Mommy!

It was a mommy week this week. Rhianwen came down with a bit of a cold along with molars coming in still. The only person who seemed to make her satisfied/happy was mommy, which in most cases is great since mommy is the main person who hangs out with her all day! Still, even the nursery workers noticed a difference and asked if something had changed. One of my friends commented that it may also have to do with sensing change in the air with the new baby on the way. Who knows? It could be all of the above, but she certainly is in a mommy mood right now. I love getting to actually cuddle a bit with her (I've waited 15+ months for this!) :) She's been very huggy and kissy this week. Even though she treated me as a celeb yelling out my name every time she saw me or thought I was leaving, Rhianwen did have fun with daddy too. To give mommy a break while I was cooking supper, daddy built a nice tent/fortress out of boxes that are slated for the attic and a bunch of blankets.




Rhianwen also loves going outside before devotions and cuddling up under a really heavy wool blanket and looking at the moon and stars with daddy. Mommy seldom ventures out into the cold but has promised to do so when the weather is more welcoming.

We also got to see Wally's cousins, aunt, and first cousins once removed (aka Rhianwen's second cousins who are 2ish and 4ish). They actually dared to come into our house where they were amazed at our gorgeous paint-splattered linoleum and my wedding portrait that was hanging way up near the ceiling...I just was seeing if it would look right on that wall, and the only nail that was there was from the advent tree (a much larger longer thing)...anyhoo...they must have thought it strange. Rhianwen did a great job sharing her toys...even with the big cousins who loved her aqua-doodle.

Today Rhi built her most elaborate duplo structure yet and without any help from us! It's so neat to see her developing her coordination and imagination all at the same time.



A new word for the week is: "ssage" otherwise translated as massage. It's been so dry and cold here that Rhianwen's skin has gotten chapped and dry too, so after bath every night I give her a nice lotiony massage. I envy her :)

Snow

It did snow here in NC! It began when Rhianwen went down for a nap. We waited patiently expecting she would get up...1.5h, no wakefulness, 2h, nope, 2h 15 min...Wally, "Can I get her up?". Yep, we did. We woke her up. She's never taken such a long nap! It was almost dark by the time we got her up and she wasn't too thrilled about being wakened. But when I pulled up her blinds and said, "Look, Rhianwen, what's that?" she immediately perked up as she saw all of the white stuff on the ground and falling out of the sky. She still seemed a little confused when instead of sitting down for her normal after-nap snack of yogurt, she got whisked into a bundle of hat, scarf, gloves, coat, and boots, and out the front door.

"What am I doing out here?"

When I made snowballs and threw them at daddy, Rhianwen didn't like the fact that the balls got all broken to smithereens. She held on to hers!

"You want me to throw it?"

She did get excited about being out there. As with anything new, she remained very serious the entire time, but explored and wanted us to sled her down the hill.

Other events of the week: Rhianwen found a crayon and scribbled on the stoop to the family room, she climbed on top of the dining room table and poured Coke all over herself and knocked over the candles (not burning), ate detergent out of the dishwasher (just a bit off the finger)...and that was all in one morning! I was glad for playgroup that day. She's also decided that she wants to sit at the table with us, so doesn't want the tray to her booster seat anymore. We went out to a Chinese restaurant with her on Friday night. She did GREAT! It was the first time we've gone to a semi-nice place with her as a toddler. She loved her chicken tenders and dipped them in ketchup, a favorite accompaniment to any meal now adays...she even dipped her Ramen noodles in ketchup...

"Mmm, yummy ketchup."

Rhianwen has really enjoyed coloring in the past few days. She loves watching me draw (what you can see in the pic below is mostly my stuff, there are also faint scribbles all over that are harder to see that are Rhianwen's contribution). I think it may be time to get some coloring books. It's making me want to color! Yes, I know I am strange, but I do find coloring relaxing. Give me a break, I can't draw or paint like my brother, so all I have left is to color someone else's subpar drawings of Barbie or whatever ;0)

The little artist at work.

She's been adding a new word almost every day to her vocabulary. Some new ones this week: Snowing, Rhianwen (though she still has some work to do on that one), Maddy (a combination of mommy and daddy...her own coined word).

The video below shows some of her budding vocabulary; the first name Wally wanted her to say was Moses...

Pilomatricoma is the word.

I realized after my post last week that, silly me, I missed a bunch of great pics on another camera card!!! SO, this post will be in 2 parts. The first being about this week and the second a final word on holiday doings.

This past week Rhianwen had her surgery to remove the lump from her head. Everyone in the hospital was wonderful! Monday we had our pre-op where we not only got her checked out physically but we also got to play with a child specialist (not sure of her official title) who gave us a little package to take home for Rhianwen to prepare for the surgery on Tuesday. It included stuff like a mask and hat and syringe. Rhi also got to practice using the mask and "smelling" the chapstick that they smear on it to make it smell good. I have to say, she HATED the checkup but liked to play with everything. Daddy and Mommy both wore their hats and masks all over the house that night. I figure if the neighbors didn't wonder about us before, now they sure will! They must think we are crazy.

Our dress up game.

Rhianwen's dress up game (she loves aprons!).

Tuesday was the surgery. Grandmama and Grandaddy came up to wait with us but couldn't go back with us for the prep. Rhianwen really enjoyed her time with them. Although we were expecting sedation, it wasn't necessary. She didn't enjoy the prep, but did fairly well once the OR nurse left. Every time someone had to do something to her, Rhianwen would cry and then when they were done, she would say tearfully, "Bye bye! Bye bye!" She doesn't know the words, "Go away!" yet :) Wally got to take Rhianwen back to the OR and help her smell the chapstick. She did great at that point. No fussing or anything. She woke up too quickly for us to be already back there, so she was waiting anxiously for us. She HATED the little pulse doodad on her toe and kept trying to pull it off and kick it off. But we were able to distract with her new Babies book and her old Nursery book. The surgeon said is was a pilomatricoma but would send it off to pathology for confirmation. We'll find out in a week, but he was certain that it was indeed a calcification, benign but could have grown bigger over time. So we're glad it is over!!! Rhianwen didn't seem to be in ANY pain whatsoever and her incision seems to be healing well.

Unfortunately for her, it was not the end of her doctor visits this week. She also had a well-visit on Friday where she got 3 shots and was not pleased by any of the doctor's attention. She was deemed extremely healthy, in the 98th percentile for height and the 95th for weight. However, she has a big knot on her arm from one of the shots and it seems to be a bit red, so I will probably call the Dr. tomorrow to make sure that is ok.

Enjoying her Babies book tonight.

We are so thankful for all of your prayers this week! I know God heard! I am looking foward to next week, which will hopefully be back to normal! Which reminds me, I also had a doc appointment this week and got to hear baby T's heartbeat. My "real" ultrasound is scheduled for Feb. 5th. So hopefully we will get to know the gender and get some more pics too!

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Part 2-Holiday Doings

While at the D's Rhianwen really enjoyed rocking in the rocking chair with Grandma Nanny Kim. She loved to hang upside down and be rocked. I can't believe she could fall asleep in that position, but she did!



She also got to try her first marshmallows cooked over the little fire pit thing that my dad has. She enjoyed it very much.



Wally and I used the grandparents as free babysitters (thank youuuu!!!) and went to the Sidewheeler for lunch and Brookgreen Gardens. Of course, we couldn't completely forget about our little oo, especially not after seeing this statue that looks so much like her, our little water baby.



On Christmas Eve morning, the entire fam went out to The Trestle for breakfast where we got a great pic of us! It's a once in a blue moon kind of thing to have everyone smiling, eyes open, and looking at the cam!



Lastly, and very importantly, we got to see one of my best friends, and finally got to meet her baby girl!!! Rhianwen was ready for a nap so wasn't very happy when the pic was taken, therefore the need for a cookie in the mouth! However, baby girl is just as happy as can be!

As Promised...

Well, indeed we have a load of pictures from the past few weeks. Rhianwen had a great Christmas. Once she figured out about the gifts, every gift was greeted with an excited, "Oo, wow oowow ooowow!!"

Hugging her new baby doll.

Mom has been making sock monkeys lately. My parents love their sock monkeys so much that they are taking them whenever they travel and take pictures of them everywhere (kinda like the Travelocity gnome). We decided it would be fun to hide their monkeys different places over the holiday. Once, I posed dad's monkey reading his book, most amusing. On Christmas Eve while my parents were at a really late candlelight service at their Episcopal church, we hid their monkeys in their bed. Then on Christmas morning all of the fam's monkeys appeared. Dad said, "Well, last night we found 2 monkeys in our bed, and I guess they were up to some monkey business!" as he observed all of the monkeys hanging around!

Sock monkeys that my mom made for each person in the fam (notice Skipper's camo).


Rhianwen's monkey (no not Uncle Christopher, the one with the fluffy tassels on her hat).

A new take on rocking horse use.

For those of you who have been looking at our blog for a while, this is back at Collins Park going down the really big metal slide. Rhianwen climbed up all by herself (with daddy right behind) unlike last year! It's amazing how much changes in one year. It makes me think twice about laughing when she does something totally uncoordinated when I know I could never grow and mature so much in one year now.

Rhianwen had a hard time warming up to Great Grandpa. We decided that maybe it was the lack of hair, and Great Grandpa decided to pull out a wig (why did they have such a thing?) to see if it would help. Wally said if Great Grandpa came in on Christmas wearing it then all the grandchildren should all go in a corner and cry!

Great Grandma.

As an alternative, Great Grandpa also brought a big cowboy hat that Wally decided to give a try.

Once we got home, we celebrated our Christmas. Rhianwen really loves her new swing and slide. She's started saying, "Wing, wing!" and another new word that we also "got" for Christmas is "Rain! Rain!" and "Boots! Boots!" She even got to wear her new raincoat and boots (boots from Grandma Nanny Kim) for real use. the funny thing about the boots was that Grandma Nanny Kim's cat is called Boots, and there was a point when we were talking about Boots a lot and Rhianwen looked a little confused b/c she new we were talking about the cat but also seemed to be talking about boots.

Swinging.

Finding finger holds (what a budding rock climber!). She got up there all by herself.

Sliding.

Next was a trip to the T side of the fam. We had a lot of fun exploring the yard, including seeing chickens up close and fireworks and sparklers at midnight for New Years (Rhianwen missed out as she was in bed for the fireworks, but Grandaddy set one off especially for her when we left).

The T and extended clan.

Back home we are still proud Tigers despite the loss to Auburn.


Lastly (if you've managed to weed through this far), we would love prayer for Rhianwen's surgery. Her pre-op appt is on Monday and if she is deemed healthy, she will have her surgery on Tuesday. We are still having lots of second thoughts about it seeing as all the docs say not to worry that the lump is nothing really bad, but since no one really knows what it is other than to say that it could get infected, we've decided it's better to know it's not a bad thing for sure. I am tempted to think if she is healthy, it's almost like a sign from God that we should do the surgery since she has had a cold non-stop since Thanksgiving and has finally stayed healthy for 2 weeks now! I just can't wait until it is over. I just pray that it will go well with no complications and she won't be scarred for life against doctors.

(P.S. I'm experimenting with pics and websites since Dropshots has quit working for me for no reason....sorry about the wide variety on this post!)