Finally, more pictures

I've finally gotten around to posting some more pictures of Taylor. She isn't a huge fan of having her picture taken so she gives the same scowl that Ethan usually had in pictures. We did catch a little smile in this picture. She is just starting to wake up more and more, usually at night when we want to head to bed.

It is hard to see since this picture is kind of dark but Taylor's hair is starting to stick up most of the time. But it looks like it might have a little curl in it. She gets that from her dad. She also has the longest eye lashes, which she also got from her dad. She is such a cutie.

Ethan continues to be an excellent big brother. It is adorable to see him worry about Taylor when she cries and tries to interact with her. Any time she cries he says "do you need your mommy or your daddy?" He always interprets for us and says who she wants. I don' t think it is possible for her to get any more hugs and kisses from him. He is usually very gentle but still doesn't understand that she doesn't need toys and books. I have to run to where ever she is when I hear "Oh here you go. You need this." Usually that means a book or toy has been placed on her head.



I love this little video of Ethan. He loves to stand on his potty and perform for all of us. In this video he is singing the Sesame Street song "Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood". He had an audience for a while, my friend's daughter who would clap every time he finished singing. He is so fun to watch. Speaking of Ethan's potty, the other day I was feeding Taylor and I was talking to Ethan about how when I was done I was going to take him to the potty. He said okay and said that he wanted to go potty like daddy. That usually means that he stands near the potty and makes fake peeing sounds. I never really have taught him to pee standing up. So it didn't concern me when he started taking his little stool into the bathroom and when I saw his pajama bottoms fly out of the bathroom. I really didn't think he would actually go to the bathroom standing up. Well imagine my surprise when I lean forward to see into the bathroom from where I was sitting and I see him start to pee. Of course he is so impressed with himself that he turns to tell me about it and sprays around the bathroom and out the door, a good 3 feet. It was pretty much like watching an unmanned fire hose. I couldn't even do anything to stop him so I just laughed. I'm sure the sleep deprevation helped make it seem even funnier. I have learned my lesson.

Taylor

I thought that it would be a good idea to add some more pictures of our little angel. The first post was from the hospital and the internet speed wasn't that great so we didn't want to overload it to much. Taylor has been quite different than Ethan. She has no problem spending the day hanging out in her bouncer, unlike Ethan who wanted to be held constantly. We still haven't figured out how to get her to sleep better at night. I honestly think that it is to quiet for her because Ethan can be destroying the place around her and she will sleep right through it but as soon as it is quiet she starts to fuss. I think that one of these days we will get into a schedule and figure out how to do it with two. At least we aren't outnumbered yet.This scowl looks almost exactly like Ethans when he was a baby.Ethan doesn't look very happy in this picture but all he talked about was going to the hospital to see Taylor and Mom.

She's here

She is here and we are very excited. Taylor Nicole Fish arrived this morning at 1025. She weighed in 9lbs 1oz and is 22 inches long. We both think that she looks a lot like Ethan did when he was first born. She aspirated a little bit of fluid when she came out but she is doing well. Meredith is an amazing woman who once again did it all without medication. They are both doing well and Taylor has already nursed a couple of times. Ethan came and visited and was very cute with her. We are a little worried because he has an ear infection and we don't want to pass on any germs but I think that he needs to see why he has been abonded with Grandma. So the first picture is of Taylor and the second of Ethan so everyone can compare.

Just an Update

So unfortutately I'm still very pregnant, as you can tell from the picture. I finally decided to give in and post a picture since I have only taken about 5 this whole pregnancy. I really had grand illusions of having our little girl by now but obviously she is quite stubborn. Several weeks ago the doctor said it could be any time so I think I got my hopes up. So it has been a long couple of weeks, especially with everyone at work telling me that they were sure I was going to have the baby immediately. At least now there is an end in sight. The doctor said he would induce me on Thursday morning if I haven't gone into labor by then. Part of me still has hope of her coming on her own earlier but I'll survive. Maybe she knows that we still don't have a name for her so she is holding out for a final decision. We have really been trying, including getting votes from everyone at my baby shower. Since one of my names won the vote at the shower I thought it would be a done deal but Abe didn't buy it.

My mom came into town to give me a hand and that has been very nice. Ethan knows that I'm too slow to catch him these days and uses it to his full advantage. We had been telling Ethan that grandma would come when the baby got her so when she showed up he kept looking for the baby. He is going to be a good big brother. He keeps bringing her toys and pushing them to my belly so she can play with them. The other day he said he "needed baby food" and then proceeded to push it at my stomach. He just might be a little disappointed when she doesn't come out ready to play and eat. The kids at Ethan's daycare are also fascinated with the fact that I have a baby in my belly. The other day when I went to pick him up one of them ask me if the baby had a bed in my stomach too. One of the other kids came with her mother to my baby shower. She was convinced that the baby would come out at the shower and was quite disappointed when she didn't. I'm sure everyone else was glad she didn't come at the shower.

We will keep you all posted after Thursday. Keep us in your prayers. ~Meredith

We Need Your Help!

We are fast approaching week 37 of this pregnancy and we are starting to realize that we may never come up with a name for our little baby girl. Ethan had a name from almost the time we knew he was a little boy. I can't imagine going to the hospital not knowing what we are going to call her. One of our problems is that Abe and I have different ideas of what names we like so we can't agree on any names. So we thought we would reach out to our wonderful friends and family for help. We have some names that one or the other of us likes but we are open to other suggestions. Her middle name will be Nicole so it has to sound okay with that. I'll give you some of the names on our list but I ask that you not tell me which ones you hate because if we do pick that name it will be hard to forget how you thought it was an awful name :)



So here is our list:

Caitlyn

Corinne

Morgan

Brenna

McKenna

Lauren

Sydney

Brooklyn

Annaleise

Savannah

Kennedy

Brianna



Feel free to give us your thoughts or suggest something we can both agree on. Thankfully Ethan has stopped calling her Bingo and now calls her Baby Nicole but it will be nice to teach him what everyone else will be calling her.

Christmas Break

I've finally gotten around to posting some pictures from our Christmas break. Ethan and I both got the flu this week so it has been a pretty hectic week. Poor Ethan has been a real trooper with the whole illness but it has been so sad to see him sick. He also hates being stuck in the house so he was so anxious to get out. He would start collecting everyone's shoes and coats and say "Let's go to the mall" even just after getting sick. We thought he was completely over the illness since he hadn't thrown up in three days so yesterday we gave in and took him to Burger King so he could play there. I had told him it was time to go and he started to cough a little and then proceeded to vomit ALL OVER THE PLACE. It was awful! He was covered, along with Abe, and this huge area of the playplace. We both felt terrible for all the other families there. Today he asked to go back but I'm sure we have been banned from Burger King for a long while.

So back to our Christmas vacation. Abe and I both had two weeks off and it was wonderful. We went to North Carolina to visit some of our friends for a Christmas party. Ethan had a good time playing with his friend Amelia. She was so funny because she would grab his hand while sitting on Abe's lap. Ethan wasn't a huge fan of sharing his dad so he kept saying "Go find mommy". He doesn't mind if I told other babies but he doesn't like sharing his daddy. (I think Abe was done with me taking pictures at this point in time).

After our trip to NC we went to Richmond to spend time with my family. Ethan starts making a list of things he wants Grandma to bake for him weeks before we visit Grandma Singletary. Number one on his list this time was donuts. Grandma can't say no so this is Ethan pounding down some powdered donuts. Even today he was telling me that he wanted to go to Grandma's house and have donuts. While he has been sick we have been trying to give him bland foods but he doesn't quite understand the concept so he just thinks we are being mean. He would beg to go to Grandma's house for dinner.

We celebrated Ethan's birthday while we were in Richmond. The child had a never ending couple of weeks of presents, a birthday party at daycare, a Christmas party at daycare, a birthday party with the family, a Christmas party at Grandpa's work, and then Christmas. He keeps asking when he is going to get more presents. Here is a picture of him blowing out the candles on his birthday cake.

My dad's work had a little Christmas party for the kids with a visit from Santa. Ethan was VERY excited about seeing Santa. Each of the children were called up when Santa pulled a present out of his bag. Ethan couldn't wait for his name to be called but once it was he was a little hesitant. All the other kids had gotten some fun toys, which they were opening after they got off Santa's lap. "Santa" decided that he would get a book at the party so Ethan opened it up and was so disappointed. Obviously he doesn't think of books as presents because he kept saying "my present" and looking around at the other kids. He even tried to go back to Santa hoping for something better. We got a pretty similar reaction on Christmas day when he got another book.

Ethan and Grandpa Singletary at the party.

We had a nice time hanging out with the family. Ethan loves all the attention of his aunts and uncle. And for us it was great to have a little break as Ethan had other people to play with.
Once we got back from Richmond we spent the next week doing projects around the house. Abe was a good sport about working so hard during his break. It was so nice to have the time to get the house clean again. Though after a week of feeling under the weather we could use another break before the baby comes to get the house under control again. ~Meredith

Finally... Our New Kitchen

Since we moved into this house we have hated our kitchen. We were spoiled in our last house so it made it even harder to move into a place with a tiny outdated kitchen with absolutely no counter space and a tiny fridge shoved in the corner. Here are some pictures from before we moved in so you can see the full effect. We have always had grand illusions of remodeling the kitchen once the house in North Carolina was sold. Unfortunately that took a lot longer that we had anticipated but we learned to tolerate the kitchen for the last year and a half. But finally with the other house sold we got our new kitchen. We had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to best lay out the new kitchen and we have been thrilled with the results. We now have some continuous counter space, which is my favorite part. Before when I was making dinner I had to move from one little piece of counter to another since there wasn't more than 3 feet of counter anywhere in the kitchen. It's still a small kitchen but it is so much better.


My favorite part of the remodel was coming home the first day of demolition and Ethan couldn't get over the fact that our kitchen was gone. He kept spinning in circles saying "what happened to my kitchen?" He literally stood there for 10 minutes just saying the same thing. Though the process is always a hassle and no one enjoys being without a kitchen for 2 weeks it was so worth it.