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Halloween Pics

The queen and the fireman. One of these years I'll talk them into coordinating costumes :)

 
 

Pumpkin Patch

Just a quick post with a bunch of pictures from the pumpkin patch :)

Corn slides!

They're big on posing at the moment, no complaints!!

This one she did all by herself.
 
 

Then he wanted to copy and out came the cheeeeeesy smiles

 

He only wanted the mutated, moldy, kicked in, and diseased pumpkins. He ended up with a funky little thing that thankfully wasn't rotten but also didn't stand up. We call it his Charlie Brown pumpkin.

He was happy about it :) 

Gaston

Quick post for a crazy cat lady that I know that misses this little kitten...

Showing off his bald tummy pooch. He hasn't gotten any less weird with age.

Eyes are still the same freaky orange.

Still likes the dog more than the husband.

 
Still a sweetie.

This one still gets insanely jealous and moody if I take pictures of anyone but him. 
 
 

This girl...

...Finally decided she didn't want to be Sleeping Beauty for Halloween again this year. She's been wearing her old costume (with "princess beads" and shoes) every day since she picked out a new Cinderella dress for this year.

...Is loving, loving, school. She says she wants to be a teacher when she grows up so she never has to stop going to school. Oh, and she's going to be a rock star at night and an artist on the weekend. The girl has ambition :) 

...Is starting to realize how much fun it is having a little brother. Sense the sarcasm, please.

...Loves loves loves the song "Must Be Doing Something Right" by Billy Currington and listens to it all day long (no, my Ipod no longer belongs to me apparently, my children have taken over) She says it reminds her "to do things right" (be still my heart!!)

...Is learning to read at lightning speed. The lightbulb just clicked on a couple of weeks ago and now there's no stopping her. Scott and I spelling out words in conversations no longer has the same secrecy factor as it did a month ago.

...Still insists on sleeping with "Saffie", her doggie, every night. As well as a lady bug, care bear, horse, three more dogs, two seals, a killer whale, and a kitten. Pretty soon there won't be room for Devyn in her own bed and more.

This girl is absolutely the most enchanted, vibrant, loving, and obnoxious little thing I have ever laid eyes on, and I can't get enough of her.
 
 
 

This boy...

...Is one of the sweetest, most gentle souls you will ever know. Unless it comes to his sister, then he's all slaps, shouts, and tantrums.

...Has a serious obsession with legos, monster trucks, and flip flops.

...Listens to "Big Green Tractor" by Jason Aldean at least a dozen times a day.

...Talks non stop, whether you choose to respond or not, he just keeps going and going and going...

...Hates having his hair styled but begs to have it cut almost daily.

...Loves having pretend conversations on his many (many) play phones. His ringtone? Big Green Tractor, of course (which he sings himself)

This boy came up to me yesterday with a chocolate pudding mustache and his Mater undies turned inside out and said "Guess what mama?" and I said "What buddy" and he said "I wub you". I have since been a puddle of mush.
 

These two...

...Drive me crazy on a daily basis

...Fight non stop about the stupidest things

...Started the "Mom!! She's looking at me!!!" routine in the backseat this week

...Refuse to eat any meals without nagging and bribes

...Refuse to pick up their toys most days and tell me to just "throw them away". I do.

...Only agree to agree when it's disagreeing with me.

...Absolutely love each other to pieces

...Make each and every day of my life an absolute joy and adventure

Two Wheels!

My little school girl begun getting envious of all the bikes she saw tethered to the bike racks at school and decided she, too, wanted to ride her bike to school in the mornings. I, in turn, saw this as a great motivator for her to ditch the training wheels and pointed out how all the other bikes only had two wheels. She jumped on board right away and agreed to take hers off.

One night after daddy got home we took the extra wheels off of her hot pink princess bike. He and I tried to talk her through everything, from balance to steering to brakes. We then tried to duplicate the scenes from movies we've all seen a dozen times, where the parent holds on to the back of the seat, runs along side, and then lets go and the child miraculously doesn't topple. We failed. Miserably.

 

Devyn was so worried about us letting go that she never kept her eyes in front of her, and inevitably steered the bike into numerous bushes, curbs, and cars. After a few days of frustration from all of us because of the lack of progress, it dawned on me. As much as Devyn thrills in being the big sister, the big kid of the family, she still plays the wimpy baby card as much as she can. The entire time on the bike was was whimpering and whining at every chance when her dad and I were present. I told Scott that I would bet a large sum of money that if we left her on her own she would be riding in under an hour.

Bingo.

We have a nice little dead end street just a few hundred feet from our house, so one afternoon I stuck her on that street, drew a chalk line that she wasn't to cross, and went back and played in the front yard with Trevor. I could keep an eye on her but wasn't hovering. Within five minutes she was yelling down the road "MAMA I BALANCED!!!" Ten minutes later it was "I WENT FROM THE BUSHES TO THE BOAT!" (which was parked about halfway down the street) and within an hour she was a wobbly but confident two-wheeler.

 

The girl doesn't need long, complicated lectures to learn. She didn't need hovering, over protective parents. She needed time on her own. She needed me to trust her to follow the rules and stay safe when I wasn't right next to her reminding her all the time. She needed to build confidence on her own instead of hearing "great job Dev!" every fifteen seconds. She needed to be alone, and that breaks my heart just a little, but it's a good break in a way. 

 

She's growing up. *sigh*

Here's a quick video she actually requested (*gasp!*) I take so she could show off to everyone. It's only taken me a week to get it off the camera and onto the computer... (sorry for the weird cropping on it, it will take me another year or two to figure out the technicalities of internet video, this is why I stick with pictures)

Zoo Day

I'm being reminded that I need to update this, so here we go...

We had a nice, overcast day off a few weeks ago and decided to head over to the zoo. The crowds were few due to the colder temps but the animals were loving it. We got some great views of the new African exhibits with lions and cheetahs (I am stupid excited about those!!!) Lots of pics...

 

This big guy has been there forever but he's usually sleeping in the back, this was the first time I've seen him out front (and posing!)

 

On the other hand this (new) guy was happy to hide behind a log and avoid all the people trying to get his attention.

 

These guys were too cute. Very animated and we couldn't help but laugh at their resemblance to Tater Bugs.

 

 

*purrrr*

 

Yes mom, I ordered you a copy of this.

And this too because as absolutely imperfect as it is, I know you'll love it.

School Girl

It's official. My baby is a school girl.

 

A loaded-backpack carrying, adorable school girl.

 

Who also has two new holes in her head...

 

And would have worn head-to-toe pink today if given the opportunity.

 

She was literally buzzing and hopping the whole way to class...

 

But immediately settled down and stuck her nose in a book while the rest of the class got settled in...

 

Oh my goodness... my baby is a school girl.

Trevor's Birth Story

I told Devyn's this past winter so I figured I should get this one out while I'm on a roll...

August 20th, 2006:

It was nearing midnight on the day I was due to give birth to my son. After going to work at 4pm, being chased around constantly by worried coworkers offering to follow me with a bucket should my water break (you think I'm joking...), doing everything in my power to induce labor (short of castor oil, I wasn't that desperate) there was still no baby. Eight hours of being on my feet, walking constantly, assuring friends, family, coworkers and customers that I was perfectly fine and sane for doing so on my due date, and nothing. Not even a single contraction.

I went home, depressed and just short of desperate. The castor oil was looking mighty appealing for breakfast. Checked email, got into a cool bath (10 months pregnant in August sucks, plain and simple), scrapbooked for a bit and crawled in bed about 1am. Scott was snoring loudly, absolutely oblivious to the fact that his son was late and his wife was miserable. I laid there just thinking.. when would he come, what would he look like, what changes would he bring to our little family.

I tossed and turned for a few more minutes, then got up and wandered into the bedroom of the last little miracle that had turned our lives upside down. Devyn was sleeping peacefully, her cheeks flushed from the warm summer. I remembered so clearly the day she came into our lives, and marveled at how so very soon she would stop being the baby, and start being the big sister. Time flew.

I got back in bed about 1:30, slightly less miffed about being overdue but still too anxious to sleep. 1:34 I felt the first contraction. It didn't hurt, but it didn't feel good either. There was something different about it, so I sat up and immediately began watching the clock. 1:42 brought another one, and again at 1:48. Desperate to ensure these weird, wonderful pains wouldn't stop, I jumped out of bed and got in the shower. I prayed fervently while swaying back and forth that these were the real deal, that I would finally get to meet my baby boy. The contractions continued building in strength, staying about 5-7 minutes apart.

I watched the clock constantly, wondering at what point I should wake up my family and head to the hospital. Wondering if the contractions would stop, if they were just a result of all the anxiety I had felt all day long. Wondering if they could really be accelerating this fast. They hurt, and by 2:10 they were 3 minutes apart.

At 2:13 I woke Scott up and said it was time to go. I kid you not, he let out a huge sigh and said "Now?!" but at the next moment jumped out of bed and was ready to go. He got Devyn up as I put the last minute things in our bags and out the door we went.

We arrived at the hospital at 2:48am and walked through the doors to the ER. There was a line all the way through the lobby and all the chairs were full. NOT a good night for several people. We patiently stood in line for a minute or two, Devyn jabbering non stop, and then a contraction came on that practically brought me to my knees. That, at least, got the attention of the admitting nurse and she called for labor and delivery right away. Within a minute there was a wheelchair and a swift trip up an elevator to L&D where I filled out a mountain of paperwork while huffing and puffing through contractions. They stuck us in a triage room and I laid down while Scott called his parents to come get Devyn. No one ever came to check on me, and I began to panic. Labor hurt, and it hurt bad, not a good time to be ignored.

At 3:55 Scott finally found a nurse to come check on us. She did her thing, got a surprised expression on her face, and said "well, let's get you into a room, you're dialated to 9 and just about ready to have this baby!" That kicked the real panic into full gear. I was ready to have a baby and all, but not right now. I at least wanted a few more hours of labor to prepare!

We were immediately wheeled into a birthing suite where they proceeded to attempt to hook up all their fancy machines and monitors and all that junk. I say attempt because nothing worked. Not the monitors, the IV lines, nothing. This was not a good omen in my eyes. Incompetent, neglectful nurses, bad machinery, BAD OMEN.

Anyway, I was strep B positive during this pregnancy so they had to hook up IVs and get some antibiotics into baby for at least an hour, so the doctor wouldn't break my water and let the labor advance any more for a while. We had time to do a saddle block, which - in the theme of the night - didn't work. Then, since we had time to kill and if someone didn't do something for the pain right away i would have someone to kill...we did a "light" epidural. This worked, and it was heaven. I could feel everything but pain.

Somewhere in all that mess my mom had shown up (I think it was between the two pain killers) so I had both her and Scott hovering around me, staying far enough away that I couldn't bite because evidently I am a witch in labor and HATE people touching me, but being the loving, amazing people they are they wanted to constantly attempt to soothe me.

5:30am rolls around, the antibiotics have been in for a while, doctor decides it's time to break the water and get things moving again. At this point I'm ready. Tired of the contractions and not being able to breathe, tired of trying to entertain a room full of hovering nurses who felt so bad about forgetting us in triage, and just all around tired. I had been up for 21 hours and worked 8 hours the day before while being 9 months pregnant... I was exhausted!

Water breaks, 10cm reached within minutes, and it's time to push. I think there was a total of four pushes this time around and our little man was born at 5:54am.

He was chubby from the get-go, looked exactly like Devyn, had blonde hair, blue eyes, and my nose. He was perfect, and he was finally here. He screamed bloody murder the first few minutes in the screech that he is now famous for, then calmed right down and became the most mellow, easy going baby you can imagine. He just watched, everyone and everything, as he was weighed, measured and bathed. He loved being swaddled from the first moment and was just content being held, looking at everyone.

Once again we had a longer stay than normal in the hospital because they wanted to keep him on the antibiotics for an extra day since he didn't get much in-utero. Scott was able to take some time off of work this time, and we spent those first few days simply bonding with this amazing little boy we had made. Family came in little spurts here and there, nothing like the big rush we had around the holidays with Devyn. I felt no guilt as I left him in the nursery to catch up on sleep or take walks around the hospital with Scott. It was an all around more relaxing experience and made for a much easier recovery.

Coming home, life adjusted so easily it was as if Trevor had always been there. Devyn took to the part of being a big sister with ease and helped out everywhere that she could. She wanted to be involved in everything.

Sleeping was the only issue we had with him for a while. He was a mellow, easy baby, but always wanted to be awake and watching the world. It seemed as if he was afraid he would miss something if he closed his eyes. He pretty much refused to sleep until exhaustion took over, and then only for little spurts here and there. He hated the crib and basinette, and we actually had him sleep in the car seat for the first few nights because it was the only place he would fall asleep. After a few days I was scared it would become a habit so I stuck him back in the basinette beside my bed. A few hours of screaming, endless attempts at soothing, and I eventually laid him down in bed beside me... and he fell asleep instantly.

For almost four weeks he slept snuggled up against me all night long, and I didn't mind because he was sleeping for 4-5 hour stretches. I snuggled him close, running my fingers through his fine blond curls and listening to his tiny breaths. I cried myself to sleep many nights... not tears of sadness, tears of absolute joy. Absolute happiness that this little man had come into my life and made it complete. Absolute fear that he was our last and it was already flying by too fast. Absolute confidence that we made the right choice and he would always be our baby. Absolute peace of mind that we were all happy, healthy, and I could handle this mom thing. Absolute perfection.

Happy birthday little man, we love you.