Elf'ed

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Gotcha!!

Ok, now I'm satisfied. I got the genuine smile I've been after. He was so happy in the bouncy seat.

Videos!!

It's been awhile since I've posted some videos. Here ya go.

Belle can say some of the cutest things sometimes and so we got some of it on tape. Notice the one eye.



Here she was watching some show Nic had found on one of the christian channels. She's trying to imitate the moves the kids are doing. I particularly love the end when she strikes the pose.

Sorry about it being so dark, Nic turned off the light on the camera for some reason.

Free Cat

Beautiful orange striped cat available, six month old female. Must not mind having your feet attacked, constant meowing and paci robbing. You will see no affection nor does she want any. Best to just keep your distance.

Ok, I'm SO a dog person. Or maybe I'm so not a Kiki person. I'm ready to kick her out. If it wasn't for my belief that once you take on a pet it's forever, I'm afraid she'd already be gone.

Last night we had to get her out of Belle's bed while Belle was sleeping because she was trying to steal her pacis. Then once we shut the door so she couldn't get it, she jumped up on the gate and knocked it down, making a huge noise. Then stood outside the door multiple times meowing. At that point I locked her up in the bathroom, only to have to hear her meow all night myself.

I tell ya what, at 3am I'm having murderous thoughts towards the cat. Between two kids getting up, I do not need the cat contributing to it.

Ethan's many faces

I've been trying to catch the illusive smile for awhile. Here is what I got.









"Im SO over this camera business"

My Little Stripper!

So I was feeding Ethan and checking my email when I looked up and found this. I wasn't in a position to put her clothes back on her so I just let her be.



Then I look up again and see this. The good thing is that once she was completely naked I told her to sit on the potty while I finished feeding Ethan, and see peed. =)

Ethan's new girlfriend

Welcome to the world Lyla Mae!!!

My friend Anita had a little girl yesterday. Im excited to hear how everything went and see pictures.

Congrats Anita!!

Went to see the "wishies"

We all headed down to the Newport Aquarium this weekend. Belle loved seeing the "wishies".



Brody enjoying the view






Shortly after this shot, Nic took one for the team and was pooped on by these birds. The things a father does so his daughter can feed the birds. =)

Poor Girl!!

Poor Belle cannot get well it seems like. She came home after I had Ethan with a stomach bug that gave her diarrhea. She was over that for a few days when a mild cough started, and has had that for bout a week. Then last night she was up half the night throwing up only to wake up with more diarrhea.

Can we all just get a break!!!

Awwwww!

Sunday Best

We took Ethan to his first church service. Both kids looked so darn cute.


And just cause they are so darn cute.


More cuteness:
- She calls Ethan "monkey toes". She'll get up on the chair beside the diaper changer and call him monkey toes. Nic was showing Belle his feet one night and called him that and I guess it stuck.

- She loves to hold Ethan. She's always saying "holdy?"

- She's been helping me burp Ethan. She'll come over and pat his back with me.

Hospital Photo

Albeit very small and grainy, here is Ethan's hospital portrait. No more baby mug shots. These people did an excellent job with Belle's pictures and we just had to have a matching one fore Ethan.

Big Sister

Belle came home on sunday and met Ethan. She has wet hair because she had to immediately get a bath. She had thrown up in the car. She spent the next several days sick and feeling kinda crummy.

She loves her new brother. She loves to hold him and give him his bottle. She'll also let us know as soon as he cries.

She said something funny today. While I was changing Ethan's diaper, Belle climbed up on the table and pointed at his umbilical cord. She called it "belly poopy". How funny is that?









His first bath

He's Here!!

Some of you may have already seen my sister's blog and saw some pictures, but here are some more for you.

Ethan Amadeus entered the world at 1:57pm weighing in at 8lbs 5oz and 21 inches long on Thursday Oct. 2nd. He was about 6oz heavier than Belle was. I thought for sure he'd weigh less, going by the ultrasound I had 2 weeks earlier.

I'll post a birth story on this post, but I must say that this experience was MUCH better. Some of you know that I had a horrible tear with Belle and while I still tore this time, it was no where near as bad.

**Warning** Some ooey gooey pictures are included. Don't look if that grosses you out.

Here is me still pregnant. And the proud papa.


I love this picture for some reason. Maybe it's the cute little tushy. Oh and by the way, Ethan did not get a crooked butt crack like Belle. Darn =)


Here is my "what? you want me touch him?" picture. I wasn't expecting them to just throw him on my stomach. With Belle, she had meconium and so they had to wisk her off to the NICU nurses.


Here he is. He looks a lot fuller in these pictures. He's since lost some weight and is down to 7lbs 15oz.



Us getting ready to come home.


Stay tuned for some pictures when Belle gets to meet him tomorrow when my inlaws bring her home.

BIRTH STORY:
7:30 - Nic and I arrive at the hospital for the induction. The nurses were already in the room waiting for me. I got into my gown and worked on getting my IV going.

8:30 - Dr. Davidson came by and broke my water and got my pitocin started. I wasn't expecting them to break my water right off the bat. I was a little scared of the pitocin too cause I had heard some bad things about it. While the Dr. was doing her thing she checked me and I was 4cm 75% effaced.

I just sat back and hung out at this point. The pitocin was doing it's job cause I started getting crampy right away. Nothing too awful though.

10:00 - They were upping my pitocin every half hour or so and things got progressively more painful. Still nothing I didn't think I could handle.

11:00 - Thing are getting a little worse in the pain dept. Enough that I was having to breath through the contractions. I decide that Im not going to be a martyr and ask for the epidural. I figured that I'm going to get one in the end anyways and so why deal with this pain now.

11:45 - The epidural nurse comes in and not a moment too soon. I was really glad I asked for it when I did because the contractions are coming fast and furious at this point.

Once they got the epidural in they checked me and I was at 6cm. It probably took about 45 min to get the epi in once everything got situated and done.

After about 15 minutes the nurses came back cause I was having some break through pain. Nothing horrible, just enough pain that I was feeling it, even with the epidural. That and I was starting to shake uncontrollably. I should've known something was up cause the one nurse looked at the other nurse and just shook her head. They left saying that they were going to get the warmer and call Dr. Davidson.

I pushed my little epidural button since they said it would probably take 30 minutes to take effect. It gave me a little extra dose of medicine to combat the break through pain.

The nurses come back in after calling the Dr. They ask me if I was feeling any pressure, I said no. Not 5 minutes after they leave I do start to feel pressure.

1:00 - They call the Dr back and tell her to head on over. I guess the Dr. had said to just let me "labor down". Well that wasn't needed cause I was ready to push.

So we all just hung out waiting for the dr. to get there. I continued to feel more and more pressure. Sara decides to nurse Brody and send him out with Poppy. About the time the Dr. gets there Brody decides to poop up his back and holds up progress. We had to wait to he got cleaned up so that the Dr. could move in her equipment and we could get started.

1:20 - I start pushing. This time I had just enough epidural that I could feel something, just not pain. We took things a lot slower so that I could "stretch".

1:57 - Ethan was born!! I totally was not expecting them to just throw him up on my stomach. I didn't get to experience that with Belle because she had to be rushed over to the nurses because of the meconium in the water. The nurse actually had to grab my hand and put it on him. While I love my son dearly, I really was just thinking to myself "can't you just clean him first".

He was much bigger than we all thought and I was glad that we didn't wait til he was 40 weeks.

Get out of my belly!!

Here is my final belly shot. Ethan will be evicted next Thurs starting at 7:30. So far I'm 4cm 50% dialated. The dr. said she kinda stretched things out so we'll see if things get moving on their own.

I'm not sure why Belle will not open her dang eyes when we tell her to smile. I hope it's just a phase.

She talk good!

I was always kinda worried about Belle's speech. Several weeks ago I finally got around to calling Early Intervention to have her evaluated. Of course about that time she really started talking better.

Well she had her evaluation today and she is in fact on track with her speech. No need for any kind of intervention. Way to make mommy look like a fool! =) The evaluators had a good time playing with her though and just thought she was hilarious, which she is.

Time for a new movie!

We've caught Belle sucking her thumb or finger while in the car lately. We could not figure it out until sunday. We were on our way home from the grocery and Belle not only was sucking her thumb, but was also holding her ear.

It finally clicked that we've had Robin Hood in the dvd player for a looong time. I think it's time to change things up. =)

Set a date!

Ok so we didn't set a csection date, but a date nonetheless. Dr. talked me out of a csection, but it is still on the table as an option. I will be induced on Oct. 2nd if I don't have Ethan before then. The dr. doesn't want me to go past 39 weeks to try and keep Ethan from getting too big. Hes currently 7lbs 6oz.

Big Sister

We've been telling Belle that she's a big girl lately. Like "Big Girls go to the potty" "Big girls don't climb in the crib" "Big Girls don't lay in the baby glider". You get the idea. Well lately when we say to Belle that she is a "big girl", she'll respond with a "i a sister". Its awfully cute, but I have no idea where it came from. Maybe she's starting to understand those big sister books we've been reading to her.

A potty note: The last 2-3 days Belle has asked to go potty in the evening. I think it's just because thats the time of day she feels that she wants a sticker and would put pee in the potty for it. I guess thats progress. =)

Ethan's room

Here is a pic of Ethan's room so far. It still feels undone, but it's gonna have to do.