Tummy time!

Nona does not get much tummy time yet since she sleeps so much, but during her few awake times, we like to give her some exercise.

Nona

Okay, so this isn't her best picture, but it was hard to get a good one of her yesterday. So, who does Nona look like? Isn't that the question? In case you're thinking it, but are too afraid to say it, yes, we think she looks a bit Asian too! There, now it's out in the open. She doesn't look like either my baby pictures or Noel's, but she does have my mouth. She's a mystery and we love her dearly!

Miss Personality

Sweet Hazel is quite something lately. She is always keeping us laughing. Here's what she's up to lately:

• As I was feeding Nona in our bedroom, she walked in, gave me her toy, took my cell phone that was on the arm of the chair, walked to the door, waved "bye-bye" and took off down the hall
• Her routine at meal time is to point and whine for BOTH sippy cups so that she can give one to Jude. It's not okay for mommy to give it to Jude.
• She likes to "help" put Jude's diaper on after bath time
• She's constantly walking around "texting" on her cell phone (Noel's old phone)
• Her food of choice for the week is hard-boiled egg (white part only) dipped in salt
• She is always wearing long strands of beads
• She HATES messes. Yesterday she begged (whined) for a napkin and promptly wiped her tray clean, swiping up all the pieces of food she didn't want as well as some juice from the mandarin oranges. If she drops her water on the floor and it leaks, she points to it and whines for it to be wiped up. She's always finding the smallest fuzzies on the carpet and bringing them to me. Maybe in a few months she can start to help me clean!

She is ALWAYS making us laugh and I'm sure as she starts talking, things will only get funnier.

1 week old

On Monday, Nona was one week old. She's still very sweet, never cries (except during diaper changes), and sleeps 95% of the time.

We caught her with her eyes open! A rare occurrence!

Sleepy, sleepy.

We've had some more nice weather, so Jude and Hazel have gotten to go outside more. Jude still has no desire to walk outside (or with shoes on), but we'll keep practicing.

Hazel LOVES being outside and could be out there all day if we let her.

New Baby Nona!

On Monday, March 19, at 8:15a, we welcomed our new daughter, Nona Lucille, into the world. She weighed 7 lbs, 1 oz, and was 18.8 in long. She is healthy, full term, and doing well. Here are some photographs of the occasion.

Mom got to hold her right away, instead of her being whisked away to the NICU.

Daddy had to reassure Nona that it was going to be okay and that Mommy would be back from the O.R. soon.

Nona is super calm and content. She loves to sleep and eat. Her first night, all she wanted to do was rest on mommy's chest. She refused to go into her crib.

"Hi, world!"

A totally different experience compared with the previous pregnancy!

On Tuesday, Hazel and Jude came with Grandma to visit us in the hospital. They're still not so sure about the new arrival. (For one thing, what is it?) Hazel is starting to be more interested in Nona now, though.

Heidi and Nona came home after only two days in the hospital. Noel took the week off of work, so we've been enjoying a week home as a family.

Isn't she beautiful?

Our friend Cara brought Nona a birthday cake. It has one candle because it's impossible to light zero candles.

We've been having nice weather, so Hazel and Jude went outside with Grandma and Daddy a couple days ago. They loved riding the dump truck toy that was left in the backyard by previous residents.

Classic Jude and Hazel expressions...

Last pregnant picture

38 weeks 6 days. The eve of baby's birth.

Jude and Hazel

On the eve of our next daughter's birth, we thought we'd let you know a little more about the fun Hazel and Jude have been having lately.

Jude practicing his walking. He's walking more and more and is so proud. Go Jude!

Hazel and Jude both have these tables in their rooms. Noel sat Hazel at her table the other day for the first time and she loved it! She loved it so much that she wanted to play there instead of nap and also wanted to play there in the middle of the night. Jude was a bit more hesitant, but still had fun.

Jude got his first major haircut yesterday. His hair's been a bit out of control for awhile and Hazel likes to grab it and pull it, so we needed to take care of that. Here's his before picture.

Hazel was a great observer and wanted a haircut of her own.

After. What a stud!

Brushing teeth after bath time.

Noel and I took advantage of my mom being here and headed out for one last date Saturday night.

Last picture as a family of 4!

16 months

Hazel and Jude turned 16 months a few days ago. Do I have any pictures? No. I'm losing my mind. I was going to post something a few days ago, but they've been testing my patience so much lately that I thought I'd try and wait a few days until I could think of a few nice things to say. :) While they still know how to push my buttons (or maybe it's just the crazy pregnancy hormones?), I am trying to enjoy these last few days with them before baby #3 makes her debut. So, what are they up to?

Jude LOVES:

• EATING! He is happiest when he is in his chair eating. He is a quite a sight when it comes to shoving handful after handful of food in his mouth. Anytime the microwave is turned on, he crawls over and whines in front of it (as if he hasn't eaten all day). Anytime anyone has food, he thinks he needs some too. He eats most anything.
• Bouncing - I think he would laugh all day if Noel held him up high and bounced him and tossed him around
• Things that move - he is completely obsessed (and I don't use that term lightly) with things that open and shut. He opens and closes doors, drawers, gates, parts on toys, etc., all day long. Most people who meet him say he'll be a mechanic or engineer.

Jude HATES:

• Meat - it's one thing he actually spits out and will not try another bite of.
• Being set down after dancing, bouncing, rough housing with daddy. He cries and cries and throws himself on the floor.
• When I close the dishwasher (it's another thing he is obsessed with...watch out when you close it, there will be many sad tears)
• Taking morning nap -this is a new one and a very frustrating one. He still needs the nap, but instead, he pulls up his sheets, stands in his crib and yells (which wakes up Hazel if I don't tend to it fast enough)
• Walking - he chooses to drop and crawl after a few steps (or anytime we say, "good job, Jude!").

Overall, he's a really easy going guy. He has 8 teeth with a 9th about to pop through. He either doesn't know the meaning of no or just chooses to completely ignore me when I say his name and "no-no" when he's getting into things he shouldn't and other than his nap refusal, that's my biggest frustration. He's not saying anything yet, but he will say "DAH-dah" when I ask him what a diaper is.

Hazel LOVES:

• Music/Dancing - she lights up anytime there's music on and she dances to everything (even the beat of the washing machine when it's running)
• Walking everywhere! She rarely crawls and is on the verge of running. Watch out!
• Collecting things in her hands and carrying them around for long periods of time (socks, small toys, crackers, anything). This is new since she's been walking and kind of funny. She'll hang onto things for over an hour sometimes.
• Taking books off the shelf and bringing them to me (but she doesn't sit and listen to more than a few pages of each book).

Hazel HATES:

• Eating - this is our number one frustration with her lately. She's always been kind of picky, but lately she eats about 5 bites per meal and then starts trying to stand up in her chair, whining, and getting really mad. I've tried a million and one things to feed her and am at my wits end.
• Teething - this may sound silly, but I think she's the world's worst teether. She is SO whiny, doesn't eat well (which could be part of the reason she's been eating horribly for a month), wakes up so much at night, and just not pleasant. This lasts for WEEKS. Not days. Weeks.
• Not being held by me (Heidi) whenever I'm trying to do anything in the kitchen. She doesn't do this to other people, but she hangs on my legs and whines ALL the time.

Hazel also has 8 teeth and I'm sure she's working on more due to her craziness lately (or maybe she just senses that life is about to change). She's such a ham and very funny. She is good at following directions and know what "no" means. She'll often touch something she's not supposed to and then look at me and shake her head no. It's quite funny. She's not saying anything either, but the other day, she picked up a diaper and said "DIE-dah". So, I think both of their first words could be diaper. :) That may be because every other second I probably say, "Okay, let's go change your diaper" to one of them. She makes tons of sounds and has the sounds available to her to say many words, but isn't putting them together. Yesterday she walked around all day saying, "dum-dum-dum". Today it's, "gum-gum-gum".

Both Hazel and Jude should officially graduate from physical therapy next month (assuming Jude ups his game with his walking). Hurray! However, they'll probably start a language enhancement something or other (pre-speech therapy) since they are behind in their speech even for their adjusted age.

Jude laughing at his toy

Thought you might enjoy this video of Jude laughing at this toy his grandmother gave him.

 

37 weeks

Full-term and feeling big!

Chair pushing

Noel was trying to get another video of Hazel walking (since that was what she was doing until the camera came on), but instead he captured another one of the babies' favorite activities, chair pushing.

Hazel dancing

Here is a fun one of Hazel dancing. She loves to move to music!

Hazel walking

This video is a couple weeks old, but we still wanted to share it. Hazel is walking pretty much everywhere now. Walking is actually her preferred mode of locomotion now. She doesn't stand up from the middle of the floor, but she does pull up on the wall and start walking.