I'm not the complaining type..I usually have great pregnancies with very little pain, no vomitting, small amount of discomfort, no problem. I have had no reason to complain. And up to this point in the pregnancy I have been super comfortable and going on with my days as if I am not even pregnant at all.
BUT, things have changed. I have the biggest pain in the butt (literally!!) of all my pregnancies the last 2 weeks and getting worse every day. Having 3 children, I am on my feet constantly and my bottom is paying for it. Sorry to gross anyone out...but hemmoroids are horrible!! I seriously feel like I am recovering from child birth, but I havn't even had the baby yet! I feel worse than if I had just given birth. This is sooo painful! I am going to try to get an earlier doctor apt (mine isn't until Sep. 27th). I don't think there's much they can do about it though. I am just praying that things get better before they get worse.
And to add to it, the middle of the night leg cramps have begun. I dealt with all of this when I was pregnant before. But, somehow you forget these not so memorable parts. Don't get me wrong- I love being pregnant! But, not so much this week. I want my baby in my arms- not resting on my tush!
9/10/07: Landon moved into his "big boy bed" last night for the first night. He did pretty well. We talked to him and told him that he can't get out of bed without calling Mommy or Daddy. He got that and did great! He cried for about 5 minutes before he went to sleep (normally he goes to sleep without a peep). And he woke up crying around 1:30 AM because he couldn't find his night-night. As soon as I gave it to him, he went right back to sleep. He called for me when he woke up this morning at 6:45. I think this was a pretty successful transition! We'll see how naptime goes today.
He's in the same toddler bed that Madeline used when she turned two. Maddy stayed in the toddler bed til she went to the top bunk when Landon was born. Emma went straight from the crib to the bottom bunk. Now I can start getting the crib ready for Ava! All 4 of my babies will have used the same crib. It will be back in use in less than 3 months!
9/9/07: Today is my birthday. I turned 34. We celebrated it with family at Chuck E. Cheese last weekend along with Landon's birthday. Yesterday Christian and the kids took me out to Baja Fresh and Golden Spoon Yogurt. Today after church our good friends, The Love's took us out to the Spaghetti Factory for lunch to celebrate my birthday too. This afternoon Christian and the girls cleaned the kitchen and bathroom spik n' span as a gift to me. And right now they are baking me a cake (chocolate-chocolate). As my gift I will be getting my hair cut, weaved, and styled next Monday night. I can't wait!
9/5/07: I am now home with just Landon cause Madeline and Emma are BOTH at school. Emma did great going to her first day of preschool today. She didn't even cry one bit! She is at Calvary Baptist Preschool, the same one where Madeline went. She's even in the same room, but different teacher.
Christian met us there at the school to send off our baby girl into the wonderful world of academia. Emma was so excited to go. She has been saying for the last few months that she was not going to cry when she went to school. She was right. She did get a little unsure when she lined up with her class and walked to go put the lunches away, but no tears. The only one who cried was Landon when we had to leave Emma's classroom. He wanted to stay and play and he certainly didn't want to leave without Emma.
Emma's good friend, Lauren, is in the same class. That should be fun for the both of them. We know quite a few families that have their kids at this school, so Emma sees some familiar faces in most of the classes.
Emma loved her outfit and her backpack. She loved "getting ready for school" just like Maddy. We do this thing in the morning where they have to "Do 5 things before playing or T.V." They have to 1. Get dressed 2. Get shoes on 3. Put their backpack by the door 4. Brush their hair and 5. Brush their teeth. Then, they can play or turn on the T.V. Madeline was excited for Emma too. So, they both rushed to do their 5 things they were both ready for school by 7AM. ....if only it would continue to be this easy every day!
It's nice to be home with just Landon. He's such a good boy! He plays great by himself, but he LOVES for someone to sit down and play with him too. Normally when I drop Emma off at school I will go straight to work for my 3 office hours on Mon, Wed, and Thurs. But, today I have the day off. I go back to pick up Emma at 12:30. My babies are growing up! Good thing we have Ava on her way!
9/3/07: We had Landon's Chuck E. Cheese's birthday party yesterday. It was so much fun! It was 106 degrees outside, but very COOL and comfortable in Chuck E. Cheese's. So, we were very happy we didn't have the party at our house! Landon and all the girls had tons of fun playing games and winning tickets. We had family and the Runsten's (Landon's God-Parents) there. We all had a great time. Landon got lots of fun gifts and he enjoyed being the center of it all! After Chuck E. Cheese's (when it cooled down a bit) some of us came back to our place and roasted s'mores over the fire. It was nice to hang out in a quiet place after being in Kidzone for a few hours. It was a fabulous day!!
The weather has not subsided one bit. We are going on day 6 of 100+ weather. When will this end?? We are all ready for a break from this horrible heat wave!! I can't wait for fall!!
9/1/07: Brooks Beast Running shoes for Flat Feet: $120, 3 Dri-Fit Running Shirts: $30, Nike Running Socks: $7, ION Bridge to Breakwater 5k Entry Fee: $25, Finding out the race was cancelled the night before: Frustrating, Running it anyway and finishing in 27min48Sec....PRICELESS.....Somethings only sweat and determination can buy.
Well I have trained for the last 8 weeks to run a 5k using a plan from
www.coolrunning.com called "The Couch to 5k." The race, or run, was to be in San Pedro, Ca. It was to be the first race in my life! Tracy and Daniel have been training with me too to support me in this endeavor. My friends, Willie and Todd were planning on being at the finish line for me too. Last night, at 11pm Tracy called to tell me he happened to read his email before going to bed and saw the race was cancelled because the promoters had their permits pulled. Apparently they changed the course at the last minute and the city did not like that.
Well I still went anyway and so did Daniel, as did Julie and the kids. And she timed us. I have been studying the race course for the last week and so I knew where to run, besides after all this training, I'd be damned if I was not going to run!! I finished the 5k, though unofficially, in 27:48! 10 minutes faster than I had been training! I only wish it was official, but since it is not, I can say I came in FIRST PLACE. I am already planning to run in either the HB evening race or at the Chapman University 5k in October. By the end of the year, I hope to run a 7k. Perhaps 08 will be the year I run the 10k. We shall see.
8/31/07: Landon had a fabulous birthday yesterday. We started the day with Madeline and I going into his room when we heard him stirring (Daddy was out running and Emma was still sleeping). We went in singing Happy Birthday to him. He was a little annoyed because he was still just waking up. It was cute though. After everyone was together (about 7AM) we gave him his present from us. It was a 12 inch long Lightning McQueen that talks. He loved it! We also got him Lightning pajamas and a little Elmo backpack.
Not only was it a special day for Landon's birthday, but it was also Madeline's first day of school. She was up and dressed in her new outfit before I was even out of bed! She loved her first day of school and her teacher, Mrs. White. Maddy said they, "played and colored, had recess, played and colored, had lunch, played and colored, had recess, played and colored, and played and colored." I asked her what her favorite thing was all day. She said, "writing time". When did they have time for that??
Christian's parents and grandma came by last night to bring Landon his birthday present on his actual birthday. They got him a beautiful metal fire truck that he can drive. They said Christian had one exactly like it when he was little. It is sooo cute!!! Landon got a kick out of it. He drove it for an hour after they got here. We did a little cake for him last night, but his party is on Sunday. (Another change of plan for his party. We are doing Chuck E. Cheese's instead of the beach. We are afraid that all of Southern California will be at the beach with this horrible hot weather we are having. There may not be parking or firepits available and we don't want to chance it being a holiday weekend and all). We are going to schedule a family event at the beach another day. We are so indecisive!!
Emma had her last day with Mrs. Schubert today. She will start pre-school next week. My Baby girl!! Mrs. Schubert will only have Landon until Ava is born. She is the friend that has watched my kids along with her own at church since I started working in the church office. She's the best!! It's going to be so quiet for her though, she's had 5 kids all summer and now she's down to 1. Wow!
8/28/07: I have some new pictures to post, but I accidentally forgot my memory card when we went to the beach on Saturday. So, I have to somehow figure out how to get the pictures from the internal memory of my camera onto my computer. I'm sure Christian can figure it out, but I'm not sure how. The kids and I went to Newport Bay with Christian's parents and Grandma on Saturday while Christian was working the home show. We had a fabulous day! The girls went kayaking in Lito and Lita's tandem kayack. It was really cute!
Christian took the day off of work on Monday (after working LONG days at 2 jobs for 12 days straight!) to have a breather. We went to "The Honda Center" (the stadium where Hannah Montana will be playing in Anaheim) to see if they would by chance be selling tickets to the concert since they weren't open on Sunday when they went on sale. Along with many other families that were waiting in line before they opened, we found out that they were "sold out" there too. It really doesn't make any sense that the tickets were sold out before they really ever even went on sale. There's something really fishy going on?!? We think all the ticket brokers gobbled them up on pre-sale or something. The tickets are all over the internet selling for $130. - $850. PER TICKET!! It's a joke! Anyway, we're sad cause our girls would have loved going to the concert, and now it's only for the rich (or crazy)! OK- I'm off my soapbox now...
Today we went to a pool party for Mom's Club at the Whieldon's house. We invited a friend (Mirium) from Maddy's kindergarten class along with her mom and brother and sister. It was a fun way to put an end on the summer. School starts back on Thursday. Madeline can't wait for the day!! Emma and Madeline have their new backpacks (from Lito and Lita) all packed up with all their new school supplies. They are both so excited!!
We were planning a little party here at the house with family for Landon's 2nd birthday on Sunday. But, we hear that it's supposed to be in the mid 90's that day and our house will be boiling! We are changing the party to be at the beach for an afternoon/evening bonfire time. I guess we'll be serving s'mores instead of birthday cake. I think it will be a great day and a memorable time for all the family. Hopefully it won't be too busy- afterall, it is Labor Day weekend. Fun, Fun, Fun!!
8/26/07: Tickets for the Hannah Montana concert went on sale today at 12noon. I was on-line with ticketmaster at 11:55 just waiting for the sale to start. They were sold out by 12:02, and we did not get tickets :( Christian and I are pretty dissapointed. I drove to the Anaheim Pond to buy tickets at the window at 12:20. I was there with about 15 other families with little girls. The box office isn't even open on Sundays. The girls would have gone CRAZY over being able to go to the concert. The tix were $26 a piece which wasn't too bad (for an early Christmas present). We'll see how much the ticket brokers will be charging later. Who knows?!? The kids didn't know we were even thinking about it- so no dissapointment there. Oh well ...woulda been fun!
8/25/07: 100 days from today we will have our little princess in our arms (or soon there after or before?!?!) My due date is 100 days from today! Woo Hoo!
8/24/07: Emma is reading!! She has known most of her letter sounds for about the last 6 months, possibly even a year, but she just hasn't quite wanted to sit still enough to work on reading. I wasn't in a hurry to push her to read yet, but yesterday the light turned on. She watched "Letter Factory" AGAIN, and she started realizing on her own that if you put the sounds together, they make words. I sat down with her and the Magna Doodle and we started working on 3 letter phonetic words. She got it instantly! We did: sun, mat, rat, lid, bed... and more. She got em' all! She is on her way. Go Emma!!
On the subject of reading... Madeline is whizin' through books like they are ice cream! She can pretty much pick up any children's book and read it with no problem. She has a few chapter books (Hannah Montana of course!) , but she really has only been reading the pages in the middle with all the color pictures. I think the chapter books are still a little intimidating because she doesn't get very far, very fast. But, I think within the first few months of first grade we'll work more on that. I'm so proud of my girls!!
8/20/07: This past weekend was full of fun stuff to do for us and busy busy busy for Christian working the Home and Garden show. On Saturday we went out to Corona to visit Christian's family. We went to Montse's first and then over to Lito and Lita's. I dropped the kids off at Lito and Lita's for a few hours while Montse and I went shopping and out to dinner. We had a great time catching up and just running errands. In Auntie Tete style- she had many little gifts for the kids- including High School Muical underwear! All 3 kiddos had a blast with Lito, Lita, and Nana. They played, watched movies, and had dinner together. And of course came home with their "domingo". Lito and Lita have trained them to ask for a their domingo every time they see them. It is a Mexican tradition that they get an "allowance" from the grandparents when they see them. I guess it's usually on a Sunday (??) sice that's what domingo translates to in Spanish. They love it! Nana gave them some money too. She said it was for them to go buy school clothes or school shoes.
So, on Sunday afternoon I took the kids to Target to spend their money (and a litle extra) to each buy a new outfit for school and a pair of shoes. I was so excited to take them. Usually I just buy their clothes for them if I see something on a really good sale- they don't get to choose (or they wear their "hand-me-downs"- love those! But, this time, I was letting them each pick their own. Sound like fun?!??.. I thought so.......... Ooohh Whee!@#! That was a lot harder than I could have imagined!! They each wanted to try on about 10 different outfits and shoes, They didn't want what I wanted, they wanted everything, and there were tears to show for it. And to add in we had Landon along for the experience.Well, two hours later, they each had an adorable outfit with shoes to match and they were both happy. Landon even got a Lightning and Mater shirt too. Will I do that again? ....I think I prefer to buy their clothes alone, but we'll see. At the end of it all, it was actually kinda fun- but I would definitely leave Landon at home!
(You'll have to wait til I post the pix of the first day of school to see what they finally chose). Only 11 more days for Madeline and 2 weeks for Emma.
8/18/07: The kids loved the High School Musical 2 Movie. They all said they liked it as much or more than the first one. I watched the whole thing. I enjoyed it too. There was more music this time around. They had a great time in the convertible too. They were all shocked that that were no seatbelts! The car actually fit all 7 of us comfortably, but Landon and I only stayed in the neighborhood since he wasn't in his carseat. Christian took the girls to 7-11 to buy candy to go along with their popcorn for the movie. The Love's brought over the soubtrack to the movie so the girls sang and danced with the kareoke machine before it began. They were all asleep by 11:30- not bad! I think they had a fabulous time.
Christian is going to be working at the Orange County Home Show this weekend and next plus a few evenings in between to help out his friend Kyle, and to make soem extra money on the side. He's going to be working LONG hours on the weekends and then to think he's going to work his regular job 6-4 and nights with Klye 5-9. He's going to be exhausted! I think I will be too, I pretty much won't see him much at all, except sleeping next to me for the next 10 days. Poor guy! It will be a nice payday when it's over though. Thanks Babe!!
8/17/07: I've scheduled Landon's 2-year birthday picture appointment. I scheduled it for August 30th. That is Landon's actual birthday and it is also the first day of first grade for Madeline. I always love taking the kids to get their pictures taken. I used to work at JCPenney Photo studio (for 14 years!!) I loved every second of it. It was the best job!! When I go in I am soooo picky now, the photographer must get so annoyed with me. But, I always get really good pictures of my kids. I hope Landon behaves for his day. ...Wow, it's less than 2 weeks away and he'll be 2-years-old and Maddy will be in school full days. Emma starts pre-school on September 5th. Where does the time go??
8/17/07: Ava is moving like crazy!! She is all over the place. I can feel her kicking, moving, rolling, and doing flips! Last night Christian and I were watching "City of Angels" and I think Ava must have kicked or moved at least 300 times- no joke! I can sit and watch my belly move for hours. I actually watched my tummy more than I watched the movie. She's an active one. I love it!!
8/16/07: The girls have been counting down the months and days for about 4 months now for the release of High School Musical 2 the movie on Disney channel. The day has come. It starts tomorrow night (as Madeline says, "8/7 central"). A couple of weeks ago I decided to throw a little party for the event to make it more exciting. We invited two girls from church (The Love's) to come over and watch it and have a slumber party. One of the girls is 14-years-old, but my girls are CRAZY about her, Alexandra. They are sisters Karina and Alexandra (7 & 14). All 4 girls are HUGE fans of High School Musical, so they are really looking forward to it.We are going to order pizza, have popcorn and candy, and Christian is borrowing Kyles '67 Chevy convertible to take the girls out for a spin. It's gonna be a night to remember!Go Wildcats!!
"Bop, Bop, Bop, Bop to the Top!"
8/13/07:Oh yeah, a story I forgot to mention from camping... The kids all stayed up pretty late. We didn't put them down until about 10PM both nights. And we were all up by 7AM both mornings. Landon usually sleeps from 7PM - 7AM most nights so this was pretty brutal on him, but he did great! Well, on Sunday afternoon about 2PM we were all at the water park visiting and snacking in the shade when all of a sudden I look over at Landon and he had just fallen to the ground. He had fallen asleep standing up!! Luckily we were on the grass so he didn't hurt himself. He continued to sleep in my arms and then transfer to Christian's arms. From there we thought certainly he would wake up if we took him on the river..Nope! He opened his eyes for a bit to see where he was and then fell asleep for the rest of the Lazy River too. I guess we had really tuckered him out!
Maddy wanted to type a story about camping too. Here is her account:
we went to a woter park. I went on the lazy river. it was blast. I went on with jen and frany and poppy and shon and tess and emma and my dad and landon and my mom we had a blast.
we saw shuting stars. that was the best part if camping. i saw one. we went down to the lake with tess and emma. me and tess playd batlship. i like camping.
8/13/07: We had the BEST time camping!! The families we went with are so great! We love hanging out with the Landers and the McLaughlins. All of them are so easy-going and fun, that makes for an easy trip with lots of happy people. All 5 of the children were great. They were so well behaved. Tess is 9 so she was a big help with our kids. The playground was in eyeshot so the 3 girls could all go down there and play while we stayed at our campsite. We had a view of the lake from our site too. It was so nice to be outdoors.
When we got there on Friday it was very hot! We all set up our tents in the heat of the day, not so fun!! But, the afternoon shade on our campsite was welcomed as we sat around and visited and then made a delicious dinner for Friday night. We all hung around the campfire and had s'mores and hot cocoa as the night cooled down to be pretty chilly. The five of us Torresluna's headed to bed around 10 PM for a cozy and wonderful night's sleep in our tent.
Saturday morning brought in a nice cool morning weather and a big camp breakfast to make. We hung around the camping area, visited the lake, hiked a bit, and the kids rode their bikes, we played board games, and just hung out. It was relaxing and fun. I actually got Emma and Landon to fall asleep for their mid-day nap. After lunch we all headed to the Lake Casitas Water Park. It was so cool!!! We stayed at the water park for a few hours. Everyone had a blast. We all especially liked the "Lazy River". Landon loved the slides and the fountains too. We came back to camp to make our dinner and then sit under the stars for the annual meteor shower. We all saw at least one shooting star, even the kids. It was so great. It was so beautiful to be under the stars in such a beautiful part of God's creation.
On Sunday we made a big breakfast too then hung out around the fire for awhile before we started packing up. We decided to pack up early so we wouldn't have to do it in the heat of the day later. After lunch we went to the water park again. It was such a cool place to be and it was great to wash off the inches of dirt that had setteled on the kids' bodies. They were so FILTHY the entire weekend...but that's part of camping. We stayed at the water park a few hours and left from there. We were home by 7 PM last night. It was a wonderful trip. We are already planning another one for next year- same time, same place, same people, but longer. I love camping!!
8/8/07: I got the worst night sleep last night!! I drank a Coke Zero with dinner at 5:30 and it (along with a VERY active Ava) kept me up all night! I didn't fall asleep for the first time until about 3AM and then I was up and down about every half hour after that. Except of course between 6 and 7...that's when I was sleeping peacefully and could have slept for 3 more hours! But no, it was time to get up at 7AM with my kiddos and start our day..Ugh! It's one of those days where nap time is going to be the highlight of the day! I'm off to the pastoral staff meeting; let's hope I can keep both eyes open...
8/7/07: We have a nice relaxing day to stay home and get some stuff done around the house today. The girls and I cleaned and vacuumed out the van this morning and I'm working on laundry and packing today. We are getting ready to go on a camping trip this weekend to Lake Casitas. We will leave on Friday morning and come back on Sunday night. It's not a long trip, but it will be nice to get away. We are going with our friends, the Landers. My good friends, Jen and Michele, and their Mom and Dad, and Michele's Husband, daughter, and their new baby. We've rented 2 camping spots for the weekend to do the traditional tent camping experience. Christian and I used to go camping quite a bit before we had kids. But camping with children is a whole 'nother ball game! Maddy and Emma are really excited; I think it's gonna be a lot of fun!
I took Maddy to the doctor today to check out her ear. She has been complaining about it for a couple of days. The doctor checked it out and she had "swimmer's ear", but no infection. They did a "lavage kit" on her, which was just a deep cleaning of her inner ear. After 3 children, I'd never seen this done before. It was kinda gross. But Maddy says that her ear feels better now. We got a prescription for ear drops for the next few days and the doctor reccomended to put a few drops of a mixture of vinegar and alcohol in her ears after she swims from now on. The vinegar fights bacteria and the alcohol dries up any excess water.. who knew?!?
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