Merry [late] Christmas!

I'm slow to post this because I had to edit it to take off our last name, but I think a good portion of people have already seen our little card anyway.


This year has been a good one for us. We evened up the feminine presence in our house with the addition of Kaitlyn. We took some fun trips and enjoyed family visiting us. I crafted it up with aprons and what not. Jon got a promotion. Alex got a swing set.
I would do a year in review, but if you really want to see what went on this year, just go look at the archives. :)

We hope next year is just as great as this year was!

Domestic Gifts part deux

Remember this post about being excited about appliances and such for gifts?
Yup... the same thing happened this year.

From my lovely lovely husband, my birthday and christmas presents (lol and valentine's and mother's day 2010 presents) were bought months before the holidays rolled around.
If you need help remembering, here's the post about my sweet new (well... CL new anyway) dishwasher and super sweet new washer and dryer (which are indeed fabulous for washing diapers). Thank you Honey- I couldn't have asked for a better gift. :)

I always laughed when we gave my mom small appliances or other house/kitchen-y stuff for mother's day and christmas and her birthday. I always wondering how she could actually want that stuff and not something else.

Little did I know that she probably liked it as much as I do... which is a lot! And now she's the one giving me house/kitchen-y stuff for presents.

For my birthday my mom and dad got me an awesome set of tupperware. all of the old mismatched stuff went out and now we have a lovely set that nests very nicely. I have SO much more room in my cupboard (which is a VERY good thing since I'm severely lacking on cupboard space).

For Christmas I requested Corelle. Earlier in the year I had remembered the set we had growing up and wishing that I had the same set (plus, I just didn't really love any of the other patterns). Well wonder of wonders on Christmas morning I got to open up a set of 12 Old Town Blue patterned Corelle plates. My dishwasher is going to love me. And Jon is going to love not running out of bowls on the days when we have something that uses bowls for dinner (between cereal and then 2 days of soup etc., the bowls are gone). I plan on making them a memory in my kid's minds just like they were in mine and then being able to pass them on to one of them one day (it's okay Mom, I forgive you for not keeping yours. :) )

That reminds me though... my sister wasn't nearly as excited about that pattern as I was and had no desire to have Old Town Blue dinnerware in her future home. I'm convinced that in about 10 years she'll have a change of heart.


I can't wait until my birthday and Christmas next year so I can brag about the wondrous household related gifts I get yet again since it's inevitable that such things will be at the top of my list.

that guy

We made it to Utah!

Alex has taken a liking to Sally (she was willing to play trains etc. with him).
I don't know if he just can't remember her name very well or what the story is, but he's been referring to her as "that guy". It makes me laugh.

At dinner time he wanted her to come over and eat (she was holding Kaitlyn) and he goes, "I want dat guy come ova and eat wif us".

Later, Sally was all bundled up in her blue Snuggie and she and Alex were chasing around and playing with a football. No surprise that Alex loved it. So when Sally went into her room, Alex wanted her to come back and play. He came and asked me where she went: "where did dad boo (blue) guy go?"

I may just have to call Sally "that blue guy" from now on. :)

naki

The other day alex was going downstairs to get some clothes, so he was all naked. I was coming up the stairs and loudly exclaimed, "NAKI!"
He must have been in a less the=an ideal mood because he got a little upset and yelled, "I NOT naki! I'm Alex (last name)!"

Okay then. You can be Alex.

That also reminds me that Alex refuses to recognize that he has a middle name and always corrects us when we call him by all 3 names.

snuggle

In the ongoing effort to combat Kaitlyn's nightly fussiness, we are currently cuddled up in bed together. I'm loving it. Though I would love it more if she weren't laying on my arm. Makes it hard to surf the interwebs, you know?
I love a good excuse to lounge around in bed.

Most of Alex's infancy (at least the morning part) was spent in my bed watching 2 hours of ER every morning.

Perhaps that is why he wasn't as fussy as his sister. He got lots of mama bed time.

Or maybe his sister is just a loon determined to give us a run for our sanity.

Or maybe we just forgot about all the not so great parts of Alex's infancy.

words that actually came out of Jon's mouth

Yesterday Jon asked me when I was going to make him a mei tai.

And when he was changing Kaitlyn's cloth diaper he was going to put the one from the top of the pile on and then I heard him say, "oh let's do the pink one because it matches [your clothes]".

Cute.

Something that HAD to be made

Many many many thanks to my friend Crystal for taking her time to help me make this!
As you can see, it was something much needed since Kaitlyn is a bit fussy at night. Not to mention that I have a 3 yr. old that demands some of my time during the day and a baby that likes to be walked/held/rocked to sleep every few hours.
Kaitlyn loves it and is asleep within minutes of being in it.
I love it because the weight is distributed on both shoulders.
Alex loves it because I can play with him or get him things.

I told Jon that I'm going to have to make him one (or just add on to the length of the ties on mine).

Oh and please excuse the messy hair... I didn't feel like doing it today since we were just hanging out at home all day.

Kaitlyn's First Smile

Enjoy!

The Grinch

The other day when we were putting up our Christmas tree one of us said something about the Grinch and Alex asked, "who you talking 'bout mama?"
I told him, "The Grinch"
Alex: "and who's the Grinch"

So I told him that the Grinch is a green guy that lives in Whoville and doesn't like Christmas and he comes and takes everyone's presents.

At this point, Alex got very concerned and very sad and said, "I don't want that grinch to come take my presents".

I was very quick to explain that the Grinch brings back the presents and that he just lives in Whoville that's just in a book.

Luckily he hasn't been too concerned about it since. Though maybe I should use this as a way to get him to clean up his toys or go to bed when he doesn't want to and throws little tantrums. Really, is anything scarier at Christmas than the possibility of a weird looking green thing coming to steal all of your presents? I think not.

Alex loves Grandpa

Today I had to call my mom and Alex was super excited to talk to Grandpa and Grandma. He excitedly said hi to Grandma and then immediately said, "where's Grandpa?!" He was quite disappointed that he wasn't there, but seemed to be satisfied that he was down at Great Grandpa's.

Alex was also playing with a little tape measure. He was measuring the walls and would call out random measurements. ("six and a half inches!" Yes, he really knows to say inches and "a half" apparently). After a bit, he got a little sad and said that he just really wanted a tape measure like Grandpa's. No messing around with little and pretend stuff with Alex apparently.

The thing that had me laughing the most was when he picked up one of his crayons he was coloring with and tried to put it behind his ear and said, "and this is how you wear this". I had to ask him who does that and he told me, "Grandpa!". It was super cute.

picture post

Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks!


Here I am trying out the neti pot for the first time. (I'm actually dressed because I had just been to my 4 day postpartum visit with Kaitlyn.) Oh and this was my birthday. Happy birthday to me.

This is Alex "golfing". I call it that because I'm not sure what else to call it. The concept was similar to golfing, though it was with a baseball bat and the swing was a little off. It was highly amusing to watch.

This is just another picture from when Grandpa was cutting his hair in the playhouse

These were both taken on Thanksgiving. The whole day Alex was putting on and taking off his hood randomly.

This is about as interested in Kaitlyn Alex has been. Maybe one day he'll actually want to touch her beyond kissing her head and if we're lucky, he'll even want to hold her!

Lastly, this is me and Kaitlyn on Thanksgiving. Weighing in at 8 lbs. 10 oz. at her 2 week visit (she was 7 lbs. 10 oz. at the 4 day visit, so she gained a pound in just over a week), she is definitely thankful for Mommy. :)

Goodbye fussy nights

I don't know who loves this more, us or Kaitlyn!

I don't know why/how it works, but when Kaitlyn gets fussy, we put her in the swing and she falls asleep. It's wonderful. Heavenly really.
I am so glad I made Jon put it together last week.

Thanks Mana and Pada!

Mana and Pada left this morning and Alex ended up in a sad and weird state after their departure. Usually his adjustments go well after family leaves but this time has already been a bit different. He's been more ornery and less willing to listen and apologize (e.g. taking a nursing pillow off of the bed and not putting back or apologizing after.) Though he was quite cute immediately after they left and snuggled up with me. We talked about how he felt sad and there was some sniffling but no tears.

So let's recap the visit.

Pada built (with some assistance from yours truly) a roof on Alex's playset in the back yard. It is awesome!



Pada also cut Alex's hair. Alex was extremely excited for his buzz cut!





Mana was awesome at making sure the rest of the house was functioning during these last two weeks. I don't know what we'd have done without her. Alex was a big fan of getting all the time in the world with Mana in the mornings. She took care of Kaitlyn when we needed a break. Thanks Mana!



Pada also built some great shelves for our garage! I don't have a pic of them yet but tune in next time for the horizontal glory!

heart melted

I love my Alex.
Tonight Jon and I walked in the door after a trip to the aftre hours clinic (I thought I had the flu, but it's mastisis which gives you flu like symptoms)and were greeted with a cheerful "hi mama! Hi daddy!"
This happens anytime I come home from somewhere and I absolutely love it. No wonder Jon likes coming home every day.

Kaitlyn's Cry

Our dear little Kaitlyn has got a set of lungs. Don't believe me? Watch:

Alex's thoughts on Kaitlyn

When Kaitlyn was crying we asked Alex what we could do to help her stop crying and Alex said to give her milk from mama's breasts. We don't tip-toe around the "taboo" words here. :)

He was talking on the phone to Great Grandpa M. who was asking about Kaitlyn. Alex told him that she cries a lot and she poops a lot.

He likes that Kaitlyn has a binky and is always eager to give it to her, though she doesn't like it much.

When Kaitlyn cries, he says that it makes him feel a little scared.

Overall he likes being a big brother and doesn't mind that I spend a lot of time holding Kaitlyn so far. We'll see if that changes once Grandma and Grandpa are gone.

The story of Kaitlyn Mikelle

Apparently I have an anxious audience. :)

And since I'm awake and the baby is sleeping, what better time than to blog? Except maybe I should be sleeping too... Good thing I have to eat, otherwise who KNOWS how much longer you'd have to wait.

I started trying to get Kaitlyn to come out last Monday. I walked, spent a lot of time on my birth ball and hands and knees and other various things. By Thursday she still hadn't arrived. And to make me feel really good about all that I had been doing, I was still dilated to a 3... no change from the previous week.
I really wouldn't have cared if she came early or not, I was just trying to be a nice wife and have a baby so that Jon could go up to Dallas to go to the Utah/TCU game. Because if I had not had her, there was no way I was going to let him be 3 hrs. away.

He tried to reason with me and tell me that the risk wasn't that great and that I could call him and all would be fine. He rationalized that since my labor with Alex was induced (water broken artificially and he was born 5 hrs. later {but ready to push 4 hrs. later... they made me rest out of concern for his heartrate}), we didn't really know how my body would labor on it's own and he should be able to get home in time to help me through labor.
My concern was that I wouldn't know I was in labor until I was in hard labor and the baby would be ready to be born within 2 hours.

No baby by Saturday, but I was definitely having more contractions and he didn't get to go to the game (good thing he didn't miss out on much of a game).

On Sunday, we decided to go on a little walk out by the lake. We started walking and then decided to walk the whole way around... Jon said it was like, 1.75 miles. Umm... nope. Try three miles.
So by the time we walked there and back and around the whole lake, we had walked 3.5 miles.

3.5 miles is probably a pretty good guarantee to put someone into labor.
I definitely started having more contractions that were a little more intense, but still really manageable. They were about 5 minutes apart and 30-45 seconds long for most of the evening. I was thinking that maybe they would lead to having a baby at some point, but there was no indication of them picking up in intensity, so they could have just as easily stopped.

We went to bed around 11 and I remember thinking, "okay... do I really want to go to sleep and risk my contractions stopping and not having a baby, or do I want to work with them and get them to pick up?"
I decided on sleeping.

Around 2:30 I noticed a more intense contraction. I watched to see when the next one would come, figuring that this was probably labor, but I may still have a while if my contractions were far apart. They were about 5-10 minutes apart, but were lasting a minute to a minute and a half and they hurt.
So at 3:30 I woke up Jon and we timed a few more contractions... they suddenly picked up to apart now. So we called the birthing center and luckily Joan was already there with a mom who was ready to push, so I didn't feel too bad that we needed to come right away. We told her we would be there in about 25 minutes.

We gathered our stuff together (which was really fun having to pause every 3 minutes for a hard contraction) and left the house at about 4:30.

The good thing about having a baby at night/early in the morning is that there isn't a whole lot of traffic to worry about.
The lights were kind to us and the toll road was such a blessing! Jon was flying down the freeway at least 80 miles an hour.

We got to the birthing center and in our prepped room at about 4:45. They immediately checked baby's heartrate and then my heartrate while I had two contractions almost on top of each other and they were going to check my cervix after the next contraction. The midwife asked if I wanted to get in the tub or shower and I said, "shower... no tub... "

But then the next contraction hit and I was saying that I was ready to push. There was a mad rush in getting my pants off and having me lay on my side (to help prevent tearing) and the midwife looked and said I was definitely ready to push and we all laughed when she said, "I guess we won't be doing the tub".

So it was all just a LITTLE bit crazy. :)

Five minutes after we got there I was pushing and Kaitlyn was born 15 minutes later at 5:05 am.
I think I proved my point to Jon that I would be having a fast labor. :)

She and I cuddled up and she nursed while I was stitched up. I ended up with a 2nd degree tear... (the midwife said that I have a short perineum which is why it was that degree).
Kaitlyn was weighed about an hour after birth and came in at 8 pounds even.

We did her bath at about 3 hours after birth and she enjoyed it until she had to come out of the water. We had a couple more hours of vitals and cuddling and Alex and my parents came to get us at 10:50.

Alex was happy to see me and was I think a little perplexed that I had a baby in my arms. It's one thing to talk about baby Kaitlyn coming out of mama and coming to our house and another to have it actually happen.
He was really excited about the present baby Kaitlyn brought him though! That was probably the highlight for him.
Okay, it WAS the highlight.

Here's the video of Alex meeting his new baby sister:

So at 11 am we packed up and brought our new baby home.
We climbed into bed and have been trying to catch up on sleep ever since. Sad to say, I think it may be awhile before we really feel fully rested again. :)


Jon's nerdiness has been coming out and he's getting an ftp site set up where we can send people a link to to see pictures, so that will be coming soon.


Here are some pictorial highlights!

Snitching

Yesterday Alex and I were making pancakes. They were wheat pancakes, so I was measuring some honey to put in them.
Alex stuck his finger in the stream of honey and when I said hey, he looked at me and said with a little giggle and sneaky smile, "I snitched the honey."

In other news, my parents arrived on Friday.
The baby did not.
She's still taking her sweet time. Yay.

Good day at Goodwill

Actually, Salvation Army, but I liked the title better with Goodwill. :)

I hit up half off Wednesday and it was good to me. I got a ton of clothes - most .50c for the babe and what I was really excited about was this (minus the people... I didn't take a picture of the one I actually bought):

Why was this so exciting? Well first, it was $1.50. Second, I used to have one like this when I was little:

I would have LOVED to have found one like the one I used to have, but better to have one than none! Now to find some fisher price little people and furniture to go in it that aren't insanely expensive.


The other fun thing was that I found a red newborn sized onsie, which had a train image stitched on it, that I modified so that baby Kaitlyn could have some spirit for the big game. I'm hoping she'll get to use it for the Utah/TCU game on Saturday, but who knows if that will happen.

It couldn't have turned out cuter! Yay for having a tiny baby in ute gear! AND it only took me a couple of hours.


Pregnancy wise, I'm still dilated to a 3. I had contractions going on yesterday pretty regularly, but none of them were really bad and they didn't increase in intensity. So no baby yet. We all went on a walk tonight and I may try some other things - just not castor oil! I am so not that desperate.
And really, the only reason I'm trying to get this baby here is so that Jon can go to the U game up in Dallas on Saturday. If I haven't had her, there really isn't any way I'm letting him be 3 hr.s away when who knows how fast my labor will be (especially since it was only 5 hrs. after they broke my water with alex and I wasn't feeling anything before that).
Oh the other good news is that the midwife said that the baby is not full on face forward... more with the legs off to the right and the back on the left. I get to keep doing the hands and knees routine.

Fall Ribbon Wreath

I whipped this up last night in a couple of hours.
I love how it turned out!
It's big and full and fluffy and fallish. The ribbons are slightly frayed on the ends because I didn't feel like sealing them. I love that they are frayed. It makes it looks like feathers or something. I wish I wouldn't have sealed the ones of my Halloween ribbon wreath.

I know that one day I'll still be pulling this thing out and my teenagers will go, "gosh mom, that thing is so ugly! Why are you still hanging it up after 15 years?!"
And I'll tell them about how I made that days/weeks before Kaitlyn was born, hoping that she would come soon. Precious.

Anyway here it is!
And if you want to make one, I still have TONS of ribbon!