Weeks Four & Five: 2 under 2

First of all, I'm not sure if some of the readers don't notice the links to pictures, so here they are, front and center:

The Girls

Well, as you can see, we've been busy. Things have been getting better in a lot of ways. We're really getting to figure Izzy out. She's going to be our cuddle bug, the one who loves to sit on someones lap, just to be close. She doesn't like to be left alone or left out flat on her back. She'll turn her head and watch us walk around and as soon as it's been to long for her to be alone, she'll start crying. If she is already changed and fed, but still crying, we've found the key. A sling. I got a sling a couple weeks ago and that does the trick everytime and still allows us to mulit-task a bit. She loves being put in the fetal position, close to us and bounced. In terms of sleeping at night, we've got that down. Like with Anna, we give her a bath, then feed her and put her to bed (which is still the carseat at this point). She usually goes down when we go to bed and up between 5-7. I can handle that (and soon we'll both be able to handle that as I have 2 weeks left on maternity leave). We've been introducing a bottle a day with formula so she gets used to it all when she starts up at daycare. She does well with it, but I don't think she knows when she's exactly full yet as sometimes it comes back up. During the day, she stays awake from a half hour to a couple hours at a time. I wish it was all without crying, but that's not always the case. When she is just chillin', she's very observant and watches all that's going on around her. Now that she's almost 6 weeks old, she really has more of the Tidd features than the Tiemens features. Anna and Isabella look like sisters, but still look so different from eachother. Not only that, but they have such different personalities. Crazy how we can tell that already! In the last few days, she's really started to smile a lot more - not just when she sleeps with her cute little half smirk. She has the cutest little dimples too - wasn't sure if it was on both sides b/c for so long she only smiled on her right side. Hehe. She's definitely a blessing to our family and we're so excited to see these 2 grow up together. I don't know what a sisterly bond is as I only grew up with my brother (not that it's bad, bud!), but I'm excited for them to have eachother.

Anna is doing well. It's truely been an experience and a joy to be home with her. There have been moments (ok, maybe days) where it's been very trying with her, but I've learned a lot about being a parent with her. She's a big help when Izzy's crying and gives her everything that would comfort her: her pipe, blankets, animals and even books. I know deep down Izzy appreciates it. :) She's learning gentle and getting better at it with her. She doesn't get as angry with me when I have to feed Izzy or pay more attention to her for awhile. Thanks to Aunt Sheila, we've been learning a few baby signs, like please (rubs her tummy), hot (blows 3 times) when we say hot and even when her food is hot, down (points down), dirty pants (pats her butt) - this works only if I say it, but she still knows how to do it and all done (puts her palm up). She knows and loves the Zoophonics book Aunt Sheila book together for her. It has animals, fun sounds and actions. She knows where most of her body parts are. She says "yuck", "da" for dance when we read our I Hope You Dance book and puts her hand up in the air like I do when we read/sing the book. What I've learned and she's enjoyed, is instead of trying to make her play with her toys or read books, is include her in what I'm doing. I commented on Facebook a few weeks ago about what to do with a crabby toddler and one mom commented back to have them help you do laundry, cook/bake and I really thought about that after I about had it. What a difference that makes! Not only did she enjoy being apart of doing big people stuff, I really enjoyed that time I could spend with her and was able to get a few things done around the house. It's so simple and instead of fighting with her to let me finish cleaning, I let her help me sort laundry on our bed, she helped me dust, clean out the pantry and we even baked cookies together yesterday! It's been so much easier being at home with the both of them since then.

Now that I've figured this out (for now anyway), she heads back to daycare full time on Monday as they only allow 6 weeks maternity. I'm looking forward to only have Izzy around only b/c I have some things I'd like to catch up on before I head back to work and she enjoys the attention and socialization daycare brings.

Gary and I are doing well. As you can see from the above, these 2 keep us on our toes. We don't have a ton of free time right now, but we try to make it count when we do. We get out the house b/c it's still winter here in Michigan, even if it's to window shop at the mall. We're very very ready for spring, so we can take walks and let Anna run off some energy! I'm trying to be more proactive on having dinner plans ready so when I go back to work, we don't have to wait so long to make something and eat each night. We'd rather play with Anna for a couple hours than cook and clean before she goes to bed each night. I've been doing a little baking, some much needed cleaning and for the next 2 weeks, some much needed computer work personally and for our side work. Gary's been keeping busy at work with various projects that don't really have an end. Job security is all we care about anyway. :) I head back to work in a couple weeks. Should be another interesting adjustment.

Well the toddler is crying to get up from the nap she didn't take. Oye. :)

Love to you all,
Gary, Christie, Anna and Izzy

I tried videoing Anna holding the phone between her shoulder and her ear like we do. Instead I ran around the house chasing a toddler. Funny stuff.

She just couldn't stay awake but she managed a few smiles for the camera. Unfortunetly, she threw up right after I videoed this. Poor girl!

Week Three: 2 under 2

Whew. We made it. Like I said in the last blog, we ended the previous week with Anna throwing up. We left for Chicago on Saturday morning with no flu in sight and had a great weekend. Sunday night, we headed to our neighbors house for a Super Bowl party and kept Anna up pretty late - about 10-10:30. She had a great time and managed a way to "hide" from their large dog, Lucy. She would crouch down on the ground in hopes that she became invisable. It was quite funny.

Monday came and Anna slept until 11:30 till I pretty much woke her up. I got her dressed and brought her downstairs. I put her on the couch b/c she still seemed sleepy, she got mad, got down and fell asleep at my feet for another hour and a half. Once I woke her up, I put her in her highchair to eat lunch. She didn't seem interested in anything I gave her, so I got her out and put her back on the couch. I video taped her b/c she was falling asleep sitting up but she knew the camera was there, so she was trying to smile for the camera at the same time of falling asleep. So funny. Well, I got up to put something away, heard her cough twice and came back to check on her and found that she threw up again. Poor girl. Back to the tub, everything in the wash and the couch cleaned up. After that day, she's been fine. I found out there was a virus going around where you threw up one day, a few days would go by and you'd throw up again and it would be done.

This brings me to Wednesday. Well, Tuesday was filled with a toddler that was feeling just fine and acting quite crabby. I was about done that day. Now on to Wednesday. Gary came home early from work b/c he felt queasy. He slept most of the day and was feeling better towards the end of the night. I wanted to join in the fun and started feeling sick that night. After I fed Izzy that night, I had a date with the toilet. Yuck!

Thursday I wasn't sure how I felt, but as the morning went on, I felt fine again. So I headed out to tear it up at Babies R Us for a few things for Izzy. She loves to be held and we can't hold her all the time, so the next best thing.... a sling! She loves it! She's in the fetal position, being cuddled, close to mom or dad and just hangs out or sleeps in it. Perfect! We also thought she liked white noise, so I bought a noise machine. Not sure if that's helping at all since we found the key to getting Izzy to sleep 5-7 hours at night. Keeping her awake more often! We did that with a purpose the other night and she slept for 8 hours! Last night was 6 hours, but I'll take it! I picked up a few other things too. It was just nice to browse the store and I didn't buy any clothes! Sheila was able to come and take care of Anna while I ran errands. They both had a great time! Unfortunetly, Sheila got the flu we all had only worse. Sorry Sheila!

Last weekend was nice. The weather was beautiful and we were able to give Izzy her first walk outside! Anna also loved getting out of the house. We had our friends, Marc and Nisi over with their 2 kids for dinner. Nisi cooked us all a wonderful meal and the kids had a great time playing! Thanks again, guys!

I believe when Anna was about Izzy's age, I posted about her not pooping. Well, here's one for Izzy. She pooped like a champ when we were first home, now we're going 5-7 days without one! Looks like we need to call the doctor to see if we should give her anything for it. I tried gas drops b/c she farted like a champ, but never pooped. So we might be doing prune juice again!

We're all back to good health again. We're figuring out what to do with Izzy for sleeping and Anna is dealing with having Izzy around a lot better. I'm also figuring out how to prepare for Anna while I can't pay too much attention to her. I'm also learning how to not get so upset with her if she's doing something that may not be the best thing for her to do, but it's not hurting her. Like the other day, I was feeding Izzy, Gary left for awhile and one of the pantry doors was left open. So Anna started to bring me spice bottles, one at a time. At first, I was like, I don't need anymore honey, just leave them alone. Right. They kept coming. Good thing only one was opened a little to allow for some garlic salt to escape. The rest were fine and she had a blast stacking them on each other for 15 minutes! Patience. That's what I've been praying for. It's helped a lot and we had a great day together today.

So at week 3, we're not doing half bad. I do have a bigger respect for stay at home moms of toddlers. They know how to try your patience, but in the same right. It's a challenge to figure out how to deal with them where you both can be happy. :)

Hope everyone enjoyed the balmy weather this weekend, tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer! Oh yeah, pictures! Here's an updated photo album of the girls:

Anna Banana
Baby Bella

Love,
Gary, Christie, Booger and Izzy

Week Two: 2 under 2

An eventful week, but it's all a blur sometimes. This week we had Izzy's two week check up. She's not quite back to her birth weight (suprising since she loves to eat!) at 7 pounds 14 ounces, 6 ounces shy but grew a 1/2" already. Can you imagine growing a 1/2" a week? We'd all be huge! Funny stuff. Anyway, doctor said she looked great and we see him again at 2 months to start her immunizations. On the other side of things, Anna had her 15 month check up. I could have sworn she'd be at least 25 pounds with how solid I think she is. But she's still 20 pounds and 30" tall. She has wrapped up her immunizations until she starts school as she was a trooper one last time and cried only for a minute or two. Doctor said she's looking great too! She goes back in for a check up at 2 years - 2 years?! Can't believe we're on our way to being two already. She's definitely showing signs of being there.... :)

Izzy is sleeping 6 hours a night like clock work almost. We've held to our "strict" routine of feeding her about every 3 hours (this one will eat all day if I'd let her!), having a bath at 10, feed her and to bed she goes. As she gets older, we'll bath and feed her earlier. We did this with Anna and she did really well with it. Isabella is about as opposite as Anna as one could get. Izzy loves to be held and just have someone around if she's not sleeping, so she's been sleeping in her car seat at night as it cuddles her more than being sprawled out in her bed. She also lets you know when she is unhappy, immediately with her rhythmic squawking almost to the point where she might lose her voice. It's like an alarm. She spends an hour or two at a time wide awake, checking out what's going on, moving her head to the sounds she hears and just being content (when she's fed, dry and in company of course). She has thick, wavy hair that gets really curly after her bath. It's so adorable, like a little fro. Hehe. Her emblical cord fell off at day 8, so it's been nice to have her in the bath rather than a sponge bath. She's a wonderful addition to our family, adding another unique personality to this crazy bunch.

Anna, as suspected, has had some issues not getting all the attention she's used to. When I'm feeding Izzy, she gets frustrated and angry that I can't hold her on my lap and read her a book or get what she wants. She's started to swat at our faces, pinch us and she even bit Gary's chest and my finger. I don't know if she knows what she's doing is wrong or hurtful, but it's hard to discipline sometimes. We're definitely learning the trials and tribulations of parenting with her. It's her age and that her whole world has been changed by this little sister thing. So we continually pray for patience and understanding when we deal with her. On the other side of things, she's learning so much now that I can see her during the day each day. She knows the sounds a dog, duck and cow make. So cute! She knows where her nose, ears, toes, tongue and sometimes teeth are. When you ask her how do you catch snowflakes, she holds out her hands or sticks out her tongue. She says a variation of "socks" along with her hi's and yeah's. She's learned how to give kisses and hugs, but with Izzy in the picture those mostly go to her now when she's feeling in the mood. Her kisses are just like adult kisses, with her lips together making the kissing sound. It's so cute!

Here's a hilarious Anna story! Last night, Gary gave her the little cell phone that came in her purse she got for Christmas. It got misplaced for awhile. She loves it. So I was unloading the dishwasher and Anna was hanging around me with her phone. She walks around with it up to her ear saying "hi" and laughing while walking around. Well last night, she held the phone up to ear using her shoulder like we do so we can use both hands. I tried forever to get a picture or a video of her doing it b/c it was amazing that she picked up on us doing that, but she ran away or stopped doing it before I could get to it. It was great!

I'm doing great physically, feeling back to normal and glad to be me again. I'm below my starting weight pre-Anna, so I'm trying to lost another 21.5 pounds this year! Running and caring for 2 really gives you a work out along with forgetting to eat most of the day. Mentally, some days are more trying than others. I feel like a lot of the day I tell Anna "no" or remove her from places she shouldn't be. I feel horrible, but I know it's her acting out against her current situation. So with that, she's started back a day or 2 at daycare this week and seems to be a good thing for both mom and Anna. She enjoys the socializing and have more attention than what I can give her at home. Then there's Izzy, the squawker, where she'll only stop if you hold her in a certain position or feed her. Ahh... the life of a mom with 2 under 2. I give props to full time stay at home moms - it can be very frustrating at times, especially with 2 so close in age. But Gary and I remain consistent in discipline and attention, along with praying for patience.

Tonight rounded out an eventful week of parenting, with Anna throwing up just before we attempted to head to Chicago and 4-5 more times in the van about 5 minutes from home. Her car seat needed to be stripped down and washed along with clothes, coats and blankets and a good cleaning of the van. So we're home tonight and going to see what the morning brings. I think it was the yogurt I gave her for lunch that may have been bad (eventhough I just bought it). Poor little girl - she's soundly sleeping now and seems to be ok. Nothing better than kicking off the weekend with vomit! Eww....

On that note, it's bath time for Izzy and bedtime for mom and dad shortly. In the meantime, here are some more pictures (they may be new, can't remember from last week). I'll get some videos up soon too.

Izzy and Anna

Have a wonderful weekend!
Love,

GCAI

Week One: 2 under 2

Well I'm back. Gary did a guest appearance on the blog when Izzy was born and will probably be his last till we have another one..... a long long time from now. So we've got the first week under our belt.

Gary recapped the whole process of me going in the labor and another amazing experience having Isabella. We couldn't have asked for a better hospital to go to, the nursing staff was awesome, my doctor is such a blessing to our family and Gary was the amazing partner that he's always been for me in the hospital. We checked out Wednesday night as the nurses thought we could handle going home a little early as we're old pros now. It was great "sleeping" in our own bed again, but Izzy was getting her nights and days mixed up. We stayed up all night with her, feeding her about every hour thinking that would help. We finally got an hour and half of sleep in the morning and we were off and running with Anna ready to roll at her usual time. The next few nights got a lot better as Izzy woke up once or twice and we were able to get a few hours of sleep in between. Last night (Thursday night) she slept from 12:30 to 6:30, so we're getting there already! Yay!

Isabella is a wonderful baby. From her looks to her mannerisms, she's a lot different than Anna. She can be awake for 1-2 hours at time, just checking things out, looking around. So cool. Then she can sleep for 3-4 hours at a time if we let her. We gave her a pipe (pacifier for all of you who look at me weird when I call it that) in the hospital already as she could eat for hours if you let her. So if she loses her pipe before she's soundly sleeping, she wails. This girl has some lungs. Her features are a bit more petite than Anna's were, her skin color seems to be more on the olive side of things and her hair right now is a beautiful golden brown - thick and wavy! She fills out the newborn clothes a lot more than Anna did - Izzy was almost 2 pounds more than Anna. Crazy. We can't believe we have 2 beautiful girls - they such a blessing to our family.

Anna was doing great when Grandma and Grandpa Tiemens were out. She was able to get the attention she was used to and thought we might miss the jealousy stage of having another person in the house to give her attention. The switch flipped as soon as they left Wednesday afternoon. When I'm trying to feed Isabella, she's gotten angry about not getting something she can see, or when she can't sit on my lap or read her a book. She's starting to pull hair and scratch and bite. In other words, getting closer to the terrible 2's, jealous of the attention we give Isabella, teething, being sick and just being a little girl who doesn't quite know what's going on. We're working through this as parents too, not trying to lose patience and giving her all the love and attention we're able to give her in the meantime teaching her what things are acceptable and what isn't. She's still a sweetheart despite this change. A few days ago, she started to give kisses. I ask her for kisses all the time, but with no result. Then all of a sudden she put together how to kiss. It was the sweetest thing! Especially for daddy coming home to that. She gives hugs when you ask for one. She is a good big sister, bringing Izzy her blanket or hat or sharing her books and animals with her. She even puts her pipe back in her mouth if she loses it. She's also in a phase where she won't eat a lot of things we make for dinner, even if she liked it before. It's a bit trying as we want her to eat, but she'll let us know when she's hungry. Can't win them all. :)

I'm doing great! Feeling good and pretty close to fully recovered. Gary and I were talking and it's just amazing that God made a woman's body to go through all that and then a week or 2 later, feel like yourself again. It's surely amazing. I was ready to be done being pregnant, wanting to be able to bend again, help Gary out with things around the house and just be me again. Now we're in to finding a good routine getting the day started with 2 kids and all of us not in our PJ's till noon. I'm looking forward to getting some things done around the house that have been put off and working on some projects that have been waiting for me for a long time. Hopefully we can cross some things off the list, but we'll take it day by day with these two.

Gary is back at work full time after a week off with me and some half days off after that. Lots of work to catch up on, but he enjoys it for the most part. My parents came out just after Izzy was born to help us get some things done around the house. Dad and Gary got about half the basement insulated and drywalled. You can totally tell the difference in temperature already! Before we didn't even want to be down here, now it's quite tolerable. We have more steps to go, but we have a room at least for people to stay! Gary also did a lot of the wiring down here, along with his very proud accomplishment of his wiring closet. It looks awesome and is exactly what he wanted. And we're able to work down here again and feel somewhat motivated. :) Martha and I cleaned the house, sorted Anna's old clothes for Izzy, made a bunch of dinners for us to throw in the oven or on the stove and they both did the wonderful grandparent thing of spoiling the girls. :)

I'm going to try and do a week by week of what's going on here. Maybe some extras thrown in there if something comes up, but these girls and life in general makes the day go by so fast! Make sure you check out the links below of pictures of what's going on with the Tidd house. If anyone has any advice on parenting 2 under 2 or at least a toddler who isn't used to not getting all the attention, we'd like to hear it!

Isabella Clara's first month

Anna and all her charm

We also want to thank you all for the prayers, kind words, cards, gifts and dinners! We appreciate and value all of you as our family and friends. We hope to return the favor.

Love to you all and enjoy the weekend!

Gary, Christie, Anna and Isabella

Isabella Clara is Here!!!!

I am pretty sure that this is the only post I have ever made on the blog. Well there is a first time for everything. Christie needs to rest right now so I thought I would do the first post to let people know that Isabella is here!

I got home from work late last night because I had to make a trip to Baby's R Us to get another baby gate and a new baby monitor. When I got home Christie was having contractions. They were not that intense and they were coming at random intervals.

As the night progressed the intensity of the contractions increased and so did their consistency. By 10:00 PM she was having contractions roughly every 7 minutes and they were beginning to bother her enough where she thought we might need to head to the hospital.

We made it on the road by 10:30 PM and it was a good thing that we did. The weather was bad and the roads were very slick. It took us twice as long to get to the hospital as normal and by the time we were settled in our room, Christie was already at 7 cm.

Christie's epidural worked this time and she started to push at 2:28 AM and Isabella was here at 2:41 AM. I was amazed at how fast she pushed Isabella out, it was a record time, 13 minutes.

We just thank God for how His plan comes together! Despite the weather, all the key players made it to the hospital in time, the anesthesiologist got there in time to place in a working epidural and our God send of a doctor, Dr. Dawn DeWitt made it here safely to deliver Isabella.

The coolest thing for me was being able to deliver Isabella and lay her on Christie's tummy. I also got to cut the cord and take the pics right after she was born. It was surely a night to remember and proof once again to Gods everlasting promise and to His awesome plan and design! I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now!

The link below gives a few photos to check out, I am sure Christie will post more later on, but this is a start anyway.

Isabella's Pics

Until later,

Gary, Christie, Anna & Isabella

Happy New Year!

Another year has begun whether you wanted it to or not. I'm ready for a new year with new challenges and a growing family, along with new goals for the year. I am still with child, due on the 18th and could be induced on the 19th or before, depending on what the doctor says today and my ultrasound this week. As with Anna, I'm done being pregnant. The shots are fine up until I switch to twice a day. These hurt more, create a lot more bruising and hemotoma bumps so I run out of places to get a shot. There's a breaking point, at least for me, in a pregnancy where I'm ready to be me again. Don't get me wrong, the baby aspect of it all is beautiful and amazing and we're so excited to meet this little person, but the end of the pregnancy for me isn't fun.

Anna is doing well. She's still enhancing her little personality each day, some days are more trying than others, but I think she feeds off how our days go which compounds the tears and whining sometimes. She still amazes us with what she figures out, what she remembers and her capabilities. She's in the phase of not wanting to eat what we give her for dinner sometimes. She whips her head away if we bring something to her mouth or she plays with it and it ends up on the floor in her fury. She also knows where the snack cabinet is and even if we look at it, she runs up to it and goes "uh uh" with her hands up in the air so that we can fulfill her need of a cracker in each hand. We're working on teaching her that she can't have a snack anytime she wants. Oye. She says "yeah", "hi", "awww", "this", "da-dee", "dada", "mama" and what sounds like "pup-pee". She understands a lot more, but there's that selective hearing/understanding things she's really grasping on to. She likes to bop to music on occasion, read herself a story, lays with dad on the floor, hugs our legs and knows where everyones nose is when you ask her. The last few weeks we've told her where mommy's baby is and pointed to my tummy. She points sometimes. I point to her tummy and say Anna's baby (while daddy glares at me, hehe) and also where daddy's baby is (a bigger glare from daddy). She knows there's another fun room upstairs and loves to go in and point at all the animals. But otherwise, she's got something coming when the baby does get here. I'm sure it won't take long to want to help and love on the baby, but in the same right, she's a strong little girl who's figured out how to throw and hit too. Should be interesting to say the least!

Our holidays were wonderful, filled with lovely Michigan/Midwest weather, a lot of junk food that was over-indulged on and being surrounded by all those you love. We spent the weekend before Christmas doing our own family (ask Gary why, hehe) Christmas and also with Gary's parents and sister. Then Christmas Eve morning we headed to Chicago to spend Christmas and the most of the week with my family. It was great to see everyone and all be together! New Years was just Gary and I. We dropped Anna off at Grandma and Grandpas, did some shopping and went to a movie. We finished the night at the in-laws watching HGTV and the ball drop. A different New Years, but a nice slow paced one as well.

Gary is doing well. Fully recoved after toe surgery. He had a nice vacation over Christmas and New Years and is back in the swing of things (only to be interupted by baby coming). We're still in the midst of finishing the basement along with getting the baby's room ready and everything else that goes along with every day life. Oh yeah and we have a new addition to our ever growing family - a mini-van! We got a 2006 Silver Chrysler Town and Country Touring mini-van on the 30th. I didn't want it at all, thought I'd go down kicking and screaming, but practicality took over and will admit that I love it. Everything fits fine, it's easy to get Anna in and out, it drives really smooth and it's all automatic! So needless to say, I don't regret it. :)

With all that said, here are more pictures. Sorry I don't really put them in the post anymore, it takes so long! I'll try to be more dilegent about posting pictures and videos more again while on maternity leave.

The painting in the baby's room is done!

Snow Days!

Our Newest Addition (last picture in the bunch)

Happy Holidays from Michigan and Chicago!

Stay tuned for the news of #2! It's not far away. :)

Love to you all,

Gary, Christie and Anna