Poor Delia

Poor Delia has had a cold off and on for over a month now. About two weeks ago, she had an elevated white count that ended up being a virus (although it was really annoying to have to go to the doctor's office 3 days in a week for a finger prick). She has actually been in a pretty good mood considering her runny nose and cough. With Jacob coming to visit for Thanksgiving and her cough sounding worse, I decided to take her into the doctor on Tuesday afternoon. Good thing I trusted my mother's intuition because Delia was wheezing. She needed a nebulizer (breathing) treatment in the doctor's office. What is a breathing treatment? I had to hold a mask on her face for 10 minutes while she breathed in the medicine. She screamed and fought me the ENTIRE time, so needless to say, both of us were exhausted by the end. I also had to rent a nebulizer for a week and give her breathing treatments 3-4 times a day. Delia was a trooper and she's doing much better now. She still has a runny nose and a cough, but it sounds better than it did before. Hopefully this is all of our drama for a while...

I managed to take one picture of Delia during her breathing treatments.

Thumb

Although Allison actually witnessed this series of events; she chose not to write about it; you'll understand why. So here it is via instant message that I received:

Allison: Hey, you there?

John: Yup

Allison: So JGray just came out of the bathroom and told me that his thumb smelled like poop

John: Huh?

Allison: Exactly, so I asked him why his thumb smelled like poop and he responded 'Well Mommy, its because I put my thumb in my butt'

John: LOL, Why did he do that?

Allison: He told me that it fit there.

In summary, while I am hard at work all day my son is just sitting around with his thumb up his butt. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come.

10 Months Old!

Delia is 10 months old! 5/6 of a year. Incredible. It's funny to think that she's so close to being a year old. I feel like she's been with us forever but then I have to remind myself that she wasn't here for the holidays last year. I've been trying to find a cute Christmas outfit for her, but the largest sizes they have are 9 months. I guess they assume that any kids wearing 12 month clothes were around for the holiday last year :-) I'm starting to get a little nervous about Christmas with a busy little one around the house. I think we might have some good stories this year. Hopefully Delia doesn't decide to climb the Christmas tree!

At 10 months, Delia is:

*WALKING! Yes, the little girl is walking. She started walking about a week before her 10 month birthday. Right now the steps are relatively tentative. She'll walk between John and I (up to 5 or 6 steps at a time). She could probably walk a lot better if she didn't spend so much time bouncing! It must be hard to get your balance to walk when you're jumping up and down.

*Has 2 teeth! About a week ago, the second tooth on the bottom popped through. They're both still pretty hard to see unless you pull down her lip to look for them, but they're there.

*Is happy. People who meet her always comment on how happy and smiley she is. They also ask if she's always like this. The answer is yes. With a few exceptions (like going to the doctor), Delia is one of the happiest little kids you'll meet. She loves to laugh and smile and play.

*Loves to eat. This girl is an eating machine. She's on finger foods now and will eat almost anything you give her. Her favorite foods are fruits--bananas, peaches, pears, melon. She also loves cheese.

*Has rhythm. As soon as you put any music on, she immediately starts to move and bounce and shake. She's been taking a music class this fall and absolutely loved it.

*Causes trouble. We've had to start closing the bathroom door (which is a challenge with a potty trained 3 year old) because I've found Delia playing in the toilet bowl. Lovely. Thank goodness John Grayson remembers to flush, most of the time. We've also found her in the dog bowl. Her newest trick is climbing the stairs. Yes, at 10 months, Delia can climb the stairs. This morning I followed her on one of her "adventures" and just let her keep going (normally I stop her before she even gets to the stairs). Well, she climbed 6 stairs (on her way to catch JGray) before I stopped her. Ugh, I think it's time to find those baby gates!

*Is quite the talker. I'm pretty sure I've heard her say "All Done". Mom, Da Da and Ba Ba (for JGray) are staples in her vocabulary. I've also heard "Dus" (for Dusty) and other words that usually sound frighteningly close to what I've just said to her. It's probably only a matter of time before she busts out in full sentences.

*Waves hi and bye bye. There tends to be a lag between you say it and the waving starts, but it's a full arm motion once she gets going.


Delia, you are a ray of sunshine in our lives. You have become such a sweet little lady and you're only 10 months old. I cannot wait to see what fun you have in store for us in the months and years to come!

Delia's Baptism Weekend

Last weekend was Delia's baptism, and we were lucky enough for Grandma and Grandpa to be able to travel from Naperville to spend a few days with us. Delia loved being the center of attention for a day and even seemed to enjoy wearing her pretty white dress. She was good during mass and smiled throughout the baptism ceremony. Her godparents are Oli Billcheck (one of my good college friends) and Bill McGuire (one of John's good buddies here in Richmond). We were so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family to share this special day with us!

Here are some pictures from the day:











Saturday morning John and I ran the Richmond Half Marathon. It was our first big race since Delia was born and we both did really well. I finished in 1:54 and John finished in 1:56. The half marathon course was the same as the second half the marathon course, and it was definitely a relief to know that we didn't have to run 26 miles!

Apple Picking

A little over a week ago we took our annual apple picking pilgrimage to Carter Mountain Orchard outside of Charlottesville. This year we showed up a little later in the season so our favorites, the Pink Ladies, were already picked over. That being the case we had to settle for picking our second favorite, the Fuji apples.

The folks at Carter Mountain must believe (or know as they are likely apple growing experts) that Fuji apples do better at higher elevations. After a few apple cider doughnuts at the ‘Apple Barn’ and climbed our way up to what must be the highest point in the Charlottesville area (I don’t know this as a fact, but evidenced by the large number of cell towers, radio, and TV towers placed among the Fuji apple trees, it was quite high.

Our journey was well worth it. We had never seen such an amazing amount of fruit being grown by these trees. There were so many apples that most of the time John Grayson was able walk right up and grab them himself. That was until he told Daddy that the better ones were obviously higher on the tree so he would need my help getting them. This year we limited ourselves to just a couple bags of apples as it took us months to consume the 50lbs of Pink Ladies from last year picking. After walking down the mountain and picking up a gallon of cider, our day at the orchard concluded.

Here are some pictures from our morning at the orchard:

First Steps.....Maybe

MaMa spent the afternoon at home with Delia and I while the boys were at the University of Richmond football game. A few minutes before bedtime, MaMa and I saw Delia take a couple of steps toward her toy bin. Or at least we think we saw it. Does it count if Delia didn't do it intentionally????

Halloween and Fighting Foo

This year Halloween was nearly a month long celebration (in fact most holidays and birthdays are becoming a month long celebration, but that is another story). John Grayson received his Super-Man costume in late September and proceeded to wear so frequently that it was beginning to have holes and wear in the knees and elbows. Most importantly, at least to John Grayson, was the fact that he was keenly aware of the fact that people at other houses would give him candy upon his request. We practiced our ‘Trick-or-Treats’ and ‘thank you’s quite a bit leading up to the big day.

On Halloween Day we were able to get John Grayson and Delia to pose for a few pictures. As both are in that squirmish age (3mos – 6 years) it took nearly 50 photos to capture a few good ones. Thank goodness for digital cameras. While Delia was unbelievably cute in her Kangaroo costume, she did not wear it that long as it was nearly 80 degrees this year. That costume is much better suited for the Midwestern Halloweens I had growing up (snow and freezing temperatures).

When the time finally came to ‘trick-or-treat’ John Grayson rushed out of the house, but then became quite pensive as he started to approach each house. While he was fully prepared to have somebody give him candy, he was not prepared for those people to make it a scary experience. Thankfully most of our neighbors recognized the fear in his eyes as he approached their homes and did not scare him too much. After hitting maybe 15 homes in 20 minutes, JGray decided he was done and wanted to go home.

We sat on the porch handing out candy to all of the other kids for about an hour when John Grayson then announced, ‘Ok Daddy, I’m ready to get more candy’. As the rest of the neighborhood began to wind down, John Grayson and I headed out again (this time it was raining a bit) to get more candy. For the next half hour we went from house to house, this time much more bold in our endeavor, and ended up with quite the bounty of candy. It was far past his bedtime when we finished, but I figured that day light savings time would more than make up for a little ‘bad’ parenting.

Here are some pictures from Halloween:

The boys were in charge of carving the jack-o-lantern

While the boys were busy carving, Delia played with the pumpkin "guts"

John and JGray's scary pumpkin

Delia, the kangaroo, and Daddy before trick-or-treating

JGray was a very handsome Superman

Mommy with Superman and her little kangaroo

Much inspired by his time as Superman, he continued to fight many forms of evil, including Foo. The other night I was playing some music and I told him the band was the Foo Fighters, he proceeded to show me how he would fight Foo. While it was a quick fight, the celebration was priceless.