Nothing is more fun than going a bit overboard for our biggest GIANT fan on his birthday (Feb.22)
{props to my husband for tolerating the great homemade food ... and ALL the decorations!}
Showing posts with label Birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birthday. Show all posts
March 1, 2012
Look who is 2
It is a littler surreal. It was amazing to think just a year ago we were on a train to the south of France to celebrate her turning 1. Faith talked non-stop about how Isabelle put her foot in her first birthday cake and 'hopefully she won't do that again!"
The morning began with a very over the top decorated birthday chair {think lots of leftover random decorations attached to 'her' at the table} and what was the 1 thing she was MOST excited about on her birthday...
FAITH's VITAMIN!
{She finally got to have {half} a Flinstone/Faith Vitamin}
'
"Sit like this Faith"
"Eat your pizza, then you can have your juice"
"Wash your hands now Faith"
And Faith was played along wonderfully. Blessed.
After class it was off to the doctor. Her trip to visit Dr. G was outstanding. She was totally relaxed and couldn't wait to show him how tall she was. We had talked about the fact she would be getting a shot and she kept telling me : "One shot and then we are done. Okay mom?"
yes, my love, okay
So when Dr.G walked in their conversation went something like this :
Dr G :
Hello Miss Isabelle. Look how big you are getting.
Isabelle :
One shot and then we are done, okay?
Dr G :
What was that?
Isabelle :
One shot and then we are done.
Dr. G :
What did you say Isabelle?
Me{thinking he couldn't hear her}:
She said, 'One shot and then we are done."
Dr. G :
Ya, I heard her. I guess her verbal skills are just fine.
Yup yup. I will never be anything less than GRATEFUL for my verbal children. Faith was an early/active talker and Isabelle is even more so. And it is wonderful. I truly appreciate the gift of communication. It is amazing to talk, but more importantly to listen to the precious, well-thought, well-planned, perfectly irrational rationalizations, and negotiations my girls tell me. "use your words" is a phrase OFTEN stated in our household.
So anyway here are her 2 year stats :
Weight :
32lb 4 oz
95%
Height:
36.8 in >100%
Head Circumference {I know you were just so anxious for this one!}
19.5 in 97%
Doctors Notes:
"Super Tall"
"Very Verbal"
"Smart"
All week was a celebration of Isabelle. Faith also was learning a bit about 'letting someone else have the limelight.' It was all a little new for her, watching her sister get all the attention and she only getting a little. But we aren't into the 'poor sibling, your other sibling is getting attention' thing, so we did what we do... we talked to her about it, listened to how she was feeling, and together came up with how to best adjust and celebrate Isabelle. And guess what... Faith was fine and if anything great. Of course, there were a few gifts directed just for her so I am sure that helped.
Saturday we celebrated Isabelle with a PASTA BAR at our house, with our families. It was the first time I put in both extensions in our table to accomodate all 12 of us {14 including the twins}. We had a wonderful antipasta platter via my mom, 2 types of pasta, homemade sauce and meatballs {go Mom & Rao's too}, sausage, peppers and onions, and primavera... and some salted ciabatta bread from Whole Foods {our new addiction}, olive oil for dipping {Isabelles fave}, salad and of course, a homemade cake. Nothing too fancy, just lots of Isabelle favorites. She isn't a big cake person, more of an icing person, but she is in love with her pasta. It was nice, relaxing and perfect to celebrate her turning 2.
Now, a moment for me to be super cheesy:
Dear Isabelle, You are my sunshine. My light, my joy. There is nothing you can't do that won't make me smile. You may make me scared for a moment, or laugh, but no matter what, in the end, you have made me smile. You are our adventurer, our explorer. You push the limits, go right to the edge, you even hang out on the ledge, dangle there a bit, smile at us then come skipping back and say :
"i just joking. its okay."
We love you. We ALL love you. So many people were concerned you would 'get lost' when the twins were born. We were never concerned. Those people don't know you, don't know OUR Isabelle. There is no way you will ever be in anyone's shadow.
You make your own sunshine and it pours out over all of us.
You have the best big sister. She takes care of you, and you let her. You love her, hug her, kiss her and you terrorize her. You play your role as little sister perfectly and together, your bond is growing so strong. We love watching the two of you play, negotiate and argue. My favorite went something like this:
I: Im a princess. You are shrek
F: Im not shrek! Im a princess too. We can all be princesses.
I: No. Im a princess you are Shrek.
F: {clearly upset} Isabelle thats not nice. Im a princess too. Mom tell her we can all be princesses.
I: {without a pause} You a boy. Im a girl.
F: Isabelle, Im not a boy! Im a girl too.
I: No Im a girl. You a boy
F: Isabelle Im not a boy, look at my fancy shoes. These aren't boys shoes!
I: oh. okay I forgot.
My girls amaze me, and you Isabelle, You are my sunshine and I am going to keep you forever... okay?
February 10, 2012
coming soon
Isabelle turns 2
this exciting post will address the following:
the 1 thing she was most excited about
the gift from her God-Mommy that made ALL of us smile
her awesome visit to Dr.G
her super cool School Party
and finally
our family Pasta Bar Party - in honor of her LOVE of PASTA {and olives, and "ollie oil", and mozerella, and "vin-grr",and all things Italian - did I mention she was a Rome baby? }
exciting stuff!
this exciting post will address the following:
the 1 thing she was most excited about
the gift from her God-Mommy that made ALL of us smile
her awesome visit to Dr.G
her super cool School Party
and finally
our family Pasta Bar Party - in honor of her LOVE of PASTA {and olives, and "ollie oil", and mozerella, and "vin-grr",and all things Italian - did I mention she was a Rome baby? }
exciting stuff!
November 8, 2011
Taking it back to September {the birth story}
disclaimer : at some point i will probably reveal too much information regarding the birth of the twins {come on, they are baby 3&4, nothing is too personal anymore} so if you don't want to know, don't read
Wednesday, September 7th was a normal day. Faith went to school and Isabelle went to Gymboree. Then it was off to my usual ob/gyn appointment, at week 29. Two weeks prior everything was perfect. In fact, Dr. JPR had joked I had the "super cervix" and at the rate I was going, he wouldn't be suriprised to see me carry to 38 weeks. Well, things changed. I had no signs or symptoms of anything at all. Fortunatly, they require ultrasounds pretty routinely so we were able to see the nice 'funneling' my cervix was doing. It wasn't open but it had changed...drastically. Was this normal? Could be. Basically it was one of two things 1: I was in the early stages of labor or 2: it was simply a mechanical change in my body since I was carrying twins. Dr. JPR, knowing I did have a history of fast labor, was not about to chance it. He sent me straight upstairs into Labor & Delivery to see if I was having contractions. Again, I had no signs of symptoms of anything.
Once we got there, I was having contractions, nothing painful or uncomfortable or routine or worrisome, and nothing unusual for carrying multiples. The problem was this change in my cervix. The plan: slow the contractions down to prevent further changes in my cervix that would lead to labor, and pump me full of magnesium and steroids for 48 hours for the babies. This was down in case I was to deliver in the next week or so. The magnesium and steroids would help improve the lung function and reduce the risk of brain bleeds.
It was basically a whirl wind of information flying at me, visits from the NICU specialist with all the risks and concerns if the twins were to be bore before 30 weeks, doctors telling me I officially admitted for bed rest and not to expect to go home, me asking if I should call my husband and tell him to leave London, fly back to Paris, pack up and head home ASAP, and did I mention I was being pumped with drugs that made me nauseous, loopy and more. I know at some point I told my mom what I needed from home, called David and told him the news then it was a blur for a good 48 hours. And yes, that later 24 was my 29th birthday. The only good things: I was admitted on the 7th so my hospital band said I was 28. =)
Hospitalized bed rest was better than it could have been. I still had "bathroom privileges" which meant I was allowed to get up and go to the bathroom and take a shower. Woo hoo. They monitored me 2-3 times a day {and by 'me' I mean the twins}. Baby B was super active, kicking the monitor around and off and causing all sorts of trouble so the nurses often left me for last since they would have to sit in the room and hold the monitors in place. The entire time the twins looked great. They had strong hearts and were 'big' for their gestational age. I was not progressing {good thing} and the goal was to stay stable until at least 32 weeks... September 28th. From the looks of it, there was no reason to believe otherwise.
I have to take a moment and thank my husband and my parents for all the amazing, outstanding, above and beyond work the did to keep Faith & Isabelle on a normal schedule. This entire ordeal came out of no where and you would expect the kids to have some reaction. But they didn't skip a beat. They kept on their schedule, had fun and never complained. I have to give my husband and my parents the credit for communicating and working together to do what was best for the kiddos, for keeping them happy and a special thanks to David for pulling a 'Mr.Mom' while going out of his way to be the perfect husband.
I was powerless, literally not able to do a thing, and I never felt concerned or worried for a moment because every time I saw my girls they were happy, bubbly, and full of love and laughter. Yes, it was hard for me, of course it would be, but our girls were AMAZING. I think it was more frustrating to hear people make comments to us regarding "how good" the situation was for the kids so they could "adjust to not being around you" and someone even made this comment "this is probably a good thing for two control freaks like you" Nothing about the situation was 'good' rather, it could have been worse and in no way did our kids "need this." We were all making the very best of it but wanted nothing more than to be together as a family. I believe those were the most hurtful things I heard during my 10 days on bed rest. We were all doing great, missing being together as a family, but really doing wonderfully. I was extremely grateful for the friends and family who reached out with positive support and encouragement during those days.
I like to think I was maintaining a pretty decent attitude of gratitude. Thanking the Lord each day for those extra 24 hours. I wanted nothing more than to keep the twins inside until 32 weeks. But for some reason, the night of the 19th things changed. I had a 'normal' day, I didn't get near as much rest as previous days so when I started 'feeling' contractions around 6:30 I figured it was because I didn't rest as much. {rest? on bed rest? - yes, by rest I mean laying down 'vegging' out, the upright position was 'highly discouraged' and i had spent an exceptional amount of that particular day sitting instead of laying}
I remember paging the nurse {right in the middle of shift change } asking her to come because I had a question. During shift change this usually was met with a "the girls are changing shifts, someone can be in there as soon as possible". Well I paged again a bit later, and she came. I told her I was feeling them more, my bladder was empty and yes I was hydrating {the answers to the first two things I knew she would ask}. She put me on the monitor and called Dr. JPR. He said to keep me hydrated and emptying my bladder. So I did. The nurse even labeled my 3 water jugs so I could feel like I was accomplishing something as I chugged them in 30 minutes. I knew the contractions weren't going to get better when the pressure started coming and it was more and more uncomfortable for me to get up to empty my bladder and I had to really breathe through them. I texted David as soon as I processed it because in my gut, things were not turning around from this point.
I maintain the most difficult part of this process was trying to actually resist labor. With Faith & Isabelle, once labor started it was all about relaxing, letting gravity work and allowing my body to do what it was made to do. This time, it was lay on your side {against gravity} breathe through, and mentally try to halt labor. Once David got there, I was basically telling the nurse I needed to get to Labor & Delivery because they were coming strong and the pressure was building.
They kept telling me to wait... Dr, JPR was on his way... 20 minutes.
They rolled me down, telling me to stay on my side, wait for Dr. JPR, breath, and basically, cross my legs.
{warning - labor details coming}
Once in L&D, there were a million and one questions, IV's {hep lock, since they didn't know if I was having a c-section yet or not}, more questions, phone calls to the NICU and OR to get everyone ready, and more pages to Dr. JPR. Apparently I was at a 10 with baby A's head 'right there'. Yet... no pushing allowed...at...all. Literally all of my natural instincts had to be fought. It was terrible and horribly uncomfortable, laying down on my side when I knew, I just knew I needed to push.
Then Dr.JPR comes in, with the ultrasound and they rapidly determine Baby B was breech or 'caddywompus' as was later described. Then it was a mad dash to get me in the OR. Things went so fast I didn't have to take off my shirt or my jewelry or my contacts.... all things everyone else did. So I basically had a very fashionable c-section...haha.
Once in the OR, contractions were happening so fast, three of them came back to back when they were putting in the epidural... fun. Once the epidural kicked in I admitted, to everyone in the room "oh, now I know why moms get this" you literally lose all sense of feeling, which at that point was nice, but wow, how are you supposed to labor without sensation... anyway. I must have asked the doctor a million times if I was really going to be numb and if the pain meds would work because the dentist has to use extra meds on me and I get really nauseous on pain meds, and at some point they were telling David Baby A was getting ready to arrive....
and it was a girl. Screaming, crying, loud baby girl! Girl #3 ... Madeleine Trinity.
so who was next? I remember looking at David thinking, okay, 4 girls, okay, we can do this.
then he arrived. screaming, crying, loud baby boy! ... Luke Ambrose.
Healthy, beautiful twins.
Delivered at 30 weeks 5 days
Weighing in at 3 lb. 10.4 oz and 3 lb 9.1 oz
Amen.
David went with them to the NICU while they got me all together, took me down to see the precious twins in the NICU and up to my room. It wasn't until a few hours later, when things started wearing off did I realize how much i detest c-sections. I was used to being up and at'em post delivery and this was a whole knew game.
but praise be to GOD the twins were here, healthy and breathing on their own, just tiny. We didn't know what the road ahead of us looked like, where it would take us, or how things would end up, but we celebrated their birth with complete joy and amazement at His gift.
Wednesday, September 7th was a normal day. Faith went to school and Isabelle went to Gymboree. Then it was off to my usual ob/gyn appointment, at week 29. Two weeks prior everything was perfect. In fact, Dr. JPR had joked I had the "super cervix" and at the rate I was going, he wouldn't be suriprised to see me carry to 38 weeks. Well, things changed. I had no signs or symptoms of anything at all. Fortunatly, they require ultrasounds pretty routinely so we were able to see the nice 'funneling' my cervix was doing. It wasn't open but it had changed...drastically. Was this normal? Could be. Basically it was one of two things 1: I was in the early stages of labor or 2: it was simply a mechanical change in my body since I was carrying twins. Dr. JPR, knowing I did have a history of fast labor, was not about to chance it. He sent me straight upstairs into Labor & Delivery to see if I was having contractions. Again, I had no signs of symptoms of anything.
Once we got there, I was having contractions, nothing painful or uncomfortable or routine or worrisome, and nothing unusual for carrying multiples. The problem was this change in my cervix. The plan: slow the contractions down to prevent further changes in my cervix that would lead to labor, and pump me full of magnesium and steroids for 48 hours for the babies. This was down in case I was to deliver in the next week or so. The magnesium and steroids would help improve the lung function and reduce the risk of brain bleeds.
It was basically a whirl wind of information flying at me, visits from the NICU specialist with all the risks and concerns if the twins were to be bore before 30 weeks, doctors telling me I officially admitted for bed rest and not to expect to go home, me asking if I should call my husband and tell him to leave London, fly back to Paris, pack up and head home ASAP, and did I mention I was being pumped with drugs that made me nauseous, loopy and more. I know at some point I told my mom what I needed from home, called David and told him the news then it was a blur for a good 48 hours. And yes, that later 24 was my 29th birthday. The only good things: I was admitted on the 7th so my hospital band said I was 28. =)
Hospitalized bed rest was better than it could have been. I still had "bathroom privileges" which meant I was allowed to get up and go to the bathroom and take a shower. Woo hoo. They monitored me 2-3 times a day {and by 'me' I mean the twins}. Baby B was super active, kicking the monitor around and off and causing all sorts of trouble so the nurses often left me for last since they would have to sit in the room and hold the monitors in place. The entire time the twins looked great. They had strong hearts and were 'big' for their gestational age. I was not progressing {good thing} and the goal was to stay stable until at least 32 weeks... September 28th. From the looks of it, there was no reason to believe otherwise.
I have to take a moment and thank my husband and my parents for all the amazing, outstanding, above and beyond work the did to keep Faith & Isabelle on a normal schedule. This entire ordeal came out of no where and you would expect the kids to have some reaction. But they didn't skip a beat. They kept on their schedule, had fun and never complained. I have to give my husband and my parents the credit for communicating and working together to do what was best for the kiddos, for keeping them happy and a special thanks to David for pulling a 'Mr.Mom' while going out of his way to be the perfect husband.
I was powerless, literally not able to do a thing, and I never felt concerned or worried for a moment because every time I saw my girls they were happy, bubbly, and full of love and laughter. Yes, it was hard for me, of course it would be, but our girls were AMAZING. I think it was more frustrating to hear people make comments to us regarding "how good" the situation was for the kids so they could "adjust to not being around you" and someone even made this comment "this is probably a good thing for two control freaks like you" Nothing about the situation was 'good' rather, it could have been worse and in no way did our kids "need this." We were all making the very best of it but wanted nothing more than to be together as a family. I believe those were the most hurtful things I heard during my 10 days on bed rest. We were all doing great, missing being together as a family, but really doing wonderfully. I was extremely grateful for the friends and family who reached out with positive support and encouragement during those days.
I like to think I was maintaining a pretty decent attitude of gratitude. Thanking the Lord each day for those extra 24 hours. I wanted nothing more than to keep the twins inside until 32 weeks. But for some reason, the night of the 19th things changed. I had a 'normal' day, I didn't get near as much rest as previous days so when I started 'feeling' contractions around 6:30 I figured it was because I didn't rest as much. {rest? on bed rest? - yes, by rest I mean laying down 'vegging' out, the upright position was 'highly discouraged' and i had spent an exceptional amount of that particular day sitting instead of laying}
I remember paging the nurse {right in the middle of shift change } asking her to come because I had a question. During shift change this usually was met with a "the girls are changing shifts, someone can be in there as soon as possible". Well I paged again a bit later, and she came. I told her I was feeling them more, my bladder was empty and yes I was hydrating {the answers to the first two things I knew she would ask}. She put me on the monitor and called Dr. JPR. He said to keep me hydrated and emptying my bladder. So I did. The nurse even labeled my 3 water jugs so I could feel like I was accomplishing something as I chugged them in 30 minutes. I knew the contractions weren't going to get better when the pressure started coming and it was more and more uncomfortable for me to get up to empty my bladder and I had to really breathe through them. I texted David as soon as I processed it because in my gut, things were not turning around from this point.
I maintain the most difficult part of this process was trying to actually resist labor. With Faith & Isabelle, once labor started it was all about relaxing, letting gravity work and allowing my body to do what it was made to do. This time, it was lay on your side {against gravity} breathe through, and mentally try to halt labor. Once David got there, I was basically telling the nurse I needed to get to Labor & Delivery because they were coming strong and the pressure was building.
They kept telling me to wait... Dr, JPR was on his way... 20 minutes.
They rolled me down, telling me to stay on my side, wait for Dr. JPR, breath, and basically, cross my legs.
{warning - labor details coming}
Once in L&D, there were a million and one questions, IV's {hep lock, since they didn't know if I was having a c-section yet or not}, more questions, phone calls to the NICU and OR to get everyone ready, and more pages to Dr. JPR. Apparently I was at a 10 with baby A's head 'right there'. Yet... no pushing allowed...at...all. Literally all of my natural instincts had to be fought. It was terrible and horribly uncomfortable, laying down on my side when I knew, I just knew I needed to push.
Then Dr.JPR comes in, with the ultrasound and they rapidly determine Baby B was breech or 'caddywompus' as was later described. Then it was a mad dash to get me in the OR. Things went so fast I didn't have to take off my shirt or my jewelry or my contacts.... all things everyone else did. So I basically had a very fashionable c-section...haha.
Once in the OR, contractions were happening so fast, three of them came back to back when they were putting in the epidural... fun. Once the epidural kicked in I admitted, to everyone in the room "oh, now I know why moms get this" you literally lose all sense of feeling, which at that point was nice, but wow, how are you supposed to labor without sensation... anyway. I must have asked the doctor a million times if I was really going to be numb and if the pain meds would work because the dentist has to use extra meds on me and I get really nauseous on pain meds, and at some point they were telling David Baby A was getting ready to arrive....
and it was a girl. Screaming, crying, loud baby girl! Girl #3 ... Madeleine Trinity.
so who was next? I remember looking at David thinking, okay, 4 girls, okay, we can do this.
then he arrived. screaming, crying, loud baby boy! ... Luke Ambrose.
Healthy, beautiful twins.
Delivered at 30 weeks 5 days
Weighing in at 3 lb. 10.4 oz and 3 lb 9.1 oz
Amen.
David went with them to the NICU while they got me all together, took me down to see the precious twins in the NICU and up to my room. It wasn't until a few hours later, when things started wearing off did I realize how much i detest c-sections. I was used to being up and at'em post delivery and this was a whole knew game.
but praise be to GOD the twins were here, healthy and breathing on their own, just tiny. We didn't know what the road ahead of us looked like, where it would take us, or how things would end up, but we celebrated their birth with complete joy and amazement at His gift.
September 20, 2010
September : Mommy's BIrthday & Grandparents Day
All I wanted for my birthday was a cake made by Daddy & Faith. What kind, what flavor what icing, what was on it, how it was made... all left up to them. Well I woke one Saturday morning to the yummy smell of chocolate backing in my house... seriously, amazing.
Faith and David made the greatest 2 layer chocolate cake with chocolate icing and a sprinkle filling (very festive). Sure, I may be partial because it was made with lots of love by them, but David really did an outstanding job. It was perfectly moist and the icing wasn't too sweet, a yummy balance of chocolate richness without that...woah, too much sweet, taste. I was so proud of them and Faith apparently was a huge helper. David chopped up real chocolate and made it all from scratch, no cake mix or canned icing involved. THANK YOU to my TWO favorite bakers. And of course, thank you David for a wonderful spa day at the Crescent... oh how those re-charge my entire life. :) OF course, lunch at Ferrings wasn't too shabby either. :)
Grandparents Day
Faith celebrated Grandparents Day at her school, complete with a full chorus performance of:
The Pledge of Allegiance
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Spoonful of Sugar
Doe a Deer
My Favorite Things
and more...
June 22, 2010
Weekend Updates
Friday we had a BCG family event....
Toy Story 3 @ Studio Movie Grill....
O.M.G
:)
Considering Faith is a huge Toy Story fan... plus her latest & greatest addition of the talking Jessie doll & Jessie accessories (thanks Fancy Nancy), we were all set. Faith dressed 'just like Jessie' all the way down to her skinny jeans & boots/Uggs. I tried to put sandals on her & this is what happened...
"mommy, how bout boots?"
"you don't have boots baby girl"
"how 'bout my Uggs? remember those how 'bout those, like Jessie"
"you're right, we have Uggs, I'll go get them"
then it was Fancy Faith Part III on Saturday which included pool time/fun, showing off her mad swim skills, then home for Uncle Chris famous burgers, presents & birthday cake she had her very own active particiaption in making/decorating
and Sunday was Father's Day, and of course, that meant lots of loving on D.A.D.D.Y
June 16, 2010
Fancy Faith...Part II HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Happy Birthday to our precious baby girl.
June 17th, 2007
8 pounds 15 ounces
3:13 pm
Three amazing years ago you came, right on time… since then we have watched you grow from a bundle of joy, to a toddling toddler, to a precious little girl, our tiny dancer, our sunshine, our joy. In the last year, you have done so many things, began so many journeys for the first time, challenged yourself, amazed us, and brought light to all those around you.
swimming dancing ballet tap tutus
bows big girl bed sandcastles haircuts baking
big girl panties big sister school musicals letters
numbers dolls big girl toothpaste football games
pedicures princess parities best friends
Happy Birthday Faith
We Love You
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