Little Tidbits

Since this blog is as much for me as anyone else, I thought I'd write a few things down that I've been thinking about today.

First of all, poor Katie has ended up reacting to that chicken pox virus. She was grumpy most of the day today and I blamed it on her teeth (she just broke her 2 top molars in the last 2 days). She also has had a low grade fever. Well, as I was dressing her in her pajamas tonight I found some bumps on both her shoulders. Poor thing has gotten a mild version of the virus. But, if any baby were going to react to the shot, it would be her. Her little body has been sensitive to so many things ever since she was born. Her 4-month shots were absolutely miserable. I think it took about 4 days of crying before she was over those. So I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

Each girl now has a favorite book. Katie's favorite used to be the "Going To Bed Book," by Sandra Boynton. Well, it is now "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," by Michael Rosen. We literally read that about 10 times in a row 3 times a day. Not that I don't think she's an intelligent child, but I can hide that book in a pile of books and she knows exactly which one to pull out. Tonight she crawled over, grabbed the book, stood up, walked the 3 steps to me, then plopped down in my lap and waited for me to start reading. How sweet! She has become a book fiend. She never showed interest until about a month ago and now she can't get enough. I love it!

Ellie's favorite book is "Knuffle Bunny," by Mo Willems. It's a story about a little girl that loses her bunny at the laundromat. It's simple and kind of silly, but she absolutely loves it. It's one of those that Grandma reads at least 5 times a day to her. She prefers Grandma over anyone else to read it to her. I don't know how kids decide these things, but it is really quite interesting to me.

Today we were supposed to have an Easter egg hunt at a park across town with a group from the ward. Wouldn't you know it, it started to rain 1/2 hour before the activity. It wasn't just raining cats and dogs- I would say more like elephants and hippos. It was nuts. We have a nice pond in our back yard as proof. I had been talking this egg hunt up to Ellie for over a day, so I was really put out that it had to be canceled. Ellie and Katie were wearing their Easter T-shirts and were ready to hunt eggs. We had to make up plan B quickly! We decided to fill some plastic eggs with M&Ms and jelly beans, did a mad dash to the church and had our own little hunt in the church foyer. Nothing glamorous by any means, but the girls had a blast! I hid those eggs 4 different times for them to find. Ellie giggled with every egg she found and Katie laughed and laughed when she found one that she could shake and make a lot of noise with. I took a few pictures but wish I had the video camera with me. Steve would have gotten a kick out of seeing that one. Ellie can't wait for the Easter bunny to come to our house now! Oh, and Katie had her first taste of an M&M today and she thought that was pretty cool. She's not a big sugar/snack fan, but how can you resist M&Ms?

Katie's 1-Year Appointment

Well, yesterday we drove an hour down to Monticello, IL to see the closest family doctor on our list. We enjoyed seeing the fresh farm fields along the back roads of rural Illinois and managed to get there with getting lost only once. Of course it turns out we were only 3 blocks away when we called to figure out where we were. I had been extremely pleased with this office ever since my first phone call to them. And they were just as nice in person. I decided to take both girls to get a check-up. Ellie hadn't been to the doctor since she was 15 months, so we did a basic 3-year physical and called it good. She thought going to the doctor was the greatest thing that ever happened. I've never seen a kid so excited to go to the doctor. She smiled through the entire exam. And of course she's off the charts for height (39.5 inches with her shoes on) and pretty high for weight (31.6 pounds fully dressed). Funny kid. Katie wasn't quite as excited, but she was a trooper. It wasn't until she was forced to lay down that she lost it. But, she's proving to be a tall girl as well (Steve is 6'5" and I'm 5'8"- the girls don't have a chance!). She measured 32 inches tall and weighed 21 pounds, 13 oz. She's just barely taller and barely heavier than Ellie was at this exact same age. It's kind of interesting to compare. She had just the chicken pox vaccine given to her this time in her arm. She cried while she got it then recovered immediately and she hasn't complained about it since. Overall I think it was a pretty good success.

Yesterday was Mark Elgan's birthday, so the girls sent along a couple pictures to wish him a happy one. Ellie was being her silly self and tried out her different facial expressions. I don't know where that girl learned to do such silly things! It must have been from Steve! ;) Then tonight I put both girls in the pajamas they got from Cynthia's best friend, Janel at Thanksgiving time. This is the first time I've put Katie's on her- they were too big a few months ago. As you can see from this mug shot, they weren't too thrilled about it at first. I just can't resist taking these pictures! We also brushed Katie's teeth for the first time tonight (I know... I should have been doing this for months) and she loved it. You can't tell from the picture, yet again, but she just giggled the whole time we were brushing.

You can see all these pictures on our website. There are just a few this time around.

Katie's 1st Birthday

Okay, so the big day has come and gone and it's hard to believe I now have a 2-year old, a 1-year old and am due to have a third baby in just 6 weeks. Yikes! And I thought Troy and Rachel were nuts for having 3 under 3... I should be careful of the things I allow myself to think! ;)

So anyway- it was a really fun day. When Katie went down for her morning nap Mom, Ellie and I went out birthday shopping. We got a bear cake pan for her cake and some balloons that Ellie picked out all by herself. As we were driving to the store to get the balloons I asked Ellie what colors we should get. She said that we should buy pink, because she was wearing a pink shirt that day. I told her that the streamers we bought were purple, so maybe we should get purple? Nope- she wasn't wearing purple. What a funny kid!

Now, in our family we like to do theme parties. I put all the blame on Rachel- she's so incredibly creative and it does end up being a lot of fun to do. Our theme for this party was "Going on a Bear Hunt" just like the book. I had bought her the board book of that story and a stuffed bear and of course I knew she'd be a "bear" (bare) to eat her cake. So that's where all the bear stuff comes in.

After the girls took their afternoon naps Dad took them out on a walk to get them out of the house while Mom and I decorated and got dinner and the cake ready. I convinced Mom to decorate the cake for me (I made the cake and icing... that's all I can claim) and she did an incredible job. I think it turned out absolutely adorable. You see, that's Steve's job- but since he's not here, I had to recruit some other help.

We invited our friends the Smiths over to enjoy the party with us. They are two of Ellie's favorite people here. They brought Katie the sweetest little stuffed lamb that got plenty of snuggles from Katie. Katie did pretty well opening presents. Ellie had the hardest time containing herself. I had to grab half-opened presents from her many times to let Katie finish. But the best thing about this age- Katie didn't care one bit. She thought it was fun to rip the paper and look at all her new books. She's become a book lover the last few weeks, so that was a lot of fun.

And then came the cake. This is supposed to be the time when your little one dives in and smears cake all over creation. No luck. She delicately skimmed the top of the frosting with her fingers and took a few tastes. Then when I gave her a big piece, she scrumpled it in her hands and threw it on the floor. I think the only place she actually smeared frosting was in her hair. Her favorite part of it all was when she found a time when no one was looking, ripped off her diaper and threw it across the room. She was truly proud of herself for that one. In the end, our "bear hunt" was successful. :-D

It was a fun day. Exhausting, but fun. And kids only turn 1 once... so you have to enjoy yourself at least a little. If you didn't get to see the pictures from before, this link will take you there.

Pictures of party

Okay, so yes- we had a wonderful (yet exhausting) time yesterday with Katie's birthday. I have put up pictures on our website. I've been too busy to write about it. I'll find the time this weekend and tell all about it. But please check out the pictures. She had a fun time. And of course so did Ellie :)

Oh- and today Katie was being a very good example. Both at breakfast and at lunch we were halfway through the meal and she all the sudden folded her arms. Oh yeah! We forgot to bless the food! So we'd stop, bless the food, and she would finish eating. What a funny girl! She's folded her arms for family prayer in the past, but to do it during her meal all by herself- how precious is that? We are taught by babes...

Having Fun... Is it Cruel and Unusual?

Okay, so that title is a little goofy, but once you see the pictures, you'll understand why. My mom and I had a lot of fun today taking pictures. But let me rewind first.

Yesterday I drove up to O'Hare airport to pick up my mom from her trip to Utah. And I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the 2+ hour trip all by myself. It's amazing how quiet the car isn't when you have two little ones in the back seat. My dad was gracious enough to keep the girls for the day while I took the trip. Well, the main reason for my picking up Mom was to allow us a trip to IKEA. We spent a long time in that store and found some really fun things. One of those treasures was a play set of dishes that came with a miniature rolling pin and cookie cutters. When Ellie saw that she told me that she could make pizza with that rolling pin. She doesn't miss anything! Well, Grandma one-upped her and told her we could make cookies with it... you should have seen Ellie's eyes light up at that idea! She was so excited that the very first thing she did this morning, even before she got out of bed, was to yell to grandma that "I'm awake... let's make cookies!". And so they did! And of course I got picture proof. We had gone through the old costumes this morning as well and Ellie found her old Raggedy Ann costume, and that's what you'll see her wearing in the pictures. Ellie absolutely loves to dress up.

Another IKEA treasure is two miniature wicker chairs. Katie loves her chair. She climbs on and off and on and off. It's really quite cute. And of course Ellie loves hers as well. Mom put ribbons on them so they could tell them apart :) So of course we put them in their matching Easter shirts and took some fun pictures of the two girls in the matching chairs. It's no wonder Ellie is so fascinated by things that match... not with her mother and grandmother around! haha... We took a million pictures and these are what we ended up with.

So then comes the cruel and unusual. Although, it ended up being really fun for the girls. Yet again I need to give you a little bit of history to this story. When Halloween last year was coming up I decided that since I had a ladybug costume to use for Katie, I would find a butterfly costume for Ellie- my two little bugs. So I ebayed a costume and when it arrived it was really big on Ellie. So I ebayed the smaller size and when it arrived, it was too small. Well, by this point nobody was bidding on Halloween costumes, so I just kept both of them and shortened the bigger one for Ellie. So a few days ago I got to thinking... the first day of spring was coming up. And what better thing to illustrate the first day of spring than butterflies? I pulled out the smaller butterfly and lo and behold- it fit Katie! That's when the fun really began. But the greatest thing about it- both girls thought dressing up was great. Katie wasn't a huge fan of the hat, but she thought the costume was tons of fun. Getting both of them to smile and show how much fun at the same time... that's another story. We yet again took a million pictures of the two girls and this is what we ended up with. I have great respect for those who take pictures of kids for a living. It's tough getting them to do what you want them to!

Now I realize that today isn't the first day of Spring. But, when Steve wakes up it will be, and I wanted him to see these first thing. Besides, tomorrow my little Katie celebrates her 1st birthday and I wanted to save space for it :-) Hooray for parties! Ellie is very excited. So, tomorrow we're "Going on a Bear Hunt". Feel free to check back and I'll try to get pictures posted tomorrow night.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

So, as is our custom when Steve is away, we took pictures for today's holiday and sent them his way. Since Mom is still in Utah I didn't get too creative. I do better when she's around- she has a lot more fun ideas. We got a few fun pictures. And if you will notice, poor Katie's shirt was too small on her. I guess it's been awhile since I put that one on her and I didn't realize how big she had gotten! Oops! But Ellie loves to match and I just can't resist either!

Ellie was able to help Papa put away the firewood today. We had the one and only fire of the year in the fireplace last night. Ellie loves to do fires, especially because we get to roast marshmallows. But I must say that we are anxious for our Spring weather to come back. Our three-day teaser wasn't enough!

And bad news for me... Katie figured out how to climb onto a dining room chair today all by herself. What am I going to do with that girl? Ellie didn't start climbing things until she was 2 1/2!

Pictures of that Handsome Guy I Married

So, as I promised, I put up a few pictures of Steve on our website. You can check out that good-looking guy by clicking on this link. He has promised to take more soon and send them my way. It's definitely a great, big desert out there!

Just to let you know about the pictures... the concrete barrier was designed/painted by Steve and a few other soldiers in Kuwait. Apparently it's "the thing to do" to have your unit with the commander/1st SGT's names on it. I think it turned out great! They're lucky to have Steve's artistic skills over there!

Steve decided once he got to the desert that he would shave his head, so that's the explanation behind the short haircut.

The other two pictures are pretty self-explanatory. He's in his full battle-rattle (all his armor for those that aren't familiar with Army lingo...) in the one where they're in the middle of nowhere. Then he's standing by some of their vehicles in the other. They have their weapons on them at all times, if you're curious.

If I got any of this wrong I'll let you know :) We've been married 4 years but it doesn't mean I completely understand all this Army stuff yet!

Hanging Easter Eggs

Ellie and I have been doing a project during Katie's morning naptime the last two days. Yesterday we strung a bag of Easter eggs and today we hung them on the Magnolia bush out front. Ellie has LOVED this project. She especially liked having control over the scissors... scary! But we had to take advantage of this summer weather that is leaving us tomorrow. I think the tree turned out very nicely. And once there are leaves, I'm sure it will be even prettier. Ellie used her bucket and hung almost every single egg that you see on the tree. After her nap we took Katie out and she decided that she does not like grass. She wanted to crawl around and look at things, but the feel of the grass on her hands was just too much for her. She only wanted to walk. And then there's one picture of Katie at the park yesterday. Just click here to see the cute pictures.

Penitence

Okay, so after writing that last note I felt really bad that I didn't have pictures of Ellie. And since we finally had a nice day today I decided to repent and take the girls out to the park with a camera in tow. The first outing of the spring. Unfortunately it was significantly windier at the park than at home (there was no wind at home) and it was still fairly wet from the rains yesterday so we could stay only about 45 minutes. But the girls really appreciated the time out in the fresh air. You can check out some of the pictures I took here. I was surprised that Katie was willing to go in the tube. She actually thought it was pretty fun. I'm looking forward to Spring and the promise of more of these nice days!

On our way to get groceries after our park outing Ellie mentioned that her daddy had been gone a long time. I asked her if she knew where he was and she said "Iraq". Then after a short pause she told me that she was far, far away from home and daddy was far, far, far...(pause)... far, far away from home. It was really cute. You can't put much past little kids- they're smarter than you think!

Katie, Katie, Katie

So I was going through the pictures I've taken in the last week and they're all of Katie! You can look here to see them. Just so you know, I have gotten video of her and Ellie. A couple funny things about Katie: she is my climber. She climbs onto anything and everything she can get her hands and feet on. She's pulled a couple chairs down on her trying to climb them, but it hasn't deterred her one bit. She loves baskets and boxes and drawers, as you can see from the pictures. And she loves to climb onto Papa's chair to share whatever he is eating. Even if she just finished her own meal, she's up there sampling what he has to share. We introduced whole milk to her yesterday and so far she is not a big fan at all. She'll take a sip and make a funny face and throw the sippy on the floor. She much prefers water or her formula. I remember Ellie wasn't too excited about it at first either. We'll convince her one way or another! She has also become very vocal about her opinions. I guess I should rephrase that. She has always been vocal... very vocal. But she expresses her opinions about more specific things such as Ellie lugging her around the house or wanting to be picked up. Ellie is having a much harder time carrying her around as she gets bigger. I'm anxious to find out just how big she is. We have less than 2 weeks until her first birthday. Pretty crazy!

About that big milestone... about a week ago I wrote and asked for some ideas for books to buy Katie for her birthday. I had a great response (thank you, thank you) and I have the list of what I received. Ellie and I went to the library (Katie likes to yank books off shelves... she wasn't invited) to read through them and were only able to find about 1/4 of the ones on the list. So, they were either checked out or the library doesn't carry them. But we had fun reading the ones we did find (and some more random ones Ellie pulled off the shelves to read). And I'm not going to tell you which ones I chose. Not yet anyway- there are so many good ones on there that I don't want to bias anyone :) I'll put the list below. I would recommend checking these out. Even if I don't end up buying some of these, it was still fun to get them and bring them home to read. Thanks again to everyone that gave me the ideas!

Book ideas:

"Bears in the Night" By Berenstain

"Belly Button Book" by Sandra Boynton

“One, Two, Three” by Sandra Boynton

“Pajama Time” by Sandra Boynton

“Horns to Toes” by Sandra Boynton

“Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown

“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle

“Hairy McLary” by Lindsey Dodd

“Where is the Green Sheep” by Mem Fox

"Because a Little Bug Went Ka-choo" by Michael K. Frith

"Eight Silly Monkeys" by Steve Haskamp

“Whose Mouse Are You?” by Robert Kraus

"Tacky the Penguin" by Helen Lester

"Stone Soup" by Ann McGovern

"Love you Forever" by Robert Munsch

“What Daddies Do Best” by laura numeroff

"Hand Hand Fingers Thumb." by Al Perkins

“Hickory, Dickory, Dock and Other Favorite Nursery Rhymes” illustrated by Sanja Rescek

“Twinkle Twinkle” by the same author (great nursery rhyme books with a padded cover)

“We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen

“I Love You Through and Through” by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak.

“Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak

“Oh! The Places You Will Go” by Dr Suess

“Cow in the Rain” by Todd Aaron Smith

“I Love You, Little One” by Nancy Tafuri

“The Night You Were Born” by Nancy Tillman

“On the Day You Were Born” by Tillman

The Max and Ruby books by Rosemary Wells

“The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear” by Audrey Wood

Most books by Audrey and Don Wood

Doctor, doctor

I had my second ob/gyn appointment in Peoria today. It takes about 35 minutes to get up there, so it's not quite as bad as it could be. My doctor is Dr. Pepperell and I really like her. She's probably in her late 30's and I can tell she loves what she does. She is a great listener and is willing to "work with me" with this pregnancy. I have decided to try a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) with this baby and she has given me her full support. There are a some caveats, of course. In a normal VBAC situation there is a 1/200 (1/2%) chance of uterine rupture from the previous incision site. Because my c-section was less than 18 months ago, my odds go up slightly (she guessed to maybe 1% chance). The good news, though- the best indicator of a successful VBAC is a previously successful vaginal birth. I had one of those. Of course we have to take into consideration that Ellie had to be vacuumed out. But she still came out! As long as things go smoothly, there really shouldn't be a problem having this baby as a VBAC. I will not be induced (not interested anyway) and there will be no augmentation whatsoever (meaning no pitocin if by chance my labor stalls). The hospital I will be delivering at (OSF St. Francis) has an on-staff OB and anesthesiologist 24/7, so there is no concern about any of that. I will receive an epidural regardless of my request (duh- I want one!) just so that if there happens to be an emergency the catheter is already in place ready to do the block for surgery. She also stated that I will not be encouraged to do much laboring at home. The sooner I get monitored, the better. They'll most likely do internal monitoring of the baby to keep an eye out for any distress and they'll most likely do internal monitoring of my contractions as well to get an idea of how strong they really are. The external monitoring isn't quite as accurate in that regard. So, as long as the baby cooperates and is presented correctly and isn't too big, I think we'll make a go of it! They'll do an ultrasound around 37 weeks to judge head size and size of baby to give a guesstimate of whether the delivery will work. I'm praying for a successful delivery- one that does not include cutting me open again!!! So that's how all that fun stuff is going.

I never wrote after my first appointment to say how it went. But, we had an ultrasound and the baby (Sarah) is right on schedule with her due date. 2 weeks ago she was around 2 1/2 pounds. Mom and the girls came in to see the ultrasound and Ellie was quite interested in all that. I'm not sure she completely understood what it all meant, but she heard the heartbeat and saw some fingers and toes and that was pretty cool for her. I have some pictures that were printed out- I'll see if I can get those scanned. They didn't turn out too great. The baby is kind of scary looking... but ultrasounds aren't meant to be the greatest snapshots anyway.

Katie is getting closer and closer to walking. She loves to grab hold of your hand in her left hand (not right) and walk all around the house. When she really wants to get going fast she'll take both hands. She looks like a cowboy that just got off his horse- it's really cute. She still insists on waking up at 5:30 every morning. I tell ya- this is the first time I have EVER looked forward to moving my clock forward an hour in hopes it will get her sleeping later. Everyone keep their fingers crossed.

Ellie is growing again. We stuck a pair of size 4 pants on her that actually fit- I can't believe it. It's good we're almost to summer as her shirts are getting shorter and shorter on her. She has learned how to crab walk (her way of getting the attention like Katie gets when she walks). She's actually quite good at it, too. That's a tough thing to do! We've completely abandoned the potty training thing for a few days and we'll see if we can spark her interest again soon.

Steve is doing well. We get to talk on the phone every day. They closed down his Internet cafe, so we don't get to use the webcam until they get another one up and running. That's a bummer- the girls LOVE to see him and of course he loves to see them as well. It's fun to see both the girls get excited when they see his face. "a-da" is what Katie yells out when she sees him.

I guess that's it for now. Mom heads out to Utah first thing in the morning, so Dad and I will be roughing it for a week ;-) She's really excited to go spend time with everyone out there.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon, so you can check back on here or I'll let you know if I get more up on our website. :-)

It makes you wonder sometimes...

Some days it is a lot harder to be a mom than other days. Take today for example. The girls woke up at 6am again (the joys of having them in the same room) and it went downhill from there. Not to say we didn't have fun moments, but I'll just vent and get it all out. Katie is teething yet again. I think her top molars are trying to poke their way through. She has NEVER been good at dealing with pain and teething is one of the worst for her. She was up last night a couple times and I could not for the life of me get her to take her afternoon nap. She fell asleep out of boredom from being in her crib, I think. She has the runny nose and the fever and the grumpiness- not a good combination. Ellie decided she was going to boycott her nap (again- I'm lucky if I get 2 or 3 naps a week with her now) and was the means of waking Katie up early from the nap I FINALLY got her to take this afternoon. Needless to say both girls were exhausted the rest of the day and would not leave each other alone. Having two kids gives life quite a different dynamic! Ellie whined and Katie cried. Ellie had two accidents within an hour this morning after going two whole days dry. There are just some days I really wonder if what I'm doing is making any kind of difference. It's a good thing I have my parents here to help out. I'm not sure I could survive this alone!

But on a more positive note- Katie is almost walking. She took about 5 steps yesterday walking between Mom and me. Then today she was brave enough to let go of furniture and walk about 5 steps to me. She's moving faster with this than I thought she would. I think she'll be happier walking, but it makes me nervous about her toddling along on hardwood floors with her big sister running around her. I guess that's why babies are made out of rubber? Oh- and I'm looking for book ideas for Katie's birthday. So, if you have any favorites, I'd love to hear them!

Ellie got a new pair of shoes today, which she is very excited about (she gets that from her aunts Carrie and Cynthia). We had gotten her and Katie matching sundresses and Ellie was concerned that she didn't have shoes to match yet. So that was our outing of the day with her. And I was able to get a couple more maternity shirts as well. It's amazing to me how big I'm getting with this baby. All the sudden my belly just popped!

And the best part of the day, as usual, was my conversation with Steve. He is finally feeling better after getting a bad cold and things are starting to fall into place with work. It makes me happy when he is happy. It's great that we get to talk on the phone so much. It makes it feel like he isn't quite so far away. Three weeks down...

So, one more day in the life of Tiff and the girls. I guess the most frustrating thing about Katie being so grumpy is that we had FINALLY gotten past all that. The 6 months of colic was enough to drive all of us insane. We finally found happy Katie, so the revival of grumpy Katie is a little hard to handle.

And now you've had the rantings of Tiff. This will all be water under the bridge by tomorrow, but for now it felt really good to get it out.