Warning: Graphic Details

Let me start by saying we had a wonderful time in Texas, and we’re all excited about moving there.  That being said, the trip got off to a ROUGH start.  Our flight was delayed for four hours both because President Obama flew into SFO and the weather was bad, so they wouldn’t let any other flights take off or land.  We didn’t get into our hotel room until after 4am, and we woke up the next morning at 9am to go check out the first neighborhood on our list.  Other than being really tired, we had a fun time looking around.  

Up to this trip I have pureed Amelia’s baby food at home, but with traveling that obviously wasn’t possible.  I bought Earth’s Best organic baby food to feed her that first night.  Two hours after feeding her, after we were all asleep, we heard her vomit (she had only done this one other time when I had to give her this same brand of baby food from a jar).  Our poor baby was covered in vomit, so we cleaned her off and laid her in bed with us; about 5 minutes later, she vomited again.  Again,  we cleaned her up, thinking she didn’t have anything left to throw up, we laid her between us.  She vomited again,  but this time starts to choke on the bile.  

Mike and I are pretty upset at this point because of how intense the choking is.  He calls the front desk clerk and tells her about Amelia and asks where the nearest emergency room is; the girl tells him she doesn’t know and that she’s with customers so she’ll have to call him back.  Right after he hangs up, Amelia starts vomiting and choking again, so we call 911.  The girl calls us back and says she doesn’t know where any hospitals are and we ask her to bring up extra towels.  A few minutes later she knocks on our door, she’s talking on her cell phone and hands me the towels and walks away.  I’m not sure I’ve ever been angrier in my life!  The paramedics show up and observe Amelia; she throws up two more times but doesn’t seem to be having an allergic reaction (no rashes, swelling,  etc.).   Two hours later,  Amelia is feeling and looking much better!  She slept between us soundly the rest of the night; I woke up the next morning to her stroking my cheek and cooing at me.  

I would say those 24 hours were probably the worst of my life!  Poor Noah -- he was such a trooper,  but he was so scared for his sister!  We tried to make the rest of the trip really fun for him so that he wouldn’t hate Texas.  The next morning, Mike talked to the hotel manager, who was very apologetic about the girl’s behavior the night before and refunded us our money.  We switched hotels,  and the rest of the trip was a lot of fun!

In all, we visited eight different suburbs of northwest Dallas,  and our two favorites were Flower Mound and Highland Village.  In general, we thought they had more trees, rolling hills and land for each house.  The people were so friendly,  and it’s amazing how much more affordable Texas is than California! 

After spending five days in the area, we are really excited about the move!  Some of the highlights of our trip were going to the Stock Yards and eating in Sundance Square in Fort Worth.  We also went to quite a few parks to let Noah play, one of the parks was probably the neatest (Castle made out of wood) I've ever seen and it's in Flower Mound!

A rat on a cat on a dog.

Only one where Amelia was looking at the camera.

Matchy Matchy

Since there is no guarantee Mike will be in town next Valentine’s Day due to traveling when he starts his new job, he made this one extra special!  Usually, I am VERY hard to surprise, but he succeeded this year in completely surprising me.

Sunday afternoon was a little crazy in our house, Amelia had vomited, had diarrhea, and went potty all over her dress while Mike was changing her.  The dog had just peed on the floor, and I had told Noah for the hundredth time to pick up his Legos because we were getting ready to go to a friend’s house for dinner and I kept stepping on them.  Needless to say, I was not in the best mood, but that soon changed; I went into the bathroom to get ready and Mike had left my card and gift on the counter . . . talk about perfect timing!  My gift was the woman's version of the watch I had bought him for his birthday.  He had been eyeing the watch whenever we were at Macy’s.  Well, not only did he love the watch, but I did too, and I was always borrowing and wearing it.  

My mom had given Noah a doll when he was a baby that she had to buy for a continuing education class and didn’t need it anymore.  Noah named the doll Sally and even though he no longer plays with it, he hasn’t had the heart to give her away.  A few mornings ago, Mike showed Amelia the doll and apparently it was love at first sight!  I’m not sure she knows it’s not a real baby, but she loves to smile at it either way.

My day is full of laundry and packing -- we leave tomorrow afternoon to fly to Dallas for five days.  We’re all so excited to go explore our soon-to-be new living area.  Our goal is to get a feel for the different neighborhoods we’re considering, so when it comes time to get a house, we’ll know where to look a little better.

My Valentines

 And now a word from Amelia:

On the Move

Amelia becomes more mobile each day, not just crawling but jumping in her Johnny Jump-Up, dancing to songs and now taking small steps while holding my hands.

We enjoyed watching the Super Bowl and the commercials this past Sunday, but I had two definite favorites.  The first was the Volkswagen commercial with the little boy dressed as Darth Vader.   Noah used to dress up daily as Darth Vader and would many times come into our room and wake us up by wearing his Darth Vader costume, imitating his breathing and request his breakfast.  He still wears the costume at least once a week; I’ll be so sad when this stage passes. The other was the Doritos commercial with the pug dog -- our family gets excited anytime we see a pug on TV.  If you haven’t seen either of those commercials, I suggest watching them on youtube.com to get a good laugh.

Amelia’s love for the dog continues to grow: she crawls, scoots or walks while holding my hands the fastest when her aim is the dog.  Lucy returns her love for Amelia by licking her feet when Mike gives her a bottle and sneaking in kisses when she thinks I’m not looking.

 

Noah and I have been busy making Valentines for his Valentine's class party next Monday.  I’m so proud of him because he has done all the writing, who they’re to and a note inside and who they’re from.  Let me just say it isn’t easy to get a six-year-old to sit down and write that much, but he’s done a great job! 

Baby Kisses

We have Noah on a reward system where he gets checks for good behavior and loses them when he misbehaves.  Whenever he gets a certain number of checks he gets a reward.  So this past week, Mike suggested that his next reward be a watch, since Noah always wants to wear one of Mike’s watches.   In the past, Noah’s favorite watch of Mike’s was his calculator watch, so Mike suggested that would be the type to buy him.  Noah responded by saying, “I was thinking something a little more ‘business casual’, from Macy’s or Men’s Macys."  I think we laughed so hard we almost started crying!

Amelia is always doing something new and her latest thing is giving herself kisses when she’s held up to the mirror.  

Noah is a great help with Amelia, when given the chance he loves to feed his sister a bottle.   

Since Amelia spends 95% of her waking time with me, I always like to let someone else hold her so the stranger anxiety doesn’t get too bad.  The picture below is of my good friend Gretchen’s daughter holding Amelia.  Ella has three younger siblings so she’s a natural!

This Friday, Noah’s kindergarten class is having a 100^th day of school celebration so Noah had to make something for the class that consists of 100 pieces.  He chose Legos, so we took 100 pieces and spelled his name. This is the kind of homework he really enjoys!