Greetings from Columbus

I wanted to post a sick family update from my hotel room in Columbus (no I didn't run away from my sick house--I'm out here overnight for work). I don't want to jinx it but I think I may have made it through without catching the flu! Marlon is pretty much healthy again, and Alex is basically there, so I think I'm in the clear. I can't lie and say I'm not looking forward to a good night's sleep in a hotel, but I'm really looking forward to getting back home to my hopefully healthy family! I had a rough afternoon with Alex yesterday and a very rough morning with her today--I think we'd reached a point where being cooped up together in a house and off of our normal routine for 4 days had caught up to both of us. Alex went back to school today and I think she definitely needed to get back into the swing of things--hopefully this will help improve her mood--she had become extremely whiny and difficult and wasn't willing to cooperate with me--a battle of wills with my strong willed child! I had become lenient with her when she was sick since I knew she wasn't feeling well, and I think it was starting to backfire. By this morning I was starting to really doubt my parenting abilities, but I think this is just a rough patch brought on by her being sick that we will move past now that we've had a day apart.
Last night we had signed up for Sibling Class at the hospital where I'll be delivering, so we had a little family outing to go to a 1-hour class geared towards kids who are expecting a new baby in the family. There were only 3 families in the class-Alex, a 5 year old boy, and a boy who was about 3. Alex had a GREAT time and was full of energy--the kids got stickers, got to push buttons to open the doors on the floor, got to ride in the "magic" hospital bed, got to practice holding a pretend baby, and they even got some snacks!! I'm not sure how much she'll remember once the baby arrives, but it was also helpful for Marlon and I to see the hospital, get a little tour of the birthing floor, and figure out where we need to go when the big day arrives. Alex got a little certificate for participating in the class which I'll have to save for the baby's baby book. The birthing suites were newly redone and were very nice--much nicer than where we had Alex! It's hard to imagine I'm only about 6-7 weeks away!

Bitten by the bug

The Flu bug, that is. So far I have been spared, but I'm just waiting for it to hit me. This flu has been a doozy--Marlon has been laid up all week and is just now starting to feel better, and on Thursday afternoon Alex started coughing and by Friday morning she had a fever and was following in her dad's footsteps! We took her to the doctor Friday afternoon and they confirmed she indeed had the flu--they said we may have caught it early enough so they gave her a prescription for Tamiflu. By the time we were on our way to CVS she was pretty miserable and out of it. Just like Marlon, she doesn't get sick very often but this really seemed to take her out quickly! By Saturday morning she was doing MUCH better and had her energy and somewhat of an appetite back--as of now we've kept her in the house for the past few days so she's going a little stir crazy. I'm doing my best to keep my distance from the both of them, washing my hands constantly and Clorox wiping everything in sight! This baby and I can't afford to get sick at this stage of the game! We were never big on getting flu shots....we may be rethinking that next year. I'll have to try and capture some sick pictures to post. Right now I have to convince my child that taking a nap is in her best interest!

4 Pounds and growing strong!

Good evening all-
I wanted to give a quick update on Baby L. Thanks to all of you who said a little prayer for him--I had my third (and hopefully final!) ultrasound today, and everything looks good! The baby is a normal size, there's plenty of amniotic fluid, and he's estimated to be about 4 pounds, 5 oz. right now. He's measuring about a week behind my "official" due date of March 10, but that is consistent with my initial thought that my due date has always been a little bit off. Based on my cycle, babycenter.com said my due date should be around March 15, and sure enough the estimated due date based on the measurements today gave a March 15 due date! It's yet to be seen whether or not the doctors will be adjusting my due date at this point (I didn't meet with any doctors today but I'll be there next week), but I'm just relieved to know that all seems to be going well in this growing belly of mine! The ultrasound tech was even nice enough to give me a 3D view of the baby, although we unfortunately didn't get too good of a shot because his face was being blocked by his hand and the placenta. The guy did his best to give me a few pictures (which I will eventually scan in and post) but my first thought was that the picture looks more like the Penn State Nittany Lion then a little human being :) I also finally included a belly post--long overdue, I know--I'd say this is somewhere around the 32/33 week mark. It's hard to believe we're entering the home stretch! I have my To Do list started for all the stuff I'd like to finish over the coming weeks...I haven't done a single thing on it, but I hope to get started this weekend!

All Smiles

After 2 1/2 years Alex has finally learned how to smile for a picture, so I had to take a few and share them! The first photo is one from our snowfall a few weeks ago (this doesn't relate to the smile theme but I thought I'd throw it in anyway). Our backyard slopes enough that you can sled down a very small hill, and since I was finally on the ball enough to purchase a real circular sled, Marlon and Alex were able to have a little fun outside!

OK so we're warming up to the smile photos--this day we were on our way there, but not quite yet.

I took this one yesterday before our outing to the mall. She was all set to go with her backpack filled with random toys, and she did a great job smiling widely for the camera! (Megan, if you are reading this, Alex's smile reminds me of Ella's 'pirate smile' that you've referred to :)

Alex and I figured out how to use the timer function on the camera, so we thought we'd snap a quick one of mommy and daughter.

Marlon returned home from his trip to Baltimore a little tired, and Alex had a busy day of playing with no nap, so the two rested together last night before we got Alex into bed.

Nothing too important happening this weekend...spent time with friends, working on getting the baby's room ready (I"ll have to take some pictures and post at some point). My free time is up since I hear that Marlon is finishing up with bath time, so it's back to mom duty for me!

32 weeks and counting

Unfortunately no new pictures with this post--I spent 3 days in Atlantic City this week from Sunday through Tuesday for our annual business meeting at work. It was fun to hang out with all of my co-workers that I don't get to see very often, but I was definitely exhausted by the time it ended! My body is not used to getting up by 6:15 in the morning and staying up until after midnight! Alex had bonding time with her dad since I left on Saturday and didn't return until Wednesday. I love that they enjoy hanging out-this makes the 2nd time in a little over a month! We traded off parenting duties when I returned home yesterday and Marlon left to go to Baltimore for his annual convention--he'll return home Saturday, when it will be nice to have our family together again for the first time in a week!

I had my 32-week appointment this afternoon, and I have been scheduled for yet another ultrasound. The doctor said I was measuring smaller than he thought I should be for this stage, so he wants me to have an ultrasound next Wednesday to determine the size of the baby and the amount of amniotic fluid in the uterus. This was the first time I have had the dr. say I am measuring small, and after searching on the internet it seems like this could be caused by many things--some that mean absolutely nothing and some that are much more serious. The doctor didn't seem overly concerned, but you just never know with doctors! Please keep us in your prayers next week as I hope that there is a simple solution to this...like I could just be having a small baby, or my due date could be off a bit, or my uterus is just smaller although the baby is perfectly normal in size. The good thing is that this baby moves ALL THE TIME--very different than Alex, who was really most active in the evening. He gives some good jabs to my side throughout the day, and the doctor did say he thinks the baby is head down already, which was good to hear. I will keep you updated after my ultrasound next week--until then I'm sure my mind will be worrying and stressing about all the different possible scenarios-sometimes the internet tells you more than you really want to know when you're searching for information!

First Haircut and Family Time

I realized there were a few pictures from our holiday trip that I forgot to post. One was the monumental event of Alex's FIRST haircut--yes, you read that correctly. We've never cut her hair, and it was getting to the point that it was looking a little (ok-a lot) shabby on the ends. Both Marlon and I want to let her hair grow out, but I tried to explain to him that it does need to be trimmed periodically to help it grow better. He wasn't very happy about the idea, but I let Grammy give her a haircut before we left Philadelphia. She had given Nolan a haircut the day before so I figured she could handle a little trim (she used to cut my hair as a child, too!). Alex's curls immediately bounced up and looked so fresh when we finished (the next picture was taken afterwards, although it isn't too easy to see in that photo).

Here is a picture of Alex eating one of her favorite snacks--we call them Grammy's cookies (in actuality they are mint oreos--my mom always has them on hand at her house so they've become a special treat for Alex). She's already developed her oreo-eating style--you know how everyone has one! She pulls the cookie apart, eats the cookie part first, then scrapes all of the filling off of the other half, eats it, then finishes the remainder of the cookie.

We had a good weekend of family time--something that is pretty rare in our house. This is Marlon's slow time of year for soccer, and my season is just on the verge of getting busy with work, so we had a weekend at home together. On Saturday we took Alex to see Alvin and the Chipmunks--she seemed to enjoy it, and it was relatively entertaining for the adults. Saturday evening we actually got a night out! At the last minute our friends Marc and Jessica were able to find someone willing and able to babysit for Alex and their 2 boys, so we got to meet up with some other friends at Damon's for a night of food, fun, and football games on the big screen TVs. We haven't been out without Alex in a while (other than our recent excursion to NYC), so it was fun, and she had a great time with Jarrett, Jameson, and the babysitter. Yesterday we showed our Mountaineer spirit and took Alex to a WVU basketball game, which was a good time as well. We figure we've been here for over a year now and have yet to attend a single football game, and this was our 2nd basketball game--we need to get out a bit more and show our support for WVU! We (well technically I) also got a lot of cleaning done around the house, which always helps you feel good entering a new week.

She's so curious...

I'm starting to see that as Alex approaches age 3, curiosity is starting to set in! I can see the "Why?" and "What is that?" questions coming now. We've had some funny happenings over the past few weeks that I have to share.

The first took place at my parents' house over the holidays, when Alex was watching cousin Nolan have his diaper changed (can you guess where I'm going with this?) and she pointed out to me "Mommy, look-Nolan has a tail!" She probably said it 5 times, over and over, and my brother and I couldn't stop laughing. Probably not the best response, but I was caught off guard! When she says something these days she needs a response of some sort or she will continue to say it over and over, so I finally said "Yes you're right" and I left it at that. I haven't given much thought to dealing with these issues yet, but I can see they are coming!

She's also going through a phase where she needs to correct you if you say something inaccurate--for example, Marlon says "You're my little sweetheart" and she responds "No I'm not, I'm Alex". And if Marlon doesn't take back his statement she gets very worked up, saying "I'm NOT a sweetheart, I'm ALEX". It's pretty amazing to watch her thought process as she figures this stuff out in her head.

The next interesting event took place yesterday, but it was NOT a pleasant one. While driving Alex home from school I gave her a box of raisins to snack on (for those of you with kids older than mine, can you guess where I might be going with this one?). Just last week she was eating raisins in the car and I noticed her trying to stick it up her nose--I quickly yelled at her (out of concern) and she got all teary eyed, so I back-tracked and explained that she should never stick food up her nose because it could get stuck. Well I guess she didn't quite get my message, because yesterday she says "Oh no-the raisin is stuck" and I look back to see her eyes filling up with tears. I stayed calm because I didn't want to scare her and I asked if it was in her nose, to which she replied "Yes". Mind you, I'm driving on the highway going 70 MPH, so I told her to just hold tight, then I noticed her stick her finger up to try and get it, so I quickly said NO--don't put your finger up there--I could only imagine how far up it had gone at that point. When we got to a light I reached back and tried to have her blow into a tissue while covering up the other nostril--no luck. Now I was starting to panic a bit! We got home and I took her into my office where I knew there were tweezers, and I held her back under the light to see if I could see it, and it was so far up I could barely tell it was there. I said a little prayer, got my cell phone out in case I needed to call the dr, then tried to have her blow her nose again. I was a little scared to use the tweezers because I thought I could possibly do more harm than good. Blowing the nose wasn't working and she was getting a little upset, telling me to get it out. She grabbed the tweezers off my desk and said "Use these"--(it's as if this has happened to her before??), so I carefully stuck them up there and after a few tries I was successfully able to remove it. Thank goodness it was a raisin that is mushy and not something like a peanut. Hopefully she will remember this experience and never try something like it again!

She's also gotten into playing make believe with her toys and dolls, which is pretty cute to watch. I've always thought that would be a fun thing when it came along, and it is great to see her playing on her own, which she won't have to do for too much longer once baby brother comes along!

She's becoming a good helper--she likes to help cook-particularly mixing stuff in bowls, and she's great with the laundry...putting it in the dryer, taking it out, (still not so great at folding), and then putting it in the proper room (although she typically dumps it onto the floor unless given specific instruction!).

Guess that's it for now...for those of you who have kids approaching 2 and 3, you're in for a fun ride!

Happy New Year!

The holidays are officially over! We had a great time visiting with friends and family--sorry for the large number of pictures but I thought I'd get it all over with at one time.

Below is a picture from Marlon's family christmas get-together--Maya, Alex, Claudia and Ellie had fun playing together--we only see them about once a year so it's nice for Alex to spend time with them! She doesn't have many other girl friends--most of my friends have little boys!

Below are a few pictures of my nephew Carter! He's about 8 weeks old and getting so big! He's a very relaxed baby that just hangs out as long as he is fed and changed! Don't you just love those cheeks??!

I know Renee also posted these few on her blog but I couldn't resist because they are also some of my favorites! Alex and Nolan posing for the camera on Christmas Eve in the outfits made by my mom.

It wasn't easy to get all 4 kids to pose together for the camera, but here is a cute one of Kaylee (10 weeks), Alex, Nolan, and Mia (5 1/2 weeks).

Another pic of the 2 newest babies--Kaylee and Mia, in their matching PJ's on Christmas morning. It was great to spend some time with both of them since I know that they will have grown SO much by the next time we see them, which may not be until our baby is born! Both girls are so sweet and it was nice to refresh my memory about what having a newborn is all about!

Here's Alex on Christmas morning with her Snow White outfit, courtesy of Aunt Renee (who else?!).

One last photo of Alex on Christmas morning in her christmas PJ's.

Now it's back to work for me! Of course today it's snowing here so Alex's vacation from school may be extended by one more day, which she will be very disappointed about because she's been asking about going to school since we got back home, and she was looking forward to seeing her friends today. Maybe a trip to play outside in the snow will help take her mind off of it! We probably have about 4 inches and it's snowing steadily, so we'll see!

2008 is off to a good start...this year will surely be an exciting one as we add a new member to our family. It's hard to believe that we're only about 2 months away from this exciting event! January is my month to get the baby's room organized, wash all the clothes I've been able to borrow from Renee and my friend Jess, and get everything ready for this baby to come! My hopes for this year are to bring a healthy new baby into this world, help Alex adapt to the role of big sister, and really enjoy the time I have to spend with my family! We wish you all a wonderful 08!