Growing up too fast in 2010

Baby Bear is growing up way too fast. This year so much happened. She celebrated her 1st birthday. She crawled, then walked, then ran. She babbled and now is talking up a storm. She is growing and growing each day. She has a wonderful personality and is a sweet, loving, and kind little girl.

We had an absolutely amazing year as a family. We went to ski races and boat races, we went on a river trip. We saw animals at the zoo and the aquarium. We went on an airplane to Boston. We had a blast doing many things together as a family. Now we end the year in our newly remodeled home in which we can create new memories.

Baby Bear is simply amazing. Each day there is something new and I know that 2011 and the next decade will be as exciting and bring more wonderful new things. I am excited to see who Baby Bear becomes and how she grows. She is already a beautiful human being, she can only get better!!

Baby Bear is getting so big that she can even wear my shoes now....

I'll be home for Christmas

We moved in on December 23rd, the eve of Christmas Eve. That particular date is of significance because 5 years ago Papa Bear proposed to me on that same date. It seemed very fitting that we moved into our remodeled home on that same date. It was a whirlwind getting all moved in.

On Christmas Eve, we cleaned up and unpacked as much as possible to prepare for the guests that would be coming starting that evening. Papa Bear bought us a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. I wasn't expecting much, but he got us a gorgeous tree for $20! Baby Bear and I worked on decorating it (well, I would put up ornaments and Baby Bear would take them down. We forgot to get the box with lights out of storage, but I did find a couple of strands.

Slowly the ornaments started to disappear from the bottom half of the tree...



We didn't have a lot of holiday decorations since there was little time, but we did get to hang up our stockings.



All in all a great Christmas. Baby Bear is healthy now, which is a wonderful way to start the new year. We moved Chase Monster into the house after the chaos of Christmas parties and now our family is complete in our home. Now on to the New Year.

One more Christmas Party

Every year a group of my friends from high school celebrate Christmas together. We were 7 friends from high school who got married over time and became 12 adults. From those 6 couples combined we have 13 children ranging in age from 2 months to 9 years! It was our turn to host the annual Christmas party and the house was ready just in time. We hosted this party the day after Christmas. Yes, it was a whirlwind of Christmas celebration that weekend. Culminating in this party.

Baby Bear cooking up some food for her friends before the party started. Already a great hostess.



Baby Bear and Daddy dancing.



All the kids at the table having dinner. Baby Bear at the head.





The chaos of opening presents with 13 children. Every year we say we are going to try to have the children open the gifts one at a time, it never works out quite that way.






A fun, crazy time was had. Since moving in the Thursday before Christmas, we had about 50 people in our small home in the span of 3 days. Wow. It was a whirlwind. Now it is time to wind down and enjoy our home.

Christmas Dinner

Christmas isn't over. There is still dinner to be had. Again, everyone came to our house. This time it was time to celebrate with Grandpa Bear and his family, grand aunts and cousins.

Changed into a Christmas outfit and ready by the tree, waiting for more presents to come.





Everyone likes to gather by the food in the kitchen.



Time for some dinner.



Another present for me!





Playing with Cory!





Playing music. Baby Bear has some rhythm and was really good at keeping up with the shaker.



Our family Christmas picture.

Christmas Breakfast

Every year we have Christmas breakfast at Grandma Bear's house. This year, she came to our house and made us breakfast. It was really nice of her to do this especially since we wanted to keep Baby Bear home and out of the cold so that she can get healthy. It was nice that we could still celebrate together and have everyone in our home.

Since our home was the home that Papa Bear grew up in, his family was a little sentimental about spending Christmas in this house. It had been a long long time since Christmas was celebrated in that house, Papa Bear was a little boy then.

Baby Bear barely let Grandma Bear through the door when she spotted her present. She knew what to do with presents. Open them!





Grandma Bear got her two Sing a ma jigs. These are some funny little creatures.





Family picture time. The women.



Papa Bear with Grandma Bear and his cousin. They remember celebrating Christmas in this house when Papa Bear and his cousin, Heather, were little ones. Now they are celebrating Christmas here with their children.



Eating breakfast in our beautiful dining room. Baby Bear is at the head of the table.



Thank you Grandma for breakfast.



Cleaning up. More family to come for Christmas dinner so we have to clean up a little.

Christmas Morning

The nice thing about not staying out late on Christmas Eve was that we could get up early, since Baby Bear is like clockwork at getting up at 6:30 am, to see the goodies that Santa left for us.

Checking our the cookies and milk we left for Santa, he drank all the milk and ate a few cookies.





Are these for me?



Playing with her gifts from Santa.



More gifts for me?





Look daddy!



Playing with gifts from mommy and daddy.





Going to make breakfast in the kitchen.



Baby Bear also got a toy kitchen from her grand aunt Joni, but with all the house stuff going on, we hadn't had a chance to put it together. Soon she will have her own room and her own kitchen!



More Christmas photos to come....

Christmas Eve in our home

We spent Christmas Eve in our house! We moved in the night before and got a tree on Christmas Eve. We got a beautiful tree for $20!! We spent the day cleaning the house and getting it presentable for company and decorating the tree.

Usually we spend Christmas Eve with my family and stay up until midnight to open presents. Since Baby Bear was getting over pneumonia, we thought it was best to not take her out in the cold and keep her home. Lola Bear, Lola Bear, and Uncle Bear came over to see our new house and have dinner with us before heading out to see the rest of the family.

This is Baby Bear's second Christmas, but she was only 6 months old last year and didn't really understand it much. So it was fun to see how she would react this year.

She wasn't quite sure what to do with the present.



Uncle Mike opened up the present for her and she just kind of looked at it at first. It was a baby doll in a box. She didn't quite grasp the concept yet.



The Uncle Mike got the baby doll out of the box. Baby Bear liked the baby doll Lola and Lolo Bear gave her.



She had a nice time with her grandparents and especially enjoyed her Uncle Mike. We wish he lived close by so that he can come and play with her more often. Uncle Mike is tons of fun!





It was a little hard for me to be away from my family and our traditions during Christmas Eve but we had a nice quiet time as a family together. It sure was nice to spend it in our own home!

Baby Bear likes the custom remodel

We can't wait to move into our newly remodeled home!! In just a few days.





Baby Bear is excited to have so much room to run around in.

Puke in Mama Bear's hair

Yes, Baby Bear is still vomiting and today she vomited on me twice! And in my hair. No fun. My poor baby. I just want her to feel better. I really hope she feels better in time for Christmas.

When she isn't feeling nauseous and vomiting, she is the same busy girl she always is. Here she is trying to get into trouble while waiting for the doctor in the exam room.

A trip to the ER

This morning we made a trip to the emergency room. I had never had to go to an ER before and I hope we never have to go again. At about 1:30 this morning, Papa Bear and I woke up to Baby Bear throwing up. We co-sleep and she threw up on the bed. We got up changed her clothes and cleaned her up. She asked to nurse, so I nursed her and put her back to bed. Papa Bear went to the couch to sleep so that she could have more room. She started to fall back asleep for a little while, then I heard her throw up even more, pretty much her entire dinner. Papa Bear came back in the room to help clean her up again. Poor thing, she was throwing up and look at what she had done and told me "mess, mess." She had made a mess. We gave her a little water and she held on to her sippy and started to drift off to sleep again. A little while later, she started to vomit again, this time just water. I was hesitant to give her more water, but she wanted some and I didn't want her to be dehydrated. She finally slept for 3 hours. I, on the other hand, woke with every little move she made.

She woke up that morning at 6:00am and seemed to be doing okay. She asked for milk, so I nursed her. A little while later she vomited the milk up. I gave her water and then she vomited again and this time it was yellow. So, I called the on-call pediatrician who told me to give her some juice and wait to see if she kept it down within the next hour. If not, we should go to the ER. Well about 15 minutes later she threw up the juice. So I got dressed and off we went to the ER. We were checked in pretty quickly and saw a doctor. She was really kind and good with Baby Bear. As we waited for the anti-nausea medication she spit up a little bit. The nurse came in and gave her some anti-nausea medication and then we waited for about 20 minutes for it to kick in. They gave her juice and waited another 20 minutes to see if she could keep it down. In the mean time the doctor ordered a chest x-ray to be on the safe side. For the most part Baby Bear was in good spirits while we were there. Since there weren't many people there they did not have a problem with Baby Bear walking around the hall for a bit. But once more people checked in they asked us to stay in the room.

The x-ray was not fun. They put her in some contraption that kept her arms up and as I held her hands she just looked at me and cried. They wanted her to cry so that she could take a breath as the did the x-ray. It was so awful to see her tear stricken face looking at me. She wanted me to get her out of it and I couldn't do anything. I felt so awful. But it was a good thing that we did the x-ray no matter how upset she was. The x-ray showed that she had a mild case of pneumonia. They gave her two shots of antibiotics and a prescription. Since she was able to hold down the juice, the doctor said she could have anything. She wanted to nurse so much so I finally nursed her and she fell asleep as we waited to make sure that she didn't have a reaction to the shots.

She was fine the rest of the day and was back to her old self. I am glad we caught the pneumonia early to treat it quickly. The ER wasn't so bad an experience but it is not a place I hope to visit again soon.

Our Angel

Three years ago, my sister-in-law, Tricia, was taken from us. She was taken too early by breast cancer. I miss her and it makes me sad that Baby Bear will never know her.

I was thinking of her this morning. As I was thinking of her something wonderful happened. Somehow she came to my rescue. I truly believe she was my angel to make things happen.

We have been preparing for our move next week and I have been trying to arrange for Baby Bear's care so that I can focus on the move. Trust me it will be so much easier if she is not here, she is a busy girl and will most likely get into everything that she is not supposed to. I had most days covered except for Thursday, which happens to be the day that we move most everything. I wasn't quite sure what we were going to do with Baby Bear. It would be a challenge to move with her around.

This morning, I got a call from Grandma Bear and her appointment that prevented her from taking Baby Bear was canceled! This all happened as I was thinking of Tricia. I started crying. Not sure if it was because I was thinking of Tricia or because of stress or maybe both. This really relieved me of some stress. Coincidence or not, I believe that Tricia was watching over us and helped to lift some stress from our lives. Thank you Tricia. I love you and I miss you.

When you turn your back...

This is what happens when you turn your back on Baby Bear...



She confiscates Papa Bear's netbook. But she is so cute doing it.

Santa baby

We went to go see Santa today. Baby Bear wasn't quite sure about this Santa character.



She didn't want to take pictures with him.



Mama Bear had to try and step in to show her that he wasn't too bad.





Baby Bear finally decided it was okay to look at the camera but did not crack a smile.



Oh well, maybe next year she won't be so weary of Santa.