Duckponds and Swingsets

Summer time is coming to a close. It's been fun, but I'm so ready for fall! Here's some of the great highlights from this summer:

It's been a great summer, with lots of sweet memories including Penny saying her first words, crawling, lots of long walks at the Mill Pond, feeding the duckies, napping, snuggles, messy baby kisses and hugs.

I'm a lucky mama.

A Day at the Pool

Today, Miss Penelope and I went to visit my bestie Mikaela and her son, Sullivan. We decided to go to the pool because it was 87 degrees and sunny! Penny hasn't been swimming yet so I was SO excited that we were going to get the chance to try it out since she loves bath time so much.

This morning, Hubby and I went to Target to get Penny some of those swimmer diapers (because a soggy diaper is just, well, ew.) and a floatie of some kind so she'd be safe and sound. We found this adorable thing:

(that's definitely not us.)

The day was fun though. I hadn't seen Mikaela in like a month (which is blasphemy in best friend time) and it was so nice to get out into the sun for once. I feel like on my days off I still spend a lot of time inside. I need to get out more, and honestly, I need to work out too, but that's another post entirely. But here are a couple shots from today:

we were putting sunscreen on her head, and her hair got all crazy in the process

First time in a pool! She looks like she hates it here, but she was smiling seconds later!

Yesterday, I got to spend the afternoon with another bestie of mine, Claire! She's a long-term substitute English teacher at a middle school right now (hopefully a faculty member for next year though!) and she needed some help grading homework and papers and whatnot so I met up with her at the coffee shop and we chatted and gabbed about books and students and handwriting and caught up on each other's lives. I love hanging out with Claire, she always has such a positive attitude and always helps me look at things from a different perspective. We are two TOTALLY different people, in almost every way, but we get along so well and know each other through and through. I don't know where I'd be without Claire in my life, honestly. She's an amazing friend and I'm lucky to have her. Here we are: I tried to find a recent pic of us and I stumbled upon this one from her bday 2 years ago, and it made me smile, so I'm posting it. Sorry Claire!

While we were grading those 8th grade English papers, it made me realize how much I still want to be a teacher someday. Claire did her damnedest to get me to seriously think about going back to school, and maybe I will, but right now, it's not in the cards. But someday in the next 5 years or so, I'd like to go back to school and at least finish my teaching degree. I'd love to be a middle school English teacher, just sitting there in the coffee shop, reading these 14 year old student's reading logs and seeing their opinions of the books they're reading and seeing how their thought processes work was so interesting to me. It kind of re-ignited my passion for books and literature and writing and wanting to make it interesting and fun for kids. We'll see though if it's in the cards or not, I've got coffee to make for now, haha!

As far as my health stuff is concerned, I think I'm doing better! Tonight I realized that my hands and feet aren't AS numb as they were, it's still there for sure, but it's not nearly as bad. THIS IS SUCH A GOOD THING FOR SO MANY REASONS! I was honestly getting worried after my treatment and nothing had happened yet, that perhaps they misdiagnosed me and perhaps it was something much worse. BUT, the good news has arrived I think! One of the tell-tale signs of my specific disorder is its response to treatment. If it didn't respond to treatment then there would be a much greater chance that they misdiagnosed me, so I'm really hoping this is a good sign that they got it right on the first try. I go at the end of June for another EMG (remember, the pokey needles and taser test?) to see if they can track my nerve conductions and see that the treatment did its job in preventing further damage or not. Well, it at least feels better to me! My wrists are still REALLY weak in comparison to how they used to be, they ache a lot, but the numbness is nowhere near where it was!

I just realized that I never posted how the treatment itself went. Whoops! Ok, so I did the 5 day IVIG treatment, and it basically just made me really tired. Each day I'd come home and nap for a a few hours after, but I was pretty much myself after waking up from the naps. Here's the bad news, I got a TERRIBLE migraine that lasted 6 days afterward. The headache started on day 4, but went away before day 5, then came back after treatment on day 5 and stayed for 5 days. It was BAAAAAAAAD, too. I was immobilized basically, I could barely open my eyes, the light hurt, so I spent a lot of time in bed, under the covers with an ice pack on my head. Finally I couldn't take it anymore, and I called my Neurologist and my Neuro nurse, Crystal (who by the way is my saving grace) and she called in a steroid prescription for me to help the headaches. Well, I started the 9-day steroid and that same evening I felt 1000000x better. My headache finally subsided and I'm back to normal now, but man, I was out of work for almost 2 weeks because of this, which totally screwed us over, let me tell ya! Plus I hate not being at work, especially for a crappy reason like that. But now they know that the IVIG affects me that way, so next time I do it they can give the prescription right off the bat so I don't have to deal with the headaches. :)

Enough for now, goodnight moon.

I promise I'm going to get better at this.

Hi there, I sure am cute, doncha think?

This monthly update thing is going to change, I swear it. I'm going to be better about blogging.

I feel like there's so much to talk about. My health, Penny, Easter, work, family, life. I don't even know where to start honestly.

This week we are house-sittings at my in-laws' home. I love being here. Their home is so inviting and cozy. It's perfect in the winter because it overlooks a pond out of the back window and there are trees everywhere that when they are covered with snow, well, it's so peaceful. In the summer, it's beautiful because everything is green. The pond is full of life and the wisteria that overhangs my mother-in-law's hammock is just heaven. At night you can hear the crickets chirping and it's so quiet. In the fall, the trees are an array of bold colors. It's just wonderful here. It's like, you can actually breath fresh air and relax. It's nice to have a little getaway from our everyday lives, even if it is just for a week.

My two favorite people

Penelope is 7 months old today. She's crawling now, and today she pulled herself up into a standing position. See how proud of herself she is?

It's all happening so fast!!! I need a slow-motion button. Everyday is something new with her. She's close to saying "mama" too. And she gives kisses now, only sometimes though. She'll grab your face with both hands and plant her open drooling mouth on your cheek. It's the best kind of kiss I know of.

Juuuuuuuuust doin' her morning pushups

It's finally really spring here in MI. This is the first week that it's going to be above 55 regularly and be sunny. April was RAIN RAIN RAIN and very cold. So it's nice to see the sun finally and some blue skies and flowers. Penny and I have been enjoying the sun when we can, she got to feel grass for the first time the other day, she liked it.

what's this green stuff?

being sock free feels awesome

feeling good

I'm excited for the summer to start too. I wanted to try to find a Mommy and Me swimming class for Penny and I, but all the ones I have found so far are ridiculously overpriced, so perhaps we'll find somewhere else to try swimming. Penny loves the bathtub so much, I think she'll really enjoy swimming. She mostly likes to just be naked, like this:

her little tushie is so cute!

Easter was nice. Spending time with family is always enjoyable. We had to postpone our Easter festivities with Hubby's family because Penny and I were suffering from a gnarly cold and we didn't want her adorable cousin Isabella to get it, and believe me, it was very contagious, everyone in our house got it. :(Here's Penny and Isabella about three weeks ago. They're two months apart.


Penny got this cute hat and these cute sunglasses in her Easter basket, along with bubbles and new toys. :-)

Even amidst a bad cold, Miss Penny is a smiley happy bubbly little lady. I adore her.

Little Miss is getting some curls in her hair, so it seems she'll be taking after her Daddy as far as hair goes. It's so cute!

Here's our April Family Photo:
We'll need to take a May one soon, that one was almost a month ago now!

As far as my health goes, I do indeed have what my neurologist thought, Multifocal Motor Neuropathy with Conduction Blocks. I start my IVIG (Intravenous Immunoglobulins) treatment on the 16th, so I've ordered a few books to read for the 30ish baby free hours I'll have on my hands. It still remains to be seen how often I'll need these IVIG treatments, possibly every few weeks, every few months, once a year, who knows. It all depends on my body and how stubborn it decides to be. I've been trying to do as much research as I can about it, but there's not much out there, because so few people have it. Which makes it scary, I wish I knew someone else who was dealing with this. Might make me feel a little less alone. I don't talk about it much to anyone because no one would understand. You can't really fathom what having constantly numb hands and feet is like, unless you have it.

But things are good. My insurance covers this incredibly expensive treatment and hopefully it'll do it's job and make me feel better. My fingers are crossed.

I'm going to post more. I promise.