“You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog, cryin’ all the time!”

Is it spring yet?? I could go nuts with this winter. These long, dark and cold days have just done me in and I’m ready for 60 degrees like you wouldn’t believe. Adam took Sarai car shopping with his sister a few weeks ago and when they got back she smelled like the outdoors, it was the sweetest thing! She hasn’t smelled like fresh air in AGES! I’m looking forward to more of those days.

So much has been going on… where to start? How about here… we bought our first house!!

I’ve had my eye on this house for years. I drive past it on my way to work occasionally and I’ve said to myself a zillion times, “I could live there. I could picture our family there.” The house is in a beautiful neighborhood, .3 (yep, that’s POINT-3!) miles away from my job. When I first looked it up a couple years ago it was WAY too expensive. To make a long story short we put a very low bid on it a couple weeks before Christmas and our realtor said, “They won’t accept it, but at least you’ll be in the game.” Wouldn’t you know, my dad was looking out for us because on the day before the one-year anniversary of his passing, they actually accepted our ridiculous offer! (I know for certain Dad had everything to do with this!) The house needs work and it’s getting a lot of work done before we move it. We’ll be moving the last week in March. YIPPEE!! Who wants to carry some boxes?? Do a little landscaping?? Anyone??

And of course you all know we’re having a baby, and you probably know too that it’s a boy!

I can’t believe it. Between mom and Bill they have EIGHT granddaughters! This will be the first boy. I don’t even know what to think, but I’m so excited. He’s busy kicking away, I’m 21 weeks now, which I can’t believe. I have doctor appointments about every 2 weeks and I’m also getting progesterone shots weekly to try and prevent preterm delivery again. I was SO against the shots but after asking around and hearing from about 99% of health care professionals that it was the right thing to do, I caved. A nurse comes right to our house to give me the shots here. She says almost every client she’s had on the shots makes it to 37 weeks. So, fingers crossed!

As for our tough little peanut, she’s doing great! They’ve started to wean her off the Sabril, so that’s a little scary. She’s getting a bunch of teeth now and has been feeling sick and a little upset, and whenever she has a day of being grumpy I can’t help but wonder, “Is she having seizures that we can’t see??” But she bounces back happy as can be, and keeps us on our toes getting into trouble! She’s now army crawling all over the place. We started calling her Elvis (hence the song title for this blog). I don’t know why, but every time she crawls out of the room and out of sight, I can’t help but think,

“Elvis has left the building!”

And then we use it when she gets into things. “ELVIS!! NO!!”

“ELVIS!!”

She’s getting stronger, we’re still working on her sitting alone, and after some practice she can sometimes sit for up to 30 seconds unassisted.

One thing that’s not getting any better is HER HAIR! I mean, really, she must be related to Einstein somehow…. I don’t know where else she gets it from!

They say, “Brush it.” Here it is, brushed.

What do you do with this? Are there products for this?? I said to Adam, “If our son has this hair we’d have cut it by now, right?” He says, “That’s special baby hair! You can’t cut THAT!” Is he kidding me?

Next time you hear from me, we may just be moved into our new house!! Wish us luck!! MUAH!

Bonus... like father like daughter...

(I had to take this picutre in the dark with both of them sleeping, standing on a step ladder at the foot of the bed.  Yep, I'm THAT good!)

“Baby you got me, and ain’t nowhere that I’d be, than with your arms around me!”

(Sarai’s absolute favorite song! “Oh na, na, what’s my name?”)


Happy New Year friends!! I just thought I’d put together a quick update and say HOLA. I can’t believe Christmas was already three weeks ago. We had a great one. First of all, Pompey was absolutely beautiful! They had gotten TONS and TONS of snow, and all the trees looked like this…

If you can imagine driving past that everywhere you go, it really was beautiful.

Sarai had fun opening her presents, of course she was more interested in the paper.

And she sure was the purdiest lil’ Christmas girl I’ve ever seen!

We saw lots of family and as always, had a ball at Ilion Christmas seeing all the cousins. In case you weren’t at Ilion Christmas, you might have missed an announcement!....

Dum-da-da-dum…..

Sarai’s going to be a big sister!!! I’m about 14 weeks along now and I’m feeling fine. The baby is due July 16th, just 10 days after Sarai’s second birthday. I’ve got to tell you, Adam was really hoping for twins. (I think he’s crazy and I have no idea how we’d handle that!) Well, just a couple days after we found out I was pregnant, he goes to make breakfast and his egg looks like this...!

A double yolk!! I know that can happen, but I’ve never actually seen one! Then the next day Yvonne had a double yolk at her house from her own dozen eggs!

I thought we were really in for it. What are the chances?! I got an ultrasound as quickly as possible and here it is…

ONE BABY! And just so you know, the tech took an early guess and thinks it might be a boy! We’ll find out for sure in two weeks. I’m super excited either way!

In other news, Adam was promoted in The Guard to Sergeant! Know what that means? If you happen to run into him, you’ve got to salute, recite the preamble, and drop and give him 20 or face being shipped to Guantanamo and getting water boarded. Congratulations, Sarge!

In other, other news, we might be buying a house. We’ve got an accepted offer in on a house in Goshen, .3 miles away from my school! The whole place is totally outdated but it’s really big and could be perfect. It would be great if it all works out. Fingers crossed, send happy thoughts.

Sarai has been an army crawling fool lately! I’m so proud of her! She was going a couple inches at a time, but now she’s moving feet at a time! She got a seating system that we feed her in and have her sit and play with toys in too. It props her up really nicely and I’m sure will help her posture. The look of it is ominous (kind of looks like a pre-wheelchair), but I’m trying not to think about it. There’s too much good to be thinking about right now!  And Sarai is kicking some butt anway, so why let it  bother me??

Happy and exciting days! Love you all!

“Walkin’ in a winter wonderland!”

Happy holidays everyone! If you’re not having a white Christmas where you are, you should head on over to Pompey where it is quite literally, a winter Wonderland. Pictures to follow.
I was just checking out this blog, and it’s been AGES since I’ve updated. I mean, I didn’t even give you a Thanksgiving update. Here it is… Steve carved his first bird…

And Katie hosted a post-Thanksgiving dinner at her house that Martha Stewart would be proud of. A great time was had by all.
What’s new with Sarai in the past 6 weeks? Well, a couple things. First of all, I should probably tell you just so we’re all on the same page here, that Sarai was officially diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. It’s not an easy pill to swallow, but we’ve known it was coming for ages (since she was a month old actually) but it’s still not easy to accept. The doctor who finally gave us the “diagnosis” said about three times in conversation, “Well, you know, with any child with CP….” before I finally interrupted him and said, “So you’re saying she has CP? Because you’re the first person to say that.” He looked like he got a little nervous, then told me what I already know; It doesn’t change a single thing. She’s doing great, she’s got the motivation to move, she’s got personality to boot, and he is confident that she’ll walk someday.

So even with a not-great diagnosis (which I’m not even sure is official), we left the appointment feeling pretty optimistic. He wanted us to see an orthopedist because he was concerned her spine may be curving a little… “you know, with any child with CP.” So we went to an orthopedist.

We were told by Sarai’s occupational therapist that the orthopedist might scare us a little (that he may want a lot of bracing to get her standing/walking/sitting). I went in with an open mind and prepared for anything. This is how our conversation went.
Dr: So what’s going on with your daughter?

Me: Well, she was a preemie, she has PVL and recently one of her doctors said she has CP, but I’m not sure if that’s official yet and I’m not used to hearing it, so I don’t know.

Dr: Well, that IS what she has.

Me: Well, I know, but I’m not used to it and I haven’t seen it in writing.

Dr: But that IS what she has.

Me: Ok….. ?

Dr: Let’s take a look at her.


I put her on the table and not 10 seconds later the doctor literally threw his hands up and said, “She looks GREAT!”

He said , “You’re going to have to keep an eye on this one, she’s going to be trouble! I can tell! She’s going to be a walker!” He was not at all concerned that her spine was curving, but said it is something that could happen in the future, so we’ll keep following up with him. He also didn’t think any bracing would be helpful to her, that the more time she spends exploring her world on the floor in a natural way the better. Amen, mister! I like that guy!

Sarai did get a prone stander.

The stander will help her to bear weight in her hips in proper alignment. She seems to like it, for short periods at a time. Yvonne got her a license plate for it…

… just in case we mix it up with anyone else’s prone stander in the house. (Thanks Yvonne, we love it!)

We’ve come to realize that Sarai really loves music, and not your typical lullabies, but popular hip hop and RnB.  I can’t get this girl to watch Little Bear or The Wonder Pets, but she’ll sit still for the AMTV: Morning Hot Mix for a Beyonce video! 

The other day, while she lay mesmerized by Rihanna, I started running around getting things done in the house.  I thought, “She’s being so good, she’s so quite!”  Next thing I hear is, “swish, swish, swish…” and this is what I saw… 

(Trying to make her getaway!)

She’s turning into quite the Christmas rascal.  And I love it!

You are just going to have to wait for Santa, little lady!

Other than all that (isn’t that enough?) I’ve been busy, busy with the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season. I’ve baked no less than 3 million cookies and even made some homemade body scrub for Sarai’s wonderful therapists.

We don’t have any snow in Orange County, but we’re getting our fill this weekend in Syracuse! Just in time for Santa. I can’t believe tomorrow’s Christmas Eve! We’ve got a busy couple days ahead filled with family and food, and I’m going to love every minute of it. In the spirit of the holiday season, here’s a new twist on a Christmas oldie…

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse
(or a cat)

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.

And mamma in her ‘kerchief,

and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap.

Yadda, yadda, yadda....

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!

“I go where the wind blows, you can't tame a wild rose, welcome to my crazy life!”

Hi friends and family! I hope you all had a great Halloween! We rocked the Warwick Haloween Parade with Vanessa and her family. All the kids were SO cute! Sarai was dressed up as a Sarai-berry/cute fruit/Strawberry Shortcake and looked adorable.

Sarai’s cousin had his first birthday last weekend at a bounce house, what a riot that was! The adults were enjoying it more than the kids. I took Sarai in to a couple of the houses and bounced with her, she was in her glory. Then I took her down this giant slide, I was shaking at the top afraid I would drop her, but she LOVED that too!

She’s going to be a roller coaster ridin’ girl!

And the most exciting news of all… Sarai got her glasses! (Did I tell you she was getting glasses?? Well, she was and she’s got them.) They’re supposed to try and help keep her eyes working together more regularly. She looks so cute, but I’ve got to be honest… she looks a little like George Costanza.

I think the glasses will give us a good opportunity for Sarai to learn what “NO!” means. That was one of the questions the pediatrician asked us a few months back, if she understood “no” but we had to admit, Sarai’s not mobile enough to really get into things, so we rarely ever have to tell her “no.” Well, after just a few minutes with the glasses on…

“Sarai, NO!”

“No, Sarai!”

“NO!”

“I SAID NO!”

Lots of practice with “no!”

Here’s where it gets interesting… Just after those last pics were taken, after she had only had her glasses on for about an hour, I realized that a lens was missing (a screw was loose, fell out, and the lens too). I looked all over the floor and when I didn’t find it right away I IMMEDIATLEY thought she had swallowed it. Adam and I turned the apartment upside down, crawling on our hands and knees, pulling apart furniture and toys that she wasn’t even anywhere near. We looked EVERYWHERE and after an hour thought she really must have swallowed it. We called the doctor and when they didn’t call back for over an hour, and it got to be 9pm, we just said, “Better safe than sorry, and with our luck, she really did swallow it,” and we schlepped to the emergency room in our PJ’s. Sarai was behaving normally, she wasn’t coughing or having a hard time breathing, but they did a chest xray (even though glass wouldn’t show up on the film and they said the screw was probably too small to also) and observed her for a few hours. They sent us home with a clear xray and said, “Let us know if she starts vomiting or having a hard time breathing.” Needless to say I didn’t sleep too great last night.

This morning I got up and did my regular routine, Sarai was fine, went to get in the shower and I found the lens!!!.... IN MY BRA!!!!

Wouldn’t you know, the last place we looked! Oops.

So we spent the evening in the ER, and the lens was in my shirt the whole time. Oye. When I woke Adam up and told him where I found it he just growled and gave me a “to the moon, Alice!” fist pump. Not bad, considering I probably would have shot him in the balls if we spent the night in the hospital looking for something that was in his underwear.

Then I went to leave for work this morning and thought I forgot my phone. I came back in and asked Yvonne if she had seen it. She said, “Check your bra.” Yeah, she fits right in. ; )

(Just love that outfit!  Thanks Christin!)