Siena is Turning 1

Ok so it's been forever...um...I have no words for how fast this past year soared by. There have been so many adventures, fun trips, some great times and some very sad times since I've last written. Our kids have grown up and our youngest is almost walking already. As I prepare to celebrate her first year with us I find myself emotional thinking about how special this little girl is.

So what makes her so special? I could probably write forever, but here is a summary:

• SMV. She has my same exact initials.
• Her birth made me feel like a strong woman, and still does
• She has the sweetest disposition
• Her belly laugh is high and squeaky and makes me belly laugh in return
• First word--Daddy (still waiting for Mommy. She says MaMa, but not always directly at me)
• She was my life-saving comfort the day she turned 4 months--the day my Daddy walked into Jesus's arms
• She is determined, especially when going after something she knows mommy isn't too keen on. If I stop her she throws a one-year-old tantrum. I can't help but laugh because she is so cute.
• She sucks her thumb when she's tired. I love this now, but know that it could become trouble in the future.
• She is a momma's girl...mommy will do when she is upset.
• She loves her brother and sister. C makes her laugh all the time. They all play so well together it warms my heart.
• She has the best hugs, blows kisses and waves bye bye
• Her little tongue goes a mile a minute and she makes the cutest blah, blah, blub, blub sounds
• She loves taking a flat palm and smacking her open mouth to make fun sounds
• We love the little pucker lip face she makes
• She says "Hi!" when someone walks in the room
• Love that she is so petite, don't love that part of the reason she is so small is due to a UTI that kept her from gaining any weight for three months. She is back on track now and doing great. I can't wait for her 1 year check-up to see where she is on the growth chart this time. Just to give you an idea, at 4 months she was at 50%, 6 months she was 32%, and 9 months she was 6%, then we had her weight checked at 10 1/2 months and she was up to 14%--moving in the right direction.
• She didn't explore textured food until 10 months. But now she loves feeding herself. She even reaches for the spoon and likes to try by herself. I am so excited about this because due to the UTI she wasn't interested in anything but smooth puree.
• She absolutely loves the pool, splashing and kicking. She giggles when I dip her in and jump up then dip her back down to her shoulders. Oh her smile...how magical.
• She travels so well. In her first year she has been to Disney World, and Cocoa Beach, FL to visit Great Grandma Julia; she has been hiking many times with the family in the North Georgia mountains, She flew to PA in December, then drove back to PA in June and up to Boston and back home. What a trooper.

And the list goes on... We love this girl. What a complete joy.

Great Grandma Julia & A Trip to Disney

My husband had some vacation days to use up before the end of the year, so we took a trip to Disney World in Orlando. Honestly, I think that I was the most excited of all to be at the parks. I just love Disney so much. It's hard to believe that Leo has been there twice already and he is only 22 months old! Our week started with a trip to Sea World. Our favorite show by far was the dolphin show. It was like Cirque du Soleil with dolphins, birds, divers and flying trapeze artists--so cool.

We also checked out Epcot. It was a great place for the kids to meet some of the characters up close.

Mid week we drove out to the beach to spend some time with my grandma. This was such a highlight for us. Carmella bonded so quickly with her Great Grandma. She stayed by her side the entire day and was so upset when we had to leave. It was wonderful to see Grandma. We had such a nice visit. Seeing her hold little Siena was precious and very special for me. We love you, Julia, thanks for such lovely hospitality.

The next day we went to Magic Kingdom. This was by far our favorite park. We saved the best for last. Pushing it to the max, we stayed all day, ending the evening with the light parade. The kids did great, but mom ended up at the clinic the next day. I had a double ear infection, sinus infection and bronchitis. Overall I managed fine. The biggest issue was that I couldn't breathe well and my chest hurt. A good dose of antibiotics, steroids and an inhaler did the trick. I felt much better after a few days or so.

Our Disney vacay was a great little escape. I'm not sure what the kids enjoyed most, but the entire car ride home Carmella kept asking to go back to the hotel. There was a bunk bed in our room and she got to sleep on the top bunk. That might have been the highlight for her.

Ella Turns 4

Our little girl is growing up...way too fast. We had two parties for her this year. A "family" party with our clan and my BFF, Crystal's family. We ordered pizza and had bite-sized cupcakes for dessert. She got to open presents from us and the grandparents.














From Grandma and Grandpa V.

From Grandma and PopPop S.

Since her actual birthday was on a Monday, they celebrated it at preschool. I sent in some carrot cupcakes and they sang "Happy Birthday" to her. I do carpool on Mondays so here she is in her birthday crown with her best buddy, Chloe.

Then, the following Saturday, we had a friend party for her. We invited Chloe and all the girls in her class for a Pancakes and Pajamas party. The girls had a blast!

 

 Happy Birthday Carmella, we love you so much. You've grown into such a sweetheart. You make us laugh every day with your pure silliness. The quote of the week stems from confusion over throwing you two parties. You asked me a couple of times after your first party and before your second one: "Mommy, will I turn five at the pajama party?"

"No, sweetheart, you will still be 4." Please don't rush it.

Leo's Laugh

A Little Bit of Fall

This is and has always been my favorite time of year. I drag my family out to do all kinds of Autumn activities as often as I can. I love the colors, textures and crisp cool air of the season. Living in Atlanta we don't always get the crisp cool air, but this year it has been close to what I remember from my years spent in the North. Plus, the color palate has always looked nice on me.

Pumpkin Patches

Hayrides

 Pumpkin Farms With Awesome Tractors and Wheelbarrows

 Scooping out pumpkins and creating fun faces. The best part is eating the roasted seeds. Yummy.

Siena Marie

The newest member of our family is here! Well, she is already 7 weeks old, but that's still brand new to us. There has been quite a bit of pressure put on me to create some new blog posts...so here you go! In the past 7 weeks, I have been quite busy. We have had my mom here, Mark's folks here, my mom again, and then we took a trip to NC to the Outer Banks to spend some time with my whole family--sisters and all. Then I got back to an adult-empty home. Yep, just me and my three nuggets. Mark had a business trip and I was left to tend to the unpacking and readjusting to a normal daily routine by myself.

God is so wonderful though. And I'll tell you why:  I had several ladies fighting over who was going to take Carmella to and from school that week; and we had four dinners prepared for us over the course of the week. So I can say with confidence that we were well cared for and I made it through just fine.

If you want a little drama, please read on...if not, skip to the photos--they're great!

--The Birth Story--

Thursday, August 9 I had a scare of false contractions. I really thought it was going to be time to go to the hospital. It was quite early for our little Siena to arrive so I was doubtful that they were the real deal. I was once told to take a warm shower and if the contractions continue, then they are real, if they stop, then, well, keep on with whatever you were doing, there will be no hospital run that day.

Saturday morning (Aug 11) we attended a pool party. That afternoon I started having contractions. I thought it was a false alarm until we started timing them. We called a babysitter at about 10 pm because the contractions hadn't slowed or stopped, in fact they were getting stronger and closer together. I called my OB/GYN and they said to go to the hospital. So we did.

Mark's parents weren't due to arrive at our house until Aug 17th. So if this was the real thing, we needed reinforcements ASAP. We called in our two best sitters who tag teamed all weekend long until my mom was able to get there on Monday afternoon.

We arrived at the hospital and continued laboring all night long. They assured us that this was the real deal and we were going to have the baby soon. 10 hours past. It was about 9 am the next morning and still no baby. In fact, the contractions had basically stopped. A nurse came in and checked me saying that I hadn't made any progress and did not dilate any more than when I first came in. They gave me something to eat and started preparing me to go home. Mark and I were devastated. They didn't want to induce unless I had made some progress during contractions. The baby was due on Aug 21st and she was still a few days too early for the hospital to allow me to be induced. They like the babies to be 38 weeks or more, I was two days shy of that. Tears came in bucketfuls.

They hooked me up to a monitor and said they wanted to make sure the baby's heartbeat was stable before sending me home. During this time (about 2 hours) I started having contractions again--really strong ones. So the doctor checked me after a few hours and said I had dilated more. They were actually going to go ahead and break my bag of water and put me on Pitocin to get the contractions going even stronger. I was going to have this baby after all.

I declined any sort of pain medication and wanted to try to do this completely natural. I basically did it with Leo since the epidural didn't take. So I put my brave face on and truly grinned and bared it. The doctor and the nurse were quite impressed that I wasn't screaming at all when the contractions went through the roof. I kept telling them to wait because the screaming would for sure come. It wasn't until the pushing that they got an earful--but they were ready for it. And it didn't take long.

Wow, Siena was born at 3:46 pm, weighing 7 lbs 9 oz and measuring 20 inches long. She was and is perfect. What a roller coaster.

[Big Bro and Big Sis meeting Siena for the first time. They were both sooooo excited and wanted to give her kisses right away.]

[Grandma holding Siena for the first time.]

[Doting Big Sis.]

[Mark's parents came to visit on the 17th as planned. Grandpa and Grandma got some quality time with the kids for sure.]

 

We had a great time with all. Thank you for all the help, support and companionship for the big kids during this time. We sure feel loved. The kids really miss all the attention they got from the grandparents. Then we headed to the beach and they had cousins to play with for a full week. What a complete joy. I can post about this later, or you can just go and visit my sister's blog to get a photo journal from her viewpoint. It is wonderful, I promise. http://larslaurel.blogspot.com/ 

 

 

Work Days

My parents came for a short, packed several days. I put my poor folks to work while they were here. Fortunately for me, we were trapped inside Thursday to Saturday because the temperature was well into the 100s...way too hot to do much outside. So all my little projects to prepare for the baby ended up being the main focus of the visit. On Thursday my dad sanded, stained and polyurethaned a tall dresser for Leo's big boy room. And he, with the help of my mom, installed a shelf in each girl's closet for me. Then Friday the work continued. While I cleaned out Leo's closet to get it ready for baby girl, my folks put up a curtain rod and curtain in Leo's new room. Saturday the work continued as my mom and I moved Leo's crib into his big boy room and put together the new crib for the nursery. We rearranged all the furniture in the nursery as well just so it looks like a fresh, different room for a new baby.

It's difficult to get an idea of the feel of the room, but at least you can see baby girl's crib.

Also, on Saturday we finished off Leo's room by putting up airplane wall decals and some name letters and a picture. Leo is so pleased with his big boy room. Every time he goes in there he starts jumping up and down and says "happy". I think he likes it.

Somewhere in there we had time to do a little shopping and check out the Farmer's Market. But mostly their visit was filled with work, work, and more work. Oh, and I cannot forget that my dad did ALL the cooking while they were here. Yummy!

I didn't get much rest, but it was all worth it. My to do list for "before the baby" went from 8 daunting items down to 2, very manageable, items. A big, huge, whopping thank you goes out to my folks for helping me get all this accomplished.

A Shower for Baby #3

I know it is not normally customary to have a shower for a third baby, especially since it is a second girl, but I got one anyway! What a blessing. My mom threw me a shower in PA for C, but we were living in Chicago at the time. I had some dear friends from childhood and college days attend, but since I didn't know anyone where we lived in Chicago, I didn't have the pleasure of sharing that moment with anyone there. I never got a shower for Leo since we moved in the middle of my pregnancy from Chicago to here. Therefore, technically, I never really had a shower with friends from where we live: until now.

Crystal, a friend of mine since my Florida days, now lives only 20 minutes from me. She had the sweet idea of throwing a party for baby Vig #3 while my mom was in town this past week. It took a lot of quick planning on her part, but she pulled it all together with the help of two of my neighbors. There were approximately 20 ladies that came to shower the baby with love, good wishes and beautiful gifts. It was so much fun! Thanks to all who came and to the ladies who put it all together for us. I do feel so blessed.

Here is a picture of me and Crystal.

My mom and my first baby girl.

Some friends... (a sampling from the party)