:)

Olivia and one of her best friends, Abby

Amy and I must have been on the same wavelength because we both decided to potty train the girls on the same day. We hadn't planned it, but it ended up that way. Both girls are now permanently in big girl panties! :)

Mr. Julian

I know this is a little dark, but this shows his personality PERFECTLY! I never knew a baby could be this happy all the time!

Julian is 3 months old today!

Wow, I can't believe my little ham is already 3 months old. The past three months have been totally crazy, filled to the brim with activity and excitement. Three months ago at this moment (3:02 pm) I was trying to decide whether or not to call Eric and have him come home to take me to the hospital. Here is the story: This Tuesday started out like any other. Olivia and I headed to Kingwood for one of my dr. visits. The nurses used to scold me when I wouldn't bring her, so I decided I would let her tag along for this visit. I was 38 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I was chatting with my doctor, telling her I couldn't wait to meet the baby and find out what it was. She calmly said "are you really ready" to which I answered "yes!" About two seconds later I was in the most intense pain I have ever felt. Holy cow, what just happened?!? My doctor calmly says she is just "angering my cervix". Wow. So, without any further detail, she informs me I am still 1.5 cm and that the baby should be "coming soon". Ok. I started telling her about the birthday party we had planned for Olivia that was to take place that Saturday. She gave me a very nervous look, so I jokingly told her we could reschedule it if there was a baby by then. O and I packed up and headed to our friend Amy's house (like we do every Tuesday) to play with Abby. We were eating lunch and my stomach started feeling a little weird, but I was eating a burger, so I just thought that was why. We went upstairs to play (by this time it has been about 45 min since my appt.) and my stomach was in knots. I felt like I could vomit. I started getting really hot and my stomach was cramping. I don't know why, but I happened to notice that my stomach was cramping every 4 minutes. Weird. The last time I looked at my watch, Amy noticed and asked if I needed to leave. I told her that I thought I might be having contractions. She seriously said, "Well go home then! I don't know how to deliver a baby!" Ha! I thought I just needed to be sick and then take a nap, so we headed home. On the way home I realized what was happening...I was in labor. Two huge contractions on the way home while driving. Scary! I got home and immediately put O down for a nap. I started trying to pack a bag and texted Natalie (my awesome friend who happens to live across the street) that I thought I was in early labor. She called right away and told me she would come over to help after she picked up her son from school. At 3:00 I made the decision to call Eric. I called him and told him what was going on, and he told me to wait 30 min and call him back. He was in mandatory training at work. I waited a whole 2 minutes and called him back saying he needed to come home now. He had to drive 30 min to get home and then we had another 30-40 min drive to the hospital depending on traffic. Fast forward through a miserable hour. 3:50 Eric walks in the door to find me hunched over and Natalie asking him if he was ready. My bag was in the car and we were out the door in 5 minutes. 4:00 pm is NOT a good time to be heading N on 45 (for all you Texans), in fact that is probably the absolute WORST time of day. I didn't think I was going to make it since my contractions were now on top of each other. Fast forward through some more pain. Got to the hospital at 4:40 or so and was at 4.5 cm with contractions every 2 minutes. I got an epidural an hour later, and it stopped my labor. Thank goodness, some time to think and relax. Not much time though. About 9:15 a nurse came in to check me, and as soon as she did she said, "DON'T MOVE" in a nervous voice. Julian was RIGHT THERE ready to come out and the doctor had just left to take his dad to a nearby hotel. Lots of scary stuff happened in the meantime, but then 7 minutes of pushing and we met our little baby boy! I was in total shock when Dr. Sam said it was a boy. You see, we were 100% convinced it was a girl, and with good reason. We saw the ultrasound and swore it was a hamburger (girl). The ultrasound technician told us she thought it was a girl. So, when he was not a she, we were shocked. He came out with tons of fluid in his lungs, so (and I didn't see this) they stuck a tube into his lungs to drain it out. That didn't work I guess because they took him away to the NICU for what seemed to be eternity but was actually just one hour. He was all better. So I can honestly say that I am having so much more fun today than I was 3 months ago at that time. Why can I say that? Because Olivia and Julian are both fast asleep at the moment! :)

Goodbye diapers, hello panties!

That's right! Olivia Reese is officially a big girl now! She has been in panties since Thursday after school. I picked her up from her preschool at 2:30 and let her play at the indoor playground until 3:30. We got home a little before 4, and her diaper was dry. I thought, hm...maybe today is the day! So, we jumped in head first! I took off her diaper, sat her on the potty, and told her to pee. She did it! I was shocked. I put her in panties and she did great! Only one accident the first day! Friday we stayed home all day and basically did nothing but make frequent trips to the bathroom. Four accidents, but each time she immediately realized she was wet and ran to the bathroom to finish. Yesterday she only had two accidents. She even stayed dry during her nap. She did great! The first accident was actually on the way to the bathroom, and the other was after her bath in the evening. And much to my surprise, she stayed dry all night long! We put a pull-up on her for naps and overnight, but so far she hasn't needed them. So far no accidents today! Yay Olivia!

My Christmas Angels

I call this dynamic duo "OJ"

oLiViA

JuLiAn

Debi Gomez, a local photographer, took these pictures of Olivia and Julian when Julian was about 1 month old (O is 2 years old). She took TONS of awesome shots, but these were the three I chose. Check out more of her shots at www.lifesimages.com!

Professional Pictures

Hey guys, just wanted to post some pictures and let you know it will be a while before new posts appear. Lupe (our dog) and I are the only two members of this family who are not sick. :( We have a lot of fun things to blog about, but that will have to wait. Sorry! These pictures were taken last month, when Julian was about one month old. Side note, Olivia is chasing Lupe around the house with a tissue saying, "Lupe, blow nose?" Too funny. The following pictures were taken by Jeni Hendricks, a local photographer.

This pictures CRACKS ME UP! It looks like he is saying, "Hey guys, what's up?"

"Hey ladies, check out my muscles!"

I absolutely LOVE this picture of Olivia!

Classic. Olivia has her finger in her mouth and Julian looks scared to death of Olivia.

It is so hard to get both kids doing anything relatively normal. Olivia was looking over at "puppies" in the room. There were no puppies, but O thought there were. Silly.

I couldn't say it better myself. This is EXACTLY what Olivia does when confronted by anyone she doesn't know. Such a shy little girl.

Julian is TWO MONTHS OLD

Height: 23 1/4" (63rd percentile)

Weight: 11 lbs. 4.5 oz. (40th percentile)

Head circumference: 39 1/2 cm. (38th percentile)

WOW! It seems like last week Julian was born! I can't believe he is already two months old! He's really starting to interact with us. He smiles, coos, giggles a little, and tracks you everywhere you go. He's such a great baby! He eats well, sleeps well at night, and is very alert and calm during the day. Little guy even slept through the night last night! We put him down at 10, he fell asleep around 10:30, and I didn't hear from him again until 6:30!

Things are definitely picking up speed at our house. Olivia has attempted to give Julian a pretzel and some water from her cup. Last night I caught her pulling a strip of paper out of his mouth that she had given him. She also continues to try to pick him up. Here's the story. It was time for Olivia's bath, so I told her to go get undressed in the bathroom. I told her I'd meet her in there because I was going to go get Julian. He sits in a bouncer in the bathroom with us so we can talk to him. I put the bouncer in the bathroom, and went to grab O's pajamas from her room. Olivia was in our bathroom, and Julian was laying by the Christmas tree looking at the lights. Next thing I know, I hear Olivia struggling in the living room. I came out to see what she was fussing about. There she was, standing there holding Julian in the "hug" position. She had obviously bent down, hugged him, and was attempting to "help me" and take him to the bathroom for me. She was fussing because he was too heavy for her. He wasn't crying or anything, just looking at her. I was inches from grabbing him from her when she just kind of threw him back down onto the boppy (pillow). She ran away crying, and he just kind of laid there like nothing had happened. This is now the second time I have caught her picking him up. I thought I scared her enough last time that she knew never to do it again. Guess I was wrong.

I came into the room the other day to find Julian like this. I guess Olivia thought he needed some shoes. She cracks me up!

Julian LOVES to lay by the tree and look at the lights.

Getting close and snuggly with his "snuggly" frog.

Yes, I do realize that all these pictures feature the pacifier. He absolutely LOVES it. Olivia never took one, but this kid is addicted. Hey, if it makes him happy, it makes me happy.

Anyone want to trade?

I'd love to trade days with anyone who is willing. Let me tell you a story:

Olivia was helping me fold the clothes this morning when she found her panties. She took off her diaper, put on the panties, and put her pants back on. I thought maybe this meant she was ready. So I let her keep them on. I heard Julian fussing, so I got him up and started feeding him. Olivia ran over to me to let me know that her pants were wet. Grr. I put Julian down, took Olivia to the bathroom, stripped her, and cleaned her up. I gave her another pair of panties and went back to Julian. I no sooner than picked him up when I hear a huge gush. I looked over to see Olivia standing at the back door as if she were a little puppy waiting to be taken out to potty. She was standing in a giant puddle of her own pee. Arg. I got up to get a towel, and when I came back into the room, I hear the familiar sound of Lupe gagging. Where is she? I finally found her standing over a pool of vomit in Julian's room. Lovely. It just keeps getting better. Ok, to recap, I now have a hungry baby, a puddle of pee by the back door, and a puddle of vomit in Julian's room. What to tackle first? I put O on the potty, cleaned up the puke, cleaned up the pee, went back to get O, and then returned to continue feeding Julian. Ok, so all is well. Or so I thought. I hear Olivia in the kitchen, then I see her running toward the bathroom saying something about potty. I go into the kitchen, and sure enough, there is a huge puddle of pee by the trashcan. What's more is that there are now little footprints of pee leading all the way to the bathroom. Awesome. Did I mention that this is mostly carpet?? I put O on the potty, got out the swiffer wetjet that I JUST bought, and went to town wiping and mopping the floor. Keep in mind Julian is STILL hungry. So after I cleaned up the kitchen, got Olivia off of the potty and in a PULLUP, I returned to finish feeding Julian. Thinking everything was over, I took J to his room to change his diaper, and I feel something wet. Yep, I stepped in another pile of vomit that I had not seen before. Awesome. And it is not even 11 yet. Yikes!