Love

We are here! I am running two blogs right now because I am helping out with Boo's blog, but I will do my best to keep up with both! I just posted hospital pictures over there, but I thought I would go ahead and post some from today over here. I cannot tell you how much I love this baby girl. You all, she is so perfect. I cannot wait for everyone to meet her! She is stunning, and so so tiny! Love love love.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures!
Our family meeting Cici for the first time

Me Boo and and Miss Cici

She loves her Aunt Sarah

Eating with his Nanny

We are all quite smitten

Florida Wrap Up

Well, I am just so excited about Cici. So so so excited. But I guess I need to wrap up the Florida pictures seeing as how tomorrow I will be heading to meet her. Obviously I will then be blogging about her perfectness. There will be no time for vacation talk at that point. But there were a couple of pictures that are worth posting, so here you go! Nanny, Papaw and Sweet Henry at the beach. I love this picture

Playing in the ocean with Mama and Aunt Missy. Mama is a dork.

Man, playing at the beach really wears you out! I like how he is holding the juice box so you can clearly read the label. Looks like a Juicy Juice ad.

The last night we went into Panama City and played a little putt putt. Boo and Chris played to decide the sex of the baby. Chris won, so it was a clear sign of a boy. Wrong!

Me and Nick at Putt Putt

On the way home we stopped in at Great-Grandma's for a day. Nick took Henry for a ride in Great-Grandaddy's wagon.

Henry was a big fan! I think we will have to get him one of his own.

So that's it for vacation. Tomorrow I get to meet Cici! So...you know...expect a ton of baby pictures coming your way!

Meet Miss Cici

Cici Mar.ion
Born July 28th, 2010 at 10:18am
6 pounds 12 ounces, 19 inches long

Yet again, here is a link to my sisters blog so you can tell her congrats if you have time! We are all just thrilled. I love her so much it hurts.

Niece or Nephew?

We are on the final count down to my sister and her husbands sweet baby! The c-section is scheduled for noon central time, and I don't think my eyes will stray from the clock until then. I am counting down the seconds. It is harder than I can say to not be there to celebrate as this sweet baby is born. But we will be there Friday, and I cannot wait!

So, to kill some time my sister thought it would be fun to take some guesses on if everyone thinks this baby is a boy or a girl and the weight. You can head on over to her blog and leave a comment with your guess! I will post over there and here on bio girl as soon as the sweet baby arrives.

So so so excited.

Damn Endo

Looks like my endometriosis is back with a vengeance. It has taken a nice little break from bothering me ever since I was able to switch birth control from the one specifically for breastfeeding mothers. I am now on one that I can take for three months straight. I have actually been doing that for a long time (like five years) but this was the first pill that actually worked for me. Not in the "preventing birth" sorta way, they have all worked just fine and dandy for that, but in the "preventing cramping and bleeding and all around miserableness for three months in a row" sorta way. But all good things must come to an end, and we hit the end of the three month cycle. There is no getting around a miserable week at least four times a year.

So the cramping has started. The terrible back aches have stared. The being sick to my stomach has started. I was at Babies R Us with my sister (BABBBBEEEEE!!!!) and I started cramping so bad I seriously couldn't stand. I went home and spent the rest of the night laying down. I took my pain medicine and it helped. I woke up this morning feeling worse than yesterday morning, but better than last night. I don't have a lot of hope for the next two days. It just seems hard to imagine how my endo fits in with being Henry's mom. In the old days I would spend a few days in bed laying on the heating pad. That doesn't really fit into my life now. So we will see. Hopefully this wont be a terrible cycle. Hopefully things will be a little more bearable. Hopefully the cycle will be close to over before Friday when I leave to meet my new niece or nephew. Hopefully. Damn endo.

Big Family News!!

We are home! I have a ton more pictures to show you, but I can't really load them right now. We had such a wonderful vacation with our sweet boy and awesome family. It was just perfect. We are now back to real life. We got in last night and had to do laundry, mow the lawn, go to the grocery...getting home from a trip is a lot of work! I was worried about Henry not wanting to sleep in his own room, seeing as how he spent the last week nestled in between me and Nick or him Nanny and Papaw all night, but he passed right out and was still sound asleep in his bed when I left his morning. Vacation is exhausting.

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and tell you all we are back and say that we have some huge and exciting family news going on over at my sisters blog. Check it out and leave her a comment if you have a chance!

Beach Boy

Henry has decided he likes the ocean

And he really likes the beach.

And he absolutely loves family vacation

Pictures, Pictures

We are having a blast down here. We have been down to the beach everyday and basically been just hanging out and relaxing. I have so many pictures to show you all. Maybe I should make an effort to post pictures everyday just so I don't have to do so many all at once. Believe it or not I was VERY selective on which pictures to post. Which may be hard to believe. So here we go! Here is our little family after dinner at Marley's last night. The food was just ok, but the picture is great!

The sisters

At the restaurant

Boo and Chris

My adorable parents

Henry is loving the beach!

My Daddy hanging out watching a movie

The girls working on dinner. We are cooking amazing food while we are down here. If there is one thing my family loves to do is eat together. Laughing and talking and enjoying great food.

Boo and Chris at the condo

Hanging out with Mama in nothing but his skin (and a diaper of course)

In case you all were wondering, Miss Ellie is here and loving being on the beach! She has been down to the ocean and liked it okay. She LOVES being at the beach house with the family!

Sweet Henry has actually been a little sick on this trip. It started on the drive down and has settled in to a little cold. Mainly just a runny nose, but enough to keep him up at night and make it hard for him to breath. Poor baby. We have been waiting it out, but the snot turned yellow (lovely vacation talk) so we might have to make a little trip to the UTC. So that sucks. Besides that everything has been perfect around here! More pictures to come later in the week. And maybe I will even tell a story or two. We have some good ones.

At the Beach

Sweet Henry got his first beach experience yesterday. He thought it was...interesting. I think he is holding of his official judgement until the end of the week. He just wasn't sure about that sand stuff. Or the waves. The waves were definitely questionable. He did love the time with his family and playing on the beach towel with his toys. I haven't been taking many pictures (like none of the rest of my family. SHAME), but I have a couple to share of our little family of three, along with a video!

At the Ocean from Sarah on Vimeo.

Here is the video of Henry getting in the water for the first time. Nick and I didn't realize my sister was taking a video and thought she was waiting to take a family picture. Hence the way we pick up the baby and pose at the end. Dorks. Still, I thought you all would like to see it!

Nick's gator bridge was awesome. Notice it's shell snaggle teeth.

Henry and his Mama

Watching the waves with his Papa

Safe and Sound

We hit the road on Friday at 5pm and rolled into Mexico Beach/Port St. Joe around 2pm on Saturday. Let me tell you, traveling with a baby is different. Really different. Henry really did awesome, it was just a totally different car ride from loud music and constant talking. It was more Toy Story and Shrek* in the background with one adult in the back seat and our dog Ellie riding shotgun. For the record, Ellie was in heaven. And still is. A dog friendly beach house is totally the way to go.



We stopped at Great Grandma's to sleep on the way down and Henry loved seeing her, but had a hard time adjusting. We are stopping in on the way home for a longer visit, so I am sure it will be great to spend more time with her!


We didn't make it to the beach yesterday, so I don't have any actual pictures just yet. Except this one I just took of my brother in law in our living room...
For the first time ever we are 100 yards off the beach rather than having it right out our back door. This living room is the main reason. When searching for a house to stay in, the two couches that comfortably would seat ten adults (we have seven) the 60 inch TV, and the amazing kitchen with ten person table and high chair sorta stole our hearts. We will find out today how different the walk feels. We have a great view of the water from our deck, so I am not too worried!

Last night we went out to eat at a little brick oven pizza place in town called Jo Mama. If you are ever here, go eat there. It is so awesome. The entire town is truly adorable. We have been here all of one day and we can truly say we are in love with Port St. Joe and Mexico Beach.


What? You all came here to see Henry at the beach? Well, he is still in bed. I KNOW. The child morphed into someone else as soon as we crossed state lines. BUT, here he is with his "Run Around Gang" Suitcase that was his Papa's right as we walked out the door. Just because.

And now we head to the beach!!

*Thanks Charing for the DVD player! It mounted to the seat PERFECTLY and may have saved our life on the car ride!! XOXO

Off to the Beach!

We will be on the road at 4:30 today for the beach! The rest of the family is already on their way (JEALOUS) but I had to work today (booooo). We are making a pit stop at Great-Grandma's in Alabama tonight, then it is on to Mexico Beach! I am so excited to take Henry to the ocean for the first time. And so happy that not a single drop of oil has washed up on Mexico Beach. It is going to be an awesome week.

We have wifi at the house so I will be blogging with pictures and videos and what not. Check in throughout the week to see what we are up to!

Postponed

We recently found out that this fall we will have to replace our entire heating and air system in our home. This little job is going to cost us around seven to eight thousand dollars. SEVEN TO EIGHT. THOUSAND. DOLLARS. That's like, a decent used car. That's like, a trip to Europe. It's just...an astronomical amount of money for something that we never get to say "Ooooooo....look at my awesome new hot air! How LUXURIOUS!" about. I mean, I get it. I get that we own an old home. And we love that about it. Our neighborhood has beautiful trees and nice big yards. The tiny little ranch has some character. The neighborhood is perfect and in an awesome location. And those pluses have to come with some minuses. Like things are old. Things are small. We have no closet space (apparently people in the 50's required no storage). But still. STILL. Seven to eight thousand dollars. FOR TEMPERATE AIR.

So needless to say we have been scrounging around and looking under all the couch cushions, but we haven't managed to find that amount of cash laying around. We are going to have to come up with a plan. And it finally sunk in to me today that that plan will mean that we are going to postpone our Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) cycle I have mentally planned for the fall. It's like I have just been ignoring that this is possible to change. Pushing forward with our plan for baby #2 to begin no later than October. At first I was thinking this summer, but then the new job made that time line impossible. So I put off the thinking of baby #2 until then. Well, sort of. I put off obsessing over baby #2 until then.

But now...I look at the budget and I keep trying to tweak it and squeeze out a couple more dollars. To find a way to get the furnace and the FET to both fit into the fall budget. And...they just don't. We will get a nice tax return from the furnace in the spring. We will see how the new system affects the gas and electric bills by then. We will have a better idea of what we can afford. It is smarter to wait until the spring. Much smarter. But why does my heart hurt so much about it? Damn infertility. It sure would be nice if getting pregnant was free.

**I know this post is a little bit of a downer, which is bad timing seeing as how with the Sammie situation I had two downer posts already this week. But I wrote this on Tuesday before we decided about Sammie, and I really want to post it before we leave on vacation. Because on vacation I want to post nothing but happy beach pictures, stories and videos. So don't fret. There will be lots of light-hearted family fun coming your way on Bio Girl in the next week!**

Thank You

Thank you all for your sweet words about Sammie. The comments, facebook messages, twitter messages, phone calls and emails were moving and helpful beyond words. Yesterday was an awful day. Awful. But it was made easier knowing that you all understood and had us in your hearts and prayers. The vet was wonderful and it really was peaceful for him. It just broke our hearts. We will miss our sweet sweet Sammie.

Sammie

It is time to take our sweet Sammie to the vet. He has been unable to consistently make it to the litter box for the last week. He has lost a lot of weight and was randomly hissing in the middle of the night. He is seventeen years old and has has a wonderful life, and in my heart I finally am at peace with it being time.

I am just so very very sad. He has been with me since seventh grade. My dad brought him home and handed him to me when he was 24 hours old. His eyes were still closed and he had little nubs for ears. I nursed him on a bottle and raised to adulthood. I was his mama and he was my very first sweet baby. He loves to lay in my hair, he loves ice cream and sandwich meat. He hates all cat toys except one, his prisoner mouse with a ball and chain. He doesn't know how to retract his claws so he constantly gets stuck on the carpet and furniture. He runs to the door to greet us when we come home. He loves laying in the sunny spots in our house. He is so loving. So so loving. He has been amazing with Henry. Allowing him to "pet" him and pull his hair and ears. Henry has started going up to Sammie and giving him kisses. He loves his kitty. I wish they had more time together. Even seventeen years doesn't feel like enough. I am so so sad. My heart is aching.

My sweet Sammie

Getting Kisses from Henry

All Night

Well, it took nearly fourteen months, but it has finally happened. Henry has started to sleeping through the night. In his own bed. It is the miracle of all miracles. And let me tell you, it feels so awesome. I didn't realize how much it was taking out of me to wake up several times a night. To actually get out of bed and bring him to our bed. I thought when the nursing time was cut out that we were so much better. I could almost instantly go back to sleep. That was almost normal! But now...now with the no waking at all...the actual sleeping ALL NIGHT LONG. Oh lord you all, it is so awesome. The sweet feeling of being truly rested. You just don't realize how great it is until you lose it for fourteen months.

I didn't think it was possible, but I may now love the boy more. Now that he is no longer sucking the life out of me by robbing me of sleep. What a good boy.

Swim Lessons

So Henry started swim lessons this week! Between the public pool down the street and my father-in-laws house, we are at the pool a lot. So I thought it was a good idea to go ahead and sign him up for a "Mommy and Me" swim lesson. You know, just to get a little formal instruction for my one year old. Because I am positive he will grasp a ton of it and come away the next Michael Phelps.

Well, we get to the pool right on time (a rare occurrence for us) and seemed to be the first group waiting outside of the pool for the instructor. Then another mom and little girl show up. The little girl points to Henry and says "BAAAAABBBBEEEEE!!!" and her mom goes, "Yes! There is a baby!!". So I look at the girl, clearly bigger than Henry, and think "Hmmm....I thought this class was for 12-18 month olds" Then the next couple come with their baby. He is clearly also bigger than Henry, but he doesn't point at him and say "BAAAABBBBEEEE" so we are a little more on even ground. Finally the last parents with their twins show up. The little boy twin looks every bit of two years old. The instructor walks up and looks at Henry and says, "OH my! We have a little one!!!". I scratch my head.

We make our way into the pool and all jump in. We begin the lesson which is mostly singing songs and splashing water. Henry is absolutely loving every second of it. I begin to chit chat with the other moms. Asking names and ages. Well, it turns out that ALL of the babies were 14 months old except the little girl. She was 17 months. But Henry was the EXACT same age as all those other mammoth children. And only three months younger than the girl that pointed him out and cried BABY. When they stood on the wall Henry was the same height as the boy twin and taller than the girl twin and the other little boy, but just not nearly as filled out. I am not positive he deserved all the attention for being so little or a baby, but they all seemed to enjoy his sweetness, so all was right with the world.

No worries though. My boy may not look a little younger, but he was by FAR the most advanced "swimmer" in his class. The other babies, oh they cried. They didn't want their face in, they didn't want to play with toys or noodles. Henry, he was a rebel. He was the first to jump (step) off the wall into the water. The only one to go all the way under. (or to have his mama dunk him as he jumped off the wall. But he loved it! He did it again and again!) The first to go down the slide, the only to use a noodle. He laughed and played and splashed. He ROCKED swim lessons.

By the end of the first lesson the other moms were like, "Um...he is awesome! Is he is the pool a lot??" I told him he was, but the truth is that he just loves the water. And he is fearless. Our little wild child of a water baby.

Excuse Me While I Turn into a Total Biology Geek for a Second

So I know I don' talk about my actual job on here often. Mainly because I know most of you really don't care or wouldn't find it that interesting. Still, every now and then I have to indulge the Biology geek inside and tell you all about something super cool that happens around here.

So today a biologist came in to ask for my help on a study he is doing. ( I am playing a very small role. Like tiny. Like this study has been going on for four years and I will complete my tiny roll in a week. But still. So excited. ) He tells me that a few years ago he was reading a paper by Charles Darwin's son about carnivorous plants. ( because who doesn't find carnivorous plants fascinating? I mean, they are plants...that are CARNIVORES! So awesome) And at the end of the paper Charles Darwin himself wrote a note that asked a future biologist to look into this specific species to see if it is carnivorous. And nobody ever did. Until now. So this Biologist at the University has been trying to answer the question asked by Charles Darwin himself. And I get to help. A little.

I know lots of people are sorta anti-Darwin, but as a Biologist, he is just tops. And to have even the smallest hand in answering a question he asked some future biologist to study. It's just...awesome.

While I am geeking out about work, I have also started working with antibiotic testing. Which, just...yay!! I am excited about it. I am really loving my new job.

Don't worry, tomorrow we will be back to normal around here. I have to tell you all about Henry's first swim lesson!

My Boy

Yesterday Nick and I spent a large chunk of our day off work packing up baby toys and baby clothes. Henry is growing so fast, so we were really in need of another massive clean out. In this cycle went all the bottles, passies, bib's, burp clothes and baby toys. Because he is too big to need any of those things anymore. He loves his trucks and his stuffed animals. He can play with blocks and stacking cups for hours. Oh and his books, he loves it when we read to him. Always bringing books over and crawling into our laps. He is crawling less and less and walking more and more. We don't feel the need to keep our hands out to catch him just-in-case now. He is steady on his feet. He laughs at things on Sesame Street, or when we make funny noises or faces at him. He loves being chased, and loves it more when he is caught and tickled.

He is strong willed. Oh, is he. He over reacts to not getting his way. He throws his body and the floor and hits his head against the ground. Then he slowly looks up to make sure we are seeing his despair. He eats everything in sight and can now eat off a plate without tossing it on the floor. He is so curious about spoons, and tries to use one on his own. He is nearly sleeping through the night. He wakes up at 5:30 to get into bed with us, kisses us both and flops down to go back to sleep until seven thirty. He gives us kisses all the time. And always with a loud "Mmmmwwwwaaa!". He dances constantly. Whenever there is any music, or sometimes just any sound at all. He seems to like rap and rock most, but he also loves the music on The Weather Channel.

My boy is growing up. He is slowly losing all the things that make him a baby to the outside world. A toddler who will always be my baby. I love him so much it sometimes takes my breath away.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to all of my readers in the United States! Hope everyone has a great holiday!
I am not naming names, but someone decided to start this day off at 5:30am. So we might be those people laying in bed at 9pm yelling about all those pesky kids and their noisy fireworks.

Eclipse

So I went to see Eclipse last night, and because I feel that my opinion must be heard, I figured I would write up a review for you all! But before I get all into it, I want to point out that the Harry Potter Preview was in it. And I may or may not have actually squealed with joy. You can watch the preview here. Now, on to the Eclipse review. So...you know...Spoilers.

This movie was by far the best of the three. BY FAR. I mean, I don't expect it to win an academy award (although I fully expect it to sweep the MTV awards) but seriously you all, this movie is just dramatically better than the first two. When the movie started and it opened up in the meadow with Bella and Edward I was a little worried. The dialogue felt rushed and I was just like, "oh yeah, the movies sorta bother me a little". I mean, I like the first two. But I like them because I love the books. I feel like I always need to make excuses for them. But not this one. This one is just so much better. So here is a list of things I liked, or didn't think worked, with the movie. In bullet form. Because it is easier.

• I loved Every single Cullen. I like that they finally got to tell their stories and had bigger rolls to play. It was nice as a fan of the book to get to see the other characters that we love.
• Emmett was awesome. I have this love of Emmett from the books and I feel like his character really got to shine in this one. I know his parts were small, but he played them really well. (As a side note, my 16 year old step-sister in law has this life size cardboard cutout of Emmett in her room and her sister has one of Jacob and I just love it. It reminds me of how I used to have one of Keanu Reeves from Speed when I was sixteen. Ah memories.)
• Jasper's hair was like a million times better. I also really liked his back story.
• Bella's wig. It bothered me a little.
  
• Edward and Bella just seemed so much less awkward together. Their relationship finally had flow and seemed logical.
• Jacob. Oh poor Jacob.
• I feel like Alice has gotten the shaft in the movies. She is a MAIN characters in he books. Number 4 after Bella, Edward and Jacob. And yet in the movies it's like she is just one of the Cullens. Alice deserves better.
• I loved the sex talk between Bella and her dad. Actually made me laugh out loud. Something about it came out as just honest.
  
• I thought the scene in the bedroom when Edward truly proposes was great. I was worried it would be super cheesy, but it wasn't.
  
• I loved the vampires in Seattle.
• One of my favorite scenes in all the books was when Edward and Jacob have their conversation in the tent. I was so happy they kept it so true to the book.
  
• The fight was pretty awesome. It was nice to finally have some true action. The Cullens, the wolves, the newborns (poor Bree). Enjoyable.
• I missed the connection between Edward and Seth. For some reason I always liked how they became friends after fighting together. I was sad they cut that.
• I really like Dakota Fanning as Jane.

So that's about it I guess. Like I said, it wont win as Oscar, but it was the first of the three that I felt did the book justice. I really loved it. I hope they can do the same for Breaking Dawn (part one and two).

So what did you all think??