Ellie!

 Adam posted some pictures of Ellie here, so take a look. Here's one from the hospital:

The labor was pretty much as good as it could have been. I had some pre-labor cramping Sunday and Monday, but the regular contractions started around 4:30 Monday afternoon. We got to the hospital at 7 and Ellie was born at 9, so things were as smooth as you could hope. I do have to thank Adam for letting me pinch his stomach and then nearly break his had squeezing it (he had to take off his wedding ring).

We are all home now and doing well. Adam's mom has been here to take care of everything for me, so I've been able to rest a LOT and I'm feeling really good. Jane is in love with Ellie, as I had expected. She wants to hold her every time she sees her, but gets bored after about 10 seconds. I thought Audrey would be somewhat indifferent toward her, and she has mostly ignored her, but whenever she notices her, she runs up and says in her face, "Cutie, cutie, cutie!" and then wants to point out her eyes, nose, and any other body part she thinks of. It's fun.

On another note, I came across a post I started and never finished a few months ago with some quotes from Jane and Audrey, and this quote from Jane made me laugh:

Jane (looking at a drawing of a cow in a book): That cow has a pig on it (the udder). Did you know cows have pigs on their bums?

Three Years Old, Everybody! Three Years Old!

So I forgot to include on my last post one of the most important things that happened last month: Jane's birthday! Now that she's three years old, she reminds me a lot of Sally O'Mally. She's an SNL character from back in the day who liked to let people know that she was 50 years old. Everything she did was "because I'm fifty." That's Jane these days. She's a big girl now and can do all sorts of things, "because I'm three." She even likes pickles and olives now because she's big and she's three. She gave up her pacifiers, so we could give them to the baby when she's born. That was not an easy thing for her, even being three, but she got a Cinderella doll for it.

Anyway, down to the nitty gritty. Jane's birthday was just two weeks after we moved in, so we didn't know very many people yet. I would have just had a family party, but with Adam being home all the time those days, we were hanging out as a family every day anyway, so a birthday party seemed the only way to make her birthday extra special. We decided to keep it low key and have a chocolate milk dance party. We invited a bunch of people from Jane's nursery class and several people were nice enough to come even though they didn't know who we were. Here are a few pictures:

The birthday girl with her birthday crown and a ribbon wand. Everyone got to decorate a wand with ribbon.

Blowing out her candles with some help from Audrey.

She wanted a purple cake until she saw a picture of a rainbow cake. It was all she'd ever hoped for.

As you can see, Jane had a very happy birthday.

P.S. - Jane is going to be the best three-year-old big sister you could ever hope for. She has two little baby dolls that she used to like sticking in her shirt to call a baby in her tummy like me. Recently though, she's been telling me that her babies already came out of her tummy, and now she spends most of her time keeping her babies happy and putting them to sleep.

The Past Few Months

So I figure I'd better do a post before the baby comes. Otherwise, it will probably be months before I get around to it. So, here are just some pictures of what we've been up to:

Jane took a dance class and LOVED it.

 

 

Audrey is still Audrey.

We went to Utah to see some family.

We went to Colorado to see some family.

Adam graduated from medical school! Unfortunately, the memory card from our camera was in our computer, so we don't have any graduation pictures of Doctor Adam Foster, DO. But Adam's parents have pictures, so hopefully I'll get my hands on those soon.

We bought and moved in to our first house.

Aren't we a cute little family?

Shoes!

Audrey loves shoes. Actually, she loves all accessories ... shoes, bracelets, necklaces, hats ... but shoes are definitely the favorite. She puts on whatever shoes she can find and clomps across the entire distance of the apartment, calling out SHOES! She's gotten quite good at it, and even tromps about in a pair of wedge sandals that I can barely walk in. I love it, but it does get annoying every time I leave the apartment that I have to scramble to find a matching pair of shoes, since all of them are strewn about in random places.

Sporting her monkey boots. They're actually too small, but she insists on wearing them.

She found a hat (in the trash - popped soccer ball). Yep, the flip flops came out of my closet and were left by the chair.
 

Not sure this obsession bodes well for the future, but it sure is cute now.

Potty...Trained

Well, mostly, at least. She still wears diapers at night, but I'm not interested in crossing that bridge until we have a washing machine. Jane's motivation ... princess panties. When we got back to Phoenix Jane's best friend was potty trained, and Jane wanted to be like Brooklyn. I told her she could only keep on her panties as long as she could keep them dry, so for about two weeks that meant she wore them in the morning until her first pee, at which point her panties were wet and she got a diaper. But she figured it out and now only has accidents a few times a week.

Proud as can be!

 Some of the things you can overhear Jane saying to her friend:

Did you go pee or poop? I went pee. Did you go pee or poop?
What's on your panties? I have Cinderella.
Let me see your panties, Brooklyn. Hey Brooklyn, see my panties?

I finally had to tell her we don't ask people to show us their underwear, but I guess if it motivates her to not wear diapers, it's alright with me.

With a baby in her belly and Belle panties on.

My Current Parenting Dilemma

As if there were only one. But this one is particularly vexing at the moment. Jane and Audrey play pretty well together, but at least 300 times a day, one of them happens to play with a toy that the other one wants. If Jane decides she wants whatever Audrey has, she walks up to her and plucks it right out of Audrey's hand, at which point I have a dilemma. Do I pluck it out of Jane's hand while scolding her not to take things from people without asking. Or do I ask her nicely to give the toy back and then ask Audrey nicely for the toy, knowing full well that Jane will not in a million years give that toy back. Same problem comes into play when Audrey's got something she's not supposed to have. The easiest thing to do is to just take it from her and tell her she can't have it, but I know Jane's watching, and the last thing I want her doing is taking things from Audrey just because she thinks she shouldn't have them.

On another note...the other day, Adam had the privilege of witnessing a sight he doesn't often see - Audrey going in to get Jane up from her nap. He came out to the living room to tell me about the precious scene, which was pretty typical. Audrey, having gotten access to our room where Jane takes her naps, runs in to greet Jane, who is laying down smelling Jonas' ears. Jane sits up, arms outstretched, and Audrey runs to her. They tackle each other in a hug, and Jane stops, says, "I love you sweetie," and proceeds to give her a delicate kiss on the cheek. Adam thought it was very cute, as did I, but then I told him to wait for what comes next, at which point we started hearing the screams. Audrey had had enough of Jane's love and was feeling smothered. Adam had to intervene to get Audrey out of the headlock. But at least it starts out cute.

Here's a picture of the two while they still love each other.

Here's a few random pictures from recently. (Yeah, we've been wearing short sleeves outside these days).

Audrey in her element. I much prefer her climbing on this to the other things she chooses to climb...the piano, the bunk bed, etc.

Adam took this one of Jane for a photography class he's taking.

Jane being a cat.

Audrey on the picnic table.

Hey now! Hey now! My boyfriend's back!

Yes, it's official! 16 weeks of radiology rotations is officially complete, which means we get our Adam back. No more days or weeks of him being gone, just one more interview in December. I'll take that. Anyway, along with my awesome husband, I also get my computer back (almost as exciting as having my husband back). So that means lots of stuff to blog. I've decided to limit myself to October today in hopes that something gets published.

We flew out to Detroit to reunite with Adam in the beginning of October to stay with my sister, Amberly. Jane, Audrey, and their cousin Mikey loved pulling each other around in the wagon.

The big thing to do in the fall in these parts is to visit an orchard, complete with hayrides, petting zoos, playgrounds, fresh apple cider, and donuts. Jane liked feeding the sheep.

Audrey just enjoyed quacking at all the animals.

We went with Eric's preschool to another farm where we got to pick our own apples and a pumpkin.

We stopped in New York City for the afternoon when we dropped off Adam for his two week rotation in the Bronx. We happened to be in Little Italy in the Bronx, so we got some really yummy authentic pizza. Jane and Audrey were a little wiped, so they napped in the stroller while we walked around the neighborhood.

After we dropped Adam off I went up to Boston to my brother's house (he was out of town). Adam came up for the weekend, and we walked the Freedom Trail in downtown Boston. This is in the courtyard near the Old North Church (from the story of Paul Revere).

So Kurt lives near Cambridge, and we happened to be there the weekend of the Head of the Charles Regatta (largest rowing competition in the world - think of those guys in Social Network). Anyway, we went down to the river to watch and it turned out to be a big festival. Here's Jane on an obstacle course (Adam had to help her up the rest of the way).

On the river with some racers in the background.

The cousins came back for our second week in Boston.

Another fall farm. This one had a haunted hayride.

When Jane heard her cousins excitedly talking about the scarey things on the ride, she got a little too scared. She kept her eyes covered for the first five minutes until I threatened not to let her get any candy corn at the end if she didn't open her eyes.

On our way back from Boston we stopped at Palmyra, NY and went to the Smith farmhouse and the Sacred Grove.

Back in Detroit with Amberly, we enjoyed Halloween. Jane wanted to be a princess, but I had already decided they would be gypsies, so we told her she was a gypsy princess and she was pretty happy. Gypsy costume = tunics from Morroco (thanks Karl), belly dancing skirts from Turkey, headscarves from Russia, and the icing on the cake, gypsy skirts made by Grandma Maggie. Besides, we've pretty much felt like gypsies this year, so it seemed appropriate.

The true meaning of Halloween.

Going door-to-door with her big cousin Sam. Even Audrey got into it once she realized the people behind the doors put candy in your bucket.

Playing in the leaves. Being in Detroit for the fall was awesome for this very reason.

There you go! An action packed October. I have to acknowledge Amberly/Ivan and Kurt/Jenn for letting us invade their houses and their lives this month. It's not always convenient to have extra people in your house, but we loved every minute of it, and Jane and Audrey loved having their cousins for playmates.