Our Girl is 8 Months Old!

Happy 8 Month Birthday, Grace Calleigh! Our little girl arrived 8 months ago today. It's so hard to believe how fast the time has gone by. What an awesome 8 months it has been :-)

This afternoon Grace and I drove to Waco to spend some time with Nana and Pop-Pop. Tomorrow I'm going to a dear friend's baby shower, so we drove up today to give us more time with my parents. We had a wonderful time together, and Grace has been having a ball with her Nana and Pop-Pop.

Grace has reached a point now where we're starting to see her temper. She can get quite upset with us now when we don't do what she wants -- when we put her down when she wants to be held, when we take something away from her that she's playing with, or just when she feels her voice needs to be heard. As first-time parents, we're trying to figure out how best to deal with these little tantrums.

Tonight my Mom gave Grace two measuring spoons to play with. Grace was holding them, and my Mom took them from her to show her how to make noise by banging them together. Grace got SO mad that she turned red and threw a screaming fit! YIKES! Although I must admit, you want to laugh because even when she's being a pain, she's still cute as a button!

Still Not Quite Better...

Today Grace and I both had another bout with the stomach bug. UGH! I'm ready for this thing to get out of our house! Luckily, Martin still hasn't been afflicted, but poor Grace hasn't recovered. This morning she threw up again, and she's had diarrhea since Wednesday. We must be nearing the end!

I've been in touch with a lot of the parents from day care, and apparently most of the kids have gotten the bug AND their parents have had it too! We're not the only ones...this is a super contagious bug!

The Stomach Bug Claims 2 More Victims

First it was Grace with the nasty stomach bug, then Billy. Yesterday the bug attacked my Mom and me! I can now say from experience that this bug is truly awful. And if it was terrible for me as an adult, I can't imagine how traumatic it was for Grace!

I am finally starting to feel like a human being again...well, almost. The bug caught up with me late yesterday afternoon, and I had a pretty wretched night. In my optimistic "glass half full" mentality, I realize how lucky I am that the bug got me on the weekend and that I have another day to recover. I also have a wonderful husband who looked after Grace and me, his two sick girls!

Grace is still having a rough time. She still has diarrhea, and her appetite hasn't returned to normal. She has no interest in solid foods, which she normally gobbles up. She'll take small amounts of her bottle at a time and just wants to cuddle more than anything else.

Hopefully, all of us are on the road to recovery!!!

Cute as can be...

Even though Grace isn't feeling well, she still can pose in the most adorable way for a picture. I just can't stop taking pictures. I love capturing every moment of Grace's life. Hopefully, she'll thank me someday for that. Time will tell...

I am home with Grace today, trying my best to help her recuperate. She's still not well, so I'm smothering her with hugs and kisses and the best TLC I can provide!

I'm starting to feel a bit under the weather myself, but hopefully it's just exhaustion from taking care of Grace and not sleeping great the last few nights.

The Stomach Bug Strikes Again!

Today my wonderful Mom came to Austin to watch Grace for the day. Both Martin and I had full schedules at work and just couldn't be home with her. Thankfully, she hasn't vomited anymore, but she still has diarrhea and not much of an appetite. She seems worn out and slept much more than usual today. She's certainly not the cheerful girl she usually is! I hope she starts feeling like her happy self soon! I hate seeing her so miserable!

Unfortunately, the stomach bug has claimed its next victim -- poor Uncle Billy started throwing up today! We were hoping Grace would learn to share, but this isn't what we had in mind! Send good thoughts our way and let's keep our fingers crossed that the rest of us stay well :-)

The Stomach Bug Strikes

Wow...yesterday was quite a day. I was at a conference all day for work and gave a presentation that I've been preparing for the last month. It went well, and I was glad to get it over with. After work, I went to dinner with several folks who were in town for the conference and a few of my coworkers. I took Grace along, which went pretty well. I can tell that I'm quickly approaching the day where taking her to a restaurant will be more of a chore. She's still small enough to let me hold her and be content with just looking around. I'm enjoying these days while they last.

When I got home, I read an email that made my heart ache. It was from the mother of one of the little girls in Grace's class. She emailed to let us know that her daughter fell off of a changing table at day care that morning and was transported by ambulance to the children's hospital. She let us know that her daughter has a concussion, but miraculously no other injuries. When I read her email, I was overcome with emotions. It's hard to even put into words...I was so sad for the sweet little girl who fell and her family and terribly worried about them. Then I was livid that the parents weren't informed about the incident when we picked our kids up this evening. I actually talked with the director at 5:30 when I picked Grace up. How could she not mention this?

Martin wasn't home when I got the email. As soon as he got home, we talked it out and decided that we didn't want to send Grace back to day care for the rest of the week. I had several concerns last week about Grace's care, which I had addressed with the director. But this incident made us wary about sending Grace back until some of the deeper issues are addressed. We'll have to make arrangements for the rest of the week, but we'll figure it out.

In the midst of all this, Grace played happily on the floor, and we smothered her with hugs and kisses. That is, until the stomach bug made its presence known...

Out of nowhere, Grace started throwing up, which is something she's never done before. To be honest, Martin and I were stunned when it all began. She vomited numerous times throughout the night, until she literally had nothing left in her system. Then the dry heaves started. It was awful!

Being the overprotective first-time parents that we are, we wondered if we should take her to the ER. After all, we'd never seen her sick like this! Thank goodness, we have a dear friend who's a pediatrician. I called her, and she calmed me down, assuring me that this was probably the nasty stomach bug that's going around. Interestingly enough, I’d gotten an email earlier from another parent at the day care telling us that her son started throwing up on the way home. So Grace isn't the only one with this bug. It looks like Grace had her own plan for staying home from day care, regardless of what her Mommy and Daddy had planned.

Billy watched Grace until I got home around 1 PM today. He's always there for Grace when she needs her Uncle. Grace seems to be done with the vomiting, but now the diarrhea has started. Such fun! Say a prayer that our little girl feels better soon and also pray for her friend who fell at day care yesterday.

Grace's New Class

Today Grace moved up to the next class at day care. I must admit, I got a bit teary this morning! I can't believe how fast she's growing up. I wish the time would slow down. I want to savor every moment of Grace's childhood, and I don't want it to go by so fast! This is just the first of many "graduations" in Grace's life.

Grace's first three months at day care went really well. It was definitely an adjustment for all of us, and I really struggled during the first month. But Grace seemed to enjoy her new surroundings and being around other kids her age. She had two great teachers, who I absolutley love! We will miss them.

Grace's new classroom is much bigger, and there are lots of different toys for Grace to check out. I'm sure she'll dig that. Today I got to know the lead teacher, but I don't know the assistant teacher yet. Apparently, there's been some turnover, but hopefully a new teacher will come and bring consistency for the kids.

I am hoping that Grace's experience in this new class will be good and that she'll have more opportunities to perfect her sitting ability and work on crawling.

Happy New Year!

The Fogarty Family wishes you a Happy New Year! We're excited to see what's in store for us in 2008. Since 2007 was such a great year, we're anxious for what's to come.

We rocked in the new year at our house in the company of good friends. The crowd included the three of us, Billy, Christie, Manny, Jennifer, Alison, Adam, and Matt. There's nothing better than ringing in the new year with your nearest and dearest. It was an awesome night!

We counted down with everyone on the northeast at 11 PM our time. Grace was awake for the east coast new year, but she didn't make it until the Texas new year. She was such a good girl, totally soaking up the attention from everyone at the party. I can tell she's gonna grow up to be the life of the party :-)

Today was a quiet day. We just hung out at home and enjoyed the first day of the year. Tomorrow, it's back to work. Good night, all!