Cooties and Cuties

We've been sick lately. All of us. It feels never-ending. I keep telling myself it HAS to end soon, but the cooties keep proving me wrong.

On March 1st, Fin and I both woke up sick. He had a fever and I felt like I'd been gargling glass in my sleep. The pediatrician thought we both had strep, but Fin's test came back negative. My doctor gave me antibiotics for a sinus infection and we both went home to sleep it off. A week later, I woke again feeling like I'd been hit by a truck and my doc said I'd developed bronchitis on top of my sinus infection and it was time to "pull out the big guns."

In the meantime, Fin had gotten better, but poor Greta had so much green snot everywhere that her little cheeks were raw. Greta eventually got pink eye (which Fin had had in February) and even though the doctor said we could stop giving the eye drops when it cleared up, it came back for her 3 times in 2 weeks.

Before her pink eye was gone, we had both kids back to the doctor for another random fever for Fin. This time he had an ear infection and strep throat and by now Greta had a double ear infection. Luckily, her pink eye finally cleared up.

It seemed that we were going to mkae it out of March and in to April with all of us finally on the mend, but on April 2nd, Greta got Fin's strep throat and I was feeling congested and scratchy again too.

You'd think we never heard of washing hands with all the cootie sharing we were doing, but I swear, I was ready to have us all gargling bleach! (Okay, maybe not taking things that far...)

Anyway, this past weekend we were FINALLY all well at the same time. One of Greta's classmates had a birthday party and we all went to play in the bounce house, see their little friends and have fun.

Fin woke up yesterday morning with a fever again. $^(&*^*$%#$ bounce house being an incubator for all things germy!

The poor kiddo moved from the bed to the living room floor to watch some TV with Dave, then feel asleep watching video games. Dave took Greta to HaHa's in the afternoon and the boy and I chilled on the couch for hours. Finally at about 6:30, he stood up, announced he was going to bed for the night and wanted company.

This boy NEVER goes to bed willingly like that, and even when he's sick, he usually has a few hours of manic energy after sleeping all day. He wouldn't let me read him any stories and didn't even want to play DS games. He was out for the night by 7pm and I was sure he'd want to party halfway through the night. Sure enough, he woke up around midnight, asked me to read him a couple of stories and said he was hungry. He ate half an apple and went right back to sleep, waking up this morning at 8am only to go lay back down on the couch.

Through all their colds in the last 6 weeks, both kids have still been incredibly sweet and cuddly. Greta zonked out in the car on the way home from HaHa's last night, so both babies were asleep by 7:30pm. This is very, VERY odd for our house and Dave and I almost didn't know what to do with an evening to ourselves. Almost.

Greta did, however, start the morning at 5am today. She announced that she had to use the potty (we've been diaper-free in our house for about a month! It's amazing!) and then when I realized she was not going back to bed easily, I asked her if she wanted to cuddle with me in Finny's bed for a while. (He was sleeping next to Dave in our bed as usual.)

She agreed and I tried to doze while she rested next to me. After a little while of laying silent but awake next to me, she gave me a little wake up treat.

"Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Finny. And his mommy name is (mumbled whisperings) and his daddy name is (mumble mumble) and he have a sister name Baby Greta! And his daddy name is... Daddy!"

And then singing. "a b c d e f g..."

She does the whole alphabet many, many times a day and is so proud of herself.

I am not a fan of all the cooties we've been passing around and I really hope we'll all be well very soon, but when the trade off is sweet snuggles with my babies, it's almost worth it.

Wait, I can do the snuggles without the cooties!

I Made a Kid Cry - And It Wasn't My Kid

A couple of weekends ago we all went up to Prescott so the kiddos could see their first snow. As usual, we stayed with PopPop Doug, Carol, Liam and Jean at their house and had a great time relaxing, playing with the kids, watching movies, etc.

Fin and Greta loved their first snow experience (pictures to come soon) and their 5-yr old uncle Liam showed them how to sled like a big kid (with Mommy or Daddy, of course). Greta mostly wanted to eat the snow and we learned very quickly that we did not have appropriate snow gear for any of us when Fin's boots kept falling off and his socks and hands were soaked and cold.

After our snow adventure, we went back to the house, made dinner and relaxed. Fin and Liam were done eating before any of the adults as usual, so they were allowed to be excused with the condition that all the grown-ups be allowed to continue eating and chatting in peace. After a few minutes, Greta joined them to play.

Now, I know that Greta is only 2 and Liam will be 6 in a month, but most of the time there are very few issues about all three of the kids playing together. On this evening, Liam had some new Lego toys and was being a little possessive, which is every 5-yr old's right.

From the other room, we heard Liam yell at Greta, "No, you can't play with these Legos. These are big kid Legos! You're too little for these."

I tried to explain to Liam that Greta plays with the small Legos at our house all the time and she's really quite good with them, but I also knew he just might not want to share his new toy with her, which was okay.

A few minutes later, Greta wandered back to the table with a sad look on her face and grabbed Dave's arm, saying, "Daddy, play with me. Me baby."

Dave was still eating, but I told her I'd play with her. I grew up being the youngest and smallest kid and I worry that as Liam and Fin grow up it will be very easy for her to be left out because she's younger or because she's the girl. I had mentioned this concern over dinner earlier in the night and was quite sad to see her already being told that she was the baby and couldn't play with the "big boys".

Greta and I went into the living room and found some little people to play with. There was a castle, a knight, a king and queen, some dragons, plenty of fun for a 2-yr old and her mommy.

At one point, Greta picked up the knight and said, "Baby." Then she grabbed the queen and announced, "Mommy." She put both people into the little bed and said, "They go sleep. They nurse."

I thought this was just about the sweetest thing she could have been pretending, until she picked up the king, called him, "Daddy" and fit him into the bed with the other two toys. Then she sat back proudly and said, "Family!"

While Greta was playing this very sweet game of pretend, Liam and Fin had wandered into the living room and decided to start playing with the same toys we were using. I had no problem sharing, but when Liam blocked Greta from getting to the castle, I had to step in.

I pointed out that the boys could not tell Greta she couldn't play with them and then come take the other toys she found to play with away from her. They were free to exclude her, but it just wasn't nice to come take toys away and I wasn't going to let it happen.

I wasn't mad at the boys and I thought I was saying all of this as plainly as possible without using my mean mommy voice, but apparently I wasn't so successful.

After getting Greta set up with the castle again, I looked around and realized Liam was no longer in the room. Fin was playing happily with the Lego toys still, completely unfazed. I called to Liam and asked him to come back and play WITH us instead of taking the toys away and got no response.

I walked into the other room and found him sitting alone with a toy and crying. My heart broke.

In trying to protect one kid's feelings, I - the ADULT - had hurt another kid instead. Bad, bad grown-up.

Liam and I have never had a touchy-feely relationship. He's a very sweet kid and I like him a lot, but he's always preferred Dave (his older brother) over me and is pretty shy a lot of the time. He'll talk to me if I ask him a direct question, but in the almost 6 years that I've known him, he rarely seeks me out to talk to or play with.

When I saw him sitting there, I just started crying with him. I asked him if I could hold him and he didn't refuse when I picked him up and cradled him in my lap. He's a really tall kid, but I was quickly reminded that he's still so young. I just held him and rubbed his back while we both cried and I tried to explain to him that I NEVER meant for him to not play with us; I was just concerned about Greta because she's so little and it's so easy for the big boys to leave her out.

I apologized for hurting his feelings and assured him that I really wanted him to play with us again.

Eventually we both calmed down and he let me just snuggle him for a little while, which was really sweet. We did all play together more that night and the next day and I made sure to show him some extra affection for the rest of the trip. He's such a quiet, smart and sweet kid, it's easy to forget that he's still only 5.

I never wanted to learn a lesson at Liam's expense, but this was a pretty good reminder that my Mama Bear protection instincts for my own kids should never be unleashed full force on another kid.

Catching Up on Cuteness

Things got busy in our usual birthday/holiday/event whirlwind that starts in October and lasts through February, but I figured now was as good a time as any to try to catch up a bit.

Back in October, I realized Greta finally had enough hair to try to give her pigtails. The outcome was even cuter than I could have anticipated. Excuse the messy face ;)



Finny wanted to get in on the pigtail action and decided his made him look like a wild animal. Roar!



I love that her response to "How big is Greta Boo?" is still "Soooooo big!"



A few weeks later she let me try the pigtails again (she's not a huge fan and usually squirms while I put them in and immediately pulls them out again) but she demanded a third for her bangs that were starting to get in her eyes. When she saw herself in the mirror, she announced, "Porcupine!"

Of course, I really have to share this picture simply because it gives me a glimpse of a face I am sure I will see quite often when she's in middle and high school.


Still adorable when she's not giving me the attitude that goes with this face, isn't it?

And That's the End of That

For the past 4.5 years, I have been either pregnant, nursing or both. Since May 2005 I have had to think about everything I put in my body - food, medicine, vitamin, nutritional supplement, alcohol - and how it might affect a little person that I loved.

And now that's done. As of today, my body is my own again. Greta has weaned.

I've known this moment was coming for a while, so I've been preparing both Greta and myself for it, but it's still a bit harder than I expected it to be. I always knew I would breastfeed my babies, but I never really expected nursing to be something that became such a part of how I saw myself. It's a little weird to think that whole part of my life is just over.

My introduction to breastfeeding came with some challenges. Fin was a preemie, tongue-tied at birth, hard to keep awake long enough to nurse, tired too easily to get full feedings until he was several weeks old, etc. We had to give him formula in the NICU until I could learn how to pump, then we had to supplement with bottles of expressed breast milk until he was strong enough to nurse on his own. As he grew, he was a biter and a bit of a scratcher. We did end up having a very good nursing relationship, but our start wasn't the easiest. He nursed until about 19 months old, when I was pregnant with Greta and my milk supply vanished with the growing pregnancy.

When Greta was born, she nursed within a few minutes. We had the usual sleepy newborn challenges, but after she was a couple of weeks old, we never had any issues with nursing at all. She only ever bit me a couple of times and always by accident, never for amusement. She went through the typical growing baby stages of looking around a lot and being easily distracted, but for the most part, when she would use BabySigns to ask for "milk" or say "Nur be" (nurse please) or "Me nur" as she got older, she knew what she wanted and that was that. Her most recent request was always, "Me nur other side," regardless of which side was ever offered to her first.

So now she's 25 months old. I always planned to nurse her until her 2nd birthday if she was interested and then we'd evaluate how we were feeling about things. If the decision had been left solely up to me, I would not have pushed us toward weaning yet. However, I have some medical tests for myself that require her weaning and I have been putting them off for a year already, so my doctor and I decided it was probably time.

I have been trying to mentally and emotionally prepare both of us for this day for a few months now. I've been telling Greta that mommy's milk would be going bye-bye soon and she's seemed to understand and be okay with that, though part of me has always wondered if she could actually fathom what that might mean when her world has never been without mommy's milk.

For the last couple of weeks, I've been debating on when to close that door. I'd originally set Christmas as the deadline in my mind, but we all had colds over the holidays and I couldn't imagine adding that kind of insult to an already congested and miserable little girl. Besides, I knew she was still getting the antibodies I was producing through the milk, too.

So I told myself we'd end with 2009. But yesterday morning, the thought of starting the new year by telling her no was just too much for me. We did our usual wake up nurse, skipped the naptime session and then did one final bedtime nurse and cuddle. As we snuggled, I told her the milk would be gone after that and she replied with a sad little, "Otay."

She did ask to nurse this morning, but I reminded her that the milk was all gone and she just went about her day. At bedtime she forgot to even ask about it until we'd already been cuddling, reading books, telling stories and singing songs for almost 45 minutes. (Yes, we have a long bedtime routine.) When she did ask, she cried for a couple of minutes, then she told me she had to use the potty. She's getting to be such a big girl.

We managed to overcome some obstacles in the past two years and I'm proud that I was able to provide her with this relationship for as long as I did. I have been working fulltime since she was only a few months old and I pumped milk for her at work for her entire first year. When she was a few months old I had to have an MRI and it required me to pump and dump my milk for a full 48 hours after the procedure. I was able to build up enough of a stash that she never needed formula.

When she was about 8 months old I had to spend a weekend away from her for a leadership retreat. A couple of weeks before the retreat, Dave accidentally left the entire freezer supply of milk on the counter overnight. After getting over the shock of seeing all of my milk thawed on the kitchen counter, I was able to pull together enough of a supply in a few weeks that she never had to go without even when mommy was away for a couple of days.

I never expected this relationship to mean this much to me. I know it wouldn't have been this easy if she wasn't ready to wean. Mentally I am fine with this decision, but emotionally, it's a bit harder than I expected it to be, not just because I would have happily kept nursing her for a few more months, but also because this is a whole period of my life that's just OVER now.

I'm not having any more babies. I won't ever be nursing another baby again. I won't get that special snuggle and closeness that comes from nursing. I won't have that magic cure-all to offer for an ouchie, a scare, a bad dream, or a bad day.

Of course, I know I'll still provide comfort to her for all those things the way I have for Fin since he weaned, it's still just a little weird to think about just being done now after all this time. I no longer have to read every label on medication to see if I can have it while I'm pregnant or breastfeeding. It's not something I have to mention to doctors or pharmacists when I have a cold. I can wear dresses and not worry about whether she will expect to nurse when we're out and about somewhere. I can buy pretty bras again.

This is weird. And somewhat freeing, too, but I suppose I'll be able to focus on that side of it more in the next few weeks. And I know I will enjoy having my body back to myself again, if I can even remember what that's like. But for right now, this is a very bittersweet moment.

Love, Unprovoked

We all went to the mall today to pick up some new shoes and shirts for Dave. HaHa entertained the kids at the Disney store while Dave and I shopped, then we all met up for some big soft pretzels. As HaHa and Dave let Fin pick out the pretzels (one salty, one cinnamon sugar, of course) Greta and I decided to stop by the shoe store and pick up the shoes Dave had picked out earlier.

She held my hand and was alternating between walking and running, when she suddenly announced. "Loh you."

I paused. "What did you say baby?"

"Loh you."

"You love me?"

"Uh-huh." And off she went running again.

Greta has been saying "Loh you doo" for a couple of weeks now and has recently shortened her reply to "Loh you," but today is the first day she's ever just told me she loved me without it being a response to me saying it first.

This was a great end to 2009 and I have a feeling I'm going to like 2010 if she makes it a habit of telling me she loves me.

Happy, safe, healthy New Year!

Boo is TWO!

I know I'm her mother and it's probably in poor taste to publicly marvel at her beauty, but holy moly can you believe this gorgeous little girl of mine is already TWO???



My Baby Boo, my sweet little peanut, my tiny little girl, is getting all grown up. I've known for a long time that time flies when you're having fun, but no one ever told me it would fly by this quickly once I became a parent. But I suppose I never knew having kids would be this much fun, either.

We celebrated Greta's 2nd birthday yesterday and had a blast. PopPop Doug and Liam came over for lunch and everyone watched Robots before Greta's nap. When she woke up, it was time for dinner, presents and CAKE!

PopPop Doug and Liam came back with Carol, Haha showed up, and Gaga and PopPop Art came by to celebrate, too. The girl had more presents than she knew what to do with, but after each gift was opened (with the help of Liam and Fin, of course,) she would gleefully squeal, "Nother one! Nother one!"

You'd never guess from the things she got what her favorite color might be, would you?

She loooves those boots!

So now she's two. She's not a baby anymore and she'll be the first to tell you. Of course, tonight after bathtime she was announcing, "Me big boy. Winny (Finny) big boy. Mommy big boy. Daddy big boy. Liam, PopPopDoug, Haha - big boy!"

I just think it's cute how much she's talking these days. We'll work on gender agreement some other time.

As she has been for the last two years, she is funny, sweet, smart, cute, fearless, independent, somewhat headstrong, and absolutely, incredibly, amazingly WONDERFUL.

Happy Birthday my sweet Greta Boo! We love you so much!

How To Give Mommy a Heart Attack

I've been down with the flu for about a week now. I spent a couple days at my mom's house to try to avoid exposing the kiddos to the worst of it and Dave really stepped up to take care of the kids 24/7 while I've been sick. I came home a couple of days ago because I missed being around them too much, but he's still been making sure I'm getting naps and rest and such.

So today, I decided I was going to get him a break even though I'm not yet 100%. I got him a chiropractor's appointment and told him to go out to play poker with his friends tonight.

His chiro appointment was in the afternoon so the plan was that I was going to get Greta down for a nap and hang with Finny while he was gone. My mom ended up stopping by just as Greta was about to fall asleep, so that reset that plan. By the time she left, it seemed a little late to put Greta down for a nap and she and Finny were playing really well together, so I just decided to let her skip it in the hopes that it would mean an early bedtime while I had both kids on my own tonight.

Fin and Greta were playing and coloring while I got the kitchen cleaned up and they even helped me sweep and mop a bit. I took the recycling out the side door to the backyard and Greta followed me outside. As she ran into the backyard to play, I went back through the house to put the recycling can back in the kitchen and met her in the backyard through the kitchen door.

She was out of my sight in the backyard for less than half a minute and by the time I opened the kitchen door, she was already at the top of the ladder and about to go down the slide!

This child is fearless.

It was a gorgeous day, but I knew Finny was inside alone and I planned to take both kids outside to play in a bit when I had a chance to get shoes on them, etc. So I brought her back inside despite her protests and left the side door open to air out the sick cooties through the screen door for a while.

The kids went back to drawing together and were playing very calmly, so I decided it I could take a bathroom break and not worry about what they were up to.

Fin decided to join me and said he had to wash his hands. (I wonder when I get to have privacy in the bathroom again. Why does mommy always need an audience? Who decided that? And why don't I get a vote?) He proceeded to use about half the bottle of soap, got water everywhere and made a huge mess. His selective hearing was on and even though I was saying, "Fin, PLEASE stop making a mess! Don't touch the soap again!", he'd simply reply, "Okay, Mommy. I just need some on thiiiiiis finger."

And then squirt more soap all over.

Luckily, once I got a towel, he was happy to help me clean it up. Then he wanted to jump on the bed (which we allow him to do only on our bed because it's a king and it's on the floor with climbing crash pads next to it should he fall off. Is that weird?)

I thought to myself that Greta was playing very quietly in the other room, but she'd been doing a great job entertaining herself all day while I was around, so I didn't worry about it too much. I figured she'd come find me when she realized I was gone (she's not usually one to miss being an audience in the bathroom...) and I didn't want to leave Finny alone when I knew he was jumping on the bed, anyway.

A couple of minutes later, I heard Dave walking through the house. As he came in, I asked, "What's Greta up to?"

He looked at me blankly, peered into her room where she should have been asleep at that time of day and said, "I haven't seen her."

Ummmm, what?

I figured she was probably just looking at books quietly in the living room or something and he hadn't seen her, but as I dashed in there calling her name and hearing no reply, I glanced up to see the side door to the backyard open.

In my rush to get back through the house to meet her in the backyard earlier, I hadn't locked the screen door behind me.

I thought she was surely still in the house somewhere, just playing "hide seek" with the cat or something, but as I pushed the door open and yelled "GRETA????" into the backyard, her little voice floated over the house to me, "Uh-huh?"

M: "Where are you?" (running)
G: "Here. Ride bike!"

Sure enough, my almost-two year old daughter was in the far, far corner of the backyard on her tricycle, getting very frustrated that she could not make it move in the grass by herself. I don't know if it was her own frustration with the bike or the look on my face as I ran to her, but she was crying by the time I got there.

Dave was a few seconds behind me, but by the time I'd gotten her off the bike and hugged her, she was happy to scramble out of my arms and make another mad dash for the swing set and slide. Dave was there to spot her that time, then we scooped her up and took her back inside.

After all, we'd left Fin jumping on the bed by himself...

So I had a little mommy heart attack this afternoon. Luckily, we found her very quickly, but there is nothing quite like expecting your child to be in the house, then calling her name and realizing you have no idea where she is or even how long she's been gone. Not one of my better parenting moments.

Oh, and for the record, skipping the nap backfired too. She was so cranky she yelled all through dinner and then was too wound up to fall asleep until 9:30. And she bit Fin while he was trying to go to sleep. Next time, we're doing the nap at the usual time.

The Adventures of SqueeBee and Mr. Bunks

I seem to call my children the most ridiculous nicknames. Many of their nicknames come from some variation of their actual names - Finian becomes Fin or Finny, naturally; Greta Marie becomes GretaRee (thanks to her big brother) or Greta Boo just because they're cute names.

But there is a whole other breed of nickname in this house that evolve from things that once made sense and now seem random and odd. My favorites in this family are SqueeBee for Greta and Mr. Bunks for Fin.

When Greta was born, she was a squeaky little baby. Fin was a grunter as an infant (when he wasn't screaming or projectile vomiting from his reflux), but Greta always sounded like a tiny little girl, so I started calling her Squeaky Baby from time to time because, well, she was.

Squeaky Baby became Squeaky, which became Squeaker, which became Squeaker Beeker, which has sometime in the last almost-two years become SqueeBee. And she's an adorable little SqueeBee, too.

Fin's nickname evolved from him being a climber. I have mentioned in the past that he climbed well before he could walk. We have pictures of him proudly sitting atop the fireplace at about 10 months old and his first steps didn't happen until 14 months. So we called him Monkey. Monkey became Monkey Bunky (yes, I like to rhyme), which became Monkey Bunks, which became Mr. Bunks. I'm not sure why the formality arrived, but it suits him well at almost 4.

In addition to the current favorite nicknames, both kids have a variety of names to which they will respond. Since a very, very young age, I will often ask Fin if he is my "...insert silly name..." and he will say yes. This list (and it is always a list) includes:

Honey Bunny Baby Bear
Funny Little Monkey Man
Cutie Patootie Pants
Little Funny Bunny
Sweetie Peetie Pumpkin Pie

I know there will come a day, and I fear it is sooner than I will be prepared for, when he will not allow me to call him these ridiculous names, but for now it's one of my favorite snuggle activities with this kid. Oh yeah, he's my Snuggle Buggle, too.

Greta's catalogue of nicknames doesn't have quite the range of silly, but they all suit her just as well. In addition to the GretaRee which Fin bestowed upon her at a few weeks old because he couldn't quite say Greta Marie, there have been several variations on that trend.

GretaRoo (often in conjuction with GretaRee)
Greta Boo
Boo Boo Baby
Boo
Peanut

I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting, but they also get the usual cutie pie, sweetie, etc. as well.

Kind of makes you wonder why I gave them names at all if I'm just going to call them whatever I want, doesn't it? But there's still a nice ring to "Finian Xavier!" or "Greta Marie!" when they're doing atrocious things in public. ;) I don't think "Mr. Bunks!" would carry as much weight to stop misbehavior in its tracks. Though who am I kidding? The full name never works as well as I'd expect, either. Maybe I need to come up with some new names for moments of mischief...

Hmm... I'll get to work on that.

I Heart Bedtime

Well, I've pretty much always loved bedtime. I'm sure there was a time in my life when my parents would have argued against that statement, but for the most part, I am a fan of sleep whenever and wherever I can get it.

But my current affection for bedtime actually has nothing to do with sleep, nothing to do with the peace and quiet that comes after the little ones doze off for the evening and absolutely everything to do with those little ones themselves.

As a full time work-outside-the-home mom, I generally feel like I don't get to see the kids enough. I still wish I got to spend more quality time with them throughout the day, but I have to say that lately, we've stumbled into a really sweet and fun bedtimeroutine .

Sometime after dinner, whether there's a bath or not, we all end up in our bedroom. The kids may need to be led in there against their will or they may make their way in there by playing "hide seek" (Gretish) after dinner. Either way, there is playtime in the bed that usually involves jumping, tickling, reading books, snuggling and lots and lots of giggling.

Sometime in there, jammies get put on, a diaper gets added, hands and faces get washed (if it's not a bath night), and teeth get brushed. Eventually stories get read and the lights get turned off for stories in bed for Fin while I take Greta to her room for nursing and snuggles. One of the sweetest highlights, however, is Greta's almost constant request for singing.

Last night I was reading a counting book to Greta. I'd turn the page, ask her the animal and we'd count together. On the page with 5, the picture was of beluga whales. Greta saw the animal and immediately ordered, "sing."

It had been a while since we'd read this book together - maybe a few months - yet the girl remembered I once sang Raffi's Baby Beluga to her on that page.

Well, I made up some words and sang it to her, then tried to continue with 6. Nope. She turned the page back. "Sing. More Baby Nuga."

This went on for a while until I decided it was time to get her to her room. Even there, once she seemed to be dozing off, she raised her read and said:

G: "More Baby Nuga"
M: "No baby, it's time for sleep."
G: "Sing."
M: "No baby, it's time for sleep."
G: "Backin" (Thumbkin)
M: "No baby, it's time for sleep."
G: "Nemo"
M: "No." (laughing because I don't know a Nemo song anyway)
G: "Dory"
M: "No."
G: "Me." (pointing to herself)
M: "No baby, it's time for sleep."
G: "Me sing."
M: "You want a Greta song?"
G: "Uh-huh"

Well, how could I resist that? I sang her one of the love songs I made up about her and have sung since she was tiny.

G: "One more."

Oookay. I'm a pushover.

G: "More."
M: "No baby, it's time for sleep." (laughing again - she is persistent)

She finally seemed to be dozing off, until about 5 minutes later when she suddenly raised her head and said again:

G: "More Baby Nuga."

Well, it worked before, right? :) I snuggled with her a bit more - no more singing - and finally put her in her crib where she chattered to herself for a few minutes and went to sleep.

I returned to our bedroom to find Finny and Dave still reading superhero stories. We turned off the lights and settled in with a few kisses and goodnights and such.

Just when I thought Fin was dozing off, he was suddenly squirming and fidgeting and I rolled over to see him doing downward dog in bed. When he gets wound up like that, we've discovered it's easier to let him get the energy out (and try to tire him out) rather than continually telling him to settle down. So I suggested some exercise.

F: "What exercises should I do?"
M: "Jumping jacks."

He did jumping jacks - which at three years old is really just jumping up and down while waving his arms around - and regular jumping and rolling side to side and sit ups and backbends and bicycle kicks and reverse crunches before finally deciding he was tired. He snuggled into bed and then asked, "Can I tell you a story?"

Again, how could I resist that?

It went something like "*whipser*whisper*whisper*" (no idea what he was saying) "and there was a big splash *whisper* in front of Liam's house and there was a flood and it wasn't from rain and we got stuck in the mud and it was SLIPPERY! *whisper*"

Then he rolled over, said "Freckle," put his hand on my chest and was asleep in about 3 minutes.

I know our bedtime rituals are not exactly conventional. We don't make the kids fall asleep alone. We cosleep and allow the kids access to our bed for snuggles and family time. I might feel differently about these things if I felt I got to see the kids enough during the day, but I treasure our bedtime conversations and our nighttime snuggles.

Every night I get to marvel at their creativity and humor and share the wonder of their discoveries. Their personalities are so amazing and our bedtime rituals and games are so much fun. I've long been a fan of bedtime, but these days, it's definitely my favorite part of the day.

I Think I Nicknamed the Wrong One Monkey

Among the kids' many silly little nicknames, Finny is often Monkey and Greta is often Peanut. Fin was a climber before he could walk and Greta has always been a tiny little thing, so the nicknames have made sense for the last 22 months or so.

I realize now that in the true sense of "monkey see, monkey do," Greta is the one we should be calling Monkey.

I know it's very common for the younger sibling to mimic and imitate everything an older sibling does, especially when they're only about 2 years apart and especially when the younger one is a toddler. Heck, look at my sister Kiza and me - if it weren't for her relenting to my demands and teaching me EVERYTHING she learned at school every single day, who knows how I would have turned out?

Greta has long been quick to mirror Fin's every action, whether it's a silly face at the dinner table, a dance around the house, jumping on the bed, etc. We've joked that she has no idea she's little and has no fear. If she sees Fin do something, she's going to do it, too, or yell and yell at you when she can't (or, God forbid, you don't *let* her for her own safety and your sanity).

For the most part, this has been an adorable and fascinating part of their siblinghood. Fin is very patient with her and will usually help her if he sees she's struggling with trying to copy him. But in the last week, we've encountered a somewhat scary aspect to this behavior and a very useful one.

Last week Fin was cutting out some artwork. He's been using scissors for a very long time and is quite adept, so these days he usually requests the scissors and gets them with only a quick reminder to be careful. He carries them correctly when he walks through the house, he cuts only the things he's allowed to cut, and he's very methodical and precise with them.

That evening, he decided to lay down on the couch while he was cutting things and sadly, caught his finger. He didn't scream and cry, just balled his little hand into a fist and came into the kitchen where Dave and I were making dinner. He said he had cut his hand and apologized for getting blood on the couch. I turned to see his little fingers curled in a ball of blood and was amazed at how calm he was being.

We washed and cleaned the cut (it was very minor and needed only some neosporin and a bandaid - he declared it "all healed!" the next morning), and luckily Dave thought to go retrieve the scissors from the living room before Greta came upon them.

Sure enough, when he walked into the living room, Greta was standing at the couch holding the scissors and trying to figure out how Fin had made his finger bleed with them. Yikes.

The scissors are once again a "sit at the table and cut where we can see you" toy for Fin. Not because of his behavior (if anything, he's more careful with them than before his cut) but because we never know when Greta will grab them and try to do whatever she last saw Fin do with them.

She does keep us on our toes...

But yesterday I also discovered, quite by accident, that her desire to be Just Like Fin can work in our favor, too.

She wanted to use the potty, and after our usual "Mommy, 'way" (go away) commands and "Are you done yet?" back and forth, she declared the trip a success, and it was. She let me clean her up, with her help, of course ("Me wipe!" Fuuunnnn.) and then tried to run free through the house.

I grabbed her back into the bathroom and told her she needed her big girl panties back on and we went through the usual debate about her desire to be naked all the time. (What can I say? She is my child. LOL)

Finally, without even thinking about it, I said, "Finny always puts his big boy pants back on after he uses the potty."

The struggle immediately ceased, she stepped right in to her panties and even helped me pull them back up, then she happily went to see what Fin had been up to while she was away.

I'm a little surprised the tactic hadn't occurred to us before, but I can guarantee it will be used again. If she's going to try to do everything she sees Fin do anyway, we might as well use it to our advantage now and then, too, right?.

Halloween Preview!

A few weeks ago, we pulled out all the dress up costumes to see what might still fit for Halloween and generally just to pass some time playing. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot that will fit Finny right now (time to update the dress up collection at the after Halloween costume sales!) but Greta has TONS to choose from when she wants to dress up!

The Tigger and Clifford the Big Red Dog costumes were worn by Finny when he was her age. The Tigger one fits her pretty well, despite the face she's making, but the Clifford one swallowed her up. Her little hands and feet are in there somewhere! LOL

She was NOT at all a fan of the fairy costume. She said it was itchy and wore it for maybe 10 seconds before pulling it off again. But she made a very adorable frog and stared at herself in the mirror for a long time in that one.

Finny can still fit in the Buzz Lightyear costume, but of course, once Greta saw her big brother in it, she demanded to get to wear it, too. It was huge, but she liked it.

And for Halloween itself, Finny is going to be Robin to Liam's Batman. (Cute little crime fighters, aren't they?) The boys have worn their costumes for several playdates already and we pieced together a pretty good Batgirl outfit for Greta as well so she didn't feel left out.

Once Halloween rolls around, Greta has an adorable witch costume, which is purple of course.

Quick Greta Boo Catch Up

I can't believe this sweet little girl is almost 23 months old. She is one of the funniest, sweetest, smartest little people I've ever known, but I do recognize my bias as her mom. She is really growing up and is all the things you'd want your daughter to be: fearless, independent, confident, a little bit headstrong. LOL The only bad part (occasionally) is that she is often all those things toward us, too. Yep, she's approaching two.

One of her very first sentences was, "No, Mommy. Me hep!" (me help) Yeah, that pretty much set the tone right there.

She is talking up a storm, has a huge vocabulary and almost always speaks in sentences. She started potty training herself at about 19 months and now typically only wears diapers for naps and bedtime. She loves to draw and will happily pretend with Fin for hours or even days. They have been Nemo and Dory all week (though Fin really wants her to be Bloat and me to be Dory, but she claims she's Dory when he's not paying attention). And her favorite color - for EVERYTHING - is purple. She always wants the purple anything and no matter what she tells you she wants, she will then tell you to make hers purple. Shoes? Purple. Jammies? Purple. Eggs? Purple. (Dave did this a few times, then decided eggs are yellow for a reason. But she still asks.)

And of course, she's beautiful. (Again, there's mom-bias, but look at her! LOL)

She's been doing the one day/week parent-toddler interaction class at preschool with Dave this fall. She loves it. My friend Michele Stange (http://www.michelestange.com/) did the school photos and sent me a sneak preview of Greta's (above).

So, now that she's getting a bit older, one of the things you'll hear from her most often is, "Look me, Mommy! Look me did!" (which, if you don't speak Gretish is "Look at me, Mommy. Look at what I did!") She is very proud of all of her accomplishments, and is also very polite, peppering her conversations with "Deku, Bubba" or "Deku, Mommy" (thank you), and of course, "Beeeeee!" (please). When she really wants something, she will add the baby sign of rubbing her chest to say please as she begs. And of course, I still get "Nur be" (nurse, please) every morning and every afternoon when I get home from work.

The other morning as Greta and I were enjoying our wake up and snuggle nursing session, I realized I'd been staring at her in wonder and adoration for a while and hadn't actually spoken to her much. So I smiled and said hi. She returned a huge grin and said, "Hi!" then went back to nursing. I cracked up laughing and told her I love her. She replied, "Mm-hmm" and threw her top arm way out. Then she sat up and said, "Other arm. BIIIIIIIG!" and threw both arms wide. Yep, this kid knows she's loved.

Y

Catching Up

Well, the whirlwind of birthdays and holidays is giving us a little break right now. Granted, today is Colin's first birthday, but he's in Texas and we won't be heading that way until the weekend, so things are getting back to normal here for a few days at least.

Fin's birthday and his first "friend" party went great! I'll share some pictures soon, but he and all his little friends had a blast with the ball pit, tents and tunnels and of course, the Nemo ice cream cake! Yum.

Christmas was fun, too. The kids got a couple of fun animal tents (a zebra and a shark) which take up tons of space in the house, but they also mean a few hours of playing and hiding when they're up, so they were definitely worth it. And Santa brought a play kitchen, too. Fin had fun helping Daddy assemble it (well, until more family showed up with more presents!) and both kids play with it just about every day. One of his favorite things to make for us is "animal soup". He throws in all his small animals, along with all the fruits and veggies he can find and maybe a hot wheel car or two, and serves it up steaming hot!

Greta just likes to wear the kitchen sink on her head. (I have pictures of this, but am having trouble uploading them right now. Boo.) Her other new favorite thing to do is give kisses! Our little sweetie will pinch her lips together, raise her chin and then say "Mmmmmm-wah!" as she walks across the room to plant one on us. LOVE that!

All in all, it's been a great holiday season and aside from a yuck-o cold I have right now, 2009 is off to a nice start as well. We have a few more birthdays and events in the coming weeks (the trip to Texas this weekend for Colin's first, GaGa's birthday and Uncle Richard's birthday in a few weeks, then our fifth wedding anniversary!) but I don't expect to disappear from the updates again anytime soon.

Will post pictures soon when Blogger is cooperating.

Greta's 12 Month Doctor Visit

This little girl is definitely following in her brother's footsteps. She's 30.25 inches tall (90%) and weighs 18lbs 12oz (25%). They're both taaaaalll and thin, like their dad.

She also cut her 8th tooth this weekend and is adding new signs just about every day. She had at least 6 when we met with her pediatrician (nurse, eat, more, all done, hat, cat, and one that can mean bird/plane/fan/light, depending on when and where she signs it) and then last night she signed "moon" on the way to the car, too. Still only two real words - Mama and Dada, but she loves to say them over and over and over and over.

It's so fun to walk into the house after work and hear her yelling, "Mama! Mama! Mama!" while she jumps up and down and tries to get to me as quickly as she can.

Sweet little boo.

Happy First Birthday Sweet Greta Boo!

I have so much I want to tell you about your first year and how wonderful and amazing and sweet and cute and funny you are. I'm working on a letter to capture some of those moments, but you hit a fun new milestone today that I thought was worth mentioning even before the letter is done.

You took your first steps today!

You've been doing tons and tons of finger walking for a few weeks now, and in the past few days or so, you've been trying to stand on your own, but you still would sit down a few seconds after realizing you weren't holding on to anything.

But today you took a few steps here and there during your birthday party! I don't think you ever went more than 3 or 4 steps, but you were so proud of yourself. We're all so proud of you, too!

By the end of the evening, you were pulling up using only one finger and then standing on your own for 15-20 seconds at a time. I have a feeling you'll be running before we know it.

Happy Birthday, my sweet baby girl. Mommy and Daddy (and Finny) love you soooo much!

Greta's Birth Letter

She's one. It's amazing. She's amazing. I thought this would be an appropriate day to recount the experience of her birth.

The letter I wrote her about it last year is long, but, well... it was a big day for both of us. I figured she'd like the details some day.

Enjoy.

******************************

13 December 2007

A Letter to My Sweet Baby Greta About Your Birth –

When I first found out I was pregnant, I instantly knew we’d be having a daughter and I was so excited but also a little scared. Your brother’s arrival had been terrifying and I didn’t quite know what to expect this time around.

The first half of our pregnancy was pretty uneventful – I was tired and queasy, but that was not at all uncommon. By the middle of the pregnancy, however, you were starting to show signs of being up to your big brother’s antics in the womb. Just like Fin, you and my body had teamed up to start causing a lot of contractions very early on. Luckily, this time we knew to take the contractions seriously and take precautions to make sure you didn’t arrive too early like Fin did.

We had shopped around for a doctor who would let us have a natural, drug-free birth this time after having had Fin by Caesarian section and found a doctor your dad and I both really liked and trusted. As much as we all wanted to go the non-medical route for your delivery, we knew we’d have to take some medical precautions and interventions to make sure you stayed in full-term and were healthy.

At 24 weeks, I was having so many contractions that the doctor wanted me to go to the hospital to be monitored. We ended up having to have two doses of drugs to get things to calm down and were eventually sent home. Two weeks later, at my monthly doctor’s appointment, we decided it was time to start the active process of keeping you inside. I was given a prescription for drugs to take at home when the contractions started up again and I was started on weekly hormone shots as well. We also got sent a machine to monitor my contractions every day, so for an hour every morning and every evening, I had to lie very still while attached to a machine so we could keep tabs on what you were doing in there. If things were too active, I had to take more drugs and do a bunch of things to try to get the contractions to stop – and then spend at least another hour on the machine. From 27 weeks on, I was talking to the nurses at least twice a day, and taking drugs to stop the contractions several times a week. At 28 weeks, despite our efforts to keep the contractions calm, my cervix was starting to dilate, which was not the news we wanted to hear. I was officially put on bedrest until at least 36 weeks.

After two weeks of bedrest, my cervix was even more dilated so I started having to take the drugs every 4 hours all day long to keep the contractions under control. I even had to wake up during the night to take them. And with the additional dilation, our doctor decided we needed to have a steroid shot to mature your lungs just in case you decided to show up early. The combination of the drugs to stop the contractions, the weekly hormone shots and the steroid shot for your lungs caused a terrible migraine headache that lasted six days. That was the least fun part of the entire pregnancy, but I knew it would all be worth it when you came out healthy and full-term. We managed the rest of the pregnancy with the drugs, but also with weekly acupuncture visits, chiropractic adjustments and pregnancy massage.

For the next several weeks, we seemed to have things under control. I was still having contractions every day and occasionally having to do extra monitoring sessions to get them under control, but I was not getting more dilated and you seemed happy to stay inside me for a while longer.

Finally, after 9 weeks of hormone shots, 8 weeks of daily contraction monitoring and 7 weeks of bedrest, I was allowed to be a “normal” pregnant woman again. We were officially 36 weeks along and while we still wanted you to stay in a few more weeks, we knew you’d be healthy and okay if you decided to show up. I had been telling you all along that you just had to stay in until Thanksgiving and then you were welcome to come out.

The day before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Day itself, I was having a lot of contractions and we all thought you’d be making an appearance very soon. However, things never really picked up, the contractions didn’t become regular enough to time and you decided to stay put. The Tuesday after Thanksgiving, we had another doctor’s appointment and learned that I was indeed dilating more (3cm, 80% effaced) and that you could come any day or still decide to stay put for a few more weeks. At this point, your dad and I were both very eager and excited to meet you, but also knew that every day you stayed inside was a day you could grow bigger and stronger before meeting the world.


The morning of that doctor’s visit, I was having more contractions but still not enough to time or to call true labor, but I knew things were starting to pick up. I decided to have lunch with a friend at the mall and walk around a bit to see if labor would start on its own. I didn’t start having more regular contractions, but I did have a bit of bloody show and I knew that losing my mucus plug was an early sign of labor. I was very excited to think I’d be meeting you in just a few days!

That night, things went pretty much as usual. I had some stronger contractions, but just like they had been for the last few days. We went to bed knowing you may be here in a few days or another week.

At about 2:30am your big brother Fin woke up and decided he needed some Mommy time. He wasn’t fussy or crying, he was just awake and wanting to cuddle with Mommy. We snuggled and talked and giggled in bed for a couple of hours and he finally fell asleep again at about 4:45am. Once he was asleep, I got up to use the bathroom and tried to go back to sleep myself.
I was lying in bed just dozing off when I suddenly felt a sharp pinch. I thought “Ow – that’s weird” and then felt a POP! I got up and hurried back to the bathroom and sure enough – GUSH – my water had broken! It was 4:55am on Tuesday, November 28, 2007 and I knew we’d be meeting our little girl in a few hours!

I woke up your dad and whispered to him that my water had broken. I wasn’t feeling contractions yet and knew they could take a while to start, but with your brother they had started right away and been very close together. I thought you’d give us a little more time, so I told your dad to go back to sleep and tried to lay back down myself to get some rest since I’d already been awake for a few hours with Fin. Of course, by this time I was too excited to sleep so I just tried to rest. Within a few minutes the contractions started and I began timing them. They were 5 minutes apart, but not too painful so I just waited and talked to you and to my body about how we were going to do this together and how excited I was to finally meet you.
I sent an email to work to let them know I would not be on that morning’s conference call and called our doula Kimberly about an hour after my water broke. She suggested going back to sleep also, but I knew that was going to be impossible. I called your grandpa Terry and aunt Kiza in Texas to let them know you were on your way and called both of your grandmothers who live here in town to let them know it was time. Your HaHa was going to be with Finny while we went to the hospital and your GaGa was going to come with us to help welcome you to the world. After all these phone calls, I finally called Kimberly back to let her know that the contractions were getting more intense and it was time for her to come over. I decided to take a shower to help deal with the contractions while we waited for Kimberly, HaHa and GaGa to get to our house.

By about 7am everyone had arrived. Fin was still asleep, your dad and Kimberly were helping me through the contractions using the hypnobirth relaxation techniques we’d been practicing, and GaGa and HaHa were bustling about to make sure everything was ready to go when we needed to get to the hospital. Fin suddenly woke up in the other room and was not happy to find himself alone, so your dad and I crawled back into bed with Fin to let him know that his little sister Baby Greta was finally on her way. He’d been talking to you and giving you kisses in my belly for months. He kept asking you to come out and play with him and he was very excited to learn that he was finally going to get to meet you.

We ended up sitting in the bed relaxing through the contractions for a while. Your dad brought me snacks and Kimberly massaged my feet while GaGa sat and worried about us (it’s what she does…). Finally, I told your dad I needed him to come sit behind me, and he propped himself up on pillows so I could lean against him as we breathed and relaxed through the contractions that were bringing you closer and closer to us. Fin eventually crawled back in bed with us and we spent a few last minutes as our family of just three celebrating that were about to grow to a loving family of four.

After a while, the contractions were getting harder to just relax and breathe through, so I thought walking around would help. As I moved off the bed I suddenly felt the need to use the bathroom again. Kimberly asked if I had already gone a few times that morning and I had, so we both knew this was a clear sign that you were moving lower. Our time at home was almost done.

I went into the bathroom and had a contraction so strong that I was on my knees holding on to the towel rod to get through it. As I walked out of the bathroom, both your dad and Kimberly were standing and saying it was time to go to the hospital. I agreed just as another contraction hit, and I was on my knees leaning over the bed. I mentioned that I might throw up (another sign that you were getting close), and Kimberly grabbed the trash can from the bathroom to bring in the car just in case.

We made it through the house to the garage while everyone was deciding who was going in which car. Kimberly asked if I wanted her in the car with us or if she should take her own, and I knew I’d need her with us to get through the 10 minute ride to the hospital. HaHa brought Finny outside so I could kiss him goodbye and remind him not to be scared and that he’d be meeting his little sister soon. GaGa was trying to clean out our car so Kimberly could get in the backseat and ride with us, and I realized your dad had placed the bikes in the garage so that I couldn’t open the car door. He had to move the car into the driveway so we could get in, and then we realized that Kimberly had parked her car partially blocking the driveway and we couldn’t get out.

There were a few moments of madness as your dad pulled our car out, Kimberly moved her car, HaHa and Fin said goodbye to everyone, and GaGa made sure she knew her way to the hospital – and all this time I was standing in the middle of the front yard by myself having contractions one on top of the other with nothing to lean on or hold on to and trying not to get too panicked about how quickly things had changed from calm and quiet to too much hustle and bustle.

We finally got in the car and left for the hospital at 8:30am. The contractions were coming hard and fast, and before we had even gone two blocks, I was telling your dad and Kimberly that I needed to PUSH. I felt the urge to push you out so strong that I was worried we were not going to make it to the hospital. Kimberly pointed out that it was too cold to let you be born in the car on the freeway, so if we weren’t going to make it to the hospital, we’d better get back home. Your dad did a quick U-turn, and Kimberly asked me if I could feel your head. I laid the seat all the way down and checked and was very relieved to feel absolutely nothing yet.

Once the seat was reclined and the immediate pressure was off my cervix, the need to push decreased. Keeping my hand down there just in case you decided to come out, I told your dad we could make it to the hospital, I wasn’t going to push, but we had to get there FAST. He did another U-turn and off we went.

During the car ride to the hospital, the contractions were very, very strong, and I could no longer just breathe through them. I knew I couldn’t push yet so instead I yelled. With each contraction, my voice rose as the intensity increased, “OhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-kay. Okay, okay, okay.” I had to keep telling myself and you that we were going to be okay, we were going to make it to the hospital and you were going to come out just perfect. Between contractions, we worked on finding a way to call the doctor and tell her we were on our way. We hadn’t called from the house because things weren’t moving so quickly, and once we got in the car, we realized that your dad’s cell phone barely had enough battery power to make the call and my cell phone was in my purse – under the seat. Your dad was eventually able to grab my purse for Kimberly to make the call, and we knew Dr. Brass would be on her way soon.

We arrived at the hospital and a nurse ran out to meet us with a wheelchair. I knew I was going to have to move my hand to get out of the car, but I was terrified. During the contractions, I had felt quite a bit of fluid continuing to gush out of me. I knew when I moved my hand I’d have to see if it was blood or just amniotic fluid. When your brother was born the blood during the contractions was the first sign that something was wrong and I was so scared that I would see that again. But with your dad, Kimberly and the nurse all waiting for me to get out of the car, I just took a deep breath and pulled my hand away. Everything was clear, so I knew we were both still doing just fine. I moved into the wheelchair and the contractions continued one on top of the other as they pushed me into the hospital.

As they wheeled me quickly to Labor & Delivery, I kept yelling through the contractions and feeling gush after gush of fluid come out. Kimberly later told me we left a trail of fluid from the car to the delivery room. The nurses kept asking who our doctor was, if you were my first baby, when my water broke, etc. When they learned I was having a VBAC and that our doctor was not there yet, they went into a bit of panic and started paging any OB in the hospital and any anesthesiologist to come to us just in case something went wrong and we needed emergency surgery, though I knew all of that would be unnecessary.

We got into our room and I moved to the bed so the nurses could see how close you were to coming out. As we expected, I was completely dilated and ready to push. I asked what time it was again between contractions and it was 8:51am. I had been in labor for four hours and we knew you were only a short time away from joining us.

While we were getting situated in the hospital room, I realized that there were about 20 various hospital staff bustling around the room to make sure we were ready if you came before our doctor arrived. They were getting me hooked up to monitors, trying to take my blood pressure and give me an IV all while I was having very strong contractions and continuing to yell “OhhHHHHHHHHHHH-kay” through them all. They blew through two veins trying to get the IV in and I even stopped in the middle of one contraction to ask them to please wait until the contraction was over before sticking me with another needle.

In the very short pauses between contractions, I talked to your dad and Kimberly and they fed me ice chips. My yelling through the contractions varied between “Okay” and a few “Woooo-hoooo!”s as I got more excited that you were on your way. I even sang a bit to your dad between contractions because our little family was growing and we were about to have a daughter.

Finally, after about 20 minutes Dr. Brass arrived at the hospital. She had been pulled over by a police officer for speeding on her way to meet us, but luckily he believed her when she said she had a patient in labor and did not give her a ticket. She watched through a few contractions and felt where you were and told me it was time to push you out. Your dad, Kimberly and a couple of the nurses in the room helped get me into a position to push and then… I pushed.

Someone mentioned they could see your head and as I opened my eyes, I saw that your dad had seen you. I asked if it looked cool or gross and he said “cool” so I asked for a mirror so I could watch you come out, too. The nurses quickly wheeled a mirror so I could see and I pushed again. Sure enough, I could see the top of your little head as you came out of me! It was very cool (but also kind of gross.)

I continued pushing for a few minutes, with the doctor and nurses telling me when to hold my breath, push, and breathe again. I thought it was funny when they would tell me to take another deep breath because they didn’t know we had been practicing hypnobirthing and yoga breathing and I was never actually out of breath yet when they would tell me to breathe again. As we got closer, the doctor eventually decided you needed a little extra oxygen, so they gave me an oxygen mask and I really worked on getting you out. Two more pushes and I felt the burning sensation of your head actually coming in to the world. I opened my eyes just in time to see your whole head come out – you had such sweet round little cheeks! Dr. Brass did a quick suction of your mouth and nose and I gave one more push and your whole tiny little body just slid right out.

And there you were – perfect and healthy in every way. Everything we had done to keep you in long enough and make sure you had time to grow big and strong had paid off. You were finally here! You were born at 9:31am on Wednesday, November 28, 2007 and weighed 7lbs, 3.3oz and were 20.5 inches long. Your Apgar score was a 9 both times.

Dr. Brass knew we wanted to keep you close right away, so they placed you on my chest immediately and put a blanket over us to keep you warm. Your dad and I just kissed you and stared at you and kissed each other in amazement. You stared back and after a few minutes you gave a little cry to let us all know your lungs were good and strong. Dr. Brass soon said that your umbilical cord had stopped pulsing and asked if your dad wanted to cut the cord. He was a little unsure but did it anyway.

I got to hold you and cuddle with you for a while, then your dad got to hold and cuddle with you while I got stitched up and cleaned up a bit. You were even ready to try to nurse pretty quickly and were great at latching on from the very start. Once all the cleaning and initial bonding was done, Kimberly asked if we were ready for visitors and we said yes. Someone went and got your GaGa from the waiting room and the stream of people who love you and want to hold you and kiss you began.

We eventually moved into a room for recovery and HaHa brought your big brother Fin to meet you. He had picked out a special “Happy Birthday” balloon as a gift to you and as soon as he was lifted into my bed to meet you, the first thing he said was “Tickle Baby Greta” as he reached out to you. Like everyone else, he gave you lots of hugs and kisses and was very happy to meet you.
We only had to stay in the hospital one night and you were never more than a few inches away from us except for the one time they had to take you to be weighed after your middle of the night feeding. Otherwise, you have been within reach of a parent or grandparent every single moment of your life, which is so nice and different from the experience of your brother being in the NICU for so many days.

We came home and we have discovered that you are a good nurser, a good sleeper and almost never cry or complain unless you’re cold and getting your diaper changed. Your big brother just wants to show you everything he knows and play with you all day long and doesn’t recognize that you’re still too little for most of the toys he wants to share with you.

We are very, very blessed to have you as our daughter. Even though you haven’t done much more than eat, sleep and stare at us over the last two weeks, we all agree that you are so beautiful, so sweet and so wonderful. Thank you for joining our family and making our home complete. We love you sweet baby girl.

Love,
Mommy

Happy Halloween!

I dressed the kiddos in their Halloween PJs last night so we'd all wake up in the holiday mood this morning. They were so cute, I had to take pictures and share them. I mean, really, what kind of mom would I be if I didn't share this cuteness?


Baby Boo was in a drumming mood and didn't much want to be bothered by pictures.



Finny was just being silly and cute.




They did a little drumming together. (And how adorable is it that Greta's jammies say BOO on the tushie and feet? LOL)

Finny's good night kiss to his little sister.

Happy Halloween to all! I'll post pictures of them in their costumes soon!

Eleven months old!

I know time seems to go more quickly as you get older, but I had no idea how much more quickly time was going to fly with two kiddos.

Our Greta Boo is already eleven months old and I cannot begin to tell you where the last almost-year has gone. In fact, at this time last year I was laying in bed all day every day, hooked up to a machine several hours a day to monitor the contractions I was having, talking to the nurse twice a day, taking drugs every four hours to try to stop the contractions, and having a nurse come to our house every weekend to give me hormone shots in an effort to keep this baby girl IN.

Obviously, all that worked well and we had a healthy, full term, beautiful baby girl - who is starting to look more and more like a toddler every single day.

Apparently I'm feeling a bit nostalgic today.

So, here's our gorgeous, not-so-little girl!



Can you tell she has a thing about sticking her tongue out?



You can only expect a super-mobile baby to stay in one place for so long. She let me take a few pictures, then made a break for it, though she was happy to stand in the chair and dance for Daddy for a few minutes.



There's that tongue again.



Someone should really tell this girl's parents how unsafe it is to let her stand in a chair like that with a toy in her mouth. What kind of parents does she have???

Dancing for Daddy!

She's outta here, folks!

Greta's latest accomplishments

I cannot believe how quickly this little girl is growing up. When I laid her in her crib last night, she squirmed and crawled a little in her sleep to get comfy and when she stretched out, I swear she had the long, lanky limbs of a toddler already. Sigh...

She's also had two fun milestones in the last couple of days!

She's been pulling up and cruising on furniture for a while now and will often do a single hand hold to stay upright, but whenever she let go completely - plop! - down she'd go on her tushie. But two days ago, she was standing in GaGa's kitchen holding her hands and she suddenly let go and just stood there! She stood for a really long time (okay, about 10 seconds, but that's long when she's never done it before) before she sat down and we haven't gotten her to do it again since then, but it's progress! This one will be walking before I know it, I'm sure.

And since I posted about her signing "birdie" she's started generalizing it and using it whenever she wants to get anyone's attention or point to anything. So it may not really just mean bird anymore, but she has found a word she loves to say! If you ask her if she wants more of anything while she's eating or playing, she'll look right at you and say "buh!".

Now I know this sounds nothing like "more", but she definitely knows what she wants when she says it and if you offer her something more and she doesn't say "buh" she will not pick it up or play with it at all.

Finally, she's been sort of waving for a week or so, but this morning over breakfast, she was practicing opening and closing her hand like a wave. As I left for work, I gave both kids kisses and hugs and as I reached the door, I turned and waved and she gave me a HUGE grin and waved back!

We played that game of waving and saying bye for a few minutes and finally HaHa picked her up and brought her outside to the driveway so she could wave as I left for work.

It was a sweet morning having both of my kiddos standing in the driveway waving as I left for the day.

Signing and counting birdies

Greta is working on signing words to us. We're getting her in to a Baby Signs class next month, but we've been showing her the basics - eat, please, more, all done, nurse, kitty cat - for a few months now.

Every once in a while she'll sort of sign "more" to us, but for the most part, she seems to understand the signs more than she'll generate them to actually communicate with us. For example, if she's getting fussy and I sign "nurse" to her, she'll calm down because she knows what's coming.

But in the past week or so, she's developed her own sign! For birds, of all things.

I don't know why she chose "bird" to be her first real sign, but any time we're outside and she sees or hears birds, she does the same thing. It's not the "true" sign for bird, but because it's the same consistent sign and she only does it for birds, it counts. So, when she sees or hears birds, she looks around for them, waves her arm over her heard and goes "ffft" with her mouth.

It's very, very cute, I promise.

And with all the talk of birdies in our house lately, I was reminded of this awesome set of pictures of Fin. So I'm throwing in another Fin story from the mom-memory archives!

A while back (okay, it was February of this year, so Fin was 2yrs, 2 months old here) Fin and GaGa were having lunch at her house. They were talking about all the things they saw out the window and several birds were hanging out on the fence.




Fin was learning to count at that time, so they counted the three birds hanging out there.



Then, as birds will, they flew away.

Fin shouted out, "Come back birdies!" and one did! The look on his face was priceless.

I was so glad I was there with a camera to capture the pure joy and surprise on his face when that bird came back.