Saturday, June 12, 2010

KK's swim lessons

Kayla began once a week swim lessons last April. The good news was we did the lessons at a sports club and they had a heated, covered pool. KK loves her swim lessons, and she loves Miss Suzie. There were a few weeks we had to miss due to illness or the instructor needing to cancel. The past two lessons KK has finally began to learn how to swim.

In the beginning KK resisted putting her face in the water. It took Miss Suzie some time to get KK comfortable with it. The best part is Miss Suzie was always playing games with her and always teaching her safety in the pool. KK is that kind of child you could never turn your back on. She thought she knew how to swim even last year. I had to let her sink just so she could learn that she didn't know how to do it alone yet. At her first lesson with Miss Suzie the same thing happened. She jumped right in. Not only was Miss Suzie quick to show her she couldn't swim alone, but she made sure every session to teach safety lessons to her as well.

Yesterday I took over 20 short clips of KK's swim lesson. I won't bore you with all of them but I will post a few. It was fun for me to watch them. At the beginning of the lesson she wasn't using her big arms very well. By the end of the lesson she was doing much better with her big arms and swimming a bit farther in distance!




Here she is doing a quick glide.




She is so happy to finally be learning to do it by herself!




Practicing big arms!




Here she is doing the back float by herself!




Here she was by the end of the lesson! We are so proud! We are squeezing in two more lessons before the baby comes! If I am up for it I may have her start again towards the end of July.

KK's Bday

This past week we celebrated KK's 5th birthday! Wow, how time flies! What a big girl! She will be going off to kindergarten in just two short months! She decided to pick Round Table Pizza for her special lunch out! Round Table is her favorite pizza to eat. If you let her she could eat it everyday!



She chose a Cinderella cake from Safeway. Wouldn't you know it, we go to pick it up at 10 and the cake isn't ready. Apparently they called me twenty minutes before pick up time to tell me their cake decorator was stuck in traffic and would be late. When I got there they told me and asked me if I could wait until 11. There was no way! We had to meet Daddy at a Round Table near his work which was more than a half an hour away. He had a meeting that he had to go to so we had to keep the times the same. I was so mad. How do you only have one cake decorator working in a bakery?


Luckily we went across the street to Save Mart. They had some great cakes ready to purchase. KK chose a very cute turtle cake! She really like it so that is all that matters! I am glad not getting the Cinderella cake didn't bum her out!



KK loved her turtle cake. She had so much fun opening her presents. She loved every single one of them. The cutest part is when she would say, it was just what I always wanted!





Here is KK openung up her favorite present from Aly.




Happy 5th birthday KK! We love you!

Homemade Hooter Hiders

Since having Aly and KK new products continuely come on the market. In the past two years, a mom designed a nursing cover up and called it Hooter Hiders! These retail for around $35. I was in shock that a piece of fabric with a strap would cost so much money! So of course I did some research for a free sewing pattern. There are so many sites out there with easy to follow patterns!

I have so much fabric in bins that I have bought in the past so it was easy to find something I already had. The only thing I was missing was two small D rings. A pack cost just .78 for four at walmart! I made the nursing cover quite easily. The first one I did, I only made one sided as they suggested. I also didn't add the boning for a peek a boo sight for the mommy to see the nursing baby. I wasn't sure if it was something I would want. Here is Aly modeling the nursing cover for me!



Aly thinks it is funny that I made a Hooter Hider! She was laughing so hard when she learned what it was for!

I decided to make a second one. After reading some reviews on the internet some women said they liked to make it with a soft flannel backing so if you needed to use it has a burp blanket in public when you were done, you had something right on hand! I took their advice and made this one with a soft, dark pink flannel on the back. I did buy new fabric for this one which cost me a totaly of $7 for both the front piece and the back. I also bought some coordinating ribbon to use as the neck strap. I did decide to sew the boning in on this one to see if it is something I will like. So now I have two to try out. After I use them both I will decide which type I will sew more of for the future!



Aly makes such a good model doesn't she? I should have had her sit with one of her baby dolls and pretend she was nursing!

Confusion

So far my pregnancy has been very healthy with my only problem being a small sub chorionic bleed in the first trimester that heeled itself. Sure I had tons of morning sickness and really bad heartburn, but the baby has been very healthy. Thank goodness for that.

Yesterday I had the weirdest thing happen to me. Around 3 in the afternoon I was washing dishes. Any short, 9 month pregnant lady knows not only how difficult this can be, but how awkward it is. You have to crunch your shoulders forward, stick your butt out, and protect your stomach from hitting the sink. It gives you a back ache, and you really can't do it for long periods of time.

Anyway, while I was washing the dishes, I started having a problem with my right eye. I started seeing bright, white flashes that wouldn't go away. It got worse to the point I couldn't focus and see anything out the right side. My vision was completely blurred and I couldn't read a thing. I have never had this happen before so I thought it was quite strange. I called up my husband at work just to let him know. Then I told my 7 year old to keep an eye on money and to call 911 if something happened.

Hubby gave me some good advice and told me to sit down and do some various stretches. It had been 20 minutes since all this happened. I sat down and did quite a bit of stretching. It felt good too! The good news. The stretching took the problem away!

I thought all was well but I was wrong. My friend Krsiti came to pick up her son Nick who was over for a play date. I was so embarrassed, as I tried to talk to her I couldn't even speak a complete sentence. I forgot the words I needed to say, I would repeat the same word three times while trying to figure out what I was trying to say. I forgot her name, her sons name, I forgot my Dr.'s name. Etc., etc. She urged me let her drive me to the hospital. Of course I didn't want to go. I called Ed and tried to have a conversation with him on the phone. We decided to call my OBGYN to see if they wanted me to be seen. They told me to come in right away. I think they were worried about preaclampsia.

Thankfully for Kristi, she drove the girls and I to the hospital. I wouldn't have been able to handle that drive. I still couldn't speak or think correctly. When we got to the hospital we went straight to OB. They hooked me up and checked all my stats. The baby was doing great! Her heartbeat was normal. I was having some braxtin hicks every 5-10 minutes so unfortunately for me they had to check my cervix to make sure I wasn't going to go into labor. I only had 12 days left you know! Dang that hurts! My cervix was closed so labor was not near. My blood pressure was a little higher than normal, but not anything that is a problem. Typically I am super low around 100 over 60. Yesterday I was 127 over 79. Not a danger for preaclampsia.

After all my OB signs checked out o.k. they felt like it was a neurological problem. They wanted to transfer me over to ER. I was feeling fine by this time and really didn't want to go. After all, my copay is $100 plus I have to pay 20% of the visit which we all know in the ER is way over priced. This baby is already costing us $2500 to have! However, they felt it was really important for the health of me and the baby in case it could be a blood clot or small stroke to be seen.

The ER ordered blood tests and a CT scan. The CT scan actually gave me a small headache. Well it was probably the fact that they didn't help me up and down from the table! After siting in ER for a couple of hours with hubby and kids, we found that the CT scan came back fine. Thank goodness! I only had two small issues. One is that my right side pupil is tear drop shaped--not sure why this matters and I don't think the Dr. really knew if it was a problem either. He wants me to see an eye Dr. next week so they can decide. The second very small problem was that my potassium level was slightly low. No big deal, I can eat some bananas! They gave me some potassium supplements!

They decided to call my condition a complicated migraine. Seemed weird to me since I didn't even have a headache. O.k., whatever, just let me go home! I felt fine and we all just wanted to go to bed! I did come home and look up the term and I just don't see how it could fit! Oh well, all is well now, so I shouldn't need to worry!

We have 11 days to go before baby Summer is born! Do you know what my OBGYN Dr. said to me yesterday at my appt.? The baby is pretty long and I am measuring a week ahead so he said, "Do you think you could be wrong and it could be a boy?" I laughed and said, "Your ultrasound tech told me 7 years ago she had only been wrong once in 20 years." He said, "Yeah, she is really good but she has actually been wrong 4 or 5 times now." I laughed. Of course hubby and I would be more than happy to welcome a boy into our family but anyone that knows me, would know that would put a ton of stress on me not being prepared! I would probably have an anxiety attack right there in the hospital since I have no clothes for a baby boy! I would probably be freaking out sending Ed out shopping for some emergency baby clothes. Oh what a sight that would be!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

The Girls Birthday Party



Aly and KK opening up presents. KK loved the beach towel!



They got some art project presents that they have spent the rest of the day doing, as well as some legos that they were thrilled to get!



The second picture is a rare belly shot of mommy!





The girls helped to make and design their cakes! I was so happy with how easy they were!


Today we celebrated the girls birthday and had a party with some of our close family friends! We were lucky enough that the weather cooperated and it was a nice, warm, 78 degrees! The kids even got to go in the wading pools!

I was happy to have the gazebo up this year too! Daddy set it up a few weeks ago and the shade it provided was very nice!

We had a total of 14 kids come to the party. It was mostly girls but the boys that did come did a great job of having some of their own fun! I think there were four boys altogether!

I wanted to keep it simple so I made home made pizza, and served chips and a fruit salad! As nice as it is to have a party at a gymnastics studio or somewhere else, we just can't afford to do that. We also don't want the girls growing up expecting something bigger and better the next year. We hope to keep having the parties at home each year. Next year Aly will probably want to have a sleep over party anyway, so we will probably let her invite 3 or 4 friends over. We can do Kayla and Summer's party together since Summer will only be a year old. We will have a nice back yard party again for that.





The girls wanted pinatas this year. KK wanted one she could hit with a bat so she chose the parrot. Aly wanted one where you pulled the strings so she chose a ladybug.




Unfortunately Aly's pinata didn't work. Every pull string was pulled and none of them pulled the bottom out. So I had to pull the bottom out myself! I had stuffed both pinatas with candy bags so that each child got their own bag and didn't have to fight and push around for grabbing candy!




Here we are singing to Aly.




Here we are singing to KK.


Aly's Birthday Celebration


Every year we have a tradition. For your birthday you get to pick the birthday meal. Aly wanted to go to Chilis for her birthday so we decided to go and pick Daddy up at work and have lunch there. Mommy, being 9 months pregnant with horrible heartburn can only eat cereal for dinner so our special meal out had to be lunch!


Lucky me, Aly decided she wanted a Tinkerbell cake from Safeway. They make the perfect size too! A small 4 inch cake that serves four so we don't have to bring any leftover home!


Aly wanted to get dressed up all fancy for her birthday too! She wore an adorable watermelon tank top from gymboree that matched a watermelon skirt! She even wanted to put a necklace on! So much more feminine than me already..LOL. She had KK wear a dress too! KK chose a cute lady bug dress.



Aly got to pick out all three meals for the day too! For breakfast she chose donuts, for lunch she had macaroni and cheese with apples, and for dinner she chose macaroni and cheese again! Can you tell what her favorite meal is???



She got to open presents from us, Grandma, and our friend Amy! She loved all of them!


Thursday, June 3, 2010

Pioneer Day at school

The last Friday before school got out Aly's school had a big event called Pioneer Day. The school went all out and made this a very special event for all the kids. Aly's class got to dress up as Indians. They got to paint shirts and put beads on them. They even had a covered wagon at the event and tepees! Aly told me it was the best thing she ever did at her school.



Aren't the shirts cool? The second picture I love because Aly is with her teacher, the one in the green sweatshirt!

Hopefully next year I will be able to volunteer for this event. Not only did I have a Dr.'s appt. for my pregnancy, but I had friends staying with us from Montana. My guess is it would have been tiring for me anyway as I was 8 1/2 months pregnant!

Chuck E Cheese

A couple of weeks ago when my best friend Amy from Montana was here we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. Thankfully, Chuck E. Cheese has added some new games and things to do. We went in the early afternoon and it was not crowded at all! It was great! The kids had a great time! I had an amazing coupon and was able to get each of us 100 tokens for $12.50 each. So Aly and KK each had 50 tokens to spend. I sure learned that was too many. I think 30 tokens would have been plenty!

They have a cool new machine that takes your picture and pretends to draw it out. It only cost one token too! Here are the pictures we took that day:


The first picture is Amy and I. Aly took a cute picture by herself!



Both girls let me take my picture with them! I was so happy!



Awww, sisterly love! So cute!

Hopefully in the fall we will get a chance to go to Chuck E. Cheese again! For now, we have plenty to keep us busy!