Away in a Manger

Katie's school's Christmas Concert was this past Friday and it was beautiful. It is a K-8 school and every class participated (through song or narration) in the story of Christmas.

Katie's class were cherubs and they sang "Away in a Manger." They sent a note home about a month ago that the preschoolers needed to wear a white shirt and white pants. I avoid white clothing on my girls like the plague - I had nothing for her to wear! I found a white long sleeved shirt at Walmart, and thank goodness my friend Carol had a pair of white pants that she let us borrow. (White pants!?!)

They sent the words home and we practiced - though she liked to fool around almost every time. She would sing in a mouse's voice or in a really deep voice or just mouth the words with no sound. It drove me nuts!

But, lo and behold, when it came for her to be on stage she sang every word! There were about twenty 3-year-olds on stage and you could barely hear them, but I saw her mouth moving. Whoo hoo! I videotaped her song, but of course I have no clue how to transfer it (on tape) to the computer. We got there super early so we had a great spot in the second row.

I must say I really loved it - I can't wait for both of them to do more things like this as they grow up!

Dear Baby (Week 14)

Dear Little Baby - which is what we seem to be calling you lately! (I tried to make up cute little names for the girls when I was pregnant with them but they didn't stick either, so don't feel bad.)

Your presence is still making itself known in my day to day happenings. The exhaustion is less, it usually just comes around at dinnertime - which is impeccable timing since that's usually the time your sisters turn into creatures from another planet and decide that the love they have given each other all day has now come to an end. My gag reflex is alive and well - oh boy - do I have some not-to-be-told-when-anyone-is-eating-stories to tell!

Your sisters talk about you all the time. Whenever Katie sees a baby she says, "Just like the baby in your belly!" to me with a big smile on her face. They both pick up my shirt and Katie wants to touch you through my bellybutton. (Which gives me the willies!) Maddie tells you she is going to be your big sister with a big smile on her face and in quiet shy voice and then asks if you are coming today. I smile and say, "The baby will be here when it gets warm outside."

We decorated more of the Christmas tree today and I found one of my favorite ornaments: two bears touching noses, one labeled Katie and one labeled Maddie. Next year I will have to find one with three little bears on it!

We have no idea if you are a boy or a girl - and I have visions in my head of you as one or the other all the time. I see you as a boy on top of the roof in your teens helping Daddy hang Christmas lights - and I see you as a girl on top of the roof in your teens helping Daddy hang Christmas lights. Your Daddy will not discriminate! I see you with your Daddy's red hair and I see you with my dark brown hair. Your sisters blue eyed genes were strong enough to overpower my dominant brown eyes - will yours be that strong, too? Will I finally get a kid who looks like me or will I have to continue to point out your Daddy to people when they look at me and the girls with quizzical looks on their faces? Either way is fine with me!

Have a good week, Baby ... we can't wait to feel you start moving! Love, Mama

How we get Katie to take her antibiotics

Poor Katie. She has been out of school almost as much as she's been in. When she first started school I was very cautious - if she had a cough or runny nose of any kind I would keep her home. I was a brand new school mommy and I figured other parents wouldn't send their kids to school like that. Hah!

Once I realized how it REALLY goes, I only kept her home if she had a fever or a really bad cold. Which she has had quite often. Example: She missed picture day because of pink eye. Then she missed the make-up picture day this past Wednesday because she currently has a urinary tract infection.

So this week she is on antibiotics and she is none too happy about it. Let me show you how each morning and each evening goes in our household ...

We start by circling each other ...

I get her in a hold and start to bring her down ...


She escapes and the circling begins again!

Andy has to come in for backup ...

I've got a good grip! (And this is literally the face that Katie makes.)

She's pinned!

It's in her mouth - she's crying and rolling on the floor. (Don't worry - she gets a pez when she's done and she knows it.)

Mommy is victorious!!!

How does medicine taking go over in YOUR house?

Our Christmas Card Surprise

When we decided (read: when I convinced Mr. Andy Man) to try for a third kid we at first thought of planning for last year, when the girls would turn three. Which meant we had to get started when they were 2 1/2 - which both of us immediately reconsidered! We decided that waiting until the girls were going to be four when the new baby was born was probably a better idea.

I still can't get pregnant on my own, so we did IVF again (we did it for the girls) - and since we knew the drill it wasn't nearly as daunting this time. Our only request from our fabulous doctors at RMA was that we only wanted ONE embryo transfered. They laughed and said, "Sure - but you know it may split, right?" Oh yes, we knew! We just knew we'd have to add another bedroom onto the house if that happened.

It was so different this time because of a few reasons. We decided not to tell anyone this time. When we couldn't get pregnant years ago - everyone knew. They knew we were trying - they knew we were going through infertility treatments - they knew when we had the IVF done - and they knew the minute I found out I was pregant. They knew we were having twins - they knew they were girls - they even knew their names. I really wanted the element of surprise this time.

Another thing that was different than years ago was that now we had the girls. Andy was always able to come to appointments with me (which were anywhere from 5:30-7:30am). Now he had to stay home with the girls. We had a friend lined up to babysit the girls when the actual transfer took place - but then both our girls were sick with horrible horrible colds and we didn't want to get her little girl sick, so Andy stayed home instead. I went alone. It wasn't horrible - but I would have loved for him to be there to hold my hand.

We found out within a week that the transfer worked! And we found out a few days later that the embryo did NOT split. Yay!

Now we had to wait to tell everyone. I wanted to be sure and I wanted the baby to be safe. We waited until 8 weeks to tell our parents and siblings - on Halloween! All our parents were in a state of shock I think, and looked at us like we were nuts. Hey - we may be nuts, but all I know it that I felt like someone was missing. There was a notion of another little kid running around this house that I could just not get out of my head.

I don't want you all to think that our parents are upset or anything - I think we just shocked them! Trust me - they will eat this next little one up judging by the way they adore our girls in a way I never thought possible! :)

So now we had to tell everyone else. When I saw that I was going to hit 12 weeks the first week of December, "Christmas card" immediately popped into my head. My cousin did it a few years ago and I thought it was such a great idea - so I copied. That week we had our nuchal scan screening and got great results so the next day I mailed the cards.

I took a picture of the girls wearing "I'm gonna be a Big Sister" shirts instead of a Christmas dress. Mail must be fast because the next day the phone rang and rang. It was great to tell everyone and hear "Are you sure it's not two?" over and over!

I'll be blogging more and more now. I am just starting to feel better - the exhaustion, morning sickness, and headaches are almost gone. (Shhh ... don't tell Andy ...)

Twice is Nice ... but Three's a Charm

June 13, 2010

A prayer for a friend

Please pray and send good thoughts to my friend Alicia and her husband Josh who literally had an adoption slip through their fingers this week. They have been trying to have a child for over 7 years now and got news last week that a woman had chosen them to be adoptive parents of her soon-to-be-born baby boy, only to change her mind this week. I don't have any judgement towards this mother - but at the same time I am upset that my friend is hurting.

Take a few moments to read her blog, http://www.yayastuff.net/, and their adoption website, http://hopingtoadoptamiracle.blogspot.com/, if you'd like.

Thanks.

Halloween Pics!

It is raining here in Northern NJ and we had a wet Halloween. But did that stop us (me) from getting our candy? No way! We went out with umbrellas and raincoats and hoods and had a blast.

The girls were butterfly/faeries and they were just so excited (mostly Katie) to get all dressed up in pink and glitter from head to toe.

Here are some pics from today ...

Hope you all had a wonderful day - and I hope there was sunshine in other parts of the country today! We took one for the team this year - next year we get the sun!