Family Day fun!

We had an early birthday celebration for Alyssa and her cousin Colton who will be turning 17 on day after Alyssa's birthday. He goes off to college in Santa Barbara in about 1 week. Grandpa also got to see Ashleigh for the first time. The kids had a blast and even though I was tired like hell I enjoyed myself also.

Ashleigh is still eating like there's no tomorrow. I don't understand it. I may have caused myself some trouble this time around too. I really love holding her, this is my last baby and I want to enjoy it as much as I can. Unfortunately she may be on to this and gets up sometimes not to eat, but to be held :-) or to get a boob in her mouth, not nurse. That's okay though. I told the husband last night that I am going to enjoy every single moment and he of course understood. He's quite the gem. I wonder how he is managing without nookie for over 6 months...my goodness.

Anyway, here are some photos from our family picnic at the park yesterday. The kids had such a great time.

She got the outfit from my Etsy shop. I went through the child's closet and none of her clothing fit so what else was a mom to do?

She call's it her princess dress

Poor Ashleigh :-)

A little start off push from daddy and we're off..................

No training wheels!!!! He's a big boy now

This face says it all. He loves playing with his cousin

Grandpa was about to throw the ball to them

Playing soccer

Tonight was Christopher's turn

Can I hold baby Ashleigh?

Well he is older but not as gentle as Alyssa. Maybe it's a boy-girl thing.

Look at that serious face!
I was getting ready to take her away because he was patting & rubbing her head a little too rough for my liking, when I heard this......

"Mama you can hold her now, baby Ashleigh is trying to bite me" (Click the photo and look at her mouth) He didn't understand why I was laughing so hard.

Ha! No dear, she's just looking for the boobies!

Woo what a busy day!

So before I start, the photos on the last post was Christopher, Ashleigh & Alyssa, in that order. Yes they do all look alike. You know when I got home from the hospital I was in so much pain plus I was worried that I'd have those problems like I did, again. So worried that I said to myself there is no way I can do this again. So I need to think about some form of birth control. We live like ignorant teenagers on this end, if you know what I mean. Now a couple weeks later, I am thinking that I would love to have another but on the serious end, not only can we not afford it, I don't think my body will handle it well. The problems I have had with the last 2 pregnancies was due to Congestive Heart Failure. I have to wonder if I would be doing more damage putting my body through another pregnancy. Anyway, it was just a thought.

Don't anyone dare tell me it's gripe. She's just one happy baby and I am sure she was having pleasant dreams

Last night Alyssa stayed up late again to spend some 1 on 1 time with her baby sister. She just loves her. She begged me to hold her. So here are some photos from their special time.


On to today. So I decided to start back my walking. After my body was free of the retained water, it turns out that I am only 10 lbs heavier than my pre-pregnancy weight. Good news for me. So after I took Christopher to school, I headed to the lake, where I met 2 wonderful ladies, to walk. I only did 2 laps but that was a good start. I am so out of shape, that only after the 2 laps I was huffin' & puffin'. Shame.

She's already getting so big

We then passed by a friend to drop something off, then since Alyssa requested corn on the cob for lunch we stopped at the grocery store. I came home, did the corn, then caught up on some laundry.

She insisted on getting a blanket to cover her

Before I knew it, it was time to get the boy. I picked him up at 6pm, then decided that since I had not taken them to the park in months, to drop by one of their favorite parks. We were there from 6:15 - 7:15pm. I was surprised that it started getting cold. Since we were in the neighborhood, I dragged the 3 kids to the fabric store. I desperately want to make my friend's daughter a dress with matching knickers. She turns 1 on Thursday.

Big sister kisses

We were in the store for quite some time as all the ladies wanted to get a glimpse of our newest family member, plus they had sale and I just could not resist.

I am so proud I was able to get some stuff done today. Busy, busy, but unfortunately I may have overdone it, slightly. I now have cramps. Hopefully it will go away soon.

Some very odd neighbors

Tanyetta, this one's for you. Chris took this photo of me doing you know what. hehehe...Click on the photo and look at what's in my hand.

Last night...actually it was after 1am, closer to 2am this morning, I hear water outside. I am thinking that Chris left the water sprinklers on again but when I looked through the front door there was no water. I kept hearing it so I go upstairs to get a better view of the front of the house. And there in complete darkness, was my neighbor washing his car. The house front light by his garage was not even on so I couldn't understand how he could see what he was doing
Who washes their vehicle at those hours? Could it not wait until morning, well, later morning?

My babies ~ Can you tell who is who? All at 1 day old. I was hoping to have all of them at a similar angle but this was all I could find

There are other things that I've observed. Like one night I was looking through the kids' bedroom window, when I saw the same neighbor trying to parallel park one of his cars. Well that was good and well, but there were no cars to the back or in the front of him, yet it took him over 10 minutes. He kept parking, coming out and checking the distance his tires were from the curb. Madness...it was pure comedy. I wish I could somehow film it and play it for you all.

But wait, it gets better. When he finished perfecting his parking job he stood in his driveway, watching his car and began burping really loudly. Then he walked toward our side gate and peed right there. I could not help but laugh. Yes I was spying but who can blame me? My husband thought this was the funniest thing...MEN....

2 brothers, one of them married with twin boys, live in this house. The biggest coincidence is they're actually from my country. (No we're not all like that) Oh yes the shame of it all, but they are the nicest people.

Oh the wonderful smells that come out from that house. They are always cooking curry and my husband has threatened to ask them for some if I don't start back cooking it over here. I guess I better get busy with the pots.

The brothers drink a lot. At first I thought they were hacking all the time due to the constant consumption of curry. That stuff can be hard on the stomach. I was wrong, it's the beers. Often I can hear them throwing the cans out in the garbage at night, a whole lot of cans and even later in the night I hear them vomiting. I know YUCK....

ER Woes and other stuff

Thanks for all the well wishes and compliments everyone.

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Well my body just goes wacky after child birth. I had to visit the ER on Friday. I knew the day after I came home that I was having problems. The same problems I had with Alyssa but this time I wouldn't waste any time. I was retaining water like nobody's business and I knew it had gone to the lungs. I couldn't breath without strain & discomfort at night and the swelling was not just in the legs.

So unfortunately for me it was a super busy day in the ER. I arrived about 2:30pm and was discharged at 12:14am. Yes you read that right. But I was forever grateful that I had insurance to cover all the tests they ran on me otherwise we may have to take out a second mortgage. CT scans, blood tests, chest x-rays and let's not forget to mention the fee for just talking to the Dr. and getting a bed. YIKES.

The radiologists findings........bilateral small amount of pleural effusion, more on the right side

Anyways we are doing okay. Mom is leaving in a few hours and I am very sad and afraid. I wonder how I am going to cope. I have been so tired and her being here has allowed me to sleep all day. Thanks to my trusty pump. Well I sleep and pump...hehehehe

This is what I have become. I feel like a cow. I have so much milk.

She eats well!
And lucky for her grandma is here to give her a bath more often than I would. She loved the water.

Christopher and Alyssa just adores her and mommy can't wait to get back on her feet, literally. I need to get this weight off and get back to my walking and biking.