7/27/09 - Camping Trip

We decided to take the girls on their first camping trip this weekend, with friends from church.  We chose Oxbow park, a large reserve only 15 minutes out of town.  Our friends Patti and Graham went down on Thursday afternoon to set aside a campsite for themselves and for us.  Thank goodness they went early!  By the time they finished pitching tents to reserve the sites, the campgrounds were already full!   

 

On Friday night we drove down as a family to stay our first night.  Being 8 months pregnant and already pretty uncomfortable, I wasn’t sure about staying the night, but Dave brought a twin mattress for me and I slept in my own tent, so it worked out pretty well.  Halfway through the first night Amanda started crying (as I expected) and Dave brought her to my tent to sleep with me, but other than that we all got a good night’s sleep.

 

Our friend Christopher and his 3 kids shared our campsite, so our site was over-run with smiling dirty faces and lots of laughter.  On Saturday I drove home to retrieve a few forgotten items and bring my friend Rocio (Christopher’s wife) down to spend the day.  (She’s due less than a week after me, but being pretty uncomfortable as well, opted to spend the night at home.)   

 

It was wonderful to relax and walk in the forest, hang out with good friends, and give the kids their first real camping experience.   They played on the nearby playground, splashed in the river, made smores, and squealed at the deer that would wander around our campsite.  All in all, it was a wonderful time! 

Amanda Turns 2!

I can hardly believe it, but my little Amanda is actually a two-year-old now!  Cards and presents have been arriving in the mail from family far away, and she’s always excited to rip open a new package that comes in the mail. 

 

Her birthday was on Friday night, our first night camping, so I brought cupcakes and party supplies down to our campsite (a couple gluten-free ones for her), sang happy birthday with all the kids around the picnic table, and let her blow out her candles.  It was an unusual but fun way to spend her 2^nd birthday. 

New Minivan

With our new baby due in less than 7 weeks, the idea of trying to cram three car seats in the back of my Taurus was a bit daunting.  Dave and I finally decided to sell his truck (the kids can’t ride in it) and replace it with a minivan.  So he listed his Ford Ranger on Craigslist and sold it within two days.   The same day, we bought a 1998 Toyota Sienna that a friend had found for us on Auto Trader.   The family had bought it brand new 10 years ago and their last son had just left for college, so they didn’t need it anymore.   It had 130K miles and was well maintained, with impeccable records kept (I only wish I was that thorough!).   They only asked $3500 and threw in all the accessories: studded snow tires, chains, bike rack, ski rack, etc.   What an awesome deal!   There are a few scratches and dings from when their teenagers were learning to drive it, and the interior was pretty gross, so Dave spent a day shampooing the carpets and cleaning it out, but other than that it’s a great vehicle.   It handles really well, and it’s such a relief for me to know that I’ll be able to load all the kids in from one side of the vehicle, instead of having to walk them around to both sides and have one climb into the middle. 

Getting Ready For Baby

At 33 weeks, I’m getting pretty big and uncomfortable now.  I can’t wear my jewelry anymore because it’s too tight, and my feet start to get swollen by midday.  I think the hot weather has a lot to do with that (especially this week, with a 100-degree heat wave – thank God for A/C!).   My hips and lower back bother me quite a bit, and I frequently have to sit down and rest, especially if I’m doing anything that requires bending over (which, with two kids, is pretty much everything).   My friend Rocio and I are planning to go together to get pedicures now that we’re both in our eight month, and I’m thinking of trying to get a pregnancy massage, too.  I have to be diligent to make sure I take my iron, or my energy level plummets and I end up exhausted and falling asleep halfway through the day. 

Eva and Amanda are getting really excited at the prospect of having a new baby in the house.   When I wake up in the morning, more often than not they’re greeting the baby instead of me: “Good morning, baby!” they’ll chirp as they pat my belly and give it a kiss.  I checked out a couple of kids’ books from the library about “the new baby at our house” and the like.  Both the girls really enjoyed flipping through them, and Eva likes to pretend to “read” them to Amanda by reciting as much as she can from memory.  

 

Eva is always asking questions, like “Is the baby sleeping?  Does the baby have hands?”  And then there was the one I wasn’t expecting, “Mommy, where’s the door where the baby comes out?”  Hmm…how far do you want to go with a 4-year-old?  I decided to show her a picture in “Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth” where the baby is half delivered and the mommy is smiling.   She looked at the picture and said, “Look, there’s the baby!”  and then patted my tummy.  “I saw your picture, baby!”   That seemed to satisfy her. 

 

She and Amanda will both be present for the birth, but more likely than not they’ll be in another room watching TV or something.  We plan on having the birth tub in our bedroom at the end of the hall, and our friend Katya has offered to come watch the girls (or take them to her house, if things get too intense for them).  My mom will be driving up once labor begins, but she’s 5 hours away, and considering the fact that Amanda was born within 6 hours, there’s a chance she won’t get here in time for the birth.  We bought each of the girls a new baby doll that we will give them after the baby is born, so they’ll each have their own “baby” to take care of just like mommy does. 

Big Girls

The girls are growing up so fast, it’s hard to believe.  Eva can write many of her letters and has been drawing pictures of our family in pretty good detail (you can always recognize her as the one with the glasses).     Amanda is used to sleeping in her own bed now, but she still tends to wake up occasionally and wants to climb in bed with us.  She comes fully prepared, too, hauling her sippy cup and stuffed doggy along.  She’ll hand them both to me first, and then put out her little arms for me to pick her up next.   It’s so cute how she has everything so carefully arranged. 

 

She and Amanda both know how to work the DVD player, and sometimes fight over who gets to hit the “play” button.   Eva is very particular about certain things, and tries to make Amanda go along with her.   For instance, Eva has somehow decided that Daddy is hers and Mommy is Amanda’s.   So that means Daddy and Eva are “buddies” and Mommy and Amanda are “sweethearts”.   Daddy and Eva look “cool”, and Mommy and Amanda look “pretty”.   She’ll tell Amanda, “You like Mommy, and I like Daddy”, and when Amanda insists, “I like Daddy!”, Eva will start to argue with her.  “No, you like MOMMY!”  It’s the stupidest thing to argue about, but she gets really adamant about it sometimes.  What they’re going to do when there is a third child to share Mommy and Daddy with, who knows? 

Amanda's First Haircut

My baby is growing up!

Amanda's 9th Month

7/11/09 - Amanda's First Haircut

We finally took Amanda in for her first haircut today!  For weeks her hair has been getting in her eyes and I’ve been tempted to trim it, but I wanted to make sure it was a special event.   Daddy and Eva needed a trim, too, so we all went to the local Great Clips together.  I was a bit concerned that Amanda would balk at the chair after her dentist experience, but she handled it great and seemed fascinated by it all.   She especially loved the balloon they gave her at the end. 

7/7/09 - Amanda's Dental Work

Yesterday we got a call from the dentist, telling us they had an opening for Amanda's double root canal this morning.   No food or water after midnight. Sedation at 8am, procedure at 9am, hopefully home by 10am.  We decided to go ahead with it.  She's not yet two, and her permanent teeth won't be arriving for at least another 3 years.  At the rate the cavities have been growing in her two front teeth, she'd be in severe pain in less than a couple months. They couldn't pull them because the surrounding teeth would move into the empty space where her permanent teeth would need to eventually come in.

 

It was a rough morning, but we survived.  Amanda woke only 10 minutes before we left, so thankfully she wasn't sitting around wanting breakfast.  They gave her an oral sedative in the waiting room as soon after we arrived, and within 10 minutes she started staggering and rubbing her eyes.  She didn't like the dizzy feeling and would fight us as we tried to hold her, but she couldn't keep her balance.  Dave and I kept passing her back and forth, trying to soothe her. 

 

After 1/2 an hour they took Amanda in for X-rays, sitting on Dave's lap.  Afterwards they took us to the procedure room and waited another 20 minutes for the sedative to take full effect, as Amanda fell asleep on Dave's shoulder and we all prayed for her.  She woke up and started crying when they laid her in the chair and wrapped her in the "papoose wrap" to keep her from flailing off the table.  At that point we took Eva back out to the waiting room to have a snack and watch Sesame Street. 

 

I was allowed to keep going to the back and checking on her through the window, but it was really tough to watch.  They were giving her Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas) and numbed her with novocaine, but she was still halfway conscious and screaming most of the time.  The nurse found me crying in the hallway and told me she couldn't feel anything and most likely wouldn't remember anything either - that they only cried because they didn't like the disorienting feeling of the medicine, and the fact that Amanda was crying showed that she was actually doing well, but it wasn't reassuring.  I had really hoped she would sleep through the whole thing, but I guess that's just too dangerous unless she were in a hospital under general anesthesia. 

 

They were done within 1/2 an hour, and I heard the dentist reassuring Amanda and Amanda asking, "All done? Get up now?" Poor kid!  They let her pick out a toy, but I'm not sure she even knew what it was.  She kept clinging to me and asking for her sippy cup and snack, so we took her out to the car and got her home as soon as we could.  We fed her a little chocolate pudding (soft and lukewarm) and let her fall asleep on Dave's shoulder.  They told us not to let her sleep on her back until the sedative wore off. 

 

I had to leave an hour later for my own dental appointment, but when I got back she was playing and talking normally, as if nothing had happened.  She's been a little more tired and cranky than usual, but that's to be expected.  I'm glad this is over and we won't ever have to deal with this again.  Thanks to her gluten-free diet, all her other teeth have been coming in normally, with enamel intact.   

From now on she won’t be allowed to eat anything too chewy or sticky, like caramel, taffy or Tootsie Rolls.  She's got silver caps now on these two front teeth, which I didn't originally want, but they told me they last a lot longer and chip far less easily than the white, porcelain ones.  I'd much rather deal with a little cosmetic imperfection than to ever have her go back through anything like this again. 

Eva Reading to Amanda June 2009

Girls Play Baseball June 2009

Backyard fun!

Fourth of July

If You're Happy & You Know It...

My little song bird! :)

New Teeter Totter

Eva and Amanda trying out their new toy! Thanks, Aunt Nanci! :)