Books I'm Reading

I've added a new section to my blog - a list of links in the right hand navigation bar that lists the books I'm currently reading.  I got my lovely nook for Christmas last year, and the public library has finally gotten on the bandwagon to start offering ebooks!  FOR FREEEE!  I love free.

And since I have such an awful Mommy brain, I can't even remember the books I've read in the past.  So I decided to start keeping a list, so I could at least look back and see what I read recently.  Hopefully this will keep me going and continue to inspire me to prioritize reading for pleasure in my life.  It's so easy to get sidetracked and only read school related novels, but reading is just like therapy for me - I need it.  So here I go :)

Baby steps

I knew it was coming, but Miss Eliza still surprised and delighted me when she took her very first steps on Monday!  I'd noticed that she was standing a lot more lately, holding on to toys and then almost thinking about walking a bit.  On Monday afternoon, as Carter and I were sitting at the kitchen table, Ellie was standing next to me holding on, and then the next thing I knew, she had taken two steps on her own and grabbed onto the other dining room chair! I tried to get some video of her walking a bit for Daddy later, but  she did not cooperate with the video camera...or better yet, her brother did not cooperate.  I'll have to try again later, but for now, I'll need to get ready because Ellie is about to get a lot faster!!

Carter's 3 year checkup

I'm lucky enough to say both of my little kiddos were healthy as can be today. Carter was also checked out for his 3 year checkup, and he passed every test with flying colors. On the developmental survey, he was able to answer every single question and is on par with a 4+ year old. I know how smart he is, but the validation from the doctor is nice :)

His stats:

Weight: 33lbs (55%)

Height : 37 1/2 in (55%)

BMI : 16 (55%)

I found it interesting that they now measure the kids for BMI; I suppose it's because so many kids are overweight these days, but happily Carter is exactly where he should be! Here's a picture of him drawing on the chalk wall at Dwyer's this weekend. He loooooooved it!

Ellie is 9 months old!

Ellie's 9 month appointment was today, and she was healthy as can be! (Thank goodness, no more ear infections for now!)

Her stats:

Height : 28 1/2 in ( 75 %)

Weight: 18lbs 2oz (45%)

Head: 45 cm (50%)

Here she is in her Ellie-phant pajammies :) Love that girlie!!

Happy Birthday Carter!

Carter's real birthday was on Friday, so we started out with our traditional birthday breakfast.  Meme, Nonnie, Kaylyn, and Gracie, as well as my mom and sister, were able to join us at IHOP for a Funny Face pancake and some other goodies.  Then we didn't even plan on it, but ended up at our usual birthday locale - the Children's Museum.  Carter loves it and Ellie even had a great time on her first trip there.















Then Carter celebrated his third birthday at our house on Saturday with a "Cars" aka Lightning McQueen party.  His two current obsessions are Cars and Toy Story, so he opted for a race car party for his birthday.  It was such a great day.  We had so many awesome family and friends here to help us celebrate.













Think Carter looks anything like his dad around this age??


Here's to a wonderful birthday boy :)

Three Years

Can it really be?  Has it really been three years since that precious blue bundle of joy came into my life?

Three years ago tonight, I lay in my hospital bed as the IV machine beeped and my sweet baby boy kicked inside my belly. The nurse asked me if I was excited...and I actually told her no. I was so incredibly anxious about the impending labor, and the fear of the unknowns that came with motherhood were so overwhelming that I couldn't imagine what it would all be like.

And then:



Then Ryan first said, "It's a boy!!" The moment that Carter was born, it was as if I'd known him all my life. I just looked down at Carter, and the love just flooded through me unlike any other moment in the world. I looked down at him and said, "Hi Buddy," and he just looked right back at me, like he'd known me as well. It was the most magical moment of my life. Had I known how wonderful it would all be, I most certainly would have told that nurse that yes, I was excited. He has brought me more joy than I could ever have imagined. He made me into a mother.

"I hope that my child, looking back on today

Will remember a mother who had time to play;

Because children grow up while you're not looking,

There are years ahead for cleaning and cooking.

So, quiet now cobwebs, dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep."

Those ears. DISLIKE.

I've started to use Facebook vernacular in everyday language.  It started off slow, but I can't help it.  Right now, I DISLIKE ears.  Ear infections.  Ear drops.  Ear tubes.  Wiggly boys fighting ear drops.  Precious baby girls spitting out antibiotics for ear infections.  And the worst of all right now - Ellie's happy face turning into heartbreak as she gets that evil rocephin shot.

She's on her third ear infection now; three infections since May 24 is not something either of us are really happy about.  Unfortunately after her urgent care trip in Florida and subsequent round of the antibiotic Septra (after trying Amoxicillin, Zithromycin, and Augmentin on her first 2 infections), her ear didn't clear up.  So we headed in to see Dr. Shoeball (as Carter has now termed her) on Monday morning.  Since we'd just finished an unsuccessful round of 10 day antibiotics, Dr. Huval decided Ellie needed to do the rocephin shot.

I hate it.  It's three days of a VERY painful shot (so painful that they mix in Lidocaine to numb the leg a bit).  Each day I watched my bubbly happy baby girl until she felt that prick and then her eyes looked at me like I'd broken her heart.  It really did break MY heart.

The good news is that after three days we are done, and the fluid in her ear is less inflamed and mostly just cloudy, so odds are good that we kicked this infection.  We'll go back in 2 weeks and for now, we watch and wait.  If this infection isn't cleared up, she'll get tubes.  If it is, then she needs two more infections between now and the end of May next year.

For now, she's napping the day away and then we're off to shop for her big brother's party.  Let's hope for a healthy happy baby girl as the day goes on :)

New blog!

I'm testing out the new Blogger templates!  It allows me to showcase my beautiful babies even bigger ;)

What do you think?

Back to reality...

After two glorious weeks in Destin, we have finally returned home. Carter, Ellie, and I headed out on June 26 (which explains my lack of blogging because I was too busy packing and generally running around like a chicken with my head cut off). My sister and parents traveled along with us, and we had one gorgeous day at the beach on Sunday.









And then...we spent most of the remainder of that first week in Destin in the midst of insane thunderstorms, making us all stir-crazy and resulting in pictures like this:










Ellie got her first pedicure:


But thankfully when Ryan, Josh, Toye, and co (along with the Dubois) arrived on Thursday and Friday of that week, they brought the sunshine with them! We enjoyed most of the second week on the beach and the kids loved it.




One of the few times they weren't at each other's throats ;)


Simultaneous naps on the beach - heavenly!


Because of the BP oil spill, there were environmental groups checking on the sea turtle nest near our condo. They were planning to dig up the eggs after 50 days and move them to a cooler on the east coast. When the eggs hatched, they would release the sea turtles into the ocean, and they would eventually make their way back home to their native beach in Destin. So neat!


Carter, Sutton, Jackson, and William


Miss Fourth of July ;)


Ellie at 8 months and Rhett at 2.5 months - almost the same size :)


We even took the kids to their first hibachi restaurant and they loved watching the chef cook right in front of us!


Heartbreaker


Carter was very timid in the ocean, but it was soooo rough that I didn't blame him. The last couple of days we were there, it was much calmer and he went crazy swimming and jumping in the waves.


Stupid tarballs! They did cling to us when we walked on them and they were very sticky and hard to get off.




We just gave her a tiny sip :) (KIDDING!)

From Destin - June 26-July 10, 2010

Eliza's first trip to the beach!

Last Friday morning, our family hit the road for Ellie's first trip to Destin. We left super early (3:30am) hoping the kids would sleep...and they did (mostly). We stopped for breakfast and again for the bathroom/tankups, and made it to Destin in about 7 hours. The oil didn't hit the beach in Destin while we were there, but it was in Pensacola not too far away. We are supposed to go back to Destin for 2 weeks at the of June, so hopefully we'll still get to go.

We just went for a quick weekend getaway this time and it was really nice. HECTIC with both kids (no breaks for me or Ryan), but it was still fun. Thank goodness for my family - they were there to help play with the kids and step in so we all got to have some fun. I forgot how much STUFF you have to bring with a baby!! Carter has gotten pretty easy in the last year, but now with toddler toys as well as baby needs, it was pretty crazy. But we made the best of it and had fun!

As I expected, Ellie is a beach baby! She loved the water, the sand (she ate so much of it!), everything. She just sat in the sand and tried to crawl around and put so much sand in her mouth that I kept waiting to see her get upset, but she never did. She is a true Gaspard baby :)

The biggest bummer is that we had scheduled a professional photo session with a photographer there for our entire family (me/Ryan/our kids, my parents and sister, and my brother/Toye/their two boys)...but we got rained out :( I was so bummed, but we improvised and took some pics ourselves and got dripped on in the process. Overall, the pictures came out really cute, but I am still hopeful that we can perhaps reschedule our photo shoot when we return to Destin in late June.

Oil Booms


First peek at the beach


Beach baby!


This is what vacation is all about!


Sandy tootsies


Cool dude!




I'm sensing a pattern...






yep, definitely a pattern...

From Destin - June 4-7, 2010