Quick catch up!

Well, since it has been over a month since I last posted, I figure I should post a quick update as to what we have been up to.

July seems to have just flown by! I can't even say we did much of anything, just enjoyed each other's company! I did celebrate my birthday on the 24th with my family and a YUMMY homemade banana cake from our resident cake expert-my mom, beautifully decorated of course! I got some nice new kitchen gadgets that I have had my eye on for a while! It is funny how things really do change as you get older. As a kid I was so excited to get a new bike, new doll or the coolest new toy out there. Now a collapsible, silicone, over the sink colander does it for me!

At the end of the month we took a girls only vacation! My mom, Olivia and I set out on the road for Georgia! My best friend and her daughter Abby and her mom (my mom's best friend) moved up to northern Georgia a few years ago, and we try to make it up there about once a year. This would be Olivia's first trip up there, so the long car ride would be interesting! We left on a Wednesday morning at about 7:00 and made it up there right around 5:00 that night. Olivia was totally amazing in the car!!! She looked at books, watched a few DVDs, played with her dolls and did lots of jibber jabbering! We had the best time those 5 days, and I hated to come back home! Olivia and Abby had a super time playing together, even though Abby is 2 years older, and Olivia still asks "where's Abby?" at least once a day. One of the highlights was being able to take Olivia to the Cabbage Patch hospital and see all of the babies (and of course buy her a few things too)! Other than that, we just hung out, shopped and relaxed...it was heavenly! I hated to leave, but it was easier knowing Karen and Abby were coming down to FL in October for some Disney fun!!!

After our vacation, it was back to life as usual. Our September Disney trip is getting closer by the day, so I am of course in full planning/getting excited mode-which I know is driving Toby totally nuts! I can't help it that I am totally obsessed with everything Disney, and spend lots of time checking out various Disney websites daily (well daily when my computer is working). Oh well...more on the Disney trip/Disney stuff next time!

Disney Obsessed...Bring on the madness!

As I sit here and write about my Disney obsession, Olivia is walking around the house with Minnie ears on, a Minnie doll, and the contents of her clothes basket that contain "Mimmie".....

As most of you know, I am admittedly TOTALLY, COMPLETELY, 100% OBSESSED with Disney and anything to do with going there. I am in full planning mode now for our September trip to "the World"....

I actually started planning this trip THE DAY we got back from our February trip. This time we are staying at Pop Century. I have never stayed here myself, but have toured with friends. I have done so much research I have made some very specific requests: 70s building #6, ground floor, king bed, mini fridge and noted that I would like a late check-out. We are staying for 4 nights (that is all I could get Toby to agree to b/c he is unfortunately not as Disney obsessed as I am and did not want to spend his whole vacation at Disney). We got 4 day park hopper (PH) tickets (that we are going to upgrade to seasonal passes (SP) while we are there), and best of all the dining plan FOR FREE!

I have wanted the seasonal passes for a while now, but we just never had that much money laying around with no other purpose for it. I added the PH tickets since we are paying about $20 weekly for the trip they will be paid for in August, but we couldn't add the SP and pay as we go so we will just upgrade for a few bucks when we get there. We are planning to go back for the holidays to see all the decorations so the SP will work out well, plus we can go back pretty much whenever (except for the busiest time of year-but I don't want to go during the madness anyway)!

Disney has recently instituted the 90 day reservation window, meaning that 90 days from your arrival (and the first 10 days of your stay if you are staying on property) you can make all of your sit down dining Advanced Dining Reservations (ADRs) up to 90 days ahead of time. The ADR name is a bit deceiving to those who don't do their research. All an ADR means is that when you get there, you will be given priority over the walk-ins. This usually isn't an issue, and I have always found that we were seated quickly with not much of a wait. This also means that you have to plan where you will be and where you will want to eat more than 3 months before you get there! Well, I did do that planning! I started out getting the park hours to decided which park I mainly wanted to visit on which days and thought about where we would like to eat after that. After deciding where we were going to want to eat, we then made backup plans in case our first choices were not available (good thing too). The real madness began when I got up at 5:30am on Sunday morning to begin making reservations online at 6:00am...yes 6:00am! I wanted Teppan Edo (at EPCOT in Japan) (Dinner), Chef Mickey's (breakfast), Cape May Cafe (dinner), Planet Hollywood (lunch) and Whispering Canyon Cafe (dinner). Well, I didn't get exactly what I wanted. Teppan Edo was totally booked so I took Cape May instead. Chef Mickey's was totally booked so I took Cape May character breakfast instead. I did get Planet Hollywood exactly when I wanted, and then got Whispering Canyon (not at the time I wanted or the day, but I took it anyway. Chef Mickey's was the ONE reservation I really wanted!!!! I was on a new quest to get it one way or another. So I was calling the dining number and checking online multiple times a day, but with no luck. So I posted online to a Disney related chat board and a lovely lady didn't want her Chef Mickey, so I am now the lucky owner of a Chef Mickey's ADR for 9:50am on 9/27 (the day I wanted)!!!!

This is only the beginning of the madness for our trip, but I will leave it at this for now.....

Well, it's been a little while since I've posted so I thought I would give a quick update.
Olivia started back with swimming lessons last week. She has been doing them since she was about 6 months old, so in her mind she is an old pro and should be able to do it all on her own (did I mention she is pretty darn independent?). Her instructor thought she should be moved up to the 2 year old class since she has the hang of kicking and moving her arms (now if she could just stay above the water while doing both). She really is quite the little fish-she will even try to swim in the bathtub!
Last week Olivia also got another double ear infection/pink eye diagnosis. This is the 2 time in 3 months, so we are hoping this doesn't continue and lead to tubes. She was not acting like she didn't feel good at all. No fever, no ear pulling, just rubbing her eyes, and waking up with the lovely crusty eyes. The worst part is trying to put drops in her eyes 3 times a day....what a joke! Hopefully we will be over the ear/eye stuff for a LONG time!
I think that is about all going on for now...I will be posting about my new money making idea though....kids crafts/clothing/hair bows.....etc

Boobies!

A few months ago Toby was sitting on the couch without a shirt on and Olivia climbed up onto the couch to be with her daddy. She was pointed to all kinds of things and as she pointed, Toby would name whatever it was (it was a cute little game they were playing). She started with pillow, couch, blanket, then moved on to leg, arm, head, eye, belly...etc, then she came to...nipple. Toby said nipple like it was nothing and then out of her little mouth, plain as day came "nipple". It was pretty darn funny and now she can clearly say nipple and point to her own (or anyone's for that matter).

About a month after that, she was playing the same game with me. We had named a few body parts and then came to booby. Once again, she repeated "booby". We of course thought this was oh so cute.....we were wrong....

Last week while I was shopping with Olivia, she was on a major booby kick and kept on poking my "booby" and (quite loudly) saying "booooby"! As if this wasn't bad enough, she was trying to lift up my shirt to really get my booby. After I got her to stop that we were ready to check out so we got in line and I picked her up. Now this is where it really went down hill. There was a um, well, larger-type man standing right behind us, so she pointed (well, pretty much touched) his "booby" and proudly yelled "ooh, booby, booby".

The poor man quickly turned about 3 shades of red, and left the line. I turned the same 3 shades of red and tried to apologize to no avail. We were both mortified, and Olivia was quite proud of herself for finding someone else with boobies!

A look back...

I was just thinking how quickly time flies! My little baby is now 18 monts old! It is our "walk season". We started with the JDRF walk (which I have done almost annually since I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes just after my 11th birthday) in late April. This year we decided to do another walk that was just as near and dear to our hearts: the March of Dimes walk.

As most of you know, Olivia was born 8 weeks early. I was terribly sick, and was taken by ambulance a hospital an hour away from home that was better suited to take care of my needs. After being there less than 24 hours, my kidney's shut down and that is when they decided that it would be better for both Olivia and I that she be delivered immediately. Within a few hours I was prepped for a c-section since Olivia was breech. I remember being terrified, not caring about my own health, just thinking it was too early for Olivia to come. It was about 9:00pm when they came in to tell me that there was one woman ahead of me and then it was my turn. I told them that I would refuse the surgery until after midnight. You see, my grandpa, who was like my dad to me passed away on November 11, 1999, and if they waited until after midnight, Olivia would be born on November 11, 2007,and in my mind that would keep her safe because grandpa would be her guardian angel looking over her.

My wishes were granted and Olivia was born at 12:55am on November 11, 2007. The best thing was that she came out crying and breathing on her own. Toby was allowed to cut her cord and hold her hand while they were cleaning her off and examining her. She weighed in a 1820 grams (4lbs) and was 16 3/4 inches long. I was only allowed a quick peek before they took her to the NICU. They told Toby that he and my mom could come see her in about 2 hours, they just needed time to get her hooked up to anything she may need and thoroughly evaluate her. In that time, my insides were put back in, I was stapled closed, and taken to recovery.

Exactly 2 hours after her birth Toby and mom went to see her and took her first picture (since Toby forgot to bring the camera into the O.R.). Olivia was doing amazingly well. She was always able to breathe on her own, she was just on CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) to keep her lungs open and clear. When she was about 2 days old she became our little smurf after being put under the blue lights for jaundice. That lasted about 3 days. Then on Friday November 16, we were finally able to hold Olivia!!!Since this post is already getting long, I will try to wrap it up. After a few setbacks (heart murmer, an air bubble in her intestines, a minor infection, 2 spinal taps, and many xrays), Olivia was deemed healthy enough to come home on Monday December 5, 2007 after just 3.5 weeks in the NICU! She weighed 4lbs 8 ounces and was just a tiny little peanut, but we were SO happy to be able to bring her home. After I was released from the hospital a week after Olivia's birth, we made the hour long drive EVERY day to see our little princess, so to be able to bring her home and be able to see her whenever we wanted, and hold her with no tube connected was the most amazing feeling in the world.

We were told that since Olivia was 8 weeks early, we should expect her to be behind developmentally and be smaller than other kids until she is about 3 or so. Apparently Olivia did not hear when the doctors told us this because she is not behind on a single developmental skill! She was walking before her first birthday, and meeting every milestone a "normal" baby should. We could not feel more blessed.

Today she is 18 months old, 22lbs 7 ounces and 30in. We have started potty training, she talks a mile a minute, loves to read books, play outside, swim and she definitely has her daddy's appetite!

When we took her to one of my favorite places, Disney World, I just thought how lucky we were to even be able to take her. There are many babies born just as early and sadly don't make it. This is why we decided to walk for March of Dimes-for our little miracle, and hoping that someday all preemies, will have just as good chance at life as a baby born full term.

Hello, My name is: Erin

Wow, me, blogging...that is the last thing I would ever do! Some of my friends seem to think that my seemingly boring life is interesting enough to blog about, so I thought I might amuse them for at least a little while (if for no other reason to prove to them that I really am not as exciting as they think I am). So we will see just how long this will last....anyone want to place bets?