Monday, December 20, 2010

This Christmas Season...

This Christmas season is...Caroline simply asking for bunny slippers and a toy for Olive
This Christmas season is...reading Christmas Oranges on the couch and Caroline falling asleep between Adam and I
This Christmas season is...time for Jamilyn and Nathan to get hitched!! 

This Christmas season is...getting giddy every time there is a Christmas card in the mail, and leaving the junk mail in the box.
This Christmas season is...S.K.I.I.N.G. in powder!!

This Christmas season is...Adam's halfway done point with law school!  Way to go babe, your girls are proud.


Thursday, December 9, 2010

Sweeter than a cupcake

When Caroline knew Olive's birthday was coming up she was very thrilled to think up having the party be a cupcake party.  She said, "That will be a great idea mom, it really will."  
And truly why are cupcakes all the rage right now?  Well, because they just make people happy, and that is exactly what our Olive does.  It was perfect.

Here are the tasty invitations...
I fell in love with IZZE soda up in New Hampshire, I actually purchased them because just looking at them make me smile.  They turned out to taste good so they made the cut for the party!
And sipping them with one of these makes me smile even bigger!  These babies are hard to find.  They have red and white ones a lot of places, but they are also very expensive at most of those places.  There is a store called Rock Paper Scissors in Wiscasset, Maine that sells them.  They are the cheapest place to get them and she charges almost nothing to ship them!  It is a small local business too, which is great.  There are lots of colors to choose from just call:  207-882-9930
150 Green Striped Paper Straws
To add a little flair to the napkins I added some pom poms.

It took Olive a while to dip into the cake because these two little ones, Caroline and Liam, had all of her attention.  They were so sweet with her.
Olive would get close to the cake and then stop and look at everyone watching.  She would just wait there like she was posing for us so we could snap some more pictures.  


It truly was a party and a show by this little love.  She had everyone laughing and smiling as big as she is here!
Here's to 1 Olive!!  








Sunday, December 5, 2010

Happy Happy Birthday!!

            
             One year ago we welcomed Olive Mary into our family.  Finally, the constant worry of whether everything with our growing miracle would be ok was over.  Olive had arrived and was laying, snuggling on my chest.  The road to that point was trying and scary.  After having my two miscarriages, I was in constant alert mode while pregnant with Olive.  We had a scare that I was delivering her at 25 weeks, but after a visit to the E.R. we found out that everything was fine.  The next month was uneventful and I could feel her strong limbs pushing against me.  Then after I measured small at a doctor's appointment, they sent me for an ultrasound.  The tech said that everything looked fine, but she kept looking and looking, then switched probes, and still kept looking.  I had a feeling the tech saw something suspicious, but did not want to tell me without consulting a doctor first.  Later the doctor called and said that our little girl had fluid on the brain.  She told me that I would have to wait until the following week to go to Dartmouth for an ultrasound and genetic appointment.  A week!?  I was devastated and worried about what would be necessary to take care of our baby.  I talked with my uncle who boosted my spirits and after a lot of prayer I realized that no matter what our little one has to deal with, we would love her still the same.  After thorough ultrasound by a neonatologist at Dartmouth, the fluid on the brain diagnosis turned out to be another false alarm. 
                The last two months were smooth sailing.  I felt so good and we were becoming anxious and excited for our new arrival.  On December 6th I woke up feeling a little off.  I was throwing a children's Christmas party and had lots to do so I got to it.  Baking cookies, mixing frosting, setting up the nativity puppets.  The party was busy and by the end I was very tired, and feeling a little worse.  Caroline and I went about our day.  Around 4:00 I realized that I was having some sporadic contractions, which I figured were just Braxton Hicks (seeing as how many of my pregnant friends had been having them for weeks).  But then at 4:58 the sharp pains started becoming more regular, longer, and more painful.  This was such a different experience than when I had Caroline.  It felt like my insides were doing flips.  I sat on the couch with Adam's watch clutched in my hand as I timed how long each contraction.  At this point they were about 7 minutes apart.  Quickly that shifted to 4-5 minutes apart and I immediately called Adam and the doctor.  I still have the index card with my chicken scratch writing indicating that at 6:06 p.m. we were rushing out the door to the hospital.  We dropped Caroline off with our dear friends, the Dortchs, for the night.  I had to sit down a couple of times on the floor at their house while some contractions passed.  Part joking, part serious, Cary asked if I needed his wheelchair.  (In hind sight, Adam asks, "Why didn't you just stay in the car while I dropped Caroline off?")
                When we got to the hospital I was measuring at a 5 and feeling energized.  I had Guster and Indigo Girls playing through my ipod in one ear, while Adam was comforting me in the other.  I enjoyed a whirlpool path for a very long time.  It was perfect to keep the pain under control as I progressed stedily to a 7-8.  When I reached a nine, I felt terrible and started throwing.  This is when I decided to call the anesthesiologist for an epidural (too bad I didn't know the anesthesiologist was at home and that it would be an hour before my epidural was finally in place).    One hour post epidural, at 1:02 am, our little 6 pound 9 ounce baby arrived.   As I looked down at our beautiful girl, rather than the sense of pure relief I thought I would experience upon her arrival, I was filled with fear because I didn't hear her newborn cry.  Olive was a dusky grey color and time stood still as we waited for her to take her first breath of life.  In my mind I thought, "We have come this far, and now this?"  The doctor quickly cut the cord and moved her to the warmer where he was joined by a team of nurses.  Adam fought the urge to follow the doctor to ensure that he was doing everything possible  to help Olive breath.  Instead he stayed with and comforted me as we prayed for our little girl.  I sat there shaking my head whispering, "No, no, no," over and over.  The doctor stayed very calm  and told us everything he was doing.  By 1:04, which seemed like an eternity, she was pinking up a little, but the room was still disturbingly quiet.  Finally, at 1:05, after the longest 3 minutes of our lives, Olive took her first breath and the ear shattering silence was broken by her perfect newborn cry.  Minutes later, I was holding Olive in my arms and my Christmas wish of having Olive here safe had come true.

Our little O,
Today you are 1
Today you L.O.V.E. to climb
Today you love eggs, any meat, all cooked veggies, bananas, blueberry pancakes, pears
Today you lay your head on my shoulder before you go to bed and we 'hmm' back and forth
Today you love to lay on Caroline's chest and make her giggle
Today you have two and a nubbin teeth.
Today you love to spoon water out of the Nalgene bottle when you bathe
Today you have lots to say to everyone all day in your happy voice
Today you sign doggie, all done, and milk
Today you love to put things in bowls and baskets
Today you say hi and wave, and bye, mama, and dada
Today you love to try to put on hats, headbands, and shoes over and over again
Today you can't tolerate milk, but love to drink soy milk from ONLY a spoon so far
Today you help put your coat on by sticking out your arms
Today you have taken 7 steps alone toward toddling
Today darling Caroline can always bring a toothy smile to  your face, even if you are sick
Today is the second Christmas season that we are blessed to have you
We sure do love you sweetheart!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

I woke up Thanksgiving morning and there was definitely a different feeling in the air.  Our home was filled with a quiet, yet thrilling holiday excitement.  Today was the day we were going to visit some incredible dear friends.  We were going to decorate later for Christmas while carols played in the background.  We got to feast on so many divine delicacies.  We were able to smell those delicacies cooking all day and the candied yams made our home smell like a sweet shop.  Adam got to play football (and there were no injuries!).   Caroline was beside herself with glee because she thought the Indians really were coming to our feast later.  Oh how we L.O.V.E. her!!
We were able to go to Jill and Behrad's for dinner.  Let me just say, mouth watering perfection!  The turkey (pic coming soon) was brined by Jill and was moist and so tender.  She had some cranberry sauce from Williams-Sonoma that will be finding it's way to our Thanksgiving table from now on.  

 I have been lucky to have known Jill since highschool.  Here we are years later celebrating the holidays together with two little girls each!  Caroline and Izabella had only met once right before Jill moved out here to D.C. and we left for New Hampshire.  The girls were young and were just focused on the swings then.  Well, they sure hit it off this night and it made the evening so enjoyable!  They tried on about 20 dresses and twirled and ice skated on the wood floors to their hearts content.  Olive and Pearl enjoyed watching the live entertainment and were just being their usual sweet selves.