Before and After

Before and After

Learning all about Nintendo DS

I know it has been months.... what can I say. (Sadly, it took me 30 minutes to remember my password to log on to blogger. ) We have still not made it through all the doctors appointments necessary to coast with Aubrey. During routine physicals and blood work we discovered Aubrey's immunizations in China were ineffective. Either she never received them, or the lack of nutrition in China made it impossible for her body to assimilate antibodies. Irregardless, she is now being subjected to a fresh round of shots. Her doctor is now known as the " Boo Boo Doctor".

Aubrey at the Maritime Museum making an ice boat... the night before in Port Clinton the Coastguard had to rescue over a hundred ice fisherman.

Most of February was spent trying to get Aubrey healthy again. She caught the common cold, but since she had no HIB immunity it rapidly became epiglottitis. Fevers of 104.7 scared me enough to get her an appoitment with the doctor. Antibiotics and steriods were not enough to help, we ended up in the E.R. for a racemic epinephrine treatment, and dose of decadron( more powerful steroid). We also had to give Aubrey breathing treatments for a few days until the wheezing stopped. Poor little thing was a mess for 2 weeks with the whole fiasco.

High fevers, worst sore throat ever, but stylish with that purple polish

Recovered nicely

In the time since we brought home our little miracle, things have changed quite a bit. Aubrey now has some hair, not enough for a ponytail but maybe by summer. She loves the bathtub and even went swimming on our recent trip to Chinatown in Chicago. She loves Daisy, most of the time anyway. So far she has grown 1 1/2 inches and gained 5 pounds, wow! No more egg diet... this girl will eat everything except carrots. Her favorites are popcorn, ice cream and pizza. I don't believe you can get anymore Americanized than that.

She ate the entire banana! Look at that Valentines dress.

Loving the bath!

Hugging Daisy



I've got some Hair!

We have really begun to settle into our new house. We are anxious for summer or just warmer weather. We seem to be stuck in the 40's and had more snow over Springbreak. The boys love to watch for the eagles on the marsh and yesterday counted 13 white cranes and 3 blue herons. Of course the swans, geese and ducks have been here all winter.

View of the back of our new house

Hard to see but there is a heron in the middle of the picture

Aubrey is my shadow. Whenever I tell the boys to come to dinner, or pick up after themselves...little miss bossy (Aubrey), standing with hands on hips, repeats the command until the task is accomplished. The tiny little waif has turned our worlds upside down, for the better and with love and time has turned into a confident, opinionated, and very determined 3 year old. I can see already she will take the backseat to no one.

Don't mess with me, I'm practicing.

Oh, all right...I'll smile for you Mom.

Coloring eggs for Easter

Aubrey caught on before we could even explain the tradition. She hid several plain eggs so she could have more to color than her brothers. The Easter Bunny was a huge hit. Aubrey loves jelly beans, but not Reeses Peanut Butter eggs. Darn...more for me and Dave:)

Same house, new furniture. Aubrey in Easter dress.

Egg Hunt, Shane has faith the grass will grow.

Moving from Granger

PACKING UP

Wow, I can not believe that it has been almost 2 months since I posted. After what I have accomplished during that time I know all things are possible with divine guidance and elbow grease. We listed our home for sale during the second week of November. Dave and I painted, packed, staged, cleaned, cleaned and cleaned our home some more. We had a lot of showings, some of them back for a second time. We heard repeatedly what a nice house. The showings stopped over Thanksgiving and we were able to enjoy Aubrey's first turkey dinner. Here favorites were the cornbread stuffing and bunkin bie!

In early December we got busy with Christmas cookies. I always had 24 hour notice before showings so we chose a slow period and got busy. We made over 6 dozen cut out cookies, another 6 of molasses cookies and dozens of buckeyes! The kids had a great time. Aubrey couldn't grasp that once you iced the cookie you set it aside for later. Every cookie she decorated went directly into her mouth.

ARRRR .....Too much sugar makes me goofy!

What a fine mess and a lot of fun. About 1 month into our listing we received a bizarre call from the realtor. A couple wanted to see our house for the second time and in less than an hour. We packed up the kids and left for the evening. That same night we sold our house with the contingency being that we close in 10 days. 16 years of married life, with 4 kids, leads to an enormous amount of stuff. I went from being thrilled to overwhelmed.

All things considered, we sold the house for our asking price, bought a beautiful new home on Catawba Island with a water view, packed up, moved out, and moved into our new home in 14 days!

DON'T FORGET MY MONKEY

WE MADE TIME FOR FRIENDS BEFORE LEAVING
THE LOVELY ELIZABETH AND AUBREY

Our first night in the new house was Christmas Eve. Santa was very busy getting presents wrapped since he didn't know where he would find us until the last minute. Unfortunately, in all the blessed chaos we were unable to find the camera. Aubrey's first Christmas had to be documented with a few fuzzy, but better than nothing, cell phone shots.

DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT TOUCHING MY NEW TOYS

NEW HAIR FROM SANTA

Now, to get up to date - we have been in our new house for 2 1/2 weeks. I have tackled almost all of the boxes. My treasured books are going to stay in boxes until Dave is able to build me some book shelves. My van is finally in the garage, but Dave's car is not. He has worked so hard for so long his shoulder is causing tremendous pain. He was not able to finish putting up shelving and racks for all the lawn equipment that we no longer need here.




Look at my ring!

Today was the first day I did not have to go to the laundromat, yeah! Dave got the gas dryer installed. Above are pics of Aubrey showing off the fancy 25 cent ring she got in the laundry's vending machine.

INSIDE THE NEW HOUSE

VIEW FROM OUR DECK

LOOKS LIKE HEAVEN TO ME

First Family Pictures

After two hours in the studio crammed in with at least ten other families we have the fruits of our labors. The photographer was able to get some pretty good pictures.

Aubrey has a little fake bandana with red curly hair. She wears it around constantly. Thankfully this new hair has replaced the dishcloths.

She continues to prove how smart she is. When she finished all of her chips the other day she began shouting for more chips. I told her she had to finish her ham first. Within a few minutes she was pointing to her empty plate yelling "chips". She did not feed the ham to the dog either. She had it all balled up in her left hand, which was raised above her head, as if I would not be able to see it there.

The boys took Aubrey sledding in the front yard last night. She loves the inner tubes and being pushed down the hill. When we get more snow we will take her to the park with the huge sledding hill. I may take a while for her to climb to the top but she continues to amaze me with her persistance.