First Haircut

Vivian's first haircut was on Friday. She did really well sitting on daddy's lap! After awhile she started to "wiggle," until we gave her a comb to play with! :)


Here's the play-by-play in pictures:

Daddy's Girl

Thought I'd share this picture of Chris and Vivian! It was taken today right before we left to get Vivian's first haircut!

The Prelim Exam

I thought that the prelim exam deserved its own post. In my program, the prelim exam consists of three separate exams, as well as a concept paper defense. Last week, I sat in a computer lab for 3 days (four hours each for days 1 and 2 and two hours for day 3) without notes or Internet access. The first day was an article critique, the second day was the core question related to the Instructional Systems field, and the third day was the minor question. My minor is human-computer interaction and usability. I was able to transfer in 3 of my classes from when I was in engineering at Virginia Tech (feels like a lifetime ago now).

Next week is my concept paper defense. The concept paper is an 8-page synopsis of your dissertation research. The defense is basically the checkpoint in which your four committee members give you the green light to go ahead with your study. If they find issues with it, you may have to start from scratch.

Fingers are crossed that I passed the exam portion and that my committee thinks my research topic and design are feasible!!

The House Hunt

We started looking at houses (to purchase) in October of last year. It's been a difficult process because we're looking at them online. Earlier this month we decided to look at houses to rent too because we aren't sure how long we'll be in NC. The problem: we're looking for a house with a FENCE. Where I grew up, this wasn't an issue -- every house had a fence. I can't remember seeing a neighbourhood that didn't have fences around the houses. To give you an idea of how much the fence complicates things, there were over 200 houses in the Cary/Morrisville/Apex area with 4 bedrooms -- NINE of those had fences. When you consider some of the other options we wanted (like larger than a postage stamp lot), the number of potential houses decreased even more. We ended up with two -- one of those houses had a potential mold issue, so we really only have one to choose from. Our real estate agent walked through the house and said it was absolutely beautiful. She took some additional pictures for us of the bonus room and the backyard and we love it.

We're hoping to physically see the house in person in a couple of weeks. I've never had to deal with the house hunt from a distance before. It's been quite challenging and I'm not looking forward to doing it again in the near (?) future.

Food, Glorious Food

We always dreaded the 1-year transition from bottles to sippy cups and formula to whole milk. The best way to do it...cold turkey! It probably also helped that Vivian had the nasty stomach flu. After she got better, we didn't introduce formula or bottles. We just started something new. She's been on whole milk for a couple of weeks now and is finally taking to it, although she doesn't drink the 16-24 oz that is recommended. She's getting her calcium from other sources.

We went to the ped's office a couple of days ago for an H1N1 booster and a weight check. Poor kid lost a full pound in the last month due to the flu and transition. She has a great appetite and we're always trying to think of new foods for her to try.

Here's a sample menu on a typical day:
Breakfast - Milk, 1 frozen gluten-free waffle, 1/2 of a banana diced up (and maybe some melon like this morning), and sometimes 1 scrambled egg yolk.
Snack - Gluten-free yogurt, jar of pureed fruits/veggies and a Mum Mum (gluten-free toddler cracker)
Lunch - Milk, jar or two of pureed fruits/veggies; maybe green beans and tofu or pasta
Snack - Another yogurt, jar of pureed fruits/veggies and maybe a Mum Mum
Dinner - Similar to lunch; it depends on what we have

Her likes:
Apples; apples and blueberries; apples and bananas
Bananas, peaches, and raspberries
Bananas
Avocado (yum!)
Sweet potatoes (can't get enough of those things, although she didn't like the fries we made her)
Carrots
Stonyfield Yogurt
Libby's pumpkin (yep...from the can)
Winter squash
Tofu
Green beans (from the can)
Pears and mangoes
Gluten-free pasta with some pasta sauce
Mashed potatoes
Rice (yeah for the rice cooker!)
Melons (great finger foods)
Egg yolks (haven't done the whole egg yet)
Corn and butternut squash
Applesauce (although after the stomach flu, not so much. She lived on that stuff for a week)

Her dislikes:
Peas (CANNOT get this kid to eat them...but hey, I won't eat them either)
Cheddar cheese

I'd like to see if there are other cheeses she might like -- maybe a monterey jack.
I'd also like to introduce fish. We frequently eat tilapia and want to give that a try.

Chris has given her bits of ground beef before and she seemed to like it. She still isn't quite sure about lunchmeats like turkey.

And yes, our child eats FAR better than we do! :)

Speaking of food...it's time to eat breakfast!

The Week of Sickies

Unfortunately, Vivian's "sick" time did not end with her one upset tummy night in Orlando. We came home on Saturday and she seemed to be doing okay, although a little uninterested in food and drinking any Pedialyte. She got sick again on Sunday morning and the on-call nurse advised us to go to urgent care -- which opened at 11 am. Apparently urgent care here isn't a 24-hr thing! We got there a couple of minutes after 11 and the place was packed. We were seen a few minutes after our arrival by a very nice doctor. He gave Vivian a cup of Zofran liquid (anti-puke meds)and told us to get lots of liquids into her. We bought more pedialyte and tried again. On Monday she seemed to be doing a bit better, but on Tuesday she got sick again. We went to see the ped (not our ped, because it was a holiday week) and he told us to give her a liquid diet for the next two days. Although she didn't get sick again, we had a VERY unhappy child.

Around this time, Chris caught a really bad cold. Thankfully, I was getting over my cold. Not too much fun to have a household full of sickies at Christmas.

Christmas Eve/Day was pretty quiet here. Vivian LOVED her new toys!

This past week has been pretty low-key, although it seems like we've been in and out of doctor's offices. Vivian had to get her 12-month shots and I had to get an ultrasound. I've also started studying for my preliminary (comprehensive) exams. On January 20, 21, and 22, I'll be locked in a room for 4 hours on the first two days and 2 hours on the third day.

I'll leave you with some pics of Ms Vivian on Christmas Day! :)

December birthdays!

A lot has happened since my last post. We had a birthday party for Vivian and invited some of my friends from the program and our next-door neighbours. Vivian had a lot of fun playing with the other little ones and sharing her toys. There were 4 girls under 1, a 2-year-old, and a 5-year-old. It was a blast!

Chris made a delicious gluten-free cake for Vivian. Of course, mommy and daddy had to eat the whole thing! :) YUM! Love the raspberry frosting from fresh raspberries! Thank you Lee Tobin at Whole Foods for the recipe!



I finished my semester from hell. YEAH!!! I can't believe I actually successfully completed 5 classes. Good news: I'll never do it again!

To celebrate Vivian's 1st birthday on the 11th and Chris's 37th birthday on the 14th, we went to Orlando!!

We left Tallahassee on the 11th and drove to Orlando and got settled into our hotel near SeaWorld. On the 12th, we headed over to SeaWorld in the late afternoon to go see the Sesame Street show, but it was already full. So, we went to the Shamu Miracles show instead. Then we saw the iceskating show and finally the big fireworks show. Vivian really enjoyed the music during the shows.

On the 13th, we headed back to SeaWorld to see the Sesame Street show and the Pets Ahoy show. Vivian LOVED the animals. There were dogs, cats, a skunk, and a pig. It was really cute. Vivian also really enjoyed the Sesame Street show. There were some new characters that Chris and I didn't know...so apparently we'll have to become familiar with those characters. It isn't the 70s anymore! ;)


Vivian LOVED Cookie Monster!



We headed to the Animal Kingdom on the 14th for Chris's birthday. He proudly wore his button that said "Happy Birthday." Vivian really enjoyed the animals. We saw a wonderful parade and went to the Lion King show (which I really loved-- again).

Vivian had pictures taken with Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger! She loved them!!





On the 15th, we headed over to Epcot for the day. We perused the various countries and really liked The Land tour of how Disney is growing different types of foods.

On the 16th...our biggest day...we headed over to the Magic Kingdom via monorail! We immediately hit up It's a Small World because there was NO WAIT. We walked right on. The best part about going during the off-season is that there is NO ONE there! We hit all the classics -- the Enchanted Tiki Room, Country Bear Jamboree, the Steamboat, the WDW Railroad. Chris even got to go on Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain by himself. We saw a couple of parades. Ms. Vivian once again loved the music and the dancing. We saw Cinderella's Castle light up, which was absolutely amazing, and then saw the big fireworks show at night.

Here are some pics of the Magic Kingdom! :)


Vivian rocking it out on It's a Small World ride.


Woody and Jesse from Toy Story. Vivian would NOT let go of Jesse's finger.


Having a good time at the parade.


Sad Daddy and a Tuckered Out Baby


Posing with Mama


The biggest challenge for me was eating gluten-free at the parks. SeaWorld hasn't figured it out yet, but Disney has. However, my gluten-free options usually consisted of a burger on a gluten-free bun with fries or chicken. At least there WAS an option available!

On the 17th, we rested most of the day. We went to PF Chang's (again), Whole Foods (again), and Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, which is our standard stop, at Universal CityWalk. After dinner we walked to the resort that I stayed at 4 years ago when I came to Orlando for a conference. It's beautiful -- all decorated in a polynesian theme. Then we walked around the rest of CityWalk (it was EMPTY) and headed back to the hotel.

Poor Ms. Vivian woke up in the middle of the night with a tummy issue. Chris was up with her for several hours while I was dealing with the clean-up. Nothing is worse than having a sick kid when you are not at home. I called the on-call nurse from our ped's office and didn't get a call back until over 4 HOURS later, which is absolutely ridiculous. By then, the ickiness had subsided and we had a tuckered out kid. I went all over this part of town (seriously...3 different places) to get 2 types of Pedialyte and some applesauce and pureed bananas. Ms. Vivian seems to be doing much better now, but it was a long, long night!

Consequently, we're still in Orlando! We were supposed to head home today, but with a sick kid and really bad weather we weren't going to take a chance.

We had a wonderful vacation while we've been here, despite having a sick kiddo the last day. Hopefully the drive home is uneventful tomorrow!

To end this blog....I'll leave you with a beautiful picture of Cinderella's Castle!