Our Little Lass has Arrived

Tuesday the 24th, our precious Lass arrived. She is so worth the wait.

She was 10 lbs, 7 oz and 21 inches of perfect baby girl. She gave us a bit of a scare, because she wasn't breathing very well when she was first born. Turns out she just had some extra amniotic fluid in her lungs and stomach that she needed to get out, but they took her to the nursery for the first few hours of her life to monitor her and check everything out. She quickly rebounded and is perfectly fine now. Here she is getting ready to go home, with Big Sister supervising.

All ready to go!

The proud Daddy.

First family photos.

So what does Miss think of her new baby sister? Here's their first meeting:

Immediately upon coming into the hospital room, Miss made a beeline for Lass and said, "Baby??" She was fascinated by her right away and barely even gave me a notice as she went to see her new sister. She is very intrigued by the things Lass does, like yawning, which Miss has to point out and imitate each time she sees it.

Miss also insisted on wearing her baby sister's hat. She pranced around very proudly once she got Grandma to put it on.
And she wanted to try to sit in the infant carseat.
She watched intently while I got Lass dressed to go home.
She was already trying to help by getting me a burp cloth.
Miss adores her sister.
I can't believe how Miss seemed to grow up overnight to me. She suddenly just seems so big. I am thrilled with how she has responded to her sister, always asking to touch and hug and kiss her. She truly looks distressed when she hears Lass crying and points it out to me every time, "Baby crying!" She is very interested in helping me with her sister and has been extra snuggly with her. I am so proud of my big girl.

By the way, I was able to have a successful medication-free VBAC delivery. It was quite an experience. I'll tell that story another day. Today is for introducing our two new girls, Lass and Miss - The Big Sister. They have filled our hearts with joy.

Come and Gone

Baby Girl's "due date" I mean. Friday was the big day. It came. And it went. I posted about this before here, but the same thing happened with Miss, who was born three days after her due date. Here's a photo of the hubby and me on Miss's due date before going out for a nice dinner.

We decided to go out to dinner again on Friday. Nothing fancy this time. Just a nice little Italian restaurant and then some fabulous ice cream. I had a waffle cone with one scoop of Espresso Oreo Chunk (or something like that) and one scoop of something vanilla with lots of chocolate and caramel things in it. Yum. We even packed our stuff in the truck since the restaurant we picked was very near the hospital where I'll be delivering, and I had been having contractions about 4 minutes apart for quite a while that evening. I wasn't super hopeful, because the contractions had been occurring while we went for a walk and then while I was vacuuming and getting ready to go. Once I sat down in the car, they slowed right down, just as I thought they would. But it didn't hurt to be prepared. Anyway, here's our due date photo from Friday.

I know the "due date" is just an estimate date of arrival, but it is a bit discouraging to watch it come and go. My mom said I was born 19 days late (!!!), so maybe I'm just destined to have babies who arrive late. I like to think maybe it's just so comfy in there for them they are reluctant to come out into the world. Whatever. I'm ready. So Baby Girl can come any time now. Really. Any time. Maybe she'll follow in her sister's footsteps and come three days late, which would be tomorrow. That would be good. Fingers crossed. At any rate, next Tuesday is her deadline. If she doesn't come before then (please, please let her come before then), my doctor is going to induce me on the 31st. Basically, since I've had a prior c-section, induction only means that my doctor will break my water and hope that gets things started. I'd much prefer to let things start on their own though, so hopefully this little girl will make her appearance in the next week.

So here's a question. As I'm sure you can imagine, I have heard tons of suggestions on ways to get labor started (a new one I heard recently was to repeatedly drive over railroad tracks). The thing I've been doing the most of is walking. Every day I go for at least one walk. In fact, Friday night my hubby and I were out walking with Miss before putting her to bed and going out to dinner. We stopped to chat with our next door neighbor and Hubby jokingly said that he wasn't going to let me stop walking until I went into labor. We happened to see the same neighbor at the restaurant we went to that night and he said "What, did you make her walk all the way here??" (the restaurant is roughly 20 miles from our house). We got a little chuckle out of that. Anyway, I'd love to hear your strategies, whether old wives' tales, silly ideas, or something that worked for you. So post a comment and tell me how to get this show on the road!

18-month "Miss"-cellany

I can't believe Miss is 18 months old! Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday we were here:

But those pictures were all taken about a year ago!

It's funny that I no longer commemorate the months passing with various milestones, but rather marvel every day in how much she is learning and growing. It amazes me the things she can suddenly do! For example, she recently completed a gymnastics class. The other day she bent over and just did a somersault by herself. She did it again today. And her language is just phenomenal. She says new words and phrases every day, and can repeat back to me just about anything I say. Today I said "Oh boy!" about something I was trying to get her excited to do, and she repeated it right back. I have no idea how many words she can say now, there are so many. It is so fun to talk to her. To see her understand me and actually answer my questions. And I adore her voice. The way she says certain words, like "bubbles" and "goggles" and "buh-byee," just makes me want to squeeze her and laugh every time. She is fascinated with colors. Right now most things are "pink," but sometimes she will correctly identify a "red car" or use the word "white" correctly. She also loves the number 2 and counting. She gets excited when she sees two of something and says "two!!!" She also likes to try to count. When we are counting she will point and say "twoooo, heeeee." Never any other numbers, but she's got those down!

Here are some of the other things she's enjoying right now.

She loves our dogs!!

She loves giving a stick to our younger dog. . .
. . .and gets so excited when he takes it!

Sometimes she just watches him chew on it. . .

. . .and sometimes she tries to take it back.

She makes funny faces all the time. She will sit in front of the mirror when I'm drying her hair after a bath and pull and pinch her face to try to "make faces," which is something she learned from her cousins in Iowa. Other times, she just makes funny faces because she's funny! She was actually telling me something serious here:

She is a total Daddy's girl. She likes to hang out wherever he is. She enjoys playing with him in the garage in our gym area. He plays music and she tries to lift the "big balls" (medicine balls) or dances around. These are some booty shakin' moves:

She is a big helper. She loves to help with laundry. She pushes the basket to the stairs and climbs up in front of me while I carry the basket behind. Then she hands me the clothes while I'm folding them. She also loves to help make the bed. Every day she gets the pillows for me when I do.


I am seriously in such awe of her all the time. I love to try to see things through her eyes, as she often notices things I completely miss or take for granted. And she gets such joy out of everything. It's impossible not to be happy when I'm with her. She is exuberance and sunshine and delight. Man, it's great to be "Mama" to my girl.

Big Girl Chair

Well, I've finally gotten Baby Girls' room almost complete. I got her crib sheets made, though I kind of slacked on making the crib skirt.

I got the artwork on the walls.

And we moved the big glider/recliner from Miss's room. We also moved Miss's small wicker rocker from her room so that she can sit and rock with me while I'm nursing or rocking the baby. At least that's the idea anyway! I still have to get the window treatments done. There is a blackout shade, but I still need to make panels.

So you may be wondering what we did with Miss's room after moving the chairs out of there? We gave her a Big Girl Chair, complete with tiny matching ottoman! The big pillows next to it are for me when we're reading stories before nap or bedtime.

We also put a cradle for her Baby there so she can get into doing baby care things alongside me, hopefully. The area is still a work in progress, as it looks a little sparse, but we're getting there. I did move the birdcage/chandelier lamp out of there for now. Though it would add a lot, the chain/cord makes me nervous, so it's in the guest bedroom until Miss gets a little bit older. And Miss loves her new chair. She loves to sit and read. . .

Or put her feet up. . .

And she is enjoying taking care of her Baby. Here she is tucking her in.

She's gonna be a GREAT big sister!!!!

My Dad

Today is my Dad's birthday. Naturally I have been thinking about him on his day. In fact, I've been thinking about him a lot lately. I have really come to appreciate what a great Dad I have. Not that I didn't already know this, but it has been more on my mind these past few months. I think this has something to do with some discussions I've had with others about how their fathers were involved in their lives. Or not so involved. It made me more conscious of the fact that there are lots of fathers out there who are bread-winner-authority-figure-type guys but who don't really do the DAD thing. I also think my recent thoughts about and appreciation for my own Dad come from the enjoyment I've gotten out of watching my husband be a Dad to Miss. I am so, so, so thankful that I married a man who is more like the Dad I had than like the hands-off-dad-type. And I'm thankful that I had the type of Dad who made me know that I had to find such a man to spend my life with. I love the fact that my hubby is so involved in playing with and taking care of Miss, and I know that both of our girls will have wonderful memories of times spent with their Dad. Just like I do.

And because I've been thinking so much about my Dad, and telling other people about him, I want to share some of the great memories I have of growing up with him. This is just a glimpse, but I hope you can see what kind of guy he is.

He taught me to ride a two-wheeler, shoot a bow and arrow, throw a tomahawk, drive a stick shift (my Mom and brother helped with this one too, it was a big job), and shoot a muzzleloader, among many, many other things.

He moved my stuff in and out of various dorm rooms, apartments, and houses, who knows how many times.

He tried to teach me to cook, though I wasn't interested at the time (I told him that I would be perfectly capable of reading and following a recipe when necessary). He did teach me a few basics though, and these days I enjoy talking cooking with him, as he's a great cook and I really enjoy cooking now.

When I was in fourth grade he coached my basketball team because no one else would do it. I was horrible at basketball, though I truly didn't know it then. And my dad doesn't even really like basketball. But I wanted to play and we needed a coach. So he coached.

He helped build the most amazing Homecoming parade float for my Freshman class when I was class president. It was Dumbo and it was fantastic. We blew the upperclassmen out of the water in the float competition.

He used to build the best snowmen. One year we had a bust of Abraham Lincoln. I'm talking a 3D representation of what you see on a penny. It was cool.

He belayed me when I was really into rock climbing and didn't have anyone else to go with me.

He was there for everything. Volleyball games, cheerleading competitions, gymnastics meets, choir concerts, and on and on. He was just a cool Dad. He still is. But now he's a fantastic Grandpa too. Happy Birthday Dad.

A Fun First

Pigtails!!! Miss sported her first pigtails today and I was totally in love with them and with her wearing them. Surprisingly, she didn't pull them out either. Gotta love the old-school plastic barrettes too, just like I had when I was little. Check out the cuteness.

She had to thoroughly check out her new "do" in the mirror.

Very thoroughly

She did a little happy dance when she decided she liked it.