A few randoms

Reason # 357 that Eleanor is my daughter:

A calculator in one hand and cleaning tools in the other. Notice that she is happy about it.

Ellie is an artist. She loves to do any kind of art and comes home from day-care with tons of art work. Instead of buying pictures for her bedroom wall, we decided to frame her art work! Ellie is very proud of her 'art gallery.'

The other month Ellie had a cold and wanted her own box of tissues since she had been blowing her nose by herself. I wanted to encourage to keep up the good work, so I let her have a box by her bed. This is what I found the next morning... I learned that leaving a box by the bed is OK, but maybe not a brand new box.

5 on Friday

1. Genevieve Marie Larson! She made her Mommy very happy by arriving a few days early (official due date was today). We are head over heels in love with her.

2. We are now a family of four. I love saying that. It is perfect.

3. Ellie is learning to be a big sister. She loves to help out and loves her little sister--- she just needs to work on her gentle touches a little.

4. My recovery after delivery was 100x faster than with Ellie, and I am loving it. I can lay down with Ellie in her bed and not be incredibly uncomfortable. At the end of the pregnancy Ellie would ask, "you no feel well, Mommy?" To which I would respond that no, I wasn't feeling the greatest. The other night I laid down with her and she asked me. I finally got to respond that I felt great! And it was the truth.

5. The girls have been really easy on us. How did we get so lucky?

Valentine's Day

I am a little behind on updating the blog with pictures. I finally transferred the memory card to the computer on Saturday morning- we went into the hospital Saturday evening (must have been my nesting that made me delete 301 pictures to make room for new ones of Genevieve).

These are from Valentine's Day: Ellie and I used Play-Doh for her day-care friend Valentines. We also made cookies for Daddy (and Mommy). Since Ellie was sick on Valentine's Day, Nick and I opted for take-out sushi (veggie and fruit sushi for me). Nick picked up some sparkling grape juice to substitute for wine. No worries, once I get through the old pictures there will be plenty of new ones with Ellie and Neve!

Cutie Pies!

How cute are these three little girls! From going out to the bar to Barbies: who would have thought that Brad, Brock and Nick would end up with these little ones.

Ready to be a Big Sister

Prior to Genevieve's birth, Ellie had been practicing her Big Sister skills on "Baby". Interesting thing is she plays with "Baby" in Genevieve's room. I hope she is ready to give that up!

Introducing Genevieve Marie

Genevieve Marie Larson was born on March 25th, 2012 at 1:52am. She weighed in at 8 pounds, 9.2 ounces and is 21 inches long.

Genevieve must have known Mommy had a fun day planned, because she waited until after lunch and pedicures with Grandma and Aunt Megan, as well as a trip to Lowes, the mall and dinner out, before making the contractions "real". We dropped Ellie off at The Beltman's and arrived at the hospital a few minutes before 8pm. We had the 'pleasure' of walking the halls of the maternity wing for an hour before being officially admitted around 10pm. The epidural was put in as soon as possible, and the Dr. broke my water at midnight. At that point we were dilated to 5 cm (we came to the hospital at 3 cm). When the nurse checked again at 1:30am we were at 10 cm and ready to push. I think we pushed for 10-15 minutes maximum (5 contractions) before Genevieve was completely out. It was a very fast (although still painful) delivery (opposite of Ellie's 2 hours of pushing and 16 hours of labor). Genevieve had her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck when she came out, although it didn't cause any issues. She is doing great (an awesome little eater) and we could not be happier! Big Sister Ellie loved her very first slumber party with Sophia, and is currently being spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa Greving in Ames. Before heading to Ames, she made a trip to the hospital to meet Baby Neve.

Here is our first family picture as a family of 4. It is so wonderful to say that, and we are all in love with our new addition.

I am sure there will be many more pictures to come in the coming weeks/months! We will be released from the hospital tomorrow, and Ellie will be at home with Grandma and Grandpa waiting for us to arrive. Let's hope she learns to share her Daddy with Baby Sister quickly.

5 on Friday

1. Happy belated birthday to my wonderful husband, Nick! I didn't get anything up on here on Tuesday... I am behind.

2. Ellie greeted Daddy in bed with "Hap Birth-day, Daddy!" and sang the Happy Birthday song to him on the way to work/day-care (with certain lines on repeat). She also helped open his present and was a little upset when he opened the card instead of letting her do it.

3. Sunday we celebrated with Nick's mom and husband. Nick and Jeff picked up our outdoor furniture and set it up, then we hit up John and Nick's for dinner.

4. Ellie and Daddy went to the bike shop on Monday night to get Ellie a new bike helmet, as she has outgrown her current one. They came home with a red one. It is blood and spiders. Ellie picked it out because she knows the color red. I asked her if Mommy could exchange it for a purple one without bugs. She said yes, although she wasn't too sure about it. I want to let her pick out her own things and be independent, but this helmet is going to last a while (it is a youth size and adjustable), and I don't see her as a 5-year old girl wanting a 'blood and spider' bike helmet. She already doesn't like bugs (she takes after her mommy) and is a fairly girly-girl. Nick took it back and exchanged it for the purple one and Ellie doesn't seem to care--- she just likes her new helmet. Am I bad for wanting to exchange it? Or should I have just let her keep the one she picked out? On a side not, I did let her wear socks that didn't match her outfit to day-care because she really wanted to--- so I do let her make some decisions.

5. Still no baby. Nick really wanted the baby to share his birthday. I was hoping she would have her own birthday, but I WAS/am ready for her to arrive so I would have compromised. Oh well. Maybe next week.

5 on Friday

1. We are ready for the baby to arrive. She can come anytime in my opinion. I don't think my house has ever been this clean for as long as it has. And the laundry is almost always done. The bags are packed. And I am tired of the false contractions I have been having daily for the past week.

2. Since the baby is not here yet, we have enjoyed the quality time we are getting with Ellie. She loves to be outside and asks to, "Go outside, please" after work each night. How can you say no to such a polite little girl? We don't.

3. We picked the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood. We found out this week that two/three (there is an empty lot next to us) doors down there is a family with a little boy that will be 2 in April and are due in April with their second. Next door/two doors down, there is a family with a little boy (between 1-2 years) and they are expecting in the fall. Of course there is Ellie's favorite, Jack, who lives a few doors down on the other side of the street. His little brother, Nick, was born 4-6 months ago. Lots of boys, and all around Ellie's and Baby Sister's age. It is exactly what we were hoping for when we moved from the old neighborhood (which didn't have much for kids)! A few more girls wouldn't be bad, but we are not complaining.

4. Having the park across the street is also a plus! On Saturday my parents came down to visit and we went to the park for a little bit. That night we meet our friends, the Beltman's, at the park so the kids could play. We love the last minute play-dates with the Beltman Family- and not having to drive 20-30 minutes to see them. Ellie loves her time with Sophia!

5. We went shopping for patio furniture and shoes for Ellie on Sunday. Is it bad when your daughter squeals in excitement at the sight of the mall? She didn't even mention going to the play area, so it was the shopping that excited her. This is good (because I have a shopping partner) and bad (because Daddy was in the car when she got really excited for the mall, and now knows of her love for shopping). The other night after a stop at the grocery store she asked about going shopping (at the mall). I told her not tonight, to which she responded, "maybe next week." It was Wednesday night, when Daddy goes biking and Ellie and I have girls night. She even knows the day of the week we go shopping together...

37 Week Ultrasound

Yesterday we had the pleasure of seeing the little one on the ultrasound screen one more time. The Drs. wanted to determine approximately what size baby we were looking at since I had been consistently measuring big since week 28, and Ellie was on the large size and early.

Baby is still a girl (not that we were worried she wouldn't be) and is measuring approximately 7 lbs. 9 oz. as of Thursday afternoon. Gaining a half lb. a week (which babies do on average the last few weeks of pregnancy), that would put her not that far off from Ellie's 8 lbs. 15.4 oz. at birth if we went close to full term. That I can do, and I was excited to hear she had not passed the 8 lb. mark yet!

In other news, my blood pressure came back good as well!

I had false contractions all day on Thursday and into the early morning Friday (I was finally able to fall asleep around 3:30AM). They were getting stronger at night, but nothing consistent or any decent length in time that would justify waking up Nick to keep track of them. The Dr. says false contractions help your body prepare for the real thing, so I guess I should view this as a positive. I don't mind them during the day, but could go without them when I am trying to sleep. 2. 5 hours of sleep when I have to work all day the next day is not what I call fun. Since baby tends to move around at night I have been trying to wake her up during the day (my sleep training while in the tummy routine). Maybe this is her way of trying to sleep train me, and let me know that going on 2.5 hours of sleep is going to become the norm. If so, we are going to have some serious talks when she actually arrives. Until then, she is winning and my sleep is suffering. At least it is almost the weekend and since I cleaned most of the house yesterday I will be able to relax and take naps during nap-time.

5 on Friday

1. The new baby's room is officially ready! Nothing hanging on the walls yet, but there is a crib to sleep in, a changing table full of supplies and a chair to rock in. AND you can walk around in it. It must be ready because Ellie has claimed it as her baby's room and goes in there to rock her baby and put baby to sleep (shutting the door behind her and telling me to be quiet because baby is sleeping). Every night baby goes to bed on the floor with baby sister's blankets covering her up. I wonder how Ellie will take it when her baby has to give up the room for baby sister...

2. We also have window coverings on every window in the house! It only took 4 months, but it is done! Now when I am walking from our bedroom to the baby's bedroom in the middle of the night I will not have to deal with uncovered windows. Thanks, Nick!

3. My aunt hosted an A-MUSE Stamp Club on Tuesday night and invited me to it. It was so nice to get out and make cards with some wonderful ladies. I am loving the simplicity of the A-MUSE stamps, while still being able to spice it up with layering, colors and embellishments. The consultant has a wonderful website full of ideas: http://totogal62.blogspot.com .

4. While I was at Stamp Club, Nick loaded Ellie up in the Chariot (bike trailer) and they enjoyed the amazing weather. Nick must have Ellie trained (or the other way around), because when w were talking about going on a bike ride with Daddy, Ellie instantly knew that she needed to have ice cream on the ride. Sure enough, she convinced her Daddy to stop for ice cream on the ride (which also happened to be right before dinner...).

5. Happy Birthday to my Goddaughter, Izzy today! I cannot believe the little girl is 6 already! Time sure flies.

5 on Friday

1. While Daddy raced in a 65 mile gravel race on Saturday, Ellie and I watched cousins Sammy and Ally play in the AAU State Tournament. We must have been good luck--- because they won that game! Good job Sammy and Ally!

2. Sunday Ellie hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Thorson, while Mommy and Daddy began work on cleaning out Grandpa Larson's Ames apartment. After the incident at the end of January, Grandpa Larson moved to the assisted living place in Madrid. We checked our Grandpa Larson's new home on our way back to Waukee. It is really nice!

3. To finish off the weekend, we had a spontaneous dinner with the Vodenik Family! We are glad we were able to see them, even if it was only for a short period of time.

4. We continue to work on the "before the baby arrives to do list". Ellie and I went to the mall on Wednesday to pick up an Easter dress for her! I will wait until Christmas to get them matching dresses for the special occasion. As always, Ellie loves to go shopping.

5. Grandma and Grandpa Greving come home this week! Ellie had FaceTime with them on Monday night. They have been gone almost the entire month!