Homecoming Day!!!!!!!!

I almost completely forgot that today marks exactly one year since we brought Elise home from the hospital!  (Thanks for the reminder, Susan!)  So much has happened this past year, and we are so thankful for our beautiful little girl!  Here are some photos from that wonderful day!

All bundled up and ready to leave the NICU!

We were so giddy that we managed to take a zoomed in self-portrait!

Coco ran out to the car to greet Elise!

Her first trip through the door!

Sleeping in mommy's arms while mommy was online (maybe updating the blog?).

Really Long Update

36 Weeks

It's crazy for me to even type this, but as of today, I'm 36 weeks pregnant!  Praise the Lord!  I don't feel as big as I thought I would; however, my mom and youngest brother were here for a couple of days this week and the pictures my mom took proved to me that I look bigger than I feel/think I do.  But that's okay!  Because my little girl is still on the inside growing!!!!!!

C-Section

My c-section is scheduled for less than three weeks from today, and I can hardly believe it!  I've definitely been feeling the need in the last couple of weeks especially to get everything wrapped up and ready for her to come.  Nothing was ready when Elise was born (for obvious reasons) so I've had somewhat of a hard time getting into the mindset that I actually get to prepare for Evelyn's arrival.  Part of me feels like it's "normal" to not have anything ready and that I'll have time while Evelyn is hospitalized (and I'm home) to finish up.  The concept of actually getting to take her home when I go home is so new!

First Visitor

We plan to have Elise be the first visitor in the hospital after Evelyn is born.  I hadn't even thought of it being possible for Elise to come meet her sister until someone mentioned that they could picture how cute it will be when Kit brings Elise in to meet her little sister.  From that moment on, I've been hooked on the idea of my mom bringing Elise to the hospital, Kit meeting them in the hallway and then Kit and Elise coming in the hospital room where Evelyn and I are waiting.  Then all three of us having some cuddle time!  My cousin and his wife just had their second daughter (about 15 months after their first as well) and have posted the cutest pictures of their two girls that just make me that much more excited to meet Evelyn and introduce her to Elise!

Hiccups

About a week and a half ago I started feeling Evelyn hiccup!  I don't recall ever feeling Elise hiccup, at least not this distinctly.  It's such an amazing experience.  My youngest brother, Jonny, even got to see them from the outside when we were in the car running errands on Tuesday.

Elise

Our first born has been developing immensely lately!  She's saying all sorts of words, getting better at saying words she's had in her vocabulary for a while, waving, standing on her own, crawling like a maniac, learning to take toys in and out of various objects (and how to open and close the lid of her cookie jar toy on command thanks to her Uncle Jonny), continuing to give mommy (or whatever bigger person is around her) the various pieces of dust/dirt/leaves/etc she finds on the ground, eating pretty much everything we give her and so much more!

We decided to go ahead and simply put her in the Pack'N'Play (since the crib is in Evelyn's room) for all sleep for another couple of months.  She just wasn't quite ready to be in the toddler bed, already had one big transition with moving to a new room and was continuously very tired and fussy.  So we'll plan to try again once she's walking and once she's gotten used to having Evelyn around.  She does love her sleep though, and makes it very clear when she's ready for to take a nap or go to bed at night.  She fusses, crawls to you or to her bedroom door (which has a gate on it to keep Coco from getting into her stuffed animals) and sometimes even starts saying, "Ny, ny, ny, ny," (aka "night, night").  It's pretty darn cute.

She also loves bath time.  The other night I got all of her bath supplies set up with her in my arms and then took her into her bedroom to take off her diaper since it was poopy.  When she's wet, I just take off her diaper in the bathroom and put her straight in the bath so that's what she's more used to.  She started sobbing when we left the bathroom because she was so excited about her bath.  Her favorite thing to do in the bath is splash, which we just get a huge kick out of.  She's also not averse to having water in her eyes.  Ever since she gained control of her hands, she hasn't wanted me to block the shampoo rinse water from getting in her face.  Not much goes that way anyway since I use a cup to rinse, but she'd rather get her face wet than have me block the water.

We plan to get her a small little firm plastic pool for the backyard this summer so that Kit can give her "swim lessons" (aka have a blast splashing in the pool).  He actually used to teach swim lessons back in his lifeguard/swim team/water polo days and is really excited about how much she loves the water!  And she has an adorable little swimsuit to wear so I'll be sure to get lots of photos!

Photos

Speaking of photos, I haven't been taking nearly as many lately, but here are some to get you by!

For Kit's birthday at the beginning of April, I surprised him with a day trip to the beach.  We had left Elise for the second time ever (first time with his parents) at our house the night before and then she went to their house while we went to the beach.  She had a blast, especially with their two cats, and we enjoyed spending a few hours (we got all that we wanted to do done rather quickly and I found myself very exhausted due to all the walking around while pregnant) at our favorite beach spot - Cannon Beach. 

The weather was perfect!  Super cold and rainy!  We didn't quite dress as well for the rain as we should have (and Kit didn't bring a hat), but it was still fun!

Unrelated to my random face in this picture, that day was the first time I had attempted to put on shoes in months since I've been wearing my Tevas for most of this pregnancy (and can't fit into shoes at this point).  Kit and I had a good laugh when I had to have him come over and help me loosen my shoelaces (and tie my shoes) so that I could actually get my feet into my Converse Allstars.  I haven't tried wearing shoes since.

Not the best picture, but for Kit's birthday, Elise and I put her bows in our hair and she had little pigtails (in the back...completely unnoticeable in this picture).

Playing with an old water polo ball.

Playing with Coco's bone while looking sneaky.

Happy as a clam with Coco's bone and one of his key toys.

Showing off the cute dress her grandma made her from fabric she's had for 20+ years.

Playing with the musical turtle that her nana bought her for her birthday.

Simply being cute and giggly!

The little storage system we got for Elise's toys and books in her big girl room.  (I put the green paper on the squares that have backs and love how it turned out.)

Eating her first whole slice of pizza.  She'd had it chopped up for her before but not whole.

After moving to her highchair to enjoy the pizza slice.

Not sure what she had eaten here, but she had it all over her hair.

Gotta love how messy she sometimes gets when she eats!

Huge laughs while being tickled upside down by daddy.

Showing off her cottage cheese goatee.  Cottage cheese is one of her all time favorite foods.

Showing off her cool sunglasses.  We keep this pair in the car, and I almost always put them on her after I buckle her in.  By the time I close the car door, she's usually taken them off.

100 Miles of Nowhere

On Friday Kit went a little bit crazy and completed his 100 Miles of Nowhere Ride.  He rode around our block approximately 250 times, using a bike computer to track his mileage.  He managed to confuse many of the neighbors and to provide hours of entertainment for Elise as she and I sat out on the lawn playing and cheering him on.

His recap and a few photos were posted on the Fat Cyclist (blog hosting the race) website this morning and can be read by click here. 

Below are our photos from the day (and for my enjoyment, please take note of the song as I chose it specially for my aging husband and am giggling as I type this)...

Enter 100miles to watch.

We're Still Here

Just wanted to post an update to let anyone who might be wondering know that we're still here and I'm still pregnant.  I have a list of blog posts I want to write and a bunch of photos on the camera.  But lately blogging just hasn't been one of those things that I have a strong desire to do.  And while I love keeping people updated this way and having the documentation of our lives, it's not something that I think should be a undesired chore on my to do list.  So I've been lagging and just adding to my list of posts so that those posts can be written when I get in the mood.  Plus, Elise is just too darn much fun these days to pass on simply playing with her in favor of being on the computer.

Until then, here are a few updates to keep you in the loop...

• I'm 33 weeks, 3 days pregnant!  It's completely surreal and hard to explain.  Everything about pregnancy these days is new since I've never been even close to this pregnant before.  Although I'm getting increasingly more uncomfortable, I can't help but be thrilled at the joy of getting to grow my baby girl on the inside where she's supposed to be!
  
• I had another trip to L&D for monitoring on the day I hit 32 weeks because of this horrible pain I got in my back that had me stuck on my knees hunched over a ottoman and unable to move for about 15 minutes with continuing lighter pain after.  My OB thinks Evelyn might have been on a nerve and then I most likely pulled a muscle as well because the initial pain was definitely not muscular but the residual pain was.  I had troubles/pain all last week but seem to be better in the past few days.
  
• Elise is officially a little girl and not at all a baby anymore.  We're continually amazed and enamored with her development.  We haven't been to her pediatrician since her one year appointment so we don't know how much she weighs or how long she is, but she's getting to be quite tall and thin (in a good way).
  
• Speaking of the pediatrician, Elise actually hasn't been to any doctor since her last pediatrician appointment, which means she's coming up on two months of not needing medical care.  Amazing!
  
• Elise's talking all the time and pointing at everything saying, "Dat," (that) so that we will explain to her whatever she's pointing at.  Lights and ceilings are her two favorite things to point out.  She really like the word "ceiling" and often says, "Sssss," after we say it, which I think is her way of trying to say it herself.  She's also started barking quite frequently both at things that get her attention at home and out in public.  Her version of "woof, woof" is actually "ooo, ooo" so at least people don't realize that's what she's doing and simply think she's excitedly exclaiming.  But it's definitely her barking skills that she's learned from Coco.
  
• Kit's getting ready to ride his first century ride on Friday.  It's called 100 Miles of Nowhere and is put on by a blog he reads to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation.  The basic premise of the race is to have your ride be ridiculous so Kit's plan is to ride around our block (.4 miles) 250 times.  He got a small computer for his bike that tracks his mileage so we don't actually have to count the laps.  Should be interesting!
  
• Elise has moved into her big girl room (photos to come once the room is actually finished...still need to sell the extra dresser we have in there and to finish my painting project on her wall) and into a toddler bed.  Our initial plan was to get a twin mattress and put it on the floor until she got used to it.  But some friends were looking to pass on their toddler bed the very weekend we were heading to pick up Elise's mattress.  The moment Kit brought the toddler bed in the door, Elise fell in love and was playing with it.  So we just got another crib/toddler bed mattress and set it up in her new room.
  
  So far the transition has been a bit rocky, and Elise has been crankier than usual because she's more tired.  She tends to get out of the bed to play (all toys have been removed so there's not anything all that exciting to play with) and hasn't figured out how to get back in (though she easily could if she really tried...she's just not that motivated).  We decided after a little over a week to go ahead and put her in her Pack'N'Play for naps so that she gets solid sleep then.  And at nights we put her in her toddler bed.  She normally gets out and falls asleep on her rug or the hardwoods so we go in and check on her before we go to bed and put her back into the toddler bed where she then does a pretty good job of staying.
  
• Oh, and I have a long post written about this (just need the photos), but last week a couple of my dear friends threw me a "dessert for diapers" baby shower.  It was amazing to actually be pregnant at the shower, and I was blessed by the time spent with friends.  Not to mention that we now have a nice supply of diapers to get us started with Evelyn!

Well, this ended up being longer than I planned, and now I need to go get to some housework before Elise wakes up from her nap.  But you're fairly up-to-date now!