spring...

Kids are doing well. Lily is a master walker these days. She’s a little traveler – always roaming from one room to another, picking up toys and dropping toys endlessly as she goes. She causes me much grief as I have clean up after her so much (I try to avoid bending down at all costs these days – ugh)! She’s also making leaps and bounds of progress on her speech. Lately some of her favorite words are ‘mama’, ‘up’, ‘hi’, ‘roar’, ‘open’, ‘papa’, and the infamous ‘no’.  She is eating a decent amount and continues her lily growth curve of gaining weight. I think she’s currently somewhere between 15 and 16 pounds – still a little bit!

 

Jude is thriving in preschool. He’s made a huge amount of progress adjusting to preschool over the year. In the beginning he had a super hard time letting go of papa at the door, looking forward to preschool and interacting with the other children. But now, he looks forward to preschool, he’s having more and more fun with the other children, still hesitates a tiny bit with papa at the door, and has learned so much about his zoo-phonic letters and basic writing techniques. It’s so fun to see him grow.

 

Daniel’s business is thriving this month. He’s keeping very busy between work and training for three races this year. The first, is two weeks away in mid-May. It’s an adventure race (chalk full of mountain biking, running, navigating with a compass, and kayaking). The other two are more ‘hard-core’ mountain bike races: the Leadville 50 and the 24-hours of Leadville.

 

New baby and mys elf are well also… I am currently in week 30 (it’s so good to be in the 30’s now). All continues to go well. I have ultrasounds monthly (next one in two weeks) and I continue to see my mid-wife every two weeks. They check urine, blood, and growth of baby – and so far no signs of HELLP.  I am feeling much bigger these days and keeping after the kiddos is definitely getting more difficult.  Poor Jude, he loves to play chase around the house and I just can’t manage that anymore without having ‘braxton hicks’ contractions. Nevertheless, I am so thankful to be this far along.

 

 

28 weeks

I am 28 weeks pregnant. It feels really strange to be this far. Daniel and I went to have another ultrasound on Friday. It went really well. They estimate this baby girl is about 2 lbs 10 oz so far (that's a whole pound more than Lily was when she was born at 28 weeks) - so very good news that this baby is growing well. All the other things they checked looked good also - blood flow, amniotic fluid, all the measurements, etc. We praise God for the progress so far. Hopefully, we can make it 10 more weeks!

january...days with snow and days without...

Here are a few January moments captured in photo:

Jude and Lily had fun at the park one morning (I couldn’t get Lily to look at the camera or smile for the life of me).

Jude has a new found appreciation for shoveling and throwing snowballs at Papa.

thoughts on christmas 2010

Christmas was a bit…non-eventful this year. We enjoyed spending time together as a family of four and then with my parents and my sister and her family. We opened stockings and presents. We gave Lily extra hugs – again so thankful she is with us and growing and a sweet delight to be around. We delighted in watching Jude’s face. At three and a half years old, he is so full of energy, so dramatic, so full of expression, so eager to engage, and so full of hugs and snuggling. It was definitely the most fun to watch Jude. He ‘gets’ Christmas now and there is nothing better than to experience a little magic at Christmas through the eyes of a 3 year old.

I am still struggling to accept number three. Really God? Are we really going to have three children? To many of you out there, three is fin e and planned for and expected. But for me, two was always my number. There would be one child for each parent, more money to go on vacation with, four to a booth at the restaurant, a family car for four, and last but certainly not least - no more being pregnant (something, many of you know I absolutely hate). Two was good and enough - Especially enough after Lily (we still can’t get her to gain much weight – she is tiny and at 13 lbs. 12 oz. - probably close to the healthiest tiniest 18 month old on the planet – no lie). I never seriously considered three. Three meant…my children would outnumber the able bodied parents, we’d have to buy a new suv (not a mini-van mind you – I just can’t bring myself to do it), more of being pregnant and nauseous and being fat and uncomfortable (oh how I miss those wonderfully skinny jeans I could wear after Lily), more diapers and pumping and bottles, more sleepless nights, more children to keep from pummeling each other , another child to worry about, more chaos I cannot control. Whew. See how three just throws everything off course? Really God? Are we really going to have three?

And after I ponder all of these things, I am still left with the fear that what happened with Lily, could happen all over again. And the other concerns fade,…and I really just beg God to keep this child healthy and growing for a very very long time inside me. I am currently 16 weeks pregnant. The closer I get to 28, the more anxious I get. In some ways, I can’t wait for week 28, because if I can make it that far, I’ll be so preciously thankful for each week after…and I think I’ll be able to get close to 40.

And then I return to thinking about Christmas and hoping beyond hope that next year I will have had a ‘huge’ full term baby and that we are then a complete (ye s, absolutely no more) family of 5 (with 3 children all born in July – really God…I mean come on…all three children born in July?). I look forward to both Jude and Lily tearing into presents and taking pictures of them holding the new little baby. And then…there will probably be nothing better than to experience Christmas (magic and lights and carols and stockings and smiles) through the eyes of a 4 year old and a 2 year old and a 6 month old.

fall

It was a beautiful fall here in Littleton. The trees changed vibrant colors and the leaves stayed on the trees for quite some time. I tried so hard to get a good family photo while the leaves were still on the trees. It was impossible. We took a zillion shots in our front yard. None of these are stellar, but it gives you a quick look into our growing and sometimes crazy family.

 

 

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

This weekend, we've been down in Albuquerque, NM with the Cobbs for the International Balloon Fiesta. On Friday night, we went to see the 'Special Shapes Glow' - where all the different character balloons glow off and on for about an hour. It was pretty spectacular. The kids enjoyed watching the balloons, swinging light sabers, eating funnel cakes, and watching fire works.

On Saturday Morning, we went back to the fair grounds for the balloon ascension (bright and early - 5 am). It was a brilliant display. The first balloons to go up were the dawn patrol, sent up to make sure the conditions were ok for all the others. Then wave upon wave of balloons went up between 7:00 and 8:00 am. There were approximately 500 balloons. Simply amazing. The kids enjoyed seeing the balloons, being able to touch the balloons, eating warm fresh donuts and hot chocolate, and finally ending the morning with burning off the last little bit of energy by chasing Uncle Daniel and jumping in the carnival jump house.