Big Sister

So far the transition from only child to Big Sister Hannah has not been too bad. She seems to like Alex well enough and only requests that we put him in his seat (the Baby Papasan) a couple of times a day. Yes, she shows signs of jealousy and yes she throws more tantrums, but it is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. In fact during the day she is really good. It is not until Daddy gets home that things start to get ugly. I'm hoping that this just means that she's clinging to Daddy since Mommy has to take care of the baby.

(This picture was taken during Alexander's first trip to the beach last week. Hannah had such a good time running around playing in the water and digging in the sand all the while Alex just slept.) Anyway, while the grandparents were here she got spoiled to the core. She received so many presents, treats and extra attention that we were afraid how she would respond after they left. The truth is, she actually got better. Not as many fits were thrown and she was back to her semi-normal self. I guess she knows who is wrapped around her little finger!

Chillin' 

Painting with Daddy 

Changing

Here is Alexander, 16 days old next to Teddy. I'm going to copy Stephanie and take a picture of him by it every month to see how much he has grown and changed! Unfortunately, the bear is in better focus than Alex is, I'll have to work on that for next time.

Patience must not be a virtue

At least not in my family. As most of you already know, Alexander Jay made his appearance on October 2 at 12:43 am. He was 7lbs 14oz and 21.5 inches long. He wasn't scheduled to arrive until Wednesday of this week, but he had his own schedule. On Saturday of last week I started having contractions. Throughout the day they got progressively worse so we drove to the hospital. After three hours of being monitored they sent us home because nothing was happening. Well, the contractions never stopped. Sunday we went about our normal activities all the while the pain was getting worse. Finally at 9 that night I begged hubby to take me to the hospital. He really didn't think anything was going to happen, but agreed to take me.

Well we got there and I was about 4 cm dilated and 100 percent effaced. So, they said they would call surgery and get us there as soon as possible. They finally wheeled me down to surgery around midnight so who knows how dilated I was by then! Mr. Alex had worked his way down the canal by then and they had a really hard time getting him out. His little head was stuck so they pushed and pushed on me to try to get him out before finally using the vacuum on him. Unfortunately that bruised up his little face, but he was fine.
I think that you'll agree with me when I say that I see a lot of my husband in him. Hubby was a little more filled out, but their faces look alike! Anyway, since my c-section was scheduled for Wednesday, I took one more class that just finished tonight. I have been so stressed out worrying about finishing that class, praise God it is over!!
Here are a few pictures of Alex and Daddy for comparison. My next post will feature Big Sister Hannah and how she is adjusting to the life with a new baby! All I have to say is thank God for grandparents! They have truly been a lifesaver.

Prayers

Just wanted to ask everybody to keep my brother in your prayers. He left Sunday night for Iraq and will be there for the next seven months. Thanks!

One word....teething

I remember a few months ago at the Taters 24 month check-up the PA talking about her getting her two year molars. He said something along the lines of us knowing she was teething because she will suddenly transform into the spawn of satan. Well internet it has happened. It started last week and I was really quite annoyed with her sudden change in disposition. VERY cranky and not eating anything. At first I just thought it was the "terrible twos" taking over and was rather disappointed that my little angel would act like that....especially in public! Then after a couple days of cranky toddler vs cranky mommy (do to not sleeping at night) it hit me, she's teething. Sure enough, upon examination of the mouth there were two giant teeth trying to poke through. Now that I know the problem, I am much more sympathetic and much more eager to drug her up and she is doing much better. Of course we still have our meltdowns, but they are quickly solved with "Do your teeth hurt? Do you need some medicine?" After that it is pure bliss.
On the baby front, I am getting increasingly anxious (and large). I can't wait to have this little guy/gal and find out who we have. Not to mention the fact that I am getting more and more uncomfortable and having a hard time sleeping at night. I swear I toss and turn all night, and when I'm not tossing or turning I am peeing or having heart burn. Finally I fall asleep only to wake up to sore hips!!! I am at weekly visits now and only have TWO left!!! I just want to know one thing, who in their right mind makes a gigantic prego pee in a cup? Hello, I can't see what is down there, how am I supposed to hit the cup? Thankfully I must have pretty good aim because I haven't missed yet, but I am just waiting for the day that I pee on my hand. Really, that will be a great time.

Don't look too close....you'll see the stretch marks!! 

Belly shot 

STOP, THIEF!!!

As I was cleaning out our disgusting fish tank today, the girl was happily playing in her toyroom (which is off the kitchen). I couldn't see her because I was in the bathroom scraping build-up off of the tank, but I could hear her playing so all was well. Pretty soon I heard her walking through the kitchen, she came to me said a few things then went back to play. Or so I thought. I went to the kitchen to get more paper towels and found rifling in my purse. Leave Mommies purse alone!, I told her and she did. Moved the purse, went back to scraping. A few minutes passed and I went to put tank back together. Walked into the kitchen to get something and saw her in the playroom with the tin of icebreakers sour mints. She held them up and said "Mommy, nummy?" (Yummy) Anyway, she loves these mints so I told her to bring it to mommy and I would get her some. So, she brought me the empty container. She managed to eat an entire container of mints in less than five minutes!!!! Thank goodness they are sugar-free!

Shooey!!

One of my favorite things about Hannah right now is her ability to learn just about anything in such a short period of time. Like people say, she is literally a sponge absorbing everything she can. Over the past few days whenever I change a stinky diaper I say "Shooey!" in a really high pitched voice. My daughter now sings shooey, over and over again (in a high pitched voice) while I change her stinky diapers. It is quite amusing. It makes me think that if I would put some effort into it, she would be potty trained in a matter of days. I just can't motivate myself and frankly I wonder if she is actually ready. She has also picked up the word "ewww". I don't think she knows what it means because she will say it in random sentences that don't make any sense. Like earlier today she said: "Mommy, daddy ewww!" Of course maybe she's onto something with that one....
We have also visited her doctors in the past week. Last Tuesday we saw her orthopedic doctor, because of her "condition" the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that she be seen every six months. Well, we saw them and they said she looks good. Basically a waste of time, but something that we have to do. I was relieved because there are some people that comment on her legs and if she'll need braces. They seemed to think that she does not need braces and will not because braces alone will not do anything. This Tuesday we saw her endocrinologist, another three hour drive, for a five minute appointment. I am happy to report that she has continued to grow at a steady pace, however she did not catch up to the normal growth range at all this time. They did move her dosage up a little bit this time, so maybe that will give her the boost that she needs.
On the belly front, other than the fact that it is getting extremely large, one of my good friends keeps pestering me to put up a picture since I am so far away. So to make her happy I will:) Just as soon as hubby gets home....so stay tuned.

Water Baby

Our girl is definitely a water baby! Every time we visit the beach, she loves to go out into the water and swim. I'm talking out in the deep water with Daddy. Now this tends to make me a little nervous because hello, it's the ocean! If she goes under what if we can't find her? Anyway, on this day it was really calm, so it didn't make me quite as nervous. In fact I joined in on the fun.
However, usually she wants her daddy. Daddy swim, mommy!!! Daddy swim! So, I don't feel too guilty about not playing with her out there. This past weekend while we were swimming there were a ton of fish. More fish than either of us have ever seen in the water. There was an entire school of them just out a few feet past where we were swimming. We don't know if it was because it was raining off and on or what. You could only see them as the waves would start to roll up or when they were jumping out of the water! Hannah loved watching them. She did not want to get out of the water because she could see the fish.
We always have a hard time getting her out, but it was extra hard this weekend. Daddy finally told her that the fish went to sleep in order to get the pruny-purple little girl out of the water and into her towel! We realize that we only have a couple more trips to the beach left in this season, so we try to enjoy it as much as possible.

Mark your calendars!

Save the date, mark your calendars....Thing 2 will be making his/her grand appearance on Wednesday October 11 at 11! Our surgery was scheduled for us yesterday and I'm a little bummed because it would work out better for our parents if it was a Friday. Now we're not sure who will be here and when, so we don't know if we'll have somebody to watch Hannah or if we need to try and find someone. Anyway, just wanted to let everybody know what we would be doing on the 11th of October!!!! So keep us in your prayers on that day.

Oh, to be free!

Recently we have started introducing Tater to potty training. Nothing to serious because I know that she is not quite ready yet, however I wanted to get the ball rolling per say. So far she loves to wear the big girl undies. In fact her favorite thing is to run around diaper free. Oh to be free, to her is such a joyous thing. Thankfully, she can't quite get her diaper off on her own without a twenty minute struggle, so usually it stays on. There are times though when we are sitting on the toilet that she will get up and run around. As soon as I tell her it's time to put our pants back on, she looks at me and says "Mommy, I potty." Then has to sit on the potty for another ten minutes. Unfortunately, she hasn't quite figured out that the potty actually is for her to go in. Case in point, two nights ago right before her bath I put her on the potty...nothing. So while I was getting her bath ready I let her run around sans diaper. After her bath we usually let her run around and air dry for a bit before forcing the diaper back on her. She decided it would be a good time to color on the floor with Daddy. I asked her to sit on the potty, she said no, so I dropped it. Not even five seconds later she had an accident on the floor. As I was cleaning it up, I took the paper towels out to the trash and smelled a really awful smell. Where is that coming from? Does our garbage smell that bad? So I flipped on the light and followed my nose over to her kitchen set where I found a nice Hannah sized terd next to her stove. OH. MY. GOSH! Is what I proclaimed and what do you think was Hubby's answer? He responded with a "What did she poop on the floor?" How did he know that? He says he did not know it but smelled the smell himself and gauged my reaction as to what it was. He also went on to clean it up in order to prove that he did not know that it was there. What a guy!
Point of the story, even though Hannah loves to be "free", I told Hubby that there will be no more running of the house without proper attire. At least until she gets a little bit better at this potty training thing.

Sunny Days, Chasing the Clouds Away

This past week we took a little road trip, ok it was more of a big road trip. A lot of driving was involved. Driving in the car with a two year old, well it's.not.fun. We first drove to my parents house in OH to drop our daughter off for two days while we went to a wedding in Cleveland. My good friend got married and had a beautiful wedding. It was quite unique, her husband is from Ethiopia, they met when she was on a missions trip however he was attending college in the US at the time. Anyway, for the rehearsal, all of us women were dressed in authentic ethiopian garb. Pretty cool. The dinner took place at an Ethiopian restaurant in Cleveland where we got to sample different types of foods and partake in different traditions.
My pictures got mixed up, so the wedding picture is down below!! During the ceremony the bride and groom recited their vows in English and Amharic (not sure on the spelling). There was also some readings in Amharic as well as the singing of the Lords Prayer. Overall it was a wonderful experience and I wish Nicole and Mesfin the best of luck! Look below to see me in my big melon dress!
After the wedding we drove to Philadelphia to take Hannah to the Sesame Place park. Overall I think that she had a great time. She was a little overwhelmed at first, she wanted to run everywhere and see everything all at once. She also did not understand the concept of lines. She thought that she should be able to run right up and hug Ernie and Bert, and was quite upset when we told her she couldn't. The same happened with the rides. She did not like to wait in line and was quite upset when her turn was over and she had to get off. That part was not fun for Mommy and Daddy!! If you notice in the picture she is crying, that is because it is after four, she is extremely tired and still wants to run around. I think that she was asleep by the time we pulled out of the parking lot. The park was fairly small and very crowded. We decided that it would not have been worth the money if we had to pay to get in. Maybe when she's older. Unfortunately, most of our pictures were taken on a water camera, so we'll have to wait until they are developed before we can post happy toddler at the theme park!

Here is big old prego mama! Thankfully back home where we now need a vacation from our vacation. I am a little worried though because I think that was our last long car trip with just one child. I can't imagine what it will be like driving up with two. YIKES!

Sniff...Sniff....Do You Smell Something????

Thursday night before I went to bed, I noticed a foul odor in our bedroom. My initial thought was that there was a dead mouse in the bedroom somewhere. Since the hubs still wasn't home I really didn't want to locate a dead mouse and have to dispose of it. So, I sprayed a bunch of air-freshener and went to bed. The next night when hubby got home, I told him of my suspicions. He went into the room and said he didn't smell anything, but thoroughly look under everything trying to locate the odor. Last night, still haven't found the culprit and it wasn't a strong enough smell to lead me to where the source was. I would think I was in the right spot then loose the scent. Anyway, I got down on the floor at the end of the bed to pick up some clothes Tater had drug out and the smell was really strong. I looked up and between the mattress and the footboard there it was! Not one but two stinky, dirty diapers. That's right diapers. Somewhere along the line, I'm sure with the pregnancy brain, I must have went to dispose of them got sidetracked in the bedroom and set them down on the bed. Then I imagine I forgot all about them, stumbled into bed and kicked the covers down, thus diapers lost at the foot of the bed. I am just so thankful that it wasn't a mouse that I could care less that I was sleeping with rotting diapers!


Stay tuned for the 13 day saga of "single" parenting!

Fun in the bath!! 

How to....

I am trying to figure out how to use the links option on blogger so let me know if this works!! I found some really cute stuff that I would love to have for the next baby. Take a look here and here. I'm also looking for a nice diaper bag since the dog chewed it on his first long car trip to Ohio. Oh well, gives me an excuse to get a new one.
Still going it alone, but only 2.5 days left. I am so ready for the hubs to be home. Not so much because Hannah is a "bad" toddler, because she is a relatively easy child. More so because we just get so bored. It sucks being out here with not too many friends and no family. If we were home I guarantee the two weeks would have flown by. On top of the boredom, I am feeling a little bit down lately about my weight gain. I know that I am pregnant and that I am supposed to be gaining weight, but it seems that I am gaining too much weight. I have been trying to watch what I eat and I even cut out the sweets (mostly) but I am still gaining at to fast of a rate. I am dreading going to the doctor next week and stepping on the scales. Not to mention I am in a wedding next weekend and I will look like a blimp! So if any of you have some suggestions on how to not gain weight please give them to me. Also if you feel like cheering me up you can use one of the links above to buy me a nice present:)

See Mommy....

Here is Tater, with Daddy's hat on, this was actually not taken yesterday, but she was doing the exact same thing then. Only when I got the camera out she wanted to take the hat off and "See Hannah". I know her eyes are closed, but this was the only picture I managed to get before she whipped the hat off, and she is saying cheese, what more could I ask for?

Butterfly Kisses

Remember that song? The one that got overplayed on the radio and was heard at every wedding during the same era? I can't specifically remember when it came out, but I remember thinking it was pretty at first, then overplayed and not really understanding the lyrics. Although I am starting to understand them now. There is just something about a little girl and her daddy. It seems that Potato is really missing hers right now. Yesterday morning while I was getting her breakfast, she put on daddy's beach hat. This is the conversation that followed:
Her: See Mommy, Daddy's hat?
Me: Yes Hannah, you are wearing Daddy's hat.
Her: See Mommy, Daddy's hat?
Me: Yes Hannah, you look so cute with Daddy's hat on.
Her: See Mommy, Daddy's hat?
Me: Yes Hannah, I see.
Her: See Mommy, Daddy's hat?
Me: Yes Hannah.
Her: See Mommy, Daddy's hat?
Me: I see.
Her: See Mommy, Daddy's hat?
Me: Here is your breakfast, let's take the hat off now.
Fast forward through the day to late afternoon, the Tater finds Daddy's tennis shoes, slips them on and is tromping through the living room.
Her: See Mommy, Daddy's shoes?
Me: Yes Hannah, you look pretty silly in Daddy's shoes?
Her: See Mommy, Daddy's shoes?
Me: I see, aren't they a little big for your tootsies?
You can see where I'm going with this. Almost the same conversation that we had at breakfast. Now, fastforward to late evening. Hannah finds one of Daddy's t-shirts and puts it on. She looks pretty cute. Thankfully this time instead of the See Mommy conversation, she danced around the living room singing her own song. It went something like this: Daddy's shirt. Hmm, hmm, hmm. Daddy's shirt, Hmm, hmm, hmm. (Repeat over and over again) Then right before bed we had this exchange:
Me: Let's get ready for bed.
Her: No Mommy. (Takes my hand and leads me to the front door, all the while mumbling
something.)
Me: Hannah, what do you want?
Her: (Pointing to the door) Daddy?
That just about broke my heart!!!! I scooped her up, snuggled her close and reminded her that Daddy was evil. Just kidding, what kind of person do you take me for? I reminded her that Daddy had to go away on work and that we only had 7 more days to go.
*****************
On a different note. It seems that even the dog is sensitive to my hormonal pregnant needs. This morning at around 5:30 I was roused by the fresh aroma of dog dookie. That's right, the dog knows how hard it is for me to get comfortable and go to sleep, so he didn't want to wake me up to take him outside. Instead he thought he would just go and then try to hide the evidence. That's right, not only did he poop on the floor, but then he began to eat it. Luckily, the smell woke me up right away so he didn't have the chance to eat much. Crazy dog had to serve hard time for that one, I think his sentence is going to carry over for the next couple of nights. The problem is that the dog has been driving me insane. He's not so bad during the day, it's the evening that he begins to act obnoxious. About the time that Tony should be home he starts going to the door and whining like he needs to go out. So, I take him out (because we don't have a fence and he has a tendency to run off) only he doesn't go. He doesn't even attempt to go, he just kind of stands there and looks around. So, I walk him around the yard a bit and then take him back in. An hour later, he does the same thing. I'm paranoid, because we had a diarrhea incident a few weeks ago, that if I don't take him out he will have an accident and I will have to clean it. So, at first I was taking him out every time. Then I started yelling at him to go lay down, that didn't work. So, finally by day 3 I just put him in his cage for an hour or so. Regardless, last night when I took him out before bed he didn't go. I wasn't too worried because he did his duty that morning. I guess I was wrong! Nothing like waking up to that wonderful smell, thank you Dudley.

Anger Management

I really need some anger management courses right about now. I feel like breaking things, throwing things or even screaming at the top of my lungs. Unfortunately I can't right now because my sweet Tater is sleeping. The hubby is gone right now, been gone four days, will be gone 8 more. How, when he is so far away, can he make me so angry? I guess I can rack it up to male stupidity or maybe his lack of sensitivity to a raging-hormonal-pregnant wife. It's not like he did anything major, it's just the fact that he doesn't realize that what he did bothers me. Get it? Moving on.....breathe in, breathe out! Well maybe it won't be a big deal if I forget to pick him up from the airport?! Ha!!! Except, that means that I am a "single" parent even longer, so there goes that plan. Oh well, guess I don't get to get even, just have to forgive and forget and all that jolly stuff :)

24 Month Stats

Hannah had her 24 month check-up on Tuesday of this week. Not much to tell, she did get her iron level checked, which means finger prick. It is so funny to watch the nurses react to her. Since she is used to getting poked every night, she doesn't get upset for the little finger prick. The nurses, who are probably used to wrestling little kids to get them to sit still, are always so amazed by the fact that she just sits there and gives them funny looks. Then comes the band-aid saga. She hates to have band-aids on her fingers, she will not leave it alone until she gets the thing off. Put a band-aid on her leg, she'll leave it there all day. Don't know what it is. Anyway here are her stats:

Wt. 25.9 pounds, which was 25%
Ht. 30 inches, which was 3%

She is in her "big girl" bed now. We converted her crib to a toddler bed, by convert I mean we took off the front rail (pretty difficult). Anyway, we got her some "big girl" Dora sheets and she loves them. Unfortunately she is a bit of a roller and rolled out of bed twice the first night before I decided to put the rail back on. We went out to Wal-Mart and bought a little mesh rail, that says in big letters NOT FOR USE ON TODDLER BEDS. Doesn't say why though, so we broke the rule and are using it. It has been over a week and she is doing great with it. She still gets excited to see her sheets. Now if we could just convince her to get rid of the paci and use the potty. For the potty, I'm thinking buying "big girl" Dora undies will do the trick, but not sure about the paci. Whenever I talk to her about getting rid of it she says no. Any suggestions?

What's in a name?

One of the names that we like for a girl is Isabelle or Isabella. The problem is that we can't decide which way we like it better. Here is your chance to give us your opinion, just leave a comment saying which way you like it better. While you're at it, give us some middle names as well. Unfortunately the name that I liked, Grace, just doesn't sound right with our last name.

I was supposed to have my glucose test on Monday, but got to the doctor's office and they didn't have a battery that they needed for the machine. Here I was thinking it was some sort of special battery that they had to order, but after my appointment the doctor said to the receptionist, why didn't somebody just run out and buy one? Hello!!! You don't need a special battery?! Why didn't somebody run out and buy one? Get this the receptionist said that she offered, but the nurse told her not too. Apparently the nurse doesn't think my time is important enough to warrant somebody leaving the office. It's not that I was starving.....but I was pretty hungry. The main thing that bothered me was the inconvenience of it all. Tony will be in New Mexico next week, so I have to find a sitter again to come to our house (since the girl is still sleeping). The weird thing is that this just happened to my friend, only she was just 24 weeks and apparently you have to be over 24 weeks in order to get it done. So, what is with these doctors and the glucose test?

Ultrasound pictures

I could not get the pictures to upload from blogger bot, which is what I normally use for my pictures, so I had to do it as a post. It takes longer this way and can't handle the size, so I only posted two for now.
In the top picture, baby spuds is yawning. In the lower picture, notice the hand. Like the baby is saying "Get that camera out of my face!"

Boy....or Girl????

We had our second ultrasound today. Thankfully, the tech was a much friendlier lady and she did a wonderful job! We got some really cute pictures and I'm happy to say that everything was ok. The doctor said that sometimes the angle that they are scanning at can distort the image, and they were getting normal measurements for the cerebellum and surrounding areas. He also said that we have a baby who is measuring fairly large. This is one instance when I am thankful that I am having a c-section, a large baby = no fun for mama!!! Of course the title of this post is a bit of a teaser because we did not find out the sex...it was very tempting but we didn't give in. Enjoy the cute pictures.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABE!!

Today marks the day that we got married FIVE years ago. I can hardly believe that it has already been five years....although on some days it seems much, much longer than that. Time has changed us each...mainly our bodies, we are not the young kids we were back then. One of us has thinning hair, the other thickened hips!! We have also grown up together, though sometimes I wonder when you will mature. I have watched you become a father and it is so amazing to see you with our little girl. She truly holds your heart in her tiny little hands and that makes me love you all the more. Though we have both changed, our love has remained constant. I have posted a couple of pictures to give us a walk down memory lane, remember when we were so young and in love? I love you Anthony, happy anniversary my love. Here is to many more happy years to come!!
These are two of my favorite pictures from our wedding day. The top one was a candid shot taken by my step-mom. It was in between poses after the ceremony where we were stealing a moment for ourselves. The bottom is our first dance, and I could not get it out of the wedding album so I had to scan the entire page. Thus, the cruddy cropping job! I just think it is such a beautiful picture with the light behind us and the way we are looking into each others eyes.

Even though it is a "big" anniversary, we aren't doing anything too special. With me being pregnant and him already using up a bunch of vacation on weddings this summer, we are probably just doing dinner and a movie. We might splurge and do a dinner cruise, but we do not have reservations so we'll see. I guess we'll have to wait until the next "big" one to do something a little more special, oh well. All that matters is that we have made it this far, and are continuing to grow together as time passes.

Baby Spuds

Poor baby! It seems that in all of the commotion lately, I have not posted anything about my pregnancy. So here is a quick update:
Things are going good, as the days pass I am getting bigger and bigger. Not quite to the "Wow, look how big she is" stage, but past the "She looks like she's putting on a little weight" stage. I am feeling good right now aside from the constant heartburn I get every night. Why when it's getting close to time for me to sleep does the heartburn kick in? It's not like I sleep peacefully at night anyway, with the child using my bladder as a trampoline, but the heartburn is enough to through me over the edge. I can handle getting up every hour to pee, but toss in heartburn and I'm done!
The baby is moving all over the place now, I can't decide if spuds is trying to rearrange the furniture in there, or just having a good time poking me. Tony finally felt a kick a couple of nights ago. It seemed like before whenever the baby was moving around and I would tell him to feel it, the moving would instantly stop when he would put his hand on the belly. I love this part of the pregnancy, when the movements are noticeable and I'm not to the uncomfortable stage yet.
Hannah has started to kiss the baby now. She is so adorable, when asked where the baby is, she has to lift up my shirt and she always points to my belly button. I guess she thinks the baby is in that exact spot. Anyway, now when she is pointing she will sometimes kiss the baby, or just lay her head on my stomach like she is listening. Even though she does this, it is hard to say that she actually understands the meaning that the baby is eventually going to come out of mommy and live with us. I really think that she is too young to fully grasp the concept, but we talk about it anyway.
We did have our first ultrasound (finally) on June 26. I was a little disappointed with the tech that did our ultrasound. She was not a very friendly person, and lets face it when a couple is getting to see their baby for the first time, they do not want a sourpuss spoiling the moment. Most people would rather have someone with a bubbly personality that shows a little enthusiasm for their job. This lady did not even really take the time to let us look at the baby, she just went ahead with the measurements, saying simple phrases like "This is the foot." I know that I was spoiled with my ultrasound for Hannah, but come on we did not even get a profile picture!!!! Anyway, in case you are wondering, we did not find out the sex of the baby. Tempting as it was we stuck to our guns and told her we did not want to know. There was a slight abnormality on the ultrasound, there was some extra fluid around the cerebellum. I'm not really sure what that could mean, but the doctor did not seem to concerned. He said that if it was something major, he would expect to see more symptoms. Regardless, he wanted to get a second opinion, so we are going to have a level two scan done on July 20. As of right now, I am not worried about what it might or might not be. I figure why worry, when it won't change anything, and I know that I am not in control over this situation, but God is.
Anyway, since we do not know what we are having, I find it a little more difficult to pick out names. We have a couple that we like, but no middle names and nothing definate. I told hubs the other day that we needed to start getting serious about this whole name thing because before we know it time will run out. The other downside of not knowing is we can't buy a take-home outfit. I guess we could just buy two and return one!! Otherwise, I am looking forward to being in the delivery room, and hearing "It's a........."

PS I will post some ultrasound pics later, don't feel like scanning them right now 'cause it's time for bed! But, be warned, they are not the best....thanks to our wonderful tech.

Birthday Girl

Hannah 1 day old.

Happy Birthday my sweet, sweet Hannah!!! It is hard to believe that you are two already. It sems like such a short time ago that you were the baby in my tummy, and now you are my big girl! There are so many wonderful things that I want to remember about you when you are older, so I have written a few of them down.

Like how you love to sing and dance. You will make up your own music and dance around the room humming your new song. Your favorite thing is to climb up onto the fireplace and use that as your stage to dance on. Just a couple of weeks ago when we were visiting Grammy and Po's house, there was a bullfrog croaking. You found him to be very musical and started dancing to his rythm. You're favorite song right now is "Bear is Now Asleep" by the Wiggles, although the ABC song comes in a close second. You do change the words though and sing "Daddy's now asleep. Sshh, shhh, shhh." In the car you love to listen to Veggie Tunes.

Speaking of ABC's, you love to read your Pooh's ABC book and often ask for it by name saying "ABC's, ABC's!!" You are also learning to count right now. So far you have two and three down, but you often forget to say one.

Hannah 1 yr old

You are exploring the world and on your way to be a big girl. Often times you will try and dress yourself and end up with a shirt half on, or you will be wearing Mommy's shoes because you just couldn't get yours on. Jewelry is simply a must for you, wearing beads is your favorite and I often find you getting into the bottom drawer of my jewelry chest. Luckily you haven't figured out that is where I keep the stuff you are aloud to have and not my good stuff!

Your favorite movie is Lion King 1 1 /2, though you also love Dora and Elmo. I think that Elmo is close to being your favorite because you carry your Elmo doll all through the house. Just last night as we were doing our potty lesson, you had to involve Elmo. Problem was you put Elmo on your potty then squatted and started to potty on the floor!!

We love you so much and we are amazed at how much love and joy you bring to us. Hannah Taylor we are so thankful that God gave us such a special gift when he gave us you. Your personality is so bubbly, you are so fun to just watch. I hope as the years pass, you will understand how much we love you. Happy Birthday Tater-tots.

Special Dora cake made by Mommy

Happy Birthday Hannah!!

In ER waiting to be stitched up.

A Memorable Memorial Day

After being in Ohio for a little over a month, we are safely home and I am desperately behind in my blogs. The problem was that my family has dial-up and after being so spoiled with high-speed I could not force myself to stay on the computer any longer than necessary. Needless to say I am so far behind I will now be attempting to get caught up.
Starting with Memorial weekend. This is the weekend that it all started. We drove up to Ohio on Friday in order to attend a going away party for my brother who is leaving for Iraq. My extended family was having a little shindig at the local park complete with a cook out. Unfortunately, my daughter has no fear, so when my Aunt brought her little dog to the park she went right up to him and was petting him. All of the kids were playing with the dog and the dog is used to small children, so I was not really afraid for her. After about 15 minutes of the dog being there we were playing fetch with him, she reached down for the stick and the dog started biting her right in the face. At this point I was more concerned about my daughter then I was about the dog, so I reached down and scooped her up about the time that one of my Uncle's jumped over a picnic table to kick the dog out of the way. When I picked her up her face was just full of blood. I could not tell what had been bitten and what was just bloody. I yelled for my Mom and we took off toward the car, where my husband was so upset that he tore off the handle trying to open the door!! Anyway, the poor girl was so exhausted from all of the excitement of the day and having no nap that she fell asleep in my lap on the way there. I do not think that if I had just gotten bit in the face that I would be falling asleep, but anyway she did. We arrived at the ER and got assessed, the doc said the easiest thing to do would be to put her under in order to stitch her up, so we agreed. He also said it would take at least an hour for the sedation to wear off. Apparently he did not expect my little girl to be so strong, they gave her the sedation and she fell asleep, so I laid her on the table and left the room. My mom and husband stayed with her, but I did not think I wanted to witness this. The doc ended up having to give her four times the amount of sedative then originally planned because she was fighting it so bad. Then as soon as he was done she rolled over into my mom's arms and was awake. Overall she needed eight stitches, seven in her nose and one in the corner of her mouth. What a traumatic welcome to Ohio she had.
That's not all though, they kept the stitches in for five days and she was on an antibiotic since dogs mouths are so dirty. We went to get her stitches out on Thursday, then on Friday night she started vomiting. The first time ever for her being sick. The poor little thing. She could not keep anything down, we would give her just a tiny sip of water and five minutes later out it would come. How are you supposed to keep a baby hydrated that can't keep anything down? By Saturday it had turned into diarrhea, and Sunday (the day of my sister's graduation) she just simply had a high fever. We thought she was getting over it, so I sent her to my Aunt's house and I went to the graduation. Shortly after we got home she was vomiting again. By Monday the poor thing was so lethargic we decided to take her to the ER to get some fluids pumped in her. They put two boluses into her, which I think they said was like two bags for an adult, and she still had a dry diaper so they admitted her. Let me just tell you that I was not too pleased with the service, since we got there at seven and did not make it up to the floor until after midnight. The poor baby just wanted to go to sleep. Once we were on the floor, she slept until the next morning at about 6:30 and she still had a dry diaper! Finally at 7:30 she had a wet diaper and by 2:00 we were on our way home. She was still not herself, she didn't start getting life back into her until Thursday and boy were we glad to see her strutting around the house singing and dancing again.
Thankfully the rest of our trip was uneventful, but I will update more on that later!

Day after we went to the zoo!

They Call Me Mr. Pig!

How can one little girl have so many nicknames? Let us see how many she has had:
Birdie, Peanut, Hannah Tay, Hannah Tater, Tater-tots, Sakey-baby, Badoobah, Doo, Tay-butts (by her grandma), Hansah and of course the classics like sweetie etc.
It is intersting to see how the names have changed over the months and I can not wait to see what they will become in the future!

We're Baa-aack

We arrived home from Ohio on Monday afternoon, after spending almost two weeks there. It seems while we were there Hannah picked up a few new words. The most prominent one is Abbie, her little cousin's name. Then entire time we were there, every time we would leave the house, she would say: "See Anna Abbie?" (Anna is her older cousin, also Abbie's sister.) No Hannah, we are not going to go see Anna and Abbie today. Five minutes later "See Anna Abbie?" I'm sure you can see where this is going. I thought when we got home it would kind of die down, not so. Yesterday as we were packing her up in the car, her first words were "See Anna Abbie?" No honey, not unless you want to spend 13 hours in the car-seat again.
On Monday Hannah had an endocrinologist appointment, where we received good news. The doctor said Hannah is growing at a rate of a "normal" child!!! Hooray Hannah! She also said that Hannah was quickly catching up to the 5th percentile on the normal chart. Maybe by the next time, she will be on the chart.
I had an OB appointment yesterday and I am bummed out! I knew that I would not be seeing my regular doctor since I had to reschedule my appointment around our trip to Ohio. My regular doctor had told me that we would schedule my ultrasound around 18 weeks, which I am on Saturday. This other guy, decided that I should wait until my next check-up which should have been in four weeks, but since we are going back to Ohio, will be five weeks. That means that I will not get to see this baby until June 26th! With Hannah we had already seen her three times by then. What a major bummer!
Our life is back to normal around here...except for the mice that we keep catching! We came home to a housefull of mouse turds, so disgusting. Since we have been home we have caught three of those boogers, that is one a day. Hopefully we have just about got them all because I am tired of picking up mouse droppings throughout the house!

Words

Hannah has been talking quite a bit lately and people are always asking what words she says. Truth be told, I always have a hard time remembering when I am put on the spot, so I am making a list to help me remember.

hello (hewo)
mommy (sometimes mama)
dada (sometimes daddy)
see it
all done (all da)
bubbles (bahbbles)
Hannah (annah)
banana (nanah)
hot (ha)
no
oh no
yes (yah)
uh-oh
mambo (thanks to a Dora video)
play-doh (doh-doh)
ball
elmo (melmo)
baby
up (sometimes upee)
eyes
nose

That is all I can think of right now. As I remember more I will post them.

Calm before the storm?

This week has been a relatively quiet week. Almost a little too quiet to be the Tater-tot household! So that means no funny stories for the blog. Sorry but these are just going to be some boring ramblings for those of you that have asked that I update!
We have had beautiful weather and have enjoyed playing outside. We visited the park a few times, Hannah's new favorite thing is to try to climb back up the slide after going down! We tried to go to the beach today, it was gorgeous out when we left. The sun was shining, the temperature was high 70's. Unfortunately by the time we got to the beach it became overcast and windy. Hannah was very mad that we left without her playing in the water. We told her it was to cold and windy, but I don't think she cared.
On Wednesday Hannah received some presents from her Grandma and Grandpa A. and was very excited to rummage through the box. They sent her some new clothes (Dora of course), some new books and a few little Easter trinkets. The books are Dora books and I am about ready to hide them! We have read them over and over again each day. Don't you want to read something else Hannah? NO! Of course not, what was I thinking.
So I am just wondering, since it has been so quiet around here, when is the storm going to hit? Maybe it will wait until Grandma and Grandpa Chips are visiting next week and I can hide out until it passes!

WEEEEEE

Swinging

Slide

Blaaahhhh

It seems that when you are considering adding an addition to your family, you kind of forget all of the "bad" and focus on the good. For instance, I kind of forgot how sick I was with Hannah. Believe me, that I remembered very quickly after getting pregnant. It is also funny that different smells trigger the sickness. With the Tater, I could not stand the smell of the swiffer wet pads, a sweet pea lotion and aquafresh extreme clean orange toothpaste. To this day I can not use those products. So far with this baby it has been Hubby's cologne, my deodorant and a vanilla scented oil in the guest bathroom. I'm a little bit sad because I really loved the cologne before I was pregnant, now I'm afraid he'll never be able to wear it again. In fact, every time I walk into the room where the cologne is stored I gag. Not a good sign! I am also having aversions to just about every food and drink there is, making it awfully difficult to eat an entire meal without problems. I even have problems drinking water. My mom suggested I try some flavored water, just to stay hydrated, but after a couple bottles of those I can't even stand looking at them. Other than that, things are going pretty good with this pregnancy, good if you consider the fact that I don't cook or clean because I'm so nauseated. Bad if you're my husband and have taken over almost all household duties. Gotta love a man who will do that with minimal complaining!

Pepsi a*k*a liquid-crack

Really I'm not sure if there is such a thing as liquid-crack, being that I'm not really up on my drugs. Anyway, that being said Pepsi should be considered a liquid-crack. Last night I have a craving for a Pepsi....the regular caffeinated kind. So Hubby (being the wonderful husband that he is) runs out at 9:30 to get me some. Being that Hannah did not have her second nap, she was ready to go to bed. However, when Daddy poured me a cup of Pepsi she started throwing a little tantrum because she wants some. Hubby picks her up and takes her to the kitchen where I assume that he is getting her some milk. Not to long after she comes prancing into the living room with a sippy full of.....can you guess it? Pepsi. Hello!!!! The following is the conversation that we had.

Me: What are you thinking?! (As I grab the already 3/4 empty cup)
Him: What it's just Pepsi. What is wrong with letting her have Pepsi?
Me: Um, first off SUGAR and CAFFEINE at TEN AT NIGHT!!!! (Not to
mention it's just not a healthy habit.)
Him: Oh, I guess I didn't think about that.

So in case you haven't already guessed it, Hannah did not go to bed until late....very, very late. It was 1:30 am before I could convince her to lay down in her own bed. Before that I rocked her, sang to her, let her lay in bed with me and none of that worked. She was pumped up on liquid-crack. Around 1:30 she was almost asleep, but then started bopping around in the bed again, so I asked her if she was ready to go back to Hannah's bed. Her response, she took out the paci, looked at me in the eye and said "Noooo!" in a sad almost two year old voice. Umm, too bad. Night, night Mommy loves you. With that she finally fell asleep.

How Many Times Do We Have To Do This?!

Some of you may remember that back in December Hannah was supposed to have her Orthopedic appointment. However, after driving an hour to her appointment they inform us that she was scheduled with the wrong doc. He is a sports medicine doctor and really would not be able to see her. We need to see the pediatric doctor, no kidding the 17 month old baby needs to see the pediatric doctor? So, then our regular doctor decides that we should just go to Duke because it is a medical school and will have more specialists to help treat her. The day before her appointment in February, we get a letter from our insurance company saying that we can not go there because they are out of network. I call our insurance company, who is usually pretty good about letting our daughter see whoever she needs to see, but apparently the lady on the phone was having a bad day because she said that we could not go there when there were qualified doctors right down the road from us. Well obviously they aren't that qualified if our doctor does not want us to go there!!! Anyway, I cancel her appointment at Duke and schedule one in New Bern, the town right next to us for March 13th. We get to said appointment and guess what, they had us in the schedule for February 13th and the doctor who was going to see her is in surgery so could we please come back? You have got to be kidding me, can't we just get in to the doctor's already? It's funny how when I called they couldn't get me in until almost 6 weeks later, but when we are there they have an appointment in two days open. What are the odds? So hopefully if all goes as planned we will be seeing the orthopedic doctor tomorrow. Of course I'm a little concerned because I'm not sure if we are actually seeing a doctor or a PA. I know that PA's are qualified to do just about everything the doctor does, but when your child has a genetic disorder and has to see multiple doctors for multiple things it just doesn't give you the warm and fuzzies when it's a PA and not a doctor. Oh well, we'll see how it goes!

Case of the missing remote

So last week, while Mommy was out and Daddy and Hannah were spending some quality time together, the remote to the tv magically vanished. When I noticed it on Wednesday I looked everywhere. Under the couch, in between all of the cushions, under the chair, in the plant and I even looked in the kitchen. Of course all my searching was to no avail and Hannah did not understand why she couldn't watch Dora (I need the remote to change the input on the television). She was not very happy that morning, but when Daddy came home from lunch he showed us how to change the input without the remote. All was well, except the remote was still missing. I looked and looked all week and couldn't find it. Finally on Monday night, when Daddy was painting and I was supervising, I walked out and there was the remote in Hannah's hand. Where did it come from? I asked hubby if he found it and he said no, that means that the girl had stashed it somewhere and just decided that we had enough torture in our remoteless world so she decided to bring it out of hiding. Who knows where she had it at, but I know that if it ever comes up missing again, she'll be the first person I ask where to find it!

Enjoying the beach

Daddy drawing for Hannah, while she spots a plane

Stickin' Out My Tounge!

I'm such a big helper!