More pictures of Meg

I finally got a picture with Meg's eyes open. Yes, her name will be Meg, Meg Jeanette, the middle name is a combination of one grandma's name and the middle name of the other grandma, so we thought it would be good, it was also a suggestion from Meg's great grandmother, which helped to confirm we're on the right track.

I also had to show a picture of Tessa getting ready to give kisses to her baby sister, they are so cute with each other.

GOOD NEWS!

Emily and Aaron are thrilled to announce the birth of their new baby girl. She was born on Tuesday night April 28th, at 8:40pm, she weighed 7lbs 5oz and is 19 1/2" long. Her name is still being decided by her parents. Tessa met her today, and it was a great first meeting of two sisters that I know will be life-long friends, photos of their encounter will be posted soon.

Mom and baby are both doing well and resting at the Hospital. Tessa spent Tuesday night with some friends but is now home with dad. Hopefully Emily will be back to blogging soon because my head is completely empty of any sharp wit that we both love to display on this site. Hope everything is well with you and your families wherever you may be.

A little more Tessa cuteness

In this video you'll see how I've pretty much failed as a mother...listen for the "um"... I have no idea where that word came from!

Just a reminder

I just wanted to remind you about Laura's March of Dimes - Walk for Babies that she'll be doing on Saturday. Our family really appreciates her supporting us by participating this year and I'm sure she'd appreciate any support (even $5.00) you could give her. If you want to, click on the button to the right to visit her MOD walk webpage ----->

Cinderella

Well Alicia left, so we had to go to the next best option.


She's young, but seems to have a lot of work in her...

Some Randomness

I have to preface this by saying I truly think we have a responsibility (stewardship if you will) to take care of the earth, particularly in regards to use and disposal of our natural resources...however - THIS is hilarious! Along those lines I insist to Aaron that I only shower every other day FOR THE ENVIRONMENT - and to save on shampoo. I am so ecologically and economically aware.

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I am dilated to 3 cm. Aaron is hoping she'll be born closer to the weekend, so I asked him if he thought I should still go grocery shopping this afternoon. I thought his reply would be motivated by his timeline, but no - he really does care:

"Don’t go grocery shopping- are you crazy? Do you really want to have a baby on the dirty floor at Market Basket with a bunch of punk teenagers running around you asking where they should give the baby a tattoo or ear piercing?"

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Tessa has spent the past two years always, always, always, being the littlest. All of her church friends are older than she is, many people still calls her Baby Tessa. Mommy and Daddy baby her like you wouldn't believe (I'm not even going to give examples, its a bit embarrassing).

Then last night - oh the glory of it - we babysat a 10 month old friend. And I learned that my sweetie is a bit power hungry. At first she had fun crawling next to the baby, leading her, and then even holding her hand to help her walk.

Then she started taking toys. When you can say "Mime!" (in case its not obvious that is Tessa for "mine") the world is your oyster. Oy. I am now just a bit terrified about the upcoming familial change...

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Then I learned that she came by it honest. Last night I got out of bed to check on Tessa and when I got back Aaron stole my leg pillow.

"Um, thats my pillow," I said meekly.

"No, its Mime" he proclaimed.

It wasn't until I got up, walked around the bed, pulled his pillow off the floor and shoved it (meekly) under the blankets that he relented...and even then, begrudgingly. I guess he grew up being the youngest in his family - and now that he is older than me...

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I added a link on the sidebar to another blog I post on - there are tons of great book reviews on it, if you are looking for something to read.

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One last thought before I go.

It took me 13 weeks to get from "cervix just beginning to shorten" to "3cm dilated" so - this "family of four" fantasy could still be a ways off. (It also took a calculator to figure out how 37-24=13...I've got problems.)

Thirty. Seven. Weeks.

This is me leaping out of bed this morning.


Of course, after all that exertion I'm pretty much out for the count the rest of the day. I guess going to the gym, painting the bedroom, washing the car, planting my garden and serving lunch at a soup kitchen will have to wait until tomorrow. Or for a few weeks, when I'm not pregnant and can really get things done.

I need a special tunnel to safely cross the highway.

I feel so incredibly pregnant today. I am moving at the speed of cooling asphalt. If I were to be found in the desert of the southwest, crawling along, or gasp, flipped over on my back, unable to right myself, I could halt the construction of a major retail distribution center (yes, that is a random reference to the majestic desert tortoise). At times like this it is so convenient to have a toddler by the hand and let people then think I am being a patient mom, allowing my little one to set our leisurely pace. But now you know, I'm slowing her down.

I just ate crackers and cheese and feel like I've left an all you can eat Chinese buffet after four trips back to the won ton table.

But when I write that I still think "mmmmm, Won Tons!" I can assure you that I am not one of those women who claim "When I was pregnant with little Shalaydon I only wanted fresh fruits and vegetables." Rather, when I am pregnant I want: fried food, creamy cheesy food, and/or fried cheese. And dairy. And chocolate. The only difference between this and not being pregnant is the increased urgency and the lack of (okay, the diminishment of) guilt. Thank you "What to Expect..." for the little blurb telling me I need cholestrol to build this little body.

Speaking of food, when is dinner? I better get moving now if I want to make it to the table in time...

Littlest Big Girl

Auntie took this picture, I'm pretty sure Tessa was inviting Alicia to " 'M on" (come on).

If I'd never met these two people before this picture would make me instantly fall in love with them.

Sweet girl. Happy Mom. Big Belly.
(Also, who knew Tessa was such a blondie? We have no where near the same hair color!)

It was a great day to be a dog at the beach. And a great day for a little girl who loves "dods" to be at the beach.

Tessa has just learned how to whisper "secrets" in our ears. She may have learned to whisper during the infamous pea-cupcake incident when Auntie and I were conspiring while Daddy was in the bathroom. When he came out we went silent but Tessa turned to him and said "Pss, sssppp, sp. Ssssppp, ppppsss, ssssppp," in exact replica of what we must have sounded like to her.

She feeds the kitty every day. The only thing I have to do is open the fridge so she can get the half a envelope of food out. Then she takes the clip off, opens the package, picks up Quincy's bowl, dumps the food in very thoroughly, puts the bowl on his tray, centers it with the bowl of dry food, picks up the stray kibble that has fallen out of that bowl...and usually dips her hands in his water to wash them off.

Tessa knows some complicated words. Applesauce, orange, purple (but not pink or blue, too easy), octopus, jacket, cocka doodle doo.

She "gets" webcaming in a scary way. She used it to get Grandma and Grandpa U** to rub their bellies and pat their heads over 2,500 miles away. And if you talk to her on speaker phone its a guarentee she'll try to show you her baby through the handset. Speaking of that, if she gets a hold of the cell phone she holds it with both hands and types with her thumbs saying (what sounds like) txt txt txt txt txt. Perhaps this is because someone who sent over 9,000 txt msgs a month lived here for a while.

The Other Sister

High on my list of priorities is posting about my sweetest girl Tessa and how big she is getting. However my life is so hard...you see, I tend to type on this laptop and my pictures are all saved on the desktop. And we all know that a post about a cute kid without pictures is like an Easter basket without chocolate - POINTLESS.

So, until I get off my lazy...well, side, I'd like to post about another form of support we are getting from the "other" sister.

Laura is walking in the March of Dimes on our behalf this year and if you'd like to support her click on the button to the side of this post, or visit her blog.

Thank you Laura - I am so glad you are helping to support the March of Dimes. Two years ago we strongly benefited from the in hospital support our MOD representative gave us, this year we are benefiting from research on how to prevent early labor/delivery.

The Blessing of a Sister

Its hard to deny what a blessing having Alicia stay with us the past two months have been. No doubt in my mind that if she hadn't been here I would have had this baby weeks, even months ago.

Alicia left Tuesday morning.* As she was packing her stuff I realized that what I valued most about her trip was not the incredible amount of dishes and meal prep she did, or all the hauling around of Tessa, it was that I got to know her so much better than I have in the past 10 years. She was eight when I moved away to college and has sort of existed in my mind as a mix between the eight year old I new and the snippets of a young adult I've seen in quick trips home. Now, after two months of living in fairly (ie very) close quarters I feel like I know (at least a little better) who she is and we are sisters in heart as well as in blood.


I've been really thinking about how Tessa will be as a big sister, but in the days before Alicia left I suddenly realized that not only will she BE a sister, she will HAVE a sister. When I finally thought of this my heart jumped around in excitement. I understand how lucky she will be because of the fabulous sisters I have.

*I couldn't post this on the day she left because we didn't tell our parents we'd bought tickets...he he he. Why? I don't know, it was just more fun this way. (ETA: I just realized that this is the second post in a row about silly pranks on people...what does that say about me and Alicia?)

Cupcakes are like snow

Just like you shouldn't eat yellow snow, you should also beware of yellow cupcakes. Someone might have pee'd in them. Or in the case of Aaron's cupcake last night - put peas (the green vegetable) in them. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

It started out a bit more elaborate than that. Alicia and I (okay, just Alicia) was going to make cupcakes and then make one single meatloaf cupcake and frost it with mashed potatoes and give it to Aaron for desert. Turns out that was going to be complicated, for a number of reasons, so we decided to frost a regular cupcake with mashed potatoes.

At the last minute we also added green peas to the cupcake batter (just one cupcake) and it was a good thing we did. Because turns out the consistency of mashed potatoes and frosting aren't really the same, and I put too much food coloring in the potatoes so it just wasn't going to be believable. However Aaron had no doubt heard the incessant giggling between Alicia and I and would suspect something was up.

So we pretended to get "caught" putting the mashed potato frosting on a (non pea) cupcake and then feed him the pea cupcake with regular frosting. He "caught" us and our plan worked perfectly. "Oh dang" we said, "you are too fast for us." Then he proceeded to pick out three of the cupcakes - NONE OF WHICH WAS THE PEA CAKE that we had artfully displayed front and center. Grrrr...

So I did what any self respecting wife would do. I stole one of his cakes right in front of him and popped it in my mouth - then I feigned remorse and went to get him a new one. He He he. Ooooh, I am so sneaky.

Two bites in he sees the peas and Alicia and I snickered. THEN HE FINISHED THE CUPCAKE - which, after a day of anticipation was simply too much for us and we hit the ground laughing.

Poor Aaron, no one likes to be the brunt of a joke perpetuated by two other people. But hey, it was April Fools with Connell girls in the house so what was he expecting?