Little Angel Sleeping

Andy is still a baldy. He never got his winter feathers. However, I can't tell him this and he gets absolutely furious when I cover his cue-ball head with a hat. He just rips it off when I'm not looking and then I'm out a hat and the cost of a hat. So I was thrilled when I found these hats that Velcro on near the bottom of his chin. For all his trying he can't get them off. In this picture he has given up trying to take off his hat and succumbed to a nap. Isn't he gorgeous when he sleeps? Well... I think he's gorgeous all the time.

Andy The Artist

Move over Andy Warhol.... Andy Tingey is in town! This was his first attempt ever at creating a masterpiece and I think he did excellent!

Baby's First Christmas

Andy had his first Christmas!!! Andy got SO many presents. Half of the presents he hasn't opened because he is going to open them with his other grandparents. The kid is loved, let me say that. Matthew read scriptures with Andy about the birth of Jesus before opening presents. Andy got really good at unwrapping presents and spent about 15 minutes unwrapping a particular present that was large and he could crawl on. His favorite gifts were his fire truck that he can ride around on, a very noisy piano (actually he got two!) and his tickle me elmo which he is finally warming up to. Elmo is a very scary guy at first, you should only watch him from the saftey of your mother's lap! Christmas was a very happy day for us and Matthew and I hope to keep the perspective each year about what Christmas is truly about. We are so blessed to have each other and our son for such an incredible day in the year.

First Tooth

Mr. Andrew has thrush AND is cutting his first tooth! Poor little guy! He is feeling pretty miserable lately. Sleeping is not one of his favorite things to do because the minute he wakes up he remembers he's in pain and wants his mommy. The funny thing is I have been watching his bottom gums like a hawk, waiting, waiting, waiting for the first tooth to sprout through and then the other day as I was hugging and kissing him I saw on his top gum a tooth poking through! His first tooth is a toppy! I think I should rename him Andrew 2% Tingey because if there is a 2% chance things could happen a certain way he'll fall into that catergory!

Play Us A Song, You're The Piano Man

This was Andy's favorite gift that Santa Clause left him. He banged on it for hours and is still banging on it as I bang away at the computer keyboard. He may want to be a musician like his grandma!

Oh, Christmas Tree! Oh, Christmas Tree!

I love this tree! I named her Violet.... get it? We already had a pretty good tree but I was walking trough Wal-mart and I saw this purple tree for 20 bucks! PURPLE!!!! I'm a purple freak. Then I added more purple to it and some cool colors and volia! I'm sad that it's time to take it down now. It's made me happy, maybe I should leave it up for the rest of the year. Matt would love that....lol.

Cheating Death....

Okay, So I didn't even realize that I had this picture stored on my computer but I came across it recently. It is significant to me for one reason; one week before this picture was taken a doctor took a saw to my head peeled back my scalp and sawed open my skull to remove a tiny bone off some nerves that were inflamed and dying because of Bells Palsy I had contracted. Scientifically it is called a crainiotomy, I call it torture.

A year later I had my gums peeled back and my jaw cut open to get out an infection. This was done by an oral surgeon. Unfortunately, because I was pregnant at the time he couldn't give me any laughing gas or knock me out, I had to do all of it with a shot of local antesthetic. Ouchy.

My most recent stunt was getting HELLP Syndrome, which nobody ever seems to have heard of because it is extremely rare. It just means I had really dangerous preeclampsia that was going to give me seizures and kill the baby and I if they didn't deliver me. I was 8 months pregnant at the time. The epidural didn't work of course because my platelets were so low. I did 22 hours of pitocin induced labor. I've heard inducing makes the contractions longer. Also the Magnesium Sulfate I was taking to discourage seizures was pretty bad medication. It made me lose my memory. I thought I was going crazy and I didn't even know I had a baby after my c-section. I got really bad panic attacks, several in a row at the hospital.

My husband and I joke that like a cat I have 9 lives. With the pneumonia, cellulitous and mono that I have we guess I've been through about 5 lives. I'm really blessed that God has kept me here. I have a pain threshold, I'm okay even though I've been through a lot. But what kills me, what I just can't handle is that my baby seems to have taken after me in the health department. He spent 9 days in the NICU which were the worst days of my life. If you've never had a child in the NICU there is just know what to ever understand or know. Bringing him home was the happiest day of my life. I thought we were out of the woods. I was wrong. I was so wrong. Now he goes to cardiology at Primary Children's Hospital to watch his heart. I know the day is coming that once again I'll be sitting next to his bed. If I were given the chance, I would take all of this for him. It breaks my heart to see him go through all of this. I'm glad that I can sort of understand him though, we can cheat death together. I'll even donate him the last 4 lives I've been holding on to.

The Big 2-5!

So, I never posted in November. Life gets busy! For my birthday Andy, Matt, my parents and I went to IHOP to eat. I had crepes with nutella (my favorite!) My sweet, sweet hubby brought home a bunch of doughnuts and candles for me to blow out and my sweet little dad made me a cake- it was super good! But the best part was when I got a card from Andy that he had signed. It was one of those moments in life you just can't define. I was a mom. I was looking at a little scribble my son had made me. I just about burst out in tears but I kept myself together. It was the best birthday present I could ever ask for! I am so blessed.