The Cow and The Monkey

Lola and Ginger

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All Done!

We're in Ada visiting my mom. We're waiting for GGM to start crawling any minute. She's really been rolling all over the place this week. Another big milestone today has been her first baby sign. She's already been signing dog for a while, but it's a pretty easy one because all she does is pant like a dog when she sees a dog. Well today she let me know that she didn't want any more of her breakfast - she was ALL DONE!

All Done!

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Little Fishies

Well the girls are becoming quite the swimmers. LRM LOVES to dive for rings. She would much rather be under water than above the surface breathing. We are trying to convince her that breathing is an important part of swimming. I'm sure she'll get it. GGM enjoys floating on her back and the occasional dunk under water. Really she just likes kicking back and watching LRM do all the work. We're so glad we have a pool because it's getting HOT here and it's a nice relief to get in and cool down!

Swimming Lola

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Cool Ginger

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4th of July

Happy Independence Day, everyone. We had a nice and relaxing day. LRM and Mommy did some painting during GGM's morning nap. LRM then cleaned off in the water hose - her first time and she really enjoyed it. We had our dear friends over for lunch and swimming. It was the hottest day of the year, up to 116 at our house. After the afternoon naps we went to the neighbors' houses for more swimming and more eating. Then P took the girls home and went to bed. I rode my bike up the street with the neighbors to watch the fireworks show. I got some pretty good shots of the action. Check them out at my Flickr.com account.

10 Adults, 7 kids under 4 years old, 3 dogs, and 3 nights in the woods

the play room
Originally uploaded by MarniRae

We took the kids and all of our friends camping this weekend to the Mogollon Rim. LRM and her friends played in the dirt, played in the water, played with the rocks, played in their tents, played with bugs, played with horny toads, and played with each other. The grown ups drank wine, drank beer, drank Jim Beam, and played Cribbage. The men did some fishing and the women did what they usually do, only they did it outside. All around it was a lot of fun and we are looking forward to our next trip. See more pictures at my Flickr.com site.

Here is a pic of the first tooth taken with the new camera

the first tooth
Originally uploaded by MarniRae

Soon, she'll have as many teeth as her sister and will show them off as loudly as LRM does.

Mommy's New Toy

For Father's Day I bought myself a new camera - the Nikon D80. I'm very excited about it but I've spent the last 4 days trying to figure out how to turn the thing on. Ha. Seriously, I'm having lots of fun with it and I hope to post some good pictures soon. My friend Kelli and I are going to take a short photography class together in July. Oh, and PSM got a new driver and a jump out of an airplane. He hasn't jumped yet, but I'll be sure to post a really good picture of it as soon as he does. :)

GGM's First Tooth

Yesterday as I was letting GGM chew on my popcicle (a reward for LRM pooping in the potty), I heard a scraping sound. I felt in her mouth and there was GGM's first tooth!!! There's nothing to really see in a picture but I'll post one as soon as you can actually see the thing. I cried when I felt it. I don't want my baby to grow up. :(

Today's challenge: Be A Better Blogger

I know, I haven't done this in 6 months. I suck. I have been getting lots of pressure from you to get busy, so here I go. My girls are growing. LRM just turned 2.

GGM just turned 7 months. She's sitting up but not crawling. LRM is very small, fell off the growth charts. Her head, on the other hand is larger than 75% of her peers. She is a bobble head. GGM never stops smiling. I have lost all my baby weight. PSM's dad was here for a week for LRM's birthday. We went to Ada for a week and PSM went camping with my cousins and uncles on my dad's side of the family. Actually, those are the only cousins that I have. PSM and I are going to do the Muddy Buddy in Los Angeles in November. It's hot here. I just got back from NYC for the wedding of my friend Jennifer.

It was too much fun! Ok, so that about sums up the last six months. :) Seriously, I'll try to do better.

The Grand Canyon

The day after Christmas, we packed up the family and headed north, out of the valley into the high desert where eventually we came upon a giant hole in the ground. Some folks call it a canyon, others call it the Grand Canyon. (BTW, this is PSM talking) It was truly a spectacular sight and a wonderful family experience. We stayed in an historic cabin on the South Rim just off the rim trail. We didn't want to leave, and Mother Nature answered our call by snowing us in. We were then rewarded with the same picturesque canyon, except covered in snow. It was nice to see the canyon with and without snow on the ground. LRM enjoyed building a snowman and meeting many others along the way. Everyone had a great time. We're looking forward to returning to the canyon, next time to the North Rim for some primitive camping and easy hiking.

Merry Christmas!

Our little angels had a wonderful Christmas. LRM wasn't quite an angel the whole time, though. She was a little overwhelmed by all the gifts and we had to take a few breaks before she got through everything. Santa brought her Elmo TMX, but wouldn't you know, her favorite gifts were "Binkie Elmo" from Nana, a tricycle from Aachi and Thatha, and a bag of blocks from a consignment store. At least it wasn't the bag that the blocks came in! GGM will enjoy Christmas a little more next year.

GGM is growing...

Well our tiny baby is not very tiny anymore. She weighs about 11 pounds. Today she is wearing jeans bigger than her age. LRM never wore 3-6 jeans until she was at least 6 months old. GGM is almost 2 months and already wearing some 3-6 clothes. I want my baby to stay little!! She had a bout of acne that has come and almost gone. She's really cute, despite her scaly skin.

LRM is cutting her second molar so she is a little cranky. We love Ambesol around here! It helps with the sanity. She's getting really excited about Christmas. She loves to drive around and look at "more pretty lights." She knows that Santa says "ho ho ho." She's got a ton of gifts under the tree - it's going to take all day to open them! Santa is bringing her the Elmo TMX - I think she'll love it!

We don't get to go to OK for Christmas this year, but we're going to have a little adventure to the Grand Canyon. Hopefully, we'll have a fun update about that very soon.

GGM update

We took GGM to the doc today for a follow up and the doc says she looks great and that she appears healthy. The little chunk has managed to gain 12 ounces since we left the hospital on Friday! She's up to 8 pounds and 15 ounces. I'm telling you, the kid never stops eating. She's going to help me get back to high school weight by the end of the year! Not really. I need to lose 5 more pounds to get down to pre-LRM weight, 12 more pounds to get down to pre-GGM weight and 18 more pounds to get down to pre-OSU weight. My first goal will be to drop 10 more pounds (pre-marriage weight). PSM said he will race me to a six pack. I found a pic of me in my bikini on my honeymoon and that is going to be my inspiration to work out regularly. Can I look that good in a bikini after having two kids in 2 years? Stay tuned and find out next summer. Maybe I'll don the bikini now and take a "before" picture and then an "after" picture. If I'm successful, maybe I'll share. ;)

Puking LRM

The cherry on top of my GGM sundae was little miss LRM getting sick. I pretty much devoted my Saturday to giving LRM all the attention that she demanded of me. I nursed GGM and took LRM to the park, just the two of us. We played on the springy horsie thing, had a big swing, played in the sand and went down the spiral slide. Every time we went down the slide I would say "this is the last time" and we kept going. The real last time we were about to go down, LRM kind of gagged and then puked all over both of us. Not spit up - real puke. Then she puked again, and again, and again - 5 times!!!!! Down the spiral slide!!! It was so gross. We now call the park "Vomit Park." After all the puking I got LRM down the ladder and she puked some more in the sand. She was covered in puke and freaking out because there was old celery on her sleeve. I stripped her all the way down to her diaper because all of her clothes, socks, shoes were covered in puke. I was wishing I could have stripped myself! Anyway, we got home and both took a bath. She wouldn't eat dinner so we gave her PediaSure which she puked all over herself and PSM. She learned how to puke in the toilet after I caught two pukes in the towel that I wrapped her in to clean the first chocolate puke. We've been trying to keep her away from GGM for fear of passing on a stomach virus. She was puke free today and GGM seems to be feeling ok so I think we are in the clear. Could I have a break, please?

No more sick babies!!!

Our sweet little GGM came home last night after spending 3 days and 2 nights in the hospital. We awoke early Wednesday morning to feed GGM and found that she had a temperature of 101.9. Being that she was only 18 days old, we took her to the Emergency Room where she endured a urine collection, blood draw / IV stick, and spinal tap. She also had to be admitted for a minimum of 48 hours to ensure that she did not have a bacterial infection such as meningitis, which could be fatal in infants as young as her. Needless to say we were quite worried. Her initial tests all came back negative but they had to do cultures on all of her fluid samples to watch for bacterial growth. Meanwhile her fever was up and down and we were watching for chicken pox because we had been exposed when she was only 5 days old. After two long days of waiting for test results, they all came back negative and we got to go home!

Our stay in the hospital was not bad. The hospital where we went has a pediatric ER so everyone working there is used to dealing with babies and children. I got to eat yummy hospital food because GGM is nursing. I also got to sleep on the very cozy hospital recliner. GGM had her vitals taken every four hours and had to have IV injections every 6 hours. She also eats about every two hours. With all the activity, I hardly slept. Our nurses were pretty good. We had all NICU nurses because GGM was so little. It was nice knowing that the people caring for her were good with very small and very sick babies, especially when they had to poke her tiny veins to have blood drawn.

Luckily, PSM's parents arrived on Tuesday evening and were at home to care for LRM while PSM and I spent time in the hospital with GGM. LRM has had a great time playing with her Aachi and Thatha and we're very thankful that they have been here!

BOO!

This year for Halloween we did our typical "try to scare the kids" bit, which seem to have worked because we are still eating left over candy! On Sunday before Halloween, PSM took LRM to her playgroup's Halloween party while GGM and I hung out at the hospital, waiting to go home. On Tuesday, I took them both trick-or-treating while PSM scared the kids.

Miracle Baby

Since I've been out of touch lately, I haven't had a chance to ask my own friends and family to pray for my dear friend Kristen and her family. Kristen was blessed with a beautiful baby boy, Drew, 2 days before GGM arrived. Drew has been dealing with some serious medical problems but seems to be recovering beautifully. Less than two weeks after brain surgery, the little man is home with his mommy and daddy. You can view Drew's blog at http://dwgehrig.blogspot.com/. Please keep him and his family in your prayers. Kristen, we all love you guys!

Mommy of Two!

So I've been very very bad for the last 2 months. Here's the quick and dirty and then the good stuff. LRM had a febrile seizure, which totally stressed me out and put me into preterm labor at 34 weeks, so Doc put me on bedrest. How does the mother of a 16 month-old do bedrest? With a wonderful husband, that's how! So for 6 weeks I waited for this baby to arrive. After all the anticipation of an early baby, our beautiful GGM was finally born on time on October 28. As we assumed from the 4D ultrasound, she looks just like LRM, but with MRM's nose. Actually, I think she's going to be my clone!

My labor was easier than with LRM. I labored for 9 hours but only had to push for 20 minutes. What a relief! I pushed for almost 3 hours with LRM and I was tired. GGM was a good girl, though. No cord around the neck (like her sister) but she was sunny side up. I'm afraid if she had been face down then she would have fallen out at home during week 34! So far she's a good girl. She LOVES to eat, especially at night. She eats about every two hours and is a champion pooper. :) She loves to cuddle and doesn't cry much. Let's hope that doesn't change.

My mom and sister Mariah just left today after spending a week with us. PSM's parents arrive later next week and we'll have them for a month. How lucky can I be to have help for so long? We have great parents!

Ok, so I guess you want to see pictures? PSM created a beautiful slideshow that can be viewed at
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=1679b2a01fded9bd2c375e&skin_id=0&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=email. Enjoy!

34 Weeks and looks like LRM

Baby had her first portrait taken today - in utero. It was hard to get good pictures because her face was smushed against the placenta, but from what we can tell she looks just like LRM! She looks like LRM's 3D ultrasound anyway... She looks like she may have her mommy's nose, whereas LRM has her daddy's nose. We think Baby will have her daddy's lips, though - just like her big sis! We think she is going to be a beautiful little girl and we can't wait to meet her in the next few weeks.

Here is what she is up to these days:

In week 35, the average baby weighs around five to six pounds and measures about 16 to 19 inches in length. Your baby will begin to gain weight more rapidly than ever before…adding about one half to three-quarters of a pound each week from this point forward. And healthy fat is being deposited all over your baby's body, especially around the shoulders.

Because of her size, your baby may move around less as her surroundings become more cramped. Her head may be resting on your pubic bone in preparation for labor and delivery.

Other developments are also taking place this week:

• The central nervous system will continue to mature.
• The lungs will most likely be fully developed by Week 35.
• Baby is beginning to develop daily activity cycles. You may notice that Baby is often more active at night when you're trying to rest!
• Even though they won't be considered “full-term” until the end of the 40th week, Baby's respiratory and digestive systems are nearly mature.
• Baby's immune system is starting to develop.
• The umbilical cord is now about 20 inches long and one to two centimeters in diameter; at birth, it will be about two feet long and a half-inch thick.

LRM Goes to Flagstaff and Mommy is Getting Large

LRM and Mommy were invited to hang out with some friends in Flagstaff. We had a wonderful time. We had our own private suite, there was a huge playroom for the six babies (ages 3 months to 3 years), horses to ride, and plenty of dirt to play in. The weather was a perfect 75 during the day. This morning we had a nice fire going while we ate our breakfast. We really hope to be invited back; it was very relaxing indeed! See the pictures at http://money.shutterfly.com/action/

Pregnancy Update
This week marks some major changes for your baby's eyes. Most notably, the iris in your baby's eyes will become pigmented. However, no matter what color eyes your baby is born with (most are born with dark blue-brown or blue-gray eyes) the color almost always changes after birth. In fact, your baby's true eye color won't appear for six to nine months after delivery, because the final eye pigmentation occurs in response to the strong light of the outside world.
By the end of this week, Baby will weigh about 3.5 pounds and will be about 14.5 inches long. From now on, your baby's weight gain will exceed her growth in length.

Each day brings new developments inside the womb:
Baby's eyes are now usually open during waking, and are closed at naptimes.
Baby's lungs and digestive tract are continuing to develop.

As you near the end of the second trimester, your baby will begin to settle head-down into your pelvis. However, some babies don't make this journey until late in the last trimester, and about four percent of babies don’t make the switch, remaining in a breech position at delivery.