Sleep

Here are my two babies sleeping. NO - these pictures are not taken at the same time. The kids have some sort of secret pact to not sleep at the same time - I am wondering if they have bets as to when I will burn out.

Overall, things are going great. Selah is eating well and fattening up nicely. Ezra continues to learn new things and expressions every day and can always make me laugh out loud. Jon is super busy at work but comes home and plays the role of super-dad very well. I am...well...exhausted but coping. No, exhausted but happy. No, exhausted but thrilled with the life I am living right now! Sometimes the "exhausted"part gets the better of me. But that's why the coffee pot now has a permanent home on the kitchen counter whereas before it would get put away nicely because home brewing was so rare.

It is ten o'clock now...and Ez is in bed and Selah is content with her dad...so this is my chance to SLEEP. And that's what I will do.

Selah Joy

Selah Joy graced us with her presence at 7:35 am on Thursday, January 5. I had attempted to go to bed that night, thinking I could make it till morning before bringing Ezra to a babysitter and going to the birth center. But I woke Jon up at 2:30 and suggested (no, demanded) we get our stuff together and be on our way. We got to the birth center at about 4:15. My midwife didn't bother checking dilation because she and I knew the sign posts - vomiting, pressure, etc - so I was most likely transitioning upon arrival. Glad we didn't wait any longer!
After some time in the tub, we moved to the bed where Selah was born. Looking back, I can't complain about the labor and birth. It went wonderfully. But that does not go without saying that it really really really really hurt. However, it is amazing to me to look back and see how just when I thought it couldn't possibly hurt any more, it did, and then I was able to manage it. It just escalates and escalates until that baby is out - and then it's over - and I did it - and she did it - and Jon did it - and my midwife and doula did it - and the combination of all the effort resulted in pure JOY.

And here is our fabulous midwife - the same woman who taught me everything I know about pregnancy, labor and birth. I cannot express how happy I am that she was the one to deliver Selah.

We were discharged about 5 hours after the birth. Ezra was stoked to meet his little sister. Here I am with my two babies. NOPE - Ezra is a BIG BOY, pardon me, but we haven't gotten rid of that bottle yet. One transition at a time...

Ezra admiring his sister.

Day 4 or so.... Pretty (and passed out) in Pink.

So I'll try to post more pictures from time to time. I kinda feel like I'm being double teamed by my two little ones, so we'll see how diligent I am. But I do need to say that I feel so incredibly blessed with such an amazing little family. I am absolutely crazy about both my children and my fantastic husband. Here's to sleepless nights, crazy meal times, lots of laughs and endless diaper changes. LIFE IS GOOD!

Walking round our 'hood

This was taken on Wednesday morning (the 4th) before we went for our morning walk. It was chilly, so we put on our hoodies and thought we looked pretty cool. On that walk, I had a few contractions that made me wish I wasn't on a walk. And I had a few more throughout the day. Little did we know that little sister was on her way......

Christmas Time

December 20, 2011- ONE YEAR HOME!

We can't believe that a whole year has passed since our little Ez came home to us. Man has he grown and has life changed since then. We still sometimes shake our heads in awe at the blessing he has been to us. We look forward to so many more years!

Below are a smattering of pictures around Christmas time. My parents came for a week which was wonderful. We went to the ICE Experience (next couple pics) where everything is carved out of ice. Ez fell asleep before we ever got there, so I didn't include any pictures of the sleeping babe. We also enjoyed the nice Florida weather and had a great time opening all of Ezra's presents on Christmas Eve.

And here is baby girl's "corner" all ready and waiting for her. No, she does not get a fancy nursery. Neither did Ez. Our babies get corners (yes, Erika, even though "nobody puts baby in a corner..."). My parents brought the mobile with them - it's the one they bought for my sister 34 years ago and used with each of their kids. Cool, eh? I love it. Ez loves it too, and always wants it to play so the characters move around. My next post will probably include a couple pictures of the little miss...since I am currently 39 weeks and we all know I don't blog very often.
Happy New Year, Everyone!

Did I do it?

Here's another go at videoing! I discovered that I can video with my web cam, so now I tried that to see if it was uploadable to blogger. I am still so bummed that I can't upload videos from my camera, because of course those are much better and the camera is portable.

Anyhow - if this works, here is Ez in his chair, and then mesmerized by himself in the computer screen.

Finally...the Ocean!

We live about an hour away from both coasts - the Atlantic and the Gulf - and believe it or not, this is Ezra's first trip to the ocean! He was quite mesmerized by the waves. It was chilly though, so we did not spend a ton of time frolicking. This is the Atlantic coast, just near the Kennedy Space Center.

Just to Say "Hi!"

Leaps and Bounds

Ezra goes to physical therapy twice a week. He loves his therapist, Amber (who cannot be pictured for legal reasons) and all the new toys he gets to discover there. Amber works him pretty hard and we have seen such incredible improvement. Here he is on "tall knees" which activates his butt muscles - needed for standing one day.

Because of the all work, Ez has mastered the army crawl and has gotten really good at a "bunny hop" sort of crawl. So he's really moving well around the house - even managing to chase after the "titties" (a.k.a. kitties)

He is getting better and better at climbing stairs. He doesn't get to practice this at home though, since we have none. He is VERY good at coming down the stairs backwards, very cautiously. In this second picture, you can see he gets a little distracted sometimes by other kids in the room. He always needs to know what's going on!

And here he is ready for one of his favorite activities - the mobile standing frame. He loves zooming around the room, saying hi to everyone and getting into all the toys.

Because he was doing so well with this, we started looking into wheelchairs for him. I came across the ZipZac chair - a small chair created by hand for a little boy with Spina Bifuda. His uncle, the creator of the chair is selling them. So we ordered one for Ez. You can see that it fits him perfectly, and really gives him freedom of movement, especially outside (it's not really meant for outside, but our courtyard doesn't count). It allows him to get into the stuff he wants to get into.

And now he's able to play ball outside with his girlfriend!

We are so proud of him and all the progress he is making. I have the time to post right now because he is actually in surgery - he had surgery on his spine to prevent tethering, as well as a muscle biopsy, two more tenotomies on his achilles tendons, and a lengthening of a tendon in his hip. I just heard from the second surgeon, saying everything went great and he'll be waking up in about an hour. So I'm gonna run and get a coffee so I can make it through the rest of the day. (yes, I drink coffee from time to time in pregnancy and I don't want to hear your opinion on it :) )

A Whole Year Old!

We can't believe it - our little man is one year old already! His birthday was September 5. He is changing daily - picking up new talents, developing his awesome personality, and trying to communicate. Here he doing a good job feeding himself.

Okay, Jihae, I obviously need your help. I put a lot of effort into the dinosaur cupcakes, but I will be the first to admit they didn't look too awesome. Oh well. They tasted great and I don't think Ez cared too much.

Here's the little swimmer in our roof-top pool with his cool new turtle.

Just chillin' - he's cool like that.

Reading books with Grandma Ippel.

My next post will be about all of Ezra's progress with physical therapy and his new mode of transportation. Oh, and yes Aunt Lottie, I'll fit in a pregnancy picture one of these days! :)

Where have we been? Part II

Okay, so it's a little overdue, but here are pictures from our second trip of the summer - to Montana. My grandmother lives there and my parents met us there for a week. We had a great time hanging out at the farm, going to Yellowstone, and just relaxing. Ez loved the tractors and the cows.