Let the Punishment Fit the Crime

So, I haven't blogged in, oh say, 3 and 1/2 weeks! Which means I've been busy and procrastinating. Probably more of procrastinating, but who's keeping track? The bad thing about not blogging for a long time is that there is so much to catch up on! And unfortunately, my camera is out of battery juice, so I have no new pictures to put on this blog. So that just adds to my punishment. Like my friend Katy, I hate to post a blog without pictures. There will be pics in the future, I promise. So, let the punishment fit the crime. I don't like blogging when there is so much to say, and when I can't upload pictures, and when my page has Easter images on it when the holiday has already passed. Have I learned my lesson?

For those who haven't heard, we had our ultrasound a few weeks ago and found out that we are having a girl! I am very excited, yet very scared at the same time! Plus we are having a very difficult time picking out names. But I'm sure we'll figure something out.

That's really been the biggest news around here lately, other than getting to know my new niece Izzy. She is so beautiful and such a sweet baby. I'm a very proud aunt! I wish I had new pictures to show you!! Well, I do have the pictures, I just can't upload them today. (And I promised myself no more procrastinating!!!)

What else? Hmmm....well we are ready for another year at the Race for the Cure. This Saturday my mom, dad, Scott, Levi, me and my friend Jenny will be walking in the 1 mile family walk. We've done this for the past 3 years, this year's race being our 4th race and this year marks the 5th anniversary of my mom's breast cancer. So after this year she will be considered a 5-year survivor!! Yay, mom! Every year they do a special parade for all the survivors at the race. It's a really neat experience, emotional, but very neat. So many emotions run through your head as you see all the women walking through the crowd. You see women younger than me and women who have been a survivor for more than 40 years. It's amazing. I'm looking forward to it again this year.

That's it for now. I'll be back soon with pictures...hopefully!

It's A Wonderful Life!!

So many awesome things have been happening and are about to happen! Life's just great!! My niece, Isabella Rose, was born on Wednesday, March 18th!!! We had a fun St. Patrick's Day on Tuesday, and in only 3 short days we'll have our ultrasound and know if this little kicking baby is a boy or a girl! I just can't handle all the excitement! PLUS, Levi and I are heading to Virginia in a week to visit my brother and his family. THEN, in May we are taking a trip to Gatlinburg WITH my new niece! Doesn't get much better than that!! :)

Here is my precious little niece, Izzy! Isn't she just beautiful?? She weighed 6lbs 14oz and I think
19.75" long. Mommy and baby are doing well, and we are just ecstatic that she's finally here!!



Here are the happy new parents! Brian (Scott's brother), my lovely sis-in-law, Nicole, and of course, the most precious one of all, Izzy! :)


Some of you will be pleased to hear that Levi's been feeding himself with a spoon, not all the time, but about once a day. He has been feeding himself for a while with just finger foods and anything that requires a spoon, I've been happy to feed to him. But, I realize my baby is growing up and I need to get over my messy food fear. He's been feeding himself yogurt and applesauce, and he's quite proud of himself too!


Something silly happened the other day when Levi was wearing these brown athletic pants. You know, the kind that make the "swishy" noise when you walk? Well, he's always had a problem keeping pants around his waist, but this particular day was especially hard for him because he's started walking. So going from his knees to walking caused his britches to go down below his diaper. It cracked me up!! I don't even know if he noticed!!



These are pics of us goofing around on St. Patrick's Day. I took a few self portraits of the two of us, but I didn't have make-up on and I looked terrible. Vain, I know.


Well, that's it for now! I'll share the good news of our ultrasound on Monday! :)

Pregnancy

I feel bad that I haven't really talked much about my pregnancy. Only because when I was pregnant with Levi, that was my world and it was always on my mind. Now, there are many times when I completely forget that I'm pregnant!!

I am 19 and half weeks along and I've been feeling lots of movement. I love feeling the baby move, especially at this stage because it's not painful and it doesn't keep me from sleeping! :) I'm always comparing this pregnancy to my first, but I tell myself not to try to come to any conclusions regarding this baby's gender in comparison to how my first pregnancy went. Every baby is different and every pregnancy is different, so I'm clueless! I'm very anxious though, to find out what we're having. Our ultrasound is on Monday, and I canNOT wait!! Everyone asks if I'm hoping for a girl, since I already have a boy, but it makes no difference to me. There are positives to both; if we have a boy, Levi and the new boy will be close and can play trucks and wrestle each other, but if we have a girl, it will be fun to buy girlie things and see what it's like raising a girl! I've always wanted a daughter. My mom and I are very, very close and the bond between a mother and daughter is like no other relationship in the world. I dream of having that with my own daughter. What's funny when people ask me if I want a girl since I already have a boy is that they assume we just want 2 kids. So many people today seem like 2 kids is the American way! I would love to have 4 kids, but we're taking it one at a time! ;)

Speaking of girls, my niece will be born any day now!! I'm absolutely THRILLED to be having a niece and I'm so happy for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law to be having a baby as well. What an amazing experience and I'm excited for them to experience the love and amazement of becoming a parent. Isabella Rose will be here on Thursday for sure if she doesn't come any sooner! Nicole, my sister-in-law, has been having pretty strong contractions for a while, but they just aren't close enough together to be admitted to the hospital. :( So, I'm just holding on for Thursday! Can't wait to meet you Izzy!!!

Such a Big Boy!

Levi is growing up before our eyes! He's doing so much that it's hard to keep up with!! Here is a list of Levi's achievements:

• He is walking! Yay! He's only walking about 30% of the time, but he has taken many steps by himself. So he has the confidence, it's just that he knows he can crawl faster than he can walk at this point. I'm guessing it's only a matter of weeks before crawling is extinct.
• He talks ALOT! He is always babbling and saying things in his own language.
  
• He says "eeewwww" when you ask him what a cow says.
• He says "bah, bah" when you ask him what a sheep says.
  
• He roars at anything that resembles a lion
• He says "guck" anytime he sees a duck, goose, or little chick.
• He makes a high-pitch noise whenever he sees a cat...not sure why!
  
• He says "nana" for banana.
• He says "e-i-e-i-e-i" when we sing "Old MacDonald".
  
• He sometimes will mimick what I say, but doesn't use the words again.
• He puts phones, mp3 earphones, and shoestrings up to his ears...not sure about the shoestrings, but it's cute!
  
• He LOVES books and brings them to you to read to him! It's usually the same 3 or 4 books (out of about 30) that are his favorites, mostly of animals.
  
• He loves to stand on his four wheeler and rocking horse, such a little daredevil.
• He loves to pull all the toilet paper off the roll. And sometimes wipes the floor with it.
  
• He knows where to put the puzzle pieces on his animal puzzle.
  
• He knows a great deal of signs, such as "more, please, eat, milk, drink, hat, dog, shoes, ball, baby, love, and all done". We are working on "hurt, sorry, socks, story, sleep, and bath".
  
• He gives hugs and kisses! They are awesome!!
• He's not a big eater, but he's a good eater. He's finally eating veggies and meat! :)

Levi continues to be the happy, laid-back, little guy that he is! He is such a joy to be around and I miss him if I'm away from him for more than an hour!!

My Megan

I've waited a long time to write this post as I wanted it to be special. I lost my precious Megan just a few days before Christmas. I say I "lost" her, but really we had to let her go. Megan Marie was my 13 year old Cocker Spaniel which I had adopted 6 and a half years ago. Well, actually my mom first adopted her and then I acquired her. She was a blessing from the Lord for sure. She was adopted in June of 2002 and I was moving to Dayton, Ohio by myself in September. She was my best friend and true companion! I don't know what I would have done without her! We took many walks in our apartment complex and she slept with me every night. I would have been so lonely without her. I never realized before then that dogs could do so much for a person. I remember how jealous she was when Scott moved in after we were married. It was quite funny! She sure had alot of energy and spunk. Unfortunately, it's been a few years since we had seen that side of her. Poor baby was just getting old!

Megan loved food. Period. It doesn't' matter what it was. It could be a piece of paper with mustard on it and she would eat it. Fruit was her favorite, banana's especially! You couldn't peel a banana with her in the same house or you would HAVE to share!! The begging was annoying sometimes, but very hard to resist indulging her. She was a great catch with popcorn too!

This may gross some people out, but she also gave the best doggie kisses!! She greeted human visitors with excitement and kisses, but she was not much of a fan of other animals. Megan was, well, she was a snob!! When we went for walks and pass other dogs who would want to sniff her, she would just stand there, perfectly still with her nose in the air waiting for them to finish. I got a kick out of it!

We "rescued" her from a Cocker Spaniel rescue and she was a former show dog. She had a really pretty prance too! Her previous owners divorced and neither one wanted her....couldn't' really understand it, but their loss was my gain!

Megan always had some sort of health issue. Because of their long ears, Cocker Spaniels are very likely to have ear problems and Megan was no exception. We were constantly taking her to the vet and cleaning out her ears. There were many nights I was up with her trying to calm her down as she was in a scratching frenzy. :( She scratched her ears a lot, so much they would bleed. She had cauliflower ear because of the moisture and lack of air. Eventually, one ear was so bad she had to have surgery. But thankfully, her ears got better and better over time, until she started to lose her hearing. The itching went away because her ear canals just closed up. Eventually she was completely deaf. She couldn't even hear me at my loudest!! My poor baby. She was such a good girl though, and responded well to hand gestures. At this point, though, she was getting really old.

Over time Megan developed Cataracts and Glaucoma and would then loose her eyesight. That's when things started to get really bad. We couldn't even let her out unattended. One day we found her out front barking at the neighbors door to be let in...thinking she was at our house! Scott found her strutting down the street once too! We realized then that she would have to go out back to do her business. It was just harder for her because the steps were high and her back legs were getting weak.

I knew the day would come where I would have to say good-bye, but I didn't want to think about that. She was my baby. Our vet and I wanted to make sure we were doing the right thing for her and I didn't want to put her to sleep just because she couldn't see or hear. It was alot of work to take care of her, but as long as she was still happy and loving life, I wanted her around. She still followed me around from room to room and wanted to be near me. One downfall of her health is that she didn't know how to tell me she needed to potty, so she took it upon herself to just pick a spot in the house. We had a terrible time with this problem and ended up resulting to putting diapers on her. It worked.

In her last few months, her health just went down rather quickly. I knew that it was time for her to have peace. She was such a fighter and needed to rest. The hardest part was calling the vet to make the appointment. I wanted to be there holding her when it happened and I wanted to make sure she knew how much I loved her. I believe she did. She knew she was my baby-girl.

Now that she's been gone, it's so nice to not have to worry about her anymore. Yes, it was a burden taking care of her, but that's not what I meant by "worry". It was nice to know she wasn't in pain or fighting for her life anymore. I know there is no "doggie heaven", but sometimes I hope that God will find room for her in His kingdom...can dogs praise God? The mountains and the rocks do...hmmm...anyway...it's just nice that I don't have to be sad wondering if she is in pain.

I don't know if I'll ever have another Cocker Spaniel. There is only one Megan in my heart and I'm not sure if there will ever be a dog like her! She was just wonderful to me.

My Megan
Christmas 2006
Megan and Buster just a few years ago

Going camping May 2006

Just hanging out at the apartment, sometime in 2003

She went everywhere with us! We're downtown watching fireworks!
"Mommy, do you have food? Yum!"
After her ear surgery in 2005
Stylin'!
My favorite picture! We had matching sweaters! :)

I Just Can't Help It!

So I have a new love, my mp3 player! I finally joined the rest of the techy-world and got my first mp3 player. I had no idea I would fall in love so quickly!! I have a very quirky taste in music and there is no radio station to satisfy my music thirst. I am constantly scanning between the 10 settings I have on my radio and usually settle for talk radio or the christian station. But thanks to my loving husband I now have all my favorite tunes at my fingertips! He got it for me for Christmas, but I just now took the time to turn it on and download some songs. I was surprised at how difficult it was for me and how many bumps I came across. I've had to call support twice, but I think I have it down now. ;)

I have always loved music, but I'm not the type that knows all the words to songs and I definitely don't know titles and artists. But I sure can feel a beat. I was a dancer for 8 years and it was a great way to release energy for me! If there is music on, with a good beat, I am dancing, singing, or tapping some sort of body part. I just can't help it! I LOVE singing in my car! But that requires knowledge of lyrics, therefore it has to be a song I know. I don't have a very diverse music library and it pretty much consists of pop and oldies.

I have no idea if Levi has my love for music and dancing, but he sure gets a kick out of watching me dance around the house. Anytime he hears a song on the TV he will start dancing, even when we are in another room. It's very typical in the mornings during breakfast for him to break out into dance when "My Friends Tigger & Pooh" begin to "Think, Think, Think" or "Ask Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why". Even other moments when there is a commercial with a song, he will stop playing and start dancing. It's amazing how he'll notice the music...I usually don't!

At bedtime, I sing him a few bedtime songs while rocking him. Sometimes he'll make humming noises along with me. Now granted it doesn't sound anything like the song, but it won't be long until he's singing along with me. It will be fun when we can play fun kid songs and sing and dance together! We'll have our own little dance party everyday!! Just another reason why I love my job! ;)

Levi is doing great, as always, and is almost walking on his own. He loves to walk and is scaling the perimeter of the house. He walks just about everywhere, but he has to be by the wall. One day soon, he'll realize he can just let go!

Long Time, No Blog

Hello friends and family! We are still here and still alive....at least we have a pulse! ;) Things have been pretty hectic around the McInerny home with planning a baby shower, the stomach bug, looking for a part-time job, all while being extremely fatigued and feeling totally nauseous. As most of you already know, we are expecting baby #2 in August. I am 14 weeks along today and hopefully will be coming out of this fog soon!

I have been trying to think of what I should blog about and I keep coming up blank! Everyone is well and Levi is doing great! He's almost walking, but not on his own yet. He is such a joy to be around all day!! Scott gave him another haircut and he did a great job! It was really difficult for him to do as Levi wouldn't sit still! But it turned out great!