Brrr, January in review!

Although we were excited for the start of a fresh New Year, I can't honestly say that I am disappointed to see the first month of the year already written in the history books. Being in my last several weeks of pregnancy and with the weather being chillier than I prefer (even in San Antonio) January is one month I am happy to say goodbye to. Despite the cooler weather and the aches and pains of pregnancy, we managed to stay busy all month and to have some fun along the way.

Isabelle is always ready to play make-believe and often is found in dress-up clothes with an audience of "friends" all set up and ready to watch her performance. They too are often in dress-up clothes of their own and if she can fit a costume on mom and dad, we are ready to perform as well. This month she enjoyed reading Dr Seuss's If I Ran The Circus several times and I believe we put on as many as three cirucs' a day for weeks.

We also spent a few nights this month at the SBC Center first cheering on the San Antonio Rampage followed by a night with the San Antonio Spurs. We were fortunate to have great friends attend the Rampage game with us and then Grandma and Grandpa made the trip over to watch their hometown Rockets beat our Spurs. Isabelle of course loved staying up late and eating lots of junk-food but her most favorite part was watching the mascots!

Mid month, little Jelly woke up and literally could not walk. Her left leg didn't seem to work all of the sudden and after watching it get worse for 24 hours we made the first trip to the pediatrician where we were then sent on a wild-goose chase to try and figure out what exactly was affecting Isabelle's leg. After more pediatrician visits, X-rays and a stint at Methodist Children's Hospital for ultrasounds, etc, the doctors finally ruled out most everything they could easily come up with and made the diagnosis of most likely Transient Synovitis. As bizarre as a hip virus is, if anyone would catch it, it would be Jelly. We were told to treat it with an anti-inflammatory for a few days, keep her off it and pray that a fever did not show-up. We luckily were able to avoid an MRI and extensive lab-work as her leg seemed to slowly improve over the next 7-10 days. It was a really scary and weird experience and we are grateful that both of Isabelle's legs work just as they should and that she is such an agreeable patient.

Only a few days after the diagnosis, we were desperate for Isabelle's gait to greatly improve so that she would be ready to walk down the aisle and be the flower girl in her Aunt Katrina's wedding in Houston! We had a great time visiting with all of the Cosby family in Houston for a short couple of days and participating in the union of Katrina and Gordon Meldrum. We loved getting to know Uncle Gordon's family and friends from Michigan and feel lucky to live just a few hours away from the new couple.


Isabelle happily marched down the wedding aisle tossing her petals very carefully and even walked on beat with a little shuffle in her step after the ceremony was complete. We all had fun dancing and eating and mingling with all of the guests until both Jelly and I were too tired and left the rest of our group to finish with the post party clean up.


Since the wedding Jelly has been "married" herself several times or has been a bridesmaid or flower girl in a variety of her "friends" weddings at home. My favorite part of each ceremony is after they dance and then depart for what she calls their "honey-do!"

I was hopeful that after all of the busyness and long hours on my feet that the new baby Cosby may possibly greet us just a bit early, but good or bad, here we are a week into February and we still have a week or two left! Either way, we had a fun, busy, scary and chilly start to the 2010 year and look forward to more excitement to quickly follow! There is never a rest for the weary!

Our little ray of sunshine!

Today was Isabelle's first day of Sunbeams! After clawing my arms while I carried her to her seat, she finally sat quietly on the front row with the other 3 year olds and folded her arms quietly. She loved her new teacher, Miss Kayla, and meeting a new friend, Madelyn, and her first words when she saw me afterwards were I stayed the whole time by myself! What a big girl!

A budding Picasso

Jelly loves arts and crafts! She asks several times a week if she can create something of some variety. Naturally, she was thrilled when Santa Clause brought her an easel for Christmas and this week she finally was ready to paint! She quickly decided that this particular painting was for her Uncle Nick's office and the minute that her dad walked into the door from work she said Dad, look at my painting...but it's NOT for you this time! I am sure this is just the first of many wonderful gifts!

A Texas GRAND Christmas!

After asking Isabelle if she would rather have Santa come down our chimney or Grammie's chimney, we were quickly on the road to Houston for Christmas Eve! We were greeted by Grammie and Grandpa as well as Aunt Tara, Aunt Alee and Uncle Nick who were ready for a Texas Grand Christmas. Belle was thrilled to begin the festivities and spent the next week reading our GRAND itinerary and beaming with holiday spirit!

After keeping Isabelle in our bedroom upstairs until 7:00am we finally let her down the stairs to find all of Santa's surprises. She was excited with each and every gift she received and especially loved her "REAL" guitar from Grammie and Grandpa. She was also equally excited to pass out all of the gifts she had purchased and wrapped by herself and was more than eager to help everyone put them to use right away. We enjoyed a yummy Christmas dinner as well as our traditional Nativity puppet show before putting a very tired and overjoyed toddler to bed.

The next several days we enjoyed playing games, seeing movies, ice skating, working on puzzles, shopping, bowling, Grandpa's birthday, making funnel-cakes and anything/everything else we wanted to do. Since Jelly was actually 20 years younger than the next family member there we played with her all day and then put her to bed early and enjoyed some adult time in the evenings. Ben luckily was able to fairly easily close two deals over the holidays so even he was able to join in all of the traditional fun!

Although at moments it seemed like we were running a hospital with Dad's liver disease, Tara's eye-surgery, Belle's ear infections and me being 7 months pregnant, the rest of the crew was able to keep the festivities moving and we never skipped a beat. We were even able to meet up with Ben's parents and Uncle Jake and Aunt Katrina and Gordon for a few moments of Christmas cheer while they were passing through Houston to finalize a few more wedding plans for this month's big event!

We rang in the New Year with our friends the Meiers and a bbq and fire outside before a wild game of bunco. Little Jelly enjoyed her small fireworks and counting down to the New Year while banging pots and pans with a wooden spoon at about 7:45pm. Lucky for us, she never questioned that it wasn't actually midnight and she just assumed the rest of us went to bed shortly too!

It was a wonderful week long of parties and games and even though we were able to stay in Houston for the entire holiday, Isabelle still cried to leave her favorite place! We ended the fun with a New Year treasure hunt and Belle putting out the Grand Christmas torch before we packed the car as full as we could and made the trek home. We are thankful to everyone for all of their generous gifts this year and especially loved spending this special time of year with the ones we love!

Fa la la la la la la la la!

We have had so much fun enjoying this holiday season. Isabelle loves everything Christmas and we have spent many nights driving through the different neighborhoods near us in our PJ's looking at Christmas lights and singing carols. While grammie and grandpa were visiting for the weekend we spent the day downtown and after a nearly 2 hour wait, Belle finally was able to sit on Santa's lap and whispered that she was hoping for a scooter on Christmas morning...which Ben and I had never heard of until then. We then had fun walking around the Alamo and Riverwalk which were all lit up and beautiful for the holiday.


Belle has loved every minute of decorating and re-decorating the entire house many times and baking lots of holiday goodies which we have shared with our friends. We also had a great time at Fiesta Texas' Holiday in the Park with our friends the Haley's where Belle loved riding the rides with Dallon and Dawson and seeing all of the lights around the park.

With only 4 days left until Christmas the magic is still alive and little Jelly is tucked tightly in her Christmas quilted bed, hugging her stuffed Rudolph and smelling like gingerbread from her bath! Tonight in her bedtime prayers she said "Heavenly Father, I hope that Christmas comes very soon because I cannot wait and it is the best time ever!" What a wonderful time of year!

Remember November

Like the rest of 2009, somehow November came and went with us rushing in and out of town before we could ever catch our breath. Unfortunately the turkey month didn't start out too smoothly when Ben came home coughing from a business trip and was diagnosed with H1N1 the next day. He quickly shared his germs with Belle and after another 24 hours they were both officially victims of the swine flu. Even with Tamiflu to help, they both had fevers that raged for nearly a week and didn't eat, drink or sleep much for days. I knew Ben was seriously ill when he didn't even mention work for close to 48 hours and then still barely picked up his Blackberry for the entire work week. Thankfully, I had been vaccinated a few weeks prior and was able to stay healthy throughout the madness and tend to both of my babies.

Unfortunately, in normal Cosby style, we didn't have a lot of time to be "ill" as we had tickets to Curious George Live in DFW the following weekend. We considered skipping the show but knew Belle would be disappointed to miss her favorite friend so we cut our trip shorter than planned and hopped on quick flights for a fast weekend getaway. Curious George was everything that Jelly hoped he would be and we all had a great time visiting with Grandma Ruth, Grandpa Van and some of our family who were able to join us in Dallas for the weekend.
After our quick trip to DFW, we rushed back to unpack and pack our bags again and were on our way to Houston for the Thanksgiving weekend the following day. We started the holiday with the annual Coles Crossing Turkey Trot and then enjoyed a yummy feast of our favorite foods. After mapping out a Black Friday shopping plan for Tara and Grammie, Ben and I left Belle in their care and caught another flight, this time to the Big Apple...just the two of us!
We enjoyed 4 days in NYC sleeping in, shopping late, eating whatever we wanted, etc. We started our days with a jog through Central Park and a bagel from Rupert's and we hit all of the shopping hot-spots I planned to do damage in...some more than once! We went to Mary Poppins on Broadway and ate at Ellen's Stardust Diner which we always enjoy. We watched the ice skaters at Bryant Park and enjoyed the lights at Rockefeller Center. It was a perfect way to celebrate my 30th birthday (in August) and our last few days before we are joined by a new baby on our outings.

Sadly, we had clearly rushed Belle's recovery from the H1N1 virus and after a couple nights of her not sleeping or eating my parents finally took her to the doctor where she was then diagnosed with Bronchitis and the early stages of pneumonia, both secondary infections from the Swine Flu. Thankfully, after a few days on antibiotics and steroids she started to feel much better and was able to better enjoy her last few days in Houston. While mom and dad were away, Jelly enjoyed Christmas shopping with Aunt Tara and Grammie, taking care of Koshka while Alee and Nick were on vacation and helping Grandpa at work.
It was once again a crazy and fun few weeks and Belle cried real tears when it was finally time to head back to San Antonio. Lucky for her, by the time we arrived home it was already the 2nd of December and time for the really busy season to begin...and we haven't slowed down yet!