Here we are

Monday, May 14, 2012

Family of Four

I had hoped to get one last update before Will arrived, but of course, it didn't happen. After almost a whole week of being in labor (false labor, I guess since we were sent home from the hospital twice), Will finally decided to make his arrival on Easter Sunday.  I'm not sure if it was the Easter Egg Hunt the day before, the pedicure I had on Good Friday, or the probably hundred miles I walked the week before that convinced him to finally get here.
At 11:45 am Sunday, April 8, William Kyle McDonald was born. He was a surprising 8 lbs, 2 oz---surprising because the sonographer had predicted he would be under 7 1/2 lbs.

Will is a very different baby than Elisabeth was. To start with, the boy likes to eat!!  He gained weight the first week, weighing in at 8 lb 4 oz, and then at two weeks 8 lb 14 oz. At 5 weeks old, he has almost outgrown many of his 3 mos sized clothes! I don't even think Elisabeth was big enough to wear that size until she was about a month old. I'm only half joking when I say he is going to be as big as she is in a year!  He has also struggled with some reflux, but Zantac has helped a lot, and he seems to be much less fussy after taking it for about a week.
Elisabeth was beside herself with excitement to finally meet baby brother. I will never forget how her face lit up with love the first time she saw him in the hospital room.  She has been a wonderful big sister, always wanting to help change his diapers and bathe him, and trying to comfort him when he cries. Before he was born, her behavior had taken a dive---but now that we are settled in, it has improved considerably and we are all happy about that. Here are "before and after" pictures.



Just a few weeks later, it was time for Elisabeth's 3rd birthday!  It feels like we just brought home our baby girl, but she is defnitely not a baby anymore. Her party was at Gymnastics Sport Center, because I knew I didn't want to host the party at our house this year, and I didn't want to risk planning it at a park in case it rained. About 15 of her friends came, and while she had a great time, I think she was a little overwhelmed by it all. Mom and Dad thought it was loads of fun, though!  Here are a couple of pics from the "Pinkalicious" party.

 


Life with two kids is hectic, but I am happy to learn to adjust. We had newborn and family pictures taken today, so I am looking forward to posting some really good photos of Will and our new family of four!  One last photo of my sweet baby boy until the next post . . .


Saturday, March 31, 2012

He is almost here!

Well, at less than 2 weeks until my due date, I have decided I'd better get in one last blog before life turns upside down (in a wonderful way, of course).  Part of the reason I've not updated is because I was scared to upload the pictures from my fanstastic Christmas present--a new camera! I was afraid it would be too "smart" for our dinosaur computer and make everything crash. To my delight, it works fine and the pics uploaded in about 10 seconds!!! It would have taken 30 minutes with the old camera.  So now, I can add a few pics of some of the ways we're preparing to meet our little guy. I have been "nesting" for months now.

Here is his room (I can't figure out how to rotate the image, so just tilt your head):


Here is the kids'/guest bathroom. I redecorated it in January.  Again, tilt your head :)


I feel very spoiled to have gotten two wonderful baby showers for my second sweet baby. I have also been blessed with lots of friends who have boys, and so we have more baby clothes than he will probably ever be able to wear!  Here are a few pics from the showers.




Last weekend, Elisabeth and I had some pictures done with our amazing friend Meegan Weaver. So far this is the only one I've seen, but I adore it. I think it's so special to have some pics of Elisabeth loving on her little brother and her mommy. She is so excited about becoming a big sister. Will is going to be one LOVED little brother.



I think (fingers crossed, hoping, hoping, hoping,) that my next post should be to let the world know that Will is finally here. I was halfway hoping he would make his appearance today, but obviously, no such luck. I go back to the doctor Monday, and am hoping she will be willing to induce me later this coming week if he doesn't come on his own. We can't wait to meet him, and I also can't wait to sleep on my back again. 




Sunday, January 1, 2012

Hello 2012

As usual, the Christmas holidays seem like a blur now that it's already the new year. I tried really hard to spread out some of the fun times this year, and we did pretty much celebrate Christmas over the whole month of December. Now that Elisabeth is old enough to know what's going on, it is especially fun for all of us.
We did our usual family trip to the Fantasy of Lights. Terry and Elisabeth had already been once during the day on a field trip with her school, but she was thrilled to go again. We also enjoyed looking at all the lights in the country club neighborhood, but discovered that Elisabeth has inherited her mama's motion sickness, and our night ended in somewhat of a mess. (Turns out that was somewhat of a theme for us this month!) 

I have such wonderful memories of baking with my mom I was super-excited to try baking with Elisabeth. The cookies we made for the neighbors turned out to be fun & yummy. The cut-out cookies that seemed like such a good idea when I bought the cookie cutters turned out to be a HUGE pain in the rear. E was highly upset that I was making a big mess because I kept having to add so much flour to my wax paper and rolling pin. We'll have to see if I'm brave/foolish enough to repeat that next year.

It would certainly not be Christmastime without a visit to Santa. Last year, Elisabeth was so excited to see Santa, but then absolutely terrified when we got up to him. Not so this year.  She was delighted to sit in his lap, and thanks to some technical difficulty with the elves and their camera, she had about 10 minutes to chat with him. Turns out his mommy is in Heaven and his favorite cookies are oatmeal raisin (too bad for him he doesn't get those at our house!).  She asked him for Skippyjon Jones, and of course, he delivered 5 of them on Christmas Day. That was the only thing Elisabeth has asked for since early November when I asked her what she wanted for Christmas.  Terry has been thrilled at how funny those books are. They are a little long, but are certainly more interesting than lots of other kids' books.

Christmas Day was great! Dad came on the 23 and spent a few days. We all went to a nice service at our church on Sunday morning. Then our hectic week began. We got up on Monday and went to visit my family in Irving. We had a great time and Elisabeth was thrilled to play with her cousins Ben and Kayla. Since she doesn't have any first cousins, we try to arrange for her to see some third cousins at least a couple of times a year. I got a new camera for Christmas but in true pregnant-lady style totally forgot to take any pictures of the kids/family that day. Then on Tuesday we drove to Tyler and stayed until Thursday. We visited Terry's family and my dad, and even got to visit with some family friends at El Charro--yum!  One of our favorite parts of visiting Tyler is stopping in Sherman at the Chick-Fil-A (or chicken flay as E calls it).  We stop both on the way and on the way back. However, on the way back,---again in true pregnant-lady style---I got horribly sick in the car about 3 minutes from the restaurant. It was bizarre because E got sick in the exact same spot when coming back from spring break. Maybe she really is my girl!  At any rate, it was 12:30, Chick-Fil-A was packed, and I had to change clothes in the parking lot of a very busy shopping center. Elisabeth was crying and hysterical because she was so upset that mama "choked." Terry held a blanket around me and I had the car for some cover, but I'm sure someone probably saw something they will never be able to unsee.  It was NOT the highlight of my break, but I'm sure my kids will enjoy laughing about it someday. 
And on that note, it's farewell to 2011 and hello to 2012!  Hopefully I will have an update with a somewhat complete nursery for William in the very near future.