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I figured it's time for a title page update since this blog has long not been just about the two of us. 

I wanted to create a post with the new and old picture for future use. Every year I print our blog into a hardcover book, kind of like a yearbook. The title picture is not something that's included so with out this post the old picture would be forever lost...or at least buried deep in iphoto.

2010 - 2012 Blog Title Picture

 It's kind of funny because technically this picture is already out of date. Three months moves quickly and the peanut has grown up so much since then!

Yummy! Yummy! In my Tummy! Not my Ears!

Remember that life lesson about 'if at first you don't succeed, try, try again'. We did not succeed on a few new foods for Miss Sloane.

When we first introduced peas she was not thrilled with them, same with avocado. I'm happy to say both of these foods have been conquered and she now enjoys them. On the other hand there is green beans and rice that she initially disliked... and continues to dislike. She spits it out everywhere! She made Daddy very frustrated this weekend.

Lastly there is eggplant. Eggplant is the opposite of everything! She loves the eggplant, goggles it down like it's nobody's business. Only problem...eggplant doesn't like Miss Sloane. The pictures below show the reaction on her precious little face. Nana and Papa were visiting and Nana was feeding her so when I walked back in the room I noticed immediately that something was a little off. Sloane shows no signs of the redness bothering her, she just smiles and keeps opening her mouth more. As obvious by the first picture, she saw my phone and started smiling.

 

 

Also this past week Sloane got her first ear infection. We thought maybe it was the antibiotics reacting since we had just started them right around the same time, but after talking with the doctor they felt it's an allergy or at the least an intolerance. Since the redness is slightly less each time we fed her eggplant they said we can take a break from it and try again in a month or so. I can't imagine a world with out Eggplant Rollitini's! Heaven forbid!

 

As for the ear infection, that's all clear up now. We noticed a runny nose and slight change in her behavior and figured it was just a common cold. The key that gave it away was her waking up screaming in the middle of the night and being soothed the minute we picked her up. I brought her into the doctor last Friday and we had thought the infection was in the right ear...nope...left ear. Show's why Chris and I aren't doctors! Any who....besides the runny nose, she's back to being a happy little lady who is a busy busy girl roaming the house and keeping us on our toes!

Friends = Family

When you find great friends you treat them like family. You know you've found great friends when they will travel 4 1/2 hours just to spend the weekend running errands, shopping and lounging in pajama's watching football. And at the end of it all, you had a great time!~

That's Steph and Josh Pacocha to us. We love them, their the best.  We laughed so much this weekend and I could take this post in a whole other direction with the content of our discussions but I'm not going to. I'm going to keep it simple.

Sam's Run for Chris and Josh's "Day Date" with Sloane...and each other....

Chris and I are super excited that Steph and Josh are expecting a mini Pacocha in July!! We can't wait to swap funny/horror stories of parenting with them. It's so damn cute too to see how excited Josh is for this baby, maybe even more than Steph! He spent the entire weekend playing with Sloane, feeding her, and carrying around our video monitor every minute she was asleep. Not kidding...it was practically attached to his hip....

Also attached to his hip was Miss Lola. She loves Josh, which of course made her Mom (me) jealous!

The Packer game was an epic fail but we had a load of yummy game food. Too much game food, I over did it a little. Made for great leftovers during the week though! Must. Go. To. Gym. Now!

Here's Steph with Miss Sloane on game day.

i LOVE the Steph and Josh. I wish every day that we lived closer so they wouldn't have to scrounged for toll money, Steph wouldn't have to freeze when Josh has the window rolled down 5 miles before the actual toll, or they wouldn't have to open the door to pay the toll because their windows froze shut during the ice storm. Yeah, living closer would be nice for a lot of wonderful reasons! Big thank you to them for riding our way and spending an exciting weekend doing nothing!

How Much Chuck? 8 Months

Oh the changes that have occurred in the last month. Miss Sloane started crawling a week or two after she turned 7 months. From there it only took a few days for her to start climbing up on stuff, starting with her toy dog from Aunt Sarah and Uncle Tim. Now it's everything, the entertainment center, the coffee table, the wall and anything she can get a hold of. I walked in one afternoon to get her up from her nap to find her already UP... literally... she was standing in her crib (12.31.12). I was so proud...until I saw that our little woodchucks newest past time was chewing on her crib. We got a chew bar to cover the rail, the crib is safe again. I can't say the same for every other piece of furniture in the house. The same day that stood in her crib she discovered the stairs and when I say discover them I mean she didn't even give them a second thought about what she was to do. I hand in front of the over, hike up the legs and away she went. She's not quite fast enough yet to warrant us buying another gate for the bottom of the stairs, but it's close. She is however fast enough to find her way from the family room to the dogs food dishes before we notice. It has become a very fun game for her and frustrating game for us.

How much chuck could a woodchuck chuck? Answer = A LOT!!

If you think this is trouble...

Try this one on for size!

Speaking of food, we've started some solid foods like cut up blueberries and banana. She uses both hands right now and eventually finds her mouth but we are still picking a fair share up for her. Her favorite sound right now to make with her mouth is a farting sounds. We chat back and forth seeing who can make the loudest and longest sound. I let her win sometimes ;) Something kind of fun she is doing right now is recognizing faces of relatives that we FaceTime with, namely Grandma and Nana. But she lights up when she sees them and reacts to what they are saying. It's weird to think she will never know lesser tool of technology than an iPad. We have books we read to her on there, games for her to play and it's her way of communicating with family that lives far away. Amazing.

Lastly, I am returning to work and Sloane to daycare. Today was our first day. It was a easy paperwork and training kind of day for me and the teachers at daycare said Sloane is an absolute sweetheart. She was not fussy, played well, ate well and even started to show some attachment to her new teachers. That was so great to hear, I feared going back to daycare at this point (more awareness of the world) that she would not do well or have built such an attachment to me during our time home together that she would become fearful of "strangers". So far though all has been well.

Hambone

8 months! Crazy! ....too soon to start planning her first birthday!??!

The Best Of 2012

It was a big year and a top ten just seemed pretty impossible to pick so instead it's a best of... Enjoy! We sure did!

Best of Pregnancy
I guess the saying is true, the third trimester is the most enjoyable. I say that because after picking my favorite preggo posts they were all from the third trimester. Or it was because all of trimester one and most of trimester two were in 2011...anyway....

30+ Weeks --> Preggo Belly in a nut shell
31+ Weeks --> A week from hell turned great!
The Nursery is Complete
36+ Weeks and Meal of Epic Proportions --> Best Meal Ever... Now I'm Hungry

Best of Sloane
Pretty much every post since Sloane was born is a 'best of' but I already made you read 4 posts about me being pregnant so I'll lay off the baby posts... or not...

Sloane Michaela Casey
Let Me Introduce You --> Sloane's Personal Ad
Things to Remember
Nursery is Complete

Best of Life and Change
January 2012 we were living in Appleton, I was working at BSI and had a little lady kicking around in my belly. By May we met our Miss Sloane, the tulips were popping and we were still trying to sell the house. Fast forward to December and we've lived in three different cities, sold a home, bought a home and I've taken a new job. A whole new world.

Life Lesson #1 --> I love our love of food!
As Good As Sold
Then Life Happened
Moving Day --> Tour of the new home!

That's All Folks!

Life Lesson #3

We made the decision to travel for the holidays and keep it local for New Years Eve and it doesn't get  more local than staying in the comfort of your own home. 

On the menu...

Grilled Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos 

These little babies were hot (burn your mouth) and hot (kept too many seeds in the jalapenos) hot!

Mussels in Tomato and Chorizo Sauce (topped with kale for the picture because it looks pretty)

We also grilled a T-Bone steak to share and it was perfectly delicious...but you don't need a picture of that...it looked like a delicious steak. The real fun was in trying out the jalapeno and mussel recipes. Here's Chris cleaning the mussels, right before he ran outside to a grill bursting with flames. Don't worry, we had it under control. 

Because they were so delicious, let's have another look...

This little monkey "helped" us make dinner and help is a loose term. Since starting to crawl she has been into everything. So between prepping, cooking and grilling we also spent a good amount of time keeping her from the dog food, away from the hot stove, and away from the stairs. 

2012 was certainly a year we won't forget any time soon. We hit every high with the birth of Sloane, every bit of uncertainty with selling our home in Appleton, two job changes, a move to Waukesha, purchasing a home, and a move to Plainfield. Along with all the good came the bad. We lost my mom's father (my Papa) and my dad's father (my grandpa), I continued to struggle with postpartum depression which gets better every day, and also learned the upsettings news of an inoperable tumor on the brain stem of our good friends young son. Having Sloane puts their whole story into another level of understanding for us.

In the new year we are going to welcome our newest niece Macy, I'll be heading back to work and as my brother put it, we'll be spending more time enjoying the gifts we've already received instead of working so hard for more. Here's to enjoying our little lady, our new home, less family losses and a fresh clean slate in 2013! Much love to all our friends and family!