Christmas is here!

On Christmas morning, Owen quietly got out of his room and went downstairs, popped his head over the edge of the railing and said to Grammy, 'Did Santa come?'. She said it was such a sweet moment seeing his little face over the edge of the railing :) We heard his voice, so grabbed Emmy and headed downstairs. Owen helped Emmy open all of her gifts,

Grammie went to Joneel's the day after Christmas and then headed home from there. She was with us for almost 8 weeks, so it was a big change. We feel really blessed that she was able to come and help us; a special time for Emmy and Owen to bond with her.

We spent the last week of vacation just relaxing at home, but one day went on a road trip with Meredith and the kids to Cle Elum to find snow. We met Monica and Andrew came too, grabbed some sleds, and went to the sledding hill. Emmy was not a fan, but Owen loved it! He has missed snow since we moved to Moses Lake and was so happy to be playing out in the snow again!

Countdown to Christmas

Emmy's ear infection either didn't clear or is back again, we are on a different medicine this time, Cefdinir, that will hopefully kick it. But, despite that, this girlie is walking since the first week of December! So officially walking by 9 months and she loves it! She is wobbly, but can follow Owen around the house and she is so happy, babbling away to him as he tears around in front of her/laps her :)
We went to Mobius in the first part of December and made the trip to Dr. Guzzardo. She confirmed that Owen has some pretty significant anxiety that needs to be addressed.  We stopped in for a visit to his old daycare and he was super excited to see all his buddies.

Grammie's here!

We went to Canada the first part of November to pick up my Mom; Owen is loving hanging out with her every day and is much more settled. She is so great about playing with the kids and Owen loves having someone new to play his imagination games with - hunter/bear, robber/policeman - she is very patient with him. He still has some pretty significant anxiety and I emailed my friend, Dr. Guzzardo to ask if she could give us some input; just worried that we are missing something that could be helping him. We will see her in December.
Emmy is taking some wobbly steps, I think she will be walking soon - how crazy is that? She was super fussy and not tolerating leaning back for diaper changes so I took her in to the doctor and she has an ear infection - first dose of amoxicillin did not cut it, so we are trying a second one. Hopefully she gets some relief soon :(

Month Two

Month two at work and I am still feeling a little chaotic; exacerbated by Owen continuing to have difficulty at the daycare we chose. His anxiety is so high about leaving that I am late to work everyday and sometimes when I pick him up, he is so stressed that he won't even get in his car seat to settle in. He always refers to one kid as pushing him, taking his things, teasing him, etc. The daycare does not think it is a big deal, and maybe to another kid it wouldn't be, but to Owen it is. There are a lot of smaller things that I haven't been super happy about, so this basically sealed the deal on pulling the kids out of the daycare. Todd is watching them and my mom is coming in November to help.
Meanwhile, to happy things - Emmy is trying to stand up from a sitting position, dances with her arms while she is sitting on the floor, cruising along the furniture, and crawling to strange places (like trying to get between the chair and end tables). Owen has been having so much fun at the farm. He and Maddie cruise all over, to the chickens and standing on the edge of the fence to talk to the cows. One day they found the water bucket beside the hose and spent hours playing in it, covered in mud and soaked, but having so much fun!

Month one

September - my first full month of work for the school district. Right now it is a flurry of activity trying to figure out scheduling kids, learning the paperwork system, meetings, meetings, and more meetings!
We picked a daycare about 5 minutes from our house - it is not Sandy's, but she is pretty hard to beat:) Owen is still having a tough time transitioning to there, he is such a fun loving kiddo, but anxious, and it breaks my heart to leave him if he is not happy there.  We are only a few weeks in, so hopefully it will even out as he makes friends there. We have already been invited to two birthday parties at the bowling alley from there and it was nice to meet some of the other parents of the kiddos that we see everyday.
Emmy is beginning to babble, saying mama and dada, turbo crawling and already pulling to stand! Owen is really into dancing right now and singing, although he doesn't like you to catch him :) Favorite songs to dance to right now are Bubble Guppies and Blues Clues from TV shows, but his absolute favorite is the 'Happy' song from Pharell that is in Despicable Me - it's pretty catchy, so we all dance when it comes on!

The Big Move

So many emotions leaving our beloved neighborhood and making the move to Moses Lake. Just proof of how amazing they are - they spent most of the last day helping us load the truck and clean the house, with us pulling out of the driveway at 9:27 pm; the new owners pulling in at 9:30 with their moving truck!
We had to wait a week to finish closing on our house, so we stayed with Nana and Papa when we moved. Owen loved living on the farm and helping Papa with the chores. They had a pool set up and we spent most of the day out there - he had the best time! It came to just above his belly button and was about 5 feet across, so he would zoom around inside it while Emmy sat in my lap and kicked her feet in the water. And then, into our new house. I just love the light in here. I am super homesick for 'my people', but waking up in the morning to such a bright cheery house is making it much easier!
Emmy is loving the space and she is crawling everywhere - much easier in our house now - at Nana and Papa's there was plenty to crawl to that she shouldn't be getting in to! She is doing raspberries and giving sloppy open mouth kisses, such a happy girl! Owen has been great about entertaining Emmy as we move boxes around and get things put away. Crystyne and Shiloh came the day after we moved and helped us unpack a ton of boxes, it was so nice and Owen was so happy to see his friend again - and I was too!

Sad days, Mom

Owen is starting to have more concept of time - he always says, 'Mom, remember when we....'. My favorite was, 'remember when we went to Grandma's?' and then he will list off all the fun things that we did there last month. He is loving being a big brother and now that Emmy is inchworm crawling on the floor, he is Love and Logic-ing her all the time as she can move around and get into his stuff! He is using a lot more emotion word and has been telling me lately 'sad days, Mom', if there is something he wants to do that we can't do right then.
Emmy has been trying some tastes of foods - just like Owen, she is not a fan of rice cereal, but likes Oatmeal and has tried some avocado too. I have applesauce, sweet potatoes, carrots, and peas all prepped in the freezer and ready for her when she is ready for more tastes!

4th of July and Big News

We spent the 4th of July at Nana and Papa's, with an extended stay to look for houses as we are planning our move to Moses Lake. Lots of cousin time, house hunting, barbecues, fireworks, dirt pile fun, collecting eggs, feeding the cows, and signing papers for the new job. All in all a crazy and exhausting weekend!

June and changes coming

Emmy is such a happy baby - she cracks us up with all her chewing noises, rolling around, and trying to pull herself forward.

Owen has always loved the tub, but lately he is all about bubbles and the things he can create with them - car wash, mountains, hide and seek for toys... his baths are super long because he never wants to get out and leave the fun!

Todd and I are trying to decide what would be best for our family and after lots of fasting and prayer, we have made the decision to put our house on the market and plan to move back to Moses Lake. I applied to the school district, interviewed, and was offered a job all within a week... I had talked to Hal and Eric before about opening an Achieve Center in Moses Lake and they don't feel that the timing is right. It will be a big change, but in some ways I am grateful, I think this will be a good change for me and summers home with kids sounds pretty awesome! I accepted the job with the school district and we are headed here in a few weeks to sign papers for the job and look for houses!

Focus

Owen wanted to play a treasure hunter game outside with me and I was quickly trying to finish a conversation with Todd before I ran outside. He kept saying this one phrase to me, but I couldn't quite hear him - when I got closer I realized he was saying, "Focus, Mom, focus." Apparently he has heard that somewhere before!

Happy Baby

Night Owl

A few nights ago, Emmy woke up randomly at about 9:30 pm, right after I had put Owen to sleep. I brought her downstairs to hang out with Todd and I and she was literally the happiest girl on the block. She kept looking at us and smiling and looking around as if, "Hey Mom and Dad, what's going on? How are you? So this is what the world/house looks like at this time of night!" Seriously so random, but the looks on her face were just hilarious!

SAHM, a maternity leave story

I have had so much fun being home with Owen and Emmy for the past three months. We have had so many cool adventures, sweet moments between Emmy and Owen, fun outings... here are some of the highlights:

• playing store - Owen is all about wallets and money these past few months. We gave him one of Todd's old wallets and he takes the spare change and old credit cards and fills up his wallet so we can play store. He sets up a few items on his train table, then we take turns buying items. He is the most polite cashier - thank you very much, have a great day :)
• going to mobius - I still worked a few hours a week during my maternity leave, so we would pack up on tuesdays, go to Mobius with Owen's class, then Emmy and I would head into work while Owen spent the day at Sandy's. I was so blessed to have a great support system from daycare and my co-workers to help out with Owen and Emmy so I could keep my clients that needed swallow therapy!
• snow days - Owen and I spent a lot of days outside in our backyard, playing in the snow while Emmy slept. Owen's favorite thing to do is eat the snow of course, but we cruised around in the sled, made tracks, and of course made lots of snowmen!
• made up songs - I always make up songs for Owen at night, but we did this a lot during the day while I was home. He is going to be so confused when he finds out the tune I use (She'll be Coming Around the Mountain) is an actual song and not just a random one that can be used for songs about Rescue Bots, thunder/lightning, playing, friends, etc
• Emmy's sweet sneeze - one of our favorite sounds! When Emmy sneezes, she puts an 'ahh' at the end, too cute
• Owen's check the schedule - since we had some more flexibility, we made a few more trips to Nana and Papa's. I am thinking I have said this to Owen, because now he will ask, "Mom, can we check the schedule and see when we can go to Nana and Papa's?"
• pretend play characters - pirates, monsters, alligators, store keepers, we are having tons of fun playing make believe these days!

Big Brother Love

Owen is such an awesome big brother and shows so much love to her. He wants to know what she is saying when she cries, talks to her in the car, and calls her 'Em'. Mom, I need to kiss Em goodnight, can I hold her? Does she want to play with my toys? Yes, he has his moments when he feels frustrated that she is interrupting his time with us, but he has adjusted to such a big change so well, I am proud of him!

Hugs when she is sad, or he will put his favorite toys beside her to cheer her up!

The Magic Necklace

Emmy has horrible reflux, just like Owen and hers is exacerbated by some laryngomalacia. A strict elimination diet has not helped, neither did Zantac. Starting Prevacid, just like we did with Owen was the next option and it has helped some, but she still spits up a ton and is really uncomfortable. So, one night I was scrolling through my phone searching on Google for baby reflux options when I came across articles for hazelwood necklaces for reflux, all natural and with great results. I found a place in town that made them and bought one the next day. And guess what? My poor uncomfortable baby girl went from crying and hoarse from reflux to smiling and cooing within 3 days of wearing it! We still use Prevacid too, but wow, what a difference. I am so glad we found it and that she is feeling better, I wish I would have known about them when Owen was a baby!

Baby Snuggles

Trying to enjoy all the snuggles before I go back to work....

Love this girlie so much, she is such a blessing to our family.

Growing up Owen

Day to day fun with our sweet boy and he is doing so awesome being a patient big brother. Some of his latest things that make me smile...

• cereal fiend - seriously on a cereal kick for breakfast, lunch, and dinner - his favorites? Cheerios and Special K
• cooking - he loves to sit on the counter and help me cook, stir, measure, whatever it is, he wants to help be a part of making our food!
• using the stool for everything - especially when he might have to wait while I am feeding Emmy, he will grab the stool or a chair and get it himself.
• wanting to talk on the phone - he wants to call his friends and talk to them on the phone. The conversations are pretty hilarious since he and his friends are just learning and often talk over each other!

Welcome Emmy Maree

My friend Meghan recently became a certified doula and we were excited to have her support during the last few months of the pregnancy. We were getting weekly ultrasounds from week 28 on, and were finally able to find out that a baby girl was joining our family! We narrowed the names down to Emmy and Addy, packed our bag just in case, and watched as Little Miss continued to switch positions back and forth, primarily presenting breech. She gave us a few scares and we were sent for a non-stress test, as well as for some indepth looks at her leg movements as she was holding in some weird positions with one leg stretched out and the other curled up. Even with diet and exercise, we ended up having to use a small amount of glyburide toward the end of the pregnancy. It gave me scary lows, so I ended up splitting the dose in half to find the right match. With Emmy continuing breech, Dr. Zwiesler said we would plan for a version to turn Emmy at 38 weeks if she didn't turn before. At her last ultrasound, she turned and we cancelled the version! And scheduled an induction for 39 weeks.  Because the hospital was so busy, we had to check in at 12:01 a.m. to on 2/11 instead of early evening on 2/10, so the hospital would have time to prep for each mama coming in. It was crazy to be driving the empty, snowy streets so late, but it was great to be prepared, Owen was tucked in by us and Nana and Papa spent the night to be with him. We checked in, Meghan was on-call to head over as soon as we needed her, and the on-call resident came in to do an ultrasound before we started the Pitocin. He said 'uh-oh' and asked the nurse to come over. They both agreed that Little Miss had obviously flipped again and was back to breech presentation! They called the on-call doc for Northwest OBGYN  who said to put everything on hold until Dr. Zwiesler came in for morning rounds. Meanwhile, Meghan set up essential oils in our room to help me sleep and stay calm, and we all tried to settle in for a good night's sleep. It was a beautiful snowy night, but it was piling up. Dr. Zwiesler had to dig out of his driveway to get to us! He came in at 6:30 and gave us the option to try a version or go straight to a c-section. We opted for the version and were a really popular room for the next two hours. Since they are not that common, every student nurse and doc came in to observe, my blood pressure kept dropping, and Dr. Z and the resident had to work around me taking breaks to not pass out (the epidural kept dropping my blood pressure). They turned Little Miss in about 10 minutes, then immediately broke my water to help her drop down and stay head down. Pitocin on board and I hadn't eaten for almost 18 hours, so our awesome nurse brought in some soup and crackers, turned off my epidural, and was 100% supportive of me moving as needed to help labor progress. We were able to talk and joke through most contractions until around 1:00 when I had to really start focusing. My back hurt the most and Meghan did an awesome job targeting pressure points, and showing Todd how to do that to help with pain management. By 2:30 I felt her drop, but it seemed uncomfortable and a lot of pressure. When they checked, her arm was coming out first. At that point, I was super nauseated and starting to feel stressed about why I wasn't progressing. I don't remember them telling me that her arm was heading down the birth canal first, I think they didn't want me to panic, but I had to move back into bed onto my side and they just kept having me turn side to side every 5 minutes. Dr. Z even pinched her fingers to try to get her to pull her arm back. In the midst of all this, the nurse and Dr. Z were discussing the very real possibility of having to do an emergency c-section and they started giving me oxygen since I was having trouble catching my breath as they was almost no break between contractions and I was ready to push, but couldn't because of her position. It was probably a good thing I didn't know why they wanted me to wait, but I was definitely frustrated and having trouble focusing with the pain so high. They tried some fentanyl, to take the edge off the pain, but it didn't help. Then, suddenly I had the green light to push (again, I didn't know but the frequent turning had finally helped Little Miss pull her arm back), they set me up to push and in 3 pushes she was out and very quiet. The nurse was just asking if they should grab suction when she let out a wail. Todd cut the umbilical cord and then she was wrapped and in my arms.
A few stitches and hugs from everyone and a sweet conversation with Dr. Z, and we were ready to head to Mother/Baby. Once we were settled in our new room, we facetimed with Owen (quarantine at the hospital meant no kids allowed), and I had a nice hot shower! Todd went home to spend the night with Owen and Emmy and I snuggled the night away with her tucked in my tanktop for some skin to skin.

Happy Birthday Owen

Owen asked for a Rescue Bots birthday and blue cake - mission accomplished! Nana and Papa came over to enjoy the fun and we had his neighbor buddies, the Tuckers and Borders come over for cake and ice cream. He was more excited about the blue cake than anything else! Happy Birthday to my sweet boy, we are so blessed to have you as part of our family!