Time for an Update

Sorry for not updating for so long. So much going on between being pregnant, getting our new house and just life. So here it is in all of it's boring glory:

Baby is growing beautifully and is still a boy. No doubt about it boy. He showed off his boy bits quite proudly last ultrasound. We are naming him Emerson after Roger's father who passed away several years ago and James after my grandfather who passed away when I was quite young but whom I adored. Adding a boy into the mix has brought some varying emotions. I am thrilled beyond belief to be having a son but I worry about how all of the estrogen and girl stuff (you can read that part as DRAMA) will affect this poor little guy. Everyone tells me it will make him a wonderful boyfriend or husband some day but I worry more about what it will be like for him growing up in a house with a father who is absent 50% of the time due to work and nothing but girls to raise him. It is obvious how much he will be loved. Alyssa is so happy it is a boy and Livvy has been telling me for over a year now that she wants a baby brother. Bella is of course oblivious to the whole thing although she does kiss my belly often tell me there is a baby in there.

Durell will be coming to stay with us for a few months before heading off the Army in January. He has decided it is time to "man up" (his words not mine) and make something of his life and he figures the military is the best way to do it. It really worried me at first and I spent many days crying over him joining but I have come to terms with it and have reached a place where I realize it is what he needs to do in order to feel like he has direction. I am proud of him for making this tough choice and proud that I will be a mother to a soldier.

Alyssa just turned 19. It was such a fun day. She had a ton of friends over and we all celebrated her last teenage birthday. She and Blake have made plans for when he gets home. Mark your calendars for April 2012...that is the big wedding month. LOL. In all seriousness though we love this boy. It took me a while to come around to her waiting for someone but I'm there now and I cannot imagine her marrying anyone as wonderful as he is. He is so good to her and we look forward to one day calling him our son in law...oh and he is the only boy in a house full of women (other than of course their father) and he is a shining example of how the power of women can raise an amazing young man. Alyssa will start school in January and plans on becoming a teacher. It was a toss up between nurse and teacher and it may still change but she has a plan and something to keep her busy for the next two years while Blake is away in Wisconsin. I still marvel at the woman she has become. I love being her mother. I have loved the last 19 years (well most of them) and cannot believe that this beautiful creature was someone I was lucky enough to be a mother to. She is kind and has an amazing heart. I hope her sisters turn out to be just like her. We are blessed indeed.

Olivia is Olivia. She is almost 3.5 years old and is still such a spitfire. She brings so much spunk into this house and keeps us on our toes. It can be trying at times but in the grand scheme of things I would change any part of it. She is funny, outgoing and can warm the heart of anyone she meets. She is a lover too. She still will snuggle up next to me on the couch and wants nothing more than to be with her Mom. She often makes me laugh at the things she says and is smart as a whip. She will be starting pre-school in the fall and is really looking forward to it. It was our incentive to potty train and once I told her she couldn't start school until she was PT'ed she got it in one day. The stinker! She could have done this ages ago but I guess she just needed the right motivation.

Isabella is such a sweet baby. She is still pretty even tempered although she does have her moments. It is hard to believe that she will be 16 months old. In many ways she is an old soul and we often marvel at her. She started walking at about 9 months of age which was a shocker to me. Alyssa was 15 months and Olivia was 13 months old before they were walking so a 9 month walker was something that was new. Can I just say that you do not want a 9 month old who can walk! At least when they are a year old they get the concept of NO...don't touch that. At 9 months old it is like banging your head against the wall. LOL. She is still very petite size wise but tall for her age. She wants so much to be like her big sister Olivia and copies everything including trying to go potty. She even takes toilet paper and wipes. It cracks us up. I figure she will be easier to potty train earlier than Livvy but then again I might have to eat those words.

As for Roger and I we are plugging along. The new house has been a challenge. There was much to be done but we are about 1/2 way there. Almost all of the upstairs is painted and we can work on the downstairs later. Roger's job is still going great and although we hate the time apart the time at home is really nice. We will celebrate 10 years next month. Hard to believe it has been that long. It really has flown by.

That's it for now. Off to my OB appointment. Thanks for reading if you made it this far and if you want to find recent pictures of everyone you can visit my photography blog. Link is on the right just under the baby ticker. Alyssa's 19 year pictures will be up in a few days.

Shan

And the Answer is....

Very much a little boy. We are expecting Emerson James December 29, 2009!

I took an Intelligender

For those that have never heard of it, here is a link: intelligender.com. It turned a very smoky green almost instantly which means boy! I guess we will find out soon enough but what would I do with blue? I have never done blue or boy parts or boy issues. Do boys have issues? I know girls sure do. It might be nice to have some added testosterone in this house...perhaps we could even out all of that estrogen!

Oh and Olivia has been saying since before I got pg that she wants a baby brother so we shall see.

Shan

Adventures in Potty Training

Have you ever had one of those weeks that start off great but by the time Sunday rolls around it has all gone to pot? That is what potty training is like. Olivia is starting preschool in the fall and has to be potty trained. She has been ready for a while now. She can tell me when she had peed and tells me when she is pooping in her diaper. She got very excited about potty training so that she could go to preschool and play with other kids.

We started off great. I mean great. She went potty on the potty every single time she had to go. Not a single accident. She would wear her big girl panties with pride and holler every time she went potty that she, Olivia had gone potty on the big girl potty. She got one chocolate chip for every time she peed and two for every poop.

Then came the day that she decided she did not want to be a big girl and we have been dealing with it ever since. I still pull out the big girl panties every day and she still wears them but it is now a battle. She goes potty on the potty but is having the occasional accident (to be expected) and keeps telling me she wants her diaper back on.

Any hints, suggestions or otherwise? Should I throw in the towel, say she isn't ready, cancel preschool for this year and try again in a few months? Would you stick to it or just let it go? All of the experts say that you should not push potty training. It becomes a battle and their association with potty training becomes negative and in all fairness Alyssa wasn't ready until she was 3.5 but again, Livvy knows when she has to go. Why the sudden change?

Shan

Not 1, Not Even 2 but 3 Icons Die in 2 days Time!

What an incredible loss. First Ed McMahon who was a staple on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Some of you may be too young to remember Johnny Carson but I remember well sitting up late at night waiting for my mother to get home from her late night of working her third job and watching the two of them banter back and forth. His life somehow went south and he lost everything even going to so far as to resort to doing commercials for that gold buying place but Ed McMahon will forever be a part of my childhood memories. I can almost guarantee that Johnny and Ed are once again making people laugh.

Farrah Fawcett...I had the do. Heck, who didn't back then? I loved Charlie's Angels. I even loved them in reruns. While Farrah was only on the show for one season she really made the show that first season> Her first forray's into solo stardom were a disaster (think Lee Majors her then hubby and her appearance on the Bionic Man). They were almost laughable but then there came The Burning Bed. I have seen that movie too many times to count (thank you Lifetime Television). She went from being the blond airhead to really proving her stuff. She was Emmy nominated and gained a great deal of respect after that movie. She went on to do more movies that achieved acclaim including another Emmy nomination when she played with her love Ryan O'Neal in a movie. When she and Ryan split it was painful to watch her weird and erratic behavior. Her comeback to reality came around the same time as her appearance with the original angels and soon after we learned of Farrah's cancer. I for one never imagined that she would lose her battle. As Jacqueline Smith said today, "she nows lives with real angels." God Bless you Farrah.

Finally there was Michael Jackson. What can I say about Michael except that I grew up with Michael Jackson. He was on my radio for as far back as I can remember. I can remember watching The Jackson Five on TV shows and hearing their songs on the radio in our car but for me the most memorable moment came during the Motown 50 Year Anniversary Special. I can remember sitting with my mother and step father and just being blown away by his talent. I had goosebumps. The next day at school everyone was trying to moon walk. I can remember when Thriller came out and seriously, who didn't know the Thriller dance? I can still do it. Thriller was the number one selling record around the world. That record has never been broken.

Michael Jackson was to my childhood what Elvis was to my mother's. There wasn't a time growing up that Michael Jackson was not there with his music and during my high school years he was at his prime. Then things began to get weird. It was sad to watch his decline but I think it was inevitable. His father was abusive to him, he was teased mercilessly as a child by his siblings and the toll fame took on him during the 80's and early 90's was evident. Thriller took him from stardom to super stardom. He once made a comment that he "had grown up on stage and did not know how to relate to people. He was the most comfortable on stage in front of thousands of fans. He could sleep there." That speaks volumes of where his mind was. Add to that his brush with death in the famous Pepsi commercial, the subsequent pain pill addiction and you have the makings for paranoia mixed with a dash of disaster.

In many ways his passing might be blessing for his tortured soul but for those who loved his music and the icon he once was it is just a sad day. There were two kings in music history and both are gone now. Elvis the King of Rock & Roll and Michael Jackson the King of Pop. Will there ever be another to fill those shoes? With today's fly by night fancies of the youth I doubt it but we can hope. Rest in peace dear Michael. May you too find peace with the angels among whom you now walk.

I'm sorry my sweet blog for ignoring you again

In my defense this pregnancy has been kicking my butt. I'm so tired these days. Chasing after one toddler being pregnant was tough but two...forget it! Things are progressing perfectly. I am now 13 weeks pregnant so officially in my second trimester! Yay for us!

The baby is growing as it should. I had my NT Scan a couple of weeks ago and baby measured right on target, nuchal fold was only .9 (that is awesome...anything under 3 is considered normal) and my bloodwork came back giving me a risk for Down Syndrome of 1/940 and Trisomy 13/18 at 1/1500. Those numbers are phenomenal. My risk before all of this was less than 1/100 for Down Syndrome so we are thrilled with the numbers.

Olivia turned three on May 27th. Hard to believe that my precious girl is 3 already. She is amazing. Her language skills are well beyond her years and she is constantly amazing us with the stuff she says. Of course some of it is not always good. Yesterday she was at the dinner table and spilled something. She said, "oh crap" and got the look from me. My one and only swear word and of course she picked up on it. She backtracked and said, "I mean, oh sweet niblets!" I about spit out my food. It was hilarious...yes she loves Hannah Montana. Her three year pics can be found here:
ilbellophotography.blogspot.com

Isabella is still not saying too much. She grunts and points a lot but she has started to say some things consistently. She has a play cell phone and pretends to call her daddy all the time. Her favorite phrase is, "hi daddy." She also says, uh oh, ice, bite, up, down, eeeaaa (Olivia), sishy (Sissy for Alyssa) and Mammmmaaaammmaa when she is really mad. Hard to believe she is 14 months old already!

Alyssa is doing great. She is working part time and just took her ACT's. Once she gets those scores she plans on applying to the local college and hopes to attend starting winter semester. She is dating such a great guy and they have talked about marriage. That will be a couple of years off but they are so good for each other and Roger and highly approve of him.

AFM, my photography business is really doing well. I have had several clients in the past couple of weeks. I am no where near where I hope to be as a photographer but the clients give me great practice. I am taking a couple of classes this semester. One in photography and one in Photoshop. I plan on getting my degree in photography but it will definitely be slow going as the children come first. I will likely only take one or two classes per semester and next semester all of my classes will be online since there will be a newborn in our house some time around Christmas.

I guess that is all the updating I can do for now. Dinner is almost done and my wonderful hubby is home for the week so I'm off to spend more time with him and the kids.

And the verdict is...

One very healthy little bean measuring 2 days ahead. Heart rate was 136bpm. Things look great. I will post a picture later.

Shan