Since it's been quite some time since I've posted. I wanted to let both of my readers know we're still here. I'd like to say we've had a busy couple of weeks and that's why I couldn't find 5 minutes to post, but we haven't. I'm not really sure what we've been up to, but nothing exciting.
Flower had a nice birthday. In fact, she still thinks it's her birthday if you ask her. Since her birthday was in the middle of the week and Grandma and Grandpa were in Mexico last weekend, we decided to postpone the big bash until tomorrow.
Today I am frantically cleaning our house in preparation for the big event. It's been our policy to hold off on the kiddie parties until they turn 4. The girls don't seem to mind. Tomorrow we'll have cake and ice cream, gifts and balloons, and all the grandparents you can imagine.
Grandma and Grandpa are coming down with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. Uncle S and Aunt S will be here too. Auntie A is flying in tonight, and Great Grandma C is driving over to stay with Nana and Papa today. Unfortunately Great Grandma R is visiting family in California and Great-Great Aunt E is traveling around the world somewhere so they won't be able to join us. Oh, and I almost forgot, Great-Aunt K and Cousin K will be driving over for the afternoon as well.
Phew. I'm tired just thinking about all the chairs I'll need to find for seating. I think there will be 16 of us. So that's it. Nothing new around here. We'll be busy entertaining the grandparents this weekend. Next weekend Dear Husband and I are off to Sin City. It's a long story.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Happy Birthday Flower!
Flower turned two today. We sang, had birthday waffles with candles, and opened a gift before we went to daycare. We are planning hot dogs and ice cream at the carousel tonight. Princess is very excited as well. So much so that she couldn’t help but tell Flower about tonight’s plan, which made daycare drop off this morning a tad difficult because Flower didn’t understand the carousel would have to wait all day for her.
I always have mixed feelings on the girl’s birthdays. I love to shower them with gifts and create a special day for them. I also replay their birth in my head and it makes me a bit sad and sentimental to think my babies aren’t babies anymore.
Flower’s birth has a little story behind it...as most do I suppose. I’ll start off by saying the actual birthing part was a piece of cake…compared to Princess. I had an epidural, my doctor and Dear Husband spent the evening watching college basketball in my room while I progressed, and at 9:00 pm my doctor said let’s give it a try. I pushed twice and Flower was here. I didn’t break a sweat. I was wearing makeup that day because I didn’t think I would be in the hospital and I didn’t even smear my mascara. DH stills talks about the night and day difference in the girl’s births.
The days leading up to Flower’s birth are where the story gets a little more interesting. My brother proposed to his girlfriend around Christmas 2005. We were all very excited about Auntie S joining our family. They set the date. March 10th 2007. We decided Princess needed a sibling early in the summer of 2006. I figured things would take a while so there was no need to really plan for baby #2, we’d just let nature take its course. Turns out nature worked quickly and in July I was starting to think we might have a little…um…scheduling conflict.
I work with numbers. Numbers are my thing. I like numbers. I wasn’t a first-time mother. I had a pretty good idea when baby #2 would arrive. I finally bit the bullet, peed on the stick, and immediately jumped on the internet to find a due date calculator. I tried 3 or 4 different sites because I didn’t like the answer I was getting. March 7th. Three days before my brother’s wedding.
Fortunately I wasn’t in the wedding which was about 3 ½ hours away from where we live. I tried not to obsess about my due date throughout my pregnancy, and for those of you who know me know it wasn’t easy. I finally just decided (after much, much discussion with Homestead) that things will happen, we’ll prepare the best we can, and everything will be fine. My biggest worry wasn’t missing the wedding; I had come to terms with that, although I would have been immensely disappointed. My main concern was Princess. She was a flower girl and only two at the time. She hadn’t been away from us much, maybe only once or twice overnight and never traveled overnight without us. She would be in good hands, my parents and sisters would take care of her as well as Nana, but I was still worried….it’s a mom-thing.
Our family started to arrive the Wednesday before the wedding (Flower’s due date) so I took the rest of the week off. I was feeling fine, maybe a mild contraction here or there, but nothing of concern. DH and I finally came up with a plan I could live with (DH thought we should just stay home). Nana would take Princess to the rehearsal on Friday and DH and I would drive up Saturday morning providing we weren’t at the hospital. I was very lucky to have already had a completely uneventful pregnancy with Princess and the second time around my pregnancy was just as “boring”. We had discussed the possibility of traveling after my due date with my doctor and his response was “I’ll send a copy of your file with you….they have a hospital there too.”
Saturday morning we got up and headed to the wedding. We arrived around noon, the wedding was at two, and the reception followed. I had packed a bag for the hospital and we brought the infant carrier just in case. Everything was going just fine. It was actually very entertaining to hear all the whispers as I walked around the church. “There’s the groom’s sister, she was suppose to have the baby 3 days ago!” We were able to briefly visit with family we hadn’t seen in a long time.
We made it to the reception and enjoyed a lovely dinner. Just as I was finishing my meal I decided we need to hit the road. I won’t go into the details here, but let’s just say that circumstances had changed. I looked at DH and said we need to go, now! He started to gather our stuff and I grabbed Princess and started to make my way around the room saying our goodbyes. Princess was not happy she would have to miss the cake and dancing.
It was dark by this time, around 7:30 pm. It is a 3 ½ hour drive home, half of which is a two lane road with very few towns and no hospitals. DH was not thrilled about this. Princess was exhausted and she immediately fell asleep. I began to have a few contractions so I was watching the clock and trying not to let DH know. He was already stressed and I figured he needed to concentrate on the road. We didn’t talk much on the ride home, both of us playing out the possible scenarios in our head. My contractions were mild, but consistent. About 15 miles before we got to the one town with a hospital I began to pray. “Dear Lord, if we need to stop at the hospital you need to let me know now.” The next town with a hospital (home) was another 1 ½ hours away. Within seconds my prayer was answered and my contractions stopped. Thank you God!
The rest of the ride home was fairly quiet. DH was driving like a maniac, fearful of delivering a baby on the side of the road. We made it home without incident, unpacked a few things and went to bed. I was sure I would awake with contractions during the night and we would head to the hospital. We woke up the next morning and I felt fine.
There had been a few signs of labor, besides the contractions, the previous day so I decided to call my doctor’s office and find out if I needed to be concerned. I spoke with the on-call doc and he told me to go to the hospital. I tried to explain further but he wasn’t listening…there was some question as to a leaking issue so he didn’t want to take any chances. The hospital bag was still in the pickup so I picked up a few things around the house, we took Princess over to Nana and Papa’s, and started to make our way to the hospital. The normal protocol is calling the hospital to let them know you are on your way. When I got the OB unit the nurse she said they were waiting for me. Apparently the on-call doc had called my doc who then called the hospital…I guess we were supposed to hurry.
I really didn’t think I was in labor, heck, I felt fine. I was hungry because we hadn’t gotten around to breakfast yet and it was almost 11:00. After I called the hospital I thought about picking up bagels and coffee but decided to go to the hospital first, get checked out and sent home for the day, and then we’d go have a nice leisurely breakfast. Turns out the nurse had different orders. I was dilated a little and the nurse couldn’t get a good reading to determine whether I was losing amniotic fluid. She called my doctor and he said to keep me there and test again. So we hung out in the pre-admission closet. The nurse tested again and still no conclusive results. My doctor stopped by and decided since we were all at the hospital we might as well get the show on the road. They moved me to a real room and started the pitocin. So much for coffee and bagels.
Nine hours later Flower graced us with her presence and the rest is history. Happy birthday my beautiful baby girl! You make us smile with your silly faces and adore your big sister. I can’t wait for all the amazing things you will show us this year.
Love - Mommy
I always have mixed feelings on the girl’s birthdays. I love to shower them with gifts and create a special day for them. I also replay their birth in my head and it makes me a bit sad and sentimental to think my babies aren’t babies anymore.
Flower’s birth has a little story behind it...as most do I suppose. I’ll start off by saying the actual birthing part was a piece of cake…compared to Princess. I had an epidural, my doctor and Dear Husband spent the evening watching college basketball in my room while I progressed, and at 9:00 pm my doctor said let’s give it a try. I pushed twice and Flower was here. I didn’t break a sweat. I was wearing makeup that day because I didn’t think I would be in the hospital and I didn’t even smear my mascara. DH stills talks about the night and day difference in the girl’s births.
The days leading up to Flower’s birth are where the story gets a little more interesting. My brother proposed to his girlfriend around Christmas 2005. We were all very excited about Auntie S joining our family. They set the date. March 10th 2007. We decided Princess needed a sibling early in the summer of 2006. I figured things would take a while so there was no need to really plan for baby #2, we’d just let nature take its course. Turns out nature worked quickly and in July I was starting to think we might have a little…um…scheduling conflict.
I work with numbers. Numbers are my thing. I like numbers. I wasn’t a first-time mother. I had a pretty good idea when baby #2 would arrive. I finally bit the bullet, peed on the stick, and immediately jumped on the internet to find a due date calculator. I tried 3 or 4 different sites because I didn’t like the answer I was getting. March 7th. Three days before my brother’s wedding.
Fortunately I wasn’t in the wedding which was about 3 ½ hours away from where we live. I tried not to obsess about my due date throughout my pregnancy, and for those of you who know me know it wasn’t easy. I finally just decided (after much, much discussion with Homestead) that things will happen, we’ll prepare the best we can, and everything will be fine. My biggest worry wasn’t missing the wedding; I had come to terms with that, although I would have been immensely disappointed. My main concern was Princess. She was a flower girl and only two at the time. She hadn’t been away from us much, maybe only once or twice overnight and never traveled overnight without us. She would be in good hands, my parents and sisters would take care of her as well as Nana, but I was still worried….it’s a mom-thing.
Our family started to arrive the Wednesday before the wedding (Flower’s due date) so I took the rest of the week off. I was feeling fine, maybe a mild contraction here or there, but nothing of concern. DH and I finally came up with a plan I could live with (DH thought we should just stay home). Nana would take Princess to the rehearsal on Friday and DH and I would drive up Saturday morning providing we weren’t at the hospital. I was very lucky to have already had a completely uneventful pregnancy with Princess and the second time around my pregnancy was just as “boring”. We had discussed the possibility of traveling after my due date with my doctor and his response was “I’ll send a copy of your file with you….they have a hospital there too.”
Saturday morning we got up and headed to the wedding. We arrived around noon, the wedding was at two, and the reception followed. I had packed a bag for the hospital and we brought the infant carrier just in case. Everything was going just fine. It was actually very entertaining to hear all the whispers as I walked around the church. “There’s the groom’s sister, she was suppose to have the baby 3 days ago!” We were able to briefly visit with family we hadn’t seen in a long time.
We made it to the reception and enjoyed a lovely dinner. Just as I was finishing my meal I decided we need to hit the road. I won’t go into the details here, but let’s just say that circumstances had changed. I looked at DH and said we need to go, now! He started to gather our stuff and I grabbed Princess and started to make my way around the room saying our goodbyes. Princess was not happy she would have to miss the cake and dancing.
It was dark by this time, around 7:30 pm. It is a 3 ½ hour drive home, half of which is a two lane road with very few towns and no hospitals. DH was not thrilled about this. Princess was exhausted and she immediately fell asleep. I began to have a few contractions so I was watching the clock and trying not to let DH know. He was already stressed and I figured he needed to concentrate on the road. We didn’t talk much on the ride home, both of us playing out the possible scenarios in our head. My contractions were mild, but consistent. About 15 miles before we got to the one town with a hospital I began to pray. “Dear Lord, if we need to stop at the hospital you need to let me know now.” The next town with a hospital (home) was another 1 ½ hours away. Within seconds my prayer was answered and my contractions stopped. Thank you God!
The rest of the ride home was fairly quiet. DH was driving like a maniac, fearful of delivering a baby on the side of the road. We made it home without incident, unpacked a few things and went to bed. I was sure I would awake with contractions during the night and we would head to the hospital. We woke up the next morning and I felt fine.
There had been a few signs of labor, besides the contractions, the previous day so I decided to call my doctor’s office and find out if I needed to be concerned. I spoke with the on-call doc and he told me to go to the hospital. I tried to explain further but he wasn’t listening…there was some question as to a leaking issue so he didn’t want to take any chances. The hospital bag was still in the pickup so I picked up a few things around the house, we took Princess over to Nana and Papa’s, and started to make our way to the hospital. The normal protocol is calling the hospital to let them know you are on your way. When I got the OB unit the nurse she said they were waiting for me. Apparently the on-call doc had called my doc who then called the hospital…I guess we were supposed to hurry.
I really didn’t think I was in labor, heck, I felt fine. I was hungry because we hadn’t gotten around to breakfast yet and it was almost 11:00. After I called the hospital I thought about picking up bagels and coffee but decided to go to the hospital first, get checked out and sent home for the day, and then we’d go have a nice leisurely breakfast. Turns out the nurse had different orders. I was dilated a little and the nurse couldn’t get a good reading to determine whether I was losing amniotic fluid. She called my doctor and he said to keep me there and test again. So we hung out in the pre-admission closet. The nurse tested again and still no conclusive results. My doctor stopped by and decided since we were all at the hospital we might as well get the show on the road. They moved me to a real room and started the pitocin. So much for coffee and bagels.
Nine hours later Flower graced us with her presence and the rest is history. Happy birthday my beautiful baby girl! You make us smile with your silly faces and adore your big sister. I can’t wait for all the amazing things you will show us this year.
Love - Mommy
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Spoke too Soon
A few weeks ago I was telling one of my co-workers how fortunate I was that Flower would be having her second birthday in a few weeks and this was the first time she had been sick….or at least sick enough to stay home from daycare.
I’ve posted a few things about Flower and Princess being sick over the last month. We had a few bouts with a stomach thing in February but I was sure March would bring healthy kids. I was wrong.
Dear Husband was out of town at a conference last week and by Saturday I decided I needed to do something fun with the girls. We have a children’s museum in town that was having a puppet show that afternoon. I told the girls if we ate our lunch and took a quick nap we would go. Princess was coughing so I knew she was coming down with a cold. I tried to assess her situation and she assured me she felt fine and really wanted to go to the puppet show. “Mommy I promise to cover my mouth when I cough! Please can we go! Please?!?!?” So we went. I figured what the heck, it seems like everywhere we’ve been lately I’ve heard other children coughing, why deprive others of our germs when they’ve been so generous to us?
We went to the children’s museum and then stopped at the carousel for a few rides, hot dogs and ice cream (I’m campaigning to be the fun parent). As we were getting in the pickup to come home Princess began to sob. She seemed fine up until that point but she really wasn’t feeling well and now that the fun stuff was over she wanted to tell me just how rotten she felt.
Fast forward three days. Flower wakes up with a cough. Princess was feeling much better, still coughing, but not as much as a few days ago. I figured Flower was getting the same cold. I headed to work and DH dropped them off at daycare. Nana picked them up from daycare and Lily didn’t sound good. Our daycare lady said she had trouble sleeping all day and the cough was worse so I called our doctor’s office. He wasn’t available so we saw a different doctor at another office that is affiliated with our regular doctor.
Two hours, an influenza test (Flower was NOT impressed with that) and a chest x-ray later the doctor decided Flower has bronchitis. She also wanted the chest films read again because it may be pneumonia. And Flower probably as RSV but since she’s almost two there’s no point in testing because it won’t change anything. Ok. As we sat in the doctor’s office last night it made me realize how important the doctor-patient relationship is. The doctor we saw last night was fine, I have no complaints and she was great with Flower, but I wasn’t accustomed to her and I didn’t get a clear picture of what was really going on despite having all my questions answered sufficiently. She gave us clear instructions on what to watch for, when to bring her back in, etc. but as was walked out the door I had to ask DH what exactly was the diagnosis because there were many possibilities.
In any case, Flower is sick again. I’m knocking back the Airborne and counting down the days until I get it.
I’ve posted a few things about Flower and Princess being sick over the last month. We had a few bouts with a stomach thing in February but I was sure March would bring healthy kids. I was wrong.
Dear Husband was out of town at a conference last week and by Saturday I decided I needed to do something fun with the girls. We have a children’s museum in town that was having a puppet show that afternoon. I told the girls if we ate our lunch and took a quick nap we would go. Princess was coughing so I knew she was coming down with a cold. I tried to assess her situation and she assured me she felt fine and really wanted to go to the puppet show. “Mommy I promise to cover my mouth when I cough! Please can we go! Please?!?!?” So we went. I figured what the heck, it seems like everywhere we’ve been lately I’ve heard other children coughing, why deprive others of our germs when they’ve been so generous to us?
We went to the children’s museum and then stopped at the carousel for a few rides, hot dogs and ice cream (I’m campaigning to be the fun parent). As we were getting in the pickup to come home Princess began to sob. She seemed fine up until that point but she really wasn’t feeling well and now that the fun stuff was over she wanted to tell me just how rotten she felt.
Fast forward three days. Flower wakes up with a cough. Princess was feeling much better, still coughing, but not as much as a few days ago. I figured Flower was getting the same cold. I headed to work and DH dropped them off at daycare. Nana picked them up from daycare and Lily didn’t sound good. Our daycare lady said she had trouble sleeping all day and the cough was worse so I called our doctor’s office. He wasn’t available so we saw a different doctor at another office that is affiliated with our regular doctor.
Two hours, an influenza test (Flower was NOT impressed with that) and a chest x-ray later the doctor decided Flower has bronchitis. She also wanted the chest films read again because it may be pneumonia. And Flower probably as RSV but since she’s almost two there’s no point in testing because it won’t change anything. Ok. As we sat in the doctor’s office last night it made me realize how important the doctor-patient relationship is. The doctor we saw last night was fine, I have no complaints and she was great with Flower, but I wasn’t accustomed to her and I didn’t get a clear picture of what was really going on despite having all my questions answered sufficiently. She gave us clear instructions on what to watch for, when to bring her back in, etc. but as was walked out the door I had to ask DH what exactly was the diagnosis because there were many possibilities.
In any case, Flower is sick again. I’m knocking back the Airborne and counting down the days until I get it.
Ready 2 Read
Go here, Montana Momoirs, read this. Great information for parents with preschoolers.
Princess has always been interested in reading. We’ve been reading to her since birth and lately she’s really taken an interest in writing. She has been able to write her name, or at least two of the four letters in her name, for quite some time. A couple months ago someone helped her practice the other letters and bam, all of the sudden she can sign her name without any help and it’s completely legible.
As I was reading the above post I ticked off all the items on the list. We do all of those things. I’m going to take this opportunity to pat myself on the back. We also have the advantage of a retired schoolteacher spending a couple hours with us almost every day. Nana has taken Princess’ interest in reading and writing and began to foster it.
Flower is another story. Once again, just another example of how different two children made from the same DNA can be. We tried to read to Flower from the beginning, but she wasn’t really interested. When she was old enough to move around on her own she would grab at the book and try to wrestle it out of your hands. She made reading bedtime stories very, very challenging.
The last six months have been different so I have hope. Flower finally started showing interest in reading stories so we made them part of her bedtime routine again. Now she looks forward to stories and has her favorite books. It amazes me that she knows the names of her favorite books when all this time I was sure she wasn’t paying attention.
Recently Flower has taken to reading to her daddy or me. Some nights when we snuggle into the chair in her room for stories she tears the book out of our hands and gets upset if we try to read the story to her. She babbles some words and turns the pages for a while before she will hand the book over to us. She also started counting, or at least rattling off numbers. She’s fairly reliable with 1, 2, 3….although she does not understand the concept of counting. Then she points to items and throws out random numbers. I suppose she’ll figure it out some day.
Princess has always been interested in reading. We’ve been reading to her since birth and lately she’s really taken an interest in writing. She has been able to write her name, or at least two of the four letters in her name, for quite some time. A couple months ago someone helped her practice the other letters and bam, all of the sudden she can sign her name without any help and it’s completely legible.
As I was reading the above post I ticked off all the items on the list. We do all of those things. I’m going to take this opportunity to pat myself on the back. We also have the advantage of a retired schoolteacher spending a couple hours with us almost every day. Nana has taken Princess’ interest in reading and writing and began to foster it.
Flower is another story. Once again, just another example of how different two children made from the same DNA can be. We tried to read to Flower from the beginning, but she wasn’t really interested. When she was old enough to move around on her own she would grab at the book and try to wrestle it out of your hands. She made reading bedtime stories very, very challenging.
The last six months have been different so I have hope. Flower finally started showing interest in reading stories so we made them part of her bedtime routine again. Now she looks forward to stories and has her favorite books. It amazes me that she knows the names of her favorite books when all this time I was sure she wasn’t paying attention.
Recently Flower has taken to reading to her daddy or me. Some nights when we snuggle into the chair in her room for stories she tears the book out of our hands and gets upset if we try to read the story to her. She babbles some words and turns the pages for a while before she will hand the book over to us. She also started counting, or at least rattling off numbers. She’s fairly reliable with 1, 2, 3….although she does not understand the concept of counting. Then she points to items and throws out random numbers. I suppose she’ll figure it out some day.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Ponderings from the Potty
Princess got her bathroom habits from her daddy. That’s all I’m going to say.
I was in our bedroom yesterday and Princess came running in, announced she needed to poo, and jumped on the toilet in our bathroom. I continued what I was doing and Princess started a conversation, because let’s face it; she was going to be there a while. (Note to self-stock bathroom with preschool reading material.)
We came to a lull in the conversation and she was quiet for a moment. Then she says to me, “Mommy, I’m going to have to lay off the corn.” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know where she was going with this but I had to ask what she meant, to which she replied, “I tooted this morning when I was brushing my teeth and it smelled like corn so I need to lay off the corn!” I didn’t tell her we haven’t had corn in over a week….
I was in our bedroom yesterday and Princess came running in, announced she needed to poo, and jumped on the toilet in our bathroom. I continued what I was doing and Princess started a conversation, because let’s face it; she was going to be there a while. (Note to self-stock bathroom with preschool reading material.)
We came to a lull in the conversation and she was quiet for a moment. Then she says to me, “Mommy, I’m going to have to lay off the corn.” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know where she was going with this but I had to ask what she meant, to which she replied, “I tooted this morning when I was brushing my teeth and it smelled like corn so I need to lay off the corn!” I didn’t tell her we haven’t had corn in over a week….
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