Theme Days

One of the things that Angie came prepared with was a plan to do “theme days” for entertaining the boys. She put several books on hold at the local library so they would be here when she came. She planned treats and activities around the different themes and the boys LOVED IT!!
The first theme day she did, I returned from my doctor appointment and both of my boys came running to me shouting, “Mommy, we learned about bugs!!” They were so excited.
Here are just a few pics from the good times the boys had together:

( It seems like every day is Stick Day around here.)

I think our favorite theme day was Gingerbread Man Day. We read two different versions of the story and made cookies.

Then we played a chasing game that the boys loved. We are blessed with a house that has a long circular “track” that the boys love to run because it makes a full circle. Mostly we use it when they don their superman capes and we turn on the Superman theme song to let them fly. However, it is easily adapted for special occasions like this. We let the boys take turns wearing different hats to represent the characters in the gingerbread man story. Whoever plays the gingerbread man has to recite the famous words:

Run, run, as fast as you can.
You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man.
I’ve run from a husband, I’ve run from a wife,
I’ve run from a butcher with a carving knife…
And I’ll run from you, too. I can, I can!

Then everyone else says:
Come back, come back, come back!

Then the Gingerbread man says:
No, no. I won’t come back.
I’d rather run than be your snack!



And,the girls had the same themes on most days:

Annelise ~ Nursing and Sleeping Days
Monica ~ Trying Not To Get Clobbered By The Boys Days

Newborn Portraits

My awesome friend Natalie agreed to take some newborn portraits of Annelise. I feel so spoiled. There's no way I could have afforded a photo shoot or portraits this nice. We had a fun time doing this on Friday afternoon and got several fantastic shots. Annelise co-operated beautifully until the end. I guess that's how you know when you're done, huh?
Anyway, here are most of my favorites. Let me know which one(s) you like the best before I send my order off to snapfish.

Come On Over!!

Announcing a new and exciting blog, just for you!

Well, it's for all of us.

All interested parties, that is.

And that means you, obviously.

It's a place for us to write our movie and book reviews and discuss.

Kind of like a book club but lots and lots more fun.

Go over there and tell me what you thought of Middlemarch.

PLEASE!!!

Waking Up Is Hard To Do

Yesterday marked Annelise’s 3-week birthday. Up until now, she has slept so much that even when we try to wake her up for feedings we usually only get this pained expression:

I’m pretty sure that’s the face I make when I’m trying to wake up. Even if it’s not, I can definitely empathize with the feeling behind it.
Now that she is starting to wake up and we get to see the whites of her eyes a little more often, I wanted to post some pics so you can see what a beauty she is.



Incidentally, both of the above outfits are from the darling layette set that was given to us by Weston’s co-workers when they threw us a baby shower. These are among my favorite of all her newborn clothes and I find myself going for them almost every time I get her dressed. Thank You, Denise and everyone at the NCI OBF!!!

And…speaking of showing off cute baby stuff, here are the adorable, signature booties and scratch mittens hand-knitted for Annelise by my friend Becca. Thanks, Mme Dall. You’re the best!

Maybe I will laugh about it someday….maybe.

A few days ago, Weston called me from work to ask me about a good time for an “appointment” either in Woodbridge or Alexandria (both about an hour’s drive from home.) He wouldn’t tell me what the appointment was for…but as time progressed I figured it must be a massage or something of the sort. A very nice gesture from my sweet husband to let me pamper my body that has been through #*&^ and is in dire need of pampering.
We settled on Saturday morning at 10:30 and agreed that my mom would take me (since I’m still not allowed to drive) and he would stay home with all 3 kids. Impressive. It’s only been 2 weeks since the baby was born.

As the mystery appointment approached, I pressed him for more information so I could be more prepared. He wouldn’t tell me much of anything. It’s a surprise. Eventually I did get out of him that it was a pedicure. He kept saying…. “Just make sure that whatever service they offer you, you do it.” Okay. Whatever.

Long about Friday afternoon we began to hear news of Hurricane Hannah that would be making her way through this area on Saturday. Mom and I started to wonder if we really wanted to drive all the way to Woodbridge in the rain. She’s never excited to drive someone else’s car…and the rain just adds to the stress.

However, I determined that I didn’t want to try to change Weston’s carefully crafted plan, in fear that if I turn my nose up at it or try to reschedule, he might not be so eager to surprise me with such nice things in the future. Besides, it didn’t seem like it was raining too heavily at the time.

Side note: One time I was in the BYU floral shop when a young bride came in with a bouquet of flowers and told the florist, “My husband just got me these flowers but they aren’t the kind I like.” She proceeded to ask for an exchange. I found that both odd and appalling.

As we got on the beltway the rains started to pound on us. We drove through it, but also started to worry about getting stranded and considered turning around. We wondered why Weston would send us so far away for a pedicure when there are plenty of day spas near home. We called him and suggested maybe turning around and going to White-Flint Mall instead. He said he wouldn’t send us so far away if it was something we could have done in Maryland. So, we persevered and made it to our destination.

We pulled up to the day spa and I saw a big sign that said, “Try our new Fish Doctor Pedicure” with a picture that looked something like this:

Huh.

Well, I promised I would submit myself to whatever treatment Weston deemed worthy of pampering me. We approached the front desk and checked in. The receptionist told us to pick our nail polish colors and mom explained that she wasn’t there for a pedicure. She was just with me.

The pedicure itself was awesome. Before I put my feet in the fish tank I didn’t understand what the fish were for. I just thought they were supposed to swim around while you soak your feet. Bizarre. However, as soon as I put my foot in, the fish SWARMED to me and it freaked me out. Apparently the idea is that these fish actually eat the dead skin off your feet. Still kind of strange but also kind of cool. I let them chew on me for a full 15 minutes, every once-in-a-while getting totally weirded out. Mom thought it was a cool idea, and suggested that next time she and dad are in town, they will have to come and try it out themselves.

After the fish treatment I sat in the awesome foot-bath chair which massages your neck and back while the pedicure is being done. I got the deluxe treatment where they even exfoliated and massaged my legs and also took care of my feet.
Mom had a good time watching and chatting with me and with others in the spa. She proudly explained that I’d just had a c-section and new baby and so I deserved some pampering. I really think she was happy to see me getting the deluxe treatment.

When the pedicure was done, we were faced with the task of driving home. The hurricane, it seemed, had worsened. We decided we would gas up and then say a prayer for our safe return. Despite the fact that we picked a covered gas pump, mom still got completely soaked while filling up. We drove home very cautiously, just waiting for it to be over. We were frequently unable to see anything out of the windshield, due to the sheer volume of water being splashed up by other cars. Not 5 minutes from home, we drove over a stick which got stuck up the front grill of the car. Mom had to get out, pop the hood, and she also knelt down on the ground in the pouring rain to try to get the stick out. By the time we got home, she was soaked to the skin. She was such an unbelievably good sport. I was feeling guilty for putting her through that much stress and….well, water.

It didn’t take long after our arrival home before the grossest miscommunication was discovered. Apparently, Weston had scheduled TWO appointments for pedicure. Mom was supposed to get one, too. Nobody told me that. In all of Weston’s efforts to preserve the surprise, that part didn’t transfer through. Even the receptionist at the day spa didn’t mention anything. Once Mom told them she wasn’t having a pedicure, they accepted it and moved on. The thought never occurred to either one of us.

I cried.

First of all, if it was just a pedicure for me, we could have easily done it at another time. The reason Weston had us drive through the hurricane was so we could do something fun together before she leaves tomorrow. He thought it would be a nice way to “thank her” for all of her efforts this past week-and-a-half.
“Well mom, thanks for everything you’ve done for us. To top it all off, we want you to drive two hours through a hurricane to watch me relax.” Great.

I was so sad all afternoon. It’s just one of those situations that is so disappointing and it could have been prevented if only someone had been able to predict the gap in information that was getting passed on, and now there’s nothing you can do to fix it.

All I can say at this point is, Mom and Dad, now you really will have to get a fish pedicure next time you come and visit. Our treat.

One of these things is not like the other. One of these feet got it’s nails painted.

Welcome, Baby Goldilocks!

Well, looks like Stone already gave you the stats on Goldilock’s Sunday morning arrival. For those of you die-hard readers out there, details follow.

We are so happy to have her here, safe and sound. And, despite the fact that we have already had one preemie, we were still surprised that she decided to come 5 weeks early. As you know, I was gearing up for a full-term delivery, already profoundly grateful that we had made it well beyond The Nog’s 30-week mark.

I had read the VBAC Companion book and Stone and I were both optimistic about giving the VBAC a try. We even attended the doula open house at Holy Cross Hospital (ironically only one week before she was born) and signed up for their service, in the event that the vaginal delivery did come about.

My next goal was to try to ease her into turning head-down. Well, I tried the little exercises that are commonly suggested for encouraging babies to turn. I also tried playing music “down low” to entice her. However, it was all for naught.

At 3:00 am on Sunday, MY WATER BROKE! I’ve never had that experience before. It was interesting. When that happens, you don’t even really have time to think about what to do next. I remember the urgency of trying to figure out what to do, but not being able to concentrate on the next step because of all that gushing out of control. As soon as I realized what had happened, I knew I would be having surgery that day because I knew the baby was still not head-down.

We made it to the hospital and to make the long story short, Goldilocks was born via c-section at 6:57 a.m. Having already done this twice, I knew what to expect, which is both good and bad, I guess. As I was sitting on the bed in the FREEZING COLD (as always) operating room, waiting for the spinal, I was overpowered with the sentiment….

“I hate this.”

I just kept praying that we would be okay. It’s so hard not to think of all that can go wrong when you are placing your life in the hands of other human beings; particularly the anesthesiologist and obstetrician doing the surgery. (The latter of which commented to a nurse before the surgery something-or-other about his “45-year-old eyes.” Not a good idea when your patient is still awake.) However, I muddled through it with Stone holding my hand in one of his and the camera in the other. Of course I will spare you the gory pictures, though it is quite fascinating to see pics of the baby just seconds after emersion from the womb.

When she finally came out and I heard her little tiny voice squawking, I was so happy. I forgot for a brief moment about all the discomfort, tugging on my belly, nausea, nervousness, and trauma to my body. It’s amazing to me to realize that when you hear and see your baby, you really do start to think it was all worth it. And it is.

As they were weighing her and doing the initial checkup, I thought to myself that I would be happy with anything over 5 lbs. Imagine my delight at the pronouncement of 5 lbs 12.4 oz!

Based on the experience I had with The Blond Guy, I told Stone that this time, no matter how much I am throwing up, I want him to make sure I get to hold the baby as soon as possible after delivery. This is the first time I’ve been able to hold my baby within an hour of delivery. She was even still covered with goop when they handed her to me all wrapped up. In the post-op recovery room I was able (with a LOT of help from Stone) to do the initial breastfeeding attempts, intermittently with vomitting (which lasted for the next 18 hours). But I’m still so happy that I had that chance and now, even though she is so tiny and gets tired so quickly (after only 5 minutes of nursing), she can latch on and nurse pretty well. Amazing.

One of my favorite things in this life is introducing my new baby to the older sibling(s). It’s such a tender moment. I love it. Weston brought the boys in on Monday morning and I was not disappointed.

The boys were so sweet and happy to meet their new little sister!

Well, this hospital stay has been great and everything but….we’re ready to go home!

So nice to be home in your own bed, isn’t it?

I am so grateful for this new baby and I just want to express that I feel that my prayers have been answered. The Lord has taken care of us, as we’ve prayed all throughout this pregnancy, asking him to bless us with a whole and healthy full-term baby, a safe delivery and good outcome. As I said before, there is so much that can go wrong…every baby that arrives here safe and sound is a miracle. It’s hard, during those last few months of pregnancy with delivery pending, not to freak out about the potential of life-threatening disaster. But I feel this has been a good exercise in faith, patience, optimism, and trust in the Lord. We are so happy to have our new baby girl.

The reason I'm NOT going to work today

Goldilocks
Born August 24, 2008
6:57am
5lbs. 12 oz.