thursday three.

this week has been fun, exhausting, long and happy all at the same time. my cousin, rachel is a 20 year old photography student at rochester institute of technology, and she chose to come visit us for her spring break! we were happy to have her. that was the fun, happy part. the exhausting, long part? our poor baby girl was diagnosed with rsv last friday (which included coughing until she threw up her oatmeal and prunes all over herself just as we pulled into the dr's parking lot... poor baby; and poor mama!). and she had a few pretty awful days before that. so, all in all she has been pretty sick for over a week now. fortunately, her rsv hasn't been a serious case--thank you jesus. it's just been a nasty, nasty cold that we will gladly bid adieu. we are ready to have our sweet, fun, cute baby girl back!

now that i have given you that intro... (drumroll please)... here is this week's thursday three.

nick

i cannot even begin to describe how thankful i am for this man. not only am i so blessed with him as my husband, he is such a wonderful father. i *love* watching him care for bella and so naturally fill this role over the past nine months. he is so gentle and loving as he cares for her, as he rocks her at night, and prays over her before bed. he is so patient as he disciplines her and tells her "no". and he is so playful and fun; this week bella squealed and shrieked as he gave her several rides around the living room and through the kitchen in the laundry basket (which does double as a pretty fun go-cart for little ones, i must say). this week nick&i had to juggle our schedules quite a bit so we could keep bella at home to get healthy and still try to work as much as we could. nick was in heaven to get off work early--or miss it altogether one day--and get to be at home with his baby girl. he played with her, rocked and watched "baby einstein" and "praisebaby", administered all the saline drops, steam baths and suctioning, and even cooked chicken enchiladas one night when i got asked to work late. while he said he had a whole new appreciation for moms, this was definitely his highlight of the week... and i'm sure it was bella's too :)

meg

as i said in the intro, my cousin rachel came to stay with us this week for her spring break. since i am ten years older than her, we haven't really gotten to spend a whole lot of time together as i've been out of state for college, graduate school and our life in dallas. even though we had to change our plans a bit because of a sick baby, we did manage to get out and have some fun. we took bella for a walk to the park and for fresh air one day, got mexican food from one of our fav restaurants, watched movies, got sprinkles cupcakes, went shopping at two of my favorite malls, walked around deep ellum (a funky, artsy area in dallas) and did a drive-through-downtown-dallas-tour. we had a lot of fun and it was a good distraction for me... it's not easy for me to watch my sweet bella feel so bad :( i missed her a lot this week... i think it was the most i've ever been away from her since the day she was born, since i usually get to bring her with me every afternoon to my babysitting jobs. this week i was so glad she got to have some special hang-out-time with daddy, but i missed her. alot. so it was nice for me to have rachel's comany and go do some fun things! it was a great visit and definitely the highlight of my week!

bel

getting extra time with daddy this week was definitely a highlight for our little girl, i just know it. she also squealed and kicked and laughed every time she saw rachel and would just stare at her. she loves people, our little social butterfly. and she loves having company in our home! which works out well, because we do too :) since we had to be extra careful bella wouldn't get dehydrated along with her rsv, her pediatrician told me to get her some pedialyte and add it to her bottle. since we don't give bella juice, this was like a little treat. it was orange flavored and she *loved* it. let's just say when i mixed up her bottle, it looked a little bit like a creamsicle. i was a little jealous... although i'm pretty sure it didn't taste like a creamsicle. anyway, bella grace managed to have a pretty good week even though she was feeling so crummy. i know i can safely say that us suctioning her nose with that blue-suction-bulb-they-give-you-in-the-hospital was definitely NOT the highlight of her week. but holy cow, i never knew you could get that much snot out of someone so tiny. phew.

hopefully next week's thursday three will be sick-free! we have high hopes. if not, you may find me wandering around the street barefoot. why, you ask? because i will probably lose my mind. happy almost-weekend, everyone!