I'm falling apart :(

      So, you all know about the back issues that make me feel like an old woman all of the time, but thats not the only medical issue I have. I was also diagnosed with interstitial cystitis in October. Basically it means that the lining of my bladder is permanently irritated. I'm lucky enough to not have the worst of the symptoms but before treatment I did feel like I had to pee all the time and have some flare ups (which were confused with UTIs). The drug I've been prescribed creates a kind of coating inside my bladder to prevent irritation (think pepto for the bladder). So in October I started the initial treatment to kind of jump start the drug into my system. The problem with taking a drug orally for the bladder is that only a small percentage of the drug actually gets to the bladder, the rest is absorbed before it gets there. So the way around this is to insert it directly into the bladder...with a catheter. So I had 16 bladder instillations were exactly that was done. Since then i've been taking the drug orally but recently started having some pain and a return of the constant feeling of having to pee. So I went to see my doc and he said, particularly since I'll have to be off the drug entirely for the week before and after my surgery (it has MILD blood thinning properties) that we'd just do another 6 week (12 treatments) course. Yay. And half of these fall after Keely is out of school so I'll be begging my mommy friends to help out a bit. (And I'm sure they will. They are such a great bunch.)
   I just find it seriously depressing that I'm not even 30 (unlike Megan!!) and my body is falling apart. I've had a hard time since the doc appointment with being depressed about this. Probably doesn't help that Daniel is in San Francisco and I'm flying solo here. I shouldn't whine since things certainaly could have been worse, but they sure could be better too!

A Really COOL Birthday Party

If you were anywhere near my Uncle Al on my wedding day, the title of this post will remind you of that day.

So I spent a week obsessively checking weather.com to see if it was going to rain on the day of Keely's birthday party. Thankfully, it didn't rain, but it was COLD. In the 50's and it had rained the whole night before so the playground was full of mud puddles. Thankfully the moms of Keely's friends love her enough to come out in the cold and celebrate with us. Before dinner we played by the lake and watched the 'waves' roll in. Yes, it was THAT windy.

Keely was really excited to be able to drink from a big girl cup, and not just water! She's been getting water in a real cup at meal times, but this was JUICE! Ok, it was really crystal light, but she doesn't know any better!

After Daniel and my dad got the burgers and hot dogs ready, we all dug in!

To spare everyone from eating Keely spit (despite her obsession with bubbles she still has not figured out how to blow effectively), we went ahead and cut Keely a piece before putting candles in it and singing Happy Birthday to her. I really wish Daniel had gotten a shot of her face while everyone was singing. It was absolutely dumbstruck. "Everyone is looking at me??" I never would have thought Keely was the shy type, but I couldn't decide if that face was excited or panicked. After, Keely was quite happy to eat the cake!

Then all of the kids went to play on the playground. We had a good time. Keely kept trying to get Grandpa (Bagdi) to go down the slide with her. He's such a sucker he gave in and she was thrilled. Once people started saying goodbye to her she started crying, realizing that the fun was almost over. John D helped me to distract her by helping her blow bubbles. It was such a great evening, despite the weather and I really appreciate everyone who came out to celebrate my baby turning two with us. Wow, two.

Come Bagdi!

We have a ton more pictures of the party, Keely opening her presents, and soon to be (late next week probably) of her actual birthday. Please check them out on our picture website.

I NEED it

Keely's newest phrase is... I NEED that. And yes, with the stress on need. It was cute...the first few times. I'm a bit tired of hearing it at least 100 times a day. And about anything, like food, toys, a bird in the yard. Thankfully she doesn't usually get annoyed when we tell her no, she doesn't actually NEED that.

(Also, a birthday party post is coming as soon as Daniel gets some pictures ready!)

God is SO good!

     Yesterday Daniel spilt a coke on his laptop. He immediately turned it off and took it apart to clean it. After ~6 hours he turned it back on and it didn't work. He was very upset as we dont have the money to fix or replace it. We even checked the prices on ebay for used laptops, finding that functioning ones cost at least 500, but more typically 600-700. I told him God has always taken care of us when we think we won't be able to make ends meet.
     Today he took it to the Genius Bar at the apple store, and they weren't able to help him, being unable to open computers there in the store. They gave him a list of approved apple repair places in the area and told him that sending it into apple for repairs would cost a minimum of $700. Daniel even spent several hours trying to swap parts between his laptop and Patrick's old one (which he generously gave us) to no avail as the parts were slightly different.
    In desperation we went to google's shopping site and looked for a macbook...and what do we find but a very similar macbook to his for $331. We both just stared blankly for a minute trying to figure out what was wrong with this laptop. It was so cheap because of a $100 mail in rebate and the site was doing a special 10% off of mac products that ended at 10 pm TONIGHT. It was 9:50. I looked at Daniel and asked him "How can this be anything other than God looking out for us?"

THANK YOU!!!

Miscommunication

Keely refused a nap this afternoon so she was pretty fussy. After eating a surprisingly great dinner--she was so excited to eat some red onion she bit her finger while trying to shove it in her mouth--we thought we'd run over to Uncle Patrick's house to pick up some things. So we asked her if she wanted to go for a ride. She got very excited and kept repeating ride, so we all got ready and put on shoes (during which she talked to her feet the entire time, "silly feet") and went out. Except when we tried to put her in the car she started screaming and pointing to the road saying "ride!" We couldn't figure out what she wanted so we shut the car and asked her to show us. She promptly took our hands and started walking down our little street. Apparently she was convinced this is what ride meant. We made one lap and then asked if she wanted to go see Uncle Patrick now, and she said no. After two laps, she still didnt want to go see Uncle Pat, and also did not want to go play on her swingset out back. After three laps she didn't want to do either of the last two options, OR play on the porch. Finally during the fourth lap she turned to one of us and said "up". I'm pretty impressed with how much she walked, even though she still melted down and cried when we came inside. Too tired to walk, but didn't want to stop! While we were walking every so often she would put down her head (like a football player trying to push through defenders) and yell "running, running" with "fast" occasionally thrown in. Thankfully she was holding onto one of us on each side so she did not faceplant onto the concrete.
    In other funny news, today Daniel was peeing in the bathroom and she went in and said "Papa, sit down!" He had to explain that boys don't sit to pee. Then she offered him toilet paper. And now I just thought that someday when she's older she is probably going to be embarrassed about all of these things I've posted. Eh, we've got time yet.

My Addiction

     Every night before Daniel and I go to sleep we sneak in to check on Keely. Now I know many parents do this and its not a big deal, but in our house it is. Keely's sleep has always been very much a do not disturb time, partially because if she sees someone in her room and they leave she will cry like her heart has been broken. This is also why we typically don't go in to cuddle her when she wakes up a bit in the night. We've learned the hard way it honestly just makes it worse.
     But back to my addiction. It started when Keely first started sleeping in her big girl bed because I wanted to make sure that she hadn't climbed out of the bed and fallen asleep on the floor. But now I do it just because there is nothing more beautiful in the world than a sleeping child. I love seeing her surrounded by all of the stuff she HAS to sleep with (right now its 3 stuffed animals, 5 foam dinosaurs, 2 blankets, and 4 books) in whatever weird position she's gotten herself in (two nights ago she was upside down in the bed). Sometimes its the best part of my day, and honestly my days are pretty great right now.

Love you!

Every mom waits to hear those magic words. I tell Keely I love her about a million times a day, mostly because I am frequently overwhelmed with HOW MUCH I love this girl, but some because I want her to say it back to me. Well today she said it...to her plastic phone. She was talking on her plastic phone and pushed a button that made it say "bye bye now, love you!" and she repeated back "lub you". Ugh. Every mom's dream, right?