Gag, ack, ick.....poor baby!

Just about the time that Hannah got over her cold....with one day of feeling really good, she's come down with a stomach virus. The Doctor called it "gastrointeritis." Dunno if I spelled that right....she's been throwing up....having the runs, not eating and feeling really lathargic. In the last 48 hours I've been puked on 6 times. Ewwwww. I did realize though that while I was covered in nasty, I was more concerned about getting Hannah (and my couch clean) than what was all over me. I guess it comes with motherhood eh? There isn't much that bothers me anymore as far as this stuff goes. Anyway, Hannah is feeling rather puny and can't get comfy to sleep well. I feel so sorry for her. She's become a cling-on in the last few days wanting to be held or snuggled all the time. The doc says she can only have 1 ounce of formula per feeding and once ounce of pedialyte per hour. Dunno how I'm going to get that stuff into her. She isn't interested in it at all. This is also the first time I've seen her snub food. One bite, that's it.
Apparantly this is very contageous....oh boy! Something to look forward too!

Christmas

Lou, Hannah and I made the trip to VA to be with Mom for Christmas. We also dropped two horses off (Sealy and Sean) at Michelle's farm in Marshall on the way.

Hannah traveled pretty well. No meltdowns just a little whining after being in her carseat for too long. The weather held up nicely for our drive. It did rain a bit once we got to Mom's though. Hannah was very good during our visit. She loved Mom's dog Abbey and torured her a bit. Abbey was very, very tolerant and just continued to lick Hannah all over!

Mom and I ran around and did some Shopping a few days and tired ourselves out with the massive crowds. No thank you! Christmas was nice. The four of us went to Culpepper to visit Dad's grave and put some holiday flowers there. After we got back we had an early dinner (Ham, taters, green beans, sweet taters and rolls). In the evening we went to Susan's to visit "Uncle Don" who is suffering from Pneumonia. He loves babies and Hannah just sat and stared at him. He enjoyed her visit though.
We made it home yesterday around 4:30pm. It was raining and nasty here. Tonight we have a race....cross your fingers for a win!!!

Standing tall!

Hannah has figured out how to stand by holding onto things. She seems to like showing this off because she will grab anything to pull herself up. She usually will turn around to make sure someone is watching her as she does this new cool thing. She also is cruising around the furnature a little. Just testing out her legs. The only thing she hasn't figured out yet is how to go form standing to sitting. She'll stand there until she gets tired and then start to whine for help because she doens't know how to sit back down on the floor!

Got up.......

Dunno how to get down! Help.....?

All I want for Christmas....

I took Hannah to meet Santa Claus yesterday. I thought maybe it was going to end up being a mistake since she's so young. To my surprise she was very good! We stood in line for 45 minutes. She flirted with the 5 year old boy in line behind us....and then sat quietly on Santa's lap, giving a cute smile for the camera. If I can find a way to get the picture online I'll post it. My printer/scanner is not working or I would have had it up already.

Ice Cream and Doggie Dishes

Soooo......Hannah is at a stage where she's eating "real food" occasionally on her own (sliced cooked carrots, green beans, creamed corn.....cherrios, sliced peaches) and now when Lou or I eat she looks at our food longingly and wants to try some. After Dinner Lou had one of those fudge ice cream bars and Hannah crawled over to him....giving him "the look."

Pleeeeeaassseeee!

First taste.....

Ewwwww......yuck!

Hmmm.....one more bite.....She does this with everything new she tastes. Begs, tastes, makes faces and then wants another bite. Lou and I couldn't stop laughing.

Auntie June bought Hannah this walk behind toy that plays music and sings songs when you push it. It repeats the ABCs or a song "Walk along...." over and over (hurray for that right) and Hannah LOVES it. She started pushing it while traveling on her knees. Then a few days later she got brave and stood up. She is now pushing it across the house until she bumps into something and can't go any further. We have to stay close though because she starts puching it and it rools too fast and she nearly does a nose dive. She's even gotten so brave she's trying to push it one handed.

So you are probably wondering where the Doggie Dish comes in?Hannah loves her bath....in fact she loves any water she can play in....including the doggie bowl...

Her shirt was soaked too!

Giving a second chance...

Today was a great day. Today "Beeper" got a second chance at a good life. Beeper (Beep N Go) is a retired racehorse that my in-laws bought at auction. He'd been a racehorse before, then was purchased by a young girl who barrel raced him. Her parents forced her to sell him and that's how we got him. We decided we'd try running him again. It was getting into winter and we needed only a few starts in order to stay qualified for our insurance through the track. Beeper would be just the horse to help us out. He didn't need to run real well (though we hoped he would), he just needed to come out of the gate and cross the finish line.

Long story short, Beeper wasn't any better at running during his second time around. I advertised him for sale and a very nice girl and her mom came out to try him. The girl fell in love with him....so after his last race, she vetted him and took him right home. Beeper was to be her dressage mount. She owned him over a year and a half. About 2-3 months ago her mother contacted me asking for help in selling Beeper. Her daughter had developed Rheumatoid Arthritis and decided to stop the medication. So riding was becoming more and more difficult for her. Beeper really was tough to sell because he had an old injury to his knee (way before we ever bought him) that would limit his ability to flatwork only. Since Beeper wasn't a good jumping candidate, no one wanted him. I had a few other emails form the owner asking for more ideas. I pointed her towards several advertising websites and sent his info to a few friends. Still....no one wanted him. Of course she was asking $2500 for him in a bad winter market during the economy crisis. So last week I received yet another email stating that Beeper was free to whoever wanted him (a good home a must of course) and if he didn't find that home in 6 days....the owner was going to euthanize him!
Well, that put a slight crink in my day. Beeper was not one of my favorite horses but I felt obligated to see he was not put down for no good reason other than he wasn't being ridden. So I went to my online friends and started a fund raising drive. Within 24 hours, we had enough money ($325) to pay a commercial shipper to deliver him to his new home in Maryland. IN fact, we collected more than enough money....so the remainder will go towards helping another needy soul coming off the racetack.

Beeper arrived at his new, safe home in Frederick, MD at about 1:45am this morning. His new owner (an upper level dressage trainer) says he's already settled in and made friends. So Beeper got his second chance today. Thanks to a super group of people whose generosity and kindness never ceases to amaze me!

The pictures shown above are from two years ago when we still owned Beeper. Yes, that's a cat on his back!

Below is Beeper in his new home....

In other horsey news....my new horse "Sean" had his teeth done today. I can not believe how bad they were. His teeth were so bad he had to tilt his head to be able to chew. I can't understand why people don't take care of their horses' mouths. This fella is super sweet and cute as a button. He just dealt with it....poor guy!

Here are some new pics form yesterday as he was playing in the round pen.

New Addition

So I'm trying it again. Last time my new horse had to go back because he was sold to me with a broken coffin bone. I'm crossing my fingers that this one is healthy and stays sound!

His name is "P.Vidi" and we are calling him "Sean." He's a four year old almost 15.3 hand gelding. I went to see him on thursday and was really disappointed to see he wasnearly three inches shorter than he was advertised as. I really liked the little guy.....but little is very hard to resell. So I spoke with MIchelle (who LOVED his pictures) and she spoke with a lady who helps her sell to high dollar clients. They both agreed that this horse would sell for a good amount with 3 months of training on him. So I bought him! He came home today and settled right in. He's sweet and cute and I cna't wait to see how his training goes!

Hannah had her second flu shot on friday. Didn't even cry. What a brave girl! She's getting into everything. I can't believe some of the things I pull out of her mouth! But it's all good. We are having fun!