My dear little man,

Hey baby it's your mama. I thought I would write you a little note while your sisters are off doing who knows what but laughing all the way doing it. It seems that you never sleep and always want to be up on the go with us. Every moment I take to sit down you announce you are still there and give me a good kick of hello. I forgot how wonderful it is to have someone with me all the time. You are there in the middle of the night to say hello when your dad is busy studying. And when everyone leaves the house and all seems too quiet you remind me that you are still here to keep me company.

Today I got to see just what you do in those quiet moments when you do your exercises. You put on quiet the show for the first 15 minutes and then wore yourself out and needed a nap. This is the best shot of your face we could get since you decided that you were going to suck your thumb on one hand while resting the other on your face. Yes that is your hand there not a giant nose.

Little one you are growing by leaps and bounds. You are about 1 pound 3 ounces at 22 weeks and 3 days. That is great since your oldest sister was only 3 pounds and 11 ounces when she made her way out at 32 weeks.

All the doctors say you are doing well and that we are getting along great. So far there is no sign that my body wants you out anytime soon. You are growing away and I am staying small which we all are thankful for. I am excited to see you and know that time will fly but you know what buddy you need to stay in there as long as possible. Mama wants one thing for Christmas, new years, valentines, Easter, every holiday and moment when blessing might come, just one wish! That wish is that when you finally arrive I get to hold and see you right away. I want to hear you cry and then hold you tight knowing you are mine. I have never gotten to do that and you my little man are going to be that special kid I just feel it. Even to hold you the day you were born would be amazing. I have held other newborns just a few hours old but never my own.

So buddy you stay in there and do what you are doing. I will keep swallowing my horse size vitamins 2 times a day while drinking my green shake and downing more water than I thought possible. And you can thank you daddy who gives us our meds every night when we go to be no matter how tired I am and how much I want to curl up in bed. I have a 4 times a day pill schedule to get everything in so we can get all our pills in without messing up each other and after three times I just get tired and that is when daddy swoops in. Plus he is going to have to get me up and moving enough to take my blood pressure every day from here on out and that is quiet the task! But buddy we are working hard for you because we love you so much.

Your sisters love you too! They tell you good night every night before they go to bed. And if you are wondering what that bright light is every day at 8pm that is just them trying to get you to move around because I told them you might shy away from a light. It somehow became a nightly ritual so sorry about that. They just want to say hello and make sure you are okay in there.

Anyways little man I will see you again in 4 weeks and check up to see how much you have grown. I love you very much and will do my best to keep you cooking!

Love your very excited Mom

My dear Sweet Layla

Yes we had a party for Layla.... no this is not the party! 

We threw Layla a family birthday party the day before her big day! She picked out the cake and then we headed to Nana and Papa's for dinner and present! She had a good time and came out with her new favorite toy, her doll. She is so great to love her doll and understand that we didn't get an American Doll but rather a nice alternative. She still loves it all the same. Maybe one day on ebay I will find a good deal on the real thing but for now this medical student family can't afford one (and then it always has to be two!) $100 dollar naked dolls. They are gorgeous but nope. And you know what I never had one and came out great so I think we will survive!

Anyways we had our family party and then on Friday we had her friend party. I planned out everything down to the mini details. It was a beautiful hot pink, light pink, lavender, and purple glitter tulle decked out affair. We did a fancy Nancy theme. The girls loved it and we survived. I sent out 16 invitations thinking that there would be many that couldn't come on a Friday night. No no every one but two from church came. That meant that I had 16 girls all first graders (well make that 15 Isa was in that mix). 

The girls all did their own make up, nails, made necklaces and bracelets, and dressed all dolled up in their fancy dresses. Then they had parfait and opened presents. From the moment the girls began their activities until they sat down for presents we never stopped. I gave my sister a huge hug when it was over because it is wasn't for her I might have gone crazy trying to keep up with all that they needed. But every girl had a blast and Layla felt so special having everyone come to celebrate with her. 

Just to give you an idea of how the party theme was this is the invitation followed by the thank you note which we attached matching homemade bows for each girl.

trick or treating

It was a very dark night and I was very tired walking around in my non costume with Brian. We decided that this halloween we would take one photo capture the moment and then simply enjoy. I used to be that mom with the camera out taking photos every other second. Now we enjoy the moment and try to get one shot that reminds us of the night. This was perfect. It might seem silly to you but I will remember it perfectly. They rang the door bell and then peaked in the curtains. You can see Isa leaning in to get a good look.

You know that anticipation "is someone coming, what kind of candy do they have, are they going to be dress up?" It is wonderful. The girls did great and we parents just sat back and watched. They ran from house to house without a care in the world. They even went into the spooky haunted house down the street that we usually have to walk a block out of the way to avoid. They were two cute little witches that I love so stinking much! Next year should be exciting as we add to our caravan. We will probably have our little cousin Jheda tag along and then we will have Mr. Man with us in the stroller or wagon! It will be fun and probably a lot slower. Maybe the kids can go from one side to another back and forth while we take the little ones to every other house to keep up!

Layla's Halloween Party

This year Layla finally decided she was good to be something a little less glamourus and a bit more halloween. She was an ugly gray haired witch. I thought of course that she was darling but I am the mama. 

Since Isa is in the morning kindergarten class she is able to come with me again to the first grade parties for one year. It is nice since I am able to go to both girls parties the whole time. However next year I will split the time and do half with one and half with another while bringing along their baby brother. 

Layla had a wonderful time and didn't mind at all that her sister tagged along. 

This is Layla's class. Note all the girls because when we had Layla's birthday party (I have NO pictures of that night since there were so many girls and only me and my sister running the show) All the girls attended Layla's birthday. She felt so loved! 

It was so fun to watch Layla in her element. She is still a little quiet and shy but when they turned the music on for them to dance her true colors shined. She danced out there like a pro and it was simply adorable I couldn't help but giggle! I am so proud of Layla and how grow up she is getting. She is going to be an amazing big sister again and I am really grateful for how wonderful an example she is to others. Yes she is a drama queen at home and makes me think i might go prematurely grey however outside the house when she is being watched she is so kind and loving.

Last week she came home with another Elementary student honor, a kind and great example to others given by the school. I am so proud because that sums her up perfectly!

Isa's Halloween party

I know I am SO BEHIND on blogging it isn't even funny. I am sure grandma Kathy is dying without her usual weekly update on the girls and her Brian. But soon school will be over and I will have a long Christmas break from classes and can take time to blog. I also will hopefully get a head on the 12 novels I have to read for my children's literature  class next semester. 

Anyways here is my update. I was SO EXCITED to not have to plan a party for once. But then when i got there I realized they did not plan out as fun of games as our little class did last week so it is a win loose. Anyways the kids had fun and that is what matters. Isa was the only witch in class and was so stinking adorable. I was a proud mama for her homemade costume. It was the first time I made a dress so I was glad it looked as good as it did. And what doesn't look good on her, seriously!

Isa's Kindergarten class!

Isa is doing great in school. She is quiet and doesn't make too much of a fuss but everyone loves her. She makes pictures for all her class mates almost every week. She has organized a coloring group who meet during centers to work on their projects. I love it!

Don't you love the concentration on the prior picture!

And this cupcake was just the beginning of sugarland high that lasted two weeks! 

Sitting next to a buddy that she reads with sometimes!

It was a great party and she was so fun to watch. I am going to miss having her my little baby. After watching her I realized that she isn't a baby anymore she is so grown up. She has a whole world of her own where she is her own person apart from all of us. And that makes me so proud of her! 

Elfe

Friday after a long week Isa and I went to an elf on the shelf party. Santa came, read a book, and delivered elves for all the little girls. It was such an adorable party and a perfect time for it. We had planned on getting an elf for the girls this season so this was a great way for Isa to learn what it was all about. She was tired. Oh so tired at the party and pretty much wanted to take a nap which is about right because lately we take one together since this mama needs one.

Poor little Isa was exhausted and after I took her home settled her down she seems to just drag while we carried on with the day. That night when we tucked her in I felt that our luck of her missing the flu that Layla had last week would not last us forever. I fell asleep on the couch and Brian sat up playing his video game. Not an hour later I woke up to little Isa standing next to me puking her guts out all over her daddy. I took her back to change while dad cleaned up, did laundry, and showered. We finally got her to sleep at 4 in the morning but she woke up crying about every half hour.

Needless to say we were wrecked the next day. Isa started to feel better played so nicely with Layla all day. Brian continued the laundry and did about 8 loads plus those for the puke! I ducked out to a baby shower and then dove into homework all day long.

Saturday night all was calm in the house and we went to bed early. Sunday morning I had planned on staying home from church only going to teach my primary class in hopes we could all fend off the germs. Thankfully I am still feeling well despite my body fighting as hard as it can to stay up and going. Brian is exhausted but good. And Layla is all well. Isa on the other hand woke up last night sobbing through a barking cough and wheezing to get air. After getting some medicine she simply couldn't breath enough to calm down and sleep. So 1am I headed to our children's hospital er down the street. Thankfully we are there every year for the same thing and when they pull up her chart they give all sorts of care and concern. They know we are not crazy overly cautious parents who can't wait until morning to see a doctor. They know we need to get a head of the bugs before we have a little hospitalized kid with RSV.

Anyone who thinks I am crazy to plan on keeping our new little baby boy to be home until spring doesn't know what RSV is like. My daughters were home for a long time. Layla didn't go to church until four months AFTER her DUE DATE. So she was about 6 months when she went to church for the first time, which meant the first time our family attended together (Brian and I switched off to visit two sacraments each week for those months). Even with all that caution Layla had  went to the doctor every month for a big illness like croup, strep, RSV, or phenomena. We will be keeping our baby boy home until May. If I go on bed rest and have him in January as cautiously planned that is a long time.

Hearing my dear sweet Isa struggle to breath and bark so loud the doctor had sad eyes and said over and over you poor little thing, reminds me that no matter what others think mama knows best. This mama is thankful to have children survive birth and if that means I stay home for months to protect them then so be it. I hate seeing then struggle to live in the NICU why would I ever want to return simply because I need to get out of the house and back to life. So we are home fighting off croup. Isa is doing better but tonight should be worse than the last even with the mass steroids she was given. But thankfully so far no breathing treatments we caught it in time.

Anyways back to Elfe- He finally knew Isa was well enough so he headed to the north pole to report on the girls when Isa returned from the ER and he even brought a note and set up a chair to watch over them. Who knows what he will do tomorrow? Time will tell.