Goin' Incognito.

Lil' Mame has become such a celebrity she's had to resort to disguises to escape the endless kisses, constantly being passed around and autograph seekers.

Christmas Time

Christmas Concert

Ellie's third grade class put on an awesome christmas concert last week. She was super excited and has been walking around the house for months practicing her songs and small speaking part. The kids were told to wear christmas colors, leave it to my girl to go the extra mile and wear a head to toe christmas outfit (ballet skirt from her tap dancing concert when she was 3) including curly ribbon from our wrapping supplies. I love her style.

We are also very thrilled to have Scarlett around this year. Another stocking to hang is a dream come true. Now if we only lived at the beach, christmas would really be a dream come true. Thanks to grandma we have some great xmas outfits for little mame as well. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday this year.

The Best Daughter and Big Sister

My 8 year old daughter is the best. She is kind, helpful, sweet, funny and a great friend to me and her sister. Ellie is like another mom to Scarlett especially when I need a break or a few extra hours of sleep. Ellie comes to my room every Saturday morning and takes Scarlett upstairs to watch cartoons with her until I get up. I don't even worry when she tends because of how great she is with her little sis. I was sort of bummed about an 8 year age gap but now I love it.

Lets also talk about her amazing athleticism which unfortunately didn't come from me. Ellie rocks every sport she tries and is so much stronger and coordinated than I ever was. Her latest addiction is basketball. She was hesitant at first but after the first game she was hooked. It is hard to score points with a 10 foot basket but she did last night. Gymnastics has moved to the back burner for now and soccer is just around the corner. I am very proud of my girl.

Three months.

Today is Little Mame's three month birthday. Insert cliche here about how time flies but it does. Okay, I will admit at our 20 week ultrasound I was a little disappointed when I found out we were having a girl. I was looking for forward to a little dude to teach to ride bikes and motos, play sports, get his first tattoo. Kidding, wife. Sort of. Now, I wouldn't change it for anything. Never before have I found myself rushing home from work, postponing bike rides or stopping by home in the middle of the day just to see my little Mame.

Last week we went to San Diego for Thanksgiving (pics coming soon). We were nervous about being "those people" with a screaming baby on a plane. She did great. The day we arrived, walking along the beach in LaJolla Scarlett was frantically licking her lips. We're assuming she was getting her first taste of salt from the ocean air. It was the funniest thing ever. Yesterday she scooted herself on her back, along the carpet and right out of her diaper. Holly found her 3' away from where she left her, nude and with a giant smile on her face. My favorite time of day is when Holly is putting Ellie to bed, the house is quiet and I can just hold her and stare at her amazing face. Every day I witness something new.

My only regret is it's looking like she ended up with my ears. Ears of which Prince Charles would be proud. When I was 17 or so my mom and dad coughed up for otoplasty (english = getting your ears tucked). I'll start saving a few bucks and hopefully can do the same for her.

Last night Holly, Lynne and I re-watched a YouTube video about a baby named Elliot born with a congenital heart disease. His parents knew he wouldn't survive long so each day they threw a birthday party for him. He survived 100 days. We all cried - again. (See Holly's post below about Scarlett's immunizations. Yes, we are saps.) As Scarlett's 100 days approaches, I realize we were in such a fog the first few weeks that we didn't completely understand how dangerous and life-threatening it was when Holly's placenta ruptured. On a shuttle bus in San Diego we met a couple and they told us a story about their son, a high risk OB doc, that had recently lost both mother and baby in a similar situation. I'm a week post-Thanksgiving but for all this we give thanks. Robert

Living the high life

When I got married I never imagined that while I stayed home in the cold raking leaves, taking care of kids and pulling the trash cans out my husband would be modeling at a 5 day photo shoot in Austin, Tx. I thought I was the cute one in this duo.

I am laughing that Robert called from a location in this small remote hick town outside of Austin that revolves around a giant bbq restaurant. I don't think he had ever seen so much meat in his life and was thoroughly horrified. He even sent pictures to prove it. I think it looks kind of good.

2 months old

Today was our 2 month doctor visit for "Little Mame" and she is holding fast in the 3% at 7.7 lbs. We are so in love with our girl that (embarrassing to admit) Robert and I both broke down crying when she got her shots. Total saps or we are just still hormonal and sleep deprived. She is such a great baby, never fusses and has an adorable smile that I can't get enough of. She got her first taste of grape flavored tylenol (Ellie's favorite) and I think she thought she had died and gone to heaven. I forgot how everyday is something new and something to be excited about when you have a baby in the house. I love it and if possible I think Robert loves it more.

Halloween Fun

Today was the Halloween parade at Ellie's school and it was fun to have 2 kids to dress up instead of just one. Scarlett was a hit in her pea pod costume and Ellie's 1950's car hop was awesome. She felt a special bond with the kids in her class who came as a ketchup bottle and a hamburger. She couldn't wear her roller skates but the costume still looked great and Scarlett was the highlight of Ellie's class party after the parade.

The best costume of the day was Robert as Kate Gosselin. Who would have thought his hair cut could be so versatile and stylish. His picture cracks me up every time I look at it and reaffirms why I chose to marry him. Hope everyone has a fun safe Halloween tomorrow. We'll be out trick or treating while freezing our buns off in the beautiful Salt Lake weather unless I can trick Ellie's friends mom to go instead of me. I prefer a warm cozy house and good food while I answer the door to all the cute kids looking for candy.

domestic days

Being a stay home mom has its perks. Instead of spending my days working or trying to get a million things done on my days off I actually have time to do totally relaxing and unneccesary  things at times (not a lot but sometimes ). Having a husband who pretty much does everything helps. Ellie and I had a great  day a while ago being domestic queens. We got to sleep in while Robert took Scarlett on their  weekly coffee date to Starbucks (he was so excited to use his man diaper bag that he bought just for occasions like this). Ellie and I watched cartoons, made blueberry muffins for breakfast, pulled the sewing machine out and made her 1950's car hop costume for Halloween (pictures coming soon) and then topped the day off by making Halloween sugar cookies shaped like headstones which we personalized with the names of family members to give to them later that night. We never even got out of our pajamas of course. It was a pretty fun day and even though I miss work sometimes it is nice to have the option of being home or working just one day a week which I am going to start doing next month. It feels like the best of both worlds and I love it so far.

Snoozin II.

If anyone hears that Hollywood is casting for America's Next Top Forehead, please let me know.

Snoozing.

I've never been a big fan of sleeping (oh yeah, this is Robert not Holly. Just in case that first sentence wasn't a dead giveaway). It has always seemed like a waste of time and interferes with things I'd rather being doing. The past 6 weeks I'm not so sure. Holly is doing the heavy lifting with nighttime feedings but waking up multiple times during the night to see this makes it all worthwhile. Have a good weekend.

What treadmill

scarlett after her work out
scarlett getting ready for her work out
I have been trying to befriend my treadmill again  but after 9 months of minimal movement it is proving to be a difficult and depressing task. I am sure eating everything I see isn't helping either. I am so out of shape and coming up on 40 is not helping anything but at least my lovely girls like the extra softness and curves to cuddle up against.  I can't speak for Robert (if only I could be half as motivated as him) but he has yet to complain so I guess I'll quit stressing about it and take things one day at a time when it comes to getting reacquainted with my old friend and fitting into my pre preggo clothes. I miss them.

The Birth Story.

Just so you can see the difference in a month here are some brand new baby pics. For those of you who don't know how the scary crazy birth happened here is a sort of short (not really) version. Robert and I went to our regular 36 week doctor appt. it happened to be on the Friday of Labor Day weekend so our doctor as well as just about everyone else was on vacation so the doctor on call checked me out. Nothing happening, not dilated etc. everything seemed fine but because of my advanced maternal age as the doctors like to call it and the fact that we had 1 artery in the umbilical cord instead of the normal 2 she had us take a non stress test. Test was o.k. but because of a few dips in baby's heart rate even though that is pretty normal she still sent us up to the hospital for an ultrasound. The u.s. showed everything in good shape but I started getting really bad pain in my lower stomach so they decided to admit us to the hospital and observe for awhile and most likely induce us because of all the previous factors and the fact that my pregnancy had been so hard. We were really surprised that they would consider inducing and were warned that Scarlett might have underdeveloped lungs and have to stay in NICU for awhile but that it was probably a good idea anyway. Seeing as how it looked like we would be at the hospital for awhile I sent Robert home to get a few things like my phone with everyones phone numbers in it (the downside of cell phones is not knowing anyones numbers in case of an emergency), camera, some clothes for me and baby etc. We had nothing with us I had even forgotten my glasses and couldn't see much. We also had no plan for Ellie at the time and no ones phone numbers to call for help so Robert also needed to pick her up from school and then hopefully hook up with someone to keep her for awhile. Ten minutes after Robert left I started bleeding. A little at first (the nurse didn't seem to alarmed) but still bleeding 20 minutes later they called the doctor in to check and as she walked in the blood came gushing out (sorry so graphic but can't think of any other way to describe it). She looked at me and said we need to do an emergency c-section right now. She said we have about 15 to 20 mintues to get the baby out. I started bawling, Robert was still gone, they as usual couldn't get an i.v. in my pathetic vein and everyone just started running around like crazy. The hospital staff was really sparse because of holiday and as they are wheeling me into an operating room I hear the doctor say she can do the c-section by herself but it would help if they could find a nurse or midwife to help. I am panicked at this point and beg them to let me call Robert. They tell me I can but that he won't get to the hospital in time so I am kind of freaked and in shock and sad at the same time. I call Robert, who had just picked up Ellie and had not yet gotten any of our stuff and tell him they are doing an emergency c-section and he needs to come back right now at which point the nurse hangs up the phone. I can only imagine what he and Ellie are thinking on the frantic drive to the hospital not knowing who or what is happening but that they have no time and it looks pretty bad. Meanwhile I am alone scared to death hanging on to the fact that I could hear the babies heart beat on the monitor and that as long as I could hear that I would make it. Honestly the doctor whom I had never met and the nurses did an amazing job because I was prepped, given a spinal and oxygen, etc. within 10 minutes. Robert came running in terrified 1 minute before they pulled Scarlett out still having no idea what had happened. It was crazy. Neither of us could really talk or comprehend that we had gone in to a routine doctor appt. and 3 hours later had our baby. Poor, amazing Ellie was left at the nurses station while Robert was whisked away to the operating room and I feel horrible about what she went through sitting there all alone thinking the worst. Thank goodness my sister showed up shortly after and reassured her that things would be o.k even though she as well had no idea what was happening. We will be forever grateful that we were at the hospital when my placenta ruptured because as the doctor told us if I had been at home we would have been calling 911 (which I probably wouldn't have done until it was to late) and not had good odds of getting her out in time. Someone was watching out for us I am sure and even though I was really bummed my doctor was out of town I feel like the doctor we had was the one we needed to see that day to be at the right place at the right time. Obviously we have no pictures or videos nor did we have to many family mambers there for the time during or immediately after she was born and that wouldn't have been my first choice but we are all happy and healthy and that is what counts. 

1 Month Old

Time really flies when you are not pregnant. I still have moments of breaking down in tears at the relief and gratitude I feel to not be pregnant anymore. We are pretty sure Scarlett has passed the 6 pound mark and I personally don't want her to get any bigger. I like them tiny (easier to carry around). Ellie has barely passed the 50 pound mark and it only took 8 1/2 years. Robert is still trying to hit the 150 pound mark and it has only been 41 years where as I am now gaining more after baby than with baby inside because I am so thrilled to be able to enjoy food after 9 months of being deprived of it. I guess I better stop eating like a maniac at some point.

8 faces.

You know what they say about guys with big feet…

They have tiny babies.

Sisters are cool.

Welcome Scarlett Mamie Wray.

Scarlett Mamie Wray
September 4, 2009
5 lbs. 3 oz.
18 inches

Cooked to perfection.