Mallory

Just an fyi ... we have passed the 8 week mark! Yeah! At 8 weeks, Mallory was 11 pounds 8 ounces. 62nd Percentile for weight. Can't remember the length off the top of my head here, but was 39% for height. Looks like this one may get my height (or lack thereof!).

Christmas Highlights

I've got tons of pics to post - hopefully I will get them off the camera tonight. Here are the highlights:

Keira's Favorite Toy - 3 Foot Tall Barbie House that really I never should have bought because we have no where to put it, but the 3 year old LOVES it. It has gotten lots of play time!

Mom's Favorite Toy: The Leap Frog Scribble and Write. This has actually got her practicing her letters again - something she has lost interest in.

Most annoying christmas present: Fur Real Cat, I don't know what I was thinking when i bought this one other than Keira specifically requested it. It has however, provided for some comedy -- More on that later.

Keira's Favorite Part about Christmas: That she got to open both her and Mallory's presents!

Favorite Christmas Moment: This actually happened before christmas. I am the sole christmas shopper in this house. I am sure many of you Mommas can relate. So Wade had really no idea what I had bought for the kids. We stored it all in our sub-basement and I kept bugging him to go down there and check it out so that he knew what the kids were getting. Well, one night after everyone else was in bed (wade is a bit of a night owl), he decides to go down there and check it out. Now this is a basement - concrete floor, cold, dark, you get the picture. So he's snooping around down there and suddenly hears a cat meow and almost wets his pants. He literally jumped off the ground as he thought our neighbors cat had somehow gotten in the house. Really it was just the Fur Real Cat. Once he realized it, the cat almost got a big kick. I have never laughed so hard when he told me this story. Hilarious - if only I could have been there to see it. Seriously, I would pay money to have that on video!!!

So that's the quick run down. A good time was had by all. I've got lots of pictures to come - christmas, playing in the snow, making cookies, making a gingerbread house, etc. Stay tuned!

Are you ready for Christmas?

So, if it isn't bought by now, forget about it! I am DONE shopping. Words I never thought I would say. Normally, I love Christmas shopping. But this year, I just didn't have the time or the energy to devote to doing it properly. So it was more like racing from one place to another, running in, picking up the one item I came for, and running out. Or shopping on the internet, which while convenient, just isn't the same. Next year will be better. But anyhow, I am happy to say the shopping is done. Now, it just has to be wrapped. Ugh, anyone want to come over and do that for me? I HATE wrapping gifts, mostly because I don't do it well. Never have. I am too impatient. In high school, my best friend gave me a lesson in present wrapping - I still remember everything she taught me, but alas, my gifts still turn out looking nothing like hers. Oh well - a 3 year old and an 8 week old aren't going to notice the difference anyway, right?!?

Speaking of 8 weeks ... Mallory will be 8 weeks old on Tuesday. Yippee! That is the age at which if they get a fever, infants do not necessarily have to go directly to the hospital. That's a big milestone!

Wade has started traveling back and forth to st. louis. He'll be home the next 3 weeks (home as in, in town, not off on vacation) and then he'll have to be in st. louis every other week till we move. Sucks! Single parenting an infant and an almost 4 year old is no fun. I get through most of the day alright, but bedtime just stinks. It's Mallory's fussy time of night, so she's screaming while I am trying to get Keira quiet down and go to sleep. Good times. This too shall pass.

Mallory's fussiness has gotten better, but by no means has cleared up. We have good days and bad days. I guess teh best news is that it is mostly a daytime issue now -- at night she is really doing well. I deal much better with a fussy baby during the day than I do at 2 in the morning! Other than this fussiness, we are really enjoying her. She has started to smile which just melts your heart and even started to "talk" some. If you say goo to her, she'll try to copy you. It is the cutest thing. And she tries sooo hard. Sometime she gets it, sometimes not, but just to watch her try is so fun.

Keira is still really into drawing. Our scanner is on the fritz, otherwise I would upload and show you. She is drawing people now - they are hilarious. She is still loving school. She also is loving her dance class. She had a little holiday show the other day and it was great. it was on a big stage at a high school and the auditorium was full. The look on her face when she got out on stage and the turned the lights up so she could see how many people were watching, was priceless. At some point I hope to upload video. Sooo cute.

This is probably the last post before christmas, so I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy your families! Hugs to you all!

Love the hat

This blog sucks!

Ok, so if I were a reader of this blog, I no longer would be - it sucks! Sorry that I never update, but man, there is just no time. Mallory is not a sleeper, has some colic and always wants to be held. Add to that a 3 year old and a husband who now has to be in St. Louis every other week and well, you've got one mommy who has no time for blogs - at least writing them. For those of you that have one, I still read yours - I can read and feed at the same time, but typing with one hand sucks! So anyway, despite the lack of sleep, we are still here, but I try to either catch some sleep or do some christmas shopping in the few free moments I have. I promise it will get better, just not sure when, hang in there!

In a nutshell:

Mallory - at one month check, was a pound over birth weight - 9lbs 10 oz. Still healthy, still has all that hair. Starting to smile and coo! Still not sleeping in any sort of crib/bassinet, but she is starting to sleep better.

Keira - Still loving preschool, still loving her little sister (a little too much!). Has really started to love to draw, wait till I post a picture she drew of me - it's awesome!

Wade - his work is sucky right now. Don't get me wrong, we are are very thankful he has a job, but he now has to be in st. louis every other week. Oh, and we'll be moving there sometime next year. ugh!

Me - could use more sleep, but other than that, doing pretty well. stressing about getting christmas shopping done, but i suppose if that is the greatest of my worries, i am doing pretty well.

I'll post again sometime this century, hopefully!

What's been going on

So, it's been a fairly uneventful week since I last updated. Thank goodness. Sadly, Wade and I have had terrible colds - causing more sleeplessness than having a newborn I think. Thankfully, Mallory has seemed to avoid getting, which I really have no idea how. Yes, we are psycho about hand washing and sanitizing here, but the coughing has really been non-stop. Wade seems to be over it and I am close to over it at this point, so let's hope Mallory stays healthy.

On the sleep front, aside from the cold issue, it seems we are getting a little more these days. Mallory, for whatever reason, hates her bassinet. We put her down in it and she almost instantly wakes up and throws quite a fit for a little girl. We have found however, that she LOVES her bouncy seat. So the bouncy seat it letting us get sleep. Probably a bad habit to get into, but I could not deal with another night of being awake from 2:15 to 5:15 am.

Keira is still doing well with Mallory - loves her bunches and consistently wants to hug and love on her. She is getting better about being more gentle, so that is good.

Mallory is started to have longer periods of wakefulness - she is kicking her feet, stretching her arms, and finding her fists to get them in her mouth. It's pretty cute.

Anyhow, just wanted to update you all and let you know we are surviving! I'll try to get some more pictures up this week!

Just Pictures

Home

has never felt so good. I know most of you are out of the loop, solely because there just wasn't time/energy to call everyone and tell them the situation. But here is what we have been doing the past week. Last wednesday night (a week ago), Mallory started acting fussy. Not terrible, just couldn't get her settled down. This continued through the night to the point that she didn't want to be touched with out screaming. I tried to burp her and she went nuts - we stripped her down thinking something was wrong with her back and it was covered by large red rash. So off to the doc we went. Thankfully our doc has walk in hours every morning from 8 - 10 am, we were the first ones there. Sadly, Mallory was running a fever - 100.8. Doctor basically said, with 9 day olds and fevers, we send you directly to the children's hospital. What? I was thinking they were going to tell me she was colicky or gassy or something and now we are headed to the children's hospital. Not really something you want to hear. Of course, I started bawling instantly. This was the start of many episodes of crying. So we get in the car and head to the hospital. Thankfully, we still had family in town, so there was someone to look after Keira. Get to the hospital and they tell us that they will have to take blood and urine (she had to be catheterized) for cultures and do a spinal tap. A spinal tap? On my 9 day old child? OMG. Seriously, I have been a wreck before, but it didn't even compare to this. So they take her from us to go and do these things. Oh and they have to place an iv because they will preventively treat with antibiotics while waiting for test results. This should all take about 30 minutes. Doc comes back after 30 says they got all blood, urine, spinal fluid they need and will start to try to grow the cultures - it takes 48 hours. Means we will be here at least 48 hours. Ugh. Says they are still trying to get iv in, she'll be back soon. 2 hours later they finally bring her back, extremely apologetically - they couldn't get the iv in. Had to take her to an anestesologist to get it in. She is bruised all over - both hands, on arm, both feet. Finally got it in the side of her foot. And now we just wait. She ends up having to go on oxygen because her pulse ox was in the low 80s with out it, they like it to be above 92. The doctor doesn't really give a lot of guesses as to what it could be, but said it could just be a viral infection or some kind of bacterial infection. Could also be the flu, and they give her tamiflu preventively as well as that test takes 24 hours. So again, we wait. She is still feeling miserable, doesn't want to be held, she is hooked up to all kinds of machines, it is just the saddest thing ever. I will spare you all the details, but after 48 hours, the test showed nothing growing, which indicated virus. Which was really the best case scenario. Then we just had to get her off oxygen to go home. But at about 50 hours they came back and said, well, something started to grow now. WTH? Doc said could be a contaminate from drawing the sample, so we have to wait another 24 hours to see. And they have to take more blood so they can see if it is an infection, if the drugs they have been using are treating it. UGH. I just wanted to go home and thought we were so close. Anyhow, long story short, it was a contaminate, so just a virus she had. We finally got to go home with a much happier and fever free baby on Sunday. We couldn't leave fast enough. So so so so glad to be home. Now we are just trying to be normal again and enjoy our two little kiddos. I hope to post some pictures soon. We are just trying to get into a routine.

So I really should be napping ...

but I'd rather just talk about this beautiful little baby girl instead ;) So here's our story so far ...

Night before the scheduled section I didnt' get a lot of sleep. Went to bed about 10 and woke up at 2:00 AM and that was it. I was just too anxious. Not really about surgery, just about having a healthy baby. I guess now that she is here, I can admit out loud to worrying every single day about having a healthy baby. It was a struggle on a day to day basis to convince myself that her birth day was ever going to get here. And as the day got closer, it actually got harder. I didn't want to get my hopes up I guess. We have waited a long time for her. And are so happy she is here. She truly is our little mircle. Anyway, so, didn't get a lot of sleep monday night. Arrived at hospital bright and early - 5:30 AM. We had to be there 2 hours before surgery. At that point, they start IVs, put baby on monitor (yeah!), draw some blood, mostly just wait around. 7:30 finally rolls around and things start moving. They take me back to the OR to get my epidural/spinal - wade has to wait until they place this before they will let him come back with me.

Let's just say the placing of the epidural was not good. With Keira, I had no problems, or I should say the anestesiologist had no problem. This time, ugh, they stuck me 5, yes 5, different times. I am not exaggerating. After the 4th time, I said, I don't think I can do this. I was ready to say, we are not having a baby today, I can't let you do this to me again. I was in tears. It hurt, badly. I had an episode of dizziness and came close to passing out. Had this been my first experience, we may not have had more kids - seriously, it hurt that bad. They finally called someone else and he got it in on his first shot. You should check out the bruise I have on my back from it - it's fairly nasty! So, they finally get it placed and Wade gets to come back. He of course has been freaking out because he has been out there by himself for this long not having any idea of what is going on in the OR. I was very glad to see him, even if he did look funny in his scrubs.

After the epidural issue though, everything else went super smooth. It is an amazingly quick procedure - she was out about 10 minutes after Wade got back in the room. We heard her cry before we saw her and boy does she have a set of lungs on her. She screamed for a good 15 minutes. Through all her weights and measurements and such - screamed. But believe me, that was music to my ears. Apgars were 8,9, and 9. There were lots of tears of joy in that OR. Wade got to hold her while the finished stitching me up. She has LOTS of hair. I thought Keira had a lot of hair ... but she's got nothing on this kid!

They get me stiched up and then send us back to recovery. The plan is to be there for 2 hours. They monitor all my vitals, etc and watch baby closely too. Mallory is doing perfect. At this point, I have some blood pressure and heart rate issues. Blood pressure is way too low and heart rate is way too high. I feel fine, no light headedness or anything like that, but nurses/docs not liking it anyway. They have to finally give me some meds to bring the blood pressure up which they are hoping will bring the heart rate down. It works for a period of time, but then it sorta goes back to where it was. Finally, at close to the 2 hour mark, the vitals get close enough to normal that they are trasfering us to our permanent room. The great thing at this point is that Mallory has not left our side. I was nervous that this one would have NICU time like Keira did, so it was such a relief to keep her with us the whole time.

The rest of the hospital stay was uneventful really. Still had some residual hr/bp issues, but after 24 hours they seemed to go back to normal. Mom and Mark brought Keira up and she immediately loved her baby sister. It was funny because she saw Mallory, hugged her, and then came over to me and asked me if the baby was out of my tummy! It was cute. Keira did really well at the hospital until it was time to leave and that did not go so well. She didn't want to leave me and that broke my heart. Mom said she was fine after getting out of the hospital, which I am sure she was, but it was hard to watch her cry as she was leaving. Since being home, we are still dealing with a bit of seperation anxiety from me - she doesn't want to go anywhere that I am not going - even school, but it seems to be getting better every day.

Keira has been doing great with Mallory, wants Mallory everywhere she is, loves to hold, hug, and snuggle the baby. While I am extremely happy with how well she is adjusting, it is a little nerve wracking because she isn't always as gentle as she needs to be. But she is learning!

Mallory is adjusting to the real world too. We've had one really rough night of sleep where she was awake from Midnight to 1:30 AM and then from 3:30 AM to 6:00 AM. That was none too fun - she wasn't fussy really, she just didn't want to be put down. And really, I am not complaining, I don't really want to put her down. :) But other than that night, she has slept as well as can be expected for a newborn.

Just a cute pic!

Keira is definitely going to be a reader like her mommy! This was how she fell asleep in bed the other night ...

Painting Pumpkis

Keira much prefers painting pumpkins to carving pumpkins! So she got to paint one and Wade carved one. She started out very daintily painting using a paint brush and just dabbing paint on the pumpkin. That soon turned into dipping the whole hand into the paint and slathering paint on the pumpkin!! Here are some pics!




My Delta friends ... I hope you noted the shirt! :)

Slacker

Yes, I am a total slacker. I know it. I have pictures to post and everything - but they are upstairs inside the camera and I am downstairs. And well, getting my butt upstairs is just not going to happen until I go to bed. Sorry. I'll get them posted eventually.

So we are in the final countdown here. Three more days and we couldn't be more excited! Everything is as ready as it is going to be. I have no energy left to do anything else. Mom and Mark have arrived so I can go into labor at anytime and not have to rouse the neighbors or friends. Sadly, I don't think it will matter - tuesday is going to be the day. Wade and I will be having a final date night tomorrow :)

We've got to be at the hospital at the lovely hour of 5:30 AM on tuesday and surgery is scheduled for 7:30 AM. That is assuming we don't get bumped for any emergencies. After surgery, there is 2 hours in recovery and I'm not sure the rule on cell phones in recovery. So, that is the schedule, I would say you should definetly hear something from us by early afternoon at the latest, hopefully sooner.

Talk to you all soon!

October Fun

I love the end of the year. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, well, really what's not to love? I guess there is snow, but we aren't having any of that this year, so no need to worry about that. :) Today we went down to Crown Center because they were having some Halloween festivities. The weather, well, it could have been warmer. I think it might have been 40 degrees or so. Yikes! We had coats, but should have brought hats and gloves too! Nonetheless, Keira had a great time. They had all sorts of activities ... little carnival games to win prizes, pony rides, bounce houses, face painting, and they had pumpkins! Here are some pics of Keira taking part!

Keira getting her face painted ... she chose to have a spider painted on her cheek ... I was shocked as she typically flips out about spiders!

Jumping in a bounce house - all by herself - she loved it!

Riding a pony all by herself. Since there were so few people there (I mentioned it was cold, right?!?), they let Keira go on a ride for about 10 minutes!

Choosing her pumpkin. She thought this one was just her size.


We ran to a Panera after all the fun to try to warm up with hot chocolate and some snacks!

Fire Station Tour

My MOMS club took a Fire Station Tour yesterday. Keira loved it! The tour was great ... it was much more hands on than I thought it would be. Keira's favorite part was of course, seeing the fire truck and ambulance. They let the kids sit in the drivers seat of the fire truck and basically let them have free reign inside the ambulance. It was crazy. But the kids thought it was very cool.

In other news, I start weekly appointments today. I'll update you if there is anything interesting to report!

Closer and Closer

So our due date is drawing near. I've been feeling pretty good healthy wise lately. Tired, but that is just part of the deal. We are 3 weeks and 4 days away. Yikes! I can not believe that she is almost here. As the date draws closer, Keira has become more and more interested. Though I think it has nothing to do with the date for her, she just sees me getting bigger! She has a lot of interesting ideas about what is going on inside my tummy. Yesterday, she pointed toward my belly button, which has become a partial outie and asked me if that was the button the baby used to turn on the computer that she plays with inside my tummy! I thought that was pretty funny. She also thinks that there is a baby mommy and a baby daddy inside there were the baby taking care of her. Yikes! There had better not be triplets in there!

Keira is still enjoying school. She loves to go. Right now she says her favorite part is what they get to go to the library. They get to check out a book and take it back to the classroom with it. This week she got a book about a squirrel. She was very excited.

Hope everyone has a good weekend. I'll try and take some pictures this weekend. I have been bad with the camera lately. I think we are going to take Keira to see Toy Story at the theater this weekend - she has only been to one movie in her whole little life, so we thought that would be fun!

A lot accomplished!

A lot was accomplished this weekend. It was very fulfilling for me as I love to clean out and re-organize. Wade, well, at least he got a work out in. There is now officially a nursery in the old playroom. Complete with a crib that is actually put together and everything. I went through all the old baby clothes and washed them and determined what if anything we still need. The room still needs some "decoration", but it is currently livable! The new playroom is now set up in the basement bedroom. Keira has already inaugurated it and it's as messy as the old playroom was! We even cleaned out the sub-basement - which before the weekend we could barely walk in. That was fun. Poor trashman, he is likely not going to like us this week.

Keira has become obsessed with everything baby during all this moving of stuff. She has played with ALL the baby toys, put her dolls in the baby swing, and told us that she wants to sleep in the baby's room with the baby - even if that means sleeping on the floor!!

In other good news, we have a name! We won't tell you of course, but we do have a name picked out. Wade and I narrowed it down to two names this weekend and then we asked Keira what she thought and she immediately liked one over the other, so we have a winner. So those of you in the KC area, don't go asking Keira about it -- she is not very good at keeping secrets!!! :)

The project night night drive at church is going extremely well. I think we are going to be able to make about 40 bags!

I have been feeling pretty good. No further rib issues. I am starting to have a bit of swelling, but if that is all I have to complain about, I can deal!

That's all I've got. Cleaning Keira's room (or rather supervising Keira cleaning Keira's room) and making brownies is on the agenda!

2 posts in one day ...

haven't done that in awhile!

I was reading the paper at lunch and there was a story about a 22 year old college student that was killed in a car crash by a driver that was going the wrong way on the highway. This is the second such story I have read in the past two week - both fatalities. As you all know, this is an issue close to us and everytime I read about something like this, I have a small panic attack thinking how close we came to this being Keira and I. (I still have some difficulty with highway driving believe it or not - mostly when it is raining as it was raining that day). If you could just say a little prayer again for that truck driver and his family - for lots of blessing for them, I would really appreciate it. He definitely saved our lives!

The wedding!

Well the wedding went off without a hitch for the bride and groom! Ceremony went smooth, Keira and the other flower girl did very well and walked very sweetly down the aisle hand in hand, everyone said I DO, and I now have a new sister-in-law! Yeah. The reception was great. Everything went well there too. Food was good, the cake was FANTASTIC, just ask Keira who had her cake before her meal (Uncle Ryan specifically requested this for her), and people (note: not us) partied well into the night! I don't have a lot of pics (explanation for that below), but I posted a few.

Unfortunately, Wade and I did not make the ceremony. At about 11:30 AM on Saturday, I got a fairly intense pain in my left side that left me really unable to move/walk/do anything it hurt so bad. Wasn't contractions, just a solid, sharp pain in my side. At first I thought maybe baby was just wedged in there funny, but I tried laying on either side to get her to move and nothing seemed to make this pain go away. Of course, I was by myself with Keira when this happened. Wade had gone to lunch with the other groomsmen and Mom and Mark were out shopping on Michigan Ave. So after a few frantic phone calls, everyone made it back to the hotel and Wade and I headed to the ER, which thankfully was just across the street. I'll spare you all the details, but after being there for 4 or 5 hours, they finally decided that I have either a fractured rib or separated ribs - which when looked at on ultrasound, you could see baby had her foot right in them, which was causing the incredible pain. They gave me some pain meds and we were finally able to get her to move which helped tremendously. So, that was a lot of fun. Thus far, the pain has not returned, I am just sore in that area. Doc said to be prepared as she could stick the feet back there at anytime and it would likely cause the same amount of pain as they don't expect the ribs to heal until after she is born. More fun. We were able to make it to the reception, so that was good. And now, we are just hoping the next 6 weeks pass quickly!!!

This weekend is the big "move" for us. Moving some larger furniture to storage, the playroom to downstairs, and converting the playroom to the nursery so this little one can have her own room! Wish poor Wade luck - on top of all that moving, there is lots of yard work to be done since we were gone last weekend, he'd like to watch a full day of football on sunday since he missed it last sunday (something he may never forgive Suzie for!) and I have curtains for him to hang! Keira and I will be at a birthday party ;)

Guess that is it for today - hope everyone is doing well!

A quick catch up

before we get out of town. Not too much going on really, but lots going on if that makes any sense. Wade finally got the downstairs bedroom painted, so we are finally ready to play musical rooms in the house. So assume we make it back from the wedding alive and well, we'll be moving rooms the following weekend. The downstairs bedroom will convert to the playroom with overflow (and sadly, there will be overflow) into the family room, the playroom then becomes the nursery and all the bedroom furniture was was in the spare bedroom moves into the sub-basement for storage. You got all that, right? We'll likely be enlisting the help of neighbors or something as I am still not allowed to lift anything. I am sure wade will try to do it himself at first - men!

The big wedding is this weekend in chicago. I talked to Ryan earlier today and his suit was still not in! Oh my. It is suppossed to be in tomorrow by 2:00 and it still needs to be altered!!! If it were me, I would be freaking out. Ryan is mostly doing a lot of swearing!

Somehow I forgot to get Keira shoes for her dress for the wedding. The only reason it even occurred to me to buy her shoes was because Ryan called and said hey, the other flower girl's mom wants to know what color shoes Keira is wearing. I said, oh shit, I have no shoes! This was like friday or saturday of last week. Ugh. So I spent about 3 hours looking for shoes for her. I went to kohl's, target, Macy's, Payless, Stride Rite, Off Broadway, JC Penney's, and finally found some at Nordstrom's. They aren't great, but they were literally the ONLY ones I could find. Chalk it up to preggo brain I guess - I've had the dress forever!

I am 7 weeks from having this baby as of today. Crazy! So far, everything is going just fine. All check ups have been A OK!

Wish us luck on the 9+ hour drive tomorrow, bleck!

At least I'll have some pics to post when we get back! It's been too long since pics!

Project Night Night

It all started with a facebook post. A friend of mine on facebook posted a link to a cause that she really thought was great. So of course, I clicked. It was called Project Night Night. Basically, what Project Night Night does is provide a Night Night Bag to homeless children. In each bag, there is a blankie, a book, and a stuffed animal. It is all put inside a tote bag. The bags are distributed to local shelters who then give them to children that check into the shelter. The bags are theirs to keep. Kids often show up to shelters with absolutely nothing of their own - this give them a little comfort and something they can keep forever.

As many of you can relate, since having kids, I can hardly bear to think about bad things happening to children. Not that it was tolerable before I had Keira, but since having my own, I can't even watch tv shows where something bad happens to kids. The thought of little children having to live in a shelter is heart breaking. To think about those children having nothing, is heartbreaking. It is making me tear up now just writing about it. I make no secret of the fact that I think my family is very blessed. We have a nice house, two cars, never have to worry about where our meals come from, we go on vacation, have plenty of clothes, etc etc. All the necessities and then some. So this random facebook post, felt like a personal little message to me to get involved. And give back.

At first, I was just going to do it on my own. But then decided, what if I could do it bigger? We just joined a new church and thought maybe I could get the church involved. Now, ya'll know I am not the most out-spoken of people - we really don't know anyone at church (and it's a big church!), so to randomly call the church office and say "Hey, I know you have no idea who I am, but I've got this great idea and was wondering if you could help me" is a big deal. And I actually chickened out a bit and e-mailed (I love e-mail!) ... so now the whole congregation is getting involved. It is in the church bulletin, the pastor talked about it last sunday, and it is in the newsletter that gets sent home. When we went to church on sunday, after news of this project had been in the bulletin for only a week, I decided to check out the drop box, not really thinking anything would be in it yet, but just wanting to check it and make sure the box was where it was suppossed to be. And to my surprise - there was TONS of stuff! I was so excited. After just a week, we already have enough stuff to fill 10 bags. And this drive will run through the end of September!

So this is my latest endeveor. If you are curious about the organization, below is the website. If you want to donate items, just let me know! I am collecting new or gently used books, new stuffed animals, and new or handmade blankets (crib size). The tote bags we purchase from project night night, so if you would like to make a monetary donation to help cover some of those costs, you can do that too (it's tax deductible!). We need as much stuff as we can get - the shelter we are donating these (SafeHome - a shelter for victims of domestic violence) to gets lots and lots of children every year. Or if you want to do your own drive, check out the website on how to get started.

Once we are done collecting, I'll let you know how we did!

http://www.projectnightnight.org/

Mini Update

Just a small update from me since I have been so bad with this lately! I have no pictures to share :(

Hallie: I am sick, just cold sick, not pukey sick. But it's been bad enough that if Keira wasn't in preschool 3 hours every morning, Wade would have had to stay home. I have been exhausted to the point of not being able to keep my eyes open, but can't sleep because I am sooo congested. And I have a cough. And I can't hear because my ears are stuffed up. You feel sorry for me now, don't you?!? I am actually feeling somewhat better today. Hopefully tomorrow is even better. The only good news is that all the orange juice I have been drinking is making the baby crazy and she has been moving non-stop. Which always calms my nerves! I actually think she is starting to get squished already (YIKES!) as I can feel her little body parts better now. I am thinking a big baby!!

Wade: Made lots of progress on the honey-do list. Swingset stuff is done, garage almost all cleaned out, deck is finished, and a few other things done too. Painting scheduled for this weekend. Also fantasy football drafts this weekend (for him and me!) so we'll see how much painting gets done!

Keira: LOVING preschool. NOT loving fridays because she doesn't have preschool. It is hard to explain to a 3 year old why she goes some days and not others. Anyhoo, she got to bring the share bag home this weekend (their version of show and tell) so her task this weekend is to decide what to bring in to share on monday. She is very excited. She is still growing like a weed and I swear will be taller than me by next year. She has been into making up knock knock jokes lately. They, of course, make no sense, but she thinks they are hilarious. I am also loving the hour between when she gets home and when she takes a nap as she is super mommy's girl then. Lots of kisses and hugs for me!

Oh and I forgot to mention this Project Night Night thing I'm doing. More on that on the next post!

Socks

Keira needed new shoes. We have been wearing sandals all summer long and she had grown out of her tennis shoes. So we ran up to get some shoes and I forgot to bring her socks to wear to try them on. We were in a hurry and I grabbed what I thought were the right size, opened the package and put them on her ... well, they are a little big. We kept them anyway, she will grow into them eventually, but in the meantime, she has been having fun pulling them up to her knees!

First Day of Preschool

So, today was the first day of preschool! Keira was very excited to go, no nerves at all from that girl. She was so impatient in fact, that she did not want to get her picture taken at school this morning. I don't know where this pose came from - she is a little drama queen. Once we got there, she marched right in and put up her backpack and made herself comfortable with the toys in the room. Basically said see ya later mom! I had a much tougher time with it. It was sad to leave her there - at school. Makes me feel like she is so grown up! And it was weird being in the house by myself. I haven't gotten too many details out of her yet about her day other than they have vegetable crackers and cheese with chocolate milk for snack and they played ball and got to roll the ball to a friend. Hopefully we'll get more details as the week goes on. Good news is that she is still excited to go back tomorrow!

The to do list just keeps growing

Seriously, I don't know how we keep adding things to the list, but we do. I am afraid there will always be a to do list. Would you like to hear it? I am sure you would Loyal Reader - why else would you be here? So here goes ...

Paint downstairs bedroom (it is currently an icky blue), fix garbage disposal plug, build railing around and mulch in swingset, clean out the play room [I'm talking massive throw out and box up a lot of junk], move all playroom stuff to downstairs bedroom, move downstairs bedroom stuff to sub-basement, move trampoline outside (which requires it to be taken apart and then put back together), move all baby stuff from sub-basement to nursery, buy crib (our old one was recalled [please do not ask me about that whole debacle]), buy bedding for said crib, buy multiple other things for new baby as the only thing we have bought is diapers, weed the garden, trim front bushes, pull out one bush in front and replace with something else, pull out one bush in back and replace with something else, finish staining the deck (wade has one little spot left where the wasp incident occured), clean out garage. Oh my gosh, I can't even go on. I hope there isn't much more.

So you know how our weekends are going to be spent for the next few months ...

The things kids say

Keira has a few bug bites that unfortunetly, she likes to pick. And she picks them till they bleed. So we have been trying to break her of this habit. Today when I caught her doing it, I told her, "Keira don't pick that". She turns to me and says "Mommy, I wasn't picking, we don't pick bug bites. We only pick are noses when they are icky." And yes, we were out in public at the time. :)

One more video - tap again!

More Video - Tap

Another Video

Recital and 77 days to go!

Here are a few videos from the dance recital today. It was too cute. One of those things you'll always remember. Keira had fun! Enjoy the videos!

Oh and I checked the calendar today .... only 77 days to go!!!

Hmm, I think I may have to put the videos in individual posts.?? Anyway, here's one!

Tea Party

We went to a Tea Party today at a Tea Room in a little town just north of here (a MOMS club event). It was so much fun. The tea room had a whole little area full of hats, feather boas, jewelry, etc that the girls could dress up in before they had their "tea" (pink lemonade) and dessert. Keira had lots of fun!

In this one, she is practicing keeping her pinky out!

Hmm, what to post?

I swear I am going to get better about posting on this thing once Keira gets into preschool. I swear - well, except that I try not to ;) Here is my quick update:


Keira - starts preschool 4 mornings a week on Monday August 17th - that is like a week away! She keeps asking if she can go now! She is very excited. We got all her school supplies and had fun shopping. Her latest thing is asking people how old they are. She is very concerned about everyone's age and if they are older or younger than she is. I am talking, she asked the cashier at target how old she was today. I try to explain to her that this is not polite, but that seems lost on her. She has also continued her love of crafts. Everyday she asks what craft are we doing today Mommy. She keeps me on my toes! Gymnastics have finished and dance is done next week - next week we get to go in and watch while they do a little show, I am pretty excited about that!


Wade - I have been keeping Wade busy with lots of honey-do lists. He painted Keira's room last weekend - Pink. Oh my. It is pink. Keira loves it - me, well, we'll see. She almost demanded it be pink though. Any other color and she would have been super dissappointed. He ended up having to work a lot of last weekend which was suppossed to be his bachelor weekend since we were gone, so he was not pleased about that!



Me - the garden is doing awesome and is wrapping up, the cucumbers just finished, I have tomatoes coming out my ears, and have 7 cantaloupe growing. The rest of the stuff is finished ... Keira and I were in chicago last weekend for the Shower. It was fun to meet some of Suzie's family and friends, Keira had fun spending the day with Uncle Ryan at the zoo ... I am starting to freak out that we havent' done anything for this baby yet, nor bought anything for this baby yet, nor picked a name for the baby yet, but I am sure it will all get done eventually ... pregnancy hormones have me feeling a bit lousy, kinda nauseous and super weepy, seriously I can't get through an episode of anything on TV without crying ... been watching big brother and wondering what is up with the speeches people are giving this year, ouch are they mean ...


Peanut - Peanut has unfortunetly been sick and had to spend about 3 days at the vets office. Don't even ask about the bill. Ugh. The joys of pet ownership. She is all better now though. Peanut is one of those animals that will eat ANYTHING. I mean, seriously, anything. An indiscriminate appetite is what the vet calls it. She has eaten whole socks, toys, rocks, play-dough, tissue paper, etc etc etc. This is why she gets sick. We try to keep things picked up, but let's face it, I am not a neat freak and I have a 3 year old daughter that doesn't quite understand the meaning of the word clean up - well unless I sing the clean up song - she loves to clean up if we sing the song! So, anyhoo, she is better and back to her old self ... scrounging for anything that looks like it might be tasty.

More soon!

The many sleeps of Keira Hacker

It seems like every night Keira wants to take more and more things to bed with her. So many things in fact, that SHE barely fits in the bed! This is one of those pick your battles situations. I would prefer it not happen, but it's not worth a fight. Here are some picks from the past few nights!

I picked a tomato!

I picked my first red tomato today! Can't wait to taste it.

Be on the look out later for some funny pictures of Keira sleeping!

What's going on with us?

I know I sound like a broken record, but we have just been busy. Thank goodness swim lessons are over, so that will help free up our days. My MIL was visiting for the past week and I was busy getting tons of stuff done while she was here. Did lots of baking and freezing - pancakes, waffles, breakfast pockets, zucchini bread, etc. My freezer is full of baked goods! Yummy! And so much easier to do when you have someone to watch your child! So here's a brief update on what we've been up to:

Swim Lessons - those are finished, yeah! Keira did great and actually progressed to the next level in her second set of classes. She can float on her back all on her own, swim a short distance underwater, put her whole head under and retrieve a ring from the bottom, pull herself out of the pool on her own, and jump in and swim a short distance to the instructor. She did really good and is sorry they are over!

Dance is still on-going. She seems to love it as she comes home and does alot of her dance moves. She really loves the tap shoes mostly! But I think all kids do.

Gymnastics are still going on as well. She enjoys these lessons to and I can really see improvement in what she can do week to week. She is still my clumsy child, but she is getting better!

We headed to the zoo this weekend because the weather has been out of this world. Keira had a blast as we haven't been in quite some time. Here are some pics!

I got my hair chopped. About 5 inches taken off. It is so much better - especially during the summer! And as an added bonus, I'll save money on shampoo now!

Wade is out of town for the next few days, so I am single parenting until thursday - ugh! Here is hoping I have a well behaved daughter during that time who likes to take lots of naps!

The garden is doing awesome. Lots of jalapenos, cucumbers and green peppers. The tomatoes are turning red, but that too seems to be a slow process. So no tomatoes ready yet, but soon! I also have about 5 baby cantaloupes - I am thinking that this baby may be here before the cataloupes are ripe!

Baby is doing well - Dr. appointments have all been fine. She kicks a great deal which helps with my nerves. We have a birthdate now - October 27th! Surgery at 7:30 AM, we have to be at the hospital at 5:30 AM. Fun! But I guess I would rather have it that way then wait around all day!

I think that about covers it. Hope everyone is doing well!

I Promise

a long post tomorrow. It may even have some pictures!

I Love Red!

because that is what color my tomatoes are turning (finally!). I still have no idea when they will be ready, but at least they are starting to turn red. I really had lost hope. Oh, and I have lots of baby cataloupes. Fun fun fun!

In baby news, today marks 24 weeks! 24 weeks is a big milestone in pregnancy as it marks official viability. The long and short of that meaning that docs now believe the baby is big enough for a good chance at survival outside the womb, so they will medically intervene should any sort of preterm labor start. Obviously, we don't want baby coming anytime soon - but it's nice to hit the 24 week mark.

In doggy news, Peanut is at the vet hospital. She has had vomiting and massive diahhrea over the past few days and vet wanted to keep her for observation. They don't think it's serious -- Shockingly (not really if you know Peanut) they think it was something she ate.

Life is still busy. Tomorrow is the last day of swim lessons - which I am so so thankful for. Keira loves them and has been learning so much but the daily hassle of driving to and from has been a little much for me!

MIL is visiting this week and Keira is loving it. She is going to be exhausted by the time she leaves - Keira is running her ragged.

No pics lately - I have been bad with the camera lately. I'll try to be better soon. I usually post more often when I take more pictures!

Funny things we've heard this weekend from Keira

Don't worry Mom, I've got it under control.

Look, I can lick my toes.

Dad, you just don't understand, I've got all these projects I've got to do.

Mommy, when that baby kicks you, does it tickle?

(While sitting on the potty) Daddy - my teddy doesn't have to poop, you don't need to help him wipe.

(After putting sunglasses on one of her stuffed dogs) Now she's ready to rock!

Slacker on the blog, busy everywhere else!

We are in another busy cycle. Seems like we have something going on every morning and afternoon. Keira loves it, it is exhausting for me, but in general I like to be busy and it makes the days go by fast. We have been enjoying some great stuff from the garden. Green peppers, jalapenos, carrots, green onions, and cucumbers are becoming regulars at our table. All super yummy. I have some pictures, but the camera is in the car, so that will have to wait. The tomatoes still are not red, so we are anxiously anticipating those. The cantaloupe plant has gone super crazy, so I have hopes now that we will eventually have cantaloupe.

That is really all I've got. I need a nap. But I really need to search for a dress for my brother's wedding. I just realized I'll be 33 weeks preggo then. Can I just wear a tent? It would probably be cheaper!

Big Brother starts thursday for all you fans out there.

Posting will likely be sparse for awhile as we are crazy for a bit - and MIL will be visiting next week.

Funny Exchange

I gave Keira a juice box today ...

Me: Wait a minute and I'll put the straw in it for you
Keira (walking away): Don't worry Mom, I've got it under control.

Pouty Puppy

This and That

Last week was a busy week, so this week we have been taking it easy. Trying not to be overscheduled and catch up with some friends. It's quite enjoyable really.

Keira had her second dance class today. As I was walking out of the room, I heard the teacher ask the group of kids if they had brothers and sisters and I heard Keira yell very loudly, "My mommy has one in her belly!" Out of the mouths of babes. She told me today that she really likes the tap part of dance better than the ballet. I say, it's the shoes!

I volunteered to "help" at VBS this year. I was supposed to be what they called a herder - shuttle the kids from one activity to another. Well, apparently they are super short on help and I get to be a teacher! Oh boy! I get either 2 or 4 year olds - she gave me a choice, but I couldn't decide, so I just told her to suprise me! Should make for interesting blogging material.

Weather here has been awesome this week so far. The oppressive heat is gone and it's in the mid-80s. Love it. We've actually been playing outside again and don't have to be near water.

Keira had some friends over to play yesterday. She has these little decorative erasers that she loves to play with - they are in different shapes, like rainbows, teddy bears, hearts, etc. I don't know where they came from, but they are a popular toy for her. There are two of each shape. Anyway, yesterday she was carrying around the two rainbows and decided to give one to her friend for him to keep telling him "It's for friendship". I just thought this was so sweet. She talked about it for the rest of the day and even told Daddy about what she did when he got home.

I had my first icky garden experience today. I noticed one of the green peppers had little holes in it, so I plucked it off and opened it up - and there was an icky worm inside. Ugh. I freaked of course and threw it over the fence. Going to have to study up on what it was and how to stop it.

Baby Girl Hacker #2 is quite the mover and shaker. She is a kicking machine. Except when Wade has tried to feel her. Apparently, she is stubborn! I feel her anytime I sit down all day - except when Wade is around to try to catch a quick kick.

I think that is all I know for now. More soon, hopefully this week. Sort of sadly, next week sets off another three to four week extravaganza which includes more swim lessons, a visit from my MIL, dance, gymnastics, VBS, a trip to chicago, a weekend where wade has to work, and probably a few things I am forgetting. I love to be busy, but I may have gone overboard!

Oh and how could I forget to mention (and this part is really for one person only) that I have come in 1st place for 3 weeks in a row in my fantasy golf league. I would say it's fairly impressive considering the amount of time I spend picking my players - last week I timed myself - 4 minutes 27 seconds! Yeah for me!

Slip and Slide Fun!