Welcome Fall

The weather has started to cool down and we are welcoming Fall with open arms.  A couple of weekends ago we went to the Dinosaur Park with some new friends from the squadron. Cydney enjoyed walking around to see the dinosaur sculptures spread throughout the park, playing in the sand pit digging for fossils as well as hearing the dinosaurs roar and move. This is now on Cydney list of favorite places to go. 

 We also took the kids to the Circus. Cydney was so excited and happy the whole night. She kept saying, "WOW!! Did you see that!" to Jared and I.  Cydney did not stop talking about it for two days. Now she keeps asking when we can go back to the Circus. 


This weekend we went to Black Island Farms, just a few miles from our house, to see what they had set up for the Fall Harvest Festival.  We spent most of our time watching Cydney run, climb and play on the slides, swings and hay stacks.  We then took a walk through the kiddie corn maze followed by a hay ride out to the Pumpkin Patch to pick our pumpkins to bring home. 

 Nathan is getting big so fast! He has started rolling over, eating rice cereal and is always babbling or squealing his high pitched squeal. This past week he has started trying to get up on all fours and figure out the whole crawling thing.  I don't think I am ready for that :) 

He is a very happy baby and loves to watch Cydney run around and play. He thinks she is hilarious when she is jumping the hopscotch outside.  Baby giggles are one of the best sounds in the world. I love hearing Nathan and Cydney laugh together.  Cydney is an awesome big sister and is already telling Nathan everything he will learn from her when he is bigger. 

Princess Party and turning Three!!

This year for Cydney's Birthday she decided she wanted to have a Princess Party. She is all about the Princesses these days. Loves to play dress up, wear jewelery, play with her princess dolls and watch "Beauty and the Beast" or "Cinderella".  We found a local company who hires out characters for parties and contacted them to hire a Belle. It was arranged for Belle to come to the house for an hour to play with the kids and entertain them with whatever party games or activities I had planned. The girls wanted to play dress up, dolls and have balloon fights with Belle.  It was a success!  Cydney was so happy to see Belle and to be able to play with her and the other little girls.  The smile on Cydney's face was priceless.  Everyone had a great time and Cydney is still talking about Belle coming to play, and wants to know if she can come back again.

It is hard to believe how fast these past three years have gone. To think that three years ago we were adjusting to parenthood, learning how to juggle the needs of a newborn with our own needs, and being completely in love with our new baby girl!  Now we have two children whom we love with all our hearts and who love each other more than I could imagine. They both light up when they are interacting with one another. Cydney is excited for Nathan to get bigger and able to chase her around. 


Cydney has  been living in a different State or Country for each birthday. We are excited to see what the future holds for her. She has learned both mine and Jared's phone numbers, she can name all shapes, colors, letters and numbers. 

She moved up to the Preschool room at the CDC and is doing very well adjusting to the older and bigger kids. Her room is for ages 3 to 5, I was a little anxious about how she would do with the much bigger kids. Her teachers tell me she is doing great, the bigger girls have taken her in and watch out for her from the big boys.  Many times the older girls want to treat her like she is a "baby" and try to do everything for Cydney, who is quick to tell them she can do it herself. 

When I asked her what she wants to be when she grows up and she said "I want to be a Cinderella".  Her favorite color is yellow, she loves to watch Princess movies, work puzzles, read Curious George books and color or paint pictures. 

Cydney brings so much joy and laughter to our home. She is very quick witted, not afraid to stick up for herself, caring and loving to her brother and always quick to lend a hand to anyone she can. 

Elmo Live

 We surprised Cydney with going to see Elmo Friday night.  The Sesame Street/USO organizations held a free show for military families this weekend.  Cydney got extremely happy and excited as we drove into the parking lot where she saw the big bus and semi with Elmo and characters on the side. 

Counting down to Elmo

 Loving the show. She danced in the aisle the whole time and even ran up to them as they would come off the stage to interact with the audience. 

 Bye Elmo! 

During the final song kids were encouraged to come up to the front of the stage to shake hands with the characters.  Cydney was very excited about this and tried to sneak up the stage steps. She wanted to be up there dancing with them.  I think she would have been just as happy to have a meet and greet of the characters without a show.

One Month Old

Nathan is one month old.  This past month has really flown by.  Getting used to having two has been fun and challenging all at the same time.  Cydney loves her baby brother and is always telling everyone that he is hers.  When I go to pick her up from day care she tells her teachers, "That is my Nathan and my Mommy, I love them!" 

In the past few weeks Nathan has gained over two pounds, started sleeping longer stretches at night and being awake more during the day.  He is also is a very good eater, he has already outgrown the newborn clothes and diapers. 

 Night one

 One Week

 Two Weeks

 Three Weeks

Four Weeks

 

More Home Improvements.....

Jared spent his two weeks paternity leave working on more home improvement projects. First he started with putting an Epoxy coat on the garage floor. 

Before:

 After:

The current project he is working on is putting in a kitchenette/wet bar in the basement.  Using the storage space in the back of his Theater Room. 

Before:

 Knocking out the wall:

Framing the inside of the closet for the new walls:

He is at a stopping point for now, waiting to get an electrician out to do some of the re-wiring and he has had to return to work.  Can't wait to see the finished product. 

Nathan Patrick White

Nathan Patrick made his appearance May 23 at 6:48 pm. Weighing 6 lbs 15 oz and 21 inches long.

The labor and delivery went really smooth and fast. 4 hours total from the time I arrived at the hospital to when he was born.  I had been at work that morning and began feeling cramping.  They were not really bothersome or coming at any certain intervals. Around one o'clock I was leaving for a lunch break, and decided to come home for some rest.  Once home I noticed the cramps were getting a little stronger and lasting a little longer each time. By 2 pm I decided to call the doctors office just to see what they would say, the nurse decided that with being 38 weeks I should go to Labor and Delivery to be monitored.  I called work to tell them what was going on and headed to the hospital.  I arrived at 2:45 and began paperwork for admission. By 3:15 I was in a room getting hooked up to the fetal monitor.  Contractions had started and were coming every 6 minutes.  The doctor kept me for observation for the next hour to see how things progressed and then we would make a decision on whether I would stay or be sent home.

In the meantime I called Jared's squadron to get him a message. I knew he was flying that afternoon, but wasn't sure if he was finished or not. He was still flying so I left the message with someone in the Squadron and told them to have him call me once he was back in the building. As soon as I got done with this call, I began receiving calls from Jared's co-workers and his commanders wife asking if I needed anything or help with Cydney. I was very grateful for the offers of help and comforted to know that everything would be taken care of in the event I could not get a hold of Jared. 

Cydney was still at Day Care and the only concern I had was if I did not hear from Jared in time, how Cydney was going to be picked up.  Jared called about fourty five minutes later and said he was on his way to pick up Cydney and hand her off to some friends who would keep her for the night.  I was so grateful for her to have somewhere to go. While I have not yet met Sara (the wife of one of Jared's co- workers), I can't thank her enough for taking in Cydney at the last minute.    Jared said Cydney was so excited to see Daddy come pick her up from school he felt bad having to hand her off so quickly and when he was explaining to her where she was going she got a little sad.  Everything turned out fine, Cydney enjoyed herself at "Ms. Sara's" and asks when we can go back again.

Once Jared got Cydney situated he called me back to see how things were going.  I was now having contractions every four to five minutes and the doctor had decided the baby was coming that night.  Jared arrived at the hospital by 5:00, came to the room and changed clothes just as my epidural was arriving. Once I received that I was able to relax a little, have a Popsicle and wait for the doctor to come back and check my progress. She came back and said I was ready to deliver. It was now 6:30 pm, the doctor and nurse began preparing the room for delivery and called the nursery to send down nurses for baby.  After a few pushes he was born.

As we sat there waiting for him to be cleaned up we had to decide on a name.  After some talking about the ones we liked and saying them out loud we decided on Nathan Patrick.

The whole experience was a whirlwind and I can't believe how fast everything went this time around.  We are blessed to have our precious Nathan here and loving every minute of being a family of four.

Cydney is getting more tolerant of his crying. She did not like it at first and would ask for me to make him stop. Now she will state what she thinks he needs; to eat,  a new diaper, or just a song to calm him down.  She has stared to "play" with him some, reading him books and showing him her toys that she is playing with.  It is really cute to watch her want him to do things with her.  She likes to be our helper bringing us diapers, blankets, picking out Nathan's clothes or just sitting with me while feeding him. Cydney bought Nathan his teddy bear so that he could have his own toy and not take her "Didgee". 

Nathan is a good sleeper and a pretty calm baby.  This first week home has been a test in learning to juggle the needs of two along with keeping up with house cleaning, cooking, and keeping Cydney on a somewhat normal schedule to keep her from having too much change.  I am thankful Jared was able to have some time off work to help get our new routine set.