Spud Update

I went to the doctor today for my 16 week check-up and all is well. I heard the heart beat today, which we did not get to hear last month because that little baby just would not cooperate! In case you're wondering, this baby has been deemed "Spud" by my brother. While pregnant with Sophia, he called her Tater and let me tell you he sure has kept up that nickname. So, naturally when I got pregnant this time, all of Charlie's family wanted to know right away what this baby was called! Too funny. I'm not sure I love the name Spud, but I can tell you right now my feelings on this matter are not and will not be accounted for!





Next month is our big ultrasound where we'll finally get to see that kid swimming around in there. Technically I have had two other ultrasounds, but the baby was so small it didn't look too much like a baby, this time it surely will! We are opting, once again, to not find out the sex of the baby. I know that this majorly irks some of you faithful readers out there, but too bad! ;) I am also considering keeping the name choices under lock and key as well. After the constant grief I received both last pregnancy and thus far in this pregnancy for some of my choices, I find it may just be better to keep it to ourselves. I haven't made a final decision on this, but it can be frustrating when people constantly give their opinion on this matter, especially when it conflicts with mine. Just something to think about...if I thought it were a bad name I wouldn't be considering using it to name my child...just a note. Charlie and I are fairly agreeable on boy names, however, which is different than last time, while girl names seem to be harder for us this time around. Kathleen's theory behind this is that it will surely be a girl b/c we can't decide on that name, but it was the opposite of that last time, so I'm kind of hoping it will turn out in the favor of a boy because we could use one of those in this family. There are a lot of girl grandchildren! Along that same vein, I totally think it's a girl, which probably means it's a boy. As you may remember I thought Sophia was a boy for almost the entire pregnancy and had convinced myself of it right up until the second she was announced a girl! I think I'm like 0 for 7 on my baby gender guessing!!! So, maybe that's a second sign pointing to a boy, who knows!







Lastly, I'm happy to report that I have yet to break out the stash of maternity clothes! I don't know why I'm so hell-bent on not wearing them, I just am. I think it has to do with the fact that I gained much more weight than I wanted to last time, and I'm really trying not to let that happen again. So, I feel like the longer I put off maternity clothes the more it shows that I'm achieving my goal. I realize this is somewhat warped, but I'm okay with it. I don't weigh myself and I refuse to look at the scale when they weigh me at the office, so I'm going by the feel of things and so far so good. I also worry that once I do start wearing the maternity clothes my will-power will diminish because, well I'm already huge, so what's stopping me now! I will say though, in a final note on this topic, that my pants are getting slowly more uncomfortable each day and by the end of dinner I'm truly feeling the pinch! I see panels in my near future!

Hoppy Easter!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I just love these slideshows! I think I'm addicted! Although it was a bit rainy, we had a great Easter! It was truly a family affair to get this brunch pulled-off, however. With Sophia being in the hospital all Friday evening, I was wiped out when we returned home and I of course didn't get nearly all I wanted accomplished that afternoon. So, thankfully, when Saturday came the troops were ready and willing! Anne brought over Julie to entertain Sophia while she helped me in the kitchen. Later that afternoon Sue came over to play with Sophia while I finished up cleaning and laundry. Charlie was a huge help too with vacuuming and putting away lots of laundry, so like I said, I couldn't have done it without them! Everything tasted delish and I tried two new recipes, a cinnamon raisin bread pudding and a the triple chocolate cookie trifle (pictured in the slideshow). I think I would make both of them again.




Grandma B was feeling well enough to join us and I think she really enjoyed herself! I think Sophia was a bit confused at first, because we usually go to see her and she very rarely goes to anyone's house, but she was happy enough to have her and immediately climbed into her lap. All the kids had a great egg hunt and even though it was a little rainy, it was still better to do it outside rather than inside! Poor Walter was sequestered in our bedroom for the whole afternoon because I just couldn't take any chances with him around all that candy. We'd had enough ER visits for one weekend, thank you very much! The men were thrilled to watch the Masters on the giant TV and everyone went home full and happy, so a good day really was had by all!

This Cat Does Not Meow...

Aunt Pam is very cuddly

Dr. Hirner filling out the chart on her patient, Henry Alligator

Sophia and her entourage

So, we had a very full day yesterday...Let me preface the rest of this by saying that Sophia is fine, has been home for 24 hours, and did not get admitted BUT she did suffer from a very traumatic coincidence. Read on for the full story!

Yesterday morning Sophia and I went to a friends for a morning play date. We frequent this house often and play with these kids every day, so no one was worried when they went to play in a room by themselves. Well, as it turns out, and as you may imagine...Sophia got hurt. No one, except two 4 year-olds saw what happened. It was said that Sophia landed on her head, hit the floor and nothing else, and she did seem to be fine, so I really wasn't too worried. We left shortly there after and headed home for a nap. In the meantime, I had recruited mom to help me get ready for a big Easter brunch that Charlie and I are hosting tomorrow morning. Upon awakening from her nap, Sophia started acting very funny. She was crying, fussy, clingy, dizzy, and not making much sense at all. Both mom and I were concerned so I called the Ped. and headed to the ER. I had now convinced myself that she had a concussion and went flying down the interstate at speeds much too high!

The doctor, whom we finally met, after couple hours already, checked her out and discovered that she had a pretty yucky ear infection in her left ear. Ah-ha...this could be the source of the dizziness and crying. But, because we couldn't be sure and because we found a fairly sizable knot on the right side of her head, the doctor ordered a CT Scan to be sure. By this time Charlie had arrived and mom moved out to the waiting room where, by herself she was left with nothing to do but worry and fret. So...she called Stacy and Stacy called Pam and now they all waited and fretted together. It is a known fact that Joneses never go to the hospital alone! Safety in numbers, I suppose! The CT was the worst! I'll spare you the gory details, but it took absolutely forever! The actual scans they needed took exactly 32 seconds, calming her down, strapping her to the bed, and preparing for this 32 seconds, took uh...about 45 minutes! And, because I'm pregnant I was not able to stay in the room with her, and although Charlie was allowed and did a fantastic job, it was hard for her to see me disappear again and again. I will say, however, that the technician and child advocate were amazing. They really tried (and succeeded) to do everything they could so that we did not have to sedate Sophia. Thankfully it worked b/c that would have added on at least another 2 hours to our stay, plus it would have pumped Sophia full of more drugs and me full of more worry. We then had to hurry up and wait for some chest x-rays because Sophia does have a nasty cough that the doc noticed right away! After that was done is was wait, wait, wait on the doctor to return.

In the end, both scans came back normal and we were free to leave, after 5 hours of agony. It was a nasty coincidence that she hit her head the same day her ear infection decided to exhibit sings, in the end it was surely the right move to take her in, but it caused a lot of worry and stress for all of us! But the fun really didn't end there because...even though the CT was normal, we still had to treat her for a head injury, just in case. So we had to wake Sophia every 2 hours all through the night. I will admit that this went much more smoothly than I had anticipated and she was so dog-gone tired that she thankfully fell immediately back to sleep each time and then slept until almost 9 am...yay! We are treating her for her ear infection and she's back on a normal nighttime routine. All four of us, Walter included, are looking forward to a long night of sleep! I am so thankful that she is okay. I really had some moments yesterday where I felt sheer panic and terror. I am beginning to understand the dread my mother felt every time one of us was in the ER (and let me tell you it was pretty often! LOL!) and I feel just awful! I know that part of being a parent is visiting the hospital, but this is our 3rd (and scariest) ER visit since she turned a year and I'm over it!!!!

Dyeing Eggs or Dyeing Babies?

Cupcakes were delish, but eggs won out...surprisingly!

One color was not enough...we went from pink to green which turned out a lovely purple.

group shot!

Her finished products!

Isaac and Sophia jammin' to the beat! Notice his hot dance moves and her powerful singing voice!

Lisa invited us over this week for some Easter fun! She was very brave and decided to host an Easter egg dyeing session for the kiddos. It was truly an adventure but one we didn't expect the kids to enjoy as much as they did. Being toddlers, we expected that they'd dye one egg and be on their way, but oh no, not the case. These kids absolutely loved every second of dyeing these eggs. Sophia launched her first egg directly into the blue dye, sending sprinkles of blue water everywhere! She would have done a dozen eggs if we'd have let her! She wanted to double dip every egg but was only successful with one. The other two were too severely cracked to sustain a second dunk! We had a great time and Lisa even made some Easter cupcakes which I think I enjoyed more liberally than Sophia, whoops!! We can't wait for our next play date, and now that Isaac and Sophia are on the same nap schedule it makes things a lot easier!

Uncles are So Fun!

It's always fun to be upside down!

Sophia liked to hug Bob, the Sea Captain

So cute!

maxin' and relaxin'

Play Doh rocks her world!

We stopped by and visited Stacy the other morning and of course, Sophia had a blast with her uncle! They played and wrestled and hugged all morning long! He also gave her a bucket-load of brand new Play-Doh, which has been a huge hit! She had far too many other things to do at his house like climb the stairs, visit with Bob, play with the doggies, etc., but since our arrival home our life has been filled with Play-Doh activities! She just wants me to open up every new can right away. She plays with it, puts it away, and then wants the one open.

Rugby Girl

The weather was nice enough, albeit a bit windy, to head out to the pitch and enjoy an afternoon of rugby! It was fun to be out there again, especially since I've missed every game since the one I went to last spring! Hopefully this weather will even out soon enough and we can enjoy the last couple games of the season. Sophia has fun running around with the other kids and exploring the field. She was, however, fairly distraught that she could not just run onto the field to see Daddy whenever it was she pleased. There was a lot of sideline wrangling on my part! We even managed to get in a few minutes at the after-bar where Sophia happily shared Charlie's hamburger and 'played' her first game of shuffleboard! Incidentally, Charlie's team did win by a landslide and he played a great game! It wouldn't have mattered to us though, we had a great time cheering him on all afternoon.

Ladies Lunch

Sophia with the birthday girl and her Grandma Sue

Poor Aunt Cathy was the victim of Sophia's twirling!

Oh, there's Aunt Cathy! :)

We had a nice treat today to get to see our aunties and grandma in the middle of the week! We always love that...which of course translates into yay for adult contact on a Thursday afternoon! Today was Anne's birthday, not to be named of course, and so we all got together to celebrate. The three of them continued their festivities all day, but alas, Miss Sophia needed a nap! When I told Sophia this morning that it was Aunt Annie's birthday and that we'd meet her for lunch, she immediately started asking, "cake? cake?!" How on earth does she do that??? I mean really, it amazes me the connections she makes and that she already associates birthdays with cake. Granted, we have celebrated a few birthdays already in the past few weeks, but still! There was no cake at First Watch this morning, so we compromised and Sophia indulged in some blueberry pan-cakes!