Easter

Well its official, I am way behind on the blog again. But this time I have a good excuse...I have TWO kids! Life is crazy. I don't know how all our Moms did this. I have lots of stories to tell about bringing Greyson home, Big Sister Avery, life saving visits from my Mom and Ezzies Mom, Linda, etc....but we will save those for another post.

We had a great Easter! Greyson is six weeks old now and is looking more and more like his dad every day. Poor guy even lost most of his hair...just like daddy :). The Easter bunny came to our house again this year to hide eggs and baskets of goodies. (Special thanks all their Grandparents for sending Easter packages filled with treats that make the Easter Bunny's job really easy!) We had an awesome Easter dinner with our friends on Grandview street.

Greyson in his super cute Easter Tie Onsie...thanks Diana!

Avery loves her some Easter Egg huntin'...just like her Momma. Pretty soon Greyson will be big enough to knock her down in persuit of a colored egg, just like my little sis did to me every year. ...and yet she never won a single hunt. We will be sure to tell Greyson it doesn't pay to cheat, right Aunt Nicki!

02.20.2010

Greyson Ezra ... finally arrived on Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 6.01pm. He weighed in at 8lbs 4oz and measured 21.5 inches long. His story began Saturday morning when we checked in for an induction at 7:30 in the morning. I changed and they started my IV and hooked up all the heart monitors etc. My doc arrived, checked me and put in an order for pitocin to get the ball rolling. Just before they were going to administer it they noticed a few random decelerations in his heart rate. They figured his cord may be wrapped around one of his limbs or he might be squeezing it. So they decided to monitor him a little longer to see if it continued to happen. ...and it did, so they broke my water to see if he might change positions....no luck. So they had me do some super fun exercises on an exercise ball...no luck. Then they thought filling my uterus back up with water my get him to move...no luck. By this time my contractions were getting really strong and painful. I asked for an epidural to take the edge off. I continued to have contractions and his heart rate continued to randomly dip and come back up again. They tried EVERYTHING, but this kid wasn't giving in. My doctor came in one last time and broke the news...emergency c-section. I'm not going to lie, I was scared. Especially when they were rolling me down the hall to the operating room the anesthesiologist asked Ezra if he wanted to give me a "goodbye kiss"...I lost it a little. Once I was on the table he was out less than 5 minutes and they were stitching me back up. They held his head up over the curtain after they pulled him out, and he was so cute. He looked a lot like Avery, minus all the hair. In the end, the c-section wasn't that bad, and my doctor was awesome. All that matters is that we have a healthy baby boy!

40

Well, I have officially reached forty weeks pregnant, and it is time for this little boy to come out. We are excited...and SCARED to have two kids...but excited! Avery can't wait to play with him. She is hoping he comes out wearing a red cape and singing Once Upon a Dream... just like Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty. Wish him luck...

Happy Valentines Day

Disney on Ice

Disney's Princesses on Ice came to town this year, and since our girl is completely obsessed with all things Princess...we had to go! She had been freaking out every time the commercial came on for weeks, so she was super excited when I showed her the tickets. However, she did want to make one thing clear...that the Princesses would be ice skating and she would NOT! Once I confirmed that she didn't have to do any of the skating, she was ready to go! Here she is all dressed up like Snow White.

She was all smiles the whole time, and kept asking us what's goin' happen next? what's goin' happen next? It was so cute and we are so glad we took her.

These were a few of her favorite parts...

Avery's Big Girl Bed

By September, Avery had become highly skilled at jumping out of her crib, so Ez decided to take the rail off the front and convert it into a toddler bed. It took her 5 seconds to learn she could crawl out of her bed and into ours...every night for the next 2 months. So, we decided it was time for an upgrade. I found this antique twin bed on craigslist, and thought it would be perfect in a creamy off-white. I also thought it would be a great idea to spray the bed for a store bought finish...what a nightmare. Ten coats of latex, oil primer and paint later Ez finally conquered the annoying yellow-brown tannins that kept bleeding through every layer. Ez finally finished it and Avery loves it! Here is the before and after of her new Big Girl Bed.

Merry Christmas

Halloween Night

Halloween Night was super fun, but super FREEZING cold. I didn't really get to take any pics of Avery all dressed up trick-or-treaing because she was so cold Ezra had to carry her from house to house. It was so cold, we decided to hit 15 houses with the Trockels and head back to our house to hand out some candy.

Ave really wanted me to dress up too, so here is the prego witch.

Ez was a last minute Skeleton. I think Avery was a little scared of him at first. She kept reminding me that Dadda was a NICE Skeleton, not a mean one.

Halloween Activites 09

Avery was a WiTcH for Halloween this year. She made it very clear to us and anyone that asked, that she was a SCARY witch not a nice witch. She loved her costume, and begged to wear it before, during, and after halloween. She also loved to watch You Tube clips of various witches with Ez and quickly picked up lines like
"I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too!" Thoughout the month we tried to go to every Halloween activity we could find. We attended a few Story times' at Pottery Barn and Barnes and Noble. Below are pics of Ave decorating a pumpkin and a little craft at our local mall kids club. The invite said the kids would be painting pumpkins in their halloween costumes?!? Sounded a little scary/messy. When we arrived the paint was replaced by sharpie markers and glitter glue. I'm not sure which is worse, but we made it out of there without any permanent damage. The also had free face painting...1 Scary witch on her arm, she was a happy girl!
We also attended the church Halloween party. Avery had a great time. The mummy cupcake she won in the cake walk was the highlight, until she went trick-or-treating door to door at the end of the party. It was so cute! At each door she would say the magic words and then stick her Halloween bucket right up in the persons face and wait for her candy. They thought it was pretty funny too, and I think she scored extra candy. What can I say the girl knows how to work it.

Ave and her BFF Lorenzo at the party.

Mission Accomplished

For the last month or so, I have spent every morning on the phone and internet in search of the H1N1 vaccine for Avery and I. Since we are both "high risk", I really never thought it was going to be so hard to get our hands on. My OBGYN decided since he never gets the flu or flu shots, that his patients didn't need to have the vaccine. So he didn't order it and refused to offer it to his pregnant patients ?!? After many failed attempts to get it from other offices that where saving their supply for their patients only, I let my OB know that I was considering transfering to another office to get the vaccine. I suggested he call in a favor to one of his OB buddies who did order the vaccine, and the next day I got from the office letting me know they had located one and were holding it for me at an office in Niagara Falls.

It was a bit of a drive, but getting the vaccine makes me feel a lot better about flying home for the holidays. Getting the shot for Avery was a whole other issue. Her Ped office had it for a fraction of a week, never offered it for her age group and then ran out. Luckily Ez was watching the news on Thursday night when they announced a Swine Flu vaccine clinc that was being held 45 mins away in the neighboring county. They urged people to not arrive early. I didn't listen and neither did the 300 other people that were standing outside in line before me when I showed up. After 3.5 HOURS of waiting outside...we are both vaccinated!

Keeping Avery entertained for almost 4 hours standing in line wasn't the easiest thing. I am lucky she loves Sleeping Beauty and Snow White so much, she sat happily in her stroller watching her DVD player for the most part. There were so many parents that had it worse than I did. The worst part was definitly when we neared the end of the line where the shots were being given. You would have thought kids were dying in there with all the terrified screams coming from the shot room. It was hard to convince the kids still waiting to get closer to that room they were in line for a good reason. Slightly tramatizing for all involved.