The Good Things

Three nights ago my sister walked into my apartment. I was standing in my dining room on the phone with my mom (who knew all about the surprise and called me so she could hear my reaction) when my front door opened and a blonde walked in. My first thought was that someone was coming into the wrong apartment! But after a split second I realized that it was Vee. We hugged each other with the baby squished between us, and we laughed, and I cried. It was a wonderful, fabulous surprise and I am really enjoying having her here!

This child sleeps all.the.time. Apparently it's her favorite thing to do.

I have to disregard my own advice to other moms to never wake a sleeping baby. If I didn't wake her she wouldn't eat much! The only time she wakes on her own is in the middle of the night. That just figures, huh?

Isn't she cute, though? I love her tiny feet.

I can't figure out who she looks like. Last week I thought she looked a lot like the Boogie; this week, not so much. It seems like she changes a little bit every day.

We have still been receiving many gifts for her -- lots of clothes, and lots of diapers. We're not going to have to buy diapers for a loooooong time. Praise the Lord for His provision! And amid the baby gifts the Boogie has not been forgotten. A dear friend sewed some cute dresses for my big girl, and an aunt, uncle, and cousins sent her a new toy: a bubble-machine!

She LOVED it!

Slacking

I know, I know. Please forgive me for neglecting to write about and show pictures of the newest, cutest addition. If you are a parent you understand how less-important things get pushed to the side when a tiny new person joins your household. I hope these pictures will be enough to compensate for lack of blogging lately and in the near future ... :)

(not sure why this last one is sideways)

She's Here!

I was admitted to the hospital for induction on Monday evening. One doctor ordered pitocin to be started around 9 o'clock, but then another doctor stopped it about half an hour later, explaining that normal procedure is to start it in the morning so that the baby can be delivered during the day. She told me to get some rest and to expect the pitocin to be started again around 4 am. God was in that for sure because that half hour was all I needed to kick-start my labor (I had been extremely nervous about the whole induction process and the severity of drug-induced contractions.) I was able to labor medication-free and Phoebe Annette finally made her appearance yesterday morning, May 11, at 3:52 am. She was 21.5 inches and weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs 14 oz. Whew! I never expected her to be THAT big -- my doctor guessed 8-8.25 lbs and I figured he was probably right. I am thankful to have been able to have the drug-free labor and delivery that I really wanted. Praise the Lord for His hand in everything! Our sweet baby girl is healthy and content and the Boogie adores her!

Getting ready to leave for the hospital -- one last belly picture!

Hooked up to monitors

Baby Sister, at last!

Big sister meets little sister ...

... and it's love at first sight.

Now a family of four!

Three Year Olds Are Very Observant!

This has been mentioned a time or two before on this blog, and you will probably read it again: My Man and I love to watch Food Network. We do watch the cooking shows, but we also love the other kinds -- challenges, contests, what restaurants serve the best whatever, etc. On Sunday nights after church we will often turn on Food Network Challenge. My favorite ones to watch are the cake decorating ones. They are amazing! Cakes with a theme are assembled and decorated within a certain time frame. Once they are completed they are moved to a judging table. The winner of the competition gets a medal and $10,000. We make ourselves a late snack/dinner and watch while we eat. The Boogie, of course, watches too. I didn't realize how much she really observed until this morning.

She was playing with her blocks and asked me to help her build a castle. I turned the blocks into a big tower. Then she asked, "Is it a cake? Is it a cake castle?"
"Sure!" I said. (Why not, right? A block cake castle.)
"Can we move it to the table?" she asked, indicating her bed.
I was confused. "What table?" I asked her.
"The judging table," she said.

!!!

"Okay!" I laughed. We carefully moved the blocks to her bed. "Did you win?" I asked her.
"Yes," she said excitedly, "I won! I won! Where's my medal?"

!!!!!!

So I made her a "medal" out of a plastic necklace. She put it on and jumped around. "Ten thousand dollars!" she cheered.

What a funny kid! You just don't know how much they really "get" sometimes.

Another Pregnant Day

I feel like I need make an announcement each time I post: no baby yet!

The other night MIL and I took the Boogie to a college choir concert that SIL3 was singing in. We thought the Boogie would enjoy it but we had no idea just how much she would! She sat in her fold-down seat and shivered with excitement. She asked repeatedly where her Auntie was. She pointed out the lights. She applauded vigorously when everyone else did. She pointed and whispered loudly, "Look! Look! It's Auntie! There she is! See her? See her?" She listened attentively to every song for a while -- if it was slow she got a little distracted and started talking, but if it was upbeat she danced along for the whole thing. Her favorite was a gospel song where the choir clapped in rhythm and swayed back and forth while they sang. She swayed in her seat and clapped along -- I laughed so hard I cried. At the end of every song she would applaud loudly and turn to me and say, "Just one more song, okay? Just one more." She loved it! I will have to keep my eye out for something else to take her to.

Baby Sister apparently has no intention of being born. If she doesn't make her appearance by Monday night we will go to the hospital and have her evicted on Tuesday. I much prefer not to be induced but my doctor won't let me go more than 2 weeks past my due date. I am having lots of contractions so hopefully they will get down to business and do something productive within the next couple of days! Any day is just fine and dandy with me.

Derby Day

Yesterday was the 136th Kentucky Derby! If you've been reading my blog for very long, you probably remember our interest in the Derby. We had to do some grocery shopping in the afternoon so we barely made it home in time to pick favorites. My Man chose Homeboykris but when he realized that Calvin Borel was riding Super Saver he switched to him ... smart thinking! It was fun to watch and we got our annual "Boogie and the Derby" picture:

Last year:

2007 -- she was only a couple of weeks old! (I couldn't find the one from 2008 -- I think we must have taken it with MIL's camera so she probably has it on her computer.)

As I mentioned, we had to go grocery shopping. The Boogie likes to help put things away. Usually she does pretty well but yesterday she was a little distracted, I guess.

At least she asked me about the hairspray: "Honey, does this live in the bafroom?" This afternoon when she was supposed to be napping My Man went in to check on her and found a can of spaghettios on her bed. She must have hidden it somewhere in her room yesterday.

It has warmed up quite a bit and you know what that means for my feet ... puffiness! I have one pair of flip-flops that fit me, and that's it. I reeeeeally hope nothing happens to them ...

Baby Sister is apparently quite content and has no inclination to emerge from her cozy haven. I must say, though, it's nice to have made it to May. At least we won't have our anniversary and TWO birthdays in the same month. We want to spread things out if we can!