Play date

Sophia had her first play date last week.  It was great fun....as much fun as two babies could have.  Our good friends just had their baby girl!  Francis Ann, and she is beautiful.  After Heather told me that Francis had arrived, I was ecstatic because the first thing I thought was Sophia and Francis will become great friends:)  This picture cracks me up every time I look at it.   Looking forward to many more play dates to come.

  Sophia Noelle: 6 1/2 weeks                                                 Francis Ann: 1 week

The Nursery is a Hoot

Literally too.  I am obsessed with owls.  Lucky for me, so is the rest of the world.  I have had no trouble whatsoever finding anything to do with owls.

James let me decorate the nursery any way that I wanted to, so I had to choose my beloved owls.

I am still in the process getting the nursery completed.  We still have to hang photos and get a bookshelf, etc.  But it has come along nicely I think.  I try to get Sophia excited about owls, but I don't really think she cares much at this point.  She will appreciate it once she gets a little older I'm sure.

For now, she is perfectly content sleeping right next to us in our room or should I say on mom or dad.

Works like a charm baby

Sophia is almost hitting her three week mark in a few days.  She is sweet as can be.  She really doesn't sleep much at all.....I guess I was thinking she would take a few naps during the day but she seems to fight the urge often.

My friend Sarah gave me a tip that she uses with her son, Tennyson.  She told me to wrap Sophia up tight and put her on the counter and run the water in the kitchen sink.  I hadn't tried this approach yet, but today I was all out of ideas to get her to calm down.

Sure enough, not even 5 minutes go by, and here is Sophia -

This may be a saving grace for James and I.....although I'm pretty sure our water bill is going to increase dramatically.

Practice Makes Perfect

I can't believe Christmas is just a few days away.  I really don't know where the time has gone.  The Allen family came home just last week....it will be our first Christmas in a long while where we are all together.
With just a couple short months away, James and I will have a new addition to the Walbruch family.  I will admit I feel completely unprepared and hoping that it just falls into place for us.
For the time being we get to practice with our nieces and nephews.  We watched Eva and Benson recently and they seem to gravitate towards James.  Just watching James take care of these little ones gives me comfort that we will be okay:)
I did ask James a while back if he would "baby talk" to our girl.  He said yes probably.  I just couldn't really picture him doing that, but after watching him play with Benson and Eva, he has it down just fine.   James is going to be a great dad.

The Allen Family Return

Hooray!  The Allen family has come home to MN!  Dan, Emily, Eva and Benson flew in Saturday evening and we have been anticipating their return for a while now.  The last time we saw them was after Benson was born.  They will be here for almost 3 full weeks!  Dan has to get back to the grind early though due to school.  But in my opinion, Fall is the best time to visit MN!

I love having my whole family in one place, what a blessing that is.  It has been so much fun to see all 5 of the nieces and nephews run around and play with each other.  Kids are so care-free.

Benson is just all smiles.  Such a beautiful baby boy.  Eva is so dramatic, I love it. She talks full sentences now and is full of energy. Kind of reminds me of me....the dramatic part, not the energy part. Both of them have just gotten so big. 

Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Third time around is a charm

Our ultrasound appointment was cancelled TWICE in a matter of two days.  The second time it was cancelled James and I had already checked in at the front desk and we were just waiting to be called to see the doctor....oh we got called alright, back up to the front desk to tell us that the doc had been called into the OR.


They could squeeze us in a little later with a nurse practitioner...after all I really didn't care who I saw just as long as they could tell me the gender and if the baby looked good.  Checking in for the second time that day. I calmly (as calmly as I could be at that point) asked if my ultrasound was still on if I wasn't seeing my regular doctor.  Nope, they didn't have any record of me having an ultrasound that day.  Apparently I was supposed to tell them last month to make an ULTRASOUND appointment not just any old appointment.  Would have been good to know, I don't know, say maybe last month?

All in all, they got us in for just a gender check.  I was already pretty emotional and James was so good at making sure I kept it together.  Everyone in our family thought it was a boy.  I didn't know what to think but I was hoping for a girl.  To see those tiny little hands and feet kick around was pretty amazing.  The tech finally said, well there it is, "Three Lines".....she paused and didn't say anything else and I'm thinking, OK.....AND?  You are having a baby girl.  When I heard her say that I couldn't really say anything, the whole day had been so overwhelming to me.  I can't even describe how very happy and grateful I felt in that moment.

I already started shopping and looking for things online that night......James glanced over and said, "oh geez, here we go".  :)

Our number one name is Gertie, thoughts?

Parenting Tip #1: Fill them with pizza and sugar and send 'em on their way!

James and I had kid duty friday evening.  Three of them to be exact.  The last time Reva was at our house she said to me, "Jana I can't wait until you start having children because half of this stuff will be ruined"  Ok, so I admit, my house isn't exactly child friendly.  I guess the only thing in our house that kids would want to play with is our Wii.  Thank goodness for the Wii.

I told Reva to have the kids bring some toys so they wouldn't be bored out of their mind.  I decided to supplement some of that time with a fun cooking project.  Monster eyeballs.  It seemed cool enough and I would get points as a "fun aunt".  Chloe did say she loved her auntie numerous times during the night:)  After taking them to the park, I looked at James and said, "Do you think we are ready to handle this?"  He said "of course we are". 

The Olson kids are great though, so sweet and always full of laughs.  James and I love to be around them. 

A couple quotes that made my favorite list tonight:

Chloe:  I love Autumn!......you know, Autumn is another word for Fall.
Jana: where did you learn that Chloe?
Chloe: Bonnie!

I looked at James to see if he knew what she was talking about and he said, "BARNEY, you know the purple dinosaur."  Gotta love her New Yorker accent.

Walking to the park,
Chloe: Why are we walking sooo slow?
Jana: Well, pregnant women walk quite a bit slower.  Did you know that?
Chloe: I did not know that, my mom did not tell me this.

And of course, Zayah talking to "Odis" and giving him commands all night long.  It is pretty darn cute.

Those kids just cling to James.  He is so good with them, I know he is going to make one heck of a father.