Tuesday, September 27, 2011

It was a First Even for the Dr.

So yesterday while I was out for my run, apparently Parker decided to be adventurous & crawl under my in-law's car. Unfortunately they had only recently driven it and it was still hot. So she's got some fairly serious burns on her upper back & shoulder blades. It's not too terrible but she is sore and therefore cranky and fussy. I only took her into the doctor because my mother-in-law was almost inconsolable over it and she insisted. But I suppose it was a good thing. He prescribed some special antibiotic burn ointment which seems to be helping. He said it was the first time he'd ever seen burns on a baby from crawling under a car. Great. Now I have a weird child.




Hopefully now she'll know to stay out from under the car.

Friday, September 23, 2011

A visit to our newest cousin

On Monday I took Gideon to the hospital for a visit with his new baby cousin. He was so excited to get to hold her! He kept calling her "My new cousin friend." and "Baby Tyree my cousin."


He was so cute, he kept saying "Baby Cousin Tyree lay down with me. Me hold her."
On Wednesday I took both kids up to Jesse & Kelly's house to visit and see their newest cousin.
They were both so excited. Parker seemed especially fascinated by this little kid who was smaller than her.


We got there just as she was waking up to eat so she was a little fussy at first.


But Gideon was cute, he said, "Mommy me pat her tummy, maker her feel better."




This isn't quite the muppet face, but it's close. She's still adorable when she's mad!


I'd never have believed that Jesse's baby would have so much hair!


My kids just thought they were the biggest helpers! Sooooo cute!


Parker was perhaps just a little bit too helpful! But that's okay, at least she loves her cousin. She just kept wanting to pat her little head.

So in an unrelated note, my mom brought Gideon some alligator tatoos from Louisiana and he found them yesterday and decided he needed to wear ALL of them at once. He was quite proud of himself.


And this is also unrelated, this is my birthday present from Cami. She made a canvas of some of my greatest hits in running. I LOVE IT! I think it turned out really great and I've already hung it by my calendar so I see it all the time. It's my mantra (with a perfect little twist of course) so just looking at it motivates me. Anyway, thank you Cami & I love it so much!


Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Birthday Girls!

Even though we had the party on Saturday, I still felt that we needed to at least acknowledge Parker's 1st birthday on the actual day, so for breakfast she got a cupcake with a candle!









Now before you judge me for feeding my baby a cupcake for breakfast consider 2 things:


First, how is a cupcake any worse for you than doughnuts or danish or cinnamon rolls?



Secondly, she didn't even eat it. She took a big bite of icing, promptly spit it out and proceeded to pulverize the cupcake.




At which point, I cleaned up the cupcake and gave her some peaches which she did eat.


The birthday itself was pretty low key. With Trav out of town and me having to babysit I knew it wasn't going to be a super exciting day anyway. But it was fun when Crista (the mom of the boys I tend) brought me a box of cupcakes. They are as yummy as they look!!!!!!


That evening my in-laws took us out to dinner with my mom. It was very good but we decided that the next time we decide to have a fancy dinner out, we're definitely getting a sitter. And yes, it was my birthday too (as I'm sure you all know.) Sorry I had to take the photo myself, but it was the best I could do. I do think that my mom got a good photo of Parker and I together so hopefully I can get a copy of that one.


Monday, September 19, 2011

How Does it Feel?

You know every year on my birthday at least one person asks me "So how does it feel?" I'm never really sure how to answer that question since frankly I've felt exactly the same since I was about 23. I mean sure, I hope that with age I've gained a little bit of maturity and patience and wisdom, but as far as personality and all that goes, I've not felt any difference at all for more than a decade now.

The truth is though, this year with my birthday approaching, I do feel a little different. Not as far as personality or anything like that. I'm still the same high strung, slightly hyper, overly motivated, borderline OCD girl I've always been. The real difference is the fact that tomorrow is not just another birthday for me, but it's my baby girl's birthday as well. Her first birthday. I don't know why it makes me sad that she's growing up. I love that she's walking and saying words and doing cute things now. But still it's sad because I know I'll never have another baby again.

I've always known that I wanted two children. I feel so blessed to have been given the most perfect son and daughter in the world. I really couldn't ask for anything more. Ever since Parker came home with us a year ago we've felt very complete as a family. We're not going to apply for another adoption. There are a variety of reasons, but mostly because we do feel like this is the family Heavenly Father meant for us to have. I don't pretend to know the future or to have any idea what the Lord has in store for us. But I do feel very strongly that we won't have any more babies. (No, I'm not shutting down the possibility that there may be other miracles but for now, we feel like this is it.) For that reason as Parker outgrows the baby stuff I've been donating it or giving it away. It makes me feel good to get rid of all of it and at the same time it adds to the sadness about my baby growing up.

Maybe it's just because I've had two sisters give birth in the last 3 days and two more still expecting. But it's suddenly hitting me all the things I've missed out on. I can reconcile that pretty easily, I may not have carried or delivered my children myself, but I had the opportunity to participate in their adoptions which is something so special that so few people get to experience firsthand. So even though I'll never get to have those experiences, I don't really mind. But it's a little harder to deal with the idea that I won't get to raise any more babies. I know my kids are still young but they're not babies anymore. I officially have a preschooler & a toddler. Between the teething and the potty training some days I wish we were past this stage of life already, but the truth is I know when they head off to school and don't need me as much anymore, I'll pine for the simpler days we're living right now.

And I guess that when the desire to rock a baby becomes too overwhelming, at least now I have a brand new niece just a few minutes away!


The birthday girls! Hard to believe it's been a year already!

Baker's Dozen

What a weekend it's been! In the space of less than 47 hours I went from having four sisters pregnant, to just two. (And in the middle of that had a birthday party for my own baby. See previous post for those details.)

Back in like February or March when Cami & Jesse announced that they were both expecting we started joking about the race being on. Their official due dates were a mere 8 days apart, with Jesse due September 7 & Cami on the 15th. The last few weeks have been really fun as we've waited excitedly for my parents' 12th & 13th grandbabies to arrive.

When Jesse's due date came and went with no sign of progress it was a little disappointing. But we knew that her baby could come at any moment, so we waited (somewhat patiently.) Still last Tuesday when she went to the doctor, already six days past her date, I think we were all hoping he'd do something about it. He did. He told her that if nothing was happening by Saturday that they take her in that evening and get her started, so one way or another she'd have a baby on Sunday. I can't speak for anyone else, but I know that I for one was really hoping and praying that baby would just decide to come on her own before then. Saturday seemed like a long time away at that point.

On the other hand, it was kind of surprising that Cami even made it to her due date. She'd been progressing slowly for two weeks and having slight contractions and pains. And since this was her 3rd child, I had a sneaking suspicion it would happen fast for her.

It's funny because on Friday morning I talked to Cami twice. She told me she was having pretty substantial contractions, but that they were still pretty far apart so she wasn't going to head to the hospital for a while. I spoke with her at just after 3pm her time and they had just dropped off their kids and were headed to the hospital but she cautioned me not to tell the family just yet because she was pretty sure they would end up sending her home. The contractions were big, but they were a good 10 minutes apart. Interestingly that conversation ended with her gasping, "I'll call you later...having one now...." About an hour later I got a txt message saying they were keeping her and the baby was coming.

It's a good thing she went to the hospital when she did. They got her checked in around 3:30 pm and at 6:07 she delivered a healthy baby boy! 2 1/2 hours! WOW!!!!!



So meet my parent's grandchild number 12:


Gage William Guffey

September 16, 2011 6:07pm

7 lbs. 2 oz & 19.25 inches



Cami & Jacob are proud of course, but probably not as proud as Lily.


She takes being a big sister very seriously. She even picked out the pirate sleeper herself!



She made sure he got his 20 minutes of reading time too.

As for Ransom he likes his baby brother well enough to try and share his crackers. That's about as affectionate a gesture as you're bound to get from a 20 month old boy.


Despite all of the excitement (and the dozens of prayers by the rest of us) it became painfully clear that Jesse's baby was not in any bigger hurry just because her cousin had finally arrived. So yesterday Jesse cut Kelly's hair, then they joined us for Parker's birthday party and left our house to go to the hospital so they could get her started. I won't give you all the gory details, but it really didn't take Jesse's labor very long to start. She checked into the hospital around 6:00pm and by 11:00pm her water had broken. She got her epidural at 2:30am or so. Around 11:00am I got a message that she was dialated to a 9 and almost ready to push. And that's where things stayed for the next few hours. The doctor was in doing a C-section, so Jesse actually laid back and slept for a couple of hours. By the time I got out of church my mom was asking if I was planning on coming up to the hospital. I desperately wanted to, but Jesse had made it abundantly clear that she didn't want anyone but she and Kelly in the delivery room so she would send a message once the baby was born and she was ready to recieve visitors. That of course didn't keep my mom or Joliene (Kelly's mom) away. They were in the waiting room with Kelly's sister Randi Jo & his dad Randy. I hesitated going up there because I really wanted to respect Jesse's wishes and not intrude where I wasn't wanted. I was determined to wait for she or Kelly to call or txt and tell me it was okay to come visit. Around 2:20pm I got a call from my mom saying they were still waiting on the Dr. and Kelly was starving, could I please bring him some food. So I kissed my own babies & husband and headed to the hospital. When Kelly didn't come out for his food once I got there, we figured the baby must be on her way. And at 3:00pm when the lullaby started playing over the hospital's speaker system my mom and Joliene both started jumping up and down and hugging. (There were only a few tears.) A few minutes later Kelly sent a photo of the baby to his mother's phone and that was really torture because the photo wouldn't open.


But it only took a few minutes before he came out and mom & Joliene were allowed to go back and see her. By 4:00 the rest of us were told we could come back.



So here's the princess who makes up our Baker's Dozen:


Tyree Kay Crystal

September 18, 2011 2:58pm

8 lbs. 21 inches


And let me tell you she's an absolute DOLL! I realize she's still kind of swollen, but she's very filled out for a newborn! And so very alert! Her color is perfect, she's strong and healthy. It's so funny because Jesse's so tiny and the first thing you think is "How did that big baby fit into that tiny girl!?!?!?" I felt so blessed to get to hold her when she was still so very brand new. (In fact, about the time they were planning on cleaning her up, like 3 other girls in the hospital started having their babies, so all the nurses and staff kind of disappeared and left us alone for a while which was nice.)









With Aunt Randi Jo




It's seriously sickening how she can look so cute and perky after a night of no sleep and just having had a baby!


My dad (who called Kelly just a few minutes after she was born) said he could hear Kelly beaming through the phone. He's a pretty proud papa.


She's got way more hair that we expected, especially considering Jesse & Kelly were both bald as babies!



Seriously does se look like she just had a baby? So not fair!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

The Strawberry Shortcake Smurf Mushroom...

...And various other birthday party pictures. It kind of breaks my heart that my baby girl is turning one. She's just not a baby anymore. But since her birthday isn't actually until Tuesday, I'll ruminate on that another day.

We decided to celebrate Parker's birthday on Saturday so that her daddy wouldn't have to miss her first birthday party.

Gideon was very excited to help wrap presents and put up decorations. (I'll probably leave the decorations up at least through Tuesday. They make the house just seem so happy and festive!)




After we were done wrapping and decorating we got the guest of honor dressed for her big day.

Man I have the cutest kids EVER!



Gideon's job during the party was to hand out noise makers and party hats. And he took his job very seriously. He made sure everyone was decked out at one time or another.



And here it is. The Strawberry Shortcake Smurf Mushroom! It looks nothing like a giant cupcake, but at least it's girly and cute. And hey it only cost us $5 so we won't complain.


Not quite my usual spread, but it was good. Tea sandwiches, fruit, taco dip, chips & pink lemonade. Good enough for a mid-afternoon birthday party for a one year old right?


She didn't want to wear a part hat for long, but she sure looked cute while she had it on.


She's so funny she sticks her tongue out all the time, especially when she's determined. Like a little puppy dog almost. I find it adorable.



So Jesse & Kelly came to the party quite literally en route to the hospital for her to be induced. She looks great for a girl who's 10 days past her due date.


Great Aunt Phyllis & Nana


Parker didn't quite get the hang of opening presents. She mostly wanted to just play with the bows & ribbons.

Deeann, Kaloni, Braxton, Kelly & Jesse (with baby Tyree on board. Photos of that little cutie are coming!)Fortunately for Parker she has a big brother who was more than happy to show her how to open presents.





She got some super cute stuff, but of course, Gideon wasn't at all interested in anything that was clothes or shoes. He really just wanted to keep unwrapping toys.


And now it's time for "Happy Birthday" and cake and ice cream.
Again, Parker wasn't quite sure what to do with the candle. She mostly just stared at it. But big brother saved the day again!



So she didn't really like her cake at all. She mostly just picked at it and spit. She didn't eat any of it or even play in it. That was slightly disappointing to me because I wanted those classic baby photos of being covered hair to fingertips in cake and icing, but oh well. Guess not.

Braxton & Gideon tested out some of Parker's new toys. (In fact, to this point I think Gideon's played with more of her new toys than she has.)


And the day wasn't a total bust for Gideon anyway. Deeann brought over a tricycle for him and he got the hang of that right away! So a successful day for everyone!