Old Navy Friends: Still a favorite...!

I am so behind, I don't even know where to start. So I will just leave you with this for now:

Persistance is the key.

I forsee a thumb-sucker in our future.

Sometimes, there are no words.

Random...

I have been playing with a filtering application on my iphone to edit photos. Here are some of my favorites...

Sienna told me she could tap dance on the driveway...

I told you this post was random. Sorry.

Sienna's First Haircut

I have been putting this off for months and we finally did it. Sienna had her first haircut. I was afraid of the following things:

1) I would cry and therefore scare Sienna

2) Her curls would disappear (they did) :(

3) Sienna would be be upset because she liked having long hair like Rapunzel.

But, we had to do something because she was having more bad hair days than good. We talked about it on and off for a few weeks and last Saturday we told her excitedly that today we were going to take her for her haircut. Thankfully she followed our lead and she was excited. She looked a little nervous once we got to the salon, but when they called her name and ask her which chair she wanted to sit in, she confidently picked the Fire Engine.

Here is the "before"...

And the after!

She feels so grown up. When she saw her little friends she flipped her hair over her shoulder to show off her new look. She loves it. And believe it or not, I didn't even cry! Mission accomplished.

Baby Brother!

I am sorry that it has taken so long to update the blog! I have been sleep walking for the past 2 weeks and I am pretty sure I am going to fill this blog post with misspellings and grammatical errors. Additionally, I am having a lot of random formatting issues. Hopefully you can look past it as it is being written by a sleep-deprived mother of two.

I was about 36 weeks when my doctor said I was measuring ahead(meaning my belly size suggested I was further along) and I was already 1 1/2 centimeters dilated. This was not the first time I was "measuring ahead" and the doctor wanted to be sure the baby was head down because she thought he might come sooner than later. The same week, we had an ultrasound to be sure and of course, the little stinker was breech. The next week I had a follow up appointment and he had not moved yet but I was 3 centimeters and contracting. So my doctor scheduled a C-Section for that for that Friday, May 13 as she was concerned that I might go into labor and end up having an emergency C-section. She also said she could schedule an ECV, a procedure to try to turn the baby. She said it usually works about 50%

of the time and it is somewhat painful for the mother. Daniel and I gave it a lot of thought and decided to try it because we were hoping to avoid the surgery if possible.

We arrived Friday morning early for the ECV. They gave me an epidural (which I really liked in comparison to my epidural-less labor with Sienna) and pushed and smushed my belly to get the baby to turn around. After a few minutes, he was partially turned and the doctors stopped the pressure on my stomach. I not sure why - to give me, the baby, or their hands a break but regardless - the baby flipped back to his original position. At this point, my doctors said that if he didn't want to turn, it usually meant there was a reason. So they began to prep me for the surgery.

The surgery was so fast! I couldn't believe it. We thought they were still getting things ready and I heard one of the doctors say "there is his bottom and shoulders...!" and then we heard him cry. They moved him over to the area where they weighed him and I looked across theroom. I asked if he was healthy and the doctor said yes. My next question was "Is he big? He looks big!?" Well, he might not be the biggest baby ever, but he was definitely big for me. Sheesh. He arrived weighing in at a whopping 8 lb 12 oz. In comparison to my lil Sienna who weighed 6 lb 4 oz, almost a 9 lb baby was a surprise. My doctor said that his size could be why he wasn't able to turn around and I am glad it worked out the way it did :) Here he is...

First picture with Mom & Dad


Proud Grandma (Pop Pop was at home on Sienna duty)



Sienna meets her brother

This pic is blurry but I love it because she voluntarily gave him a kiss.

Daddy doing one of many diaper changes in the hospital.

Daniel had run out for lunch and a few of my girlfriends were visiting. All of a sudden, John Henry did a big diaper and I hadn't had practice changing a baby boy's diaper yet. Fortunately all three of my friends had boys so they spring to action. I was a little concerned that it seemed that it took all three of them to change his diaper but I have since changed about 700 and I realized that I am able to do it by myself.


We are settling in well. Sienna is seriously the best big sister in the world. She is so patient and whenever he cries, she runs over and puts a blanket on him, pats his head or holds his hand. She likes to make sure she kisses him every day. John Henry is pretty easy going but he wants to eat ALL of the time. I guess that makes sense since he is practically the size of a toddler. I was reminded that John Henry arrived 10 years to the day that we graduated at Virginia Tech. A lot has happened since then! We are excited to be a family of four now and we are grateful for two beautiful, healthy kids :)

Out of the Mouths of Babes - Part Deux.

I realize that a lot of the things my child are not as funny as I think they are, but I am posting it anyway....Feel free to not laugh.

(Eating Valentine's Day conversation hearts...)

Sienna: "The question is, I like the red ones."

(I like this one since it was not a question AND there were no red hearts in the box. Hmmm.)

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Me: "Sienna, please try some peas."
Sienna: "Mommy, the peas are not awesome."

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Me: "Lay down, I'll put the blankets on you."
S: "I don't need the blankets."
Me: "But you will be cold!"
S: "It's ok - I'll just get into a little ball"

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S: "Mommy, can I take two books with me to read while I do my privacy?"

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S: "Mommy, I want a drink that doesn't go on my mustache" (while drinking Kefir yogurt)

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(Sienna blocking the doorway)
Me: "Umm - Open sesame?"
S: (Shaking her head) "No Mommy, you say "Excusez-moi".

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S: "Mommy, how old are you?"
Me: "I'm 32."
S: "THIRTY TWO! I better tell Daddy!"

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S: "Sometimes Ranny calls me "Dear". But she doesn't mean "Reindeer"...

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S: "Mommy, you don't do too much"
Me: "What do you mean?"
S: "Daddy goes to work, but you don't do too much."

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Reading her book "Clap Your Hands" before bed.
Me: "Count your fingers...count your toes..."
S: "Well, I'm not going to count my toes because my toes are hiding in my jammies."

My lil Stinker

Photo Shoot

We recently painted both the baby and Sienna's rooms. We let Sienna help pick the colors and although she requested red for her own room for months, she switched to light blue at the last minute. Whew. So baby bro got dark blue and Sienna's room was to be light blue. Here are Sienna and Daddy starting on baby brother's room...

I was posting a couple of picture to show the progress...

...but "someone" couldn't help but jump into the photos. (Maybe it is in her genes...what do you think, Aunt Sue?) :0)

Then we moved over to take pictures in Sienna's room, but the photo shoot became a dance recital.

This picture occured moments before she twirled into the ottoman where she (somehow) hit her knee on the metal bar inside it. She told me that wouldn't have happened if she was wearing her ballerina dress instead of her PJ's. Last minute bedroom dance parties can be dangerous