Thursday, September 15, 2011

First Day of Preschool!





Being Silly!





She headed straight for the art area - of course! :)









After I picked her up today - her teacher said it's like she's been there her whole life. She's so comfortable - she ran up to me today and gave me very big hugs!







Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Sleepy Girl



Annabelle's favorite sleeping position!

Sisters!













Monday, September 12, 2011

Growing Up!

The other night Matthew put Lucy to bed just as he always does. I was feeding Annie and getting her settled. I heard Lucy calling, "Mommy!" in her sing-song voice. I gave Annie over to Matt and headed up to see what our girlie wanted. She said she just wanted to tell me something and whispered something in my ear - then kissed my cheek. I gave her some big kisses and a hug. Then she asked if I would sleep with her. This is something we gave up a few months ago in order to show her that she is a big girl. But I really wanted to! So I layed down with her for a few songs (she listens to music at bedtime). While I layed down with her - we chatted a little bit. Things got quiet - then she reached over and grabbed my hand. That's when the tears began to flow. As we layed there together and she held my hand, I just layed there and sobbed! I thought about her as small as Annabelle and just not believing that she was almost 4 years old. I wanted to lay there all night.

This past Sunday was her preschool open house. I'm just not ready! Lucy, however, is very ready. My neighbor - who really encouraged me to go to this preschool - was there and just telling me to look at her - how she was becoming so independent and how she was pulling on our arms to go see her classroom. I told my neighbor that I know that when she goes this week I will be a complete mess and end up crying/sobbing the whole time she's gone. She said, "That's ok - I did too!" I was shocked - Megan seems to be so put together - I never thought she'd be a mess the day her kids went to preschool - yet she assured me she cried with all 4 of them. Now I don't feel so silly.

Although I am not ready - I know Lucy is. The last few weeks she has shocked us with her reading capabilities. We were driving and she was reading words off of billboards. Then last week she was looking at her milk carton and said, "Mommy, that says 'good food for all.'" I looked at Matt and said, "Did you tell her that's what it said?" to which he said no! Today we were sitting in my dr's office and she wanted to read a book with me. As we were reading, she kept getting excited and saying, "I know that word! Oh - I know that one too!" crazy words that I never thought she would know - sweet, happy, jump! We ended up not reading the book but just picking out words that she knew. As a former teacher - it's exciting to me that she's so excited that she knows certain words.

This week is going to be a rough one for me. Prayers appreciated!! I know she has to grow up - but I know she'll always be my little girl. I'd love to keep her that way - but as Matt has said - we need to just look at her life and be joyful and excited to see how she will grow and watch as she experiences all these new things.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Here We Go!!



As she gets older and older, Lucy become more and more fun. It's so much fun to see how her likes and tastes are molding who she is. She absolutely LOVES art and music. She's not really a gal that plays with toys, other than puzzles (we have a whole basement full of toys and we can hardly ever get her to play with any of them!). She's also into "performing" for people. She loves to dance around and dress up. Every day she is in one of her dress up outfits or in a tutu (she says she can't dance w/o them). The above video is one of her favorites. She loves the Fresh Beat Band and when this comes on - she always says, "Hey! What's goin' on here?!" (I have no idea why!?) :) But then gets up and starts dancing - all the while telling me how she LOVES the new Marina character. If she doesn't have her dress up clothes on - or something that resembles a 'gown, ' then she just can't dance to it. She is starting to become more and more interested in what Cousin Tallie likes - including music. It's so much fun watching her grow up. I'm really hoping that at some point, Nick Jr. brings the Fresh Beat Band to Cinci so we can get to a concert - because Matt and I LOVE this song and end up dancing with Lucy most days also!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Annabelle Kate's Birth Story

We've been quite busy ! So that's our excuse for not getting on here to update! But I'm finally ready to share Annabelle's birth story!

Last Monday, Lucy and I went to Target for new jammies - she is getting to be so big and just doesn't fit in her 3T jammies anymore. Thanks to Aunt Pat, we finally had ONE pair that actually fit her well. But definitely needed more. We picked out a few fun things in the dollar section also! :) Thankfully, Lucy took a great nap that day. I layed down as well - and I felt crampy - but nothing unusual. I just took Tylenol and tried to sleep. By the time she woke up, I felt ok. I started to make dinner @ 5:00. While I was standing at the stove, I felt a 'pop!' and got a little wet. I ran to the bathroom thinking I had wet myself - but with each movement I'd leak a little more. I came back upstairs as my phone was ringing. Matt was calling to see if I wanted him to pick something up and I told him I think I needed him at home.

I called Nathalie, and she missed her gym time and headed for our house. I was not feeling any pain at all and actually felt pretty good! I sat Lucy down on my lap and explained again to her what we've been telling her for weeks - that when Mommy had to go to the hospital that Miss Nathalie was going to come to watch her. and.....she wasn't listening.....she kept looking past me to watch Wonder Pets. So....we knew she'd be fine. (and she is! She is such a good big sister!)

We got to the hospital around 7:00. I still felt fine. I went into triage - and the nurses were so much fun. She checked me and I was a 5 - and she asked, "Can you feel that?" Pretty much all I felt was her digging at me! She told me I was having a major contraction. Again, no pain - they were all pretty astonished that I was doing so well. (as was I - since with Lucy it was awful!) I got to my L&d room and was still doing great. After about a 1/2 hour - I started to feel some pain kicking in and ordered my epi. Glorious! :) My OB and nurses were joking and laughing with me since I was so calm and just chatting with them as I ate my ice chips. I did start to feel some pain around my hip even with the epi and ordered another injection, and wow! Everything went completely numb - all the way up to my chest. NOT a fun feeling. I don't mind the numb feeling, but completely NO feeling is not good.

By 11:00, I had progressed to 9 cm. They said I'd be ready in an hour. I was so set to beat the clock to midnight. At 11:45, I was checked again and fully dilated. My nurse said we'd do some practice pushes - I did 2....she yelled to stop. They grabbed my OB and set up - started pushing again @ 11:55 and had Annabelle @ 12:02. 7....min....of pushing!!! Not prepared for that! With Lucy it was 3 hours! It was an awesome delivery. Recovery was so great also - I didn't move out of that bed for 2 days after I had Lucy. This time, I was up and about right away. Sadly, right after i had Annabelle, i couldn't hold her - I was shaking so bad from the epi. But she had some great bonding time with Daddy.

Annabelle is a pretty easy baby thus far! I'm sure we'll update more on that later. Right now, we want to enjoy our new little one!

ETA: Contrary to popular belief - we did not use the middle name Kate because of "Prince William and Kate." Yes, I've been asked this question! Annabelle's only living great-grandparent is my grandmother, Leona Catherine. We chose Catherine, but decided to shorten it to Kate.