Port Aransas '08

We left late Friday night and took advantage of a sleeping baby in the car- or so we thought. Turns out Beth prefers to stay awake in the car, lol. She slept from 7-9:30 then was up until we got there at 11:00! So traveling at night doesn't work for us anymore!

Unfortunately the seaweed was terrible this year but the trade-off was the million olive snail shells we found! They all had snails in them so we threw them back each night, but we all still had fun collecting them and letting them crawl all over our legs. :-) Beth surprised me and was totally fine with picking up and touching the snails (I guess it's only bugs that bother her) and she was totally fearless with the mounds of seaweed (ick!). She preferred to play in the sand instead of the water but was fine when the tide was low and she was able to sit around in some of the small pools of water. I guess she just didn't like the waves. I actually didn't go past my knees in the water this year, probably for the first time in my life. I just didn't feel like getting beat up by the waves since I'm moving a little slower these days, plus I *hate* the excessive seaweed. Ryan went in deep a few times, a couple of times to fish and he caught quite a bit of fish! We threw those back too but he had a fun time catching them!

My goal was to not let Beth get sunburned at all- we succeeded! Beth actually tans pretty well considering how white her parents are (ahem) but she did NOT get a burn! It helped that she wore her surf-shirt in the heat of the day and covered her shoulders and neck. And she wore her hat at all times too! I got a little pink on my back when the stuff wore off and Ryan a little red on the back of his legs. Overall not too bad!

I thought this was a cool pic of my youngest brother.

Mostly olives, a live sand dollar, a dead crab and a couple of sharks-eye snails.

Sweetness!
He caught a fish!


Worn out
Luke's first trip to the beach...sort of!

3rd Anniversary :-)

Happy 3rd wedding anniversary to us. :-)

Today we got back from our yearly family trip to Port Aransas, I will update with photos and stories soon! We all had a really great time! Now I have to go unpack though so check back tomorrow night.

Our first cloth diaper!

We got our first cloth diaper in on Friday- it's a Pocket Change that was on clearance and I couldn't help myself, lol. So far Beth is intrigued but I haven't actually put it on her yet because I need to wash it and I'm waiting to wash for a few days (I'm expecting a handful more over the next few days). Cloth diapers require special washing so I can't just toss it in with a regular load. This week I should be getting several more for Beth including a Happy Heiny, 2 Thirsties Fitteds and a Thirsties cover and 3 Dappi covers. For Beth I still have a small list of things to buy for her including Dream-Eze Fitteds, a Happy Hempy, a Bum Genius one-size and maybe a wool soaker (anyone knit?). I'm getting one or two of each to try them out until we figure out what we like.

Just over her disposable diaper. They're so soft- I can't wait to switch her!

Ryan and I have figured out how to get our dog Finley to bark. It really takes a lot- he hardly ever barks! I think we had him for over a month before we heard him bark the first time (not a horrible quality in a dog, let me tell you!). We've had some...let's just say bug issues in our house the past couple of weeks and Finley is ALL ABOUT bug-catching! He goes crazy trying to catch something- anything moving and gets incredibly riled up when Ryan starts waving his arms around in the air like he's trying to catch a fly. In fact, this is where the barking comes in- Finley can't help himself! It's hilarious because he has this big huge bark that he rarely uses so it totally caught us off guard! Here he is after a bug that crawled behind the sofa (little does he know Ryan already caught and killed it!). Maybe this is a clue into his former life? Exterminator?

Birth Center

After a lot of thought, research, prayer, and consideration, Ryan and I have decided to labor and deliver Luke in a birth center. This means no more OB and no hospital! I am incredibly excited about it for a host of reasons, the main reasons being the support I will receive from the midwives and the fact that I will have my med-free birth. :-)

For anyone unfamiliar with a birth center, I'll describe how ours works. It's a converted old house where 2 midwives and a staff of nurses work. It's like a regular doctor office in that there are exam rooms and an ultrasound machine, and they have all the modern technologies that a doctor would have. Except midwives are only female, and these ladies are much more supportive of my desire to birth med-free. Once I go into labor I will be in one of their birth suites, and I can labor however/wherever I want to! Bed, shower, bath, birth chair, parking lot, living room, kitchen... And the same nurses and midwives that have been seeing me for the remainder of my pregnancy will be there during my labor and delivery to support and assist me. This is a change from my OB/hospital birth, where I was seen by a million nurses (thanks to shift-changes) and my OB showed up to check on my a couple of times and the last 10 minutes of pushing just in time to catch the baby. I am looking forward to having a different support system this time.

The philosophy of birth at a birth center is that a woman was created by God to give birth. It is not a medical problem that she needs to be "delivered" of- so we will use the natural means necessary to provide pain relief (like the water), manage labor (not rush it), and have the baby. Overall, it's still going to be a lot of work for me-it is labor!- but I am already much more relaxed at the idea of doing things this way.

When I say a "med-free" birth, I mean I will not have the option to have an epidural. If I need an IV or something else for whatever reason, they have that and will not hesitate to use it- after all, they want me and Luke to be healthy just as much as we do! I will probably have a water birth, meaning I will push and deliver Luke in a tub. It's not set in stone yet, luckily it will never be set in stone and if I decide I don't like it then I can change my mind!

Of course we have looked into safety precautions. The birth center is equipped to handle minor medical emergencies for mom and baby, and if something else is needed then we are a couple of miles from the hospital where I delivered Beth so I can easily be transported. Last year of 104 births, they only had 4 transfers and 3 of those ended in c-section. Those are good odds!

I feel incredibly lucky and even more blessed that I had a relatively easy and healthy labor and delivery with Beth. I am low-risk for any health issues right now- if for some reason I should become "high risk" then I will switch back to my OB. But my age, health, and birth history mean I'm a perfect candidate for a birth center!

A new tooth

I think it's incredible how one tiny little tooth makes such a huge difference in the disposition of a baby. She has been cantankerous off and on (mostly on) these past couple of weeks- hard to get down for nap, not wanting to eat, super-clingy... You moms know the drill. Sunday she had a few crazy diapers and then Monday we noticed a little white bump- sure enough it popped through. I knew she was teething but I thought it was a different tooth coming in! Tuesday she was an absolute angel, back to her old happy giddy baby self. :-) This make tooth number 12- she now has the top and bottom eight and four molars.

Cloth Diapers

Some of you may remember that we considered trying out cloth diapers for Beth but things just didn't work out. Well after 18 months of buying diapers and wipes and filling landfills, we're going to try cloth out on Luke. We actually already have a decent-sized stash thanks to a friend who totally hooked us up with some diapers from their son. Right now we have a handful of pocket diapers, all-in-ones, and some covers. So all we'll have to buy to get started with Luke is some prefolds and maybe some fitteds. The decision to move Beth to cloth hasn't been made yet. Part of me thinks I'll already be doing the work (washing diapers) for Luke, may as well do it for Beth too. But the "big kid" diapers are a little more expensive so that's why we hesitate.

Don't worry about the work and mess- I have a big support group online and a few friends around here that use cloth also so I'm not incredibly concerned with screwing up too badly. Please offer me and Ryan support during this process- it was a hard decision and we need support!!!

We have Fuzzi Bunz Pocket diapers, Proraps All-In-Ones, Bummis Super Snap covers, and a few other random covers and pocket diapers. What I need to get to make my collection for Luke complete are Kissaluvs fitted diapers and some Indian Pre-Folds with Snappis. Eventually I want to try the one-size or all-in-one bumGenius. Probably not immediately though, as these are the ones we tried with Beth and they were pretty bulky. I couldn't imagine having those on a newborn!

There are a million and one types of cloth diapers out there and I'd love to try them all! From what I hear, different brands are better depending on the occasion. Some fit boys better, some fit chunky babies better, some are better for car rides, some better for newborns...etc. So it'll definitely be a learning process.

And on another note, my girl had her car seat checked out today by a car seat safety technician and I am happy to report she has been riding safe for 18 months. :-) I'll be going back to have her seat checked out again after we get out new car since the new car will have a different system (Latch instead of seatbealts) and plus we'll need to have Luke's seat checked out too once we actually get that. But that made me really happy to FINALLY have her seat checked out!

25 weeks

And boy, am I feeling it. I'm slowing down now, and bumping into door frames quite often! Little things are starting to wind me, and I can tell that I'm having braxton hicks contractions on an irregular basis. So I guess being so big is God's built-in reminder that I'm actually pregnant and I need to remember to try to slow down!

The rest of our day

Beth and the rolly polly!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July! Our little neighborhood has some wonderful free things to do today, but Ryan and I decided Beth is probably too young to enjoy a parade and fireworks. So we're going to skip that tonight (along with the free symphony concert) but we'll do it all next year maybe when she'll appreciate it more! Instead, our community pools offered free admission today so Ryan came with us to the pool and we had some free lunch (hot dogs and chips, nothing fancy!). It was during nap time though so Beth wasn't her usual self, but I'm glad we went earlier since it looks like it may rain now. And we usually don't go to the pool before 3:00 due to the sun intensity but we all slathered up and I think we all made it out without a burn. So now everyone is sleeping, and I'm not sure what we'll do this evening, probably just grill some steaks if it doesn't rain.

Beth and dada.

She got a new hat- on clearance at Old Navy!

My artsy shot of our sleeping dog. It was taken without a flash and it quite dark in the room, I'm not sure why/how it came out so bright. I really need to learn how to use all my features!

The camera is here!

Wow, wasn't that quick? It got here this morning and of course I've already taken a ton of pictures to try to learn about some of the new features. Here are a few of Beth and our garden- I think the quality is much better and honestly it's a lot easier for me to use. Uploading is the same (plug in the USB, nice and easy) and it takes the same memory card as our last camera so I don't have to buy a new one. Which is really cool because I had some photos on the last camera I wasn't able to upload but they appeared on this camera so I could get them this morning. You can click on the picture to see it bigger (I think).

Old camera- Beth and daddy at a restaurant. She REALLY liked the stuffed bull (or whatever)- she "moo"ed at it the entire time we were there!

Baby cantaloupe- our first one! Finally!

Our first big cucumber

Beth. Love the clarity.

Our garden! The trellis is homemade by Ryan- the cucumbers and cantaloupe are using it.
Taking a stroll through the tomatoes.

From our camcorder

These are digital pics from our camcorder that I just now uploaded. Enjoy a trip down memory lane!

Our little Aggie girl!

After a bath

Napping with daddy

Sucking on her wrist

Ok this one isn't so old, but it's a still from the other day. :-)

Falling asleep

I never thought this child would ever do this... Last night, Beth just couldn't stay awake during dinner. It was so funny we grabbed our video camera and I filmed 2 minutes of it before we couldn't take it anymore and put her to bed. This was at 6pm last night, and she slept until 7 this morning!

(Thank goodness Ryan was bit by the organizing bug last night because we found a USB cord for our digital camcorder I thought we had broken. I now have all sorts of pictures and videos ranging back to Beth's baptism!)

New Camera (again)

We've gotten a new camera. Again. Hopefully this one will last longer than a year! We shopped till we dropped today finding the perfect camera, and we decided on the Kodak EasyShare z1085. I am REALLY excited about this camera because our in-store trails were really awesome, and the EasyShare line came highly recommended to me. Incredibly clear zoom, fast recover time, crisp pictures. I hope you will be able to notice a difference once we get it! I found it on sale online so it will be a few days before it gets here!

Meanwhile, we haven't had a camera to capture the shenanigans all week. My mom and two youngest brothers have been visiting, and my dad came in on Wednesday evening. They weren't staying here but Beth and I pretty much spent every day with them since we don't get to see them very often. There were multiple opportunities for photos but unfortunately no working camera! So just imagine 8-yr-old and 6-yr-old boys entertaining an 18-month-old. They all left to go home today so it's back to life as usual!

18 months!

Happy half-birthday to my sweet girl! Today she is 18-months-old, that means every day forward she will be closer to two years than one year. I had some professional pictures taken today and of course they're incredibly cute! I love you my big toddler girl!

Broken camera...again!

I've broken my camera. This is not as bad as last time though, I hope not at least. The lens won't close and so it gives me an error and won't let me take photos. What am I going to post now??? Hopefully I'll get it fixed soon- I don't know where to take it! Suggestions? I really don't like Best Buy, I feel like they're always ripping me off.

Here are two photos that I stole from a friend's blog. :-) It's of Beth and family friend Hannah. They are 7 months apart and just now starting to really interact when they play together. Unfortunately we don't get to see them enough but it's cute to see the way their play changes each time we meet up! What's fun is our next 2 kids will be only 2 months apart so they'll get to grow up together too!

Saturday

Today we had a family reunion of sorts at my grandparent's house. Beth was a little shy at first but she warms up quickly! I don't have any pictures because I completely forgot to bring out my camera, I will make sure to take some this week while my mom and brothers are in town. My youngest 2 brothers are 6 and 8 years old, and Beth has so much fun with them!

Tomorrow I'll be 23 weeks pregnant. Time is flying! I'm watching A Baby Story and some of those other TLC tv shows to remind myself of birth and labor, to try to get pumped up. I cry every time a baby is born, it's really sort of sad how fragile my emotions are right now! It is bringing up memories, mostly good, from Beth's birth. There are a few things I want to do differently so I'm making a huge list of questions for my OB at my next appointment. I am going to be trying for a med-free birth again, hopefully my labor will be shorter than 2 days and I'll be able to get some rest naturally this time!

Playing with baby Eric

I finally caught her "silly noise" on camera!!! It's at the very end, you may need your sound higher to hear it. She's been making this noise for months now and I don't know how she does it, but we can ask her to make her "silly noise" and this is what she does. I crack up every time she does it!

Notice he's swaddled.

Father's Day

Sorry this post is delayed, I had to wait for the video to process on YouTube. ;-)

Happy Father's Day honey!!! How does it feel to be a father of TWO (plus a stinky dog)? I know I will always be safe from wasps with you around, and that makes me feel like a better mom. I owe you a breakfast in bed!

Ryan and his brother Josh, killing wasps.

"Helping" Finley eat

We have an odd couple of kids around here. Finley prefers not to eat his food from the bowl, so Beth "helps" him eat. He is not the type of dog that immediately goes to his food bowl once I fill it up, his food will literally sit there all day until Beth intervenes. So it goes something like this: Beth notices food in the bowl, picks up the bowl and carries it to wherever Finley is and gives it to him, hand-fed, piece by piece. But eventually she'll get bored with that and start putting it somewhere else, like a windowsill or on the carpet. He doesn't mind, as long as it's not in the bowl. She might get bored with that so she might dump it on the carpet and he'll continue eating. However it happens, it's a process that usually entertains them both for 20 minutes. It's rather disgusting to me because she smells like stinky fish-dog slobber and dog food by the time it's all over, and the windowsills have looked better, but it's a battle I've decided not to fight. It's a weird, symbiotic relationship that makes them both happy- Finley eats and Beth is entertained. What more could a mom ask for?

Post- meal wrestling

He's such a good dog to put up with her!

22 weeks pregnant

from here.