Scripture Power

Last week we were all listening to Jhonny read the scriptures out loud. It must have been a long day, because everyone fell asleep including Jhonny in midsentence except for Gavin. we abandoned the chapter for another night and went to bed.

Best of Both Worlds

Youngest Fan?

Dance Recital

With the arrival of Gavin on monday it's almost been too easy to glide right over Jessica's big weekend and special events. To be fair I must dedicate this post to her. On Friday June 13th, I made the most difficult drive out to Hutto with Jessica, Lily and a young friend to help out with Lily for the dress rehearsal. I was a little nervous to be an hour further from the hospital especially after feeling contractions the whole trip out there and praying they were fake. I was miserable to say the least and cursing Jhonny's boss for making him work on what was supposed to be his day off. I survived and got home late with swollen ankles.

The next day Grandma and Grandpa Ellis came to watch the performance and to take the girls home with them in case the baby came early. Jessica was beautiful in her Ladybug costume and pink lollipop costume. She did a great job, but we left before the finale - 1 because sitting there was hard enough on me and 2 the girls had a two hour drive ahead of them.

At one point a ballet routine was performed to Butterfly Kisses. Lily got up on my lap and hugged me for a minute. Then she got off and ran away with her grandma. I started blubbering as I thought about my girls leaving for possibly two weeks. It was a bitter sweet moment. Perhaps I was also grieving the loss of Lily's babyhood. She has been so sweet. She doesn't quite understand that her role of being the baby has been stripped from her and given to another.

As Jhonny and I drove home in the silence we discussed our plans for the week and determined to go get a hotel for a few days closer to the hospital, just in case. We made plans to spend Father's Day with some coworkers of his who are from Venezuela so I could meet the wife in case I needed a ride to the hospital while Jhonny was at work. The Delgados were very nice and extremely accomodating.

As it turned out, we didn't need their services after all since the doctor decided to induce me the next day due to high blood pressure. After getting to the hotel room Sunday night, my head started pounding with pressure and nothing I could do would relieve the pain. Sometime during my sleepless night, I begged Jhonny not to leave me the next morning to go to work and to take me into the doctor early. We had a scheduled appointment for 11:30am, but I couldn't wait that long. Jhonny called in sick and took me in as soon as the office could squeeze me into the morning schedule. The protein in my urine and somewhat dilated cervix convinced my doctor to send me over to labor and delivery. What a different experience to actually be alert to answer questions for the paperwork and sign my name without a shaky hand. We were all tucked in and ready to go when the doctor showed up after lunch to break my water and put me on pitocin. The real contractions began sometime around 12:30 although I had been having some light ones of my own for a while before that.

Jessica and Lily arrived some time around 1:30 with my parents, so I didn't have too much time to miss them. I could blame the dance recital for pushing me over the edge or attribute everything to a higher power at work to put all in place for everyone to be in the right place at the right time for all to work out for our good. I'm more prone to the latter.

Anyway- after actually getting an epidural this time and not having to suffer so much through the difficult part of labor, I was complete at 5:30pm. The doctor arrived at about 5:50 and told me it was time to push. 6 minutes and 4 pushes later, he was born. No tears, no episiotomy, no bruising - just pretty easy. Wow! What a new experience.

Jessica and Lily only got to hang around for about 30 minutes after he was born and before he really got cleaned up before they went back to Houston for the rest of the week with Grandma and Grandpa.

Since the recital was complete and I didn't have to worry about hair styles and Jessica was in town near her hair stylist aunt, I told Jessica it was time for her to cut her hair. She has been wanting to donate her hair to locks of love so we've been letting it grow since January. I was nervous about her liking it short since it's been long since she was 2. I told her to let Aunt Mandy know how short she wanted it and we'd send it in if there was enough. She came back with this cute cut and loves it. Phew.

On Wednesday, Jessica officially turns six. We've been celebrating all month long so it seems like old news, but really my little girl has 3 more days of being 5. She seems much older some days. I think back to when I was six. My birthday was just after Mandy was born. I remember being a little mama to her too. Six is the perfect age to have a new baby in the family. As difficult as it must be for Jessica to be kicked so quickly out of the lime light, I'm surprised at how handy it is to pass off the baby to her and take a quick break to . . . I don't know BLOG?

Gavin arrives

Gavin Andrew Marcano was born on Monday June 16, 2008 at 5:56pm after 5 1/2 hours of induced labor. We went in for a check up and my blood pressure had sky rocketed so the doctor decided it was time. For being three weeks and one day early, he was a good size - 6 lbs 14 oz and 19 3/4 in long. Gavin is doing very well and is perfectly healthy. I am trying to rest and get my blood pressure down to normal. The girls are with Grandma and driving her crazy I'm sure. I'm missing them, but I'm happy to have the peace and quiet to recover.
I'll post more later. Gotta go rest now.

Lollipop Currency

Jessica asked me for a lollipop this morning. We had a ton left over from her birthday party that we put up because we got tired of finding wrappers and half eaten sticky lollipop sticks all over adding to the ant problem in the house. Now they are a nice little use of leverage. I bartered some chores for a lollipop. She agreed.

After that Jessica and Lily spent a couple of hours cleaning their room, the office, the living room and a few other things to earn a lollipop. Later, when I asked Jessica to clear her plate from lunch off of the table, she went above and beyond. She put all the clean dishes away and cleaned up all the dishes in the sink. All for a second lollipop and without being asked. I love that kind of help. Of course she also is working towards an allowance for the week, but I'm pretty pleased with the competence of our little 6 year old.

Gaining Independence

My two year old believes she can do everything alone. Last night, she refused help to get her pajamas pants on for bed. This morning she took my cereal bowl to the sink, reached up on her tippy toes and tossed it in. All this with the tag hanging off her bum (she put her pants on inside out.) She repeated the favor for her sister and then took care of her own as well. Do you suppose she understood when I explained to her sister what chores she needed to complete to earn her allowance and she wants in on the cut? hmmm.
When I came to occupy my usual space on the reclining couch, she came over to kiss my tummy better, "Tummy hurts?" she asks as she hands me my water bottle. "There you go, Mama." she says with a sweet smile. She'll make a great nursemaid some day.
Now she is toting her doll and "maken" around the house in her platform flip flops that she put on by herself to go out and check on the kitty who was meowing for some food. Her sister beat her to the job though. As she flip flops her way out of the room she waves, "Goodbye, Mama!" And off she goes to join her sister in watching PBS or Disney Channel in the office/playroom.
And then there's the potty training adventures. For a couple of nights, she has gone potty before bed and woken up with a dry diaper! Yeah! She gets to earn a sticker each time she goes for her chart. The chart is sporadically decorated now. Some days are better than others. Last night she had to get out of bed to try and go for the third time before finding success. It may have been a ploy to avoid going to bed on time, but she did go that last time. Thus the inside out pants job.
My hope for this marvelous metamorphasis is not great with the impending change to come in the next couple of weeks. She is bound to regress. We are bound to start over from stage one. Or is she trying to show me that she really is ready for her little brother to come into the world? Time will tell.

Another Daddy story

Jhonny and Lily have a running repeating conversation. She is just as much of a tease as he is so they get quite a kick out of their rhetoric. It goes something like this:
"Lily, do you love Daddy mucho o poquito?" Jhonny asks. Tranlsation: "A lot or a little?"
"Poquito!" Lily replies and Jhonny mockingly cries as she giggles and the question starts all over. Sometimes he mixes up the question and replaces Daddy with Mommy or Jessica or Gavin. Lily always replies mucho for everyone, but Jhonny. She thinks it's so funny.

Now this isn't an original Spanish lesson for Lily. Jhonny did the same thing with Jessica when she was little. The difference? Jessica always answered, "Mucho!" and she would get a bear hug and tickle before starting over. Kids!?!

Daddy Forever!

Yesterday at dinner my husband was showering his daughters with praises. Then he said he wanted them to stop growing up and to just stay small and cute. I pointed out the reality that they would someday grow up, leave the nest, get married and have beautiful children of their own someday. After all I know I want grandchildren eventually. He replied, "No they won't. They're going to stay with their daddy forever! Right, Jessica?"
Jessica shyly burried her head as she said, "No dad, some day I'm going to grow up and have a new family just like you did."
"What?!?" He joked. "You want a new family?"
"No, Dad. I'm just going to be a parent," she tried hard to explain it to him as he watched her squirming and giggling. He likes to tease like that.
"What about you, Lily?" he asked.
"I stay with Daddy, forever!" she said.
"Oh no, honey, you want to grow up and be a mommy too, don't you?" I asked.
"No, Daddy forever!" she insisted. I gave up and we all laughed.
Well, you got one vote anyway honey. Happy Father's Day!

Summer Time

It's here. We're all being lazy and enjoying the beautiful weather. The girls were excited to get out to the wading pool that their dad left intact from the party.

I know that I didn't work this year and I know that I'm not really doing anything personally different than I was last week - but there's something in the air. It's definitely summer time.

It's My Party. . .

I survived Jessica's birthday party last Saturday and so did she. She came home from school Friday not feeling very well and I think she was a little sensitive on Saturday because of it. More than once she was running off to her room to shut the door and have a pity party. At least until after a little chat about how to behave at her own party.

Of course her friends saved the day. When she didn't get much candy after the pinata broke, her friends all gave her some of theirs. I think that convinced her that she was important enough and the rest of the afternoon went much smoother for her. She got everything she wanted and then some. We didn't get quite the turnout that I had expected, but her closest friends did show up and I told her that's really what matters. The girls had a good time getting all wet. And so did little Ray I should add.

I was happy that she seemed to feel okay during her party. She told me later that night that she said some prayers that she wouldn't be sick during her party. What faith. She seems to have gotten over whatever it was she had because there's no sign of it now.

Of course her real birthday isn't until the 25th, but this pregnancy leaves us up in the air this month as to what will happen. I told her after the baby comes, we'll take a shopping trip to go get whatever she wants from Mom and Dad for her real birthday. She was pleased with that idea.

She really wants earrings, but she doesn't want to go through the pain of getting the holes in her ears. A girl after my own heart! I just had to laugh. I told her when she wants the earrings more than she cares about getting the holes, she is welcome to get them. So far, it hasn't happened for me, yet.

We'll see. Once I am free from this pregnancy that binds me I plan to shower her with some much deserved attention. I really am happy to have her home for the summer. If only for the fact that I don't have to take her to school and I have my little helper full time! I did offer to pay her for her services so it's definitely a win win situation.