I've been keeping this in a word program for the last few weeks, but now it's time to post it.

April 7

There are only a few people who know what we’ve been going through for the past couple of weeks....my parents, because they’re helping pay for it, and one of my friends, because I had to explain why we couldn’t get together for a weekend that we were planning to do, our next door neighbors, because we needed a babysitter and Alison’s physical therapist, because it came up in converstaion about PT appointments today. I’m not even going to post this to my blog until all is said and done. We’re doing in vitro again.

After the embryo transfer failed, my doctor said there was no medical reason not to try one more time, a full cycle and an embryo transfer, if necessary. Beyond that, he felt it would be best to call it quits. He was concerned about my ovarian reserve and felt if we were going to try again, we should do it soon, not immediately, but in the next few months. We had already come to grips with the fact that, after the full cycle and embryo transfer we had already done, we couldn’t afford to do it again. My parents offered to help us out if we really wanted to try it again. Kevin wasn’t real thrilled with the idea of borrowing money from my parents, but he wanted to try again. I was kind of on the fence, having resigned myself to being done, but agreed.

We’ve got some really whacked out insurance right now. The health insurance has a $2500 lifetime infertility coverage. While it’s really peanuts when it comes to something like in vitro, it’s better than the zero coverage they provided before. The presciption plan, a contract that is negotiated seperately, no longer covers any meds for infertility treatment....not even cheap stuff like clomid. So we were looking at an easy $5000 just for meds. After explaining this, the doc didn’t even miss a beat when advising us to get our meds from Europe. Which is what we did. Fortunately, on our last full cycle, I needed a couple of more days of drugs so had refilled my scripts and had almost a half cycle worth of meds left over. While the doctor’s office couldn’t tell us who to go to to get the scripts filled, they could write them for us. We found a reputable company, based out of England, and were able to get the rest of the meds we needed for a 10 day stim cycle for less than $700. They really were great. They guaranteed delivery in 6-10 days and the stuff arrived on the 10th day. As it turned out, I needed to stim for an extra day and a half, so I was 18 amps short. Doc said I could get by with 12 amps, and we were able to figure out a way to pay for it. They were more expensive than the 52 amps we ordered from London!!!

Tuesday was our retrieval. True to form, they had a very hard time starting my IV. The nurse tried twice on my hand, and had it started, but it wasn’t dripping very well, so the anesthesiologist came in to give it another try. He started a good line up in my bicep area. Needless to say, I’ve got two huge bruises, but at least they didn’t mess up my reliable blood drawing spot. Anyway, they were able to get 20 eggs!!! I only had 20 eggs one other time, the cycle that produced the batch of embryos that Alison came from. No wonder I gained 8 pounds in a week! I know some of that was poor eating over the Easter holiday weekend, but I knew I hadn’t eaten enough to gain 8 pounds, especially since I had made use of my dad’s new treadmill while we were there. I guess having 20 20+ mm follicles on my ovaries is going to add some weight. :) We got our fertilization report Wednesday. Out of the 20 eggs, 2 degenerated. They did ICSI on 18 and 16 fertlized. Doctor wants to do a 5 day (blastocyst) transfer instead of a 3 day transfer. Well, that’s great, but it’s also an additional $1155 that we don’t exactly have lying around. It also messed up our childcare plans. My mom had come up Sunday to stay with us and watch Alison for the week, including some of the time that I would have to be off my feet after the transfer, which we thought was going to be on Friday, so Kevin wouldn’t have to take any more time off than what was necessary to go to the appointments. After we got the results and the word that we’re doing a blast transfer, my mom called her boss to see if she could get on the schedule for Thursday and take Monday off instead (Friday and Tuesday are her days off when she works the weekend, which she has to do this weekend). She left last night after dinner, getting home around 11, I think, and went to work this morning. She’ll be back on Sunday night. That left us without a sitter for Sunday in the day time. We could take Alison with us, and have done it before, but it’s a hassle. Thank goodness for neighbors that adore Alison and love to watch her if we need them and they are available (Melissa won’t even let us pay her, but we do pay her neice). That just left finding a sub for our Sunday school class. It took 2 calls, the couple we split with is working in the nursery this week, but we got somebody. Whew!! As for the money, The Bank of Mom&Dad was open and my mom left us with a check before she went home Wednesday, so we’re all set there. It’s a good thing, too, because today we got a call that we need to pay the extra by tomorrow, since there won’t be anyone at the office on Sunday who can handle the money. So that means my free morning will now be taken up with a trip to the doctor’s office. Oh well.

April 8

Well, we’re all paid up now. And luckily, they were able to give us our transfer time while we were there, so now waiting around for a phone call all afternoon. Sunday morning at 10:00 is T-time. :) We have to be there at 9:30 so they can turn me into a human pincushioin again (translated -- start and IV). I plan to load up on the fluids before midnight tomorrow, so hopefully I won’t be quite so dehydrated and it won’t be so difficult. All that’s left to do right now is let the neighbors know we need someone here by 7:30 and make sure we have a schedule and eveyrthing they need for Alison ready before we leave.

April 10

Today was our transfer. As with the retrieval, it took two tries to start the stupid IV, and this time I ended up with it on the palm side of my left wrist. Things went well. We transfered 2 blastocyst embryos. We have more that are still growing, so we’ll see what happens with them. My mom will be back this evening to help with Alison.


April 11

Got the results of the blood they drew yesterday. My levels are holding well. That’s encouraging. I go in for more blood test on Friday. It feels really weird to be banished to the couch while my mom is here doing everything for Alison. She’s cracking me up, though, because I left a very explicit schedule for our babysitter yesterday and she’s making a big production out of following the schedule. Moms.....what are you going to do with them. :)

April 13

We got information regarding the rest of our embryos today. We have 7 that are now frozen. That's kind of a relief. If this doesn't work, in theory we still have at least one more try, maybe 2 or possibly even 3, depending on how many the doctor would recommend thawing for each attempt.

April 15

Got blood drawn this morning. So far, so good. My progesterone was down by half, but Estrodiol is still up over 1000. That’s good news for me. I go back on Monday for more bloodwork. That’s when I expect the Estrodiol to drop (as has been the pattern in the past). I’m so glad to be off sofa arrest. The weather has been nice, so we’ve been out walking again.

April 18

Well, I made it in for bloodwork this morning, despite the weekend from hell. Alison was in the hospital for dehydration due to vomiting, which was most likely casused by Rotavirus, and therefore, so was I. She was discharged late this afternoon. I had to call in for my test results today, since we didn’t know where I’d be this afternoon. They were good. My progesterone was back up a little bit and my Estrodiol, while down, was still over 800. That’s huge for me. Generally, by this point, it has dropped down to 400 or less. I’m trying not to read anything into it, but I can’t help but be a little optimistic. Back for more bloodwork on Friday

April 22

We had to do some schedule juggling so Kevin could be home to watch Alison, because her virus landed on me yesterday and I don’t think I could get both of us to the doctor’s office in time for bloodwork this morning. She needs the sleep anyway. I got the results this afternoon. I AM PREGNANT!!!!!!!

I’m still shaking as I type this. My hcg level is 264, Estrodiol is over 1000 again and progesterone is back over 100. I go back in Monday for more bloodwork. I guess this would explain why I’ve been feeling queasy in the evenings for the past week. I was chalking it up to sleep deprivation because Alison was sick.....guess not!

Aarrrrrgggg!!

We've been making a little potty training progress. (Yes, we're back to potty training entries.....sorry). Alison has been wearing underwear again. Yesterday she was dry the whole evening and today she was dry the whole day (except for nap, when she wore a diaper). Unfortunately, she pooped in her underwear once last night and twice today. And now I'm not quite sure what to do. I yelled at her after the second time tonight, which was probably not the right thing to do, but she pooped not 10 minutes after having been in the bathroom to tinkle and she lied to me about it when I asked her if she had done it, so I was a bit exasperated. Before she went to bed tonight, we had a little chat about it. She has agreed that she won't poop in her underwear anymore and that she will tell us if she needs to go. I guess we'll see how that goes tomorrow. I'm not holding my breath. She just doesn't care if she is sitting in a poopy diaper or poopy underwear. She doesn't want to interrupt what she is doing to go to the bathroom. And when she does go she doesn't want to sit there any longer than it takes to tinkle. Once she's done that, she's done. We're going to need a lot more underwear before this battle is over. And I see a lot of extra loads of laundry in my future, too. :(

So were riding in the car tonight, on our way to church for a game night with our fellowship group, and we passed the grocery store. Alison says, "there's an A." Ok, there's an "A." So I ask her if she can spell her name -- we'd been kind of working on that a little while ago, not seriously, just for the heck of it. She says "A-L-S-O, what's that spell?" And I said, "well, that spells also. Can you spell Alison?" And she starts again "A-L-I-S-O-N, Alison." I was impressed.

Poor Alison.

Thursday after PT, we went to the mall to bum around for a while. No big deal. We had fun. We were heading back from Penney's towards the little motorized rides, because I had promised she could ride a couple, when I realized it had been a while since we'd been to the bathroom and it would probably be a good idea to at least try. So we stopped. We used the handicapped stall (sorry to those of you who think able bodied people shouldn't use them, but the regular ones don't accomodate strollers, and technically, one of us was handicapped). I pulled out the little fold up potty seat we have and put it on the toilet. Then I got Alison out of all of her gear, since she was wearing her twisters, and ready to get on the potty. As I attempted to place her on the seat, she bumped it, pushing it back, and it fell, and then she almost fell, right into the toilet. I stood her back on the floor, grabbed the potty seat out of the toilet and started drying it off with toilet paper, all the while praying that she wouldn't just decide to pee while standing there (since she had still been dry when this adventure started) because I didn't have any other clothes to put on her. Memo to self -- it might be time to start thinking about packing an extra set of clothes, just in case. It took two more tries to finally get her on the seat, one of those tries nearly resulting in another dip in the toilet for the potty seat, but we did it, and so did she. Thank goodness. At least it didn't traumatize her too badly. She's still willing to sit on the potty, though she is a little afraid she's going to lose her seat, even at home.

I may have been mean mom last night when I kept taking Alison inside because she wouldn’t ride her tricycle, but I think I redeemed myself this morning. Yesterday, it got real cloudy and looked like it might rain while we were having lunch and I told Alison that if it did rain I would let her wear her “Suzy Season” coat and take her out to splash in the puddles after her nap. Well, it didn’t rain and we went for a walk instead.

That brings us to this morning. It was a cool and cloudy morning. While looking out the window, Alison noticed that it was raining but said nothing more about it. But I decided that we would go out and splash in the puddles. After her snack and her favorite tv program, and while she was sitting on the potty, I told her we were going to do something special. She started trying to guess what it might be.....crayons, painting with a paintbrush, finger painting, playing downstairs, anything she could come up with, I think. She was very excited when I grabbed her raincoat and told her we were going outside.

Because it was still raining, and I didn’t have a raincoat, I grabbed my umbrella and we headed for the biggest puddle in the driveway. She splashed around a little bit and then decided she wanted to hold the umbrella. So I gave it to her and grabbed Kevin’s golf umbrella and we went back to splashing in the puddles. Then we took a walk to our neighbors’ (two houses down) in search of more puddles. I was kicking myself for not having a camera handy --or a husband with a camera handy-- because Alison looked so cute when she periodically peeked out from under an umbrella that was really too big for her, and when she wasn’t peeking she reminded me of the dancing mushrooms from Fantasia. Even though she did okay with a big umbrella, now on my list of things to pick up for her, in addition to some “slop around in the mud and puddles” boots, is a little umbrella of her very own, one that will be a little easier for her to manage, so that we can do this again sometime.

Boy, we had a pretty good morning, a half way decent afternoon, but we really had a crappy evening around here today. The weather was wonderful.....sunny and low 60s, so Alison and I went for a walk. That was nice. Since the snow is mostly melted now, I noticed quite a bit of dog poop in the backyard that needed to be picked up. That was Kevin’s job after supper. I knew that Alison was going to want to go out, too, so I told her I would take her out to practice riding her tricycle on the driveway. Riding a tricycle is one thing she does at PT, and since we havne’t had PT because of spring break this week, I figured it would do her some good. So we had a compromise....she got to go outside, which she wanted to do, and she did some PT, which I wanted her to do. The deal was that she would ride to the end of the driveway and back. Unfortunately, about 2/3 of the way down the driveway she was more interested in watching what the kids across the street were doing. I turned her around and headed her back towards the garage. She was more interested in what the little dog down the block was doing. I finally told her she could either peddle her tricycle or go back inside. She wouldn’t peddle anymore, so I picked her up and took her back inside. Was she ever mad! She threw a rip roaring temper tantrum, so I sent her to her room until she was done. She came back out and said that she was ready to go back outside. I told her we could only go outside if she would practice peddling her tricycle. She said ok, so we went out to try it again. Again, she peddled a short way down the driveway and decided she was done. Again I told her she could peddle the tricycle or go back inside. Again she refused to peddle anymore, so again I picked her up and took her back inside. Again with the tantrum and again she was sent to her room until she could get herself under control.

I can imagine some people --including the couple out for a walk who passed our house while I was trying to get Alison to peddle-- are thinking I’m some kind of hard ass or something, but we’re having a real problem around here with if you do this then you can do this, but if you don’t, you can’t. Miss Alison is very stubborn, and while it’s good in some respects, it’s time really time for her to realize that she can’t have her way all the time. So we’re having a lot of tantrums around here.

We tried something new at our house today. Well, it was new for us, anyway. I've been meaning to do it for a while, but today I finally pulled out the paints and Alison did some finger painting. She didn't paint for very long, but I think she enjoyed it. She's such a prissy little girl when it comes to having messy stuff on her hands, but she didn't even hesitate to stick her fingers into the paint. If it got anywhere other than her fingertips, like further down her fingers or on the palm of her hand, she got a little upset, but I was able to convince her to just smear it onto the paper. I made one small contribution to the picture, a little blob of yellow that we're calling the sun. :)

We're definitely going to do this again soon, but first I think I need to buy some new paints. The ones we used today I bought when my oldest nephew was 2. He's now 6 1/2! And it would be helpful if we could fix the sink in our rec room so that we can wash hands there instead of hanging over the utility sink in the laundry room. I'll have to get Kevin working on that. :)

At the risk of this seeming like it's becoming Alison's potty training page, I'm once again going to write about our progress. I'm sure the few readers I have are really going to get tired of entries about potty training, but what can I say? She's our first child, and she's a child that is not supposed to be able to do this on her own. When she was born we were still envisioning a complicated system of catheterization and enemas or even surgeries to get her socially continent. So this is proving to be a pretty big deal for us.

Anyway, she had a pretty good day. Once we got home from our appointment this morning, which resulted in an accident, she was dry the whole rest of the day. She was even in underwear for over three hours tonight with no accidents....until just before it was time for bath. Then she pooped in her underwear. To her credit, she did tell us. Unfortunately she told us as she walked across the room in that stance that indicates someone has a load in their pants. She seems like she's starting to realize what's going on, and that's good. I would like to try and get a more routine bowel program established, and I know what we need to try and do, but she is not willing to cooperate. Hopefully over the next few months she'll get to a point where we can explain, and she will understand, what we need to do and why we need to do it.

It's got to be some sort of progress, right?

Alison has been doing pretty well at staying dry in her diapers. She's had some accidents here and there, but overall, I think she's doing pretty well. I finally found some training pants small enough to fit her, and decided to give them a try Monday since we were going to be home all night and if there were any accidents it wouldn't be a big deal. Things were going great.....she was keeping them dry....until she pooped in them. So we got her all cleaned up, put her back in a diaper and talked about how she has to keep her underwear dry and clean if she's going to wear them. Tuesday night, we tried it again. She peed so much that she was soaked clear down to her shoes and socks. Yesterday I wasn't even going to attempt underwear again, but she insisted...actually refused to wear a diaper and screamed at me to put underwear on her. So I gave it another go. She lasted about two hours before she went running to her dad saying she had pooped. It turned out that she had not pooped, had actually wet her pants again. This was good news and bad news. The bad news was that she had the accident. The good news? That she realized she had done it. And that she stopped herself before she soaked herself like she did on Tuesday and was able to finish up on the potty. She's been demanding underwear again today. I put her off because we had a busy morning today, and more importantly, because I didn't have any more underwear for her! So I did the laundry today, the underwear is clean, and we'll give it a try again tonight.

Here's my funny for the day.

Alison is potty training and when she actually does something on the potty, we clap and cheer for her. This morning, I had an appointment and had to use the bathroom before hand. So Alison and I were in there together, she sitting in her stroller and me taking care of business. Just as I finished, Alison starts clapping and cheering saying "you went tinkle on the potty!" Fortunately, it was an individual restroom and not one with a bunch of stalls!

I'm working on a project I started over a year ago. I "stole" (my mom knows I have them, and so does my uncle) all the slides that my dad had from my grandparents with the intention of scanning them and putting them on DVD and giving them to my dad as a gift -- Father's Day, his birthday, Christmas, whichever was closest when I got them done. A lot of the slides are of run-of-the-mill stuff....weddings, short vacations, visits to my dad in college, stuff like that.... but there are also slides of the family's trip to Alaska, which is something my dad wants to do again, and also their cross-country trip to California. Last night I got the slides of these two trips together and organized (to the best of my ability) and am going to work my way through them first. I hope to get them done by Father's Day. Then my dad will know I have the slides and can help me organize the rest of them. :)

The scanning is a slow process. It's taken me about and hour and a half, over the course of two nights, to scan just 32 slides. That's almost one cartridge. I've got 4 more cartridges of Alaska to do and 8 of California to do. It's going to take a long time! But, it's been fun to look at the slides I have finished. They are almost 50 years old. It's not the first time I have seen them, but it's been about 20 years since I last saw them. I remember it vividly. My mom and dad, my brother and I, my aunt and uncle, and my cousins were all at my grandmother's and she insisted that we look at the slides. She also insisted on watching a tv program with Tennessee Ernie Ford. Some of the slides were quite funny to us kids, and my grandmother got upset with us for laughing and being louder than the tv.

Tonight, one of the slides I scanned was of my grandfather, my uncle and my dad and two people I don't know. What struck me was how much my brother looked like my dad at that age. If I hadn't known better, I would have sworn that someone messed around with the picture and put my brother's head on my dad's body. I was also struck by how much my dad now looks like my grandfather did then. I think it's going to be fun to go through the rest of these slides. I'm glad I have the opportunity to do it, because I would hate for these images to be lost, which could certainly have happened if they just stayed in my parents' basement until it was time for my brother and I to clear out the house after my parents are gone.

I started this yesterday, but didn't get it finished until this afternoon.

Wow, time sure does fly. Two years ago, at this time, I was in my fourth hour of sitting in the recovery room with Alison after her surgery to place a VP shunt. I was exhausted, having been up since 3 in the morning, but to wired to rest. That was a scary time for us. We had been really hoping that Alison wouldn’t need the shunt. We knew it was a long shot, as the ventricles in her brain never stabilized in utero even after fetal surgery, they continued to gow. A long talk with Alison’s SB doctor eased a lot of our fears. He even showed us a shunt that he “just happened to have” in his pocket. It also helped that our neurosurgeon felt she was in the “most successful outcome” category of shunt patients, the ones who get their shunt and never have a problem with it.

So my little girl, 7 months and 2 days old, whose hair was just starting to grow back in, went off to surgery and came out with just about half her head shaved, an inch and a half long incisions behind her right ear held closed with staples that made it look like a zipper, an IV on the left side of her head held in with enough tape to secure Texas (according to her nurse), and a smaller incision on her stomach. To keep her from pulling on either the IV or the dressing over the shunt, she had a bunch of gauze wrapped around her head, like a little headband of sorts. She was not very happy, and wanted to be held most of the time (and who could blame her), but we were able to control her pain with Tylenol and Motrin. She, and I, spent the night in the hospital and were given the ok to go home the next afternoon, about 2 days earlier than I was expecting.

Here's a couple of pictures taken a few weeks after the surgery. You can sort of see a tiny bit of stubble starting to come in where her head was shaved.

And now, here we are two years later. Alison has not had any problems with her shunt, despite scaring me a little bit earlier this week. We are hopeful that she will continue to be problem free.

I like to read, and I read a lot. But I wouldn’t exactly say that I am well read (well-read?). Mysteries are my favorites to read and I’ve pretty much stuck with that genre. I have stepped outside the it to read the Harry Potter books, though. :) A discussion of books on a message board I post on spurred me to try and broaden my literary horizons. On one of my trips to the library with Alison (for Story Time), I decided to check out the “reading lists” they have available in the grown-up section and see if they still had the list of classic literature. It took a little searching, not easy with a toddler in tow, but they still had it. I had tried to read off this list several years ago, but got bogged down in the trying to get through the works of Homer, Dante, Machiavelli, Plato and Sophocles. This time I decided to skip them and start with the more “modern” books. I will try and get back to the others at a later time, because I think I really should read them at some point.

There are 80 books on the part of the list I am working from. Sadly, the only ones I had already read before tackling the list were Gone With the Wind and The Grapes of Wrath. To that I can now add Pride and Prejudice, Pere Goriot, Jane Eyre, and part of Wuthering Heights (I didn’t have time to finish it and forgot about renewing it....it wasn’t there the last time I went to the library, so I’m still waiting to finish it). I’m reading Looking Backward right now and Way of All Flesh is next in the stack. For the most part, I’ve enjoyed the books I’ve read. Pere Goriot was a little awkward to read, due to it being translated from French, I think, but I enjoyed the overall story. I’ve been having a little trouble getting in to Looking Backward, but it’s getting better. My reading time is the 45 minutes between when I finish putting Alison to bed and when I go to bed myself, and I’ve been pooping out earlier than usual this last week, which is affecting my concentration when I read. I think that’s why I’m having trouble getting in to the book, because I really am finding the story interesting.

I can see some books further on down the list that I probably wouldn’t choose to read on my own, but I’m going to read them anyway, and there are some that I’m looking forward reading. I think this is going to be a good challenge for me.

I'd like to thank my daughter for giving me about a hundred more gray hairs today and making me sound like an idiot to our ped's nurse. Alison threw a massive temper tantrum this morning, and got so worked up and out of control that she was actually sweating! It didn't last more than a few minutes (less than 5, actually), but when I finally got her calmed down, she was lethargic and rather out of it....very un-Alison like behavior. She tried to eat breakfast and several times she almost went to sleep sitting up. I gave up on breakfast and asked her if she wanted to go lay down on my bed while I got dressed. She wanted to lay down on the bed in her room, so I put her up there and covered her up with her blanket. And she just layed there. That is very unlike my daughter. After I got dressed, I called the ped because, even though I had a gut feeling we weren't dealing with a shunt problem, I still wanted to talk to someone about it. After I called, she threw up. That made me more concerned.....lethargy and vomitting often equals shunt failure. She did perk up a little bit more after that, and was able to keep water down, but still spent the rest of the morning just laying on the floor watching tv. This was still very unlike my daughter. She doesn't ever just lay around on the floor (unless she's watching Beauty and the Beast, and we weren't). I tried to get her to drink some water, and she would drink a little here and there, so I was happy. After her last program was over, she wanted to go in her room and rock, so we did. She also drank some more water and started to perk up a bit more and agreed to try and eat a little bit of toast. Then Kevin came home. He took her to make toast. By the time the ped's office called back, she was sitting on the kitchen counter next to him chattering away and helping him put the silverware away. After I got off the phone with the nurse, being reassured that it probably was nothing and the doc would call me back if he thought it was anything to be concerned about, Alison sat and ate a whole piece of toast, several bites of my cottage cheese (which she demanded to eat) and drank several ounces of water and Kool Aide. It just took Kevin almost half an hour to get her settled down for a nap.

I'm not the kind of mom who calls the ped for every little cough and sniffle. Prior to today, I have made 2 sick calls, once when she was about 3 months old and kept throwing up (worried about hydrocephalus getting worse, since she wasn't shunted yet), and last year when we were out of town she ended up with pneumonia. And now I really feel stupid because I called for something that was really nothing and if I had just waited it out, I would have known this.

UGH!!!! Sickness has invaded my house again!! It seems to be the same thing Alison had at the beginning of February. She's been stuffy and coughing, and today she puked up the lunch it took us forever to cajole her into eating in the first place. :( She doesn't seem to have a fever this time, but she's still alternating between perky (she was fine at PT this morning) and miserable. Hopefully she'll feel a little better after her nap. Wish I could have one. Last night I was up with her 5 times....at 11:30, again at midnight and 3 times between 4 and 5 am. Kevin got up with her once after that. He's complaining of swollen glands, so I guess he feels he needs to be pitied because he's sick again. Not going to happen. For the past 4 or 5 nights he's been swearing he's going to bed early, and hasn't done it, so it's his own darn fault that he's worn down and sick again. I think I'm going to escape this evening and get a much needed haircut. It's got to be more relaxing than staying here!

I think we may be on the road to being potty trained here! Alison stayed dry all day, at least when she was awake. She was a little wet when she woke up from her nap, but we're not expecting her to be dry while sleeping immediately. We started out taking her to the potty every half hour (and that is a complete pain in the ass when she's wearing her twisters), but today she went as long as an hour in between potty visits and stayed dry. I think we'll keep up the half hour or hour trips to the potty for now, since we aren't real sure what her sensation is. Hopefully we'll get that figured out soon. Now we need to work on pooping on the potty. We need to try and get a bowel program going, getting her body "trained" to go at the same time every day. That's going to be tough because she doesn't like to pay attention to the matter at hand and do any practical pushing to get things moving. In time, hopefully we'll get things worked out. I'm just thrilled that we may be seeing an end to diapers in our future, and it looks like we're going to be able to do it without cathing!

Editing to add that this morning (Monday) Alison went 2 1/2 hours with a dry diaper. Yay!! Unfortunately, she ended up peeing in it sometime during PT. :( Oh well, back to the drawing board.

I like to bake. I'm sure it stems from all the times I made cookies and stuff with my mom as a kid. I don't bake very often, but when I do, I tend to go all out. I make dozens and dozens of cookies at Christmas. I make my husband his favorite dessert for his birthday. I make stuff to send to my niece and nephews at various times throughout the year. I even got involved in one of those deals where I get a new packet of cookie recipes every three or four weeks, kind of like Columbia House or a book club. This year, my BIL and nephew's Christmas presents got delayed in the mail (they did finally arrive, but not until after New Year's). My BIL was not in the least concerned about not receiving their gifts but he was bummed about not getting any cookies! Who knew?!?

So here it is, almost Easter, and I'm baking again. I got a whole bunch of really cute Easter cookie recipes from the cookie club, and I picked a few of the easier ones out to make and send to my niece and nephews, in lieu of making up Easter baskets this year. And now I have a helper. She's about 3 feet tall and into everything.

It's exasperating at times, especially when we're making things for other people, but in the end I think it's worth the aggrivation. I hope when she's all grown up and a mom herself, she'll remember us making cookies and think it's a good thing to do with her own kid(s).

Alison is learning to sign. In the week that we've had the first Signing Time video, she's learned all 18 signs. There are a couple that she doesn't do very well, but she knows what they are if you sign them to her. Before we got the video, we spent a lot of time amusing ourselves with the demo clips on the Signing Time website and learned a few other signs, too.

So tonight, after reading a couple of books and before getting her into bed, Alison and I were sitting in her rocking chair, with her on my lap facing me, talking. She let out a little burp, which was rather nasty smelling since she had just had a little milk and we had pizza for dinner, and my reaction was something between "eww" and "ugh," kind of a gagging noise, I guess. Immediately, Alison put one hand on my forehead and the other hand on my stomach, roughly the sign for sick, and said "mommy sick." Then she did the sign for real, putting a hand on her head and stomach. I was shocked. She's never done the sign before and then goes and makes the connection between the little "sick" sound I made and being sick and does the sign. It never ceases to amaze me what little minds can absorb.

Oh, I think I did something really dumb today.

Kevin didn't do such a great job snowblowing all the snow we got last Sunday, and it's snowed off and on since then, including another 2-3 inches yesterday, so there was a lot of packed snow on the driveway....two inches thick in some places. In a fit of productivity, I decided to take advantage of the sunny, 30-something degree day and try and shovel off the driveway. Lest you think this was an easy task, our driveway is over 90 feet long, and is as wide as our two car garage. It took me just over an hour, but most of it is down to bare concrete. If I am able to move tomorrow, it will be a minor miracle. The worst thing about it is, when I was about half way done and thinking I could just relax tomorrow afternoon (preferably in a hot bath), I remembered I can't do that because I have to babysit at church for a program they're having tomorrow afternoon!!! I hope there aren't too many kids. Maybe there'll be a baby there that just wants to be rocked for a couple of hours. I could handle that! Oh well, at least I made up a little for the fact that I didn't do much (any) exercising this week, due to some sort of cold or sinus problem and a few sleepless nights that made the idea of getting up at 6:00 in the morning to work out very unappealing.

Oh, and where was Kevin while I was doing all this, you might ask? He is helping chaperone our middle school youth group's ski trip today. He's going to come home and piss and moan about how sore he is from enjoying a day of skiing. At least I earned my sore muscles doing work. :)

I guess it's a good thing my husband is a procrastinator. A couple of days ago he told me he was going to go ahead and empty the gas out of the snowblower because "we aren't going to get enough snow to use it again this winter." I told him he might want to hold off because I had heard we were expecting accumulating snow sometime this weekend. He poo-pooed me, saying we never get the snow they predict, but he never got around to emptying out the gas. It's 9:20 on Sunday night and he's just finishing up snowblowing the 7+ inches of snow that we got today (and it's still snowing!).