Madeleine's fourteenth month: August

Pretty much the day before she turned 14 months, Madeleine started walking. I was excited that she achieved this milestone development, but mostly because I was 6 months pregnant already and getting tired of carrying her around all the time. She's a fairly solid girl, weighing in at 25 lbs and 30 inches at her 12 month visit. Since we haven't taken her to the doctor, other than a newborn visit, a 6 month and a 12month check-up, we're not quite sure how big she is, but hefting a 24-27 lb. toddler with a bulging belly was getting old fast. She also took on a very distinct "little-girl" look. No longer was she a little slug of a baby. As her walking improved and her summer tan got darker, she looked suddenly older. I was stunned to be looking at a honest-to-goodness toddler. She took to reading and playing by herself, she started using her signs in a definite manner, and she started acquiring new words. Her hair was even long enough to put into pigtails, and this change made her look even more grown up. In the words of Tim, "I like it, but I don't".

Here's the first day we put her hair in two pigtails, she wouldn't really sit still, but you can see how cute she looks:

I decided to mark off a 30 before 30 item and take Madeleine to the Wild Animal Park. So my mom and I loaded into the car one day and headed off. Now, I knew that the WAP was in Escondido somewhere, and I even saw the signs near Via Rancho Parkway, but I was confused because when I searched for WAP on my Driod phone, it routed us down the 63. I was even more befuddled by the comment that Tim had made when we first got our passes. We were driing home from the zoo and I was talking about how great it was going to be to jet down to the WAP every now and again while he was working and spend some time there, then see him on the way home. He replied with some discussion and the mention that even once I get to Escondido, the WAP is still kinda far from his station. With that comment in my mind, I figured that the sign saying "WAP next exit" was wrong and that we should continue on via the gps in my phone. It wasn't until we got to the Zoo that I realized my phone had routed us to the fundraising headquarters for the WAP, which just so happens to be the SD Zoo. So, we went to the Zoo again. Yes, I do dumb things like this often.

Giraffes at the zoo:

Oh yeah, and I changed my list to say "Take Madeleine to the zoo" instead of WAP. =)

My mom, aunt Sally, Madeleine and I traveled back down to Escondido area to visit my Aunt Pat and her family who were visiting from Utah for the summer. Madeleine liked visiting with Aunt Pat and it was nice to get to see my cousin's family too.
On August 28th, I dropped Madeleine off at her Grammi Cindy's house for the night and went to the Stark/Riser wedding out in wine country. I have known Daniel since he was about 2 years old, or something, so it was wonderful to see him married. The venue was very nice, intimate and thankfully the weather cooled down about 20 degrees to a cool 74 or so. What a blessing for the couple (and for their guests). Tim was working, so I went with my family and it was fun to be there with my brothers, even if they had to leave early, skipping out on the dancing.

Here is the ~30 weeks (7 months)pic:

The lovely bride and groom with their attendants:

Congrats Amanda and Daniel!:

Finally, we were just about ready to leave for our September roadtrip when another seeming disaster struck our household. It was our plan to vacation on Lake Powell for a week, then take a little roadtrip to Denver, visiting some sites on the way. We had our boat packed for boating, our truck packed for camping and our suitcase packed for Denver city-life. The last thing to do before leaving around 4am was to eat dinner, get to bed early and make sure the dogs got out one last time before we left them for two weeks with the house-sitters. I went to the store for a few last-minute items and Tim took Mads and the dogs out to the meadow that sits behind Callaway vineyard, with access from Butterfield Stage Road. As I drove into the driveway, I noticed Tim had Sima on the back of the truckbed. I sensed something was going on, so I got out of the car and asked him what was up. He told me that Sima was running back to the truck to load up, when all of a sudden Tim heard her yelp and just lay down at the top of the hill. He had to carry her back to the truck and bring her home. He was palpating her leg for sprain or strain and I did the same. He told me that when he had taken his hand away, he had a tiny bit of blood on it. He tried to get her down, and eventually carried her onto the grass. I watched her panting, but in a weird way. It wasn't just the "tired" pant wiht bright eyes and sagging tongue. This was a mouth-barely-cracked pant with eyes that were starting to glaze over. I suggested that she must have been bit by a snake and Tim noticed her swelling leg. So, at 6pm the day before our much-hyped vacation was set to start, we took Sima to the vet. About 4 hours and a lot of money later, we had a dog who was drugged and possibly dying. Even if you administer an anti-venom, there is no guarantee that it will work. We decided to stay home and nurse her for three days hoping to see some marked improvement before we would go. We laid out a carpet and bed for her in the playroom. We also pushed fluids on our own (instead of having her stay at the vet and have them do it) which saved us quite a but more in boarding & observation fees. Tim was able to use some expired bags of saline that my brother had to start an IV on her and really try and get the hemotoxins out of her system. After some marked improvements (including self-mobility, peeing, eating and drinking) we decided that we should either go or plan on canceling our trip. We left the dogs in the loving and caring hands of our house-sitters and left fairly sure that she wouldn't suddenly digress into a dire state.

Sima is prepped for her IV; notice the back left paw which is swollen, shaved and red from necrotic tissue:

Having a paramedic around is awfully nice when your playroom needs to become a doggie hospital:

Thankfully, she survived. Whether it was the anti-venom, the placement of the bite or the continuous flush of fluids, God saw fit to allow her to live in our family for a while longer.

Love, Lauren