More platelets...

March started on a good note, but ended on a bad one in terms of Abby's platelet counts. By now she's on a ton of meds (Imuran 25mg twice a day, Prednisone 15mg twice a day and Pepcid 5pm twice a day) and hopefully her counts will start to get back into a normal range AND STAY THERE! We had to increase her Pepcid to twice per day because her hemoglobin/hematocrit (red blood cells) dropped at the end of the month and we noticed her having some blood mixed in with her bowel movements.
March 5: 134,000
March 11: 81,000
March 19: 155,000
March 26: 50,000

Lunch with Aunt Jenny & Uncle Rob

We got to meet Aunt Jenny & Uncle Rob for lunch today. It was so much fun! We went to Crackle Barrel...which was yummy and the perfect place to take a toddler who's not so quiet and likes to try to throw things! Rob, Jenny, and I all had breakfast and Chris got a dinner...which included some Fried Okra, which we left Brendan sample and he actually ate it! We were all very surprised and impressed! Looks like he will take after his father in the eating department!

Date night!

Mamaw & GrandBob...well, ok, really just Mamaw agreed to keep Brendan over night last night. Chris and I made reservations for Ruth's Chris restaurant downtown. We had two gift cards to use up for there, plus from 4-6pm every night they have $35 and $45 3 course dinner specials available. We splurged and got an appetizer which didn't come with our "meals"...bbq shrimp...yummy! Then we each had a bowl of the lobster bisque. I had the $35 mixed grill for dinner, which was a crab cake, 4 oz. filet, and a stuff chicken breast...tons of food...I couldn't finish the steak and didn't even touch the chicken. Chris went for the $45 NY Strip dinner, which even he couldn't finish! We also got two sides - mashed potatoes and sauteed mushrooms and plenty of fresh bread...maybe that's why we couldn't finish our dinners. : ) Then we each got a dessert...chocolate mousse cake. They were huge! We ended up splitting one and taking the other home.

Then, we walked down to the circle to go to a symphony Pops! concert. Mom had traded some of her morning tickets to get tickets to an evening show. We saw Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's "Cirque de la Symphonie". It was incredible! The music was phenomenal and so were all the Cirque performers. The two hour concert absolutely flew by and we hardly even noticed that it was after 10pm when we left to drive home.

Library: Toddler Time

For the month of March, Brendan I went to the library every Thursday morning for what's called Toddler Time. It's a 30 minute session where babies/toddlers aged 0 to 3 years can enjoy a few stories, sing some songs/rhymes and do a craft. Brendan & I have both enjoyed it. I've learned some new songs/rhymes that I sing to Brendan. He's really gotten into clapping his hands due to these songs too, which is so cute to watch! I think that it's also good for him to learn to actually sit still for a few minutes and pay attention to something. The crafts are a little challenging for him yet though....Mommy's enjoyed them though! See, aren't I talented?!? Just kidding!



On Fridays, we go to the library as well for an hour long program for ages 0 to 2, where we sing some songs/rhymes, read a couple stories and then have about a 30 minute session where the babies "play" together...mostly this is grabbing toys away from each other! The moms get a chance to chat though while everyone else plays, so it's a fun time for all.

Swingset!

We'd been wanting to get Brendan a swing/slide for the backyard this spring. We'd looked thru the Step 2 catalog, and found one we liked, but didn't want to spend the money for it! I just happened to look on Craigslist one night and one had just been listed in Westfield (about 20 minutes northwest of us, for those not familiar with the area). I was so excited! We paid just over 33% of what it originally retaitled for!

We borrowed my mom's Suburban to pick it up on Friday evening and got it cleaned up and put together on Saturday (it got a little dirty again while it was wet and sitting on the grass, so I need to give it one more rinsing at some point). Brendan seems pretty excited about it!

Walking!

Brendan is fully mobile now...it's rare to see him crawling anywhere. So hard to believe that only a year ago he was this tiny little baby and now he's a toddler!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

How do you...

take a 13 month old toddler, a hyper dachshund-beagle mix, and a blind dachshund on a walk?



It was so nice out today...everyone needed out of the house to burn off some energy, including the dogs. Abby ran around like crazy, per usual. Elle got about halfway down the street and started panting, so we scooped her up and put her in the wagon, where she spent 99% of the rest of the walk. Brendan didn't seem to mind in the least...good thing that we got the wagon that seats 2!

Homemade Bread Crumbs

In my attempt to be both more frugal and actually use the kitchen devices that we already own...I made bread crumbs this weekend! I have a bread machine that I do actually use every few weeks to make some "homemade" bread to go with a pot roast or something similar. Usually though we don't end up eating all of the bread that night and it just sits in the fridge. So, I broke out the mini food processor and after drying the bread out in the oven for a few minutes, I made bread crumbs! Very easy and definitely cheaper than buying them at the store!

Birthday Party Post

I finally got the First Birthday Party post finished...it's back under Feb...Enjoy! There's a bunch of pictures! I think that the birthday boy had a great time!

Basement Progress...

The framing of the basement is now 99% done. I finished the dry-locking of the floor last week and got most of the insulation put up today. Chris is working on getting the electrical wiring done. Here's some current pictures:

Finished -- The Wrapping Closet

Finally got the gift wrapping closet finished tonight. Actually, I need one more drawer to finish storing all the tissue paper...I have way too much!

When the basement's finished, I plan to move all of this to the basement, but at least for now it's organized and hopefully I won't buy any more gift wrapping stuff on clearance for a long, long time!

13 Months Old!

Brendan was not very cooperative for his picture taking session today...I guess he's a little out of practice since we're not doing the weekly pictures any more. We may try to get a better picture and add it in the next day or so.

Playing outside!

It was nice out today so of course Brendan came home from school today all muddy from playing outside. So we decided to play outside some more on the driving for a little while, then get a bath before dinner. He enjoyed taking his lion on a walk!
But sometimes he got stuck in the grass...

He's getting pretty fast!


Then we had to take the wagon for a spin too.

The Wrapping Closet

One of my 101 things to do is to organize the gift wrapping closet that has taken over the guest bedroom closet. Here are some before pictures:

Saucy Honey Mustard Chicken

Saucy Honey Mustard Chicken

We tried this new recipe tonight...it was very, very good! I highly recommend it...easy too!

Recipe is here: Saucy Honey Mustard Chicken

Drinking from a cup!

Daycare's been working on getting Brendan to drink from and sippy cup. We offer him one as well when he eats his meals & snacks, but finally tonight he seemed to really get into it! He only had 2 bottles today down from 3-4 usually -- one at 4:30am when he woke up (Chris wasn't thrilled as it was his turn to get up with him) and then just before bed this evening at 7:30pm. Woohoo!

Another new recipe

Here's another new recipe that we tried...StoveTop Classic One Dish Chicken Bake...pretty good and definitely easy. We used canned chicken instead of chicken breasts...didn't want to take the time to defrost chicken.

Recipe can be found here.

Part-Time!

As of today, I am officially working part-time! I'm very excited...this has been a long time coming. I brought this up with my work back in July and it's taken this long for them to hire someone and get him trained and credentialed by the hospital. My new schedule will be working on Mondays, Tuesdays, and a half day on Wednesdays (morning).