Everyone is getting ready to crawl into their beds. It’s been a long day and due to Daylight Saving it is an hour later than usual.
Olivia: “But I want to go get my Care Bears from the living room.”
Jenny: “You have two seconds to go get them…. One. One and a quarter. One and a half. One and three quarters.”
Olivia: “Mommy, I don’t even know what fractions are!”
Busted! But now the mystery is how she actually knows what fractions are…
Jake is really coming into his own these days. He’s crawling all over the place and even stood up by himself next to a shelf. He also has two teeth, is eating solid food, and is always starving – or so he acts. We think he is a handsome little guy. Take a look for yourself.
For Violet’s birthday we decided to go down to SeaWorld in San Antonio for the day. First thing we had to do was buy a pass for her since only two and under are free 
, but it was worth it. We got there about half an hour after they opened at 10:30 and went over to the dolphins. After putting on our sun screen it was time to feed the dolphins and boy were they happy. They let would have let us pet them even without fish to feed them, but they ate the fish anyway.
After that we went through the aquarium. Ate lunch. We had picked up Subway sandwiches on the way so we ate our picnic lunch on the benches outside the park. Then it was time for some rides, but first the height check…
So Livy and Molly could definitely ride the Shamu Express and they did.
Livy is already a “no hands” kind of rider. Molly went with it for a while. They loved it, but since Violet couldn’t ride we had to do something for her. So next was the carousel.
And of course she rode the purple pony. 
After that, Jake needed a break so the little girls stayed with Mom at the sprinkler park while she feed him. Livy and I went off to find the “Journey to Atlantis”. I thought it was the huge “log ride” roller coaster which splashes down in water. Sure enough it was. Was she scared?
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| From Violet’s Birthday at SeaWorld |
Needless to say she was not. She went no hands the very first time. And since there was no line we doubled-down and went twice. Then back to find the rest of the family. That was cool enough that we had to see if Molly was tall enough. From the original height check it looked questionable. We found them and Molly was game. Mom, well she had to be coaxed a little but eventually she said that if Molly went with me once, then she would go with them. And we were in luck, Molly was just tall enough. Jenny didn’t get a chance to go right then because we had wait for a boat (not ours) to get ‘unstuck’ at the top. That didn’t phase Molly at all though. She held on, but just like Livy, there was not a hint of fear; just screams of joy. (Sidenote: I love how kids have no fear. No doubt that they can do something unless someone tells them they can’t or they should be afraid. And that isn’t going to be me.)
Then it was time to hit the last Shamu show and we went all in and sat in the “splash zone” at eye level with the water. The show was wet, cold, and salty. Yeah, Shamu is serious about his splash zone. It was great. Then off to see the penguins, sea lions, and otters before circling back for Molly and Livy to take Mom on “Journey to Atlantis” a couple of times.
Then back home, but not before hitting Rudy’s for some bbq for dinner. Overall, Violet was very pleased with her birthday. At least it seemed like she had a better time than her birthday party at school.
…as seen by Olivia the budding young photographer. But first the back story. I don’t remember when it started but Olivia had wanted a camera. At a friends house she had played with one of those durable kid cameras and put it on her wish list. The instant gratification of seeing the picture on the little screen had lured her in. But being the high tech geek, I just couldn’t swallow buying the toy which would only shoot 640×480 at best. We also had a Canon Rebel XTi DSLR which we used for most of our pictures and a Canon PowerShot SD1000 for videos primarily and time when we didn’t want to carry the larger Rebel. However, last summer Jenny and I got new Android phones which have decent cameras and can record higher quality video than SD1000 so we didn’t use it much. Then at Christmas at my parents house after opening all of their presents, Livy made the comment that she didn’t get the camera that she had wished for. She didn’t throw a fit, but she was disappointed. So I reached into the diaper bag, grabbed our “old” SD1000 and gave it to her. OK so I admit I did it in part just to see what my sister would do. Both Lisa and Livy, and Jenny, had confused faces for a second. Then Livy lit up. Yep, I was serious. That was her camera now. She was very happy and went around taking pictures. She picked up on how to run it pretty quickly and can review her pictures and switch between picture and video mode. Man can she fill up the memory card quick taking videos.
Now to the walk. Earlier this summer we decided to brave the heat and go for a little hike and feed some ducks at a nearby pond. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to take my camera and make it a photo walk. Livy thought that sounded like a good idea too, so she grabbed her camera. When we got back home before looking at her pictures, I figured I didn’t want all of her pictures cluttering up my Picasa on my account so I set her up with her own user account, logged in, and imported her pictures to her account. Low and behold she took some really nice photos. So nice that I figured I’d go ahead and set up an online account for her to show them off. So here is Olivia’s first photo walk portfolio. Note that I didn’t edit, crop, or delete any pictures. This is how Livy saw things and what she chose to take pictures of. Click on the picture below and then the slideshow button to enjoy the show.
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| A Walk In The Park |
The other day we were out for mexican food, ok so it was really just Taco Bell, and Livy and Violet were playing a game with their Doritos. At first, you could “win” if you had the biggest chip which was Violet. Livy wanted to win too so she added that the person with the most chips was also a winner. She crushed one up just to make sure. Then Livy and Violet started brainstorming ways that Molly could also win. Molly wasn’t really into it but Livy reassured her, “Molly, everyone can win in this game.” Molly replied back without hesitation, “I don’t want to play games if everyone wins.” I swear I didn’t teach her that, she is just a natural Andrews. And we might be a little competitive.
Jacob Henry Andrews was born at 12:10 on 3/23/2011. He weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and was 20 inches long. Jake and Mom are both doing really well.
Today is the day. We’re checked into the hospital and are just chillin’ until they get to us. They said that they had a run on delivers so they have been busy. Not sure what to make of Jenny watching “19 Kids and Count” while in Labor and Delivery. Nurse just came in so I guess we’ll be getting started.
We’re all set up and waiting for things to pick up. Everything going to plan so far. We’ve got two nursing students tagging along for the day which has helped pass the time.
Contractions are getting regular and more frequent. Jenny is still pretty comfortable which is good and bad but they are happy with how out is progressing. We requested a ‘heplock’ (sp?) which is an IV in the wrist, rather than one in the elbow since it make it easier to move around. She is sitting on her exercise ball comfortably for now.
They broke her water and things are starting to pick up so the updates will probably be less frequent. Still have a ways to go but not going to on the phone.
Final update on this post. Check out the news here.
So, it’s Lent. Again. Yeah, I know it comes around every year. Lent is a time to sacrifice to remind ourselves of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. The thing with me is that I either do something all the way or not at all. A couple of years ago I gave up driving to work for Lent. That was tough. So this year, Livy is old enough to understand what Lent is about. On top of that the girls decided that they were giving up candy. OK, so that might have been Jenny deciding that the girls were giving up candy. After dumping the candy bowl in the trash, Livy responded with, “This is the worst day of my life.” So what does that have to do with me? Well, Livy had a suggestion for me for what to give up for Lent. I take her to school everyday and I take my 1 quart thermos of coffee and my travel mug every morning. I even take my mug into school when we walk in. She said, “You drink too much coffee. You should give up coffee for Lent!” Seriously? Does she not realize how stressful work is right now? Not to mention that new baby is due any day now? Or how little sleep I’m already getting? (Because with three kids and a pregnant wife the combined failure rate is pretty high.) Seriously?
Well, go big or go home right? So I’ve given up coffee for Lent. And it sucks! (Sorry Mom, but it is really that bad.) But I remember every morning what the Lenten season is all about. Can’t wait for Easter.
So I know everyone is anxious to here about Baby Andrews #4′s arrival and we’re anxious to tell you all about it. Now if he’d just decide to come out. We’re getting close though so in order to keep you up to date I’ll be updating this post periodically chronicling our status. That should be easier for us to update via our phone rather than having to do a new post for every little detail. However that means that you’ll have to refresh the page to get the latest info. (Hint: F5 is the shortcut key but don’t take our server down.)
PS: You may also want to go get caught up on pictures on our Picasa site. We were way behind posting photos and figured we should get caught up on last year at least before we post new ones from Baby #4.
We had a scheduled Dr.’s appointment. Everything checked out well. Baby’s heart rate was in the 120′s so maybe he was relaxed and taking a nap. Dr. Love (yes, that is our OB’s name) said that Jenny was dilated 3-4 cm (10 is fully dilated). He said he didn’t expect us to make it past the end of the week.
In the evening there was lots of activity. Jenny had contractions most of the night. The most frequent was about 3 per hour and the guidance is to go the hospital when they are 5-6 per hour. We finally went to bed at about 11. Jenny woke me up at 1 AM with a single bad contraction. She was pretty adamant that I should wake up and do what she told me, which was to get dressed. We finally compromised and I got dressed and crawled back into bed.
The contractions had died down in the early morning, but came back at the 2-3 per hour by 9. I headed to work but came home at 11 to keep Jenny company. Our friends mobilized and enacted the hand-off plan. Amy came and got Molly to take her to school and then picked her up. After picking up Molly, she came and got Violet as well. Another friend picked up Livy from school to take her over to have a slumber party with the other girls.
We called the Dr.’s office but no one was available to check her so they said to just come into the hospital when we felt the time was right. Jenny was hungry so we went out to Chipotle to try to spice him out.
When we got back to the house I was excited because my new camera lens had been delivered. Just in time.
Then we decided to go for a walk to try go get things moving. It felt like old times with just Jenny, Red, and I.
4:45Now we’re just hanging out waiting for things to pick up. Jenny’s felt kind of bad that when Amy showed up to get Violet, nothing was going on and she felt pretty good. A few contractions but maybe 1 an hour. We spent last night and this morning trying to slow things down so that we could hit a time when it would be optimal to hand off the girls. Now we’re wanting things to pick up. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
Jenny: “I’m frustrated.”
Now we are trying shopping for pacifiers and Chinese food.
Nothing happened overnight. It would have been ideal with having the girls handed off so Jenny was pretty frustrated and we’re feeling bad for Amy and Karl. I keep reminding Jenny that we’re erring on the side of caution and that she really doesn’t want to have this baby in the van on the side of the road. Since contractions come back without warning and Jenny shouldn’t be driving while having a contraction, I’m going to stay home from work today. I might try to make it in for the last meeting of the day (which is “Beer Friday”). But this morning we’re going to go get the monsters girls and go to the outlet mall to walk around a bit before lunch and naps.
Well progress was probably made in the last two days but nothing is going on today. That might mean that when things do happen they might happen fast.
OK, so we weren’t expecting to be here at this point. “Here” being at home and still pregnant. Jenny has still been having contractions on and off but nothing regular. If you’ve ever watched your wife go through labor you know how much of an emotional roller-coaster it can be. Try doing that for 5+ days. No woman should have to endure that (and no husband deserves it either) ((Jenny says I probably do.)) But we’re surviving. I’m going to try to work from home some today and at least get caught up on email. Other than that we’re waiting for our Dr’s appointment Wednesday morning. Jenny isn’t looking to go two weeks past the due date this time like with Violet. I’m not going to keep updating this page anymore since the updates have become less frequent so that you don’t have to keep looking at this page and you can go back to watching for an update in your RSS reader.