Five Alive

Today was Anabelle's fifth day of life and she is still doing great. Yes, you all cracked us for not posting sooner so we are sorry, we have been a bit busy.

Savannah was Miraculous Mom at the hospital and we checked out on Wednesday night - 2 days after Ellie was born. Not typical for a C-section but Savannah had taken such good care of herself prior to and had been so strong afterwards that she was ready to go home and the doctors and nursing staff agreed.

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We just wanted to make sure we didn't have to deal with Hayden when we got home (not that we don't love her to pieces, but if you have a 2 year old, you know) so we checked out at her bedtime so that Oma and Pop (grandma and grandpa) could put her down and we could come home to a quiet house and relax. It worked out perfectly.

As far as sleeping, for her first 3 nights of life, Anabelle has been wanting to eat a lot - like every hour and a half. Good for her. Bad for Mommy and Daddy. However last night she decided to sleep a bit longer, and gave us a 5 hour stretch at one point which we will definitely take. In fact she mostly sleeps and eats right now, which is a welcome respite from the havoc of a toddler.

Speaking of Ellie's big sister, Hayden loves "Baby Anabelle" as she calls her. She loves to hold her, pet her, give her kisses, and put blankets on her when she's sleeping, even if she puts the blankets over her face. We were wondering how she would accept a new member of our family as we knew it could have gone either way. We are thrilled with her reaction to this point so major kudos to her.

Oma and Pop have been great as well. Mommy has needed rest and Daddy has been handling odd jobs, working, making food, and other items so having family here to help has been wonderful. Pop had to leave this morning but Oma is here for a month! We appreciate the help.

Thanks to all who have sent items, well wishes, and love our way. We really appreciate it knowing we have loved ones scattered about who care.

Below is a video montage of some clips of Ellie mushed together. Fans of cheesy 80's movies will love it.

Anabelle - Day 2

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Anabelle is now over 24 hours old and she has been great. She is a wonderful eater (she must be her father's daughter) and only fusses when she is hungry. Unfortunately for her parents, she wanted to eat about 54 times last night. So Mommy and Daddy did not get much sleep.

Last night Hayden got out of school and came over to see her new little sister. She took the new addition to the family very well and 'pet' her for a few minutes. Then she wanted to hold her, which she was able to do with a little help. Then she gave her a little kiss on her forehead which was adorable.

Savannah is doing great and has moved from a clear liquid diet, to a full liquid diet, to soft foods, all the way to the cheeseburger diet! She is walking around and in plain clothes. She is experiencing minor pain but not as much as last time and nothing that some minor meds can't take care of. There is a chance we could go home tomorrow.

Enjoy the pics and the videos and thanks for the comments.

Anabelle is Here!!!

Anabelle Mae (Ellie) arrived this morning at 8:01am weighing 8 pounds 11 ounces and the tale of the tape was 20.5 inches. She did great, and Savannah was amazing.

One of the coolest moments happened shortly after she was born. Ellie hadn't yet opened her eyes and after the nurses cleaned her up and gave her to Daddy, she still hadn't opened up to see her new world. Daddy brought her over to Savannah who was still lying on the operating table and said, "Anabelle, meet your Mommy." She then opened her eyes and looked right at Savannah. It was fantastic.

Much of Ellie's family was here as both her Grandma's and Grandpa's as well as her Uncle and Aunt made it to the hospital for the event. It was great to have them here.

Overall she is a great baby. She has eaten a bunch including for 45 minutes right after she was born and she has rarely cried. Much of her time has been spent peering around the room wondering what new world she has come into.

Enjoy the pictures and thanks for the nice notes.

Click to See Pictures

Waiting for Anabelle

We are at the hospital and waiting for our scheduled time to go into the OR so that we can meet Anabelle!

Savannah is doing great, just trying to pass the time by resting a little. She is a trooper and we're super proud of her.

August Through Labor Day Weekend

We had a good last month of the summer with plenty of pool time and relaxing.

Daddy and Hayden went to a baseball game to see the Rockies versus the D-Backs. Hayden loved it and talks about it all the time. We had hot dogs, a pretzel, and some ice cream too. She even a month later she still remembers all the things we ate and she tells the story to people saying, "He threw it," referring to the pitcher.

Savannah attended her Heritage Makers conference which was held here in town. At the final dinner event, she was invited on stage as she won an award! We were so proud of her.

For labor day, we took a mini family trip up to Flagstaff. It was great to get out of the heat as the temperature up there was 80 degrees. We had a picnic in the park, toured an art fair, and Hayden got to play in some bouncy castles which she really enjoyed. Near our hotel was a line of train tracks and Hayden loved seeing the trains go by, "Chug-a Choo Choo!!!" We stayed at a cute little inn and though we thought we had reserved a suite, we only had one room. So when we put Hayden down to sleep, we had to go into the bathroom to watch a movie on the laptop. It was quite comical as we cramped into our little movie theater. The next morning we had a big breakfast and drove back down the mountain.

We also were able to finalize Anabelle's room. Thanks to Uncle Dan and Aunt Susie for the awesome tree that we were able to put on the wall (with Uncle Ashley's help). It looks awesome and makes the room look great.

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July Recap

Hello friends and family. Sorry for our delayed posting! We had good intentions to post more often but life seemed to get in the way, which I suppose is a good thing.

July kept us busy with a trip up north for the Fourth of July, Hayden's swimming lessons, a work trip for Matt, setting up Anabelle's bedroom, and a visit from Oma (Savannah's mom). It's been great that the summer has gone by so quickly because we are ready for cooler weather and ready to meet baby Anabelle.

Hayden has been doing great at daycare and really enjoys going there every day. She learns so much there and we love to see what new stuff she's picked up on. Most noticeably, it seems like her vocabulary is increasing almost daily. Some of the new phrases we heard in July include:

"What happened?"
Every day we drive by a Quizno's restaurant that was having its Grand Opening. They advertised this Grand Opening with a large red balloon. Every day Hayden would point to it and say, "red balloon". Well, at the end of the month the red balloon was taken down and now Hayden wants to know "what happened?" She's quickly picked up on using this phrase in every day conversation and frequently asks us "what happened".

Calling Matt Daddy
Hayden used to call Matt "Dada" but she now calls him Daddy. Every once in a while she calls him Matt or Babe.

Saying "Oh"
As in: "Mommy, what happened?"
"The show is over so I turned off the TV."
"Oh."

Saying her Name
At school Hayden learned to say her first and last name. But, we think that the teacher may be pronouncing it a little differently than we do. Here's how the conversation goes between us and Hayden:

Us: What's your name?
Hayden: Hayden Wal-dak
Us: No, it's Hayden Wal-lick
Hayden: No! Hayden Wal-dak
Us: No, Hayden Wal-lick

We hope every one had a great July! Thanks for all of the postings! We love to read your comments. Click on the picture below to see some of our favorite pictures from July.

July 2010

Knock, Knock

Knock, Knock...Who's There?!

HAYDEN!

Oma Comes for a Visit

At the end of July my mom came for a visit. Hayden calls her "Oma" and Hayden was SO excited to see her.

We spent the weekend relaxing and being very domestic. She taught me how to use my sewing machine (better late than never), we made homemade blueberry cobbler, we watched movies, swam in the pool, and lounged around. It was wonderful.

Oma brought a few gifts along with her including a "pony purse" that Opa bought Hayden. Hayden absolutely loves the pony purse and immediately put a little book and a Kleenex in it (so glad she's prepared). She also brought her a feather boa and a tiara, because lord knows we want her to act MORE like a princess. :)

When Oma had to leave we explained to Hayden that Oma had to go back to Wyoming. "Oma in Wyoming?" was all we heard for the next week. Thankfully, she's coming back mid-September and spending a month with us after Anabelle is born. We haven't told Hayden yet, but we know she'll be so excited to see her again!

Click on the picture below to see all of the photos from Oma's visit!

Oma Visits

Dressing Herself

Lately Hayden has shown a lot of interest in different clothes and dressing herself. We have a chest full of dress up clothes and she loves to go through it and put together outfits. Here are some of our favorite pictures of her latest get-ups.

Playing Dress Up

Make a Face!

We have so much fun with Hayden between the time we finish dinner and when we put her to bed. We play with her on the floor, or watch the Backyardigans, or teach her how to make funny faces.

Hayden thought that putting her fingers on her cheeks was "making a funny face" and she had us cracking up.

Funny Faces