Christmas and a side of RSV

Poor Lillie came down with a case of RSV and acute bronciolitis. It's relatively common in infants under 12 months. It started out as a cough here and there and quickly escalsated to coughing and choking spells. We found ourselves at St. Lukes ER on Saturday evening where she was tested and treated. Well, speaking of treatment, there really isn't anything we can do that we aren't already doing - elevated crib, humidifier, bulb suction before feedings, etc. Our instructions are to closely monitor her for rapid breathing and/or wheezing. Hopefully, we'll have our healthy Lillie back for the New Year.

Lillie Laughing

Just in time for the holidays, Lillie gave us her first laugh last Friday. It's not a regular thing yet and she's very unpredictable so when I got her laughing this afternoon and saw the camera on the coffee table, I knew this was my opportunity to capture it on film! Roger has yet to see it happen so this is my proof!

4 months!

Happy 4 months Lillie! The time seems to be flying by now that I'm getting sleep at night! In the beginning, people would tell me to cherish the time when they are so small because they grow up so fast. I'm going to be real with you for a second. I'm glad she's not a newborn anymore. That is a tough time! Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise!

So onto her stats. She is weighing in at 15 lbs, 11 oz (wow!). That puts her in the 89th percetile. Being that she started out at 6 lbs, 12 oz, that means she has gained 143 ounces in 122 days!

She also grew in length, a lot. She went from 24 inches at three months to 26 1/2 inches at 4 months. That puts her in the 99th percentile. I did notice (and mentioned it to several people) that I thought she was going through a growth spurt around the 3 1/2 month point and I guess I was right!

We were given the clear to start rice cereal but I think we are going to wait a little while longer. Each baby is different and I really want to make sure her digestive track is ready for solid foods. As long as she is satisfied by nursing and the soy formula (we are alternating now), I'm not in a big rush to get her on cereal. It seems that every pediatrician has a different opinion on when to start and I have heard that starting too soon can lead to food allergies and obesity (down the road), but I've never heard anything bad about waiting it out. My "plan" is to start her on cereal around 5 1/2 - 6 months, but we'll see how long she can hold out on just liquids alone!

Second Annual Gingerbread Houses with the Girls!

In celebration of the holidays, a group of us girls get together to make our own gingerbread houses. We all met while working at PwC (and a few of us still work there) and considering that when you work in a public accounting environment, there are many weeks where you see your co-workers more than any other people in your life, you become really close!

Laying out all the pieces to cool. Lisa makes the dough ahead of time and we spend the morning rolling out the dough and cutting out all the shapes.


Karen working diligently on her house. Check out her roof! That thing is a work of art!

Pregnant lady with a knife...never a good combination!

Our own little gingerbread community!

And time for the individual pictures!

Coincidently, Diana (in looking for design ideas this year) discovered pictures of our houses from last year's blog post on Google Images! The internet is a crazy thing!

Thanks for opening your home to us Lisa! Again, the food was amazing (I swear you should open your own restaurant!) and the memories will last a lifetime!

Our attempt at holiday pictures!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Here are a couple pictures from Lillie's first Thanksgiving!

This one cracks me up every time! I can only imagine what is running through that little mind of hers :)




A little better...but I think she's still intimidated by the turkey next to her!


Next up...Christmas pictures. I tried (and I'm still trying since you'll see that I was unsuccessful) to take our own holiday pictures this year. Well, with a dog AND a baby, it's next to impossible to get a good shot. After 50 plus takes, this was our best shot...

It wasn't exactly the look I was going for!

But Lillie thought it was hilarious :)

So the process continues. Hopefully I'll get a good one before Christmas :)

Lots of milestones

I'm so proud of Lillie! She seems to be more alert and active with every week that goes by. I wanted to let her try her Bumbo seat for fun today thinking she might like the new perspective. She sits in my lap with my support all the time, but I thought she might actually like to see me when sitting for once!

Here she is all kicked back and smiling at her mom who is making a fool of herself!

And earlier last week, she started raising her legs and grabbing for her toes. She really needs her bottoms to be off to get the most flexibility and hence the reason she is halfway out of her sleeper.

And finally, we're making progress on tummy time. Look, she actually appears to be enjoying it now!

Happy Thanksgiving from Lillie, Roger, Harvey, and I!

Another investment property

So one day before Lillie turned 12 weeks old, we closed on a foreclosure property in the Fenton suburb of St. Louis. This will be a long term flip for us. We'll do as much work as we can before we move our things into it and then we will continue tackling renovations as we live there. It's a great family home and we got a deal on it. We paid approximately 59% of what the house originally sold for three years ago!

We started work on November 1st. This truly is a cosmetic flip. There are no walls to be moved, no plumbing, electrical, or hvac to be updated, and nothing structural to repair. We've spent the past 10 days or so painting, cleaning, replacing light fixtures, and changing out faucets and bathroom hardware. Oh, and the toilet in the half bath downstairs could not be salvaged! Let's just say that the previous owners went to town on it when they found out they were being foreclosed on!


Standing in the family room looking into the breakfast room and kitchen.

The same view, only reversed. Standing in the kitchen looking into the breakfast room and family room.
A little butlers pantry or serving area in the hall between the kitchen and dining room. I can see turning this into the downstairs diaper changing area!

Close up of the cabinets, backsplash, and countertops. One of our to-do renovations is to switch out the countertops with natural stone.

Slot for the fridge and nook above.

As you enter the house from the garage, this area is on the right. I can see unloading all the groceries on here as I bring them in from the car. As it stands right now, since our garage is detached where we currently live, bringing in the groceries is a much more difficult task than it will be in the new house!

Small living room or office off the entryway

Dining room opposite the living room. There is a nice coffered ceiling in there.

Finally, the "bonus room" upstairs between all the bedrooms. Since we're coming from a house with only one living area, I have no idea what we'll put in here!
Oh, and the reason it sat on the market for as long as it did....No deck and one heck of a drop off! Thankfully, we'll be putting a deck on in the spring and the lot next door is for sale so while we won't have much of a back yard, we'll make do with a side yard.


So that's what we've been up to! My parents and sister have been a huge help! Whether it's my mom taking Lillie for the day or my sister coming over to paint after class or my dad helping us install the new ceiling fan, we couldn't have done this without their help! Everything truly does change once you have a child :)