Little Bean

The time has come for Baby Bean to graduate from being called Baby Bean to Little Bean. For my sweet little girl is becoming just that. She often tells me that she isn't a baby, and that she is a big girl. She can do so much by herself these days, and she wants to do so much more.

Here is a rundown of what my little girl has been up to lately, followed by a slideshow with pictures of all of these events. (Enjoy, mom and dad!)

My Little Bean absolutely loves going to the local theme park and riding all of the rides... well, most of them. She usually thinks she wants to ride them until we get to the front of the line, and then she wants to back out. Sometimes we take her on the ride anyway, just to show her there is nothing to be afraid of, but sometimes we let her back down because it just isn't worth the fight. She definitely has some favorite rides. Each night as I am leaving her room after putting her to bed, she gives me a run-down of all the rides she wants to go on, which includes the swinging ship, the tea cups, the bouncing boot, the cars, the rocket ships, and others. She also tells me that she wants to buy cotton candy and eat it on the train that goes around the park, because that is what we did the last time we went.

My husband plans to build a playground for Little Bean this year. We're not talking the kind where you pick up the playground kit and then the lumber, but one that he has custom-designed and has to special order the parts for. It will be a 3-level playground with tubes, a slide, climbing net, and more. But until he actually gets around to building it, I have been trying to give Little Bean things to play with outside. So a couple of months ago, I bought her a small playhouse. It would have been bigger, but Hubs got mad at me for getting one at all, since he intends to build the playground.

Another thing we did was enroll Little Bean in swim lessons at our gym. Every Saturday Hubs and I go work out and check Little Bean into the daycare until it is time for her swim lessons, then one or both of us take and watch her learn to enjoy swimming. We enrolled her about a month before we went to Cancun just so she could enjoy the pool at the resort, as well as being in the water with the dolphins. She has made some great strides over the past month+, and I can't wait until she wants to jump into the water with no help.

The day before we flew to Cancun, I took Little Bean to my nail salon where she and I got pedicures, and she got a manicure. I didn't used to be this high maintenance, but one of my best friends loves to get her nails done, and I finally relented to going with her last year. That is when I discovered the joy of mani/pedis, and there is no going back.

For Little Bean's birthday, both of her grandma's gave her princess dresses. One dress was given specifically for when we went to the annual renaissance festival in our area. Sadly, the dress didn't even make it to the front gate. She looked absolutely adorable in it, but said that, "the sparklies hurt" and she wanted to talk it off. We walked maybe 250 feet from the car before turning back to take it off and put her back in her regular clothes. It was such a bummer.

I have been wanting to get a large fish tank for some time now. We have a little 2-gallon tank that I bought for Little Bean's first birthday, along with a white and gold goldfish we named Gill. We still have Gill, and we still love him, but I wanted a bigger tank with lots of fish. The week before my surgery, I finally found a deal on a 10-gallon tank that I couldn't pass up. We got it set up a few days later and let it cycle until the day before my surgery when we bought three neon danios. Last Saturday I took her and we bought four tetras to add to the collection. We plan on adding some shrimp and an algae eater soon. Little Bean just LOVES the tank. She also loves to put things in it, like rocks, water from the bathroom sink, and anything she thinks she can sneak past me.

A few months after Little Bean was born, I painted her a big ceramic piggy bank, and have been putting all of my spare change in it since. Just shy of 3 years later, I decided it was full enough to empty out and open Little Bean a bank account. Last weekend, she and I sat on the family room floor and sorted out hundreds of coins. At just 3 years old, my baby girl has her own bank account.

Little Bean loves to be Mama's Big Helper more than anything. She is always trying to help me clean, cook, shop, anything that she thinks helps me so she can proudly say, "I'm your big helper, huh mama?" Yes baby, you are.

I hope you all enjoy the pictures below that go with the post above. My Little Bean really is growing up fast.

Lap 3 -- Woopie!

Yep, I did it again. I had another laparoscopy/hysteroscopy yesterday. That makes my third lap, and fifth surgery in that area (including the c-section). But this time, unlike last time, I feel really, really good about the results.

My last lap was almost exactly four months ago, and I was driven home from that surgery groggy and angry. Yesterday, however, I was driven home groggy and really happy.

The surgery was only supposed to be an hour and a half, but it lasted 3 hours. When I finally came to post-op, sitting on the chair next to me were images from my procedure, with handwritten notes from my doctor. It was such a lovely sight. My husband came over and explained all of the notes to me.

Dr H had found many little patches of endo, and zapped them all. He found more scar tissue behind the right ovary and removed it. He also found some pretty extensive scar tissue behind the left ovary and removed it. Both ovaries had a film around them, so he zapped them both with a laser and cleared the film away. The right fallopian tube was hooked back up behind the ovary, so it was not in a position in which it could catch eggs, so he put it back in the right place. He also did a test on my uterine wall that confirmed there is endo inside the uterine muscle. He said that he could not see the rupture repair from the outside, but that he could see the scar tissue from the inside (which explains why Dr D was so proud of himself).

I feel pretty good about the results from yesterday. I am looking forward to seeing the video Dr H took at my post-op appointment and discussing what our next steps will be. I am so happy that I decided to stick with this doctor and have him do the procedure. I feel like he was very thorough, and further confirmed his abilities and knowledge. I know for a fact I am in good hands this time.

Even better is I feel surprisingly well. I was up and around last night and felt very little discomfort. Even today I don't feel much discomfort. I'm a bit swollen... okay, I'm really swollen, but I don't hurt and I don't feel like crap. All around, I'm feeling pretty good about things.

Slide Show for the Fam

Aye Cancun

Remember in my last post how I said that my husband spoils me, and that I would give more details later? Well, that time has come. On May 5 (Cinco de Mayo [and also Sadie Dog's birthday]) we went to Cancun for a week!

We went last year and used our timeshare to visit this specific resort. We ended up liking it so much, we bought a timeshare for that resort as well. See what I mean by spoiled? But I digress. Because we know we are going back yearly, we know that when we go to Cancun, we can do absolutely nothing and feel good about it. We don't feel obligated to go see the sights, or do the touristy stuff, or anything at all. We can do those things if we decide we want to while we're there, but we don't have to because we'll be back, and we can do it next year, or the next, or the next.

This year for Hubs' birthday, I bought us all day passes to Xel Ha, which turned out to be great (google it). We absolutely loved it... except for the bit where we all got sunburned, even though we reapplied sunscreen. Luckily, the burns weren't bad at all and turned into great tans.

We also decided to go swimming with the dolphins again this year because Baby Bean loved it so much.

Meet Andromeda

But other than that, we did nothing. We swam or lounged in the pool a lot. I did a lot of shopping and bought some fantastic jewelry. My favorite pieces are two mystic topaz rings and a mystic topaz pendant. GORGEOUS! I got a little Christmas shopping in already as well.

We ate some fantastic food. My new favorite restaurant is called Baby Lobster. The food there was soooo good, and for $40 US, we got enough food to feed all of us for three nights. We also ate at Hard Rock and Jimmy Buffet's Maragritaville.

Our suite looked out over some ancient Mayan ruins. And when I say looked out on them, I mean they were spitting distance from our balcony (no, we didn't prove this), which was kind of cool, and kind of awkward when you wanted to look out your window and there were people there. This picture was taken from our balcony, without the zoom.

Since Photobucket doesn't want to work tonight, I will add in just a few other favorite photos from our trip, for you viewing pleasure. Once I can get the slideshow feature working, I will post up a bunch more.

"Oh my goodness I just LOVE Mexico!"

Anyone a Cars fan?

Everything I ever wanted.

Awww crap! Not again!

Can't go to Mexico and not wear a sombrero!

Just plain cute.

My girl and me

Do you know what is really fantastic? I have lost 10 lbs since we went last year, and Hubs has lost 25. Its kind of nice to see the pictures from then to now. We've been working on shedding a few, so its great to see that our hard work is paying off.

So you don't think a trip to Cancun entitles me to the "Spoiled" title? Well then grab your undies, cause guess where else we are going this year? We will also be visiting Disney Land/Magic Mountain/California area. Still not enough? Well then how about our trip that is already booked for our little family of three to hop the pond for an almost 2-week visit to merry old England?! That's right, three awesome trips in one year!!! We are all so excited. I guess Hubs is making up for the couple of years where we didn't take any vacations other than the ones where we hopped in the car and drove for hours to visit friends and family. Well, not really. We were always travelers before, which is why we bought the timeshares to begin with. Our plans are to take at least two away vacations and one staycation every year.

Yep, I'm spoiled. Baby Bean is spoiled too. Hubs loves his girls. And if his girls love you, you might just be invited to one of our vacations, as one of my best friends just found out. :)

Okay, enough bragging. It's past my bedtime. Night!