bait, my spot, my cast...etc. However, I had stopped to feed Baylee dinner and Cody got to my line and snagged and pulled in the fish. Whose fish? We consider it a family effort, even Baylee as she is the one that caused me to step away from fishing and so the fish came(that's my luck). We had fun like usual. So nice to be back in the swing of it. Our proud catch....

Rockome Gardens

We had the opportunity on Wednesday to go to the Rockome Gardens up in Arcola. They are run by some of the Amish people. It's normally like a mini theme park of sorts with a petting zoo, the gardens, a train ride, horse and buggy ride, an arcade, haunted cavern and a mini town. They have artisans that show their skills in the street...like glass blower, blacksmith, etc. However, we picked a pretty bad time to go. They had been flooded with some of the recent storms. The performers were not performing, and the train and horse and buggy were shut down as well as part of the gardens and a house they were renovating. And their Sunken Garden as it's called was under about a foot of water and were pumping it out. The plants have not grown exceptionally well either as there has been so much rain here lately. We weren't told everything was shut down. We explored anyway, it was a rare opportunity that Cody was home and we could actually go.

Baylee liked all of the animals, but definitely loved the donkey best. Go figure. They also had little plaques through out the gardens with sayings on them, some we found a little amusing. We went through the haunted cavern...bad mistake. Baylee screamed and screamed and screamed. They had different rooms and one was built tilted with a swing which gives you an odd feeling and then to get to the next part, they had the hall very small. Cody had to fold up and carry the stroller in the end earning him some very muddy pants in his as he put it "heroic" move for his ladies. HAHA. They had these very cool rock fences with different designs all the way around the area. They were small rocks and I don't even want to know how much time it took.

It was nice to get out and head up that way. I love to see the horses and buggies and I got to see plenty of those. Though we get to see them in Walmart a lot, it was fun to see the little boys and girls in their outfits playing in the yards. And we even got to drive behind a buggy for a while, I was excited. Easily amused, yes. We had a fun adventure despite our luck.

A little bit of Sunshine

Last Saturday, we continued our walks. We stopped by the park and let Baylee play for a while. It was lots of fun. We are really enjoying the change of weather and being able to get out and in the fresh air. Finally a little warmth!

Baylee's still having problems with her ears. We had her medicine switched again. They gave her a super powerful 3 day one, not sure it's totally done working yet but we are hoping. She and I have once again had some EXTREMELY long nights. Sleep....(sigh), maybe one day.

We have gone outside all but one day this week. She enjoys sitting and pulling grass and waving at every car that goes by. We also play with bubbles but I think I enjoy that part more than she does right now.

We are officially in the big time. Baylee took her first unassisted steps on Monday! During the week she didn't try very hard but she also has been pretty grouchy with the ears. Today she did it a lot. I had this deal I made with her, she didn't know it but she agreed, if she went to the kitty's food to try and play with it, she had to walk without help for some steps. I took her back to the living room and it worked every time. She did a lot of practicing...she was determined to get that food. Plus we were outside playing with bubbles earlier and she practiced a good bit then as well. YAY for the big walker. Soon she will be cruising all by herself all of the time.

She's still just randomly laughing quite a bit. It usually makes me laugh as well. She also said book this week. However, like all of the other things she has said she only says them when she wants to, not when asked. I love that she is still loving to read everyday. When you put down a book, she gets fussy until you pick up another one to read some more. She's also still enjoying the toilet paper when I forget to close the bathroom door all of the way. She's sneaky when she wants to be. She also destroys her room everyday. Nothing can be on or in anything, it must all be in the floor. I just laugh and pick it up day after day. What can you do...she's so small still. Her hair is getting so long her trees(as named by our fabulous friend Kelly) aka pigtails don't stand up anymore. She's also gained weight pretty well in the past month and growing like crazy.

Today, Cody got home from work early. It looks like they are back to half day Saturdays, so that's exciting. We took advantage today and did something we haven't done since I was almost 8 months prego with the lady. We went to wet a worm at a local pond in the next town. Cody flying around has many advantages and one is that he scoped out the pond from the air. It's not busy which is nice. I caught the first fish and got to sing my fish song and then Cody caught one and a half. (when you see it, it only qualifies as half). We both had some really big fish on the lines we were fighting but they got off the hook about 10 feet from shore. We didn't know there were big fish in there and weren't set up for those, now we know and will have to do some changing of our settings next time. We will be back in search of the papa fish that evaded us today. The ones we caught were just bluegills and small. But it was all made up for when we each caught a turtle as well. Mine was small but had very bright red all over. They were cool little turtles. We stayed out as long as the Baylee allowed. It's a nice little pond and even though I had to take Baylee in some tall grass off roading in her stroller(while she was sleeping, without waking her, in which I was succesful), we had a great time! We can't wait to go again! Next weekend granted weather agrees and Baylee is feeling generous, we will hopefully get back to the pre-Baylee routine of every weekend fishing trips. And soon, she will have her very own pole probably along the lines of a Barbie pole and can fish too....she's great, she helped me catch my turtle today. Forming a future fisher!

You know you take a lot of pictures when your 9 month old does this....STOP THE PICTURES!

Ups and downs

Down...that's where we are again. Baylee has ear infections...that's right this time in both ears. We visited the doc, basically for him just to confirm and he did and wrote a prescription. We can't figure out why she keeps getting them. He decided to put off investigating further until she gets another. So far, I'm doubting the medicine is working very well, but we will give it until Tuesday and may have to change again. All of this = little sleep for yours truly. We've had some very long days and some even longer nights all week long. And here I was glad to have sleep...I'd welcome it again.

Last Saturday, we ended up going for a walk on a trail they have from one town to the next, well we did the paved part anyway. Then we went and got ice cream and went to the park. We were going to go to the good park but it was way too crowded when we stopped by, so we went to the one close to the house. We've been walking a couple of miles a night just randomly through town. We've had a good time doing that. The weather kept us in last night and I missed it. These walks have inspired me. I can't decide whether I'd like to make an album of the array of furniture on people's front porches(even a piano, somebody must be really bad) or every house that has one of those huge metal stars on it. I'm not sure which one we see more of, it's probably an even draw. And I'm not talking maybe 5 a night, no no, that wouldn't be worth it. I'm talking about every 3 houses has one or the other depending on what part of the street we are on. I find the furniture a little more intriguing. It's very um interesting and a little surprising. When we lived in Seattle for 5 months in the trailer park....it was normal to have a tub in your front yard with flowers. A grill with flowers, whatever was broken down could contain flowers. Here, they just leave the stuff they don't even put flowers to dress it up and its not a trailer park! Here I was thinking they made fun of the south for that? It appears to be untrue...it is almost law in Mattoon, you must have extras! On a better note, we do love to see all of the bunnies everywhere. We have 2 here at the apartments (so far, you all know what bunnies do) and we see more when we are walking. We are hoping to keep up the trend, though looks like the beginning of this coming week may storm us "in".

Baylee has still been exploring things this week. She discovered "her cabinet". I had to give her a cabinet she could play with in the kitchen without hurting herself. She gets tupperware, spoons, letters and a few of her toys. She mainly just likes to pull everything out and then chew on it, but it's fun for her as it's the only cabinet she's allowed. She's the best toilet paper unroller I've ever seen. So much for putting on my makeup while she's awake. I have rerolled the toilet paper too many times this week. As for walking, she's great with her walker (video in the album) and slings it around like nobody's business. She cruises the whole house and giggles a lot while doing it. That said, she's a huge chicken still at letting go. She will hold my fingers and walk, we try it with just one hand holding on, she automatically sits down. She's fearless when it comes to playing on anything high up and will head dive in a heartbeat if I'd let her but won't even attempt to walk with one hand. She is definitely a "have it her way kind of girl". No new words this week. But she can do the fish face now and that's added to her bag of tricks.

Cody was supposed to be off for Memorial Day weekend and on call on Sunday. So far that hasn't happened. He is working right now, but it's fun stuff. The owner wanted to see his farm from the air and then go to his favorite lunch spot in Indianapolis. So at least it's not the normal day to day flying from here to there. Hopefully he still gets Sunday and Monday off...though today is the only expected nice weather day, maybe we will find something else to do.

And of course, hoping the lady feels better soon! Since we have moved to Illinois less than 3 months ago, she has struggled with ears but never until then. It's not much fun that's for sure.

We hope everyone has a great Memorial day weekend!

More and more fun

We had a good week. I had a great Mother's Day. We didn't do much but I got some nice prizes and a really cool card from Cody and Baylee. A few of the prizes...a light for my dark kitchen that goes under the cabinet and a plant that can happily live indoors with us, since my outdoor ones from Georgia are struggling inside! I was excited. It was horrible weather on Sunday though so we had no choice but to stay inside all day. Baylee gets into more and more things all of the time but at the same time she is getting to be more and more fun .

We did get a few breaks in the weather and got to head over to the park a few times during the week. It gets us both out of the house and Baylee loves to swing and is really starting to like the slide more and more. And as always, she ate some more grass. Between the grass and cat food, I can't figure out this diet of hers.

As some of you may know, I pretty much always have a camera on me. Unfortunately, Thursday found me without a camera. In Walmart, Baylee decided to literally kick back and cruise the store. She slumped down and had her feet kicked up on the rail with her sippy cup on one side and cereal in her hand. She had not a care in the world. Many people stopped and had to talk to us because she was so cute with her little feet kicked up and looking so comfy. It was too cute. I have got to do better with the camera for moments like those.

Not to mention she knows how to fake sleep already. She has done it before and I've watched her. But last Saturday, I laid her down she waited until she thought I was gone, I was but I had the door cracked. She looked up couldn't tell it was cracked, GIGGLED and then stood up and started jumping. At that point all I could do was laugh with her. The giggle made it all. She still loves to watch out the windows as well. I have built her stairs out of small blankets in her room so she can see out the window and watch all of the people at the Mexican restaraunt or the birds or sometimes just cars going by out on the HWY. She enjoys doing it out the front window as well by climbing on the couch(with assistance of course). She absolutely loves it.

Baylee also doesn't kiss much. She will occasionally, not on command, do the open mouth touch your face kiss. Instead she gives nose. You bump foreheads and then touch noses. She's learned to do it to the kitty(in the process in this pic). The kitty usually licks her after the head bump though. Thursday night during the video chat with Lilli, she gave Cody nose about 50 times. Every 10 seconds she'd turn and do it then continue to watch Lilli then do it again. It was so funny. She's been great this week with petting the kitty instead of pulling her hair and only tried to bite her tail a few times one of which the kitty nipped her back.

She also is trying to say more. She said kitty 3 times on Monday! Since then, not once but I figure she is just storing it up to bust it out all in a day. She tried to say Out, what we tell the kitty to do when its her nap time. She didn't quite nail that one the way she did kitty though. She claps a lot. If a song comes on, she claps, even commercials. It's fun. No other big news from the Baylee for this week.

We however did get things worked out to get Lilli out here for a while this summer. Grandma and Grandpa Lowe are bringing Lilli out here and staying a week and they will be able to celebrate Baylee's big #1 birthday with us(a few days late, but Baylee won't mind). We are excited to see all of them, especially since we live so far away. Baylee will love Lilli being here as well as spending some time with her grandparents. On video chat Thursday, Baylee was cracking up at Lilli laughing. It was fun to watch and hear them.

Cody has the weekend off again. Yay! Maybe we can get into something fun!

Back to Baylee

Baylee officially turned 9 months this week. Time has passed so quickly. After running a fever all weekend last week, Baylee broke out in dots and had those spreading for a few days. Finally as of yesterday, she is totally back to the Baylee we know. I cannot begin to explain how nice it is. After battling ear infections and this and that, she's well and we are finally getting to sleep through the night again! Sweet sleep, sweet, sweet sleep!

We stayed inside most of the week, her dots got worse in the sun. Baylee managed to dump the food 2 more times. I finally got a picture for memory of the lovely time I have cleaning up cat food. Of course, I can't say I did much better. I dumped our pot pie in the oven last night, so at least I know where she gets the urge.

She's still moving along. Working on standing on her own for longer times. She's still pushing her Walk n Ride around. And scooting like mad and even intermixes crawling sometimes. She's discovered her mouth is a great way to carry things when she needs to scoot or crawl. I find it amusing but haven't gotten the picture yet. She learned how to clap too. Last night was her first attempt to feed herself as well. Fun times. She's still loving books and we get to read usually 5 or 6 a day before she needs to get down to play. That of course makes me very happy.

Last weekend, we went to a Gyro restaraunt. They were fabulous. The first time I've ever had one. Yummy. The weather was bad on his off day and looks that way for tomorrow as well. One of these days we will have great weather almost everyday.

In June Baylee and I now have plans to go to Omaha and see Mom, Dad, Hagan, Heather, and new little Brayden. Teague is meeting us there as well from Houston, so that will be fun. We are looking forward to that. Unfortunately, Cody has no vacation, so he can't go along for the trip. I know Baylee will love meeting her cousin. She loves other kids.

I've been scrapbooking this week and we are headed to the scrapbook store today to see if there is anything I need or get inspired by. We will head to the park this afternoon. Adventures in Mattoon!

Another Week

We had a pretty good week. Again not much in the way of events. We had one of the neighbors over for dinner on Monday night. That was fun and a big night for Baylee. She stood for the first time without holding onto anything. She's worked on that a little this week but still hasn't mastered it. She did proceed later that night to try the cat food and was mad when I took it away. She apparently liked it. GROSS! And our neighbor got to see my child eat cat food too. I'm sure that was great for her. haha. So now, the kitty has to suffer and not get food at every whim. I guess we should be glad we lasted as long as we did without her eating it. The only problem was that she liked it.

Baylee learned how to wave this week as well. Though she usually waves to herself more than to other people. We went to the park only one day. It was colder and I didn't feel like going out in it.

Thursday night, Baylee broke out in some crazy huge, moving hives. Friday she developed a fever. She still has a fever, but other than being awake in the night burning up, she acts ok. Hoping that will clear up and she will be totally back to normal as we just finished her medicine for her ears. The rest of our week just continued as normal routine.

Cody is off again today. So we get another weekend with him. The storms are gone and we are trying to figure out how to spend our beautiful day.

Hope everyone is well! We send our best.