The Girls' Room

Alli had mentioned she wanted to share a room with Natalie a while ago.  I kept quizzing her on it, to make sure if we switched the rooms, she wouldn't change her mind.  

This vacation, we did it - switched the rooms.  We went a lot of items from the green room to the curb to donate to the Upward Foundation, who was kind enough to send a truck.  We got rid of the bed to Stacy (our hair stylist), and then it was a matter of tearing down the house and moving it, as well as go through both closets.  So, it took a couple of days (and I have to say, I still have some work to do with the stuff we have for the green room.)  But the switch has been made - toys in the green room, sleep stuff in the girls' room.  Here are some pics.  I guess we need to work on the wall stuff again...

By the way, we have the card table set up on our green room (game room) now so the family can play games together.  We are trying to use it quite often!

Christmas

This year's Christmas was different.  Not because of the newborn factor, but because of mommy being so sick!!  Yes, Christmas was the worst day of this sickness for me.  It was all I could do to stay awake and try to put a smile on my face while Alli was opening gifts.  We had many "pauses" in the Christmas morning gift opening.  And Alli was patient through all of them.

Natalie loved all her gifts (not that she can even tell that she loved them!)  Alli also loved all her gifts, and has now played with all of them!

Christmas dinner with the neighbors was just Alli and Daddy.  Natalie and I stayed home as she was still a bit sick too.  Never got the fever (knock on wood).  We are still watching and waiting, just to make sure.  This bug is just awful!


So, projects for the rest of vacation:  Switch the bedrooms around, get Alli to Gymnastics day camp, do some clothes shopping for mommy and daddy before going back to work.  I think we should be able to tackle it all...

The Clapper

I can't believe all us girls are sick, again!  (And I'm not sure how Daddy keeps bypassing it!)  Alli was sent home from school on Monday with a 102 degree fever.  It stayed at 102/103 until Tuesday night, when it broke around 10pm with lots of sweats and chills.  (Poor thing.)  I just got the nasal/chest congestion part - no fever.  Alli has all of the above.  So, her last week of school before Christmas vacation was spent at home sick.  Poor thing.

And now Natalie is congested.  I made a new rule that with every diaper change, we have to suction her nose as well.  And I check for fever regularly.  I'm hoping it goes through her system quickly - I hate sick babies - too scary!  But she still smiles like crazy, including when she is getting her nose suctioned!  Hilarious!!

So, about The Clapper...  Last weekend we went to a Christmas party with a White Elephant gift exchange.  I came home with "The Clapper".  You remember from the 80's commercials:  "Clap on. {clap clap}  Clap off. {clap clap}  Clap on, clap off....  The Clapper!"  So, I figured out a great place for this little device - attached to a lamp in Alli's room that she can't reach.  So I plugged it in, tried it out, and then showed it to her.  She was thrilled!

Ok.  Now fast forward to last night, and her coughing fit.  Can you see where this is going?  I went to check on her after she had been in bed for a little, since she had been coughing so much and she said "Mom.  I coughed 2 times and my light came on, so I had to clap it off!"  hahaha  I thought that was pretty funny.  And it was.  Until after she fell asleep and she was coughing in her sleep and her lamp kept turning on!  Ok, that's pretty funny too.  Kim turned the lamp off so it would keep turning on through the night.

Oh the joys of sick kids!

Our First Gingerbread House

Ok, I have a confession.  I've never actually made a gingerbread house before.  I know!  Right!?!?  Seems like everyone does on the holidays, but I've never.  And then I was asked to help out in Alli's class because one of the parents donated some gingerbread trains and they needed adult helpers for the building.  Oh boy.  So, I had my first shot of building this stuff at the school.  Not bad - got some tips of how to do it with little kids, had some good ideas, figured out some ways to keep it cleaner...

But Alli didn't get a turn to build one because she went to the other preschool in the afternoon.  So we decided to get her a gingerbread house for home and we would build it together.  (Of course, after we purchased it, we found that she really *was* going to get a turn with the gingerbread train, just later in the week.)

So we planned to build today!  And, we had an unexpected friend over, so we had 2 helpers with the gingerbread house.

Here's Gage and Alli showing off their work:

And a better view of the finished house.  (Gage decorated the left side and back.  Alli decorated the right side and front.  Mommy built the house and added the "snow".)

Natalie's 2 Month Checkup

We finally did it.  We decided to try a different doctor's office for our pediatrician.  We just couldn't handle the disorganization of the Fountain Hills pediatrician anymore.  It's probably because the practice is concentrating too much on the "beauty treatments".

Anyway, we went to North Scottsdale Pediatrics and were put in to our patient room within 5 minutes, and got seen by the doctor about 5 minutes later.  In fact, the whole appointment took about 40 minutes - which was typically just our wait time in the lobby in Fountain Hills!!

Natalie is doing great.  She's growing just right.  Her measurements our SOOO different than Alli:

Weight:  12.6 lbs (84th percentile)
Height:  23-1/2 inches (87th percentile)
Head Circumference:  42nd percentile (the chart says 38-1/2, but I'm not sure what units.  cm?)


The doctor was very nice, and we talked about the vaccines a lot, which is a hot topic for me.  Poor Natalie was just born the wrong time of year, so she's getting more vaccines than Alli at a younger age. It's just that it's cold and flu season, so everything has a chance of carrying a strain of meningitis   Ugh. The doctor actually agreed with the choices of vaccines I opted to postpone, except the pneumoncoccol, which can sometimes cause bacterial meningitis.  Granted, when I looked it up after we left the office (and after Natalie was vaccinated), 70% of the cases come from developing countries, which means very small risk of Natalie getting anything.  Oh well.  She will get the same vaccines for the 4 month and 6 month visits, and then we will revisit the vaccine schedule and see what others we will delay...

Preschool!

Last night, we put Alli to bed.  About 10 minutes later, she came out to "check on us".  We told her to go back to bed, so she did.  Before we went to bed ourselves, we went in to kiss her.  We found out what she was doing within that 10 minutes of her coming to "check on us".  Here's the pick of what we found:

And today was Natalie's official 2 month birthday.  She spent the morning in Alli's preschool class.  Here's a pick from preschool, where Alli got to share her little sister with the class by telling them about her.  You can't really tell by this picture, but they are wearing matching shirts.  Alli's says "big sister alli" and Natalie's says "little sister Natalie".  :)

(Sorry the picture is blurry.)

Family Thanksgiving Week

This year we hosted the "Cousins Thanksgiving", which included our family, my brother's family, and my cousin Stephanie's family.  (It typically includes my cousin Daniel's family as well, but they were unable to make it this year.)  The fun started the Sunday before Thanksgiving when Stephanie, Grant, and their daughter Addison came to town.  Addison and Alli are about 10 months apart, so they had a lot of fun together.  They painted, played games, got every toy imaginable out on Alli's floor (daily), and even went "jeeping" with the dads.  On Wednesday they checked into a hotel and we had a quick family switch as my brother and his family arrived to stay at our house.

The cousins had a great time playing with each other, the adults had a great time watching the kids and catching up.

We watched a lot of things in our house break:  the refrigerator (had the repair guy out twice!), the toilet (that was quite a mess cleaning up an inch of water!), and the hot tub heater.  Glad we don't host for another 4 years!


Thanksgiving day was a full day, starting with Alli and I walking in the Thanksgiving Day parade with her dance class.

We then rushed home to get the turkey started.  The little girls helped me prepare the pumpkin pie!  And the men were ordered out of the kitchen, but eventually were let into the kitchen to help prepare the feast, but were given girl names while in the kitchen area.  :)  Andy=Angelina.  Grant=Grace.  Kim=Kim.  hmmm...

The feast:

The Amstutz/Guerrette cousins:

The Perkins:

The adults:

Smiles and Coos

Natalie is starting to smile (without being gas induced).  She has the cutest little look when she smiles at you.  :)  I'm all warm and fuzzy seeing it.  She also started playing with different sounds and now has some very cute coos coming out of her.  What's funny, is every now and then she'll be making some noises and I'll say "let mommy hear one of your cute little coos", and then she does!  Good girl!  ;)

Just last night we had a record sleep - with 6 hours between feedings.  To bad the feeding was at 8pm and I didn't get to bed til 9:30, but whatever.  It still gave me til 2am to sleep!

We continue logging food to see what makes Natalie tick.  I have cut out dairy, nuts, and most of the wheat.  That pretty much is a minimal diet!  I am experimenting with the nuts though, cause they are one of my staples for snack food.  So soon I will try a coconut / pecan bar and see if we both do okay on it.  It's got all natural ingredients (and names that I can read/recognize), so hopefully this will be a great snack for us if there are no puking issues.

One Month Checkup

Natalie's one month well-child checkup was yesterday.  She passed with flying colors.  Here are her stats:

Height:  22 inches (about 75th percentile from what I can tell on the CDC charts)
Weight:  9.88 lbs (again about 75th percentile)


Yes, she is quite a big baby!  Must take after Kim and not me!!  :D


He skin is beautiful, eyes are focusing farther away than they were expecting, and doctor was impressed that we put her on the activity mat and she could actually hit some of the animals (although it might be just a fluke as she swings her arms around!)

I also mentioned that I am keeping a food log to try to figure out what I'm eating that makes her projectile puke, or gives her such cramps when bowel movements move.  I hate when she wakes up from a dead sleep just because she has to poop!  So far, I've eliminated the coffee theory - THANK GOD!  So, coffee is still in my diet.  But it does look like nut-butters are out.  Potentially nuts, but she doesn't seem to react as much from a handful of nuts as she does from a sandwich with peanut butter or almond butter.  Figure *that* one out!

There are other foods as well that are bothering her, but I haven't figured them out.  Dairy for sure, and while I tend not to eat much dairy, it does seem that the little I do might affect her.  And maybe beans, but I'm still exploring that theory.


Natalie is a really good baby.  She doesn't really cry much.  I'm getting to know her squeaks and grunts and can usually give her what she wants before she resorts to the all-out cry.   Yay!  And she's getting used to me as well.  She also knows that when I'm holding her, she does *not* prefer the pacifier - she would rather have the good stuff!!!!  (But sometimes she relents and takes the pacifier from me.)

Cluster Feeding

Ah cluster feeding.  I had totally forgotten about cluster feeding until I went back and looked at some of my blog posts from Alli.  Cluster feeding is going less then three hours, usually right before the long night time sleep (or early in the morning right after to catch up).  Natalie is a sleeper!  In fact, it seems like she would rather sleep than eat, but I knew that going down to 7 feedings a day wasn't what I was supposed to do.  And then I read my post from Alli about how she was sleeping longer and cluster feeding in the morning.  Ah ha!

So last night, Natalie stayed awake after her feeding at 6:30pm.  By 8:00, she was beside herself - crying because she couldn't quite get to sleep, but was exhausted.  So, I fed her.  And guess what!!  She slept from about 8pm to 1am!!  Yes, 5 hours!  Woo hoo!  And then after a 4am feeding, she woke up 2 hours later, and then 2 hours after that - more cluster feeding.  So after her 8am feeding, we are back to every 3 hours through the day.  Magic!  We are finally developing a system that keeps her from crying for food and me from running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to make 2 girls happy!

We now feed right before drop-off of school, and right before pick-up of school (if I can help it), and it makes the car travel less, well, stressful.  No newborn crying hysterically anymore!


But yes, she still will cry trying to fall asleep in her carseat.  But Alli has taken on her big sister responsibilities to heart.  If Natalie cries, Alli will say "quick Mom - ABCs!"  I put on the song in the car and Alli sings (only Alli - I get in trouble if I sing) and Natalie quickly calms down.  It's pretty cute. And Alli will sing while buckling herself in her carseat, arranging her animals...  Whatever it takes.  She's on it!  But I must say, Natalie calms down much quicker with a full belly.  :)

4 Weeks Old!

I'm not sure how to explain the fact that I've given birth to a tall daughter.  And she's still growing!  The newborn onesies my mom brought don't fit anymore.  They are fine in width, just not in length.  All the nice sleepers that people got for us are now too short from shoulders to butt, and definitely have too small of footy for the long feet that Natalie is sporting.  And I just bought size 1 diapers cause I think she is pretty much outgrowing the NB size.  I'm completely amazed.

On a different note, Natalie and I are starting to get used to each other. She definitely recognizes my voice, my touch, my smell. And together we are getting into more routines. She fusses quite a bit when she has a soiled diaper, so we are going through them like water, but whatever.  When we are in the car and she is crying, the ABCs song calms her down, and definitely calms her much quicker if Alli sings the song!  She is definitely an outdoor girl. She loves looking out the window and today I found she just loves hanging out outside.  Good thing Mom cleaned the outdoor sofa for us - we are spending way more time out there just hangin', looking at all our cool plants that now adorn the patio, and telling stories.

She's doing a great job sleeping at night, going for 4 hours at a time. I'm pretty sure we are down to only 7 feedings a day instead of 8.  I do wake her up every 2-1/2 to 3 hours during the day so she eats, but I'm growing more and more tired as the weeks roll on, so I'm not as rigorous with the schedule at night.

I can't believe how quickly the time is passing!

Not My Morning Cup of Joe!!

I've always been pretty good at picking up on cause and effect
patterns, and now this week that I don't have help, I'm able to see
some patterns in Natalie. The most noticeable one is her spitting up.
In general, she doesn't spit up much, or, at least she doesn't as long
as I eat my normal diet. But there is one feeding where she spits up
WAY more than any other feedings, and that one is the one that occurs
a few hours after I've had my morning coffee.

So now I need to test this theory, but when! That cup of joe keeps me
awake and happy til about 2:00, and then most of the time, I can take
a nap, and that gets me thru the rest of the day. Ugh. Do I have
to?!?! I mean, what's a little exorcist spit up among family?!?! Ok,
ok. I'll start by going to 1/2 cup and then take it from there.

Man, the sacrifices!

Sent from my iPhone

Guard Dog

When Alli was first born, it seemed like Bagheera did everything to ignore her, until I started noticing the subtle things that he did.  Bagheera is once again showing me that he is the family protector.  Instead of begging/insisting/bugging us until he gets fed, he quietly waits knowing that we are busy trying to get 2 kids satisfied.  When Natalie cries, Bagheera, who is a little hard of hearing, comes into the room to see what he can do to help.  And today, Natalie and I came home from dropping Alli off at school and I set her down, only to come back to see that Bagheera moved from one of his typical napping spots, to this spot right by her (which is someplace I've never seen him nap before).

Thanks my wonderful guard dog!  You are awesome!!

An Early Birthday Surprise

My mom has come out to Arizona to help out while I'm recovering from childbirth.  She is here for almost 2 weeks - the first week staying with some friends and the second week staying with us.  Well, the first week came to an end over this past weekend and the ladies decided that an early birthday present was in order.  So, we spruced up the back yard with some pots and plants.  Mind you, this took days of work, many trips to stores, emails/pictures/text messages, and a whole lot of planting.

Here are some pics of my "early birthday presents".  Thank you so much ladies!!  The patios look amazing and I can't stop looking out my windows!  And thanks to mom for cleaning the patio sofa - now Natalie and I can sit outside and enjoy the beautiful patio as well!

The Perfect Child

When I was pregnant with Natalie, I was worried that baby #2 could never compete with my perfect baby #1.  Alli is beautiful, and smart, with a great sense of humor, and very kind.  I mean, how can anyone measure up to that?  No I know most moms are worried that they will love the baby more than the older child, but I'm the opposite.  I have such a good relationship with Alli, and let's face it, babies just sleep, eat, and go potty.  There's no real "relationship".  So, I was worried.

And then Natalie was born.  She's almost 2 weeks old now and what I've noticed is that she is beautiful (but beautiful in different ways than Alli), and she is funny (she squeaks and grunts and snorts and just makes us laugh all the time with her funny facial expressions).  Of course, we will have to wait to see about the rest of her personality.

But the one thing that I've learned is that there is not one formula for the perfect child - cause I have two, and they are different.  :D

Multi-Tasking at It's Best

Today we had a follow-up appointment for Natalie, to make sure her she was gaining weight appropriately, and to make sure the jaundice was clearing.  I figured 1/2 hour visit, plus whatever time waiting in the waiting room - piece of cake.  So, we were in the waiting room for about 15 minutes max, then we went to the room, got weighed, took temp, etc.  Now just had to wait for the doc for the jaundice check.  Her weight gain is great - she's at 6 lbs 15 oz, so past her birth weight before the required 2 week period.

Waiting for the doctor took longer than expected.  After 30 minutes of waiting, I finally went out of the room to see if someone could watch the girls so I could go to the bathroom.  Dr.  Patel saw me and said "oh, you're still here!"  What??  They misplaced us??  Grrrr....  We have been saying for 2 years now we are going to find another pediatric doctor, but we never have.  This just added to the list of reasons to do so.  Apparently, they never marked our room for the doctor to come in, so she just kept skipping us!  Ugh.  But, she came in right away when she saw me and started looking over Natalie.  She also said I could run to the bathroom and she would watch the girls.  That was very nice.

Dr. Patel mentioned she wasn't worried about the jaundice at all because the test we took Friday came back as a 10, which is not a worrisome number.  That would have been good information to know 30 minutes ago.

So, an hour and a half after getting there, we finally were able to leave.  We went through Burger King drive through (not my favorite getting fast food, but we were all starved!)  We got home and since Natalie didn't get a good sleep for that 3 hour period, she was fussy.  Damn!  Not going to get to eat my burger cause I'm going to have to feed her first.  So I hooked her up and just couldn't stand it anymore.  So Alli, Natalie, *and* I were eating - all at the same time.  Nice, huh?  :)  When it was time to switch sides, I decided I needed to wash my hands first.  So I washed one hand while Natalie was still attached and feeding.  Cool!  Then Alli wanted more water, with ice.  Really child?  Get it yourself!  No...this is one of the outcries of being a new sister - she wants to know that she still matters to us and so doing things for her is the way she knows she still matters.  Ugh.  Once again, Natalie nursing still, I'm up getting Alli a new cup of water with ice.  I like this multi-tasking!  :)  haha

On the downside, Natalie was so exhausted from the morning, that after nursing the one side, I could not wake her up to nurse on the other.  Ugh.  Now I'm lopsided and going to be in pain in about 2 hours.  Oh well.  It won't be the first time, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Parent-Teacher Conference for Alli

Alli is in the same class as last year, so we are very familiar with her teacher and do a lot of chatting at dropoff (and now pickup since we can do that with maternity leave).  Her academics are high, just like last year.  No worries about them.  We talked about how I can support her reading at home to supplement the work the teacher is doing with her on her reading.  Mrs. Gyger mentioned she only has opportunity to work with Alli 2x per week because of Alli going to the other preschool.

So, I asked her other preschool teacher, Mrs. Erste, how she was doing.  Alli is in another preschool 3 days a week in the afternoons as a peer model for kids with disabilities.  So I asked Mrs. Erste how Alli was doing as a peer model and she said she is exactly what a peer model is supposed to be.  So that's good.

The only new news was in Alli's social development.  Apparently she is finally understanding how to walk away from a bad situation (very good), and she also has played with another little boy in the afternoon preschool and helped bring him out of his shell.  Yay!  The teacher said it was great for both of them - Alli plays with this little boy and the little boy is now not shy to ask Alli to play.

On a different note, Mrs. Gyger said that Alli was adjusting to being a big sister really well - she hasn't seen her act out or do anything like that, which is really good.  She did mention that Alli announced to her class "My baby sister eats by drinking milk from my Mommy's boobies!"  The teacher was laughing and said "You are correct.  But we call that 'nursing'."  :D  That's my girl - totally infatuated with boobies!!

One Week Old and First Newborn Doctor Visit

Natalie is one week old!  She sleeps a LOT, which is nice for us, but also very different since we have no interaction and are anxious to get to know the personality of our newest family member.

Her newborn office visit went well, especially considering her GI tract bug that she fought on day 4.  The doctor said we were doing a fantastic job with the breast feeding - her lips and eyes were nice and moist and there was no thrush in her throat.  Here were her stats:

Length:  20-1/2"
Weight:  6 lbs 11 oz


The only issue was the jaundice.  She was still a little yellow (probably leftover from the bug), but the doctor said it was looking ok.  Just in case, she ordered a jaundice blood test since we had to go to get blood drawn anyway for the 2nd part of the newborn screening required in Arizona.  She also asked that we come back to check the jaundice in 4 more days.

Our newborn appointment wound up taking over 2 hours with the blood draw.  Holy cow - who would have thought!  Alli was a champ through it.  In fact, she was so good that we treated her (and us) to a bowl of ice cream when we got home.  AND, since she has been such a good big sister, she got a Dora Kitchen as a gift.  (It was a hand-me-down from the Kingerys - thanks guys!)

One thing we did notice during the doctor's visit, the blood draw, and just observations around the house is that we might have a little princess on our hands.  Yes, she cries when her diaper is the least bit soiled.  She cried during the blood draw - not from the heel prick, but when the lady squeezed her foot to get the blood into the vile.  And that was more because she wanted to be able to move her legs freely instead of have them held.  Oh boy!

Natalie Day 4: SICK!! Agh!!

We got worried with Natalie because she hadn't pooped since 3am Sunday morning.  And here it was Tuesday morning and still nothing.  But more on that later...

Monday night nursing brought a new characteristic out in Natalie.  She kept spitting up a lot after feedings so I started burbing her more religiously.  It seemed to help.  Tuesday morning she was pretty tired, and so I let her sleep.  I noticed she was more "snacking" than feeding, but I figured if she were that tired, I would just let her sleep through the morning and she would probably wake up more in the afternoon.  WRONG!

Late morning, we got a poop.  We were very happy about that because nobody wants a constipated newborn!  But then she started pooping like every hour.  Hmmm..... seems strange.  And then she never did quite wake up for a full nursing - she kept falling asleep after nursing for 2-3 minutes (a snack), and this kept going all day.  By evening, she was looking quite yellow and the fear of jaundice really hit (besides the fact that we thought all the pooping was due to the same bug that gave Alli the diarhea).

We brought Natalie outside for an hour, stripped down to nothing but a diaper, and soaking up the last indirect sunlight of the evening to try to help the jaundice.  Kim called the doctor and got the PA on call for the night.  We talked for a while asking lots of questions about the digest tract bug as well as jaundice.  Armed with information, we decided that an ER visit was not necessary, but we would be going to the doctor's office the next day to at least get her levels checked for jaundice.  And mommy decided that waking a sleeping baby was mandatory for the night, to make sure she was hydrated since all she was doing was snacking.

I've found waking her only takes a diaper change.  Boy, does she fuss with that, although during the day she had been more calm (probably because she wasn't really waking up).  So we nursed at 8pm, and then again around 10:30pm.  I woke up again at 2am and forced myself to wake her up and nurse.  This time, she did a full feeding.  Yay!  Both sides!!!  We were awake for about an hour.  Good job Natalie.  Then she woke me up at 5:30am for another nursing, and again took both sides.  I also noticed that changing her diaper was back to a challenge with the squirmy baby.  (Squirma-dega is Kim's nickname for her right now.  If you don't understand, watch Sesame Street with Jeff Gordon and Squirmy the Worm doing the Squirma-dega race.)  :)

While we are still sitting her next to the window for some sunlight, and still dealing with some interesting poopy diapers, we are happy to have our little Squirma-dega back.  Her eyes are open and bright today, so it looks like she has passed whatever jaundice / bug was affecting her yesterday.  Yay!!!

Settling In

It has been interesting to settle in this time around.  Some of it is easier, and some of it is much harder.

Natalie was born on Friday morning.  Kim left the hospital to go pick up Alli from school and bring her to meet her sister.  I told Kim that he should go home with Alli and spend the night with her instead of with me, so at 8pm, they left the hospital.  

I had a rough night that night.  The hospital was packed and the nurse support wasn't there the way I remember it was for Alli.  So I was up changing poopy diapers, dealing with Natalie puking up, and gagging on, the amniotic fluid that she swallowed during birth, and breast feeding.  All this while having difficulty getting out of bed due to the stitches, the cramping, the just general inability to move easily.  

Kim was supposed to show up at the hospital around 9:30 or so.  Well, Alli wound up puking at 6am, so he had a bit of cleanup to do.  Then he got her back to sleep and we had to decide what to do.  When they woke up again around 8, he took her temp.  Normal.  So he cleaned up and then headed out.  He got to the hospital by 11:30.

Meanwhile, Natalie and I got a visit from the Belt family.  It was nice to see the kids - they each took turns holding baby Natalie.  Kim missed them by 30 minutes.  :(  Bummer!!!

We asked to be discharged quickly, mostly because we figured Alli would need to get home.  This is a much different philosophy than we used before.  With Alli, we stayed as long as they would possibly let us.  My how things change when you have a sick other child in the picture!

Home adjustment was actually easier this time around, probably because we already had experience with having a kid around.  So, the house remained very messy (no worries), I tried to take care of myself and the feedings of Natalie, and Kim took on cooking, cleaning, and Alli duties.  Alli wanted to play a lot, but soon understood that there was going to be a new routine in the picture.  I found nursing in the rocking chair like I did with Alli wasn't going to work as well - instead I started nursing in the spare bed so that Alli could sit next to me.  We could read books together while Natalie ate.  I guess now I'm glad we have company coming and we left Natalie's room mostly a spare bedroom!  :)

It's fun to see the similarities and differences in the baby's.  Alli liked being wrapped like a burrito, but had to have her arms out.  Natalie is very similar in this respect.  Natalie *constantly* has a hand by her face (she did in the womb too!)  Alli had no such habit.  The girls look very similar, yet different in many ways.

The biggest concern we now have with Natalie is this bug that Alli had.  Alli went from puking on Saturday morning to diarrhea by Sunday.  Natalie on the other hand, hasn't pooped since about 3am on Sunday.  Here it is Monday night, so that's quite a bit of time.  She has plenty of very stinky gas though.  We don't know if she caught the digestive bug that Alli has, or if this is something else.  So I'm feeding her often instead of trying to get her on a schedule, just to make sure she doesn't dehydrate or anything.  I'll work on the schedule next week if we can get her bowels working well.  It's weird cause in the hospital she pooped like 6 times within the 25 hours we were there!  

It's so nice to have Kim home to help around the house and just be around.  And Natalie warms up to him like crazy.  Sometimes if I can't console her, Kim has the magic touch.  I will definitely miss having him around next week when he goes back to work...

Food Coma

Sisters

Among Friends

Thank you to all of our wonderful friends and family for all the well wishes.  We love you all.  Thanks for stopping by to say hi Wolferts.  Thanks for stopping by today Belts.  And thank you for dinner last night Pennells.

Speaking of Pennells, we are now part of an exclusive group of families with two daughters and no sons.  In addition to the Pennells, we are joining the Pivins, Kingerys, Emmons, Dalsins, Hogans, and the MacLeods (my aunt and uncle).  Anyone have shotgun buying advice?

My Girls

Wolfert Visit

The crew

Mom/Dad/Natalie with Dr. Plimpton and nurse Susan.

Natalie Elise Guerrette

Born: 2012-10-05
Time: 10:14 AM
Weight: 6 lbs 12 oz
Length: 20 in.

Mom and baby are doing well :-)

It's a girl!

2012-10-05
10:14 AM
Natalie

Is there a doctor in the house?

Our nurse, Susan, is calling dr. Plimpton now because Jenny is about
10cm. dilated. It's almost time to start pushing!

When the levee breaks

Dr. Plimpton breaking Jenny's water sac seems to have kick started her
in the right direction. Whereas before, her contractions were at most
a 3 or 4 out of 10 on the pain scale, they are now solidly in the 5 to
6 range.

Go baby go!

Labor update

6 hours of being on petocin and no real change in my contractions.
They are stable and weak, just like at home.

But Dr. Plimpton just came in to check on me. Yay! It was good to see
his face. He broke my water, so now we are committed. I'm still only
4cm dilated. He's hoping that between the petocin and the water
breaking, we have a baby sometime this morning. Fingers crossed.

Sent from my iPhone

Checking in

On The Way To The Hospital

The hospital called to let us know they have a bed ready. We were
commenting that we are leaving for the hospital a good hour earlier
than with Alli, and I'm not in active labor. What a different
experience this is.

Alli is at Marcie's house. Bagheera is at Erik and Kris house. I'm
having contractions, but nothing strong. I have no clue if they are
just going to break my water or give petocin or both, but we are ready
for a long night.

Kim will keep the blog updated.

Sent from my iPhone

38-1/2 Week Checkup

I would have never thought I would be blogging about another checkup with the doctor, and yet, here we are...

I have lost 3 lbs since last week's visit (unsure why, but I have been a little nauseous lately).  The baby is unknown in weight because the head is so low the doctor couldn't get measurements.  But, he said that based on his judgement, the baby is probably 6-1/2 - 7 lbs, and the measurement from last week being 7-1/2 lbs was definitely heavy.

I'm 4cm dilated and ready to go.  Once again, he's just surprised that I haven't started into active labor yet.  And then I had a contraction while we were there and he asked about how strong I thought it was and I said maybe 2 out of 10, and that's what I've had for the last 7 weeks.  He said "Well, there you go.  Only 6 more weeks of being pregnant!"  hahaha

The baby was so low we couldn't even get an ultrasound of the face.  Unreal.  No wonder I'm so uncomfortable and waddle all over the place.

So we are now talking about going to the hospital for an induction to get the active labor started.  He said the hospitals have changed their processes, so his office has to call to schedule.  We are tentative for tomorrow afternoon, but the hospital is pretty busy and they are not sure they will get us in.  So, we are guessing we will be in the hospital sometime this week or this weekend, and then finally meet the baby that has been procrastinating in my belly!!!  :)

Every Pregnancy is Different

I know you always hear that every pregnancy is different, but until you experience just how different, you just don't want to believe it...

My pregnancy with Alli was easy - textbook as a matter of fact.  From looking back at the blog and from what I remember, I was running 1-2 miles until 6 months, started swimming at 32 weeks, assumed my due date was probably when I would stop working because I would have the baby on or after my due date, my labor started on a Sunday and gave us plenty of warning so we could tell work and make final preparations for the baby.

Now this pregnancy.  At 26 weeks I got stung by a scorpion (3 times).  Ok, that was unfortunate and not really a pregnancy problem, but still!  I ran 2-3 miles up to 15 weeks only, then could only walk.  The baby dropped at 31 weeks and then I couldn't even walk without bringing on contractions.  With Alli and a stressful job, going to the pool and swimming for exercise seemed out of the question.  I had to start working from home to keep the contractions at bay, at least until week 36.  And then we hit the magical calendar date of week 36 - safety.  The baby could come out - throw caution to the wind.  I was 2cm dilated and every indication was that the baby was coming soon.  Week 37, contractions are sporadic and not strong, dilated to 3cm, ready to pop at any time.  And then the week/this weekend since my last appointment:  pink show for 3 days straight, baby dropped so far down I was having issues sitting, cramps on both sides of my groin, and the fear that we would never make it to the hospital fast enough if my water did break.  And besides all of that, Kim's project had a big due date and he was on critical path and was working a lot.  (Ok, so can you say a lot of stress in our household?)

So this weekend was a turning point.  We went to the hospital to get checked out.  I mean, 3cm on Thursday, pink show for 3 days and groin cramps doesn't sound very good.  Kim finally packed up work and drove me down (we have at least a 40 minute drive to the hospital).  Alli wound up with an impromptu play date with Cali Pennell, who lives 2 miles from the hospital.  Everything checked out fine - contractions indicated pre-labor; baby's heartbeat was fine.  I was still 3cm dilated, 70-80% effaced, ripe to go at any time.  The hospital triage was slow and we were able to chat with the nurse quite a bit.  In the end, she said "You really need to reduce your stress.  It might be that your body wants to push this baby out but the stress is keeping that from happening."

Exhausted, both emotionally and physically, we had dinner with Angel and Cali, then went home to get ready for the week.  And in my sleepless night that I had, I finally came up with a de-stress plan:
1)  Stop working
2)  Schedule an induction  (seems like cheating, but I need a near-term date both for myself and for Kim's work schedule)


I often wonder if I would be so stressed if I didn't have 6 weeks of contractions prior to being full-term...

37 Week Checkup

The appointment this morning went well.  The baby is doing fine - still moving around, with a heartbeat of 156.  The doctor said I was 3cm dilated.  (Apparently I was 2cm dilated last week but I spaced on that tidbit of information.  No *wonder* it's so hard to walk around!)  Contractions have been stronger, but not consistent, so no labor yet.  The baby's measurements are giving the doctor an estimated weight of 7 lbs 8 oz.  Ouch!  That's a full pound heavier than the ultrasound estimates on Alli, so this is definitely going to be a bigger baby.  But, I have not gained any weight since last week, so once again, I must have lost a pound.  Have no clue where I am losing this weight...

There's a full moon this weekend, and hospital statistics say more deliveries during full moons, so I'm hoping I fall into this statistic.  :)  We are looking forward to meeting our new family member, and I am very ready to be done being pregnant.

37 Week Belly

I got back onto Facebook, just to give me something to do while on maternity leave.  One of the comments was to "see" the belly, so I took a self-portrait trying to show the basketball that has replaced my stomach.

Here's what I got:

Next checkup with the doctor is tomorrow.  Keeping my fingers crossed that labor will start soon.  I keep having stronger contractions, but nothing strong enough to push a baby all the way out, and definitely not consistent.  Keep trying baby!  We are all anxious to meet you!

Week 36 Checkup

We didn’t get very good ultrasound pictures this week, mostly because the head is half way down the birth canal and the baby is all squished.  The doctor said he would guess I would be able to make my appointment with him next week, but probably won’t go much past that.  I think this weekend sounds like a good time to start labor.  :)

Everything in general looked good.  Baby is estimated to be 6lbs 7oz.

Ready or Not, Don't Come Out!

This pregnancy has been a little more of a rollercoaster than my last one - you know, with a scorpion sting, the baby dropping at week 31, contractions so early, etc, etc, etc.  I've been saying "throw caution to the wind" as soon as week 36 starts, and the doctor gave me the "ok" sign for this weekend.  And now it's almost here and I'm having second thoughts.  Why?  Not because I'm not ready to meet the little gem that's in my belly, but I'm not ready for the little gem to come out and be exposed to the things floating around our air...

Over Labor Day weekend, Alli got sick.  Nothing big - she stayed in PJs all day on Saturday and watched TV - didn't want to do *anything* and didn't eat very much.  The next day she woke up with a croup cough.  Well, we know how to deal with that, so honey/lemon water for cough, Little Noses every night before bed, Vitamin C.  She was feeling much better by the end of the weekend.  The cough still lingers (yes, even still), but it's not bad.  But then I got it.  So by Tuesday, I had a congested head and a cough.  And that went on til about Friday and then by Friday, I really felt sick.  Saturday I slept the whole day (yes, the whole day).  I only got up once to force a peanut butter and jelly sandwich down my throat cause I figured I needed some kind of food, and then went back to bed.  I was pretty much in bed through Monday, so 3 full days of sleep and I wasn't getting better very fast.  But finally I've turned the corner, and while I'm still coughing and don't feel 100%, I'm much better.  But on Tuesday Gage (Marcie's youngest) came down with a super high fever.  He's been bed-ridden since.  And now Marcie has it - the cough, the fever, the congestion.  And she never gets sick.  They have 5 people in their house that this "disease" will go through.  Ugh.  And people at work are dropping like flies as well.  Some get the high fever symptom, and some don't.  Our family was lucky in that we didn't.

But do I really want this little baby to come out and experience this little epidemic that seems to be going around?  Hell no!  So here it is, my weekend to throw caution to the wind, and I'm probably going to do my best to let the baby sit in my belly a week or two longer, hoping this "disease" passes through the community and is basically gone before we welcome our newest family member.

Alli Reads Her First Book

Thanks to a wonderful preschool teacher, Alli is starting to read.  She and her teacher have been working on this book for a few weeks now.  Mind you, her teacher pulls her aside individually to teach her reading because so far, nobody else in the class has been assessed to be at the same level.  We are very grateful for the attention Mrs. Gyger gives to all of her students.

(We tried to upload the video, but it didn't take, so a picture is going to have to do...)

Spirits of Parties Past

In getting the house ready for another tenant, we are trying to clean
*all* cabinets. This is what we decided not to keep from our liquor
cabinet.

Getting Rooms Ready

I'm finding it harder this time around getting a baby's room ready.  Maybe it's because we had a spare bedroom when we were creating Alli's room, so everything just naturally moved into there.  Now we are taking our last room and converting it into a baby's room.  It's not quite as easy...  We still have a queen sized bed in the room, and a TV on TV stand in the room, neither of which we are planning on taking down before Christmas because of company.  (The baby will be in a cradle in our bedroom anyway, but still - no crib will be set up til then!)

Also, a lot of the room decor has still been decorating Alli's walls, so we can't just rip it all down and say "too bad - it's all going for the baby now".  So, we've done a bit of swapping.

First, we bought a new changing table/dresser for the baby.  And then we moved some of the wall decor.

Here are a couple of pictures of the baby room.  The crib will eventually go along the wall where the bed is...

And Alli and Mommy went through her bedroom and converted it to butterflies and princesses, thanks to wall decals.  Alli did a great job with the alphabet decals.  I would have probably selected a different spacing for the jewels and flowers around the princesses, but it's her room, and we wouldn't let her try to place the larger decals.  :)

34-1/2 Week Checkup - Baby in the Hole!

A few big things from the doctor’s visit today.  First, I still haven’t gained any more weight.  The baby however, is up to 5 lbs, 9 oz according to his measurements, and has rolls of fat.  Yes, rolls.  We could see them.  Belly rolls and jowls!  I figure this must not be*my* child, cause I’ve never seen rolls before!  ;)  Just kidding.  He said I don’t need to feel like I have to eat for the baby, cause it’s doing just fine and definitely won’t starve.  :)  hahaha  And I'm definitely thinking boy, cause I just can't picture a baby girl with jowls!!!  :)

The other thing the doctor said was that the baby’s head is in the birth canal, poised, and ready to go.  Everything is set for the launch! :)  He also said that we are currently in a gray zone if I went into labor now.  He said that the baby may or may not have lungs developed enough to skip NICU.  They would have to do an amnio, which I would much rather avoid.  But he said in 9 days, we should be in a safe zone as far as lung development, so 9 days and counting!!  I figure come September 15, I’m going to start going on walks again, moving furniture, etc.  :)  (Ok, just kidding again – at least about moving furniture.)  But I am going to throw caution to the wind!

The other good thing that we saw was the practice breathing.  We have actually seen that the last couple of visits.  The doctor said that’s both a sign of maturity, as well as the fact that the baby is not stressed.  Both very positive things.

And then after our appointment, we headed to St. Joseph’s hospital to pre-register.  Ah, the memories that brought back!  We were surprised we remembered so much of the layout of the hospital once we saw it again.

And for the final treat of our morning, In-n-Out for lunch before heading to work.  :)  What a great way to start a day!

Preemptive Strike

At my Week 32 checkup, I mentioned the baby had dropped quite a bit.  The doctor submitted the paperwork to the hospital, and I was actually getting a little nervous about the baby coming too early.  Like your typical engineer, I started looking for patterns.  I found that when I went for my 3 mile walks, I would have lots of strong Braxton-Hicks contractions, which didn't push the baby out, but definitely were pushing the baby south.  So, I stopped doing my walks.  (Bummer).  But day by day, things seemed to get worse, not better.  I would sit at work and have contraction after contraction.  I could feel the pressure in my pelvis as the baby kept pushing lower and lower.  Not good.  To be frank, I was getting more and more worried that we would have the baby sooner rather than later and we would wind up with a little one in the NICU.  Ugh.  Not the way I would prefer to have this baby.

So, we have found some ways to reduce the contractions, and thereby (hopefully) keep the baby inside my belly til at least week 36.  We tried to change my focus at work so that I wouldn't be as stressed, but we quickly found that it really wasn't the stress, but the mere walking around the building!  So, now I work from home, thanks to everyone in the management team that thought that would be a better alternative than me having the baby early.  They have authorized me to work up to 40 hours per week at home, although I do try to go in to the office once a week.  This has been the biggest help so far!  It's Thursday and I haven't had many contractions this week.  (First time in over 2 weeks I can say that.)  Usually, by Thursday, I'm staring at the calendar wondering how in the world I'm going to keep the baby inside of me for another 3 weeks.  Now, I'm thinking "no problem", and in 3 weeks I'll be back to walking around everywhere!

The other small thing I found was the mere act of cooking dinner.  Yes, but the end of the day, even though I work from home, standing in the kitchen and preparing dinner brings on contractions.  Granted not as many as when I work a full day at work (and I'm starting the dinner process already having quite a few contractions), but they do show up.  So after dinner is spent laying on the couch while Kim cleans up.

But all I need to do is last 3 more weeks and we should be very safe.  Now we just have to prepare a hospital bag and pre-register at the hospital...

Alli the Dancer

Yesterday we had Alli try out a dance class at a local dance studio where some of her friends go.  This class is for 3-5 year olds, and they teach both ballet and tap (in 50 minutes)!  Alli absolutely *loved* it.  She wanted to stay for another class, even though there were no other classes for her.  When we got home, she wanted to play “dance party”.  And then again this morning wanted to play “dance party”. 

Thanks to Marcie’s hand-me-downs, we actually had some dance-wear that Alli was able to wear to the class.  And once I found she liked the dance class, we went through more hand-me-downs from Marcie’s girls and found a pair of tap shoes that fit.  Now she walks around the house in tap shoes all the time so she’s ready to dance!  We just have to get her some tights and some ballet shoes, which we will do soon.

32 Week Checkup

Today was my 32 week check up.  The odd thing about today’s checkup was in the weight.  The scale said I lost 1 lb over the last 2 weeks so, of course, he asked what changed.  I said I eliminated my protein shake in the morning and I made sure I didn’t eat any pasta at lunch (cause our cafeteria is serving a lot of pasta these days).  That’s all I’ve changed, and that was due to the glucose test.  He asked if I felt tired, or hungry, or anything like that and I said no, I just made sure I was eating more like I did when I was carrying Alli.  So we moved on to look at the baby.  This baby already has chubby cheeks and a double chin!  My goodness, what a big baby!  And based on the ultrasound measurements, the baby weighs 4lbs, 7oz.  Holy cow!!!  (To give you an idea, most babies weigh 4 lbs at 32 weeks, and Alli was right there at that time.)

Last Thursday, the baby dropped – like a couple of inches in 1 day.  I mentioned this to the doctor and he said that the baby would be fine to come out now, it’s just that it wouldn’t get to go home with us, so if I started to go into labor, they would do what they could to stop it.  He also said that dropping so early is a pretty good indicator that we won’t make it to my due date – that the baby will come early.  And, he decided to submit my paperwork to the hospital now, because we could have a baby in 4 weeks!  Wow!!!  Not sure we are ready for that, but bring it on!

Our Last Mini-Vacation

This past weekend, we ventured down to Tucson again.  Yes, another resort with summer deals.  This time, it was because we were going with friends and wanted our girls to be able to play with each other.  The pool was fun - mostly because of the two girls, not because the pool was fabulous or anything.  We also had fun feeding the Koi food (they had a large Koi pond and supplied the fish food), and learning about owls, harris hawks, tarantulas, and snakes as the Sonoran Desert Museum wound up bringing these animals to the lobby on Saturday!

One of the things that Kim and I notice about packing is how much easier it is with Alli.  We were leaving on a Friday, so we got ready for school and before we went to school we said "Alli, go lay out 3 outfits."  And when she was done with that, we said "Pick out some stuffed animals you want us to bring on the trip."  And then off to school we went.  Kim and I worked from home and packed here and there in between working spells.  When I finally went into Alli's room to grab her things, it just made me laugh.  She did a great job laying everything out.

Hiccups / Reading / Responsible Big Girl!

So, this is really 3 different subject posts in one, but they are all short.

1) HICCUPS

This baby has ridiculous amounts of hiccups.  And since I feel *everything* that the baby does inside of me, I feel every case of the hiccups.  Yesterday afternoon, Alli and I were watching a little TV after dinner and the baby got the hiccups again (3rd time that day).  So I told Alli that the baby had hiccups and put her hand on my belly where I feel them and she was able to feel the rhythm with me.  She kissed my belly and told the baby that it was okay, they would go away.  What a sweetie!

2) READING!

Yesterday at school, Alli was able to read 3 words:  cat, bat, hat.  Her preschool teacher, Mrs. Gyger, was working with her and made sure I knew Alli's great achievement when I dropped her off this morning.  Alli was very excited, as were we all.  Mrs. Gyger said "she is *so* ready to read!"

3) RESPONSIBLE BIG GIRL!

This morning we were running late for school because I chose to take 10 minutes out of the morning to play with Alli.  So I finally stopped and told her I had to go brush my teeth and finish getting ready so we could go to school, and she would have to then brush her teeth and get her shoes and socks on.  When I finished and go to the kitchen, I was going to pack up her backpack.  But it was gone.  I was a little dismayed, not knowing if Kim had tried to be helpful and did something with it, but it was not the time to misplace the backpack.  So I went into the fridge to get her lunch and that was gone as well.  Alli was in her bedroom, putting on her shoes and socks.  When she came out, she announced she had already brushed her teeth, she had her shoes/socks on, and she was wearing her backpack.  She had taken her lunch from the fridge and packet it up herself.  WOW!!  What a big helper!  I was extremely excited and kept praising her for being so responsible, especially since we were running late.  That's my girl!!!  :D

Week 30 Checkup

Another good visit with the doctor.  This baby has Kim’s nose and Kim’s lips.  That’s about all we can tell visually right now.  Everything on the baby looks healthy.  The baby is practicing it’s breathing, which apparently is a good sign.  We could see the “breathing” on the ultrasound.  Apparently, that means the baby is not stressed and maturing nicely. 

One thing that did surprise me were the results of the glucose tolerance test.  Apparently, normal range is 145 or below.  My number was 150.  He said that wasn’t really bad, but I should cut down on my carbs and sugars.  Huh!  I wonder what changed from when I was pregnant with Alli!  But, I guess I will be watching my diet a little closer for the carbs and sugars.  He said it’s nothing bad, just that since the sugar stays in my system longer, the baby is getting some of it, and that can make for a bigger baby (not really what I’m looking for.)  I’m wondering if that also explains the fact that I’ve gained 16 lbs already, and I only gained a total of 18 lbs with Alli. But, mom and baby are healthy, so I am just thankful for that.

One more thing - if I had to guess, this baby has Kim's personality.  Here's an example:  When Alli was in my belly, at night, I would lay on my left side but if I ever changed to my right side, Alli would kick relentlessly until I finally went back to my left side.  This baby, when I switch sides, will kick for a few times and then just "oh, whatever" and settle back down.  Totally laid back - and that's Kim!!!

Vacation in Tucson

This summer, we decided to check out one of the (somewhat) local resorts down in Tucson.  We picked the JW Marriott at Starr Pass – mostly because they seemed to have lots of things for kids (pools mostly).  So we were able to spend part of a day on their lazy river and huge water slide, and then almost a full day at the other pool, swimming all around and watching Kim down his margaritas!  J  It was a nice vacation, although more expensive than I was expecting given our phenomenal room rate.  I think they jacked all the food and drink prices up a ton, cause ate/drank almost double what we paid for the room!!!

After our resort stay, we went and stayed with friends for a night at their new house.  It was beautiful and we had lots of fun, especially since they had a little dog that Alli was able to chase around.  At one point, Jen held her little dog (Dexter, now affectionately known as Texter) so Alli could pet him.  They had a little conversation, which she filled me in on later.

Alli:  “Sometimes when I do this to Bagheera (grabs her neck and starts choking), then he growls.”

Jen:  “Oh!  Why would you do that then?”

Alli:  “Because sometimes I’m a good girl, and sometimes I’m not.”

Oh my!!!  I guess I need to pay more attention to our “good girl” when I hear Bagheera growl!!!

Sibling Love

At my last Ob visit, Dr. Plimpton had asked me if the baby responded to Kim's voice.  I told him no, but that the baby seemed to respond to Alli's voice.  In the days that followed, I was rethinking that answer, wondering if the baby really was responding to Alli's voice.  But this morning I decided I was 100% correct in the answer.

We are on a little stay-cation.  Well, we're considering Tucson close enough to home to call it a stay-cation, although if you ask Alli, the drive was very long.  :)  So we are at a beautiful resort in Tucson, cashing in on their summer specials, using their many awesome pools, and of course paying exorbitant amounts of money for food and alcohol.  This morning Alli woke up early as usual, but being that we are all in one room, we couldn't send her out to watch TV, so we tried to have her play on the iPad quietly while we continued to sleep.  Well, that lasted about 10 minutes and then it was melt-down city.  The discipline from daddy and crying from Alli ensued, and meanwhile, the baby got extremely agitated and I was just getting kicked like all get-out.  The baby was so upset for the entire duration that Alli cried, and so I've decided that this baby just genuinely loves his/her sister and was very upset by Alli's crying - reacting to her more than any voice the baby hears.  Awww....  I hope the two really enjoy each other!

Haircut Turned Spa Day for Alli

Today the whole family went to get haircuts.  This doesn’t happen very often where our haircuts align, but today it did.  So Alli got her hair just trimmed, because she wants to grow it long (like Rapunzel) and with no bangs.  (Should have thought of that before she cut part of her bangs to the quick!)  So Stacy did a great job evening out the last of the Alli haircut and got it shaped so we could just let it grow for a long time before another cut would be necessary.  After the haircut, Alli was most excited because Mary (Stacy's assistant) paints her nails (to keep her entertained while Kim and I are getting cut).  Alli already knew she wanted green nailpolish and was very excited to ask Mary for it.
So Mary painted Alli's finger nails, and then Alli said "now toes!".  Oh boy.  We were laughing.  She picked a sparkly red for her toes.  As a mom of a 4 year old, I cringe over the dark colors, but I must admit, they look really good on her!

So at the end of Alli's haircut-turned-spa-day, we decided to document with some pics.  Here is Alli with Mary (on left) and Stacy (on right), as well as a pic of her fingernails and toenails.

And after all the fun at the salon, we went out for some yummy ice cream.  Can you guess what Alli's favorite flavor is?  :)

Our Summer Cleaning Project

I believe I blogged earlier that my goal was to clean all the closets in the house, to make room to fit the baby and all the “stuff” that comes with babies.  The goal was to throw things out, take them to Goodwill, or find a new home for them in different areas of the house, all in order to make the spare bedroom (and current storage area) the baby’s room.  So, let’s just say, we haven’t done a very good job on this house project for most of this summer. 

To spark my drive (and therefore drive Kim as well), I decided to order a changing table/dresser for the baby.  And where to put it?  Well, in order to put it in the spare bedroom, we would *have* to do some cleaning.  :)  (At least I know how to put the right carrot in front of my face!)  So this weekend, we had about 70 books go to Goodwill, a couple of bags of clothes / handbags / miscellaneous items, and a couple of old cameras that we haven’t used in about 7 years.  We filled 2 garbage bags with “things” that we haven’t touched in over 5 years – most of which are products that we do not use anymore and therefore don’t need to replace.  By the end of the weekend, I felt we had made a decent dent in our house.

I’m hoping the drive stays with us a couple more weeks.  There are things in the garage we can clean out (although it’s really hot outside to be working in the garage), and there are still things in our bedrooms, bathrooms, office, and kitchen.  Yes, still a lot of cleaning out.  Maybe this is a good thing that we have a little one coming – it’s making us get rid of the clutter that just winds up collecting over the years.