a day in the life...

New Year's Eve

2009-01-16T19:24:00.003-06:00

We celebrated New Year's Eve with our small group from church. We went to the Halbergs house and the guys played Rock Band on the Wii while the girls watched and chit-chatted. The kids all played except for Allison who decided that she liked singing with the guys better than playing with the kids. Enjoy the pics.

Mimi and Grand-daddy

2009-01-12T16:10:00.011-06:00

We were excited that Mimi and Grand-daddy and Sam (my dad, his wife, and my little brother) came for a visit this year right after Christmas. This was their first chance to meet Dylan and Grant (my nephew). We only get to see them once or twice a year so we try to pack in as much fun as possible when we see each other. They got here the Sunday after Christmas and we had brunch and opened presents from each other.

Meeting Dylan and Grant for the first time

Opening presents (Mimi is a buyer for Hallmark so we gets lots of Hallmark goodies like this cool snow globe)

We went to see the lights at the Capitol. Allison has a thing for closing her eyes in pictures now (on purpose) and Miles has a thing for not sitting still for pictures

I just thought this picture was cute - it wasn't posed. She just laid down exactly like that at the Capitol (and yes I am the kind of parent who lets her child roll around on the floor in public).

Playing with Sam during lunch at Whole Hog BBQ.

We had a great time one night at Playtime Pizza.

Mimi decided to throw a "practice" birthday party for Allison. Allison is really "into" anything birthday party related so she was all for it. So after our fun time at Playtime Pizza, we went home to have princess cupcakes and sing happy birthday.

Singing "Happy Birthday" Cha-Cha style

Allison loved her party and she loved her grandparents visiting. We had a great time and miss them already.

With Every End Is a New Beginning

2009-01-11T21:28:00.006-06:00

I didn't like blogging on Xanga too much....so I'm back. With the addition of Dylan, my time to blog is even less so I will mainly just be posting pictures - I'm sure that's what most of you want to see anyways. So since I haven't blogged in over 2 months, I thought I would recap. Most of you already know that Dylan was born on Nov. 10 at 9:24 pm. He weighed in at 8 lbs, 7 oz. He is doing good now after somewhat of a rough start. I took him to the doctor at 3 weeks because he was just really fussy and spitting up a lot. So I just automatically thought it was reflux but the doctor did a stomach x-ray that came out abnormal. Dylan's upper intestine was full of air. So since then, we have been sent to Children's for multiple tests and eventually a biopsy and then on to a pediatric GI doctor, but from all that, they just concluded that his digestive system was immature and not coordinating properly. So gas and poop just get stuck and it takes a while for things to get moving, hence causing the fussiness. And on top of that, he has a bad case of reflux. But we are very thankful for that diagnosis, because it could have been so much worse. So we are now on 2 kinds of medicine for the reflux and it will just take some time for his digestive track to work like it is supposed to. But he is already so much better than he was. He has even been smiling for us in the last couple of weeks (He is now 9 weeks old). I was lucky enough to catch one on camera:

Allison has done wonderfully with him. She has not been jealous at all. She just excepted him as part of our family from the get go and loves on him and wants to hold him. She originally was a great big help but the help has slacked off a little (I guess the newness has worn off).

The dog however has had some jealousy issues. Here is where I found him the other day -

With the new year, I am going to try to blog more. I have several posts I would like to catch up on including Christmas, New Years, and Allison birthday...so stay tuned.

The End

2007-05-22T14:30:00.000-05:00

I have decided to down-size - from 2 blogs to one. I don't think I will be disappointing many because I do not think many frequent my site. I am still blogging on my xanga site and there will still be post and pictures about Allison there. It was just too much trouble posting the same things twice. I have to simplify. So please visit me at www.xanga.com/kimmicle and update your links please. I really would appreciate a visit and if you feel lead, a comment would be nice too!

Spring!

2007-03-20T12:46:00.000-05:00

Here are some pics Matt took at Wye Mountain last weekend. Allison was not her usual smiley self but he still managed to get some good pics. I really like the first one - it reminds me of Little House on the Prarie - the way her dress looks like it's blowing in the wind. The Clevelands are very excited about the arrival of spring and we look forward to playing outside with Allison!

And She's Off!

2007-03-06T15:01:00.000-06:00

So once again, I have let everyone down by not posting in quite some time. Will you find it in your heart to forgive me? I (being Kim, the one who has been left to update this blog that was started by someone else.....ahmmm) have started a xanga page for myself - if you are at all interested, here's the link - www.xanga.com/kimmicle. I will still be updating this page with events and milestones of Allison's life but if you are interested in more frequent posts about random things, you might should check that page out. So on to Allison. It's sad to say but she is no longer a baby, but is now a toddler. Hard to believe, but true. She is using her two little legs as her main mode of transportation these days - walking. She took her first steps at the Lumpkins house about a month ago and then Thursday when we were at the hospital waiting for Miles (Allison's cousin) to be born, she just took off and hasn't stopped yet. I feel like it was the moment that I was most looking forward to for some reason. Everyone has told me that my life would change with this milestone but it hasn't yet (and it's okay with me if it doesn't). She walks everywhere she crawled. And it has actually been a little easier because she hasn't been so frustrated with herself because now she can get where she wants to go.

I don't have a recent video of Allison to post of her walking but this is one from the beginning of February when she first starting walking:

And for another important milestone...discovering toilet paper!

This is Allison's reading nook:

And this is Allison playing in the tupperware drawer:

I will try, try, try (really hard) to keep this updated more often. Please don't lose hope in me.

Recipe of the Year

2007-01-25T10:13:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time, I made this recipe for my Bunco group. It was very yummilicious. Sorry for all of those who wanted the recipe months ago and are just now getting it - life gets in the way sometimes. But alas, here it is:

CHICKEN LASAGNA

½ c. margarine
½ c. flour
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. basil
4 chicken breasts, cooked and diced

3 c. chicken broth
2 c. cottage cheese
1 egg
10 oz. pkg. Frozen chopped spinach, drained

½ lb. Cooked, drained lasagna (almost 8 noodles)
1 lb. Mozzarella slices (I just used grated)
¼ c. grated parmesan

Melt butter in large saucepan. Blend in flour, salt, and basil. Stir chicken broth until mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Add chicken.
Mix cottage cheese with egg in separate bowl. Add spinach.
Place ½ c. of chicken mixture in 9 X 13 pan (sprayed with Pam), top with noodles, cottage cheese mixture then mozzarella. Continue for 2nd layer. End with last 1/3 of chicken. Top with mozzarella and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.
Bake at 375 degrees for around 45 minutes.

Hope you enjoy!

making the world a better place, one music lover at a time...

2007-01-21T14:27:00.000-06:00

Do you have friends trying to get you to listen to all kinds of new bands? Do you have a stack of albums you’re trying to make it through but can’t seem to find the time to listen to? Do you have albums in your collection that you listened to once in 2002 and still haven’t made it back to yet?

Do you remember how you listened to music when you were in high school? You were in your bedroom with the door shut maybe lying on your bed wearing those big cushy headphones following along with the lyrics in the liner notes, and by the time the album got around to the third or fourth spin you were dancing around singing every word to every song while playing your imaginary drum set on the ceiling. If you remember that feeling of falling in love with an album…and you miss it…and you want it back…you are the perfect candidate for: THE PROGRAM.

My friend Matt Lumpkin and I are taking part in an experiment in music listening – a journey to get back to the point of listening to music with the purpose of loving the music you listen to and listening to the music you love. If this sounds remotely interesting to you, check out my Mog (music blog), and read more about the program.

We invite you to join us or modify the program to fit you. As long as you are getting acquainted with the music you’ve acquired and are having a good time, you are becoming a better music listener, and the world will be a better place because of it.

Happy Birthday Baby!

2007-01-12T09:17:00.000-06:00

Happy 1st Birthday!

Allison will be celebrating her first birthday with not one, but two birthday parties. Tonight we will be having a party with mostly our friends and their children at our house. The party will have a rubber ducky theme. And then tomorrow we will be celebrating in Searcy at her Nana and Grandpa's house with all of our family. So we will be tuckered out by the time the weekend is over.

Allison has accomplished so much this year. Some of the things that she has learned to do include rolling over (May), crawling (July), pulling up (late September), feeding herself using her pincer grasp (Sept-Oct), cruising (late Oct - early Nov), and getting her first teeth (Nov). Her vocabulary is up to 6 words. She can say mama, dada, bye-bye, puppy, baby, and ball. We cannot wait to see what all you do in the coming year. It is so much fun watching you grow and learn new things.

We cannot believe that you are already one year old. You have changed our life so much in the last year. Through all the complaints of sleepless nights and non stop crying, we would not change it for the world. We could not ask for a better baby. You have added so many smiles and so much laughter to our household. We pray that you would continue to radiate love and happiness the way that you do now.

Out with the Bad, In with the Good

2007-01-11T13:07:00.000-06:00

The Clevelands celebrated the end of 2006 with a get together. The Lumpkins and also my sister and her husband (Deanna and Mason) came over to help us ring in the new year. We had Chinese for dinner from Fu Lin's. If you haven't had their Hot and Sour soup, you've got to try it. It's the best in town, hands down. Anyhow we were a little skeptical that both Allison and Eleaner (the Lumpkin baby) would both go to sleep and stay that way - but we were so glad that they did. While the babies slept, we all played a very fun game called Wise and Otherwise. I thought I wasn't going to like it very much. It is kind of like Balderdash - which I'm not too fond of basically because I'm very good at it. But instead of making up a definition, you make up the end of an old proverb. An example would be "There's an old English saying: "Cheese and money should always..." Then everyone would write down there response and the reader would read them all, along with the real proverb. Everyone then gets a chance to pick which one is real. We were having so much fun playing the game that we forgot to turn on the TV to watch the ball drop. By the time I got it to the right channel, the big neon sign was blinking 2007. We still shared a toast and then we all proceeded to go to bed. It is not often that we get to stay up till midnight with friends who also have babies.

New Year's day we slept until 10:00am! Unbelievable! Allison woke up at 7:00am - I brought her into bed with us and she went right back to sleep. It was fantastic! Anyhow, we spent most of the day taking down Christmas decor. I did do some reflecting on things I would like to change during 2007. My resolutions include:

1. Lose all the weight I gained while pregnant with Allison
2. Floss more often
3. Be more tidy

December in Review

2007-01-07T13:38:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the lack of blogs the last 2 months. We thought we would start the new year out with a new post reviewing the busy month of December. In early December, Allison took her first plane ride to North Carolina to visit her Grand-daddy, Mimi and Uncle Sam (Kim's dad, step-mom and half brother). This was the first time for her to see her Mimi and Uncle Sam so it was an exciting trip. Allison did very well on the plane for an 11 month old. She loved to play with the shades on the windows - opening and closing them a million times. We had a great time in Raleigh visiting with our family. We celebrated Matt's birthday while we were there by eating at The Angus Barn. It's supposedly a pretty famous restaurant in the area. In fact, the night that we ate there, the head chef was on Iron Chef America and won! We thought that was pretty neat since we are fans of the show. We also celebrated Christmas with them while we were together. Mimi made a delicious Christmas dinner in which we all had to wear reindeer antlers while we ate (the antlers also played music). Everyone had a great time - even Allison as you can see.

We visited the rest of our family in Searcy over the Christmas holidays. It was good to visit with all of our family, but it is so much more exhausting with a baby. Both of our parents live just a few blocks away from each other, so we end up trying to be at both places for all events. This means that we usually end up eating 5 meals a day for most holidays. And as all of you non-parents will learn, nap time is an essential part of both baby's and mommy's day and it's very hard to schedule naps when you have so many people wanting to play with Allison. But we are glad that everyone enjoys her so much.

She didn't really seem too interested in opening the presents, but she would try to help you tear the paper a little or pull the tissue paper out of the bag. Some of her favorite gifts were her Sesame Street "Baby's First Purse" that included her own lip stick, keys, cell phone, and coin purse, her blow-up ball pit (thanks to this toy, Allison has added the word "ball" to her vocabulary), her Leap Frog Fridge Farm, and her newborn Cabbage Patch doll (named Vanessa Sylvia - Sylvia is her NaNa's name, and you can guess who the gift was from). When she opened up her Cabbage Patch, which came with a bottle and a car seat for the doll, Kim asked Allison to give the baby the bottle - thinking that the request was a little too advanced for her yet - but to everyone's amazement, she did it and has done it every time we've asked her to. Granted, sometimes she is banging the bottle into the baby's face, but she is learning to pretend play, which is a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of Allison opening presents that I thought you may enjoy:

For anyone who still reads this, I will be updating the blog frequently this week. I have lots to catch up on, so please stay tuned...

Allison's first Halloween

2006-11-01T22:25:00.000-06:00

Allison celebrated her first Halloween as a ladybug. She had fun crawling on the rug at her aunt and uncle's house and even went Trick-or-Treating next door. She had a good time even though she didn't get any candy.

our little pumpkin

2006-10-05T21:41:00.000-05:00

Each year it is a Cleveland family tradition to attend the annual pumpkin festival at Gillam Farms in Judsonia. Matt's uncle owns the farm and his two cousins run it. So last weekend Allison attended her first pumpkin festival. We had fun eating the good food, riding the hayride, fellowshipping with family, and just enjoying the beauty of the farm.

good news, everyone!

2006-08-23T21:24:00.000-05:00

born in the usa

2006-07-05T21:39:00.000-05:00

Allison celebrates the 4th of July wiht her Mamaw.

it's summertime...

2006-07-05T21:32:00.000-05:00

On July 3rd, Allison went swimming for the first time. She wore her new swim suit, but it was a little too snug. She really enjoyed kicking and splashing in the water. And she had fun being pushed around in her new raft. Hopefully there will be many more swimming experiences to come this summer.

food glorious food

2006-06-19T20:47:00.000-05:00

Allison is now eating solid foods. After reading up on all the current sugggestions on starting your baby on solid foods, we realized their are so many rules to follow. They're really not rules - just guidelines. But since we are first time parents who really don't know what in the world we are doing, we decided that it would be best to follow them. Rule #1: First comes cereal. She started a couple weeks ago with the oh-so-boring rice cereal. She seemed to take after her parents and is a natural born eater. She also tried out some oatmeal. We think that she may like it more than the rice cereal. Rule #2: Once you introduce a food you need to give it to the baby 3-5 days to make sure that your child doesn't have an allergic reaction. So once we had rice cereal and oatmeal for a couple of days we moved on to vegetables. How exciting! Rule #3: The book that our pediatrician gave us, had a guideline for the order to introduce vegetables. It is as follows - carrots, squash, green beans, beets, peas, spinach, and then sweet potatoes. So far we have had the first three. Allison has liked them all. But since she has had vegetables, she hasn't liked the cereals very much. So now we have to mix her vegetables into her cereal. Oatmeal and green beans doesn't sound so appetizing to me but she sure thinks it is. After we have tried all the vegetables, we get to move on to fruit (Rule #4) and then meat (Rule #5). Some of you may find all of this a tad boring, but we think it's quite interesting.

Allison's four month update

2006-05-14T21:56:00.000-05:00

This week Allison went for her four month study at Arkansas Children's Hospital. She had an ultrasound, had her weight and length measured, had her body mass index measured in the "Pea Pod," and had another visit to the brain lab. Allison now weighs 13 lbs and 6 ozs and is 24 inches long.

Before going into the "Pea Pod," the nurse puts a gangsta cap on Allison. She looks very tough.

Then, Allison is loaded into the pod like a torpedo to have her body mass measured.

And last, Allison's visit to the brain lab was not as traumatic an experience it has been in the past. Although tears were shed, she did very well and finished quickly. And we got more free diapers!

rockin' and rollin'

2006-05-14T21:25:00.000-05:00

Allison has a couple of new hobbies.

She likes to hold her toes...

...and as of this week she likes to roll over.

all dressed up

2006-05-14T21:08:00.000-05:00

This is Allison in her Easter dress. A'int she sweet.

happy 1/4 birthday!

2006-04-18T11:24:00.000-05:00

Allison is already three months old! Okay- so we are a week late in posting the blog about it, but give us a break - we are new parents you know. But she is getting so big. Here are her new "stats" that we received when we went for her 3 month visit to Arkansas Children's for the nutrition study (which I will try to blog about later):

Weight - 12lb 11oz (50-75 percentile)
Length - 22-1/2 in (25-50 percentile)

She is getting bigger everyday and discovering new things. She has become very vocal, making all kinds of shrills and coos. She is also making this gasping noise. We both thought that their was something wrong with her, but we decided that she was only experimenting with her voice. She has learned to swat at objects that are dangled in front of her and sometimes she will grab a hold of them. She hasn't quite mastered the skill of rolling over but she is well on her way. She can roll to both sides but she never turns over (see picture below). She doesn't like it too much on her stomach so we are thinking that it may be awhile before she rolls all the way over. Her head control is very good - she can sit up with support. She can bring her hands together and will play with her hands. She has even started to suck her thumb (see picture above).

The last 3 months have in some ways seemed like the longest 3 months of our lives (which they probably have been since we have had the least amount of sleep in the last 3 months than we ever have), but in other ways it seems like the last 3 months have flown by. We feel like we can breathe a sigh of relief now since she isn't a newborn anymore and is out of that "critical" stage. We can somewhat relax and enjoy having a beautiful, healthy baby. It is so much fun to watch all of her "tricks" and watch her discover the little things in life (like bringing your hands together) - things that we never knew we had to learn.

bathtime fun

2006-03-23T12:12:00.000-06:00

Allison really enjoys taking a bath. She seems to really like the warm water and she acts as if she could stay in her bath forever and be perfectly happy. Lately she has even begun to splash around in the water by kicking her legs. We are pleased that bath time is not a struggle but is actually a fun time for all of us.

look how big i am!

2006-03-15T17:09:00.000-06:00

Allison had her 2 month check up on Monday. This included her immunizations. She did very well considering she was receiving 3 shots. She only cried while they were giving her the shot and stopped as soon as she was picked up. But she has definitely grown over the past month:

Weight - 11 lb. 4oz. (50-75%)
Length - 21 3/4 in. (25-50%)
Head - 15 in. (25-50%)

We are also participating in a research study with Arkansas Children's Hospital. It is comparing breastfed versus formula fed versus soy formula fed babies. They track the babies growth and development as well as their nutrition until they are six years old. We had our first visit on Monday. We have to go once a month until she is a year old and then, once a year until she is six.

The first visit went pretty well. First, we had a consultation to make sure that we understood everything that we were getting ourselves into, and after that, they asked me a lot of questions about what I eat, and I had to give a detailed description about what I had eaten for the last 24 hours. Then they took all of Allison's measurements.

Next, they have a machine that measures her body composition (it's very high tech) - they call it the "pea pod" (see photo above). She went into this little clear tube that has warm air blowing through it for 2 minutes. She seemed to enjoy the warm air and was calm the whole time.

The last thing that she had to do was the brain lab. In the brain lab, she wore a cap that had lots of sensors on it that measures her brain waves, and then they introduce different stimuli to her to see if she is understanding them. I knew about this going into the study but never thought that the cap would be so scary looking (see artistic rendering below). Allison did not like it at all, and the hardest thing was that she has to be quiet and somewhat still (but not asleep) for each test.

It's kind of a lot to go through every month, but the greatest part of the study is that we get free diapers for a year, so we are happy to help out with the study.

old friends

2006-03-10T09:54:00.000-06:00

Aren't they cute?

sleeping beauty

2006-03-10T09:15:00.000-06:00

Allison went to sleep Wednesday night at 10 pm. We woke up to her becoming restless (this is what she does before the full fledge cry), and while we were trying to decide who was going to get up with her, we realized it was getting to be light outside. We looked at the clock and it was 6 am. 8 hours! Allison had slept for 8 whole hours. It was fantastic to get a full night of uninterrupted sleep. While we know that this is not yet going to happen every night (last night she only slept 5 hours), this gives us hope that more restful nights are to come!

update

2006-02-17T14:43:00.000-06:00

Well we made it through the first month with Allison. We can't believe it's been a month since she was born, but then sometimes it has seemed like a year. She was not the happiest of babies for the first month. She was rarely happy during her waking hours – always grunting, fussing, turning red, kicking her legs and flailing her arms, etc. We thought perhaps she had colic or reflux or some kind of stomach problems. Her 1 month check-up was on Monday, and we had made my list of questions about these problems for the doctor. He quickly dismissed all of them with the response of, “Babies cry.” While this somewhat made us feel like idiots (of course we knew that), We are thankful that Allison is okay. Here are a few stats from her appointment:

Weight – 9lbs. 9oz.
Height – 20 5/8”
Head – 14 5/8”

But we are glad to announce that Allison has been a completely different baby this week. No more fussiness and grunting. She has even been sleeping in her bassinet on her back (she previously slept in her car seat). While she used to not let us put her down very much during the day, this week she has been playing on her Baby Einstein play mat for long stretches every day with no fussiness. She even slept 6 hours straight one night! So, hopefully this is a sign of good things to come from baby Allison.

more photos

2006-02-10T12:54:00.000-06:00

We can hardly believe that Allison Grace is almost a month old already! She has already changed so much from those first pictures we took just a few short weeks ago.

Last week we took some great naked baby photos of Allison in some natural light. If you would like to see more from this series, you can view them on our Yahoo! Photos Page by clicking on Allison Grace Photo Shoot. There is also a link on the right hand side of this page under "more photos" called "family photos" that will take you to the same page. We will keep the Yahoo! page updated with Allison's most recent photos, so if you're ever wondering what Allison looks like at any given point in her young life, they will be available there for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

for all you picture fiends

2006-01-31T21:33:00.000-06:00

allison's first week

2006-01-19T13:40:00.000-06:00

One week ago today, Allison Grace made her first appearance in the world of light. It's been fast in that it doesn't seem like it was a week ago, but the nights were definitely long. We were discharged from the hospital on Saturday afternoon only to be re-admitted on Monday due to a bit of jaundice and dehydration. Allison was placed under an ultraviolet light and fed as often as possible. After her jaundice faded and she was rehydrated, we were able to return home on Wednesday. We are so thankful for our beautiful, healthy little baby girl! And we are looking forward to the many years of growing to come.

she's arrived!

2006-01-12T20:00:00.000-06:00

Allison Grace Cleveland was born January 12, 2006 at 12:06 PM.

She weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces and was 19 inches long.

a recent picture

2005-12-28T12:21:00.000-06:00

This is our most recent picture sans bébé.

christmas is coming soon

2005-12-22T19:15:00.000-06:00

This is our puppy, Cosmo, and he's ready for Christmas!

allison grace's first picture

2005-12-22T19:00:00.000-06:00

This is our daughter's first picture taken in August '05.