Oh my...

My poor, pitifully neglected blog. I promise, promise that I'm going to start updating this more. Especially since we have some exciting news to start off with. In case you live under a rock and missed this on Facebook...

Catching Up in Pictures - Christmas

Yes, I know it's March, and Christmas was THREE months ago, but you'll forgive me because these are ADORABLE pictures.

When John gets excited, he sticks a finger in his nose. This is a Mickey Mouse shirt, and he's got both fingers up there.

Wordless Wednesday

Here's what's been happening in our lives lately according to my iPhone...

When I have more time, I'll post more of an update. It just occurred to me that I never did a CHRISTMAS post...

Wordless Wednesday

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Not-so-wordless Wednesday (The Story of McKayla)

John woke up extra early, and McKayla is still asleep, so I finally have a second to post her birth story. There are pictures at the bottom, and this post is very long!

I hadn't yet scheduled to be induced, and was still very pregnant and somewhat miserable when we went into my 39 week appointment Wednesday, September 14. I hadn't really made much progress at all up to that point, and that was really what my doctor wanted to see before we talked about induction. I wasn't really expecting anything to happen, be scheduled, or have a baby anytime soon. I had been having a lot of really painful contractions that would be regular for a couple hours every day that weren't getting this little girl anywhere closer to being born, so at this point we were both pretty frustrated and done. Anyway, we went to my appointment and it went on just like every other one. My doctor checked me, I got dressed again and he came back in the room, and shocked us (well, mostly me. Cade says he knew it was going to happen) by asking if I'd like to go to the hospital to be induced the next night. I didn't hesitate and answered yes emphatically. He told me to arrive at the hospital at 11PM to start the process and warned me not to eat a huge dinner before I went and not to take a nap before I came, so I could sleep that night. He was pretty adamant that nothing was going to happen until mid-day on Friday. He kept insisting that because I wasn't dilated much at all yet that it would take a while for us to meet our baby girl. So, I didn't nap, and to be truthful, I was too excited to eat much of anything. We made plans with my parents to drop John off on Thursday night before we went to the hospital, and as we were getting out of the car to take him inside they called asking where I was. I let her know I wasn't told to be there until 11, and that no one told me otherwise, but we would get there as soon as possible. We dropped John off, and headed to Gwinnett Medical. We got there, checked in, filled out all the paperwork, and I walked to my room. By 11PM I was hooked up to everything and checked (I was still only 1cm and 50%) and was too excited to sleep which is the first point where I started regretting not taking that nap. Cade fell asleep in the most uncomfortable chair I've ever seen, and I watched TV. I wasn't really feeling anything at all. I mild contraction here and there, but nothing that made me cringe or that I couldn't breathe through. About an hour and a half - two hours later my water broke, so I paged the nurse, got out of bed, went to the bathroom and all of a sudden I was REALLY contracting. They were regular and I was shaking because of the intensity. Five minutes after the nurse walked out of my room, I paged her and requested my epidural. The anesthesiologist came in and went through all the paperwork and legal stuff, and I got my epidural and went to sleep. I woke up a few times and threw up, and the last time I was feeling some pain around my right hip, and requested to be checked. My only complaint is that no one ever checked me practically this whole time. Anyway, she started and said "Oh, I can feel her head." So I got some help rolling over onto my back, and she paged the on-call OB from my practice who was my favorite one, so I could start pushing. After I got rolled over onto my back though, I started throwing up and couldn't stop. I guess she had descended pretty far because next thing I know the nurse is pushing her back up, Cade is telling me to stop throwing up, and the nurse calls Dr. Williams and says, "You better run, or I'm going to have to deliver this baby." So she got there just in time, and after at most, 10 minutes of pushing we welcomed our McKayla Rilee. The next day, my regular doctor came into my room and said a few times how he couldn't believe that she was already here, (I was only in labor for 7 hours.) and that for my next pregnancy I'd just have to hang out in the parking lot of the hospital starting at 37 weeks so that nothing happened before I got to the hospital. It was the best birth experience I could have asked for and we are so happy to have our baby girl here with us.

Spaghetti Boy

I finally worked up the courage to let John feed himself spaghetti. He feeds himself almost every other food, but until now I hadn't found the courage to let him feed himself something this messy. He definitely made a mess, but we got a ton of good pictures out of it!

Sixteen Months

{This post is going to be long, so if you want to skip through and just look at the pictures, I won't be offended}

Today, John is 16 months!

I can't remember life without this little guy, and I mean that in a good way. He's so much fun to have around!

At 16 months John will sit for hours and play with his Cars. He likes to line them all up and then push them around all over the place. A lot of times I seriously think the boy will grow up to do something with cars. He's already taken apart a few of his Hot Wheel cars which aren't supposed to come apart, and with his bigger cars and trucks he always has them standing up so he can see what's going on underneath them and spin the wheels.

He does eat really well, but he prefers to snack. Some days it feels like all he's done for the day was eat! He seriously loves gummy snacks. When we're over visiting with my parents he will go through a box, and he'd probably eat more if we let him. If anything shows his love of food it's his ability to hear a microwave go off in any room of any house. He thinks that when a microwave beeps that it means he gets food. I could write an entire post about his favorite foods because there are so many, but let me just say that the boy can eat and leave it at that!

This boy is a water baby! He's generally a very happy and easy-going little boy, but he's his happiest when he's in the water. He absolutely loves bath time. Occasionally, now that he's big enough to do it, he will climb in the bathtub in the morning and pretty much camp out in there until I strip him down and turn on the water. He also loves the pool, and I can't wait to take him to the beach next week!

At 16 months John can say or sign (I'll indicate which words he signs):
-Mama
-Dada
-Nana
-Cat
-Car {John says 'rrrmmmmm' most of the time though}
-Love {signs}
-Eat {This one he doesn't say or sign. He blows air out like he's blowing on his food.}
-Thank you
-You're welcome {he just says 'come'}
-Bye
-Go
-Dog {He barks through his nose most of the time.}
-All done {signs}
-More {signs}
-Please {signs}
-Ball {signs}
-Come here/Pick me up {signs}
-Yes {nods his head}
-No {shakes his head}
-Baby {signs}
-Dagum
-Want that/this / What's that/this {sounds like wadat/wadis}
-Moon {he points to the moon and says 'mmmmm'}
-Good {He always says 'gum'}
-Yum
-Night Night