The Girl got a pony for Christmas!

This post will include a RIDICULOUS amount of pictures!

We did not get The Girl a whole lot of Christmas presents;
1) I don't have all the money in the world,
2) I don't want to make Christmas about presents and 'getting', and
3) she's still young enough that we can get away with it! :)

She had what we considered 3 'big' gifts (and one of them we didn't even purchase, thanks Aunt D, it is a huge hit!) and then a handful of little items.

I bought a small pony at Sam's Club almost 2 months ago, he has been hiding in our garage in a GIGANTIC contractor's size garbage bag since then. (I was beginning to feel really bad about it too... it was cold out there and a plastic bag could kill him! ;)

ANYWAY.... C went and got the girl up around noon (she is SO THE BEST sleeper! This new guy has big shoes to fill!!!) Here is the picture of her seeing her 'neigh' for the first time... the rest will have to be random and without caption b/c there will seriously be too many photos.



I'm pretty sure she likes it. I've named it Honey.





She had to give it a hug! How adorable is that???



and back on she goes... again, I'm pretty sure she likes it. What do you think? :)



A self inflating whoopie cushion... oh what joy it brings! (The dogs HATE it though! LOL)






Daddy 'beeped'!


This is what I was afraid of... it is her saying and signing for 'more'. In her defense there was a pile of wrapped things in her sight....



Books! YAY! We LOVE books!



I think she's 'getting' the whole present thing now...





We couldn't get it out of the packaging fast enough!






hmmm who is more excited?




Of course we couldn't forget the doggers! They each got their own stuffed elephant thing.





Waiting for Daddy to open one of his things.



This Cookie talks and she was letting him talk to Tigger (who is on her stocking) which was a gift to me from C a million years ago when we were still just dating.



Such concentration:





Who knew this would be SUCH A HIT!







That went on for quite a while, I might add. :D And we have shows nightly! (and daily and anytime she can corner one of us into either joining her or watching her)




The above little gem was just 2 little plastic sesame street figures. They don't do ANYTHING, I just thought she would think it was cool to have a 'Nernie'. Guess who has to go to Target now? ME! Because some genius packaged 'Nernie' with Big Bird and NOT Bert!!! The first thing she said after identifying the two characters... Where's Bert? Who can blame her!?!? So, I'll be heading out to Target this week in search of Bert. (I have to, she gets the OCD from SOMEONE!!!!!!) :)

Something to tide you over

until the awesome christmas morning pix come! (I'm hoping they will be awesome anyway... I'm REALLY excited about 2 of The Girl's gifts!)

I'm borrowing this from a friend who borrowed it from a friend who... you get the idea right? :)

This is a little bit of info about me and C.

What are your middle names?
Mine is Renee and his is Wayne. He is named after his Pastor in DE; I'm not sure where my parents got my name from.

How long have you been together?
January 1994

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
A few months. (it's really a long story; that may or may not get blogged about in the future)

Who asked whom out?
He did.

How old are each of you?
I am 15 months older. I am 34 and he is 33. But we just say that "we" are 33. Although, I actually try not to say my age at all.

Whose siblings do you see the most?
We see my brother more than his.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
His family. and sometimes money.

Did you go to the same school?
We went to the same college for a year.

Are you from the same home town?
Nope

Who is smarter?
He is. Hands down!

Who is the most sensitive?
hmmmmmmm could be a toss up.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
probably Chipotle. It is fast and cheap. I wish it were Saltgrass though! :)

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
The farthest places we've been as a couple have been Florida and Wisconsin.

Who has the craziest exes?
I don't really have any exes; so I'd guess by process of elimination... he does!

Who has the worst temper?
I do. Hands down.

Who does the cooking?
I do; unless we are having breakfast food at which point he transforms into... Pancake Man!

Who is the neat-freak?
I'm more so than he is, but I don't think you could call me a neat freak... now germ freak on the other hand is TOTALLY me!

Who is more stubborn?
I am. (geez, I sound difficult to live with!)

Who hogs the bed?
The dogs do!

Who gets up earlier?
On work days he does, but I'm not far behind. On days off... totally me.

Where was your first date?
The beach

Who is more jealous?
He is.

How long did it take to get serious?
hmmm I don't remember.

Who eats more?
Definitely him.

Who does the laundry?
I do. He helps put it away with me though.

Who's better with the computer?
Omygosh! HE IS!!!

Who drives when you are together?
He does and I like it that way!

There ya have it folks. Classified info on me and C!!

~Til next time!

We went, she did GREAT, and I have pictures!!!

We wanted to use our 2nd day passes to Sea World from when we went in May, I knew they were doing some holiday celebration thing, (plus the weather is cooler), so I picked last weekend to go down. As I was checking the website I noticed that breakfast with the Sesame Street characters was happening while we were down there... I was tempted but truly the selling point for me was that they specifically mentioned that Cookie Monster would be there.... sooooo I bought tickets for us to attend the breakfast.
Here's where I got REALLY nervous...
earlier in the week I met up with a friend and her new baby, she wanted to do the Santa at the mall thing so I figured we'd go to. The Girl wanted NO PART in the picture taking with Santa. I was totally ok with that b/c we are not wanting to do the whole Santa thing BUT her reaction to SC made me worry about how her reaction to the characters at the breakfast would be. One of the things included with the ticket price was a photo with Cookie and Elmo. C decided that she'd be ok, b/c he'd be there and b/c she sorta 'knows' the Sesame Street gang; we don't talk about SC nor do I have SC stuff in the house, so he is totally a stranger to her. We talked about having breakfast with the Sesame Street gang all week long and told her that Cookie was going to be big like Daddy (he was BIGGER, they all were) and that she could give him a high five and really built it up. She was totally stoked about going to see Shamu though so I was wondering if she was getting it at all. By the way, when she says Shamu it sounds sorta like Sunroom.
Soooooooo we drove to Austin on Friday to stay with Aunt D and 'Uh Oh Reesh', (and Aunt Sheri too! YAY!!!) dragged our tired hineys out of bed at 6:30 in the morning to be in the car by 7:30 to drive to Sea World. We left at 7:45 (not to bad for us actually) and FLOORED it all the way there. The tickets said to arrive by 9:15; why? I'm not sure b/c they didn't let us in until 9:45! ANYWAY... as soon as we walked in there were Bert and 'Nernie'. Totally cool for her since she LOVES them. We were ushered into the room where they were taking the pictures w/ Cookie and Elmo... and that was when she put the brakes on. NO WAY was she taking a pic with them and NO WAY could her Daddy put her down. She managed a high five for each of them and the girls running the room said that we could try again a little later, that maybe after seeing the other characters during breakfast she'd warm up to the idea. Well that totally worked. She LOVED being in her chair and watching the characters in the room and even would hug and wave and give high fives to them when they came up to her. Working the room was Bert & 'Nernie', Zoey, and Telly. You could tell she couldn't care less about Telly, (he's hardly on the show, so I guess she didn't feel like she 'knew' him) she totally warmed up to Zoey and now even says her name, but she loved, loved, LOVED Bert & 'Nernie' and would ask where they were... all. the. time. And hey, she even ate some food! Which is HUGE for her, I joke that she doesn't eat until the sun goes down, so for her to have some potatoes and 'meat' (bacon and sausage) and fruit I was thrilled. After we ate we tried again for our picture w/ Cookie and Elmo and she was totally cool with it; she even initiated hugs with them! AWWWWWWWW. and here's the best part: I got PICTURES!!! They aren't the best, she's into this tongue phase and the weather was wet and cold so she is in sweats but hey, we've got pictures! :)
After breakfast we (and by 'we', I mean C ) fed and pet the dolphins, watched The Polar Express in 4D, went to the Shamu show, (her FAVORITE part, she'll even tell you that she 'Watched 'Sunroom' two times), saw the Sesame Street Christmas show, rode the Shamu 'Choo Choo' (she's still not sure if she loved it or not), rode some kind of pinwheel ride that she really enjoyed, snacked on popcorn, funnelcake, a rice krispie treat, and hot chocolate in a Shamu mug that The Girl insists that I use all the time now, lol! (not one good thing for a gestational diabetic! I figured w/ all the walking I'd be ok though... and I was.)
(Speaking of all the walking, OY! by the end of the day I was in so much pain!!! Probably not a good idea to wander around Sea World for 7 1/2 hours when you are 30 weeks pregnant.)
We bought a Shamu hat and watched the Shamu show again. Then walked through some FantaSea Christmas display of lights thing and made it to the car by 5. I think The Girl fell asleep before we were even out of the parking lot and slept the entire way back to Austin, I fell asleep and slept for almost an hour. All in all... it was awesome and we will so do it again!
The rest of the weekend we hung out with the aunts and 'uh oh reesh', playing Rock Band THE BEATLES, reading books to The Girl, coloring with The Girl, and we did a little shopping too! :) I found this GREAT baby doll set thing that I am going to pick up and give to her when we have the new baby so that she has her own 'baby' to take care of while Mommy and Daddy take care of the new (real) baby. :)
Because the weather in San Antonio was wet and cold, both The Girl and I picked up lovely colds, she's coughing (although it does seem to be getting better) and I just can't breathe, so that is lovely.
OH! One more thing... my car has been needing an oil change for a few weeks now... SOMEHOW we managed to get an appt for Thursday night and thank God we did too!!! The guy doing the safety inspection check thing showed C my drivers side front tire... YIKES!!! It was REALLY bad! Had we just hopped on the road Friday, we probably would have had a major tire blow out on the highway. The tire was so bad that you could see the steel belting almost all the way around it. They put the spare on for us and gave us an estimate on 2 new tires. Since we didn't want to spend all our cash on tires before our trip, we decided to take C's car for the weekend and pick up the new tires when we got back. So now here's the picture, C driving, pregnant mom in the passenger seat, LARGE 2yr old in the carseat behind the driver (her poor legs were all scrunched up), a 40 pound dog and a 25 pound dog, plus all the paraphernalia that we all required for the weekend in a SMALL compact car!!! It actually really wasn't that bad, C's car is GREAT on gas (gets almost twice the mileage that mine does)and we managed just fine, the only thing that would have been better would have been if C and The Girl had more leg room.
OK, so that is the rundown on our weekend. Here come the pix! (The captions are to be read like they are The Girls thoughts/words.)

Oh my gosh! I'm seeing Bert and 'Nernie' in real life!!!


Bert and 'Nernie'!!!:


Hey Cookie Monster!


'Sup, E?


OH.MY.GOSH, It's 'NERNIE'!!!


YAY! BERT!!!


No, you are the best!


Oh my gosh, he's still chatting with me!


Hey Telly!


Gettin' some love from Zoey.


Gimme 5, Cookie!!!


Me and the boys.


Hugs, E!


Love you, Cookie Monster!


What am I getting myself into???


See! My mommy was there too!!!


Stylin' for 4D Polar Express.


Daddy touched it!!!


Breakfast anyone?



ok, peeps, so here's the deal, I spent A LOT of time on this post so you'd better comment on it!!!!!


~til next time!

Ever hear of Brown Syndrome?

Neither had I until Monday.
We've noticed for a while now that The Girl's left eye could sometimes wander up in her head and almost get lost. It freaked us out; but if you know me, I'm not a 'dr person' so I was willing to 'wait it out'. At a visit to my own optometrist, who happens to be a member of our church, I asked him about it and he took a look at her and waved a few things around and said that we needed to go see a pediatric ophthalmologist... sooooooo after waiting it out again, C finally called and made an appointment for three months into the future (ha! 1st available!!!)
Monday was three months into the future. After 4 seconds w/ the dr he tells us he knows exactly what it is and that he even wrote a chapter in a book about it and that it is quiet rare actually and then he mumbled something about 'brown syndrome' and proceeded to walk out of the room. His nurse person came in and put drops in The Girl's eyes. If you could have heard the way say said "Daddy" (3 or 4 times) after she did that you'd have the same tears in your eyes that I did. PATHETIC! She got to leave the room w/ some groovy 'sunglasses' and wait with us in the waiting room for "15 minutes" that somehow turned into the longest 40 minutes of our lives. (read: loud, obnoxious, unruly other children were in the waiting room too) Surprisingly, or maybe it was an act of self-defense, The Girl fell asleep. For what it is worth: internet on cellphones is WORTH EVERY PENNY!!! I googled brown syndrome while we waited so we could at least get out of the dark a little. We were called back into the office and the dr tells us that the problem is in her right eye. At this point I'm thinking we need a new dr but then he explains to us the scoop. Basically one of the tendons/muscles that controls the movement of her right eye is too short and therefore when she goes to look up and to the left the eye can't move as far as the brain wants it to and the other eye overcompensates which is why it seems to disappear in her head.
What we do now.... we keep an eye on it! (How ironic!) Apparently, there are 3 levels to this syndrome; mild, moderate, and severe. We are in the mild category. For 6 months we watch; if she starts to tilt her head or change her posture to see better, we call asap.
The treatment: surgery. He words were "you leave her alone with me for 10 minutes while she is sleeping and I'll make it all better". At that point I stopped listening. You'll have to ask C just what it is that the dr will do in those 10 minutes... I think it has something to do with a shunt or extender or something. I just can't handle thinking about eye surgery on my 2 year old!!!


~Til next time!