halloween parade and, drumroll please…

I still have a ton of pics/videos to upload from Emilia’s ballet open house last week, but first, today was the Halloween Parade/Fall Festival at her school.  It’s a great event.  The kids get to parade around the parking lot in their costumes then go to the playground where they get goodies and pumpkins and have a chance to run around like wild.  This year Emilia insisted that she wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake.  Her only frame of reference for the character are the couple of Strawberry Shortcake books she has as well as the Bug’s original Strawberry Shortcake doll from 30 years ago.  Apparently, she’s making a comeback.  Who knew.  Turns out, Emilia and her schoolmate Betsy have ‘shared’ a mutual love of S.S. and decided to dress up together.

 Ms. Jenny, the school director, in her ‘fancy witch’ costume leading the parade.

 

Ms. Paige leading Emi’s class with Betsy and Charlie.

Emi and Jackson J. (aka Spider Man).  They have been classmates/friends since last year. 

 

parade waving. 

dueling Strawberry Shortcakes.

Today we had our 36 week appointment.  The boys are just fine and growing by leaps and bounds.  The drumroll is that we finally have a ‘date.’  Dr. Taylor has scheduled an induction for the 11th, which would make them only 2 weeks early – pretty awesome for twins. 

Yikes… that means d-day is only two weeks away!!!  The end is in sight and a cocktail is finally near! :)

big sister

This past Sunday we took Emilia to CMC for the “sibling tour.”  Basically it’s an opportunity for the sibs to see where Mama is going to be and where the babes are going to be – supposedly to make it all less scary and intimidating.  Emilia was fine.  I, on the other hand, nearly cried the entire time we were there.  It was such an emotional trip back and I constantly was thinking about the last time we were at the hospital, 3 years ago, when our Puchis was born.  In perfect banker form, Marcus was silent, but I could tell… he was thinking the same things I was.

 

checking out the nursery with Papa.  you can’t tell but she’s wearing her ‘big sister’ t-shirt and her new halloween bows from tia marga.

there was only one other little girl taking the tour with us – apparently the saturday class was packed, but this worked out better for us.  i think emilia would have been overwhelmed with a big crowd.

the baby dolls getting weighed/measured/temp checked.  good to know that baby Jesus weighs 14 oz.

demonstrating the proper way to hold a baby.

 

learning how to swaddle/put on a diaper (she’s a pro at the diaper part).

My mom and I are just back from my 35 week appt. and everything looks great.  We had an ultrasound (I’m not going to bother scanning the pics because they’re so smushed in there that you can hardly distinguish anything), but both hermanitos are weighing at about 6 pounds each! HOLY CATS! No wonder I can’t breathe!!!  They both have a tiny bit of fluid on their kidneys still (nothing to worry about), but both have great levels of amniotic fluid surrounding them.  A is still head down while B’s head is lodged under my left ribs (OUCH!)  The longest they’ll let me go at this point is another 3 weeks (until 38 weeks gestation), then they’d put me out of my misery, but until then I’ll keep going for weekly appointments for fetal monitoring.

Also, details on the “wordless Wednesday” post.  I wish I could take credit for the ‘monitos’ or outfits pictured, but I can’t.  Those are completely A’s doing.  In Ecuador babies always ALWAYS come home in green.  It’s a very auspicious color – meaning hope and good luck and all that kind of stuff.  We didn’t want them to be too matchy-matchy, so they’re in coordinating outfits.  (Note: Emilia also had a green dress but she was such a midge that it didn’t fit her.  Poor baby ended up coming home in a hospital t-shirt, diaper, socks and green cap.  Pitiful.

wordless wednesday (something new)

ssshhhh…

It’s very quiet.

My girl is over at Ms. Claitlin’s house – playing with her ‘yrie (and possibly washing Mr. Brad’s car).

A has gone to one of her favorite places (church).

And Marcus has gone for a jog in the hopes of recovering from a MONSTER hangover (never send a Latino to a Nascar race).

And I’ve finally managed to dump upwards of 200 pictures/video clips from the camera into the computer and am going to try valiantly to muddle through them. 

Ready?  Here goes

She wore it!

The dress I made for her birthday – she FINALLY wore it!! Hurrah!!

 

if only those leggings could talk.  they are size 1-5 Zutano brand leggings.  She’s literally been wearing them since she was about a year old.  They stretch like crazy, don’t fade at all and as they get taller, become capri length.  Best. Leggings. Ever.

On October 2nd we celebrated Baby Brooks’ 1st birthday.  Emilia had a blast playing on the new trampoline, eating a ‘dirt’ cupcake, and playing in the sandbox.  Happy Birthday sweet baby B!

 the dessert table (sans desserts obviously). 

enjoying a cupcake (and looking a bit disheveled after jumping on the trampoline for about 2 hours straight).

It’s back :(

The asthma and the ick.

The cough and the persistent runny nose.

And the wheezing.  Oh the wheezing.

Emilia had barely started school when Marcus noticed that she was sounding kinda congested.  Sure enough, after her usual Fall check-up with the pulmonologist, it’s ‘asthma season’.  According to Dr. Ashe all his patients starting getting really ‘icky’ about 2 weeks ago (Emilia definitely falls in to that camp, as does her neighbor buddy Graham)

how dr. ashe recommends we spend the morning for the next two months.  since i’m clearly about to ‘give light’ he really wants to keep her healthy, so we’re skipping the fast-acting inhaler and going for daily nebulizer treatments.  fortunately she’s gotten much better at sitting and taking the medicine (a little morning show doesn’t hurt much either).  sidenote: dr. ashe has twins and a daughter 3 years older than the twins.  when I asked him what the ‘trick’ was to surviving, he suggested this by the case.

And with that, “quiet time” has ended.

hermanitos update – 33 weeks +

Yikes. 

That’s how I felt leaving this appointment.  All of a sudden reality REALLY kicked in.

My weight and blood pressure at this appointment were both great – whew.

My iron level is still low, but better than it was last week, so the doctor just advised I continue with my vitamins and try to eat as much iron-rich foods as possible.

Today was the first fetal stress-test.  I had to sit there for almost an hour hooked to the monitor because of course the boys were not cooperating.  They had woken me up at 4 a.m. because of their kicking so I knew they were fine.  The nurse recommended I drink some juice on the way in for my appointment next week to wake them up a bit.

I’m at 33 + weeks but when Dr. Lucas measured me today I measured right at 40 weeks. 

That’s right – 40.

Yikes.

He said that in an ideal world they’d like them to stay where they are for another month, but that realistically, they’d be happy with another 2-3 weeks.

Double yikes.

And of course he suggested that I rest whenever Emilia is resting – stay really well hydrated – stay off my feet – the usual.

Triple yikes.

So I went in to complete ‘panic mode’ and picked up the last few items I felt like we needed to have on hand (basically a second bassinet stand was the main thing I felt like I needed to have) and I’ve continued washing newborn stuff.  Thanks to the shower Ozlem and Tracy hosted for me last weekend I at least have diapers to get us through the first week (maybe?).  Marcus’ work colleagues are hosting a shower for us next week, as are our neighborhood friends (we are overwhelmed by everyone’s incredible generosity) so I feel like after all that we’ll be totally set.    I’m going to have Marcus start assembling the swings/bouncy seats tonight (sorpresa corazon! :).  Monday Marcus is off work for Columbus Day holiday so we’ll hit IKEA then since Emilia will be at school.

because i couldn’t end a post without any pictures – this one of emilia and kyrie was taken a few weeks ago at the greek festival.  like how emi looks so brave and ‘in charge’ – about two seconds later she burst in to tears and wanted off.  i ‘forced’ her to stay on for the ride because i’m just that mean.

school pics

As I mentioned in the post below, Emilia had picture day at her school last week.  The proofs from St. John Photography are now available.  To see them, go here.  You’ll then be asked to enter the school’s code – SJPC and finally the code for Emilia’s pictures – 104557.  Happy viewing!

notes and notables at 3

I’ve been meaning to post the good, the bad and the ugly of Emilia at 3 for ages now…

meeting marcus at work for his birthday. please don’t mind marcus’ hair – in fact – don’t even look at it. :)

The Stats

At her 3 year check up Emi measured 37 3/4 inches tall – she’s still on track to be about my height at adulthood (in other words, statuesque:)) – about 40th percentile.  Her weight was 32 pounds (again, about 40th percentile).  BP was 94/50 and her vision was 20/15 (thank goodness since both her parents are blind as bats).  They did some blood work and her cholesterol came back below 150 (excellent) and she had excellent hemoglobin results (the level of iron in her blood).  She only had to get 1 shot – a chicken pox vaccine – at this visit.  They didn’t have the flu shot for her (just the spray which she can’t use as it’s contraindicated for children with asthma) so we’ll get it next week at the allergist/pulmonologist office.

playing ‘airplane’ in the front yard on school picture day.

The Funny

• She refers to people as “sweetheart” – what?!  Stems from her playing mama and baby (she’ll say ‘I’m the mama and you’re the sweetheart or baby, okay).  Only girls can be sweethearts – boys are ‘sons’ according to her.
• Loves to pretend that she’s a baby – am predicting we’ll see much more of this in the coming months when the hermanitos arrive.  It’s kinda funny and kinda annoying.  (Marcus just thinks it’s annoying).
• She’s got a great imagination and will play for ages by herself – either tea party, mama with her babies, paper dolls or sometimes teacher. 
• Imaginary friends – she’s got ‘em – their names are Kenna and Yeewah (sp?)  She talks to them all the time and sometimes refers to her dolls by those names (though not Baby Jesus – she’s just Baby Jesus and that’s it!)
• Is getting in to the groove of ballet class again after a bumpy start (she refers to it as ‘balleck’.
• Insists on taking her nap on the floor of her bedroom.  I don’t know why but as I tell her, as long as she’s napping, I don’t care where she does it.  Unfortunately she doesn’t usually go down until after 2 these days, so naps are shorter for sure.  Sometimes she doesn’t nap at all which makes for an AWFUL afternoon/evening – she’s definitely not ready to give up the afternoon nap (nor am I ready for her to give it up either).
• Loves her swing set – plays on it most days – prefers throwing herself stomach first onto the swings (then complains that her stomach hurts).
• Has started telling “knock knock” jokes.  A typical one: Knock knock. Who’s there? Emi.  Emi who?  Emi Puchis Poo! and then she cracks up laughing. 
• Still uses a diaper at night but I’d say 5 out of 7 nights she wakes up dry.  Dr. Walker says there’s no rush it taking away the nighttime diaper – most kids wait until 4-5 to do so.
• We are FINALLY off the bottle!  The bottles for milk were just looking so disgusting that I had to get rid of them so I went out and bought the same brand of sippy cups (in colors no less!) and explained that these were our new milk ‘bottles’ (she calls them ‘maderas’ instead of mamaderas – hilarious).  She loves them (thank goodness) and the transition has been smooth as silk – bye bye bottles! (at least for a couple of weeks!)
• Recognizes her name (Emi) but not Emilia. Knows that A, Tio Equis and she all have names that start with the same letter.  Recognizes “M” for Papa’s name.  Can almost write the letter ‘E’ by herself.
• Still refers to the bros as “puchis” and “poo” even though she knows their names.
• Likes to give ‘humpty dumpty hugs and kisses’ – slightly aggressive hugs/kisses – sweet but occasionally a little painful!

The Not-So-Good

• We went through a very rough patch with her bedtime routine.  Right at the start of school I realized that bathing her in the mornings just wasn’t going to work out so we switched to evening baths like every other child in the world.  I think that coupled with everything else going on around her (hermanitos/start of school) really threw her for a loop and it would be 9-9:30 before she would fall asleep at night.  She’d ask for a million books, complain she was hot/cold/thirsty/needed to go potty/etc.  It was a nightmare and it ended up in her going to sleep crying after one of us had yelled at her.  Now we’re in a much better place where she knows she gets a certain number of books in her bed after we read our story and that if we have to get up to put her back in bed the closet light gets switched off (she prefers that light to her nightlight because she can ‘read’ by it better). 
• She’s very particular about what she will/won’t wear and what she likes/doesn’t like in terms of clothes.  Case in point – she didn’t wear the dress I knitted for her birthday until this past weekend.  I’m learning to let it go because this is a battle I’m not interested in (for the most part).  We try to avoid issues by laying out clothes for school the night before but that means there are days like today when she goes in wearing blue and white polka-dotted leggings, a green and white striped shirt, a pink sweater, orange and blue striped socks and her sparkle shoes.  It was a bit of an eye-sore, but it’s how she’s expressing her independence I guess and everything was clean.  (It is very trendy right now to mix patterns – maybe that’s what she’s doing?)
• You can usually reason with her, but sometimes not.
• Has gotten very clingy in recent days – am sure it’s because she senses que se le acaba el reinado.  :( (the end of her reign is near).
• STUBBORN – O.M.G. is she stubborn – comes by this honestly but man is it annoying sometimes!

perfect example of stubborn-ness with being particular about her outfit.  i had a beautiful new dress picked out for her the night before.  on this morning she insisted that the dress gave her ‘susto’ (made her scared) and refused to wear it.  i finally got her in this one but when we went outside to take her picture i got a whole lot of back turned/arms crossed action.  lovely.

The Just-Plain-Bad

• Shrieks – often for no good reason.
• Temper tantrums – she’s gotten better at this, but they do still occur – very dramatic – lots of fake tears and flinging oneself on the ground.  If we’re out she knows that a temper tantrum results in immediately going home.  Just the other day we had to do this when we were outside playing with our ‘hood friends.
• Loves to try to ‘butt in’ to adult conversations – esp. between Marcus and I – will say “You have to hear me now!” Trying to break this habit as well.
• Loves to scream when you’re on the phone (or try to talk to you all of a sudden even though she’s ignored you for the past 10 minutes and you figure you can squeeze a quick call in) – holy annoying.  It’s especially bad when you’re on the phone in the car (insert lecture about driving and being on the phone here). 
• If you ask her to do something she doesn’t want to do (ie: clean up books) she’ll say “I can’t because my tummy is hurting me.” – it’s her favorite excuse to use.

la perla.

rapidito

A quick little post – I have about 3 in my head and drafted (Emi turning 3, soccer, Tio E’s visit, etc), but I haven’t finished any of them – so just a very brief update while my ballerina naps in the MV parked in the garage.

We are back to being our family of 3 (for the time being at least) after a two week visit from Emi’s ‘Tio Equis’ or Eric, Marcus’ brother.  Emilia enjoyed wrestling and basically tormenting him pretty much the entire time he was here.  Secretly I think he’s quite relieved that he won’t be forced to play ‘tea party’ for a good long time again.

Since we are back to being just the three of us for a little while I’m trying to really relish every last drop of it, even though days like today - when Marcus is super-stressed out, the house appears to be collapsing under the mess and Emilia and I have spent the morning waged in an epic battle of wills - it can be hard (or impossible) to remember to enjoy this.  The stress, the mess, and even the arguments.  Soon we’ll be elbow deep in newborn diapers and 2 a.m. feedings (followed by 3 a.m. feedings, then 4 a.m…. you get the idea).  We are planning several little “big sis” activities for Emilia and are so grateful A gets here in two weeks.  An extra set of hands and wise counsel will be most appreciated and fortunately A works pretty cheaply! :)

We’re in the ‘final countdown’ towards the arrival of the hermanitos and while, no, the room isn’t any where CLOSE to finished after a good ‘halada de orejas’ by my friend Kathryn, and my neighbor Kristi putting together a ‘care calendar’ for us, I finally started moving and getting stuff sorted and washed for these poor fellas.  My goal this weekend is to finish sorting out their closet.  My doctor’s appointment this week went very well – I’m a little anemic which doesn’t surprise me because at the beginning of the week I was feeling really run down and just dreadful – so I’ve upped my intake of iron-rich foods before Marcus makes me start eating steak at every meal (yuck).  The babes heartbeats were fine (148 for A, 135 for B) and, best news of all, the Dr. said I will probably NOT have to have a C-section since A is already head down.  What they will probably do instead is schedule an induction (which is what ended up happening with Emilia) if I don’t go in to labor spontaneously, just to make sure they know exactly which doctor from our practice is on call that day.  (Some of the docs are more experienced delivering multiples and obviously we want one of them).  Another ultrasound is scheduled for the end of the month but until then I’ll be doing weekly NST (fetal non-stress tests) along with my doc visits to make sure the fellas are doing well and playing nicely.

And because no post would be complete without some pics – a couple of quick ones from Emilia’s first soccer practice.  I have tons of great shots of Emi and a bunch of her playgroup friends I’ll post next…

 she insisted on wearing her soccer jersey even though it was 95 degrees out and it’s 100% polyester.  holy sweat.

possibly marcus’ proudest moment as a dad so far.  the kids had to start at one end and dribbling the ball and then trap (stop) it at the end of their ‘field’.  emilia did this like she was freaking pele or something.  i swear i think he may have shed a tear.  it was awesome.

about 20 minutes after practice started emi was just done.  it was crazy hot, there were a million kids and she’d had little/no breakfast.  i was impressed she participated at all.  the next week marcus said she did a million times better and stayed with practice almost the entire 45 minutes (which is crazy long for a 3 year old in my opinion).