Moving ahead with another bottle dropped...

So Cassie has decided she LOVES YoBaby Yogurt. I had tried it in the past and she didn't seem to care for it, but as of Monday she LOVES it. Almost eats a whole container in a sitting...which is good because I have dropped her morning bottle. She gets her yogurt in the morning in place of her bottle. Monday morning was not fun because she cried for her bottle, today was a little bit better. I don't think normally I would be dropping bottles like this yet to wean her, but we are kinda forced to with the surgery. If I didn't have the surgery I think I would let her wean herself or do it when she showed signs of being more ready. I am not dropping any more bottles until she starts taking a good amount from her sippy - she is still resisting it. At this point she still is getting the minimum amount of milk needed at this age with her remaining 3 bottles. We are waiting for a call from the nurse at Childrens to discuss the surgery more. They had talked about still going ahead with the surgery since she has her g-tube. I am not thrilled with that idea...but we will see what they have to say about it. So we started out at 5 bottles and are now down to 3. Thats hard work!!



Cassie is also now starting to walk....but only with support. She started last Friday. She used to keep her knees locked so I would show her every day how to bend her legs and walk....lo and behold she started doing it and does better every day.




Yesterday we had a playdate with our friend Stacey and Adylen....Cass LOVES Stacey. Today we have a playdate with Jessica and Maxim. The past 2 days we have been staying indoors since its pretty cold outside...not being able to go outside we really have the need to get out of the house and go somewhere and these playdates help!!

Big Girl Car Seat

Over the weekend we bought Cassie her big girl car seat. I researched car seats for days and days, read reviews and went a couple of times to look at the seats. We finally settled on the Britex Boulavard. We ended up getting a pretty good deal at USA Baby. I will post pics of Cass in her new seat, however its still in its box so once we have it out I will take some pictures.

Yesterday was beautiful, I LOVE fall. It is the best season. Wearing sweaters and having the leaves change colors...I love it. We were planning on going to the park after the Packer game but of course it decides to rain once the game was done so that plan went out the window.

This morning I got ALOT done. Vacummed, dusted and cleaned the bath rooms. Painted some walls that needed it from Athena rubbing up against them like a cat. Put some laundry away and put in an order for Pizza for next Saturday. I can't beleive next Saturday is Cassies 1st birthday party!! I have a feeling she is going to be VERY overwhelmed. We have 20 some people coming over so I am hoping it will be nice outside so that we can spend all our time outdoors.

Cassie has been sleeping going on 2 hours now so I am going to get some laundry going and wait till she wakes up..read my new People magazine.

I'll post pics soon.

Cass has been eating pretty good. Yesterday she had left over Soup. I had potatoes, peas and carrots along with the beef broth (took out the meat) and she loved it. This morning we shared some Cream of Wheat. I am going to try and cut the morning bottle soon so we are down to 3 bottles. I am not going cold turkey but instead of 6 ounces this morning she only got 4 and didn't complain. I am slowly going to see how she reacts to it. Last night she did great with her sippy cup....I thought we had a break thru but today she hasn't wanted it. We got a letter from Childrens Hospital yesterday letting us know she has a Pre-op appointment on the
21st for her surgery...ugh.



Today we ran to the vet to pick up some heartguard for Athena and stopped to hang out with my grandparents. We hung out there for close to 2 hours and Cassie played with all the toys my Gram has picked up for her from garage sales.



Just woke up from her nap - that head of hair is SO unruly!!

Eating Great!! (Knock on Wood)

Cassie did so great eating yesterday...she usually has the appetite of a flea. At lunch I made her mashed potatoes with mashed peas and carrots which she finished off. She then ate almost 1/2 a jar of stage 3 Banana and then I made her some more potatoes and veggies. She still shows no interest in putting food into her mouth, she finds it much more entertaining to throw the food off the highchair and make a huge mess for Mommy. If I give her a spoon she will dip it into her food and put it in her mouth, granted she doesn't get alot in her belly that way but at least she understands the concept. I am just feeding her table food now except for the stage 3Banana/Strawberry which I give her at breakfast because it is her favorite! On top of eating good she also took a 3 hour nap yesterday!

We went for our morning walk today, around 8 which is early for us but it was supposed to rain so I wanted to beat that...thank goodness I did because its raining cats and dogs now. Then we sat out on the blanket and threw the ball for Athena.







We ate breakfast and played some more. It was time for a bottle and nap but Cass wasn't interested in napping yet so we sat in the den and threw the ball back and forth to each other. Sometimes she would throw the ball the opposite way and I would crawl on my hands and knees to get it which she thought was hilarious. I love spending this time with her!


What is Cassie so excited about???

I finally got her down for her nap at 11:30 and ate Lasagna for lunch - yum.
Cassie still doesn't crawl but I am thinking she is planning on starting...maybe in the next month or so. She is so laid back but is beginning to show more interest in moving around, right now she just scoots on her little booty. She is a ham - she has this fake laugh she does which is so adorable! She knows it to :o)


She was surprised to find another baby to play with! :o)

The weekend

Nothing much new going on. We didn't do anything very exciting this past weekend. My Mom came over and watched Cassie so Matt and I could go out and have some "us" time. We headed to the mall and did some shopping, its so hard to do with Cassie, especially if you want to try on some things and you really can't take your time because she only lasts for so long. Athena also came home on Saturday after a nice long vacation with my parents up north at the cabin.




Pics from this morning - PJs and bed head

Sunday I went walking around the lake with a friend while Cassie stayed with Matt. I decided to add some chaos to the walk and bring Athena...when she sees water watch out!! Once we started walking she calmed down and we had a nice walk. We passed a family and the little girl asked to pet Athena, she rolled right on her belly to be rubbed...she really is the sweetest dog. The family thought said she was the biggest sweet heart. After our walk we sat on the bench to talk and Athena got to swim in the lake and fish - made her day. We got home and watched the Packers loose....oh well.

On our playdate yesterday we went shopping at the outlet mall and got a bunch of cute outfits...I love Carters. They have cute clothing and its cheap. We bought a hat for winter which she modeled the other day. She kept trying to take it off but I had it strapped so the little bugger couldn't get it off...hee hee hee.



Today we had to run back to Carters to get a couple of things a size bigger. The rest of the day we just hung out at home and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather.



Sitting with her favorite ball


Kissing her ball...I said it was her favorite ball

T minus 1 month till I have a 1 year old!!

Its hard to beleive this amount of time has gone by...seems like only yesterday I was raking leaves outside and my water broke. I have enjoyed every day of her 11 months (including all the time spent in the NICU). I also am so happy with what she has accomplished in these months being how she started out when she was born!





One more month till my little girl is 1 year old! Invites are in the mail. (Haley - I didn't send one to you because I know you won't be able to make it with Ellas birthday on the same day. Couldn't these goofy girls spaced their birthdays at least a week apart? :o)

Alarm Clock - Fail

Our alarm clock did not go off on time this morning....our alarm clock being Cassie. We NEVER set an alarm anymore because she is up like clockwork by 7:00. I woke up this morning, feeling very refreshed, looked at the clock and told Matt...."its 9:00 and its Friday" He was like "are you serious?" He jumped out of bed and hightailed it to work! But...like I said I was refreshed. I don't know when the last time it was I was able to sleep in like that. Our day was a bit different today because nap time was messed up but she still took a great nap,
from 1 - 3:30.




Great Grandma and Grandpa stopped over for a while to visit this morning. Great-Grandma was eventually able to hold Cass but it took time. She is SO clingy and when someone besides Matt and I walkes into the house she starts to cry. There are a couple of exceptions...there are 2 friends that she is actually pretty good with and will smile right away. This stage of "stranger anxiety" has been going on for so long now....5 months! I quess her last surgery really freaked the poor girl out.




Uncle Jim came over tonight also, that again started the tears. He tried playing with her by hiding and jumping out at her....that REALLY freaked her out. Her poor face was so astonished, her eyes popped open and she just screamed. He scared her pretty good. We sat on the couch and ate pizze. Cassie was laying face down on the couch and every time I would lean in to kiss her the sweetest giggles would erupt from her. Then she stood on my lap and gave me a nice big wet kiss - those are the best :o)

No more Cinnamon for Cass

For the past week Cassie has had a red rash around her mouth and chin, it has looked pretty terrible. It also itches her like crazy, I gave her her hair brush and she started "brushing" her mouth and chin because she was so itchy! Poor girl. Well...I have come to the conclusion she is having a reaction to applesauce with Cinnamon. I have stopped feeding that to her and lo and behold the rash is almost gone!

We also had a playdate today with Jessie and Haddy. We enjoyed the beautiful weather at the park for 2 hours...then the girls started getting sassy and throwing temper tantrums and play date came to a quick end.



The girls swinging

Sippy cup

Boy, Cass turns 11 months old this Sunday - it seems like she JUST turned 10 months old!! Ok...surgery for her palate is looming, its scheduled for next month but she has to be off a bottle. SO...yesterday I dropped a bottle, she usually gets 5 bottles a day,however now its 4. She has been a bit cranky about it because she has to wait a little longer for a bottle however I offer her the sippy cup and she gets darn right mad at that cup. I am hoping she starts to eat more solids and starts being more open to the cup, time will tell. I can't force the issue, she will do everything in her own time and when she is ready, surgery can always be moved....I just can't wait for this all to be behind us. However this is not bad...things could always be worse. We are so blessed to have her. We always wanted tons of kids but I am happy to just have her, if God blesses me with another baby I would be thrilled,however I am not dwelling on that..just enjoying every day with my daughter.



This is what happens when given a sippy cup with no valve so its free flowing....not very pretty :o)

Crazy day

Yesterday was kind of crazy. Around 2:00 the day started to fall apart. My dog Athena was outside and the UPS truck drove up, I went outside and wrapped Athena's cable around my hand which was NOT a good idea because she went to go and greet the UPS man and the cable nearly broke my hand, it hurt SO bad. I walked into the house and thought I was either going to throw up or faint from the pain. I had a playdate set up so I still went and met my friend with her baby, it was pretty painful to pick up Cassie, especially since it was my right hand and as the hours passed my hand became more and more swollen. I finally called the doctor and they said I should go to urgent care just to get it checked out. So...I waited for my husband to get home from work...kinda freaking out hoping there was nothing seriosly wrong. We had our carpets cleaned this morning and I was shaking formula in a rubbermaid container and went into the living room to check on Cassie...I am shaking the container with my left hand since my right one is lame and the container goes flying out of my hand, pop comes off and formula is spilled all over the nice clean rug!! I went to Urgent Care and they took X-rays, there is no fracture it was just a sprain.. thank goodness. Today the swelling has gone done considerably and its not nearly as painful. Note....do not wrap a cable around your hand with a dog attached to the other end because a cable is NOT forgiving like a normal nylon leash.




Today we had a playdate with another friend. We went to the park, went for walk and then to a coffee shop in town. Cassie sat on the floor and played and I had a chocolate shake while my friend had a hot fudge sundae...yummy, it was a fun day.
My dog went on vacation today with my parents, they are on their way up north for over a week where I am sure she will have a great time swimming and going for walks. I do miss having her around already!

Starting to eat and be sassy

Cassie has started to eat again....knock on wood. Last night and this morning she took some bites of food. Yesterday she even took the spoon and fed herself 3 times! I see her little attitude also, at the grocery store I took my grocery list away from her and she started screaming and yesterday she started throwing a fit about something and tried hitting! I had to grab her little hand and say "no hitting".


Feeding herself

We went to Great Grandma and Grandpas to visit and saw our friend Maxim again. Before we left Cassie gave everyone high fives. She was a little cranky yesterday but after a bottle she was a happy camper.


Standing with Daddy at the park

One of our favorite things to do during the day is put on country music and dance. She gets a huge grin on her face and starts laughing when I start to spin her, she loves it. I love dancing with her to the country music, we both laugh and its just a great time.


Mommy and Cass