I'm Free

Today I am 37 weeks pregnant, officially full term and officially off bed rest. I went to the MD this morning and everything is about the same. The baby looks good according to the NST results. She wants to do an ultrasound later this week to check growth, but I'm not too worried. This girl is growing.

I am so excited to have some time with Lily. A few weeks would be great, but I'll even take a few days. Hopefully, we can get back to normal for a few days before things turn completely upside down.

Lily is going through a rough little spell these days. I've given her every excuse in the book, but I have finally come to the conclusion that she is just acting two. She has had three hysterical tantrums this past week, one of which was at Juanita Greenberg's today. She's rather like a little time bomb, you never know when she is going to explode. She ate almost everything in sight at lunch, and we were really ready to go. The waiter came and took our plates away including Lily's. All that was left was lettuce (which she won't eat), but she started screaming, "I want my lettuce." She actually yelled, "Don't take my lettuce boy." Everyone got a kick out of this, and I have to admit I did chuckle a little too. She continued to scream about her lettuce all the way to the car and all the way home. This is what I got to enjoy for my first official outing. Truth be told though, I truly did enjoy being out with her, tantrum and all. I have to remind myself that she went through this a few months ago and it quickly passed. So shall this.

Happy Memorial Day

Lily's First Hair Cut

So, I'm not sure which I was more excited about, Lily's first hair cut or the fact that I was able to go. My doctor gave me special permission to make the trip, but I conveniently forgot to mention to her that I was getting mine cut also - oops. Lily was very excited about Mrs. Bobbie cutting her hair. She watched Mommy for a little while, but wanted Daddy to take her back to "Mrs. Bobbie's playroom," which was the waiting room that had a few toys in it. When I was done, I called out that it was Lily's turn, and she came running out of the waiting room, yelling, "yeah." She hopped up in my lap, eagerly put on her cape, and sat like a perfect angel the whole time.

Bobbie said that the cape can be a bit of a struggle for some, but Lily was very excited to have her own cape on just like Mommy.
Before
First snip. Wow, this hair was ready to be cut. Usually, you save your baby's first curl. We will be saving our baby's first frizz.


Notice the bruise on her cheek. She took her first major fall the day before. She fell climbing up on the bench that she eats on. I suppose we are pretty lucky for this to be her first major injury.


Wow, Mommy's not only growing a baby, but another chin, as well. Yuck, yuck, yuck.
So, what do you think?

Last Day of School

I was so sad to see Lily start school, and now I am so sad to see it end. She really came to love it. She would come home talking about her friends, teachers and, of course, snack. Her teachers gave her a CD with some pictures on it from the school year. I only wish I could a have spied on the class one day. I would love to see what she does all morning. Is she quiet or a talker? Does she share or run around saying, "mine"? Does she sit still or wander?

She is growing by leaps and bounds, and I am loving every minute of it (okay, most every minute).

Ball Skills

So maybe Lily did get something from me after all - lack of athletic ability. Actually, she usually catches it every time, but this was too cute.

Pregnancy Update - 36 weeks

So, I didn't do an update last week, because I was just a little too depressed to post. On Tuesday, I turned 35 weeks, which I thought was the magic date to get off bed rest. My doctor's appointment wasn't until Thursday, so I had to wait until then for the good news. Well, I didn't get the news I had hoped for. I had dilated a little more, and my doctor was concerned because my belly didn't look that big. I found that hard to believe because it sure feels big. She sent me to get an ultrasound, and sure enough the baby was measuring smaller than she should at this point. They estimated her to be between 4'13" and 5 pounds. Otherwise, the baby looked very healthy. This is certainly not accurate, but still a good enough reason to play it safe for a while longer. Needless to say, I was crushed. I wasn't ready to face another week or two of bed rest. I slowly came to terms with it, though and I am in a much better frame of mind now.

I went back to the MD today, and there was no change in my cervix. My MD is going to take me off one of the medications for the contractions. It is not proven, but there is speculation that this med may cause slower fetal growth. We feel it is more important to put some fat on this baby in the next few days/weeks, than to stop the contractions. I stopped all meds with Lily at 36 weeks, and carried her until 39 weeks. I still have to stay on bed rest, but I'm okay with that. Next Tuesday, I will be 37 weeks and able to do more. I can't wait until then. She did give me the okay to take Lily to her first hair cut on Friday. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I keep reminding myself that right around July, I'll be wishing to go back on bed rest.

Thank you to all for your prayers and concerns. Baby girl (still no name) will make it here safe and sound, just hopefully in a few weeks not a few days.

Another Fun Daddy Weekend

Well, I didn't get my "get off the couch pass" as I had hoped last week (more on this later), so James and Lily got to enjoy another fun Daddy/daughter weekend. The weekend started with Lily waking up with a nasty stuffy nose out of nowhere. Usually, we have some warning - a little drip, sneezing, but not this time. She went from perfectly well to having a yucky little cold in one night. This ought to be a good little test since one of her ear tubes fell out two weeks again. Please, no ear infections. Luckily, she didn't feel too bad, so they were able to enjoy some fun things together.

When Lily is sick, she gets to enjoy some more TV time than normal. She loves to watch "Sessy Street." She had taken off her PJ's, but decided she needed to put on her sandals. Hmm, should I be worried about this fashion statement?

They started off the morning by running a few errands and then heading down to the Maritime Festival. They hadn't planned to go to the festival, so Lily came home with a little too much sun - time to put the sunscreen back in the diaper bag. They met up with Allen, Abigail, and Margaret Anne and had a great time.

On Sunday, they decided to make cookies. Key lime double chocolate chip. I had so much fun listening in on this process. James was so patient with Lily and let her do a lot of the cooking. Once again, I was overwhelmed with what a great father he is.


The recipe gave a tip at the end to freeze the cookies before baking. Well, can you really ask a toddler to wait two hours for cookies? So we decided to skip this little step. As you can see, we ended up with two large cookies instead of 24 regular cookies. But, as I told James, it's not how they look, but how they taste.

And they tasted good.

Messy, but good.

Finger licking good.


Thank you Daddy for another great weekend.

Mother Nature showed up for Mother's Day

Mother Nature sure wanted to be heard this Mother's Day. She woke us up around 5:00 AM with a powerful thunderstorm. Once the hail started pounding and the lamppost was swaying, James dashed upstairs to get Lily and bring her down. Lily and I hung out in the pantry, while Daddy watched from the windows. He hasn't exactly caught on to tornado preparedness yet. For those of you that know me well, you know that I'm not a huge fan of thunderstorms, and especially tornadoes. I was trying very hard to not show my fear to Lily talking about the vegetables and canned goods. Meanwhile, she's saying, "Let's hear more tunder, yeah tunder." Once again, she is definetly her Daddy's girl. We later learned that there was indeed a tornado nearby. After things died down, we tried to get back in bed for a little more sleep. Lily, the independent bug that she is, fussed, "I want my bed." I thought kids wanted to get in the bed with thier parents. So, no more sleep for the Weatherholtz family after that. I must say, it was a nice way to spend Mother's Day morning, not the tornado part, but the cuddling in bed with my girl.

Below is a picture taken of our back deck an hour and half after the storm. The hail did a number on the garden and the citrus trees, but everything else faired well.



We all took a short nap mid-morning, but it wasn't enough for any of us. Lily was pretty pooped midday, and James and I got a scary glimpse into the sleep deprivation to come.

Too Quiet...Continued

For those of you that read Caroline's blog, you may recall a post she recently did titled "Too Quiet." It was about the moments that she mistakenly thought the girls were quietly playing together only to realize they were way too quiet, and she found them into mischief. Abigail, Margaret Anne, and Lily have had several of these moments at our house as well, remember the Snow Angels in March. Well, tonight we get to add to the list.

Caroline, Allan, and the girls joined us for dinner, a dinner that Caroline cooked and brought over. Allan and Abigail had taken Mabel to the vet while Caroline finished dinner over here. Lily and Margaret Anne were happily playing in the pantry while James, Caroline, and I were chatting. After a while, we thought, they sure are quiet in there. Below is what we found.

Are those two guilty faces, or what? Lily had earlier pushed several chairs in there, then she must have discovered she could climb up and reach the CANDY. Of course, she had to share with her partner in crime. Margaret Anne was holding a bag full of sweet tarts and Lily a bag of sixlets. Their mouths were full. When we caught them, Lily looked up, reached in the bag and said, "just one more."



They easily admitted to their quilt by showing us their mouths full of candy. You think the adults would have learned their lessons by now, but I think we enjoy those moments of silence so much that we subconsciously ignore that fact that it usually means trouble.

Happy Anniversary James!

I am truly blessed to have been married to my soul mate for seven years now. Wow, seven years have gone by so fast, especially when you feel as if you have known someone for your whole life.

Any pregnancy can be stressful, but ours have been a little more challenging, and I could not imagine going through them without a loving, supportive husband. I find myself sometimes getting frustrated with the small things that James does that I would do differently, such as:

• when he brings Lily down for church in a Fourth of July dress, play socks, and dressy white shoes
• when he serves her individually wrapped snack cheese with breakfast instead of cutting it off the block.
• when Lily comes in wet EVERY time they go outside to play
  

I mention these things not to complain but to bring to light how truly unimportant they are. What is important is what a wonderful father and husband he is. Doing things, such as:

• solely taking care of Lily on the weekends now
• vacuuming the house for me after a long day at work
• giving Lily a bath by himself for the past four months
• reading to Lily – I absolutely love the fact that he always reads the title and author of the book to her.
• teaching Lily a love and respect for gardening, plants, and yes, bugs (although the girl in her is starting to come out)
• putting the baby’s crib together late at night
• researching baby names in books and on the internet to make sure we get it right (we are still clueless, by the way, so let us know if you have any suggestions)
• putting up with my complaints about pregnancy
• and always loving and supporting his girls.
  

Now James and I certainly have our differences: he loves music and I don’t; he loves exotic foods and I don’t; he loves boating and I don’t. Overall, though, we are much more alike than different, and what is more important is that we accept our differences (on most days) and don’t try to change the other person. Thank you James for a wonderful seven years, and I look forward to a lifetime more together.

Oh, The Things She Says

James and are just amazed and very entertained at the things that are coming out of Lily's mouth these days. Her language has exploded. We often look at each other and wonder where she learned these things. How does she know you say his for boys and hers for girls? Well, I'm not very good at putting things into words, but I'm going to try to describe some of our better conversations of the past few days. If you read the blog often, you may have already realized that I am not the scribe of the family (that is definitely James), but bear with me as I try. I know writing these things down will not do them half as much justice as when Lily says them, but I want to always remember these adorable moments.

• (Background info: A few weeks ago, Lily was constantly labeling everything as mine. "That's my doll, that's my drink, that's my chair." I explained to her about 100 times that it wasn't nice to say "that's mine" and that we share our things with other people. I was becoming frustrated that it just wasn't sinking in, even debating if it was something I needed to put her in time out for.) Last night she talked and sang in her crib for an hour straight before falling asleep. We turned up the monitor now and then to listen in. One time she was saying, "that's my lovey, that's my lovey, that's not nice, that's not nice." I then realized that she hasn't been saying mine hardly at all the past week or so. I suppose it did sink in after all.
• Tonight at dinner, we were about half way threw eating when Lily said, "say blessing." James and I looked at each other astonished that she realized we forgot to say the blessing. That one brought tears to my eyes.
• After dinner, I asked her how many brothers and sisters she wanted (not that I'm thinking past this one right now, so grandparents don't get excited). She first said three. Then I said, "what about one." She said, "one and half." How the heck does she know what a half is?
• Words aren't going to do this story justice, but I have to try. (Background info: Cameron had brought us a dozen donuts that morning because she is such a great person and just randomly does that kind of thing.) We were having dinner with James' family and Lily was downing some strawberries, her favorite. She had finished them all and usually has no problem accepting that they are all gone, but not this night. She got very upset asking for "more strawberries flees(please)." She also choked a little at the same time which added to the crying and red face. Now I usually don't appease my child when she is throwing a fussy fit, but she did say flees and I just wasn't up for a battle. So over her crying I said, "hey Lily, Mrs. Cameron brought us a surprise this morning." In the most pitiful, sad, crying voice you have ever heard, she said, "let's look at it." The whole table started roaring with laughter. She quickly began to laugh along, but only it was half laughing, half crying. Needless to say a donut cleared things right up.
• "Let's go upstairps and play."
• "Let's watch TV a little bit."
• She stills says, "hold you me" when she wants to be picked up. It's just too cute to correct her.
• We have been teaching her our names. She knows Daddy is James, Mommy is Taryn, Poppy is Ernie, Snookie is Reuben, and so on. She knows all the grandparents now, but it starts to get a little confusing when she asks, "What's Aunt Kami's name?" or "What's Miller's name." Hmm, not the easiest to explain.
• She has quite the imagination already. She loves to throw a tea party, watch the birds fly around the room (Papa taught her that one), and change Lovey's diaper. I love to watch her mind grow and expand.
• One day last week at lunch, I had finished eating and moved my plate. Lily said, "Mommy go back to the couch."
• Yesterday, Lily and James went to Hope and Blake's first birthday party. In her crib last night, Lily was clapping and saying, "yeah, yeah, Hope and Blake; blow candles out, yeah."
• "Whoa Doggie" - she got that one from Daddy.

I am always amazed at what a little sponge her brain is. She doesn't forget a thing, and we really have to watch what we say now.

Congratulations Big Brother Thomas

Molly had a beautiful baby boy yesterday, and a big boy at that - 8 pounds and 8 ounces. His name is Parker, and he looks adorable in the pictures. I cannot wait to meet him. Congratulations Thomas. I know you are going to be a wonderful big brother. Yeeyee is very excited for you.