Mother's Day #3: It Only Gets Better

Kennedy: Age 3

I can't believe my baby girl is 3 years old and this is my third mother's day. I never really believed people when they said the time sure does fly. I remember anxiously awaiting my sixteenth birthday, so I could get my license, my high school prom and graduation, my college graduation, so I could finally land my dream job being a teacher, my wedding day, and the ten long months it took for us to meet our baby boy/girl Stelmar as the doctor liked to put it. Waiting for these moments felt like years, but in the 1,100 plus days you have been my beautiful daughter the time sure has flown

Since that stormy May morning when you were born, I feel like life has suddenly taken on warp speed. It feels just like yesterday that on May 2, 2008 at 9:51 am the doctor proclaimed you were a girl. The baby girl I had always dreamed of, would now get the name I had always longed to call a baby girl. At that moment with my midsection sliced open and hum of the operating room lights overhead I knew my world would never be the same and I was right. I have never been given a better gift then to get to be your mommy. Nothing makes me prouder then to see you achieve, play, and grow into the sweet little girl you are today. What was once a tiny baby, became an entergetic toddler, and has now become an imaginative little girl. Sometimes I wish I could freeze time and keep you the way you are right now forever, but I know that is not possible and you have so much more growing still to do. However, for today I would like to keep you this little forever. You are mommy and daddy's entire world. You make us better people and for that we are truly thankful. On this Mother's Day I am truly blessed to be your mommy.

The two of us the day after you were born. Our first picture together. :)

Reasons I LOVE Being a Mommy

This!!!

~The I Love Yous K gives for no reason at all.

~The snuggles on the couch at the end of a long day.
~Experiencing K's firsts like they are my own.
~Watching K learn and grow.
~The funny things K says on an almost daily basis.
~Hearing K sing the silly little song her daddy made up about me.
~The squeal of "Mommy" when I pick her up from Ms. Paula's house.
~The tantrums because they remind me I am doing my job as a mommy.
~Watching her play house and school, just like I'm sure I did at her age.
~Her love for girly things and sports.
~Giving K all the things in life that she needs and some of her wants.
~Rewatching a Disney movie a thousand times and her singing the songs later.
~Her messes because I know she had fun.
~Her independence, except when I long for a snuggle and she wants to keep playing.
~Her beautiful smile and infectious laughter.
~The way she has softened her daddy and made him open to hugs and kisses.

K and her daddy exploring.

~Reading with her and asking her questions and watching her learn.
~The way she has filled my heart with more love than I ever thought was possible.
~For the future because I know the sky is the limit, but don't come too fast.
~For giving me the family I always dreamed of.

Our happy little family.

A Blizzard Warning

We are now under a blizzard warning. This makes me excited and nervous all at the same time. In my 28 years we have never had a blizzard warning in the St. Louis area that I can remember. People are always talking about the blizzard of 82, but I wasn't even a thought on a radar at that point. The weather reports are calling for 10-20 inches of snow and then blowing and drifting snow. At this point we are still only getting freezing rain and sleet, but it is apparently all suppose to change over to snow and more snow and even more snow by this afternoon.

Nathan stayed home today because we got a lot of freezing rain and sleet last night and with the forecast he didn't want to get stuck at work. Plus the weather stations are instructing all people to stay home unless they really need to go out, and I don't think a job is worth risking your life or being stuck in a ditch for hours. My mom went to work and plans on working a full day, but Nathan thought it would be best to stay home and be safe. Hopefully my mom and Tom will get back to town before all the heavy snow starts.

So we getting ready for blizzard at the Stelmar house. K and I are new to this blizzard thing and Nathan was 2, so this will be an adventure for all of us. Funny that Nathan was 2 and K is 2 when they experienced their first blizzard and well I have a 2 in my age. So we are prepared with food, water, milk, and fully charged cell phones in case we lose power. I think we are all ready so bring on the Snowpocalypse as it is being called on Facebook and we will see what happens.

A few pictures from all the snow we have all ready gotten this winter:

K playing in the snow as it was starting on January 11th.

K's first snowman she built with NoNo after the last snow on January 20th.

Sesame Street Live

Last night we took K to her first live show. I remember going to see Sesame Street Live when I was little with my mom, dad, nana, and papa and couldn't wait for the day to take K. It is one of the few memories I have that contains my mom and dad together.

We saw Elmo's Healthy Heroes and it was great. It taught her lots a great things about being healthy like: taking baths, exercising, brushing her teeth, eating different color foods, and about sleeping. She loved seeing the different characters come up on stage and watch them sing and dance. She did fantastic for the most part, but did get a little restless after the intermission, but I'm pretty sure she was distracted by the loot we purchased her.

Speaking of loot, at intermission a guy comes out with giant Elmo balloons and brings them up front. At first I was l like no way to the balloon, we had just bought her some cotton candy and my mom, or her NoNo, was taking her to get a light up Elmo wand. That was plenty, but then a lady said they were handing out the balloons for free because they were disappearing like crazy. The guy must of at least had 50-100 Elmo balloons in his hand. So I went to investigate if they were really free and that's when I saw they were $10 and people were buying them like that was nothing. $10 for a balloon that will maybe last a week, I was like No Way Jose. However, as the balloons started popping up all over the place in front of us Nathan and I saw a two year old tantrum in the making. So instead of sticking to our $10 No Way Jose theory we bought a balloon to keep off an ensuing tantrum. I justified it in my head that we had only bought her cotton candy (I know totally not healthy, like Elmo was teaching us!) and the cotton candy was $5 less than the hockey game, so we really hadn't gotten her a souvenir from us yet and thus we are now the proud owners of the most expensive balloon in history. All of this loot is part of the experience, right? Plus K is only little once and it's just money. So last night we made memories to last a lifetime and that is the most important thing of all!!!

K with all her loot at the show. Sorry it is so dark it is from my phone.

The Neverending Question

When are you going to have another baby?



I get asked this question on a regular basis, which can be weekly, daily, and sometimes even hourly. I HATE this question because it is not really any body's business. At this time I am quite content with the healthy, happy, super smart 2 year old I have. I never wanted to have an only child, but over time I have grown more and more fond of this idea. After Nathan and I got married I always said I wanted 3 kids and he said 1, so 2 was a wonderful compromise in his eyes. I am now ready to go with his idea of K being an only child. I never wanted this for her because well my experience with only children is quite interesting. I married an only child and seriously dated an only child. The two most significant relationships I have ever had with the opposite sex were both with an only child. The way they were raised were polar opposites and the way the ended up were polar opposites and I knew from the get go I did not want this for K.



However, in my eyes a non-stop vomiting, so tired I slept my weekends away, horribly uncomfortable pregnancy led me to realize maybe K being an only child isn't so horrible. Not to mention a terribly long Pitocin ridden labor that finally ended in a semi-emergency c-section really took its toll on me. Over 2.5 years later I still have residual pain from my c-section and just cannot rack my brain around doing it again. This may be selfish and in many people's eyes it is. How can I let K grow up without a sibling? No one in our family has ever had an only child! What if something happens to you and Nathan, don't you want her to have someone? All of these are valid points and as much as I want K to have a brother or a sister I really don't want to put my body through all that again. Besides potty training, which she refuses to do, we are so far from the baby stage that I really don't know if I ever even want to do that again. K was such a good baby I feel the next one might jinx us.



I know there are other options, like adoption, but seriously we can't afford that and that seems like a craps shoot to me. You never know what you're going to get, but I guess the same could be said for K.



I have spoken to several friends who have an only child and they said their child is not missing out. They have friends, cousins, and family members who can fill the void and they feel their child is getting the best of them. I respect and admire every mom who has more than one child and has put their body through labor and delivery more than once. I know if K had a sibling we would make it work and there would be plenty of love to go around, but right now I see the sky as limitless with only her and cloud ridden if we have more. I think K can grow up and not be spoiled and well behaved if we teach her right from wrong and give her opportunities to give.



In time we may change our mind and I can look back at this post and laugh, but then I'm sure I'll get the why did you wait so long, they can't possibly be close if they are so far apart. So I guess I'll never win because I didn't have my next child the typical 2.5 years later.



So please don't judge a book by its cover and take a minute before you ask the dreaded question because the person may not have an answer or you may not like the one they give you!



And just because a super cute picture of K:

Allergies, Allergies, Allergies

K has had eczema since almost the time she was born. The doctor thought that it was sensitivity to fragrances and so we use unscented soap, laundry detergent, and so on. Her eczema is usually treatable with Vaseline and lotion and from time to time hydrocortizone cream. We have not seen any flare ups lately except for normal winter skin. However on December 26th our world was thrown for a loop and on January 20th it seemed to be thrown upside down. Let me start at the 26th and go from there.

December 26, 2010:
We were all enjoying a wonderful Ahlers' family Christmas when the unthinkable happened. K started to have a pretty severe allergic reaction to either a peanut or an almond. K asked my mom if she could have a peanut and after eating the peanut then asked my mom for a black one (almond). My mom not thinking about it gave them to her. Within ten minutes her eyes were swelling shut and her lips were swelling. Thanks to a fast thinking family member who had Benedryl on hand we gave her a dose and climbed into Tom's new truck and were on our way to Urgent Care or the ER. On our way to Urgent Care K started to throw up and I just put my hands out and started catching her puke like it was something I do everyday. By the time we arrived at Urgent Care her swelling seemed to be down slightly and she was less lethargic. After a short wait in the waiting room and a long wait in the examine room the doctor came in and said she was indeed having an allergic reaction to something. He said that it could be the peanut, almond, or anything with in the last 72 hours. He prescribed her some Prednizone and told us to follow up with our doctor. Glad that K was on the mend and appreciative of how quickly my family reacted and helped out (Tom not only had his new truck christened with K's puke he went shopping on a Sunday to get K some new clothes because the bad mom I am forgot to pack new clothes in her bag.) we headed home. We tried hiding the Prednizone in the chocolate pudding like the doctor told us, but K is too smart for her own good and told us it was yucky pudding. So we had World War 3 for the next 5 days to get even some of the Prednizone into K's system. Why will my child not take medicine and when we can get some in her does she puke it all back up????

December 27th, 2010:
I call K's pediatrician's office and speak to a nurse. After consulting the doctor she makes an appointment for us to come into the office two weeks after her last does oe Prednizone for allergy testing. We had to wait at least two weeks for the Prednizone to be out of her system. In the mean time we should avoid all nut products.

January 17, 2011:
Thanks to Martin Luther King Jr. Day Nathan and I were both able to go to the doctor's office for the allergy testing. The doctor examined K and her eczema and said it looked good and then talked to us about what she was thinking. She thought since K had been exposed to peanut butter and we have no family history of food allergies that it was probably the almond, but she would do a full nut panel to be sure. She also said she would order us an epi pen in case she was to ever have this type of reaction again. The doctor then told K we were going to need to see how strong her blood was and that the nurse would be in a minute to get it. She then told K if she was good while they were testing her blood's strength she would get a cookie and sticker. K was content and the nurse came in. Nathan sat up on the examine table and had K in his lap. He held her arm, so that it was locked straight and I held her elbow, so she couldn't bend it. The nurse explained everything to K as she did it and even complimented her throughout the procedure. When she was all done drawing her blood (well over a minute) she told K that she was one of the best kids she had even drawn blood on and was way better then even the older kids. Yay K!!! The nurse said we would know the results in 72 hours at the most. When we were leaving I started to feel queasy I guess from watching the blood come out of K and had to go use the restroom. When I met up with K and Nathan in the lobby she not only had a sticker and a cookie, but she also got to pick a toy out of the toy chest for being so brave. Once we left the doctor's office we were off to get a milkshake (doctor's orders) and a new toy for K (mommy's orders).

January 20, 2011
The dreaded call came in today. This date had already significantly changed my life 8 years earlier and was about to again change my life. A nurse called and told me that K not only had the one allergy I prayed see would never get, a peanut allergy, but she was also allergic to our cats :( and slightly allergic to dogs and milk (wth) she drinks it everyday. Funny thing is that she was not allergic to the almond. The nurse told us K must avoid all peanut products and we need to read all labels carefully and the cats must go. I started to have a break down and Nathan seemed to be in denial. I decided that I wanted to talk to the doctor about K's allergy testing, not that I didn't trust the nurse, but we still had so many questions and I just wanted to talk to the doctor. Unfortunately when I called the doctor's office our doctor was out of the office, thanks snow storm, and she would call me tomorrow.

January 21, 2011
I finally got some good news after speaking to K's doctor. It appears as though her peanut allergy is probably on the mild side since she has had peanut butter before. It seems as though the allergy may only be triggered by ingesting the actual nut and not all peanut products. We will still avoid peanut butter and all things that contain nuts, but she can still have stuff where peanuts may be used in the factory (plain M&M's) and peanut oil (5 Guys fries). We can also keep our cats. Hallelujah!!! They are a big part of our family and we are all attached, especially K. The doctor did say we probably shouldn't get any new four legged friends which won't be a problem because three is plenty! The cats were probably also the culprit of K's eczema and that she has grown up a tolerance to them. The doctor said to not worry about the milk allergy if she doesn't appear to have any problems with it. Hooray! I don't know what we would have done because K ONLY drinks milk and water. She loathes juice. The doctor then said we would take K to an allergist at age 5 where they would give K food challenges with peanut butter and stuff and determine where to go from there. In the mean time we are to avoid nuts and carry around the epi pen and Benedryl everywhere we go.

So that is the saga of K's allergies. It has been a long couple of weeks with one heck of a roller coaster ride, but I now feel comfortable with the diagnosis and feel it is manageable.

Reasons for Blogging

Well I read a ton of blogs and even started one once, but couldn't see writing if no one was reading it. However, I have changed my mind and here is why:

1. I will document my thoughts and feelings on my adventure of being a mom because it seems once I have things sort of figured out I'm thrown a curve ball.

2. Writing is cathartic and I think sometimes I am even good at it.

3. This will be a great way to document stuff for K and myself to look back on later.

So these are my reasons for blogging. If you're reading this thank you and if not that is ok too.