Headed to Lake Tahoe

First of all, Caroline did grow staph in her throat culture this time. After initially being pretty bummed, the doc said this was common in kids with CF and that it did not even need to be treated with antibiotics...(insert sigh of relief here!) At the same time, they think she does need to be on Pulmozyme-the mucas thinner. Even though she does not have visible symptoms, it IS still there and could cause more infections. We are looking into it and will figure it all out after our vacation.

Nana(my mom) has been here for the last couple days learning the ropes of the Toole household. Justin and I are leaving for a week on a trip to Lake Tahoe and leaving our little lady with the grandparents. Justin's mom and my dad are coming out for a bit too. I know she is in wonderful hands and I am not worried about leaving her at all. I do think it will feel REALLY strange not to have Caroline with me....I pretty much don't go anywhere without her since I am a stay at home mom. Justin and I don't have the chance for much alone time, since all of our family (and therefore trustworthy babysitters) live so far away, so I am really looking forward to our trip. We'll post when we get back.

Here are some cute snapshots Nana has already caught on her camera!
Eating first apple with Nana. She was such a big girl sitting on her diaper box and chomping away.

Playing in the laundry and seriously posing for Nana.

Welcoming Daddy home from work. I don't know if you can notice but there is a ravioli stain in the middle of tater's head!

Wearing her purse. Thanks Jen Mincel for her "new" blackberry=)

CF Care Center Update

Wednesday, Caroline and I headed to the CF care center. No surprises on her weight since we had just been to her 12 month check up. She is 19 lbs. 10 oz., and around the 20%tile. While not really concerned, they would like to make sure we are packing in the calories. New ideas include: "super milk" which is made with half-and-half, adding powered milk to foods, drinking pediasure, and adding whipping cream to scambled eggs. I think it will be a little easier when she can eat a larger variety of foods.

Her lungs still sound clear....wahoo. She has even avoided getting on Pulmozyme(mucas thinner meds) so far because it hasn't gotten thick yet. They did a throat culture and I will get those results early next week. We've been good on those too so far so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

The biggest news is that we are looking into getting Caroline her first VEST. Here is what it looks like. Claire describes how it works. Caroline would have the same machine with a smaller vest. In my opinion, it is basically a $20,000 air compressor. Thank heavens for insurance, especially military insurance. Remember, you can pause the music at the bottom of the blog to hear Claire better.

We are doing research and figuring out which companies offer small sizes. Apparently, they just recently started making them for little kiddos. We are so excited for a much needed break from the "manual" chest therapy we do twice a day. We'll keep you posted.

Pyro Heaven

We had a wonderful weekend...in fact, it was the first whole weekend we have all been together in over a month. So nice to just have some normalcy. On the 4th, we had a BBQ with several friends and neighbors and then had some more people come over the watch our very own fireworks display. Caroline enjoyed running around and playing in the dirt in her fireworks dress...she fully supported her father and again slept through all the madness, again.

Here is a taste of what our neighbor and Justin had to offer. Living outside the city limits in rural Missouri has its benefits after all! (Maybe now I can let all the wondering dogs that poo in our yard and pothole ridden roads slide a little.) Everything is legal here=) These were shot off in our yard.

The next morning pick up began. Justin screwed the launching tubes into the sawhorses, which actually worked really well. We are still picking up pieces of cardboard.

Justin's aftermath. Those of you who know Justin also know he is part narcoleptic and falls asleep anywhere and endures all forms of abuse without any acknowledgement. This is how he ended the night as I said goodbye to our friends.


Sunday we hung out as a family and then went to the 1st birthday of Caroline's friend, Glory. She insisted on helping unwrap presents and then playing with them. I think she forgot her birthday was a couple weeks ago. They had a little game where Justin won hot sauce and spicy seasoning (they are from Louisiana), so I'm pretty sure that is the best baby birthday party he will ever go to!

On a side note, I nursed Caroline for the last time yesterday evening. Justin says this gives new meaning to "Independence Day." I am glad to have more freedom, but I will definately miss snuggling with my little girl every night. Hopefully, she will start sitting still to listen to a bedtime story soon. Then Justin and I can share that special bonding time.

Splash Park

Our local park opened a mini splash zone...the kind where the water squirts up from the ground and falls from mushrooms and buckets. Caroline and I went with a friend to check it out today. The kids had a great time and so did we=) She liked this one particular water spout, but eventually decided to have a seat in the middle of everything to take a break.
Sam took a minute to play with Caroline. He kept stopping and letting the water shoot him in the bum like a bidet...so funny!
Tilt your heads again folks. Caroline was so excited she fell on her bum!

In other completed unrelated news, Caroline threw this bag over her head and started running around "pantsless" yesterday. I can't decide of she was going for the Burka look or the Bank Robber look!

12 Things I Love About You...

In honor of Caroline's 1st birthday, I thought I would share 12 tidbits about our little lady:

1)She actually plays with toys now and fetches a ball better than Tater..she brings it back! Her "Life is Good" Beach ball is probably her favorite toy.

2) Her hair still sticks out on the side and looks pretty wacky...she will yank any clip or bow out in seconds even it it means she loses some hair along the way. She is a crazy girl anyway, so I guess her hair suits her personality.

3) One of the cutest things Caroline does right now is run to the gate when she hears Justin come home. He gives her a kiss and then she chases him down the hall into the office where he changes. She does this EVERY day! So cute!

4) She can do sign language for "eat" and "more." She pulls on the frige handle when she wants something to drink...that might need some sort of locking device in the near future=) She is a bread thief and definately dumped lime juice all over the floor last week. It did smell nice in there afterwards though!

5) She has 5 teeth in and 2 breaking through right now. I bought her a little toothbrush, which she has already tried to use despite the fact that it is still in the package. She puts everything else in her mouth, so I figure teeth brushing could have a pretty high success rate!

6) She throws tantrams when I take something away and gets very upset when I stop her from chewing on the diaper genie...she'll thank me one day for that. She gets frustrated when she can't do a task independently.. I think I may have a strong willed woman on my hands.

7) Her favorite games are playing Hide N'Seek(she really finds us when we hide)and peek-a-boo. She hides behind the curtains, peeks out and giggles...adorable.

8) New accomplishments include: climbing stairs, opening drawers, running, trying to eat with a spoon, waving/saying "bye-bye", and waving hello(which actually looks different than waving goodbye).

9) She actually plays with toys now as opposed to just my pots and home decor. I love it when she puts her cell phone and piggy bank coins in her purse and pushes her shopping cart around..such a little lady=) If I model how to use a toy, she gets it pretty well now.

10) She is just under 20 pounds (19th %tile) and 30 2/4 inches long (in the 92 %tile), so she is still long and lean. Her favorite foods are sausage, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, and recently whole milk pudding was a big hit!

11) The girl still sleeps like a rock, so we don't worry about being quiet when we have friends over. Thank you Caroline.

12) She LOVES to hide my water bottle, shoes, keys and anything else she can find. Usually they are in one of the trashcans or laundry hampers. Just today I found my camera case/battery charger after several days of being lost. I was convinced it went out with the garbage on Thursday, but I happened upon it in a craft box in the closet today. What a stinker!

Caroline has got to be one of the happiest babies out there. She is just a joy and cracks me up every day now. She laughs, smiles and is generally just content with life and everything it has to offer. I don't think my baby is a "baby" anymore.
Here is a slide show of some of my favorite pictures/memories of Caroline's First Year!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Welcome to The Toolagio!

This was a very busy and very fun weekend. Saturday morning Justin ran in the Volgsloft(no idea how that is actually spelled). It is a 10K hosted by the Marines where you cross rugged terrain, mud pits, and even the river...twice. Caroline and I waited for them at the finish line. Everyone was covered in mud and soaked! He was on a team with a few friends. Here he is crossing the(very high)river at the end of the race. This is him crossing the finish line with our neighbors. After that we came home and finished getting ready for our 3rd annual Casino night. I made lots of appetizers, Justin picked up the keg and we set up the gambling tables. There was a retro theme so everyone came in costume...my favorite had to be the Cindi Lauper look-a-like. Justin dealt roulette and I dealt blackjack and some people played poker downstairs. We took breaks to play a few rounds of Bingo and gamble on a couple dog races we pulled up through the Internet on our Wii! I had no idea this was even possible...pretty cool! Everyone left with a prize. We had a WONDERFUL time and Caroline slept through ALL of the screaming and yelling=) What a trooper! I knew all those years of dealing with Justin's narcolepsy would pay off one day...our daughter obviously has his genes. This is Justin dealing roulette in his 80's Hair Band wig. Video of the dog races. I noticed there is one curse word amongst all the cheering so watch out for little listening ears in your house...apparently his dog didn't win.

On Father's Day, we were back down at the river for Justin's company picnic. He floated down and once again Caroline and I met him at the end. We grilled out and let the little lady play in the river a bit. She loved it! She kept wanting to walk on the uneven sand so she fell in the water a lot. We're such great parents...She's struggling, but Justin manages to hold his beer steady and I keep that camera rolling to get some good blog footage. Poor kid=) Seriously though, Justin is a wonderul father(and husband)and we were happy to spend the day having some fun together as a family! I love how she dances and splashes with delight once she finally gets stood up.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Caroline turned 1 today! As Justin says "she has just been a fraction up until now." I made some ladybug cupcakes for eating and a giant ladybug cake for Caroline to destroy...she didn't let me down=)

Starting to dig in!

Feeding Daddy the 1 that was sitting on top of her cake.


Getting her cake.


Realizing playing with your food is much better than actually eating it!


Headed to the bath...what a mess=)