We are down to the last few days as a family of three. We know if something doesn’t happen sooner, that we will have a baby by May 7, since my doctor said he will induce me then. I had some difficulty with pain management and epidurals (I had 3 and none of them worked!) last time so he’s hoping if he induces me he can keep an eye on it. There is a slim chance that he would induce me this coming week if things have progressed enough that he’s worried about letting me go another week. I’m worried about how I’m going to handle two kids. I’m also very worried about how Josie is going to adjust since she’s so used to having me all to herself during the day. It’ll be nice to have Steve home to help all of us adjust. I am definitely ready to have the baby. Even though my doctor thinks this one is about the size Josie was, this baby feels so much bigger because he/she is stretching into my ribs and pelvis and moving constantly which doesn’t always feel good. I could have used another couple weeks before Josie was born, but I’ve been ready to have this baby for at least two weeks now. I know I’ll regret thinking that after the little one gets here since the baby is so much easier to take care of right now than after it’s born. Wish us luck! We’ll keep you posted.
April 25, 2009
March 25, 2009
Why is this man smiling?
Steve and I went on our babymoon this past weekend. We were able to leave Josie with my folks and get away sans kids for what will be the last time for quite a while once the new one arrives. We went to Lincoln City, OR, for Friday night and then spent Saturday antique shopping in this nice beach town. We had a great time and were both exhausted. We found some nice things, including a Donald Duck nightlight/lamp for the nursery that is very similar to the Mickey one that is in Josie’s room. We headed to Spirit Mountain Casino for Saturday night. It’s no Reno, NV, but we had a good time. They have a nice, albeit small, non-smoking area that includes both slots and a few table games. We played some 3-card poker. I ended up $10 ahead and Steve doubled his $40. I then retired to our room for the evening (a very nice room indeed) and Steve headed to the poker room. That was about 8:30 PM. I didn’t hear from Steve again until I finally called him about 4:00 AM to find out where he was. I had been waking up every 30 minutes for the previous 2 hours waiting for him to come in.
Turns out he had just cashed in his chips and was heading up. He had made over $100 in the poker room, so he was having a very successful night. On his way up he decided to splurge and put $20 into a dollar slot machine. It takes $3 to play the maximum credits, so he played his money down to $5 with no luck and decided he’d go ahead one more time and leave with the $2 that was left. Thank goodness he’s not a chicken like me. I would have probably left much sooner, of course I probably wouldn’t have played a dollar machine anyway. On his next spin on the Triple Diamond Deluxe slot machine, he landed a “triple triple 7″ combination. The “triples” are wild and each one triples your payout. So, instead of winning $300, Steve had quite suddenly made $2700. I was pretty shocked when he told me the next morning. He didn’t think about having the slot attendant take his picture with the machine and the winning combo so the next morning we went down and I took his picture. It no longer has the combination on it but we know what it should have been. Pretty impressive, eh?
Besides our exciting weekend, we took Josie in for her 2-year checkup on Monday. Unbelievably, she weighed in at 21 pounds 10 ounces. We were so certain she was over 22 and maybe close to 23 pounds. Of course, she picked the last week to get very picky and eat very little. That is enough weight gain to keep her in the 3rd percentile. She is also 32 inches tall, which puts her in the 10th percentile. Developmentally she’s doing very well. She’s just very petite. We had a long talk with her doctor about her nutrition because she refuses to try new things and just wants to eat what we consider junk food (crackers, squeezie cheese, cereal bars, etc.).
The doctor gave us a lot of good suggestions and told us we need to get rid of the snack foods completely for now and basically force her into a better diet. We’ve hesitated to do that because we knew she’d stop eating (what a stubborn girl!) and we knew that would cause her to lose weight, which she can’t afford to do. But with the doctor’s permission, that’s what we’re doing. Monday night she refused to eat dinner and Tuesday lunch she refused to eat. Breakfast isn’t quite as bad because she will eat a bowl of cereal or waffles and pancakes. I guess she decided she was hungry enough last night though because she ate a whole waffle and while she was eating it she actually tried and ate 1.25 chicken nuggets. She even tried the raw carrots I put on her plate, which she’s refused in the past. We were ecstatic that it seemed we had made progress.
Of course, by lunch today, she was back to refusing. I made her a PB and J sandwich and even cut it into the shape of Mickey’s head and a star. She wouldn’t even try it or the apples slices, carrots, or grapes that were on her plate with PB to dip in. You would think she would be hungry by dinner tonight but we didn’t have the same luck as last night. She was thrilled to eat the waffle we put out but wouldn’t try the fruit, carrots, or chicken nugget. We also put out the sandwich from lunch which just made her scream. We’re going to try a different approach over the next few days so hopefully things will go smoother. One way or the other, she’s going to learn to eat real food at her meals and not just snacks. She may lose some weight in the process but in the long run she will be much healthier.
We’ll be going in to the Pediatrician plenty in the next year with the new baby so the doctor asked that we get her weighed on occasion so we can keep an eye on her growth. We also suspect she may have some reflux issues again so we’ve put her back on a reflux medication. Hopefully that will help as well.
Everything else is going well. We had our 32 week baby checkup yesterday and the heartbeat sounded great. We’ll go back in 2 weeks and then start weekly visits after that. Before we know it, we’ll have a new addition to our family. The past 8 months have gone so fast! Let’s hope we can get everything done that we need to before this little one decides to come out.
March 19, 2009
It’s so hard to say goodbye
Wednesday was a very difficult day. Actually, the last week has been difficult off and on. We said goodbye to our beloved dog Dodger on Wednesday as we sent him off to find a new home. He is a miniature American Eskimo and we got him the November after we got married, so we’d had him for 4 and 1/2 years. He is 5 and 1/2 and really is a wonderful dog, he just no longer fit into our lifestyle. He lived part of his first year of life with a man in an apartment and it wasn’t working out so the man gave him back to the breeder. He was “free to a good home” when my parents found him and told us about him. I was still devastated over the loss of my sweet Peanut that August (2 weeks before we got married) and needed to have another dog. I did research on the internet, including the AKC website which states:
“Temperament – The American Eskimo Dog is intelligent, alert, and friendly, although slightly conservative. It is never overly shy nor aggressive, and such dogs are to be severely penalized in the show ring. At home it is an excellent watchdog, sounding a warning bark to announce the arrival of any stranger. It is protective of its home and family, although it does not threaten to bite or attack people. The American Eskimo Dog learns new tasks quickly and is eager to please.”
This sounded perfect. I don’t think Steve really wanted a dog at that time but he let me have him anyway. Of course, I was expecting him to love me more than Steve. I was wrong on that front. He bonded with Steve immediately. As he became more comfortable in our home, he started to show some behavior problems. We didn’t have the dog described on the AKC website. Although he was extremely smart and definitely barked when he heard noises, he also had some aggressive tendencies and did not seem conservative unless we had to muzzle him. We’ve seen Eskies walked in our neighborhood and asked how they got them to be so calm and friendly. The owners didn’t have any tricks. That’s just how their dogs are. We didn’t have too much concern at the time because we didn’t have any kids so we had plenty of time to work with him. When I was pregnant with Josie we took him to obedience school to work out some of the issues, such as teaching him to lie down, decrease the barking, stop jumping on people, and basically to learn some commands that would help us all to be happier. He did well and we learned some new things to do with him and some ways to deter bad behavior. This worked for a while. While Josie was very little he was on his good behavior. As soon as she started to move around he gradually started having more and more problems. He became accustomed to the deterrent methods and they no longer worked. His barking increased to the point that if our neighbors shut a door he would bark uncontrollably. He would lie down in the middle of Josie’s play area and not move. He would get so excited and run around that he wouldn’t notice Josie and knock her down. Or so we thought. Steve talked with our vet about these issues in January. We were thinking he had anxiety issues and wondered if there was anything we could do about it. While he may have some anxiety problems, the vet said this is just who he is and how he’s going to be for the rest of his life. He might slow down eventually as he gets older but the behaviors, such as the incessant barking, won’t stop. He also said that with this type of dog, he needs to be the center of attention and the things he does, like knocking Josie down or laying in her way, are intentional acts he is doing to show he’s top dog and to get attention.
With the new baby coming soon, we had to make a very difficult decision. None of us were happy, including Dodger. He wasn’t getting the attention he needs and we were becoming more aggravated with his behavior. We decided that this living situation would not work for any of us when the new baby gets here. So, with many tears from me and even a few from Steve, Dodger went off to his new life yesterday. Josie hasn’t seemed to notice although she did ask about him yesterday when she got up from her nap and he wasn’t laying in her play area. That makes me happy because I was worried about how she would take it because she was so in love with him. We got a lot of good pictures and videos in the last couple days of her playing with, hugging, and kissing him. We know he’ll be happier in his new home. It’s so hard to go through this though. Anyone who knows us and knows about the situation knows how long we fought having to give him away and how hard we worked with him over the last few years in order to make our home one that all of us would be happy in. We love you Dodger and know you’ll find what you need.
Here is one of my all time favorite pictures of Dodger. This was taken shortly after we brought Josie home from the hospital:
March 15, 2009
Happy Birthday, Josie!
Today is Josie’s 2nd birthday. It’s hard to believe that two years have flown by already. This is her 2-year old picture that we took in the same rocking chair she had her monthly and first birthday pictures in.
We had a family party at my parents’ house this afternoon and Josie had a very good time after getting over her initial tears when everyone showed up at once and the noise overwhelmed her. We had a great time visiting with her Godparents, Kathleen and John, and are so glad they were able to come down for the party. All of my family was also there which made for a very full house. One of the big highlights of the day was the fact that she could finally have peanut butter. Her pediatrician wanted us to wait until she was two to hopefully prevent any allergies to it, although we aren’t quite sure that long of a wait was necessary. As usual, she didn’t really want to try something new so we had to sneak it to her. Steve put a dab of it on the oreo she was eating and she took a bite without realizing it. We also gave her a chocolate peanut butter cookie (the new Keebler ones that are like the girl scout cookie “Tagalongs”) which she really enjoyed. Here she is eating the Keebler cookie:
I made her a cake that featured two of her favorite things, Mickey (and his friends) and books. Here is the finished product:
Here she is blowing out the candles on her cake. If you look closely, you can see she managed to blow out the red candle. She needed a little help to get the yellow one.
And here she is enjoying her birthday cake with Daddy:
Happy birthday, Josie! We love you very much!
March 11, 2009
Big girl room
We worked hard and got Josie’s big girl room all set up for her last week.
She had her first night in the room last Thursday and it’s gone pretty well since. She absolutely loves her kitchen and table/chairs. She’s also really enjoying the access she now has to the bookshelf and all the books it holds. She transitioned easily to the youth bed/converted crib that we borrowed from my sister. We went with a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme since she loves Mickey and his friends. For the most part, she goes to sleep when she’s put in bed. Monday night was the first rough night we had. She was up playing until finally falling asleep at 10:30. That was after tucking her in so many times we lost count (over 3 hours). When I went to check on her around 11:30 I found her sleeping with her blanket and friends behind the door.
I’m not sure why she decided to sleep there but she let me put her back in bed with no problems. I found her blanket and friends back behind the door again this morning. Maybe she feels like she has her own private clubhouse over in that corner? In contrast, tonight she got up and played after we tucked her in but when I went in to tuck her in again she went right to sleep. Overall, we’re quite pleased with how easy her transition has been. She really enjoys cooking and having tea parties at her table. We had a nightstand acting as a small table against the wall, holding her baby doll stuff. We had to remove it today after she figured out how to climb on it and get to the shelves and bookshelf near it. The real problem though was the fact that she tumbled off of it twice during her supposed naptime. She was ok but I think it scared her. Unfortunately, it didn’t scare her enough to stop trying.
I started this post last night and was falling asleep while trying to write it so I put off finishing it until today. When I went to check on Josie before bed last night I found her like this:
As you can see, she tucked herself in with Mickey, a book, and the blanket off the rocking chair. There sure seems to be something about sleeping next to the door. She let me get her up and tuck her into her bed without any problems. Usually, if she gets up to play at naptime, she’ll tuck herself back in. This is how I found her yesterday:
Everything else is going well here. We’ve enjoyed some snow showers in the last week but it looks like we may finally be moving into spring. We have our 30 week check-up at the OB on Thursday. And then our big event will be Josie’s second birthday on Sunday. We’re going to have a big family party at my parents house. It’s much better equipped to handle 16 people than our house. Steve and I will have a fun date night on Saturday. We’re going to the Melting Pot for dinner and then to see the Broadway show “Wicked”. He surprised me with those tickets at Christmas. It’s going to be a busy and exciting weekend for us!
February 19, 2009
What’s your name, little girl? What’s your name?
Here’s a short (less than 1 minute) video of Josie where she tells everyone what her name is.
This one has special meaning to Steve’s dad. Listen closely. 
And here’s another video (right around 3 minutes long) that Helene took earlier in the day when Josie was eating breakfast. It shows more of her vocabulary and language skills and what she’s like when she’s actually interested in eating a meal.
February 18, 2009
Where have we been?
We are overdue for an update. While Josie and I were out of town briefly in early January, the real excuse is just being busy. Josie and I had an interesting trip up north last month. My Great Uncle Mike passed away on Dec. 26 and his funeral was on Jan. 7. He was a great man who met my grandpa in naval training and then introduced him to his younger sister, my grandma. My parents, Josie, and I drove up to Bellingham, WA, on Jan. 6 and spent the night so we could be at the funeral on the 7th. The timing was unfortunate. We woke up the next morning to find that the road in front of the hotel was closed due to flooding. We were able to get out and to the church but the rain never stopped. It was a lovely service and we were really glad to be there. We started home afterwards and heard they were going to close I-5 near Chehalis, WA, around midnight. No problem! We should be past there by 8 that evening. Unfortunately, they moved up the closure to 6 PM while we were driving. With how bad traffic had been that day the whole way down, there was no way we would have made it past there before the closure unless we didn’t go to the service. We tried to find an alternate route but of course they were all closed due to flooding and mudslides. Not that we would have tried it at night, but the mountain passes were closed also so we couldn’t even head over the mountains and swing back around and down to Vancouver. So we were stranded. Steve, who had to work so was at home waiting for us, managed to call the Guesthouse Inn in Tumwater (just south of Olympia) and literally booked the last room, a family suite, for us. It worked well for that first night but Josie was sleeping in her play pen next to the bathroom which made sneaking to the bathroom in the middle of the night difficult. Our overnight trip turned into 3 nights. We had to make several trips to the store for supplies while we waited it out. Mom and I were supposed to go to the Neil Diamond concert in Portland on Thursday night but we missed it. 
What made it more bitter was the fact that they canceled the concert in Sept. when it was originally scheduled for what appeared to be very lame reasons – they supposedly had logistical problems setting up his concert at the Rose Garden even though he’s played there before and they host many concerts every year. Anyway, they finally opened I-5 that Friday around noon and we were on the road by 2 PM. We were thrilled to get home!
My parents left for Cancun, Mexico, a couple days later. They were gone for 3 weeks and boy did Josie miss them! Steve’s parents were able to join them for about 10 days down there and they all had a great time together. Meanwhile, Hotel Abbott played host to Chico, the cockatiel, and Callie, the Maltese. Yes, for those that don’t know, her name really is Callie Fornia. My dad finally got his way and was able to name someone in the family “California”. We had a very busy and noisy household for a while there. Josie really enjoyed having the animals with us and misses them now that they’re gone. Steve and I didn’t enjoy the chirping and extra barking waking Josie up during nap time but otherwise they were fun to have around.
Josie went in for a weight check a couple weeks ago and is now a whopping 21 pounds 2 ounces. That means she gained a whole pound in the last 2 months. We were sure she had gained more than that so I was a little disappointed. But she at least is maintaining her percentile (around the 3rd). I just wish she would be more willing to eat things like meat. She’s getting better about trying new things. The other night she actually took a very small bite of steamed broccoli. She didn’t like it and spit it back out but we considered it a huge accomplishment that she even put it in her mouth. We’ll just keep trying new stuff as she’ll let us. I have a feeling we may be in for a rude awakening when the new baby grows like a typical child. I won’t know what to do when I only get 3 or so months out of clothes instead of 6-9 months.
Speaking of the new baby, we had a checkup at the end of January and everything is looking good. This baby sure likes to kick a lot. Josie did a lot of rolling and swishing, which is a very different feeling. This one seems to be tap dancing much of the time. It’s even woken me up in the middle of the night, which is something Josie never did (before she was born anyway). We are working on Josie’s “big girl” room so we can transition her out of the nursery before the baby is born. I’m not sure who’s going to have a harder time with the transition, her or me. We are going with a “Mickey Mouse” theme again for her room because she is so in love with him and his friends. The nursery is done in “Classic Mickey” so perhaps moving from one Mickey room to another will make it easier. She now easily uses 3-word phrases and is starting some 4-word ones. She seems to gain several new vocabulary words every day. She knows her first name and how old she is and just today starting working on adding her last name. She still loves to read and is very excited any time we get a new book. She’s also getting more into role-playing and is enjoying her baby dolls, weebles, Little People house, cooking, and Mr. Potato Head. She is quite an active and entertaining little girl.
I have taken up crocheting, which seems to fill all my spare time. I’m making a baby afghan that needs to be finished before the baby comes so I’ve really been working hard on it to make sure I get it done. I have just over 1/4 of the squares made (192 squares total) and will have to stitch them together once they’re all made. I’m sure I can get it done, but me being me I’m worried about it so am pushing myself to get as many squares made in a day as I can. Unfortunately, it takes me between 30 and 45 minutes to make one square so it’s a slow process.
Steve had his birthday yesterday. Happy belated birthday, honey! We were able to take advantage of my parents keeping Josie for the night and we went out for a really nice dinner at the Chart House. Their lava cake can’t be beat! Not to mention the macadamia nut sea bass and the tenderloin medallions. As always, the dinner was excellent and it was really nice to get out for a meal without having Miss Crankypants along for the ride. All in all, I think Steve had a nice birthday.
I’m sure there’s more to report on but with my brain being as full of holes as it has been lately, I can’t think of anything else. I’ll do my best to keep things better up to date.
Here are some fun pictures from the last month or so:
Our 2009 girl:
Dressing up and then feeding her bunny:
Taking her babies for a walk:
Making lunch:
In bed with her friends:
Steve’s “Shrek” cake that I made him:
December 31, 2008
Our new darling
Here are some pictures taken during our ultrasound yesterday. I have to say the little one is quite photogenic!
Here is a profile shot:
Here you can see the spine:
Here’s a foot:
And here is the oh so adorable face:
December 30, 2008
20 weeks and 5 days
We had our 20 week ultrasound today. Everything looked great! We saw the heart and it looked perfect. We also saw the brain, face, spine, and all those other important body parts. Oh, and, drum roll please, we’re having….. A BABY! Yes, we decided to not find out the gender of the baby so Steve and I looked away whenever the tech was checking down in the pelvic/leg region. My mom watched but said she didn’t see anything that gave her a good idea. So, either she really didn’t see anything or she’s going to be good at denying it for the next few months. It was a lot of fun to watch the baby moving around. It’s approximately 14 ounces right now which is exactly where it should be. While we were looking at it’s face we could see it “chewing”. The tech commented on how it looked like it was chewing gum. It was so exciting! I definitely feel the little one moving around now. Often it’s a swishing feeling but I also get these little pokes and kicks too. We have to get the photos scanned in so when we do we’ll post a couple of them.
Our snow storm finally ended last Friday. We ended up with 12 inches of snow on our patio table and that doesn’t include the occasional melting or blowing that happened over time. The second storm we had on Christmas Eve finally dropped the right kind of snow for us to build a snowman. We’d like to introduce you to the newest member of our family, “Mim”. (That’s what Josie calls him.)
Unfortunately he didn’t last long. By Christmas morning he was curving terribly to the side. As our neighbor pointed out, he had “snowliosis”. By that evening, he’d lost his head. I think he’d gotten into the egg nog when we weren’t looking. Most of the snow is gone now. We have nothing left in the backyard. We have maybe 2 inches in the front yard in spots and some of the piles are left from Steve’s shoveling. There’s also a thick lane divider in the middle of our street. I’m not sure what Josie’s going to do when she wakes up the first morning and looks outside for snow and there isn’t any. It was a wonderful white Christmas!
December 24, 2008
Oh the weather outside is frightful
Which is why I’m glad I married someone who knows how to deal with it! It’s been a few years but Steve picked up that snow shovel with a lot of expertise. He has a lot of experience with it, after all he grew up in upstate New York. He cleared our walkway and cars in no time. It took a little longer to get the driveway to a point where we could actually get out but he did it a lot faster than I thought possible. As of Monday afternoon, we had 10 inches of snow on the ground. I’m sure a little melted yesterday although it didn’t get warm enough to do much. It’s been snowing all morning again and we’re expecting more tonight and into tomorrow morning before it finally starts to let up. This will truly be a magical Christmas. I always dream of a white Christmas and it looks like this year I’m finally getting one. A special thanks to my wonderful in-laws, Bob and Sandy. I guess your offer of sending me snow every year finally worked!
Here are a couple of new pictures to give you an idea of how much fun we’ve been having. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love snow and that I can’t get enough of it. I’m still enjoying watching it come down!
10 inch measurement:
Our happy shoveler:
A cleared path:
Snow family:
Our house in lights:
Backyard under snow:
