Our Trip to Boston

We survived our first airplane trip with Haley in over a year! She actually did AWESOME. Matt and I were very impressed with our little girl. We were delayed in Houston about an hour and a half sitting on the plane due to weather but Haley didn't seem to mind. Just sat on Matt's lap and colored or played with her dolls. The only traumatic experience on the way there was when she saw the luggage taken away and her baby had to be screened. That brought a few tears but those didn't last long.
We enjoyed our time with the family. We went up there to celebrate Matt's cousin Chris's wedding reception. They got married in February but had a reception in August. The reception was at the bride's house with horses, a bouncy house, pool and dogs, what else could Haley ask for? She loved checking out the horses and even managed a swim in the pool, though the water was much colder then it is here. We also had the opportunity to take a drive to Newport, Rhode Island. It was overcast that day but we still had fun. It's so strange growing up in Texas where the next state is 100s of miles away. In MA we drove 30 minutes and we were in Rhode Island.
The last night in Boston we stayed in the city since we had a very early flight out. We did a duck tour which is a historic tour of Boston that goes in the water too! It was a blast and I loved learning all the history.
Finally, our last morning there was interesting to say the least! At the rental car return a lady was hit by a car!! Luckily we didn't see the hit but we did see her on the ground and all the commotion. Haley was a little scared since everyone was panicked but we managed to keep her occupied and get on another bus and head back to Houston. The woman was ok, probably just broke her leg. Needless to say, we've learned a valuable lesson on how accidents can happen so quickly. Luckily everything turned out ok.
On baby#2 front, I had to see the Dr. to get cleared to fly before we left. She said everything looked good so far but doesn't think I'll make the full 40 weeks! In fact she said she would be surprised if I made 37 weeks this time. The baby is hanging out pretty low. Guess we'll be meeting baby #2 around early Nov instead of Thanksgiving? Time will tell :)

Here's some highlights from our trip

Haley ready for a swim at Great Aunt Rosalie and Great Unlce Rick's house. It was too cold for her.

Pretty girl

Trying to give the horse a kiss...the horse had other ideas

There's the groom! Not sure where the bride is?

Yes, that IS just a fork full of katchup

At a park in Newport

Great Uncle Rick and Haley in Newport

Cousin Mike chasing down Haley. She decided to run free in the grass (the fog is rolling in...)

Great Aunt Rosalie showing Haley how to feed the fish

The Duck Tour (our vehicle was gray)

Haley on the Duck Tour

Weekend fun

I can't believe the weekend is coming to a close. Where does the time go these days? On Friday night Matt went out with the guys so Haley and I had a girls night. I decided to try my luck with her at Kobe's. I love that place but wasn't sure how she would do waiting on food too long. Turns out she loved the show. The fire was a little scary but if I held her hand she was fine. She ate all the rice, which is my favorite too! Next time I'll know to order extra rice for her. I was getting tired of lugging her diaper bag around everywhere and found the cutest backpack for her at Walmart. Hey for $5 if she didn't like it then no biggie. Needless to say, it has been a hit! She wouldn't take it off at Grandma's for 2 hours on Friday. When we got out of the car at Kobe's she had her backpack on and we parked next to the day care school bus. She was so excited yelling "Bus!". I think she might be ready for school....what do you think?

On Saturday we checked out the bike's at Toys R Us. We didn't find what we were looking for but Haley really liked this one, even picking out the helmet. It makes her look so big!!

It's a little hard to see out of the helmet when all the packaging is still on it!

We had to bribe her to look at dolls to get out of the bike section...big mistake. Haley loves "babies". We let her pick one out and she was so cute. She picked one that came with a car seat that she carried around the entire store. She even picked up an outfit for the doll but mom and dad said no to that. I think I know what to get her for her birthday now. We went to dinner on Saturday and we had to take Baby with us. She even held Baby (car seat and all) in her lap in her car seat on the way home. She is so cute taking her on walks around the house in the stroller and feeding her. Apparently Haley thinks Baby likes salsa. She gets Buster in on the action too, of course, trying to get Buster to drink out of Baby's bottle. She has such an imagination.

Today we headed off to the pool to beat the heat, not to mention all Haley wants to do these days is go swimming. She wore her new bathing suit (everything is on sale at Toys R Us) and Daddy did her hair while I had to do some work this morning. I must say he did a very good job complete with 3 bows that didn't match, but Haley picked them out.

And last but not least, I forgot to update on the new baby! We saw the specialist a few weeks ago again and she can't see anything wrong with the baby. She thinks it is healthy and now just sees me every 6 weeks to monitor for any other potential problems. That was the best news Matt and I could have hoped for. We can finally breathe a little easier and enjoy this pregnancy. The baby was actually measuring a week ahead, which is something Haley never did. Who knows, it might be an early Nov baby instead of late Nov. Haley was 2.5 weeks early and the dr. said usually your first pregnancy is your longest. The specialist had the due date of Nov 15 but my dr. still has Nov 23. There is such a range of sizes the baby can be that she will not adjust my due date unless it is 2 weeks off. So still 23 weeks pregnant...17 more to go until we meet Vara Baby #2.

Have a great week! We're off to Boston on Friday so I'll try to post some more before then. If not we'll fill up the blog with pictures from our trip up north.

Talking Haley

We have been working on some new words. Every morning when we stop at a light I say "Red light stop" and "Green light go". So yesterday morning Haley started saying something out of the blue at a stop light and I couldn't figure it out. Then it hit me...

I guess that is language only a mom can decipher at this stage. Soon enough we'll get there.

Updated pictures

I can't fall back asleep so what better to do then update Haley's blog! We had a great 4th of July complete with a Veteran's parade of WWII vets. Haley liked all the candy she got, especialy the suckers. She was a little freaked out by fireworks this year. There was a show on July 3rd that we could see from Grandma's backyard and as soon as they started she said "inside, inside". So we watched them from inside the house and she did much better. She must have sensed what was going on the next night as she cried and cried until Matt took her back inside the house shortly before the fireworks again. Oh well, maybe next year. Other then that, not much else is new. Just busy with Ms. Haley having lots of fun. She's starting to repeat everything you are saying...fun age :) This morning I was trying to put on her shoes and I said "can I have you foot please honey". She said back "foot pease huny". She tries hard, good thing we can half way understand her. Tonight she was saying goodbye before Matt took her to bed. She said bye to Mommy, Bubber (Buster), Fishy and Light and waved. Not sure why she said goodbye to the light but it was funny.
Well, since it's 4:30am guess I better try to go back to sleep. I have an ultrasound in a few hours with the specialist again and then off to work. Hopefully the news will be great at the specialist and I won't have to see her much longer. I know I'll be paying for this early morning tonight!!!

Enjoy some pics from July 4th...

Late night swim on July 4th Weekend (finally using her floaties which makes mom feel much better when she dives off the steps!)

Posing for Mom

Yep - I look just like my daddy, even up close

Doing my best to wave the flag

My loot from the parade

Getting too big

I'm starting to think Haley is getting bigger each day. Lately we have had adventures with potty training. She loves to go potty on the chair as long as you go with her so we thought maybe it was time for some pull ups. She loves to wear them but doesn't understand the concept yet of going potty before you mess your pants. What's funny is that she asks for her Dora diapers, since they have Dora on them, yet she hasn't ever watched that show. Funny what kids pick up on. When she has a diaper on she is in the habit of taking off her diaper as soon as she poops so you can imagine the mess it makes. Last week Grandma missed the suprise Haley left her in the bathroom since it blended in with her rug and she managed to track it all over the house! Not sure if we are going to continue with the pull ups or wait a few more months to really start potty training. It would be WONDERFUL to have only one kid in diapers, both on our sanity and pocketbooks, but I'm not going to rush Haley yet.

She has started to talk a lot more and tries really hard to repeat after you, although most of her words sound the same. We'll have to capture some on camera so we can remember years from now. Last night she spent the night at Grandma's so obvisouly we didn't see her this morning. Well Grandma dropped her off at the house today and she ran in the front door saying MAMA...DADA. It was precious! These are the moments that just melt your heart. Overall it's a really fun stage, as long as she grows out of her temper tantrums soon!

On the baby front, I have an ultrasound this week at the hospital. It is my regularly scheduled baby size and measurements ultrasound where we could officially find out the sex if we want to. But, we still want it to be a suprise so hopefully the tech won't slip up. I go back to see my dr. next week and the specialist the week after so lots of dr. appts coming up this month.

And finally...we're glad to say that Matt's brother Michael is back home. He's doing much better and we hope to get to El Paso for a visit soon.

Here's some pics from Father's Day...I know...I'm behind :)

Going swimming

Haley and Daddy

Listening to the iPod. She loves music

Roller Coaster Week

What a roller coaster week we have had. I apologize now for the long post! Our journey started last week when Haley was bitten by a mosquito near her eye. The next few days her eye was almost swollen shut. It looked aweful and I could feel people staring at us as we went out in public. So by Friday when it wasn't better I called her dr. and he said to bring her in. $25 later he told me she is fine(no eye infection) and take Benedryl. On Saturday wouldn't you know her eye was back to normal...yeah! Saturday during the day we went to Kendall's (John's girlfriend) graduation party at the lake. They have a great little "beach" and Haley couldn't keep out of the water. Poor Daddy and Uncle Mark took turns out in the hot sun playing with her why I tried not to pass out from the heat. When we got back to grandma's house we went swimming some more and Haley had another accident. She was all wrapped up in her towel and tripped and BAM....mouth hit the cement. A big fat lip was the prize, luckily no broken teeth. It's all better now but poor Haley has been beat up lately.

And on to the rest of the roller coaster...on Thursday I had my check with my dr for my monthly visit. I've finally gained some weight (5 lbs since last visit) and my blood pressure was looking great again. Everything was finally back to normal. Then on Monday I got a voicemail from the Dr. asking me to call her. I knew that was never good cause usually it's the nurses calling. I called right back and she explained that our blood screen test came back positive for a Neural Tube Defect (NTD). The most common NTD is Spina Bifida. I didn't panic yet as she explained my odds came back at 1:35 which was high but that also means 34 out of 35 chance the baby is just fine. She explained I couldn't wait for the ultrasound scheduled at the hospital in a couple of weeks and I need to see a specialist this week. She arranged everything, which is good, cause the next few days where a blur as the panic set in, and so did the praying and crying. Matt and I did a lot of research on Spina Bifida and it was pretty scary. His cousin, who is an OB, gave us some good stats and told us not to panic yet either and reassured us the internet can be a devil. Luckily I was able to see the specialist this morning. She did an ultrasound and couldn't find anything wrong yet, although the baby was laying on it's back so it was not an optimal screen. But she was pretty confident that the baby didn't at least have any major lesions because those cause skull deformaties and our babies skull is perfect. At this time she couldn't rule out smaller lesions but she doesn't think they are present. She did ease our minds some and said we can choose to do an aminocentesis to get a more defenitive answer, 98% accurate. We haven't made up our minds yet on the amino but I'm feeling so much better knowing the ultrasound came back good so far. The plus side of this ultrasound was the 3D picture we got of the baby, although I have to admit it's kind of freaky looking cause the baby moved as they were taking the pic so it's almost like it has 4 eyes and 2 noses. They didn't do the entire ultrasound in 3D but instead would change it to 3D around the babies face so we could get the picture. I have a feeling this baby is going to look like me but we'll see :) Since my marker level was so high, I'm considered a high risk pregnancy now, which means I have to be monitored by my regular OB and this Fetal Maternal Specialist the entire pregnancy. Basically I'm at one of my drs. every two weeks! She explained I am at a higher risk of preeclampsia, pre-term labor, stillbirth and placenta abruption, which is why the monitor me so closely. BUT, so far everything looks perfect and there is a high chance the baby and I will be perfectly healthy with no complications. Also, we had a chance to find out the sex but stuck to our wish of not finding out, although I have a suspicion it's a boy (I've thought that all along).

And finally the end of our roller coaster, or at least we hope. Matt received news last Friday that his brother was in the hospital. While he was in ICU last week, he has been doing much better and is in a regular bed now. Hopefully he will be home soon and our roller coaster ride will come to an end. I'm not sure I can take much more :)

Now on to the fun...pictures. Our scanner is broken or I would add one of the baby, so it's all Haley...

Naken cowgirl...she loves those pink boots when she finds them

Show Day at The Little Gym

Getting her ribbon all by herself

Playing soccer in the backyard....yes, in her pink boots

Washing off in the sink after spaghetti

Hanging out with Unlce Mark at Kendall's party

Big girl

Daddy's home!

Matt returned home from a business trip to Canada today! We're glad he is home finally. Haley and I stayed with my mom most of the time so we won't be alone. Haley loves that her uncles are home from college to entertain her all day.
A story every mom has....on Tuesday we went to eat and then I wanted to go look at JC Penney for a minute. I had to go to the restroom so I pawned Haley off on my brother Nathan (or Uncle Na Na as Haley calls him). Anyways, I did some shopping too while he was watching her and decided it was time to go rescue Nate. I see him walking down the aisle and he looks at me and says...."She stinks, it's a good one Steph" It sure was, it was one of those that was dripping down her leg (she was wearing a dress so no pants to catch it). YUCK. I had to go to the car to get a diaper while grandma took her to the bathroom to get her cleaned up. Haley managed to get poop everywhere...all over grandma, on the shopping cart, on the floor, everywhere!!! We did clean it all up so don't worry next time you go to the Conroe JCP. Just might want to stay away from the shopping carts :)
On the way to the car that night we saw a yellow car parked next to ours and Haley says, "John's car". I was impressed. Uncle John does have a yellow car. I didn't even know she knew which car was John's since she has never been in it. She's getting better with her words but is still a little hard to understand at times. She tries so hard to talk. It will come one day soon!
Here are some pics from Memorial Day Weekend up in Ft Worth. We stayed with our friends from college who have a little girl a few months older then Haley. Haley had a good time having some kids her age around. Can't wait to see what she does with the little one.


In her car at home...

Yes...in only shorts and her cowboy boots! At least they match.


Kourtney and Haley going down the slide at the park


Haley, Caden and Kourtney chowing down (queso for Haley, one of her favorites). It's very hard to get 3 kids <>

Funny face going to mow the yard.