Friday, May 30, 2008

Two tired parents, a silly child, and a sick puppy

Poor Daisy! She hasn't been feeling very well lately and has visited 3 different veterinarians in the past week. But we think we found out one of her problems. The other issue still needs to be followed. To sum it up, she was lethargic, trembling, had diarrhea, yelped a few times when being picked up, would not jump onto the couch, stopped walking half way through her morning walk, etc. This all started on Sunday. After the emergency vet could not find anything on Monday, one of the other doctors at her regular vet hospital could not find anything in his exam on Tuesday (he did find a elevated liver enzyme, though), we went back to our preferred regular vet and he did an ultrasound and x-rays Friday. Well, she has a compression in the disc space between L3/L4 in her spine. He saw it on the x-ray and did another orthopedic exam (her third this week). Sure enough, she was in severe pain when he pressed on the space between L3/L4. Poor puppy! So now she is supposed to be on a strict resting regime (yeah, tell Daisy that she cannot run up or down the stairs...she's not listening!), is on steroids, and basically can't jump, play frisbee, or catch balls for 4-6 weeks. She'll probably have some sort of back issues the rest of her life. Dr. Felrice said it was either due to wear and tear on the disc or it could be from an injury. So now we are trying to catch her before she bolts up and down the stairs (gosh, and we live in a townhome with 3 levels!) and will probably get a ramp or stairs for her to get on and off our bed. If the Prednisone doesn't help, she might have to have a CT or MRI and possibly have surgery. Pray that it doesn't get that bad! Her liver enzyme still needs to be futher followed. I need to get some old lab tests from Atlanta, but it looks like it's a newer occurrance, as 6 years ago her liver enzymes were normal. Hopefully everything with that turns out fine. The vet isn't too worried about it, as her back is the primary issue right now. She's feeling much better today, so that's definitely good.Our other child, Evan, has been as goofy as ever. He got this table with stackable blocks for his 1-year birthday and it's in the kitchen. Well, Thursday, he decided to flip the table over and push it around the first level of our house.This child loves to laugh!
It makes a good step stool to look outside!

Evan is saying more and more words. Earlier this week he said alligator (really!). He loves to point to different body parts on him or Mommy or Daddy. He'll gouge out your eyes if you ask where those are. He knows the nose, mouth, eyes, ears, toes, head. It's adorable!

Here's a quick look at our backyard now that the trees have grown in. Sometimes we can still see deer under all the tree cover. There's one in this picture on the right side, but it's hard to make out. It's nice and peaceful to not have a bunch of houses in our backyard. The nature is awesome (deer, squirrels, foxes, birds (lots of cardinals), bunnies, snakes (yes...big, black, and long - yuck!), and chipmunks). Seeing all those animals is a good learning experience for Evan and they drive Daisy bananas!

Monday, May 26, 2008

Summer is fun!

Evan inherited a fun slide from Jason's boss at NIH, Jenny. Well, actually Evan inherited it from her son, who is a teenager now. We picked it up at Jenny's house on Sunday and Evan tried it out there first. He loved it! Now perfectly situated in our backyard, Evan played with it today and enjoyed the nice weather.

Help from Daddy...

Whoa, are you sure about this?...

OK, I'm ready...

Whooaahh! This is fun! Look, no hands!

Peek-a-boo!
Daisy enjoyed the nice weather today too...

She has not been feeling very good the past few days, so another trip to the vet is in store for tomorrow. Pray that she feels better soon!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Cycling!

Two years ago, a few weeks before we found out we were pregnant with Evan, Jason and I had bought bikes in hopes of getting in shape and spending lots of fun time together. Well, all-day-sickness during the first trimester and Evan's first year in life caused me to not ride my bike as often as I liked. Jason got to ride a lot, though, and is a pro at this cycling thing. (I'm still trying to figure out how to get off my bike correctly!) So, now that Evan's over a year old and can support his head pretty well, we decided to get a bike trailer so we could go on bike rides as a family. The only thing we're missing is a doggie bike trailer for Daisy. There's room in Evan's trailer, but we're not sure how they would react being right next to each other. Anyway, yesterday, we went on our first bike ride as a family since Evan joined us. It was fun! Here is Evan getting strapped into his trailer.
Looking good!
I'm ready!
Daddy took him for a spin around the neighborhood first to get used to dragging a trailer.
We rode our bikes to the South Germantown Soccer Complex. There are a ton of soccer fields (20-25), a driving range, indoor pool, playground, miniature golf, water park, and a lot of biking trails around and throughout the complex. It was nice!

We're going to enjoy the beautiful weather today and tomorrow as well, and explore some more on our bikes. Possibly more pictures later!...

Friday, May 23, 2008

Grandma & Grandpa's Visit

About a month ago, Grandma and Grandpa came to visit Evan (and Daddy & Mommy) in Maryland. Sorry it's taken me so long to post these pictures. We had a great time! Evan really showed them how much he'd grown up. He was all over the place.

Evan doing somersaults...
Reading with Grandma...
If you have a hat and ask Evan where it goes, he'll put it on your head. Usually it goes on Daddy's head but he was correct here in putting it on Grandpa's head...
What a cute child!
Evan now rides his lion instead of pushing it like he did when he was learning to walk. He has fun scooting on it. During Grandma and Grandpa's visit, we ate a yummy fruit salad inside half of a watermelon. Evan devoured the watermelon! He loved it!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

First visit to the zoo!

Yesterday was Evan's first visit to the zoo! He really enjoyed it! We started off our trip by getting a yummy pizza from an Italian deli close to the zoo entrance called Vace. We'd been wanting to try their pizza after it was recommended to me 3 years ago, but never were downtown often enough to give it a try. They only do take-out so it was perfect for a picnic in the zoo (you can bring in food, etc. Admission is free to the zoo, so it's a great thing to do when trying to save money.) We found a big section of grass and trees by the tigers and lions exhibit, laid out our blanket, and ate our pizza. Evan loved it! (So did Mommy & Daddy!) I think we will make it a tradition when going to the zoo. After Evan had his share of pizza, he took off running down the hill, wandered around the grassy area, and explored the trees. Next it was off to the Children's Farm where Evan saw cows, donkeys, and goats up close. We wandered back to the Big Cats and where Evan saw a lion. At the Big Cats display, they had these up close cut outs for children to see the lions and tigers closer than the regular crowds... Next were the tigers... Evan LOVED the tigers. He didn't want to stop looking at them.

He kept looking and looking...
And looking and looking!
It was pretty amazing to see them. There were 3 tigers in total and they were awesome for us big kids too!Next it was off to the sea lions, seals, and pelicans. Evan saw the seals swimming and playing...He also stopped along the way to pick up some leaves...Daddy and Evan posing in front of the bald eagle...see it in the background above Evan's head?

Phew! By this time, Evan was exhausted. Time for him to take a nap while Mommy and Daddy strolled to the front of the park to see the pandas.Another panda was as tired as Evan. It was adorable! Red pandas that were cute and fuzzy!Time to head home. Evan had a great time during his first visit to the zoo.
I'm sure we'll be back in a short time to see more animals. Want to join us?!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm having a wonderful and relaxing Mother's Day today. The weather is not so great (mid 50's and rain), so we are chilling at home enjoying each other's company and indulging in triple chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting and chicken & noodles. Isn't my hubby the best?! I wish everyone could have a guy as great as Jason in thier lives.

Evan's still being his goofy and mischievous self. His personality is shining ever so bright these days and he's into everything. It's so much fun being a mommy!