Our backyard pool

A cool front is supposed to move through the area tonight and drop us back into the 80s by tomorrow morning. It's been over 100 since the weekend.

Since we've been stuck in the house for a fewdays Sophia goes for a dip in her backyard pool in the evenings before bed. She likes to soak in the water, but she loves being in control of the hose and filling up the pool. Once she's in the pool she continues to squirt everything - including her Barney doll, Sadie, Will and even me. I'm not sure who hates it the most - Sadie or me.

I took tons of pictures trying to capture the "perfect" one. Click here to see all of them. I got a few good ones.

Shade Bathing Beauty and The Fish

Yesterday we tried to beat the record breaking heat and went to the pool. "Hampton Roads" hit 101 degrees yesterday and beat the old record for the day by 3 degrees. Aubrey, the shade bathing beauty, and I stayed in the shade while Dad and Sophia, the fish, played in the big pool AND the kiddie pool. Boy was I jealous. I ended up putting my chair in sun, but somehow it felt a bit wrong to be at the pool without a bathing suit on! I don't have one that fits right now.

Sophia had a great time splashing Dad! SPLASHY is what she calls it. She stayed mostly on the steps of the big pool and splashed around. When they went into the kiddie pool she realized she could walk the length of the pool on her own and definitely took advantage of her freedom. I saw her take a few face first spills, but luckily Will was there to scoop her up. See all the pictures.

When we got home she was too excited to take a nap and ended up finding some stickers which became a full hour of splendid fun!

Aubrey's growing....we can see it.

It's amazing that's she's grown so much already. It's very subtle because she's still so tiny, but she's getting bigger.

Here's her weight path so far:

Birth (Tues)= 8 lbs 6 oz
1st Day Home (Thurs) = 8 lbs
1st Doc Appt (Sat) = 7 lbs 12 oz
Weight Check Up (Mon) = 8 lbs

We go for her 2 week appointment on Tuesday and I'm thinking she'll be closer to 9 pounds. :-) This girl can eat!

She loves to curl up into a little bowling ball and sleep on our chests. She literally tucks her legs up underneath her body whenever she can and lets her head fall to her chest.

And, she smiles all the time!

A rough start...

There haven't been many posts because we've had a sick toddler in the house. Sophia spiked a 103.7 degree fever on Friday afternoon and it lingered through Sunday afternoon. She was existing mainly on a diet of Popsicles. After the fever went away she immediately began a phase of chronic sleeping with zero appetite. This lasted through Wednesday evening. We took her to the doctor on Monday and she got tested for strep thraot - Negative. She also had a body rash and wasn't interested in doing anything at all. The doc said to keep her away from Aubrey until she felt better. UMMMMMM......That was almost next to impossible! When Sophia doesn't feel good she only wants Mommy and she's been getting quite upset when Mom nurses the baby.

As of yesterday her appetite came back and she's almost back to her normal sleep schedule. All of her "Sophia energy" came back in full force! To celebrate we took her to Chuck E. Cheese's for lunch and she had a blast. She loves going to CHEESE'S. Of course there are a ton of Barney photos because that's her favorite ride.

Presents for Sophia and Aubrey

A box arrived yesterday from Grancy and Big Daddy addressed to Sophia and Aubrey Alexander. Inside we found a LION for Aubrey - just like Lamby. Sophia was delighted for Aubrey to have the lion. Sophia really enjoyed her "first purse" complete with a compact makeup mirror, ringing cell phone and a wallet. Will gave her two dollars and took her shopping in the play room.
She picked out a toy truck and gave Dad a dollar. Then she gave the other dollar to me. She really doesn't have any concept what money is because I literally use my ATM card instead of carrying cash for everything! She knows how to swipe a card and sign for it perfecty. Each time she's riding in the cart and it's time to pay she tries to sign the signature pad for me.

See all the pictures from yesterday.

Two Aubrey Vidoes

Aubery is less than 24 hours old in this video. It was Wednesday afternoon at the hospital.


This is one of the two Little Lambs that Sophia likes Aubrey to have while she's sleeping. Listen to all of her squeaky noises -- must have been a good dream.

Her first smile

OK - so it was just a little gas bubble smile, but isn't this picture just the cutest thing ever?

Grancy meets Aubrey

Grancy drove down yesterday morning for a quick visit to meet Aubrey. She watched Sophia while Will and I took Aubrey to her first pediatrician check-up. Aubrey weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces - only 4 ounces less than when she left the hospital. We have to take her in on Monday afternoon for another weight check.

Sophia had tons of fun playing with Grancy yesterday - just like she always does. I heard Sophia call Cynthia Grandama, Grancy and Nana. Lately she's been calling any woman over age 45 Grandma. Of course she also calls Will Mommy a few times each day too.

We'll be taking Sophia with us on Monday, but considering that she's been running a fever since Friday evening I think we'll be making an appointment for her too. We think she may have strep throat again. She's been acting fine for the most part, but this morning she had a crying spell that lasted for the better part of an hour and she refused anything except to cuddle with Mommy. DILEMMA: Aubrey was hungry and needed to eat! It was difficult to explain to sobbing Sophia that the baby needed Mommy too. She calmed right down when Will cuddled her, but she was shooting me some pretty mean looks. As soon as Aubrey was finished eating we switched kids and things were A-OK again.

One big happy family !

Aubrey is born.

Aubrey Constance was born at 7:25 PM on Tuesday, May 27th. She weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces and was 20 inches long. She's adorable! Her hair is a light brown color and her eyes are blue except she's kind of missing eyelashes and eyebrows - they are so blond in color they are barely present!

She makes squeaky noises when she sleeps - and boy does she like to sleep ALOT! She's a great eater and as of today had only lost 6 ounces - so she came home weighing 8 pounds.

We arrived home around 3:30 today!

Sophia is an amazing big sister already and makes sure Aubrey has a Little Lamby with her when she's sleeping. She's given her kisses and today she actually wanted to hold her before we left the hospital.

Take a look at all the pictures so far.

Organized Labor

DoubleUIDoubleLIam here again ...

After a laborious 9 hours, a life-saving epidural and 3 posicles (2 graphe, one cherry) the Toughest Woman Alive has finally reached 9 cm of dilation. The goal of the whole game is to get to 10 and then the fun part happens. The Doctor said that out of 11 patients in the ward today, Shirley is the only one cooperating.

The Good News couldn't have come at a better time since I think Shirley was starting to lose a little bit of hope.

The doctor said he'd come back at 1900, check again and we'd probably start the Push.

I just have to say that my theory about dilation not being linearly related to time has proven true yet again. It took 4 hours to go from 2-4 and only 3 to get from 4-9. Explaining the nuance of exponential relationships to a laboring woman, however, not a Good Idea.

Welcome to the Labor and Delivery Wing of SVBGH

Will here everybody ....

This is my first blog entry and I'm being watched like a hawk by the true owner of the VB Alexander Baby Blogs. Much like the Chinese, I"ll be censored during this post.

Shirley is laboring quite well at this time. She's 80% effaced and is 4-5 cm dilated (who can tell the difference between 1 cm?). She's on the Oxytocin and we're waiting for the anestheisologiest to administer the epidural.

They broke her water about 45 minutes ago and the contrtactions are now as low as 6 minutes apart.

Our nurse and doctor are both really nice and think we'll be out of here before their shifts end at 7 and 8 respectively. We're both extremely hopeful they're right.

Sophia is at the aquarium with Laura, our Auntie For Hire. It's Toddler Tuesday over there so we're pretty sure she'll have a great time. Hopefully she'll be well-rested for her visit to see Mom and Sissy later today or tomorrow.

I'm sitting around like a typical third wheel and have been tasked with such important things like picking out which movie to watdh and getting gum. Both of those are well within my skill-sets so as long as things don't get much tougher for me I'll be all right. (Surely everyone is most concerned with my status right now ...)


Q&A With a Laboring Mother

Q: First of all, how does it feel to surrender the the blog to an amateur?
A: Unsettling.

Q: Is labor easier this time?
A: Yes.

Q: How much longer?
A: Who do you think I am? Benjamin Linus?

Q: Do you need anything right now?
A: An Epidural!

Q: What are you going to name her?
A:

Welcome to the Labor and Delivery Wing of SVBGH

Will here everybody ....

This is my first blog entry and I'm being watched like a hawk by the true owner of the VB Alexander Baby Blogs. Much like the Chinese, I"ll be censored during this post.

Shirley is laboring quite well at this time. She's 80% effaced and is 4-5 cm dilated (who can tell the difference between 1 cm?). She's on the Oxytocin and we're waiting for the anestheisologiest to administer the epidural.

They broke her water about 45 minutes ago and the contrtactions are now as low as 6 minutes apart.

Our nurse and doctor are both really nice and think we'll be out of here before their shifts end at 7 and 8 respectively. We're both extremely hopeful they're right.

Sophia is at the aquarium with Laura, our Auntie For Hire. It's Toddler Tuesday over there so we're pretty sure she'll have a great time. Hopefully she'll be well-rested for her visit to see Mom and Sissy later today or tomorrow.

I'm sitting around like a typical third wheel and have been tasked with such important things like picking out which movie to watdh and getting gum. Both of those are well within my skill-sets so as long as things don't get much tougher for me I'll be all right. (Surely everyone is most concerned with my status right now ...)


Q&A With a Laboring Mother

Q: First of all, how does it feel to surrender the the blog to an amateur?
A: Unsettling.

Q: Is labor easier this time?
A: Yes.

Q: How much longer?
A: Who do you think I am? Benjamin Linus?

Q: Do you need anything right now?
A: An Epidural!

Q: What are you going to name her?
A:

Strawberry Festival

Another successful Strawberry Festival is behind us. We made it there in time for Sophia's first parade on Saturday morning. She loved sitting on Will's shoulders to watch the cars and floats drive by and she became especially excited when they had costumed characters on them. She waved to Miss Va Beach, Miss Teen Va Beach, Miss Pre-Teen Va Beach, AND Little Miss Va Beach as they went by in their convertibles. (And honestly, there were two extra cars for Mrs Philippines Va Beach and Little Miss Philippines Va Beach which puzzled me. Who knew?) When the bands marched by she couldn't get enough of the drums, trumpets and flag girls. Overall, I'd say she enjoyed the parade the most.

We walked around the festival and tried some giant chocolate covered strawberries, listened to a little live music and did some serious people-watching. We took Sophia inside the stinky petting zoo and spent some time admiring the filthy, lonely cows. She sat on a kiddie-tractor and a cow. Last year she touched the baby duck and this year she wasn't interested. We went into the "ride/carnival" area and let her try a few games - "fish" and "pick a duck". One game booth had a giant Barney that she pointed out to us. Will quickly figured out that he would have to win 24 times in a row to actually win that Barney doll. It was the "throw the dart and break a balloon" booth.

I brought home a strawberry crumb pie and it's delicious. Will has eaten 1 piece to my three so far. I've got 1/2 a pie to eat in the next 24 hours! Yummy!!!

Take a look at all of the pictures from the festival.

Baby should be here on Tuesday!!!

I had an appointment yesterday morning and was still 2cm and about 50% effaced. So, no progress, but I had expected that. I've felt great for the past week.

The doctor offered me an induction date for next week since I will have reached my due date and because I've already had a successful delivery before. Soooo...drum roll.....we're scheduled to begin labor at 7:30 AM on Tuesday.

If you ask me, it can't get any better than that. We can have an awesome long weekend together as a family of 3 and then welcome baby girl on Tuesday. Hopefully if labor is going to start on it's own it will wait until Monday evening. I really want to go to the Strawberry Festival tomorrow. I also think we should take Sophia to the Botanical Sprinkler Garden one day. And, I'd like to go out to dinner one last time (actually I wouldn't mind a few times) :-)

Sophia is a Taurus. I just found this Taurus description from a post I wrote when we were waiting her arrival two years ago. Let's see how she measures up:

Taurus (the Bull) = April 21 - May 21.
Traditional Taurus Traits Are:
Patient and reliable: False, but it's reliable that she's NOT patient
Warmhearted and loving: True, true, true. She loves to cuddle.
Persistent and determined: True!
Placid and security loving: I would say true.

On the dark side....
Jealous and possessive: We'll see when her sister arrives.
Resentful and inflexible: At times this can be true.
Self-indulgent and greedy: Self-indulgent - true. Greedy - False.

Sophia's sister will be a Gemini.

Gemini (the Twins) = May 22 - June 21.
Traditional Gemini Traits Are:
Adaptable and versatile
Communicative and witty
Intellectual and eloquent
Youthful and lively

On the dark side....
Nervous and tense
Superficial and inconsistent
Cunning and inquisitive

This is the Aquadoodle toy that Haley gave to Sophia for her b'day. It's a water pen and doesn't make any mess at all and she loves it. I showed her how to trace her hand and now that's the only thing she wants to do!

Will showed her how to make her footprint in play doh last night (with his help) and this morning I found her pulling off her socks and stepping into the play doh (all by SELF). Hmmm....what will she get into next?

Opening Birthday Presents

After Sophia woke up from her nap yesterday afternoon she got to open the presents from her party. I think I took a video of each present, so you can click on the links below to view the videos.

As you will see....each time she unwrapped a present she wanted to OPEN and or play with it right then and there. She obviously inherited her mother's patience.

Look at the excitement in this face!

Present from Avery

Present from Clara

Present from Lola Grace and Jackson (the twins)

Present from Liana and Lorenzo (they couldn't make it to the party)

Present from Lauren and Olivia (the two taller girls in the group photos)

Present from Haley (she was sick and couldn't make it)

Present from Daisy

Present from Liaba and Amayr

Birthday Party

Sophia had a blast at her birthday party. She certainly was treated like a "Queen". It was a wonderful place to have her party. We literally didn't have to do anything except show up with our cake and drinks. The My Gym girls cut and served the cake and took drink orders. It was fantastic!

I took a lot of pictures, none of them great, but you can see how much fun everyone was having. I have tons of movies to upload, but don't have them ready yet. Look for them soon...

Still here

Monday is 1/2 over and I'm still hanging around like a big pregnant lady! So, I don't think today will be her birthday.

NAMES - Um, we're pretty much 98% sure that we know her name, but it could certainly change too. I've been 99% sure on a few others (some you've heard and some you haven't) and then changed my mind.

I know the name poll is not over yet, and we're currently voting on the name Elisabeth, but I thought I would show you just how the Name Poll has played out so far. I have a really neat looking spreadsheet that I'm trying to turn into an image so I can post it on the blog, but for now......

Based only on poll votes - her name would either be Hannah Alexis or Hannah Ashley. Hannah is the clear winner so far. Alexis and Ashley tied with 8 Love it's each. I can 100% assure you that her name is not going to be either of those combinations.

Hilary was just as unpopular as Hannah was popular - each receiving 11 votes. You also hated Daisy, Lillia, Willow Rose and Eden.

You didn't mind Vanessa, Julia or Alyssa.

Full moon is coming.....

Earlier today I predicted that this little baby is going to be born on Monday! I just found out there is going to be a full moon on Tuesday. Maybe just maybe this baby will be born early this week!

I'm pretty sure I'm having some early labor symptoms...fun fun!

Last time my water broke at midnight on the full moon. Of course, we didn't meet Sophia for another 23.5 hours, but that's a whole different story!