Dress Dilema

Ivy now has three dresses to chose from for her birthday parties this coming weekend. Being that she isn't going to make the choice, I suppose I will have to make it for her. Any opinions on which dress she should wear?




I just won this dress on ebay. I'm not sure it will arrive in time for the parties, but it should. Those flowers in the skirt aren't attached, they move around!

I got this dress at Once Upon A Child for $5. It's adorable on her, but she is really preoccupied with the ribbons. I'm not sure how that will end up working out.

I got this at OUAC for $5, too (the best part was that on my way out of the store, I won a $20 gift certificate, so they actually paid ME for these dresses... but I digress.) It's super poofy and has the matching hat (which won't stay on her head for more than 12 seconds) but I'm afraid it's too casual.

Shopping trip

We went to Savers today and I really made out good! It didn't seem like a ton of clothes until I started taking pictures of them!!! Here is what I got for about $16.....



Three pairs of jeans... from L to R - Little Legends ($.75), The Children's Place ($1.49) and Old Navy ($1.99)














Tops --- three longsleeved onsie; The Children's Place Red onsie ($.75), Two shades of purple Baby Gap onsies ($.75 and $.99), shortsleeved Baby Gap flowered onsie ($1.49), white Carter's top ($.75)











Overalls --- Baby Paris Jean overalls (big, but way too cute to pass up! $1.50), pink velour Disney baby overalls ($1.50), Gymboree jumper ($.75)

Here's a close up of the detailing on the jean overalls:














The Children's Place fleece sweats ($.75).... they have adorable heart detailing in the sides and little zippers on the back of the leg that open up to a mesh material.

Little Legends Jean Dress ($1.50)

Not too shabby for $16, eh? Ivy is quickly running out of clothes that fit her, though, so it was well worth it!!

New toy

Ivy got a new toy today.... Nathan says he's been wanting it for her, but I think he just felt bad because of her surgery today. So we went to K-Mart and purchased the new Fisher Price Baby Gymtastics Monkey Chase. It's a monkey that runs and wiggles it's arms and the baby is supposed to chase it... the monkey then turns around and looks at you, like it is waiting for you and when you touch it, it starts going again. We thought this was a great toy since Ivy loves to play this game with humans. Well, we got home and took it out of the box and showed her waht to do with it. She is completely afraid of this monkey. The girl who doesn't cry when left with people she barely know, dives off the couch head first, and climbs stairs at the speed of light is afraid of a plastic monkey. She insists on being on my lap or on Nathan's when the monkey is on the floor. We are hoping she will get used to it and eventually enjoy it, but for now I don't think it was $15 well spent.

Tubes

Ivy had her tubes put in today by Dr. VanderMeer. You have to love any doctor that says "crap" when describing what may come out of your daughter's ears. Anyway, we arrived at 6:55, ten minutes late (did you really expect anything different from me?) I filled out some paperwork and we got called back. A nurse took all of Ivy's vitals and gave us a cute little hospital gown to put her in. There were quite a few other babies there getting tubes, too. A doctor from anesthesia came to talk to us and told us they would put Ivy to sleep using a mask and as soon as the surgery was over, they would stop giving her the gas and as it left her system she would wake up. Then Dr. VanderMeer talked to us. He asked if there were any problems he should know about, like if she had a cough or anything. I said "Well, she has another ear infection," and he replied "Well, I can fix that." Funny man. At 7:45, right on schedule, a nurse came and took Ivy. Nathan and I went to the waiting room and I read maybe three pages of a magazine before they told us she was awake and we could come back. Ten minutes, tops, to put her to sleep, do the surgery and have her awake. Dr. VanderMeer talked to us once more and gave us a prescription for ear drops. We went back to see Ivy and she was so upset. Screaming, screaming, screaming. I held her, but it didn't help. Nathan tried, too. The nurse brought us a sippy cup of apple juice for her, thinking she was probably hungry (and as neglectful parents, we forgot a bottle!!) The juice helped for a second, but not long. They moved us to the other side of the recovery room so we didn't disturb the older people who had had surgery. They had all the kids on one side of the room. Anyway, once Ivy got her binky, she was good to go. We were home by 9am. Overall, she had a little bit of a fussy day, but nothing major at all.... it was probably just because she had to wake up at 6:15. Hopefully my little honeybear will be infection free now.

Eleven Months

Ivy,
You turned eleven months last week. Every day you grow and change, getting farther and farther away from the little baby you were and closer to a toddler. You are so smart. You can figure out how to work your toys.... your first word was "wow" and now you say "daddy" and I'm sure I've heard "mommy" once or twice. You are still a little cautious about standing on your own, but you pull up on anything you possibly can. You love to clap your hands, and take pleasure in clapping for yourself after every accomplishment. Andrea taught you how to give high fives last weekend when she visited and you are an expert of that, too. As far as eating, you are a piggy! You will eat just about everything we give you and it seems like you always want more! You love bananas, hot dogs, bologna, cheese, toast.... just about everything.
You are losing interest in your bottle, though.... just one more sign you are not just a baby anymore.
You know what you want and think you know how to get it. When Daddy tickles you and you aren't ready for the "game" to be over, you grab his hand and put it back on your belly, like you are saying "No Daddy, don't stop yet." Want to know a secret? You really can get whatever you want because your Daddy and I and everyone else love you so much.

I hope you stay as happy as you are now, Ivy. You find joy in everything you do, no matter how mundane. I love every minute I spend with you, and wish there were a million more minutes in every day so I could be with you that much more. I love you, honeybear.

Love,
Mommy

Eleven Month pictures

These are Ivy's 11 month portraits. The last one, where she is holding the shell, is what we bought the package of.

One little tooth

Today was the first day you could actually see Ivy's tooth. Her first little tooth is just peeking out from under her gum. I thought she was going to wait forever to start getting teeth! Just one more sign my little girl isn't going to be a baby forever.....

Growing every day

It's amazing how quick things change in the life of a baby. Today was a huge day for Ivy. She had three major "events" in her little life.

- She's been toying with the idea of standing without holding on to something. When Ivy and I go to wake Nathan up every day at 3, we lay in bed for awhile and she acts like we are her personal jungle gym. For the past few days she's been pushing up on him, standing for about a second and a half, then falling on her butt. She thinks this is by far the coolest game she's learned yet. Well, today she was standing by Kyle and he let go of her and she stood by herself for a good five seconds. Won't be long now.......

- Ladies and gentlemen, we have a hole! No teeth yet, but you can really really see where one is coming. I thoroughly believe that will be any day now, too. Maybe she is waiting to hit 11 months first. She's only got 8 days left until that milestone.

- I -think- she said her first word today. She's been babbling for what seems like forever, and she says mama and dada and things of that nature. It sounds like she says hi, but I've never been as convinced as I was today that she says these things on purpose. Kyle was playing with Ivy in the living room. Right after he got her to stand up like I mentioned above, he looked and her and said "WOW!" She looked up at him and made her little lips into a little circle and said "wow" right back. She worked so hard to form her lips just right to make the right sounds that I really think she knew what she was doing. She still won't say it every time you want her to, and a lot of times she keeps going and it turns into wowowowowowow, but I still think I will put this one in the baby book.

Who needs sleep?

Today, Ivy decided that naps are for sissies. Her morning nap lasted about a half hour, and her afternoon nap.... well, that one didn't happen at all. I put her in bed about a half an hour ago, and I'm crossing my fingers that that is where she will stay for the rest of the night.

On a separate note, took her back to the doctor yesterday..... her ears are still pink, but no longer have puss in them, so they look like they are clearing up. She has an appointment on August 8th with the ENT.

Darn ears

All through vacation, Ivy was still tugging on her ears. She figured out that her cute little finger fits exactly in her ear, too. Anyway, I figured she still had her ear infections, so on the way home from Cleveland Monday afternoon, I called the ped. They said to go ahead and bring her in and low and behold, both ears are still infected. Now she is on Augmentin again and Nathan and I have decided to call a different ENT and make an appointment. I just can't see the sense in letting her keep suffering.

Doctor's visit

Since I am very late in posting this, I am just copying a post I sent to my Mommies group about Ivy's appointment on July 11th.

Ivy had a doctor's appointment. She's been super fussy, running a low grade fever, has a snot nose. Could it be teething? Could it be nothing? Had to check it out before we leave for "vacation" Wednesday. So I took her in and what is it, ladies????? Ear infection in both ears. My poor baby girl!! This is her 5th (or 6th?) one. She's had two that were really persistent, too. Dr. Amy said we'll see how this one goes (if it sticks around or clears up quick) and if it's hard to clear or she gets another one, she would definitely reconsider the ENT.

More Finger Food

Ivy is getting to be a pro at this whole eating thing. Today for lunch she had a biter biscuit and some frozen carrots I cooked in the microwave. Here she is during her "meal". Needless to say, Daddy gave her a shower this afternoon.

Happy 4th of July

Today we went to Darlene's annual 4th of July party. It was a lot of fun seeing a lot of friends I just don't see often enough anymore. Ivy got to wear her new patriotic dress... she also got to meet some itty bitty kitties. She absolutely LOVES animals, and the cats were no exception. Darlene and Dennis put on a fantastic fireworks show, as usual. Ivy lso ate crackers.... she really liked them and wanted everyone else to see this as well. :o)

Ivy eating a cracker... she really wanted to let everyone know she was enjoying it

Erin showing Ivy one of the kittens

Ivy in her patriotic duds

Gone bananas

Well, I finally did it... I gave Ivy table food. I've been putting it off and putting it off, and honestly, I'm still scared she is going to choke, but yesterday she had most of a banana for lunch. It was so fun to watch. She had a hard time picking the pieces up because they were so mushy, so she'd try to pick one up and when she couldn't get it, she'd just move on to the next one until she found one she could grasp. I probably won't be trying much else for a little bit, but I'm proud of myself for this banana (and proud of Ivy, too, of course!)

Swimming

Ivy loves her kiddie pool that we got her.... it's little, but we knew we wouldn't take care of a big pool with chemicals (we tried that last summer and it got scummy a couple of times) so we figured we would just get a little one that we could empty and fill easily. Anyway, she acts like she is really swimming. Oh, and she knows where the pool is, too.... as soon as you walk outside, she looks at it and gets all excited.... adorable.

Camping

Monday night and Tuesday night the family went camping. We were planning on tent camping, since we have all of the gear, but changed our minds at the last minute. Erin wasn't crazy about going at all, and with Ivy being so little, we decided a cabin may be the way to go. So I found a place on the internet and we drove out. It was in a little town called Big Prairie.... and it was beautiful. Not that TOledo is really "big city" life, but being in the country was so refreshing.

The first night there, we all went swimming.... that was when we realized we forgot Miss Ivy's stroller and A LIGHTER TO LIGHT THE FIRE. So we asked the person at the desk where the nearest Wal-mart was. It's amazing, we were in the middle of Amish country and there were still two Walmart's within a half hour of us. Anyway, so we went to Walmart, got our forgotten supplies, and returned to the campsite to cook dinner (on the grill).

Tuesday we went canoeing.... definately an adventure with a wee one, but still very fun. Nathan, Erin and Kyle were in the canoe (Nathan and Kyle paddled) and Ivy and I were in an inner tube dragging behind the boat. The water was cold, but we still had fun.... until Ivy decided it was way past her naptime and started screaming bloody murder. I kept telling her she was disturbing the peace of the wilderness, but she didn't care. She cried until she fell asleep on my chest, about 5 minutes before the canoe trip was over. We'll have to work on the timing next time.

Tuesday night we cooked on the grill again and made s'mores over the fire.... yum. Wedsnesday was basically spent packing up and driving home. It was a really nice trip and I definately think we'll try to do it again this summer.

Oh, and by the way, camping in a cabin is STILL real camping. I had to walk to go th the bathroom, walk even further to take a shower, there was no A/C and plenty of bugs... oh, and a raccoon who was stalking our cabin, causing me to go sit in the car and read my book. Definately real camping. :o)

Ivy's Ears

Yesterday we went for Ivy's recheck.... it was supposed to be Tuesday, but we are going camping so it had to be rescheduled. Once again, I didn't think she was any better.... still tugging at her ears, a little cranky. Well, I was wrong. Her ears are clear once again. Yay! So now hopefully they STAY THAT WAY!