Sorry about my lack of a Christmas blog, most of us in the Hall household have been sick, sick, sick... 'tis the season I guess! Poor Payton got really sick last week, it was awful. She wasn't getting better on the antibiotics, and so I took her back to the doctor. Turns out, whatever she had was resistant to that particular antibiotic, so she still had an ear infection and was absolutely miserable. At that point she was also so congested that she was wheezing and breathing really fast. It was really scary, I hated seeing her like that! We ended up taking her to urgent care the next night (her doctor's office was too hard to get a hold of because everyone was at a Christmas party, go figure) and they gave her a nebulizer treatment and some albuterol and she has been MUCH better. She's practically a new baby! However, once she started to get better I started to get sick... I actually had to call in sick to work on Monday, which I have never done in my working career. Still not better unfortunately, but managing to make it through the day. But enough about that stuff, let's talk Christmas!

I headed up to Gig Harbor with Payton Christmas Eve morning, and we got there bright and early. Kyle came up as soon as he got off work. We always do Christmas Eve with the Book family, and we were so thankful that we could all be together this year. Grandma has done great since her surgery! Two weeks after brain surgery and she's walking and talking like you'd never know it. She is one amazing lady :) It was fun to watch Payton open gifts, she's funny because she would rip off one piece of wrapping paper and then play with that one piece. We would try to encourage her to open the rest, but only one piece at a time please! She ended up getting a little overwhelmed with everything, she got a LOT of gifts last weekend. Not that we're complaining :) She eventually went to bed, and we continued Christmas Eve downstairs. It was a great holiday as always!

My new stocking (thanks GiGi!) with my mommy and daddy's

Hanging with mommy!

I was VERY interested in the dogs this weekend. My mom and grandma are trying to teach me the word "gentle" because I like to swat at them.

Getting lots of love from Auntie Chelsea!

Opening my Christmas gifts

A holiday tradition... Christmas pajamas from Grandma! Payton got Christmas jammies from her OWN grandma this year... the tradition continues!

The next morning everyone got up with the baby, we were all excited to experience her first Christmas morning with her. We opened our stockings, and then exchanged gifts by the tree. All of the excitement tired her out pretty quick; she was only able to stay awake about two hours in between naps! We had a relaxing day lounging around the house, then headed to my Aunt Tawnya and Uncle David's for dinner and Christmas with the Casebolts. By that point Payton was a pro at this gift thing! Her cousin McKenna helped unwrap all her gifts.

Opening my stocking Christmas morning with my daddy!

The "kids"...

This is fun guys!

I got a BIG present!

It's MINE! lol :)

My mom and dad got this neat gift that will let them take me on hikes and stuff!

Giggling with Grandpa Scott

Hall family :)

My adorable outfit on Christmas day!

Playing with my new kitchen

Kyle headed back to Portland Christmas night because he had to work the next day, but Payton and I stayed at my parent's house through Sunday. It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but then again it always seems like holidays fly by way too fast. It was also great being able to spend so much time with my sister; I don't get to see her nearly enough! But before I knew it, it was time to head back to the real world... thank you to everyone who made such a memorable and fun first Christmas for Payton!

A lot of exciting changes have been happening around here, including a really big one... Kyle and I have decided to move. I got offered a job at Albany General Hospital, and I decided to accept it last week. It will be a big change for us, but a very positive one I think. Kyle and I have been wanting to move to a smaller town with less traffic and congestion ever since we had Payton, and we will definitely get that in Albany. So, my last day at Providence is January 11th, and I start at Samaritan on January 17th! It was a hard decision to make, I love my co-workers a lot and it's going to be very hard to leave them. Kyle and I aren't sad to get out of Portland though, and we know we will have more time together and support in Albany. I'll discuss our move in much more detail in a later post!

In other exciting news, Payton is finally starting to really crawl a little bit, exactly one month after she started to army crawl. She will only do it a little bit so far though, and then drop to her stomach and scoot along. At this point, it's much faster for her :) I even got it on video!



We're taking off in just a little bit for Sunriver to spend New Year's with both sides of the family, which is awesome. I can't wait! Just waiting for Payton to wake up from her nap, and then we'll get going. I can't believe tomorrow is already 2011, it seems unreal. As usual though, it's shaping up to be a very exciting year for the Hall family! :)

Happy New Year everyone, I'll blog again soon!

First Christmas

It has been very busy around the Hall household, getting ready for Payton's first Christmas. Kyle has been working almost every day, I think he's going to be glad once the craziness of Christmas shopping dies down a little bit. It's a catch 22 though, because we're glad he's working so much. This post is going to include a lot of video, hope everyone is ok with that :) We finally got our tree up, and we had Payton help us put her first ornament on the tree before she went to bed. She loves to stare at it!

What is this you guys??

I think I like it!

Hmmm... I want to explore...

Mom and Dad's greatest gift :)

The finished product!



On Friday Payton and I headed down to Albany for the Hall family Christmas, Kyle came separately once he got off work. We did our Christmas exchange that night, and Payton opened her first Christmas presents. She was funny, she looked pretty bewildered that so much attention was on her, and there was so much for her to look at. She liked ripping the paper, but not as much as the bows; she went straight for those! She got lots and lots of presents, and we still have another Christmas next weekend at my parents :) After that it was her bedtime, so we put her to bed and continued our Christmas in the family room. It was a fun night!

We all just hung around the house on Saturday, and that night at dinner Payton finally said the word that was magic to my ears... MAMA! I was so excited I cried, kind of silly but I feel like I've been waiting to hear it forever. Bryan got video of it, but for some reason it's not uploading so I will try again tomorrow. Payton now says mama, dada, baba. She's eating more and more table foods, tonight she had peas and carrots, and she's also tried little bites of mom's grilled cheese and even a cinnamon roll. She likes to munch on cheerios and graham crackers, and we put just a smidge of juice in her sippy cup this weekend and she loved it. Her teacher Sherry told me that they offered her some peaches the other day, and she ate those up too.

Payton got sent home from Wee Care again on Thursday with a fever. She had a little bit of one the night before, but she seemed fine so I thought it may be teething. When they called to tell me about it, it was about 100 so they were just monitoring it. They called back and said she had to go home because it was 102, and by the time Kyle got there it was almost 104. So I called her doctor's office and they got us right in, one of the reasons I love them! She has her first ear infection :( That's actually pretty amazing, considering she's almost 10 months old! She's on some antibiotics and eardrops, and has had a rough couple nights (which means that Kyle and I have also had a rough couple nights) but hopefully it will get better soon! She's also had a cough, which I think is what is actually bothering her the most because it wakes her up at night. 'Tis the season unfortunately!

So my great plans for our first family Christmas card unfortunately have not happened yet. I wanted to get one of us at the Christmas tree farm, and then when that couldn't happen I just wanted one in front of the tree, but we haven't had very much time together so... I hope everyone loves the idea of a New Year's card! :)

Payton giving a high five!

Payton and I are headed up to my parent's on Christmas Eve, once again Kyle will join us once he's off work. I can't wait, it's going to be fun! We're going to be there the whole weekend, visiting lots of family. I hope everyone has a great Christmas surrounded by their loved ones :)

Get well soon Grandma!

It's amazing how busy this time of year gets, time is just flying by. Christmas is in 11 days?!?!

Our family spent the weekend in Washington visiting my grandmother. She had brain surgery on Thursday to remove a large tumor, and thankfully she has been doing well. To one of the sweetest, kindest, funniest, most generous people I have ever met -- get well soon Grandma! We are all thinking of you and praying for you, and we can't wait to see you for Christmas. Thank you for everyone's thoughts and prayers, it means a lot to us!

Payton is doing great, she's getting so big. We taught her to high five, which is so cute! She loves any toys that she can shake and make noise, and she also loves to try and crawl towards cords, laptops, cell phones, outlets... she's keeping us busy! I think she understands the word "no", although she doesn't really heed it. When I say it to her she stops what she's doing and looks at me, then gets this little smile on her face and goes right back to what she was doing. She's been getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth, so "traditional" crawling may be around the corner... although Payton hasn't really done anything the traditional way! :) Diaper changes and getting dressed are becoming a big challenge, she just does not want to sit still long enough and immediately flips over when she's placed on her back. She is officially a Dragonfly today, no longer a Ladybug. I'm excited for her to join a class with older babies, I think she'll enjoy their activities more. She loves group time, when they read a book or sing songs with everyone. They also do lots of art projects and stuff, so I think she'll have a great time. We had her LAST dermatology appointment yesterday at OHSU. Yay! He lowered her dose, which we're going to continue for one month. After that we will only give it to her once a day for two weeks, then every other day for two weeks... and then stop! So only two more months of propranolol, which is a weird thought. He said we don't really need to come back to see him unless we notice any bulging around her eye or a lot of regrowth. He also mentioned that if the superficial part of the hemangioma persists we could potentially have it lasered off, but the earliest he would do that would be 2 years old. I don't anticipate us doing anything like that, but we'll see how it looks before she starts school and make a decision then. Hopefully it continues to just go away! We are so thankful that this medication exists (and the fact that it's really cheap didn't hurt either). It's amazing the difference it's made, but we are also thankful that it will soon be over!

Kyle is going to get us a Christmas tree after work today, life got too busy and we didn't make it to a tree farm like I had planned. Oh well, there's always next year :) I'll definitely post pics of our lights, tree and house decorations when I find my camera... it might have gone missing, which is funny because it's usually attached to my right hand. Don't worry though, it can't be too far away! As soon as I find it I will post lots of pictures. We have a little fake tree downstairs as a decoration, and Payton loves looking at it, she breaks into a big smile when she sees it; I think she will be really wowed by a big tree!

This weekend we're doing Christmas at the Hall household, which will be fun. I'm excited to watch Payton tear some wrapping paper! I think she will probably enjoy that just as much as the actual gift. She looooooooooves paper. It tears, it crinkles, it bends, it rips... what's not to love?!

Today is Kyle's birthday! He is 26, which he says sounds so much older than 25 :) When I met him he was just 20, which is funny to think. Happy birthday hubby!

Pictures

I have THREE new teeth coming in -- one more on the bottom, and two on the top!

Standing all by myself!

I'm gonna come get you mom!

I was looking through some older pictures the other day, and I was amazed at how much she has grown just by looking at her in her car seat! This is 6 months...

...and nine months! She's almost at the height requirement for her carseat, so she'll probably be getting a big girl one around the time she turns a year old.

Was she really ever this little?!

Grandma we are thinking of you all the time and are praying for a smooth recovery. I love you so much; you are the toughest woman I know!

Growing girl!

I took Payton to her 9 month well check at the pediatrician today, and it went great! She's a big girl. She weighed 22 pounds even (about the 94th percentile), and is 29 inches long (about the 96th percentile!) The nurse measured her length twice because she thought there was no way she'd grown that much! They said she's about the size of an average one-year-old. She's grown four inches and gained four pounds in about three months. Her head circumference was 19 inches, which was off the charts for girls, in almost the 100th percentile. No wonder it's getting harder to carry her around :) Her doctor was really impressed with what the propranolol has done, and said she's right on track developmentally. She got just one shot, the last of her hep B series. She didn't cry, but she did give the nurse a really big pout and a glare!

I went to my appointment in this new outfit my daddy got me!

Crawling... army style!

I hope everyone had a great holiday, Payton's first Thanksgiving was really fun. We awoke early Thursday morning and drove down to Albany, thankfully no traffic. Eventually we made it over to Grandma Joy's house, which is where we were eating our turkey lunch. It was delicious! After taking a nap, we were all excited to give Payton her first real food; mashed potatoes. I thought for sure they would be a hit, especially with a little gravy. Little did we know we were WRONG! She wouldn't eat them! I was really surprised, she usually eats pretty much anything I give her... I think it might have been a texture thing. We even mashed up some sweet potatoes, but that was a no as well. She kept looking at us like we were trying to torture her!

This looks like a smile, but I'm wincing in disgust!

Ewwwwww

Why are you feeding this to me???

We gave her some baby food after that, and she loved it! She's funny, hopefully starting chunkier foods won't be too much of a challenge.

This is what mommy is thankful for :)

Hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Uncle Tanner's baseball hat!

Little lovey

It was hard to leave Payton behind Thursday night, but I survived. She took off for Lincoln City with everyone else, and Kyle and I headed back up to Portland to work the next day. Kyle worked about 12 hours on Friday, and after he got off work we headed to the coast for the weekend. Kyle's family rented a huge house, and we all crammed in. There were 17 of us! The only drawback was the noise, because the house was not well insulated at all, and it was VERY noisy all the time. Unfortunately Payton slept really bad because of this, but I tried the best I could to make it ok for her. I think she's teething again also, which definitely didn't help. We watched football, went shopping at the outlet mall, played games, and a few brave souls even took a trip to the beach. A fun weekend!

While I was visiting Payton at Wee Care yesterday she started to army crawl and scoot forward! I can't begin to tell you how proud I was, it is amazing to watch her. She even got up on all fours for a split second, and was even better at it today. She is standing really good on her own holding onto something, she is very sturdy. Her first tooth finally popped through about a week and a half ago, and she's already hard at work on the second one. I can see it under her gums, right next to her first. I swear she grows more hair every night, and if I don't brush it right after her bath it gets really curly. Cheryl said that Payton will probably move up to the Dragonfly room in the next couple weeks, especially now that she's getting mobile. My little baby is growing up!

I took this today at Wee Care...

She did it for her daddy tonight too!

Thursday is Payton's 9 month check up with her pediatrician, and I'm anxious to see how much she weighs and how tall she is. I feel like she's grown so much since we were last there in early September! I will let you know all the details on Thursday.

This weekend will be dedicated to making this house look like Christmas. I'm so excited December is here! We're planning on visiting a Christmas tree farm in Hillsboro on Sunday, it's been years since I've had a fresh cut tree. I prefer the fake kind to be honest, but it will be a fun outing with Payton and something she can look forward to every year. I can't wait to see her face staring at all the lights and shiny decorations!

Happy (almost) Turkey Day!

Yesterday Sue, Lindsey and Bryan came up to visit. Kyle was working, so Uncle Bryan watched Payton while the girls went to David's Bridal to pick out my bridesmaid dress for Lindsey's wedding, which is just around the corner in March. It was very productive, I found one that we all liked and it is on it's way! Afterwards we all got our rings cleaned at Shane Co. (gotta love when they sparkle!) and by then Kyle was home so we ate some dinner and watched the Beaver game. I know, normally we wouldn't but Lindsey is a beaver fan (and Sue works at Oregon State)... as long as they are not playing Oregon, I will root for any local team! :)

Uncle Bryan feeding me dinner!

Daddy trying to spike my hair... it's grown a lot!

After I took this picture this morning, I realized how many cords I need to move and get off the ground... sure enough, right after I realized it she lunged for them! I'm working on it!

Today was a very relaxing day. Just hanging out around the house getting stuff done, and we topped it off with dinner at Red Robin. Payton was really funny, there was another family across the restaurant with two little boys and she stared at them almost the whole time! She was cracking us up. One of the boys was staring back, but Kyle kept telling Payton that he was too old for her :) She kept reaching for our food, luckily I brought along some cheerios for her to munch on and that kept her pretty occupied.

It's amazing how much Payton is growing. I know I say that all the time, but it seems like at this age their development just explodes. She can now wave hello, turn the page of a book, and even imitate you. If you stick your tongue out at her and blow raspberries, she will blow some right back. It's super cute :) She's also getting to the age where she throws a little fit if you take something away from her that she wants. She gets over it really quick, but lets out quite a scream! She is rolling EVERYWHERE, Kyle and I will set her down on the floor and look at her a minute later and be like "how did you get over there?!" She is also able to use her hands to propel herself in a circle while on her stomach, and looks like she really wants to crawl. Her legs just haven't gotten the message yet! She won't get up on all fours, and whenever we try and put her in that position her legs go rigor mortis and she won't stay on her knees. I know I need to be patient, I'm sure it will come when she's ready :) I can't believe she's already nine months old in just a couple days. In just three short months we'll be putting together the last minute details for her first birthday party. Weird!

Thanksgiving is almost here! Thursday is actually my day off this week, so it's just a normal work week for me. Kyle has this week off from school though, which is nice. We're going to be heading down to Albany early Thursday morning, the plan is to eat early around noon. The Halls and the Hays have rented a house at Lincoln City on the coast for the weekend, so they're all going to leave after we eat and Kyle and I will join them Friday night after we get off work. Kyle has to be at work at 4:30 am, bright and early for all those Black Friday shoppers :) We decided to let Payton go with the family and we'll come back to Portland alone. If she came back with us she would just spend the day in Wee Care, and if she goes to Lincoln City she will get spoiled rotten by about a dozen people who are dying to play with her. A no brainer!

There was a light dusting of snow when I woke up this morning, which makes me nervous for tomorrow. It's funny how your perception of snow changes over the years. 10 years ago I would have been ecstatic, hoping that it got me out of school. Now I just groan and dread having to drive to work in it :) It was super cold today, so I think at the very least it will be icy. Thank goodness I have all wheel drive in the mom-mobile!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Especially the Books and the Casebolts, we will be thinking about you and are sending love your way. Hope you all have a great weekend, and good luck to all you brave Black Friday shoppers! :)

Eye doctor update

Hello all! Hopefully this weather doesn't find you in the dark, the power went out on us last night! It's been very windy, rainy and stormy here, and they are even saying there is a possibility of snow next week. I really hope not, because that equals the worst traffic ever!

I took Payton to her follow-up eye appointment today at OHSU. The doctor said that her vision looks equal in both eyes, which is good. They decided not to dilate her eyes today because he was hesitant to do any intervention with glasses before she was a year old anyway. So we're going back in 3 months; they will dilate her eyes and if it hasn't improved then he will prescribe her glasses. He said that sometimes they see kids 3-6 months later and it seems like they have a pair of brand new eyes, so I'm glad they're giving her eyes a little bit longer to mature. Plus, my vision insurance doesn't kick in until January, so that works for me :) Hopefully the astigmatism will be totally gone too, since her hemangioma is so much smaller. All in all, a very hopeful appointment!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Date night

Kyle and I have decided we need to do date night more often! It was much needed, especially now that school and work are in full swing. We usually only get to see eachother for about 15 minutes in the morning when we're getting Payton ready for Wee Care, and maybe an hour or two before we go to bed, and that's if Kyle doesn't have class. We're not really relaxing during that time either, we quickly eat dinner, clean bottles, make bottles for the next day, throw in a load of laundry, Kyle does homework... basically we get ready to wake up and do it all over again. We know that it won't be like that forever, but it's been super busy and we just haven't been able to take the time with eachother. So, our wonderful mothers came down on Friday so that we could go out to dinner and a show! We left after Kyle got home from work. First stop: Olive Garden, which was delicious. I always think Italian food is good though. After we stuffed ourselves, we hopped on a MAX train to head downtown. We were seeing Lisa Lampanelli, who is an insult comic, and totally hilarious. You've probably seen her if you watch any of the celebrity roasts on Comedy Central. We were a couple hours early though, so we got some coffee and wandered around to Pioneer Square downtown. They are already setting up their big Christmas tree! It was a perfect night, it was cold but it wasn't raining so I wasn't complaining. We sat on a bench and just people watched, and talked and talked and talked. Eventually we got up to go to the show, which was just up the street. It was so funny! We were super tired by the time it got over though, when we got home we went straight to bed. Our moms let us sleep in the next day, which was also a rare luxury, and had even done our laundry and vacuuming and stuff. Thank you SO much to my mom and mom-in-law, you guys are the best!

Before the show!

Portlad! :)

On Saturday Kyle relaxed at home with Payton while the girls went shopping. It was a very successfull shopping trip, we went to Target, Payless shoes and Kohls. We made it home just in time for the Duck game! It was definitely a very nerve wracking game to watch. It wasn't pretty, but a win is a win!

Go Ducks!

Grandma Sue got me a new toy!

I like to practice my standing with it too

I'm doing a good job! :)

I had Payton's student teacher conference on Thursday, which went well. Cheryl said she's doing great, and is within normal limits for all her skills. She said probably the biggest area she needs to work on is what they call "problem solving", which just means that instead of us handing her toys and stuff to do, we need to work on letting her figure out how to get them herself. So I've been working with Payton a lot by setting her on the floor with some toys out of her reach, and not helping her. She gets a little frustrated at first, but then really concentrates and figures it out!

Official Wee Care picture

Payton wasn't feeling very good again this weekend. She had a low grade fever on and off for a couple days, and was very mellow, not a lot of energy. This weekend was the first time I've EVER seen her not finish a bottle; she drank a couple ounces and then would not drink anymore, closed her eyes and went to sleep on my mom's lap (which is also VERY unlike her). She was not interested in solid food either, but still wanted to try and eat Cheerios. She's been great this morning so far, so I think she's feeling much better!

Her tooth hasn't quite popped through yet, but you can definitely see it!

Today we are off to Costco to get new tires for the Prizm. I've had the current set of tires for almost 7 years, so they are definitely due to be replaced, especially with winter here. They lasted me through most of high school, 2 years in snowy Klamath Falls and 3.5 years in Portland, so it will be with a fond and grateful farewill that we say goodbye. LOL :)

Payton has an appointment with her eye doctor on Thursday, and I'm really anxious to see what he thinks and if he's going to recommend glasses. We recently had open enrollment for our insurance at work, and I enrolled Payton in vision insurance, just in case. We will just have to see what he says!

Oh yeah! It's that time of the month again... no, not that one :) Comparison time, 5 months later!

The one on the back of her head...

... barely noticeable now, especially through all the hair she's grown!

About two months old, you can really see the bulge under the skin in this picture...

... now we don't even notice it!

I thought this was kind of fun too, my mom showed me this picture taken of me at about one year...

... do you see the resemblance?? :)