Peek-a-boo

Yesterday I was reminded what a happy baby we have.  At church we sat out in the lobby, as Amelia still has a lingering cough from our colds last week, and we didn't want other parents thinking we were exposing their babes to illnesses...  we picked up Amelia halfway through the sermon cause the car seat wasn't cutting it anymore, and she starts giggling and wiggling.  What the...  I look over and there is a woman standing by the coffee pots and she's smiling and peeking at Amelia.  And Amelia is just loving it.  The woman would hide behind the pots and jums out, Amelia just thought it was hilarious!

I also went to my old job (which I left three years ago) today for lunch and everyone passed Amelia around, she just loved the attention.  Didn't matter who was holding her, if someone would look her way, she was a happy girl!  Everyone kept commenting on how fun and smiley she is :)

So glad our baby loves people and is generally happy.  Makes us glad to see other people enjoying her!

August

This month has flown by!  Not sure where the time has gone....  We've had a few exciting things happening.  Amelia and I went to Hood River to visit Renee and Mylee again, and Amelia went swimming for the first time!  She loved it :)

We stayed in the baby pool for a bit, but went into the 3' deep pool and bobbed around, which she liked even more, we'll definitely need to do this again soon!

And we went to Cannon Beach, again.  This time we went with the Higginbothams, and Amelia was much more interested in the sand. 

We did go to Bend just last week and had lots of play time with the cousins.  We didn't really get many photos, but Amelia had fun!  David's sister also passed along a lot of toys!  We need to invest in more storage boxes because there is not enough space in Amelia's room for everything.

We finally got photos of Amelia taken, and they turned out great!  We've been hoping to do these a lot more often, but so glad we finally got some taken!

 

 

The craziest thing and pretty exciting is that Amelia is sitting up now, not completely on her own, but she is catching herself when she tips occasionally.... and yesterday I was playing a video of a 4 year old family member playing drums (really well), and Amelia started scooting toward the video!  Holy moly she's trying to crawl!!!  5.5 months.... ugh! We are in for it!  We'll see how long til she gets better at crawling in some way or other.... she's still more mobile now then we'd like.  But it's definitely fun to watch her try to move!

Baby Soren is here!

See?  Much better title!!  So, little Soren was born on July 25th, the day before Katie and Rob's 4th anniversary!  He was 2 weeks late, poor Katie! 
Here are a few of the pictures we took while visiting them in the hospital:

Happy Rob!

New family

Mummi and Ukki and the grandbabies

This was just us holding babies so Amelia could see Soren.  She giggled at him.  :)

So sweet!  Momma and Soren

(Day after Soren was born, Katie looks so good!)

Cute little family! 

These photos were in the order taken, not in the order of priority!  These last two photos are my favorite :)

Misc. Pictures

So, my post titles aren't very interesting right now....  but I have a good one for my next post!  Stay tuned!

Pirate Amelia!  This was for Katie's baby shower back in June, and I couldn't resist dressing Amelia up in baby jeggings, a stripped onesie and a head scarf!  And yes, to top it off, a pirate parrot on her shoulder!  (She loves that parrot!! One of her favorite toys right now)  David and I put this outfit together nearly a month before the shower and we were so excited to surprise Katie with the live decoration!

Just a couple weeks ago, we got together with a few friends, this is Melissa, me and Renee and our girls- Sadie, Amelia and Mylee.  (Just a note, we are missing Melissa's Parker and Becca with Elise and her baby girl bump!)  We went to a little water park in Wilsonville and let the kiddies splash around.  I must say, Amelia prefered the ocean to the water park.  We'll just have to work on her to get her to love this too!

Our last random picture today is Miss Amelia and cousin Ethan!  This picture (minus Amelia's shocked face) is especially sweet!  Ethan was born premature and with a heart that just wasn't working for him.  He has spent a lot of his life in the NICU and has had heart surgery and then a heart transplant in his short little life.  If you can't tell, he is 8 months old.... yeah Amelia is just a little larger then him....  (only 2 lbs, but it looks like a lot)  Having these to meet was so cute, they grabbed at each other and then Amelia decided to grab at his face.  Poor guy!  We had a whole bunch of David's family together on this day.  It was nice for us to meet Ethan and see two cousins, aunts and grandparents. 

June

June has flown by for us!  Our first weekend was spent with David experiencing vertigo, poor guy!  He was sick and couldn't drive for 4 days.  We had planned on heading to Bend for the weekend, but that was postponed for us, instead we went to the ER for David.

We did go to Bend the next weekend and got to enjoy some time with the family.  It was a warm, nice weekend except for one tiny 12 pound baby!  Miss Amelia decided that she did not want to sleep at R&R's house at all.  Which ment there were no naps and she stayed up til midnight both nights!  Seriously...  that was a rough weekend with her.  But, David and I learned that when we are trying to get her to take a nap or sleep not at home, then we need to bring her monkey or elephant security blankets, a sound machine, and a sheet for the pack n play.  HA HA, new parent mistakes....

We also got to help celebrate our newest nephew's baby shower- and Amelia dressed as a pirate!  (I'll post a picture soon!)  We cannot wait til the little man is here, one more week! Unless, of course, he is late like Amelia was....  I hope for Katie's sake he comes right on time.

David and his dad got to enjoy two weekends in Eugene for the Olympic Track and Field Trials!  I was a single mom for a week, hats off to any single mom, it was hard.  I love my daughter, but I just needed a little break once in a while....  (Tho, Grandma, Mummi and Ukki gave me some relief!)  And while David was gone I actually dropped Miss A off in the nursery at church one day.  YEAH!  She is now old enough to go to the nursery- by our choice, not our church's.  We didn't want to inflict an itty bitty on unsuspectings at church.  Glad to have David back this week, just in time for teh 4th of July!

More posts and pics to come this week!

Memorial Day

I've been a little lax in posting, so I'll just do a quick recap of the last few weeks.

On the 17 Day Diet, Hubband and I have done well, for the most part....  we have been a bit lazy about it lately, but he lost 13 pounds and I've lost 9.  Currently I am 8 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight!  I still have a goal to lose 10ish more pounds to get down to my pre-stomach surgery weight... but we're both really happy with our progress so far!  The family events lately have slowed us down, but we haven't gone backward, so it's fine by us!  We're heading to Bend this weekend, so we'll get serious about losing more next week and just being good this week.

On Easter weekend Amelia met her cousins Zachary and Jacob for the first time!  This weekend they'll get to play a little more.... (not sure how exciting it'll be for the boys, but I'm sure Amelia will be entertained!)

This was Mother's Day at my parent's house, it was the first family photo we've taken... yes, we're a bit behind the times.

After most everyone had left, the parents and I sat out back entertaining this one!  She had fun getting all the attention :)

Last weekend we went to Hood River to visit my friend Renee and her husband and baby.  This is the third time the girls have met and the first time Amelia is alert enough to realize that she and Mylee are similar in size.  Amelia could not get enough of her!

David, me, Amelia, Renee, Mylee and Abe.  And, yes, we did dress the girls in the matching outfits!

We went out for a lovely walk down to the Columbia River and around to a coffee shop, and this was Renee's and my view most of the time!

Today is Memorial Day and D and I went on our first family wine trip sans baby.... Auntie Katie watched her! Yeah, practice for when our little nephew comes :)

Consigment Sales

Okay, so around Portland there are consignment sales in the spring and fall.... and this spring I managed to go to three sales!  The first was  smaller one that Miss A came along with me to, she was good and napped the whole time.  I got some really good deals and I happened to go the day a lot of items were marked down 25%!!

The second was one that I had been to before, and I was really expecting to get some great deals- the sale was suposed to have higher end clothing.  But apparently the people who consigned their stuff just dropped off the same cothing as every other sale but for more money.  Don't worry, I still managed to get some good stuff including a $5 red snow suit in 12 month size :)

The third sale was huge, it was at the Expo Center and there was so much stuff!  I went with a friend who is expecting a daughter in a couple weeks, so looking through the girl clothes was more fun!  Tho, she and I really had to pick over the clothes since most of the clothes were summery and both our girls need winter clothes for the sizes we were looking through....  I picked up a mini-swing for my parent's house for $12 and an exersaucer for us for $25.  Oh and clothes!  Mostly pjs, but a few other things, all for 6 months and up.

Between the three sales I picked up a lot of clothes for Amelia and a few toys!  Hopefully this will keep us set in clothes until at least December!  Amelia is tall and already in 3 month clothes (at 8 weeks she's been rocking 3 month clothes for 2 weeks.  It's kind of funny- none of the waist bands are lose to being tight at all, her pants move around all day long.  We are lucky to have friends who've loaned us plenty of clothes, but to be able to fill in the holes so cheaply was great!  Now I jusr need to finish washing the clothes and sort through them....

Day One

Well, I have pretty much lost all the baby weight from my pregnancy (6 weeks, that's pretty good, right???)... but I don't quite fit into my clothes and  I am 15ish pounds above what my normal weight was.  I had diverticulitis surgery 5 years ago and didn't heal properly, and I was given medicines that caused me to gain 25 ish lbs.  I lost some of it, but I still am dying to get back to my pre-surgery weight.

Today the hubband and I are starting the 17 Day Diet!  I must say this, I am by no means going to go hungry, this is for us to eat healthy!!  My parents started this 6 months ago, after one of their best friends died of a sudden heart attack, and they look good!  So, we are following in their footsteps!

So far I've survived breakfast!  The hubband ran out of time to fix himself the full breakfast (a litte girl kept us up last night....), so hopefully he can get a good salad on the go today.

On a cuter note, here is Miss A this morning:

She's in a "new" bouncy seat that I got at a consignment sale (my new favorite way to shop!), we received a hand me down from the huddand's sister, but Amelia didn't seem to like how far down she sat.  She really seems to like how she sits up in this one.  (It may be that she's so little and the other will be perfect in a few months.

Poor girl has what we thought was baby acne, but it's practically covering her face and gets darker throughout the day and has spread a little... we're thinking it's now rash and could be from our soap or fabric softener, so we now start trying to figure out what may be bothering her.

March Snow

Last night I was at my parent's house til about 9.30, and it was snowing when I left, sticking to the roads....  I woke up this am with about an inch on the ground, but it melted away pretty quickly.  Today/last night, marks the 5th snow fall since Amelia was born.  And in case you are wondering, she is now 19 days old. 

Crazy S'march weather!

Amelia is here!

So, clearly we've been a bit busy....  having a two week old baby, but Miss Amelia is finally here :)
She was born March 3rd and was 8 lbs 1 oz and 19.5 inches long.  And the dear girl took pitty on me with only 9 hours of labor including 2 hours of pushing.  That all went much better then I was hoping!  And not nearly as horrible as I thought it would be...  but not ready to go through it again in the near future!

So far she is a sweet little baby.... a bit cranky now and then, but good!  And today has been the first day I've been able to get her to take a nap!  Nearly two hours now, yeah!!!  (I've tried a few times to get her to sleep in her crib before, but with no luck until today!)

Projects!

So, as I said before, I've been taking on a few projects around the house.... mostly to do with sewing for baby.  But also, putting up the wall decals in her room.  My next step is to finish my hospital bag....  right now I am so immobile, we'll see how it all goes!  Here are some pics from what I've done:

Here are the two hooter hiders I made last week.  I've made about 10 of these so far, and modified them almost every time I've made a new one.  This way seems to be the easiest so far- one thing is using ribbon to tie them with instead of sewing straps.

Burp clothes I made out of the leftover fabric.  I have ended up with tons of burp clothes so far...  so I didn't make too many of these.  And two of them are just plain diapers that I added fabric to.

The wall decals.  These flowers continue around a little more of the room- to the right.  We're hoping to put her name above the changing table, David just needs to finish painting the second coat on the letters, and then I'll hang them with ribbon.  Not sure when this will be completed yet....

Okay, I am just adding this picture because it makes me laugh.  This was from over a month ago, while David and I were cleaning up baby's room.  I took a break and laid down.  As soon as I did, Lilah came and laid down next to me and put her little head on my belly.  She moved a little by the time David took a picture, but it's still cute!

We found out from the doctor yesterday that he may want to induce me this weekend.  Which means there is a whole lot to do before now and then....  But we'll find out for sure on Friday.  AHHHH!  We could have a baby in just four days!  Crazy how quickly the time has gone!  (Oh and my brother and sister in law find out what they're having tonight!  Can't wait to find out!  it's an exciting week for the Kolari family!)

"Retirement"

So, I have officially been on "retirement" for one week.  Let me tell you it is weird!  I've been able to get some things done around the house, but a lot of times I have been bored...  I hate to say that too- because I know I should be enjoying these couple weeks before A decides to make her appearance.  But it's hard! 

I have completed one projected that I really wanted to- I made myself two nursing covers with fabric I purchased years ago!  Not to be used for nursing covers, one I bought for an apron and the other was just cute!  I'll post pictures in a day or too.  But this has been a project I've been meaning to do since I got pregnant... just took me 9 months!  My next large project is to make David pj bottoms- again with fabric I bought a while ago.  Better late then never, right?

We're nearly ready for the baby now.  YEAH!  Her room is nearly complete, the last piece of the puzzle was a bookshelf to go by the rocker and my parents picked a used one up for us this week.  And our last decoration is putting her name in wooden letters on the wall, we have the letters and paint and David will paint them saturday!  The worst part of the room is all the junk I've been taking out of the closet that we haven't put elsewhere yet!  It's literally sitting in the middle of her room in a pile.  Sigh, looks terrible, but we're keeping the dogs out so hopefully Lilah won't chew things up.  Tho, once again I am "retired" and I really should take care of it soon!

My goal until A is born is to post every couple days, we'll have to see if I am successful!

2012- Randoms

So, it's Jan 5th, and baby is due in just under 8 weeks, and in case anyone is wondering, we are so not ready.

After New Year's (where we were both sick!), David basically freaked out a little bit.  Seriously, Christmas and New Year's were holding us back from seriously figuring everything out.... but now that they are over, baby is NEXT!  8 weeks to get things in order. Help!

This weekend both our mothers are throwing me baby showers, so we have to get the baby's room in order enough to be able to put new stuff in there.  Much more work then it should be because we've had to clean out David's office to move our guest bed in there.  Hopefully that will move over there tonight (but it's 8:30 and we haven't eaten yet!).

I just received our first gift by mail from a friend across the country, and it was so fun opening the little things!  She wrote a note on each thing, which made us laugh :) 

I am now large enough, to where I grunt every time I try and move, especially when I try and get up from laying on the couch.  But according to my doctor this week, I've only gained 17 lbs.  (Feels like a heck of a lot more!)

One thing I am way more excited about then I probably should be is that we bought a GOOD vacuum recently!  It works so much better then our old one!  But it's a canister vacuum, which neither of us have ever had before.  And David made the point that a canister vacuum will now be what our kids consider to be a normal vacuum!  We totally screwed up our kids lives in one purchase!  HA!