B at 7.5 months

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I can’t believe B is 7.5 months binomo india old! He is a sweetie. Here are something things about him:

  • He can crawl and started crawling two days after his 6 month birthday. He has always liked being on his tummy. Put him on his back, and he would roll to his tummy. He rolled over first from back to tummy at 2 months which is early.IMG_8972
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  • However he can’t sit. In fact, he does not want to sit. He arches that back and turns over to his tummy to crawl.
  • He has also started pulling up to standing on things. Often he lets go and bonks his head!
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  • He is strong! He is determined! Opinions…he has them!IMG_8330
  • He is our only thumb sucker, but he will take a pacifier too.
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  • He has very expressive eyebrows!
  • He is not a big fan of purees but seems to like “real” food better. I finally found a puree he likes this week, plums! Otherwise, he likes bananas, shredded cheese, puffs, and mixed vegetables. IMG_9093
  • I think he wants to do whatever his big sister and big brother are doing. He follows them around and crawls on top of them. IMG_9107
  • He is a smiler! Whenever someone gets in his face and talks to them, he rewards them with a big smile.   IMG_9138
  • He is not a fan of his carseat.
  • He goes down for naps pretty easily with just a pacifier and sound machine and a quick hum before being put in bed awake. IMG_0389
  • He still wakes several times a night to eat. From months 2-4 he would sleep through the night but then he started waking again. IMG_0402
  • B, you are so precious and we love you so!!!

B’s Birth Story

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2 am on Thursday May 14, 2015:

Left the house with water having broken earlier (about 7 pm) and having had only a contraction or two. Glad to not have traffic to drive to hospital. (Could take 2.5 hours in prime weekend afternoon traffic!) (6 days past due date)

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Sometime between 2:30 am and 6:48 am: a happy(ish) lady with an epidural in the same room T was born in with one of the same nurses 19 months later. Contractions started being about 3-5 min apart in the car and I got to the hospital at 2:30 already at a 5 or 6 cm. Got an epidural around 3:00 since I had done bloodwork the week previously. It worked great except in one spot! So after an hour or two I could feel contractions there, which was unfortunate but probably helped me push. He was born at 6:48 am. Phew! So glad to be not pregnant (or in labor) anymore!

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Shortly after 6:48 am: Us with baby B!

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B getting cleaned up in the nursery.

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The upside of a nighttime labor: no traffic

The downside of a nighttime labor: no sleeping that night for anyone!

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Cutie pie face!

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With a proud daddy!

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First pic as a whole fam!

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Someone is happy to have a baby to hold!

IMG_1007 IMG_7520Pappaw!

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Nena!

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All their grandkids! We are so glad Nena and Pappaw were here!

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Our silly three munchkins! E wanted to hold him the whole time they were at the hospital. T walked around eating snack sticks. Typical.

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Resting in his bed with the blanket all three kids used and a burp cloth made by Aunt Kathy.

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Coming h0me the next day!

Maternity/Family Pics

Before baby B was born, we took some family/maternity pictures. April is Tulip month here so we went to a park and took some pictures with the tulips.

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These two are so sweet together! She is like his second mommy.

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He is so precious!

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The whole fam!

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The boys in their matching shirts!

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Daddy’s girl!

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Me and my sweetie!

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Me and little B baking inside at 38.5 weeks!

T at 18 months

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(I started this post a long time ago! He is now 20 months!)

On April 10, T turned 18 months old. Here is some of what he is like at this age:

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  • He is a good eater, if it is something he likes (I keep trying but he refuses eggs and pasta every time). His favorites include fish crackers, pretzels, apples, pears, cheese, apricots, beans, green peas, french fries, yogurt, Daddy’s pide, and ice cream cones.  This boy wakes up signing “more” for more food. He carries a snack cup around with him all day.IMG_7164.JPG
  • Though he signs more, all done, and please, he is still only really saying mama and dada. And sometimes it seems like Mama means less of my name and more “someone help me!”. Sometimes if he is playing with a toy and he gets frustrated because it won’t cooperate, you can hear him saying “mamamamamamamamama” at it. He has said ball and bubble a time or two. He makes sounds for a cow, dog, and cat and makes a smacky sound with his lips for a fish. He is a world class grunter. You can manage to figure out what he wants with his pointing and grunting. And then if you say what you think it is he wants and you are right, he nods his head and says “uh!”.
  • He waves bye bye and blows kisses well. He tries to jump and it is hilarious. He likes to throw balls. He has a funny way of gasping and chunking things straight upwards over his head.IMG_7105.JPG
  • He thinks his big sister is the greatest and he tries to do whatever she is doing.
  • He moved into share a room with his big sister around the time he turned 18 months. It was rough going for about a week while he got used to being in a different space, but he finally settled in and I think he likes to know she is over there.IMG_7179.JPG
  • He dropped the morning nap but still takes a champion afternoon nap.
  • He drinks a sippy cup of milk before his nap and bedtime. He has pictures of his family in his room near his bed and he likes to tell them all night night before he goes to bed.IMG_7128.JPG
  • Mickey Mouse Clubhouse seems to be his favorite show that he watches with E. He has finally started being able to build with duplos and not just tear them up. His favorite books are Brown Bear, Little Quack’s Opposites, a Little People Farm book, and Dora Counts.IMG_7178.JPG
  • He knows parts of the body like eyes, ears, nose, hair, mouth, tongue, teeth, toes, hands, tummy. He likes to do the movements in the “Shake a Leg” Sesame Street book.IMG_7095.JPG
  • T is such a smart boy and understands everything you tell him. We are just waiting for the day when he has lots to tell us back! He has a great smile and sense of humor. You can see the sparkle in his eyes when he is about to be silly and knows he is funny. IMG_7152.JPG
  • T, you are such a sweet boy and we love you so!

Apparently I am a monthly blogger now…

Apparently I am also a phone photo dumper blogger. Since my last post that was an update and lots of phone photos from about a month ago, I have had to pay for my website again for the next year, so I figure I better use it since I pay for it. Haha.

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So E has finished a month at her school and is still doing well and liking it. It helps a lot to have a little friend there! Here is the picture we had taken for her for school. They basically ask for the equivalent of passport photos.  I thought she looked so pretty and grown up in it! She loves purple!

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One day after we took her to school, we went over to the park and sidewalks by the water and went for a walk with little brother. It was a chilly day but nice to see the boats and the cats that hang out on the rocks by the water.

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We went to the mall for lunch one Sunday after church and E and I had a little dessert. Frozen yogurt is a little lower in carbs than ice cream or custard so I shared one with her.(null)

 

We have gotten to see baby #3 a few times lately. He is doing well. Measuring at 6 lbs 10 oz as of 34 weeks, according to the ultrasound machine. Which isn’t huge but isn’t small either. Both my other kids were about 8 lbs 12 oz. Thankfully, my amniotic fluid level has gone down since controlling my gestational diabetes through diet (it was too high) and I have also lost about 7 lbs. so that is good.

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Cutie tootie likes to eat yogurt with corn flakes in it. But he makes a huge mess! Sometimes mommy doesn’t have the patience for that and just feeds it to him herself. But sometimes he gets to play. And then he gets a bath.

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We had planned to celebrate Easter with some foreigner friends in a big forest like last year, but some people thought the weather might be too chilly, so it got moved to the indoor location, which was our house! We didn’t mind hosting since everyone was bringing everything, they just needed our space. But it was a busy day, and at the end, after everyone had gone home, I started looking at Facebook and realized I didn’t get anyone to take  a picture of our whole family. C and I had already changed into comfy clothes. So I got a pic of the kids. T likes smiling for the camera these days. He likes eating pears too. He actually likes to get food and walk around the house eating it, but I really need to stop letting him do that because I find apple peelings that he didn’t eat laying around!

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Some of the moms and I walked all the kids over to a nearby park for an egg hunt after lunch since we weren’t in the forest all day. E spied an egg up high.

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E was excited about her school outfit this day and wanted a picture of her Elsa shirt and Elsa socks.

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On Wednesday last week I had a doctors appointment. She has two offices, one near our old apartment, and one that is more on this side of town but still takes 40 minutes or so to get there. Well I drove to the one on this side of town, only to find out that she was not there that day, she was at the other office! Gah! Also, the store I tried to go to that was nearby closed down last week! Double Gah! So I had to reschedule my appt for Friday and this little guy came with me. He did well and sat in his stroller and ate apples during the appointment. I treated us by going out to lunch afterwards. #selfieinanelevator

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He was excited to get a balloon all to himself. Usually sister gets the balloons.

 

Lately

Want the latest scoop around here? Well…I am in the middle of my second grad school class to be able to renew my teaching certificate. C has been working on his new business he started. E started going to a local pre-school three days a week last week. And I got diagnosed with gestational diabetes! Not much to see here, folks!

A few months ago, E visited preschool for a day with a 4 year old friend (who is British) at the school that he has attend for a couple of years and his brother went there before him. This friend knows English obviously and also knows the local language since he has been in school a while. So it was good that he was there to help translate for E who knows almost nothing. She had a fun visit that day. Then a couple of weeks ago, she announced that she wanted to go to his school with him. So we talked/thought/prayed about it and got the requisite health report and 6 passport pictures (??) and enrolled her for the month of March. She will probably also go in April and take May for the grandparent visit and maybe go some this summer, we will see. She loves it so far. She has learned the word for teacher and the word “yapma” which means “don’t!”. I am sure she hears the teacher say that a bunch during the day!

The other big thing, gestational diabetes…. I did my glucose test back in February and one number was over the limit so my doctor diagnosed me and sent me to a dietician. She gave me a sample diet that was more like what locals eat but not really like I eat so I scoured the web and made some alterations and it seems to be going well. Few carbs. Whole wheat bread. Not too much. More meat cheese nuts and veggies. The hardest part was that the most squeamish person in the universe was now required to mess with her own blood three times a day (before, 1 hour after, and 2 hours after one meal a day, different meals each day). At first I couldn’t get enough blood to come out to do the test but I finally figured out a better way after two or three days. But basically I stuck myself a lot the first three days. And cried about that some too. Even tried letting C stick me. Anyway, I had my one week follow up with the dietician and she said things looked good, so I guess I just get to keep doing this for the next 8 weeks. (I am 32 weeks on Friday! Crazy!)

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C went to the grocery store yesterday and found me sugar-free “nutella” spread. Yum! I also found some sugar-free strawberry jam the other day. Most of the time you just find jelly here, which is clear red jelly with red small whole strawberries in it, which I do not like. I like a more even consistency. So I think I like this diabetic jam better than the regular stuff.

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E and I have been painting our toenails some. The colors I had for myself (which weren’t very many to start with) aren’t really that great for her. I found a new nail polish for E and I. Its name is “girly”. It is light pink with pink and purple glitter in it. She was ecstatic about it. :) Of course she wanted me to glob it on so she got lots of glitter pieces.

(null)While E is at school, it is so fun to watch what T does with his play time by himself. We have a shoe cabinet in the hall that is empty because we have been trying to sell it. (Our apartment has built-ins so we don’t really need more shoe storage.) He took his lego duplos and set up camp in it. Super fun. He likes to get in their and open and close the sliding door and hide.

So there is what is up with us lately. Now I am going to bed! What is up with you?

Who needs money?

Today was T’s first time to ride the toys at the mall. Mostly we never pay money for these, E has always just been happy to sit on them and pretend she is driving. T had lots of fun!

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Happy First Birthday to T!

October 10 was T’s first birthday! We had been back in the country for about a week and tried to figure out how to celebrate at a time when none of us were sleeping all that well yet, we were freshly missing family and friends back home,  and Mommy was coming down with a cold.

We started out with breakfast at home!

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Then we went to a big baby store in town that has a little play area for kids. We were going to buy T’s presents and let the kids play a bit.

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Then we headed to lunch at Shake Shack. (Mommy will look for any reason to go here!) But seriously, I figured since T had been eating hamburger meat so well lately, he would enjoy eating an extra hamburger patty from my burger and some fries. (No, we didn’t go to ChickFilA, that is just one of their place mats that I had in my diaper bag.) Turned out he wasn’t interested in the hamburger so mommy got to eat a double, and he just had fries. bday3

Family pic before nap time!

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After naps, we ordered KFC for dinner. Mommy didn’t want to cook today and T wanted chicken nuggets!

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After dinner, we had him open presents and we also talked on the phone with Nena and Pappaw. Big sister helped with the wrapping paper!

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He got a little barn with door that opens, a walking toy, and a toy garbage truck.

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Now for the cake!

I think he is crying because he wants to hurry up and eat it. Or because he has no clothes on. :)

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He did like the cake, but he didn’t devour mommy’s homemade cake as much as he did the bakery cake a few weeks prior.

T is a happy smiley sweet huggy little boy and we love him so! Happy 1 year T!

Life Here: Grocery Shopping

Let’s kick off our “Life Here” series with something no mom can avoid….grocery shopping!

Basically we have a few options.

Option 1: Small neighborhood convenience store

These small stores carry just the basics. No fresh meat. Limited produce. We had one within walking distance from our old apartment that we used a lot. Its like the size of your living room . Now there is one near us that is also a liquor store, so we don’t go there much, but maybe if we run of out of Nacho doritos. :) There is another one close, but it is always smokey inside and doesn’t have much so we don’t really go there either.

Option 2: Medium size market

Lots of locals use these and make daily or maybe every other day trips for what they need from small neighborhood market. Good for getting your basics but not giant selection. We like a certain kind of milk. Most milk sold here is the ultra radiated kind that you don’t have to refrigerate until you open it. We think that tastes funny and like what they call “daily” milk that does actually last more than a day. So some of these small markets don’t carry that kind and right now we use a lot of milk. We have one of these within walking distance now that even carries our milk. Score! Ours has a meat counter and good produce out on the front porch. It only has one freezer container so I can’t get any frozen french fries here! I have enjoyed going here because you can get done quickly and get almost everything you want.

Option 3: Large chain supermarket

Often these large chain markets are in malls. This can be handy as you can get lots of things done at once. Also the malls almost all have parking garages so if it is raining or cold you don’t have to brave the weather. These have foreign foods aisles, so you can find M&M’s or taco shells sometimes. Or a $40 jar of Jamie Oliver pasta sauce or a $35 jar of maple syrup from “Vertmont”. The oreos have even made it onto the cookie aisle at one store so I think they are here to stay. Some of these are so big, they are like Super Walmarts, with electronics, home goods, and clothes. I like to go here and make a giant grocery run, but it does take longer especially with the kids.

Option 4: Weekly farmers markets, stand alone bakeries and butcher shops

If you want to make lots of stops, you can go to these. Every week on the same days, in the same spots, big tarps go up and farmers markets are set up. This is the place to find quality produce and good prices. I have unfortunately never lived in good walking distance of one of these, especially if you are taking kids along, so I have not made a habit of frequenting these, although I do like them.

You can also go to butcher shops and bakeries, but I don’t have any right around the corner so don’t usually shop at these.

I guess I should include in these, the guys who walk around with their carts or drive down the streets in their trucks, calling out what they are selling. Every morning a guy walks around with a basket selling hot pastries, kind of like a bagel but with sesame seeds on it. Every afternoon during nap time, a guy drives around with a loud speaker attached to his truck saying “Onions, Potatoes, Tomatoes”. A guy also goes around selling fish. I don’t really think I want to buy fish from a guy pushing it around on a cart all day! But plenty of people do apparently!

That’s all I can think of as it relates to grocery shopping! Any questions?

Life Here Series

You know how people always say they get great ideas in these shower? Well today in the shower I was thinking about blogging about some routine daily things here that might give people a glimpse into daily life for us.

So here are some ideas I came up with to write about:

our house

grocery shopping

cooking

transportation

going to the doctor

getting mail

paying bills

eating out

church

neighbors

houses/apartments/buildings

parks/things to do for kids

 

Do you have any other ideas? Things you are curious about?

I will try to write about these from time to time and if you have any other ideas, leave those in the comments!