Somebody order winter?

We could break another winter record in this neck of the woods. December was colder than normal, but January has been pretty cold for us Gulf Coasters. We're due for our coldest tempatures in 10 years and single digit wind chills by Friday. We're also looking at our longest sustained freeze in decades.

Today at Preschool story time we read books about winter and the craft was making icicles out of aluminum foil and glitter. When we got home the girls made paper snow flakes to decorate our kitchen window.
On another note - can you believe it has already been a month? I've been taking milestone pictures of Alex with Toby Bear - here is his one month picture. I forgot to take the picture until my mom called last night at 9 PM so I had to take it while he was asleep. (Toby got moved back to his spot on the dresser after the picture was taken.)

Have a Happy Twelth Day of Christmas tomorrow!

A little bit of Christmas

We've had a busy few weeks since Alex has been home. The first week was spent mostly getting in to the groove of having another person in the house. The following week we really started to prep for Christmas.

Laney is going to school two days a week while I am home on leave. One of the days she was home last week we did some baking. Here she is helping make gingerbread for her Aunt LaLa.
Over the weekend, Rob, Elena & my parents went and got our tree. We decorated it on Sunday.

Here's my little man in one of his multitudenous Christmas outfits. It says "I've been super good all year." Not hard when you've only been here two + weeks.

My girls

Rob, Kat & Elena ready for Christmas Eve services.

Alex made his debut at church Thursday evening, so I got to hear Kat play in the Christmas band . . .

And see Elena sing with the Children's choir.

Christmas morning was fantastic. Although it started later than expcted. Laney had been so excited for so long we expected to have to stop her from opening presents before her sister got up. Instead she crawled in bed with us for a bit and failed to notice that there were new presents under the tree until we pointed them out.

Kat was ver pleased with her haul this year.

Elena kept wanting to stop opening presents to play with each toy. At least we know she liked them!

My brother & his wife came over later in the morning for the day. Here they are with the new nephew.

Enjoy the remaining 9 days of Christmas!

Alex is Here

Today was supposed to be Alexander's birthday; however, he had plans of his own. My water broke last Thursday night a little after 9 PM. Alex had arrived by 12:30 Friday morning.

He picked a record breaking day to arrive. Friday, December 4, 2009 is now on record as the earliest snow fall here.

Getting Ready for Baby

Baby Alex will be here in 15 days (or less). December 8 is my absolute last day. I will either be induced or have a c-section depending on how my ultrasound after Thanksgiving goes. In addition to the usual prep work of washing baby clothes, packing the hospital bag, and locating the baby gear in the attic we've done a few fun things too.

Last Sunday, Laney went to the sibling class at the hospital where I will deliver. They talked about what happens when Mommy has a baby, keeping clean before touching the baby and got a mini-tour of the L&D ward. I didn't get to see her in class - but this is how she looked when she came out - they dressed like Doctors (and also avoided passing flu germs in the ward).

Then we continued a tradition I started 3 years ago with Elena . I took Kathryn to Build-A-Bear for her birthday back in 2006 and she made herself a Hello Kitty and she made a bear for Elena too. That bear is now well traveled and great friend of Elena's.

On Monday I took the girls to Build-A-Bear. The girls each made their own bears (a Panda for Kat & a pink bear for Elena) and they made a bear for Alex.

Here they are warming up the hearts & making wishes for the bear.

Elena giving her new bear a "bath".

The newest stuffed members of our family - Toby, Cindy & Loki-San.

Halloween Pictures

There are a lot pictures in this post as I am playing catch up. These cover three weeks worth of Halloween festivities.

Two weeks before Halloween, my friend Byrony & I took our girls to a pumpkin patch at the local halter club. The girls got to go on pony rides & enjoy a petting zoo.
Then we picked out pumpkins. Both girls became obsessed with the tiny white ones with orange stripes, so I ended up buying one of those in addition to a regular jack-o-latern sized one.

The following week Kat was invited to a Halloween party. She went as Neil Gaiman's Death from his Sandman comic series. She hasn't read much of the series, but she thinks the character looks cool (I agree).

On to Halloween night - here's Laney & the aforementioned white pumpkin and my electric jack-o-latern. Unfortunately, the other pumpkins I got during our trip to the pumpkin patch rotted before we could carve them.

Me & Laney. Looking at it, I find it hard to believe I am 33 weeks pregnant in this picture.

Laney & Daddy

Our little butterfly - all ready to trick-or-treat. She was so excited. She would not say "trick-or-treat" at a single house, but she always said "thank you".

Greetings from Plague House

Our most recent news is that Laney is currently recovering from what is suspected to be the "piggy cold" (that's Kathryn for "Swine Flu"). The doctor's office is hypothesizing, they don't send out for the CDC confirmation as the treatment for both flus is the same. Luckily, we caught it early enough that she qualified for TamiFlu. The pedetrician was also able to give me a prescription to put Kat on a preventative dose of the same stuff & my doctor prescribed me the same. And to think I finally got my vaccine on Friday!

Laney has been consistently running a 102 fever since Sunday afternoon, but she woke up from her nap today fever free & in a good mood. This was evidenced by the fact that my living room floor spent most of the afternoon coated in Barbies & their accessories. The good mood mostly continued, but the fever is back.

As to the rest of us, no one has run fever. Kat & I have coughs and headaches & I am feeling more run down than usual (which is a trick).

On the home front, literally, we have an offer on the house. We're still in the option period and the inspection is tomorrow (holy cow!). We still need to find a new house to live in and fast. We're supposed to close on this one on November 30 & be out by December 1. I really need to pack.

What's a preggo Mommy to do?

Just a rant -

I am concerned about the H1N1 vaccine - I don't feel that it has been tested long enough, but after talking to three doctors, doing some online research & a lot of praying, I finally resolved that I would get the vaccine and try to get it for Laney as well. We're in the highest risk categories. This was our personal decision, everyone needs to make there own.

I talked to my OB on Tuesday (before I made the decision) and she told me I needed to decide quickly, she wasn't getting many doses. So Friday, when I had my nerve up I called & told them I was interested. They told me they still didn't have the vaccine & didn't know when or how much was coming. Had I tried my GP? They put a note in my chart & I may or may not get notified when the vaccine comes in. I have another appointment a week from Tuesday, maybe they'll have an answer by then.

Called my GP (such as it is, I haven't been there in over a year). They think they'll get some, at some point. Don't know when, don't know how much. No waiting list or anything.

Sigh, I knew the pediatrician had the vaccine - it was in the paper. And Laney falls into one of the only 2 groups they are giving it to - children between the ages of 6 months & 3 years 364 days old. She'll be in the other group come December - those living in a household with a child under 6 months. BUT after 40 minutes on hold, I find out the pede only has the nasal spray. Asthmatics can't get use the nasal spray, they have to have the injection. And when are they getting the injection? - they don't know when or how much.

Seriously. This is nuts.