October’s weird weather

Well typical Minnesota is giving us some crazy weather. One day we were wearing hats, gloves, and boots

then the next we are wearing shorts and sandals! It was 86 yesterday!!

  

 

Zahra has a picture of Lulu that she loves to carry around with her.  When Lulu was over the other day I was trying to explain to her that Lulu was here and she just kept thinking and going to go get the picture of Lulu and couldn’t quite get that they were the same person- it was really cute.

I was excited that Z could wear some outfits that she never got to wear in the summer!

 

Anil had one of these warm days off so we went to a pumpkin patch. As you can see Zahra had alot of fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zahra’s taking a potty break at a very appropriate spot ~LOL!

 

Zahra absolutely loves playing in the leaves

 

 

What a great ending to a perfect day!

Zahra and her animal sounds

Zahra’s new thing has been to make animal sounds- it is the cutest thing! We are working on ‘oink oink’ right now.  She is saying a few words…all done, baby, mom, dad, ball, dog…hmm what else?  She signs about 25+ signs right now her newest ones have been coat, socks & shoes.

We went to the Teddy bear park up in Stillwater, MN with Anne & Lulu. Very fun park and I loved the fake grass!

 

Well nothing new here just hanging in there and going for lots of walks. Have to take advantage of our last couple months of somewhat decent weather (hopefully we don’t have any Halloween snow storms!).

 

I want to give a shot out to my Grandma & Grandpa Williams we love you and miss you!!   

September is here, not sure how I feel about that

Our life has settled back down after a crazy last 6 weeks. Of course I couldn't have it too settled and decided to throw a little Labor Day BBQ. We had so much fun though; there were 15 adults & 14 kids that showed up! Anil grilled hamburgers & hotdogs and everyone brought a dish which was great and then left the leftovers so I didn't have to make supper either- SCORE!  I already posted pictures on facebook so I am not going to repost them....so Mom you will have to check those out.

 Vacuuming! Someday she is going to be a great help ;)

Opps there's abit of gas on this one-lol!

I sound very Minnesotan in this video..."Aren't Cha"..come on really Diana!

This week is that start of all our Fall activites which I am really looking forward too. We have Romp n Roll on Tuesday, playgroup every other Wed morning and I work every Wed evening, Thursdays Mothers of Preschoolers or if that doesn't meet we have another playgroup with some new little girls, Friday Side by side (bible study for medical wives). Off Friday~Monday. FUN TIMES!!

Onto our 2nd round of Clomid...I hope it works this Month!

Idaho!

Our trip to Idaho was alot of fun. Zahra and Blake had alot of fun playing together. We went to a park by Oma’s house a couple times and went to a water park. Unfortunately, Anil and I were busy every evening getting ‘wined and dined’ from the hospitals. However, we did eat some really good food and lots of wine :) The trip to Idaho didn’t make things anymore clear for us as far as the job goes~which we were hoping it would. The 2 hospitals there are so different and are so competitive with each other.

My doctors appointment went okay I guess. The FS was not thrilled with the results of the clomid (there was maybe 1 mature follicle) so we might try it again or go to a different drug. I have a blood test tomorrow to see if it made me ovulate.

So Anil started back up in the ICU, it is going to be a long fall and winter. He has ICU rotations until March :( He has already suggested that we spend a month in Idaho so we might be seeing you guys again soon ;)

 

Crawling no longer exists…she is all over the place 

 

                                                                                                                                                       I love her expression here.

 

                                              My little pirate.

   

Fun in the hot Idaho sun!

My plan….Gods plan

My plan: To have children very close in age so they can grow up together, play tons, and be very best friends. Well sometimes ‘my plans’ don’t turn out as expected which has been hard…

4 months after Zahra was born I was already thinking about a sibling for my beautiful little girl.  I figured I just have to be patient I am breastfeeding and sometimes that will delay getting pregnant again.  SO I waited and waited. When Z was 8 months we were having some biting issues while breast feeding so I thought maybe it’s time to be done. My secondary reason to stopping was that I thought okay maybe now I will get my cycle back and be able to get pregnant…I waited and waited. In May I finally made a Doctors appointment and learned that I have PCOS. The MD I was seeing had several different options for me to think about, progesterone, D&C, BCP’s. Well we choose BCP’s after a month of being on those I was over it. I just really wanted to be pregnant so why was I taking birth control pills~ plus they were giving me more migraines. I went in to see another MD (the one I saw before had graduated and was off doing a fellowship). So this guy walks in and right off the bat says “I’m sending you to the fertility clinic, you want a baby they can get you pregnant faster then I can”. I felt this was abit premature, don’t you usually have to try for a year before seeing at FS? Well we went to the fertility treatment and WOW was that overwhelming. One step at a time~ we just need to get me to ovulate. Right? A months later I am thru progesterone and clomid. I had my ultrasound yesterday and there were 25+ immature follicles in each ovary, which isn’t good. Today, I have my appointment with the FS and she will give me the verdict of how things are looking.

Another big decision we have to make soon is where we are going to live once this fellowship is over~only 10 months left! We really have no idea but am hoping that the jobs in Idaho will either be great or really suck…so then the decision will be easier and more clear. So far the jobs in the Twin Cities have been okay, nothing great.

Gods plan: TBA

One of my all time favorite verses:

Show me your ways, O LORD,
       teach me your paths;  guide me in your truth and teach me,
       for you are God my Savior,
       and my hope is in you all day long.

Psalm 25:4-5

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playing in her house.

                                                                                                                                                                       My Aunt Debbie made Zahra this beautiful quilt.

                                                                                                                                           

Right now Zahra is loving books. This morning she was looking at her books for over 30 mins just flipping thru pages.                        Zahra is walking more then crawling now!

Walk on! By: Marla Frazee

Is sitting there on your bottom getting boring?


Has lying around all the time become completely unacceptable?


Is it time to learn how to walk!


The first thing you've got to do is stand on your own two feet.


It sounds easier than it is.


You will need support. This is tricky because some things you think will support you won't.


Be careful of things that are wobbly. You don't want anything to fall on top of you.


Stay away from fragile stuff, too. You don't need something new to cry about.

Now. Get a grip. Pull yourself up. STAND.




Are your knees buckling? That's okay. Straighten up. See how different everything looks from up here.


Find you balance. It may take some time. Remember to breathe.

Feel the sway, but don't let it tip you over. When you think you've got it...let go!


Opps it is very common to fall down. Hey, its okay. Go ahead and cry if it helps. Feel better now?


You can try again, but first, run down the checklist:


are your socks bunching up?
are your shoes too tight or too loose?
is your diaper weighing you down?


Fix whatever you can before you start over.


Once you can stand up without holding onto anything, get ready to take that first step.
 Make sure the path ahead of you is clear.


You don't want any obstacles blocking your way or any rough patches tripping you up.


Block out all those voices saying:

Come on! It's easy! You can do it! Now! Dont' be scared! Go!


Only begin when you are ready.


IMPORTANT! Don't look down at your feet. Look toward where you want to go. Imagine yourself as already there.


Then...when the time is right for you...


Take the first step. And another. And another.


It gets easier, huh?

BABY, YOU ARE WALKING!


Beautiful.

 

So I would say Zahra is officially walking now. She has been doing steps now for a couple weeks but she is now doing a ton. So it is official! This book "Walk On" is one of our favorites...very cute!!

Zahra is one of the most fearless children I know (I'm not sure if that is a good thing). There is nothing that scares her. She doesn't really get stranger anxiety (she may act a little shy and put her face into her hand, peak out at you and smile) or separation anxiety. She wasn't phased by Simba the lion or a wolf at the Great Wolf in the Dells at story time. I really can't think of one thing that scares her! About a month ago I found her standing up on her xylophone holding onto her bouncer, now her new thing is standing up on her new little chair and car and letting go. She gives everyone around her a scare but she just smiles and I think she wonders what the fuss is all about. She even had her first little horse ride! Made me think of those days when I use to take my baby sisters, Keziah & Emily, on horse back rides when they were Zahra's age! Now my sisters live, sleep, and breathe horses. Scares me to death when I think about how I used to take them on long horseback rides in the middle of the country~WOW!

 I was very stoked Z got her first horsey ride. I miss my Belle! Hmm I wonder if we will ever be able to talk Anil into getting a horse...probably not.

 

 If you watch this 2nd video long enough you will see Shyra get bucked off the little pony~luckily the lady had a good hold of her. I'm sure if that happened to Z she would have freaked (well maybe!?)

Grrrr I can't get this 2nd video of Z riding the horse on~I'll try again later.

Zahra’s 1st Birthday Safari

Zahra’s 1st birthday party was a smash! I don’t think the day could have gone any better. I had my lovely family to help me with all the preparations~gosh I don’t know what I would have done without them. I even had time to put some makeup on and do my hair before the party started (usually that never happens when we have parties!).  Zahra had a nice nap right before the party and woke up just before the first person arrived.  There was 21 adults that came and 6 of Z’s best buddies.  The day was truly special for my big 1 year old~thanks everyone for coming and making it so great!

       

 

 

 

Fun,  fun, and more fun!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

Here’s a photo montage of ‘Simba the lion’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the lion thing went pretty well~considering the ages. We only had one little sad one (poor Owen) but he did get over it and gave Simba a high five! Shrya absolutely loved it, Zahra did too! The others were a little skeptical. Overall, I think Anil loved it the most :) And despite the pictures Anil was not trying to be scary…you should have heard his voice (lOl).

 

 

 

 

 Fun fun and more fun but this time outside!!

  

 

Presents & Cake

  

Zahra didn’t love her birthday cake but she did get a bit messy and even managed to throw some cake on Oma.

The best 6am surprise ever!!

So it was a normal Wednesday morning. Anil & I were sleeping comfortably. I was in dreamland and all of a sudden there was a doorbell going off in my dream. I came to a slight consciousness and asked Anil 'was that our doorbell or was it in my dream?" He rolls over and says it was our doorbell and goes back to sleep. I dozed back into a sleep and then heard it again~defiantly our doorbell. So I hurriedly got up and walked downstairs to see what the heck was going on. It was 6am who could possibly be at our door this time in the morning and who the heck was ringing the doorbell (I have a sign saying please don't ring doorbell). I see a little boy outside as I am walking down the stairs. What the heck~did someone abandon their kid? In the past couple weeks some strange things have happened to me where I have had to help some random strangers (at the Dells there was a little boy running in the parking lot crying looking for his dog~he was 5 and his stuffed animal got thrown from the balcony while his Mom was in the bathroom. She had no idea where he was. Then the other day at Mayo an older lady falls in the middle of the street right in front of me.) So I open the door and there is my nephew Blake sitting on the grass. I ran out there screaming “I knew it!” over and over again. My Mom, 3 Sisters, and Blake had driven straight thru to MN from ID for Zahra’s 1st birthday! What a wonderful surprise! A few weeks earlier my sister randomly asked me if anyone was going to stay with us the weekend of Z’s bday party. Right away I was suspicious but during the week of Z’s party after talking to my Mom and Jen I was convinced that they weren’t coming out. They were able to stay until Sunday morning. We had so much fun with our surprise visitors!

 

Unfortunately, we had to take Z into the emergency room the day the arrived for a couple hours. Everything turned out alright~it was very scary though. We still don’t know what happened to her. She was sitting in her highchair talking up a storm watching Blake eat~ she had finished 5 minutes earlier. When she went from very happy to hysterical within seconds. She couldn’t swallow so she was drooling all over, screaming in pain. Her mouth was making a strange sound. This went on for a few minutes and then I called her doctor and they told us to bring her into the ER.  At first I thought she was chocking on something but there was nothing we could see, she wasn’[t coughing and she was still breathing then her jaw was doing a funky thing so I thought maybe her jaw was locked. By the time we got to the ER and saw the MD she was back to normal. She was so good when they were examining her putting tongue blades down her throat, looking in her ears- not one tear from her. I guess compared to what she just went thru that was nothing. They said we could do a couple xrays to see if there is anything unusual but we opted not to since she was herself again. Very strange. Thank God everything was okay!

  Zahra and Blake had so much fun playing together!! As you can see in all these pictures:

 

~Z’s new thing is sharing her toys~

    

Bubble bath!

 

 

Taking some steps.

This week Zahra started taking some steps~ the most she took was 6 so she hasn’t took off running yet.

 

For Zahra's birthday we went to Oxbow Zoo for a picnic

  

Presents

Her favorite part was the cards!

 

                     instruments from Daddy                                                                                                                        stroller & puzzle from Mommy  

Fun car from the Montanez’s 

 

Playhouse from Oma, Papa, and Auntie Keziah & Em

   

My big 1 year old!!!!!