BillyandAshlee.com

It’s been awhile…here’s an update that I intended to keep short, but that is anything but short!

- Lauren went to the pediatric orthopedic surgeon and the long story short is he did another xray of her knee and whatever was in there is now gone. Due to the asthma meds she’s been on for 2 years, he also did a hip xray and it came back fine (looking for blood loss to the hip). So, unfortunately, they can’t tell us what it was but probably some kind of infection and he did say she probably was in pain at the time. He manually examined her knees and everything was normal. We go back in a few months for a check-up, unless she starts complaining about pain again, then they’ll see us immediately. He sent us for yet another round of blood work, again looking at platlates, lympasites (leukemia/cancer scary type stuff) and everything, for the 3rd time in a month, was absolutely fine. Thank goodness. So far, no more pain. And at 3 yrs, 3 months, she’s weighing in at 28.5 pounds and 36″…still around that 10-20%. Just grew into a size 2T this fall. Wonder if she’ll hit 30 pounds by 4? lol

- Lauren’s favorite songs of the moment are Frosty the Snowman and Jingle Bells. We hear them both several times a day.

- Lauren is very excited about Santa coming and each time someone asks her if Santa is coming to her house, she’s quick to explain that no, Santa is coming to GRAMMY’S HOUSE. She’s planning to ask Santa for a bike and a teddy bear she tells us!

- She’s very excited about the Christmas lights and begs us each day to put lights on our house. Unfortunately, Billy had shoulder surgery 3.5 weeks ago and is still in a sling, and I’m not much for standing on a ladder in 30 degree weather, so there aren’t any lights at our house yet. We’re going to put some in the bushes this week and hopefully pacify her until next year when daddy can do it right for her:). Each night when we go home, she begs to drive past our house and “show me lights mommy/daddy”…so we circle the neighborhood for awhile.

- We’re doing a daily advent calendar/house with her with various treats (candy, new Christmas book, new ornament for her tree, etc) and activities (go look at Christmas lights in your pj’s, go sit on Santa’s lap, etc) and it’s been a big hit. Each night, she has us help her find the next day’s door and its one of the first things she asks about in the morning, so we go down in her pj’s to see what is behind that day’s door. Today is breakfast for dinner and she’s so very excited…pancakes, scrambled eggs, and her very favorite monkey bread (overnight pecan cinnamon caramel rolls that are rising all day while we’re gone). She’s informed us she’ll eat 7 rolls, 3 pancakes, and 2 eggs. Considering the child barely eats 2 bites at each meal, that would be quite a site to see!

- Took Lauren for an eye exam today…our eye dr. recommended it at age 3. Good news is everyone raved about what a great patient she was (no crying, did everything she was asked…but seriously, this kid loves going to the dr…she looks forward to it, plays it all the time at home and always gets rave reviews from the dr…today they gave her 2 giant tootsie roll lollipops for being so good) and also for how smart she is…she could tell them all the letters and numbers which made it really easy to do the exam! They said they have a few 3 year olds now and then that know all their letters, but not many! Thanks daycare! I am blind and Billy’s vision is better than 20/20 and so far Lauren is 20/20 with a touch of farsightedness (I think that’s what she said) which they said is exactly what they expect to see at this age! yea!! Please oh please let her get Bill’s eyes!

- I told Lauren yesterday that we were going to go buy presents for a little boy (one of those “pick the name off the tree and buy a gift thing” Bill’s team at work was doing). She asked why and I told her it’s called charity, that we are fortunate and have lots of money, but that some people don’t and we help those people out whenever we can, we share our money. And that this little boys parents don’t have enough money to buy him presents, so we were going to help them and buy presents for him. She listened very intently, then went running downstairs to her toys (her cash register specifically) and came back up with a handful of her fake change and said that she would share her money too and buy him presents and asked me to put it in my pocket for her because she didn’t have pockets. And when we got to ToysRUs, she made sure that I had her money. What a sweetheart. She is a very, very giving person and will always share whatever she has with you, almost demands that you partake, and will give it to you even if it means she doesn’t have any herself. Also very empathetic whenever someone is upset and will be the first person by your side to console you, including Brody if he cries! =)

- We took her to see “Bolt” a few weekends ago. It has started an official obsession. As soon as we left the theater, the question we were afraid of is exactly what we heard. Can I get another puppy and name him Bolt? She’s been begging for a 2nd puppy. We aren’t budging, the answer is no. One 120 pound dog is enough:). She talks about the movie constantly. We may have to take her to see it again!

- Ever since my friend Megan had her second child, Ellysen, Lauren has declared that she had a baby in her belly…Ellysen…that would be born on her birthday (9/27). After her birthday, I asked if Ellysen had been born and she said yes, but that a new baby was in her belly, named Traffic Light. Lauren continues to add more and more babies to her “family” (they always start as babies in her belly, some have been “born”, some haven’t)…in the order in which she told us about them (she created and named them all herself):

- Ellysen
- Traffic Light, and this baby has a dog named Spike (Traffic Light is almost always the one responsible for any of Lauren’s bad behavior/choices)
- Puppet
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

A few days ago she talked about a few new ones…Meecee whose mommy is named Fee (no idea how to spell these made up names!)…and Meecee had shoulder surgery and they gave her a big shot and she had 4 ouchies (exactly like Bill’s surgery…laproscopic with 4 incisions). I don’t think those babies “stuck” though, I haven’t heard about them since…sometimes we have a few here and there that she mentions once and not again. But those 4 listed above are permanent…if you ask her to list her babies, she’ll list them in that order, almost every time.

- I’m afraid Santa pics this year are going to be year #3 of the crying variety. Santa was at our gym yesterday for the annual Christmas party. After my class, I picked her up from the kids gym and took her to just look at him. She was incredibly interested…but just stared at him, standing as close to me as she could, practically on my lap. I asked her if she wanted to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted and she didn’t take her eyes off of him, just shook her head no. I have a few weeks to bribe her…that usually works. =)

- Lauren started taking dance class in September…it’s a combo class of ballet, jazz, tap, and tumbling. She loves the tumbling, the ballet is ok, but really doesn’t care for the jazz/tap. I think the class is a little intimidating…15 or so 3-5 year olds. Most Mondays, she tells me she doesn’t want to go to dance, she just likes gymnastics (which is pronounced emnackicks). So, I don’t think dance will be our thing, but I’m trying to encourage her to not quit just yet…she usually likes it when she gets there though…usually…depends on her mood. She has a big recital in June…so after that I’ll let her decide whether to take it again next year or not. This will probably be our only year in dance!haha But she really really does love gymnastics. She’s been taking that for a year and asks if it’s Thursday all the time so she can go to gymnastics. I think we’ll be doing that for quite awhile. She’s getting pretty good too! Her forward rolls are perfect, she’s getting there on her back rolls and cartwheels, she can flip over the bar to dismount (with some help of course), good balance on the beam, and of course what kid doesn’t love the trampoline?

- Me - not much of an update…still working full-time and managing that along with Lauren, Billy and Brody keeps me busy! I find some time now and then to have dinner with my girlfriends which is always a nice break! I basically try to spend as much time with Lauren as I can while signing myself up for just a bit more than I should (as Billys says) and am again debating going part-time at work. We’ll see!

- Billy - he had a long overdue shoulder surgery in mid-November to repair a torn labral tendon (an injury from high school which has resulted in him dislocating his shoulder probably 1x per year since then…the last time was throwing punches during our boot camp class at the gym and one of the guys that we are in class with is an ortho surgeon specializing in shoulders…so he got it back in place and Billy made an appt the next day!). They did the surgery laproscopically and he’s in a sling for 1 month (gets out of that Friday) and started physical therapy last week. The hope is for him to be completely healed and be able to resume normal activities (weigh lifting, motorcycle riding, etc) after 6 months…so around mid-May. It’s been a long 3 weeks as he has to wear the sling 24/7 except to shower, so sleeping in it is pretty uncomfortable. He was a great patient and has still been a big help around the house, despite “only having one arm”. =) His career is going really well and he loves his job…he just took his CISSP exam on Saturday and will get the results in a month or so, fingers crossed!

I’m horribly behind on uploading pics, but expect to see 4 months worth hit our site this week! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!