We celebrated my mom and Brian’s birthday this week. I made beef and butternut squash beef stew, and for dessert we had a delicious chocolate mousse cake from Trader Joes. It was nice to have them over and of course Rowan is pretty much obsessed with my mom, so he was absolutely thrilled. He’s in this “show off” mode now that he’s 2. Sometimes it’s funny, and sometime’s it drives me crazy, haha. Some photos from the evening:
Rowan waiting patiently for the cake
I bought Rowan a little foam Christmas tree to decorate. I’ve been trying to have special little “dates” with him whenever possible. Yesterday Isla was asleep, so we put on some Christmas music, ate a few candy cane m & m’s (amazing!) and made his tree. He thought it was pretty cool. I really love my little man.
Who gets the stomach flu on Thanksgiving??
This girl.
Worst day ever to have the stomach flu.
The night before Thanksgiving I started feeling pretty queasy. I knew several people who were sick…but I hadn’t been around any of them. I was hoping it would pass, but it pretty much continued getting worse. On Thanksgiving we went over to my mom’s, thinking I was okay and just being paranoid, and had to leave about an hour after we arrived. My mom set a beautiful table as always, and I could barely make it sitting through the meal. When we got home I crawled straight into bed and Russ took care of Rowan and Isla.
On Thanksgiving, I was especially thankful for a husband that takes care of me, and the kids. I seriously don’t know how single mom’s do it. I was also especially thankful for my overall health. It’s amazing how a small fever and flu can make you feel so miserable and helpless.
I did however, manage to get a few cute photos of the kids in their Thanksgiving outfits. :)
Isla. I just can’t even begin to express how in love with this baby I am. She is our little miracle. I know I wrote in my birth story a little bit about the cord being wrapped around her neck but here I sit 3 months later, and almost in tears, once again thinking about what could have been.
You hear it all the time… babies often have their cord wrapped around their neck at birth. Usually it’s no big deal. Baby’s head appears during pushing, and the doctor just gently and quickly unwraps it before guiding the baby out the rest of the way. There’s no way to detect it in an ultrasound, and there’s generally no complication associated. I’ll never, ever forget the night she was born. I’ll never ever forget the look in my midwife’s eyes when she calmly said to me, “Rachel, your baby’s cord is around her neck. It’s pretty tight, and I won’t be able to get it off until you push her out.” I knew in that moment that we didn’t have time and I pushed with all of my might. Her heart rate never changed and although she was pretty blue in the face and a bit stunned when she first came out, she was completely perfect when she was born. THANK God.
To be honest, my 2 1/2 hour birth was such a traumatizing experience that I felt a little angry God would allow me to go through something like that. I just couldn’t understand it. The more time has passed, andthe more time I’ve had to process everything, and talk to my midwives, and my OB; the more I realize God’s hand in everything.
We’ll never know exactly what happened that night, but it was clear Isla needed to be born at that exact moment. I only turned full term (37 weeks), 32 minutes before she was born. I never had any pre term labor signs either. The fact that she came out so fast, and out of the blue, doesn’t seem like such a “random” occurrence. Our pastor recently spoke about God’s providence. Basically, things aren’t just coincidence. We prayed safety over our sweet baby every night when she was in my tummy. I really believe God’s way of keeping her safe was to have her born right then, exactly how it happened. Otherwise we could have lost her. I can’t even begin to comprehend that.
My midwife basically told me at a later appointment that things don’t look good for a baby with a cord that tight, so late in utero…with 3 weeks left to go. I also recently had an annual appointment with my OB (the doc who I had care with for my pregnancy with Rowan), and when I told her about everything, she said it was really not normal for things to go THAT fast. She said she also believed something was wrong and that thankfully “nature” knew what to do. Well, I don’t believe it was nature…but know that it was God.
SO thankful for a heavently Father that cares so much for our little ones. I am so thankful for both of my little miracles each and every day.
My friend Susie took this the other day when Isla and I were over at her house. All of a sudden Isla is nonstop smiles and coos. I love our little conversations!
Woo-hoo!!!!!
I wasn’t even planning on starting potty training with Rowan until he was heading towards 3, but he showed all the signs of being ready and was really excited about the whole thing. So, I figured I might as well try! He’s done GREAT! I followed a 3 day plan where you have to stay home for 3 straight days and you literally can’t take your eyes off of them for one single moment. It was pretty exhausting, but definitely worth it. Rowan is so proud of himself and loves talking about his cool batman, spiderman, and cars undies. We also started a sticker chart. He loves putting stickers on the chart everytime he goes pee. Yesterday was my first day taking him out. We went to library story time, and drove 40 minutes to a playdate at my friend Kassandra’s. I was also worried he wouldn’t go at someone else’s house and although he was a bit skeptical at first, he did great. Not one accident!
It’s so funny though… the program I read talks about kids who WONT use the potty. But it didn’t talk about kids who WONT get off of it! Rowan has started saying he has to go all the time, so that he gets the extra attention and treats. It’s hard because we don’t want to discourage his enthusiasm, but we also have to draw the line when he wants to go before bed 3489 times.
It’s always funny to hear everyone tell you that your baby has your eyes, their dad’s eyes, grandma’s nose, etc….
Both of our kids have been compared to Russ as little babies and I DO see a lot of Russ in both kids. But, as you can see with the 2nd picture, Rowan looks a lot like me too.
Russ and Isla around the same age.
Rowan and I, age 2
Can’t wait to see what they look like in a few years!
Isla turned 3 months on Monday and has become quite the lively little gal. Up until this week she still spent a lot of time sleeping. All of a sudden she is smiling up a storm and cooing like crazy. She coos way more than Rowan ever did. I love looking into her big blue eyes and ‘chatting’ back and forth. She just has such a sweet personality. She’s also put herself on a schedule. Goes to bed at 7, wakes up twice at night to eat, and gets up for the day at 7.
Isla rolled over a couple of days before she turned 3 months and of course we missed it! I put her down, looked over at Rowan and she went from tummy to back. We put her back on her tummy though and she did it again.
I feel like everyone makes comments about how much she looks like Russ, and how sturdy she is. It’s crazy how strong and tall she is for 3 months old. I feel like the newborn stage went super fast. 
Let’s be honest… half the reason we dress our little babies and toddlers up for Halloween at this age is for the cute pictures, right??! When I put Rowan’s shark costume on at first he said, “ I no like!” haha…we told him how awesome he looked, and held him up to the mirror. He warmed up to the idea but when he saw that Isla got to be a Lion (his old costume), he was NOT happy. Next year I’ll let him pick what he wants to be.
We dressed the kiddos up and headed to city hall for trick or treating. It was pouring outside this year and I was glad they had this event. Much more family/little kid friendly, warm, and dry. Rowan caught on pretty quickly and held his little bag up to every adult with a bowl of treats. He doesn’t even know what candy is though… and still hasn’t even had a piece. Poor kid, haha. We did let him have the juice box though. :) I promise not to be a crazy mom who doesn’t let my kid have any sugar but he didn’t even seem to care.
My two little sweethearts
Here’s both kids wearing the costume. Rowan is on the right, and a month younger than Isla at the time. I put a pink bow in the mane when Isla wore it. Sweet girl- she pretty much slept through the entire time.
Rowan had a blast getting all of the guts and seeds out of the pumpkin. It was pretty much all over our entire kitchen floor, but the mess was worth it. I feel like every year I do the same standard triangle nose and eyes on my pumpkin… but not this year! ;-)
I saw an idea on Pinterest to use a drill instead of a knife. Russ just got a nice new drill and is a guy who loves his tool, so it was right up his alley. We (and by we, I mean Russ) decided on a spider web, rather than a face. Rowan thought this was awesome due to his recent fear/obsession of spiders.
Wanted to get a picture of Isla with her “ daddy’s little pumpkin” shirt. I swear it’s so hard to get a picture of her smiling! Her little smile is SO cute and she’s been smiling and cooing up a storm, so I’ll try and get more pictures of it soon. 
The finished product!
