Introducing...

my sweet nephew...
Logan Beckett Hawk!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

10:26pm

7 lb 10 oz

20 inches

Oh what a labor story my sister has!! Check out her blog for all the details. She is such an amazing Mommy!!

~Welcome to the World Logan~
You have a lot of people who love you sooo much!

He's Home!!

Jerry is back where he belongs....and after a $1000 bill, Jerry has wiped out the next 5 years of his "pet budget". He, unfortunately, has not been given a clean bill of health...but is doing sooo much better. He has a lot of weakness...stumbles and trips frequently. His back legs definitely seem worse than his front...I hope this is just temporary. His tummy has been shaved and he has sooo many holes in his skin from all the IVs and shots. He's on a lot of meds the next couple of weeks and needs to take it easy. Dr definitely said there is a chance that he's still not going to do well...but there is no reason to keep monitoring him at the hospital...we'll know if things turn downward. His breathing, for the first time since Wednesday, seems almost back to normal. No more panting or fast breathing. He drank a ton of water when we got home, ate all O's Cheerios that I've left on the floor since Thursday morning...because I never clean those up...that's his job, and is now sleeping.

We're so grateful to have him home. We didn't realize how much our puppy meant to us until the real thought of him not around entered our minds. We both were (well, okay, maybe me a lot more than Tim) an emotional mess! Today and from now I know we'll both make sure we enjoy the days and moments we have with each other, our family, our friends, and our pets a little more...because THAT's what truly matters in this world.

Again, we really appreciate all your support and prayers. It has meant a lot and even the Dr said that Jerry is one lucky dog to have sooo many people praying for him...because that's the only reason he think he's doing so much better right now. He said he is a very spiritual man and that Jerry needed a lot of prayers.
Thank you!!

A funny story. When I walked in, I was talking to the assistants and they were telling me how he had a bath and was walking around some. Then they stopped and said...but his eating. They said they fed him...but that he wouldn't eat out of a bowl. That they had to "hand" fed him. And I just laughed at them. They were looking at me weird...and I replied...because Jerry doesn't like to eat his food out of a bowl. That's a 100% normal Jerry...I definitely wish the brain swelling had disrupted that part of his memory....but it's okay, I'm just thrilled to have Man back home.

Update: Jerry

9:00am - Couldn't wait for dr to call us...called them. Spoke to Dr...and it was bad. Very bad. I guess Jerry did not do well during the night. The person monitoring him called and said that he didn't think Jerry was going to make it. The dr came in to Jerry having muscle spasms and in a comatose state...and looked to be catatonic. He had a high fever and the dr suspected brain swelling. UGH...that is not good. He made a new batch of medicines and told me that he didn't think that it was looking good at all for Jerry. He was very concerned about the swelling and doesn't know the extent of brain damage. Dr said we could visit Jerry anytime today. We are terribly sad. Olivia keeps making dog barking sounds, she misses him. Everywhere I look in my house I see clumps of dog fur...which normally frustrate me, but now just make me sad. I love the clumps of fur...

11:00am - Called office to see if we could come visit Jerry this afternoon. We were told that he is completely out of it...and asked if we still wanted to come. Of course.

11:45pm - Got ready to visit Jerry. Decided to wear the same outfit that I picked Jerry up in. I did my hair the same way. Crazy? I would do anything to pretend this is all just a bad dream and that Jerry is all better and ready to come home.

1:00pm - Went to visit Jerry. I had Bear stuffed in my purse. Tim and I were convinced that we were going to say good-bye...when we turn the corner and look in the cage. He lifts up his head looks at us and gave us a couple of good wags! Dr immediately came over and said that Jerry is doing a lot better (not out of the woods) but he is still concerned with swelling...and that his overall appearance is a lot better! Yeah!!!! We could not be happier. We also realize that this is not over...but it's better. I will take this news anytime over the 9am conversation!! We sat with Jerry for awhile (he smelled)...talked to him, got him tangled in his IV, snuggled Bear in with him, gave him lots of kisses. Dr is not doing anymore tests (WAY TOO EXPENSIVE) to determine what is causing Jerry to have this reaction. He really thinks, based on timing, that it was from Jerry eating something toxic at Hertel Pond. Dr said that they will continue to just give him meds to help support his body and help him fight this. I asked the Dr if Jerry looked like this tomorrow morning...what would be his status. He said, "Discharge on prescriptions." (insert happy face) He said there is chance that Jerry won't tolerate that well...but that we can decide what to do from there.

WOW...what a difference a couple of hours makes. We are very sorry for anyone who just went on this roller coaster with us....hopefully the ride is over and Jerry will continue to get better and get himself home. Thank you sooo much for all the well wishes and prayers. I do believe they are making a difference and helping our puppy. We will update later tonight if there are any changes.

Our Jerr-Man

Oh Jerry....you are VERY VERY sick. Doctor says it's 50/50. They think you ate something toxic while we were at Hertel Pond on Wednesday and it's causing you to go into liver failure.

I woke up this morning and immediately knew you didn't feel well. Your breathing was funny and you were tense. I tried to cuddle and snuggle you...but you just continued to be uptight. So I woke up and started watching TV...called Tim, asked him his thoughts on you...and said you were just very sleepy. Hung up...and heard you get sick. It was blood. That's not good.

Immediately I went into "Andrea-panic/worry-must-see-doctor-mode". After being completely OVERCHARGED by our last vet, I started calling around to other vets and get their prices (only to find out we were going to the most expensive vet in the area...why?) and see who could get you in for an appointment ASAP. This is all beside the point...you were being very un-jerry-like and I knew we needed to get you to a dr.

Got you an appointment at 9am. Finally by 10:30 we were discharged. They wanted to admit you full day...but it was soooo expensive. So we opted for a cheaper route. Dr said you were in shock (high heart rate, weak pulse, poor coloring) and needed fluids. So you received an IV for 90 minutes and got a sack of fluids injected under your skin along with anti-nausea medicine. $100 later...we were going home with the Dr giving me a paper showing the costs for when I come back later in the day (because she was pretty confident we would be back). The problem is that something is causing you to go into shock...and that is still to be determined.

Score - one for the doctor. Later that day you went back to the vet. After arriving home this morning at 10:30 and you didn't move from the couch...and I mean did not turn, did not flip, did not move. You were panting and gagging and not wagging your tail. So at 4pm the dr took your leash...
and haven't seen you since :(

30 minutes later, the dr came back in (after doing some blood tests) and said that it looks like you are in liver failure and have a 50% of making it. A lot of money later, I went home without you. You are spending the night at the hospital, getting fluids and some medicines. They are going to reevaluate you in the morning and let us know if your body is going to be able to fight this and move on...or not.

So I'm sad. Tim's sad. And I think Olivia knows something is wrong.

Maybe if you get the chance...say a little prayer for our Jerry.

We love you Jerr-Man...and can't wait for you to come home and be back to your quirky self!! (only you'll never be allowed off your leash and roaming fields and eating toxic stuff).
Will update tomorrow after we speak to the dr.

Took this picture on Monday...I was laughing because this is the constant battle. I want to take a picture of Olivia being sweet or cute...but Jerry always seems to find a way to get into the frame.
I know he loves us a lot.

Hhhumm...

This is how I found Olivia this morning. Not exactly sure how she got herself in this situation...but the better question is how she got herself out of it!! It was pretty tight from her neck to shoulder.
Now, the left hand is the thumb sucking hand...so she must of been desperate.

(she was actually not mad when she woke up...she got mad when I started laughing at her and left her in the crib to grab the camera)

Dinner Time

Yummy Yum!

Installed

She hasn't figured out (yet) how to get through this. We are definitely sad to install the gate...the cushions were SUPER easy to get over. Love the fact that we can get through the gate without using our hands (...you step on the floor pedal and push door open with knee/leg...do a back kick and close the gate). Jerry DEFINITELY does not like the gate...his playroom time just dropped dramatically.

BREAKING NEWS (again-4 days later)!!!

Olivia has a second tooth (bottom left) that has joined the legendary first tooth. The pediatrician said that they would all come at once...when they did finally come. I don't see any beginnings of the top ones...we'll see.

Still no pictures of them...she's very shy and not wanting to show those pearly whites :)

This Summer

We are blessed to have such great friends (The Johnsons) ... who have a boat (jackpot). And who offer us boating adventures every summer, which are inevitably the best days of our summer (thank you!). This year...I'm going to buy THIS ---

Now...tell me that doesn't look like a COMPLETE blast!!!
NO WAIT...how about TWO of them??? Perfect!

A Climber!

Our lovely ranch style house does not provide us the "opportunity" of having stairs. Today, we went to Chris' house for lunch and I mentioned how Olivia has never practiced going up stairs. All I had to do was place her in front of them...and off she took!! She probably climbed the stairs a good 2 times before I was suddenly VERY grateful we don't have stairs. Over the course of the next 30 minutes, Olivia continued her climbing adventure. She had absolutely NO idea how to go down the stairs...and we tried to show her a couple of times...we'll worry about that another day :)

Smarty Pants

We've got a climber. This was the first time that I've seen Olivia doing this ... pretty clever.
(it's a long video...but I couldn't cut out the beginning...she was being too cute)

BREAKING NEWS!!

After 13 months of teething...we have a tooth! Bottom right. It's sharp, it's white, and it has broken her sweet little bumpy gums. Haven't captured a picture of it...hopefully soon!

right-handed

We are thinking that O has a dominate right hand. She holds her spoon in her right...or if there is no spoon...she feeds herself with her right hand. The crayon and other toys are usually in the right hand.

tongue

For the past couple of days....
Olivia has looked like this:

Of course, she must be teething :)

New Car Seat

This post is a little old...as O has been in her new car seat for a month now. But just wanted to capitalize on how WONDERFUL it is to have her facing forward. My lovely neighbor, Jude, showed me how to correctly install the forward-facing seat...and now we are all set. I really enjoy being able to see Olivia and I think she likes looking out at the world :)

Act of Kindness

Almost 4 years ago I left the Virginia Beach area...and a bunch of really good friends. I'm sad to say that I've not done a great job with keeping in touch with everyone. The other day on facebook, Debbie a teacher I worked with in Virginia, messaged me saying that she bought a dress for Olivia! I was completely shocked. She saw the most ADORABLE Virginia Tech dress and when she saw it, she thought of me (& Olivia), bought it and shipped it to us.

Today I received the dress and it's absolutely beautiful and I can't wait for Olivia to wear it (it's a 4T). The exciting news is that in 2014 (Olivia will be 4 years old) Virginia Tech travels to Ohio State University where they will beat the Buckeyes. We have been planning to attend this game for awhile since a good portion of my family are huge OSU fans. And now, when Olivia goes with us to the game...I already know what she will wear. That makes me smile.

Debbie thank you sooo much for this dress. I'm overwhelmed by your kindness and will never forget how thoughtful you are and how much this means to me.

Children's Museum

Today we went to the Children's Museum in downtown Houston. Tiff and her girls met us down there and it was a blast!! It will continue to be a blast for Olivia for another 6-7 years!! There was soo much to see and do. Olivia and I spent some time in the "TotSpot" where she did lots of exploring, crawling, walking, moving, ooooing,...etc. For a good five minutes, Olivia would crawl through tunnels. She started at one end, went to the other side, turned around and went back. I literally sat down and watched her go...I wonder how long she would have kept at it if I let her??? She then found an area with light switches, toilet flushers, window blinds, and window shutters. Again, we opened and shut the window shutters....many, many, many times. Uber cute.

Looking forward to going back again....soon!

Hello Destin, FL

This July we are going to Destin, FL with Tim's family. We are BEYOND excited about this trip. It is going to be soooo relaxing and LOTS of fun. It will also be Olivia's first time at the beach :)

Mr. Mike, Mrs. Chris and Cameron bought Olivia a personalized mini-beach towel!!! It's a perfect little girl size and absolutely adorable. Can't wait to use it this summer :) Thank you!

Happy 13 Months

Happy 13 months Olivia!!

This past month you:
*grew enough hair that it can hold hair bows :) and blow in the wind

*started wearing size 4 diapers

*are wearing 9 and 12 month clothes

*still have NO teeth

*do the baby sign for milk, eat, all done, more, please (kind-of)

*walk a lot more....you do not choose to walk, but will walk if placed on your feet

*say "ut-oh", "night-night"

*loves her babies

*like to open cabinets and doors

*find books endlessly entertaining

*eat a lot of people food (I would say on average, we only have four meals of "baby" food a week)

1st Purse

My good friend Joy and her daughter Claire bought Olivia a purse for her birthday. We've kept the purse put away until we "needed" a new toy to help pass some time. So today I got out the purse and Olivia LOVES it. She is fascinated by the phone, even though it makes no noise...but the most interesting item....the lipstick. I showed Olivia how to put on the lipstick...and I think she's pretty good. We need to work on finding our lips instead of our gums.

The Results

haha...my lovely sister went to the website http://www.makemebabies.com/ to create pictures of what Olivia could have looked like or if we had a boy what he might have looked like...using "advanced face detection technology"....

lol

girl.....................................boy

The Deep Freeze

Houston has experienced a DEEP FREEZE. Now, for most of America this is nothing unusual, it happens every winter and it's cold. But in Houston it doesn't happen (at least not frequently). I saw 32 degrees for the last time on Thursday evening and didn't see it again until Saturday afternoon!!! On Friday morning, it was a brisk 17 degrees!!! YIKES! Of course the news media kept us updated with the current temperatures and how to survive the "Deep Freeze". I asked Tim if we needed to do anything to "prepare" and I guess after having a couple of discussions, a group of people decided we were fine...but that maybe we could just wrap our outside spigots. So that's all we did.

And we survived...it was chilly but it's also the winter :) I would have loved 5-6 inches of snow...but we live in Houston...probably not going to happen.

On Sunday, we went to "de-deep freeze" our spigots...and this is what we found. LOL. As Tim was wrapping this spigot, he must have accidentally slightly turned it on and it had a VERY slow drip...but with the freezing temperatures it made one amazing icicle.

(the towel is just wrapped around at the top...the rest is ice)

Taking a Walk

Today O and I were getting some cabin fever from staying inside because of the cool temperatures. So we decided to get bundled up and go for a walk. I took out O's walker and she pushed it up and down the street. She walked a considerable amount and it took us a good 45 minutes...I also think we got some strange looks from people...eh, oh well.

Visiting Daddy's Work

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago...but I just found them on our other camera and wanted to share :)

O and I went downtownDecember 23rd to pick Daddy up from work and start our Christmas break together. This was going to be our first time, since the month after we were married, that we've spent five uninterrupted days together...doing nothing. And it was glorious.

Anyways Olivia got to see Daddy's desk and meet some co-workers and then we went to eat at the delicious Treebeards. A great start to our Christmas!

Hello????

Who is calling Olivia??

Dress-Up Time

Olivia and I were playing dress-up...and we decided that the tutu looks the best on....

JERRY!

PROMOTED!

Tim got a much deserved promotion at work. His title is now Central Maintenance Manager :) We are sooo proud of you and love you very much!

Olivia colored this all by herself.

Baby Dolls

Olivia LOVES her dolls. As soon as she enters the playroom she finds her babies. She hugs them, kisses them, puts them on her shoulder and pats their backs, gives them pacifiers and shares her milk with them. It's sooo sweet to see her nurturing her loves :)

The Perfect Football Weekend

It rarely happens, but when it does....it's glorious. Navy won. VT won. And now the Texans won.

We went to the Texans game today and both agreed that it was, by far, the most exciting, fun and entertaining game either of us has ever been too! It was rather chilly and thus decided to skip the tailgating and walk around inside the heated stadium. Olivia meet a couple cheerleaders and we enjoyed some concessions. This game had huge implications. 1.) Beating the Patriots 2.) Having the 1st winning season in franchise history 3.) Keeping a coach 4.) POSSIBLY getting into the playoffs (we would have to rely on some other teams to help us in). Needless to say...a victory was the only option. And it came down to the last few minutes, which made it all that more exciting.

It was soooo loud at the stadium today...the loudest we've ever heard it before...and of course, during this time, Olivia was sleeping. She woke up at the end to see the big win.

Sneaky Sneaky

We can no longer just use the cushions to keep Olivia trapped in the playroom. Today I put her in the playroom and went into the kitchen to finish up dinner...and all the sudden...I hear her hands hit the hardwood floor. ESCAPED!

2010

Happy New Year!