Here is a picture of the finished beds for the girls! After many hours of sanding, priming, and painting, I finally finished working on them and we assembled them in their room last weekend. They are both so excited about them, and Arianna actually sleeps in hers (she was refusing to sleep on a mattress for the past few months, and always moved to the floor as soon as I moved her to the mattress). It's such a relief having them done, and I'm so happy with how they turned out. In a few years we'll bunk them to give the kids more room to play on the floor, but for now that's just too dangerous.
It's starting to cool down a little lately, and it's hard to believe Roman will be one in a month and a half. He's the happiest boy and I just love his huge grin. He has the same squinty eye problem on one side as I do, which is annoying but kinda cute.
How is it fall already? I went to a parent visit day at Marissa's school yesterday and it was fun to see her in a lesson, and then interacting with her friends at recess. She's such a big girl and so far I'm really happy with the school we chose for her.

We had family pictures taken a few weeks ago by a guy in our church. He followed us around a local park and then downtown a little, and just snapped away! I felt really awkward, but I'm so impressed with how they turned out, especially given the ages of the kids! There were so many awesome ones, and hopefully we can do the same thing again next year. We ordered a 16x20 canvas print of our favorite, and I can't wait to see how it turned out!

This morning, Arianna was playing with a play tea set and asked me "Would you like a spot of tea?" I just about died laughing. She is stinking hilarious these days, and so enjoyable. She absolutely adores Roman, and follows him around most of the morning. I kinda feel sad writing this because I don't know what Marissa does all day! I know she enjoys school, but she's also excited about days off, like this Friday. We're having a playdate with her friend Ingrid (and my friend Susan) since they don't get to see each other that often now that they're both in school. Arianna is just as excited about it though! They're the family that watches the kids if we ever need it and we just had a date night (to Maggiano's with J & A and T & R - YUM!) and the girls had a blast together. They usually order pizza when we (or just the kids) are there, and that's Arianna's favorite, so as soon as she hears that's where she's going, she immediately yells excitedly "PIZZA!"

I love my family, love my kids, and am enjoying the days with just Arianna and Roman immensely! Time to go get Marissa off the bus!

A new normal

Marissa has been in school for a few weeks now, and I think I've finally figured out a new normal for our days. It hasn't been as hard to adjust to (for me or Arianna) as I expected it to be. Roman takes nice long naps on a very regular schedule, so every morning from 10:30-12:30 I get to spend quality alone time with my middle child. It's actually quite wonderful, something I never would have predicted 11 months ago. Just before Roman was born, and for several months after, Arianna was a mess and very hard to appreciate and interact with. But she's such a lovely, sweet, thoughtful, imaginative, communicative person lately! She has ideas and opinions all her own and shares them all the time. She loves to ask "I cuddle you?" and "go upstairs, listen to songs, and jump?" and gets so excited when it's time to get Roman up from his nap.

Roman is standing up every chance he gets, and cruises all around the living room. He looks like sometimes he might forget to hold on to something, and I can't believe he'll be one in a little over two months! He has two bottom teeth, and his two top teeth are about halfway in. He's still so tiny, but looks like such a big boy when he's standing up grinning at me with all those teeth. After several weeks of waking VERY often at night, he's back to sleeping pretty good. He sometimes wakes once or twice, but goes right back to sleep after nursing. He still loves to nurse, and although I'm not going to wean him as soon as he turns one, I would really like to not nurse him as long as I nurse(d?) Arianna. We'll see how that goes...

Marissa is loving school still. She's made several friends, got invited to a birthday party (that she can't go to since we'll be busy), and discovered a friend that lives in our neighborhood. Somehow, miracle of miracles, she manages to finish all of her food for lunch every day. After months of taking over an hour to eat, we were very worried about that aspect of her day! Some days she comes home and wants to color or write at the table, and I can't imagine her wanting to after spending all day at school! She was sent home with a "baggy book" to read at home last night, and it was supposed to be independent reading - she did great! She's sounding out words she sees everywhere, and has a good grasp of reading already.

I'm almost finished sanding the beds for the girls. We got a set of (college dorm room) bunk beds that we'll bunk when the girls get (much) older, and I've been sanding them down to get rid of the grime and in preparation for painting them white. I'm excited to get them finished and set up their room. Arianna's been sleeping on the floor (or the Dora foam couch) for weeks now for some reason, she refuses to sleep on her mattress on the floor. Hopefully once they have cool new beds, she'll get over it!

Last week my hometown of Owego, NY was hit with massive flooding from the river that it's near. Entire first stories of houses were flooded, and it's going to take a long time for the area to be rebuilt, if they can even manage to do it in the first place. Such a hard time for everyone who lives there. I was so glad my Grandma and parents live high up on hills and weren't affected by flooding, just lost their power for a few days.

My sister has a boyfriend as of last night! I'm so excited for their relationship and how happy she seems to be.

Back in the day...

I just found a piece of paper where I had written all the words Marissa could say. There's no date on it, but I'm guessing it to be around 18-24 months or so. I thought I'd type it up because it's cute and I want to remember...

Rissa's Words

• gotcha
• jep = jump
• wait
• yo = yogurt or phone
• pee-pee
• poo
• spoo = spoon
• essie = sticker
• shirt
• da = socks
• ca = crackers
• sweatshirt
• choo-choo
• gentle
• eyes
• nose
• mouth
• toes
• poe-poe = pillow
• Mom! = Grandma (she imitated me saying "mom" to my mom)
• Pah-pah = Grandpa
• Jep! = Jeff
• cheerio
• da-da = hot dog
• bah = bath
• ch-ch = brush teeth
• ap = Nap in a Lap book
• Twinkle = asks to sing that song
• "ga ga guy" = lyrics "like a diamond"
• see = seat
• boo-boo
• nigh-nigh = night-night
• awww = expression for a baby
• ha = hat
• duh = stuck
• yusch = lunch
• da = dinner
• hee = asking to hold my hand to drag me somewhere
• gate
• cow
• keys
• clap

I'll never get back into this.

I can't believe it's September already! Marissa started Kindergarten last week and is loving it. I thought for sure there would be some tears or some rough days to start out (since she'd never been in a school setting before, and this is all day, every day!), but she loves it. Her teacher is wonderful, and she's already put Marissa in an "advanced" group for ABC knowledge (Marissa wasn't too happy about that, she says her own teacher is nicer than the "advanced" teacher. Lol.). It's so weird to be home with just the little ones. Arianna isn't a mess, but she asks to eat ALL. THE. TIME. I think it's because she's bored and I'm not interesting enough! I've really been trying to entertain her and do special things with her, but I also have to get stuff done sometimes, and Roman isn't nearly as exciting as Marissa was! The other day they played together in Roman's room for almost an hour while I did laundry and periodically checked in on them. It was so cute, and they'll have a great time as Roman grows older.

I think I've finally spent all my birthday money! I'm so indecisive that I've bought and returned things since my first big shopping trip (alone, with Roman) back in June. I got some awesome pieces and really feel like I used the money well. The clearance racks were my friends!

Since my last post, we spent two weeks in NY visiting my parents, sister, and grandma, and my other grandparents, my brother, and aunt and uncle also came to visit so they could see us. It was a crazy chaotic two weeks! Dan stayed with us for the first weekend, then he had to be back for work. They took some time off work to spend it with us, we spent a lot of time at the pool, and I think I can safely say that we completely wore my parents out over the course of the two weeks! The first weekend (thankfully when Dan was still there), we ended up taking Roman to the ER because he woke up at 2am coughing, croupy, and having a hard time breathing. I think if it had been either of the girls (as babies) we might have waited it out longer, but since Roman was a preemie and had breathing issues in the NICU, we were extra paranoid. He calmed down a lot on the drive there (of course), but they still gave him a few days of steroids and a few days of an antibiotic. It cleared up quickly and he hasn't had any more issues since then. We knew it was a possibility because he and Arianna had been exposed to croup at church just before we left. Arianna had a fever for a day, and lost her voice for a few days, but he got it much worse.

Roman is still an awesome napper! He goes down without a peep whenever I know he's ready. It's wonderful. He hasn't been as great at bedtime though. Sometimes he's just not tired enough yet, but other times I know he's exhausted and he just fights it. It's so frustrating when he's so good at nap time and so opposite at bedtime! He had been sleeping almost through the night for a while (only up once usually), but that's suddenly gone and he's been up many, many times each night for a week or so. It's exhausting! And I'm having to get up earlier than normal anyways to get the girls up and ready so Marissa can go to school. I'm very glad her bus doesn't get here until 8:49 though, because I don't even have to wake her up earlier than normal. But I have to be ready before they are up, and that's the hard part. I have to meet her bus down the street a little every single day this year. And in the afternoon I have to have my picture ID in order to pick her up from the bus. It's kinda a pain, but I'm very glad for all the precautions they take to keep her safe!

Arianna is turning into Marissa lately - she never stops talking! I can still remember how we thought she'd need speech therapy because she seemed to be taking forever to develop her language. But she's grown exponentially since we were in NY - Dan noticed a HUGE difference in just the two short weeks he was away from her! She's using full sentences and all the same inflections and phrases Marissa uses. It's so stinking cute! And yet so exhausting! But I'm trying not to wish away all the talking since I'm so grateful she's finally at this point.

Roman is 9 months old and cruising around furniture. He sits, crawls, pulls up, rolls around - all like a pro. It's hard to believe he was ever less than 5 pounds and so fragile! He was 15lbs 9oz at his checkup. When we were in NY, he just learned to pull himself up to stand so we would hold his hands and let him walk around and EVERYTIME he would shriek like a pterodactyl because he was so excited! He's such a happy boy, and in true male form, he's happiest when he's playing with toy balls. He has two bottom teeth, and his two top teeth poked through last week. It's so weird to see his smile changing! He's still an awesome eater, and I could never get enough food in him in NY! I'm still making his baby food, and it's hard to keep up with him! I'm using the breastmilk storage containers from pumping in the NICU and they're perfect for freezing and portioning all his food. He's recently started eating some table food. He loves cheerios (duh), and can eat tiny pieces of ham and grapes. I always struggle finding appropriate things for this age though.

I've been spending all my brainpower lately on planning a family photo shoot. We're hoping a friend of ours will be able to take the pictures this month, and I've been working on coordinating outfits for all of us! It's such a pain, and I don't want to be all matchy-matchy, but I don't want it to look like we just happened to take pictures that day. Hopefully they'll turn out wonderful so we can use them for Christmas cards!
Well, that's about it for now. Marissa's bus comes at 4, although it's supposed to come at 3:48, so technically I need to head outside around 3:40. Sometimes the little ones are still sleeping and sometimes they wake up while I'm waiting on the front porch. I'm not looking forward to spending this much time outside in the middle of December! I may end up driving her and picking her up instead, since they have a drop-off/pick-up so I wouldn't need to unload the little ones.

Life summary/ketchup

It's July 29th, 2011. Marissa is 5, Arianna is 29 months, and Roman is 8 months.
It has been a whole week since Arianna nursed last. If it were completely up to her, she wouldn't be done. We were down to just first thing in the morning. Then this week was VBS so I was up early and as soon as the girls got up, we got dressed, ate, and had to leave. So there just wasn't time. She still asked, but was ok that we didn't have time. I'm sad, but so so freaking proud at how long I nursed her.

Here is a typical day in our life lately:

• 7:15-7:30am Girls wake up. I'm trying to get them to spend some quiet time reading books in the morning. Some days they do, some days...not so much.
• 8:00 Get dressed and breakfast. The girls get to pick out their cereal for the week on grocery night, so they're usually excited about it. Arianna is pretty good at using a spoon and eating cereal by herself. They both tip their bowls to eat the milk with a spoon when they're done.
• 8:30 I wake up Roman. I'm really trying to keep him on a schedule. He usually wakes up between 6-7 for a snack, and doesn't always go right back to sleep. But he's happy to lay in his crib for a bit before sleeping a little longer. He gets a big bowl of baby cereal, and sometimes a fruit too. Depending on how recent he nursed last, I may or may not nurse him again.
• 9:00 Super Why. We have yet to get out of the rut that Marissa's shows put us in. Once she starts going to school everyday, and I just have Arianna and Roman home, this will change.
• 9:30 We head upstairs to brush teeth, I try to do some laundry when it's needed. On Mondays and Thursdays, we leave to drive to Centerville to pick up my editing work. We get back around 11:15.
• 10:00 Sesame Street. TV rut...
• 10:30 Depending on how recent Roman nursed last, I may or may not nurse him. I take him upstairs, put him in his crib with the fan on and light off. He falls asleep within 5 minutes of happy babbling. It's wonderful.
• 11:00 TV off! Usually a mini snack, playtime, and laundry if needed. Lately the girls are really into coloring and Marissa likes to make "comic books" where she draws the pictures then dictates to me what the story is about. Her stories are INCREDIBLE.
• 12:00 or later if the girls are busy with something particular...Lunch. PBJ's are a favorite, yogurt is a staple, and jelly beans/candy are a treat.
• 12:30pm I wake Roman up from his nap. He used to take 3-4 hour naps, but then was so unpredictable later, so I decided 2 hours is enough for the morning nap. I feed him his lunch as the girls are finishing. He has been eating a tube (I make his baby food and freeze it in breastmilk-storage tubes from the NICU) of fruit and a tube of veggies. He can pick up Cheerios, but doesn't usually get any to stay in his mouth. Today I got a carrot shower because he decided to spit with every bite.
• 12:45 Playtime
• 1:30 Diaper changes/potty break. And naptime. Marissa doesn't nap anymore (except for rare occasions) so she plays in Roman's room and listens to her Sparks CD. She has the most incredible imagination and has a blast in there (I can eavesdrop over the monitor). Arianna lays down in her big girl bed (mattress on the floor, til I sand and paint their new twin beds, to be turned into bunk beds in a few years). I usually have to go in there many times because she gets up to play, gets books, and generally has a hard time staying in one place long enough to fall asleep. She's usually asleep by 2 though.
• 2:00 Roman is usually tired around this time. He's not a huge nurser, and I can't convince him to nurse if he doesn't want to. He eats so much baby food though, so it's not a big deal. I try to nurse him, and lay him down for nap. Today I had to bounce/cuddle him for a little while before it worked. He takes his afternoon naps in our room in a pack-n-play because Marissa is in his room. I use this time to shower sometimes, or catch up on the computer.
• 3:30 I let Marissa stop playing by herself and come get me. She loves that she can tell time. Arianna usually wakes up around this time too. We head downstairs for a snack.
• 4:15 Dan gets home from work, although it's a little later if he rides his bike home. He goes upstairs to shower, and brings Roman down with him since that's about when he wakes up.
• 4:30 Word Girl.
• 5:00 Electric Company.
• 5:30 Dinner time. Roman gets a tube of fruit and a tube of veggies. The girls are pretty picky so we let Marissa give input in the meals for the week. Arianna doesn't eat much sometimes, but I'm not going to cook 90 things just to find the one that makes her happy. So she deals with it. After dinner, Dan likes to goof around with the girls and wrestle sometimes. Marissa gets hurt really easily, but Arianna gets back up every time, no matter how hard the fall. I clean up the kitchen and watch the craziness from the couch with Roman.
• 8:00 Bedtime for the kids. It's been so hot this summer that Marissa just wears her underwear and Arianna just wears a diaper. But Arianna has to have a "belt" of duct tape because she kept taking off her diaper. We read them their Bible story, pray, and they get to pick one book to read in their beds. Since Arianna naps and Marissa doesn't, Marissa is usually pretty tired and complains that Arianna keeps her awake. Hopefully this won't be a problem when school starts! Arianna is not the best person to share a room with, but putting them together fixed Arianna's MAJOR sleep issues, so hopefully they can learn to work things out. I nurse Roman one last time. Sometimes that works and he goes right to sleep, and other times it takes some effort. But I do my editing work from 8-10pm, so it's in his best interest to go to sleep fast so Dan doesn't have to hold him forever while I work. Dan and I like to watch shows online or on Netflix.
• 10:00ish Lights out. Dan gets up early, especially when he rides his bike to work. So we try to wrap things up by 10pm. He falls asleep quickly, so after he's asleep, I spend some time on the computer or play Freecell on my phone. It's relaxing and doesn't take much thought. I have a hard time falling asleep, so that helps.
• 7:15-7:30am Repeat.

I'm getting all sentimental about things lately, with Marissa starting school in less than a month. We're going to visit my parents in NY for a few weeks, and when we get back it will be time! I'm loving this age of all 3 kids. Marissa is so smart and creative. I wonder if she'll be a writer some day. Arianna is turning into the sweetest little girl. Her language is exploding exponentially, and her personality is showing all over the place. She loves her little brother, and it will be interesting to see how their relationship develops when they're the only kids at home. Roman is the happiest baby, and so calm and laid back. He takes everything the girls throw at him, literally and figuratively. His bottom two teeth are finally popping through, and I'm sad to see his toothless smile disappear, but excited to see the new smile taking its place.
I'm still not convinced I'd be ok with him as our last baby. Dan is 100% convinced. But I still struggle with that idea. I'm still hoarding the boxes of too-small clothes in the basement, and packing away baby gear instead of selling it. But there's something to be said about the idea of baby-less outings...

June?!

I'm not doing very well keeping up with this blog! I have some time right now, but I'm sure Arianna will wake up and I won't be able to finish so I'm going to speed through it!

• Date with M - I took just Marissa on a mommy/daughter date. We went to eat at Steak N Shake (she had a birthday coupon), then to get her hair cut (It's very short and super cute! But so frizzy when it's hot and humid.), then to get ice cream (Ben & Jerry's). She really is so fun, but sometimes it's hard for me to see it when I'm busy with all 3 (and the younger two being more stressful to deal with). We chatted about dying and heaven and silly things too. She's such a smart girl. I felt bad we had to kinda rush so I could get home to nurse Roman, but we still had a good time.

• Ears pierced - we promised her she could get her ears pierced for her birthday, but things got so busy we didn't get to it til the end of May! She had been begging for over a year, and we decided she was old enough. She was so excited! We all went to the mall together and she picked out some cute gold hearts with tiny pink diamonds in them. The lady did the first side, and Marissa was so brave, she didn't even twitch! But when the lady said she was going to do the other side, Marissa lost it! She was so hysterical, screaming, and she RAN AWAY in the mall. Dan chased her down, and talked to her for a loooong time about it while I chased Arianna and held her down. By this point Roman was crying too. Finally Dan held Marissa in his lap and held her arms down and I was holding Arianna still but I held Marissa's head still and the lady did it really fast. After it was done, Marissa was totally fine and was so proud! We kinda felt bad holding her down, but she wanted it so bad we thought it'd be ok. She thinks she looks so old now, and she really does. She says they don't hurt anymore, and she was even able to lay on them the night she got them done! We clean them and spin them every morning and every night and I think they're going to be fine. She goes on and on about how everyone who sees her will see how pretty she is because of the earrings. Lol.

• Tangled - Our church showed the movie Tangled on an outdoor screen recently. Marissa was terrified of the movie the last time we watched it (and chose to go to bed instead of watching it with us!), but she did awesome this time. We got there super early and Marissa ran around with her friends the entire time we waited. She wasn't with us at all! It was so weird to just let her go (I could see her, but she was on the other side of the lawn). She had a blast. Arianna also wandered around, with Dan trailing her. She is so crazy. She had no fear and was so social! She saw her Sunday School teacher across the lawn and waved to her (the lady wasn't even looking!) so I said "Do you want to go say hi?" thinking she'd never go for it. But she said "mmm-hmm" and just took off! I watched her the whole way there - it was far! She weaved in and out of everyone's chairs and blankets and gave her teacher a hug! She is just so different from Marissa in every way possible! Once the movie started, Marissa sat with us and both girls lasted the entire movie! I really didn't expect to be able to finish it. We didn't get home until 11:15pm - that's definitely the latest the girls have ever stayed up! They slept til 8am the next day, which tells you how tired they were - they've been waking up at 6:30 lately! The next day we discovered Marissa had gotten eaten alive! She had about 5-6 giant bug bites on her back. I guess she's yummy just like Dan. Lol.

• A extended nursing - I had planned on completely weaning Arianna when I was out of town with just Roman for the weekend. She was totally fine without it, but when I got back, she had such a routine going that she couldn't give it up. For now, she is still nursing when she first wakes up. She doesn't nurse after nap anymore, so it's just in the morning and that's all. She still asks sometimes when she's bored or upset, but is a lot easier to distract. I never thought I'd nurse her THIS long! She finally understands that Roman needs to nurse a lot, and she doesn't. So that's good at least.

• Roman - Roman is sitting up like a pro now! He still tips over, but softly enough that he doesn't care. He's rolling both ways too, and manages to move himself around the living room pretty well. Time to watch out for little tiny toys! He's an awesome sleeper lately too. I've been just laying him in his bed when he's ready for a nap, and he will fall asleep with barely a whine within 5 minutes. It's amazing! He still takes a huge long nap, sometimes 4 hours, every afternoon. And we just finally moved him to his own room for the night! His first night alone he slept 8 hours straight, then went back to sleep for 2.5 hours more! It felt wonderful! I had a feeling Dan's sleeptalking was waking him up more than he needed to, and I think I was right! He also didn't overflow his diaper because he wasn't being nursed back to sleep every few hours. Such a nice change!

• It was so freaking hot! One it was 97 degrees, and over 90 in our house. We're trying not to turn on the AC again this summer, to save money. The girls are so sweaty, and their hair gets so nasty! And poor Roman - every time he nurses, we both have sweat dripping down everywhere! I'm so glad it's cooled down some since last week! I was trying to figure out why I always said summer was my favorite. I think it's because it NEVER got this hot in NY, and also because I spent every waking minute at the pool playing (as a kid) or relaxing (as a lifeguard/teenager)! Ahhh, those were the days!

• My back is still very sore from the accident over a month ago. I've been going to the chiropractor twice a week, sometimes 3 times! Just this week it's finally starting to feel a little better, but it's been a long road. I can do everything I NEED to do. But it's painful so I try to avoid lots of things! I've been making asking Dan to vacuum the floors and I've really been enforcing that the girls clean up their own toys off the floor since bending down to the floor hurts the most. Dan has also had to do baths for all 3 mostly on his own. Hopefully I can get some relief SOON and get back to normal life!

• The girls have been waking up 6:45 or earlier EVERY SINGLE DAY lately. I don't know if Marissa wakes up Arianna or Arianna wakes up Marissa, but whoever is up first wakes the other up when Dan is leaving to ride his bike to work (which is EARLY!) and it's insane! I think I'm getting used to it a little, but it also makes the days a lot longer when they start at 6:30am! Roman sleeps til 8 usually, so we have breakfast, get dressed, and play for a while before he's even up! At least it's cooler that early in the morning!

• Roman turned 6 months old already! I can't believe he's on his way to being 1 already. Seems like the months are just flying by. I think he seems younger to me since he was a preemie and has been a little slower to develop physically. We started him on some oatmeal baby cereal a few weeks back, but he is NOT a fan! He eventually gets a few bites down, but is still struggling to swallow it. I tried it with breastmilk I had in the freezer first, but he REALLY didn't like it. So after I had to thaw and dump all 50 ounces of it (it expires at 6 months in our type of freezer), I've just been using water. He likes it a little better now, but it's still a struggle! Hopefully he'll get the hang of it soon! The girls are loving how mobile/interactive he is lately, especially Marissa. She's been enjoying being able to carry him around a little, and help him sit on the floor with toys. Arianna cracks up every time she sees him sitting, and I'm worried she'll get so excited and knock him right down!

• I got the girls' pics done at Sears recently. Arianna's 2yr pics turned out terrible, so she had a retake, and we got Marissa's 5yr ones done finally. They went well, and we got 2 good pics, but it was a hassle! While I was picking them out and paying, they were running in circles in the (empty) waiting area. Suddenly, Arianna decided to take off AWAY from the portrait studio and into the main part of the department store! She was running as fast as she possibly can! I left Marissa with the stroller, my purse, and the photographer lady, and (I was holding Roman at the time) RAN as fast ans I possibly could to catch her! I was wearing my slippery flip-flops because it had been raining, and it's a miracle I didn't wipe out on the floor! I caught her and she was laughing hysterically but I was NOT. That girl...!

• June 4 was our 6 year anniversary! We got some money in the mail from my parents and Grandma, so we're going out for spicy Indian food - our favorite! We'll leave all 3 kids with a friend that we swap child care with. I think Dan wants to get ice cream too. So that'll be a fun date. We haven't left Roman anywhere yet, so hopefully he'll be ok while we're gone - another baby who won't take a bottle! I always feel bad when people watch our babies who won't take bottles!
• Well, it's a miracle - I think I finished everything I wanted to write about! It's Day 2 of naptime, but it finally got done!
• I'll finish up with a story from one of the super hot days: we had to pick up my work that morning, and on our way home I spontaneously decided to stop at the outdoor fountain/water feature at a nearby shopping center. I let the girls play in it for about a 1/2 hour and they had a blast! They were both VERY hesitant at first, and I didn't think Arianna would ever jump in, but after they started, they loved it! I couldn't believe Arianna was hesistant about ANYTHING! They were both in their clothes, but I didn't care for once. It's hard for me to let go and let them get dirty or do things like that. But it was worth it (and I even got a little sun)!

Crazy weeks

I've been meaning to post for a while now, but it's just been so crazy!

1. Marissa said to Arianna the other day, "Arianna, who do I love more than you? Jesus and God." It was the cutest thing ever! She said it in a sweet voice, like she meant the only other people she could possibly love more than Arianna were Jesus and God. I hope they stay this close forever.

2. Marissa had her 5 year check-up on May 4. She weighs 35 lbs 8 oz and is 41.75 inches tall. She was prepared to get some shots, and I was so amazed at how she did. She was so brave, she even wanted to watch, until the nurse told her to look away. She didn't whine even once, but when the nurse gave her the one that "might burn a little" I could see tears forming in her eyes. But she never got upset or cried. The doctor asked her some basic questions and Marissa got every one right. The doctor said she was probably even ready for 1st grade instead of Kingergarten!

3. After we left the pediatrician, I really needed stamps so I could mail my mom her Mother's Day card. So instead of unloading everyone to go to Meijer, I decided I'd go down the road a bit and see if there was a bank drive through that sold stamps. I don't even know if they do that, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask! It had been raining a little, but wasn't very wet out. I was driving in a 35mph area, and there was a yellow light. First I thought I'd make it through, but then I realized I wouldn't, so I stopped. And we were hit from behind REALLY hard! My head smashed into the back of the seat, and I'm sure both girls' heads did too, since as soon as I could turn around to check on them, I saw them both holding their heads. As soon as it happened, all 3 kids started crying, and I about lost it too. I was trying so hard not to freak out for them though. Once I realized they were all ok (they stopped crying quickly, and Marissa just asked about what happened), I got my phone to call 911. The guy from the small red truck that hit us came to my door to check on us. The girl that was driving the truck thought she broke her foot, so I called 911, then Dan to tell him what happened. The police came quickly, and a lady stopped to come check on us and ended up staying with the other girl, checking her vitals often. The girl and guy both left immediately in the ambulance, while I told the police what happened. After they took a bunch of pictures of the scene, I drove the van to the side of the road, and a tow truck came to get the red truck and clean up the lanes. Our back bumper was bashed in pretty bad, but I guess the hitch saved things from being worse. I declined going to the hospital, and after Dan got there, we finished talking to the police, I filled out a report, and we went back to the doctor to have all the kids checked out just in case. But EVERY SINGLE DOCTOR was out on their lunch break already! So we went home to eat since we were starving by this point. I called after their lunch break was over, and I took the kids in to get checked. The doctor assured me they were all fine, and neither girl was complaining about anything. I asked Marissa repeatedly, but she assured me nothing hurt at all. But my neck was KILLING me, so I scheduled an appointment at our chiropractor for as soon as Dan got home from work. They took x-rays, and everything looked fine, then he adjusted me, the ladies did the e-stim thing, and I got a mini-massage on my neck. I was still sore that night, but it wasn't too bad. But the next day, Thursday, I thought my head was going to fall off my neck! It has never hurt that badly before. I couldn't lift my head unless I used my hands to lift it. I was popping tylenol all day, and I NEVER take stuff for pain or sickness. I've been back to the chiro a few times (I'm going back tonight too), and it's definitely better than that Thursday after, but it's moved down into my back too. Since the girl went to the hospital immediately, we didn't even get their names or if they had insurance. For several days we thought they didn't even have any insurance. But finally the police got back to us, and they had insurance. So they "settled" and sent us a nice check for each child's "misery" and also covered the cost of their pediatrician check-up after the accident. They'll also cover the cost of all my chiro appointments, and as soon as they assess the "level" of my misery, they'll "settle" with me too. They also covered the cost of our van repair - $3200! The van had been having a few rear suspensions issues recently, the back/side bumpers were slightly dented and the back hatch was scratched up a little when we bought it. So obviously they fixed all that too, and now the back looks brand new! It was such a pain (literally!), but ended up working out for the good. They also covered the cost of a rental van for us while they fixed ours, and I was able to put 1000 miles on that instead of our van when I drove to Virginia with Roman for Rach's graduation.

Oh, I almost forgot. Insurance also covered 3 brand new car seats. So we got 2 of the same kind Marissa used to have for both girls, and we got the same kind Arianna used to have for Roman. We decided we could save ourselves some money and instead of buying Roman another infant seat he'd outgrow in 6 months, we'd just move him up to a convertible seat (still rear facing). I love getting new car seats!

4. As if that all wasn't enough, that Friday during the day I kept hearing something weird and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Finally I tracked it down to the laundry room, and figured it was something alive in the dryer vent. There was no way I was going to investigate it, so we were going to wait for a friend of ours to use their giant ladder to see in the dryer vent outside. But it started to REEK inside, so there was something alive AND something dead in there. Eventually we got a huge ladder and there was nothing to be seen near the outside of the vent. Our friend Randy from church brought the ladder, but didn't know what he was getting himself into! He ended up checking out the vent from the inside, and he caught the live bird in a box and took it outside. He and Dan brought the inside tubing outside to dump out the dead bird and we spent all weekend cleaning up that mess! It smelled the worst IN the dryer, so we aired the laundry room and dryer out all weekend with fans and lots of vinegar spray. So gross!

5. Friday after lunch Roman and I left in the rental van (satellite radio!) to drive 8 hours to Liberty for my sister's graduation. Roman was awesome, and I only had to stop twice (one long stop for dinner for me, diaper change, bathroom, gas, and feeding him, and one short feeding stop for him) both there and back, and he played with some toys and slept the rest of the way. It was super rainy at graduation, but held off enough that we didn't get soaked. It was lots of fun to see Rach finally graduate and spend time with family. It was so weird to only be responsible for one child - and a super easy one at that! The only time I'd ever left the girls was when I was in the hospital having babies. I missed them so much, but apparently they didn't miss me because Dan kept them so busy! They had a blast, and so did Dan. So I didn't feel too bad about leaving them all for the weekend!

6. The house is a disaster, and I want to get it back to how it was before all this crap happened! I feel like it's been just one thing after another, and I haven't been able to catch my breath since Dan got back from Nicaragua. Hopefully we can have some peaceful weeks for a while to get back in one piece. The main thing I need to catch up on is laundry. I couldn't do any for a while because of the bird, dead bird, then the smell lingering. So I got really behind on washing it all. Then before I left on my trip I wanted to wash a ton of stuff in case the girls or Dan needed something, and I wanted to wash a ton of clothes a friend gave us for Roman so he'd have some of it to wear on our trip. So I washed it all, but never put it away, and now I just need to catch up!

7. I have not nursed Arianna since I've been back. She's asked a few times, but hasn't put up a fuss when I say no. It's kinda sad, and I miss it a little. But I know she's ready to move on...now if only she'd drink a cup of milk! She loves yogurt and cheese and smoothies and milk in cereal, but she will NOT drink milk by itself. In just the 3 short days I was away, I'm shocked at how many new words she picked up! She seems so much older suddenly, and it's amazing. I love her age, and how they seem to discover new things all the time. One new word is "tattoo" because Dan got them Tinkerbell tattoos while I was gone! She also likes to say "self" and "top" to buckle the top of her own seat-belt. She's so funny, I love her!

8. Marissa had her Kindergarten screening last Thursday - it was so weird to just let her go back with the teacher by herself! She said they asked her letters, numbers, colors, shapes, to draw a person, balance on a beam, and her phone number. She said it was really fun and she really wants to ride a bus to that school! So we'll see...we're still not sure what she's going to do in the fall.

Well, Arianna woke up and we're just cuddling now. Marissa is sleeping today - she didn't feel so well this morning. We've all got a little cold. I took Roman into the doctor yesterday because I was worried about his lungs (especially with him being a preemie and having breathing issues in the NICU), but he's fine. I had a massive on fire sore throat over the weekend, and he's been coughing quite a bit (he spit up about a gallon of his 6am feeding in my bed this morning), but he's definitely getting better. Both girls are coughing a little and have runny noses, but hopefully that'll go away soon!

Marissa said something sad to me this morning "Mommy, I'm not good at anything!" She was a little sad because Arianna's been making Roman smile a lot lately, but he hasn't been smiling for Marissa as much. So I took her in my lap and told her a bunch of things she's good at. I'm going to take her on a date soon for a haircut and some ice cream, and soon we'll finally get her ears pierced! I love my big girl. Hard to believe she's going to school in the fall!

Picking back up...

So I've been a terrible blogger recently. Obviously I have a few very good reasons. But I really want to get back into it so I can remember these crazy days. So I'm going to try to start back up and try a FlyLady technique: only 15 minutes! It would probably take me forever to catch up on everything I've missed. So instead, I'll simply write for 15 minutes, and that will be all you get! Today it will probably be interrupted quite a bit since the kids are all up from nap already. But it's still better than nothing, right?!

Friday, Marissa turned 5. I still can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday we were heading to the hospital to get induced on her due date. She has turned into the sweetest, sassiest little girl! Lately when we ask to take her picture, she poses sideways with both hands on her hips. For her birthday, my parents came to visit for the weekend. She got lots of cool things from them, Dan's parents (in the mail), and my Grandma. For her big gift from us, we wrote a note allowing her to get her ears pierced. She's been begging for over a year, and we finally decided it would be ok. She got a huge grin on her face when we read the note to her. But when it came time to go to the mall on Saturday to actually get it done, she changed her mind. I think the weekend was a little crazy for her! But this morning in the car she suddenly wanted to do it "right now" so I think we'll probably do it this weekend.

Last night Arianna was super tired at church, and she had a fever when we got home. This morning both girls were a little sleepy and whiney, and they both had a slight fever. Hopefully it won't turn into anything, and they seem to be fine this afternoon. A few kids from church recently had febrile seizures, so I'm kinda freaking out more than normal. We've been pretty lucky so far though with all 3 kids hardly getting sick at all. I'm sure it's because nobody goes to preschool so I'm sure it will flare up next fall. But it's nice for now!

Last night I had a lot of work to finish since I didn't work all weekend since my parents were here. Dan and I were up til about 11:30, and today we're both exhausted! I was really hoping to catch a short (or long) nap this afternoon, but Arianna and Roman tag-teamed naptime today, so it didn't happen. I think we'll end up going to bed earlier than normal tonight!

Roman is really turning into the cutest happiest baby ever. He slept so great last night when I needed to work, and he was so happy all weekend. He's such an easy baby. He's finally starting to enjoy playing with toys.

Saturday afternoon we went to a playground and then randomly decided to go out to dinner, all 7 of us! It was definitely risky because of a) Arianna in general and b) Roman had last eaten before we left for the playground and that was a while ago and c) Marissa had skipped nap. It turned out to be the nicest dinner out we've had in years. Marissa was fine, although she was ready to be done before anyone else. Arianna was awesome and ate and ate and ate the entire time. She just kept cramming it in! Roman was happy and smiley for a while, then silently fell asleep in his car seat for the rest of our meal! It was a miracle, especially since we were seated in the direct center of the room for all to see, and our waiter was terrible and busy and took forever to do anything with us. It's nice to enjoy special things sometimes when it's not ridiculously full of chaos!

Dan was gone for a week in Nicaragua on a missions trip with our church. He had a great trip, but it was really hard for me to have him gone! Logistically it was fine, taking care of the kids and going places. But mentally I had a hard time with it! I tried to keep busy with friends, and then Rach came to visit for Easter weekend before he got back, so that all helped.

Well, that's 15 minutes, so I'm off to do some sorely neglected dishes left over from the birthday tornado weekend!

Oh crap! How has it been a month since I posted already?! The kids are all down for a nap, but it might not last long! This past month has been interesting. I finally had a few weeks of being healthy, until Dan and I got this stupid little cold. I think it's almost gone though. Arianna, however, is what made the month interesting. She was an absolute mess. I don't really know how to describe her. I know she's 2 (how did I miss her birthday on here!?), but this was far beyond any typical 2-year-old antics. I'm not certain we're out of the woods yet, but I was convinced something was drastically wrong with her. We had her diagnosed with so many things, trying to explain her behavior. She's still on Miralax, and is finally pooping about once a day. So that couldn't be her problem. At her well visit, I had them take some blood and test it for common food allergies. Nothing showed up, so that was a relief at least. Last week, on Monday, it peaked. She was begging to nurse, and sobbed and screamed and pushed me and my face and just threw a HUGE fit because I wouldn't nurse her again (she's already been nursing excessively), and nothing, NOTHING, would distract her. But that evening when Dan got home from work, she was a perfect angel. He didn't believe me, until I showed him the video I took of the tantrum on my phone! And ever since that day, March 1, she's been a completely different child! We can't figure out what changed, since we didn't do anything different! She's super sweet, giggly, loving, and obedient (well, for a 2 year old!). She's still struggling with her sleep, but it's nothing like what it was! Right now, someone has to be in her bedroom for her to fall asleep. During the weekdays for nap, that's obviously me. It's very difficult since Roman isn't always napping then, so sometimes I have to bring him in with me and hope he's quiet enough for her to fall asleep. And it usually takes her about 15 minutes to fall asleep. If someone isn't in her room with her, she just screams and screams and screams, and NEVER calms down. As difficult as it is to be in her room to put her to sleep, we're not willing to just let her scream for hours and hours, with the possibility that she'd never stop. Dan sits in her room for her to go to sleep at bedtime. That's been taking about 45 minutes lately, because she's been taking 2 hour naps - which is unheard of for her! It's been wonderful for her to finally get caught up on sleep. For a while, she was waking up more than Roman at night. Dan was getting up with her (I don't even hear her, plus I have to be with Roman anyways), and barely getting any sleep. Finally he ended up sleeping in her room. There's a twin bed in there, and he sits in her room to put her to sleep, then comes out til we go to bed. He goes to bed in our bed, but she was waking up around 11 just about every night, so he just ended up sleeping in there for the rest of the night for a few weeks. She's recently started staying asleep better, so he doesn't have to go in there til 3am or so. One night last week, he woke up in our bed and we were both surprised! We need to figure out something soon though, since Dan is going on a missions trip and there's no way I can be in her room all night when he's gone for a week. At some point the girls are going to share a room, and maybe that will help. But to do that, she'll have to be in a big girl bed. And that's scary! We don't really have a plan, but we've just been "surviving" lately! I'm so thankful that we have our sweet wonderful girl back though. That was a rough month or so. I have a feeling she is going to continue to be a challenge for us.

Right now we are trying to decide what to do for Marissa's Kindergarten year in the fall. The options are 1. Homeschool (overwhelming because of challenges with Arianna) 2. Online school (basically homeschool, just different, still slightly overwhelming) 3. Local school district (unsure about quality) or 4. Neighboring district (better, but 25 minute drive).

I'd like to write more, but Arianna and Marissa just woke up from nice long naps! So I'll finish up quickly: Arianna turned 2! Hard to believe! and Roman is wonderful, smiley, and growing! He has his 4 month check up in 2 weeks (how is that possible?!). Time to go get Arianna out of her crib!

Test

This is a test post from an app in my new fancy phone. Tomorrow is Arianna's 2nd birthday!

One thumb typing

Well, I am sitting on my bed, typing with one finger on the iPod Touch while Arianna finishes her nap on my lap. So this will probably be short!

The kids are healthy now, after a random bout with fevers. I'm FINALLY almost better, after being sick on and off since December. I'm taking one final round of antibiotics, hoping to kill it once and for all. Roman slept for 8 hours straight the other night, but hasn't repeated that miracle. However, he's consistently sleeping 3 hour chunks now, which is still MUCH better than the 1.5 hours he was doing. He's still awesome at nursing, and refuses to take a bottle, despite the huge amount of milk stored in the freezer. He smiles so easily now, and I'm loving it. He smiles at the girls too, and even loves when Arianna "smothers" him with kisses every .2 milliseconds!

Arianna is finally recovering and becoming a joy to live with after a few months of hysterics. Right now I'm working on reducing her nursing time, because it was just getting too much for me. I think if I didn't have Roman, I wouldn't mind it as much. But she's so obsessed with it, that I had to do something. She used to nurse for literally 2 hours at a time. Especially after her nap, when the other kids didn't need my attention. She'd fall back asleep during that time, but freak out if I took her off. So now I set a timer for 5 minutes, and she knows that when it goes off, she has to be done. She's started hugging and cuddling more, which is how she's asleep on my lap right now. She's so sweet.

Marissa is basically not napping anymore, and thinks it's awesome. Yesterday she finished her "schoolwork" as "homework" on her room (she asked to!). I've finally gotten back to doing school with her, now that I'm starting to feel like a human again. She's doing great with her writing letters and numbers. We're finishing up a few more basic concepts, and them we'll start some basic reading skills. I'm unsure right now about her schooling in the fall. I'd prefer to send her to a Christian school, but there aren't really any close by, and we definitely can't afford them anyways. The district we're in is not that great, but the others that are open to us are kinda far away. I'd always planned on homeschooling, but it's starting to make me nervous. Arianna is SO high maintenance, and who knows how Roman will turn out. I don't want to deprive Marissa of the quality of schooling she deserves. I know we need to make a decision very soon, I just don't know what to do. I'm temper to give our school district a shot, at least temporarily, and see how it goes. Dan doesn't think it's that bad, but I don't know!

Oh man, my thumb is getting really tired from typing one-fingered! I think I'll wrap up for today. Tomorrow we're going to my friend Susan's house so we can visit and my girls can play with her daughter. Saturday night we're dropping the girls off at church for a parent's night out, but we don't have any plans yet! And sometime soon we'll be going to Bravo for our 10th (is that even possible?!) Valentine's together. That will be our 10th V-day at Bravo too. Yum! Arianna turns 2 Feb. 24th - can't believe it! Big girl bed for her soon (we tried last week - no way!). Marissa turns 5 April 29th and we're going to surprise her by letting her get her ears pierced - she's been begging forever! I'm so excited for her!

Ok, my pinky is numb. That's all for now!

First smile

Roman was 9 weeks old on January 23rd, and the next day he smiled at me for the first time! His face just lit up and he looked so happy! I think it will be so much fun once he smiles at the girls! He's doing well, and growing well. His 2 month checkup (2 months?!) was recently. He weighed 8lbs 9oz (it's not even on the chart, but if you take into account his prematurity, and adjust it according to that, he's in the 10th percentile) and was 22 inches long (25th percentile, but if you adjust for prematurity, he's in the 50th percentile!). He's still waking up a lot at night, but a few nights I've gotten 3-4 hours in a row! Last Friday, he went every 3 hours exactly, and Dan got up with the girls, so I got 11 hours of sleep, in 3 hour chunks! It felt soo good!

It's naptime for the girls (and Roman soon too probably), so I'm enjoying some alone time. Last week I decided to add some "FlyLady" techniques into my day, so I did some "15 minute" jobs during naptime. Today I feel ROTTEN, so I don't think I'll do that. But I have been really trying to "do it now" and keep my sink "shiny" since I first signed up last week.

I've had a major cold, on and off, since December 13th. That's 42 days, if I counted correctly. It's seriously getting old, and it's not like I'm going to be getting a lot of rest any time in the near future, so I don't think I'm going to be able to kick this by myself. I hate going to the doctor for myself, but I think it's come down to that. Now I just need to find someone to watch the girls so I can go!

Arianna's finally pooping, thanks to miralax everyday in some juice. She turned back to into herself, which is a wonderful change from the grumpy whiney mess she was when she wasn't pooping! But at the end of last week, I think her teeth started bothering her. She now has her hand in her mouth ALL THE TIME, with drool dripping off it onto her shirt (and every other surface), her nose is running like crazy (although she may have caught that part of the cold from me), and she's having meltdowns a lot lately, for no apparent reason. The poor girl...she's been begging to nurse a lot more often lately too, which I'm not trying to encourage, since I want to think about stopping within a few months or so. But she sees Roman nurse ALL. THE. TIME. and that just makes her want it even more! Sometimes I end up having to nurse them together (mainly if Dan isn't here, since then I don't really have a choice). It's so difficult! I have to do it in my bed, and each kid gets a pillow under them to help me out. It's really so cute though, cuz Arianna will help Roman out, and rub his head, and pat his back. But it's so awkward for me!

I'll hafta finish this later!

2011

Well, I probably don't have much time to write right now, but short is better than nothing, right?

Roman is 6 weeks old, and doing great. We weighed him on our kitchen scale (in a popcorn bowl) and he weighs 7lbs 10oz - almost 3lbs up from his birth weight! He's starting to show signs of a routine during the day, which is nice for me. And he's been pretty consistent at night too - which is NOT nice for me. He has one 3-4hr chunk first thing, which I usually miss because I don't fall asleep quickly. And the rest of the night is every 1.5 hours. It's torture! But as long as he goes back to sleep right after eating, I can handle it I guess. He likes to be held during the day, which makes things difficult obviously. But the girls still love him, and Arianna begs to hold him all the time!

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. My parents, Dan's parents, my sister, my brother, and my sister-in-law were all here for several days at the same time - it was chaotic! My parents stayed at a hotel, but we still had all our meals together and we barely fit around our huge table. It was a blast though, and the girls loved all the attention. I think it was getting to Arianna though. She seems to be more sensitive to her environment and reacts VERY negatively over time. She's currently been on a poop strike for a while now. She went 2 weeks without pooping, and is actively holding it in all the time. I've tried glycerin suppositories, but she's too stubborn for them! She was kinda irritable when everyone was here, and it was frustrating. The day they all left though, she finally pooped, and turned into a completely different person! I had forgotten how cute and funny and sweet she could be. I'm probably going to call her pediatrician and see what we can do about it. It's not like I can control her diet - she's so stinking stubborn!

Marissa had a blast at Christmas. I feel like it's hard to write much about her, but she's so sweet and smart and helpful. The girls got so many wonderful presents, and Arianna just kept asking for "More? More? More?" She's finally catching up with her words, and is just beginning the stage of repeating anything you ask to her to say - which can be just hilarious! She says "baya" for banana, soup, "dee-dee" for thank you, up, off, EAT (her favorite), pizza, "dee" for candy/treat, and "dee-dee" for cookie (I guess context is helpful, or we'd never know if she was saying cookie or thank you. Lol.), "Issa" for Marissa, "Ro-ro baby" for Baby Roman and "Baby Ro-ro" for Roman Baby (she's a little mixed up!), and other words I'm sure I'm forgetting.

Dan and I are barely hanging in there - we're both so exhausted! It's been a lot harder adjusting to 3 kids than it was to 2. It's especially hard for me to get anything done during the day, which means we try to do everything in the evenings. I've had SO MUCH laundry to catch up on (towels and sheets from all the company, plus new clothes to wash, plus everyday laundry, plus a third child's laundry!)! It's also been difficult to figure out what to do with all the new toys from Christmas. We really only have one good storage option for toys, so they end up all strewn about. Arianna's really good at putting toys away though, thankfully. We moved the play kitchen up to Marissa's room, and the girls have LOVED it being more accessible (it used to be in the basement). For some odd reason, Arianna carries around a few play forks and spoons ALL THE TIME. She freaks out if you try to take them away from her (like if she's about to poke an eye out, or I need to put her shirt on), so there are forks and spoons in every room of our house!

Well, she just woke up, so I guess I'm done! Time to nurse her in bed with me (so she extends her nap - she never sleeps long enough), and probably nurse Roman at the same time too. Yes, she's still nursing and is basically obsessed with it, so no weaning any time soon! "They" say to nurse til 2 years old anyways. I'm getting a little tired of it, but only because it's so hard to nurse 2 at the same time, and I'm pretty much STARVING all the time!

Christmas/birth announcement cards

I'm so excited to send out our holiday cards this year! When Roman was due on December 20th, I had it all planned to get a picture of all three kids as soon as he was born, and then send out New Year's cards and use them as birth announcements. Instead, he came November 21st, but that doesn't mean I've gotten a good picture yet! As soon as Roman fits into the outfit I planned for him, I'll attempt a picture of them - he's a lot tinier than we expected!

I've looked around at many photo sites at holiday cards, and Shutterfly has some really modern designs that I love! My favorite is the Mod Snowflakes Story Christmas Card: there's room for a picture of each child individually, along with a little information about each of them. In all likelihood, I won't succeed in getting a good picture of them all together, so this could be a better option. I'd also have room to put all of Roman's birth information below his picture to make it serve as his birth announcement too! And it's not "Christmas" specific, since most likely I won't get it out in time. The colorful snowflakes are so pretty too!

(image from Shutterfly.com)

Shutterfly also has photo calendars with so many beautiful designs. Since both sets of the grandparents live far away, this is our favorite go-to Christmas gift idea: it's practical, and they get tons of pictures of the grandkids! I like their new feature that allows you to add personalized dates to the calendar - what an easy way to make sure they never forget the grandkids' birthdays!

One other feature I didn't realize Shutterfly offered is their canvas wall art. I'd love to blow up a picture of each of my children as babies and line our stairway with them. They come in a variety of sizes, and the picture fully wraps around the canvas for a nice modern look.

If you act quickly, Shutterfly is offering 50 free holiday cards to bloggers! Go here to sign up: http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/. I've ordered many photo prints from Shutterfly, and always received a quality product!

SURPRISE!

Roman Daniel

11/21/10
11:12pm
4lbs 14.8oz, 19in

BIRTH:
Sunday, November 21st, I was 35 weeks, 6 days. I was laying in my bed, nursing Arianna after her nap like I always do. All of a sudden, I felt a big poke and then a pop. I threw Arianna off me at Dan and ran to the bathroom, where I made it over the toilet just in time for a giant gush - my water broke! We freaked out, and raced around like crazy people, packing bags, and getting random things ready. I called my midwife, and she said I didn't need to come in yet, especially since I wasn't having any contractions, but to definitely come in by Monday morning no matter what. Marissa's class was scheduled to sing in front of church that evening, so we all went to church! I was feeling completely fine, but after she sang, and we sat there a little longer, I started to feel lightheaded and nauseous a little. We decided we should get to the hospital, so we drove back home to get the girls' things, came back to church, and said goodbye to the girls. They spent the next 24 hours with a wonderful family with a 4 year old boy Cole, and a toddler Haley.
Dan and I got to L&D Triage at 8:15, and I still wasn't having any contractions. Shortly after we got there, I started throwing up quite a bit. Then around 9:30 I started having contractions. Every time I threw up, I gushed more amniotic fluid. At 9:30, the triage nurse said we could walk around the halls to see if things picked up and to come back at 10:30 to get checked.
[Background info: I was hoping to give birth in the birth center at the hospital. But they only do term births, which means I had to be 37 weeks. I was really hoping for another water birth like Arianna's, so when we got there, we talked with the midwife about the dates. Originally, my due date was Dec. 13th, but after a few early ultrasounds, they moved it to Dec. 20th. So the midwife said she could use the original dates to get me into the birth center at midnight on Sunday, which would make me 37 weeks. So I was trying to make it to midnight!]
So Dan and I walked the halls, but only for about 15 minutes. The contractions were quickly getting worse, and I still had to throw up. So we went back to triage, and the midwife (Cat) was there. I asked her how serious she was about the midnight deal - and she said they'd start filling up the tub! Around this time, my hands started to go numb and constrict really oddly. I had a hard time holding the puke bucket. So they pushed me to the birth center, where I had to wait for the tub to fill up since it's so huge. I think we got there around 10:45. I might have gotten in the tub around 11. My hands were getting worse, and then my legs started to do the same thing. Then for just a quick minute, I felt like my language was slurring. The midwife and nurses and Dan were all trying to massage my hands/legs, and the midwife told me to breathe into the bucket I was holding. I guess I was breathing too fast. It was really annoying to have the throwing up PLUS the weird numbness/constricting/pain, all in addition to horrible contractions! Anyways, shortly after I got in the tub, I started to want to push. I pushed once, heard them say his head was out, and as I continued the push, he popped right out! My hands were still messed up, so I could barely hold him. The cord was pretty short, and the nurse was helping me hold him. So Dan cut the cord pretty quickly. He was all slimy and super tiny, but fine. They took him to the warmer so I could get out of the tub and lay on the bed. Then I got to hold him for a while, and let him try to latch on. He did, but only for a second here and there. I was glad it was so quick, since I was still having the other weird problems! At some point, they put him back on the warmer, and checked him out. They weighed him and I was surprised by how little he was.

NICU:
After a little while, he started grunting with each breath, and breathing fast, which meant he was having a hard time breathing. They called some NICU nurses and they all agreed he should go to the NICU. With their assessment, they decided he actually was only 36 weeks, so we were kind of "illegal" in the birth center! They took him to the NICU around 3am, and I was left to use the hospital pump every 3-4 hours
I felt great, but didn't have much appetite and was still feeling a little nauseous sometimes. I took one Ibuprofen around 4am after he was born, and that's all I had.
Monday night/Tuesday morning at around 11:30pm I woke up kinda panicky and having a nightmare. I walked around the lounge for a bit before I was able to get back to sleep. Then at 12:30am, the NICU doctor woke us up and told us Roman had developed a pneumothorax and kinda turned worse "about an hour ago". His breathing was extremely fast (140 breaths/minute instead of around 60), and he was whining/grunting with every breath. It was so upsetting to watch. They also had done an x-ray on his lungs and thought he probably had pneumonia and that's also where they saw the pneumothorax. It was a bubble of nitrogen in his chest cavity. So they put him in an "oxyhood" with 100% oxygen, which gives the body more use for the nitrogen bubble and it slowly dissipates. If it didn't work, they'd have to insert a tube in his chest and manually get rid of the bubble. Either way, it wasn't a HUGE bad thing, just quite jarring in the middle of the night. We immediately went down to see him and that was hard.
The oxygen worked though, and after a few more x-rays, they determined the pneumothorax was gone. They did have to start him on a 7-day antibiotic for the pneumonia, so that became his minimum time for being in there.
I was discharged Tuesday night, but they have "parenting rooms" to just sleep in for NICU parents. It's only a twin though, so Dan couldn't stay with me. I made sure to pump every 3-4 hours, and my milk supply increased very quickly!
Wednesday morning, his breathing slowed completely down, and stayed consistently in the 60-70 breaths/minute range. That was the requirement for beginning to feed him, starting with bottles of my expressed milk. He did ok with the bottles, and the second day they allowed him to eat as much as he seemed to want, and each feeding he went up a little bit. At his max, he was taking 1oz. In the afternoon on Friday, we were getting ready to feed him, and the doctor came to do his circumcision. I did NOT expect to be there for it, but we ended up staying. Dan didn't watch, but I was able to see most of it, and I'm sure my face was hilarious. It was a bit disturbing, but he barely cried while they were doing it. Our favorite nurse, Lindsey, was calming him down with a paci, and he was a trooper. After that, he wasn't really into eating much for a few feedings, and he had some crying spells (Lindsey said he probably had just peed for the first time - ouch!), but he really did so well.
Saturday, the doctor said we could start to "direct breastfeed" him, so we tried it for the first time at his 2:00pm feeding. He latched on great (which is what I was worried about), and sucked heartily for about 5 minutes, and then started to get worn out. I managed to keep him on for 10 minutes, which I thought was great. They wanted him to be on for 15 minutes, but for the first try I was very pleased. He continued to do great with breastfeeding, and didn't develop any more of his respiratory issues.
We brought his car seat in for his car seat study, to make sure he could get enough oxygen and breathe properly when he's in it. He passed his hearing test, they took his IV out, and he finally came home with us on Monday, November 29th, after a week in the NICU!

GIRLS:
The girls had a really hard week while he was in the NICU, mainly because I spent most of my time at the hospital, and when I was able to come home for meals, I had to rush back to pump (we didn't think it was necessary to buy/rent a pump since he was only going to be in there a week) or breastfeed. Marissa seemed to be dealing with it better than Arianna, but Arianna was (and still is) a mess. Every time I came home, she wouldn't leave my side, and flipped out every time I had to leave again. They haven't had chicken pox, so they weren't allowed in the NICU, so they couldn't even see him (other than pictures) until he was discharged the following Monday. Every day, Marissa asked if she could see him yet! In the week we've all been home, Arianna has still been NOT herself. She was a handful BEFORE all of this happened. But she's just a huge mess these days. She won't leave my side, not even for a second. She is also nursing A LOT. I had planned to continue breastfeeding her until Roman came (mainly to avoid all the pain issues I had with beginning breastfeeding with both girls), and she was very addicted to breastfeeding still, so that was easy. But with me being gone so much, she's taken it to a new level. She asks to nurse a lot, not just nap/bedtime like before. But she also gets soooooo excited when she gets to nurse. She claps her hands, grins, and says "please, please" over and over. The hardest part is when I need to nurse Roman, and she freaks out! I've had to nurse them at the same time a few times, and it's not easy! I definitely do NOT want to wean her right now since she clearly needs the extra support from me. But I really hope this dies down relatively soon! Sometimes when I walk toward his pack-n-play if he starts crying, she'll throw herself in front of me, begging "UP! UP!" just so I don't go near him. It's so pitiful and sad, but so frustrating. Mealtimes are a million times worse (never thought that'd be possible!) with her too. I'm hoping that since I'm stuck home for a while now, she'll start to calm down. Marissa's obviously much better than this, but she's also suddenly super sensitive, and breaks down into hysterical tears for the slightest reason. She's also asking to cuddle a lot more. It's definitely a big adjustment in general to have another baby, but that week of me being gone has made things much harder than I expected.

ME:
I feel completely healed and normal, and have felt great since the Tuesday after he was born. It's wonderful to feel great, since it would have been so much harder to be by myself at the hospital if I was in a lot of pain. I'm also enjoying the "newborn-ness" of Roman in a whole new way. With Marissa, I was a mess, and on super drugs for 2 weeks straight afterward. And with both girls, I dreaded every little noise they made for 2 whole months because it hurt so much to breastfeed them. But this time around, either due to nursing Arianna still, or all the pumping I did in the hospital, breastfeeding is just a joy, and I'm loving (almost) every minute of it (last night was a little rough - he was up a lot!). My milk came in HUGELY the Monday afternoon we brought Roman home, and I was sorely missing the hospital pump. But my body finally adjusted to as much as he wanted (which was obviously MUCH less than I had been pumping), and now we have TONS of milk stored in the freezer. Marissa had been asking (while I was still pregnant) to be able to feed "Baby Roman" so I think we'll probably let her every once in a while. I've never had a supply of milk in the freezer before, so maybe I'll actually get to go out and do things by myself - as long as he'll still take a bottle!

VISITORS:
Dan's parents and my sister came as soon as they could after Roman was born. It was Thanksgiving week, so they had the extra time off, and were all a HUGE help: with meals (the hospital wasn't feeding me anymore since I was just in a "parenting room") and with the girls, since Dan obviously wanted to spend as much time with me and Roman as he could. We had a yummy Thanksgiving meal prepared by Dan's mom and my sister, and I was so glad the girls had familiar faces to spend time with. They all left that first weekend, and then my parents came Sunday night before Roman was discharged Monday. My parents were also a HUGE help with meals and with the girls. It was wonderful to have all the visitors and help, but I think the girls are ready to find a new normal - it was a little chaotic for these last two weeks! We are so blessed by loving family and friends - this coming week our church small group will be providing meals for us! I'm starting to wonder how I'll ever get ANYTHING done around here, especially with the way Arianna is reacting to everything, so all this help is wonderful.

COUCH:
Early on Black Friday morning, Dan and some of his friends went out shopping, and I told Dan to look out for a great couch deal (since our couch ripped our carpet and we tossed it to the curb a month ago). So Friday afternoon, in between pumping, Dan took me to see the couch he fell in love with at Ashley Furniture! We ended up ordering it that afternoon, and it should be arriving in a few weeks! It's dark gray, soft corduroy, and a huge chunky sectional with a super cozy chaise on the right side of it. We have a long living room, so I'm excited to see how it looks! I have to say, though, that was the hardest decision I've made in a long time! My brain wasn't very clear to begin with, because of all the crazy stuff going on back home and at the hospital. But the real problem was making a decision RIGHT THEN! The couch was regularly $1800, and was on sale for $800 just for that day! Talk about pressure. So we sat on the couch, and I stared at it for AGES, and just finally decided to go for it! If you know me at all, you also know I keep receipts and clothes and tags together for a long time after I buy things, because I'm always so indecisive that I end up returning things and buying something different all the time. That's not really something you can do with a couch, so that made it even harder! But I'm happy with our purchase, and can't wait to sit on it in our living room!

I think that covers just about everything. It's been a whirlwind the last 2 weeks, especially since we weren't expecting any of this until LATE December - I was a week late with Arianna, so we really thought it would be Christmas or later that Roman made his appearance! He was a little earlier than we would have liked, but recovered quickly and now I'm loving having him home with us already. I still have a hard time believing he made his appearance so suddenly and forcefully, and that all of this really happened! I also can't believe we have 3 kids!

It's November!

I can't believe it's November already! I feel very antsy for Christmas this year, since that's when Roman will be arriving! I'm almost 34 weeks pregnant right now, and definitely starting to feel very uncomfortable! I feel like I need my torso to be about a foot longer! Lol. But I still love being pregnant, and feeling baby wiggles inside me.

I finally started doing some school things with Marissa. She absolutely loves it, and begs every day to start school NOW! We've mostly been working on some writing. Every day she writes her full name, the day of the week, the month/date/year, and then practices a number and upper case/lower case letter. Today we did 12 and L's. She's getting so confident with her writing! We always try to think of works that start with the letter of the day, and I make a list of what we come up with. For "extra fun" she asks to write those words too! I found an awesome website that I'll be pulling more stuff from soon. I think I like homeschooling preschool - no pressure at all! I'm a little nervous about next year though. We'll definitely have to do something more structured.

Marissa is finally going to bed better. For a while, she was flipping out every night, for no apparent reason. So now she sleeps with her light on, door open, loud Bible music on, and her covers completely over her face. Lol. I have no idea, but somehow it helps! She is definitely strong-willed and what she wants, SHE WANTS, and a certain way too!

Arianna is really starting to talk a lot! It's about time! For a while there, I was starting to get worried, but she is really learning more every day now. She says all done, all gone, bye, hi, up, hot, hat, ball, cup, please, thank you (dee-dee), mama, dada, 'issa (Marissa - so cute!), apple, eat, and I'm sure a bunch more that I can't even think of right now. She's also doing better at repeating what we ask her to say, which is so much fun. She is totally in love with her big sister, and follows her around copying everything Marissa does. It's super cute, but can get annoying sometimes! They both like to spend hours at the kitchen table, playing with toys - most recently the Pocohontas and Powhatan figures we got for Marissa at Goodwill. Arianna also loves to play with her babies, push them in the stroller, and hug and kiss them. It's adorable. She also loves to push the stroller around like a maniac - as fast as she can - around and around and around the kitchen island! She's so crazy and wild, and both girls love to wrestle/tackle Daddy lately. Marissa is a bit hesitant to throw herself in there, but Arianna just goes for it, and I'm shocked every time that she's not hurt by everything she does!

I'm in the middle of a nice break from work, so I've got some big plans! I need to update some of the music on my iPod (it's been forever, and I've been waiting for Dan to set up the computer downstairs again - that's where all my songs are). I also am going to sew some burp cloths and blankets for Roman. I got some super cute fabrics, and I can't wait to get going on them. We've been slowly accumulating some clothes for our baby boy, much of it thanks to gifts from my wonderful family. I love washing them and putting them all together in a dresser, just waiting for a tiny little body to go in them! I just filled out the paperwork for the birth center, and in 2 weeks I have to go in and pre-register - I can't believe it's that close already! We're not going on any more trips now, obviously, so Thanksgiving we'll just be here. I think Dan's parents were thinking about coming out for that. Then my parents and Rach are coming out for Christmas, and that way Rach will be here a little early (after her finals) just in case Roman comes early - she can watch the girls while we're in the hospital. I'm also going to a Christmas event through my work, and Rach is going to watch the girls then too. It's at a dinner theater, and I've been dying to go there! It's Dec. 16th, so hopefully Roman at least waits past then! I'm actually due the 20th, so it's cutting it a little close, but I really wanna go!

Arianna is still nursing in the morning and after naptime. It's actually quite painful for some reason, in addition to causing Roman to make me VERY uncomfortable! I have to push him down and out of the way, or I feel like he's going to come crawling out my throat! But I am really trying to continue nursing Arianna until Roman comes - hopefully that will help with the misery I've had with beginning nursing with the girls. I'm so proud to have nursed Arianna to 20 months now. I made it to 16 with Marissa, but had to stop because of a miscarriage/antibiotic. I have a feeling Arianna would be ok if we stopped now, just like Marissa was back then. But Arianna still asks for it, and really seems to enjoy it still, so I'm holding on as long as possible! Once Roman is born, I'd be ok with Arianna nursing for a little while longer, especially since she might be a little freaked out by not being "the baby" anymore. But I'd also be ok with her stopping pretty quickly. She's acting so big lately, even though she's still tiny

We threw out our couch and recliner last month! We got our carpets cleaned professionally, and were planning on getting rid of the recliner anyways, since it leaves a gross black residue underneath. And then when we picked up the stupid couch to move it, a loose spring caught the carpet and ripped a 3-4 inch hole! I was so ticked! So it joined the recliner on the curb, where some poor person from craigslist took them! Haha! So for a few days we had nothing in the living room, then Dan moved the old futon up from the basement, and that's what we have right now. We are on the hunt for a couch, but don't have a very large budget, and I'm determined to find "the perfect one". I really want a nice modern dark gray one, and that's not really a common color. There are a few possibilities that we found, but we'll have to save up a bit more before they become a reality. I'm just happy to have that old piece of junk couch finally GONE! I hated that thing from the moment we moved into this house. It was great in my college apartment, and fine in our first apartment together, but as soon as we moved in here, I knew it HAD to go!

Well, I hear Arianna coughing, so I'm betting she's going to wake up any second now. I typed as fast as I could, so hopefully I caught all the typos already! I really enjoy "my" naptime, but it's usually shorter than I expect. Arianna is NOT a great napper, and sometimes thinks 45 minutes is a good nap! Ridiculous! But I bring her into bed with me and she usually sleeps a little more, which is great since I've been needing the extra rest lately!

Bullets

• I'm 25 weeks, 2 days pregnant and it's a BOY! I'm feeling pretty good, besides the exhaustion and sore muscles. This morning I had to drink that nasty orange drink and get bloodwork done for the gestational diabetes test. They always make me nervous, since I love my junk food so much!
• Last night Marissa and I went on a "date" to look for fall dress shoes for her. Strike-out at both Payless and Target, but we had fun, and I found some awesome Target clearance deals. A bunch of summer things for M for $1 each! And some cute flip-flops for next summer for her too. I also got a few summer boy clothes for $1, $2, and $3. I'm estimating him to be in 6-9 for summer/fall, so hopefully I'm right! I highly doubt he'll be much different in size from his two older sisters!
• I'd like to take a minute and talk about my oldest. She's growing into a fascinating big girl and I don't want to forget anything! She's currently obsessed with the Wonder Pets. We watch it on Netflix (mainly when I'm getting ready in the mornings) and she turns EVERY situation in life into a "Wonder Pets" situation. She sings the song OVER and OVER at the top of her lungs, her voice cracking because she's singing so hard. She changes the words to fit our situation: "Save the baby princess (toy in car)" "We have to hurry, to get to Mommy's doctor appointment", etc. It's hilarious, but we're starting to get a little sick of the Wonder Pets! She still does not stop talking. She has a question or observation about everything. She is very helpful with Arianna, loves to get her cup for her, hold her hand, and help her play with toys. They play together REALLY well at times, and other times they shriek at each other every time one of them tries to do something. Arianna copies EVERYTHING Marissa does, good or bad. My favorite is when we send Marissa to time-out in the corner. Arianna will NOT stay away from her! And Marissa usually crosses her arms when she's mad, and Arianna crosses her arms too, and it makes us all laugh, and puts Marissa out of her bad mood. Marissa is so talkative at home, and in the car. But when we go to my doctor's appointments, she is very hesitant to talk to the nurses and other people there. But once she decides she's going to talk, she talks about the most random things! She is "so exciting" (excited) about her new baby brother, and is already asking to carry him around Meijer! She has a hard time understanding how Arianna is her little sister, but will be Roman's big sister. She's still taking a "rest time" every day, but not sleeping as often. Today she is singing, probably Wonder Pets! Her imagination is through the roof, as evidenced by her changing the Wonder Pets song. Especially in the car, we have a few little toys, and they always have a Wonder Pets situation for her to resolve. She loves to play with the castle/house and Little People, when Arianna will let her (she carries them around all day!). We went to a church outdoor movie night this past weekend, and the movie was Up. She is terrified of the dogs that talk (Arianna LOVES them), so we ended up leaving early. We drove an hour and back TWICE this past weekend to buy/pick up our new blue Honda Odyssey! It's wonderful, and Marissa loves it too. She keeps asking about which car Daddy is driving, and if we're keeping the van. We haven't started any "school" stuff yet, but I hope to sometime in the next few weeks. She's been asking about certain things and if we can learn them in "school" so I think she's really going to enjoy it!
• And now for Arianna. I really just don't understand her yet! She still only says "up" and "off" regularly, but CAN say "mama" "dada" "help" "tree" and one more that I can't think of right now. She'd much rather just point or "eh" to get her point across. She completely understands EVERYTHING we say though. She puts toys away like a pro, follows directions (when it's convenient for her). And LOVES to play with her big sister! They LOVE to run around like crazy people, holding hands, spinning, racing down the hallway, tickling each other. It's super cute, until one of them starts shrieking! She copies everything Marissa does, and is always watching to see what else she can get into. She has learned how to move stools/toys so she can climb on them to reach something. She can reach all our doorknobs, but so far doesn't know how to turn them. She can reach things on just about every surface in the downstairs, so we keep piling things up on top of the piano! She's awesome at napping and going to bed. The nightmare of her sleep issues was only about a year long. Lol. She sleeps with a pink bear head/blanket thing, and just lays down and babbles to herself until she falls asleep. It's wonderful! Her naps are still only about 45 minutes long, though lately she's been doing better and sleeping for 1.5 hours. She goes to bed at 8, and usually wakes up at 7:15 as Dan is leaving for work. She's still nursing, but only in the morning, and after nap. She LOVES it though, and has a hysterical meltdown if I try to refuse her. I love the time we get to cuddle while she nurses, and I'm still hoping to continue nursing until the new baby comes. It's starting to get very difficult though, since there's no place for her on my lap anymore, and she loves to squish my belly! She has the biggest grin, and is so funny and so much fun. But she is SO difficult, and so very different from Marissa. She is TOUGH: she did a total body flop onto Marissa's pillow the other night and thought it was so fun she'd do it again. But the second time she did a total forehead plant into the WALL, and we all flipped out! But she didn't even cry, just looked at us like "what?"! She has NO fear, which is terrifying! She loves dogs and LOVES babies, and points them both out all the time. I think she's going to LOVE having a baby brother, but she obviously doesn't have a clue that he's coming. I'm terrified of moving her into a big girl bed, so we are going to postpone that as long as possible! She is a mischievous little thing - and I do mean LITTLE. At her 18-month check up, she weighed 19lbs 14oz! She's still about 33 inches tall (their measurements are always wacky), but so itty bitty! But she eats like a horse! She almost always eats more than Marissa at meals, and sometimes eats more than I do! I don't know where she puts it though!
• And baby Roman. Roman Daniel (after Daddy). He is a jumper and roller! Marissa loves to feel him moving through my belly. I love the feeling too. It's so reassuring, even though sometimes the kicks are almost jarring! I love being pregnant, and I love looking forward to labor and delivery. I'm planning on having him in the tub too, just like Arianna. I'm also expecting him to come late, like Arianna! He's due December 20th, and Dan really wants a Christmas baby (like he is), but I'm willing to go as late as Jan. 4 (I think that's 2 weeks late). After that, I wouldn't be able to have him in the birthing center. But I really hope we don't go that late! My sister is coming straight here for her Christmas break, so she'll be here when I go into labor (hopefully) so we won't have to take the girls anywhere. And my parents are coming the week between Christmas and New Year's, so hopefully he's here by then! I'm not sure when Dan's parents are coming, but hopefully around then too! We are slowly starting to buy a few boy things here and there. Marissa picked out an elephant head/blanket thing, and I just ordered a bunch of fabrics to sew into blankets and burp cloths. We have a few newborn clothing items, and now a few bigger things. But it's so weird to start from scratch with clothes! When Marissa was born, I had a wonderful shower, and got TONS of clothes from the family (of triplets) that I was working for. And obviously Arianna had a ton of clothes too. It's kinda fun though. Except for the fact that I don't love all the sports-themed boy clothes. I do like the dinosaur, monkey, dog stuff though.
• Well, I never expected to have this much time to write! I thought for sure Arianna would be awake by now. Tonight is the first actual night of Cubbies, and Marissa is excited! I've got pizza dough in the bread maker for homemade pizza tonight - yum! I'm hosting Bunco this coming Tuesday, so I'm doing a lot of "cleaning" in my head in preparation. I'm gonna make Oreo "mud" since I've been craving it, and I'm not sure what else...probably the same stuff I made last time, since I don't really have a lot of variety of stuff I like to make.
• Oh, I finally found some maternity clothes! I've really been having a hard time with the sizes of most maternity clothes. They certainly make XL and plus-sized clothes, but for some reason XS are ridiculously hard to find. Motherhood is supposedly getting XS in their fall line, but Motherhood is always so pricey! But Target is always my favorite place. I got JEANS there, since they actually have sizes, instead of S, M, L. I thought I was going to have to go to Gap and shell out $70 for maternity jeans, but Target came through, like it always does! I also found a super cute sweater and Kohl's, and actually didn't need an XS there. Although why they have to be so expensive is beyond me. I guess they get away with it, since there's NOTHING else to pick from in maternity! I also got a few huge bags of maternity clothes from a friend at church who is about my size. I still was only able to use a handful of things, but the few capris that were in there were really what I needed. For some reason, this time I'm not able to really wear as many of my usual bottoms. With Marissa and Arianna, I kept wearing the same jeans, capris, etc. as I always wore anyways. But I guess my muscles have had it! I just can't button them this time! I love it though
• I'm starting to get excited for a few things this fall. The first weekend of October is our 5th reunion at Cedarville! My good friend Nicole is coming up and staying at our house for the weekend with her two kids (girl 5 months older than Arianna, and a baby - 5 months I think?). Then we're going to the reunion dinner on Saturday. Dan will be camping (guy trip they've been planning) but we'll have fun walking around campus and reminiscing! Then my "little" brother is getting married Oct. 16th! I still can't believe it! Marissa is their flower girl (she's an old pro by now!) and I'm a bridesmaid. Yes, I'll be huge - 31 weeks I think?! Oy. But the dresses are pretty, as long as I don't stick out like a huge sore thumb. Lol. It's a 9 hour drive, so it will be a long weekend, but at least we will be able to drive it in our nice new van!

Well, I think I'm done! Arianna is almost at 2 hours for her nap today! Yay!

Ketchup

I wrote this yesterday, and just got around to posting it today:

• I'm pregnant! Due December 20th, and we're so excited! We waited to tell Marissa until I was almost 12 weeks, and she actually guessed at the ultrasound appointment before we could even tell her! (Oh, did I mention I'm going to be in my brother's wedding in October? At 30 weeks pregnant? Talk about a whale...)

• We just got back from a business trip with Dan for his work. We drove to Chicago Monday, spent Tuesday and Wednesday there, and drove back today. Tuesday and Wednesday Dan had training, so the girls and I (along with the wife and 3 year old of another guy from Dan's work) spent the days together.

• Monday night, the first night in the hotel, Arianna went to sleep quickly, then woke up 2 hours later and screamed her guts out for hours and hours and hours. Nothing we did could calm her down (except let her sleep on our shoulder while we stood up - not exactly ideal). Finally, after some tylenol and a few hours wandering the hotel lobby with Dan, she ended up asleep in our bed, on top of the covers in between us. That made us extremely worried about the other two nights, but she was back to her usual "only wake once or twice, go back to sleep easily" routine for the rest of the time. Otherwise we would have driven right back!

• Tuesday, Lisa, Kaiya (3), me, and our girls went out for breakfast, came back to the hotel and swam at the pool for a while, then went out for lunch, then came back for nap. It was a nasty rainy day, so we didn't do much else. That night we all went out for Giordano's stuffed deep dish pizza.

• Wednesday, all us girls got up, had breakfast at 9, and then headed out to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We took a bus from the hotel to the airport, then a train from there, then another train to Armitage Road, which we had to walk to the end of to get to the zoo. Well, the trains took about an hour total, the whole time Arianna was trying to climb out of the carrier (Baby Hawk Mei Tei - awesome, wouldn't have survived without it!) by pulling both her arms out the top and pulling on both of my earrings, pulling my hair out of my ponytail, and screaming. I was carrying our travel-system-stroller, had a backpack on, had Arianna in the front carrier, and was strongly holding Marissa's hand (I don't do well in cities) We had to go up 3+ escalators (the elevator was broken!), and the first time we got on one, Marissa kinda missed the stairs, so I pulled her back down and we tried again, then again! Then by that point she was terrified of them. So a nice guy ended up carrying the stroller up 3 escalators for us, while I picked up Marissa and put her on the stairs properly, all while still holding Arianna in the carrier. Then once we got on Armitage, we walked the wrong way, so we had to turn around and walk to the opposite end (we looked it up later, the road was 3 miles long I think!). I put Arianna in the stroller for the walk on Armitage, but Marissa had a hard time making it that far, and ended up riding in the other girl's stroller for a while, then I tried to carry her, then I tried to put A and M in our stroller together (it worked when they were smaller!), then I tried to carry Arianna and let Marissa ride in the stroller, but Arianna wanted to get down and that would have NEVER worked. Needless to say, it was a loooooong walk! When we finally made it to the zoo, it was lunchtime already! So we ate lunch, then took one loop around the zoo and saw zebras, alpaca, moose, and a few others. We saw some cows and goats in the farm section, and Marissa freaked out when the cows started walking. She was screaming and crying and running away, even when I told her they were stuck in a fence. Then we tried to go into the lion house. Marissa completely flipped out, terrified again. I explained over and over that there were fences and gates and windows, and the people who made the zoo make it all safe so we can't get in and the animals can't get out. But she ran away crying when I tried to show her. So we didn't see the lions! Then we went in search of the carousel for the girls to ride on. When we finally found it, we realized it was cash only (duh) and neither of us had any cash! So both big girls were completely crushed. We ended up going to get ice cream for a treat, and then we were ready to leave! So we walked almost another 3 miles back to the train station, rode the first train for a while, then got on the second train, and there were so many people there was no room for us to sit! So I was standing, trying to hold onto the bar, and the stroller, and Marissa so we wouldn't all go flying every time the train moved. We almost wiped out a few times, but recovered. Finally a nice lady offered us her seat, but we really needed 2 seats for all of us, so Marissa just ended up sitting. Then FINALLY enough people got off that there was enough room for us to sit together. And unfortunately, I'm not even really showing pregnant, plus I was wearing Arianna on my front, so nobody else offered their seat to us, even though the train was full of young healthy adults. That was probably the longest day of my life, and I was wearing flip flops! I am SO SORE today - the tops of my feet from the flip flop straps (at least they were nice flip flops and didn't wear down to nothing), my calves from pushing a heavy stroller over 6+ miles of bumpy sidewalk/road, my forearms from pushing the stroller one-handed while I held Marissa's hand, but most of all my neck/shoulders/back are sore just to touch them from the straps of carrying Arianna in the carrier. It was quite an adventure, and when we got back, Lisa said I get to pick where we go for dinner no matter what! We ended up eating at Ihop because no one else could decide. Lol.

• Today we drove back, and the girls did pretty well in the car, but we are SOOOOO exhausted, and Dan says he will NEVER let us come on a trip with him again! And I agree! He really wanted to go downtown and enjoy some of the city, and get more Chicago pizza. But it was just so difficult, and the night he wanted to go downtown was the day we had our horrific adventure, so we couldn't possibly do all that again. I did enjoy spending time with the other family we went with though.
  

• I'M GLAD TO BE HOME! It just seems like we're so busy around here all the time!