Cooking in the Kitchen!

Rhaegan loves her kitchen. She alwys wants me to "play kitchen, Mommy, play kitchen." I usually give in the first 10 times she asks, but there is a limit to how much plastic food I can eat in a day. Luckily for me one of her best friends, Nathan, came down to play last week. They both had so much fun and it took a lot of bribing to get them to pose for a quick picture. I got a break from the plastic food and Rhaegan got to enjoy some play time with someone other than Mom. I can safely say we both had a pretty good day.

A Day of Sledding!!

We spent the day sledding with Shae's brother and his family. Rhaegan has actually been getting a lot of use out of her new snowsuit because we have had several great snow storms which left a ton of snow to play in. It was so much fun and thankfully it wasn't too cold. Rhaegan and her two cousins Madison and Ashton loves sliding down this little mound of snow on their bottoms. Rhaegan wasn't too sure about all the snow at first..
but of course started having fun with her cousins...
and eventually was a pro and the "big hill."

My New Dance Moves

It may not seem like a lot but these simple little dance moves are the first ones Rhaegan has learned at her dance class. She loves to practice them at home but when it comes to doing them in the actual class, well, that's a different story.

Tympanostomy Tubes

Rhaegan underwent minor ear surgery today to help relieve her chronic ear infections. She was such a trooper. The surgery lasted about 10 minutes and then we were in recovery for about 40 minutes (of course we were in the waiting room prior to surgery for about 1 hour and a half). Rhaegan has been getting severe ear infections for about a year now. We would treat them with antibiotics but they never seemed to take the infection away completely. We were at the doctor's office about 7 times this year just for her ears. So the last time we went they recommended we see an ENT (ear, nose & throat). A week before her appointment with the ENT she started showing signs of an ear infection only this time it seemed to really be bothering her. She didn't sleep for a good 3 days and then the day before her appointment stuff started draining from her ear (which is not suppose to happen). Unfortunately her left eardrum had ruptured and the right one was about to because of how much infections was behind it. They immediately scheduled us for surgery and we had the problem fix (hopefully). I attached two links which describe the surgery and all in entails. Rhaegan is doing great and is acting like nothing happened. Thanks everyone for all your phone calls and emails. We love you all!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tympanostomy_tube
http://www.ghorayeb.com/OtitisMediaPEtube.html

Dashing through the snow...

We woke up yesterday to about 5 inches of new snow on the ground. I was so excited because Rhaegan got a new snowsuit for Christmas and hasn't had a chance to use it. Well yesterday we broke it in. There is a little hill just outside our condo where all the neighborhood kids like to sled. We got Rhaegan all bundled up and out we went to enjoy the freezing cold weather. Rhaegan was a little scared at first but after we went down the hill just once she was hooked. It was a lot of fun. It's suppose to be pretty cold for the next few days so the snow isn't going anywhere soon. Hopefully we'll be able to go sledding a couple more times.

Just Dance!

Today was Rhaegan's first day of dance. She has been asking to go for about a week now so when today came and she got to put on her little outfit she was so excited. She is taking a ballet class with her cousin Ashton. It didn't go as well as I'd hoped but it was so cute just to she her all dressed up and pretty. She has two really bad ear infections right now and she's really shy so those two factors didn't really help any. However, by the end of the class she seemed to be warming up a little bit. Next week should be better. This pose she's doing is the one she learned today. You're suppose to put your hands on your hips and gallop sideways across the room. It is absolutely adorable to watch. She's growing up so fast it's a little bittersweet.

Christmas 2007

I know that it's been a while since my last entry. December was a very busy month, with Christmas and traveling and birthdays, I still haven't completely caught up on all the sleep I lost. However, it was nothing but fun and being able to see family over the holiday season made all the ciaos worth it. We had the privilege of going to NY to visit my parent's. All of my siblings and their families were able to make it as well. We all had a lot of fun especially Rhaegan. She loved playing with her cousins Tyson and Sam. She also loved patting the cheeks of her new cousin "baby Paige" as she calls her. She chased the cat all around the house trying to get him to like her but unfortunately he never did warm up to her. We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year.

Sam, Tyson, Paige & Rhaegan in their new pajamas

The three amigos watching a movie on Grandma and Papa's bed

Rhaegan got a bunch of new books for Christmas. She was in heaven!!

Rhaegan frosting sugar cookies (well no so much frosting as eating)

Sam, Tyson and Rhaegan patiently waiting to open presents.