December Update

Long time no post! Sorry everybody! I'm busier staying at home than working! Actually it's been great because 1 kid stays home with my nanny and the other goes with me. I've gotten a lot accomplished! Madeline is now cast free and running around like crazy. She did a really good job when they took it off. It's really loud and scary for kids to have casts removed!

Here's John and Emily 1st thing in the morning this past weekend. Aren't they cute!
Here's a close up of Emily. She's growing so fast. (At least compared to Madeline.)

Andrew in the helmet, Madeline and Ellen. Those kids love each other so much! Madeline is always telling me "I need to see my friends!" meaning A & E

Ellen and Madeline at the park. This picture is 3 months old but I just had to post it.

Madeline in my bathroom washing her hands. She loves water!

This is one of my favorite pictures of her. Under the dining room table looking super cute!
Madeline and my dad at the Cheesecake Factory.

So Smart!

Emily is a genius! Last night she rolled from her stomach to back twice! We're so proud!

Pink and on the Mend!

Thank you for all of the concerned phone calls, texts, and comments. As you can see, Madeline is doing well and she was perfect for getting her cast. I think the pink cast looks great, as least as far as casts go! She's eating apples and not concerned about her leg. She's getting around much better than she was and should be walking on it soon. She's still afraid to stand on it but they said it wouldn't be long before she's going all around on it.This is yesterday. Much more pitiful and hopped up on Tylenol with codiene.
Here's a picture with Daddy.
Daddy with his girls. They're all really into Dora - well, maybe not Emily.
Something Madeline never did - sleep on her stomach! Emily was sacked out for an hour! I'm not sure she's really getting full use out of her playmat.
The sisters smiling at each other - so sweet! (Those premie clothes don't fit anymore!)
Cute picture of Madeline at the park.
We're doing good, everybody's on the up-slope of getting over colds and sleeping good at night. Well, within reason for Emily.

It's all fun and games until.....

....someone breaks their tibia. Isn't she pitiful!

We were having a great time at Ben and Sophie's B-day party and the 3 big kids were riding tricycles just before we were going to leave and then, poor Madeline. John was pushing her on the tricycle (which she can't pedal yet) and she tried to pedal. Well, they were going fast and her little foot got caught in the pedal and turned her foot about 180 degrees. Oddly enough, she wasn't screaming or crying really hard, just normal crying. When she couldn't put any weight on it we decided it was probably sprained but should get it checked out. The urgent care clinic in Sterling Ridge was AWESOME! They were really nice and got us in quick. So now she's in a firm splint and will need to get a hard walking cast next week.

So, to sum up, our 2 year old has a broken leg, John has horrible guilt (it was a complete accident. Lots of people have pushed their kids like this and never had a problem!), and we'll be holding off on getting that tricycle for Christmas. It's going to be hard to keep her off her feet until she gets her hard cast on but thank goodness for Tylenol w/codiene!

Halloween

Here are pics of my cute sunshine and star. Emily was very cooperative for her picture but Madeline....not so much. Here's the best I could get. Anyway, I thought they were cute!

Everybody's sick

Sadly, Madeline is feverish with cough and runny nose and Emily has a mild cough and stuffy nose. Poor 2 week old baby - that's too young to be sick. Thank goodness for Little Noses Saline and suction bulbs. No, she doesn't like it but she does appreciate being able to breath after I'm done. Madeline can blow her nose, no suction needed.

In other news, I have cute Halloween pictures and other pictures uploaded and hopefully I'll get to post them soon.

8 days old

We are doing great! Emily's a sweet baby and Madeline just adores her. She covers her with blankets and brings her toys. So far she's not jealous, that won't change, right?
You'll see the progression of Emily's sad eye. We're not sure what caused it, but it started when she was 2 days old and looked red like a carpet burn. No probs with her actual eye, just the skin. Anyway, she"ll make a cute powder puff football player.

Here's a picture of proud Daddy.
Pitiful eye. Just starting to turn red.
John got a picture of us sleeping. So sweet.
Awake and showing of her beautiful eyes! (and war scars!)

Looking even worse - but check out that hair!

Going home. I couldn't get a good pic of her in the car seat because it was already loaded but she's in a preemie outfit and looked tiny!

Immediately after walking in the door. I looked pained - I'm not and had a better pic of me, but I liked this pic of Madeline better. Madeline LOVES her!

Madeline brought her a blanket and baby and carefully placed them on Emily. My cute kids!

Eye is healing and scabbed over but looks much better. She loves being swaddled up tight! (I think all newborns do.)

In her bassinet that Grammy bought for her. Still in preemie clothes. That's a snug fit pajama, not so snug yet.



Having her first bath at home. She slept through most of it and loved the warm water. John brought a warm towel to wrap her in - she thought that was great!

Same snug-fit pajama. Look how fat those cheeks are getting. She may grow faster and bigger than Madeline did.

more pictures after we have Emily

Some more pictures of Emily.  Jessica and Emily in bed:

Here is Andrew with his Mask on at Jessica's parent's house, making Madeline and Ellen laugh.

Jessica right before the C-section, looking puffy from all the fluids they were giving her.

Emily close-up

Emily is here!

This is a post by John. Baby Emily is here! Emily Catherine arrived at 10:08 AM this morning via c-section. She weighs 6 pounds even, and is 18.5 inches long. Jessica and baby are doing well. We have now been moved to a room and Mom and baby are getting some time together.

Here are some pictures, more to come later:

(in this series, before comes after after).

Papa's B-day and Octoberfest

We celebrated Papa's 80th b day with a party! Lots of people came and the kids did a pretty good job of behaving. .....of course mine is the 2 year old so she was the most challenging. The Gomez kids were great! Somebody forgot to send me the memo that we were wearing blue.....

Here's Papa and the great-grandkids.
We took Madeline to Octoberfest a couple of weeks ago and she had a BLAST! She loved the turkey leg and brautwourst (sp?) but wasn't thrilled with the funnel cake. There were dance floors near the music - she loved the polka! She wasn't at all bothered that the other kids dancing were older and danced harder and longer than the other kids there! It was hot, too! She's the one in pink getting down!

She ran up and down the field about 6 times. John and I took turns following her. Where does the energy come from?!

Family Summer Fun

We spent a few days doing family things around Houston. We started with the zoo. Madeline loved it, especially the children's park. Here she and John are in the bat caves.
Looking at seals.Checking out the goat. The goats were SO friendly and not pushy!
Grooming "her" goat. There were lots of them. I don't know what made this one special.
Our trip to the Children's Museum got cancelled because she got a cold so we went to Chucky Cheese instead. Good decision because my normally fearless child felt so bad she didn't enjoy much and was not in the mood to try new things. (I didn't realize how pitiful she was until we were already there and trying to entertain her.) She did like riding the horsey on the carosel.
Hitting things with Daddy was fun. John really enjoyed the games and would have played more if we didn't need to take her home.
The next day she felt much better so we decided to again stay near home and go to the YMCA kids water area. Great decision! She loved it! Toward the end she kept dunking herself and scaring the lifegards so we thought it would be best to leave. (remember, she's fearless! no, she doesn't know how to swim but is surprisingly good at holding her breath when she dunks. and, no, we do not encourage her dunking, it makes me very nervous.)

Here she is running through the spray thingy.
Playing with the little fountains. I wasn't able to take many pictures at the pool because it took both of us watching her in the water. She just takes off towards whatever looks interesting! Thanks J and P for letting us use your passes!

We had a great weekend spending family time together - no house projects, no shopping, just 100% together time. It's the kind of thing that's hard to schedule but so worth it!

School and Dance

Here are some pictures from the first day of school. They don't show her excitement at all but trust me, she had a blast!

These are some super fun squishy balls you can put in cups - at least 10 minutes of fun.
Sliding down the mini slide. She actually waited her turn without me telling her. I guess playing with her cousins has taught her something.

Doing puzzles - Harvard, here she comes! Look at that concentration!

Looking at pictures in the book. I'm sure she'll be reading by the end of the year......right! I just hope she doesn't tear the pages out like she did last night in her bed. Seriously, isn't she too old for that? She was very upset when I took them away, what did she think I'd do?

Putting baby to sleep. She loves babies!

Ballet outfit - so cute!

Participating in ballet class. She really likes her class and is the loudest of everyone. I guess that's good - she's definitely not shy! Madeline's the one sitting on the floor.