Travel Day and Day 1 in Guayaquil

Blythe was a rock star on the plane ride. She slept the entire trip from DFW to Miami. Our plan was over an hour late getting into Miami and we literally had to RUN to catch our connecting flight. The plane was waiting for us and we were the last ones to board. Blythe was awake for the 4 hour flight from Miami to Guayaquil, but that was excellent because then she was good and tired for the evening. We arrive din Guayaquil at 11:30 and of course as we suspected our luggage didn't make it. It took a fair amount of time for us to report our lost luggage and Blythe finally zonked out in the stroller about midnight (11pm Texas time). She was SO exhausted that she didn't wake up as we got into the car (no car seat, it was checked), and then into the hotel. She didn't even wake up for a before bedtime feeding and if you know Blythe you know she doesn't miss a feeding! Guayaquil is the most dangerous city we are visiting and we had a police escort our van to the hotel. According to Wilman (our guide) even the locals have a police escort because of the high crime rate targeted at people who have just left the airport.

Our first day in Guayaquil was HOT and we were all in pants and long sleeves. We hit up the first clothing shop we could find and all purchased a short sleeved shirt. We spent the day walking around the city with Wilman. We took an hour long boat ride for lunch and it was nice and relaxing. We ate Octopus among other fish and it was really tasty. Wilman advised us not to give it to Blythe so she didn't get a taste. Blythe has mainly eaten bread, but we did have avocado for dinner last night and she ate quite a bit of it.

I better sign off and go pack our bags, we are scheduled to leave for Cuenca in 20 minutes.

P.S. no time to re-read or edit and the keyboard is slightly different so excuse the type-oś

We Can Only Go Up From Here......

There's nothing like starting out a vacation feeling like you have been hit by a freight train. Lat night was the WORST night we have had with Blythe since her birth. At 9:00pm I decided it was time to head to bed in hopes of getting a good night sleep the night before our departure. The grandparents and aunts and uncles would just have to wait until tomorrow to see Blythe (they were still at Byron's band concert). I decided to turn on Blythe's Enya music since the house would probably be less than quiet once everyone arrived home. Blythe and I were sleeping soundly until midnight. Jason decided he wanted to turn Blythe's music down, which was located right by her bed, and while thumbing around to find the volume and eventually turning the music off Blyhe woke up. O.K. minor hiccup lay her back down, cover her up, and say night, night, just like any other night, right??? WRONG. Blythe was UPSET and we aren't just talking whining or a few cries here or there, we are talking all out screaming. Jason decides to put her in the bed for a few minutes to calm her down, BIG mistake. Once he decides she was calmed down and put her back in the pack 'n play she was having NOTHING to do with it. Jason and I tag teamed the next 3 hours with rocking, walking, eating, drinking, and out of desperation we put her in the closet to see if she would cry it out quickly and pass out from exhaustion..no luck. Blythe was happy as a clam as long as you were not trying to get her to go to sleep and there was a light on, but hello it was the wee hours of the night and it wasn't fair to the other members of the household for her to keep them awake (her screams would have kept an entire hotel awake).

Finally at 3am I decided I would try to nurse Blythe one last time in the rocking chair/recliner and just sleep with here there. Well I lucked out and Blythe finally fell asleep around 3:15am, but the recliner was broke and I couldn't make it recline. I stayed there for as long as I could in hopes that she was good and out. I then very slowly crept my way back into bed (Blythe popped her head up, but I was able to pat her back). I layed in the bed with her sprawled across me until 4:30am. At this point her sleeping and me not sleeping, but possible dosing in and out was better than the prospect of her screaming anymore. Finally at 4:30am I decided she had to be out enough for me to roll off me, luckily she stayed asleep, but only until 7AM!

PLEASE tell me that she has this out of her system (I have NO idea what last night was about and I can't imagine going through that at a hotel).

Ecuador Day #1 - please be better than yesterday.

P.S. she is napping in the pack 'n play so hopefully this a good sign.

A Sweet Moment

As most of you know, our little Blythe is not really into cuddling and would rather be on her own two feet than in arms. This is normally a great thing, but there are times when you see other moms holding a baby who is loving on them or out cold on their shoulder. Our typical bed time routine is nurse, then say prayer, night night, and cover her up. I went through our typical routine on Monday, but when I left the room Blythe was NOT happy. I thought, “hum, she sounds pretty upset, but I will give her a few minutes.” A few minutes came and went and she was still very upset. I went back into the room to lay her down, but she was still laying down and under the covers, but screaming. I rubbed her back for about a minute and then left the room, she was quiet while I was rubbing her back, but was NOT happy when I left again. I waited a few more minutes and just though “man, she is really upset I don’t think I have heard her scream like that in a long time, if ever.” So I went back into the room (Jason was at the neighbors eating pizza) picked her up and sat in the rocking chair. I said “Blythe lay you head down on mommas shoulder,” and I was shocked when she actually did. I rocked her, patted her back, and sang her the our father, a few advent songs, some Christmas carols (it would have been embarrassing if someone had heard not only my awful singing voice, but also my lack of memory on the words). Blythe was instantly comforted and within minutes had fallen asleep. It was such a sweet moment to sit in the rocking chair singing to my precious baby. That morning we had Bible study and one of the questions was “How are you celebrating Advent this year and sharing it with your family?” Honestly, I didn’t have an answer much less a good answer, so in a way God gave me this moment to share advent with Blythe and to sing to her about Jesus in the manger, and silent night, etc. I know she probably didn’t get as much from it as I did, but I wanted to share my sweet moment with my sweet baby girl.

15 Month Appt.

Where has our little fatty hatty gone?? Do you guys remember this porker?

She was in the 75th percentile for weight and length

Now our little slim jim is in the 25th percentile for weight, weighing in at 20 pounds 13 ounces (full clothed) and the 50th percentile for height, stretching just 30 inches.

Poor Blythe had to endure 6 shots yesterday. 4 routine 15 months shots and an extra 2 (regular flu and H1N1) since we are going to Ecuador. While the shots were being administered she wasn't too happy, but she quickly got over it and doesn't seem to have any side effects today.

Today we had our 10 week appointment for Baby W II and everything is looking good. I actually lost 1/2 a pound (I know water weight), but at least I am not gaining yet :)

Funny story: a few weeks ago I heard Blythe kinda wining, but in good tough mom mode I thought she'll figure it out, well she continued for a little while so I decided I better go see what was up, when I went into the living room I saw that she was holding the lamp upside down (bulb towards the floor) and trying to put it back. Thank goodness she decided to catch it, but why the heck was she messing with the lamp in the first place? Yes, I did feel a little guilty that I didn't go in there right away since my poor toddlers was trying to 'save the lamp' and didn't quite have the muscle capacity to do it.

Already the 'second' child

This poor baby is only 8 weeks old and is already suffering from 'second' child syndrome.

• We announced we were expecting Blythe on Christmas eve surrounded by family and friends and a bottle of champagne
• Baby #2 get the oh so exciting announcement via test in the TRASH can courteous of Becky. Luckily I got to tell my mom and sister, but I was NOT expecting Becky to be going through the trash at my moms house! (o.k. so really the test was just sitting in the trash can in plain open site, but that version isn't nearly as good).
• During our first ultrasound with Blythe Jason was so excited that he 'felt like he was going to pass out'
• During our first ultrasound with Baby #2 Jason was not present because when we arrived at the doctors office he noticed that there was a huge nail in the tire and air was leaking so he said "I either need to take care of this right now or we will be replacing a flat after the appointment."

Being the second child myself I always swore I would treat all my kids the same, regardless of where they are in the order. But hey these are all life occurrences that are out of my control..right??

I WILL write on Baby W #2's calendar every day for the first year like I did for Blythe! Now y'all make sure and hold me to that!

My hands were on FIRE

Many of you might already know that, but in case there is someone who doesn’t I wanted to pass along my experience. I made a spicy chicken soup yesterday AM around 9:30 and cut up several Habanera and Serrano peppers (fresh from the garden so maybe they were hotter than store bought?). I was busy getting all the ingredients into the pot so I didn’t wash my hands right away. I had NO idea at the time what a huge mistake this was. I could feel a little heat on my hands throughout the day, but it wasn’t until 9pm at night when I laid down that I felt like my hands were on fire. I didn’t know that the oils from the peppers could actually get into your skin and cause your hands to burn even though they look completely normal. At first I was thinking I must have burned myself from the steam, but that didn’t seem very logical. DH told me that it was probably the peppers. We googled remedies (milk, bleach, baking soda, sugar water, aloe, lotion, etc) and NONE of them worked. I ended up holding an icepack between my hands until 4:45am.

NOTE: wear gloves when working with hot peppers because you do NOT want to experience what I did.

BOO and Boo Hoo

The day before Halloween my office had its annual Halloween potluck with all our international students. Jason and I decided to be "lazy" about our costumes and decided to go as a soccer player and a soccer coach. Blythe still went as an adorable leopard.

On Saturday, Halloween Day, we went as our originally intended characters. Blythe was a leopard, I was a Black Panther, and Jason was a Hunter.

The neighbors had a Halloween/Dance Party. They hook up a projector outside and we youtube random music videos and attempt to dance along, I will see if I can get a video uploaded. Jason perhaps had one too many cocktails and got a little ahead of himself. He was busting out to a Brittany spears video and decided to do a back flip after one of the dancers did one.....Jason 'forgot' he was wearing very heavy boots, hadn't done a flip in a year or two, and was under the influence. Needless to say he had a very hard and abrupt meeting with the concrete. Should I post pictures of the aftermath???