Margo did not need prunes in June, but Cary still makes me swoon!

This month I watched my sweet Margo suffer her first illness with the most horrible stomach virus I have ever witnessed. Poor baby managed to catch a nasty bug at her nine month check-up. Since she is not in daycare, she is not exposed to anything and I am guessing that whatever she was licking off of the mirror in the exam room infected her with a vengeance. I know, as a mother, I should not have let her lick that mirror, but we had been waiting for at least 45 minutes and I just could not contain her anymore. I have been trying to be a little less sanitary, so Margo is exposed to a few germs and hoped that the mirror was sanitized after each visit. Clearly, the physician’s office is not as clean as it should be.

Margo’s bottle, food and everything in between went straight through her at least 15 times a day. We are now on day seven and she is still ill, but improving everyday and went the whole night without a dirty diaper or waking. You would not have known she was sick though, watching her laugh, play and eat as usual, except when it was time to change her diaper. Margo never cries, much less screams, and to endure daily screaming episodes up to 15 times a day was torture on my heart. She would shake in pain it hurt her little bottom so badly. We eventually started washing her in the sink each time which helped and thanks to Michelle, we were given the miracle cream, Resinol. If you are a mom with a child in diapers, buy this now to keep on hand. It is hard to find, so you must order it online in advance, but it has been a true Godsend. It is better than Margo’s prescription, better than Triple Paste, better than Dr. Smith’s, better than anything I have tried.

Sick, but happily playing under a chair.

So… back to that nine month appointment. Here are Margo’s stats:

Weight: 20 lbs. 6 oz. (75.57%)

Height: 27 1/4" (37%)

Head: 17.13" (34.17%)

She is clearly short and chunky… all you have to do is look at her adorable rolls to figure that out! The appointment went well and although Margo is still refluxing a lot, we have quit her meds. The MD just doesn’t think it will make a difference at this point, so why unnecessarily medicate? I desperately hope that by the time she is a year old, it will be gone. We were also referred to a pediatric dermatologist to look at the beauty mark on Margo’s face. It is tiny and I do think it is truly beautiful, but I just want to make sure the MD thinks it is ok, given I have a history of melanoma in my family. Otherwise, Margo is right on track and I am going to be introducing meats and other finger foods after her body is a bit more recovered.

Poor Cary spent his first Father’s Day helping me tend to Margo since it was a two-man job. He has proven over and over what a great dad he is, but during this extremely stressful time with Margo he was truly amazing! He was so loving, comforting and patient to both Margo and I. He woke-up without complaint, tended to her with perfect care and was a great support system for me. I must say, when the going gets tough, Cary and I are a great team! Margo is so lucky to have such an attentive, wonderful father.

The best daddy ever!

I too, am so blessed and lucky to have such an awesome husband in Cary. Today, Cary and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary! I cannot believe it has been a decade and what fun it has been! It is amazing how solid and bonded a relationship becomes after 10 years. Cary and I have experienced so much joy, pain, adventure, loss, triumph and struggles throughout the past decade, but one thing has always remained steady… our incredible love for one another. I would be lost without Cary and he truly makes my world go round. Cary loves me unconditionally because goodness knows, I have lots of “conditions”—ha ha! If I could write a definition of Cary, it would include kind, genuine, loyal, honest, funny, sentimental, determined and so many other awesome traits. Who wouldn’t still be madly in love with a man like that after 10 years? Becoming a parent with him this past year has taken our relationship to new heights and there is just about nothing more special that watching him be a father to Margo. I cannot wait to share in many more decades with the man of my dreams!

The day Margo was born, a great memory for our 9th year together!

Month Eight was Great!

Words cannot even express the fun we have been having in month eight. Margo’s little personality is really blossoming and she is such a hoot! Everyone who meets her says she is the best baby they have ever been around… she takes after Cary… we are so lucky!



This month Margo has learned to go from her belly to sitting and does this over and over. It is funny to go in her room and see her sitting up and holding the rails in her crib or standing. She is basically crawling, but will only go a few movements before she sits back up. Her new eagerness to stand and pull up is taking the focus off of the crawling and she now seems to enjoy sitting and standing more. We do not have any play areas where she can actually pull up onto something, but she has just started pulling up in her crib and uses Cary and I to pull up all the time. We do this over and over and she cries when we stop. I have to walk away and leave her to play alone because my arms get so tired of holding her up. So… we got one of those great sit-to-stand walker toys and she seems to really like it. The fact that it is on wheels though, and she is not ready to use it as a walker, requires careful supervision. She can pull up on it alone and it’s pretty cute to see her excitement at herself. She opens her mouth big and wide in awe!

I had also been getting concerned because Margo could roll over from her belly to her back, but could not go the other way, yet was hitting all of the other usual developmental milestones. FINALLY, this month she can roll from her back to her belly and now I know if she is fussing in bed, I can leave her to go to sleep because I know she can’t be stranded on her back!

Margo is an early riser, which is really hard for me, but she sleeps great… 10-11 hours a night. When we put her in bed, she plays for a few minutes and goes right to sleep usually without any problems. We have never had to battle crying it out, thank goodness, because I don’t think my heart could handle it. She also still loves to nap to a point that I am getting concerned that she is napping too much for her age. She naps three times a day for a total of 3-4 hours. It is hard to get out during the day because she will not nap on the run and we only have a few hours out at a time before she gets fussy. By bedtime around 7:00 pm, she is utterly exhausted. We cannot go out to eat or take her anywhere in the evenings because this is her fussiest (which is not really all that fussy) time of day. With her bath at 6:30 and bedtime following, it doesn’t allow of much of a life for us, but I know I am doing what’s best for her and that is my #1 priority.

Margo still does not have a tooth and poor thing has been teething for months now. She scratches the insides of her ears from tugging on them and has intermittent fussy days that I know are due to her teething. I will be so glad when she gets a tooth just so I can know how easy (hopefully) or hard it will be. I love that toothless grin though and will miss it when teeth do arrive. I have just started to introduce finger foods in the form of puffs. Margo didn’t know what to think of them at first, but loves them now and in a few short days learned to pick them up and put them in her mouth. Her pincher grasp is getting better each day! She is a great eater and I can barely seem to make enough food to keep up. Every few days I am making a new batch of something and she almost always likes it pretty well. I love that I can make her a huge variety of healthy choices and get her interested in so many different flavors. This week it is edamame, which is nutrition packed! As we move on to meats, I will probably buy the jarred stuff. There is just something gross about pureeing meat to me!

Margo is also making lots of new sounds. She purposely says “moo” to imitate a cow and has started saying ba ba ba. She is also forming a lot of other new sounds that sometimes make it sound like she is having her very own conversation with herself… wish I knew what was going through her mind.



This month we have introduced Margo to water play and our sweet little water baby just loves it! Her splash pad is a blast and she was so excited by swimming I could not believe it. She wasn’t even afraid to put her face in the pool. We will have to be paying our friends with pools lots of visits this summer! Her other favorite toys are the jump-a-roo and she still loves most of her old stand-bys. The new toys never seem quite as exciting as the old ones, which surprises me. I guess she is a creature of habit like her mama.



Margo also spent her first weekend away from us this month and did fantastic! GiGi and Grandpa watched her at our house, so she would have the comforts of all of her things and she didn’t even really miss us at all. Cary’s mom watches her once a week, so Margo was already familiar with her and I had the comfort of knowing that Georgie already knew how to handle everything. I definitely think the weekend was harder on me than Margo, but it was also nice to have a break.

Margo & GiGi

Things with our sweet Margo could not be better and we are so lucky in love with our precious angel! I cannot believe she will be one-year old in just three short months. Let the party planning begin!!

In Month Seven, Margo's Great Grandpa went to Heaven

Margo’s seventh month has been a bit hectic for us. Cary lost his beloved grandfather to cancer and we were all so sad to see him leave this great earth. Someone (I think Jesus) came for him on the day he died as he repeatedly asked to be lifted up and was looking and reaching to the sky. It is comforting to me to know that God is so good to us in our final hours. Cary’s family is small, so I am grateful that Margo got the chance to meet her very special great grandfather, if only briefly. We will treasure the precious birdhouses and piggy bank he made her forever. I have no doubt that Grandpa Lorance is watching over her now.



At the same time that Cary’s grandfather was ill, we were running into some childcare complications. I will spare you the details, but it has been stressful, dramatic and frustrating. We were scrambling to find some alternative childcare and had an open slot at the daycare we originally picked for Margo. Unfortunately, as soon as I learned they were not allowed to put her to sleep on her tummy, that option was done. Margo cannot sleep on her back and is a very sensitive sleeper in general, but I do understand the daycare’s position. It all worked out and my amazing and generous sister gave up her day to let us use her wonderful (although expensive) nanny, Maria, on Mondays. Margo took to Maria wonderfully and things are going well. Cary’s mom and my mom are each still watching her one day a week and I just hope things will continue to work out in this way for a while because we need a mental break from stress and drama. The set-up is not ideal with Margo having three caregivers, but I am at least hoping it will help her to be more flexible.

Thank goodness for our dear, Margo. Seeing her face melts away the stress and our time with her in month seven has been such a joy! Margo is sitting up like a champ and has become much more interactive with her toys. It is so much fun to watch her turn, move and inspect things with her hands. She can push buttons and knows what she is doing, she loves to throw toys and wants it all in her mouth. She, of course, loves our cell phones and glasses and has the sweetest, funniest reaction to some of her favorite toys. She has begun to get up on her knees and rock and she is scooting backwards. I keep trying to show her how to crawl to her toys, but she hasn’t quite got it yet. You can tell she thinks it is pretty cool to be up on her knees though, which is so cute. I suspect she will be fully crawling in a few weeks—let the childproofing begin!

Margo still has not cut a tooth. This doesn’t bother me except for the fact that she has been actively teething and having discomfort for more than three months. I keep thinking a tooth is going to be coming in at anytime, but it never does. As you can see, Margo loves to eat!! She hasn’t fully rejected any food I have offered her except avocado and green beans are not a favorite. I have discovered that if I mix anything she doesn’t really favor with cereal, she will eat it, so I am still managing to get a her a nutritious and well rounded diet. I love making her food and take so much pride in knowing that it is fresh, organic and free of chemicals and preservatives… plus it saves a ton of money! The reflux is still the darn reflux and I am so sick of it I could just cry. I know we are getting closer to the end of the line with this battle and I cannot wait until I do not have to clean-up spit up everywhere. Our new carpet is practically ruined, my clothes are stained and I am so sick of changing the sheets almost daily. She is happy though and that is what matters most.

For Easter, Margo got a new swing outside and she loves it. She loves being outside and especially enjoys looking up at the trees. I think she could sit in her swing for hours and if she is ever cranky, it is the perfect activity to settle her. Margo is sleeping great overall and naps fairly well and sleeps around 11 hours a night. I keep trying to make her bedtime a little later so she might sleep a half hour later, but her little body knows and is already well programmed—bed time is 7 pm—even if she has a later nap. If I try to push it beyond that, she has major meltdowns and cannot finish her bottle from falling asleep. Pre-Margo I loved nothing more than sleeping in. It has most certainly been one of my hardest pleasures to give up, but so worth my sweet angel baby. On Mother’s Day Cary let me sleep in, which was wonderful. Even better was when I came out of the bedroom and she started jumping up and down when she saw me. I have never seen her quite so excited to see me and it was truly the best Mother’s Day gift I could have ever imagined!

Margo is definitely a little angel. She is so happy all the time, smiles, laughs and talks away all day. She dislikes being left to play alone, which is my fault, but other than that she could not be more perfect! To say that I love her is a true understatement. There really is no greater joy than being a mother. I love our little family and thank the good Lord for our many blessings each and every day.

Margo Learned New Tricks in Month Six!

A lot has happened since I wrote this post and never managed to get it posted anywhere near Margo's seven month birthday. So... I am going to go ahead and post without pictures since most of you see them on facebook anyway and I was a picture posting fool this month. Please pray for Cary's family as they face the loss of his beloved grandfather this past week and a very Happy Easter to all!

Margo’s sixth month was so much fun and I cannot believe how quickly she is growing. In month six, her biggest milestone was sitting on her own. She is really steady and can sit by herself for several minutes. It was amazing how one day she couldn’t sit, the next she could and it just improved dramatically each day from there. I cannot walk away from her though, in case she rears back and hits her head, but she can sit and play with the boppy around her while I do chores for a good 15 minutes before becoming impatient or uncomfortable! It is so much fun to see her sit like a big girl and to be able to play with her things more easily. She is not even close to crawling yet, but is starting to make progress in a backwards motion, so I hope she will get motivated to start going forward soon, although then that means I have to start child proofing.

Margo has also become especially fascinated with her feet. She plays with them constantly and with a lot of effort can get them into her mouth. Maybe she will be a flexible little gymnast like me—Cary claims she has my muscular legs, although in looking at her chubbiness I am not sure how I feel about that—ha ha! Margo’s dexterity with her hands is growing and she can easily pass one object between them and has even exhibited a bit of a pincher grasp. She is eating her solids pretty well and has started to favor fruits over vegetables, so I am going to have to work on that.

She is still sleeping through the night like a champ, thank goodness, but is really becoming challenging during naps. She is becoming more aware of me being at home with her and is starting to protest even when I sit in her chair to rock. Inevitably, this means I am going to have to start the dreaded crying it out. Since her reflux is improving, I think we can do it during the day, but I will still have to hold her upright and rock her at night because bedtime throw-ups are still a big issue. Oddly enough, her naps with her grandmothers and Cary are not as difficult, so clearly I am doing something wrong or she just loves me and wants to be with me more. I choose the latter… ha!

On her reflux, it is definitely getting better. We discontinued one of her medications this month and I do not notice much of a difference. We had to taper down her solid feedings because she was throwing up a lot and I think it was too much. In one week, we had huge bedtime throw-ups in her bed every night, which wake her up, require us to clean her face, move her around, etc… It is such a pain. Otherwise, it is the usual daily spit-ups that are sometimes better/worse than others. It is really variable, but I am starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnel. I can’t wait until Margo does not have to wear bibs constantly and be covered with a burp cloth!

On another front, Cary and I are having some childcare challenges with no good long-term solution, so I am asking for everyone’s prayer in this matter. Details to follow later, but we are starting to worry about a few months from now so pray God points us down the right path toward the best solution for us and our sweet Margo.

Otherwise, Margo continues to thrive and is just amazing. She has got to be the happiest, smiliest, sweetest baby on earth—at least in Mommy’s eyes—and we are so blessed by her presence in our lives. I could not love her more!

Grateful...

As I just held Margo for 20 minutes and rocked her gently to sleep this afternoon, I felt so incredibly grateful... grateful for my time with her on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and I got to thinking of all the things I am so grateful for:

• Being able to work part-time and have more quality time with my Margo. It is time I truly treasure!
• Having an amazing mom and mother-in-law who provide excellent care for Margo on the days I work.
• My incredible husband who is a huge help around the house and in the care of Margo. She is so lucky to have such a wonderful and dedicated father.
• That two of my beloved grandparents are still alive and healthy.
• For my beautiful siblings and their precious families. My relationship with them makes my life so much fuller.
• For the cardinal that sang me and Margo a sweet sweet song this morning.
• For the walk we took under a gorgeous blue sky.
• For the amazing oak trees in my yard.
• For the opportunity to lunch with three of my dear friends this week.
• That I have energy enough to make a wholesome meal tonight.
• That I managed to lose all my pregnancy weight in six months.
• For the best dad a girl could ever ask for!
• That I have faith in God and this gives me peace and contentment in life.
• For the way Margo smiles at me.
• For Margo's beautiful laughter.
• For Margo, for Margo, for Margo... my dream come true! She truly makes my life complete!

Afterall, wouldn't you be grateful if you got to hold this sweet angel in your arms each day?

As I look at this list, I realize that none of these things that I am grateful for are material in nature. They are all God given gifts that have an infinite price tag. It helps me to remember that money, wealth, and the things I often wish I had mean nothing in the grand scheme of things and that those things truly cannot buy me happiness.

Our Sweet Buttercup's Six-month Check-Up‏

Margo’s six month check-up was about two weeks after her six-month birthday and everything went well. If you haven’t noticed, Margo is a little chunk! Her stats are:

Weight: 17 lbs 14 oz. at 79%
Height: 25 ¾” at 45%
Head at 54% (her head is finally getting bigger!)

The main thing we discussed at the appointment was her reflux and solids. While the reflux continues to slowly improve, it is still an issue. The doctor thinks that the more solids we feed with less formula and once she fully sits on her own, it will help. Because she is a “happy refluxer” and doesn’t appear to have discomfort, in two weeks we are discontinuing one of her medications—yaay, and then will discontinue Prevacid in a month or so. I cannot wait to be done with meds!

On her solids, we will continue her regular morning and bedtime bottles, but reduce her three daytime bottle to 4 oz. The doctor does not want her to consume more than 20-25 oz. per day and she is currently drinking about 30. She will have fruit and oatmeal for breakfast, fruit and veggie for lunch and veggie and cereal for dinner. She has taken pretty well to solids so far, so I hope this works well.

Since I am making my own food and she will be significantly increasing her intake, I have a lot of work to do. This week I made peas and peaches. This weekend I am going to make green beans, mangoes, butternut squash (if I can still find it in season), pears and carrots. With the stuff I already have made, she will have five of each veggie and fruit to choose from, so I feel I will have a good variety.

The doctor said Margo’s gums are swollen and I should expect her first teeth in a few weeks. I knew it was coming because she has been grabbing her ears, rubbing her eyes excessively and of course drooling, chewing on everything, etc… I will be anxious to see how Margo reacts to getting her first teeth. I hope she doesn’t have too much discomfort.

Poor Margo did not respond well to her shots this time. Margo is an extremely happy baby, so it wasn’t too bad in normal standards, but in Margo standards she did not feel well at all. She had a low-grade fever for about 24 hours, had no appetite and slept a lot. I am sooooo glad she doesn’t have to get shots at the 9-month appointment!!

On a funny note, Margo has recently discovered that she can scream—REALLY LOUD—very high pitched and at the top of her lungs. She thinks it is very funny and does it periodically throughout the day when she is playing. She decided it would be cool to scream at her appointment for the doctor and did it several times. It was pretty funny!

If you are on facebook, you can see that I am obsessed with posting new pictures of Margo. She is so much fun and I love putting her in new clothes and snapping photos. It is really a bit out of control—ha! If you are not on facebook, here are some recent cute ones. She’s amazing!

Our Squirrel Friend is on the Mend

On Sunday morning, the most adorable little baby squirrel was on our patio and seemed very weak, but was moving and fully furred with its eyes open. I called a wildlife rescue and they suggested that we leave her outside for the day to see if the momma could coax her back into the tree. Sweet baby Chester did follow it’s momma to the base of the tree twice, but was too small to get up the tree and too big for momma to carry it. It spent the afternoon sleeping in a ball among the grass and leaves. As evening neared, Chester came back to the patio and I took at as a sign that she needed refuge.
We prepared a box lined with burp cloths and I easily picked up Chester who quickly fell asleep in the corner. She was fed a bit of water every few hours with a syringe and she tried to munch on some bread crumbs and an asparagus spear. She slept in the box on our bathroom counter under a heating pad and I was pleased to see that she made it through the night.

Cary dropped her off at the wildlife rescue center the next day and they said she was very healthy and would be okay. It was there that we found out Chester was a she and learned that she was only 4-5 weeks old, poor baby. They were very friendly and will include us in email updates and we can attend her release back into the wild in about 12 weeks.

I am so glad that the sweet little squirrel will make a full recovery and have a great chance at life. All of God’s creatures, large and small, are special and deserve to be comforted and cared for. I am happy we could make the tiniest bit of difference in Chester’s little life.

The wildlife rescue is in need of volunteers and they were wonderfully helpful. If you are interested, please visit http://wrande.org/