What great weather!

What a great weekend! Eric had Saturday off of work. Originally he was going to play in a soccer tournament with our church but they couldn’t get enough players together to form a team. Instead we had a family day and what a blast this weekend was! Jarem is feeling so much better. It is incredible how we got used to him being sick and didn’t notice that he was acting differently. He has so much personality and is all over the place! He is all smiles and loves to babble all day long. He is all about playing and interacting. It’s so much fun to see him like this again!!
Thursday evening we gave him his first bath following the surgery. It was hilarious cause we wanted to take pictures of him with his cute ear plugs in and we had a hard time because he was splashing so much. The entire bathroom floor was soaked, not to mention we were soaked, too. But he was having fun and so were we! He hasn’t played like that in so long during bath time. We were cracking up watching him and really loved seeing our baby boy come back to normal. He is just a crack up!!

Saturday we started the morning with a Costco run. After we stopped by to visit my dad. His company was having a model home sale near our house so we stopped by for a little while and hung out. Jarem loved the banana that poppa fed him. He also loved crawling around the big empty model home! We used it as a mini photo shoot opportunity. The lighting was great in the front bedroom and Jarem was having a blast crawling back and forth.

After visiting Poppa we went and picked up Josee for her birthday date. For my cousins, (Josee, Chloe and Korina) we give them birthday dates for their special day. They get to choose where we go and what we do. It’s our special time to hang out with them one on one and have fun. Well eventhough Josee’s birthday was back in December, she got to celebrate her birthday in February for the first time! (Oops, we were really late scheduling this date due to busy schedules!) She decided she wanted to go mini golfing. The weather here has been so nice that it was perfect. While driving there we decided to stop by Native New Yorker for some wings for lunch. Well as we were about to turn into the driveway, Eric noticed Tito and Tita driving right in front of us with Chloe and Korina in the back. We honked and followed them for a half block before we all were able to pull over. They decided to join us for lunch. Josee got the suicide wings. I have never seen somebody eat such hot food. She is AMAZING!!! Chloe decided to try one and then Tita tried one, too. HILARIOUS! We had such a fun time at lunch together.
Once we got to Golfland the real fun began though. I started the first whole with the ball shooting back at me twice before I could even keep it on the green. Eric was pretty stellar the entire time and only struggled with a few holes. Josee had fun and warned us that she wasn’t good. But hopefully she still had fun, we definitely did! Jarem just watched us and enjoyed the beautiful outdoors of AZ. After golfing we played some Dance, Dance Revolution and of course, air hockey. Josee killed both of us on DDR but what a blast! Josee, remember when I let go of the stroller down the ramp and watched it tip as everything fell out all over the floor?!? (DON’T WORRY! The baby wasn’t in the seat…)
Joanna was back in town for the weekend so after golfing we stopped by her cousin’s house where they were having family dinner. We didn’t stay too long because my back was starting to tighten up again but long enough to get some hugs and visit with Joanna and her family. We love having her here in AZ with us!! We’ll keep praying for you, Joanna! Sunday we looked at some houses with Joanna in Gilbert and hopefully, maybe, possibly she will move back. We’ll move her personally!! But in all honesty, we support whatever decision she makes. Just having her in our lives is a blessing.
Yesterday was Miss Korina Elizabeth’s 7th birthday. Aunt Stef threw her a party at the park. We had a blast being the photographers for the day. We took over a thousand pictures with our new camera. YIKES! But it was great watching all the “kids” (myself included) play. The weather has been amazing and I have to admit that I got my first sunburn of 2009. It wasn’t bad at all but I got a little red after being out for so long this weekend. We had an amazing time at the park. Jarem was really into playing on the toys so that was a blast to watch. I love this picture I took of him going down the stairs. He did such a good job! All in all it was an amazing weekend... ... Full Post...

Air Force One

On Tuesday, February 16th, President Barack Obama came to Arizona. Eric was excited to use our new camera to try and capture some pictures of Air Force One. Well the President was running early so he only caught a few pictures our of the windshield of the car on the 202 ramp. He was so excited to see it! President Obama left Arizona on Wednesday the 18th and I was able to go down and take this video with my cell phone. I work at the US Airways hangar here at Sky Harbor Airport so I went out to the tarmac and got a great look at Air Force One. I almost passed the motorcade on my way in to work but missed it by less than three minutes. In any case, it was pretty exciting for us to see Air Force One in person. Video after the jump
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Valentine’s Day

I know this is really late getting posted but hopefully the pictures will be worth the wait. Things got really stressful for us just before Valentine’s Day. I’ve mentioned some of what has been going on in our lives briefly in previous posts. But to recap, we were supposed to be in San Diego at my friend Suzanna’s wedding for Valentine’s Day. I bought the darn cutest dress and was so excited to go! I’ve only seen a few pictures from her wedding so far and it looked amazing. We are sad we missed it but are happy with the decisions we made as parents.

We were originally going to leave for San Diego on Thursday evening. Well Wednesday Eric was sick and Jarem was acting a little off. I decided to make an appointment with Dr. Sudha for Jarem just to be sure that we were safe to travel with him. Well when we got to the doctor, we were shocked to hear Jarem had two ear infections. We immediately knew we wouldn’t be able to fly or drive with Jarem under such conditions.

Plan #2 was for me to still go out to Cali for the day and attend the wedding by myself. Well Thursday Jarem had another doctor’s appointment in the evening to get an antibiotic shot to help fight the ear infections. After his shot, Eric and I were playing with him at the doctor’s office trying to cheer Jarem up. Well while jumping around and being a silly mommy, I hurt my back. We drove home and stopped at Blockbuster in Queen Creek to rent a movie for the evening since we had Friday off work still. Well when I got out of the car, my back had completely stiffened on the drive from Chandler and I could barely move without it hurting. We walked around a little to try and stretch it out but had no luck.

We got home and I was lying on the heating pad, watching a movie with Eric when I got a text message. It was from Joanna stating that the paramedics were at her house and her dad wasn’t okay. I called her immediately in a panic. We spoke briefly while she tried to figure out what was going on. It was all happening so fast that we didn’t really have any information at the point. The hardest part about all of this for me is that had plan #1 worked, we would have been there with Joanna because we were going to stay at her house for the weekend.

Well, as I’ve blogged about before, it was a very late and extremely difficult evening. Joe passed away just before midnight and I was at a loss. I felt horrible for not being there with Joanna, I felt horrible for the Usher girls and their devastating loss, and I felt sad for the loss of such a great man in our lives. Being on the phone with Joanna was so hard because I didn’t know what to say and all I wanted to do was be with her and hug her. The distance was killing me and Eric was my strength in helping try to keep it together and be strong for Joanna.

Joanna drove to AZ from CA thru the night with her cousin and spent the next week here with us. Friday morning Jarem had an appointment with his first Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor. The practice is Maricopa Ear, Nose, Throat and I STRONLY recommend no one go there. We had multiple bad experiences with them and when I called to let Dr. Bartell know why we were leaving and what had happened for us to come to that decision, he brushed me off and didn’t listen to any of my feedback. Again, DO NOT GO THERE! The office staff is rude and scheduling is a nightmare.

We spent the rest of Friday with Joanna’s family at her house in Chandler. I cannot say enough how strong and amazing those Usher ladies are. They were women with a purpose and were grieving while getting things done. They have so many friends and family members that love them. The house was kind of a whirlwind with so many people around but I think it was good to have so much support.

Saturday was Valentine’s Day. No wedding. No trip to California. Eric was still brutally sick. Jarem was sick. And I had thrown my back out and couldn’t even get off the floor it was so bad. My amazing hubby took care of Jarem even though he felt like crap, too. It was so horrible not being able to move or even pick up Jarem. We lay around the house all day and watched quite a few chick flicks. Thanks babe for being such a trooper!! That evening my mom came over and Eric made us a gourmet dinner. We had steak, potatoes, rice and steamed veggies. YUMMY!! We also watched another chick flick, Sleepless in Seattle. Eric had never seen in though. Can you believe that?!? Mr. Washington had never seen that movie. Well all in all, it was quite a different Valentine’s Day from what we had planned but we took care of our family and were where we needed to be most, with Joanna.

Here are a couple of pictures of what Jarem was supposed to wear to the wedding on Valentine’s Day. We took these the day after we bought the outfit. So handsome!!! Maybe it will still fit him in August for Kacia and Chris’s wedding in Washington.

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Seton Girl's Basketball

After a long, hard season, the team I help coach lost in the 2nd round of state playoffs. A couple years ago my coach from high school, Karen Self, invited me to come back as her assistant. The first year was a pretty rough bunch and really tested whether I felt it was worth it. The next year I took off coaching because we were getting married and I wanted to have the evening time I knew I would need for planning and organizing. Last year I returned to coaching Varsity girl’s basketball for Seton Catholic High School. I loved playing for Karen and definitely miss being around the sport. It is so hard to give up basketball. I think the hardest part is that my career ended due to injuries. I have always felt that basketball was taken away from me and since it wasn’t my decision to stop playing, that’s hard. But coming back as a coach is different and yet still fills my love for basketball. I originally thought I would practice with the girls more but my first year coaching I re-injured my knee during practice and have yet to really return. I am just not meant to play basketball at such a high level I guess.

Well our team this year was AMAZING! The girls work hard, get along and HAVE FUN! It’s a blast being around them and getting to know them more. The loss last Friday to Flagstaff was a hard loss. We definitely were the better team but it just didn’t go our way. I am torn because I am so excited to have free evenings with my family again and yet I miss seeing the girls everyday. I am really looking forward to our end of season party just so we can all see each other and hang out again. The girls are great with Jarem and love on him so much. I’m not sure how much longer I will be able to coach. I feel torn as a mommy to be away from Jarem so much and I deeply miss hanging out with Eric after work. I’m sure it will only get harder as our family grows.

Karen is an amazing coach. She has four kids, a supportive husband, and the most dedication to her team. I have never met a coach like her. Her knowledge and passion for basketball far surpass me so it is so fun to just be around her and hear her talk about the sport. After playing I feel pretty knowledgeable about basketball. But when I hear Karen talk it brings me to awe of how much there is to learn when coaching.
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Happy Boy!

Well, yesterday was Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Jarem has decided to give up ear infections for Lent. :) What a good boy! We are proud of his decision. Hehe Yesterday Jarem also got tubes put in his ears. It was an early morning full of anxiety for Eric and me but to Jarem, it was just another day with mommy and daddy and new places. He had to be at Phoenix Children’s Hospital by 5:30am to check-in for his 7:00am surgery time. We left the house at 4:30am and were up at 3:30am. We didn’t go to sleep until midnight though because we were packing bags and loading the car and triple checking that we had EVERYTHING we thought we might need. We definitely brought enough stuff with us but no one could say we weren’t prepared.

Jarem woke up a little when we left the house but quickly fell asleep once we got on the road. He didn’t wake up again until we were in the waiting room at the hospital around 6:30am. It was quite confusing when we got to the hospital because they told us to go to outpatient surgery. Well that was in a different building than the address on the pamphlet they gave us. So first I tried the outpatient building only to find no offices were open yet. Next I went to the building that was addressed on the pamphlet. Well those doors were locked, too. So after going around the building a couple times and finally finding someone to let me in the doors, I found the suite number listed on the pamphlet but again, the door was locked. We went to the main hospital entrance and up to the front desk where they told us that we were at the right place before but the doors don’t open until 6am. At least we were highly acquainted with the building now!

We drove back over to the other building and Eric dropped me off at the curb with some of the stuff. We loaded Jarem in his stroller and then I walked around with him in the building (which was nice and dark since it wasn’t officially open yet) and Eric went and parked the car. Soon after Eric got back from parking the car the doors opened. We were the first ones up to the counter to get Jarem checked in. We walked laps around the waiting room to help keep him asleep a while longer. We were going to such great lengths to keep him asleep because he wasn’t allowed to eat past midnight and we were nervous he would wake up in a fret without his morning meal. Anyone who knows my son knows he can’t go long without food. Especially when mommy is close by with milk…

We sat down and played a couple hands of cards when we saw his stroller shake a little. Our little angel woke up. Here are a couple pictures we took right after he woke up when he was still in his stroller.

The doll he is holding is the softest lamb from Tita and Tito. It has a wind up music box that plays "Jesus loves me, this I know". Jarem loves to snuggle with it and give the lamb kisses. So cute…

We got Jarem out of his car seat and played with him for a couple minutes before they called us back. Jarem got his (second ever) hospital bracelet and vitals taken and they asked us some questions about medical history, etc.

Then Jarem was really awake and wanted to play. He played at the table with us and also pushed the little stool around like it was a walker. It was so cute to watch! Most of the other kids were either sleeping or sitting quietly. But Jarem was walking in circles and laughing and playing. We were so relieved that he was feeling so good.



The anesthesiologist came and met with us to give us a brief rundown of the procedure and what to expect. We also met Jarem's nurse that would be staying with him during the procedure. Everyone at Phoenix Children's was so friendly and great with Jarem. Dr. Josen is the last person we met with before Jarem's surgery. He is so caring and chill. He was mellow but still showed concern. It was so refreshing to see his confidence without the arrogance.

The nurse then came over and took Jarem after we laid a solid minute of snuggles and kisses on Jarem. He didn't cry when they took him away because he was too busy looking at where he was going rather than the fact that he was leaving mommy and daddy. That made things a lot easier on us that he didn't cry when they took him back. We said a quick prayer before packing up our stuff and heading back to the waiting room. Eric made the best realization while in the waiting room. Hospital time travels so much slower than normal time. Although it was only ten minutes before Dr. Josen was out in the waiting room with us giving an update, it felt like an hour. We stayed calm and patient though and were really anxious to get back there with Jarem again. When we got back to him he was a little groggy and whining but not screaming and hysterical like I expected. He immediately nursed with me and calmed down. Eric and I were so relieved to see that he was okay and still our gorgeous, happy little boy.

The rest of the day was a breeze! He was in the best mood on the car ride home. He laughed, played and filled our hearts with so much love. Once we got home we all took a nap together, what a long morning! All in all, Jarem is a new man with his tubes in his ears. He is incredibly playful and happy. We really cannot thank everyone enough for the warm wishes and prayers this past week and especially yesterday. We also thank Jenifer, my sister, for making us dinner last night. We had stuffed shells and garlic bread. SO YUMMY! I think I need to add that one to my recipe book.
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SO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT!!!

It has felt more like surviving to the next day lately than living. It has been really crazy in the Bailey household these past few weeks. I cannot even begin to mention how messy our house has become not to mention how messy my brain feels. I'll start with an update on Jarem. We had a horrible experience with Dr. Bartell at Maricopa Ear, Nose, Throat and I would recommend that NO ONE go to see anyone at that practice. Just ridiculous! We were lucky though to receive a good referral from Amy, Eric's co-worker. Friday I took Jarem up there for ANOTHER ear appointment and Jarem will be getting Tympanostomy Tube Surgery on Wednesday at 7:30am at the Phoenix Children's Hospital. It has been a long time coming with all the ear infections our poor guy has suffered through. He is one tough cookie! We were supposed to go to my friend Suzanna's wedding on Valentine's Day in San Diego. Jarem was acting a little fussy and I decided to take him to the doctor to make sure he was okay to fly. We found out that he had double ear infections AGAIN! This was on Wednesday, February 11th. We went back to the pediatrician Thursday and Friday and got three rocephin shots (strong antibiotics and very painful for him). After Jarem's worst night alive filled with fevers, baths, crying, screaming, moaning, etc we finally thought he had kicked the infections. Well when I took him to the new, amazing Dr. Josen on Friday we found that he still has two ear infections. I feel so bad for him!
That week honestly was one of the worst weeks I've had in a very long time. Joanna, my best friend and Jarem's godmother, texted me late that Thursday evening (2/12) and told me that the paramedics were at her house. I immediately called her and tried to calm her down and let her know things would be fine and it was just a scare. After the worst half hour on the phone, Joanna called me and said her dad had passed away. I could not believe it!!! How could Joe be gone?!? He is young and healthy and I didn't think God would take him yet.

The Usher ladies are amazing and I will blog more about those events later but for now I can say that I love them very much and am proud of their strength and faith in God.

That same evening, Thursday the 12th I also threw out my back. After Jarem received his shot at the pediatrician's office we were jumping around trying to cheer him up and I tweaked my back. By the time we drove home I couldn't stand up straight or walk. I spent all of Friday and Saturday and part of Sunday laying on our living room floor with a heating pad. Just topping on the cake...

The good news at the end of all this is that life is starting to slow down (a little) and life almost feels normal. I have so much that I want to write but that's a starter. Sorry it's been so long...
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Facebook Album

facebook Eric Bailey 3:20pm Feb 16th Facebook Album To eric.m.bailey.mobile@blogger.com   Here are some pictures from this weekend! Happy Valentines day! Eric has shared a link to an album with you. To view the album or to reply to the message, follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=10034426&k=55G36Y6ZUW6M51AHPK3TU4 Are your friends bothering you? You can opt out of emails from friends on Facebook.

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New Camera!!

YAY!!! We got a new camera. We didn't get any old camera, Eric did his research and got a camera that should last us a lifetime. The pictures are so amazing and the camera came with photography classes and all kinds of cool stuff. I am so stoked and I know Eric is too!! Yesterday I stayed home with Jarem and put our new camera to use. I can't get over how handsome he is and how fast he is growing up! I know my opinion is biased but I love him so much
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Nanner Nanner

I am sad this took me so long to post. This is one of my absolute favorite videos to date! My mom was feeding Jarem a banana at Jen's house. So funny! This is from a little while ago but the faces crack me up!! The feeder is this little net that you can put food in so he can chew on it and get the flavor without worrying about choking. The banana works well cause it squishes out through the net and he gets pieces of banana. YUMMY! What a great video

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Catch this

Daddy and Jarem love to play catch together. I think this game started during my basketball games. The good news is that Jarem has mastered the art of throwing a ball. The bad news is that he's also mastered the art of throwing food, clothes and anything else he can get his hands on. But we don't really mind the game of throwing things on the floor cause it means he's learning gravity and the way the world works. Gravity is a pretty tough lesson to learn but it's good that he's learning it with objects and not his own body. We love this wiggle giggle ball that gramma got Jarem. And as you can see, Jarem loves it too! I love how he squirms when Eric makes it squeak. Check out the video

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