Twelve months of Maisie for the final post of 2008

January found Maisie loving dress up clothes and all things pink, shiny and sparkly. Everyday would find little Miss Maisie wearing a different princess or fairy dress, fancy shoes, tiaras and beads all whilst dancing around and looking at herself in the mirror.

In February I bought a good camera and I had so much fun taking pictures of my best little girl. This was also the month that Maisie started to love being in the kitchen with me and helping with the cooking. Or more correctly, she loved to help with baking and licking up all the sweet batters and dough.

March was a month filled with play dates and friends. In addition, two big firsts happened in March: Maisie's first pee pee on the toilet and it was the first time I was able to leave her at Mother's Morning Out where she didn't cry for me not to leave.

In April Maisie got a tricycle and her indoor trampoline. Everyday she wanted to go out and ride her bike and when she couldn't be outside she was found jumping, jumping, jumping. This was also the month where Maisie learned how to open all the doors in the house including the ones being held closed by hooks and eyes.

May was the beginning of Maisie's fashionista attitude. She loved to dress up and pose for me and then loved looking at the pictures of herself on the computer. Maisie also got to ride on Thomas the Tank Engine, which was such a big hit with her and even to this day she still talks about her ride on Thomas.

In June Maisie started on her Fireflies gymnastics team. This was also the month where she decided that she was done with diapers and in one weekend, without too much help from us, Maisie was toilet trained.

July had Maisie in her glory. She attended gymnastics camp and for Maisie, the gym is the happiest place in the world. My highlight of the month was being able to get Maisie on film spelling her name. Even though she had been spelling her name as well as a few of other words for a couple of weeks, documenting it on film and having it forever was very special for me.

August brought the beginning of Maisie's second year of Wee School. She also continued with her gymnastics practices and we were able to get together with lots of friends. Maisie also found a new reason to dress up and pretend play, her new favorite book, Fancy Nancy.

All of a sudden in September Maisie decided that she liked more and greater varieties of foods. We had fun packing her bentos each day for school and I was so happy that she was finally eating many new and healthy foods. School and gymnastics practice filled most of our days but we still managed to see friends for fun play dates.

Maisie turned three in October!! Where did the time go that my little girl was already three?? We partied, partied and partied. Maisie's true fashionita attitude totally came out and she wanted to wear special outfits every day. Maisie also received her team leotard which was pink and sparkly much to Maisie's delight.

November was a difficult month with having both Eammon and I in and out of the hospital and away from her for so many days. Maisie was a real trooper with all that happened and was a very good girl for everyone who helped us out and watched over her.

Most of December was spent on the beach in Aruba. She was a delight on the beach being a little social butterfly, making friends and pilfering snacks from everyone she met.

Maisie truly is a delight and watching her grow up and blossom over the course of the year was so much fun. Looking back and seeing how much she along with her interests have changed, just amazes me. I'm looking forward to all that 2009 will bring and watching my little girl grow and change for another year.

Happy New Year and may 2009 bring wonderful things to everyone.

Christmas 2008

Christmas always seems to sneak up on me. We generally leave for Aruba right after Thanksgiving and we don't return until the Saturday before Christmas. Being home less than a week before Christmas day doesn't really leave a lot of time to get into the swing of everything. Also, if someone had asked me about what Christmas traditions we have, I would have said that we really didn't have any. But then I realized that we do have some little ones and this year I think we may have started some new ones too.

Christmas eve day I dropped Maisie off at PLAY in the morning, for drop off care, so that I could have some time to get a little cooking done for Christmas day dinner. I got the Cornish Game Hens marinating and I made the custard for the English Sherry Trifle. Then it was time to pick up Maisie and we told her that while she napped, one of Santa's elves would come and bring her Christmas tree. So while she slept we put up our tree and left one wrapped present for her. Our tree is only two feet tall with lights and ornaments permanently attached so pulling it out of it's storage bag and plugging it in was easy peasy. We told her it was a very small elf that brought the tree and maybe next year a bigger elf would come with a bigger tree but honestly she's thrilled with her tree and never asked for a bigger one. We then let her open her present and it was a video which she wanted to watch immediately whilst wearing one of her fairy costumes.

While she was watching the video I made potato latkes which for us, is a Christmas eve tradition. We all gorged ourselves on the latkes and then headed out for a drive to see all the pretty Christmas lights. When we returned home Maisie sprinkled reindeer food in the back yard and then it was bedtime. Maisie was beyond excited and getting her to sleep was not easy. This morning she couldn't wait to see if Santa brought her presents and when she saw all the gifts under the tree she was so excited and had such fun opening all her gifts. We spent the morning watching another one of her new videos and playing with her new toys, then it was nap time for all of us.

Each year Eammon puts in his request for Christmas dinner. In years past we've had goose, duck, roast beef or lamb but this year he requested Cornish Game Hens, stuffing, corn bread and our traditional Christmas English Sherry Trifle. We had a really nice dinner together and everything was delicious. It was a nice day with no rushing around, no schedule, no where to go and all-in-all just a relaxing day home together as a family.

Hope that everyone had a great day too. Merry Christmas.

Tanned, healthy and relaxed

* It's been yet another big gap in my posting to the blog, but after our first five days in Aruba I had very limited computer access and I wasn't able to upload pictures so I figured I'd wait to post until we returned home.

* We had a wonderful and relaxing trip spending the first five days at a hotel and then we moved to my parent's place.

* Eammon had to return home and to work after 10 days away but Maisie and I were able to spend a full two weeks with my parents and oh what fun Maisie had with her Grandparents.

* Maisie was a little social butterfly on the beach making friends with everyone.

* Chasing birds was great fun for Maisie but then Bob taught her how to feed them. Each day he brought down extra bread and waited for Maisie and she looked forward to sitting with him and feeding the birds.

* Maisie loved being buried in the sand up to her neck and how she could sit there like that...well ewww.

* She also loved being buried over and over and over again, exhausting every adult involved in the burying process.

* Maisie did have her favorite people on the beach and Alan, Carl & Sandy ranked right up there as each day one or more of them would bring her a special treat of either a mini bag of M&Ms or a mini chocolate bar. She wasn't happy to see them go home six days before her because even though she was given treats from many other people nothing was as good as chocolate!!

* The woman who worked at the towel station collected pull tabs as part of a fund raiser and Maisie loved going for a walk with Sandy and putting all of her collected pull tabs in the container.

* Maisie wasn't one to sit still for very long, running, jumping, playing in the sand and water, going back and forth to the showers, socializing and getting snacks from all her friends on the beach and of course, chasing the birds and the iguanas. One of her other daily favorite activities was to play peek-a-boo with my Dad and his hat which was very cute.

* Maisie loved finding shells and coral and one find in particular was quite interesting. Click here to see the piccie of one of her best finds and be prepared for a good laugh.

* Over and over again Maisie would lay on the chaise with my Mother pretending to sleep or relax only to snuggle for a minute before bouncing up to be on the move again.

* Maisie also showed off her athleticism when she played volleyball with Javier. She looked forward to the daily volleyball game ending so that she could get her turn.

* In Aruba my parents gave Maisie a camera and the girl just loves it. She so funny though, within minutes of receiving the camera she had it all figured out. She loves taking pictures but then she has even more fun deleting them so none of her piccies to post but trust me she got some good and interesting ones.

* Maisie loved to ask everyone their name and surprisingly she remembered all of them.

* One of the funniest moments of our trip happened when we boarded the plane in Aruba. We pre-boarded and the Captain was right at the door when we entered. He said hi to Maisie and asked her name, which she told him and then she asked his name. He told her that he was the Captain and that he was going to fly the plane. He then asked her if she would like to go in and see the cockpit. To which she replied, "no thank you, I've seen it before." I guess after being on nearly 30 flights and having many of the Captains making her the same offer, she figures been-there-done-that. All I could do was shrug my shoulders and follow Maisie to find our seats.

* Maisie then managed to impress the woman sitting next to her in the isle seat when she told her that the bumps we were feeling was called turbulence.

* Friday we left my parent's place just after nap time and didn't arrive home until the wee hours of Saturday morning and Maisie did amazingly well on the flights. She didn't sleep at all during the flight from Aruba to Charlotte nor did she sleep during our layover. I kept asking her if she wanted to lay down and sleep but she told me that once we were on the plane going home she would sleep. Sure enough, as soon as we were in the air out of Charlotte she fell asleep and didn't wake until I lifted her to carry her off the plane.

* I hadn't opened any mail since I first got sick back the end of October so you can probably imagine the obscene amounts of mail that I needed to sort through, especially since it's the holiday season with all the extras that come. Today was mail sorting day and it was so fun to see all the Christmas and holiday cards especially the ones that included pictures. Thank you to everyone who sent cards, they were the only envelopes that I actually opened today as I figure all those hospital bills can wait.

* Once again I'm a loser and never got around to making, let alone sending cards. Each year I think I'll get it done early and something happens or I just don't get to it in time and then boom, it's Thanksgiving and then we're in Aruba...oops too late again. Yep, one of those things I'll put on my list to do next year and hopefully I'll do better than I've done in the past as I can't do any worse.

* I was already behind in reading email and blog posts from when I was sick. Then add on my limited computer time and access whilst away for three weeks and well, I'm now hundreds of emails and thousands of blog posts behind and may never catch up. If you emailed something important and you're waiting for a reply, please email again and I will respond.

* So tanned, healthy and relaxed. This vacation was sooooo needed after the November that we had. I had some rough days the beginning of our vacation and had a bit of setback the day we moved from the hotel to my parent's place but after that I had steady improvement. I'm not 100% yet but being away and not having hospital pallor any longer sure makes me look and feel a lot better.

Wishing everyone a Happy Hanukkah, and an early Merry Christmas. Have fun, be safe and be healthy.

The three R's

Rest, Relaxation and Recuperation!

* Up until last Sunday evening it was still highly doubtful as to if I would be healthy enough to board my flight for Aruba. Maisie and Eammon's head colds had diminished significantly and they were both feeling okay. My cold too had eased up but it had set me back in other ways leaving me physically drained and depleted raising concerns about my ability to travel.

* Thankfully a lot of rest and being very careful over the weekend pushed the odds of making the trip in my favor.

* The appeal of three weeks in the warm Arubian sun, on the beach, resting, relaxing and recuperating vs. the cold, laying in bed and recuperating in Atlanta also helped seal the deal so Aruba was a go!

* Monday morning ten minutes before we were to walk out of the house for the airport the airline called to inform us that our flight was running at least 1 1/2 hours late making our connecting flight (their one and only daily flight to Aruba) impossible to make. They asked if we could make an earlier flight out of Atlanta which was leaving in 55 minutes...yeah right as we were still at home!

* I asked what other airline they were going to book us on to make our flights and 20 minutes later we were booked on a direct flight leaving about an hour after our original flight time.

* Figuring we were up and ready to walk out the door we decided to just head to the airport figuring we'd have plenty of extra time as our new flight was now an hour+ later than we had planned. Thankfully we did go early as the airport was a zoo with the longest queues I've ever seen in my life. I think everyone thought if they waited until the Monday after Thanksgiving to travel everyone else would have already traveled, but no such luck.

* Since we had been bumped from one airline to another we couldn't do self check-in so 2 1/2 hours in the queue waiting to check in...oy!

* Thankfully security lines weren't too long and were moving along quickly...except all three of us were tagged for extra security checks! Maisie did get a kick out of putting her feet on the mat with the shoe prints and putting her arms out to be patted down, it was sort of funny. But come on...a three year old being tagged for a special security check, give me a break.

* We had an easy flight and Maisie was, as always, a great little traveler even taking a good little nap during the flight.

* Once we got into our room (which as you can see by the picture we have a lovely view) Eammon and I could have easily taken a nap but Maisie was bursting with energy as evidenced by the laps she was running around the room also she was excited beyond belief to get into the swimming pool so Eammon and I sucked it up and we all went to the pool.

* Maisie loves the zero entry pool and also the large, wide ledge that runs the length so that she can swim (hand walk and kick) the entire length.

* Where we are staying for our first five nights on island, the beach has really small waves so Maisie is able to easily play at the water's edge and run in and out a bit without concerns of her being knocked over by a wave.

* Maisie finds great delight in knocking down the sand castles that Eammon so loving builds over and over for her.

* Maisie and I still have a bit of our colds remaining but unlike me, the girl has energy to spare.

* In years past, my usual day in Aruba was to be on the beach by 9ish and other than a quick break for lunch I'd be there until dinner time dividing my day between being in the water, chatting with friends or hanging out under the chickie. So far this trip, after an hour or two being out in the morning I'm ready to join Maisie in the room for a nap and then an hour out in the afternoon and I'm done for the day.

* Even though it's warm and sunny I've barely made it into the water as I can't seem to warm up after being wet. It took four days before I even dipped my toes into the ocean! Each day though I'm gaining energy and in fact, last night for first time in weeks, I stayed up later than Maisie at bedtime!!



More piccies and better stories of vacation days in my next post.

L.T.N.B.

Long Time No Blog

* I can't believe that it's been over two weeks since my last post but waking, napping and going to sleep on Maisie's schedule doesn't leave much time for blogging, computer time or much of anything.

* The weekend before Thanksgiving Kathy, Chani, Maisie and I headed to Chattanooga for a girls weekend and even though I was dragging A LOT, we did still manage to have a good time. Thankfully Kathy tolerated my having to go to bed at 6:30PM and my extremely limited diet of toast, eggs, pancakes and plain pasta, none of which liked staying in me but I didn't dare anything more. Shoot, I didn't even have the energy to take along a camera but Kathy did take lots of piccies and gave a great description of our weekend all of which are on her blog. I couldn't resist nicking the picture of Maisie being held by Santa when we were aboard the Polar Express Train because I was positive she was going to hide when he came over but to my surprise she let him hold her!

* After being home for less than a week, my parents returned to Atlanta the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and we were all happy to see them. Me especially as my Mom has a way with Maisie, turning her into the best behaved girl in the world thus making my life easier.

* I only have 8 more days of antibiotics remaining. A total of 41 days on 5 different antibiotics, holy cannoli!! That along with a myriad of other drugs, never ending steroids and an untold number of pain meds I seem to have become susceptible to every disease out there.

* After nine days of full blown flu symptoms, 10 days in the hospital with pneumonia, 2 1/2 days home then hospitalized for four days with C diff would you believe that 8 days later, two days before Thanksgiving, I managed to get a stinking head cold!

* By Thanksgiving Maisie and Eammon also came down with head colds.

* Needless to say, Thanksgiving was a very laid back casual day with just the three of us and my parents.

* The Saturday after Thanksgiving my parents left us, heading to Aruba. We were scheduled to fly to Aruba the Monday after Thanksgiving but those plans were up in the air as we weren't sure I'd be healthy enough to travel or be away.

Were are we now?? More to come in my next post as my meds have kicked in and my eyes are closing but at least I feel somewhat caught up in my posting and it won't be two weeks before I post again...promise.

Return from the seventh level of Hades

Above are signs that I hope to never see again on the outside of my door or above my my bed!! What a crazy ride this has been but thankfully both Eammon and I are home and feeling better and stronger each day.

I was asked by numerous people if Eammon and I were in the hospital for the same thing and the answer is no. Between us we had three hospital stays for three different reasons. My first ten days in the hospital was for pneumonia. Then Eammon was admitted for three days with a viral G.I. infection that had gone on too long and too far, causing him to be severely dehydrated and having all of his blood levels out of whack. A day after Eammon was admitted I was taken back to the hospital and admitted with C. difficile where I was in an isolation room for four days. Crazy, crazy, crazy I'm telling you, having both of us so very sick at the same time but amazingly and thankfully, Maisie didn't get any of it!!

We are also so very thankful for all the help we received from friends, neighbors, Moms in my Mom group and from my parents. We honestly wouldn't have made it through without all their help so a big thank you to all of them.

Now for some cute Maisie piccies because this blog has focused way too much on me and on Eammon and I being sick so now back to regularly scheduled programming. Maisie loves snuggling with her Grandma.

Below are pictures of Maisie with our neighbor Mary. The two of them had a fun afternoon together baking and decorating cookies and by the smile on Maisie's face you can see she had a great time.

And finally a Maisie fashionista photo.Maisie dressed for school Tuesday morning because well, she's just so stinking cute.

Thanks again for all the good wishes, prayers, flowers, cards, calls, emails, blog and facebook comments they really helped make being sick that much easier but now it's back to Maisie, Maisie and more Maisie!!

Home

I was released from the hospital this afternoon so now both Eammon and I are home!! More details later. Thanks for all the good wishes, prayers, flowers, cards, calls, emails, blog and facebook comments, everyone helped to brighten my days. It feels great to be home!!

Stop this horrific ride I want off NOW!!

The escapades of my first day home from the hospital followed by an easy day with Maisie proved to be much more than I was capable of handling. By Wednesday night I was running a fever again and just felt myself spiraling down. Eammon too was still so sick and getting weaker as he still couldn't keep food or liquids in him. Since returning from the hospital I too couldn't keep even water in me so we knew it was time to call in the reserves. Thankfully my parents had offered to come up from Florida to help us and so Wednesday night I called them to take them up on their offer. They arrived Thursday morning and after feeding Maisie something decent for brekkie (I had barely been able to make my way into the kitchen to hand her a bag of cookies) their first order of business was to take Eammon to the ER.

Once at the ER, Eammon was so dehydrated that drawing blood was nearly impossible and in addition his heart rate was off so he was admitted to the hospital that afternoon. By Friday morning unable to keep even sips of water in me, in major pain and after blacking out, I knew that I needed help, so that ambulance we avoided on Tuesday arrived for me early Friday afternoon. Now Eammon and I are both at the hospital down the hall from one another both trying to recover from this horrible sickness. My poor parents walked into a house that was barely being kept together after me being sick for so long. They went right to work taking care of Maisie, tackling the piles of laundry, taking on a couple of minor repairs and finding the kitchen again for which I'm very appreciative. I think too that Maisie is having a good time being with her grandparents and all the attention she is receiving from them. I'm so thankful that they are at our house taking care of Maisie and everything else so that Eammon and I can focus on getting better.

Still neither Eammon nor I can keep even fluids in us and until we can they won't release us. Hopefully though our time in the hospital will be short and that life will return to normal very soon. Hopefully my next post will have us all home healthy and with lots of cute Maisie piccies.

If you don't laugh you'll cry

I want to first thank everyone who sent along good thoughts, prayers, cards, messages, emails and flowers as they all really helped to make being so sick somewhat easier. I'm happy to report that after 9 nights in the hospital I'm finally home but oh the stories I could tell. Five totally crazy roommates and total days lost because I was so sick and out of it. I still have a tremendous amount of recovery to do with the pneumonia as it was/is so extensive and I am still quite sick. Also, a few other medical issues were discovered whilst I was in the hospital but those are things I'll have to deal with in the near future. All-in-all it's good to be home and especially to have Maisie back in my arms. Going a week without seeing her was rough and I hope to never have to do that again.

Yesterday I had Maisie scheduled to be at a drop-off care facility in the morning so that Eammon could go into work for a few hours. He dropped her off and headed to work only to be sick on the way there having to stop to throw-up a few times. Gets to work and shortly after they sent him home because he was so sick. He heads back to pick-up Maisie and when he goes into get her he sort of passes away in a cold sweat with shivers. They lay him out in the lounge for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours until he's ready to drive again and bring Maisie home. He gets home and calls me at the hospital to tell me that he thinks he has the flu with things coming out of both ends. I tried to make some arrangements but it was late already and I knew that I'd be out of the hospital this morning and so I told him to suck-it-up (nice wife that I am) and just make due because honestly there was nothing that I could have done.

This morning he calls to tell me about his horrific night and how sick he was and how Maisie really did okay, was very protective of him and that he was too sick to come out to get me. My neighbors had offered help so when it was time to leave the hospital they came to get me and brought me home along with some homemade chicken soups and cookies (Big thanks Gene & Mary!!). I came home to find not only a total disaster in the house where Maisie had ravaged the cabinets of cookies, fruity jelly and granola bars but that Eammon did have stuff spewing out of both ends and couldn't even keep water in him. I called the doctor and they told us to come over.

So there I was fresh out of the hospital, supposed to be on as much bed rest as possible for the next week or two, driving Eammon to the doc only to be pulled over in a school zone for speeding. So I pulled over for the officer and was in the middle of a chest rattling coughing fit with black and blue puncture marks up and down my arms, only to have Eammon sort of pour himself out of the car on to the grass to start throwing up again. Then there's Maisie in the back seat sound asleep in her car seat. I then totally lost it breaking down crying because...well I'm fresh out of the hospital, still quite sick, exhausted and run down and it was just all too much for me. The officer didn't want to touch my license or anything else I would hand him but they did want to call an ambulance for us which in the end we didn't get and thankfully I didn't get a ticket either. I finally got Eammon to the doc where they ran all sort of tests and even took xrays checking him for pneumonia and hopefully we'll have some results and info tomorrow.

We're now all home now and have all the meds necessary (hopefully) to get us through the next few days. We have offers of meals to come over the next week which is so appreciated and not having to worry about shopping, cooking or getting everyone fed is a great relief. Hopefully too, fluids will start staying in Eammon and he won't have to be hospitalized. Maisie is not 100% as this has been traumatic on her and though she did SO much better than I could have imagined, she has regressed some. Most noticeably Maisie's wanting to sleep in her crib again, has had a few wetting accidents and of course she's being super clingy but I know she'll bounce back once we can get our lives back on a normal schedule and I know that soon life will return to normal.

Thanks again for all the good thoughts, wishes, prayers, help, meals and everything else as it's all truly appreciated.

bloggy break

I've received a number of emails asking if I'm okay and requests for more Maisie fashionista piccies. Sorry to say though, there won't be any posts or piccies for a bit. I thought that I had been suffering with the flu for an entire week, having all the classic symptoms. On Sunday I finally went to the ER where I was admitted to the hospital with severe pneumonia in all lobes of my lungs. The doctors are estimating that I'll be here for another 4-5 days with a lung biopsy scheduled for Thursday. The village of Trixie, WaWa & Andrew along with Theresa, Brad & Ava Grace are watching over my little girl as business has Eammon away. I'm very thankful to have such good friends who just stepped right up and are keeping my girl happy and I'm happy and surprised at how well Maisie is going with the flow.

I love having my iphone because when I'm not totally drugged (really good pain meds), hacking up a lung or sleeping, I can at least check emails. Hopefully normal postings will resume soon.

iiiiiiiiiiiiit's MAISIE!!

Maisie was up early and just itching to go to school way before it was time to set off. I was surprised that she was in such a good mood as she sounds like she's coming down with the horrible cold that I've had all week. 

I told her teachers to call me if she started to drag but she made it through until the 1PM pick-up and her teachers said it wasn't until lunch time that Maisie started to slow down. We returned home and Maisie took a long nap for her, an hour and thirty minutes.

The cold hasn't really set into her yet but she's definitely more fussy and slower than normal. I'm hoping that she doesn't actually get a cold as we have her classmate Sophia's third Birthday party Saturday afternoon and then on Sunday we'll be celebrating Andrew's second Birthday. Not only am I hoping that the cold doesn't set in to Maisie but I hope that I'm feeling better because being sick all week and trying to keep up with an extremely active, opinionated but totally adorable three year old is doing me in. I'm off to bed as soon as I put her down for the night.

On a different note, I'm going to be totally bummed come August as Maisie will have to start wearing a boring old uniform to school. I'll just have to plan lots of fun activities where I can dress her up in all the adorable clothes that I have set away for her and also the ones that I'm sure to acquire between now and then. Have to keep my little princess diva dressed oh so pretty!

Fashionista

Yesterday was Halloween dress up day for Maisie's class but when I asked Maisie if she wanted to wear her cute giraffe costume, some Fancy Nancy clothes, any of her Princess dresses, she was adamant that she was going to wear her pretty dress and just.be.Maisie!

She was the only child not in costume and it didn't bother her so it didn't bother me and she had a great day.

I've decided that Maisie's just a little fashionista and doesn't want to tarnish her image by wearing just dress-up clothes or silly costumes.

She certainly is a character and has mind of her own when it comes to what she wants to wear and when.

Costume or no costume Maisie's still stinking adorable and funny! 

Alexander turns two + a Halloween Party!

Saturday was one busy day.

We started by celebrating Alexander's third birthday at PLAY where Maisie and all the children, as well as some of the adults, had fun jumping on the trampoline, the bouncy castle and into the foam pit. All the activity was followed by pizza and cake, oh what a fun party!!

From the party we headed straight over to Lisa, Doug & Briana's home for an Adopters Halloween gathering. All the little ones looked so adorable in their costumes.
Then there was nap free Maisie who had no intention of getting into her adorable giraffe costume so since she was in gym wear, her costume was that of a gymnast...go with the flow. Check out all the cute piccies over on Briana's page.