Delgato

Trista's favorite show right now is "The Little Einstiens" on the Disney Channel. They mostly talk about music and art and dance. For the last week Trista has been doing everything "Delgato". She likes to help me in the kitchen, and we always have to stir things "Delgato". It is so funny that she knows what that word means, slow and deliberate. She keeps saying, "Mom, do it....deeelllgaaatooo......." :)

My Baby Rolled Over!

Yep, it's true. Miss Whitney Grace rolled over today! She is three and a half months old. She was on her tummy and rolled to her back. I was so exited I kept turning her back over and she did it four more times. She pushes up with her hands and puts her head down to the left side and then twists her torso that direction. She was so proud of herself, it was adorable. She knew she didn't want to be on her tummy, and was able to do something about it.
She has been smiling and giggling like crazy lately. Listening to her new little laugh is the highlight of my day. She has the cutest grin too. She gives you one of those all gums grins and you can see her one dimple, just like her daddy has.

I think that you can see T.J.'s dimple really well in this picture.


This is Whitney "latched on" to T.J.'s cheek.


And here they are together just a few days ago.


On a side note, I got to talk to my wonderful sister in law Meg today, and it was so nice. Thanks for calling me! We talked about vacuums and school and babies. She will be graduating this August. We are so proud of you Megan! You are going to be one fine nurse, you were a beautiful bride too. (Trista helped me pick out these pictures of you.)

Megan coming home from her mission, just off the plane.

Megan holding Isaac at the airport.


Megan and Will at the St George Temple.

On another side note, we are hosting Easter dinner for the third year in a row. I am so grateful to have a house that I can do things like this in. Our last house was a little too small for family gatherings. We worked all day Saturday and got the back yard almost ready for the egg hunt. T.J. planted new grass and fixed up the koi pond while I planted new flowers in the flower beds. We still need to replace a tree that didn't make it through the frost and we will be ready.

Now it feels like spring. Here's what it looks like today.....

This is what our yard looked like last year. The grass and flowers should have enough time to grow so that we can look like this again for the party.

Trista and Erin looking for eggs.

Uncle Jim helping out.

Trista at the egg hunt.

In her Easter dress.

And Trista and Erin the year before....

That morning in her jammies and bunny ears.

How time flies. Now we have another baby that is rolling over!

This is for Grangirl

We got to have Jess and Cami's kiddos over last night. They had tickets to the Suns game and needed a sitter. I like to spend time with them, and it helps me not feel so guilty when I ask them to watch my two kids. :) We are starting to do a babysitting exchange which is great. We watched their kids on Valentines day, and then they watched Trista and Whitney for us so we could go out that Saturday night.

We played outside in Trista's play house, briefly talked about not touching the water in the koi pond, took turns on the swing, watched part of Spiderman for Diego, ate a little pizza and macaroni and cheese, got ready for bed, watched Bambi, then played Elefun (which is a must when they come over) and Trouble. Noelia talked to me at the table after dinner. She was asking me what it felt like to get married. I told her about getting married in the temple with all of our closest friends and family around, and how it felt to look into T.J.'s eyes during the ceremony. She said in the cutest most dramatic seven year old girl sort of way, "That must be the greatest moment of life." :) After a few drinks of water all around, I finally convinced them to lay down. They all fell asleep amazingly fast, including Trista. She shared her bed with Putt Putt, and Isaac was on the floor. Noelia and Diego fell asleep on the couches in the family room. I had thought it would be an all night slumber party.

When Jess and Cami went in Trista's room to pick up their sleeping kids, I told them about Grandad being the first one to sleep under the princess canopy over Trista's bed when they stayed with us for Whitney's blessing. Good times.

Earlier in the evening, when we were watching Bambi, and it started to snow, Diego said, "Oh, they must be in Utah." I had to smile because I knew what he was talking about.
I said, "You think so?"
He said, "Yes, because there is snow on the ground."
I said, "Yep, they probably are! I think that you are right Diego!"
So, Grangirl, you don't just have plain ole' deer in the fall that eat your pumpkins........

Bambi lives in Parowan.

Planar Rocks

We received this blanket for Whitney in the mail from Planar the other day.

It has a little yellow lamb on it and says, "Whitney, Baby's First Flat Panel, PLANAR" T.J. sells tons of Planar products, so they sent us this super soft blanket with super cute embroidery for Whitney! I would also like to give a shout out to Planar for the nice flat panel 37 " T.V. that is behind her in the first picture. Instead of giving T.J. a commission, they give him points that he can use to redeem for Planar flat panel televisions, computer monitors, or other gifts. I have as many t.v.'s as I do people in my house now.

Before the baby was born, Planar also hooked us up with one of these...



A Dyson DC18 Slim vacuum cleaner! Thank you to T.J. for using all of your points on a new vacuum for me. He put a bow and a tag on it that said, "I hope this makes crawling prep easier on both of you." :)
Planar rocks.

Potion Number 9

Since Trista has curly hair, I have have always used leave in conditioner, Sebastian Potion Number 9, and Sebastian Wet in her hair since she was 12 months old. Yesterday, I gave her a bath and washed her hair when she woke up in the morning, and put in her hair products when we were finished. After dinner, I asked T.J. to take care of Trista for me while the baby slept so that I could finish some work. They put on their swim suits and got in our jacuzzi. I knew that I would have to give her another bath and wash her hair again, but just fine by me to have them both happy and occupied. I gave her another bath and put in her leave in conditioner when they were done. The baby started to cry, so I asked Trista to go put on her pajamas while I took care of Whitney. She did, but then went back in the bathroom and closed the door. A sign for things to come. :) I went in to check on her and she was rubbing Johnson and Johnson baby lotion all over the top of her head. I just had to laugh. I told her that we would have to wash her hair again, but it was getting too late and we would do it again in the morning. I got the globs out and put her down for the night.

The next morning she had her third bath in 24 hours and I washed her hair again. I put in the leave in conditioner and then she said, "Now the lotion?" I laughed out loud and said, "Oh no baby, it's Potion! Potion not Lotion!" I told T.J. that I had figured out the lotion thing and he had a chuckle too. She was trying to finish up our routine all by herself. She also took out my nail polish and fixed one of her "paintnails" that had chipped and didn't make a mess! She is getting to be such a big girl now, or a small girl if you are talking to Trista. She also says that she is a small sister, not a big sister. :)

Here is the very first picture of Trista's curls.

Whitney Grace

When Whitney was born, there were so many blessings that our family received. It was an extremely difficult birth for me, especially compared to how peaceful Trista's birth was. I couldn't have an epidural and delivered on my sciatic nerve. I had an oxygen mask on the whole time, and had to lay in a kinked position to relieve compression from the baby's cord. With every contraction I felt like I was under water. I had to focus all of my energy on breathing in. I was shaking and could barley hear the voices of the people around me. After she was born we almost lost her. I received a bill from the NICU about two weeks ago for Newborn Resuscitation. It brought back those moments when we weren't sure what was going to happen. When she was born, she was totally purple and was making no attempts to breathe at all. Her APGAR was a 4. About five minutes later, and still no sound from the baby, while my doctor was stitching me up he turned around and said, "What is going on over there!" No one answered. T.J. said that was the scariest moment for him. When she finally started trying to breathe a few minutes later, she made the most eerie drowning sounds. It was so busy in the delivery room. When it was all said and done, there had been 18 people there. Her stomach and lungs were both pumped and she was taken to the NICU. She spent two days there, and then I got to have her in my room with me for one day.

The day we were supposed to be discharged, she started vomiting in her bassinet at 3 in the morning. I was so grateful that I was awake and a nurse happened to be in the room with me and was able to help her. She went back to the NICU for tests. She was so jaundiced that it was making her sick. I was asked my blood type too many times to count. Her jaundice level was so high, they thought that it had to be from a blood incompatibility. The doctor thought that maybe it happened because of bruises she had from delivery. I was discharged that day, but Whitney had to stay in the NICU for two more days in the billi-bed for light therapy. Whenever I visited her, I tried to be really quiet. There were two other babies there that were a much worse off. One had sepsis, and would probably die. The family never left the NICU and just held the baby and cried. The other baby was very premature and wouldn't be going home for about a month. I was so grateful that Whitney's big problems were taken care of and that her jaundice was slowly going away. I knew that we had been so blessed, and was so sad for those other two mommies. I tried to keep my voice down, and whisper how happy I was that she was getting better. Whitney was laying on her tummy once when I came to visit her and lifted up her head and then turned it from one side to the other trying to see me. At three days old! She also liked to hold on to my hands. I would just stand there at her little light bed, holding on to her, letting her hold on to me as long as she wanted to, even though my back was killing me. :)

The hospital had a nesting suite that I was able to stay in so that I could nurse the baby. I was so happy to be able to stay with her. I would have had a hard time going home without her. It was a little room in the NICU that had a couch and a television. The hospital fed me, but I had to use the public bathroom. Yep, with a peri-bottle and phone book sized maxi pads in tow. I went looking in the middle of the night and found a large family bathroom that worked out just fine. Whitney was still so jaundiced that she shouldn't have been released yet, but she had made so much progress in those two days that the nursery thought it would be okay. They told me that it would take at least four weeks for her jaundice to completely go away. I was so happy to be able to take her home. Trista had been wondering if Mom and the baby were ever going to come home. I was gone for six days. T.J. did bring Trista to the hospital everyday to see me. It was hard being away from her for that long. We settled in and are so glad for the way that everything turned out. We were blessed to have so many people available to help us right when we needed it. The hospital wasn't busy at all when I had her, and my nurse stayed with me the whole time. It was like having my own labor coach. She was so sweet to me and gave me such a wonderful hug when it was all over. I found out when I got home that she is my best friends aunt.

Trista took to Whitney right away and loves to spend time with her and read her stories.

Here is a picture from Whitney's first bath. She loves to have her hair washed.

The last week of January, when Whitney was nine weeks, I took both girls to the doctor. They both had colds, which I found out was actually RSV. I was so surprised to hear the doctor say it. She told me that I took them both in so early that the baby's RSV hadn't turned into pneumonia yet. She did have a lung infection, bronchiolitis. She responded to breathing treatments, so she didn't have to go to the hospital. It was pretty touch and go with Whitney for about two weeks. She got worse before she got better, so she was seen at the pediatrician almost every day for a week. I don't know how many times I have been to the pediatrician so far this year.

I dearly love our pediatrician. She was my nurse when I was a baby. She was on call at the hospital when I had Trista. She walked into the room and knew who I was. She introduced herself to T.J. and told him that when I was five, my mom took me in to see her because I had blisters on the bottoms of my feet. I had run outside to the sidewalk in the middle of the summer. Our family have been patients of Mesa Pediatrics for three generations now. Dr. Kerr saw my mom when she was a little girl, me, and Trista. His nurse Leslie saw me and now sees both of my babies. I will be so sad when she retires.

So the last three weeks have been nothing but bulb syringes, tissues, infants tylenol, children's ibuprofen, thermometers, nasal spray, saline solution, and breathing treatments. I cringe every time I look at my night stand. For a week I was giving Whitney a breathing treatment every hour. I thank my sweet sister in law Cami for calling in a favor from her best friend Marnie, and for Marnie for letting me borrow her nebulizer. Sweet Leslie at Mesa Peds told me that she was worried about us, and thought about us often. Now that the RSV is almost gone, she told me that she was so afraid that we would end up loosing Whitney after all. Having RSV at just nine weeks was pretty scary.

Whitney is almost better now, just a little raspy when she breathes and coughs a little. I was told this part can last about 6 weeks. I can tell that she feels better. She is smiling so much now, it seems that she is making up for lost time. It is the highlight of my day to hear her start to laugh. She is just now learning how to do it. I am so happy every time I hear her coo and giggle, and talk back and forth to me. I would do it all over again 100 times.

Tagged!

Yeah! I got tagged for the first time by my friend Stephanie.

Here are the rules:
1. Find a book with at least 123 pages.
2. Find the 5th sentence.
3. Write the next three sentences.


This is from one of my favorite Mommy books, "Waiting for Birdy, a year of frantic tedium, neurotic angst, and the wild magic of a growing family" by Catherine Newman. I have to type more than just the next three sentences because the humor would be lost.

"Look," I showed him. "Hold it up to the light. See that little dark shadow? That's a seed in there."
"What?" Ben said and blinked.
"That dark part. That means there's a seed."
"What?" He stared at me blankly.
"I'm not going to say it again, Ben. I already explained it."
"What? I mean, why?"
"Because I don't want to keep saying the same thing over and over and over."
"Why?"
Because it makes me want to poke my own eyes out with a quewf.

Quewf was Ben's word for skewer. His dad had just fixed the hinge on mom's cookbook holder with a skewer and Ben just couldn't get the word quite right.

This is the best book and has made me laugh out loud and cry too many times to count. It is a mommy journal that so eloquently captures so many emotions that I have felt as a mom. I keep thinking that I should start giving it to friends with their baby shower gifts. I would just be afraid that they wouldn't read it, or not like it as much as I do.
It would be just like when we go to Serrano's for dinner. I love Serrano's tacos. I tell T.J. that they are so good, and he has to try a bite. He tells me he doesn't want to, because tacos are my favorite. He is a lasagna guy. He would feel bad taking my taco and not liking it as much as I would. :)
So, if you are a mom and like Serrano's tacos, you should try this book. I found it at BabyCenter.com. Which is also my favorite baby site of all time... you should try that too. :)

Thanks Steph! That was fun!