Taylor Ann is Two!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAYLOR! It is Taylor's second birthday today. She has changed and learned so much in just one year. I would have to say that she has changed the most in the last 3 months. She has become a little daddy's girl and follows him everywhere. The other day she got hurt and wanted him instead of me! Her vocabulary has just exploded and just seems to understand our routine around here. We don't often wonder "what is Taylor thinking?" She wears her emotions sleeve. Mike often says that she is "a lover and a fighter". She has great snuggling skills and great empathy if Hailey is being punished or if Carter is upset. On the other hand, she will throw something right in your face if that isn't what she wanted, she can take Hailey down, and watch out because she bites! She is frightfully independent. She will struggle and struggle to put on her own clothes, climb into and out of the high chair and will do it over if you decide to assist. We often like to discuss what we see them doing when they are older. We picture Hailey as a teacher, Taylor as a nurse, and Carter, of coarse on the PGA tour.

We went with the Care Bear theme. Why? Because that is the kind of cake that Rainbow had on hand.

One Month Old!

Yesterday marked Carter's one month birthday! It has gone by sooooooooo fast. He is just a joy. He doesn't have much of a schedule yet, other than never going more than 3 hours without eating. I'm pretty sure that he has a bit of a cold which just couldn't be avoided with the constant sneezing and coughing of the girls. He still wakes 2-3 times each night to eat and ends us sleeping right next to me most nights. I think that the middle picture captured the fact that he has a dimple just like Taylor. If I had to guess he weighs about 10-11 lbs. right now and is going out of he clothes with great speed.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2007. We were again blessed to be able to travel to SW Minnesota to celebrate with our families for Christmas. The trip went exceptionally well with the newly expanded Miedema family. I was a little tired by the time we arrived due to climbing in the back to nurse, rescue toys, resolve fights, feed french fries, and set up movies.
Our first party was with Great Grandma Vis who currently is 93 years old and wanted to race Taylor with her walker. On Sunday we were with my family in Leota where despite the rocky start with the smoking microwave, fun was had by all. Monday, we headed for Tea, SD to be with Mike's family. After a late night, we attempted to pack up the van finding it to be much fuller than it was upon arrival.
I must also share some of Hailey's latest comments. After hearing the Christmas story repeatedly she asked, "when it says and she gave birth to a son, what is the name for girl?" I responded "daughter". She then said "And she gave birth to a daughter and gave him the name Hailey." I didn't know what to say! Later she was talking to Carter she said "Oh Carter, Carter did you like being in mommy's tummy where you just ate all that nummy nummy food all day?"
Carter and Taylor were both excellent. Taylor has really become independent and able to keep up with her cousins, which makes her so happy. Carter, as you can see, did lots of sleeping and even went two night waking only one time to eat.
Along with the holidays inevitably come illness. Both girls have awful runny noses and eyes. On Wednesday night Hailey spiked a fever and threw up (Mike responded with incredible speed almost to have been woken up by a "code blue".)
In reflection of the Christmas season, I wonder things like: Why did our saviour come as a poor helpless infant? How many times did he wake up to eat during the night? Maybe he didn't because he was without sin. I feel pressure in raising my children right. How did Mary feel in raising the Christ child? I am so thankful for this Christmas gift, the reason we celebrate, the reason we live.

We had our own little Miedema family Christmas party where we had glazed ham and the hit of the night bottled "Coke".

We purchased a "Princess Mega Tent" for the girls this year. As you can imagine, mega and our apartment really don't go together. When the Mega Tent is set up in our living room you don't have much but to go in the tent. Luckily it collapses and fits nicely under our couch (that is if you can figure out how to do that.)

Christmas Program

Last night was Hailey's Christmas program at church. She did a really good job and seemed to know all of the words to the 5 songs that they sang. We didn't get very many pictures because I was pretty busy with Carter and Mike with Taylor. She was in the top row and slowly was getting pushed over towards the poinsettias and eventually ended up in them as you can see--cute.

Two Weeks and On My Own

Our big boy is now two weeks old and is weighed in at 9lb 2oz!!!!! Not surprising to his parents--he loves to eat. This picture makes him look so big! The past two weeks are kind of a blur. I some ways I feel like he has been here forever, but other times I realize that we are still learning the baby thing all over again.
My mom was here from Sunday evening all the way to Friday. Thank you! We had a pretty busy week. Mike and I were able to finish Christmas shopping, Hailey and Grandma went to the Nutcracker ballet, we got Hailey back and forth to preschool, Hailey and Grandma did Christmas cookies, I kept up on sleep, & had Carter and I's two week DR. appointments. We couldn't have done it without her. I am now on my own this morning and as you can see I'm on the computer so things are going exceptionally well! We are looking forward to heading to SW Minnesota this weekend to celebrate with family. May your family also be blessed this Christmas season.

Hailey's greatest love these days is to hold Carter. She was reading him this book the other day and said "he really likes this one, mom". Don't you think he looks totally into it? She does really well with him, but does think that his pacifier is the answer to everything. She has her church Christmas program tomorrow night so we'll have to post some more pictures.

Taylor seems to be so grown up since the arrival of Carter. She speaks in full sentences and usually able to communicate most of her frustrations with us. There is rarely a dull moment when she is awake and meal times are an endless battle between her and her father. When you ask her how old she is going to be pretty soon she confidently states "fibe".

We were blessed to have the Shepherd family visit us from the great state of Wisconsin last Saturday.

In One Week's Time

It is amazing what all happens in just one week's time. A week ago we met little Carter for the first time and today we can't imagine what it was like without him. He is just the sweetest little guy. He cries only when we change his diapers or clothes, which is actually frequent since I haven't figured out how to keep him from leaking out of his diaper. He is an excellent eater and sleeper. He is eating twice per night and is only awake for the eating part and goes right back to sleep. The girls are adjusting quite well and love to assist in all of his cares. I am recovering really well with all of the help around. Mike's hospital days have been short and sweet. Today we even tackled Christmas pictures at JCpenney; I am optimistic that you will be receiving one before Christmas. Again I want to express my thankfulness to our God for blessing us with another beautiful child and for the awesome family and friends. Experiences like these are so cherished.

Auntie Ginnie came Tuesday & Wednesday to help out. She was able to make it before Tuesday's big snow fall. We have found that things go really well at our house if two adults are present at all times! The picture is of the cake that she and Hailey made during Taylor, Carter, and I's afternoon nap. It is Carter's birthday cake and Hailey thought it was absolutely necessary to have a car on top for CARter.

The girls are loving their little brother lots and lots, in fact, maybe a bit too much. They usually run and grab a pillow for their arm and shout "my turn!"

On Tuesday we had a visit from OB home care. Carter weighed 7lb 15oz, which means that he surpassed his birth weight by day 6 of life. Way to go Carter! The girls had lots to tell the home health nurse and showed her almost everything in our house. Carter's next weight check will be at his two week appointment.

Welcome Home Carter!

Mom and Carter were welcomed home today, Sunday December 2. We were excited to be out of the hospital and able to make it home safely despite the snowy roads from yesterday's storm. Carter is doing outstanding. He left the hospital weighing 7lb 7oz. and with a bilirubin of 12.1 and with the way that he is eating I'm sure that he will make up for both in a matter of days. Sister's Hailey and Taylor were also in need to have some normalcy re-established with mom and baby being at home. There have already been several fights over who gets to hold Carter. Hailey does great with him, but Taylor is finishing her turn unannounced sending us all diving towards Carter. Carter has done nothing but eat and sleep since being home and is not bothered by the noise that he most likely has been hearing for months in a muffled form. Taylor gets very upset when Carter cries during diaper changes and has only attempted to join him in his crib once today. We are off to bed and hoping for some good sleep tonight at home. Miedema family of FIVE!

Carter Dean in the Hospital

Carter is changing by the day! What a little sweet heart and is doing great. He seems to have a very content nature and is an excellent eater. We have had a good experience in the hospital. Allison is recoving well and it looks like Carter's bilirubin levels are staying down so that we can go home.

Finally some blue to go along with all the pink

Carter Dean Miedema arrived at 8:56 AM today. He has ten fingers and ten toes and is doing very well. He is 7 lb and 14 oz. Multiple nurses have complimented him on his "nicely shaped head", which is pretty good as far as baby compliments go. Mom and dad are tired but doing well. Hailey and Taylor have met their brother and Taylor was quite shy for about 10 seconds ... she attempted to poke him in the eye within the first few minutes. Overall, mom and dad are overjoyed. We thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers.

Guessing Game

We thought that it would be fun for our family and friends to all take a crack at baby boy's birth weight. Just post a comment in response to this post and come Thursday morning we will see who is the winner! Mike's guess: 7lb 10oz. Hailey's guess: 1lb. My guess: 8lb 6oz.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is the night before Thanksgiving and all through the house not a creature is stirring, not even the como squirrels. Mike is at the hospital tonight staying busy and hopefully able to get some sleep. The girls are just down for the night after yet another jumping spree from the couch arm rests to the cushions on the floor (thank goodness we don't have anyone living below us anymore.) Baby boy is bouncing back-n-forth with-in my tummy, but obviously finding himself content to wait with his grand entrance till the 29th. I'm finding myself stirring with emotions tonight as I reflect on my thankfulness to God. Who am I to be blessed as I have been with such a wonderful husband, two beautiful girls, and expecting, in less than one week, a baby boy? Who am I? Our health, our finances, our family, our friends--I am so thankful.

Tomorrow we will be celebrating our first ever Thanksgiving alone with our little family. We traveled back "home" last weekend and celebrated with our families. The trip went great. It was odd to think that when saying good-bye to everyone we would be returning for Christmas in just a month with a whole new addition to our family. I try to speculate what that means exactly and I just don't know! One would think that by the third time I would be calmer about this, but nooooooo! Anyway, we are going to do a turkey tomorrow and put up our Christmas decor. (We'll see if Taylor will do better with the tree this year). It seems appropriate that we had light snow fall today with dropping temps. I dont' have any new pictures to post this time, but don't worry I'll make up for it next post.
To all of you that keep up on our blog we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!

Special Week

It was Hailey's "special week" at preschool this past week. This involved her bringing a bulletin board of pictures, special things, and stories about herself. She had to answer questions about her favorite things from the class, bring snack & drink for the week, and had to take the class stuffed animal home. Hailey's favorite part of the week was that she got to pull off the toy curtains for play time (I'm not sure what that meant, but it must have been the cool thing to do.)

At the end of the week we were blessed with some northwest Iowa visitors! Brad, Pam, and the kids got a hotel on Friday night so we all did some swimming. On Saturday the boys went to a Gopher's BB game while Pam took the girls to the "bee movie". The girls had so much fun with their cousins and the adults even went out on the town Saturday night! Time is ticking with the pregnancy and we really needed a fun weekend before baby arrives.

Our little Taylor continues to impress us with "personality lately. She was pretty excited about us setting up the bassinet for baby, but once again I shudder as to what might happen once there is a real baby in it!

Trick-or-Treat

Trick-or-treating at Como Student Housing is about as easy as it gets. Everyone living here gets a orange sign and if you tape it outside your door this means that you welcome trick-or-treaters. Mike took the girls door to door and Taylor's hesitancy quickly disappeared after the first person dumped candy into her bucket. Hailey, at the age of 4, considered herself an expert, often notifying other treaters how many signs were up in each building: "hey guys, there's 3 in this one". At one point Taylor's bucket broke due to the weight, but she didn't allow us to assist. She tried to wrap her arms around it as she stumbled down the sidewalk, straining to protect the contents. We ended the night at DR & Jenn's, where they posed for a picture with the adorable little lamby and the twin Elvi. Hailey did manage to stay in character most of the night "meowing"at most everyone she saw.

On a different note, today is November 1st. Nothing is really too significant today other than that now we can say "I'm due at the end of the month!" YEAH! I did go and and purchase some slip-on shoes for winter today; ones that require no bending or tying. Pathetic or smart, I can't decide. Up until now I have been wearing flip-flops.

Baby Update

Do you like the pic? Hailey did the camera work for me and this was our third try. Anyway, this is baby boy at almost 35 weeks. All is going well. I remain on a low dose of antibiotics daily until the end of the pregnancy to prevent any repeat kidney infections. Baby likes to sit primarily on my right side and gets the hiccups at least twice per day. I must say that I predict him to be the biggest of my babies, but hopefully not to the extent of his 10+lb daddy. Heart burn and fatigue are my most recent complaints, but overall I am feeling great. We are pretty set on a name, but this will not be announced till his birthday. (I know that it was really hard on some of you already knowing that he is a boy.) So the count down is on! I am so excited, nervous, thankful, amazed, and anxious all at the same time.

Fall Fun

Fall is probably my most favorite time of the year despite it seeming like the shortest season. We have been making to most of our time outside outside by making leaf piles. Poor Lily didn't know what to make of the girls and their wild behavior in the leaves. We were also invited to a Pumpkin Party on Friday night. I had grand schemes of the girls being Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, but Hailey had lots of tears about Peter Pan being just for boys--whatever. I'm just so tired of the princess obsession! We did manage to make them both happy and cute I must say by pulling together things that we already had in the house.

I also have to share what else we got to do today. Today was garden closing day at CSCC. This involves everyone who had a plot in the garden. We clean up all of the plants, dig up soil, and spread what they called "farm post". Well, the "farm post" was a proper name for "_____!" There was pile higher than my head that we were to spread with wheel barrels and rakes over the soil. The smell was awful and the worst part was that they paid for it. Kind of ironic considering where I came from.