Simon!

 

As all of you know, Simon Kenneth arrived on Wednesday February 19th, at 9:54 am, weighing in at 7lbs 5oz and 20.75 inches tall.  The talk of the OR though was his amazing red hair.  So cute.  I have attached some photos in no particular order because I can't be bothered to try and reorder them!

Here he is! a few minutes old, and not happy by the looks of things!

 Meeting big sister for the first time!

Randomly placed photo of Evie getting ready to do some gardening. This was today - the day we came home. I think she's excited about Simon but a little disappointed that he doesn't do much.
 Showing off his red hair.

 Snuggling up with Mummy. You can see his little birthmark on this one.

 More red!

 At home in his moses basket.

 

And two photos with Daddy!

I will post more as I get them.  He's been a sweet baby so far if a bit lazy - I have to wake him up to eat.  But at least the time between that we get to sleep!

Jane xxx

Skate princess and 37 weeks

Evening!

There has not been much to catch up on recently which is why the blog has been a bit quiet.  But I thought I'd share this photo of Evie in one of her new skating outfits. There was a used equipment sale at the rink and we picked up this adorable dress (with matching scrunchie of course) which is fleece lined so baby girl doesn't freeze! Here she is after a couple of hours skating with Daddy!

 

 

 

As for baby boy, we got to see him today. Evie came with us as she wanted to see her brother. She was really good and thankfully the doctor's office was running uncharacteristically on time.  Since I hit 37 weeks today, it is time for a baby update!

Weight Gain:  26 pounds or so. Holding steady!

How big is baby? According to the scan lady nowhere near as big as Evie was! 6lbs 2 oz- head to bottom just over 19 inches. That puts him just over 7 pounds for estimated birth weight. So much for feeling bigger than Evie! 

Maternity Clothes? oh yea. Feel like a blimp most days and my favourite dress is now too short. Sadness. 

Stretch marks? Not yet

Sleep? Still really good. I think snoogle might be one of the best inventions ever in the history of the universe.

Best Moment of the week? the scan today and seeing Evie's happy little face.  Also looking forward to dinner with Auggie on Saturday night :-)

Movement? Poor baby is running out of space. He is stretching a lot but not dancing like he used to. His preferred spot to stretch is on my right side, right above my hip. This looks very peculiar.

Belly button in or out? Flat

What I miss?  I could really do with some champagne. And by some I mean a bottle.

 

And on that note, good night y'all

 

 

J xx

35 Weeks Update

Since I have not talked about him in a while, I thought baby boy deserved a post. I have also included a very grumpy looking photo from our 4D ultrasound session. He did not seem pleased to be disturbed.


So here we go. I had my 35 week appointment today and Dr. is so pleased with me I don't have to go back again for another two weeks. This is good news as getting to the doctors from work takes a lot of time.

Weight Gain:  26 pounds or so. Pretty pleased with that overall and at least I am not in trouble any more!!

How big is baby? 5.5 pounds- head to bottom just over 18 inches! This is an average of all the websites which seem to all say something different. We have not had a measurement scan yet so I don't know how big he actually is. Worryingly he feels bigger than Evie did.

Maternity Clothes? Mostly. I'm finding new and exciting ways to wear the same stuff over and over. Still no tents necessary thank goodness.

Stretch marks? Not yet

Sleep? Still really good.    

Best Moment of the week? We have almost finished the room!! We are just waiting for my chair to arrive and for our railway poster framing to be completed. Then aside from Auntie Jill's embroidery masterpiece we will be finished. 

Movement? Lots of kicking and squiggling around. Especially after I've eaten something tasty like the yummy chocolate cake work had for me today. I think it made a nice change for him from spinach and salmon.  

Belly button in or out? in

What I miss? Not all that much. I'm feeling very cheerful at the moment. Trying to enjoy every minute as we only have 4 weeks left!!!!!! 

 

That's all for now. I get a scan in 2 weeks to see how chunky he is and to confirm our delivery date :-) exciting exciting. xxx

 

Lots to catch up on!

After a flurry of activity, I've been useless again so Merry Christmas and happy 2014 to all 3 of my readers! We have had so much going on!! Here are some highlights - followed by photos! We also met beautiful baby Isla, Evie' new cousin. Pictures of her to come too!

 

1. Evie's Nutcracker show.  This was so cute.  Although she was only in 3 minutes of the 1 1/2 hour show, she was the star of course!! The standard was actually really good and all of us who are ice skating fans enjoyed sitting on the ice watching the sparkly outfits :-)

 

2. Evie's birthday party.  We waited until the weekend before Christmas for the epic party so that Sam could join us.  We went to Wonderwild which is a huge indoor play area that is fun for the children and for the Dads since the climbing frames and slides are big enough for everyone! It was so much fun and Evie got lots of lovely presents.

 

3. Christmas!!! So much fun :-)  Evie had a super duper time opening all of her presents and seeing what Santa had brought. She was relieved to see that there was no coal in her stocking.  We at lots of turkey masterfully prepared by Papa with all the appropriate trimmings (Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, parsnips, veggies, pigs in blankets etc etc) and of course figgy pudding. Lots of figgy pudding. Santa brought us all wines to there was plenty to go around. 

 

 

 

 

 

4. New Year!! This was also super fun. Especially for me, Grandad and Elisa who won the quiz :-) Evie wanted to be woken up for the fireworks but didn't look too cheerful about it when we got her up. I think she liked the pink ones though (surprise surprise).

 

5. 3D ultrasound.  This outing didn't start too well as the place I found online looked more than dodgy from the outside. It was a bit cheap and cheerful but did the job and we got to see baby boy who has very chubby cheeks - I will put a photo in a later post.  Like his sister, he was not big on cooperating with us but we won in the end and did see him stick out his tongue.

 

6. Baby's room!! We FINALLY got off our bottoms and did some work on the room. Pa helped Auggie put the bed up in the loft and Auggie and I sorted out the junk from the room and the closet.  It is looking very cute indeed especially now we have the dresser back from the refinishing man.  yay. We just need the new chair to finish it off.

 

7. AMAZING baby shower at Nana's house.  20 or so of us celebrated our upcoming arrival with raspberry champagne, cucumber sandwiches, mince pies, quality street and tasty cake.  We were given lots of beautiful presents and baby is now completely set up!! 

 

Ok - now what you really want. . . . . 

Evie with her flowers after the show. Very pleased with herself!

Evie and Sam have fun before her party!

Evie and the Nutcracker himself!!   Evie with baby's newly refinished dresser. I'm really excited about this as it looks perfect in his room. It will go SO well with the white leather chair.

 

 

 

 I bought these shoes for Evie a year ago. They are Cinderella shoes that light up. Fabulous no? Well, I put them in such a safe place that it has taken over a year to find them. Turns out that inside a pyrex dish is about the most safe place you can find. Anyway, as you can imagine, Evie loooooves these!!!

 Evie with the other gingerbreads and Mother Ginger during the show. So cute.

 Evie sporting her new skating dress we gave her for Christmas. We warned her it would be cold but of course Evie knows best. She did eventually give in and put on a coat.

And this is just funny. Blowing up balloons must be tiring

 Baby pictures in the next post!!

Ohh should also mention that Evie had her 4 year appointment. She is 94th percentile for height and 79th for weight and spent a good amount of the appointment correcting the doctor's speech. That's my girl!!

xxxxx

Brief Baby Update

Brrrr.It is COLD in Houston.  I am not maternity clothes prepared for this!!  We should have put the outside decorations out last weekend while it was nice. Live and learn.

Anyway, I had my 28 week baby appointment this week!! I'm now on every other week appointments so time will fly.  Baby kept moving away from the heartbeat monitor. Naughty boy.  This does not fill me with a huge amount of hope for the 3D ultrasound in January.  Aside from that, he is measuring pretty much on time and everything so far is going well.

Weight Gain:  Actually down 2 pounds with according to the good Dr. is fine because I am now in the normal range (hurray!!) So I'm officially no longer a heifer. At least until the Thanksgiving and birthday cake pounds hit.

How big is baby? 2.7 pounds- head to bottom just over 14 inches! Apparently he is basically just adding fat at this point. If only that were the goal for all of us.  

Maternity Clothes? Same as last time. Bump has grown so a few things no longer fit. I'm getting fairly bored with all my stuff now though

Stretch marks? Not yet

Sleep? Still good. Snoogle is doing his work.   

Best Moment of the week? Ultra kick practice in the evenings.

Movement? See above. He's very active at the moment. My whole tummy moves around - had forgotten from last time how creepy it is when that happens. He's actually putting on a good show as we speak.

Belly button in or out? in

What I miss? Currently, tasty food. Due to heifferness at the last appointment, I'm on a carb limited diet. This is incredibly dull as let's be honest, carbs are the good stuff. There is only so much excitement I can muster for salad.  I am keeping my carb intake to 50% of my daily food or less. Its REALLY HARD!!! Whine  whine whine. Wouldn't mind some wine either come to that.

Milestone:  We hired a painter!! Having been quoted an insanely high price by one guy and the next not bothering to call us back we finally got in touch with Nacho the painter who did some work for us at our old house. Baby will have a blue room on Friday!!! yay!

 

So that's it! Next appointment in two weeks. Should get the results from my glucose test soon too which hopefully I passed because if I remember correctly, the three hour test stinks.

 

Jane xxx

 

Birthday Cake, Santa, Skating etc.

 Ok, last one. Three posts in one night! This is what I get for leaving it a while. 

As you all know, Evie's birthday is on Tuesday.  Sadly, Nana will be away visiting Evie's new cousin, Baby Isla, in Tucson.  So, even though we will be having a party with her friends later in December, we decided to have a birthday party this afternoon.  It was a very exciting day all round. He's Evie anxiously waiting to see Santa.

 

 

Since Evie's dairy problem presents us with something of a cake problem, I usually make her cakes.  She had asked for a pink cake with lots of flowers on it. I think this just about fit the bill. I have a whole new respect for the strength my Grandad had to do lots of these cakes. I had "claw" hand by the end of it (should mention here that Auggie did offer to help but because I'm suborn I refused his help. Mistake). Anyway, Evie liked it and the cake didn't taste to bad either. And Auntie Jill, in case you were wondering, the ballerina on the cake is in fact the same one I used to have on my birthday cakes. I should also mention that there was a green jelly that Nana made.  

 Evie got some fantastic presents. As you can see, I am just as excited as her as it means I get to play with ponies.

 And huge kudos to Uncle Chris for the amazing dress!! Evie was SO excited. She can't wait to wear it.

 As I mentioned at the top, we saw Santa today.  Evie and Daddy are ready!! Both have been very good this year.

Sweet Evie asked very nicely for what she would like this year. Santa said he would do his best. he then mentioned that she has to keep being good. At that point Evie looked slightly less sure about the whole thing.  It was cute though. Not sure whether Lelly was given the opportunity to ask for anything.  I think had she the chance, a bath would be top of her list.

 

 And of course we spent some time skating.  Evie is getting better at going solo on the ice. She still favors holding Daddy's hand though.

And these are just some cute pictures. We found Lelly a new outfit in San Angelo. Evie was very excited. And last weekend we saw our lovely friends who are sadly leaving the US in January. Evie has known Lauren and Sarah her whole life and we will really miss them when they go home to Australia. A good reason to go and visit I think!

 

 

As for baby, he's kicking like CRAZY and squishing my breathing a bit because I'm carrying him so high. But otherwise he is well. I have an appointment this week with the glucose test (yikes). Hopefully since I have been tracking my carb intake on an I-phone app I don't be in quite so much trouble with my doctor! I will keep you posted :-)

 

 

Happy Sunday

Jane xxx

San Angelo Baby Shower!

 

On the Friday after Thanksgiving Auggie's Mum - Grandma - and his Granny - Great Granny - hosted a baby shower for baby boy in San Angelo.  It was a very fun afternoon with lots of nice presents for baby and yummy food. There were also so fun games.  Baby now has a bath, some new clothes, some bubble bath, the most cuddly dog ever in the history of the world, a second car seat base, some plates and cutlery made from potatoes (who knew??) and some spending money. Evie had a good time opening all of the presents and entertaining the crowd.

 

Here we are with Grandma and Granny

 

Ma and Pa came too!!

 

 And so did Uncle Thad. Evie was especially pleased to see Uncle Thad.

 Granny thought that Evie should have a present too so here she is with "Princess Flower" her new doll. Evie also got a princess dress up set from Connie, Pat and Rachel. I'm fairly sure Evie thought that it was all for her!!

Hugest thanks to Grandma and Granny for hosting! Baby is a lucky boy

Jane xx

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!

 

 

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving in Paint Rock and San Angelo with many member's of Auggie's family. There was lots of tasty food and good company.  We travelled up in Tuesday night to take advantage of lighter traffic (if not fewer deer).  We managed not to hit any Bambi relative thankfully.

 

On Wednesday we had lunch with Great Ma and Great Pa at Lowake Steak House.  Evie pies was a bit sleepy after feeding the cows and Sugar the horse but managed to pose for a few photos. 

 

Thanksgiving lunch was at the Paint Rock ranch. Auggie's cousins were also there with their kids. Evie and Sophie had so much fun neither one wanted to leave.

 This was also the first time Evie met baby Rollins. He is a very sweet baby.

 

 

 And we got to spend some time at Ma and Pa's house. He's Evie looking very thoughtful. I did not think there was so much to think about in an episode of Baby Bear but apparently I was wrong.

Baby boy update!

Since I am approaching 25 weeks it is time for another baby update. I had an appointment last week and he was trying to dodge the Doppler heartbeat monitor again but we found him! He has a nice healthy heart rate of 157 and is wiggling around a lot. Evie has felt him a few times which she was very excited about.  We have also stopped being completely bad parents and made some more progress on his room.  We have a paint color!! A miracle descended upon our house yesterday when Auggie and I picked the same colour of those we splodged on the wall.  I also hung up his clothes in the closet and finished the new guest room. We even hung curtains. No big step for normal people but for anyone who knows us, this is quite impressive for the Campbells :-)

24 1/2 Weeks

Weight Gain:  Depends upon who you ask. The scale at the doctors is ancient and the nurse didn't wait for the needle to stop wibbling and recorded my weight pretty high. Nana's digital scale says I'm just fine (and for the record, I've been using Auggie as a "control" so I know the scale is not under weighing!). So I'm going with "fine"

How big is baby? 1.5lbs - head to bottom just over 12 inches! The comment on my most recent babycenter update was "looks like a baby." Thank goodness for that is all I can say.

Maternity Clothes? yes for trousers. Mixed bag for everything else. I am trying to avoid "tent" maternity dresses.

Stretch marks? Not yet

Sleep? Good. I have enlisted "snoogle" again and he is making a big difference.  So far Auggie has resisted stealing snoogle from me.  

Best Moment of the week? Hearing his heartbeat :-)

Movement? lots and lots and lots. Still practicing his rugby technique I think. Either that or he's thinking of playing trombone in a marching band.

Labor signs? none

Belly button in or out? in

What I miss? Not sneezing at the smallest amounts of dust. Garage clearing has been fairly miserable

Milestone: None really.

So there you go.

Evie went to her second skating lesson yesterday. She was very good and skated backwards a little as wells as doing some other moves. Auggie took her today for the public skating and Evie had a GREAT time. She likes to go as fast as possible.  I will post some more pictures later in the week.

Jane xxx

Halloween and other fun

Another week, another load of fun.  It started with last weekend.  Evie was allowed a lollipop for some excellent toilet behavior. I think you can guess the colour/flavour! Rest assured we only give Evie healthy, all natural foods :-)  To be honest, given the toilet training nightmare that was, I was willing to offer almost anything as a bribe.

 

On Saturday night Auggie and I were off at a Democrats fundraiser so Evie got to live one of her favourite dreams of having a sleepover at Tori's house. She also got to see the very end of a Rice football game with Uncle Robbie, Auntie Elisa and Tori.  We went over the next morning to collect her, and the girls were dressing up. I'm not entirely sure what is going on here but Tori doesn't look to sure about it at all.

 

 

 We also thought it might be fun to make an apple and cranberry crumble.  Evie likes making these because she can get her hands in the mixture and get all gooey.  For those lucky enough to have a piece, at least you know all the germs were cooked out at a very high temperature! I think this was one of our better efforts - Papa definitely agreed! Evie did manage to fall of the stool and almost took the mixing bowl with her but luckily I caught it in time. I told Evie we would have eaten Evie Crumble had it fallen on her.

 

  Finally we got most of our Christmas shopping done last weekend, along with some fun time on the carousel.  Yes, we are feeling very pleased with ourselves for being so organised!!  

 

and then of course there was Halloween. Auggie calls me the "Scrooge" of Halloween as I turn off all the lights, and don't allow the TV on in case anyone knocks on our door. To be honest, I HATE it. I don't want to be bothered by rude children in weird costumes.  Sadly, Evie thinks it is wonderful so we got a costume and participated in the "trunk or treat" at school.  This is much more like it. You play a few games, then go around to a few cars and get some sweets. Then you go home. Perfect.  Tori came along too!  Pies came up to my office to get changed and found a pink mirror so naturally wanted a photo of the mirror.  Also therefore is a rare glimpse of my soulless work office!

Skating anyone???

This weekend was the highly anticipated event of Evie's first skating lesson.  We figured that this would either be highly successful or a complete nightmare. We arrived at the skating place and disaster threatened when all the other little girls had white boots and Evie had rented brown ones. Luckily she didn't really notice until the end.   We had signed up for two classes and the first class was for the end of year show (the Nutcracker).  It turned out Evie was the only beginner in the show. Yikes.  So, we sent her out on the ice anyway (great parenting) and a kind older girl took her by the hand. So, they were then put into groups and Evie had to skate with a zimmer frame while looking enviously at the other.  She actually did very well. So well in fact . . .

She quickly progressed to no zimmer frame! When she did fall down it turned out that Evie is fairly dreadful at getting back up again.  You shouldn't laugh at your own children quite so uncontrollably but it REALLY was funny.  Overall though, she did very well.

And was very tired at the end of it all!

 

 

I have a doctor's appointment this week so I can give you another exciting baby update, hopefully not one that starts with being in trouble for being a heifer again!! Sadly no ultrasound but hopefully a nice heartbeat.  I will also add some stuff from the Daughters of the British Empire Christmas Bazaar that we attended today. Punch and Judy anyone??

 

 

Janexxx