Houston, We Have Lift-off.

It's official. Bethany is now part of the bipedal population. She took her first real steps last night. Well, they weren't really her first, but they were the first ones I've caught on film!!

I've uploaded 7 short videos of her walking onto photobucket, and I'd upload one onto blogger itself, but it takes forever. So I'll just plop one of the photobucket links up for now. You can see the other videos here.

More tumors on Addie

Well this evening while holding Addie's hand I found another "knot" on her hand. It's on her right hand, at the outer base of her pinky finger. This brings her total, that I've found so far, to 3. I'm pretty upset about finding another one on her body, especially on her hand. I was really hoping they wouldn't grow on her hands, although I had no reason to believe they wouldn't if you take me for the example.

We have an appointment at Children's Mercy in KC in October to have them examined by the specialist. I don't know at this time if they will want to remove any of them or if they will just let them continue on as they are, but I'm worried and sad anywho. The thought of putting her in surgery or denying her the use of her hand, even if only for a small amount of time makes me very sad.

For those of you who don't know, Addie and I have a medical condition called Multiple Hereditary Osteochondromatosis (or MHE)

I'll keep you posted on any more that I find or what the doctor says once October rolls around.

Learning to Poop

Who would've thunk that you actually have to teach some kids to get over the fear of pooping in the toilet? But apparently you do.

Addie has been potty training pretty successfully for the past 6-7 days now. She is not having too many accidents now and when she does it's almost always because I forget to remind her when she's watching a movie. The first few days went pretty well (from my view point at least, Erik may have a totally different perspective) and she is now actually telling me she needs to go sometimes, which is great. But for those first few days she didn't know how to poop on the toilet it seems. I almost thought we'd have to buy more diapers just to get her to go, but she finally did it and was awarded with some big high fives and lots of praise.

I know you guys are all very stoked to read about my kid's bowel movements, but hey this is big news in the ol' Merryman household. We're really happy that she's finally getting out of diapers.

Things Are Changing

Erik got a new job working nights to help out with money until the railroad can hire him back full-time. We're both very happy about the extra income as it is getting pretty tight around here, but I'm so apprehensive about the changes. I'm worried how the girls will hold up to the changes in schedules and if daddy will be ok during the daytimes after having worked all night. But we've got to do what we've got to do.

Bethany is already feeling the changes around here. For the most part, Erik has been the head honcho when it comes to Bethy raising over the past few months because he just spends so much more time with her and knows her routines better. But now that I'll be dealing with her more in the evenings, her bedtime routine is getting revamped. No more of this rocking to sleep, and no more of this still being swaddled. I'm sure it will happen now and again, but tonight she was put to bed awake. I checked on her a few times, laid her back down when she was standing and she fussed herself to sleep. I hope we can do it that easily every night.

Learning to Walk - Addie Style

So Bethany is learning to walk the best way possible.. by having her bestest, biggest sister help her along. This is how the two of them like to spend the time together. Talk about finding something fun for them both.

30 Foot Hole

Well I now have a 30 foot hole in front of my house. Well I've had one for a while now, but I'm just now revealing my little secret to the rest of the world... or all five followers I have, whichever.

This is how it all started.. with the removal of that oh so hated/loved pine tree in front of our house. I loved the shade, hated the needles. Man did our front yard smell sooo nice that day.

And this is how it is today.. (by the way please note my awesome Captain Obvious moment in the video.. brilliant I am)

15 lbs

I had both the girls checked out today and Bethany weighed in at a whopping 15lbs 01oz! Hurray finally some weight gain. That puts her at the 2.5 percentile.. much better than below the 0% mark that she was before. Measured at 26.5" tall still.

Addie on the other hand weighed in at 29 lbs.. which is 2 lbs more than usual and 38" tall. She's grown 2 inches and 2 lbs. She is 96th% for height and 64th% for weight.

It seems that Addie has so far taken all of the giant genes that get passed down from my side of the family. We'll see what happens in the future though.

Dancing with Addie

Addie was really hamming it up dancing around the living room this morning. Unfortunately once we got the camera out she decided to tone it down... still fun to watch, but not nearly as crazy as the first go 'round!

Window Crayons

Erik had the brilliant idea to buy some window crayons today while at the store. They are a huge hit in the Merryman household. Addie has been "painting" all day on our sliding glass doors and then cleaning them off. I'm not sure which part she likes the most.. the drawing or the cleaning (mommy's little helper she is).

Bathtime Bethy

So this evening's bath was a bit funny. I put both of the girls in the tub like I usually do nowadays and right away Bethany starts going happy crazy. She really enjoys the bath a lot lately, but unfortunately for me that means a lot of trying to keep her from bashing her head on the tub. She wants to sit, now stand, now sit again, now crawl, now stand.. you get the picture.

Well tonight she was more energetic than normal. She pretty much refused to stay on her butt and only wanted to try to stand or be in the crawling position. This is the kicker though, while in the crawling position she kept crawling, and crawling, and crawling.. except she wasn't moving forward at all. It's like she figured out that her knees could slip and slide on the bottom of the tub and she could "run in place". It was hilarious. Every once in a while I'd pick her up and try to sit her on her butt again and when I did her heart was just racing. She was getting quite the workout it seems! Goofy little kid, lol.

After bathtime, Erik and I decided to go ahead and make the switch by putting Bethy's bed into Addie's room finally. Bethany has been sleeping in the guest bedroom for some time now, but with our a/c being on the fritz we decided to put them together so we could cool off just the two bedrooms with a window unit. Luckily we have some really great friends up here in Boone that were willing to loan us a window unit that they weren't using at the moment. Ahhh.. nothing like being poor.

Addie is very excited to have Beth in her room, although she doesn't quite understand that she has to be quiet when Beth's in there sleeping. She keeps telling me how much she's going to "talk nicely", but she's not very convincing when she's talking rather loudly while telling me.

So here's to hoping that tonight goes well for us all... i.e. Bethany doesn't wake up screaming 100 times keeping us all awake.

My God, it's Hot and Muggy

So I just need to vent a minute about how crappy life can be sometimes.

Our A/C has completely kaputted and we have no money to even have someone come take a look at it. Never mind the fact that I'm scared to have them look at our whole HVAC system as I'm afraid the house would be condemned or something because it's so darned shoddy and about 200 years old.

I know, I know.. A/C is NOT something that we have to have to survive, but when you're used to it, it sucks to all of a sudden go without. Especially when we didn't aclimate to the heat this year at all due to Erik's terrible allergies. The A/C has been on since April because of himm so our bodies are just not adjusted correctly.

So let's just add yet another thing to our ever-expanding list of things that need to be fixed or replaced or added in our household:
A/C
Heater
Windows
Garage roof
Fence
Wiring
Leaking washer
Leaking bathtub
Insufficient insulation
Driveway
Weedpatch.. I mean lawn
Microwave
Dishwasher
Brakes for one car
and many, many other things that don't even "need" to be fixed anytime soon, but are definately on the list of wants and wishes.

Man.. talk about being a negative nelly.. I just dampened the mood a lot.

Back to the Grind

Well I finally made it back to the gym today. It's pretty nice having a friend in town who is asking if I'll make it to the gym each day. I don't want to let her down, (not that she depends on my being there), and it's a great way to fool myself into going... you're going because she's there, right? I've been going, off and on, for the past 7 months. I know that if I put a little more effort into it and actually went more regularly I'd probably be seeing some really good results by now. But alas, I'm a lazy girl. It also doesn't help that I can't seem to change my eating habits whatsoever. But hey! I am starting to get quite a gun show going on in my biceps!! Woohoo!

Addie absolutely loves going to the Y nowadays.. or the toy room as she calls it. We'll go in and get her all situated with some markers and paper and then Erik and I will take off. She doesn't even bat an eye at us leaving. Bethany also seems to flourish while there. She gets to play with a lot of kids around and the women who watch them really adore Bethany.. her super cuteness probably helps! And of course she's always a dream child while there. But when we get home it's another story. She's usually tired, hungry, and needy by the time we make it home, which is always such a treat. I swear no one believes us when we tell them what a dragon she can be sometimes. She has the best way of only being the best little baby when others are around.

Outdoor pool

Today I took the girls to the city pool. It's an outdoor pool with 3 separate sections, 2 of them being kiddie pools. It was pretty fun, but I forgot to put the sunscreen in the bag when we left so I was a little obsessed with keeping Bethy in my shadow the whole time we were there. It was late afternoon, early evening, but still. I'd be sooo upset if she had gotten even a small sunburn.

Addie really enjoyed herself and has been commenting on the "big pool" and the "little pool" since we left. She was able to stand in the "big pool" and the water would come up to her chin. Bethany was able to stand in the "little pool" and hold the side all by herself. Although Bethany had a fun time too, I think next time I will just take Adalia so she and I can enjoy our time a little more. That, or make Erik go with us!

Sorry no pictures of this adventure. I just had my hands full with two kiddos the whole time.

4th of July Extravaganza....

So... in case you haven't noticed before, I'm not a big fan of the state of Iowa. There are many, many reasons why I have this negative attitude about this state, but I'll not bore you today with my rantings and ravings. I'll just tell you about the one that effects us most today.

Iowa is one of those states that has a ban on firework sales. You know what you can buy here to celebrate the 4th? Snap-pops, sparklers, and snakes. Let me repeat... snap-pops, sparklers, and snakes.

I'm not sure what kind of celebrations many of you have on the 4th, but where I'm from it includes lots of family, lots of food, and LOTS of booms and pretties. You really get a lot of booms and pretties from snap-pops, sparklers, and snakes.

Pair this lack of excitement with the fact that the only place that puts on a fireworks display near us is the Boone racetrack, which you have to pay $25 a person to get into, it's a pretty lame place to be for the 4th. The display at the track is also very lame in itself. They don't shoot them very high, probably so that people who aren't in the track (i.e. didn't pay money) can't get a *good* show, and also because the show itself is not very well choreographed.

So I thought I'd take the time to show you a bit of how we celebrated America's Independence here at our house, in the lame state of Iowa.

Last Day in KC

Happy Birthday Dad!! Love you lots!!

This afternoon we finally headed out of town for the trip back home to Iowa. It was a really nice four days, and as much as I dread having to get back to work, I'm glad to be at home with both girls and Erik.

Prior to heading out of town, we stopped over at my grandma's house so she could spend a little time with Beth before we left. She doesn't get to see her nearly as much as she sees Adalia, and I'd like for her to get to know her too.

Some of my family showed up at grandma's to hang out with us and see the girls before we left. Addie got to play in the water, run in the yard, and take daddy up the hill to see the dear food. (Coming down the hill was quite the adventure for both Erik and Addie, as I hear they toppled over and rolled most of the way down. Too bad I missed it!) My cousin's little boy, Austin, had a bubble blower there at grandma's that Addie really loved.






Bethy also enjoyed the bubbles too:

Liberty Memorial

Today Erik and I went over to his dad's house to meet them for lunch. We left the girls at home with my mom because lunch with Tom and Mary, his grandma, usually takes 3-4 hours at least and I was not going to have them breakdown while at Avenues, a swanky bistro in Brookside.


The restaraunt didn't open until noon, so they offered to take us to the Liberty Memorial to kill time. Nothing like visiting a World War I museum with the inlaws!! Erik and I have been there before, but not since the new renovations.

This is from the wiki page for Liberty Memorial.

The weather was perfect yet again today and walking up to the memorial we felt what it would be like for ancient romans or egyptians walking up to one of their giantic structures... but theirs were even bigger. We all spent a while inside the museum before going up into the memorial itself. Once at the top, it was a spectacular feeling. The wind was strong, the sun was hot, not a cloud in the sky. If I closed my eyes I could just imagine myself on in the mountains on a beautiful day again. I think I could've stayed up there all day long.

This is from the wiki page for Liberty Memorial.

Erik and I talked about how we'd like to go back to the museum one day, just the two of us. As museums go, it was probably one of the better ones I've ever been to, not counting the likes of the Vatican and such! We'd like to spend a few hours there reading everything, learning what we can, and just going at our own pace.

On our way to the restaraunt Erik and I witnessed a man fall into the street and start to have seizures. Erik pulled the car over while I was dialing 911 and hopped out of the car to see if he was ok. The woman he was walking with didn't even know he had fallen, and she had kept going!! He seized for a few minutes as a crowd gathered around. Two women, one in nurses attire, stopped to "help", although they did nothing except hold an umbrella over his head. Really? You're a freaking nurse for crap's sake, and I'm the one down here doing all the checking, talking to the dispatcher, and telling him it will be ok. Erik thinks they were afraid of liability.... What is this world coming to? You can't help out your fellow man for fear of liability? Emergency services arrived and we left once he was in their capable hands.

Lunch at Avenues was great, as always. The food there is imepecable and the wine is awesome. Tom knows the staff there very well and they take very good care of him when he's there. Erik had the Kobe Burger... one of his life long dreams is to eat some Kobe beef. It may not have been a steak, but it probably the closest he'll get to one for a while.

As I predicted, lunch took several hours and I was very glad I decided not to bring the girls with us. I had to scramble around that afternoon asking my boss for tomorrow off too so we didn't have to hit the road after such a long lunch. Luckily he was able to pull through for me and we got to rest and relax one more night in KC before heading out of town.