Busy Weekend!

I came down with food poisoning Thursday and left the office just before 3:00 to head to bed which meant Ryan picked Phoebe up from daycare. He did such a great job handling things solo! He captured a few pictures of her enjoying some of the things her teachers had put in an Easter basket for her. She's crazy about dogs these days...



Perhaps she wasn't quite as crazy about this lovely headband they included...




And all of a sudden, she's begun to lug things around - anything that has a handle - purses, shopping bags. The girl picks up on more than I ever could have imagined she would this early in the game!

Friday morning we all headed to the dentist so Ryan could get two fillings. He hates the dentist with a passion and only gets procedures done if he can be knocked out - thus requiring our presence. They had one of those wooden train tracks and Phoebe successfully destroyed the entire track before he was done. We even met Auntie Kate and Uncle Steve for dinner that night and then headed to the Good Friday service at church. Not sure an 8:00 service was wise for us to consider since that is her bedtime, but we made it till communion and then gave up and went home. We'll know better next year...

We got Phoebe's one year pictures taken on Saturday. She did fairly well considering how many people were there doing the same thing we were. Here are a few of our favorites:

(See above post since I couldn't get the darn thing to load properly in this post!)

Even though she doesn't quite get the whole holiday quite yet, she had a good time going through her basket and then having an Easter egg hunt at YiaYia and Papou's. I can't wait to share the Easter story with her - to tell her that Jesus loved her SO much, even before she was born, that He was willing to die for her. AND to share the hope that comes from Easter - that He's alive and that we'll get to live forever with Him one day. How great is our God!?

She was quite the trooper this weekend and is now zonked out in bed. It's hard to believe she'll be ONE on Thursday. It just doesn't seem possible. But now isn't the time to get sentimental - I've got pictures to post! Enjoy some of the highlights!

On a side note, please pray for Pita. I know it's silly to ask for prayer for a dog, but she's been sick since before we left for Florida. They hospitalized her last week and had her on an iv. We got to have her over the weekend since her catheter had to come out anyhow and there was nothing we couldn't do that they'd do. She's taken her medicine and had three bites of chicken but hasn't touched anything else all weekend. Just stays in one spot till we move her. First they said it was something with her pancreas but that cleared up and now the next step is an ultrasound. Sound like this is getting expensive!? Well, it is and we're unfortunately going to have to be done after the ultrasound - so pray that Monday it finds the issue and that it's an easy (and cheap) fix. She's not even four years old and Phoebe simply adores her, not to mention, she's our first baby. Thanks everyone!

First trip to Florida

We got back yesterday from a lovely time in windy, warm Florida. Phoebe was a champ on the airplane going and coming, much to Mommy's relief! We got to catch up with Nana and Papa, Grandpa Alan, Aunt Debi and all the cousins. We were there for Aunt Carrie and Uncle Mike's big day. It was so fun to be part of the celebration and to do it all on the beach. Phoebe decided she was not a fan of the sand or the water, but loved being walked down the beach and feed the seagulls. We had over 400 pictures so here are a few of our favorites.

And I couldn't resist sharing these few of when we went to pick up Pita at YiaYia and Papou's:

New stages

I just wanted to post a couple videos for you all to enjoy. The first is our initial attempt at getting her to feed herself. She was very interested but it seems to have been a one-night event. If she can't pick it up with her fingers, she doesn't want it. Hopefully we'll be able to work on it a bit more each meal. The second was just of a very talkative moment during dinner. Her socks were falling off so I just grabbed them - she has a thing for socks - I can't explain it - and that set off a conversation unlike any other I've ever heard!

Thursday when I went to see her on my lunch hour they informed me that she'd thrown up but was acting normal. She seemed fine during my visit so I didn't think much of it. Then they called me at 3:30 to say she had a temperature of 100.3 so I went and got her and we headed to Target to get some Pedialyte just in case. By the way, does anyone have kids who like the apple flavor? She hates it!

But she hasn't thrown up and hasn't had a temperature since then so I'm not sure if it's more teething or if she just caught a little bug. Either way, she's been her old funny self. We went over to some friends of ours tonight for dinner and she was just captivated by their 2- and 4-year old boys. I think God definitely knew what He was doing when He blessed us with a girl as our first child! They are crazy but oh-so-fun - Phoebe was highly entertained, that's for sure! And she's officially on the walking track - taking multiple steps without holding on to anything - a bit scary at times (for me, that is) but exciting to see her venture out. I'll try to get a video of it soon.

Birthday Weekend

We started out the weekend with a visit from Nana and Papa. They drove all the way from Georgia to visit the family's newest addition: Chris & Corrie had a baby Monday night. We all got to visit baby Bailey Saturday morning. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 1 oz. and 21 inches long. It's hard to believe Phoebe was smaller than that when she was born. Hopefully we'll get some pictures of her uploaded soon. She slept the entire time we were there and she's adorable. Nana and Papa hadn't seen Phoebe since our visit at Christmastime so it was fun to show off all her new skills.

They left at 9:00 Sunday morning to head back to Georgia and we made it to church in time for the 11:00 service. We didn't want to go to Sunday school because Phoebe had a little eye gunk Saturday morning so we immediately started her on the pink eye drops we got over Valentine's Day weekend. Her eye wasn't pink but we weren't taking any chances. I even called her pediatrician today to see if we needed to come in and check if she had another ear infection. He said to hold off and see if she got a fever and stopped sleeping through the night - so we're praying she's not getting another one.

After church we headed to Granite City for brunch with YiaYia, Papou, Uncle Steve & Auntie Kate. Uncle Steve turned 29 on Thursday and I hit the big 3-1 on Saturday. After brunch, we headed over to YiaYia and Papou's for gifts and dessert. Phoebe is taking quite a liking to Kali (YiaYia and Papou's snoodle). You can tell she wants to snuggle but it comes across more as a head butt than a cuddle. She does the same thing with Pita.

Check out those four teeth coming in up top.

Here are a couple of pictures from the birthday celebration. Nothing wild or crazy, but it was nice to have the whole family together again. Steve had to leave that afternoon for Chicago (again) and Katie headed back up to Ft. Wayne.

We had great spring-like weather all weekend and I think all of us are looking forward to our little getaways at the end of March. The three of us are especially excited to go to Florida to see Aunt Carrie and Uncle Mike get hitched! Woohoo!

Fully Recovered

Thanks for ALL the prayers - I think we're finally on the upswing and have hopefully said good riddance to that stupid ear infection once and for all! She had to go in for the second and third shots on Tuesday and Wednesday. By Tuesday night she was back to sleeping through the night - she just wasn't as interested in taking a bottle. Her appetite and spunk have just started to re-emerge over the last couple of days and we are SO grateful to see our little girl get back to normal! Phoebe and I went with YiaYia on Friday afternoon up to Anderson to visit Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Newell. She had a good time playing with their stuffed animals, watching the birds and squirrels in their backyard and seemed to quickly develop a special attachment to Great Grandpa (I'm sure pictures will get posted on YiaYia's blog soon).

Here are a couple pictures from the week. We attempted to put her coat on her before we put her in her carseat and quickly resorted back to her Bundle Me instead. The coat would have to be put on once we arrived at our destination for obvious reasons!

On Monday, she stayed home from daycare with Daddy. Things like this NEVER happen on my day off...

This picture was taken today after we got home from running errands - Yeah for a happy girl!

Now she's in bed and Ryan has gone out to play pool with the boys. We had someone come clean our house on Friday - it was a Christmas gift from Ryan and Phoebe - one I VERY much appreciated! So since the house is in shape, I'm going to go settle into the couch and catch up on TiVo. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Emergency Room Visit

When we took Phoebe in for her pink eye 11 days ago, Dr. Fisher said she also had an ear infection. We were surprised since she hadn't shown any signs of discomfort or fever. They just put her on an antibiotic and things were pretty normal around the Wallis household. Phoebe took a three hour nap on Friday. I think that should have been the first clue - since at the most she usually sleeps an hour when she naps. By Friday evening she had a low-grade fever but was acting fine. Saturday started out normal until she threw up breakfast. Then her fever returned and she napped more than she was awake. The pediatrician said she was ok as long as she was active when she was awake and not dehydrated. However, when she napped, her breathing got real rapid and her fevers seemed to spike. Of course, I started researching the internet and was determined she had pneumonia since she'd picked up a cough and runny nose as well. When we woke up Sunday morning, her fever had broken so I then I thought whatever it was (maybe it was her teeth?) was over, but after her two hour morning nap, her fever returned. We headed to Mom & Dad's for lunch since Auntie Kate was in town and she was quite active and even ate lunch with us, but by her afternoon (two hour) nap, her fever was over 102 and YiaYia suggested we just to go the ER. After speaking to a nurse who said her breathing was too rapid for her age, we had her admitted around 7:00 last night. To see her in a little hospital gown broke my heart. At least they didn't have to hook her up to an IV - I think that would have done us in! It turns out her ear infection didn't go away with the Omnicef they prescribed and she needed a shot. We go to the pediatrician tomorrow to see if it was effective or if she needs another shot. They said if the shot(s) didn't work that we'd have to get tubes put in - which seems a little extreme, but we're taking it one day at a time. Ryan is home with her today so I pray they get some good cuddle time in. She's been getting up every two hours during the night just crying so we're going on little sleep, wishing there was something we could do to ease her pain. Please pray for Phoebe, that the shot does the trick and she's feeling good as new in no time. It's so hard when they can't tell you what hurts or what they need. We'll keep you posted after her check up tomorrow morning. Thanks for your prayers!

In the Holiday Spirit

So it's Valentine's Day tomorrow and as I write this, I've realized that Phoebe wanted to get in on this day of love, too. So...she's come down with pink eye! How appropriate! I thought about taking her picture and posting it but I thought she may not appreciate my need to document every little detail of her life on film. Then I thought, "what the heck!?" So here's poor little girl with the gimp eye. Her appointment is at 4:30 this afternoon so hopefully we'll get her on antibiotics soon! Can you guess which eye it is?

Tonight she's spending the night with YiaYia and Papou. Ryan and I are going on a date - woohoo! We're off to see Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco. We've seen a few of their shows and are always big fans. One of my coworkers saw it last night and said it was incredible so I'm pretty excited. Not to mention getting a night of purely uninterrupted sleep, that's pretty exciting in itself!

We took some videos of her last week crawling but they were too long to upload so we had to settle on a video of her latest accomplishment - drinking out of a cup. Granted most of the water ends up down her front or on the floor, but we're learning.

Wanted to post this picture from the Super Bowl. We were so excited to see the commercial in 3D - we even tried to get Phoebe in on the action! Hope everyone has a great weekend and stays warm. Happy Valentine's Day!!!