Happy Days!

There's nothing that can put me in a better mood than a great weather day. On Tuesday we hit our 25th consecutive day of 100+ temperatures. When it's 108 outside you just can't take a little one out. And if there's one thing Rylynn loves, it's being outside. She will stand at the back door and cause a dramatic scene just begging me to open door! Well, yesterday the temperature dropped! It was a wonderful 25 degrees cooler. So yesterday evening we spent a lot of time outside playing :)

Sunday afternoon, Rylynn realized just how awesome walking can be. She suddenly decided that it would be better to just walk instead of crawl... and so she is. She hasn't slowed down since! Her teacher couldn't believe how she was suddenly cruising around the classroom on Monday. It took her 15 1/2 months to decide to do it, but she still beat her mom who was 16 months old before she was walking!!

One more thing to celebrate in this house is our great week at school! It took 2 1/2 weeks, but yesterday was the first day I dropped Rylynn off and there were no tears!! Yay! She really enjoys her days there now and I am thankful to be getting so much more work done during my day.

I hope you all are having a great day! Until next time :)

With love. . .

What a week

I'm not sure who this past week was harder on, me or Rylynn :(

Each morning Rylynn was excited to arrive at school, in fact, the first day she didn't even care that I had left. I was so proud, but also a little heart-broken that she didn't cry when I walked out. However, when I came to pick her up on that afternoon and each afternoon that week. She was upset. Ms. Mitzi, her teacher, is very encouraging about her progress and says that it may just take a little more time for her to really be comfortable all day. Some days she has good mornings and sometimes better afternoons, but I am having an awful time with the adjustment. She has already brought home a beautiful art piece and a coloring sheet. And we've been working on counting with our fingers. She loves to try to hold her fingers correctly although they are not even close to right yet!! I know she will learn a lot and she likes seeing her new friends. The great thing has been that each evening we've been able to spend quality time together because I've had productive days at the office.

Here's my big girl on her first day of school!!

This is Rylynn's nap mat I sewed. The teacher claims she lays

quietly talking to herself even when she's not sleeping.

Last week we went out to the ranch with Daddy for a little while. Rylynn LOVES seeing the horses and cows and "driving" the truck around the ranch. It's just so terribly hot we can't enjoy much time out there right now.

Just cruising around the pasture!

On Friday night, Gilly, Rylynn and I headed up to Sweetwater so that we could spend Saturday visiting Gilly's great Aunt Fay in Rotan. The big city of Rotan holds a lot of family history for Gilly. His mom's family is from there and has ties to the farm land still today that dates back for generations. Rylynn and Jackson had not yet met Fay so it was great to see her and introduce the little munchkins. We spent time on the farms, visited the cemetery and of course finished it off with a big meal at DQ! That's the only way to wrap up a trip to Rotan!!

Pictures from the farm. Think they are going to have a good year for cotton!

I'm so proud that Rylynn has now learned to fold her hands as we say grace and she likes to repeat Amen when we are done. So in church yesterday she shouts Amen after a quiet reflective prayer. Oh well, atleast she was participating!! So here's a question for all you parents... how do you get a toddler to last an hour during church?? All she wants to do is get down and play. She enjoys the first 15 minutes or so by dancing to hymns and folding her hands when directed, but then we lose it!! She's even a terror in the cry room because we try not to let her run around and try to make her sit between Gilly and I in the pew. Please someone tell me what is the trick?

I'm hoping Rylynn has a better week at school and I can feel better about our decision to send her. Everyone enjoy their last week of summer before it's all over until next year!

With love . . .

Time for School to Start

Gilly and I are getting geared up for Rylynn's next big adventure. On August 9th Ry will begin day school here in Lampasas. A local church has begun a new program in a great new facility and Ry will be one of their students. This was a terribly hard decision to make, but Gilly and I feel that it was ultimately the right decision. I have been lucky enough that over the past 15 months Rylynn has been able to stay in our home with the help of sitters and family. But she has become such an active little girl that I can not devote the time she needs each day while I work as well. I want to make sure that she is stimulated, challenged and learns to interact with others.
I know that along with lots of little ones comes lots of little germs and I pray that her heart and body can be strong against the winter-time yuckies. It will be great for her to build up her immunities, but we will have to be careful that she can handle it. Luckily, there will be only four little ones in her class... Yay!
It's so difficult for a woman to try to be the best mom, the best spouse and the best employee. I think ultimately this change will improve me in all three ways even though it's hard to think that having someone else nurture Rylynn all day will somehow actually make me a better mom, but I know she will get what she needs from the ladies there. Then at the end of the day, when I bring her home, she and I can spend our quality time playing with Daddy!! I sure will miss her though. (And probably worry about her as well) :(
Keep us in your thoughts and stay posted for a report on how the first week goes.
With love. . .

Catching Up

We have been very busy the last couple of weeks. Rylynn has been able to spend lots of quality time with her cousins. Last weekend we had a "girls" trip to College Station. On Saturday night Aunt Rebecca had all her nieces (and sisters) over to play. We spent Saturday night playing Wii, Twister, and baking cookies. Sunday morning it was total chaos getting all four ladies ready for church plus the four munchkins. We topped it off with lunch at Chicken Oil Co. and then headed home. The two little ones slept nearly the whole way home, they were worn out! We had a great time and can't wait to go back and see Aunt Beba.
When Rylynn and I got home on Sunday I began unpacking and repacking! Monday morning at 6am I loaded her in the car and the two of us headed to Corpus Christi. Gilly's Mom, Nana, Aunt Roxann and Sisters were spending a few days in Port Aransas with the kids and Rylynn was going to get to spend time with them while I worked out of our Corpus office for a couple of days. I was so bummed that I did not get to spend any time playing with her on the beach, but I know she had a great time. Little Miss Independent loved the fact that she could be turned loose to crawl and splash in the waves without anyone holding her or helping her. She was a maniac! Gilly and I are just dying to take her back one day soon! And I know Rylynn will enjoy going each year with the girls and cousins.
On Saturday, Rylynn and I went to our community pool and were pleasantly surprised. They have a great zero edge area where once again she could play and splash all by herself. She loved watching the other kids too! I wish I had known that the pool was so great earlier in the summer, I think we would have been there all the time. But we still have a few weeks left and we plan to visit often!
The big news on the home front is that Rylynn is taking lots of steps!! Yay... finally! I don't think we can call it walking because she'll only travel in short distances, but it won't be long before she's running around the house. She gets a kick out of herself and is really proud of her accomplishment. I can't wait to post video of her toddling around.
She's continuing to learn new words everyday. She really likes the word "baby" and says it very clearly. She also can "moo", "nay", and "baa" appropriately when asked about each of the animals. but my favorite, favorite new word is "animals"! That's a three syllable word!! She says it so cute too!
Anyways, I think I've got you all caught up on our busy last few weeks. I'm still without a camera and feel lost without it, but I promise next time I'll get some new pics up.
With love . . .

Prayer Request for a Heart Buddy

Please lift Baby Luke Sexton and his family in prayer. Luke is 8 days old and was born with HLHS. He is having a real hard time right now and his family is praying for the healing of their little boy. You can check out their family blog http://lukesexton.blogspot.com/
With love . . .

14 Months!

This Fourth of July has been spent very differently from last years and we are thankful for that! Last year at this time, we were just beginning to have to administer oxygen to Rylynn at night. That was no fun!
This year we have spent the weekend with family and friends and are thankful for the rain that we received this past week. What a great holiday!
Here's a little update on our crazy little girl. She is very close to walking and has begun a quick step or two, but it's not official just yet. What she has lacked in mobility, she has made up for vocally!! She is such a talker!! The little video below was taken a couple of weeks ago, but you can see what I mean. I apoligize because it's rather long and I don't have the energy to edit it down.

Here are some of the real words she's saying:
Momee
DaDa
Pup Pup
More
PooPek (Czech for belly button) :)
Ish (Fish)
"Ttt" for Tobi the cat
"this" and "that" and says "I want this" alot!

And lots of "b" words, each we can tell apart
Bye-Bye
Ball
Bug
Bird
Bow

And of course she calls the horses and cows with her clicking sound, says ahhhh after each and every drink (and makes sure you do the same), and likes to say ohh! She still dances like crazy and likes to fake cough and laugh. She is a non-stop one man show and we just can't get enough.
I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth!

With love. . .

Watch ABC tonight

ABC has a new Thursday night spot, “Boston Med,” a television documentary series with “cutting edge medical cases encountered in America’s top hospitals.” It is an eight-part series, which premiered last week, and is on at 9 PM CST. Tonight’s documentary features a family that gives birth to a HLHS baby! It may be interesting to see how our experiences compare.
Hope you all are doing well and I promise to update again soon! We've had a great summer so far!

With love . . .