Baking time with mom

We decided to keep Bella home one more day (or at least I hope it's only one more day).  She had another bad night of coughing, but is in good spirits this morning.  We decided to make some pumpkin cheesecake muffins.  Bella helped me run the mixer, although I wasn't talented enough to get a picture of that.  So here she is posing behind her masterpieces.

Notice she is still in her pajamas.  I think anyone who stays home from school should get to wear their pajamas all day long.

It's Pink

We started painting Bella's bedroom this weekend.  It's very pink.  You know how most people will blame their children when the room is a bright bold color.  Well obviously I have no one else to blame but myself.  Bella definitely didn't tell me to paint it pink.

Do I have your interest yet?

Well it's a two scheme color and we only have the first one done, so you will have to wait another week to see it done.

Granted with Bella being sick, I was really wishing she was in her bigger bed, so that if needed we could sleep with her and make sure everything was going alright.  As it is now, she gets to join our bed, and that means one of us gets kicked out.  So we best get on painting and then out to buy a new mattress for her.

I'm sick.....or sick and tired

We had a little bit of a scare on Saturday morning.  Bella woke up around 5am and I went in to check on her.  She seemed to be doing her, I'm up and happy, but it's way too early to actually get up.  So I left her to talk to herself as I went to get a little more sleep.  At 6am I told Jesse that maybe he should get Bella and put her to bed with me, so that she could possibly fall back asleep.

Jesse went into her bedroom and Bella was lying in bed staring wide eyed at the ceiling struggling to breathe.  He grabbed her and brought her into our bedroom.  Once in our bed she was still struggling to breathe and her arms were shaking, she was not making eye contact with either one of us.

I began to wonder if she was having a seizure and told Jesse to grab the video camera and film her.  I was holding and rocking her and trying to get her to come around.  We then took her downstairs, where I was holding her in my lap.  We were trying to figure out what was going on, and in the back of our heads were even contemplating that we might be running to the hospital.

I thought about how when I have a fever and am sick, I tend to get the shakes.  And usually it means I feel freezing cold.  So I told Jesse to grab and blanket and wrap her up while still in my arms.  Moments later her breathing went back to normal and the shakes stopped, and she immediately went to sleep.

We still are not sure what happened that morning, but since then we have been dealing with a child who keeps coughing and is very irritable.  We aren't sure if she is fighting a cold or just teething again, as a big one is on the move through the gums.  Regardless it's been a couple nights of bad sleep in this household, so let's hope whichever it is, it gets better soon.

Working on the Stairs

It was time to finally start installing the new stairs.

It was a slow process removing the existing pine treads and replacing with the new oak ones.

The treads had to be shimmed, as the existing stairs were leaning to the left.  After we had replaced about half of them, we realized the new stairs were squeaking.  So we had to buy some lag screws and secure the stair stringer to the wall.

They were really long lag screws.

Once the white painted risers were attached the stairs looked much better.

We had a little time left over to start working on the newel posts.

Hopefully we can work on the railing this weekend.  It's a little unnerving to walk around and not have any railings up.  Especially since the dogs like to walk on the very edge every time they go up and down.

The bus is here

Bella took her first bus ride to school on Monday.  The bus drivers seem to be very nice, and Bella is their only passenger.  That means they pick her up and immediately drive to school (or vice versa) and the trip takes all of five minutes.  In fact I'm pretty sure it takes longer to load her and unload her, than the actual drive to school.

We haven't quite decided if we are going to keep her on the bus, but we are giving it a try for now.  We are still in the process of figuring out how everything will work with me not being at home.  And in typical crazy fashion, I was sent to Florida for work this week.  So we still haven't quite gotten into any type of routine.  

Busy Week

It's been a big week over in our neck of the woods.  Bella had her birthday, which meant she is officially part of the school district and we had our first IEP meeting.  For all of you that don't know what that stands for it's an Individual Education Plan, and is especially designed for children with special needs.  It's a program that the school uses that sets out the goals that you hope to accomplish through the teaching and therapy she will receive at school.  You usually meet yearly to see how things are going and what new goals and changes need to be done.  Being that this was our very first meeting we didn't really know what to expect, and I imagine we will learn a lot more as the years go on.

After our first official school meeting on Friday we rushed around to get our house ready for our first Nebraska party on Saturday.

Go Huskers!!

Then on Sunday we had Bella's birthday party.

Then on Monday I started my new job.  That's right, I started back to work at an engineering company.  I am working part time, but it's actually going to be 4 almost full days from Monday to Thursday, and then I will have off on Friday's to spend with Bella as she doesn't have school.

Jesse won tickets to Monday night football, so after my first day of work, we headed off to the Chief's stadium.  Let's just say it was a slow crawl as it took us 1.5 hours to go less than 5 miles.

We had great seats on the 14th row.  Did I mention the game was at 9:15pm, and it rained almost the whole time?

Then on Tuesday Bella had another round of horse therapy.

We looked a lot like last week.

Except we got to ride in our favorite position for a little bit, which was upside down.  If only that actually helped us sit....we would have it made.

I think it's time to go to bed, we need to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Birthday Pictures

It was Bella's third birthday this weekend and we had ourselves a little county fair over at our house.  Well mainly we just had a bunch of "fair like" food and pies.

And a bunch of balloons.

And in typical Bella fashion, we didn't want any of the pumpkin pie mom had specially made for the occasion.  It doesn't matter that we loved it a year ago, we wouldn't even open our mouth for our birthday slice.

Bella had a great time!

Happy Birthday Bella

We had Bella's birthday party today, she did a great job and seemed to be in a good mood and taking everything in.  Mom on the other hand is exhausted, and doesn't even feel like posting pictures yet.  So more to come, it's been a long weekend.

Working Overtime

We have been working non-stop, or so it seems.  All the little things that take up so much time, but aren't big enough on their own to even take a picture.  And unfortunately we have weeks, days, and hours left of work to do before we can do our big reveal of the entryway and exterior of our house.
I should be keeping track of all the hours spent painting and staining.  I'm pretty sure for the entryway and stairway alone I am nearing 20 hours, and I am only 1/2 done.

New Therapy

Bella got to try horseback riding today, it's a form of therapy called hippotherapy.  This is Bella getting on her horse, a pony named Simon.

Bella would intermittently hold her head up, but her helmet was a little too big, and kept falling down.  She did a fairly good job of sitting up, supported by the therapist.

Of course she never held her head up when she was near us.

For a little while she laid on her stomach, but that was actually putting her to sleep.

Bella will now be riding Simon every Tuesday at noon.

Out for lunch

It's happy time, this is Bella dancing in her chair.  We had just finished lunch, and Bella's lunch today consisted of frozen yogurt (peanut butter and chocolate flavored).  You see, Bella and I met up with Jesse for lunch at Jimmy John's, my favorite sandwich place.  After lunch, Jesse mentioned he was in the mood for dessert and a new self serve frozen yogurt place had opened up across the street.  So we headed on over.  It's called peachwave, or something like that.  And they had about 10 different flavors of frozen yogurt and a bunch of toppings.  You make your own dish and then you pay per ounce.  I have to say it was pretty awesome, but way too much food for the afternoon.  We got Bella a dish of yogurt and since it had been slightly melting in the car on the way home, it was the first thing I fed her when we made it back home.

She seemed to like it, but seems to get tired of it after about 15 bites.   So yes we did have something a little more healthy to go along with the frozen yogurt.

In my spare time this afternoon, I finished up a small project for myself.  I had wanted to make this fabric clutch so I could keep coupons and gift cards organized.

I also think it will make a great little organizer to throw in the diaper bag.  Something to store my drivers license, a credit card, etc.

S#*%

Sorry for the explicit language, but I messed up big time.

See my husband saw this picture on the blog and called to ask me "Did you stain the wrong side of the stair tread, aren't the returns supposed to be on the right hand side?"

Oh S#*%

Yes I did stain the wrong side of the tread, and yes their are lines on the back side (now front side) of the tread that are going to cause big problems.  So I tried my best to fix it.  I have another coat of stain to go on it, but with the first coat I have two treads that I can visible see aren't looking the greatest.  Let's just hope it looks better after the second coat.  Otherwise I just have a very expensive and stupid mistake on my hands, and no one else to blame but myself.

A gift

Last week Bella and I went to visit the home of Joshua, who is a 10 year old boy who like Bella can not walk.  We went to see the systems his family has in place, and learn what to expect if in a few years Bella still requires equipment to support her.  They had a lift system, that was installed in the ceiling and enabled the family members to lift their 80 pound son from the ground where he enjoys rolling around into his wheelchair.  It was quite an extensive system and interesting to see.  They also had just added a ramp to the back of their deck.  I forget how very long ADA ramps need to be.  We had one measured for our front door and it needs to be 24 feet long.  We haven't decided exactly how we are going to tackle that and still make it look good.

The family was gracious enough to give us an old activity chair that their son no longer fit into.  Which is what Bella is pictured in above.  I am so thankful they gave us this chair.  We are currently using it as a high chair in the kitchen.  This allows me to leave her kid kart downstairs or even in the car.  No more lugging that very heavy piece of equipment with all it's parts up and down the stairs 2 times a day.

Although lately Bella has been not wanting to hold her head up as much.  I don't know if she's tired or it's the new chair.  I really hope it's not the new chair.

Bella

Pick

Your

Head

Up!