Last night!!!

Tonight is very significant... it is the last night Geo works on call (overnight) as a resident. On Wednesday, he starts his new job as staff (significantly less call). Exciting, huh? I'm not sure who is happier... him or me.

Baby "Gallon Challenge", Red eyes, and Corn

Thanks for the suggestions on fattening up Elise... we've been trying them. We started off with the carnation instant breakfast. She didn't like it. Lucy did though.... I caught her sneaking sips many times :) The tough thing with Elise (and part of the reason we took her off the bottle) is that she is very easily distracted while drinking. A few sips is good enough and then she wants to do something else. One of Geo's collegues' son was pretty skinny and the dietician suggested "mighty milk" (half the sippy cup of whole milk and half with heavy cream... like half and half, but fortified). Finally something Elise loved! Who wouldn't really? Its pretty much like you are drinking desert. She drank a full sippy. I was thrilled she was finally taking in liquid and mixed her another cup and she guzzled that down. We ate lunch and without warning, she threw up all over the place. It was disgusting, curdled, and smelly. She was smiling before and smiling after. Lucy and I were pretty grossed out. I cleaned up the mess and put her to bed wondering if she was sick. I told George about it when he got home from work and he reminded me of the "Gallon Challenge". I can't believe that didn't even cross my mind... I DO have three brothers. Apparently with babies and "mighty milk" it happens with a lot less liquid. I was going to link this to a website to something on the Gallon Challenge, but its basically pictures/video of people throwing up, so I'll pass on that.

Other Tripp family news... Geo has been sick, sick, sick for a week. He's not used to being sick over 24 hours, so this is big for him. He caught a virus from a girl he treated and it is nasty... eyes swollen shut, cold sweats, sleeping continually, etc. Here is a picture of his eyes on Day 5:

He IS pulling them down so you can see the redness. Good thing he's doing better, but if any of the rest of the family catches it, I'll die!

The other news is that Austin finally has a tooth. He's 7 months, so we've been watching for it for a while. Naturally, he is gnawing on everything... here he is with a cob of corn.

Elise was not a fan as you can see. We barely got her to nibble on it. But, Lucy is definitely a corn-on-the cob lover.

Fresh summer vegetables are the best! Sadly, our summer garden is pretty much done. It has been WAY too hot lately for anything to survive. So our tomato plants are covered with dirt and mulch and should produce again in September/October.

How's that for some random post topics?

Message for the grandparents: I finally posted the pics of Elise on her birthday with the cupcake pops, but I had to put it in order for the blog book. Here's the link.

Take time to smell the sunflowers

Yesterday began with a few hours at the kiddie water park at SeaWorld with some good buddies. Both babies actually liked the water this time, Lucy was a little fish and it was nice for me that I could sit in 6 inches of water, chat, and watch everyone have a ball. Of course, with all that sun and exercise, everyone was pretty beat by the time we got home. Well.... not everyone. I put the babies to bed and Lucy said, "So, are both babies in bed? Does that mean you can be with just ME?" Now, isn't that sweet! Sadly, my "to do" list of housecleaning projects, some YW emailing, etc. went through my brain. Then I remembered some thoughts I had the night before. I wished life would just freeze for a bit. My kids are at such fun ages. Sometimes I feel like I'm running ragged or my time is filled with things that I can't remember when the day is over. I want to "hit pause" and enjoy it. And (back to the present) I thought, "well, here's your chance." So, I put my "to do" list on hold ("on hold" mentally as well... that is usually the tougher part for me) and Lucy and I played "Go Fish." Then we draped a sheet over a quilt rack and made up puppet shows. We only had two monkeys and decided we needed more (so we could do "5 Little Monkeys"), so we made some (and Lucy decided 6 monkeys would be even more fun). The babies woke up and we played with them. After dinner Lucy and I picked sunflowers in a field near Target, painted toenails, and ended the day with another puppet show. It was a great day! I wish all of them were like that. Eventually the house HAS to be cleaned (although its been over 3 weeks, so what's another day?) and errands have to be run and YW stuff needs to be done, but every once in a while (and I wish it was more often), its so nice to have a GOOD play-with-my children day! Yesterday was a day where I felt I actually kept my New Years Resolution and enjoyed my little girl.


Here are the monkey puppets. It really cracked me up that she wanted to write her name on the sticks and color in dots on the ends of the letters. You might have to click to see it. Later she told her dad, "those are fancy dots, not 'O's'." I'm sure she's seen me put dots on people's names when I write cards and such, but we've never discussed it. It just reminded me how much kids pick up when you think they aren't paying attention.

doctor shots vs. photo shots

On Friday, we took the babies in for their well-baby check-ups.

Austin - 6 1/2 month stats
Weight: 16.5 lbs (20%)
Length: 26.9 in (49%)
Head: 17.3 in (42%)
-------------
Elise - 12 1/2 month stats
Weight: 17.7 lbs (2%)
Length: 28.0 in (9%)
Head: 17.6 in (32%)

(The doctor says we need to fatten Elise up... if you have any suggestions, please share. Sadly, our pediatrician is another person who is leaving this year. He's off to Japan.)

In addition to a doctor visit (with shots for both and a blood draw for Elise), I took the kids to get their 6 and 12 month photos. I'm not sure which was a better experience... you be the judge. Lucy came along as my helper. Austin went first. He did well... the only thing the picture lady couldn't get him to do was play with his toes (which he normally loves). Not bad, I'd say. Notice, I'm a bit wiser and only have pictures taken in one outfit. The clothes changes have gone out the window...

I bought prints of the two pictures below...

Ok... now its Elise's turn. She was pretty clingy the whole time Austin was having his picture taken, but I still had high hopes. She loves attention and people to play with her, so I thought she'd be fine. Well, she also loves her mother and would NOT let go of me. She had a death grip and wanted to be right near my face. The picture lady said we could just shoot with me in them. Ummmm....no. But I was lucky enough to have a shot of my nose. I tried a few tricks and she said she got a couple good shots. Then the lady suggested I lay down with a white sheet over me and we'd see if Elise would cooperate that way. 1st shot:

After much coaxing, I got her to sit up. This whole time, I am thinking we are getting head shots, like this:

But, when I viewed the pictures, most of them looked like Elise riding a dead horse.

Here she is straddling the corpse:

Riding side-saddle:Feet up:

All I could do was shake my head. Here are the two I bought:

(I know this 1st one has a bit of the "dead horse" in it, but I thought it would be a fond remembrance.)

More Sad Goodbyes...

The Pieroni's pulled out of town today... boo hoo! We will really miss them! The kids have come over a few times to play this week and we ate dinner and swam together... just hung out. That is what I will miss the most... all the fun visiting. We've had Megan over to play many-a-times in the past few years. She is a little sweetheart and such a good friend to Lucy. I don't think Lucy totally gets that her buddies are moving away...even though she says the right things (like listing where everyone is going). I think she thinks they'll be gone for the summer of something. After the tears and good-byes, Lucy said, "Megan gets to go to three places: McDonald's, BAMC and California. Right, mom?" BAMC is the Army hospital. You say it "Bam - C". Kevin mentioned he had to turn some stuff in on the way out of town and apparently, Lucy was paying attention. Then she said, "BAMC's sounds like Ramses from the Moses movie. But its got to be something different." :)

July 2006 - start of a great friendship

September 2007

We've had many a dress-up playdates in the past 3 years.
TRYING to control their sisters :)

The crewElise and Kimmy were just the same age as Lucy and Megan were when we moved to SA. I think they would have been good buddies too!
Always something "princess"

Good-bye Pieroni's... we'll miss you!
--------------------------------

Sad, sad. Just too many good-byes in the last month... I'm getting too sad with all this typing though, so a few pictures will have to do...

Sean
Maddy
Erin and Kristine (and families)
And Kyla and family are next...

BOO HOO!

I killed a scorpion. I hate scorpions. They really freak me out and I'm sad that my zoological sign is one. The killing was a bad experience for everyone... the only good thing was that all the kids were upstairs. It started "running" by my back door. I ran for the fly swatter (not smart), but instead grabbed a heavy shoe. That stinger thing poking up... freaky! I must admit I hit it several times (making sure that when I picked up with toilet paper, it wouldn't suddenly arise). Do you think I can talk Geo into pest control?

slippedy slide

Saturday night we went to a pediatric "meet the new interns" party. The big hit for Lucy was a blow up waterslide. My little scaredy cat had no problem with this thing.

Here she is after two hours. No break in between. Just kept running around to the back to do it again. And again. And again. Of course, it was much more fun when her dad was watching. He also gave a few sliding suggestions (like "close your eyes, on your back, headfirst"). And I think she tried it. Shocker.

Free baby tenders!

While George's parents were here celebrating graduation, we had a couple date nights! What could be better than free (and worry-free) babysitting? I haven't left both babies and Lucy with a young girl yet. Let's face it, I know its not a cake-walk to have all three and I'd be stressing the whole time. So Austin is usually along for the ride. But not with grandparents in town! YAY! The first night out was dinner at Acenar with our great friends, the Kim's. Wendy and I have a long standing debate on Acenar vs. Boudro's (two restaurants on the Riverwalk). I had shrimp at Acenar and it was really yummy. George has the oyster tacos and they were surprisingly good too. So who won the restaurtant battle? Well... depends on who you ask :), but I think Boudro's still is the winner in the "table-side guacamole" category!

After dinner, we walked a block to the Majestic Theater to see WICKED! So fun! I have been hoping to see this for a long time and it didn't disappoint. I've been singing the songs the whole week. Not quite as well as Glinda and Elphaba though. :) It was such a fun night!

Date #2 was to George's Pediatric Roast dinner. It is held at a fancy golf course place and the food is good so it actually feels like a real date. The main activites are eating, awards, and a slide show. Miki's part of the slide show is always the part that really gets us laughing. He usually does a "resident/celebrity look-a-like" portion and a "what if they had a child?" (pairs residents or celebrities or cartoons or whatever) section. Of course, the Peds folks have a lot of inside jokes that only they laugh at, but with Miki's portion, everyone is rolling.

Now... we didn't make the grandparents tend ALL the time....One daytime activity (with everyone) was a trip to the Botanical Gardens.

Here is Lucy's pose with the big iron circles...

...and here is Elise's. Doesn't this remind you of the lions at the circus?

Here are the masterminds behind it. The second time she was a bit more nervous.

THANKS for the visit Grandpa Tom and Grandma Liz!

Come back soon!

Graduation... again

Following my mini-vacation to see Benji graduate, it was time to come back for George's graduation. This time it was to graduate from residency. Leading up to the big day, it sort of seemed similar to 8th grade graduation, Kindergarten graduation, or Pre-K graduation.... sorry if that offends anyone who loves those events. They are fun and all, but the "real" graduations are high school and college, right? Maybe you can argue that the "real" graduation is different for every person... its just the last schooling you complete. Anyway... whatever. The point is that I was surprised that it really felt like a bit of a graduation. I think George would agree that it has been more work for him to complete these past three years than the work required for the other graduations (high school for sure!).

This is the picture of the event. Very blurry. I was holding a sleeping Austin (took me almost an hour to get him to that point). Luckily, my friend Angela graciously volunteered to get something good for me (that is her camera on the left side). Geo is shaking General Travis' hand. The AF Surgeon General is on the left side. He was the keynote speaker.

Pediatric bunch... such quality people

George, Miki, Kevin... these boys could talk for hours (and usually do!)

Pieroni's, Tripp's and Cain's.

These girls could talk for hours (and usually do!) We will certainly miss these folks!

Dr. Granger... the kids' pediatrician

I love this picture because it really captures how Elise felt about graduation... NOT impressed

George's folks came out to support him and support a not-very-smart wife who drug her three small children to a 3+ hour long ceremony. Even with 1 to 1 adult to child ratio, it was still pretty long for everyone! My favorite part was at the end when everyone sang the military songs. General Travis sang the AF song with such gusto (arm thrusts and all) and I loved it! Well, I guess I should say that was my second favorite part... the first, of course, was clapping for Geo when he recieved his "diploma".

GREAT JOB GEO!

We are proud of you!