12 months old!!!!!!!!!!

It is so hard for me to believe that my little man, Bubba, is 12 months...1 year... old!! Time has flown. Sorry for the missed 11 month update. Life gets soooooo busy in October, with Halloween, then what seems like an eye blink later it's Thanksgiving and my birthday (Nov. 30th.) I barely have time to catch my breathe before Bubba's birthday (a mere 15 days after mine.) This year we decided to celebrate his birthday a week early. Kiwi took dance for the first time (and LOVED it!!!) She had her very first dance recital on the 8th. She was adorable and did such a great job!!! Made Mommy (Grandma and Great Grandma) tear up!! So, bc we had family coming from the next counties over for the recital, I decided to do Bubba's party that day too! (OMGoodness.....so much stress! Trying to get 3x a week rehearsals done, party planning and shopping, way too much cake made (double layer 14 inch round cake with two smaller cakes stacked on top and a separate smash cake).....not to mention the day of events (curling hair and getting Kiwi to the theater on time....watching the amazing show, quick lunch, massive stressed rush to do all the finishing touches minutes before the guests arrive!!!)It was a sports themed party and it was a blast!!! We even had a bounce house with slide, pinata and we played two party games! I think all the guests had a good time, thankfully. Bubba is doing well!! He can now stand without support and "talks" alot more than in the past. (Although he doesn't say coherent words. So opposite of Kiwi, who was singing songs and speaking in 3+ word sentences at 12 months.) My Mom taught him how to say "thank you" and he says that sometimes when prompted. He is just such a joy and happy boy! Kiwi is doing well too. She has decided that she has no interest in going to her preschool anymore. This past week she threw tantrums and I had to pick her up apx an hour and a half after dropping her off on Tues., then Thurs she refused to even go inside. She is now no longer attending that preschool. I go to two preschools on Tues to interview and tour those (one of which my bff has her daughter in, who is Kiwi's bff.) These 2 preschools are more academic based and are actual preschools opposed to the "school" she was at, which is more of a day care. Kiwi is looking forward to Christmas....having her Uncle B fly out form London next Weds., and possible Disney trip with him.....and then Aunt K's Vegas wedding in January!! I love the holiday season!! :) I can't wait to see my brother and then my sister. We bought Elf on the shelf for Kiwi and she has LOVED finding "Elvin, the Christmas Elf" (she named him) each morning! Today he was hanging on the Christmas tree. :) Here are some pics. Bubba's 11 and 12 month pics and a pic of the amazing birthday cake (I baked and my amazing Dad decorated!!) Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!! (On a sad note my prayers go out to all the families torn apart by the sickening shooting at Sandy Hook. God bless them all!!!!!)

UPDATES!! Bbba is 10 months! EA updaye!

Time for an update!!! It is so hard to imagine, but Bubba will be 1 yr old in apx 6 weeks!!!! He is now 10 1/2 months old! He is clapping and blowing kisses. He can say "hello" and "ORAH!" (which G taught him, it's a Marine Corps thing. LOL.) He is crawling all over the place and pulling up on everything. He stands very well while holding on (with one hand) to my index finger. He eats like a boy pig. (LOL.) Many months ago he managed to figure out how to fall climb out of his stationary exersaucer...well, this month he figured out how to get out of his other toy (the toy part stays still and there is a seat that rotates around it.) I now have to either have him in his high chair all the time to get anything done, or bribe him with food (snacks) in his toy to get him to actually stay in it. LOL. He is just doing so well. Yesterday was Halloween, which marked my 2nd Anniversary for this blog!! I can't believe it's been two years. Kiwi was Pooh bear and Bubba was Tigger this year. The kids had fun tick or treating and we had special treat, both Grandpa and Grammie walked around with us this yr bc my sister and her fiance came out from OR and stayed with G to pass out candy! It was sooooo great to see my sister! Now, for an EA update!!!! Our embryos shipped perfectly to the Adoptive Families clinic. On the 22nd of Oct, the AM (adoptive Mom) had her FET. This past Tues I received a picture text with a positive hpt!!! We were so excited!! Today was her beta bw....and we received some bad news!! Her beta was only 10!!! She does labs and more bw on Saturday! So, I'm asking for prayers. Please pray that the beta doubles....or if it is simply not God's will, that there will be peace and healing in the adoptive families hearts. Thank you. It is a very sad and tough day today....especially after such a big high on Tues.

Bubba is 9 months old and an amazing EA update!!

First off, it is so hard for me to believe, but Bubba is 9 months old now! He is weighing in at 17 lbs 8 oz (10th%) and is 29 1/2 in. long (90th%). He is apx 8 lbs lighter than Kiwi, and 6 1/2 in shorter than her! He is crawling all over and pulling up on everything! He screams all the time now (mostly in mimic of Kiwi.) I hate that!! LOL. I have a constant headache. LOL. EA update: Well, this whole EA thing is moving along really quickly! :) WE matched, then very quickly got the contracts drafted, then signed and notarized. So, our embryos are now legally the adoptive couples!!! At this time, the adoptive mother will be going to her clinic for an u/s and mock transfer on CD1 (the day AF comes.) Which should be Oct. 1st.....yikes, so soon!!! (yikes in a good way! LOL. Although, I am nervous....and excited! LOL.) She will then get her meds (her clinic does not do injections. Just oral meds, suppositories and a patch of some sort.) Then, she'll have a lining check done sometime between CD1 and ovulation day, and if all looks good..... FET will be done MID OCTOBER!!!!!!! Crazy fast! I am so hopeful that this cycle works for them! Please pray for a smooth FET, and a positive pregnancy!! (Pray for a smooth pregnancy and delivery of a healthy baby/ies too, but one step at a time. LOL.)

8 months old.....crawling!! (and amazing EA update)

Hello all, Bubba is now 8 months old (actually 8.5, sorry it takes me so long to post.) As you can see, he is ot sitting in the rocking (glider) this month...I didn't want to risk it, as he is all over the place now. Also, he didn't wish to pose with Winter bear, instead he wanted to chew on him. LOL. Bubba is all over, like I mentioned. He pulls himself up to standing in his crib, he doesn't want to sit but instead wants to stand holding onto me. (He'll climb up my lap to stand if I sit down next to him while he's sitting.) Yesterday he crawled for the first time!!!! He went forward two knees! He's getting way too big too fast. He can also say "ada" for Dada and he has said "Mama" before. He still likes to wave, but now he'll also raise his arm up and down when I say "hip hip hooray ". Onto other news! After having to yet again go back to MW to in search of embryo adoptive parents...why you may be asking?? Well, bc the wonderful Mommy we choice is now naturally pregnant!!!!! Amazing news! I'm so happy for her. We originally picked them prior to Bubba's ivf, then a few months into the pregnancy, she got "THE call"that a baby boy was born. So, we found another match, and then they too got "The call." LOL. So, we put EA on hold and gave birth to and enjoyed Bubba for some time. Then, I contacted the first women again to see if she would be interested in adopting our embryos to grow her family. We were unofficially matched again, just waiting for the end of summer (when she wanted to start the process.) Low and behold...she naturally got pregnant! So, we went back to MW website and found 2 amazing couples. It was sooooooooo incredibly hard (and heartbreaking) to choice one, then tell the other couple we didn't pick them. Well, we have found a match!!! Right now their lawyer is looking over the EA contract. We're hoping to get the contracts signed w/in the next week or so....transferring the embryos to them legally! She still has many steps to go on her end before any FET, But, I'll keep you all posted!! :)

Kiwi is 3 years old !! Bubba is 7 months old!!

My goodness does time fly!! I can't believe that Kiwi is now 3 years old!! She had a great Pinkalicious party, followed by Disneyland on her actual birthday (an over night at my parents bc of the late hour we left Disneyland too,) followed by two days in a row at prechool (which she LOVRES,) and then ending that week with a day at the fair!! What a spoiled little princess I have. LOL. I love her so much and am so blessed to have her and blessed that I am able to do such fun things with. In other news, Bubba is now 7 months old! He can wave (started out with a very enthustastic whole arm pumping up and down wave. However now he sticks his arm up and waves with his four fingers.) He waves all the time now, literally. He'll just be sitting around waving to no one, the wall, etc. So adorable!! He even makes a "HHHH" sound when he does it...saying "hi" is my guess.

6 months old!!

Well, Bubba is 6 months old (June 15th.) I can't believe it!! Time flies. I also can't believe that Kiwi will be 3 years old in a few weeks!!! At his 6 month check up, he weighed in at 15 lbs and 13oz., which is the 10th percentile. (He was in the 50th percentile for weight at 2 months. No one is worried about his weight, especially bc he eats like a horse. He is now in stage 2 baby foods and eats at least one container at each feeding, if he doesn't have baby cereal. I'm not concerned, bc Kiwi was 16 lbs at age 1. LOL. I can't believe that at 6 months, Bubba, is what Kiwi weighed at 1.) He is also 28in long, a mere 8 inches shorter that his big sister! Wow! he's going to be a tall boy. (His height is in the upper 90th percentile.) Just after Bubba turned 6 months, I noticed that he had TWO teeth coming in on the bottom! TWO!!!! So, he has his first tooth teeth. He looks adorable! When we did Kiwi's 6 month pictures, she was just beginning to sit tripod style. Bubba hadn't even sat (tripod or any style) for more than 5 seconds w/o tumbling over. So, I worked with him a little bit as his picture appt approached. But, alas, no use, he would continue to fall w/in seconds. Well, low and behold, the appt arrives. I proceed to tell the photographer that he can't sit or even tripod, but we want to at least attempt a "sitting" pic, so, she had better be ready to click away quickly. So, I sat him on his booty, and what do you know, he sat....straight up....forever!! :) (You can see his 6 month picture from the photo shoot on the side bar. Below is the pic I took with his bear, Winter, on the day he actually turned 6 months.)I was so proud! But, I now realize that he is more like G than I ever knew, he likes to prove Mommy wrong. LOL. Nothing new happening here. G has began working 5 days at 10 hours a day. Oh how I miss his old 4 days a week at 10 hours schedule. (He had a 4 day weekend every other week.) We are getting everything ready for Kiwi's Pinkalicious 3rd b-day party. We are holding her party at a local indoor jump house place, followed by pizza. I am (as usual) planning to go way over board with PINK!!! I plan on making at least 3 dz cupcakes (chocolate with strawberry frosting, white pink cake with either pink frosting or Dun.can Hi.nes new frosting with the bubble gum mix ins, and then possibly strawberry cake with pink frosting.) I am also making pink rice crispy treats, pink popcorn, and pink cupcake cake pops! (Of course we'll have pink lemonade to drink and my parents already got 2 different colors of pink m&ms.) I can't wait for her party! I know she'll love it, so I'm so excited!!!

Firsts....and 5 months!!

It has been such a long time since I've blogged. It really has to do with the fact that I haven't updated my photos on my computer yet. I literally had a ton of pics sitting in my email to download. (I was amazed that I hadn't even made a folder for Bubba for month 5 yet, and he's nearly 6 months!!!) Sorry for the delay, naughty me. Bubba is 5 months old now (as of May 15th!) I can not believe it!! In 8 days he'll be six months old, that is just too hard to imagine! He has been doing so much more lately. After his 4 month check up, we started him on rice cereal. He has since progressed onto baby oatmeal, a week of sweet peas, a week of sweet potatoes, and tonight will be trying green beans for the first time! He is an AMAZING eater!! (So opposite of Kiwi.) He eats 4+ oz of cereal (rice or oatmeal) in the morning/afternoon now, and a container of baby food at dinner (he will sometimes even want more, so we make him more cereal.) Onto other firsts..... .....for Bubba, he has learned how to roll from tummy to back now. So he is a rolling machine. He also learned how to "sit up" in his bouncy chair (or anything else he can grab onto and pull himself into a sitting position.)He would always sit in his bouncy on the table during meals. One morning, I noticed that he was pulling himself into a sitting position. I moved his chair onto the floor, then went to wash the dishes, no sooner did I turn my back, had he totally sat up and flipped forward. (He is always buckled in, so he didn't fall out. ) His poor head was on the floor. Thank God I had moved the chair to the floor, he could've fallen off the table onto his head! So, no more bouncy chair for him!! He moves so much more than Kiwi ever did. He is now strictly in his exersaucer, which is not used to, so doesn't care for very much. I can barely get anything done. (Not that I could before the bouncy chair incident anyway.)Bubba also started blowing raspberries between months 4 and 5. He happily sticks out his adorable tongue and blows away. It is so cute!! .....for Kiwi.... Kiwi started preschool this week. She goes part time Tues. and Thurs. afternoons for 4 hours each day. G and I felt that she really needed the stimulation. I hated how much tv she was watching lately. I searched for a preschool that would teach her, not just a day care of babysitter. It was very hard to find one bc we are not morning people (sometimes we can't even make it downstairs for bfast before noon.) I found a brand new, in home daycare/ preschool. The owners attend our church, and the husband is involved with the children ministries there. So, they felt very comfortable. Kiwi is at preschool right now, which is why I have a minute to catch up. She loved her first class on Tues. and was really excited about going back again today. I hope she is being challenged and is learning something, and not just playing the entire time. (Of course play time is important too.) It is just so hard for me to believe that Kiwi will be 3 years old next month. I am in the process of planing her party now, a Pinkalious party!! :)(Kiwi's choice.) Nothing new is happening here. We took a mini family vacation Memorial Day weekend. We went to AZ, where G is from. Last Oct, G's Grandmother passed away. We spent a week in AZ at that time, but had to return to work before the ashes were ready. So, Memorial weekend was the first time that G and his siblings were able to get together and do an ash spreading. We spent Saturday with G's family (not the most comfortable experience for me.) We did the ash spreading, a high school grad party for G's cousin, and then celebrated our niece's 7th bday. (I had the unwanted pleasure of seeing my MIL at the two parties. I kept my distance and pretended that she wasn't even there. I also made sure that my children were kept away from her. But, of course, she had to start drama after our niece's party. She actually thought that G or his sister would hand Bubba over to her, against my wishes and behind my back. Se was furious when they didn't!!! )After that awkward day, we spent Sunday with G's old boyscout leader and her husband. That couple are amazing people! They actually came all the way to CA for our wedding too. (Actually G had more friends at the wedding, all making the drive from AZ, then the 2 family members who actually came.) They refer to themselves as Grandma and Grandpa to our kids. Oh man how I wish they were G's true blood parents. They invited us into their home for the entire afternoon and evening. Made us a huge meal, played with the kids, loved on all of us. (They even had goody tote bags for the kids.) There is no comparison between them and my real in laws. We felt so welcome, loved, warm from them. I had always been upset at the fact that my kids wouldn't have grandparents on G's side (bc of MIL's own actions, and bc G's dad and step dad are no longer in the picture at all.) After this trip, I feel relieved and so happy knowing that they do have amazing grandparents on his side, just not by blood. After that amazing day, we went to the Phoenix Zoo on Monday, it was toooooo hot, but we had a great time. Then we came back home Tues. Too short (the vacation part at least.) Here's Bubba's 5 month picture.