Rocky Update

Yay!! Assuming he doesn't throw up within the next hour, Rocky will be going HOME tonight! My parents are thrilled about this. They knew he was doing much, much, better when the vet called and said that Rocky was pulling them around on the leash. That's our boy!

Prayers for Rocky

Please pray for Rocky, my parents' black Lab. He's 10, and has been diagnosed with pancreatis. He is currently an inpatient in the "doggie hospital", and will probably be there for another day or so. He'll hopefully be fine (although my parents' bank account may not!), but it's still kind of worrisome. We got Rocky when he was a puppy and I was in college, so he's sort of been "my" dog, too.

I really hope he gets better, because I don't think I can handle losing two dogs in three months.

Housekeeping

Now that my blog is 2+ years old and has over 200 posts, I've decided to make it easier for my readers (since I keep running into people who tell me that they read my blog) to access older posts. On the sidebar, you will see a list of categories...Family Life, Vocation, Furry Children, etc. Slowly but surely, I am going through all my old posts and giving them a "label", or a name that describes the content. I'll also start doing this with all future posts. That way, if you want to read a post (or posts) on a certain topic, you can click on the label name and it will show you all posts in that topic. You can also still search the archives by date, if you so desire.

It's going to take a while...I started yesterday and am only up through July 2006.

Product Reviews: The Indispensable, the Useful, and the Useless

I've been a parent for almost eight months now. Oh my gosh, that seems like a very long time. When I was pregnant with Susanna, I read books, visited websites, and viewed lists that told me WHAT TO BUY FOR YOUR BABY. They were very authoritative and convincing; some even made it sound like you were a horrible parent and were sacrificing your baby's future if you didn't provide him/her with the suggested items. After all, how was Baby going to get into Harvard if he/she didn't have a play mat with lights AND music AND nice, bright dangling things??? Truth be told, I fell for it all, hook, line, and sinker. Thankfully, James is a little more skeptical than I am, so he was able to reign in my fanaticism. Another reason why he's the best husband for me!

I'd like to prevent other people from being sucked into the same vortex as I was, so here's a list based on my experience of items that are either Indispensable (I'd rather give up a kidney than lose it). Useful (sure makes life easier, but not totally necessary), or Useless (don't waste your money). All of these things are frequently used sometime in the first six months. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion, and based on my experience.

Indispensable:

-Infant car seat: In those early months of life, when babies fall asleep at the drop of a hat, can't hold their head up well, and can't sit up by themselves, the infant seat allows you to carry/stroll them anywhere without disturbing them very much/at all. They can go from house to car to restaurant to stroller...you get the idea. The height/weight limits on most of them are high enough (29"/22 lbs) that they can be used until Baby is 6+ months old...some even up to a year old. Once Baby is too heavy to lug in the carrier, you can still keep it in the car and use as a car seat until they grow out of it. We used this infant seat from Graco, but in a different pattern.

-Stroller frame: Skip the bulky travel system and spent $50-60 on a stroller frame like this one. Heck, look on Craigslist or scour the classifieds for a used one and save money. It's lightweight, folds up easily, and has a nice-sized basket and cup holders. You can use it as long as Baby fits into their infant seat...usually anywhere from 6-9 months old. By the time you need to buy another stroller, you'll have a better idea of what you need/want, and Baby will be able to ride in an umbrella stroller, if you so desire.

-Play yard/travel crib with bassinet feature: I know a lot of people who forgo a traditional crib and use this instead, especially in a small home. Our initial plan was to use this for the first six months so Susanna could sleep in the room with us, and THEN transition her into the crib. She wound up sleeping in her crib from the beginning. However, we have used her Pack-n-Play a LOT when traveling, for nap times, and occasionally just to let her play in it. Since our new house is two-story, I'm planning on placing it downstairs so I can put her down for a nap/playtime without carrying her upstairs.

-Vibrating Bouncy Seat: I bought our bouncy seat for 1/2 price at a children's' consignment shop. It saved our sanity for the first month or two. I'm not kidding; we would place Susanna in it, turn on the vibrations, and she would calm down. As she got older, she became more interested in the music and light show that played. She grew out of it by five months, but it was really, really great while it lasted.

-High chair: Our is another hand-me-down from my cousin (God bless Lieu!). Even before Susanna started on solid foods we were using it at meals. We'd strap her in and roll her up to the table so she could be with us. Now that she's eating solid foods, we use it about three-four times a day. Look for one with a "sub bar" that's attached to the seat (keeps baby from sliding out) and that reclines. If finances/space are a major issue, consider trying this, which is cheaper, takes up less space, but still reclines.

Breast pump: If you're planning on breastfeeding, buy a double-electric breast pump. Buy one even if you're going to be a stay-at-home mom, because you will want/need to leave Baby with a sitter/relative/friend at times. Buy it BEFORE Baby is born; don't wait to buy it. Why? Because if for some reason you have trouble nursing (with latch, inverted nipples, whatever), you can still pump to build your supply and provide your baby with breast milk while any issues are being corrected. A manual or single electric pump won't be adequate to build/maintain supply. And if worse comes to worse, you can pump exclusively, which is what I did. For six long months. My breast pump (another hand-me-down from Lieu) was the Medela Pump in Style, which I highly recommend. Yes, it's expensive. However, formula is more expensive, and not nearly as good for Baby as "Mommy's milk." Even if you buy a breast pump and breastfeed (by nursing, pumping, or a combination) for just the first six months, you've probably saved $400 more than if you had only fed baby formula during that time (assuming you're using a brand-name formula with DHA and ARA).

Useful:

-Swing: Ours was a hand-me-down from my cousin and the style resembles this. I've heard a lot of people like cradle swings like this, too. Anyway, for now the swing has replaced the bouncy seat as the "soothing device" for Susanna. Who knows what we'll do when she outgrows the swing (very soon) and gets fussy/inconsolable? And for the record, we do hold, rock, talk to, and walk with Susanna when she gets fussy. I don't want anyone thinking that we just plop her someplace once she starts crying. No, we put her in this stuff AFTER we've tried consoling her ourselves, to no avail. It gives us a sanity break.

-Play gym: Beginning around 2-3 months old, this has amused Susanna very, very well. Even at almost eight months, she's discovering new things about it (like the cute baby in the mirror) and is becoming much more interactive, rather than just staring at the nice hanging things.

-Exersaucer: Another hand-me-down from my cousin, ours resembles this, without the arch thingy. It amuses her, it entertains her, and it exercises her legs. It also gives her a safe place to "hang" while Mommy and Daddy take showers and get dressed.

-Baby carrier: We use the Baby Bjorn, which we like and is useful for keeping Baby close to you and your hands free. James has used it in church, so he doesn't have to keep juggling her while getting up and down. I've also heard good things about the Ergo, slings, and some of the lower-end carriers (like the Snugli). It's nice when a stroller is impractical and you need to transport Baby.

-BundleMe/Car seat cover: Great if Baby is a fall/winter baby, because you can zip this baby up and keep them warm without worrying about loose blankets or a coat. Costs between $20-40, but I thought it was well worth it.

-Baby Monitor: Ours is a hand-me-down that we really don't need right now (the parsonage is a ranch, so we can hear Susanna easily unless we're outside/in the basement). I mostly use it at night and keep the receiver on my nightstand. However, we will be using it a lot more once we move since we'll be in a slightly larger house that has two stories. If I was going to buy a monitor, I'd buy this one because it has two receivers and is rechargeable.

I think I'll save the "useless" items for another post. This has gotten way too long.

We found a house!

Last week, Susanna and I met James in Chesapeake to go house-hunting. Over the past two months, James has been working with a realtor and looking for homes in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. He probably looked at 50+ homes and narrowed it down to about eight that he liked and thought that I'd like. We spent Thursday looking at all of these houses. James had done a great job; I wouldn't have minded living in any of them! However, we did settle on a mutual favorite and wrote out an offer for it. The sellers sent back a counter offer, so we sent them our own counter offer. Finally, Kim (our realtor, who is simply amazing) called us this morning to tell us that our offer had been accepted! Yay!

The house is one that we'll hopefully stay in for a while. It has 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, and is in the best school district in Chesapeake (very important now that we have Her Highness). It has a nice yard for Simon and a lovely master suite for Mommy and Daddy. We're hoping to close shortly after Memorial Day. It will be so nice to be homeowners again; we've already begun thinking about improvements and landscaping.

Been to the Emergency Room

I don't think you've fully experienced parenthood until you've made a middle-of-the-night visit to the ER with your child.

Less than four hours after I wrote Thursday's post, I woke up to hear Susanna sounding like Darth Vader over the baby monitor. When I went to check on her, I could hear her wheezing from the doorway of her room. The on-call nurse had told me if her wheezing got that loud that I needed to take her to the ER. So...in the next thirty minutes I did everything possible to avoid doing just that. I fed her some Pedialyte, ran the shower for 20 minutes, and kept her upright to help her breathe easier.

Why did I want to avoid the ER? No, it wasn't for financial reasons. Nor was it laziness. It's because the ER at Danville Regional Medical Center is legendary for being S L O W. I've heard of people waiting FIVE HOURS in the WAITING ROOM, giving up, and heading to another ER (there are about three others within an hour's drive). I didn't want to take her there unless it was absolutely necessary.

Alas, none of my measures worked, so I got dressed, bundled her up and off we went. Please note that I had the presence of mind to write down her Social Security # before we left. We arrived at 1:50 a.m. Thankfully, we were taken back to a room within 45 minutes, saw a doctor almost immediately, and within 30 minutes Susanna was receiving a breathing treatment. She was still wheezing a bunch after her first breathing treatment, so they gave her a second one. Thankfully, the second one did the trick...mostly. She wasn't breathing normally, but was showing enough improvement that the doctor said she didn't need to be hospitalized. He wrote a few prescriptions and told me to take her to the pediatrician that day (Friday). The diagnosis he gave us was: bronchiolitis (click on the link if you want more info).

Thankfully, she's doing much, much better. She's sleeping through the night again, is wheezing very rarely, is coughing less, and has regained her appetite. I'm keeping her home with me for the next few days until she's fully recovered. In the meantime, several times a day we "drug her up" with Amoxocillin (for the ear infection), Albuterol (for the wheezing), and a cough syrup.

I'm hoping and praying that she stays healthy for the next two months. I can't handle too many more weeks like this past week. Of course, I'll deal with it if it happens again. But I'm hoping that it doesn't.

Mama's Girl All the Way!

I am so freaking tired, yet I can't go to sleep. Don't you hate that? I haven't gotten a full night's sleep all week. Susanna is sick. She developed a cough over the weekend. Monday night, we woke up about three times because she kept coughing. Tuesday, I kept her home from daycare "just in case." On Wednesday, a church member had surgery in Winston-Salem, so I took her to daycare, so I could go down there. She seemed to be a little better. When I got back on Wednesday night, she was much worse. She hadn't eaten much at all, she was extremely clingy, and her cough seemed worse. So, I took her to the urgent care clinic. Turns out that in addition to her cold (or whatever it is), she has an EAR INFECTION.

That's where the "Mama's Girl" comes in...I had tons of ear infections when I was little. My very first one ocurred when I was about Susanna's age. Amazingly enough, Amoxocillin hasn't changed in 20+ years...I recognized the smell as soon as I opened the bottle of oral suspension liquid. They also gave her another cough syrup, and I'm running the vaporizer whenever she's in her room. She was sounding sort of wheezy/raspy tonight, but she's asleep now. I'll probably call the doctor in the morning if she's not better.

It's very difficult to get work done while taking care of a sick child. Thankfully, she slept more than usual today, so I was able to get some things accomplished. I'll probably keep her home with me tomorrow, because I don't want her spreading anything to the other kids (or getting another bug). Hopefully she'll be right as rain by Monday!

Time Flies

Wow, here we are at the end of March and it's been over a month since I posted a blog entry with any real content. Lots has been going on. As you can see by the picture, Susanna is growing by leaps and bounds. She now has two bottom teeth and she likes biting anything (and anyone) she can. At her six-month checkup she was 26" long and weighed 17 lbs, 4 oz. We've moved her out of her infant seat (which will soon be going to her still-in-utero cousin, Jacob) and into a "big girl" car seat. It's a Britax Boulevard, which tends to be pretty pricey. However, we got a great deal on it (30% off or something like that) during their annual sale. Yay for Baby Bargains and their cool blog. Besides, she'll be in it for another 3 1/2 years (according to VA law), so it's a worthy investment. Susanna also started on solid foods about a month ago. I'm adding a new food every 4-5 days, to check for allergies. Her repertoire currently consists of: rice cereal, baby oatmeal, sweet potatoes, pears, carrots, bananas, peas, and applesauce. She loves solid food and can't wait until she can eat some of Daddy's pancakes.

Speaking of Daddy (a.k.a James), he's doing very well himself. He loves his new job...did I mention that James has a new job? Silly me! Let me back up about six months...Last summer and fall, James began to get very fed up with NCCU. They were making incredible demands on his time (teach 3 classes a semester, work with 3 or 4 graduate students, maintain the computer server, AND publish one paper a year). It got so that he was working 50 hours down in Durham, driving 75 miles home, and then working for another hour or two. He'd even have to work (at home) for 5 or so hours on the weekends. He was utterly miserable and exhausted. Of course, things got even worse when Susanna arrived. We were at each other's throats a lot. Finally, we realized that things needed to change. James began looking for an industry job in either Tidewater or Northern Virginia. We were hoping that he'd find something by the spring, so he could begin in May or June. Then this job at Booz Allen Hamilton (an international firm that does a bunch of government contracts) literally fell into his lap. He applied, he interviewed, and they wanted him to start ASAP...which meant right before Thanksgiving. We decided that this was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so he took the job. He LOVES it. The only hitch...the job is in Norfolk, which is four hours away from Danville. So, he stays in an apartment in Chesapeake during the week and comes home on the weekends.

Of course, that means that since November, I've been a single mother during the week. Thankfully, Susanna is a very easygoing and healthy baby, so I've been doing just fine for the most part. There have been a few difficult weeks, such as last week, when Susanna had diarrhea, I wasn't feeling too hot myself, and it was Holy Week. There was also the week that I had an upper respiratory virus (complete with fever). I hate having to cart her to every evening meeting at church, but thankfully there aren't too many of those. I also worry about what would happen if someone from church had an emergency in the middle of the night. I would most likely bring her with me to the hospital, and hope that her presence might diffuse some tension. Hopefully that won't happen, though. Generally, it's been very manageable, and at least I know that a) James is only four hours away if something MAJOR happened, b) James will be home on Friday night, and c) this is only for a limited amount of time.

You may have figured this out already, but in case you haven't...I'm leaving St. John's in June and will hopefully receive an appointment in the Tidewater area. Obviously, our family needs to be together again and resume/establish some semblance of normal life. However, I probably would have been moving this year even if James hadn't gotten the new job. Without going into details (you can e-mail me if you want those), the church and I have mutually agreed that I'm not the best pastor for them. I have loved my time here, and have learned a great deal about ministry and about myself. St. John's is full of wonderful servants of God and I will always hold them dear in my heart. It's time to move on, though, and I hope that their next pastor is able to stay for more than two years. I think that they need and deserve someone who can stay a while and really help them grow in ministry.

This post has turned into a novella. The princess (as I call Susanna) will be up between 6:30 and 7:00, so I'd better turn in so I can get enough beauty sleep. Toodles.

A successful marriage...

A marriage and family therapist offered this advice to a group of young clergy that I meet with on a regular basis:

"If you want a successful marriage, marry your emotional opposite, your intellectual equal, and have different hobbies and similar values."

I think that describes James and me very well. After 6 1/2 years of marriage, it's always good to know that you married the right person!

Hodge-Podge Updates

The main point of this post is to move Woody's slideshow down, because it makes me sad when I bring up the blog and see it. We're doing better in that area; last week was pretty tough at times, but Simon and Susanna have helped distract us. I'm glad that we have Simon, so that we still have one dog left. And now that we have a human child, caring for her and loving her takes enough time and energy that I don't think about Woody as much as I would have two years ago.

Our human child and canine child are essentially growing up together. It's sort of fun to watch. Simon enjoys giving Susanna "kisses" anytime she's accesible to him. He's become much calmer and obedient in the past month or so. It's been a while since anything has been "Simonized" (i.e., chewed beyond usage) , he sits at the door before going out and coming in, and I might even begin letting him have the run of the house when I leave for short periods during the day. I think we'll wind up getting another dog sometime this summer or fall, because James wants another one and Simon wants/needs a playmate. We are NOT getting another puppy; we'll go to a shelter and rescue a dog that's already grown.

Susanna is changing every day, it seems. She turns her head very well, sits with support, has discovered her toes, and delights in making sounds. We started her on cereal last weekend, and she LOVES it. She still hates "tummy time" with a passion, and screams when placed on her tummy for more than 10 minutes. I've tried getting down there with her, placing toys within sight and out of reach, and placing her on the Boppy pillow. She still screams, and I still give her "tummy time" because I am a Mean Mommy. However, she'll never learn to roll over or crawl if she doesn't spend time on her tummy. She was 16 lbs 8oz when she went to the doctor on February 5 (for a diaper rash), so I'm expecting her to be around 18 lbs at her six-month checkup next Friday.

In Loving Memory of Woody

I made this slideshow as part of my grieving process. I also thought that some of you might want to see pictures from Woody's life. This is just a sample; we have many more, including more from our time in Danville. These represent some of our best memories, however.

The healing has begun, at least for me. Saturday night and Sunday I just felt shocked and overwhelmed with grief. Today I've felt a void, but also acceptance. We had a wonderful three and a half years with Woody, and I know that he was happy. I'm glad that we were with him when he died (as horrible as that sight was) and that we had the funeral service for him. Simon's presence has helped greatly, too. At least we still have one dog to greet us and cuddle with us.

By the way, I have to give a big shout out to Dr. Kay Geyer at Brosville Animal Clinic (Woody's regular vet), who was wonderful on Saturday. She called down to the Emergency Center for us and even gave us her home number so we could let her know how things went down there. Dr. Jenny Clark and the staff at the Animal Emergency and Trauma Center in Greensboro were also great; they did everything they could to save Woody, and really accomodated our desire to be with him at the end.

Rest in Peace

Woody Elijah Money
December 15, 1999 to February 9, 2008

Woody died last night, at the Animal Emergency & Trauma Center in Greensboro, NC. James and I were with him, holding him when he died. We're not really sure what killed him; he had seemed to be recovering well from him kidney infection, and was even playing with Simon and running around yesterday. Around 4:00 p.m. we saw him begin to breathe very heavily and realized he had a fast heartbeat. We decided to drive him down to Greensboro, since our vet was closed. When we arrived, Woody was able to walk on his own, so we thought he might be OK. Twenty minutes after we arrived, the vet told us that she thought he was dying. His breathing was worse, and he was full of fluid. We insisted on going back to be with him, and he died about five minutes later. We got to spend some time alone with him after he died and they pulled all the tubes, etc out of him. We're having a funeral tomorrow afternoon, and will have him cremated. We're not sure what we'll do with the ashes yet. We just didn't want to leave him behind in Danville.

There's a lot of numbness and sadness. It doesn't seem real...please pray for us.

The other patient

I mentioned in an earlier post that Woody is sick, too. He's been diagnosed with a kidney infection, which will hopefully be cleared up soon. That's been an interesting aspect to the drama of this week...

On Tuesday (remember, that's the day I was sick as a dog and running a fever), I noticed that Woody was walking sort of funny. He also seemed to be in pain. This worried me, so I called the vet, who told me to bring him in. So I took him to the vet after Susanna's doctor's appointment (she's fine; she just had a persistent diaper rash). The vet wanted Woody to stay so they could "observe" him. Sure, no problem. Five hours later, I called to see how he was doing. The receptionist said that the vet was out (maybe on a large animal visit) and would call me when she got back. Two hours later, the vet called me and said that she thought that Woody might have a urinary tract infection, and his kidney function was below normal. They wanted to keep him overnight.

When I picked Woody up Wednesday morning, the vet told me that it looked like Woody's kidneys weren't functioning as well as they should be. She thought it might be due to an infection. So, she sent Woody home with two weeks' worth of antibiotics and a special food to help his kidneys. I get to bring him back in two weeks, when they'll check his kidney function again.

He seems to be doing OK, although he's obviously not in top form. He hasn't engaged in the usual play with Simon. Hopefully this medicine and special food will make him "all better" soon. We want our healthy boy back!

Welcome to Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday, the official beginning of Lent. Normally, I would have just come home from leading my church's Ash Wednesday service. However, I cancelled my church's Ash Wednesday service because I am sick.

It all began with a sore throat on Sunday night. I figured I might be coming down with a cold, so I sucked on a zinc lozenge before I went to bed. Sure enough, I felt fairly stuffy and "icky" on Monday morning. I continued to suck on zinc lozenges throughout the day and drink plenty of fluids. I felt well enough to continue my normal activities. Then came Monday night...

I developed a cough which kept waking me up. Around midnight, I woke up and felt feverish. I checked my temp; it was 99-something. Around 3am, I woke up again, checked my temp, and it was 100-something. By the time I woke up, I was feeling worse and was still feverish. So, I went to the doctor...and they said I have an "upper respiratory infection", which is basically a bad cold. I've never heard of having that high a fever with a cold, but OK. They sent me home with instructions to take it easy and drink lots of fluids.

Since I was feeling uber-crappy, I followed directions. Based on my history, if I don't take care of myself, a cold will develop into either a sinus infection or bronchitis. I've slept as much as possible, in between eating, taking Susanna to and from daycare, caring for Susanna, and caring for Woody (who has a kidney infection--more on that later). The end result; the fever has broken and I'm not feeling nearly as "gunky" as I was 24 hours ago. I'm hoping that a good night's sleep will enable me to be fully functioning tomorrow.

She's five months old!!

I can't believe that Susanna was born five months ago today. Wow. I realize I haven't put up a picture of her in about two months. Here you go. Maybe sometime soon I'll have time to make up a slideshow.

What a week...

I don't know how my clergy friends with big churches or sick and dying congregations do it. Honestly, I don't. I've had a VERY quiet tenure at St. John's--no deaths or life-threatening events in almost 19 months. That changed last Wednesday, when one of my members had a heart attack. He spent three days in the Danville hospital before being transferred to Duke. He underwent triple bypass surgery today and is stable (PRAISE THE LORD). I'm delighted that the surgery went well (in that he made it through alive).

I am however, totally exhausted. In the past week I have made three trips to the Danville hospital (only 11 miles) and two trips to Duke (almost 70 miles one way). I woke up at 4:30 this morning so I could drop Susanna off at daycare by 6:30 and be at Duke by 8. I walked through the door of my house at 5 after picking Susanna up at daycare. It's yucky outside, so my plans for the evening are to stay up until a decent hour (8pm or so) and then crash.

I love pastoral care...caring for my members and their families in times of crisis. It's one of the things that made me want to become a pastor. It is however, utterly exhausting emotionally. It's hard to explain, so I'm not even going to try. However, I do think that my exhaustion and even occasional tears (at the mere thought of having to bury this gentleman) are indicators of my love and my investment, and in that sense, they are good signs.

Susanna @ Four Months

Sickeningly adorable Christmas pics will come later. The digital camera doens't always like me, and sometimes gives me trouble when I try and download stuff to the computer.

Her Highness had her 4 month check-up today. She is 25" long (85th percentile) and weighs 14 lbs, 6 oz (76th percentile). She also got her second round of shots, which was NOT FUN.

Susanna has entered that "absolutely delightful" stage of babyhood. She smiles, she coos, she makes rasberries, and she sort of "talks." She's sleeping 11-12 hours at night and is willing to play alone for decent stretches of time. She can grasp medium-sized objects (like her rattle, teething keys, etc) and can sit with some support. It's very exciting.

We had a lovely Christmas and New Year. We left Danville on the 26th, spent the week with my parents, and returned yesterday. Lucky me, traveling with a baby and two dogs for 200 miles. Since James and I had a free baby-sitter in residence (a.k.a. Grandma), we got to have two dates. I don't think it was exactly a chore for my mom, who keeps exclaiming about what a wonderful baby Susanna is. One date was solo (we went to Bonefish and for a drive) and one was with another couple on New Year's Eve. It was nice having some time together without Susanna. Much as we love her, it's nice to have time apart.

One Year Ago Today...

We found out Susanna was on the way! Then, she had just barely begun to form. Now, she's a delightful four month old baby. We are truly blessed.

Three months old!!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. November was a pretty wild month for the Money family, and of course December is a busy month for any pastor. Between family and church, I've been lucky to catch my breath. However, Christmas is only 15 days away, and then things get calmer. :)

On Saturday, we dressed Susanna up in her ultra-cute Christmas dress and headed for the local mall to meet Santa. We were hoping that Susanna would grace Santa with one of her lovely smiles. Sadly, that was not the case. I think a few factors contributed to that. First, she's been teething (more on that later) so her "happy moments" are fleeting. Second, she was due for a feeding and was probably beginning to get hungry. Needless to day, we decided not to spend $25 on a photo package. Now, if she had been smiling, it would have been a different story. I may take her again before Christmas, and see if we can produce a smile.

In regards to the teething...many people have said, "she's teething at three months? Already?" Apparently this stuff tends to be genetic, and since Susanna's mother (yours truly) cut her first tooth at three months, it's highly possible that Susanna will be an early teether, too. She's also exhibiting all the classic signs: prodigious drooling, rubbing her jaw a lot, fussing for no apparent reason, and waking up in the middle of the night. I even took her to the doctor's office on Wednesday, because I was afraid that she had an ear infection (even without a fever). The nice Nurse Practitioner said that Susanna looked perfectly healthy, and the symptoms sounded like teething.

By the way, the kid weighs 13 lbs.

Happy Anniversary, Simon!!

One year ago today, Simon became a member of the Money family. The above pic is what he looks like now. The below pic is what he looked like back then. What a big change! We love our sweet "little boy"; he loves to cuddle with us and makes an excellent guard dog!