Cowboy Woody

Aunt Christel, this picture's for you! We love you!

All we need is a pic-i-nic basket

more photo shoots

More camera happiness! Here's Gracie wearing a bonnet hand-sewn by Marmee...


Can't resist a ruffle-bottom...


More photos of the heirloom-style, smocked, day gown by Marmee...



Playing around in a dress that was worn by Marmee and Aunt Christel. Also our tribute to Carmen Miranda...

Happy Birthday!

Jonah is three! He had a wonderful family birthday party yesterday, even though he came down with a cold yesterday morning. I have no idea where he picked it up because we've been holed up in this house for weeks! Anyway, the guests of honor at the party were, Marmee and Grandpa, Aunt Angie, and Meemaw and Papaw.

Our family is so generous! Jonah had a load of presents when the evening was over...

Meemaw made a Texas sheet cake and decorated it with little matchbox cars. So cute (and yummy)!


It was simple, but sweet. And a good time was had by all. Happy Birthday, buddy!

Letter to my 3 year old

Dear Jonah,

Tomorrow you will turn 3 years old. You will tell anyone who asks that your name is Jonah and that you are "phree", and when you do it you will beat your chest as you say your name and hold up your thumb and two fingers to show your age.


You've had so many firsts this year. Your first snow, first movie (Kung Fu Panda), first time baking cookies, first encounter with a cactus, first big-boy bed, and sadly, your first encounter with the death of a loved one.


This last year I have learned what you love. Your favorite things are Hotwheels trucks, tractors (especially "bozer dozers", aka bulldozers), and anything from the Disney-Pixar movies, Cars and Toy Story. We bought you a Buzz Lightyear action figure the morning after you slept without your pacifier for the first time. You two are inseparable, along with the Cowboy Woody doll that Nana bought you for an early birthday gift. You call them "Oldy and Buzz", and regularly jump off of furniture hollering "to firbibby n' eeyon" (to infinity and beyond).


Your favorite things to eat are blueberries, strawberries, cantaloupe, pizza, and chicken nuggets. You pretty much hate everything else. Even mac n' cheese! Which leads me to the things you dislike. Naptime/bedtime comes to mind immediately. Right now you are fighting, belly-aching, stalling, and kicking when sleep time rolls around. Daddy and I even started locking your bedroom door at night to help you stay in bed, because you will get up and walk out in the hallway no less that 20 times each night, no matter WHAT we do or say. When you figured out how to unlock the door (in the dark), we turned the lock around. We have thanked God many, MANY times for that locked door.


You also learned to communicate really well this year. We discovered that you knew your alphabet, colors, shapes, and numbers over the last 365 days. "I love you too, Daddy", prayers at bedtime, and the art of negotiating are your specialties. Also, I'm starting to understand what Daddy's family meant when they told me his childhood nickname was Motormouth! There are days when I wonder if you'll take a breath.

Daddy loves to wrestle with you in the living room. You guys play pretty rough already. You climb all over him and he throws you around, you hit each other with pillows, chase each other around the kitchen and down the hallways.



He is your favorite playmate. When he gets home from work in the evenings you never fail to hop up and run to greet him with a, "Daddy! You're home!"

You're about 95% potty trained, you ditched your pacifier, but the biggest event of your third year has been the birth of your baby sister. I'm blown away by how well you are adjusting. You're my best helper! Running to throw away dirty diapers and bringing me clean ones. Fetching burp cloths, blankets, and the Boppy pillow.

I don't know what I'd do without you! I know you love your sissy already, and she's only a week and a half old. You ask to hold her, kiss her on the head, let her hold your fingers, and put up with her fussing around your bedtime. Such a good big brother!

I know we've thrown your routine out of sync and rocked your world by bringing Gracie home from the hospital, but you're handling it beautifully (minus the slight regression in the potty-training department). Your world is going to be further rocked when you start pre-school next month. Why do I feel like crying about that?

I love you, J-Dub. You're my favorite son.

Love,

Mama

Daddy's Girl

There's one place Gracie sleeps better than any other...

Camera Crazy

It's hard not to walk around with a camera snapping pictures 24/7. There are just so many cute photo opportunities! I took some pictures this morning while Jonah was watching Caillou and holding Gracie...

Big Brother, Jonah

Jonah finally gets to hold Gracie...

...and baby in the bed makes six

In AZ, the weather is boring 360 days of the year. Approximately 5 days of the year, we will have rip roarin' gully washers. Most of the time the big storms fizzle out before they make it to our town, but this morning at 3:00am, the thunder and lightening were right on top of us.

I took this picture last year during one of our monsoon storms

Anyway, I woke at 3:00am to find Dixie in our bed (shaking), Lucy trying to get in the bed, and Jonah calling my name from his room. Jonah was shortly in our bed too. So...baby in the bed makes six. Sure am glad we have a king size mattress!

Playing dress up

We're home from the hospital and getting settled. I'm having lots of fun dressing Gracie in all the wonderful outfits we were given. Marmee made us the most beautiful, heirloom-style, smocked, day gown. I couldn't wait to dress our Gracie up and have a photo shoot! She's four days old :)

SHE'S HERE!

Grace Florine is here!


Born at 2:07 p.m. on July 14, 2008
Weight 7 lb. 5 oz
Length 19 3/4 inches

Becky did great and says her pain is being managed very well.

Jonah is very proud to be a big brother and is learning how to hold Gracie and touch her "softly and slowly". (Instead of rapidly on the head like he pets the dogs.)





They expect to go home tomorrow afternoon.

Welcome, Gracie! You are SO loved!
****
posted by Aunt Christel

Week 39 - Baby Report

Baby Grace -

She has to be irritated with me. My body has been trying to kick her out all week, but she's not cooperating. Monday is the day, though! She's coming out, ready or not!

The doctor said that baby girl has dropped a bit, just based on belly measurements. Still no dilation. Her beartbeat was good and her movements are still predictable.

Mama -

All I have to say is, "Ambien Schmambien". That stuff didn't work worth a hill of beans tonight. The doctor gave me a couple today at our doctor's appointment to help me sleep through all these contractions I've been having at night. I took one at 10pm and fell asleep pretty quickly, but at midnight I had such a series of whoppers that I haven't been able to go back to sleep. They keep coming, so I'm sitting in the rocking chair, typing blog posts, and breathing through them. Only two more days left, only two more days left, only two more days left...

Blood Pressure: 120/80
Weight: holding steady
Cravings: half a tub of Michael's butterfinger ice cream (it's amazing that my weight holds steady after that binge!)

Other baby news -

This is the last pregnancy report! Woo hoo! The next Baby Report will have pictures of baby Gracie :)

The Picture People

The other day, Michael and I decided to dress Jonah up and go to the mall. We noticed The Picture People were running summer specials so we popped in. The impromptu session wound up being Jonah's 3 year old portraits, and they turned out pretty decent. I would post a link to the online album, but it's password protected in a couple of different ways. Ver' tight security!

Of course, with a soon-to-be-3 year old, we ended up with our fair share of outtakes. Like this one, when he decided to try and EAT THE NUMBER THREE (like cookie monster)...

Just Kidding

Today we had one big. FAT. false alarm. I woke up around 11:00pm last night with contractions. They were painful enough that I couldn't go back to sleep. I ended up on the couch watching TV, and dealing with the contractions, until about 4:30 am when Michael woke up and realized I wasn't in bed. He came to check on me and when I mentioned the contractions HE couldn't go back to sleep either.

Long story short, the contractions continued to get closer together and peaked around 3 minutes apart. They weren't strong enough that I needed to breathe through them, but I called the OB triage anyway, and they asked me to pack my bags and come to the hospital since I'm a risk for uterine rupture if I go into active labor. On the 40 minute drive there, the contractions eased up, and by the time they started monitoring me at the hospital, they were only 5 to 6 minutes apart and barely noticeable. Grrr! The hospital was so crowded in labor and delivery that they decided to send us back home. Now that I've had something to eat and drink and taken a short nap, the contractions are completely gone. Frustrating!

I keep telling myself, "there's only one week left. There's only one week left. There's only one week left. There's only one week left...."

Building a bear for Gracie

A sweet friend, who I worked with while I was pregnant with Jonah, made him a Build a Bear before he was born. When Jonah graduated to his big-boy bed, he started sleeping with the bear every night and named it "Little Bear".



Michael suggested a few months ago that we take Jonah to the Build-A-Bear-Workshop and let him make a special teddy bear for Gracie. I could hardly contain my excitement! I wanted to go right then, but we decided to wait and do it closer to her due date. That way, giving the bear to Gracie would be fresh on Jonah's mind when she's born. The plan is for him to bring the bear to the hospital as a birthday present for her.

Since Michael had the day off work today, we snagged the opportunity to make it a special morning and go make Gracie's bear.



Jonah had a hard time selecting the bear he wanted for Gracie. The "stuffing station" was REALLY distracting. (Notice "Little Bear" came with us.) We finally settled on this light pink, super soft, bear.



Now to get her stuffed and fluffed...



All done! When we got home, Jonah ran straight to Gracie's room, put the bear in her crib, and said, "Look, Mama. It's SO cute."

Week 38 - Baby Report

Baby Grace -

Supposedly, she's just about reached her birth weight. Besides that, there's not a lot to report on this week. She does respond extra quickly to Jonah's voice lately, and that makes me really excited to see how she reacts to him once she's born.

Mama -

Monday night I started contracting semi-regularly. They came every 20 to 30 minutes, then every 15 to 20 minutes, then finally, every 10 minutes. I even took a shower and walked around and they continued. It was enough to make me pack my hospital bag. Sadly, they disappeared when I went to bed that evening. It was a little depressing to get our hopes up and then have to go back to the waiting, but oh well!

Below is a picture of the paper chain Jonah and I made last week. The picture shows 14 days left because I took it last Monday. We're actually down to "11 more sleeps" as of today, and every morning Jonah tears off another chain.


My doctor is still out of town this week, so I saw the OB nurse again. She says I'm still at 1 cm dilated and Grace is not engaging yet.

Blood Pressure: 124/80
Weight: - 1 lb since last week
Cravings: lemonade

Other news -

As we were driving home from the doctor's office this afternoon, Jonah dozed off about 5 miles from the house. He usually wakes up as soon as I take the key out of the ignition, but today, was still sleeping when I opened his car door to get him out. As I lifted him out of his seat, he draped over my shoulder, eyes still closed, and mumbled, "wanna play with Oldy n' Buzz a little longer". He was actually protesting sleep, in his sleep. Made me smile.