Monday, December 31, 2012

Welcome Baby August!

Baby August Gabriel arrived on Tuesday November 20th at 11:59 pm.  My mom had been in town for 5 days, and we had time to do some grocery shopping and get the house all stocked up with food.  My water broke around 4 pm on Tuesday the 20th, and I summoned Jason to come home.  We had our baby in arms before the day was through, just barely.  Timing was perfect, and we returned home with our new son on Thanksgiving Day to enjoy a nice feast prepared by mom.

August is a well-cooked butterball turkey ringing in at 8 lbs 3 ounces and 19 inches long.  He has a nice head of strawberry blond hair, and looks like he got a crew cut at the barbershop just before he was born.  So far, he's been a little cuddly bug.  Thankful!  We have our pair- 2 beautiful children; a little girl, and our sweet baby son.

Augie or Gus:  It seems there are lot of "Gus" fans out there.  I get it- it's pretty cute to call a chubby little baby "Gus."  I myself, will call him Augie, with one "g."

Isla:  Has been very sweet with August.  She tries to help by bringing him binkies.  And likes to hold her baby brother and comment on all his tiny parts.


The 1st 2 photos are from day 1; next are the professional photos taken by Nikki Loehr; Lastly, August at 1 month old- a smile I caught on Christmas Day.


Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Little Guy, fully cooked














A couple of weeks ago, we got another look at this little guy- it looks like he's got some full lips and chubby cheeks going on.  (Does he bear a resemblance to the sleeping baby on the right?)  The ultrasound technician commented on his full head of hair!  I'm hangin' in there as the last couple of weeks approach.  Despite his cramped quarters, baby boy is still rambunctious as ever, especially in the evenings.  I feel like my internal organs have taken a beating.  I can't wait for the indigestion to go away so I can eat like a normal person again.  If you ask my how I am doing, I will tell you, "I have felt sick to my stomach every day since Easter weekend."  As in the Easter weekend in April... 7 months ago.

Jason painted my belly with a picture of scuba baby for Halloween (does that dog head make my belly look big?).  Isla was a shark, but wasn't that into Halloween this year.  Her daily hang-ups and control issues regarding clothing selection made costume-wearing difficult.  In other news, Isla has all her shark teeth- that last 2 year molar on the top right finally made it way through.  That means, no more teething-related crabbiness!  Only regular 2 year old just-for-no-reason crabbiness.  She is very excited for baby brother to arrive and talks about how he's going to hold onto her finger with his little hand.

Reinforcements are arriving tomorrow- Grandma Lontai is coming for baby time back up.  But today, Isla and I made one last trip to the zoo, just the two of us.  She noted the tiny fishies in the hippo tank and said "they're so cute."  Which made me remember the first time she signed "fish."  Here's Isla, sitting on top of her brother.


Sunday, September 16, 2012

Isla Rose, 2 and a 1/2 years old!



September 13th marked 2 and 1/2 years for Isla.  We have been trying to work through some transitions before baby brother arrives.  She is potty trained, mostly (except for pooping in diaper at nap).  We got her a new big girl bed, but after the excitement wore off, she decided the crib is still the best place to sleep.  Isla also started attending Laurel Heights Weekday School 3 mornings a week.  After the first few tearful drop-offs, she began to like school and now has lots of fun there with her teachers and friends.

Isla completed a few more sessions of Ms. Diana's swim lessons.  She was once again our little fish all summer long, and we took her swimming once, and sometimes twice a day.


This time in Isla's life is marked with a few toddler-obsessions.  Here some of the recent and ongoing fads.

Sharks:  I think she started to get into sharks because the shark scene in Finding Nemo was a little bit scary.  Isla likes to talk about sharks and requests that sharks are drawn for her.  We stopped by the Texas State Aquarium on the way home from the beach last weekend, and could have very well stood in front of the shark tank and talked about them for an hour.  Instead we tried to move on after 20 minutes or so, but Isla kept running back for more sharks.


Skunks:  Another obsession stemming from the dramatic moment when I tried to get Angel and Isla back in the house after smelling a skunk one evening.  I think I freaked Isla out a little bit on this one, because she often likes the review the fact the the skunk is "all gone" and that he can't come inside the house.

Tiny Baby:  One particularly small doll was a big time favorite for Isla.  Except, the doll had to be stripped of her little pink dress and just wear her "jammies."  After the white undergarments became grey, I asked Isla to give her tiny baby a bath in a little tub in the kitchen.  She was so funny and took the utmost care bathing her little doll.


Annie:  Jason began a bedtime ritual of whistling the "Tomorrow" song from Annie.  Then we showed her the videos of "Tomorrow" and "Hard Knock Life," then the entire movie.  She has been really into reenacting scenes, such as "Sandy, " while she drags Angel around by the collar.  I have also seen her open a door and yell out "Mrs. Hanigan!" and close it again.  

Monday, July 30, 2012

Baby Boy

Here's a little project I've been working on:


This time around it's a baby boy.  He's due November 26th.  While I didn't experience the extreme stomach-flu-like nausea this time around, 1st trimester was still a doozy.  The hallmark of this pregnancy is a mild yucky-tummy feeling that I have most days, still, while well into my second trimester.  Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice... well... I get a baby boy?    

Here's me with baby boy half way cooked at 20 weeks.  

Texas Beach Trip


After 3 years of living in Texas, we finally made a trip to the Texas coast- Port Aransas.  I wish we'd gone sooner!  Just 3 hours drive and we had everything we needed- sun, fun, and sand.  So, we camped out on the beach for a few days, and our friends joined us for the weekend.  Isla loved playing in the ocean and the sand.  Weeks later, she still suggests most days that we should visit the ocean again.  


4th of July at friends' house in Portland, TX.  Isla is a fearless water baby.  She did the water slide over and over, until she just was too tired to go again.

The Texas beach has seaweed, but the warm ocean water is so nice.

Having lunch in the pop-up tent

Playing with the rainbow clams at the surf


3 little friends.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Underwears

We have reached a new milestone in parenting- Potty Training.  Isla seemed ready to potty train with increasing awareness of wet and dirty diapers during the spring.  But she never had an "accidental" success on the potty.  So, Jason and I both read from cover to cover "Toilet Training in Less than A Day" by Azrin.  This book was written in the 70's and has some funny out of date rhetoric.  One Saturday, after my dear husband kissed me on the forehead, and wished me good luck, he was off, and I was left to potty train with Isla, in less than a day.

Isla quickly grew tired of the teaching the "baby that pees" how to go potty.  Soon after that, she refused to eat or drink any of the special juices, snacks, and treats that were a part of the training process.  She continued to wet her new underwear several times throughout the morning.  And I had vertigo from standing up and sitting down on the floor so many times.  So, I gave it a rest.  Jason came home and gave it a try, and had the same result.  I spend the rest of the day in bed.  Sunday we tried again.  Still no success, nothing in the potty.  Later that evening, I took that little girl out to the Carriage House, with it's cement floor, and played with her naked on the bottom for 2 hours.  All the while keeping a watchful eye on her little girl parts, until I noticed a sprinkle on the floor.  I quickly sat her on her pot, and she did it!

Isla and her first pee-pee in the pot:

We spent the following week, whenever at home, with Isla commando and she had many more successes in the potty.  But she could not keep her undies dry.  Along came weekend #2, and she finally put it all together and got better at keeping her underwear dry.  So, we began to leave the house in underwears.  So far, as long as I get her on the potty frequently when we are out, she's doing great.  At home, she goes on her own.


She is so cute and proud of herself and her new skills.  She tells me every day, "Isla's not a baby, she's a big girl."  There's a lot of potty talk going on at our house.  Here's Isla talking about Rhino Poop at the zoo.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Isla Rose, 2 years old


Isla is now 2. On her 2nd birthday, we went and saw "If You Take a Mouse to School" production at the Magik Theatre in San Antonio. Our friends Jacqueline and Jack joined us.  She loved the play. Afterwards, we played on the Hemisfair Park fortress playground.

Isla is still my little motor girl and will always find something challenging and semi-dangerous on the playground, and then do that action over and over and over until she feels she's got it down. Here she is climbing a tree; she actually attempted to stand and walk on it. One her 2nd birthday she took on the climbing wall at the Cove. We couldn't get her to stop doing it long enough to eat. Long after her dinner was cold, she sat down and ate ravenously.

Isla is talking up a storm, and gabs away in her crib from the moment she wakes up, until the moment she falls asleep. The funniest thing she says right now it "I'll hold you, Dabid." Which means she wants to hold the cat. She also tells me "I'll hold you, Mommy" with outstretched little arms.  Which means she would like to be picked up. She loves to take care of her baby doll, and feeds her bottles and changes her diaper. She also spends a lot of time caring for her pet doggie.


Isla has started to sing sweet little songs throughout the day.  The one that's the most clear is "Shoot, Fly."  She loves to take risks jumping across a ravine, like coffee table to sofa.  She often counts "one, two, three, four, seben, eight, nine, ten!"  She grabs books off her bookshelf and reads herself to sleep in her crib.  Isla is nice and sturdy.  This baby who started out so tiny (6 lb 4 oz and 18 inches), jumped ahead in the growth charts and is now at 60th for height and weight.






Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Isla Rose, 22 months old

Oh no! It's not happening is it? Are you 22 months old?!? Last week you turned 22 months. I kept thinking all of December, it's a little ways off, and then it happened. That means your next blog post will be 2 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My sweet little Isla, I can't even begin to mention everything I want to say in this post. The verbal explosion came, it's happened and happening. You started talking so much since Thanksgiving. Now you are staying 2 word phrases. You can tell me exactly what you want. And this past week "ing" words like running, sleeping, dancing. You understand concepts like turn-taking (well, not so much in practice) and demand your "Turn!" Or when you want us to do something again you indicate it's our "turn." You understand the concept of 2, as in a pair. You told me when there were 2 dogs in the yard, 2 peas on the plate. You are fascinated with the drama of someone or something getting hurt, and will talk about it a lot when it happens: "Oh NO!" "Fall down" "Boom" "Hurt." And you also say "Bye, see you soon." Your little voice is so sweet I just want to put it in a bottle and save it for a rainy day.

You have begun to protest your afternoon nap, and sometimes outright refuse. In fact you protest a lot of things, especially getting dressed and diaper changes. You like to run away and giggle. You tell us when you have a dirty diaper, by very accurately saying "poop."

You are into pretend play and your dolls. You feed them bottles and walk them in the doll stroller. You push Bunny around the grocery store with the mini-cart. Sometimes you are so sweet and loving, giving hugs, snuggles, and kisses to mommy and daddy. You can ask for the book you want to hear and lately that is "Mop" which means "Ten Apples Up On Top." Renamed "Mop" because the part where the bear chases the guys with a mop is the most exciting part. You are a good eater, and your favorite thing right now is "noodles."

You are such a sweet, silly, happy girl, except when you're not. I see 3 out of 4 canines have finally poked out. Man, those little buggers have been giving you a hard time and make you very cranky on some days.

You like to dance, and sing songs like "Wheels on the Bus" and "If you're happy and you know it." You shout "Hooray!" for the later. You like to hang from the bars at Little Gym, and any where else you can find to hang. You can run. I'm very impressed with the aim you have when you throw a ball. You know your colors and a few letters. You love to paint, and ask for me to pour out the colors that you want.

Where's the remote for life? I want to pause it right here.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Welcome Baby Sophia!

Congratulations to my big Brother, Joe and sis-in-law, Michelle. Baby Sophia Maureen was born January 9th, 2012 at 7 lbs and 20 inches. Jason and I are now Uncle Jason and Aunt Amanda for the first time.

She sure is cute.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!

Our Holiday Time has come and gone.

We hosted the Seats' side, minus Tina :(, at our house for Thanksgiving this year. Highlights of the weekend included the Scrabble and Blockus marathon. Isla was a good eater, as usual, and enjoyed the feast.

My table was beautiful, if I do say so myself.
But even better with all the people.

Then we headed up north to Peoria for Christmas. We were without my brother Joe and SIL Michelle, as they are expecting their little girl to arrive any day now. But we did get to enjoy time with brother Jon and Dan, and their cute girlfriends Erin and Nikki (respectively).


Upon arrival in Peoria, my dad struck up a game of hide-the-bunny with Isla as we waited in line to report a missing bag. Well, she must have been impressed because she finally said it- "Papa." She also said "Ram-ma" a couple of times.


On New Years' Eve we headed over to a friends' house where there were 3 toddlers present and celebrated "Baby New Years" at 7 pm with the folks over in England. Isla, Owen, and Truman loved the sparking cider.