Well, it’s been a year since I updated this blog so here’s
the summary of 2012.
Through May I had
actually recorded events as they took place.
After May I had to just go by what I could remember.
Hopefully 2013 will be full of more
up-to-date blog updates though I wouldn’t count on it. ;)
Special Note: For
anyone who has decided to read this horrendously long blog post (or as Charles
calls it, a “blovel”), please excuse any grammatical errors, spelling errors,
etc. When I finished typing about the
events of the year, the text was 18 pages long, single spaced, in size 11
font. Therefore I have decided to forgo
any form of proofreading so please don’t hold it against me.
New Years 2012
Our year began and ended on the beach, which I think is how
it should be for a family that lives on an island. The first day of 2012 was a sunny, cool,
breezy day without a cloud in the sky.
Charles and I put Payton in the little red wagon that my parents gave
her for her 1st birthday and headed to the beach. Payton was still learning to walk at this
point and was somewhat unsteady on her feet.
So at the beach she preferred to push the wagon through the packed
sand. Then I took pictures of Charles
tossing her into the air which put a huge smile on Payton’s face.
The following day we took our first trip to the Houston
Zoo. I’m not sure how much she enjoyed
looking at the animals but she definitely loved pushing her stroller and
finding light poles and other various metal poles that she banged on to see what
kind of sounds they made (an older girl at the park taught her how to do
this). The highlight of the zoo trip was
when something spooked the elephants and they all took off running and
trumpeting, kicking up large amounts of dust in the process. It was pretty intense.
Charles started a new job after the New Year holiday. He switched companies from a very large company,
Flow Serve, to a very small company, Pump Energy. His former boss from Flow Serve switched to Pump
Energy a few years ago and had been trying to get him to join them ever
since. Charles loves his new job. I can imagine having a boss who is also your
friend would be a positive thing. So now
he’s able to play basketball, drive remote control cars, and throw things in
the office once again (something HR had put an end to at Flow Serve before he
left).
In January Payton and I started attending story time at our
local library (Rosenberg Library) and we both loved it. When we first started going, Payton wouldn’t
sit still and wanted to toddle around and look at all the other children and
parents. Then she went through a phase
where she wanted to climb up on the chairs over and over again. But by this past fall, she matured enough to where
she will sit in my lap and actually listen to the stories being read. She especially enjoys singing the songs and
trying to do the motions that go with the songs.
In February, Charles’ grandma (who we call “Grandma”)
celebrated her 90th birthday.
The family had a big celebration for her in Dallas that we
attended. It was held in the evening and
Payton was exhausted but it was still cute to see her play with her second
cousin Nate.
Also in February we attended many of the Mardi Gras parades
with Payton. She was definitely a fan of
the beads and many of the people on the floats would yell, “For the baby!” and
throw beads our direction. We enjoy
Mardi Gras because, since many of the parades come down Seawall right in front
of our house, we always have friends who live on the mainland come to visit
us. So it’s a great opportunity for us
to catch up with friends that we don’t often see.
We had such a mild winter that we were able to get outside
and do a lot. We began an evening
routine of taking a walk each night after dinner. We generally walk out to Seawall, walk a
block down Seawall and then back to our house.
While most people take their dogs for walks, our cat Jason (technically
he is our neighbor’s cat but we have pretty much adopted him) comes on walks
with us each night. Payton always waits
for him, gets concerned if he’s not keeping up with us, calls him, hugs him,
and just loves him coming on our walks with us.
It’s pretty funny since most cats don’t go for walks with their owners.
Thibodaux Visit
The first week of March we drove to Thibodaux, Louisiana to
visit Charles’ sister and their families. This is a trip we have been meaning to take
for years but until then it had been very difficult to travel with Payton. She still wasn’t sleeping real well away from
home and still breastfeeding a couple of times a day, but overall traveling
with her was getting easier. We stayed
with Charles’ sister Mary and her family and they made us feel right at
home. We took a day trip to New Orleans
to site see and met up with the majority of the members of Charles’ Louisiana
family for lunch at the Bourbon House. It was a great visit and we hope to be able
to return in the future!
Dixie
Our sad news for the year was the death of our beloved dog
Dixie. In mid-March Dixie started not
eating, drinking, or acting like herself.
We took her to the vet who discovered a large cancerous mass in her
abdomen. Our vet, Dr Knupple, put her on
a high dose of prednisone that allowed her appetite to return and she lived
several more months. In September we went
on vacation and she went downhill during that time. She died the day after we returned. It was so hard, especially because Payton had
become so close to Dixie. At first when
Payton would ask where Dixie was I just told her she was “sleeping” and I
thought Payton would soon forget about Dixie and stop asking. But she didn’t forget and so I ended up
having to explain to her that Dixie went to heaven. That she is very happy there and that one day
we will all go to heaven too and will get to see her again. It’s been 5 months since Dixie passed away
and not a week goes by that Payton doesn’t mention, “Dixie in heaven”. Our sweet Dixie is gone but certainly not
forgotten. Charles and I love to reminisce
about our time with Dixie.
Dixie came into our lives when we were in college. I remember when Drew and I went to the Humane
Society to pick out a dog and we saw a little rat terrier cowering in her cage,
shaking all over. She had the saddest
little look on her face. Drew chose her
to be his dog. We put her in his truck
and suddenly she was the happiest dog alive.
She jumped right up and sat on his center consol. And when we got her to our house, she made
herself right at home-- running around
the house, jumping up on all the furniture, sleeping in our beds, and stealing
items from our rooms and relocating them to someone else’s room. She was always full of mischief. When we’d be studying in rooms across the
house from each other, Drew would occasionally stick a note in Dixie’s collar
and send her across the house to deliver the note to me. It usually said something like, “Studying
sucks”.
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| Before kids when Dixie was our baby. |
Dixie started as Drew’s dog but I guess I have a way of
stealing pets from people (like the neighbor’s cat Jason) because Dixie and I
soon became inseparable. As a result, Dixie
became my presents from Drew for each occasion.
For my birthday he would hand Dixie to me and say, “Happy birthday,
Becks”, then Christmas would roll around and again he’d give me Dixie and say,
“Merry Christmas, Becks”. And so, Dixie
was the gift that kept on giving.
 |
| Payton and Dixie when Payton was 4 months old |
Dixie was so fast in her younger days and when she would
escape from the house she would run full speed around the neighborhood. We would stand there calling for her and
she’d just zoom right past us, as if to tease us and make us realize we weren’t
going to be able to catch her.
She was also an escape artist and could find her way out of
any crate and any fenced in yard.
Dixie died peacefully in her sleep with Charles and I by her
side. She is buried in the pet cemetery
on my parent’s land in Central Texas along with other beloved dogs that our
family has lost through the years.
 |
| The last picture we have of Dixie. With Payton 22 months old. |
Spring Break
The week of spring break my friend Angie, who I’ve known
since elementary school, came with her family for a vacation to Galveston. Angie’s daughter Chloe and Payton were both
due to be born on Oct. 22, but Payton ended up being born exactly one week
early and Chloe ended up being born exactly one week late. They were accompanied on their trip to
Galveston by her husband Phil along with his brother, sister-in-law, and
daughter who were here from Northern Ireland.
Their daughter, Juliette, was born just a few days after Chloe so she
too is Payton’s age. It was so adorable
to see the three of them interact and play on the beach. Payton loves the water but I’d been trying
to keep her out of it most of the winter because it was just too cold. But with the air temperatures warming up, I
put her in her cute pink Roxy wetsuit and let her get in. Chloe too, without even having a wetsuit to
wear, loved to play and splash in the water!
This was the beginning of many spring and summer months spent on the
beach.
St. Patrick’s Day:
For St. Patrick’s Day we spent the morning letting Payton
play on the beach and then after her nap in the afternoon we went to the
Strand. It was fun seeing everyone out
wearing green for the holiday. The big
news for the day was that Payton let me put her hair up in pig tails for the
first time. Her hair had been long
enough for a little while but every time I would try to fix it she would scream
and cry like I was torturing her. This
time she allowed it and she looked adorable!
Her hair is now to the point where it’s so long that it is in her eyes
constantly if I don’t put it in a ponytail or at least pull it back with a
clip. Unfortunately she still hates
having her hair messed with. Nana, her
grandmother, is the only person who she allows to fix her hair without throwing
a fit. The following day we went to St.
Patrick’s Church, a really old 1900 survivor church, for their St. Patrick’s
Day festival where we ate some delicious homemade enchiladas. Yes, only in Texas do they serve enchiladas
at an Irish festival! One of the many
reasons we love Texas!
My Birthday:
The Monday following St. Patrick’s Day was my 31st
birthday. Charles took the day off to
spend it with Payton and I. We started
the day by having breakfast at IHOP.
Then while Payton took her nap, I went to the beach to sit and read my
Kindell. It was really windy and I got a
bit sand blasted but I still enjoyed it.
For dinner we went to Papa’s Pizza which I never get to have anymore
because Payton doesn’t like pizza. We
hoped she would change her mind and eat, but nope, she refused. What kind of kid doesn’t like pizza?! So that was my birthday… it was a nice, quiet
day.
Nana Visit:
The last week of March, Charles’ mom came to visit and also
to do some work on her house. It was fun
seeing her in the evenings and Payton especially always loves to spend time
with her “Nana”. That weekend we took Payton
to an Easter egg hunt at the 1st Presbyterian
Church. It was her first ever Easter egg
hunt and she did a great job. They let
the 0-3 year olds collect their eggs before the big kids and she collected an
entire basket full of them!
Easter Weekend:
For Easter weekend we went to my parent’s
house. Erin and Hank also flew in from
Lubbock where they recently moved.
Unfortunately with Albert’s new job he couldn’t join everyone. Kyle was also there for a little while but
then had to leave to attend a Bachelor party in Shreveport. Before Kyle left we announced our news of our
expectant baby to everyone. Of course
they were all very excited about our news.
The remainder of the weekend Hank and Payton had fun playing with each
other. They were both especially
interested in the swing that my dad has hanging from a tree in the backyard and
also with a play kitchen set that my mom has in the living room. We went to my parent’s ranch (which is right
by their house) and it was completely covered in bluebonnets so we took lots of
pictures of Hank and Payton in the bluebonnets.
Payton also fed apples to my parent’s miniature donkeys and ate a few
pieces herself. She is really an animal
lover like I am. On Easter Sunday we had
an Easter egg hunt in my parent’s backyard and both babies did a good job hunting
for eggs.
2nd Illness Ever:
The Wednesday after Easter when I got Payton
up in the morning she felt really warm.
I took her temperature under the arm but it didn’t register a fever so I
thought she must have just gotten warm in her sleep. That morning Payton had an appointment with
her ENT doctor to check on her tubes.
They took her temperature and then informed me that she was running a
low fever. The tube in her left ear
looked good but they couldn’t see the tube in her right ear because of some wax
in her “extremely small ear canal”. They
said if the wax is still there at her next checkup in 6 months they will dig it
out to check on the tube. Payton
continued to have a fever around 101 throughout the afternoon but seemed to
have no other symptoms. The following
day she developed a pretty bad cough, nasal congestion, and acted like she had
a sore throat. That Friday Payton was
even worse and I was starting to come down with it too. Because there were times her cough got really
bad, I took her to the doctor who told me it was an upper respiratory infection
and to treat it with Muscinex. By Saturday
Payton was starting to feel better and I
was getting worse. I was so miserable
feeling sick from the cold and sick from being pregnant at the same time. Thankfully I too started to feel better after
a couple of days of being sick. That’s
the first illness I’ve had in a very long time and only the second time Payton
has ever been sick. We are usually very
healthy which is such a blessing!
18 Month Appointment:
The Tuesday following our illness, April 17,
2012, Payton had her 18 month doctor’s appointment. She is 34” tall which is taller than 97% of
girls her age and 25 lbs, 3 oz which is heavier than 67% of girls her age. So percentage-wise that makes her very tall
and on the slim side. At the appointment
both the doctor and nurse looked at her chart and made comments like, “Wow, she
only needs 1 shot today and then she’s done until age 4? Not sure how that happened but yaay!” I wanted to say, “No not yaay you idiots, I
didn’t want my child to be given all her shots early and all at the same
time!” But what’s done is done and
thankfully she’s handled everything fine.
Galveston County Fair & Rodeo:
In late April, Charles and I took Payton to
the Galveston County Fair and Rodeo. We
were met there by our friends Christina and Brian. Payton absolutely loved the petting zoo. She even fell chest first into manure and
although that kind of bothered me, she didn’t care one bit!
Visit from Family:
The last week of April we had a large family
gathering here in Galveston. Charles’
mom drove in from Dallas, his sister Debbie flew in from North Carolina, and
his sisters Judith and Mary along with Mary’s husband Randy and kids Evan,
Evan, and Eric drove in from Louisiana. Payton
loved seeing and entertaining everyone.
She loved having Debbie follow her up and down the stairs at Bea’s beach
house, interacting with Evan and Evan, seeing her aunts and uncle, and she
always loves spending time with her “Nana”.
Beaches, Ashlyn Would Go, and Moody Gardens:
Once the weather started getting pretty hot, we
spent a lot of time in and around the water.
We went for walks to Seawall most every evening and during the day I
often put Payton in her red wagon and pulled her to the beach. At the beach she liked to wade in the water,
scoop sand with her shovel, and collect shells in her bucket. She also had a baby pool in the front yard
that she would swim in pretty often.
We took Payton to what I think was her third
surf contest to attend—the Ohana Surf & Skate Longboard contest benefiting
the Ashlyn Would Go Foundation. We
always have so much fun attending the Ashlyn events. The Texas surfing community is just awesome
and it’s always good to see friends we haven’t seen in a while. Maybe next summer we can even start pushing
Payton into waves on a board.
We got season passes to Moody Gardens which
includes the Moody Gardens water park “Palm Beach”. Payton loved going to Palm Beach. During the first half of the summer the only
thing she was really interested in was riding down the water slides in Charles’
lap. They would go down the slides over
and over. Being pregnant I couldn’t go
down the slides so it was nice to be able to just sit back and relax while
Payton wore Charles out. During the
second half of the summer the only thing she wanted to do was play on these
stationary jet ski toys that have water guns on the front that you can shoot.
With my season pass to Moody Gardens that
also gives us the option of going to any of the attractions at Moody
Gardens. Payton favorite exhibit used to
be the aquarium pyramid. She absolutely
loved seeing all the fish and especially the penguins. It’s a large open aquarium so it was okay for
me to follow her as she ran around looking at all the fish. She liked to go from one exhibit to another
saying, “More fish, more fish, more fish!” and people would get a kick out of
her enthusiasm. Now she often prefers
the rain forest pyramid where she can find free roaming monkeys, birds, and can
see the caged snakes and bats.
Weaning:
At about 18 ½ months I nursed Payton for the
last time. It was pretty bitter
sweet. My milk had dried up from being
pregnant several weeks prior to weaning her but I had let her continue nursing
before nap time and bed time out of habit.
I first dropped the before nap time nursing and it was so easy I was
really surprised. She acted like I had
never nursed her at that time. Then a
week later I dropped the before bedtime nursing and the same thing, she had no
problem with it. I’m so glad she handled
it so well because otherwise it would have been really hard on me. I think if I hadn’t gotten pregnant I would
have continued to nurse her until the age of 2 but that’s not how things
happened. I think the time was just
right for both of us and for that I’m very thankful. She is such a good baby and I’m thankful I
could breastfeed her for over 18 months.
Yaga’s Cookoff and La Kings:
In May we attended the annual Yaga’s cook off
on Pier 21 which benefits a bunch of different children’s charity
organizations. It’s really an awesome
event that we’re always excited to attend.
Payton wouldn’t touch the BBQ (this can’t be our child!) but loved the
petting zoo. We let her play at the
petting zoo for quite a while but then it was getting close to her naptime and
she still hadn’t eaten lunch so we had to go.
When I tried to get her to leave she pulled away from me so I picked her
up and she started yelling, “No, no, no!!!” because she wanted to stay with the
animals.
The following day we didn’t have anything
going on so we went to La King’s old fashion ice cream/ candy shop on the
Strand. Payton has been several times
but I guess we never showed her the mechanical horse that little kids can pay
.50 to ride. She kept petting the horse,
kissing the horse, smiling, and squealing with joy. We thought she would enjoy riding it so we
put in the quarters, put her on it, and immediately her joy turned to fear as
she started screaming, “Down, down, down!”
After that she wanted nothing to do with the horse….
June:
During the summer months, we attended the
weekly Summer Reading program events at Rosenberg Library. We also got together for several play dates
held by our friends in League City. I’m
glad to have kept in touch with my former co-worker Christel who has a
daughter, Abigail, that is the same age as Payton and through her I’ve met and
become friends with several other ladies who also have littles ones Payton’s
age. We attended play dates at their
homes, at the Kemah Boardwalk, and they were able to come here too for a couple
of beach play dates and trips to Moody Gardens.
At first Abby and Skyleigh were a little unsure about the waves, sand,
and water but Payton soon showed them how much fun it was. Payton’s other little friend, Lee, is
fearless and immediately loved the surf!
I love that Payton has grown up in the surf and so she just jumps right
in and has a blast.
During the summer
and fall months Payton and I also spent a lot of time at local parks. She’d get so excited when we would arrive
yelling, “Park play! I’m excited!”
Charles and I also took Payton to the Kemah
Boardwalk several times where she had fun riding the carousel, the little train
that goes around the boardwalk, and playing in the fountain that shoots up out
of the ground.
In June Payton and I took a trip to my
parent’s house where my sister-in-law Erin and nephew Hank were able to join
us. We stayed a week while, back home,
the outside of our house got repainted (a new shade of yellow) and Charles
installed a new bathtub in our bathroom and repainted our bathroom (still
green). As always it was a blast seeing
Payton and Hank play together. My
parents have these little cars that they sit on and use their feet to push that
they played on a lot. Hank even learned
to push Payton on her car and she loved it!
Payton also had fun feeding carrots to my parent’s miniature
donkeys. We love visiting my parents because
there is always lots to do and Payton loves spending time with them.
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| Our house after being painted. |
Also in June we attended a surf contest where
I was able to meet one of my favorite pro surfers, Rob Machado and couldn’t
pass up the chance to have my picture taken with him.
Around this time we announced to everyone
that we were expecting our second baby.
At 17 weeks my doctor did an ultrasound where she said she was almost
positive we were having a boy. 3 weeks
later we had our “official ultrasound” with the ultrasound department at UTMB
where she told us she was certain we were having a girl. Feeling uncertain with the conflicting
results I scheduled a 3D ultrasound at a privately run ultrasound place (where
we had also gone with Payton) and she told me that our baby was 100% a
girl. So, we excitedly started to
prepare for the arrival of our second little girl. Payton was so cute always pointing to my
belly saying, “Baby sister” and giving kisses to her baby sister through my
belly.
Despite the heat and my being pregnant, we kept
very busy last summer and had a lot of fun.
July:
We stayed in town for the 4th of
July and had my brother Kyle (who lives here now and is going to school at
UTMB) and his friend Keith over for dinner.
After dinner we attended the 4th of July parade that went
down Seawall in front of our house. It
was similar to a small Mardi Gras parade with floats and bead throwing. After the parade we went down to the beach
and sat on the jetty to wait for the fireworks to begin. Payton had fun running around on the beach
and then was quite amazed by the fireworks.
I love sitting on the jetty watching the fireworks be shot off over the
Gulf of Mexico. It is times like that
when I realize how blessed we are to live here.
In early July we traveled to Dallas to attend
Charles’ aunt and uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary party. Charles’ sister Debbie was able to make it
from Charlotte, NC, and Payton got to spend a little time with her second
cousin Nate as well as with her Nana and other family members.
Later in July my parents, Erin, and Hank were
able to come visit us in Galveston for a weekend. We spent some time on the beach, on the
Strand, and went out to eat several times.
Hank wasn’t so sure about going in the water at the beach but he and
Payton enjoyed collecting shells and digging in the sand. This was the beginning of Payton’s summer
long hobby of digging holes in the sand to serve as her own personal little
swimming pool.
September
Labor Day weekend, Charles and my anniversary
weekend, we took our first true family vacation since Payton has been
alive. We drove to Destin, Florida. It took us about 12 hours or so to drive
there and Payton didn’t close her eyes the entire drive but she did great
anyway. And once we got there she
surprised us by sleeping well in her Pack N Play. We were a little concerned she would be too
long for it now but she still just barely fit.
She seemed to finally be at the age where we could say, “You’re sleeping
here and Mama and Dada will be in this bed right next to you” so she understood
and wasn’t afraid to sleep in a room that wasn’t her own. The condo, Holiday Surf & Racquet Club,
that we stayed at was awesome. The Gulf
was just feet from the condo and we had a great view from our Condo’s
balcony. The pool was nothing special
but Payton actually preferred swimming in the pool as opposed to the
beach. I think she’s just so used to the
beach and so the pool was something new and fun. Plus it had stairs into the water that she
could walk up and down. The last day we
were there it was rainy and cool, but even though she was shaking from the
cold, she didn’t want to leave the pool and when we did she threw a fit. Despite all that we did and saw, when we got
home anytime we would bring up our “Florida vacation” the main thing Payton
wanted to talk about were all the bridges we crossed driving to Florida and
back. The things that are impressive to
a 2 year old…..! We had a wonderful
vacation.
Later in September, Charles’ sister Debbie
was able to come visit for a couple days.
Payton had a blast with her Aunt Debbie and especially enjoyed engaging
Debbie in one of her favorite hobbies, building towers with Legos. Even now, many months later, building with
Legos is still one of Payton’s favorite things to do on a daily basis. Now we build more than towers, we built boats,
race cars, bridges, tunnels, etc.
Also in September Aggie football season
started and we had fun meeting up with my parents and my brother Kyle for each
home game at Kyle Field. We would
generally meet at a restaurant first and then head to the games after
eating. This football season was much
easier and more fun with Payton. She can
now eat regular food at the games so I didn’t have to worry about bringing
breast milk and baby food for her like last season. She also was able to handle missing naps a
lot better and she enjoyed watching the Aggie band and playing with Lala during
the games. Plus the Aggies had an
amazing football season with Johnny “Football” Manziel as quarterback. It was the Aggies first year in the SEC and
they only lost 2 conference games early in the season. More about Aggie football later in the blog!
October
October was a busy month for us. Between Aggie football games, fall festivals,
and all of Payton’s birthday celebrations, we were always on the go. I was 8 months pregnant but actually feeling
better than I had been feeling the previous month when I’d been experiencing some
pretty intense contractions.
National Night Out was held the first Tuesday
in October. Our neighborhood always has
a block party in the street just down the street from our house. Charles was sick this year but Payton and I
enjoyed attending and catching up with some old friends.
The following night the Ball High homecoming parade went
down the street a block from our house.
It’s nice to live so close to everything. Payton enjoyed watching the parade. She caught a lollypop during the parade and
we decided to let her eat it. It wouldn’t
fit in her mouth and our advice to her was, “Just lick it”. So she stuck her tongue way out of her mouth
to lick the lollypop. Charles and I just
laughed and laughed each time she tried to lick her lollypop. She was like a little lizard.
Payton’s Birthday
The weekend before Payton’s birthday we went to my parent’s
house to celebrate both her birthday and her cousin Hank’s birthday (both
turned 2 about 2 weeks apart). Albert,
Erin, and Hank came from Lubbock and Charles’ mom (Payton’s “Nana”), came from
Dallas so we had a big group of family members there to celebrate. Since both Payton and Hank are really into
Sesame Street (Elmo in particular), Erin brought Sesame Street decorations for
the party. Payton wore her Halloween
costume for this year which is Abby Cadabby (the fairy from Sesame Street) and
we tried to get Hank to wear his Elmo costume but he let us know that he wasn’t
interested. Payton and Hank got lots of
new toys for their birthdays which they loved playing with. Some of Payton’s favorites were the Lego
Duplo blocks from Lala and Papa (for the past year building with blocks has
been one of her favorite things to do), a wooden rocking horse from Nana, a
cupcake kitchen from Uncle Albert & Aunt Erin, a Dora goes potty doll from
Grandma, and a Dora memory game from Aunt Debbie. As you can see, Dora is a favorite of
Payton’s right now. From us she got a
Cozy Coupe car, a Dora DVD, and Dora bedding for her new “big girl bed”.
We got back into town Sunday evening and Monday was Payton’s
actual birthday. On her birthday, I
hosted a morning play date at League Park in League City and invited some of
Payton’s little friends. I decorated
with Dora themed decorations. The kids
played at the park and we ate fruit, crackers, and cupcakes as a snack. I know Payton had a lot of fun at the park so
it was a good birthday for her. In the
evening she opened some more presents and then watched her new Dora DVD.
The day after Payton’s birthday she had her 2 year doctor’s
appointment. She was 36” tall (taller than 95% of girls her age) and weighs 28
pounds (70th%). She had to get a shot and have blood drawn from her finger and
she didn’t even cry! The nurse said she was the easiest 2 year old she had ever
dealt with. Clearly Payton doesn’t take after me at all! The blood was drawn to test Payton for lead
since when we had our house repainted they had to remove a lot of lead paint
(that ended up in the grass where she plays) and because she’s been chewing on
Mardi Gras beads (that shouldn’t have lead but might) since she was 3 months
old. Thankfully the test came back
negative for lead.
The weekend after Payton’s birthday, we hosted a small
birthday tailgate party at A&M before the A&M/LSU football game. Charles’ sister Debbie, who lives in North
Carolina, had a work trip scheduled in Dallas that week so she was able to make
it work where she and Charles’ mom could also attend the tailgate party and the
game with us. My parents, my brother
Kyle, and friends Lindy, Teresa, Margaret, Jay, Allison, and the Andersons were
all able to attend (it’s possible that I forgot someone- if so I’m sorry it’s been a long time…..) For the 2nd year in a row,
Payton’s birthday weekend game has been a morning game so again it was a
breakfast tailgate party. The hit of the
party were the mimosas.
The next day we took Payton to the railroad museum in
Galveston. It was really neat because
they have a bunch of different old trains that you can walk around on and walk
into. Payton had a blast. It definitely reminded me of my grandfather,
Deck, who loved old trains. He was an
artists and painted many detailed oil paintings of old trains. He would have loved this museum. We will definitely need to go back sometime
soon.
Pumpkin Patch
A week after Payton’s birthday we went to the Moody
Methodist pumpkin patch to let Payton pick out a pumpkin. Payton had been talking about pumpkins all
month so this was a big deal to her.
Charles took some cute pictures of her in the pumpkin patch. I had wanted to also attend the Aldersgate Methodist
pumpkin patch in Santa Fe, but it just never worked out for us to drive up that
directions. Usually we go on the weekend
that they have their Country Fest event but this year is was on an Aggie
football game Saturday so we couldn’t make it.
Final Ultrasound
On October 26, 2012, we had our final ultrasound at 34 weeks
to check on our baby’s kidneys. They
were still measuring enlarged though closer to the normal range. We also found out that our baby already
weighed 5 lb 15 oz. I thought this might
affect when my doctor would schedule my c-section since my uterus was also
measuring ahead of schedule but when I went in for my next doctor’s appointment
she said she would still plan on the c-section for the week of my due date or
she’d just perform it if I went into labor prior to that date. I pretty much knew I wasn’t going to make it
to the c-section date so I mentally prepared myself to go into labor and have
the baby when God wanted her to arrive.
Big Girl Bed
The next day we converted my nephew Hank’s crib, that my
brother/sister-in-law had lent us, into a toddler bed for Payton and moved her
crib into our bedroom. We had given
Payton Dora the Explorer bedding for her birthday and she was extremely excited
about her new “big girl bed”. We made it
clear to her that the rules of the big girl bed were that she needed to stay in
her bed all night. I was pretty nervous
about this change since she had been sleeping so well in her crib. But with a new baby on the way and knowing
that I would be having a c-section and not able to lift her into and out of a
crib, this was a necessary change.
Thankfully she slept great in it from day 1 and has never gotten out of
bed on her own. If she needs something
she calls for us, just like she did in her crib.
Seawolf Park
The last weekend in October we took Payton to Seawolf Park
in Galveston to tour the USS Stewart battleship and the submarine that are
there. We had taken Payton there before
but this time she was old enough to enjoy walking around on the boat and
submarine. But her favorite thing was
the small park area that is there.
Halloween
A week before Halloween we dressed Payton up as Abby Cadabby
and attended the UTMB Halloween carnival.
It was pretty neat. The UTMB
students set up carnival games for the kids to play and then they give them
candy for playing. Payton was able to
play some of the games and seemed to enjoy it.
One of the first cold fronts of the year had just blown through and the
wind was pretty chilly. But I had put long sleeves and leggings on Payton under
her costume so I don’t think she was cold.
A couple days before Halloween, Charles carved Payton’s
pumpkin. I thought Payton might enjoy
helping him but she refused to stick her hand in the pumpkin to help pull out
the “guts”. Which is kind of funny
because Payton has never minded getting messy before. She is, in fact, the messiest little kid I
know. Even at 2 years old, she mostly
eats using her fingers and manages to get food everywhere in the process. I
still can’t give her a yogurt without her ending up sticking her entire hand in
it. But I guess pumpkin guts is where
she draws the line.
The day before Halloween we attended the Moody Methodist
Truck Or Treat event. It was a lot of
fun. A bunch of people decorate the
trunks of their cars with Halloween decorations and then the kids walk from car
to car to get candy. Payton learned to
say “Trick or Treat” and stick out her pumpkin tote for candy.
On Halloween we walked down our street to the neighborhood
block party. At the block party they
have candy to hand out to the kids. Our
street is mostly older people with only a handful of children so the kids that
are here really get a lot of attention at events like this. After that we went home to wait to see if
anyone came to our house to Trick or Treat.
Usually we have a few kids stop by….
This year, we had none. Not a
single trick or treater. It was pretty
disappointing and we ended up stuck with a bunch of extra Halloween candy.
November
Aggie Football
Like I said earlier, this Aggie football season was pretty
amazing. This was the first year for
A&M to compete in the SEC and going into the season everyone was pretty
unsure how we would do. The SEC is
considered the toughest conference right now and the Aggies hadn’t had much
success competing in the Big XII in recent years. But, this was the first year with a new
coach, Coach Kevin Sumlin, and a new red shirt freshman quarterback, Johnny
Manziel, so as we saw, anything could happen and it sure did! The Aggies went 6-2 in SEC play, with all 4
of those wins being away games. The big
win came on November 10, 2012, when A&M traveled to play #1 ranked
Alabama. It was such an intense game. The game was close the entire time although
A&M never trailed Bama. I joked that
the game was going to end up sending me into labor and Charles said, “Please
wait for the game to be over first or you might be going to the hospital on
your own.” Payton was napping for the
first half of the game so Charles and I watched it at home. At half time we drove to my brother Kyle’s
loft, located on Galveston’s downtown Strand, to join my parents who were in
town visiting along with Kyle and his friend Keith to watch the rest of the
game. It was the most thrilling thing to
be with my family and to watch A&M knock off #1 Alabama in Alabama! We were all screaming and cheering at the end
of the game. My dad opened the window
and yelled out to those walking down the Strand, “A&M just beat
Alabama! Whoop!” I posted on Facebook, “ Texas A&M knocks off #1 Alabama in
Alabama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoop!!!!!!!! Johnny Football for
Heisman!!!!!” and my newsfeed was full of similar posts. After the game we walked over to Fisherman’s
Wharf to have dinner and to celebrate.
My dad ordered a bottle of champagne for a toast to the Aggies win over
Alabama. It was really a great
night.
My mom made the comment, “I wish
Deck were alive to see this” and I agree.
My grandfather endured entirely too many bad Aggie football teams in
recent years. He would have loved to
have seen this football season. But, I
know he was watching from the best seats in the house. Maybe he even put in a word for the Aggies
with the Big Man Upstairs that helped make this season what it was. I’ll never forget how Deck’s prayers before
meals often started off with thanks to the Lord for the meal, for our family,
asking for safe travels, and then ended with, “And please Lord let us beat
Alabama! Amen.”
Johnny “Football” Manziel went on to win the
Heisman. It was such a proud moment for
all Aggies everywhere when Johnny ended his Heisman speech with:
“I believe the 12th Man is one of the greatest traditions in
all of college football. Fourteen thousand students standing not as fans, but
as members of our team. To the 12th Man, Texas A&M, Kerrville, Texas and
Aggies everywhere, this Heisman Trophy's for you. Gig 'em.”
I don’t cry very often for things like this but I will admit
to shedding a tear when Johnny won the Heisman.
I haven’t lived through as many lousy Aggie football seasons as Deck had
but I’ve lived through enough and I can honestly say I wasn’t sure I would ever
see an Aggie win the Heisman in my lifetime.
Even Payton knows who Johnny Football is. Payton isn’t a good eater but one evening she
was eating her food and then randomly made the comment, “Like Johnny Football
eats!” We laughed and laughed.
Now expectations are high for next football season. It’s going to be difficult going to the games
with a 2 ½ year old and a 10 month old, but thankfully we have my parents to
help with the girls. For us Aggie
football is a family event.
Baby Ellie
I’m going to create a separate blog entry to tell Ellie’s
entire birth story so here is the Cliff note version. A week before Thanksgiving I was having some
signs of early labor and at my doctor’s appointment I found out that I was 3 cm
dilated and having regular contractions.
I wasn’t yet full term at that point so my doctor told me to go home and
rest but that I would likely have the baby soon. My parents came for the weekend and there
were several times when my contractions would pick up and I would think, “This
is it” but then they would go away again.
On Thanksgiving Day I started the morning out with some
irregular contractions but as the morning progressed so did the intensity and
timing of my contractions. By lunchtime
I was pretty convinced that our baby was going to be born before the day was
through but I kind of figured it wouldn’t be until later in the evening. So we went ahead and put the turkey in the
oven to cook. My mom said she’d better start
driving to Galveston and I agreed. Right
after we put Payton down for her nap (at 1:00), my contractions suddenly became
unbearably painful and I started having one contraction after another. It
was obvious I needed to go to the hospital.
By the time we got to labor and delivery my contractions
were extremely painful and occurring about every 4 minutes. They asked when I had last eaten and I told
them I’d just had lunch to which anesthesiology told me they would like to wait
8 hours from the time I had eaten before doing a c-section unless the OB that
had been called disagreed. I was like,
“8 hours?!?! I can’t wait 8 hours in
this kind of pain! Can I have an
epidural?” to which they told me no, only
if I wanted to try for a VBAC could I have an epidural. Well my OB (who was out of town on a
Thanksgiving cruise) and I had already discussed this and decided that if I
were to try for a VBAC I would likely have the same results I had with
Payton--- 32 hours of labor, 3 hours of
pushing, followed by a c-section because I’m very small and just not capable of
having such large babies naturally. So,
not wanting to go through all of that again just to end up with a c-section
anyway I told them, “No, I’m having a c-section”.
I was screaming in pain and I could hear the nurses in the
hallway advocating for me. Saying, “She
is in so much pain, can’t they just get her in for a c-section?” They also wanted to give me narcotic pain
medication but because of the bad reaction I had the last time, I refused to
let them give me anything for the pain. Thankfully around 4:30 p.m., right when my mom arrived to
take Payton, they told me the OB had arrived and agreed to proceed with the
c-section.
Ellie Madelyn Falgout was born at 5:28 p.m. weighing 8 lbs,
1 oz and measuring 19 ¾ inches. As soon
as I saw her I was instantly in love.
She was so beautiful and my heart was filled with joy. It was amazing how much she looked like
Payton when she was born.
My recovery was very painful and rough. My blood pressure spiked too high and I ended
up with an infection to the incision site.
It wasn’t until a month after I had her that I finally decided that I
might just survive the c-section after all.
I am so thankful that I had my mom and mother-in-law here to help during
those first painful days home. I could
not have done it without them. They
completely took care of me, both girls, the cooking, and cleaning and were a
shoulder to cry on when I just couldn’t take the pain anymore.
Ellie did wonderfully from the beginning. She was such a good newborn. She slept most of the time but woke up
reliably every 2-3 hours around the clock to breastfeed. She didn’t cry very often although we
quickly found that she liked to be held more than her sister did when she was a
newborn. Payton was always content to
just sit somewhere (swing, car seat, bouncer, etc) and observe what was going
on. Ellie, on the other hand, likes to
be held and cuddled. She likes to sleep,
eat, and fuss if she is awake and you put her down.
Doctor’s appointments
Ellie’s first pediatrician appointment, 2 days after
discharge from the hospital, overall went well.
My mom, Payton, Ellie and I went to it.
Ellie wasn’t quite back up to her birth weight yet, weighing 7 lbs 14 oz
but they said she had grown an inch in height so they weren’t concerned. Dr. Hay heard a heart murmur but said it
would probably be gone by her 2 week appointment. I had been having high blood pressure
readings at home so I asked the nurse to check my blood pressure. It was too high so I called Dr. Haver’s
office and they told me I needed to go back to the hospital. I was monitored in the hospital for several
hours and then allowed to go home.
The next day I had a follow-up appointment with my OB. Bea, Ellie, and I went to that
appointment. Dr Haver put me on blood
pressure medicine and removed the staples from my incision. Dr Haver mentioned that my incision looked
like it might be starting to get infected and for me to let her know if it got
any worse. That next weekend it did get
worse and since it was the weekend I couldn’t go in to see her. Thankfully my dad arrived and was able to
prescribe some antibiotics. It took the
entire 10 days of antibiotics to get rid of the infection but thankfully it did
finally take care of the problem.
The first week of December , Charles stayed home from work
to help take care of the girls and I since my parents and Bea had all returned
home. Payton was being fussy on Monday
morning and Charles made the comment of, “This is going to be the longest week
of our lives!” I laughed and said,
“Actually this is a pretty normal week for me…”
Ellie had an appointment on Wednesday at UTMB hospital to
have an ultrasound done on her kidneys.
When I was pregnant with Ellie an early ultrasound showed her kidneys to
be enlarged. They scheduled me for another
ultrasound for when I would be 36 weeks along and reassured me that likely by
that time her kidneys would be of normal size.
At the 36 week ultrasound they found her kidneys to still be enlarged
but again reassured me that by birth they would likely have matured enough to
more efficiently process her urine and would likely not be enlarged. Well, the ultrasound they did on Ellie showed
her kidneys to still be enlarged. They
told me the findings would be sent to my pediatrician who would discuss it with
us.
The next day Ellie had her 2 week pediatrician
appointment. Dr Hay said he received the
ultrasound report showing Ellie’s kidneys to still be enlarged but that at this
point he wasn’t concerned about it.
That, again, once her kidneys mature more the problem is likely to
correct itself. So he scheduled Ellie
for a follow-up ultrasound to be done when she’s 6 months old.
Ellie had developed an umbilical granuloma that Dr Hay
treated and said if it continued to be oozy that we would need to return to
have it retreated. He also still heard a
heart murmur and said that because it was still present we would need to see a
pediatric cardiologist to make sure it wasn’t something serious. He did reassure me that it was likely just
the hole in the heart that everyone has at birth and that some people it just
takes more time to close up than others.
Ellie’s umbilical granuloma continued to be a problem so we
scheduled an appointment for the following week to be retreated. My mom returned to help us attend the
appointment and help out for a couple of days.
By that time I was starting to get around better on my own so after
helping with the doctor’s appointment she returned home.
December Events
The first weekend in December, when my parents were still
here, they helped us get a Christmas tree and they helped decorate our house
for Christmas. Payton was excited to
help and loved the Christmas tree.
The second weekend in December Charles took Payton to attend
the Rosenberg Library’s Breakfast with Santa event. Payton had told us the day before that she
was, “Scared of Santa” and that proved to be true at the event. She wouldn’t even walk to the side of the
room that Santa was on. Santa gave her a
Dora the Explorer book so she was happy about that and she also got to color a
paper plate that the library then sent to a company that made it into an actual
plastic plate with her art work on it.
That evening it was very warm so I decided we should take
advantage of the warmer temperatures and we should all take a walk through the
Moody Garden’s Festival of Lights. Payton
had already been twice —once with my parents and once with Bea and
Charles. She loved the lights and Ellie
slept peacefully in her car seat inside of the stroller. I guess I wasn’t quite ready to walk that
much because about ¼ of the way into the trail of lights I was in so much pain. I ended up making it about halfway through
the trail of lights to a point where we could cut through and go back to the
parking lot.
The next weekend, December 15, we went to the Strand in the
afternoon hoping to get a picture with Santa.
We knew Payton was scared of him but figured he could hold Ellie and
Payton could stand next to him. The past
two years we’ve seen Santa at the Strand and it’s always been the real thing,
not just some elf with a fake beard.
Well, this year it was an elf who didn’t look very authentic. This year there was also a sign that said
they would take the picture for you (in the past we always just used our
camera) and would frame it for $7. We
had to bribe Payton with candy to get her to stand in front of Santa but she
did and we had Santa hold Ellie. After
the picture was taken we gave Payton her candy and put Ellie back into her car
seat as we waited for them to process the picture. When they brought the picture to us they
apologized because they had cut off all of Payton except basically the top of
her head. We were very disappointed and
they probably would have taken a new picture for us but we’d already given
Payton her candy and Ellie was already in her car seat so we didn’t want to try
again.
Because it was still warm out, that evening I decided to
give the Trail of Lights another try.
This time I was able to make it through the entire trail of lights. I was quite proud of myself. A funny thing happened while we were walking
the trail of lights. There was a person
dressed up as Sponge Bob on the trail of lights and kids were all going up to
him to give him hugs and take pictures with him. Well Payton was running along, looking at all
the lights and not paying attention to where she was going. She almost ran right into Sponge Bob before
she looked up and saw him. She immediately got a look of horror on her face and
quickly ran the other direction. For
weeks afterwards she talked about Sponge Bob at Moody Gardens.
The weekend before Christmas we attended the Dickinson Trail
of Lights. This trail of lights is
located about half an hour from our house but it’s completely worth it because
it’s such a neat trail. It is located in
a park and you walk through all kinds of “tunnels” of lights. Payton loved it and kept pointing and saying,
“How about that tunnel?” so then we’d go through whichever tunnel she pointed
to. I wore Ellie in the Moby Wrap and
she slept the majority of the time. It’s
amazing how much toddlers change in just a year. I remember taking Payton to the trail of
lights last year and she was just barely walking at that point. We took video of her unsteadily toddling
through the lights and for the most part Charles carried her so she wouldn’t
fall. I don’t think she was talking yet
either and now she can say anything and everything.
Christmas
Christmas Eve was very warm here in Galveston. It was about 80 degrees, sunny with no
breeze. In the morning I dressed the
girls in their cute Christmas outfits and we went to the Strand. Their Christmas outfits were long sleeved and
I was wearing long sleeves as well and we were literally sweating. At Sangerfest Park, on the Strand, they have
a large Christmas tree set up and a little Christmas village (made from
plywood) that we took pictures of the girls in front of. A man saw us taking pictures and asked if we
wanted him to take a picture of us.
Payton refused to get in the picture so he took a picture just of us
with Ellie. The man had a strong accent
and told us he just got off a cruise from Spain, but that he’s from Australia
and the weather reminded him of Christmas back home.
That afternoon we changed out of our warm Christmas clothes
and into shorts, tank tops, and an onesie for Ellie and took a walk to the
beach. We had taken Ellie on walks along
Seawall but this was her first time to actually be on the beach. Charles chased Payton on the beach, we
looked for seashells, and just enjoyed the fresh air. This was definitely my kind of
Christmas! In the winter I find myself
continually being thankful I live in Southeast Texas and not up north somewhere
where they have to deal with cold winter temperatures on a regular basis.
This Christmas was especially fun because Payton understood
that Santa would be bringing presents and she was really excited about it. Christmas morning we walked with her to the
Christmas tree where there was a brand new pink Big Wheels bike and a bunch of
presents under the tree. She pointed to
the bike and said, “Another bike! Two
pink bikes!” The Big Wheels was from her
grandmother Nana and just a couple of weeks before Christmas her grandparents
Lala and Papa had given her a pink metal tricycle. She has been so excited and proud of her
bikes that, even now months later, she still loves to show off her bikes to her
grandmothers and to others who come over to the house. Every single time we video chat with my mom,
before even saying Hi, Payton says, “Show Yaya bike!” and after she’s shown her
one bike she says, “Show Yaya other bike!”
After seeing the bike and all the presents, we ate breakfast
and then spent nearly the entire morning opening the presents. We were lucky that Ellie seemed content to
rock in her swing and watch us open presents. I don’t remember everything Payton got for
Christmas besides the two bikes but it included Duplo Lego blocks, a Thomas the
Train set, a couple of baby dolls, stuffed
animals, play doh, several puzzles, various Dora the Explorer items, clothes,
and more. Ellie received some baby toys,
a video baby monitor, a bath towel with her name on it, a baby blanket, clothes,
and more.
New Years
On New Years Eve I reflected on the past year and this is
what I posted on Facebook:
___________________________________________________
It may be New Year's Eve but Ellie's plans for the evening
are the same as they've been for the past 6 weeks..... she's going to stay up
all night and drink! ;)
On a related note, 2012 was a great year for our family. God blessed us with
our sweet Ellie, born on Thanksgiving Day and absolutely perfect. We watched
Payton grow from being a toddler who could barely walk or talk to a little girl
who amazes us with everything she knows. We watched the Aggies have an
excellent football season with a Heisman quarterback. And we were blessed with
good health, wonderful family and friends, and all that we need. Thank you God!
It has
truly been a blessed year. Being
pregnant most of the year while trying to keep up with a toddler wasn’t exactly
easy or comfortable but it was still an absolutely amazing experience. Our girls are such miracles and have brought
so much joy to our lives already. I
can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Here’s to 2013 and all the adventures we will have with our beautiful
little girls!
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