8 Months

What's the point in writing anything about Madeleine turning 8 months when she's a week away from being 9 months? Too bad. Here are some pictures of her photo shoot from 7/26. Time has gone so fast, I cannot believe that we are on the down hill slide to turning One.

She continues to be cute, cute, cute, and so much fun. Such a stinkin' character.

We love our little: Sunshine Girl, Madeleine Gracey Girl, Facey-Facey-Face, Siiiiiiiister.

Update Overload!

Here we go people...

Our wards monthly activity of family night in the park is always SO MUCH FUN! Here we have Madeleine's first time in the swing. The pictures speak for themselves.

Noelle and Unc playing ball in the front yard. My favorite is the bottom left when she is going to hit it like a golf ball and he is ducking for cover. Noelle and Unc are absolutely best friends. He will play anything with her and always makes whatever they are doing fun.

We were running errands at the Janss mall. The fountains were on and other kids were running through the water. Noelle turned around and gave me this look that I cannot explain but melted my insides. Something to the affect of, "Oh, Mommy that looks like so much fun I can hardly stand it but will you really let me do it?" She was timid at first, avoiding getting wet but after a while she was sticking her head right in.

After the water fun, we got hamburgers at Fuddruckers. Madeleine tasted her first pickle. She wasn't sure what to think of them but kept going back for more.

We usually try to make a couple of Dodger games every season and we ALWAYS go to Mormon night. Unfortunately, my track record stinks...they always lose when I go and this time seemed to be no exception. Until, the bottom of the 9th inning, that is. 2 men on base, Ethier hits a Home Run! It was the BEST! Both of our kids were dead asleep on our laps, but being the true blue fans that we are, we toughed it out and it paid off.

Just a random evening at the pool after Daddy got home from work. Love nights like these.

Noelle found the box of graham crackers left from Yosemite and desperately wanted to have them for breakfast. Alright! Madeleine was not complaining.

At the beach...Noelle eating grapes & Madeleine eating the chair.

That's all for tonight, I'm tired!

~

I can't pick between today's two highs: This morning Noelle saying, "Mommy, I need my Book for Mormon for church. Can you please help me find it?"

Or

After Church Aaron saying, "Thanks for all you do - go take a nap."

Today's Low: This house! I can't keep it clean! Do I clean the dirt and grime or keep things picked up. It seems to be one or the other.

Blogger Blues

I have so many things to blog about but can't get myself to do it. Soon.

8 Months
Pool Days
Beach Days
Baby Showers
Funny Sayings
Funny Pictures
Cute Faces
Dodger Game

Graves Update

I know it's been a long time but since little Madeleine I've obviously had other things to talk about.

There have been some ups and downs over the last 8 months. I saw Dr. Tamagna on Thursday and here is the low down.

First a little education: The thyroid works off what is called a negative feed back loop. The pituitary gland in your brain does many things, one of which is produce a hormone called Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) and it does just that...stimulates your thyroid to produce two hormones T3 & T4. When more thyroid hormones are needed your pituitary produces more TSH and when you need less, it produces less. This system in my body is derailed because my immune system produces antibodies called Thyroid Stimulating Antibodies (TSA) which themselves stimulate my thyroid to make way too much T3 & T4. When you have Graves your body realizes this and stops producing TSH.

Usually, when you've been taking anti-thyroid medications for a few months the normal system starts working again and your pituitary starts producing TSH and is back to normal by 6 months. Here we are 14 months since beginning treatment and while the medication has finally gotten my T3 & T4 levels in the normal range - my TSH is at a big fat ZERO. This means the disease is still raging and shows no signs of stopping. Over the last couple of months my gland has actually gotten a little bit bigger and my right eye is measuring bigger, too. Despite my relative high dose of PTU. The Thyroid Eye Disease (TED) is a whole other animal for another day.

What does this mean? It means this all just plain sucks. We have switched to the other anti-thyroid medication called Methimazole, just as a shot in the dark to see if my body responds differently. Normally, PTU is considered safer for pregnancy and nursing but some recent studies show that Methimazole may be better for nursing and there is some question about long-term PTU use causing liver damage.

For the future she thinks I should have my thyroid surgically removed and I will just take thyroid replacement hormones for the rest of my life. Especially if I plan on having any more children. Not a decision I am ready to make as of yet, but we'll see. I left her office feeling a little down, in some weird way my always healthy body has let me down. I guess I just thought this would be treated, I would go into remission and it would fade into the background. But that is not the plan, apparently, so I will just roll with it for now. :)

Hot Air Balloon Festival

Last night we went to the Citrus Classic Hot Air Balloon Festival in Santa Paula with the Meldrum, Wilde, DeVore families. The balloons were beautiful and the kids had a fantastic time! They seriously ran and danced themselves into exhaustion.

Sweet Potato Pancakes....

She ate 3/4 of a pancake after eating her baby food.

Although quite a bit ended up in her hair.

Oink! Oink!

Funny Noelle-isims: She was trying to draw 'Daddy' last night and the pen stopped working. She put her arm up in the air, started shaking it around and yelling:

"This wretched, wretched, wretched pen!"

Maybe we should lay off 101 Dalmatians for a couple of weeks.

~~~~~~~~

She asked to listen to Daddy's Ipod this morning but the speakers are broken. Her response:

"Well, we need to get Daddy a new one. Do we go to Costco or Vons to get it?"

Where do we shop all the time?

Video Memory

I've been spending the last hour reading old blog posts and almost freaking out over how fast life changes.

I just had to post these two old videos of Noelle. We were camping for Mother's Day 2008. I think I must be OUT OF MY MIND because I want that little hellion back!

Do I love or hate that she is intentionally spewing milk out of her mouth?

I can say that I love it when she makes certain facial expressions her eyes kind of disappear and turn into little half moons.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Oh, Dear...

The older Noelle gets the more we see how much Noelle and her Daddy are alike.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

If you don't personally know Aaron, it's sufficient to say that, 'He's very particular about a lot of things.' He has his system and don't mess with it.

Daddy worked late last night so Noelle & I were eating dinner alone and she said:

"Mommy, Daddy needs to eat noodles with us. But first he has to change his clothes. He's gotta change his clothes first, OK? Then he has to put on his red shorts, OK? He has to put on his red shorts."

Can you tell what Aaron does everyday when he comes home from work?

I think I'm in for it.

Marin's 70.3 Mile Journey!

I was so excited to have the opportunity to go with Auntie and Unc to Sonoma this weekend to cheer on my cousin Marin while she competed in a Half Ironman Triathlon. So awesome! We arrived at the Start @ 6:00am and Madeleine was enthralled with all the people, she could feel the energy and knew something big was happening.

I made Madeleine this shirt. It was a pain in the neck but worth it because Auntie M LOVED it!

Her start time was 6:54am...they were in the water and off for the 1.2 mile swim.

The crowd waiting for the swimmers to come out of the water was huge and this little baby was a hit. Honestly, you'd thought no one had ever seen a baby before! I, of course, agree with all of them but I was so flattered with how much they loved her.

She was out of the water around 7:40, a few minutes longer than she'd hoped.

Next leg was the 56 mile bike ride through some gorgeous vineyards...don't let that fool you. She was hoping to make it in 3-4 hours. Unfortunately, there were some serious obstacles to overcome. A tree fell on the course (actually falling on three riders, seriously injuring one of them) which caused a big mess. Then, she had THREE flat tires (on her back tire!) after she used her extra two tubes she had to keep stopping to pump it up. She finally made it back after 5.5 hours. It was miserable for everyone involved!





By the time she transitioned for her 13.1 mile run the sun was blazing and it was 95 degrees out. The course for the run provided NO shade. Luckily, her friend Tim was able to join her and was a great support. After that bike ride and the heat she was spent. Horrible cramps kept her walking most of the time.

The heat was oppressive and this little baby was amazing!

I don't know why in the middle of all that beautiful country the venue they used was this high school field. It was like being on a baking stone.

Finally, the MC announced that he saw her number coming down the shoot and started playing "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey and everyone was on their feet crying. There were no words.