I stink at updating here. Gretchen is a fantastic baby...has her days and nights a bit mixed up, but that's the only thing I could complain about. She's growing like a weed. At her last appointment she was 8lbs 4 oz, up a full pound from birth! she'll have her one month appointment this coming Friday.

I'm a huge blogger slacker.

Gretchen Diane arrived November 19th at 8:40 pm after four and a half hours of labor and only one and a half pushes. couldn't have asked for a better labor at all! in fact we barely made it to the hospital in time, so everything was rush rush after that.

so far everything is going well. Michael adores her and Tristan still isn't quite sure what to think of her, but he seems to like her. she sleeps well and eats ALL the time, but that is to be expected.

so that's all on this front. I have a picture posted on my knitting blog (there should be a link on the right hand side of this one somewhere...). I should hopefully have more pictures this weekend.

things are crazy, but we're safe and sound in KY now. had my first appointment with the new OB yesterday. liked him and his wife (who is a midwife working with him). they did an ultrasound and little girl is lying transverse (sideways) currently. because of that they couldn't get good measurements and what they could get shows her measuring 3 weeks behind. I'll get another ultrasound next week. I'll be induced sometime the week before Thanksgiving because the doctor doesn't like gestational diabetes patients to go past 39 weeks, sooooo I'll be able to be at home for Thanksgiving! yay!!!!!!

one word to sum up how I feel lately. exhausted.

boys are doing well. just driving me nuts while I'm trying to pack. speaking of packing. we pack the truck up in 2 days. yikes. this day next week will be our last day in Pennsylvania for who knows how long. I'm sick of packing. I'm even more sick of not getting any help with the packing. Thank goodness, the kitchen is almost fully packed. I need more boxes.

everything is going well with baby girl. no names yet. latest weight check, I'm up 6 lbs from the beginning. blood pressure has been good, last check was 106/58. however I failed the last 3 hour glucose test. barely of course. so I'm back to sticking myself 4 times a day until baby girl's arrival. It could have been worse had it been diagnosed weeks ago. The good news is that our insurance covers the testing supplies fully. yay! that's one stress off my mind, especially knowing how much they cost without insurance.

well, I need to get off here and start making dinner.

I've forgotten how tiring packing is. need to get more boxes so I can pack more.

The plan right now is to pack up the apartment Sept 28-29. We'll clean all day on the 30th. Stay with my parents Oct 1-3. Josh found out if he stays until the 3rd that he'll get an extra paycheck 2 weeks later, so we figure its worth it.

We're going to use U-Pack moving for our trip. Basically we'll pack up our stuff at their terminal and they'll drive the truck to KY for us. Going this route saves us abut $400-500 since we won't be paying for gas on another truck. We just need to find some help unpacking the truck in KY.

Plans for this week are to find a place to live. We have a friend who's going to look at the places we're interested in for us, to make sure they aren't dumps.

I also need to call the OB's office I'd like to go to in Lexington. I tried on Friday, but they close early on Friday's apparently.

Tomorrow I have yet another GD test. Three 1 hour tests and one 3 hour test have already been done. If I pass this three hour test, then I doubt I'll be tested again. One can only hope, right? Also have my late 30 week appointment tomorrow, it had to be rescheduled due to flooding at the OB's office last week. How sad is it that I'm excited about going to the doctor's by myself???? (Josh has taken a half day)

That's about it, Michael's birthday is Thursday. still in denial that I'll have a THREE year old in a few days.

We're on the move!!!


Josh and I have been planning to move to Kentucky for the last 6+ months or so. Saturday we decided it was better to get this done before baby girl makes her arrival, so we'll be moving the first week of October. I'm a little nervous, but more excited than anything. I'm one of those weird people that loves to move. Of course with moving comes a lot of work. Lots of packing and cleaning, so I am beginning to foresee how my days/evenings will be spent for the next few weeks.


I know its been awhile. the past month has been filled with dentist appointments for me. 5 fillings, a cleaning, and basically 2 root canals later (one was an old root canal that had to be redone)... I'm done with the dentist until January or so when I have to get two crowns on the root canals. All that work on top of the extraction back in February caused me to max out my dental benefits for the year. fun times!

Also coming up is Michael's birthday. he'll be THREE in a little over 2 weeks. he has become so much more verbal. he counts to 5 now, though he usually skips the number 1. he's definitely a daddy's boy. everything is about daddy. I try to get him to say "I love mommy" and he always says, "I love daddy." sigh...someday, right?

Tristan had his 15 month check up a bit ago. He's weighing in at 27 lbs 4 oz and is 32" tall. This one keeps me busy. always into something or climbing something. the boys love to play together and chase each other around the room.

that's about it for now! I'll try to be better about posting when it gets near to baby girl's arrival, only about 11 weeks to go!

oh goodness, its been awhile. not much is really going on here. Tristan climbs everything in sight and Michael is hitting the terrible three's. Some days it seems all he does is whine whine whine, sure gets old!

celebrated my birthday last week. nothing special, but that's about par for the course. got some money that I promptly spent on yarn for gifts.

names for baby girl are still up in the air. nothing set and probably won't be for awhile.

I do have pictures though!

the results are in...



we




are



having




a







GIRL!

I had my second gestational diabetes test yesterday. just hoping I pass again, then I won't have to take the test again until 28 weeks. fun times.

the boys are just staying busy. Tristan walks everywhere now, though when he wants to get to something fast, he crawls.

I'm really looking forward to the 4th of July this year. I always love this holiday, unfortunately it happens to be in the summer, my least favorite season. We'll be spending it at our friend's parent's house as he just arrived home from Iraq this past week. A family picnic will be held on July 7th for Josh's family. That's always fun since they own an 800 acre farm, Michael loves it there.

and some pictures of the boys, I'm always amazed at different, but similar they look.

there's a link on the right hand side, right above my lovely "about me" section. the link is entitled "expectnet game", please go there and you can guess the gender, date, time, weight/length of the upcoming child. I will be having an u/s on July 3rd and will know then what the gender will be.

cute new pictures of the boys, from yesterday

how sad is is it that I'm way too excited over my latest purchase of a dust buster?? I went to Bed Bath and Beyond tonight to use a gift card and that is what I chose. I got this model and I can't wait to use it.

so its a bit late, but happy belated birthday to Tristan! he turned ONE on May 29, 2007. I'm still in shock that he's actually ONE! we had a small birthday party at my parents house on May 27th. We all had a great time and I do have some pictures of him eating cake here. (plus lots of other pictures!!!)

as a birthday present, Tristan had a hernia repair surgery on June 7th. not exactly the kind of present we wanted to give him, but it was necessary. the surgery went well, everything has been fixed at the present. we go back to see the pediatric surgeon on June 22nd to make sure everything is healing properly.

in other news (happier news!) Tristan is walking. he doesn't do it all the time, but he's starting to do it more and more. he's taken up to 20 or so steps at a time. Michael is starting sentences finally, it took long enough, but it was definitely worth the wait!

other than that, life has been fairly boring. Josh is out of state on business this week in Oklahoma. so its just me and the kiddos until Wednesday night.


edited: on the right sidebar there is a place you can put in your email address if you want to receive an email when I update the blog. seeing as I don't do it all the frequently, I figured some of you might be interested in this option.

Guess its a good thing I had an appointment schedule for the pediatricians today. Tristan, Michael, and I are all sick. I have a sore throat, runny nose, and the occasional ear pain. if the boys feel as bad as I do then they must not feel well at all. sigh. just what we didn't need. still hoping Josh doesn't get sick.

here are some fairly recent pictures of my cute boys for you!

update needed here I guess...

we had Tristan's appointment with the pediatric surgeon on Friday. he has a hernia and the doctor said he needs surgery. not immediately, but rather sooner than later. if left too long it could cause castration. definitely not something I want happening to Tristan. so we scheduled him for surgery on June 7. which I didn't remember why that date was so familiar, but it was Tristan's due date last year. go figure.

our little munchkin will be ONE in just over a week. I can hardly believe it! he has his 12 month appointment at the pediatricians this Thursday so after that I can update how much the chunker weighs.

in boy news, Tristan stands on his own a lot, he's taken one step, but is now afraid to take others. I could have sworn he'd start walking before his birthday, but we'll see! Michael's new favorite phrase is "where'd it go?" then he answers himself "I don't know". so much fun to finally see his vocabulary growing. he loves to talk, torture Tristan, but also love on him at the same time. I just love watching the two boys together to see how much they truly enjoy each other's company. except of course when a toy is taken from either of them...then all hell breaks loose.

I have pictures, but maybe later today!

and last of all, Tristan's birthday gift from my friend Amanda is here, how fitting for me, right?

Surgery is cancelled. The opthamologist's office called this morning and told me they require their fee ($400) up front since our insurance's deductible hadn't been met yet. so I cancelled it...we have the money, but his lump has been continuing to go down and I'd rather not shell out that money for this if its really unnecessary. I knew we'd have to pay for it, but figured we'd be billed and be able to pay some each month. guess not. so Michael is saved from surgery tomorrow.

Today was Michael's first pre-op appointment. He is perfectly healthy, which I knew. Despite that, he HATES going to the doctor's. So he screamed while the pedatrician used the stethoscope and measured him and all that. Made for a lovely time.

Next pre-op appointment is Friday at noon. Surgery is next Thursday.

Called the pediatric surgeon to schedule Tristan's appointment and that will be on May 18th at 11:15.

I had to take Tristan into the pediatrician's to play catch up on shots today. guess how much my little chunker gained...come on, guess! FIVE pounds. that's right, FIVE. in only one and a half months. he went from being a lil thing to a chunky monkey. he now weighs 22 pounds 4 oz and is 29.5 inches. the pediatrician was a bit shocked, but I told him he's basically eating all table food now. so that's the reason. my good cooking (ha) is fattening him up. well it's made Josh gain 50 lbs since we got married (he was underweight then) so I guess its good for fattening boys up.

The sad part of the visit is that Tristan has a hydrocele (basically water in his testicle...I know, like you really wanted to know, you can google it for more info if you're sick and twisted and like medical stuff like that). He's had it since around 5-6 months or so and its not going away. It gets larger at times and sometimes he looks normal. The pediatrician said that could be because Tristan has a hernia. So he gave me the number for a pediatric surgeon to call and make an appointment to have him look at Tristan. He said the surgeon might wait it out or might want to do surgery. Sigh...to think of both my boys having surgery. That's hard. It almost makes me feel like a failure as a mom...like there was something I could have done to prevent this. I know there isn't at all, but still feels that way.

Speaking of Michael's surgery, the lump hasn't gone down anymore at all. So I scheduled him an appointment with the pediatrician next week to have a physical that's required by the surgeon's office. That appointment is on Wednesday, then he has the pre-admission testing by the surgery center on Friday. Then two weeks from today is the surgery. Josh unfortunately will be going out of state for work from April 29-May 3. The surgery is sometime on May 3. I really wish he could be here with me, but just knowing that he'll be home that day is somewhat comforting. Thankfully my parents are close by and will be able to help me out.

random pictures from our last really nice day

My boys on Easter Sunday. doesn't Michael look so big??







ps- regarding M's surgery, his lump is now all of a sudden going down, keep praying it goes down completely and won't have to have surgery!

Michael has to have surgery on his eye to remove the chalazion. I'm on hold right now waiting for the person who schedules it. I'm nervous about this, its so close to his eyeball. Just got off the phone, the surgery is scheduled for May 3.

I hate this week. Every year, I dread this week coming. Yesterday would have been my nephew Roy's 9th birthday. Tuesday it will be 9 years since he died. Tuesday it will be 4 years since my gram died. I wonder somedays what life would be like if both of them were here. Would I have actually taken up knitting if my gram hadn't died? I got all her stuff afterwards and then started. I guess the nice thing about it is whenever I pick up my knitting or crocheting it makes me think of her.

Rub a dub dub, two boys in a tub!!!

After Tristan's first ziti experience, it was definitely bath time.




pre-bath


happy to play in the tub!


Michael covering Tristan in bubbles


he had just finished crawling in the tub and is therefore covered in bubbles


Michael decided to help mommy clean Tristan off

Tristan's first real "boo boo" he fell face forward onto the concrete when we were outside playing yesterday. Poor lil guy. he's doing well though and only a small layer of skin came off and its scabbed up already.


you can kind of see Michael's lump under his eye in these pictures and his new haircut!

update on the kiddos


Michael

• says "please" and "thank you" consistently
• shuts the door when he leaves his room in the morning after he wakes up
• now says "Thomas" (which sounds like "ah-mas" for Thomas the Tank Engine
• has a chalazion. I need to call a pediatric opthamologist about it since he's had it for about a month now and with home treatment is not going away.
• can walk up the stairs unassisted not holding on to anything

Tristan

• climbs the stairs, he made it halfway up our staircase this weekend!
• crawls everywhere and is getting faster every day
• pulls up on everything, even the trash can
• has occasionally let go and stood holding onto nothing
• has 5 teeth (top middle two, bottom middle two, and the one to the right of the bottom middle) and is working on 3 more teeth
• he's finally found his happy side, so I don't spend most of my day holding him anymore
  

so I'm pregnant. I've know now for a little over a week. Still in shock, but working on figuring out what we need to do before our third little one arrives. I'm due November 21st, the day before Thanksgiving, so that'll make the holidays fun. BUT...one good thing is, another tax deduction next year!!

we need to:

• move somewhere larger. we're already cramped in our 644 sq ft apartment with two kids
• get a larger car. we're talking about trading in the Buick for a *gasp* van or selling the truck and getting a used van.
• figure out storage space depending on where we move, because I now need to keep all these various baby items I was planning on selling and need somewhere to store them when Tristan's done with them.

ps- if you haven't checked the knitting blog lately, there are some new pictures posted!

pictures!!

first the socks and then my hat I finished last night.


now the boys!

A month into the new year, an update on my goals for the year.

I have had two Mom's Nights Out with our local stay at home mom's group. definitely much needed. they're trying to do it every other week or so. lately we've just been hitting local Applebee's after 9pm for their half price appetizers. we get a bunch and split them.

I have also complete a pair of knitted socks. my first socks ever. I'm so proud of them since they came out really well (will share pictures tomorrow). I finally bit the bullet and bought some double pointed needles (DPN's) and attempted socks. I'm in love with DPN's now and my next project is going to be a hat. I feel that now that I've finished a pair of socks I can knit anything!

In January, Michael learned some new words:

• boo
• meow (now whenever he sees a cat, he says meow...over and over and over and over)
• eye
• nose
• mommy!!! (finally!!! he has always said baby and daddy, but never mommy til now)
• moo
• cup

For Tristan, he's been spending more and more time on his hands and knees. mostly when he gets mad at me because I'm not holding him. but as of yesterday he is now pulling up on furniture and standing! yikes! he's definitely more interested in pulling up than crawling.

In other news...Josh went on his first business trip to Wisconsin for 4 days last week It was rather successful, but it was nice to have him home. we went to his company's end of the year party last Friday night and had a blast. definitely nice to meet people he'd been talking about.

I do have pictures to share, but will have to post them tomorrow. I'm off to bed as the munchkins haven't been allowing me much sleep at all *yawn*.

Happy New Year!!

Generally with a new year comes resolutions. I never make them, because inevitably something happens and it doesn't work out. So this year I have decided to make a few goals:

1. spend more time for myself- either knitting, crocheting or reading, goal of at least a half hour a day
2. have a girls night out once a month so I can connect with other women, which seldom happens currently
3. eat healthier. avoid eating out if possible and to cook healthy food for my family
4. start playing the piano again
5. get involved in some sort of sport, whether it be intramural soccer or church softball

Also with the new year comes our anniversary. Josh and I have now been married 4 years as of January 1, 2007. craziness. It feels like forever, but yet it also feels like it went by so quickly.

Hope you all have a fantastic 2007!