My baby's 9 months!

I woke up today ready to celebrate Alison turning 9 months old, but all I could do was mope. It began with the realization that I proved the theory wrong that it takes 9 months to put baby weight on and it should take 9 months to get it off. I'm sure the peanut butter m&m's during my chick flick last night didn't help, but what's a good movie without some yummy candy? Then I took Alison to her physical therapy appointment. I was under the impression that this was going to be her last visit. Her therapist Kelly and I have a lot in common and have formed a good friendship. Well, the good news is that I'll be able to see a lot more of her because we have to start going every week again instead of stopping. She feels like Alison still has a little head tilt and isn't meeting some developmental milestones. She wants to see Alison sit up from laying down and put more weight on her left arm. Alison has figured out what happens in the therapy room and now cries as soon as we get there. I feel like she doesn't see the things Alison should be doing because she's too busy crying to show her how she moves and plays. Oh, being a mom can be so frustrating. There are so many things that she's doing early, but I guess that doesn't make up for being a little behind in other areas. Then we ventured on to her 9 month checkup with the pediatrician. She weighs 17lbs 14oz(25-50%) and her height is 28.25 inches(75%). The pediatrician is a little concerned that she's only gained 1.5lbs since her 6 month check up. We told her that we're feeding her as much as possible but she's been a little picky the last few weeks. She thinks Alison's acid reflux is still present and put her back on Zantac. All I can do is sigh. Kelly had called her and talked to her about Alison's progress (keep in mind that we've been going to therapy for 6 months now) and she wants us to see a neurologist to make sure Alison's brain development is not delayed. We've seen every specialist there is and Alison's passed every test with flying colors. She learns things quickly and is constantly moving. I just wish these doctors could be home with us and hear my little girl say "ba,ba" when she wants her bottle and scootch her way around the house in search for the kitty. I'm frustrated that we're back to square one; back in therapy and on zantac...I'm so ready for these days to be over. I got home discouraged and ready to finish my bag of m&m's. Then Alison blessed me with a little encouragement to assure me that she's normal and will meet milestones eventually. We were on the bed playing and Smoochy jumped up to join the fun. Alison got her little legs underneath her and pushed herself forward to pet Smooch. She's on the verge of crawling and I can't wait to show the doctors wrong.

Little Blessings

I love seeing how God blesses us in little ways in our daily life.

When I got home from work yesterday Ben greeted me by saying he had some bad news. A couple of evenings ago he went outside to take some pictures of our pond. He puts a lot of work into our fish and the landscaping of the yard and it always looks incredible. Well, he caught a glimpse of the camera still sitting outside as he was walking to the car and suddenly realized he had left it out for a couple of days--and it had rained a lot. He took it inside and dried it up. Amazingly it works just like new. I guess you know you have a great camera when it can sit outside for two days in the rain and still work.

Ben decided it was 'Daddy spoil their daughter' Day yesterday. I came home to find Alison standing with this toy that had a microphone and plays dance music. There were many other random toys that I'm still not sure how they work or what their purpose is. But who am I to rain on 'Daddy spoil daughter' Day?

Finally our day ended with a long awaited blessing. We got our electricity fixed!!! We've been living for several months with only half the electricity working. We've had several people say they were coming to fix it and then never come. I mentioned something at work and one of the girl's has a cousin who is an electrician. He called me shortly after work and asked if he could come over. He had the whole house fixed in half an hour and when I asked him how much we owed him he said, "$35.00." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I thought he surely meant $3,500. After he left I was so excited I couldn't contain myself. I wanted to call everyone I knew and tell them my exciting news, but I knew everyone would think I was nuts for being so excited about electricity. I forgot the luxury of turning on lights and oh, how nice it is to flip and switch have lights in the bathroom!

Best Friends

Shortly after Alison was born, we had to put our very old cat Jake to sleep. Jake had a brain tumor that was pressing on a nerve that affected his ability to stand or walk. It was extremely hard to see him suffer and it was even harder to make the decision to end his life even when they told us he would only live a couple more days. Our younger cat Milo had an even harder time with the loss of Jake. We knew we had to get Milo a kitten to play with but the timing was not ideal. I don't think I would recommend to new moms adding a kitten to the daily challenges that come with a newborn. But adopting Sammie (aka Smoochy)was the best decision we made. He is a huge blessing to our family. I'm sure some people reading this blog are rolling their eyes right now thinking, "Geez, it's just a cat." Well, to those people, I say just watch this video and you'll see exactly what I mean. While we know Smoochy is the absolute dumbest name anyone could ever think of, it encompasses this cat and fits him to a 'T'. If you pick him up, he rubs his nose on your face and puts his mouth up to yours. In fact in the video he comes and kisses the camera. He obeys when we give him instructions. He has all of his claws, but he's never scratched or shown any aggression. These things are just the tip of the iceberg. Smoochy is Alison's best friend. If you've watched the video of Alison laughing, that's what she does whenever he comes in the room-she loves him! She will pull his ears, whiskers and hair out by the hand fulls and he just lays there and purrs. Every night while Alison's in the bath he sits there and watches her. She's even pulled him in a couple of times! Today I learned to appreciate this friendship even more. I had Alison in our room while I was putting some laundry away. She picked up a cat toy and began waving it in the air. Smoochy played with the other end and they sat for a long time just playing together. Who needs to pay a baby sitter when you have a Smoochy!

If you haven't been here...

check out the pictures online of our house and if you know any one moving to Roseville, MI. tell them to give us a call!

http://www.realtor.com/realestate/roseville-mi-48066-1098627388/

Nothing could be better than this

Let the cleaning begin!

The past two days have been crazy! The Realtor came yesterday to take pictures of the house and the phone could ring at any minute of someone wanting to come look at the house. So I've been frantically trying to clean and organize. Sure, it sounds easy enough. But the rough and tumble play has really helped Alison want to move and the cute scooting has taking a whole new life. Today I was reminded of the time my dad convinced me to get in a box with him and slide down the stairs. We can laugh about today, but at the time I only remember broken glasses and my dad saying, "maybe that wasn't such a good idea." I had an empty diaper box that I was going to use to store some of the many things I'm trying to cram into our attic to make our house appear larger. Alison wasn't liking the idea of being in the living room by herself while I worked on the kitchen cabinets so I plopped her in the box and put some toys in with her. I took her on a little train ride around the kitchen and was pretty impressed with my brilliant idea. Alison certainly enjoyed playing in the box, especially the end when she got to chew on the lid and watch the kitten try to chew his way in.

Taking a Chance

Our house is officially on the market. I could never imagine the day when we'd be able to put that big blue sign up in our yard. We always said that we would live in this house as long as we were in Michigan, but to be truthful I was never too crazy about the house. A couple of weeks ago Ben and I came to a crossroads in our life. We new something needed change and debated about several avenues we could take. At work one day I was looking at some houses the bank was doing loans for and quickly learned that it's a great time to buy. I told Ben that evening that if we decided to stay in Michigan for a little bit longer I would like to consider moving to a better neighborhood. So I casually asked my boss about a loan and she was quick to say they'd give us a great deal. Then I casually asked our realtor about the reality of selling our house and she thought we could easily sell our house and find a house. After talking a long time about life and the future, we decided that it's the best decision to stay in Michigan a little while longer and try to get into a better neighborhood. So we're taking a chance in the market where it's not a good time to sell, but a great time to buy.

Cara is here visiting for the weekend! We're having a blast! This afternoon we decided it would be fun to bring back old high school memories and have a little photo shoot. Alison was having a hard time taking her afternoon nap so we let her join in on the fun. She was all smiles and giggles, until I pushed the timer button on the camera. Something made her very upset and this is the picture we got. Cara and I just couldn't stop laughing.

Beached Whale?

This is Alison acting like a beached whale that crawls backward, check out the end where the legs and arms flap. I know that sounds mean, but it's not! If you can't laugh at yourself or your own baby then who can you laugh at?

She's already a model

Ben and I made a bet today. He said that when Alison is 16, she'll be 6 feet tall and will be a model because she'll be tall and thin and has striking blue eyes. I don't think she'll be that tall and I hope I win because he said he'd send me to a spa as my reward (hopefully in 15 years we'll be able to afford a spa treatment!). This afternoon I started to see what he was talking about. She is really long and super cute. But I'm also her mom; of course I think she's cute!

Mission Accomplished!

Alison is learning the fine art of getting small foods into her mouth. Yesterday was the first time she was able to get it in on her own. We were excited for her accomplishment and I'm longing for the day when she can eat the whole meal by herself

Rough and Tough

We just got home from hopefully the second to last Physical Therapy appointment. We've been going for 5 months now and I'm ready to be done. Alison started going to fix her Torticollis and now she's working on getting up to par on her motor skills. Most kids who've had torticollis are a little behind in skills because of their weaker muscles. Alison is certainly strong and actually is ahead in several areas, but she has a huge fear of movement. Today our therapist asked if Ben rough houses with Alison at all and as I thought about it, we really aren't that "aggressive" with her. Maybe it's because she's a girl. Maybe it's because I really don't think it's fun to throw my baby in the air or swing her around by her feet. So I was instructed today to start throwing and swinging my baby. I feel like I need to take a class-Throwing Babies 101. And while I know most kids would laugh and smile while their parents were flying them through the air, I know that mine will cry the whole way through. There's just something ironic about that picture. I'm going to have the only child in the world who's afraid to play at recess.

One fussy week

As I said in the last post, Grandma came to visit last week and helped us get through Alison's fussy week. Tuesday evening we had Sr. High biblestudy at our house and Grandma saved the evening by getting Alison to sleep. She all of the sudden liked sleeping on her belly and even though she refuses to roll over while playing she will secretly roll over in her crib. She also randomly decided to not like solid food for that week. I found that the only thing that got her to eat was if I sang 'This is the Day' through the whole meal. It's amazing what we do for our kids.

Grandma comes to visit!

My mom came to visit for a week and I was thankful for her help. Alison was fussy for the whole week and we couldn't figure out why but I wouldn't have made it without someone else to hold her when she screamed, "Ma, na, na, na". We first thought it was really cute that she learned some new syllables. But it quickly turned un-cute when she whined and screamed it. Ben claims that she's calling my name, but I'm praying that's not true. We spent an afternoon walking around the new outdoor mall and got a yummy pretzel for lunch. It was finally warm enough to be outside so we spent the day soaking up the sun.

Transportation

Alison has started scooting backwards. It can be frustrating for her but quite funny for me. She ends up going further away from her toys and several times has gotten herself underneath the couch. I would love any suggestions on how to baby proof the couch. It seems like crawling will never happen. They all say it eventually will and I'm enjoying the time when I can sit her down and she stays put, but part of me wants her to be "normal". The poor girl wont even roll over. She's afraid of hitting her head and does anything possible to prevent herself from rolling. I know someday I'll look back at this blog while Alison is running around the house getting into everything and I'll thing, "Oh, those were the days."

I got sucked in!

I got sucked into creating a blog. I love looking at other people's blogs and see what's going on in their life. I figured this would be a much easier way for friends and family to see my baby Alison grow up than emailing pictures every once and awhile. I can't guarantee everything will be interesting or exciting, but I never run out of things to say about my little girl and she's my life; our simple Shear life.