6 month well baby!

WELL! We had our long-dreaded (at least for me!) 6 month check up the obligatory 3 weeks late (b/c of when she got her shots at 2 months...it's a domino effect kinda thing.) Melissa came with us to her check up to help with Gabe and for general moral support, which i felt I needed after being fussed at by the last pediatrician we saw about Shiloh's size.

Let me just say...What a difference a great doctor makes! Going to the army clinic, we kinda see whoever is on rotation, but from now on I am going to make it a point to request the doctor that we had today. He was absolutely, positively excellent. Shiloh has contined to grow (we'll get to her measurments in a moment) along the same lines that she has been, which is to say steadily, and she did, after all, start out ahead of the curve. He saw not a thing wrong with her size, there was not a single negative comment out of him. He took his time with us, got smiles from Shiloh even while mushing on her belly, and only gave me general guidelines on what to do regarding feeding. To me, this was an indication of his confidence in my ability to feed my baby appropriately (this is, after all, my 3rd kid, and they all seem to be doing ok!)

Now, this doctor could also not find any sign AT ALL of Shiloh's heart murmur. I am so excited. I haven't wrote much about this, but when Shiloh was a teeny tiny baby, not even a day old, and they found that murmur, and brought that big ultrasound machine in the room and started watching her for signs of sweating, or turning colors...well, I was terrified. The nurse asked me if I was okay because I turned so much paler. When we went to our first ped. cardiologist, I nursed her while they did the EKG, and quietly cried the whole time. There have been many prayers from this worried mommy to God about this. Now, for it to be gone! I am just typing this now to be sure that I am accurately relaying how much of a blessing and a weight off my shoulders this is! We will be following up with a ped. cardiologist as soon as the referral goes through with our insurance...and, if he can't find it either, than we are officially done with all of that!

Shiloh took her shots like a champ, and, as Melissa pointed out, they are harder on Mommy than baby.

Shiloh's stats:

22 lbs 1 oz
27 inches

i just looked these up....98th percentile for both, according to what I found!

The pic of Shiloh is from a playdate we had with Salina and April. I just love that Shiloh has a little "friend" to chew on toys with! :)

lazy sunday afternoon in the martin house

she started out where tigger is...she's a scooter for real now!

because i have been threatened....

**UPDATE** AHEM AHEM, MELISSA!!!!! here is your post....

ok, not really, but I have been told by no less than three people that I needed to get some pics of Shiloh in her Easter dress up, so, we have pretty much recreated her look from Sunday morning. Here you go!

always&forever

Three days ago, a plane flew fairly low over our house for some reason. Gabriel heard it and ran as fast as he could to the back door. He looked out, and up...he spotted the airplane! And, as he jumped up and down, out tumbled the excited words "Daddy’s home! The airplane brought Daddy home!" and, just for a second, before the rational side of my brain could catch up, my heart skipped a beat, and there were butterflies in my stomach. But, of course, it wasn’t him. And then I explained to a crushed 3 year old best as I could that Daddy’s plane wouldn’t be bringing him back for months and months yet.

I started going to a new church about a month ago. When it was time to pick a Sunday School class, I went to the "young marrieds" class. Except I didn’t have a husband beside me. Everyone was very nice, but they politely tried to steer me towards the "college and career" class. No. I am not in college and I do not have a career. I work very hard to keep the home fires burning. I am a wife and mother, and I belong in the young marrieds class. I would not have had to explain this if I had been at my husband’s side walking into that room.

I can’t get the surround sound to work right. I am not an idiot by any means when it comes to making things operate properly. In fact, I am often the one asked by family/friends to get things in working order for them. But the surround sound I never bothered to learn because my husband is an absolute genius with all things electrical. But, now, I can’t figure it out.

I miss my husband. And I want him back. Yesterday.

playgroup & storytime!

Today, we had another mommy group! We went and had alot of fun, mostly visiting with my new friend Salina and her daughter April, who is only about 6 weeks older than Shiloh! It was great! Then, we went to storytime at the library, along with Salina and April. Gabe LOVED this, it will defintately have to become a regular thing that we do! I remembered to take the camera this time, so I even have pics of our fun!

Shiloh and April....for some reason they both found that left shoe fascinating today!

Silly Gabe, having a ball at the soft play!

Shiloh's being a little squinty, but I got both of the girls to look at the camera!

Storytime at the library...we learned all about butterflies! They even gave Gabe an instrument and WANTED him to make noise! He could hardly believe it!

Chillin' at storytime, Shiloh actually really liked it, too. Lots of cool stuff to look at and listen to!

Easter

Okay, so, due to all of us getting VERY sick, everything did not go as I had planned this Easter. Therefore, I have no pictures of the egghunts, or the cute Easter church clothes, or a bunch of other things that I probably should have. Just trust me when I say....REALLY SICK.

What I do have, however, are pics from this morning, doing Easter baskets with all of the kids. I know Tyrone will be happy to see them, maybe he will actually be able to get online and see all this fun stuff I've been putting up soon?!


So, the baskets were lots of fun, AND...Shiloh is big enough that she semi participated in this, and it was really great to have all 3 of them involved in the same thing for once! So, now the pics!

Lots of stuff!

Candy?! No, we weren't opening the candy....

First Easter basket!!

You can tell what Gabe was excited about...the chocolate!

My big boy

She liked her basket!

showcasing shiloh's newest skill

just being boys

watching movies...(no school today!)

beautiful artwork!

and I quote "MOM! Why is there not a tooth there yet?!"

pink camo, baby!

Is this a soldier's daughter or what? Thanks for everything Suzanne & Judy!!

HAPPY!!!

Guess what!? I'm soooo HAPPY!!! :) I have found a mom's group and they are fabulous! I went to my first meeting today, and Gabe, Shiloh, and I all had a ton of fun! We are going to go to an egg hunt with them on Thurs....I am so thrilled! Adult contact in the day time! This is HUGE!!! heeeeeeee!!!!!!!

AND! I can't talk about any details, of course, but prayers are being answered in a big way for Tyrone right now! Please pray that things go as planned for him, and when it's all said and done, I will be able to say a little bit about it.

This is a great day! Now, if only my house would learn to clean itself.....

Dancing Bumblebee

Last weekend was the big rattlesnake roundup in Evans County (big deal around theses parts...) AND...i just happen to personally know the STAR of the whole shebang!! :) Melissa's daughter, Kearstin, is taking dance now, and they had their first ever performance, and, man! Were they ever adorable. We spent the night before that with them, and so we were there to assist/document the whole getting ready ordeal....It took Melissa an hour and the better part of a can of hairspray to get Kearstin's hair to stay, but cuteness is what occured!!

Costume on! (Ms. Bailey sewed the sequins on the straps...thank you, Grandma, for the sewing skills that I do possess!!)

This was not an action shot...her hair was really sitting like that. Like I said, LOTS of hairspray! hehe

Pretty girl

The hair is done!!!

Unfortunately, the pics of them actually dancing all came out rather dark, but even so, you can tell they are awful cute up there!!

Thanks for inviting us, Melissa....It was windy and cold (really it was) but I wouldn't have missed Kearstin's dancing debut for anything!!!!

oh my!

Shiloh is 6 months old today! This does not sound right to me....surely it hasn't been 6 months?! :) In preparation for her half-birthday, Shiloh has figured out how to get her knees underneath her!! And, since I had the camera in my hand taking pics of Kearstin getting ready to go dance (pics of that to come...) I caught it the very first time she did it! She actually did it at least 10 times shortly thereafter, and was even doing the whole rocking on the hands and knees thing. Won't be long before I've got a crawler!!

because we love tyler

Tyler has come to play with us again today! And, I think that I have discovered Tyler's super hero power.....I would like to introduce you all tooooooo.....

PERPETUAL MOTION BOY!!!!!!!!!!

pics from yesterday

my beautiful girl

Clover

Tyler (Jeanie's (my sister) son) came to play!!

SO...last night, when Mom and Tyler were just about to leave, my boys were heading up the stairs to go to ther beds. I was helping Mom get Tyler's stuff packed up, and I heard "BANG!" and then Gabe screaming and crying. I dropped the stuff in my hands and ran, Gabe was sitting/laying on the stairs with his head in his hands, crying violently. This is not like Gabe, who never admits anything hurts. I scooped him up and got him to look at me. He had blood pretty much steadily running from his mouth down his face. It took a few minutes to figure out the injury, because of him being scared and hurt, and all the blood in the way, but it turns out when he fell, his teeth went into his lip. Deep. OUCH! For a few seconds there, Mom and I were worried that his teeth may have gone all the way through, but they did not, thank God. I gave him Tylenol and some ice to suck on, and he (trooper, as always!) went to bed with no problem, and is just fine this morning. In fact, he was proud to show off his boo boo, see above. It looks a TON better than it did last night!!!

See? All better!!

sigh

i have enabled word verification for commenting on the blog. i was "spammed" this morning. anyway, i know that this will be confusing to some, but please don't be deterred. it's just some letters/numbers to type in before your comment is put up.

okie dokey, have a great day!

good stuff

sooo....you know your food was good when you end up wearing it and then needing a bath.....

2 years ago

Two years ago today, I married my best friend. I wish beyond words that we were together for our anniversary, but I am also unendingly grateful that I have someone as wonderful as him to miss. We have been through so much, and learned so many lessons. I look forward to the years to come, the time to spend together, and the things yet to be learned. Life with Tyrone is an adventure, and I can't wait for what's next!

I truly thank God for my family. I am blessed beyond all measure.

Now....look what I found! Wedding pictures!

The judge who married us...he even prayed with us! How special is that?

This was our little family (yes, that wild haired rug rat is Gabe!)

I love this pic of Tyrone, it totally shows his personality, imo

Cutting the cake!

Happy Anniversary, Baby!!!