I might have a favorite Liardon kid....

Shhh...I know I'm not supposed to have a favorite. I tried...really, but I just can't help it. Before Disney a certain curly haired red one held a special place in my heart, but after seven days with this five year old I am smitten.

Look at the shear excitement on her face as the plane was about to take off.

She is pure joy to be around.

She is thankful for whatever happiness occurs in her day.

She is a very pretty princess.(They all were....we had the prettiest princesses at the ball)

She is an awesome picture taker.

She plays well with everyone.

She and my nephew are the sweetest children to Graysen.

Little G is very smitten as well.

I was so honored to be her ride pal on our trip. She would occasionally allow other people to join our space too.

She is a champion lollipop sucker. Such determination to finish.

I feel very blessed to know a child with such an awesome personality. She is beautiful on the inside and out and I hope she teaches Graysen a thing or two.

Teething, stomach bug, growth spurt, and a cold=no sleep insanity

This was my birthday, October 16th. It was the last time I was well. It wasn't the best birthday and it certainly hasn't been all that great since then. Shawn is getting the short stick on that whole in sickness and in health thing. He probably wants to trade me in for a new model. I don't blame him. He has also had to deal with getting whatever Graysen and I have so our family is just wishing for a healthy Christmas.

We both had a version of a cold from mid October through mid November. The week before we went to Disney Graysen got it too, as well as a stomach bug. She gave the stomach bug to Shawn on the day we left for Disney, and I had it the day we flew home and Thanksgiving Day. I managed to get her dressed before crawling back in bed. Shawn went to his Dad's and I spent the day in bed.
Thanksgiving week was the worst week we had with her. She was teething, getting over the stomach bug, enjoying a new strain of a cold, and attempting to have a growth spurt. Do you know how hard it is to drink 49 ozs in one day with a cold? The nights were spent in hour long trade-offs with her. She seemed to only be happy being held upright. One morning I wearily climbed out of bed to take my turn and saw this on our couch. They seemed so comfortable and I know they didn't mind the extra hour of sleep I got out of it too.
We hoped she would be on a schedule by this age but there seems to be no sign of consistency in our future. I am hopeful things will improve as we get better. She still has a stuffy nose and we both still have coughs. She is very happy during the day and that smile can get you through some rough nights.

Mommy and Daddy's First Trip Away

Shawn and I went on our first trip away the weekend before last. It was much harder to leave Graysen than I thought it would be. There might have been a tear or two shed, but once I was on the plane I started to relax and enjoy myself. We needed the time away to enjoy each other's company and spend time with friends. We headed out to Napa and Sonoma for our "Annual" food and wine festival. When I say annual, I mean 2nd time in 3 years. We do intend to go next year.We started the first morning at Cakebread for a private group wine tasting. The weather was perfect and the scenery beautiful.


We moved on to Far Niente and had a great time there too..



Some people enjoyed the non-wine drinkers tasting too.
It was time for an afternoon picnic..

and storytelling by Brian
We ended the day with boche ball at another winery.
The next day we started the food and wine festival. You purchase a ticket that is good for about 60 wineries in Sonoma over a two day time period. Every winery serves food and does a tasting.


Shawnathan enjoying the view.

The ladies in other groups really liked Shawn. He was asked to take pictures by MANY people. Maybe they knew he was our designated driver and not enjoying the wine....
It was a great weekend with friends..
great scenery...
and good wine...
We hated stepping off that plane into the Houston heat and humidity but we were ready to be home and see our baby girl.

The Obligatory Halloween Picture Post

I really wanted to do something fun, creative, and Daddy made for her first Halloween but time got away from us and we ended up piecing something together. She turned out to be a cute little ladybug.

You can't tell at all we got home from the ER at 3 a.m the night before.

We trick or treated with these cuties (I mean scary zombies and a menacing Bam-Bam)

Our First ER Visit

We had our first ER visit on the night before Halloween. Shawn and I went to the Texans game on Sunday and were on our way to get pumpkin cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory when my Granny called to tell me Graysen had been throwing up. When we got home and saw what she had been doing for the last hour (projectile vomiting EVERYWHERE is a better description) I decided to take her to the ER by our house to have her checked out. I wasn't that worried until they put her on the scale and it said 15lbs. She had weighed 15lbs 2 ozs had her doctor's appointment SEVEN weeks before so it caused me to panic. When Shawn went to pick her up from the scale she turned very pale and stopped moving. The Doctor started shouting "I don't think she is breathing," and kept telling Shawn to stimulate her over and over again. They had us run with her to the back room and they got her on oxygen. Everyone from the office was in the room and they couldn't have made it more dramatic for an already frazzled set of parents. Her color returned after a minute on the oxygen and then the fun really started. They told us they needed to put an IV in her and get fluids going. I agreed with that. When he told me they might not be able to give her a regular IV and might have to put it in her femoral artery I looked at him and told him there was no way that was going to happen and they needed to find a vein. They did. Then he told me that might need to catheterize her to get a urine sample. I let him know that wouldn't be happening either. Then he said because he thought she had stopped breathing she needed to go to Texas Children's by ambulance. What!!! I haven't even had to call the pediatrician in our 5 1/2 months so far and the one time she is sick we have to go by AMBULANCE to a hospital 45 minutes away. I didn't have much choice so they came to get her. It was by far the most heartbreaking thing to witness. She made it all so much easier. She smiles through everything. After they got the IV in her and she calmed down, she just kept looking at us and trying to smile through her tiredness.

When we finally made it to the hospital the first thing they did was weigh her and she was 18lbs 4 ozs so the scale at the ER was wrong. Yes, I did go over there and let the office know in a very nice, calm way the next day. I can not believe they would have a scale off by that much. It made both of us so scared and nervous when we saw it say 15lbs.

We had to do lab work and an EKG and everything came back great. The basic assumption Texas Children's came too was she got dehydrated from throwing up so much in such a short time period. We are leaving today for our first trip away and it was all I thought about on the way home from the adventure. I am thankful she is in good hands but that wasn't what we needed the weekend before.

We were planning on adding some things to her costume that night but it didn't happen. She was still a cute little ladybug the next day and I will post those pics when we get back from Napa.