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.