It’s really been a ride to go through these entries, not even a year later yet. It’s amazing how fast time has flown. Where did it all go? I can’t believe 2009 went so fast. And really, my heart melts when I look at those pictures of K from April and May… how did I get so lucky that she would go from this:

To this:

In only a few short months?

But, again, apparently the war isn’t over yet. We’ll see next month (hopefully) if she needs kidney surgery and in March, hopefully the neurologist will tell us she’s just fine. We shall see what we shall see… But in the meantime, I’m not worried, I know things will be fine.

Though, I also wish I posted here more. Obviously, there are times I need those entries to remind me of things. :P

This thing was so hard to do! Heh! I don’t know if they’re always like this or because it’s a year old, but the green icing meant to be the “glue” for parts was so thick! The directions said it would be toothpaste-like, but it was more like play doh! I finally got it put together though, and Elijah added the candy where he wanted. Silly kid always wants it to look just like it is on the box, so he put candy in a lot of the same places (some even using the same colors!) but of course, the one on the box is probably actually plastic, so it’s near impossible!

It was fun, though, and we will hopefully continue to make this a yearly thing. Elijah loves putting these together and he can’t wait to eat it. The thought of eating it really grosses me out, though it does smell good, but for his sake I’ll make sure I keep any dust from gathering on it HAHAHA

And, yes, I enjoy taking pictures of it with the 50mm lens!

As I sit here and think about this, though, I am a bit baffled. As I remember it in September, he was telling me about the function levels and that he was confident K would grow out of the urinary reflux. I guess it’s not really any different now, but I just feel like we took an extra 3 months to get to a conclusion we should have had in September. He was saying then that he was confident she wouldn’t need surgery. Nothing I can do about all that, I guess, just move forward, but it’s a little confusing for me.

So we shall see what we shall see. Hopefully the next ultrasound will show that the kidney is not growing too big. However, if she’s going to need surgery, I’d rather she get it now than have to deal with that when she’s older. He did say that at this point it’s not really an emergency or anything (hence following up in February). Of course, ideally it would be best if the ureter would straighten itself out! He wouldn’t say that the twisted ureter was the cause of the large kidney, but he said that the two are “intimately connected.” It’s also hard for me to wrap my head around that but I THINK that it means that the ureter contributes to the slower drain of the kidney but that until the ureter is fixed it means the doctor cannot say if that is the cause of the large kidney or not.

By the way, the photo was taken just before we left to go to the hospital yesterday. Kayleigh is modeling the sweater and bonnet made by Birgit’s mum. It’s so sweet, I love it, and I melt when K wears it. :) Just something about a baby in a bonnet, heehee.
I’m glad we actually got it, too, as it was lost in the mail for a few months before finally showing up!!

And yes, I know I suck with my email and RSS reader. It’s catch-up time again, very soon!

I was at a group with some other ladies last night and they started talking about Christmas decorations and what not. One of them brought up the topic of ceramic Christmas trees with the little plastic lights in them. Let’s not discuss how these ladies discussing these trees are quite a bit older than I am (in years not actual age, heehee) and they were actually making fun of these trees, saying they were something their grandmothers would have liked. I laughed because I have one of these trees and I bought it simply because it reminds me of my grandma and the one she had when I was little. So that reminded me I have one and tonight I decided to dig it out.

So I head to the basement and found it rather quickly and brought the bag upstairs. A quick look through the bag revealed the base, without a light bulb, and the tree, missing several of the plastic bulbs. I was quite baffled. I distinctly remembered having a bulb for it that should not have burned out and having extra little plastic bulbs that the lady gave me when I bought it. So I shuffled back to the basement, had another side adventure that shall not be mentioned, then went to the Christmas decorations.

No light bulb. No extra plastic bulbs. Blah. I started searching all over the basement. I knew there was a lamp somewhere in storage that had a bulb that should go in the tree. I was looking for something small and pointed, like for a night light or very small lamp. I could not find this little lamp anywhere.

I’d almost resigned to buying a bulb later when I went upstairs and found where I’d stashed the little lamp. Unfortunately, I the bulb was dead. I thought about raiding my nightstand lamp when I remembered I had extras for that in the nightstand. Sure enough, I found a bulb. It seemed a little big, but, oh well. Headed downstairs, put it in the tree, plugged it in and turned it on.

I was sitting here back in my chair for a few minutes, not very long, when I started to smell something. It smelled like hot glue. You know the smell, right? It’s almost sickening. I thought, “shoot, I guess that bulb is too big for that tree, it’s melting the glue holding in those plastic bulbs.” I turned off the tree and sat back down. A few minutes later, I turned it back on and took a couple of photos including the one above. Turned it right back off and I thought I’d check it and I started lifting the tree off the base.

I almost fainted when I realized what had happened.

Yes, the tree DID have a bulb and it DID have extra plastic bulbs. Oh, and it DID have bubble wrap around those things. They had been all shoved up inside the tree but were now all melted to the bulb that had been turned on.

Oy. :)

It was still really, hot, too. I had to let it cool some more before getting it out of there and I was left with bubble wrap and about 7 plastic bulbs all melted to the light bulb. I was able to salvage another one or two plastic bulbs and thankfully the tree’s actual light bulb wasn’t attached to the bubble wrap so I was able to pop that puppy in and light up my tree again, smell-and-melting-stuff-free.

And through it all? Yup, the husband was snoozing on the couch.

Lesson learned: just because you carry the ceramic tree at the bottom and your fingers don’t feel anything inside the tree, doesn’t mean that the light bulbs and bubble wrap aren’t in there waiting for their moment to strike. :P

So, things in my life lately?

– We’re healthy and plan to remain as such. I dare say that this is the healthiest I have been in a long time, or, at least, the longest I’ve gone without being sick or suffering a sinus infection. Vitamin D rocks. So does garlic and Xyzal.

– Speaking of garlic, having recently learned a bit about its natural healing properties, I decided to plant some of my own. I did it as I was instructed but… eh, apparently it’s not cold enough here yet and it’s already growing!

– Which is quite the opposite for our dear globe willow tree that we all love so much… she is dead. D.E.A.D. I’m so sad. Apparently she got a disease that is common to the trees but by the time she was showing signs, it was too late. I’m not sure what we’re going to do about her, exactly, but she’s going to have to come down.

– School is going well. In fact, Elijah finished a math book today. Flew right through it, so already I have to get him a new one.

– I’ve gotten to do some portraits for a few people here recently. Besides the ones I’ve already posted, I got to shoot this family not long ago:

And this sweet little girl the other day:

Not to mention various things with my own kids! I need to get started on our Christmas cards, though, likely, I’m going to send most electronically this year. (And I really mean it, this time!) But wait until you see them, the photo I have is so very cute! :-)

– Been busy with a lot of website stuff lately, too. Doing some Flash sites for some people, working on a big Joomla site (which is a major pain in the butt because none of my stuff works with the newest version), and finally got to do a Chyrp site which should help further ease the loads on my server as that site was once WordPress and one of the “trouble” sites.

– Trying to get caught up in video work, too. Finally starting to get somewhere and get into a sort of schedule. I just need to remember to make a DVD each week instead of just putting it up on the internet and forgetting about it!

– Also still crocheting. Can you believe that I’ve stuck with it this long? Who knew? Have finished 3 Christmas gifts so far and am halfway through another one. This one is taking me a long time though, or at least it feels longer. But the end results will be worth it! I have plans for at least two more bigger gifts, too, then some smaller ones.

– One thing I wish I was active in lately is my digital scrapbooking. However, I just don’t have enough time in the day! I figure after all the daily activities I must do and sleeping and eating, I have about 4 hours, if that, and that is often spent working or on crochet!

– I’ve also been a candle-making fool lately. Or at least it seems that way. I’m not really making a lot in quantity but have been at it near constantly the last two weeks because of orders and what not. I can’t really make large batches because of Kayleigh, for the most part. Even just a few candles, as they are hardening, release a lot of scent into the air, and the last thing I want to do is irritate her little lungs. I’ve been covering the ones I do with a little towel and I have the ceiling fans going when I can, and the air cleaner going all the time. Having the bathroom window open when I can really seems to help, too. Orders are good, though, I needs ta pay mah bills :)

– And finally, on the work front, Steve has to have a forced week off this week. All the guys in the company, over the last 8 weeks of the year, are required to take off 3 of them. There just isn’t enough work going around these days – and it’s always slower in the winter months, anyway. So we filed for his week of unemployment, which will help some. I’ve been trying to cut corners where we can. So we shall see what we shall see. But, really, I’d rather him work 5 weeks out of 8 than none, so hopefully he will get to do that and on those 3 weeks he takes off, someone else gets to work in his place and get some income of their own. I know we’ll be cared for, though, whatever happens.

She now weighs about 12 lbs, 3.5 oz (5.54 kg) which is up about a full pound from the last time she was weighed, right at a month ago. She’s grown out of her newborn clothes and it was bittersweet for me today to go through and take them out of her drawers and set them aside.

She’s a little bit behind on some things, but I think that’s to be expected. For instance, she still wobbles her head pretty good when holding it up. It’s strange, because she started to get control pretty early but we’re not worried, it will come in time. But because of this, the pediatrician does not yet want to start her on any rice cereal.

However, she’s also ahead a little bit – she can roll over both ways! Here’s 56 seconds of K rolling around a bit and lifting her head and what not. The third clip though she is just talking until she notices me there. Yeah, she is doing a really weird thing with her eyes there.

That’s the other thing we discussed. I think that all she is doing is trying to focus on something, it seems to happen when she’s trying to look about 8 to 10 feet away. It doesn’t happen all the time, though, either. We might go 4 days and not see it and then have a day where it happens several times. She’s due to see the eye doctor in early December – apparently preemies can have all sorts of eye issues. In May when she saw him last he said to me, “I see no problems that are typical to preemies,” but, of course, it is now nearly 5 months later. So we’ll see. The pediatrician told us that if we see it getting worse, though, to go in earlier to her eye doctor.

That’s about it, though, everything’s on pretty much the up-and-up. The doctor did say that we should start physical therapy with K though, so I guess we’ll have to start up home visits again. Blah, I hate home visits. Beats taking the kid out in the dead of winter, though.