Adenoid Surgery

What a time we’ve had since our last update! Aanika came through her surgery with flying colors (this past Thursday) and was back to acting like her old self by that evening. We are so pleased with the results…it’s amazing that her speech and sleeping have already both improved. We could hear a difference in her breathing immediately as well as hearing air movement through her nose when she spoke! It’s kind of strange though because it sounds like bubbles gurgling when she talks…hopefully that’ll go away when the swelling goes down.

Well, we’ve been here one whole year already (can you believe it?!) and we’re set for a record-breaking week of high temperatures (93/71 through Wed). The neighborhood fun pool isn’t open yet, and if you remember from last summer, a critter popped our little play pool so we went out today and bought a bigger and better model! It’s actually large enough for all 3 of us to lay in it and more than enough room for romping around.

1st Emergency Room Visit

The things going on at the moment is that Aanika is slowly getting over her separation anxiety, still growing like a weed and is scheduled for Adenoid removal surgery on May 19th. She has almost complete closure of her nasal airway. Her tonsils should come out too, but she is at least one year too young for that procedure. Hopefully this will help solve the sleeping issues that has bothered her for so long! The other thing that happened recently is that Aanika had her first trip to the Emergency Room. She popped her elbow out of place (Nursmaid's Elbow), just before bedtime, while teasing her Daddy. Luckily it was a quick and simple fix and 5 minutes afterwards you would never have known anything was wrong.

Happy Spring

Happy Spring! It’s been a great couple of weeks here – warm, sunny & breezy. Sorry for no update last weekend, nothing huge went on that week I guess! This past week was another one for projects. We’ve been wanting our back patio to be more ‘welcoming’ and comfortable but haven’t really been sure what to do back there. In the late afternoon and early evening, the sun makes the patio brutally hot and you can’t enjoy the space. Well, we were watching a program together and saw something we thought we could pull off – it took me a while to figure out exactly HOW to do it and only a few days to actually pull it all together. The sheer, white curtains you see in the picture can be opened up to make a wonderful shady area that blocks out the sun but still allows you to see through them into the backyard.
Events going on in Aanika’s life this week are kind of limited at the moment. She’s going through some separation anxiety and won’t even let us leave her at one of her favorite places, the kids play space at our gym. Seeing that we’ve never had to deal with this before, we’re kind of at a loss as to what triggered it (we think it might have something to do with Mama's grieving over Girlcat). The other day we were at the pediatrician’s office for an immunization and she stuck to me like glue when she saw the toys…I guess she thought it was another play place I was going to leave her in. It’s really kind of funny though because every time we get somewhere, she starts pointing at herself and saying “me me me” which, in Aanika language, means take me with you! Hopefully she’ll get over this soon…

Easter

Happy Easter! It’s been a quiet week for us here as Aanika has had a bit of a tummy bug that she decided she’d share with her momma. We’re on the mend thankfully and are looking forward to a wonderful week with the temps forecasted to be in the 70’s-80’s all week and mostly sunny. This week has also involved a huge jump in language use for Aanika. She’s starting to put together sentences that tell you exactly what she’s wanting. It’s so great to see the changes - I’m really looking forward to the days that I don’t have to be a mind reader or an interpreter!

We’re pretty excited that we were able to get Aanika’s tables completely finished this weekend. The picnic table is stained ‘Rosewood’ and has a nice varnished finish on it. The white play-table was quite fun to do too. I cut up a wallpaper border and did a decoupage technique with it (just a fancy word for tons ‘o glue) around all four sides of the table and down onto each leg. When I was thinking of how to decorate it, I could see it being fun and playful with a bit of a whimsical flair…mind you, this is a huge feat for me seeing that I like everything symmetrical and linear - we think it turned out great!

The picture is of Aanika wearing her new easter hat from Bompa Marx.

Furniture 101

Well, things are back into the groove again this week. Kevin’s brother and his wife (they’re from Kansas) came to visit us this past week for spring break. We went to Rodeo Houston and saw some awesome bull riding, spent an afternoon on Galveston Island and ate some fantastic seafood ~ basically we had a really great time. The guys actually managed to get in a round of golf on Friday before they had to leave. We’ll have some pictures later to show you. Aanika sure loved having them here!

The last two weekends were spent doing projects…Thankfully, Aanika is such a Daddy’s-girl on the weekends, I get to do the household projects with little interruption. Oh, in case you’re wondering, the bathroom is now Bullfrog Green (you gotta see it…very cool) and the office is almost the color of butterscotch. Both colors are very unique but they “fit” the rooms they’re in. Yesterday and today were Furniture Building 101. Kevin and I built, from scratch, a child-size play table that Aanika can use for drawing, Legos, or her little people village. The other item is a picnic table (just her size) that is absolutely adorable! Aanika was very helpful too! She would hand Kevin screws and was helping me with the sanding. We had to draw the line though when she wanted to play with the wood glue and paint!

Aanika is doing really well and is still just the sweetest little kid. We truly are blessed to have the opportunity to have her in our lives. The other day we were trying to remember what we used to do before she came ~ she has given us so much!

Girlcat

Aanika turned two and suddenly became a comical and funny kid. We always thought she was silly but it’s like something clicked and she knew she was funny! One event that really tickled me was that she was trying to stand like me one day as I was waiting in line at a store. I have a tendency to lean my hip into things and rest one foot on top of the other and, like I said in one of my other posts, she wants to do everything that Mommom is doing…well, after falling over a few times, she decided she couldn’t do it and gave up. It sure gave everyone around us a pretty good chuckle! She’s really quite amazing and continues to thrill us. Last night we were watching a movie that she had never seen and, as the music crescendo’d as the movie came to a close, she hollered out “all done” and looked to us to turn it off! We have no idea how she knew it was done, but she did…we can’t figure it out. Every day it’s something new!

On a sad note, another event that happened this week was that our sweet little kitty “Girlcat” unexpectedly passed away during the night on Wednesday. She was almost 15 years old and had been with us since she was only a few weeks old. It’s crazy how attached you get to a pet but, needless to say, Momma did not and handle it very well and cried for 3 days. She had a great year though and really seemed to enjoy it here. She was a sweet natured and lovable pet and will be terribly missed.

Salon de Momma

Wow, Aanika’s almost 2 years old already! We’re having a little party with some of her friends from church and we’ve ordered our first official theme birthday cake – The Three Princesses. This is her new obsession…Cinderella (her favorite), Belle, and Jasmine. We were shopping for ‘big girl’ diapers the other day and she started going crazy! Sure enough, there was a box with the 3 girls on it, which means that they’re also ON the panties. She was so excited, when we got home, she ripped the package open and was playing with the panties like they were toys! So, to sum it up for you, we have the diapers, the invitations, the cake and the decorations. What’s gonna be next?

This week we got haircuts at Salon de Momma. She saw me cutting mine and of course, being a 2 yr old, had to do the same thing. Well, you know I’m not going to turn the scissors over to her so I gave her a bit of a trim on her bangs. She’s looking so grown up now! Where’d that little baby go? The picture of the little sweetie is above.

On a funny note, after I cut my hair, it seemed very familiar to me so I went to check it out…yup, I gave myself my 7th grade haircut but without as much length! Check the picture out for yourself. Kevin thought it was amazing that after 27 years, I don’t look that much different - I’m just thankful that I have great genes!