Going on a Safari

We took a week off and went on vacation in July. It was fun to get away and the girls did great on the drive. We went to the western part of South Carolina, in the rolling hills near Lake Hartwell. It was quiet and peaceful which is what we wanted out of a vacation this year. For normal families this would've been a day trip of around 9 hours, for us we broke it up in two days, traveling a lot of it at night so the girls would sleep. It was nice to break it up, but still took forever to get there because of all the stops we took along the way. Potty breaks, feedings, more potty breaks, more feedings it's amazing how it all adds time to your traveling.

Along the way to Carolina we stopped at the Virgina Animal Safari Park, here we got to drive through the safari while the animals come up to you for food. You weren't allowed to get out of your car but you were allowed to open your doors on your minivan and they allowed your children to sit on your lap up in the front. I have to admit I was more freaked out by the animals then I thought I would be. They come right up to you and stare at you, it's really creepy but it was also really cool to see them up close. We had so much fun here we spend over 2 hours here and would've stayed longer if we had the time.

They also have a zoo area where they have a lot of unusual animals. There was a kangaroo walk where you walked down a path and could see the kangaroo's up close, so close in fact that we had to walk around one of them because he was in the middle of the path! Apparently he is a domesticated kangaroo, the rest were behind a wired fence. They had giraffes (you could feed we didn't have time so we just saw them from a distance), spider monkey's, Galapagos turtles, reptiles, and these little monkey-like creatures that would stick out their tongues at us (don't remember the name of the little critters)

I would recommend this experience to any one, we really had a great time. It's located right next to a KOA campground if you wanted to camp in the area. Also there is a natural bridge that you could hike to in the area. So it would be worth a trip down for the weekend for all my Virginia friends.

Oh and I should mention that there isn't a whole lot on conveniences in the area, we were hungry so went to the only restaurant that was nearby. I really enjoyed eating here, the food was good, cheap and the atmosphere was unique. When you eat at a place with the name The Pink Cadillac Diner, you know it's going to be an experience!

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Animal peeking in the window

Here's a view from our window, it felt like we would run into the animals but they moved away as you drove by. We saw baby buffalo and ostriches, those were the cutest animals we saw. We were fascinated by the zebra's they were so cool to see up close and such beautiful animals

Animals come right up to you for food

At the Pink Cadillac Diner

Lydia giving us a silly grin at the restaurant

Happy Mother's Day Mom

I know Mother's day in mid-June, crazy right! Oh no not for my two year old. She always tells me "Happy Mother's Day, Mom" just like that several times a day. This has been going on since Mother's day. I love it, and hope it never ends. I know it will so I'm making sure to blog about it now so I don't forget. I'm not thrilled she calls me "mom" either. I'm mostly mommy, but sometimes I'm mom.

Oh so the Potty Project update, it's now day 3 and things are still going well for Kate. If we are out and about she wears a pull-up aka diaper that looks like undies. And she always wets them. The trick seems to be to keep her in big girl undies and she has way more control over her actions. But overall she is doing great, I really am proud of her. It's made my life so much easier for her to be this easy going.

Lydia had a great night last night. She seems to be on a schedule which is great considering she is 3 weeks old. I know that might change, but it might not! She seems to go to bed around 8pm I dream-feed her before I go to bed (she sleeps through the feeding) then she stays asleep until around 2am wakes for a feeding (still very sleepy) and then she is back down until somewhere between 6:30-8am where she wakes, eats, and stays really sleepy. I think I must be the most well rested mommy because her night wakings don't really bother me. I just think she is so cute I love to go get her at night. Also after waking about 6x a night while pregnant to go to the bathroom waking once a night to cuddle my newborn isn't so bad.

Lydia's 2weeks stat (the percent is percentile ie: 75% means 25% of babies are bigger then that)
As of 6.4.09
8lbs 9oz 75% (birthweight was 8lbs 14oz)
20 1/2" 75% (shrunk, down 1/4")
Head 13 3/4" 50%

9 Days Old

My sister and I took the babies to get pictures done. They turned out so cute. Babies grow out of the newborn stage so quickly I wanted to make sure to get it captured. I thought I was crazy for taking the baby out to do this but the photo session went really well. I would much rather take a non-mobile newborn to get pictures taken then a willful toddler.

This is Rowan and Lydia, 1st cousins 2 days apart

Big Sister and Little Sister Update

I'm starting off by bragging about my Kate. My goal was once she was home with me for the summer we would start on potty training so today was day 1 of project potty. I woke her up this morning and told her that all her diapers were gone so she could only use the potty. She started crying that she wanted her diapers and I thought for sure this was going to be a long day. To make a long story short I kept asking her if she "needed to go" and we made a couple of attempts with nothing then she just said to me "I need to go potty" and I took her and she went! Just that easy. So today we had a total of 5 potty successes and 0 accidents. I'm so proud of her.

I hope tomorrow is just as easy. I think I have my day care providers to thank for this, they really encouraged her without actually training.

So I've spent a lot of the last couple of weeks sitting with a baby attached to me in some form! BTW I'm all caught up (well almost) on Grey's Anatomy. I tore through season 4, and just started season 5. I love that show. Lydia and I sit in a big brown leather recliner and do our thing. Kate has started calling me mama bird and she calls herself baby bird. She made up these names for us all on her own. I always invite her to sit with Lydia and I to cuddle and she will climb up with us and say she's in "her nest" aka the recliner. It's just so cute how she talks about it, much cuter then I can write. So all day she calls me "mama bird" and I call her "little bird" and we call Lydia "baby bird".

Kate is really warming up to Lydia, she still doesn't have any interest in holding her. But she is constantly pointing out her little sister "Libia" to me. She seems to be really patient with Libia when she is screaming. I think it's cute when she helps me with her diaper changes she unfolds the diaper and pulls open the little tabs. She loves to remind me that she is the big sister and that Libia is the little sister. They are just so cute together.

Kate coming home from the hospital, look at those big tears and she is only 2 days old.

Getting ready to leave the hospital

A very upset baby

One of the only pictures I have of my two girls together.

Lydia Bianca Born 5/20/09

Here is my birth story for Lydia. I'm mostly writing it down so I won't forget my memory is fading fast since having Kate, with Lydia it might disappear all together.

Lydia Bianca
5/20/09
8lbs 14oz, 20 3/4"
4:42pm

The birth story isn't too eventful since it was all controlled because I was induced but here's how it all happened.I was suppose to be admitted Tuesday night for cervidil to help me dilate but at my Tuesday OB appointment I was 3cm so I got to skip that and show up Wednesday morning. We got to the hospital around 8:30am (an hour late) and pitocin was started right at 9:30am. By 10 am, just 30minutes later I was having painful contractions and went ahead and asked for the epidural, around 10:45am the epidural finally was administered. The epidural got complicated, the doctor was having a hard time lining up the needle in the middle of my spinal column, I kept feeling like she wasn't centered, it all happened so fast but she nicked my spinal column which usually leaks spinal fluid for a few days and results in a terrible headache, she was mentioning all this to me and before she even said "headache" my head was pounding like I've never felt before. I was freaked out, she was freaked out because she said that has never happened before, (a headache coming on that quickly). I was in tears because of the terrible headache and wondering if anything permanent was done to me. The doctor felt terrible that that had happened to me and later told me it ruined her day but I shouldn't let it ruin mine. I didn't, as long as I laid flat I felt great. And the epidural was awesome, I felt everything without pain. It was a sensory blocker and not motor blocker. I never even had a terrible headache after that, they said the spinal column sometimes heals itself very quickly which is probably what happened to me. Continuing on, 11:30am Dr. Stokes came and broke my water I think I was still around 3cm then. Around 1:30pm I was maybe 6cm, 3:30 I was almost 10cm and almost thinned out, and at 4pm I was completely 10cm and thinned out. That's when set up really began for delivery, and I even felt urges to push. By 4:20pm I was pushing and at 4:42pm out she came. I watched the whole thing in the mirror and as soon as she came out I was just looking for the gender. I immediately saw that it was a girl before Brock or the doctor even said anything. It was so fun to finally find out who this little person was inside me this whole time. She had had a bowel movement inside me so they moved fast to get her to the pediatricians standing by so Brock was not able to cut the cord and I did not get to hold her right away. It felt like forever before I got to hold her, Brock kept taking pictures and letting me see just so I could see her. As far as recovery goes, I've learned the hard way, twice, that I do not like pushing big babies out. The first night was rough but by the next day I was feeling pretty good, and even now still feel pretty good so it was a quick recovery.

So the naming of this little beauty. Brock and I have gone back and forth on a girl's name, I didn't really believe I was having a girl so I didn't put that much thought into it. We both liked the name Lydia and it was sort of a name left over from when we were trying to decide a name for Kate. Brock's first choice for a name however was Bianca, but I also liked the name Jane so we had to come to an agreement, which meant Brock was letting me decide! So I originally decided on Lydia Jane and had the in laws on the phone calling family and announcing the birth. About half-way through the phone calls I saw the sad look on Brock's face that he didn't get his Bianca so I changed my mind and said that I thought Bianca suited her better. Brock just lighted back up. So some of family thought her name was one name and some thought it was something else. We had everyone confused for awhile. After that it just felt right that I was holding Lydia Bianca. I think it will be something special to tell Lydia how much her dad just loves her middle name.

She's been such a sweet baby. We are so glad to finally have her home with us and it really feels like she belongs with us, it feels so right that she is suppose to be a part of our family.

Welcome to the World Little One

Important Swine Flu Information

Don't do this!

Snuck this off my mommy message board, I just found it hysterical. Hope everyone is keeping healthy.

I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes home!

This is Kate getting all excited when Daddy comes home. Needless to say daddy lights up with this type of reaction. It really is cute. I never get a reaction like this since I pick up Kate in the afternoons and usually carry her kicking and screaming to the van, because she doesn't want to leave the daycare. Without a doubt she loves her daddy. It's a good thing cause I'm sure you can all tell Kate is daddy's little girl and she has him completely wrapped around her little finger.
The video is from mid-march.

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