These are a few of our favorite things

Some of Gemma's favorite things right now include:

1.  Her water table.  We play with this almost every afternoon and both of us are pretty much drenched by the time we finish.

2.  Her Disney Princess Ride-On Toy.  It is great for riding, walking, or just sitting apparently.

3.  Her interactive keyboard that Uncle Wes, Aunt Kelly, Noah and Liam gave her for Christmas.  I finally got around to putting this together the other day and she has really been enjoying it.  It interacts with the TV, and she was quick to figure out that if she pressed the animals on the keyboard, the corresponding animal would come out and dance on the screen.  She's pretty smart.  She also likes to use the keyboard as a walker sometimes, which doesn't always work out so well.

4.  She also got a pool float with a canopy for her birthday and has really been enjoying splashing around at the neighborhood pool but I do not have any photos of this yet.

And some of my favorite things right now:

1.  Tea.  I don't drink coffee, but I love tea hot or cold and I love all sorts of flavors.  Groupon recently had an online deal for Tea District, which I purchased and then ordered 2 bags of loose leaf tea (strawberry white tea and fruity chocolate rooibos red tea) and a canister of organic pineapple white tea pyramids.  They are all delicious.  I was so inspired by my purchase that I decided to allocate myself a shelf just for my tea so that I could have better access to all the many flavors:

2.  Flamingos.  Okay, so this is not so much a "right now" favorite as it is a lifetime addiction, but I included it because I wanted to show off some of the cool flamingo stuff I got while in Myrtle Beach:

3.  The Big Bang Theory.  Not the actually theory, with which I heartily disagree, but the TV show, which is incredibly hilarious.  I had heard about it and wanted something new to watch so I got the first disc of season 1 from Netflix.  I think the show is so funny to me because you could substitute "computer programmer" for "physicist" and still have essentially the same show.  While it's a funny show, I think it's probably 100 times funnier if you are a nerd or know someone who is a nerd.  For example, we were watching an episode where the guys try to put together an entertainment center for Penny and they end up ignoring the instructions and hatching some really elaborate plan involving infrared repeaters, fans, and cooling systems.  This was particularly funny to me because our entertainment center actually has infrared repeaters and a fan...

4.  Kindle.  I love my Kindle and whenever I use it, it makes me never want to read an actual, physical book ever again.  And it is even more awesome now that I got this cool skin for it (an early birthday present from Cy):

Some of my favorite books to read on my Kindle?  The Lady Julia Grey mystery series by Deanna Raybourn and the Lady Emily mysteries by Tasha Alexander. 

5.  Jalapeno poppers.  Random, I know, but I had some from Sonic a few weeks ago and now I am addicted.  Fortunately for me, TGI Fridays makes jalapeno poppers that you can purchase in the frozen food section at Wal-Mart!  So now I can have them anytime I want!  I am not sure this is a good thing...

Anyway...I know this post was kind of random, but those are a few of our favorite things right now!

New Porch Cushions

I am pretty excited about the new cushions we just got for our wicker porch furniture.  We have had the porch furniture for about 3 years, and the cushions had turned very gray and nasty-looking in that time.  Although there are cushions galore available at a lot of stores this time of year, it was actually fairly difficult to find some designed to fit our specific furniture.  Finally, we found these at Lowe's:

I like them, and it is nice to be able to sit out on the porch again on clean cushions! 

Tarragon Mustard Chicken Salad

I was bored and decided to experiment with a new type of chicken salad for lunch this week.  I love chicken salad and already have several good recipes, but I also like to experiment with cooking (I rarely, if ever, actually use recipes) so I thought I would try making chicken salad with a mustard-based dressing and see how it turned out.  Here is the recipe I came up with, and I personally thought it was pretty delicious:

For the dressing:
1/4 c. spicy brown mustard
1/2 c. low-fat or fat-free sour cream
1 tbsp. tarragon
1 tbsp. dill weed
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. salt

I cooked 2 large chicken breasts and shredded them, then mixed them with the above dressing (I had also put some white vinegar in it, which I wasn't crazy about, so I will probably skip that next time).  I also added 1/4 cup sea salted almonds and some diced avocado just before I ate it.  It was yummy!

Lunatics and Lycanthropy is now for sale

A Kindle version of my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel, Lunatics and Lycanthropy, is now available for download on Amazon.com for $2.99.  Lunatics and Lycanthropy is similar to Norfanger Plantation in that it is also a teen paranormal romance that borrows the plot of a Jane Austen novel, in this instance, Pride and Prejudice.  From the back of the book:

Like Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of Pride and Prejudice, Savannah Benton struggles with the pressures of a hypochondriac mother, a disinterested father, and four very silly sisters, not to mention the unsolicited affections of the rude and arrogant Darcy Fitz. But in this modern, young adult adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel, the female protagonist has one more difficulty to face: the possibility that werewolves might be real, and for all she knows, wearing the faces of those she considers her friends.

Set in a rural Georgia town, Lunatics and Lycanthropy is a hilarious spoof of the teen paranormal romance genre that has recently become so wildly popular. It will keep you laughing, but it will also keep you guessing. With twists and turns throughout and an unreliable and increasingly suspicious narrator, the mystery of who might or might not be a werewolf lingers until the very last page. 


You can find the Kindle version here.

I am also working on getting a paperback copy up for sale as well.  I receive my proof copy in the mail yesterday, and was not satisfied with the current result.  Some of the pages I wanted to be right-facing were left-facing, etc., so I will be ordering another proof and starting the process over again.  It's frustrating, but such is the world of self-publishing.  Hopefully I can have it up for sale by the end of the month.

Food Allergy Update

We got a call from the pediatrician's office last night with the results of Gemma's allergy testing.  She tested positive for a mild milk allergy and a mild egg allergy.  Our doctor is out of town, so we won't be getting into the details a whole lot until we see him again in 3 weeks for Gemma's weight check.  In the meantime, we are supposed to begin transitioning her from formula to soy milk.  I am hoping that this goes much better than when we tried to transition her from breast milk to soy formula.  She hated the soy formula so much that she would make herself throw up whenever we tried to give her any of it.  Also, despite months of trying, she still has not gotten the hang of using a sippy cup - all she wants to do is chew on it.  So I am not anticipating a smooth transition from the bottle either.

Due to her food allergies, we are supposed to avoid foods with milk and eggs in them for the time being.  Hopefully she will eventually grow out of these allergies, but in the meantime, her food options are pretty limited.  It is amazing how much stuff has eggs and milk in it - basically everything but straight up fruit, veggies, and meat.  Also I know that cheese, yogurt, and eggs are generally good foods for babies this age, but those are off-limits to Gemma.  I guess I could try to hunt down some soy-based cheese and yogurt, but I am sure I will have to branch out and do my grocery shopping somewhere other than Wal-Mart then! Also, she really needs to grow some more teeth!  She got her bottom two teeth around 6 months of age and has gotten no more teeth since.  We are still just feeding her purees primarily, since she can't really chew.

But anyway...at least we know for sure now about her allergies and can work around them.  And we were actually relieved that her allergies weren't more extensive - she had also broken out in hives after some turkey and a fruit mixture, but nothing else showed up on the test.  So we are thankful for that, but would definitely appreciate prayers that we can get this girl transitioned from the bottle to a cup, from formula to soy milk, that she will one day outgrow her allergies, and that she will grow some more teeth so she can eat more food! :)

Gemma's One Year Photo Shoot

After debating whether or not to take Gemma to a portrait studio for some one-year photos, or hire a photographer, we decided just to attempt a DIY photo shoot.  Cy said that he likes the pictures that I take better than most of what he has seen professional photographers do, so I agreed to take the pictures if he would be my assistant and help keep Gemma situated, smiling, and keep her from crawling off.  This weekend, we finally had the time to go do it.  I suggested Old St. Andrews Parish Church as a location - they have really beautiful landscaping, a pond, a bridge, and benches.  I wish we had been able to get out there while the azaleas and daffodils were still blooming, but maybe it was good that they were not, as the subject of the photo shoot was Gemma, and I would definitely have gotten distracted by all of the pretty flowers (I did end up taking a few pictures of some water lilies). 

Anyway, the photo shoot seemed to go well.  She was fairly cooperative with being dressed up and posed early in the morning, and out of about 100 shots, we got 10 really good ones, which seemed like a decent success rate with a one-year old subject.  :)

There were also some funny "outtake" photos too (which were actually Cy's favorite):

So the photo part of the shoot was a success.  However, we might as well have spent the $$ on a professional since the photo shoot necessitated a trip to urgent care for me.  Right before we were about to head home, a bug bit me right beside my eye.  I brushed it off and didn't think much about it, but not long after we got home, Cy pointed out that it was swelling a bit.  All of a sudden, my eye was swollen completely shut.  I started knocking back tons of Benadryl and icing my eye, and while it eventually quit getting worse, it did not start getting better.  When I woke up Sunday morning (about 5 rounds of Benadryl and 24 hours later) there was still no improvement, so we went to the nearest Doctor's Care where they fixed me up with a nice cortisone injection in my hip.  A few hours later, the swelling finally started going down.  As of this morning, my eye is still fairly swollen but is much better.  I guess it will just take a few days for it to get all the way back to normal.  Lucky me.  But in the end, it was totally worth it, because we were very pleased with how the pictures turned out.  Now I just need to do any touching up and then make the difficult decision of which prints to order!

Then...and Now...

Gemma just born a little over a year ago:

 

And 1-year-old Gemma this morning:

A Kind of Traumatic 12 Month Checkup

Yesterday was Gemma's 12 month checkup.  It ended up being a pretty traumatic morning unfortunately.  First they weighed her and got her stats:

Height: 28 1/4 - 25th percentile (we were pleasantly surprised by this)
HC: 18 - 75th percentile  (explains why I'm having to put her in some 12 month clothes even though her body is super small)
Weight: 16 pounds, 5 ounces...no longer on the chart

The doctor immediately began expressing a bit of concern for her weight.  She had actually lost a few ounces since her 10 month checkup.  However, she had a huge growth spurt lengthwise, she is moving around a bunch, and has just recovered from a respiratory virus during which she didn't eat very much.  Also she is just going to be tiny her whole life.  She is half Shealy (I would argue she is about 95% Shealy) after all.  So the doctor wasn't too concerned given all of these factors, but wants us to bring her back in next month for a weight check.

As far as her development, she is not standing alone or walking yet, but she cruises very well.  I imagine her low weight will probably play a part in when she is really able to walk.  She isn't really talking yet - the only word she says is "Dada" and she pretty much says it all of the time, even when you ask her to say Mama.  But her comprehension is extremely good.  For example, if you say, "Gemma, can you wave?" she will wave and if you say "Gemma, can you clap?" she will start clapping.

And now for the trauma...after discussing her transition from formula to milk and other foods, the doctor decided it would probably be best if she had allergy testing before we proceeded.  This required a blood draw.  So after we got her hemoglobin test (finger prick) and 3 immunization shots, we then took the poor little girl to a lab to have her blood drawn.  She did okay at first but then the nurse screwed up and didn't draw enough blood so we had to hold her down and draw more.  By then Gemma was very aware of what was about to happen and completely freaked out like I've never seen her before.  Since Cy does not do well with needles, I was the one having to hold Gemma down.  By the time we were finished, I was crying almost as hard as she was.  It was absolutely terrible.  She had gotten so worked up that she was twitching and shivering for about 20 minutes afterwards.  I could have punched the nurse.  If you are going to do something like that to a baby who doesn't understand what is going on, you really need to make sure you get enough in one draw.  It is ridiculous to expect a one-year old to sit through that twice.  Although in the end I think I was more traumatized than she was.  She took a nap when we got home and was her usual, cheerful self for the rest of the day.  I was pretty bummed out for the rest of the day.  I knew it was for a reason, but I felt like such a horrible mom subjecting her to that, when I am supposed to protect her.

Anyway...in the end, they got what they needed and we should have the results in a week.  The doctor's office is going to call us with the results and we will have a consultation over the phone about a feeding plan for Gemma that will work with her allergies.  Did I mention that her eating is also limited by the fact that as of yet she still has only 2 teeth? Ah, well. Every day with a kiddo is an adventure, that's for sure.

Mother's Day

Even though I was technically already a mom last Mother's Day, this was really my first year celebrating this special day.  Last year on Mother's Day, we brought sweet little Gemma home from the hospital.  This year, Cy and Gemma took me out for a delicious lunch at Olive Garden (my request) and we roamed around Barnes and Noble for a bit.  My gift was a white wooden porch swing, which both Gemma and I will enjoy.  Unfortunately there were some technical difficulties installing the swing, but I will post pictures when it is up!  Despite the technical difficulties, I still had a great day!

Gemma's First Birthday

This past Saturday, my sweet baby girl turned 1 year old.  It is incredibly hard to believe that it has been an entire year - I can't even really remember what life was like without Gemma.  But I'm not the type to get all weepy and nostalgic and sentimental (not that there's anything wrong with that), so I'm just going to move on and describe the big party.

We had been so excited about this little girl's birthday for such a long time that we had ordered decorations well in advance.  We had a hard time choosing from all the cute themes available (except the pink John Deere stuff; that was easy enough to rule out) but eventually decided to go with the "lil cupcake" theme:

We even found an "I'm the Birthday Girl" shirt with a cupcake on it for Gemma to wear:

We decided to keep the party small with just close family, so we invited Grandpa and Grandma, Aunt Rachel, Nana and Pops, Uncle Wes and Aunt Kelly, and Noah and Liam.  Everyone (okay, almost everyone) was a good sport and wore the super cool party hats.  Gemma and Liam totally looked like little garden gnomes in their hats:

We ate pizza and then, since it was a cupcake themed party, we of course had dessert from Cupcake.  Except Gemma, who had a special milk and egg free cupcake that I made her because of her food allergies.  She was pretty indifferent towards the cupcake:

After cupcakes, we opened presents.  Gemma pretty much crawled around and ignored this part of the party.  She was more concerned with keeping an eye on Liam.

But everyone was extremely generous and Gemma got tons of very nice gifts, including this Disney Princess ride-on toy which both Gemma and Liam absolutely adored:

We are so thankful for our precious little girl and it is such a blessing to watch her grow.  She has such a sweet little personality and is a little bit too smart sometimes.  She enjoyed her special day very much, and we were so glad to be able to share her special day with family.

Myrtle Beach Trip

After we finished up our Easter festivities in Ellerbe, we headed out to spend a few days at Myrtle Beach.  We stayed right on the beach at the Landmark Resort, a pretty nice hotel with 2 lazy rivers, tons of swimming pools, and its own miniature golf course.  We arrived Sunday night just in time for dinner at IHOP (where I tried their Nutella crepes for the first time - they were AMAZING!) followed by an evening walk on the beach.

Monday was Mom/Grandma's birthday.  We spent most of the day enjoying things at the hotel.  We took Gemma to the beach (her first time) and in the lazy river.  She absolutely LOVED both!  (In fact, she started crying when we picked her up to leave the beach.)  The lazy river was probably her favorite part of the trip though.  She absolutely went crazy kicking her legs and slapping at the water with her hands every time.

We let Mom/Grandma pick our dinner location and she chose the Melting Pot.  We stuffed ourselves with cheese fondue, salad, meat, and then super delicious chocolate fondue for dessert. 

It was super dark in the restaurant, reminding Rachel and me of the movie When in Rome.  Rachel posed as Lance from When in Rome (asking "Does anyone have the time?"):

Unfortunately, the weather was pretty gross for the rest of our trip.  On Tuesday we were able to hang out in the lazy river for a bit, but when we attempted to find the hotel's miniature golf course, we narrowly escaped being drenched by a sudden, epic thunderstorm.  Tuesday night was fun, though, as Dad/Grandpa, Rachel, Cy, and I went to Medieval Times.  At Medieval Times, we feasted on chicken, ribs, tomato bisque, potatoes, garlic bread, and apple pastries and drank from fancy goblets as we watched knights jousting and cheered on our knight, the red knight (who totally won, by the way).  I was a little unsure at first when we walked in and were greeted by a strong smell of horse, but it ended up being really fun.

Wednesday was basically a shopping day.  While Gemma and Cy napped, my parents, sister, and I hit up the stores at Broadway at the Beach.  I finally got the fudge I had been craving.  But the best part was...there was an entire store devoted to flamingos!  I had to really restrain myself to keep from buying one of everything in the store.  In the end, I limited myself to a t-shirt, a stained glass thingy, an old-fashioned looking sign, and a mosaic flamingo figurine.  I was very impressed with my self-control.  (Although I informed Cy the other day that I want to make a day trip to Myrtle Beach sometime before Christmas specifically to go back to that store and purchase flamingo Christmas ornaments.)

Cy and Gemma met us for lunch at Fuddrucker's and then we all went to Ripley's Aquarium.  It was fun but crowded.  By the time we got done, we were all exhausted and our plans of going to a Japanese steakhouse fell through, so we ordered some pizzas instead (this ended up being a minor fiasco of its own, but I won't get into that). 

Thursday was our last day so we hurried downstairs for one last trip to the lazy river.  (The mean pool lady wouldn't let us in at first but it turned out okay.)  Then we packed up and headed out.  We were going to stop at Mount Atlanticus for some miniature golf on the way out, but when we pulled into the parking lot, poor little Gemma was passed out asleep so we ended up just going on home.  She slept the entire way.

Did I mention that my laptop broke, our credit card number was stolen, and Cy and Gemma caught a respiratory virus while on our trip?  Ah, well.  Such is life when we go on vacation.  But other than that, our trip was sooooo much fun!

Easter 2011

We spent Easter with my family this year.  We drove up to Ellerbe on Saturday (the day before Easter) and spent the rest of the day doing typical Easter activities like dyeing eggs, ordering chicken strips from Dixie Burger, and watching old episodes of Psych.  If we had had a contest, Rachel would have won for her awesome pink flamingo egg:

Easter itself was pretty action-packed.  We were up and at FBC at 7 am for the sunrise service.  After the service, we had breakfast at the church.  Then we headed back to the house to shower and get ready for church.  Gemma looked so sweet all dressed up in her Easter finery.

Rachel and I both wore hats and channeled Kate Middleton:

After church, my parents and I enjoyed chicken salad croissants and strawberry shortcake while Rachel and Cy ate burgers and brownies.  Gemma ate puffs and some sort of purple berry puree.  Not long after that, we loaded up our cars and headed to Myrtle Beach!

Did I mention that we scored some sweet Easter baskets that looked like sock monkey heads?  It was kind of Temple-of-Doom-esque, but with candy instead of brains: