Big girl bed (and out of control tag)

So, only 14 more days to go until Arden gets her cast off! Yay! Luckily, Arden loves her cast. She refuses to wear long-sleeve shirts that cover it up. She loves to show it to everyone and tell them the story: "Peeent! Arrm! Dotters! Bedder!" (Ardenese for "Here is my pink arm cast! The doctors put it here to help my arm get better!"). I was hoping that if nothing else, maybe the cast would have slowed Arden down a little and maybe make her a little more cautious. But no, she hasn't slowed down for a second. So, after stopping her from trying to climb out of her crib a couple of times last week, Preston and I decided not to wait until she got her cast off, but to put her in a toddler bed now, before she breaks her other arm. Here is a picture of Arden in her "big girl bed," still jumping around and acting like Arden.
She was pretty excited for her "new" bed, and she has done pretty well for the most part. Except for the Sunday nap, which was a total fiasco. I went upstairs and put her down as usual. After I laid her down, I sat outside her door to make sure she didn't get out of her bed until I was pretty sure she was asleep. Then, I closed the door and crept downstairs. As soon as I got down, Preston got home from a church meeting and opened the garage door, which is pretty loud in Arden's room as her room is right over the garage. I heard some moving around up in her room, but I was hoping that maybe she was just rolling over a lot to try and get comfortable again. So, I gave her 5 minutes and sent Preston up to check on her when she didn't quiet down. Preston found her dumping the dirt out of the plant in her room onto the carpet. He told her "no" and put her back in bed, and figured we would vacuum up the dirt after her nap. He stayed upstairs to make sure she stayed in bed until she fell asleep. After a while, he came back down thinking he was successful. A few minutes later, I heard some more noise and went to investigate. I opened the door, and there was Arden happily dumping her sippy cup of water on the dirt in her carpet and rubbing it into mud. Nice. So, after some emergency carpet cleaning and vacuuming, Preston and I took turns for the next hour and a half trying to get her to stay in her bed. Two hours later, she finally fell asleep. :). But, overall, it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be, and she went right to bed tonight just like she used to do in a crib. Yay!

Also, I have been tagged again two more times by two different people with two different tags (is this tag thing getting out of control? Maybe). Sorry Alison and Shauna that I am so slow. Alison tagged me with a Q&A one that is pretty similar to the last time I got tagged, so I think I will skip out on that one (sorry Al) and Shauna tagged me with one where I am supposed to just share seven random and/or weird facts about myself. So, here goes:

1. I am afraid of puppets, and even puppet-like dolls. I am afraid they will start moving by themselves and talk to me.
2. I have no spleen.
3. I used to love Michael Jackson when I was a very little girl. I saved up all the money I had in the world and actually bought the vinyl LP of Thriller. I also had a little pink "Beat It" shirt.
4. I have a phobia about cutting my hair short. When I was little, my twin brother and I were playing barber and he cut off all my hair, and I had to get my head almost buzzed. Everyone thought I was a boy. Ever since then, I have had long hair, so everyone will know that I am a girl.
5. The place I would most like to visit is Egypt. Someday all this travelling Preston is doing will pay off and we will cash in our SkyMiles and go. (Close second: Rome).
6. I love me some cheesy 80s music. All of it. Preston makes fun of me because I download these old songs onto my iPod along with the new stuff I get. I recently downloaded "Hey Mickey" by Toni Basil (love it) and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper (classic). I can't stop myself. (Oh Mickey you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind Hey Mickey!)
7. Preston and I just finished all of our paperwork for adoption attempt #2! So, we are back in the "pool," and waiting to see if we will get chosen again!

If anyone out there isn't tired of getting tagged, feel free to consider yourself tagged!

Elbow Update

Arden and I made the trip to the pediatric orthopedic specialist today. He took some more x-rays of her arm, and (thank goodness) he said it is a very minor break with no bone displacement at all. So, he just put a more permanent cast on Arden (still pink, yay!) and she should only have to wear it for 3 weeks! Phew! Only 20 more days and we can forget this ever happened (oh, except for all of this photographic evidence:)

Arden's First (and hopefully ONLY) Broken Bone

I figured it would happen sooner or later, but this is a LOT sooner than I thought! So, here is the story: As I have mentioned in an earlier post, Arden figured out how to climb out of her crib a couple of weeks ago. She hadn't tried it for a couple of weeks, so I wasn't really worried about it much anymore. So, today I put Arden down for her afternoon nap as usual, and ran downstairs to jump on my laptop and start working (things are really busy at work, we are trying to get ready to release earnings numbers on Tuesday!).

As I was frantically typing along, I could hear Arden reading a story to her baby doll. Then, she was really quiet for a while, and I assumed she had dropped off to sleep. Next thing I know, there is a "THUD! Waaaaah!!" coming over the baby monitor. I ran upstairs, found Arden on the floor, and scooped her up. She cried a little bit longer than is usual for her (probably almost 2 minutes instead of her usual 30 seconds). But, I got her favorite blankie and plugged in her binkie and we sat down in the rocker in her room and she was soon quiet. I rocked her for a while, and then I laid her back down to sleep. I didn't think too much of it, and she took her usual nap.

However, she woke up from her nap crying. When I picked her up, she told me her arm hurt. I tried kissing it better, but that didn't seem to work. We had been planning on taking her to my parent's house while Preston and I went out to dinner, so I asked her if she wanted to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house and have Grandma kiss it better. She LOVES Grandma and Grandpa's house. LOVES. But she said "Nooooo!" Uh-oh, I thought. We might be in trouble here. So, I sat down and tried to figure out exactly what the arm situation was. Her arm looked pretty normal to me, but she didn't really like me to move it around too much. I tried asking her which part of her arm hurt, but here is how that conversation went:

Me: Does your shoulder hurt, sweetie?
Arden: Uh-huh!
Me: Does your hand hurt?
Arden: Uh-huh!
Me: Does your elbow hurt?
Arden: Uh-huh!
Me: Does your nose hurt?
Arden: Uh-huh!
Me: Does your flibberdeegibbet hurt?
Arden: Uh-huh!

So, after a few more meaningful Q&A sessions between me and Arden, I told Preston that I wanted to take her to the Instacare. So, we got all packed up and into the car. We checked in at the Instacare around 5:30, and were told Arden couldn't be seen until 7:30 (why do they call it "Instacare?" Shouldn't it be called "In-a-couple-of-hourscare?"). We weren't too worried, since Arden was happily playing with the toys in the waiting room and didn't want to leave. She hadn't been crying since we strapped her into the car seat. So, we loaded back into the car to go grab dinner while we waited for our turn to see the doctor.

Arden was fine all through dinner, and ate all of her Wendy's chicken nuggets! But, she still wasn't moving her arm much. She happily played with some toys while we passed the time, and hadn't complained about her arm at all. But, to be on the safe side, we headed back to the Instacare when 7:30 rolled around. They decided to take an x-ray of her shoulder, which Arden HATED! But, she got a sticker, so it was all worth it to her in the end. The x-ray and it came back negative. The doctor told us to get a sling for her arm and was just about to send us home, but he decided at the last minute to check her elbow too. So, back we went to the x-ray room. Needless to say, Arden was less than thrilled to be back. She cried quite a bit as they tried to get her elbow into different positions for the x-ray, so I started to get worried. We went back to the exam room, second sticker in hand, to await the results of the elbow x-ray. Arden happily stuck her sticker on her shirt and smiled for this picture:

The doctor came back in and said her elbow was broken! Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! He said a bunch of other stuff after that, but I didn't hear any of it. Luckily Preston was there! All I could hear in my head was lots of voices asking How could this HAPPEN? Why oh why oh why didn't I switch her to a toddler bed last week? It is ALL my fault! I have broken my sweet baby! I am a BAAAAAAD mom!! She is BROKEN! The tears welled up in my eyes and I just tried to concentrate on not crying in front of the doctors and nurses, not to mention Arden. The nurses put Arden's little arm in a little pink cast (Arden happy as a clam through it all. Me on the other hand, barely reigning in hysterics). When they were done, they gave her a sucker and ANOTHER sticker, and she was on cloud nine.

After that, we made our escape and got out to the car where I could cry like the big wussie that I truly am. I asked Preston for the recap of what the doctor had said, and here it is: There is little to no displacement of any of the bones. This means that she will probably just need to keep the cast on for 3 weeks or so, and no surgery or anything will be needed. However, we are supposed to call and get an appointment set up with an orthopaedics specialist for next week to give her another checkup and make sure things are still looking good. Luckily, Preston knows an orthopaedist in our stake, so we are calling tomorrow to get an appointment. Unluckily, Preston is going out of town again next week, so I will have to go by myself!

We got home around 9:00 p.m., and I gave Arden a guilt cookie and some Tylenol and put her down to sleep. She went right to sleep and is still sleeping peacefully now. Maybe I will go to sleep and wake up tomorrow and this will all have been one bad dream!

Hanging in there & Tag

I am feeling pretty good today! It has been in the upper 40s here for the past couple of days, and the snow is starting to melt! I know it will probably snow again this week, but it is starting to feel like the beginning of the end of winter, and that makes me happy.

We had a pretty busy, but fun weekend. I went with my sisters to a Mika concert at a little club downtown on Friday night. We had to wait outside in the cold for what seemed like FOREVER, but the show ended up being pretty fun. I hadn't been to a real concert since the Killers last December (December of 2006, yikes), so it was fun. Then on Saturday nite we went out with some friends to dinner and the Jazz game. I am totally into the Jazz this year, probably because they are winning! Don't get me wrong, I have always been a Jazz fan, but this year whenver there is a game on TV I try to watch it, and we are lucky enough to know a few people with season tickets, so we have got to tag along to quite a few games. Arden has even been to a few, and is pretty good for about 3 quarters. She says "yay, yay Dazz!" and "Doh, Dazz, Doh! (Go, Jazz Go!)."

I got "blog tagged," so here goes:

• Two Names You've Gone By: 1) Miss Chrys (my dad) and 2) Chrystiebabe (Preston)
• Two Thing I Am Wearing Right Now: A sweater and jeans
• Two things you Want (or have) in a Relationship: 1) a sense of humor and 2) warm feet (and the willingness to let me warm my cold feet up on them).
• Two of Your Favorite Things to do: 1) Go to the beach and 2) Sleep!
• Two things you did last night: 1) Took Arden to see Grandma and Grandpa Zaugg, where I had two pieces of cake, and 2) Ran on the treadmill while watching "Pride and Prejudice" (the miniseries...I love Colin Firth!) to make up for that second piece of cake.
• Two people you Last Talked To: Arden and Preston.
• Two things You're doing tomorrow: 1. Going to work (Tuesday mornings are my office mornings), and 2) Taking my dad out to dinner for his birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!
• Two Longest Car Rides: 1) Going to Disneyland when I was around 12 years old...We had seven people in our big brown van with NO air conditioning! We drove through Las Vegas in the middle of the summer and all our gummi bears melted together. 2) Drive from Boston to Maine last September (Arden got bored and grumpy, which made me grumpy, which made Preston grumpy...you get the picture).
• Two Favorite Holidays: 1) Christmas 2) Halloween (honorable mention to Thanksgiving, which I think is a very underrated holiday! Eating and football all day, what could be better?)
• Two Favorite Drinks: 1) Coke Zero with Vanilla and 2) Caramel Apple Cider with whip cream from Starbucks. Yum!
• Two Things About Me you may not have known: 1) I love peanut butter and banana sandwiches and 2) I used to be an art major in college.
• Two jobs I have had in my life: 1) Lifeguard at Laguna Beach, 2) Audit Slave for PricewaterhouseCoopers :)
• Two Movies I would watch over and over: 1) Moulin Rouge and 2) Bringing Up Baby (Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn)
• Two Favorite Foods: 1) Coconut Shrimp and 2) Ben & Jerry's Phish food ice cream.
• Two places I'd rather be right now: 1) the Beach (Grace Bay, Turks & Caicos Islands, BWI), or 2) in bed asleep!

Ok now I tag: 1) Manda Haun, 2) Shauna Hardy, 3) Holly Fletcher, and 4) anyone else who wants to play.

Can't leave without posting another picture of Arden cheesing it for you:

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE!

Growing Up

I guess it is about time to do another blog posting! Time is ticking along and things are busy as usual around the Zaugg house. Preston got back on Friday from yet another business trip, this one to scenic Dayton, Ohio. I wasn't quite as envious of his travelling this time, Dayton doesn't sound quite as good as Tampa to me right about now. :) The other day I was just going through my day to day routine, and I turned around and noticed that my "baby" isn't a baby anymore! Hard to believe, but Arden is going to be two years old in less than a month! She is becoming such a big girl. It is fun to watch, but sometimes I wonder where this sweet little baby went:

Here she is now! A couple of weeks ago her little straggly hairs on the back of her head were FINALLY long enough to joint up with the little straggly hairs from the side of her head to make actual pig tails (not the antennae she usually has). Here is the grand debut pigtail picture. (Arden is kind of a cheeser when I tell her to smile...it looks less like she is happy and more like she is in pain, but I am not sure how to explain this to her. She thinks that as long as her teeth are showing, it is a smile!)

She is sooo cute and is always doing something to make me laugh. She is still deeply in love with Woody and Buzz from Toy Story. I really do like both Toy Story movies, but as with anything in life, the thrill starts to wear off after a month or so of seeing one or the other nearly every day. So, I have tried to introduce Arden to the wider world of our DVDs. I grew up in a Disney family, so Preston and I have quite a collection of Disney cartoon DVDs. So far, whenever I try to put one of the non-Woody-and-Buzz DVDs in instead, Arden will patiently watch whatever it is for a few minutes, then look at me hopefully and say "Voodeee, Buzzzzzz?!?" The other day I was trying the Lion King out. She really liked the songs, especially "Hakuna Matata." After that song was over, she ran over to me and said "More tata?" It took me a minute to figure out she wanted to watch the song again.

She was pretty much ignoring the movie (other than the songs) and playing happily with her toys. Then came the part of the Lion King where Simba is trying to figure out whether he should go back and try to save all the lions from Scar and the hyenas. He looks up into the night sky, and a huge bunch of clouds and lightning roll towards him. Then, out of the clouds, Mufasa (his father) appears, and starts talking to Simba in his big James Earl Jones voice. Arden sat down and watched this part, open-mouthed. After a few seconds, she pointed at the TV and yelled "DOD!" (in Arden-ese, that means "GOD!"). I laughed and laughed, then tried to explain to her that no, that isn't God, it is a lion. I then went on to explain how God isn't a lion, God is a man, etc. etc. She listened attentively, then looked back and the TV, pointed at the lion and yelled "Dod! Yay, Dod!" Hmmmmm.....maybe they will straighten her out in her nursery class at church.

Arden made another breakthrough last week, though I am not that excited about this one. She had been having a hard time going to sleep for her naps for a couple of days last week. Then on Saturday, she was making more than her usual amount of noise as we waited for her to go to sleep. Preston went upstairs to remind her for the 10th time that it was time for sleeping. He opened her door, and there she was, out of her crib and sitting in her rocking chair reading a book. It was the first time she ever climbed out of her crib by herself. Bummer! I think my life will never be the same.

Arden is also really starting to have fun imagining things. She loves to put her toys to bed and feed them. She says the funniest things to them. Sometimes I can hear myself in the things she tells her toys, like "Stoppit! Stoppit!" or "Close eyes!" Here she is with all of her toys in her room. She layed out a bunch of blankets on the floor and then layed down a bunch of toys and told me they were at the beach.

Hope everyone enjoyed the SuperBowl yesterday. I wanted the Patriots to win, so I wasn't too thrilled by the end result, but it is always fun to get together with family and friends to watch. It is usually fun to watch the commercials too. I think my favorite commercial was the one where the guy had a stain on his shirt that would yell gibberish whenever he would try to talk. I also thought the one where Shaquille O'Neal was a jockey riding a horse was pretty funny too.