Playing Catch Up

As promised, the rest of the stuff that you've missed =) Enjoy!

Now, Amelia is a pretty friendly baby, but she was not a fan when she met cousin Madden. Not sure why because I thought he was an angel!

Mom, Amelia, Mike, and Madden - Dec 2010

Shortly after the beginning of the year, Atlanta got a crazy ice storm. The funny thing is that I had no idea it was coming until about 6 hours before it hit. We were in the Special Agent Oso phase in the mornings instead of mommy watch the news phase and so I was rather out of touch with reality. Thank God my mom came to stay with us and I wasn't all alone with the babies for a week. That's right – we were trapped at our house for a week! Mom tried to make it out once, but slid back down the hill. She also had to hike it to the store once because we ran out of Amelia's medicine and Diet Cokes =)

Braden loved playing outside in the snow and sledding down our GIANT driveway. The main draw for him though was eating the snow!

Mom and Braden - Jan 2011

Shortly after the big storm, we started potty training Braden. He took really well to #1 and learned over a weekend (that is not to say that we don't still have accidents!), but #2 is a whole different story. We're still working on that one =(

Bye-Bye Pee Pee

In February, Amelia started daycare. It was way less traumatic for me than when Braden started, but not any less for her. She adjusted after a day or so and everyone there told me she was "such a happy baby"!





Amelia's 1st day of school

In March, we celebrated the big event - otherwise known as Braden's birthday. He turned 3 and in true Benson fashion, we celebrated for a week! His birthday party was at Burger King with about 10 of his friends. We had a Cars theme and he had a blast!

Amelia started eating "real" food. She doesn't like anything green, and of course loves all fruit. I think she is slightly less messy than her brother was =)

Braden learned how to ride his trike. He was very adamant that he did not know how until we moved and Evan and Caroline could ride theirs. It took all of a day after he saw what fun they were having, for him to decide to join in.

Now, for those of you who know me well, this next one is perhaps one of the most important milestones in a child's life. Amelia (and Pops) got to experience her first trip to McClard's. We spent the day in Hot Springs with Mimi, Pops, and Braden.

McClard's

Hot Springs near the Prommenade

We moved, but I don't want to spend a lot of time on that subject. I miss Atlanta, and so does Braden, but we're both happy in our new home. I'm not sure Amelia has noticed yet =) There was a brief moment right after we moved where Braden started sleeping in his closet, but he's back in the bed…for now.

Aunt Amie came to visit. We had a blast hanging out and I think we might have acted as birth control for the next little while. The kids (all 4 of them) were in rare form that day. I say rare form like it surprises me that they all feed off of each other and run around screaming when they get together…

Memorial Day was a blast. We hung out with Melissa and Bobby and their water slide. Think that pretty much covers it!

My water baby

I guess to sum things up, Amelia is growing like a weed. She's in 88% for height. She is crawling, pulling up, and walking assisted. Braden is also doing well. He counted to 20 for me yesterday and knows at least half of his letters by sight. They love each other so much and you won't found a mom who is more proud of her kids than I am of mine. Check back soon!

Say Cheese~!

Now, I know I owe you all another 6 months of catch up, and I promise it is coming, but I just had to share with ya'll something I've noticed over the past 2 months.


So, everyone with kids (or who has ever tried to take pictures of kids) knows how hard it is to take a picture of one child. You can't ever get them to smile and look in the direction of the camera at the same time. Well, now that Braden is 3, I've sort of gotten him to half way do those two things some of the time…

Then you add in a second child and it's next to impossible. The big kid is always looking at the little kid, worrying about what they're doing instead of looking at the camera. And the little kid, well, let's just say that Amelia is not at an age yet to cooperate…

Now, as if that we're bad enough, now Amelia is mobile. And not only is she mobile, she loves to grab the camera. So, every time I set her down, she lunges for the camera.

So, I have put together a lovely set of pictures below for your viewing pleasure of how our pictures have digressed over the past few months.

Braden trying to make her "stay"

These were especially fun - she went from lunging to trying to eat the paper =)



It's not yours...it's mine!



Still mine

More "Stay" poses

My Camera...

And...I give up.

Well – to say that it has been a while since I last wrote would be an understatement. The last blog I wrote, Amelia was about 4 days old and I was telling you how she was named. That can't be further from where we are now. As a matter of fact – she has several new names. We like to call her Stinky (short for Stinkerbelle) and I have recently started calling her my baby tornado for her uncanny abilities to destroy a room in 2.3 seconds.

But I am jumping ahead. Let's see – since I last wrote, we have celebrated several things in our lives. I shall attempt to document them briefly below.

1) Amelia was baptized. She was surrounded by friends and family. She has two sets of godparents – Ross and Amie Benson were able to make it to the ceremony, and Alison Hardies and Aaron Leatzow who weren't able to make it down. Her great aunt Lisa even made it up for the big day from Florida! She wore the Christening gown that my grandmother hand sewed for me to wear at my baptism. She and Braden both wore it. (December 2010)
2) Grandma and Grandpa came to visit for Christmas. They brought lots of presents and even lights for Braden and Amelia's tree upstairs. (We only have 4 trees we set up each year!) Braden was really excited because he got to open up all the presents! (December 2010)


Grandma, Grandpa, Braden and Amelia





3) Uncle Ross and Aunt Amie came to visit and celebrate Christmas. They moved back to Portland shortly after that =( Amelia slept through most of the festivities and once again, Braden got to open all of the presents. Mommy took Aunt Amie to the Nutcracker for her first ballet while Mimi and Uncle Ross took care of the babies. Great times had by all! (December 2010)



The destruction



4) Christmas Season – we have many Christmas traditions that we celebrate in our family, and this year was no different. The kiddos met Santa, and Braden, mommy, and Mimi decorated Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve. We then went to church and came home to wait for Santa. That night our one act of sibling violence occurred – Braden beat Amelia on the head with a giant plastic dinosaur. He hasn't done anything before or after to cause any harm to her, matter of fact, he is the sweetest big brother a girl could ask for!

Mimi and Braden making cookies

Some were bigger fans of Santa than others



Toy Story seemed to be a common theme with gifts this year

 Christmas – this was special not only because it was Amelia's first, but because it snowed on Christmas Day in Georgia for the first time in a long time

We were so excited! If only we had know what was to come!

I think that is enough for today. I promise not to let so much time to pass by again. I shall begin the next blog with the big snow storm of January =)

What's in a Name?

What's in a Name?

Ok – so by now the news is out. Our beautiful baby girl's name is Amelia Daniele Lisowe. So, how did we arrive at that name? Well – funny story. Let me walk you through it.

One day about 18 months ago, Brad and I were watching some show or movie or something and one of the characters was named Amelia. We both immediately started talking about the name and said that if our next baby was a daughter, we'd name her that.

Well – fast forward to May of this year and we found out we were having a daughter. For Brad, the deal was sealed as soon as the ultrasound showed the absence of man parts. For me, it took a little longer.

Earlier this year I started researching our family tree and in doing so, found out that one of my relatives from back in the day was named Sophia. She was married to "The King" – the same guy all the males in my family for generations have been named after. So, I fell in love with the name Sophia and have always loved the story of "The King."

Well – once we found the sex, Brad mandated that we wouldn't talk about it until July 30th. That was more to bug me than anything else. He also didn't want to tell anyone once we had decided – that was more to bug everyone else, I think.

One night in late June I had had it, and brought up my 2 name choices (Amelia and Sophia) during date night. He said that there was only one name on his list and lucky for me it was Amelia. We toyed with the idea of naming her Sophia as a middle name, but we already had one perfect middle name, or so we thought. So, I tucked Sophia back into the back of my mind and Amelia was born.

Now to the middle name. We always knew that our little girl's middle name would be Ann. It's a family name on both his and my side. That's it – it was settled. Or so we thought. As time wore on, I started thinking more and more about the name Daniele.

Some folks may not know the story, but Daniele was my given middle name. When Brad and I went to the courthouse to get our marriage license, I wasn't prepared to have to decide what my new legal name would have to be. I knew I didn't want 4 names (keeping both my maiden and middle name), but giving either up seemed like a betrayal to my parents. After what seemed like hours, I finally decided my new legal name would be Lauren Benson Lisowe (one of the few traditional things about me). That being said, giving our daughter the middle name of Daniele will always allow her to have a piece of me with her (of course until she grows up and is faced with the same decision that I had to make).

So – what's in a name? A whole lot of thought, family, and compromise, but I think this name is perfect! And if we needed another sign – the main character in the princess diaries is named Amelia. She has the exact same Faberge carousel in the movie that our Amelia has in her nursery, so I take that as a sign that Amelia is the perfect fit.

Why would you ask that?

It always amuses me when people ask questions that they know the answers to… This morning my doctor did another ultrasound to find out that the baby is still breech. She also confirmed what I know that her head is tucked under one side of my ribs and her feet are tucked under the other. She then asked if it hurt? I'm sure the bemused look I gave her went unnoticed, but really? Did you need to ask me that? I have a 9.5 pound baby hanging out on my bladder (I'll get to that later) and her head is poking against my ribs… I told her it hadn't exactly been a real comfortable 2 weeks. As far as the bladder thing – that's the baby's new favorite thing – to try and see how many times she can poke me in the bladder in the span of an hour. She's getting very good at it! I am not quite sure what it is she's poking me with since her hands and feet are both by my ribs, so I'm figuring perhaps she has a pokey butt =)

C-Section is scheduled for 4pm next Monday (Sept 27th) and the Lisowe family is getting ready. We're spending a "quiet" week at home with Braden and trying to balance getting him ready for baby sister and spoiling him in his last week as an only child. He's very excited about the reported "present" that he gets from baby sister. He's also very excited about being a big brother and finally getting to meet her. He still talks to her a lot and got a kick out of it last week when I showed him where her booty was in my belly.

Brad and I are doing well and pretty much 100% settled in the new house. I can't speak for Brad, but I love it here! I love the neighborhood (not that we didn't love our last one) and the amount of room we all have here. It's a little more work in terms of the yard and upkeep, but worth it in the long run! The nursery is all decorated, and the only thing I have left to do is finish putting her name on the wall. I made cute little circles with each letter of her name on them, but Brad won't let me hang them up until she is officially here =) I will give you the initials though – her initials are officially ADL (slight change from what we had thought they would be – it's been a long journey for me on the middle name – which I can explain once she gets here!).

As this may be the last post for a while, thank you all for taking this very special journey with us. I feel totally unprepared at times just because the first time around I had read every book and knew exactly what we were supposed to do at all times. This time I figure we'll just wing it. Brad seems to remember a lot more about what we did with Braden than I do, so hopefully he won't get too sleep deprived and can keep me on the right track! We'll send official news and pictures from the hospital next week! Hugs and kisses to everyone!

It's Settled!

It's Settled!

Well – It's pretty much settled. Baby A will come out via a c-section on Monday, September 27th. Other than being upside down, she looked very healthy during her ultrasound yesterday. She is also gigantic! I seriously almost fell off the table when the doc told me she weighed 8lbs 15 ozs – and that was at 37 weeks and 1 day! I also couldn't tell the number to any of my other mommy friends without laughing. Now I'm kinda glad she's upside down! She also has her head in one side of my ribcage and her feet in the other for maximum levels of discomfort.

We took our ultrasound pix home and showed Braden. He seemed excited, but he was more excited when I showed him where baby sister's head and booty were. He spent the evening talking to her head and yelling at her booty. We've been getting him ready for what's coming up in the next few weeks and he even has a special surprise for anyone who drops by to see his new baby sister. He's been such a big helper boy since we've moved and is really growing up…some days!

As for me – apparently some things haven't changed from one pregnancy to another. I've got carpal tunnel again in my right hand which causes it to fall asleep about 5-6 times per hour. Nothing that won't go back to normal – just very annoying. I did also have the first person comment on my lack of a wedding ring last week sometime. I long for the day (in two weeks) when I can get it back on! I miss seeing it! Other than that and some minor discomfort and a total lack of being able to sleep for more than 2 hours at a time, I'm doing great. Weight is good (I think I'm at around 33 pounds gained total) and blood pressure continues to be good, so now we're in the home stretch.

The nursery is all ready and I can say I can't be more proud of how it turned out. It is pretty much exactly what I wanted for her! I did have the doc confirm yesterday that she is indeed a girl so we don't have any surprises. The one sad thing is that I'm not sure she'll fit into the outfit I wanted to bring her home in. Normally no big deal, but it's the one I wore home from the hospital and it's just not looking like I can stuff a 10 pound baby in there… Maybe I can let her wear the dress as a belly shirt =)

In house news, we are officially all settled in. Brad got our pictures hung up (and despite what he tells you it did not take him 4 hours) and we had our open house over the weekend. I had so much fun showing off all of the hard work to our friends and family. Now we've got a huge to do list, but what home owner doesn't? I think Brad is going to spend his last weekend as a 1-kid-dad getting his workshop put together so he has a place to retreat =)

Back to the doc next week and unless something changes between now and then, we're on track for a 9/27 delivery. Thanks for all the well wishes and kind notes over the past week. Brad and I feel much more confident about the c-section now than we did at this time last week. See you next week!

The things we do for our kids!

I have rug burns on the tops of my toes and I can barely see over my desk at work today… Why you ask? I'm trying to get the baby to cooperate and turn her little booty around so she can come out in a few weeks!

I felt the need to document the lengths I am going to so that I can remind the baby of this when she turns 15 and hates me… I'll remind her that I sat on an exercise ball at work for 2 days looking like a fool every time someone walked around my office. I'll remind her ever so gently that I crawled on all 4s at 8 months pregnant and then sat in what can only be described as a yoga pose gone horribly wrong because she was being stubborn. I'll remind her that while performing said motions that I got rug burns on the tops of my toes! And chances are she'll just call me a dork and keep hating me =)

But as parents, it's our jobs to do everything we can to make our children's lives the best they can be – even before they get here. We found out yesterday at our appointment that the baby is breech right now so after doing some research I've found some "exercises" that may help her get turned the right way. At this point I'm pretty much willing to try anything because as great as a free tummy tuck sounds, not being able to pick up Braden or the baby for 6 weeks afterward doesn't sound appealing at all.

So, we've got another ultrasound next Monday and a doc appointment with my regular doctor on Tuesday at which point we'll have to make a decision about what comes next. As much as I'm not a fan of having a c-section, I have bigger issues with trying to have a breech baby naturally. Way too many ways things can go wrong. So, keep us in your thoughts and prayers and we'll let you know how things go next week! Think flippy thoughts!