I didn’t want to miss out on all the good weather because we were still not feeling great. So, Eisley and I went to the park one morning. I had to keep her from trying to go into the nearby pond. We walked along the edge, picking up various sticks that she deemed special. Then we walked back over the bridge to the park to find a couple of turtles enjoying the warm sun. The top turtle actually moved up to make room for the other turtle. How sweet.

Right next to this rock is a water fountain that includes a dog fountain. Eisley normally insists on drinking out of the drinking fountains, but these were turned off for winter. Thankfully, she was content to “sit” on this rock chair.

Stephan taught Eisley a neat trick. Yep. She can take the lid off of her yogurt and lick off the yogurt all on her own. You may also be able to see that she can also give herself a yogurt facial.

Fingers. Pretzels. They’re all the same, right?

Geez, Mom. Do you really have to get so close?

Can you determine her eye color? We’re still guessing.

While I typically look forward to my birthday, this year I was feeling pretty tired and still under the weather, so we stayed home from church so that I could rest (and to keep our runny-nosed kid out of the nursery). It was the first nice day we’d had in a while: sunshine and near 70 degrees! Thankfully, we had decided to try a new crock pot recipe that cooked the night before, so we pretty much had our dinner taken care of. I was rather happy to just stay in instead of having a big birthday celebration. All of us thoroughly enjoyed our beef brisket tacos. Yum!!

I think Stephan was trying to capture Eisley’s special bed head here.

Out at River Legacy Park. Eisley was rather interested in this tree. She had also stumbled walking down the hill and her knees were a bit muddied. Oops.

And that’s about it for pictures, folks. Hopefully next year we’ll all be well!

Keeping up with the blog these days has been a challenge, as you can see. We have had a very busy holiday season, though, for some reason, I kind of wasn’t expecting it. There are so many things to update you on, but I figured I’d just give a little snippet of where we’re at today.

We returned from a trip to Florida on Monday. Everything seemed to be going alright, although we certainly felt that we could have used an extra day or two to recover. Towards the end of our trip, we thought that Eisley might have been a little off, but it was kind of hard to know for sure. But as the days went on, I realized that the combination of night wakings, runny nose and then the random outbursts of crying and clinginess meant that something was going on. So, I got her right into the doctor and found out that she has another ear infection. (Check back for the story of her ear infection on Christmas Day!) Now that she has had a few days of antibiotics in her system, it seems that she is doing better–specifically napping and sleeping at night a little better. But I’m not feeling so great. I am very grateful that Stephan took Eisley this morning so that I could sleep in. It has been a long time since that has happened!

A little while back we got Eisley a baby stroller. She loves to push it around the house, but won’t allow anything to be in it. A few days ago, though, she decided that she just had to put her dolly in the stroller. I decided to take a picture just to capture the novelty of it. Since then, she has allowed dolly and her pillow to sit in the stroller a few times. It’s fun to see how she changes before our eyes.

Here are few videos from December capturing Eisley’s silliness.

In this video, she was SOOO full of herself. She thought she was hilarious.

In this video, I happened to walk in and find her chatting it up on the phone. She decided to “end” her call soon after I started taping, but she gave you a few other nuggets. Enjoy.

Eisley’s second Christmas was, well, quite a bit different from her first. For starters, she went to the ER in severe pain. Additionally, we had not grandparents or Uncle Rawie. In fact, no dinner guests at all (which is probably a good thing). And it’s a good thing we didn’t plan on a turkey dinner either because I would have been way too exhausted to deal with that! It was very sad to not be with family on Christmas. While we did want to avoid traveling for Christmas, we probably will make different plans next year!

After we came home from the ER, Eisley was in a pretty good mood, so we decided to open up her gifts before her nap. This year she became interested in, not only opening the gifts, but also finding out what was inside! Here is a little peak at our Christmas. Next year we’ll do better at getting pictures of Eisley actually looking at the camera with gifts in hand, but take it easy on this year.

Notice her outfit.

I can get it.

A baby doll from Nana and Great-Grandpa!

This was a Disney Princess music book…piano keys to play her own music too. I should mention: Eisley LOVES Disney Princesses.

Eisley also loves Mary Poppins!

We got her some blocks (like Legos) and she was mostly interested in dumping the bag out.

Okay, maybe I’ll stack some together.

She loved her kitty stuffed animals. I bought this several months back on a trip to Target. She wouldn’t give it up before we left. I put it away, though, and she didn’t seem to miss it. Now, she hasn’t put it down and doesn’t seem to forget it!

After her nap, Eisley found her way back to her Christmas chair with some of her new books, including a Disney Princesses sticker book in the side pocket. I should also mention that she LOVES stickers.

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday, Jesus!

When we woke up on Christmas morning, we didn’t have any idea that we’d be heading out to the ER on icy streets. Eisley woke up seemingly normal. She ate some breakfast and was even a little silly. She did throw herself on the ground while I was getting her breakfast ready, but I thought that was because she was hungry. Around 9:30am, she started crying and holding the back of her head, right behind her right ear. She began to get hysterical. We gave her some tylenol, thinking that she had bumped into something, even though we didn’t see anything happen. It seemed that we were able to calm her down for a bit.

But, when Eisley began screaming hysterically, despite all of our efforts, we decided to pack her in the car and go the ER. Any other Friday and we could have gone to our doctor or urgent care, but not on Christmas! But…our first trip to the ER went very smoothly. It wasn’t very busy and they took us right in. They were so helpful and caring, which really helped us relax. After getting checked in and getting all of her stats taken, we waited for the doctor. At first he didn’t think it was an ear infection because she wasn’t holding onto her ear, didn’t have a fever or any other typical symptoms. But we all know that Eisley never presents typically, right? The doctor could not see into her ear because it was plugged (and has been for a while) with ear wax. We all agreed that it was important to get the wax out and see what was going on.Interestingly, last December, we were at our pediatrician’s getting the wax out, learning or her 1st (and only other) ear infection. It was rather amazing to see how much calmer Eisley was after we got the wax out (taking all 3 of us to hold her down). And really, it was such a relief! Her ear was indeed infected. All of that for an ear infection! Thankfully, by the time we took her to our doctor on Monday morning, Eisley’s ears were given a clean bill of health for our flight that week!

This was the only gift Eisley got before we went to the ER. She loved her little chair from Grandma and Grandpa Sondregger!

Her breakfast–she insisted on eating with her gloves on.

After we got back from the ER, she chilled in her new chair, while watching a movie. She deserved a little rest.

Last night it was almost balmy in the 60s, but by this morning, a winter front had definitely moved in. It was supposed to just get cold and remain dry and sunny. However, it’s Texas, and you have the check the weather almost hourly sometimes! This morning started out in the low 40s/upper 30s. I went to the gym, and by the time I got out, it was raining and rather miserable out! Stephan and Eisley went to Home Depot and had an early visit from Santa in the form of a new lawn mower at 50% off! It had been returned, but was basically new. Stephan is ecstatic over his new Honda, by the way.

By lunchtime, the rain turned to a wintry mix and we realized that things were going to get interesting. As I started making bread, Stephan started a fire and we watched the snow blow wildly outside. That’s right, snow falling and 20-30 mph winds blowing it everywhere!

After Eisley woke up from her nap, she eventually decided that she wanted to go outside. So we bundled her up and let her check out the snow!

This is how she was dressed yesterday:

And this is today:

Eisley wasn’t very interested in walking through the snow itself. At least not on her own. She didn’t seem to mind the horizontal snow whipping across her face, though.

After playing out in the snow, Eisley seemed a little tired. She decided to chill by the Christmas tree.

Now, depending on your monitor, you may or may not be able to see this: Eisley’s eyes seem to be settling on green. It has taken a while for us to even hazard a guess. They seem to be between hazel and green, I guess, but in the sun it seems that green is trying to push through.

When we put up the Christmas tree, we were somewhat concerned that Eisley would mess with the tree too much. The other Christmas trees that she has been around haven’t been an issue, so it seemed that we were in the clear. After the tree had been up a few days with just lights, I added the ornaments. Yesterday she began to check out the ornaments. Today, she was gleefully checking out snowflake after snowflake. And then she discovered the lights. I noticed that she had pulled out one of the lights and a small section had gone out. I put the bulb back in, the lights came back on and she was delighted.

She proceeded to pull the light out again, so then I had to deal with that. But what really got me what what happened next. After I had told her several times not to take the light out, she apparently got an idea. This kid barely says 2 words, but she got this look on her face, a twinkle in her eye and then she took my hand and indicated that she wanted me to go into the kitchen. She knew that she wanted to get me out of the room so that she could then pull the light out. I indulged her for a moment and walked into the kitchen. She immediately turned to the lights, while keeping an eye on me to see if I would catch her! Oh my goodness. I am not ready for this!

This was a little bit later on this afternoon.

Going in for yet another examination of the lights.

Mom, this is a fun game. At least, for me.

If I stand here, you might not notice me thinking about touching those lights. Again.