Packing their Christmas dresses up for them to wear to a wedding this weekend.
Walking by these little matching piles has made me smile all day long. Love being the mama of two delightful and adorable little girls.
Now if only I had the cash required to dress them alike every day...
We've got a wedding to attend in November. A wedding in chilly Leavenworth. A wedding where I will be bringing my nursing baby and my extra baby weight too.
And I've got nothing to wear.
So I appealed to some friends on Facebook and they sent me in the direction of Target for a nice and inexpensive wrap dress. Add some boots and some tights and I'll be good to go.
Last night while Darin & Daisy carved on some pumpkins, Dani and I hit the local T-jay to try some things on. And then I came home with two dresses.
What would I do without you internet friends to help me decided these things? Which one to keep and which one to return?
PROS:
CONS:
Burgundy Merona Ruffle Wrap Sweater Dress
PROS:
CONS:
I paired both of these with boots, but also have some black heels if you think that would be better.
Okay, I'm counting on you. Tell me which dress I should wear to the wedding. Comment away!
As inspired by Miss Ali Edwards.
Outside my window: it is pouring rain. Welcome Washington fall.
I am thinking: about sleep training. Dani is doing so well, usually crying less than 5 minutes before sleeping at both naps and bedtime. But now Daisy thinks she has to cry herself to sleep too, and its been 30-45 minutes the last few nights. What next?
I am thankful for: my warm home, internet TV, a photo of me and my girls, and southwestern salad from Trader Joe's that made dinner nice and easy.
From the kitchen: 3 brown bananas just waiting to be made into bread. Seriously so easy to whip up that I have to psych myself up for the dishes more than the baking.
I am wearing: my shirt from today and new PJ pants. Needed to take off the jeans but was too eager to eat to change my shirt too.
I am creating: a cleaner scrap space (hopefully), some burp rags, a craft for December MOPS, a page about Dani's curls, and a cross-stich about seasons. I like to have lots of projects going on at once.
I am going: to the library tomorrow. Overdue books (Harry Potter is a little long to finish in 3 weeks but I can't get it renewed) and Gilmore Girls season 3 waiting for me.
I am reading: 10 pages to go in Harry Potter & the Halfblood Prince. Looking forward to picking up Jesus for President when I'm done. And I also have about 15 magazines on my shelf to peruse.
I am hoping: to not just survive the next 3 days as a single mom, but to enjoy this time with my daughters. And then to welcome Darin back with excitement and not exhaustion. (He's in Spokane helping the Eddy's remodel their bathroom.)
I am hearing: quiet. Thankful that Daisy is now quiet. A little "white noise" from the hallway fan too.
Around the house: there are messes. Little spots that show this house is lived in. And candles. I am loving the chance to light more candles around here.
A few plans for the rest of the week: library, getting pictures taken, church, hosting a preschool craft party, Darin's birthday, and p-lay (as Daisy says, emphasizing the "p").
A photo to share:
Daisy's "cheese" smile looks rather appropriate on this pirate ship. Doesn't she look like she's saying "ARGHHHH"?
This baby of mine is just about the cutest thing I've laid my eyes on. (Of course, her sister holds that title too.) And it feels like she is already growing too fast.
The perpetual pain of parenthood: you love to watch your children grow and learn new things. But there is this ache of knowing someday they'll be on their own. This little baby won't be a baby for long.
So that's why I get out my camera. That's why I want to learn to shoot this little face better. To edit those images the best way I can. So that in some small way I can pause time a little. See the light in those eyes, remember her sweet giggle, and how on this day she just hung out at my feet while I tried to learn to sew.
And then I put my camera down, pick up this cutie pie, and do a little nuzzling. Did I mention she smells good too?
During the first week of September we had the opportunity to take a little family vacation. We combined it with Darin's family's annual "Rally In the Valley" volleyball tournament in Quincy, and a chance to see my parents one more time before they headed east and then south for the winter. My parents added us to their 1000 trails park membership, so we were able to camp in a great little park in Crescent Bar.
I wasn't quite up for the idea of tent camping yet, so we rented a little "park-model" trailer that was a great place to eat breakfast,
play with toys,
check in with work,
and take pictures of cute babies.
Yeah, and it also had some lovely air conditioning!
We were told the trailer had bunk-beds, but this triple bed was even better! Especially because Daisy "fell out" at least twice while we were there. She thought the bed was pretty cool though.
One morning we enjoyed a walk down to the Crescent Bar resort beach.
(what a difference a few months makes:
Daisy had some goldfish snacks on the grass.
And Gram entertained the little one.
This is the view from my parents' campsite that we enjoyed very much.
Daisy received a set of "color wonder" markers for her birthday, and we set them aside for just a time as this. She enjoyed lots of coloring time on Gram & Gramp's picnic table.
While stopping by Darin's Aunt's house, Daisy got her first taste of trampoline fun. She was really nervous when the two boys were jumping, but when they paused and gave her a chance to go by herself, she LOVED it.
It's really hard to take decent jumping pictures, but Darin tried. At least you get a sense of her joy.
My mom was set to have a birthday in a few days, so we went out to celebrate with some yummy Mexican food. Here's dad holding Miss Dani, who always manages to decide she's hungry right as the food is arriving.
That's enough recap for tonight. Will try to be back tomorrow with some more!
LOTS of things have been keeping me from this blog lately. Problem is, the more I do the more stuff I have to blog about and the less time I have to blog.
Some of the crew, pausing for a picture break:
Oh yeah, and typepad takes FOREVER to load photos. That doesn't help this lack-of-blogging thing either!
Miss Dani,
This afternoon was rough. You were only interested in napping 20 minutes at a time, and the times you were awake all you did was cry. And cry and cry and cry. Nothing I could do was helping.
And the thing is, I was extra frustrated because my to-do list was quite long, and don't you know kiddo that naptime is my time. My time to get things done. My time to write a blog or read a chapter of my book. My time to fold some laundry and return emails. My time to plan the next MOPs craft. My time.
But this day I decided to give in. We settled down to nurse and I just stroked your head and prayed as you happily gulped away. And seconds after burping you were asleep on my chest.
I could have laid you down and prayed you stay asleep, jumping into my list. But instead I gave in again, settled my cheek against the top of your head, and breathed. I know from experience that this baby time doesn't last nearly long enough and I'm gonna miss it when its gone. So today I soaked in the feelings and did my best to capture the memory so I can return to it when you're all big and grown.
I then I stretched my arm out and took a picture. That'll help too.
It really stinks when your two very best friends live on the other side of the state or in another state entirely. It also stinks that they are sisters and get the chance to see each other way more than you get to see either of them. But what makes it a little more bearable is the committment we made way back when a certain someone (ahem, cough, Jen, cough) moved to Idaho. We decided that we'd do our best to see each other at least twice a year. That meant I'd go there, and she'd come here once a year.
Most years I've been lucky enough to get to see my girls more than twice, usually 'cuz one of us is having a baby and we need to celebrate. (Although this year it was due to a scary illness we're all glad is over.)
Over the holiday weekend I was so excited to get to host these two girls and their brood of kiddos. They spent the first couple nights with their "Seattle Mom", Mercy, but since they were just up the road rather than hours away, we drove the 45 minutes to spend the day together.
And Sam, since your mom didn't get a chance to take too many pictures, I'll share mine here.
The first thing Miss Jen wanted to do was hold baby Dani. It was a great reminder to her that all the pain and suffering she is going through (poor poor girl with a body that doesn't like being pregnant) is worth it in the end.
Amy even got a chance at Dani, despite having three of her own kiddos to wrangle. Super-Mom indeed.
Don't you just love it when other people love your children? I sure do.
We got the chance to celebrate these two and the occasion of their birth. Ice cream cake was requested (and later regretted) by the pregnant one.
Noah and Daisy were given the chance to blow out the candles, although for Daisy that meant a lot of spitting.
This girl knows how to eat ice cream!
We brought some toys to Mercy's, but sharing is still difficult for our Daisy. She and Noah had to take turns with the popular pink bus, and even though she was reading, Daisy wasn't going to miss her turn.
We were thankful for Darin taking them outside for a while!
And he got some great pics of Mr Noah while outside too.
Classic Noah grin.
After his nap, Sam joined the fun outside too.
Lucky for me, I got to tag along with the twins to their special birthday dinner. Darin took Daisy home (who later ended up getting to spend the night with her Aunties) and Dani and I enjoyed a delicious dinner and wonderful conversation.
But before we got to go, we had to put Sam, Kate & Glory down for bed. And that, of course, required a bed time story. This picture perfectly captures the chaos of it all.
Camp was pretty slow one week during my parent's stay. So slow in fact that the wranglers were organizing staff trail rides one afternoon. I asked Darin about the possibility of getting a ride for my parents, and they were welcomed to join the crew.
Daisy and I went up to the barn for orientation so we could take some pictures for my Dad and before they left we passed Daisy on up so she wouldn't be too sad for missing out on the trail ride. (Soon enough, kiddo, soon enough.)
They look like naturals.
And then a few days ago my Dad emailed me the picture below. Yup, that young good-looking guy is my dad, and the adorable girl in pink is me.
Two generations of girls on horseback.
Pretty cool.
Last Thursday, on Darin's last day of leave, we took our new little family for an outing to the dizzy park in Port Orchard. Dani and I were happily sitting on the park bench nursing away under a lovely coverup (thanks Auntie Jen!) when a little girl walks up to me.
LG: "What's that?"
Me: "A baby."
LG: "Can I see?"
Me: "Not right now."
LG: "Why not?"
Me: "Because she's eating."
LG: "Oh. How?"
Me: "She's breastfeeding."
LG: thinking "How does that work?"
Me: thinking...how best to answer this..."She drinks milk from my breasts."
LG: "Oh...Can I see?"
Now, any good La Leche League mama would have whipped it out and given this little girl an anatomy lesson. Me, I was a bit freaked out about sharing with the rest of the park. I was desperately searching for a mother to come and save me, but no mother was to be found. So I told the little girl no, and sent her back out to play.
Darin told me later I should have told her to "go ask you mother" and seen what sort of reaction that garnered from said mother.
And here are some fun pictures Darin took from our afternoon outing.
And look at me. Officially the mom of two sweet little girls.
Darin snapped this shot last Wednesday morning as we loaded up in our truck and prepared for our lives to forever change, once again. One last look at the babe in the belly.
When we arrived at the hospital they were all there waiting for us. We met our nurse, Karen, and her trainee, Judy. I am so thankful for these lovely and kind ladies because even though I had done this before, I was still nervous. And their stories and jokes helped the hours pre-surgery pass by quickly.
AND, they called in the expert IV therapy lady to get my line in so I only had to endure three attempts at insertion this time. (Ah...isn't it pretty there in my hand?)
One thing I was up-front about was my inability to deal with the medications. From my previous surgery as well as my miscarriage, I was well aware of my body's tendency to become incredibly nauseous. So our anesthesiologist was well-informed and prepared.
And the nurses became my non-friends when they prepared by giving me some nasty concoction to drink so that if I did vomit, this would come back up. Really? I get to taste this twice?
This photo was not in any way staged. That's how nasty the stuff was.
Surgery was awful. From nearly the moment the numbing started to work I was sick. Sicky, sick, sick. There was nothing in my stomach to vomit but that nasty liquid, and when that was gone I was still vomiting. Darin even tells me the doctors were waiting to cut as I was moving too much with my sickyness for them to begin.
My dear anesthesiologist tried every concoction of anti-nausea drugs he could and nothing seemed to help.
I gotta say, when you're not feeling well to begin with the strange sensations of numbness and pressure don't feel so great either. I definitely knew when they were pushing and pulling to get that baby out.
When Dani was born there were cries of "It's a Girl", (we wouldn't even tell our surgery team the gender)
and lots of comments about the amount of hair.
But I just sat there and listened to the magical sounds of her crying.
And was a bit unbelieving when they told me how much she weighed.
After surgery was pretty miserable too. I was simply exhausted from the concoction of meds they had given me. All I wanted was to hold and nurse my baby girl, and I could barely keep my eyes open, let alone lift my legs.
So the nurses let me rest and Darin bonded with Dani. And I tried to get the feeling back in my feet.
I have no idea how long it took. At one point Darin left to get some lunch. And then, miraculously, I felt better. And I asked for my babe, who wasn't interested in nursing. So we just hung out.
She does have a good suck, though. Here she is just hours old going to town on her fingers. (And you can also get a glimpse of me scratching at my face, that face itchiness thing is a weird side effect of the spinal.)
Dani's fingers from Deanna Gemmer on Vimeo.
Not too long after this video was shot, my nurses decided they were through with me and upstairs to recovery I went. Getting settled into my tiny corner room with a gorgeous view and natural light, I started to feel a lot better. And I waited eagerly to introduce the little bundle of sweetness to her big sister.
It's been a while, I know.
I got a voice mail from a Bellingham friend this week telling me she searched and searched my blog for the due date and couldn't find it. So I figured it was about time to update folks on the belly developments.
Here it is at 39 weeks:
It totally looks like I swallowed a basketball!
Those of you who were around for my Daisy pregnancy will notice I'm quite a bit smaller this time around. I think it has to do with my job as a Mom to a toddler rather than my desk job that allowed me to sit and be lazy all day. And my doc told me this morning it doesn't look like a 9-pounder in there. So I'm excited about that!
What? You don't believe I'm small? Check this out (just please ignore that awful look on my face):
Not yet convinced?
Here's a belly shot today:
And WHOA, one from a week before Daisy's due date.
So here are some updates:
"official" due date is July 26th.
Met my new doctor today. (The doctor I'd been seeing was an interim doc. So is this guy but he'll be my doc for delivery.) We both like him a lot better than my previous doc and got lots of questions answered.
I'm really hoping for a vaginal delivery this time, which is refered to as a "vaginal birth after caesarean" or "VBAC". But there are some risks involved, including tearing of the uterus. So we're cautiously moving forward. Here's the kicker: I have to go into spontaneous labor and there can't be any artifical methods of induction or labor stimulation. So not only do I have to go into labor myself, I also have to progress "correctly" or will be wheeled into surgery. We've known about this for a while and are happy to have surgery if I need to, but just didn't want to schedule it right off the bat.
Doc also told us if Spud doesn't decide to arrive before the 26th we'll be scheduling surgery. Which means, for those of you keeping track, Spud should be here before August for sure!
Doc did "check" today. Head is down but not yet in the pelvis. A little dilated but not too much effacement yet.
I'm still feeling good. Having a few contractions here and there. Muscle pains below the belly from holding the darn thing up. Tire a little more easily but still feel like I've got good energy. And LOVING all the strangers who tell me I'm looking good, as opposed to last pregnancy when all I heard was how huge I was. (I even had someone in the library last week tell me that from behind she didn't even know I was pregnant!)
Working this week to get a hospital bag together, clean our house, and start in on the baby announcements.
Anything else y'all are dying to know?
with two adorable little girls
and bribing this cute boy with food
unlike last trip, this time we are good buds and I love that he gets excited when I come in the room!
I've had a great trip and will miss these guys, but I'm looking forward to seeing my own family again tomorrow.
Daisy was very excited after the ceremony when we told her we were heading to the "party" now. She practically ran to the lodge ahead of us. We enjoyed some hors d'ouevres while getting to know our table-mates, and then decided to let Daisy run around outside a little while the buffet line died down.
Darin shot a couple cute pics of Daisy in her "petty dess".
Oops, there's that "say cheese" smile.
Later in the evening I took a few minutes to shoot the beautiful flowers...
And the cake. The cute couple snuck away to cut it by themselves, but it was mighty delicious.
I really needed a tripod to shoot these last ones, but I did what I could. Here's a first dance shot.
And there's my Uncle Brett dancing with his daughter.
Interestingly enough, this is the only picture of me from the wedding that we came home with. But there's my new dress. (The one I also plan to wear at Darin's reunion next month.)
After dinner and special dances, the live band began to play. I knew Mom & Dad would be jealous as they were a great country cover band (the kind I still dream of joining someday). Daisy took to the dance floor right away, first with her Papa.
And then with her Mama. Can you tell she's having a great time? This kid LOVED the music and the chance to dance. She was squeeling so excitedly that the band, who was having a little feedback trouble, commented that they couldn't tell whether it was feedback or that cute little girl. They told us we should call her "feedback" and we figure we'll add that to the list of camp name possibilities we'll be gathering over the years!
(Video note: How funny is it that I remember feeling really good this night. Cute shoes, new dress, good hair & makeup. And today I look at this video and all I see is fat and pregnant. Perception...)
The party was a lot of fun, especially for our little girl who made friends with everyone who was there. In fact, when it came time to throw the bouquet we were trying to make our exit, but my Aunt Kate's friends started a "Daisy" chant and so we had to let her try to catch some flowers first. We were both glad she didn't come close to getting them!
Fun times for sure.
I've been feeling pretty good lately. Finally had to bust out the maternity apparel and was excited to put this outfit together for Easter (thanks Jen!).
And there's the uncovered version.
My little bunny wanted to say hello to the baby.
And while we're at it, I could use a new profile pic.
And one for Darin too.
Anyone need a subscription to "Parents" magazine? I've got a free gift subscription coming with my renewal and I'd hate to see it go to waste or to someone who already gets the magazine. This article made me smile yesterday. A favorite pic of my little buddy from last week. I love where I live, but just behind my house is the storage area for the horse manure they scoop every day. When the pile gets too big the tractors and the trailer truck go to work hauling it out to pasture. Today is that day and while the guys are hard at work I can't help but noticing the steam rising from the pile and being totally grossed out by it. That manure is OLD people, and it still steams? Who can explain this to me? I'm getting ready to host 20 folks here this weekend for our 4-H State Ambassador meeting. Luckily, we've got access to beds around here. I'm just worried about cooking for everyone in my small kitchen! That's all I got for today. Tomorrow...more fun pictures!
