Andrews Family

Ms. Molly Josephine is really growing up lately. She’s 7 1/2 months old and a happy little cherub. She loves Red and is fascinated by her big sister. In Molly’s world, there is nothing more entertaining than watching Livy play with Red (unless it is Daddy playing with Livy & Red). She has an infectious giggle that makes her whole face light up showing off her chubby little cheeks and bright blue eyes. She’s quite a beauty if I do say so myself! The hint of red is still in her hair and we’re all curious what it will look like as it grows. Molly sits up like a pro now and can also scoot forward on her bottom or backwards on her belly to get where she wants (as well as rolling over to pivot). Every day she displays new skills and I’ve really got to step it up with babyproofing and teaching Livy to keep little toys out of her reach. We’ve discovered recently that Molly has bored of the baby toys and is moving on to the things she can sit up and interact with like her new Roll-a-Rounds: Drop & Roar Dinosaur. Even though she doesn’t have any teeth yet, Molly enjoys eating avocado, banana, carrots, green beans, peas, pears, squash, & sweet potato. We tried the little Gerber puffs for the first time yesterday and she amazed us with her skills - picked up the first one and popped it right in her mouth! Livy desperately wants to feed her the “baby cereal” all the time now and I have to put it up on top of the refrigerator to keep Livy from getting to it and passing it out. Since JR usually feeds Molly her nighttime bottle, they have really got a special bond and she is much more of a Daddy’s girl than Livy was as a baby. It’s fun to see that connection and JR is soaking up the extra cuddles from his littlest princess. The girls are actually sharing a room now and its going better than I expected. I was afraid Molly would keep Livy up all night, but as long as Livy is asleep when Molly starts crying, it usually doesn’t bother her. Thankfully, Molly & I are finally figuring out the nightime bottle feeding thing and she is sleeping longer periods. Last night she was only up twice! She is an early riser, though, and I have to admit that has been hard on me. She wakes up happy as a clam around 7am (my first baby & I happily slept in much later)! It’s hard to stay grumpy, though, when she wiggles with excitement at the sight of me and gives me a big squeeze as soon as I pick her up. “I missed you, too,” I say and we’re off to make coffee (decaf, that is).

Can it really be April already? I’d swear we just got back from our Christmas trip to NE. I’ve struggled with fatigue, illness and a few challenges with the girls in the last few months and simply put - life here in our little house has been all-consuming. January provided exhaustion from our 2-week trip home, on top of pretty bad colds for a few weeks. Then we learned there was a new baby on the way and had an explanation for my previously unexplainable fatigue. February was full of challenges with Molly who was barely sleeping at all and having feeding issues as well. After many sleepless nights, consultations with a doula, a lactation consultant, our pediatrician & our OB, we added solid food and formula to Molly’s diet and things seemed to settle down a bit. We also did a lot of work with potty training in February and there were plenty of opportunities to grow in patience & humility there. Then March came and we were saddled with the worst flu I’ve ever had.  I kept thinking it was a cold, but it wouldn’t go away. It started out with high fevers at night then went into weeks of upper respiratory infection and ended with sinusitis. My drug options were limited (being pregnant) and it was just miserable. The girls ended up getting a milder version and were only sick a week and a half but I have learned that being sick while your children are sick is no picnic at all. Thankfully, I think we are all finally getting close to being well.

Amidst all our suffering, we did enjoy three visits from family that perked up our Spring (which is over, of course, since we live in TX and are in the 80s now). First Great Aunt Jo came for a long weekend and we enjoyed a leisurely visit full of giggling and sunshine and strong coffee. A couple weeks later, Grandma Kane was in San Antonio for a conference so we went down to spend a few nights with her. Olivia enjoyed the hotel experience and I decided I wasn’t a fan of sharing a bed with a 2-year old! Lastly, Uncle Dan, Aunt Michelle, and cousins Elizabeth & David came over Spring Break. We joined them in San Antonio for a night on the Riverwalk and then a day at Sea World. A great time was had by all until the very end. We were going through one last exhibit and somehow Livy fell getting out of the stroller and cut her mouth. We took her to the First Aid station and they recommended taking her to the Urgent Care clinic to see about stitches. The doctor there said that it would heal on its own and it has done just that. So we marked another milestone as parents and thankfully, it was for a very minor accident. Thanks to our visitors for coming all this way - we enjoyed all of you!

I am hopeful and prayerful that very, very soon we can resume our life as usual. The girls & I are definitely suffering from cabin fever (well I am anyway). Our 20-week ultrasound is April 18th so we’ll probably find out then if the girls are getting a little sister or brother. I can’t decide what I want so that’s probably good. I also can’t believe we’re almost half way through this pregnancy. With all that we’ve been through in the last few months, I have hardly had time to think about a new baby. And yet this wonderful miracle is progressing without my even having to think about it. When I recall those difficult moments wondering whether we were going to be able to have children, I am amazed at how quickly and immensely life has changed in just 3 years. We are truly blessed (and busy!).

I promise an update on the girls soon, but here is a little peak at what the newest Andrews Baby is up to at 18 weeks gestation:

“Head to bottom, your baby is approximately 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper), and she weighs almost 7 ounces. She’s busy flexing her arms and legs - movements that you’ll likely start noticing more and more. Myelin (a protective covering) is beginning to form around her nerves, a process that will continue for a year after she’s born. If you’re having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If your baby is a boy, his genitals are noticeable, though he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.” 

We haven’t been real active lately but hopefully that will be turning around. Jenny and the girls have all been sick but everyone is feeling better now thankfully. It might take a while for use to catch up on all of our blogging and photos (we still haven’t put up Christmas photos), but here is a NEW PHOTO ALBUM to tide you over until we can get more posted. Enjoy!

We recently got AT&T Uverse Internet and TV, including a DVR, which was something new for us. The DVR is pretty handy because it lets you easily schedule your favorite shows to record so you can watch them later. This can lead to some dangerous combinations since one of my favorite shows is Alton Brown’s “Good Eats”. Pair that with my late night snacking habit and we might have a problem. Jenny didn’t complain tonight when omelets (recipe) were on the menu, but at least she has an excuse since she is eating for three. We had tried omelet recipes out of cookbooks before that didn’t turn out so well. Alton was right on the money, though, and our omelets turned out perfectly. Sorry, no pictures; the forks were faster than the camera.

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.

Some of you might consider me all the way crazy, but they only call it a half marathon because it’s only 13.1 miles. In case you hadn’t heard, this year I trained to run the 3M Half Marathon here in Austin. I started seriously training in October and  worked up to the mileage. I found a cool training program tool at online which I highly recommend. My main concern was my knees. I had been having some knee pain on my long runs but my training plan seemed to work pretty well giving me some recovery days. I also found that my knees didn’t hurt on my speed workout days which led me to a brilliant plan. Run fast. I figured the faster I run the less it will hurt. My slightly more detailed plan was to take it easy the first mile and just navigate the crowd; then settle into 8:30 minute miles for the first half; then see if I couldn’t crank it up the second half; then see if I couldn’t run fast enough to make myself puke in the last mile.

The race was Sunday morning on January 27 and I could barely sleep the night before because I was so excited. That morning was perfect weather. It was a little chilly so I wore a garbage bag as a disposable warmup. When the horn blew and the mob started shuffling towards the starting line I did have to wonder if I was really going to do it but at that point there was no turning back. Since this was my first half marathon, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect but the crowd thinned out pretty quickly and I felt pretty good. They had markers every mile but with the help of my GPS running watch, which Jenny got me for Christmas, I could tell exactly how fast I was running and how far I had gone. I was running faster than I had planned but with all the adrenaline I figured I’d see how long it would last. I still had plenty of time to back off and recover if I needed. Along the course there were a few people I knew who cheered me on, but my big fan club was camped out at about mile 4. They have their race morning routine of Starbucks and donuts down now. Jenny even had the camcorder set up on the tripod. Livy cheered and waved as I run up waving (I’m sure that will look great on the video). After I ran on past, I could hear Livy crying for me. It was a priceless “Dad” moment I won’t forget.

The girls gave me a boost but that was only a 1/3 of the way. At about mile 6 I started to have a some knee pain. It lasted for about a mile until I decided that maybe I should suck it up and get back to the plan. I was half way so I cranked it up a bit. There was also a relay where a team of two people could each run half, so there were some fresh runners on the course which added some motivation to keep up with them. But I had a pretty good pace going so the main competition was against myself to keep it up. The knee pain went away and everything felt good. Every thing seemed like it was downhill; OK so maybe it was downhill. Maybe it was the energy gel packet I ate but the adrenaline hadn’t seemed to wear off. Before I knew it I was at that last mile. I decided to save my kick for the last half mile just in case so that I didn’t crash and burn. I ran through the finish line and there were my girls waiting to congratulate me. Livy seemed to like the medal I got. Yeah, everyone who finishes gets a medal, but I think finishing 13.1 miles at any time deserves a medal. So how did I do? The official result was 1:43:17. I ran the first half at 8:03 min/mile and sped up to 7:44 min/mile for an average of 7:53 min/mile. That was way faster than I had expected so I was pretty excited. I still felt like I had a few more miles in me but I wasn’t so sure about turning around and running all the way back to make it a full marathon. That is going to take some more training. It isn’t all about me though. The beneficiary of this years 3M Half Marathon was the very worth Any Baby Can.

So what about the aftermath you might be wondering. My legs weren’t even sore the next day. Unfortately I did do something to my achilles tendon and my heel was a little stiff. I thought it was just sore and tried to run through it. After a week I decided I better get it looked at and I went to a sports doctor. They confirmed that I had injured my achilles and I’ve been doing weekly physical therapy and exercises on my own in between. Rehab is coming along nicely, athough I still haven’t been cleared to start running yet. This has jeopardized the next phase of my plan. I said “halfway” in the title because I had hoped to do the Lincoln Marathon in May as one last crazy thing before I turn 30. The doctor says that is optimistic, but hasn’t ruled it out. So we’ll see - I may just do the half; two halves make a whole right? I had been saying that I wanted to do the full just to be able to say I had done one. That is still true, but everyone I know who has done one says that your body can’t maintain training for that distance. However, the half marathon is a really good distance so I think I’ll be doing a few more.

It’s nothing personal, nor political, but seriously you need to be quiet. While Jenny started Livy’s bath I had been browsing the web and came across a video of the Cobert Report covering Ron Paul in a recent debate. Well, without going into detail let’s just say that there was an emergency in the bath. So as a good husband, I paused my video and went to Jenny’s aid. We got everything handled and the girls went to bed. Molly has been camping out in the office lately and later in the evening we heard an unusual crying from the office. Apparently Ron Paul figured out how to unpause his video and he was letting Molly have it about why we had no reason to be in Iraq. Now I know I called you a “whackjob” recently, but really Ron, lay off the kid it isn’t her fault.

but we’re back. We put up November and December photo albums to tide you over until we can get an udpate on the blog. I also updated the software here on drozmonkey.com which I anticipated being a major ordeal but everything went smoothly. If you look closely you might find a few things different around here so let us know if you see anything “out of the ordinary”.

After 12 days of Christmas in Nebraska, we are back home in Austin. The girls enjoyed being spoiled rotten by their grandparents, aunts & uncles and I have begun the detox with regard to caffeine, sugar, & TV (that goes for all of us), let alone the constant holding & entertaining the girls enjoyed! We had great fun spending time with the baby girl cousins on the Kane side and the big kid cousins on the Andrews side. I wouldn’t trade those moments for anything. We are already talking about our next visit in May when “Uncle Dack” (Zach) graduates from high school. Thanks to all who welcomed us into your homes and those who came to see us. We are truly blessed!

And now we work on getting back to life as usual. JR started back to work and the girls & I are trying to figure out how we will accomodate the countless toys, books & other gifts we brought back with us. There is also a mountain of laundry to do (it didn’t help any that both girls are transitioning sizes right now) and we still need to restock the refrigerator. We’ll see how it goes, but we may just have hamburger helper for supper . . . all week!

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 tendancy 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!