In order to try and beat the heat the last few days we've been heading out with our friends Bridgette, Ty and Devin. The kids love the fountains at Discovery Green, even though it took Livi a few trips to actually play in the water. We went to Hermann Park a few days ago to feed the ducks. Livi didn't like it if the ducks got too close so she stayed near Bridgette or me the whole time. As we were sitting on a bench eating snacks this seriously insane squirrel kept harassing us. It scratched Ty on the hand and then kept following us around. The kids were standing on the bench because it was looking at them like it was going to take a bite. It felt like when all the birds start attacking people in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" That squirrel was out for blood.

3 years 4 Months

Jack had his 4 month check up yesterday and Livi had her 3 year.

Jack is:

18lbs 12 oz-95%

27"-95%

Livi is:

33lbs-70%

49"-75%

They had Livi get in a little purple gown and she loved it. She was sitting on the table while the Dr was typing in some notes and she whispers to me, "mommy, this is so comfortable." Oh! That girl cracks me up.

Since we moved downtown we have a different pediatrician than the one Livi has used since she was born, and I think I'm going to keep looking. I'm pretty sure this pediatrician doesn't have kids and doesn't even really like them. She's good with babies, but older kids...not so much. Anytime Livi does anything besides sit in her chair she (the dr.) gets all nervous and says, "sweetie, sweetie, lets not do that." For example, Livi was drumming her fingers on the desk and the dr said that exact sentence, then she was standing on the scale, again the dr pipes in and tells her to stop because she doesn't want her to break the scale. Really? You think a 33 pound girl is going to break your scale? The floor has different colored block tiles and Livi was jumping from color to color and of course that prompted The Good Dr to ask her to stop because she didn't want her to hurt herself. By jumping on a flat surface? And the real kicker is that she told me to not let Livi kiss Jack or to really touch him. What the?! Little does she know that Livi basically sticks Jacks head in her mouth every chance she gets. I don't think this lady has had much interaction with kids outside of her office that's for sure.

Pool Time

bathing beauty

I could literally kiss this baby all day long. I love when he wakes up from his naps and I get to squeeze him!

It has literally been over 100 degrees here the past few days, so after Phil and I did our workout this afternoon (we have been doing Insanity) we decided to hit the pool. Livi loves to swim this year and will swim by herself if she is wearing her floaties. Jack is still a little too young for me to feel comfortable taking him in the water so Phil and I took turns hanging out with him on the side. We finally were able to capture a few of his intoxicating smiles. I think the best word to describe him would be: jolly. Both he and Livi make me so happy. I can't help but look at them and feel so blessed.

Livi is getting way too smart for her britches. She loves to scream right as Jack is falling asleep, obviously to try and wake him up. The other day we were driving and she did just that so I told her when we got home she was going into time out for 5 minutes. She got upset and said, "no 3 minutes!" I told her I wasn't going to argue about it with her and it was 5 minutes so she said, "okay, 4 minutes!" I had to turn my head and look out the window so she wouldn't see me on the verge of laughter. How in the world does she know that 4 is more than 3 but less than 5?! Do 3 year olds have that kind of spatial understanding? One of Phil's classes this semester is basically how to negotiate, and I think he must be teaching her some tricks when I'm not around. I almost wanted to concede and let her have her 4 minute time out, purely for being so stinking cute, but I left it at 5. I think she may give me a run for my money in the years to come.

Catch Up

Jack's before hair

after the buzz

So much has happened over the past few months it would take me weeks to properly catch up so I'm just going to do a brief synopsis:

Jack is almost 4 months old and he is one big fella. He weighed over 14 pounds at his 2 month check up and I'm sure he weighs at least 17 now. He is wearing 9-12 month clothes. I can't get enough of him. I love his chubby cheeks and the way he smells and his never ending rolls. He is the happiest baby I've ever seen. He will smile at anyone or anything and his laugh is infectious. We gave him his first hair cut a few weeks ago. His hair was falling out and he was left with some rockin' bangs so we buzzed it all off. He may actually have light hair....

Livi is equally obsessed with Jack. She is always kissing him and draping herself all over him. She is constantly saying, "I love Jack so much!" "I love kissing him!" "He is so adorable!" "His head is so soft!" She basically worships the ground he walks on. The other day she said he was her best friend and it made my heart melt. One of my favorite things is when we ask her what she's doing and she always replies, "anything" (instead of nothing.) Livi also loves talking to herself and her imaginary friends. She has such an incredible imagination, I love listening to her when she thinks I'm not paying attention. She celebrated her 3rd birthday on May 17. We had a few friends over for cake and ice cream and games.

We had Jack's baby blessing on May 1 (my 29th birthday as well). My Dad and Kathleen as well as Phil's parents, grandma and brother all came to celebrate. It was one of the best birthday's ever. The blessing was wonderful, Phil did a beautiful job. Jack looked adorable in his little blessing outfit, the same one that my little brother Roly was blessed in many years ago.

Phil graduated from UT Austin a few weeks ago with his MBA!!! He technically still has class until July but this semester is cake compared to the past two years. We went up to Austin for the ceremony and it was wonderful (but really long). When Phil walked in with all of the graduates I got quite emotional. I was so incredibly proud of him. His drive and determination to be the best he can be at everything constantly amazes me. He received the Dean's award for Leadership and Service...a HUGE honor. We had fun exploring Austin, but I must say I prefer Houston. I think if you drink and are really into clubs you will think Austin is heaven on earth.

Obviously there is so much more that I am leaving out, but these are a few of the highlights. I am determined to be better at recording our goings on. Especially since Livi and Jack change so much so often, I know that there are so many things I won't remember when they're older.

Jack

Jack is getting so chubby and I LOVE it! My little brother Tommy was easily the fattest kid I've ever seen and I'm really hoping that Jack follows in his footsteps. Jack weighed just shy of 10 lbs when he was a week and a half so I'm really curious to see how much he weighs now. He is 5 weeks old and is already wearing some 6 month clothes! His sleeping is still leaving me pooped, although he has gone for one four hour stretch the past couple nights, then it's every 2-3 hours after that. I keep telling myself to enjoy this time when he is so cute and cuddly and small, but I also am just really excited to sleep again.

Livi is slightly obsessed with him. She is always hugging and kissing him...usually to the point that makes him cry. She is such a big helper though. She loves to help me get him dressed and change him, always making sure I have a diaper and wipes handy. She holds his binki in his mouth if I have to shower or make dinner and Jack is awake. I put him in his bouncer and she sits by him and makes sure his binki doesn't fall out, other wise he would cry until he turns purple. That is seriously SO helpful.

On that note....I better go shower before Jack wakes up!!

Introducing....

Jonathan Abraham Arias!

Jack was born Saturday February 12th at 6:01 am. He weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds 4 oz and was 20.75 inches. Nobody expected him to be that big. I had a feeling he wasn't going to be small, but I wasn't expecting a 9 pounder!

Friday night Phil and I went to bed around 11 and shortly after that I had a really painful contraction, it hurt so much I was kind of taken aback. I wondered if it could actually be happening but I didn't have another contraction for over 20 minutes and it wasn't that strong so I decided not to get my hopes up. For the next hour and a half I was having contractions about 15-20 minutes apart, some were strong and some were not that great. I couldn't sleep so I went to watch TV and time the contractions. I was also feeling really nauseated. Around 3:00 they started coming every 7 minutes and they were getting pretty strong. I knew my dr wanted me to go in as soon as they became regular, but I didn't want to show up at the hospital too early so I decided to wait a little longer. At 3:30 I called the nurse because the contractions were really painful and were 6-7 minutes apart. As I was talking to her I got super nauseous and ran into the bathroom and puked in the sink. She said, "okay you are definitely in labor, I'm going to let you get in a car and get down to the hospital." Tell me something I don't know. At 3:45 I went and woke Phil up mid contraction and told him we needed to leave ASAP. We called our neighbor across the hall, who happened to be out at a birthday party but was really close so she was at our house about 5 minutes later. Livi had woken up at this point and kept saying she wanted to go with us. Luckily, she loves Dora our neighbor so when she showed up she was fine to let us leave. We got to the hospital about 4:30 and I was dilated about 6-7 cm. The contractions were SO painful, I seriously thought about an epidural, thank goodness Phil was there and he was so encouraging. Every time a contraction came he would rub my back and tell me to think about holding Jack and think about how wonderful it was going to be. That helped so much and made it a little easier to deal with the pain. To deal with the contractions I was sitting facing the back of a chair and Phil was rubbing my back. However, every time a contraction came the babies heart rate would drop so I had to change position. I got on the bed and layed on my side and would grab the rail and squeeze like mad when a contraction hit. Of course, Phil was right there rubbing my back and encouraging me. Within an hour I was dilated to a 9 and almost there! The Dr. came in and broke my water, and shortly after that I started to feel like I needed to push. I have no idea what time I started to push, I think it was around 5:40. After one especially productive push I felt the babies head come out part way. The Dr. was in the room but he was taking his time putting gloves on etc. when the nurse alerted him to the impending baby. He looked over and said, "oh wait!" and hurried to put on his gown and glasses and everything else all while telling me not to push. I knew he was right there and with one or two more pushes he would be out so it was so hard to just sit there. Sure enough within 2 pushes Jack was out and I immediately felt such relieve. There is no better feeling then having that baby out and not dealing with contractions anymore! The cord was wrapped around his neck twice, but thankfully he was fine. That is probably why his heart rate was dropping.

Before he was born the Dr. was saying he thought Jack would be about 8 pounds, but when he came out Dr Burkehead said, "that is NOT an 8 pound baby. I'll be a monkeys uncle if he is less than 9 pounds."

Because of his weight they checked his blood sugar and it measured fine. After they took him to the nursery one of the nurses noticed that he was shaking so she decided to check his sugar levels again and they had dropped below the "safe" range. They gave him some formula to see if they could get it back up but that didn't work so they had to keep him in the nursery and I wasn't allowed to hold him or feed him. Needless to say I had a very weepy afternoon. That night they transferred him to the NICU so they could give him an IV of a sugar solution. Thankfully I was allowed and encouraged to nurse him there. The next day his sugar was measuring great and they began to slowly lower the dose in an attempt to wean him off the solution. When I went in for a feeding in the afternoon his IV was leaking and his levels were looking good even after a reduced dose, so the pediatrician decided to turn off the IV and see how he does. He was able to keep his blood sugar up and that night was transferred back down to the general nursery! We got home on Valentines Day and I can't think of a better way to celebrate the day of love. Even though Phil was busy taking care of Livi and visiting me at the hospital he still stalked the freezer full of Toaster Strudels as a Valentine's surprise. He knows me well.

Jack is so adorable and soft and sweet smelling. He looks so much like my dad when he was a baby. He is also a big sleepy head. I have a hard time keeping him awake to eat. I had heard that you have to be quick while changing little boys' diapers, but I guess I wasn't quick enough. He peed on me and himself during a middle of the night feeding last night.

Livi is the BEST big sister ever. She loves to talk to him and when he gets fussy she tells him it's okay. She covers him with his blanket and tries to put his hat on. She loves kissing his cheeks and petting his head. She definitely wants to be involved in everything he does and it's obvious that she is as smitten with him as the rest of us.

39 Weeks

Jack: come out, come out wherever you are. Last Tuesday at my 38 week appointment I was dilated to a 3 (yay!) and 70% effaced (yay!). Yet here we are a week later and at my appointment today I was dilated to a 4 and 70% effaced. How is he still in there?! My Dr. said she would induce me on Thursday because she is leaving town on Friday, but I declined. I would rather not deal with possible complications from induction. I would definitely consider it if I was overdue, but not yet. Because I am dilated to a 4 she told me to go to the hospital as soon as I start having regular contractions because she doesn't want me walking around at a 5. Last Friday and Saturday night I was having some pretty strong contractions but they were very irregular and didn't last very long. Hopefully we can get some good contractions going! She stripped my membranes today to hopefully move things along (sorry TMI), so I guess we'll just wait and see!