Music Musings

When I had Logan as an infant he was a pretty fussy little thing, he had silent reflux. So sleep was minimal for a lot of months. At some point I remember getting into the habit of bringing him downstairs, turning on the stereo with my toe, and rocking him til he went to sleep. Music of choice was usually Sarah McLachlan, Irish melodies, something soft, quiet and uplifting. My music to make me happy that seemed to make him happy as well.

With Sylvie, music around the house was often Baby Einstein, kids music, things that appealed to Logan. I know when she had her fussy evenings I would play Mozart on our stereo- LOUD. Jorge discovered that trick for Logan one night and it seemed to work well for baby Sylvie.

Now with Venice, Sylvie is the music lover of the house. When we switched the rooms we got Logan a tv (his was pre-HD or whatever it was that means it doesnt' work any longer) and we decided to get Sylvie a stereo. Not just a little radio, a real stereo. It makes her so happy! She loves to put on some cd's, jump on her bed and dance away to the music. The choice of artists is more modern- Lady Gaga type music. Dance music. So one of our routines in the mornings is to get Venice down to sleep in her swing, and we head upstairs. I hop in the shower and she dances away to her music. It struck me how happy and upbeat I feel, energized by the music and it really starts my day right. I love that my Sylvie brings sunshine to my day like this. One more reason to love having "big kids" when you have a baby:) Love this "spunk" on this little lady!

cutie pie

Introducing Venice Soleil......

Let’s see if I can sit down and write out the story of how Venice came into the world. It was Tuesday, November 22 and the day I had predicted all along that she would arrive. The last days of pregnancy were rough. I was accepting a lot of help, very cranky. Mix it up with a need to clean everything, obsess about the kids lunches and such for school, and tying up loose ends. And impatience. Baby was crazy moving, you could see her from the outside and my hips would randomly separate. Nothing was comfy- sitting, standing, sleeping, I had a cold and was pretty miserable.

So my mom came to watch the kids and I headed off to my 10 am appointment. The ultrasound technician found her head down, quiet, not moving much, good heartbeat. We were at “failing” the biophysical pretty quickly so I figured I’d head over to the non-stress test and she’d start jumping. Instead they sent me to the hospital. I called Mom and Jorge saying no rush yet, it was probably just going to be a false alarm like last week. Nope! Dr. L was at Triage and saying “we’re going to deliver her today.” They hooked me up to monitors and initially they were going to wait a few hours to let my breakfast settle. So Jorge headed home to grab the bags, Mom pulled the kids together and the plan was for Lilia to pick them up at 4:30.

Well there was a change and Dr. L had to attend a complex cesarean, so Dr. C was called in. He said the baby had only passed the biophysical by a bit and was pretty quiet on the monitors so if we could get Jorge there in the next hour, I would be first before a bunch of scheduled procedures. Craziness!

Jorge made it in time and they had me prepped and iv’d for surgery. Of course they blew a few veins and things had to sign a second set of consent forms for the change in doctor. The anesthesiologist was good but it took him 3 times to get the spinal in and it was painful. They switched nurses to a second nurse that helped me pose a bit better. It’s hard to bend forward when your belly is in the way! Once that was in things were better. Except for the cold that allowed me only to face one direction and I was so stuffy I was having a hard time hearing. I felt the strong pressure on my chest of not being able to breathe but it was short-lived thank-goodness! No nausea during the procedure but I was nervous. It felt like a very long time before they got the baby out.

She arrived at 2:30 and Jorge got to go to the nursery with her. The rest of the surgery was slow and apparently I had a good amount of scar tissue. They used glue on the top layer, so that was good. The immediate recovery was rough, I felt unsettled and shaky and weird, but by the time I got to my room I was feeling better. Jorge had taken photos and showed me on the ipad during recovery so that helped and we picked a photo to share on Facebook as our announcement. It helped distract and pass the time.

We had a lot of visitors pretty quickly and I must have been out of it because I don’t remember the first moments in the room with the baby, something I had been worried about all along! The kids got to be with us and Sylvie took awhile to warm up. Logan was cute and excited and held her. My dad got to come in right away but didn’t meet the baby til the next day. He met up with my mom and took over the dog and she came in to hold the baby right away.

She was pretty sleepy but a good baby. Didn’t love her bassinet, but did let us put her in it some of the time. Nursed quite a bit and then would sleep for too long. It was hard to wake her up to eat! She had a test for jaundice and an echocardiogram for a hole in her heart. Both came up okay, but it took awhile to get released on the third day (Thanksgiving) waiting for the results.

All in all, a good birth experience. The things I worried about went as well as I could have hoped. And Jorge was really a great help in the room.

Loganisms....

Logan likes to chat about Pokemon ad nauseum so it was a fun change of pace to have a neat conversation with him on the way home from the dentist....

He was talking about how he calmed Venice down and I said "Logan, you are a good helper person. I'm sure you will help people in your life."

Logan: "I'll bet God gave me that as my gift."

Me: "What gift?"

Logan: "The desire to help others."

So true Logan , and I'm loving the increased vocabulary!

Logan: "I'm going to go to Mexico. Did you know water is only 10 cents there? When I'm an adult I'm going to go to Mexico in my Teleporter Portal and bring Legos there. I will give the legos free to kids that don't have toys."

Me: "Logan, how will you get a teleporter?"

Logan: "I'll build one. Out of Lego's and mechanical stuff."

He also has a new obsession with the military, especially the Marines. He said he wants to create armies of Lego guys especially a Marine collection.

Size of a Watermelon

"Mom do you HAVE to have that baby in 8 days?" "Yes!" Woohooooooooooooo!

Just laughing at my Sylvie. She's so excited for all this waiting to be over. She wants to meet her sister, count on mom to be the one to come get her from school, and have a few nights at grandmas house that she just can't contain herself.

She wrote me a letter today (had my son write some of it)

"Mom, I am so happy you are going to have the baby."

"She is the size of a watermelon now, so it's time for her to come....."

When we first announced the pregnancy I followed a chart of about how big the baby was compared to produce. So she asked me almost daily for 9 months "how much longer til she is the size of a watermelon?" We even have a countdown chart with watermelon slices. One slice left!

Entrepreneur

I love the way each of my children look at the world. Logan has big plans to make money. His current favorite is the elusive lemonade stand where he thinks he can make a lot of money, you know, like $15. So this is Logan's dream. Start with a lemonade stand. And someday open a business where he sells legos and healthy food. He will even let me work there. And they will be closed on Sundays. So he can take care of his 4 dogs on Sundays.

So Sylvie, not to be outdone, has her own idea. She would like to be a "ringer" aka a cashier. "Mom I would like to own my own store." "What would you sell?" "Cabinets. I would charge 100,000 for them." "That's a good idea, then you don't have to sell very many to make a lot of money." "Yeah, then I would have more money than Logan." "Sylvie, if you do that, you'll have more money than me!" "Perfect." A girl knows how to make money, and she knows how to spend it. I see her future already.

Mom! Best Breakfast Ever!

34 weeks pregnant me gets up, waddles into the kitchen, considers making muffins from a box, remembers we're out of muffin cups, waddles over to the computer and figures breakfast will be yogurts and cereal.

Sylvie (30 minutes later): "Uhm, Mom, aren't you forgetting something?"

Me: "What"

Sylvie: "Breakfast?!" Apparently she was hungry because she's not a breakfast person at all!

So I get up, make biscuits (from a can), bacon, OJ and scrambled eggs. Nothing too hard, and with the smells wafting, we were all ready for breakfast by the time it was ready.

Logan, after breakfast "Mom, that was the best breakfast ever! The honey was PURE!"

Silly little man!

Daily Conversations

Logan: "When I grow up, my house will be little on the outside but big on the inside. I will have robots that do everything. They will make me slushies, etc......I will have a genie and I will wish......What would you wish for mom if you had 3 wishes?" ad nauseum. At least it's a change from "when I grow up my whole house will be filled with dogs......." He's very into his home in the future!

Sylvie: "Mom, I had a lot of dreams last night. I dreamt that the baby was here. I dreamt that we had a sleepover at Abuelita's house but it wasn't exactly like her house....I dreamt that there was a snowstorm." She's very into her dreams and also into reassuring you that whatever you want to be true is true. Like Logan wanted to know if there was a Frankenstein gummy treat in the new gummies we bought. No, of course there wasn't, but she was quick to agree and get all excited for him!

Sylvie's also writing the letters they are learning in school but doesn't quite have them down as to what they are called. Like if you say "what letter is this?" she'll probably guess "T" but if you spell out a word she'll most likely write it correctly and sits and writes all the letters on paper. I think she'll get past this quickly and be letter-crazy before you know it. I'm really really really happy she's in a good kindergarten. The preschool drama we had last year seems to have entered her classroom in her relationship with one friend, but we talk about it alot and how people can be moody and fickle and she's also making other friends. There were two "best friends" that caused her a lot of heartache last year in her school and the two girls are attending the same catholic school this year for full-day kindergarten. Sylvie's in half-day at the public school next door. I'm really happy we made this choice, and while I think she gets a bit bored and ready by the time kindergarten starts, and it would be easier to do one less drop-off with the baby coming, I think this was a good decision for her.

:)

Just flashing back to Baby Sylvie and how itty bitty she was. I can't wait!!!!!

Will she look like them?

I'm curious if baby #3 will look like baby #1 and baby #2!

When Logan was born he looked like my sister when she was born to me, but he definitely has has dad's lips and some of his facial features. He was such a mix of so many family members on both sides I couldn't believe it when Sylvie was born and she looked most ..... like her brother! She has taken on more looks of my mother-in-law's family as she's gotten older, but she also has looked like various family members through the years.

I picture baby #3 to have more hair, dark and not formed to her head like the other two, and a pale face. But we shall see! They never look like what you think they will look like!

Disney!

Rooms!

We rearranged and painted the rooms this weekend. We just took the tape off this morning, so this is 1 days worth of arranging and decorating. I'm excited to have the main pieces in place to get the rest done!

The Star Wars Room is Logan's (was Sylvie's) and the yellow room is Sylvie and baby's room (was Logan's). Logan was very hesitant for anything to change, so aside from his walls and a new tv, we tried to keep the room similar to what it was. Sylvie was excited for new things, but I kept her duvet cover and matched that. The crib mattress is where the crib will be. And we need to build one matching dresser that will cover the end of Sylvie's bed.

My new artwork in Logan's room is scrapbook paper I ordered, had Jorge mount to foam core and Logan arranged around the room. My artwork for the girls is over Sylvie's dresser, from Etsy some prints with princesses from fairy tales.

I've been obsessing over these two rooms for a few months now, agonizing over how and when to move the kids, so I'm very excited to have it "done" and ready to move into the nitty gritty as time allows. So fun!

First Day of School!

Vignettes

I love seeing the phases kids go through. It's fun to document them because sometimes, as quickly as they begin, they end! Sylvie's in this "Vignette" phase. She will set up random small items in a location and it's funny to come across it and wonder if she was thinking artistically, arranging to make it look nice, thinking realistically (like creating a hammock for a friend), or just plain playing.

Here are a few fun examples that are sitting around the house today....

A squirmy worm in a small hammock on lego fridge magnets

Chapstick, a small animal on a rug, and a larger animal on a towel, all sitting on a washcloth

A teddy beanie baby, a box for his "food", a fallen flower petal, sitting on a piece of pretty fabric.

Making Wishes

Deep Thoughts by Logan, age 7 3/4 years old.....

Sylvie: "I'm totally making a wish when we go under that bridge." (there was a train on it).

We all make a wish as we go under.

Logan: "Mom, I made a wish but I don't care about it anymore."

Sylvie: "Why not Logan?"

Logan: "The trick to wishes is that YOU have to make them come true."

Sylvie: "How do you make a wish come true?"

Logan: "You work really hard at it and come up with a plan. If you want a lot of money, you have to not spend all your money and save it and then you can get whatever you wanted to buy with your wish."

Love this kid!

Noticing Each other

Jorge moved some of my photos around so I can find them more easily on the Mac and I love this one!

Abby- 2002 to 2011

I took this photo on a Friday after Abby's haircut. This has been the year of skin and ear infections for her and it seems we'll be good for a few month and then she'll be cranky, itchy and licky. So this last go-around was pretty nasty, scabby and gross. And her personality was kinda cranky. We talked to the doctor and of course there are a lot of potential expensive tests to see what is causing the rashes, but she figured it was the same types of things as before- rolling in other animal dander and pee in the yard, spreading bacteria by rolling and licking, just making it worse on her own.

So we came home with some strong meds and I finally got her to the petsmart grooming to get some of that scabbiness off. They did a great job and she looked so pretty and healthy!

On Sunday she was fine when she woke up and started panting by 11 am. And shaking a bit. It was very unusual for her, but hot in the house. And then the other symptoms started. I was keeping a list to call the vet and we were googling around. She went downhill fast though. By the end of the night she was panting, tummy issues, excessive thirst, peeing quite a bit, and couldn't settle at all. Jorge took the shift til 1 am and I went down after and stayed with her til 4:30 am. She was very unsettled, going out constantly but wanting to come back in. And at one point she looked very disoriented and laid on her paws on the kitchen tile. I had thought maybe it was a UTI with a fever, and at that point I was really worried she was in a lot of trouble.

I had to work, so I left her downstairs for 1 1/2 hours to sleep upstairs. She tried to be up with us, but I brought her back down as she was very unsettled and I was afraid she would wake the kids. At 6:00 I went down and couldnt' find her downstairs. After a frantic search and a quick question to Jorge if he had left her out, we found her under the computer desk unconscious. She was already almost gone, and I thought she was, she was messy and not responsive. But she was breathing. By this point Sylvie was frantic and Logan was up. So I had Jorge wrap her up and we had to share the news that Abby was gone from us. We had them say goodbye and my father in law picked the kids up to get them out of the house so we could deal with everything.

Going to the vet to put a pet down is not an experience I would every hope for again. The vet was wonderful and the process was quick. She never perked back up or opened her eyes and the vet said her belly was already full of blood and fluid, she was not panting any longer, just barely breathing. Putting her down was a messy experience as well and the graphic images of seeing my dog lose control of her body will stick around for awhile.

It has been a sad week saying goodbye and every time we walk in the door, morning routine without my buddy asking for a treat, not worrying about her as part of my "do I have the keys, do I have my purse, is the dog inside the house" walk out of the house has put a sad note in a lot of our day.

I'm not sure what caused her sickness and I don't know if I really want to know. She seemed happy and somewhat healthy to that point. In my google searches I came across a few texts that said "dogs are very good at making you believe they are not sick." And Jorge found some things that mentioned skin infections a manifestation of things going on inside.

In all, it's been a sad goodbye and we'll miss her quite a bit and I know there will be tears shed when we bring this baby home and don't get to introduce her to our first "baby" Abby.

High Expectations

As I'm sitting working my toosh off at work this month I realized something, I have high expectations. I expect myself to accomplish a LOT at work, and if someone asks for something, I usually say yes. And get a lot done. So it got me thinking of other ways I have high expectations....

-I think the kids should be good to each other. Nice friends, respect one another, and love us all as a family.

-I expect myself to keep up their school skills over the summer. I start every May/June with some scrounging to find things they can and will do over the summer. Workbooks are a given and some cool ideas are always part of the agenda.

-I expect our house to work. For example, I think equipment should last longer than a summer. My parents have a box fan from sometime around 1976 that they still use. Meanwhile we've bought new fans every few years as those darn things break down all the time. Don't even get me started on how a house should not leak or how a DVD player should work for longer than a few years.

-I expect good things from the government, a clean city, and no crime. Weather that is acceptable would be great! Can we just combine a few cities into one grabbing the best weather months from them all, throwing in some awesome views, healthier restaurants, cheap shopping and driveability. Yeah, that sounds good. I may have to invent such a place someday and have an interview process for who gets in.

-I expect happiness out of life. I'm not satisfied with a mediocre doctor, church, job, activities, movies, etc etc. I just think if there is better, why not seek it out!? Call me picky, or annoying, but it must be part of my personality to want the good things in this world around me:)

Silly Billies

In the car....

Logan: "Mom, we don't have 10 fingers, we only have 8. Thumbs are not fingers."

Sylvie: "Are pinkies fingers?"

Explanation from me about the different names of the fingers- index, pointer, etc. Then I said I wasn't sure what the one next to the pinky is called.

Sylvie: "I'm going to name mine 'Stace."

Logan:"I'm going to name mine 'Slice."

I love that they so naturally go into make-believe pretend mode!

Mother's Day Plans

Logan: "Mom, we have a plan for tomorrow. You get to sleep in and I'll get Sylvie her princess milk."

Sylvie: "And I'll do all the dishes" (aka pouring soap all over everything and running up the water bill, but ever so sweet)

Logan : "And we'll do everything in the morning, we'll even keep the floor clean. You just have to sit back and relax on the couch."

Sylvie: "You can sit in my spot on the couch. Logan, you do the broom and I'll do the dishes okay?"

I love these sweetie pies. They make my world a wonderful place to be in!