Let the countdown begin!!!!!! Just one more day and Sophia and I will be home relaxing with the family, getting ready for Thanksgiving! The great news is that Sophia is almost 100%. I was able to snap this picture of her yesterday morning before breakfast. You know she's feeling better when she can be a big goofball before 7am! :) The past couple of days have been really good for her, getting lots of rest and letting this virus get out of her system. The bad news is as much as I've been coughed on, sneezed on, drooled on and the likes...I've got a scratchy throat and what feels like the beginnings of a cold. All I've got to do is make it through the flight tomorrow and I'll have my mama to take care of me for a little bit. I'm thrilled. I can't wait! I miss everyone so much being out here on the left coast and have been looking forward to Thanksgiving for so long. It'll make the emptiness of not having Chris home a little easier and before Sophia and I know it, we'll have Dad home and ready for 2010!!!! :) Happy Thanksgiving everyone! While you are all enjoying the holiday with family and friends, remember the service men and women who won't have that this year. Say an extra prayer for them at your Thanksgiving table as I know we will. Love to you all!

So it's been a rough couple of days for Sophia. On Wednesday night, Sophia developed this dry, seal-like cough that kept her up pretty much all night. I knew that Sophia had a doctor's appointment scheduled for Friday but seeing her worsen throughout the early morning on Thursday, I called and managed to get her seen a day early. The nurse practitioner checked her ears (which were clear and healing nicely) and after taking a listen to her chest called in the Doctor for a second opinion on her cough/breathing. At this point Sophia was crying constantly and you could tell that her cough was causing her extreme pain. The doctor came in, asked some questions and told me that he believed Sophia had 'croup' and wanted to discuss options as far as medication. Croup is a virus and virus' cannot be treated with antibiotics however he went on to tell me that they were worried about Sophia's airways because of the way that she was breathing. The poor thing was clearly struggling to breathe and you could hear her sitting across the room. To prevent further swelling and to hopefully reduce some of the inflammation on her airway, Sophia was given a steroid injection of dexamethasone and monitored for a reaction to the steroid. The doctor then sent us to have x-rays taken of her chest and throat to make sure that her lungs were clear. The x-rays in and of itself I think were the worst part of the day. My poor Sophia. While waiting to be seen, Sophia fell asleep on my shoulder and I had to wake her to sit on a cold, heavy piece of machinery and take torturous pictures. To make matters worse, there were two young guys taking the x-rays and as you can imagine, they didn't have the soothing voice of a pediatrician to keep Sophia calm. We finally finished, headed back to the doctor's and made a follow-up appointment for the next day. I was told that croup usually is at it's worst the first two or three nights and the doctor predicted that we were on day two. We came home ready for a long night and after a quick outing in the crisp night air to loosen her cough, we picked up a humidifier and settled in for a little bit of sporadic sleep. Last night was a lot better than the night before and Sophia was in MUCH better spirits this morning. The doctor saw her today and was very pleased with her progress. He also took a little time to talk with me and tell me what a great mom I was and that I should be proud of myself. It's funny how that sort of compliment never gets old. As a mom, it's almost as if we feel our child's pain with them and seeing them hurt is like 10 million knives in our heart. At that moment, my exhaustion seemingly disappeared and I revelled in the fact that my daughter was thriving under my care. It was just what I needed and I believe that God gave me that Doctor today for a reason. Sophia is on the mend and sleeping soundly for now. I hope for an easier day for her tomorrow and a speedy recovery for Thanksgiving with the family. Please keep the little angel in your prayers!

How's this for a Saturday night!? My how the times have changed!

Sophia hasn't been her usual self lately. I sensed that she had the beginnings of a cold seeing that her sleep patterns were all off and she had a runny, stuffy nose. It is that time of year with lots of viruses going around so I anticipated a low-key weekend with lots of rest and plenty of fluids. However, after her nap on Saturday Sophia woke up screaming, yanking and tugging at her left ear. My first thought was one of panic because it was Saturday and I knew I couldn't make her an appointment with our family medicine doctor until at LEAST Monday. Even then there was no guaruntee that I'd get an appointment for her first thing Monday morning with how jam packed the military health care system is these days. If this was an ear infection, the sooner I got her on antibiotics the better! I remember from when I was a kid that ear infections could go from bad to worse sometimes as quickly as overnight. There was no way I was going to take the chance of that happening so I made a quick call to my Mom for advice, gave her some motrin to reduce the swelling in her ear, and drove off to the ER expecting a longgggg night. Luckily, the motrin seemed to do the trick and I had a semi-pleasant toddler for the almost 3 hours we waited at the Naval Hospital. I figured that with symptoms of an ear infection on top of having a toddler that was smiling and responsive in the waiting room, we would be one of the last ones to see a doctor but I didn't have a problem with that. My goal was to get a diagnosis on her ear and get her on antibiotics before the pain got any worse. When I was a kid I had the most excruciating ear infections. I would get them every time I had a cold or a sinus infection and at times was put on vicodin for the pain. I got really good at detecting them because the earlier I would notice and get on medicine, the less painful the ear infections were. I guess Sophia gets my lovely, infection prone ears but the good news is, with my experience as a kid (AND my amazing nurse Mom who has the answer to EVERYTHING) I know how to detect these suckers! It was interesting to see Sophia deal with not feeling well. Other than a cold here and there, her most significant cold/ear infection around the time she was one, she's been very healthy. Now that she is almost two, Sophia is much more verbal and more aware of her body parts which helped me identify what was hurting her and find a solution. She's on a five day course of antibiotics and has a follow-up appointment with our family medicine doctor on Friday to make sure that her ears are clear for our flight to Virginia. I feel like I've dodged a bullet. Although Sophia hasn't been 100%, we were able to steer clear of the intense pain ear infections can bring and have an enjoyable lazy Sunday together. She's been a trooper...taking her medicines, eating lots of healthy foods and of course lots of snuggle time with Mama. Not too long until she'll get cuddles from Dad too and I'll have a partner to keep our little one healthy!

Usually when I call home to talk to Mom or Dad by the end of the conversation Sophia is practically yanking the phone from my ear to say hi to everyone too. Sometimes Sophia is quiet and barely says a word but other times she's miss chatty Cathy! Here she is today gabbing away to Papa! Fifteen minutes later, she had moved into her room and was still talking but had put Papa on mute so he couldn't hear a thing. What I got a huge kick out of was the fact that while talking to Papa she proceeded to go get her purse to put on her shoulder, put on my flip flops and put on her Daddy's cover. See what I mean about making me laugh!!! Very cute if you ask me! :)
She's still talking! Notice the cell phone in the picture below that she had muted at this point! I'm sure Papa didn't mind! ;)

I can't get over how much Sophia makes me laugh. I mean, you know those moments during the day when you're doing one thing after another and you could really use a break? It is in these moments that Sophia makes me laugh. Take for instance today...as I was filling up the puppies' food bowls I saw Sophia out of the corner of my eye sneak up to the bowl and scoop up a few pieces of dog food. What her obsession is with that stuff, I'll never understand but clearly it is not something that I like her to get into. When I asked Sophia what she was doing and what she had in her hands, she proceeded to stick her two fists behind her back, look at me with this innocent look and say..."Where'd it go? Where'd it go?" in the most adorable way possible. Kind of the same expression she had in the picture where she's holding my milk glass which is another one of hew new obsessions...drinking out of a 'big girl cup'. I know, I know...I'm her Mama, I've got to stick my foot down and be FIRM so of course I snatched the dog food out of her hands, had a talk with her about leaving the "yum, yums" for the puppies and we continued on with our morning. After doing different odds and ends around the house, like any other typical Saturday morning without Chris around, I find Sophia with a bunch
of her toys in Mama and Dada's bed. I just couldn't resist snapping a few pictures. My favorite is the one where she's pretending to sleep...with one eye cracked open! :) I told Chris today on the phone that one of Sophia's favorite things to do is get up on the bed with me and all the puppies and pretend to go 'night, night'. :)
She'll tap the spot next to her on the bed, fold the covers down for me and we'll snuggle together as she says 'night, night' and closes her eyes. Ah, it is in the moments like this that I am forced to take life a little less seriously and remember to laugh every chance I can get. Isn't it funny how a one and half year old can teach you so much about life and make you feel like you are their whole world. If that's not a reason to smile, I don't know what is. :)

Thanks to Carolyn, I've finally figured out a way to make a slideshow of all of my pictures and post them onto our blog! I'm so excited because I usually have so many great shots of Sophia to choose from and now you can see them all! :) I hope you like this first show from the Pumpkin Patch! Happy November to everyone!

Just a quick shout out to Uncle Chris!

Usually, I'm not a huge fan of watching sports on TV and baseball really is the only sport that I can stomach for long periods of time. But hey, these days I could use any sort of extra excitement in my life so I've been following the Yankees since their series with the Angels. Last night while watching the Yankees SMOKE the Phillies to win the world series Sophia was cheering 'GO, GO, GO YANKEES' along with me! It was cute really...first she just copied me yelling at one of the Yankees to make it to second but then she started doing it on her own. It made me think of my amazingly talented little brother who is well on his way to BIG THINGS in his life! One day he'll be playing with these guys and he'll have his little cheerleader telling HIM to 'GO, GO, GO Uncle Chris'! I can't wait! We're rooting for ya Uncle Chris!!!

Friendship soothes the soul!

Is Halloween more fun with kids or is it just me? What is more fun than pumpkin patches, and petting zoo's and free candy!? On Friday, Misha and I took Sophia to her first pumpkin patch in La Jolla. Not only were there loads of pumpkins to choose from but a ton of rides and slides and even a petting zoo which we of course had to check out first. As you can see in the picture, Sophia was not timid or shy at all. She loves all kind of animals and I had no doubt that being able to pet them and interact with them would be a huge hit. Next we were on to blowup house and blowup slides where Sophia bounced off the rest of her energy and allowed Misha and I to get some cute pictures for Dad. I would say that was the only downside to this day out with Sophia. I was more aware than ever that Chris wasn't here and I saw a glimpse of what it was going to be like for Thanksgiving and Christmas. In emails, Chris mentioned to me many, many times how badly he wished he could have seen her in the petting zoo and how cute she looked next to all of the huge pumpkins. Imagine only getting to see pictures of the ones you love the most in life and hoping that they have fun without you? That's true sacrifice and I tell Sophia that all the time.

Halloween was soon upon us and after a lazy day of getting our candy and decorations together, it was time for Sophia to finally get into her gorgeous angel costume! Once we started trick-or-treating, she had absolutely no idea what was going on which was kind of funny thinking about how strange Misha and I must have looked asking for candy! We went to one house, met some of the local kids outside, saw their cute costumes and headed home to pass out candy. The funniest thing was seeing Sophia interact with all the trick-or-treaters. She greeted them at the door definitely showing off her costume and checking out their interesting attire. I loved it! Although it wasn't your typical Halloween night trick-or-treating, I loved the pictures we took of Sophia as a beautiful little angel and being able to experience Halloween with Misha around to keep us company! Overall a great weekend and a visit filled with great conversation and many amazing memories.

Thanks Misha for coming to visit Sophia and I! It's always so amazing to me what Misha and I have been through together and how quickly we jump right back into things when we get a chance to spend some time together. Last night Misha told me that she was going to miss her little shadow when she left us. Isn't that he truth...Sophia found a new best friend! Sophia would follow Misha around all week from the time she woke up til Sophia went down for the night. My favorite memories are the ones where I overheard Misha and Sophia talking about life while Misha was putting on her makeup and watching the two of them read together before bed! Sometimes it boggles my mind how much life has changed with Sophia in it...for the better of course! Not only do I get to experience the joys of seeing Sophia with her Dad and our extended families but also old friends who I have known since what seems like a lifetime ago. That's pretty cool. I found a quote the other day on my daily tear-away calender and I want to close my post with it. It really does sum up everything that I have come to believe about motherhood.

'What I've really discovered is the humanizing affect of my daughter in my life, humbling me. Maybe my nights aren't as they used to be, my life not as glamorous...still I like the woman that motherhood has helped me become.'