Anne Waligur

My Aunt Anne had a stroke in June of 2010. After that it was up and down, a true emotional roller coaster for everyone in the family, until her passing on July 12, 2011. At almost 82 years old I can’t say she “went before her time”, but when it is a close family member you always wish for more time. She was a loving soul, adopting her younger sister Linda’s son as her own after she passed. A Girl Scout leader, she was always singing camp songs and giving out good advice, much of which I still remember and try to teach my own girls. She sang in her church choir, was a docent at the Botanical Gardens and had many beloved friends. Her gift to me upon her death was the ruby ring her father gave to her for her 16th Birthday. She wore it every day of her life and I remember seeing it on her. She was my Aunt and I loved her very much. She will be missed this Holiday season.

Ryan Jones

Unfortunately, I did not know Ryan that well. He went to college with Derek and I met him a few times, usually at the yearly picnic – “Ocho”. He had health problems that ultimately landed him in a coma, which he was fighting, until his untimely passing this October. He was the fiddler for the Country group ‘Lo Cash Cowboys’. The one time spent with him at Ocho that I do remember was him playing acoustic guitar and everyone singing ‘Moxy Fruvous’ songs with him, laughing and having a great time. I honestly don’t even know if he knew my name, but he friended me on Facebook, probably because I am Derek’s wife. When someone so young, with his entire life ahead of him passes it really makes you stop and reevaluate your own time here on Earth. My thoughts and prayers are still with his family and friends, he was lost all too soon.

Ed McGrath

Ed’s passing is still very fresh, he has only been gone two weeks today. He was a member of our choir at church. Sang Bass with Derek and my Dad. We were not close friends, but he was so kind, thoughtful and fun to be around. It gets personal, even if you are not “close” with a person, when you sing together. There is something about being in a choir (as I am sure it is with any musical group) that pulls people closer together. You are using a part of yourself that is very personal. When you work so hard on making this music together with your voice, it binds you to those other people. It is a shared experience that is unmatched. Therefore, when one voice is missing, after working so hard on a piece, it is felt very deeply. At the Funeral four our friend Ed, I did not cry. I was very sad, but he was not supposed to be singing that day, with us. I cried a lot the day before, on Sunday, when he SHOULD have been there, signing the songs he had worked so hard to make beautiful with us. On that day, and this weekend as well, his voice was missing and it SHOULD have been there with us. I am constantly praying for his family, that God may give them peace during this time.

All in all, I am really hoping that 2012 will not have as many goodbye’s in it. But I guess these are my three for now. Rest In Eternal Peace, all of you. You are missed in many ways.

I contacted and am fostering them for Buffalo Paws and Claws for the next few weeks until they are old enough to go to PetCo to be adopted out. UNLESS someone out there is looking for a kitten to adopt!

There are 4 in all, 5 weeks old. Three male, one female. Two males are grey with stripes, one male is calico like Mama and so is the female. They are adorable and their pics should be up soon at Buffalo Paws and Claws website (Dawn was here last night and gave them all their de-wormer, flea meds and clipped their claws). Mama is also going to be adopted out, but she’ll be waiting a bit longer than her kittens. She is only maybe 2 years old and SUCH a sweetheart, even called her kittens over to me and sat on my lap so they’d know I was OK!

If you think you might be interested, either e-mail me, or contact Buffalo Paws and Claws directly and let them know you want one of “Amanda Punaro’s Cats”. If you need to be pursuaded by cuteness and soft fur, e-mail meand let me know when you want to come by to take a look at them for yourself! I would really rather them be adopted out from here than have to go through the stress of being put in cages and in PetCo, which can be scary. We will have them here, as I said, for the next two weeks if anyone is interested in coming by to take a look.

Thanks!

He sat me down and asked me to open the eggs to find the candy inside. I opened a few and then stopped, but he made me continue telling me there were different candies in each egg. There were at least 30 eggs in the basket.

I kept opening them to find jelly beans, chocolates and malt balls. All the while I was thinking – this is silly, why am I opening all these eggs? Then, I got to the last egg. It was yellow and all the way on the bottom of the basket. I felt relieved, no more eggs to open!! I was extremely surprised when I opened it and found not candy but a DIAMOND ring nested in Easter grass. When I looked over at Derek, he was all ready on one knee in front of me.

The next day I went out with friends and bought my Wedding Dress, had a few halls contacted and had the church on hold. I can’t believe nine years has come and gone since that day. Derek made me the happiest I can remember being on that day and every day since.

Put water on ‘dribble’ for the cat to drink from in the upstairs bathroom sink. Got the Dolly her milk and went into our room to sit in the big rocking chair and read as we do every night. We got caught up reading stories, more than we usually do, but she was going to bed early and so I figured it was ok.

After our stories, we always go to brush teeth, but when I walked into the bathroom the sink was completely filled with water, and had been overflowing for only God knows how long. The rug was soaked, there was water under the sink, there was a pool around the toilet, and I was afraid to look downstairs in the kitchen.

When Derek came upstairs, he was furious. Rightfully so. When I put the water on for the cat, I didn’t put the lights on because the Dolly was all ready in the chair waiting for me so I wanted to get in there. I didn’t realize that she had closed the drain while she was in there before.

Thankfully, I don’t think any major damage was done. I feel awful and Derek is pissed. We don’t argue much and it hurts when we are angry. Plus then, with all the excitement, Ariella did not want to stay in bed and try to go to sleep. So she was screaming in her bed because she had to go to bed.

I’m sure Derek will want to weigh in here too. Sorry, Sweetie.

Around 1:30pm yesterday I started having what I thought were the same old Braxton-Hicks that 36 weekers usually get. At 10pm, after almost 9 hours of them getting a bit closer together I decided to call the Doctor and hear his recommendations. Of course that was, “I can’t tell you anything over the phone, your best bet is to go to the Hospital to be monitored to see if anything is really happening.” I knew he was going to say that.

So we packed up all our gear, all Ariella’s gear and headed to my Gramma’s house where my Mom is “babysitting” while my Uncle is in Tahiti. Yes, Tahiti – believe me, he deserves a break! I figured that if we took our time getting ready and dropping her off the contractions might stop by then and we could avoid the whole Hospital thing. I was wrong, they just kept on coming!

At 12:02am we walked into the L&D ward at Mercy and were brought into a labor room. They got me set up with a beautiful gown and checked me. I was 2cm dilated and 50% effaced. That kinda surprised me, but didn’t. I hadn’t been dilated at all at my last appointment Thursday, but I figured the contractions had done something to help it along. That information plus the contractions coming pretty regularly at 7 minutes plus the pain factor which was now in the equation as well made the Nurse Midwife on duty scratch her head at me and not give me food or water. Both of which I wanted.

My Nurse was given the instruction that if the contractions continued the way they were for a certain amount of time I was to get an IV at that point, as signs would be pointing more towards ‘GO’ than false labor. After an hour or so, I got an IV and immediately began to freak out. I guess I am not as prepared or ready for the C-Section as I had thought. I also almost passed out. Needles are not always my favorite things and I was running on a huge lack of sleep.Then the Nurse says to me, “This is going to feel cold” and hooks up a baggie of something to the IV. I think I was shaking for the next 30 minutes before getting myself under control. Derek stood next to me and rubbed my hand to try and warm me up, it was a miracle I didn’t shake the IV out of my arm! Or myself out of the bed!

Derek kept falling asleep in his chair and I couldn’t sleep at all. It was early in the morning, no one was awake to chat with on-line and I was contracting like crazy! Also thinking that this might be the day we have our new baby! However, when I asked if I could lay on my side, I finally got comfortable enough to be fast asleep in seconds. Next thing I knew, they were back in the room to check me again. Nothing had changed at that point and the contractions were lessening and spreading apart. Thankfully, even at 3am, we were sent home.

The end of this pregnancy is turning out to be quite the adventure! My thought is the 3rd time is the charm, so if Cambree decides to go at it again, they’ll probably take her. I was given strict orders for a few things – 1. Don’t wait so long to come into the Hospital if I have contractions again. Because I am a repeat section, they want me in and being monitored if I think something is happening again. They also told me not to bother calling my Dr either, to just go right in. 2. Don’t eat if I start having contractions. I ate a huge dinner, because I was starving, but because of the section, they want my belly empty. 3. Get help with the Toddler for the next 3 weeks so I can rest as much as possible to give Cambree some more time to cook.

Not sure what the next 3 weeks is going to bring, but I am desperately trying to get all my action plans in order with people and have them ‘on call’ for us if need be. Hopefully, the need will not be there again until Feb 10th!!!

Then an update came through which for whatever reason rendered the little device completely unusable. It wouldn’t turn on, then it wouldn’t turn off, it would turn itself off if you tried to change albums in the middle of your day. I called Microsoft, and they sent me info on how to return it. This took at least two to three weeks, but soon a new one came.

It was black, not my original fixed up for me, but it was another Zune. Ahhhhh, music the way I wanted it was back in my life once again! Until I noticed that the little button on top to “lock” the device did not work. At all. They had sent me a defunct device back! I was furious, this had not been my fault! And as small an issue as it may seem, when you are putting the device into a purse or pocket so it’s not sitting in your car while you are out shopping or what have you, it turns itself on and drains the battery! So when you are back in the car, it is out of juice and is unusable – AGAIN!

So one more time I called back to customer service and was immediately placed on the “special” help list. The call center people were all very helpful and assured me that this was going to be resolved. By sending the second defunct Zune back to them so they could send me another “refurbished” Zune. They don’t send new ones out when you’ve all ready purchased one.

After another looooooong three weeks, I received the next Zune in the mail. This one with a working lock button, and no issues with downloading updates. We used it all the time. On our way to church. On our way to the Doctor. On our way to Gramma’s house. Christmas morning. All except for when we test drove the new Forester. I didn’t have the correct cables to connect it to the sound system, and the Forester doesn’t have the tape player in it to use it that way. So I took it out of the Jetta, put it in the pocket of my jacket (my purse was overflowing with other electronic gadgets on that particular day) and, well, I LOST MY FRICKIN ZUNE.

I COULD have zipped up the pocket of my ski jacket, which actually comes with a pocket FOR an MP3 player on the INSIDE of it. I COULD have just left it in the Jetta which was at my parents house while we drive the new car. I COULD have left the jacket on while we waited for the saleswoman at the Suburu place so I could feel it in there. But NO! I’m pregnant, have lost my mind and am HOT all the time so I didn’t leave it on and carried my jacket – without a protected zipped pocket – all over hell and creation instead.

After all this, no Zune still. I have looked everywhere in the house, cars, jacket pockets, bags of gifts. It must be a sign that the Zune and I, no matter how passionate our love over the past year, was not meant to be.

Poop on a stick. 

1. My Zune (the biggest loss of everything)
2. A paycheck from my part-time job singing at Church
3. A package of Wegmans Honey Roasted Turkey Breast

Items found which were missing:

1. A jar of Vick’s Vapo-Rub (which has been missing since way before the pregnancy, and again – not sure how it was lost in the first place, but ended up in Derek’s office somehow)

I am sick over the Zune, paycheck can be remedied by calling Church and I am completely baffled by the turkey (all the other groceries made it into the house, everything is on the bill. Not even sure HOW that one happened.). Pretty sure I’m losing my mind, so therefore I am not leaving the house by myself with the Toddler at all until this pregnancy is over. Who knows if either one of us will make it back home?

On my trip in June to see my Best Friend Amy in Fulton, NY I realized that I may be pregnant. When I came home that assumption was undeniably confirmed.  After more morning sickness and lots of growing, I am still growing and we are patiently waiting for our Cambree to arrive next month. It is going to take a while to get used to not only saying we are having the baby this year, but next MONTH!

Over the summer, Derek and the Fathers were busy bees getting our shed re-built. They literally took it all the way down to the studs, put up new walls and even windows! We now have a beautiful red shed with white trim in our backyard. It still needs a new roof, but that is coming in the new year.

Ariella also turned 2 years old in 2010. THAT time went by extremely quickly! We all celebrated while having bad colds, but it was a great party and she got many lovely things. She continues to amaze us with her vocabulary and ability to learn music at light speed. This Christmas she actually stood on the risers and sang ‘Hark, the Herald Angels Sing’ with us. All three verses, on pitch and in time. Her favorite Christmas show was ‘Charlie Brown Christmas’ and she recognizes it no matter where she hears the music. She is such a joy to have in our lives!

We ended the year by having a Contractor friend of Derek’s come by and look at our “projects” that have been on the back burner since we moved in. He gave us lots of great ideas and hope that one of those projects will be attainable in the near future! Not the near future, but closer than I think we were expecting.

So far 2011 has been very relaxing! And by that I mean today I have done nothing but sit on the couch. We are looking forward to possibly leasing a new car to make getting around for a family of four easier (stretching the budget a bit to do it, but we think its possible), having the baby in February, Derek’s Sister’s Graduation from St. John Fisher in May, Derek’s Cousin Matt’s Wedding in August, Ariella beginning Pre-School in September and whatever else may come our way!

We hope your 2011 brings you peace, joy and lots of love! Happy New Year!!

Every appointment after that when I would ask they would tell me that it wasn’t that big of a difference and that everything was the same. So at today’s appointment I asked again and received another answer. I guess after that first sonogram my OB did in fact change my Due Date from February 19th to the 13th. So the Doc today said that he would go in the middle of the two and say the 15th.

That puts me at exactly 21 weeks along now, with still a long road ahead of me! Due date doesn’t really mean too much, except you have a general idea of when the baby will be born. Ariella was three days late, and I’ve heard a lot of women say that their second child was born early. But when you are looking at a repeat C-Section in the future and want to have a date in mind, it does mean something! No matter what, this baby will come whether we are ready for her or not, or have planned for her to come a certain day.

I can’t wait to see what her plans are for us! Five months down, four more to go!

Life is not always easy and my heart honestly aches for any of you out there who are going through a rough time of things right now. I pray for you every night and hope that the Lord eases your burden soon.

Now I feel the only words that come out of my mouth are – “No! Don’t do that! Put that DOWN! STOP doing that! Listen to me child!” and the like. I feel like the bad Mama. But lately all Ariella seems to do is get into trouble. Exploring, necessary, trouble. She is starting to tell ME what to do.

Yesterday as I made dinner I hear her telling me, “Wipe it up, Mama! Wipe it UP, Mama!” Then I realized that I was suddenly smelling chocolate. She had grabbed my can of baking cocoa and opened it. All over my kitchen floor. We have a berber CARPET in our kitchen. Then she was stepping in it and leaving little, cute, brown footprints all over everything.

Lesson learned from this? 1. Don’t leave the pantry door open. 2. Baking cocoa does NOT come out of berber carpet. There are STILL cute, little, brown footprints all over my kitchen.  3. Baking cocoa will clog up your vacuum filter. *Sigh* I love my daughter so much, and I need to do more gentle teaching with her. I feel like I am super frustrated at every turn. And this is only with ONE!!!!!

Heaven help me. The terrible two’s are upon me and I feel like I have no “tricks” up my sleeve! Is there a seminar, or class I can go to on how to survive this? And honestly, at the same time, I am loving every minute of it! Is that normal?

I am currently at eight weeks along and feeling sick as a dog again. Wish I could say differently, but it’s just not the case! So far, both our Birthdays have been dialed down to bare minimum, and housework and potty training have been neglected more than ever. It has now been four weeks of feeling nauseous and I am beginning to lose my mind.

However, I am very lucky in the fact that I have the most wonderful Husband on the planet. He has truly taken over most of my duties when I am too ill to do them myself. This would be – dinner, dishes, some laundry, many baby duties, and gently rubbing my back to help me go to sleep as well. All this after working a full day, driving 40 minutes each way and having his own work to accomplish at home. Which he has also been getting done. I cannot say enough about this man I Married and how much I appreciate his caring for us during this first trimester!

I keep telling myself that there are only four more weeks to go until the second trimester. But do you know how long off that seems right now? Keeping myself focused is becoming more and more difficult with feeling worse each day, but Ariella is helping with that. We have been watching far too much TV for my liking lately also. It is usually HGTV or Food Network when it’s not Sesame Street, but still I HATE doing that. She’ll tell me, “Turn it off, Mama!” when she gets bored with my shows though, so I guess that is a good thing! She would rather be outside. Thank GOD for that!

So I guess to sum up I should say, here’s to the next four weeks – may it go by quickly, and without too much fuss. I am ready to be excited for this new baby’s arrival finally!!

We stopped in a little Trattoria for lunch and got sandwiches. When I got mine and looked at it I was fearing the worst. No dressing on it, only a piece of prosciutto, cheese and a sad looking piece of lettuce. This was going to be awful. But when I took the first bite, I was in heaven!! It was honestly the best sandwich I had ever tasted! The flavor was just amazing, without mustard or anything we drown our sandwiches in here. I can still taste it!

We continued walking through the high class shopping district, with its many, many stores, turned a corner and there it was. The Duomo. I have been to many cathedrals and churches in both Spain and England but this was amazing. Sagrada Familia is unbelievable too, but we couldn’t go inside that when we went with the Chamber Choir from Buffalo State. This cathedral was just beautiful! The detailing on the stone was incredible, especially when viewed from up close on the roof!

That is exactly where we headed – to the roof, which was impressive to be on. You would swear you were walking through streets way up there! There were doorways and steps taking you to different levels and to different sections. Every inch of the stone walls were covered with gargoyle heads, leaves, shells, snakes, lizards, and strange creatures thought up by the imaginative carvers. You think you are seeing a lot from down below, but up there on the roof it is a completely different world!

The inside of the church is very impressive too. There you can see how tall it really is, and the carvings and decorations were amazing as well! It is so massive, that there was a mist hanging over the alter! The quiet and peace a church brings you always stuns me. A very beautiful place to worship. Which we were able to do two days later.

That night we had an amazing dinner at another Trattoria. Yeah, pasta in Italy is just mouth watering. Yes, I had meat sauce on a Friday in Lent. Sue me.

The next day Derek and I walked to the Casetllo Sforzesco and went through all the museums housed there. Derek only wanted to see the Musical Instrument museum, which we couldn’t find, but we DID get to see up close and personal some actual mummies from Egypt, some impressive crypts, AND the last work of Michelangelo – the Rondanini Pieta. This was the piece he was working on when he died, and is unfinished. Walking through these museums pretty much took us through late afternoon after which we headed to St. Ambrosio church and saw his bones lying in the crypt there. Pretty creepy, but nice in a morbid Catholic way, I guess.

The next day was Sunday and we went to Mass with Mark and Ann at the Duomo, then packed up our things, and met Sandro to drive us back to the airport and got onto a flight to Germany!

To be continued…..

I’ll start with the day Derek was supposed to leave. His flight from Buffalo to Newark was canceled due to weather and we got an extra night with him. He ended up getting to Madrid a day late and had to go right into work after his 7 hour car trip to Newark (didn’t want to chance another cancellation) and then 8 hour plane ride to Madrid. I don’t know how he did it, but my man is awesome!

This of course made me even more nervous about getting to Europe on my own, but fortunately for me all my flights were right on time! I have a difficult time sleeping on planes, so even though I did close my eyes a bit on the way there, it was a very loooong flight. Especially for someone who has not flown anywhere in at least three years. Thankfully, Derek had pre-paid for a ride for me to our hotel from Milpensa airport near Milan. They would be waiting for me with my name on a sign right outside the baggage claim.

Unfortunately for jet-lagged, no sleep me, that person never showed up. Also unfortunately for me, I only know a few “key” phrases in Italian, AND had no clue how to use my international cell phone yet. So when the taxi driver came up to me and asked if I needed a ride, I went into a whirlwind of English explaining my predicament. He did not speak English. BUT very close by there WAS someone who spoke English and he not only helped me try and find the person I was looking for, for 25 minutes, but ended up driving me to our hotel.

Sandro was a wonderful guide and kept me awake by asking me all sorts of questions about the US and where we live. It did take us about two hours to get to the hotel because traffic was extremely heavy at that time of day, but it was an enjoyable ride!

By the time I got into the hotel room I was simply exhausted. I worshiped the shower for ten whole minutes and then fell into bed for a four hour nap. Next thing I knew, Derek was back from work and we were off for some sightseeing!

To be continued……..

“Ariella has such a sincerely happy personality. She is always so upbeat, even when she hurts herself. If anyone ever changes that about her, and I find out who it is,  I will stand up on a chair and kick them in the face.”

You have to know my Mother to understand that this statement is a very strong testament of her love for her Granddaughter. My Mother never swears, is very soft spoken, and sometimes you have to look twice to even know she’s ‘s in the room. Her quote next to her senior picture in her yearbook (waaaaay back when) said ‘Quiet waters run deep’. That quote was picked by the yearbook staff, not her.

In other words, I hope no one ever messes with our daughter. I think Gramma would act on this statement no matter how old she is!

It all started with a baby-style late-after dinner poop. I smelled it when she was playing next to me before bath time. (Cursed Mama nose!) No big deal, these things happen. Since it was almost bath time anyway, I took her upstairs to clean her up and get her in the tub. Instead of putting a new cloth diaper on her, I decided to just let her run around in the bathroom naked while I got the tub ready.

I ran out of the room for honestly 15 seconds to grab the phone out of our bedroom just in case someone called. When I got back into the room I noticed that there was something large, brown, and slimy looking on the floor that hadn’t been there before. I thought, “Oh Shit!” and then promptly realized that it was in fact poop on the floor. Not the “easy to pick up with a wad of toilet paper” either.

She of course has stepped in the poop by this point and is reveling in the fact that her foot now slides around on the linoleum. Lovely. I pick her up, put her in the bathtub to get her cleaned up, and take care of the floor.

Bath time actually is a lot of fun, despite the mess. After she is all clean and pruny, I dry her off and get her pj’s on and into the crib so I can go downstairs and get her milk ready. Downstairs, I realize that there are no more clean nipples for her bottles. So I get the water hot, get them all soapy and the water runs out. (We have well water out here in Holland-land)

When the water runs out here, you have to wait an indeterminate amount of time for the pump to fill back up. So now I have a toilet with poop in it, because if you flush the toilet while running water into the bathtub it can get very hot, no water to rinse my soapy nipples (go ahead and giggle here), a full load of cloth diapers in the washer that now is half full of rinsing water, a baby who only drank half her milk at bedtime because she doesn’t like milk from a sippy cup spout, and my bladder decides then to make it known that I REALLY have to pee (which I did only to forget about the water and FLUSH).

End of story – the water is back, cloth diapers are clean, baby is sleeping, nipples are no longer soapy, and Derek is home.

The day of our good friend Suzy’s Wedding, I found out I was pregnant again.  We went to Suzy and Rob’s Wedding so full of joy, and feeling like we were on top of the world! And we were so good, we didn’t tell anyone except our parents. There were plenty of opportunities too, when other friends of ours asked us if we were thinking of having more children. We just looked at each other and said – ‘Maybe, we’ll see what happens!’

As it turns out, it was a better thing that we never said anything to anyone. The next day, I started Miscarrying, and lost the baby on that Tuesday. If I didn’t pay so close attention to my cycle, I never would have even known I was pregnant again. But me being 5 days late NEVER happens.

But that began a whole series of bloodwork, and learning a whole lot about pregnancy hormones in the meantime, in order to decifer what the doctor was telling us was going on. They kept telling me, ‘If you are in a lot of pain, take Tylenol – NOT Ibuprofin, just in case the pregnancy takes.’ JUST IN CASE??? They were remaining hopeful even though they were telling me it was most likely a miscarriage. (Or threatened abortion, as they wrote on my chart. Which let me tell you this Roman Catholic Conservative just thought was awesome! )

How can doctors do that? Tell you not to hope it will take, but at the same time tell you to avoid something just in case? I know they have to cover their asses, but that just does horrible thing to a possible Mom-To-Be-Again’s brain! And all the things they tell you – that it’s not your fault, you can’t screw up a pregnancy that easily or abortion wouldn’t be an issue (everyone would just drink too much, or go swing dancing as in our case at the Wedding to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy), or that there was something not right with the fertilized egg and your body gets rid of it on purpose, and that there is nothing they can do.  None of that mattered to me. And it only gives a momentary measure of comfort now. As the Mom, you can’t help thinking that something you did made this happen.

A few weeks later, all my tests came back negative. Negative for pregnancy that is. It was here and gone so fast I hardly knew it had happened! Now that our mandatory waiting period for trying again is over, I just keep wondering if maybe it was a sign from God, that we shouldn’t try again. Was it a warning that I won’t be able to handle two kids? Overall, it seems more difficult to deal with now than it did when it was actually happening. PLUS I’m super scared that if I do get pregnant again, will it take? Will I have to go through that again? Is there something wrong?

Now to the Blessings – I look at Ariella so differently now. To get pregnant with her and have no major issues, and be watching her grow into the beautiful little girl she is makes me so thankful. It is such a miracle to be able to do this ‘Mama Thing’, and makes me proud to be a woman who was at least Blessed to have done it once in my lifetime.

I truly do pray for all the Mothers who have lost a child, no matter when or how. It is not an easy thing to get through.

She calls our cat by his name – Isis. Ok, so she says ‘Ice’ because the last ‘is’ is difficult for her. But she comprehends that the cat has a name, and can approximate the saying of it. She stands at the door, like Mama does countless times during the day, and calls for him to come inside too!

There is LOTS of generalization going on with her! My parents also have a cat. His name is Max. While she can say Max, if you ask her to ‘Call Max’ she immediately says ‘Ice!’ with the smoochy calling a cat noise, and goes to their back door. Now this is interesting because it is a roundabout generalization. She not only knows that we have a cat, but that the animal my parents have is also a cat, and therefore calls him Isis like she does at home – generalizing the whole cat routine.

She understands that some things are shaped the same way, and will try to put all her ‘circular’ toys into the circle hole in her shape sorter. Most of the time they get stuck because they are too big, but she tries just the same.

When she has a cold, or a runny nose, she will blow her nose into a tissue. Not each and every time, but she knows there’s stuff in there that needs to come out, and she will blow to get it out. Actually, she does that sometimes whether or not she HAS said tissue. More fun clean up for Mama!

If her food is too hot, she will blow on it to cool it off like Mama does.

The other day in Wegmans, I made the horrible mistake of letting her see me put bananas in the cart. Seeing that this is one of her favorite foods and words to say, she immediately wanted those bananas! I gave her the bunch, which of course was my second mistake. I didn’t weigh them so I couldn’t give her one and was trying my best to ignore her pleas of ‘Ba-NANA’. Suddenly, she took my hand, flipped it over and put a banana into it. She looked at me pointedly and said very clearly “BA-NANA!” as if to say, ‘Hello, Lady! You peel this and feed it to me, remember?’

She just started giving ‘real’ hugs and kisses too! If you ask her for a kiss, she puckers up and gives you a kiss on the lips. Her hugs are getting longer and bigger as well.

Another awesome thing that started this Tuesday in fact, is saying her name! It is a basic apporoximation, but anyone listening would not be able to argue that she is in fact saying – ‘Ariella’, even though she adds a few more l’s into that verbalization. So cute!

All of these things are normal progression. It’s just that I didn’t expect my ONE year old to be doing them! I have taught in many a Preschools over the years, and this just seems to be a bit more than she should be doing/saying/comprehending at only 1 years old! Maybe it is completely normal, I have never had a 1 year old before after all. No matter what, she will always be amazing to me, because I am her Mama.

Since then, we have recovered from surgery, pooped on lots of people, and had many, many, many firsts.  Smiling, standing, rolling over, crawling, cruising, walking, dancing, talking, eating solids, drinking from a bottle, laughing, tantrums, finding her hair, head, ears, eyes, face, toes, feet, hands, fingers, nose.  We’ve gotten through two small colds, eight teeth so far, and being passed around the Choir during church every Sunday.

A busy year would not even begin to cover what the past 365 have been like, but I as a Mother with all its happy times, and frustrations would not give up one minute of it for anything.  Can’t even imagine what the next year will bring.  Christmas will be so much fun for the next ten years or so I can’t wait!  Hopefully everything will continue to go well with everyone’s continued support, and Blessings.

Tomorrow is going to be such a busy day, this post had to come a day early, even though last year at this time I had no idea that the little love of my life was about to make her grand entrance in a day from now.  Life is only getting more exciting every day, wouldn’t you agree, Derek? 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARIELLA LOVEY LOVE!!