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 |
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.
When I sat down to write about the marathon this past weekend I didn’t know where to start. A big reason for that is that I never got around to writing about my previous marathon. A big reason for that was all the other things going on at that time.
It all started with the idea to run a marathon. I started training in October 2008 and planned on running the Austin Marathon in Feb. 2009. Man just typing those years makes me realize how long it’s been. I ended up getting the flu in January right when my training was supposed to peak, so I made the decision to switch to the Lincoln Marathon in May. About then I got an opportunity to take on a project at work which was releasing right at that time which meant that it was going to be hard to get away but I had been training for so long I would make it work. That was until it sold out without me in it. That actually worked out OK because of everything going on at work and I registered for the Omaha marathon Sept. 27, 2009. After training for nearly a year, a confirmed registration, and a hotel reservation; what could go wrong?
We packed up the van to head to NE for a two week vacation to visit family and run the marathon. Running the marathon would be the perfect excuse to get me out of any manual labor right? We left after breakfast and the drive went really well. So well in fact that we decided to push through and drive it straight through. We pulled into my parents drive-way about 1 AM. When we walked into the house I knew I was in trouble. They were still up. My parents that is. Both of them were waiting up. I had learned from prior experience that is never a good thing.
They broke the news. My dad has cancer. Colon cancer. And it wasn’t caught early. Wow, OK, who’s ready for vacation? We learned over the next week that things were going to be rough. My dad was going to have to have surgery to have part of his colon removed and from there they would start to figure out how far the cancer had spread and what the treatment would be. Remember that this was September, and in Nebraska that means harvest time. All of the crops were still in the field. After the crops were harvested, fence was going to need to be made to run the cows on the cornstalks. Everyone was offering to help and they did. But pretty early on, Jenny and I had the talk. Our kids were young enough to not be in school. Jenny was a stay at home mom so she could do her job there. And I had a job where I was pretty sure I could get extra time off. Having gone through the management training I knew I could get 12 weeks of unpaid time through FMLA, but I was fortunate enough that with our annual release cycle it wasn’t crunch time. And I was in good enough shape to do the physical work, after all I had been training really hard. After talking it through we decided that we would stay up in NE for a while to help out while my Dad was in the hospital. Originally the plan was 6 weeks I think, but that turned into more like 8 in the end. At first, I don’t think anyone believed that we were really going to stay. But there wasn’t much time to worry about that since my Dad’s surgery was scheduled for 2 weeks out. Two weeks to get caught up on everything on the farm.
Step one: Buy farmer gear. Yeah, I had packed for a vacation with a rock solid excuse to get me out of farm work so I didn’t have any work clothes. Including boots. So Jenny and I went into town and bought the best pair of boots they had… at Walmart. Yeah, these things had “I’m gonna give you the worst blisters you’ve ever seen,” written all over them. And they did. Good news was, that I hadn’t forgotten how to work on the farm. (Others can disagree but remember that this is my blog and I censor as I choose.) I’ll leave most of the better farm stories for other posts since this is supposed to be about the marathon right. So Wednesday before the marathon I had a day all to myself out at the pasture. No not relaxing fishing in the pond, but rather cutting downed trees and cedar trees out of the fence line and then fixing the fence so we’d have somewhere to put the cows since the corn was still in the field. I still remember how hard it was to pull the fence wire out of the tall grass in the bottom of the creek by the road. Let’s just say that I probably worked a little harder than I did when I was growing up on the farm. But at least there was a place for the cattle now, since the grass that they were on was getting pretty short. Now here’s where there may be some dispute over how things went down (but it’s my blog remember). After getting the fence fixed, I thought we should just run the cattle down the road from the other pasture. Quick, easy, done. My father thought it would be better to haul them on the trailer and wanted to wait until the next week, the week before his surgery. Needless to say, he was right. Not because his idea was better but it’s his farm (touche). But eventually he did come around to my way of thinking and my idea. Yeah, on Saturday morning, as we were loading up for the marathon weekend in Omaha. Long story short, we got the cattle moved and I didn’t sprain my ankle running around the pasture trying to get the second half of the cows out the gate to the road. I’m not sure but I think we headed to Omaha straight from the pasture.
Finally, time for the race. We stayed in the Embassy Suites which was right on the course 
so the girls would have an easy time seeing me since the course went by there twice. After two weeks of farming and not being able to run I was ready to finally do it. I had debated what pace to run. Being my first marathon I didn’t really know what to expect. I’m not really a pack runner but I finally decided to run with the 3:45 pace group. I stood alongside of the starting field waiting for the pace group leader to come grab his sign. Waiting. Waiting. No show. OK, plan B. The race was starting. Wait what was plan B? Yeah, I didn’t have one. So I just ran. And it felt good. With everything going on, it felt good to just go run. That is why I run, and because it is cheaper than therapy. I knew that my 8:15 per mile pace wasn’t going to last but I didn’t care and I held it for the first 10 miles. Then came the hills as the course looped around the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo and Rosenblatt Stadium. Wow them are some hills. Two killer ones in particular. But I like hills so I attacked them and passed guys like they were old ladies. OK so some of them were old ladies. Then the course flattened out and went back past the girls waiting for me at mile 13. Halfway there and still feeling strong. Oh, and those blisters, luckily my new boots rubbed on spots which didn’t rub running so they weren’t a problem. On to the back half of the course. Time to settle down and back off the pace so I can make it to the end. But hey, it’s flat right so it should be no problem. At mile 16, the old ladies from the hills started passing me back up. I knew I was in trouble. Over the next mile I ran the numbers. I was still a long way out. Before the race I didn’t know what to expect of my time, but I thought a 3:45 would be good and anything over 4 hours would be a disaster. By mile 17, I had plan B. Prevent disaster. Now my only goal was to finish in under 4 hours. No 3:50 or 3:55. I knew I was past that. So I started to run walk. I’d walk through the water stop each mile for a minute and then try to hold a pace for the rest of the mile. At first it was 9:00 pace. I was a long way out and it seemed to take forever. I wasn’t the only one taking walking breaks at this point. One might think that running a marathon is mind over matter, but at some point you push your body to breaking point. I was close to that and trying not to push too far before making it to the finish. At mile 23 a woman had collapsed and was getting medical treatment. Good thing Jenny wasn’t watching. At mile 24 I found the edge. My hamstring cramped and just seized up stopping me in my tracks forcing me to walk. A well intending spectator was cheering, “Come on buddy! You can do it. Keep going. Don’t walk”. I didn’t say anything but was pretty sure I needed to listen to my hamstring for a minute. It did loosen up and I kept going. The last 2.2 miles were brutal with the course going up a big hill up to a bridge across the river. The good news was that my plan was working and I was on track to break 4 hours. The last mile I thought, “I’m gonna run it in”. That didn’t last too long before it was, “How about I save it so that I’m running in front of the girls waiting at the finish.” The plan worked and I finish with an official chip time of 3:57:25.
A special thanks to cousin Holly for being my personal attendant who babysat me on my walk back to the hotel and somehow managed to scrounge up some chocolate milk at the hotel for me. The rest of the day included walking down in the Old Market for lunch and then a long nap, and Mass (and another long nap). Followed the next day by walking all over the Omaha Zoo. (Note that was the hilly portion of the race.) All the walking was good for me, though, I think. Monday we checked out of the hotel and headed for home, and reality. And it was waiting. My dad and brother-in-law were hauling corn. At the bottom of the bin there was a “sweep” auger which rotates around and is supposed to clean out the bin. Well, that was broken. So I got thrown into the bin and had to scoop corn by hand. Thoughts came to mind of my dad complaining about us having to leave the field picking up hay bales by hand to go lift weights for football.
But that was the start of our epic vacation in Nebraska last year. More stories to come.
If Livy were a NASCAR driver, this is what she would be driving. Don’t miss the3D view.
I’ve thought so many times over the last six months of fun things to blog about or funny stories to share and have found it so difficult to get anything written that won’t aid me in filling in the baby books that are sitting neglected to the side of the computer. My sister and sweet little niece are coming to visit in a month or so (oh happy days ahead) and Rachel promises to provide me a few hours to dust off the old baby books and get started. God bless her!
So here are a few things to note in Molly’s baby book. She got her first two teeth (on the bottom) at the end of May (I actually noticed the first one for the first time on the 22nd). They are really standing out now and look super cute, but make her habit of gnawing on my skin a bit less pleasant. I neglected to say in her crawling post that she could also pull herself up to standing. Well now she is extremely skilled at getting up & down around furniture and is even starting to walk along it (technically called “cruising” I believe). Tonight she walked behind a little chair (pushing it across the room) for a good 6 feet. JR has started holding her hands and encouraging her to take steps and she seems up for it – wow! Livy wasn’t walking until after her 1st birthday, but I guess Molly is anxious to keep up with her big sister. She really is much more active than Livy ever was and is such a climber and curious little cat. All this activity (and a bit less formula) has caused her to trim down quickly and her hair is just long enough to curl at the ends (especially since we’re sweaty most of the time with all this 100+ degree weather lately) so she is starting to look much less babyish all of a sudden. Unfortunatley, she is still not sleeping through the night, but the little munchkin is just so adorable and almost always pleasant and easy-going so it’s hard to hold it against her.
Livy is really in to signs (as in ASL) lately (more on that in a future post – hopefully with a video dictionary because it is SO cute!) and would desperatley love Molly to start signing so we have been working on some starters like “more” and “all done.” I think she recognizes them but hasn’t really done it yet. She does clap on cue and wave bye-bye, though. Much to our delight she is starting to understand the word “no” – yep, to show you she hears you she shakes her head no and laughs. She’ll also shake for yes and it’s adorable to hear Livy saying, “Molly’s saying yes.” She also looks very grown up as she happily eats her table food wanting everything that Livy has – especially popcicles. In fact, I don’t think we’ll be buying anymore baby food because she simply will not eat it if there is any other food in sight. Another good sign: her favorite toy lately is a baby doll. She will crawl over to them and pick them up and sit and play for a good 10 minutes (remember, that’s a long time for a baby!). Looks like we’re in good shape for adding her new baby sister in about 10 weeks!!
When we tell people that we have some big news, it usually only takes one guess for them to figure it out. So we thought we’d be a little sneaky and drop a hint on our blog before we came out with our latest news. We alluded to something being “Out of the Ordinary after we updated our blog. If you want one last chance to figure it out, you better stop reading as I am about to spill the beans! Look in the header (blue box at the top of the page) and read the description closely . . . do you see it? Yep, that’s no typo, we have received another blessing and there is a new “one to be named later” to be added to the family around Sept. 2nd (that makes us 13 weeks pregnant now and the new baby due two weeks after Molly’s 1st birthday). We’re really excited about our growing family! Needless to say, being pregnant, nursing & chasing a 2-year-old have slowed me down a bit (okay a lot) and the “extras” (like blogging) are not getting done. I hope to get an update on each of the girls up soon, though, as they are both really entertaining lately.
We had the girls’ well-checks last week and both girls are doing great. Molly is healthy as a little horse – she’s 25 inches “tall” (75th percentile) and 15.5 lbs. (90th percentile). Dr. Guerrero looked up Olivia’s stats at her 4 mo. check up and she was the same height as Molly, but a whole pound and a half lighter! Rumor is that Molly is currently bigger than her cousin Addison, who is 4 months older!! We don’t mind, though - our little cherub is healthy & happy. She is full of smiles and giggles, especially for her big sister who dotes on her with one of her new sentences, “I love you, baby.” It really is adorable. Molly isn’t rolling over regularly yet, and I think part of that is my fault because I rarely lay her on a blanket on the floor due to her sister’s tendency to wrestle her. Dr. Guerrero said we should work on that – I bet there are plenty of folks in NE anxious to help us in a few days! The most common question I get is whether or not Molly sleeps through the night and the answer is no. We’re working on that, too! It’s a bit more challenging as the girls are sharing a room and I am trying to keep them from waking each other. Hopefully, we will get the hang of it shortly after we return from NE.
Ms. Olivia Grace and I have decided that when you’re two, it’s nobody’s business if you’re chubby, so you won’t see any discussion of her height & weight here! She is actually thinning out some and looking more grown up with her long hair and big girl clothes. We also weaned her of her pacifier recently so there are less reminders of her baby days. Livy is getting really good at recognizing colors and usually guesses yellow or green. She is full of great lines lately like “Daddy’s funny” and “I sorry baby” and “I help Mommy.” My favorite is “I love you, Mama” (said multiple times a day, but always when I put on her PJ’s and accompanied by a big hug around the neck). She chatters all day about all sorts of things and with her interpreter (Mama) she can communicate just about anything. She’s even got her own nicknames for Molly – she calls her “puddin’ baby” and we don’t know why. She also thinks her sister’s name is “baby Monny.” Red is quickly learning to follow Livy’s commands – much to Livy’s delight. Her favorite command is “Red, speak!” She also thinks she’s grown up enough to use the computer on her own and after a couple of close calls, we set the desktop to lock automatically when not in use. She definitely noticed and was not pleased. One thing I’ve found really fascinating is that she can spot Baby Jesus from a mile away. I have a collection of Nativities so there are a lot of Baby Jesus’ around the house this month, but everywhere we go she is looking for Baby Jesus and Mother Mary. Last Sunday, I told her that Baby Jesus lives at Church and she was quite impressed. However, when we got inside and he was nowhere to be found, she questioned my sources!
In case you haven’t been watching our photo albums closely, I figured I’d embed the video we made of us putting up our Christmas tree this year. Since we are always up in Nebraska for Christmas it doesn’t make much sense to have a live tree so we went ahead and got an artificial one this year. We used the time-lapse video mode on our new camera (which takes a picture every two seconds) to make the video of the assembly. You can really tell that Livy is in charge watching it at that speed.