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Adeline is 3 - Part 3

Saturday, January 31, 2009
    Day one of Adeline's birthday weekend:

    We went to the "bounce place"!! This is, by far, Adeline's favorite place to go so we invited her friends, Isaac and Dallas and spent Friday morning bouncing away. It was perfect, we were the only ones in the entire room so we had all the inflatables to ourselves! The kids loved it!

    The first time we went to Bounce U, we had to help Adeline climb up everything and go with her down the big slides. This time - she was all on her own!

    I shouldn't admit this, but I totally started crying watching Adeline climb up these stairs with her little mat in her hand. It was just hitting me hard that she is growing up so fast. I also cried singing happy birthday to her on the morning of her birthday. I'm such a girl!

    They had a TV on in the snack room and the kids did not take their eyes off of it.

    Lylah, as usual, just hanging out. You know we have babies that spit up A LOT, so where the baby is, there is always a cloth diaper in hand, or in the car as the case may be.

    Cute kiddos!

    I love sweet Isaac's face in this picture (on the left)!
    "Can I cut in??"

    Adeline is 3 - Part 2

    Sunday, January 25, 2009
      It's hard to believe that 3 years ago tonight was our last evening as a couple without kids. We were in Istanbul, in our apartment in Gayrettepe, celebrating our friend, Rebecca's birthday along with the Johnsons, Lindsey and Heather. We were cooking chinese food and the gas in our oven ran out and we weren't able to get more because it had been snowing for days and the neighborhood roads were not in the best condition. So, somehow, we finished cooking dinner and played games for the rest of the evening. I made plans to have lunch with Lindsey and Heather the next day and Billy helped Jeff move some of our furniture around in the bedrooms. The roads were horrible and I was so worried about everyone driving home down and up the huge hills in our neighborhood. I sent a happy birthday email to my dad (his birthday is on the 25th) and we finally got to bed about 2am.

      The very last thing I said to Jeff before we went to sleep that night was "I don't see how this baby could get any lower!". Little did I know, she was about to make it known that she was ready to join us on the outside.

      Three hours later, I woke up with contractions which I thought were Braxton Hicks, but when the third one came along and all 3 were in a 10 minute period, I knew this was the real thing. I woke Jeff and told him I thought it was time and we immediately went to the window to see if the snow had stopped. It was still coming down and the roads were covered. Thoughts of having the baby in our apartment flooded my mind and I was pretty much freaking out. I remember standing at the window, and praying with Jeff, asking the Lord to take care of us and somehow make it so that we would be able to get to the hospital to have this baby.

      I waited until 7:30am to call my doctor hoping I would not wake her up. She answered the phone in a groggy voice (oops!) and asked me to meet her at her office. Well, our car was under about a foot of snow so we called our wonderful friends, the Byrds (who, remember, were at our house just 7 hours earlier) because they had snow chains for their car. Scott was so wonderful to pick us up and take us to the doctor's office and then again, he came and picked us up and drove us all the way to the hospital (which was about 30 minutes away).


      If you have ever experienced a taxi ride in Istanbul, you will probably understand why we chose not to "taxi it" to the hospital. Contractions every 3 minutes, snow everywhere... not a time to hop in a taxi!


      From then on out, everything that happened that day was smooth sailing. Arrived at the hospital, got checked in to a great room overlooking the Marmara Sea, endured contractions for a few more hours, received an epidural that worked wonders in about 5 minutes, was rolled into the delivery room at 5pm, and our beautiful daughter, Adeline Marie joined us at 5:25pm.


      She was so tiny.

      She was so beautiful.

      I just wanted to hear her cry.

      When I heard that sweet sound I was so relieved and happy and proud and in love!

      Everything after that moment is a bit of a blur. Everything after that moment has changed my life in ways that I didn't even know were possible.

      I was so terrified to have a child... to endure pregnancy, to go through childbirth, to change a newborn's diaper, to never sleep again! If only I knew then what I learned at 5:25pm that Thursday evening.

      Adeline is 3 - Part 1

      Friday, January 23, 2009
        In honor of Adeline's 3rd birthday on Monday, I thought I would devote a few posts to our sweet little girl (one of them). She says some funny and clever stuff, although, most of the time I completely forget to write it down and inevitably forget what was said. But, for your reading pleasure, here are two of her classics!

        The other day I could hear Jeff and Adeline playing with Lylah in her room. Many of you already know this, but Jeff loves to speak Turkish! We've been in the states for over a year and a half, but he still speaks Turkish almost every day (even if no one knows what he is saying or we just respond in English). So, this morning, Jeff was on a Turkish kick and would not speak English to Adeline, only Turkish. Adeline knows a few Turkish words and phrases, but Jeff kept asking her question after question in Turkish. So, the conversation goes...

        J: Ne haber, Adeline? Ne yapiyorsun? etc...
        A: No, Baba.... No, Baba!
        J: Adeline, I'm just speaking Turkish to you.
        A: No, Baba. Don't speak Turkish, speak clearly!

        Tonight, Jeff and Adeline read the story of Zachaeus in her Bible and he taught her a little song to go with the story. I was in the other room feeding Lylah and she came to tell me good night and sing the song to me. It went a little like this:

        Zachaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.
        He climbed up in a sycamore tree, for the Lord he wanted to see.
        And, when Jesus passed that way, he looked up in the tree.
        And he said, "Ikea, come down!"

        Then she started cracking up at herself...

        Ikea??? Not Ikea! That's that place where we go and buy stuff and eat dinner.

        And she continued...

        And he said, "Zachaeus, come down! For I'm going to your house today"

        What kind of elbow??

        Tuesday, January 20, 2009
          So, as we are closing in on Adeline's 3rd birthday (I can't even believe I am typing that!), I realized that I haven't shared with you our Thanksgiving weekend experience. I learned a lot that weekend and you never know, those of you with little ones might be in my shoes sometime down the road as well. So, this is the story...

          We spent Thanksgiving afternoon with some friends, and got home around 5pm that evening. Adeline hadn't had a nap all day and if you know her, you know she is a sleeper and NEEDS those naps! So, I was about to make us something light for dinner and I put in her Care Bears Excercise DVD. It's just a little 10 minute excercise routine that the Care Bears do, and she loves joining them in their workout. Jeff walks in the room and Adeline asks if he will dance with her (there is a little dance routine at the end). So, they are spinning around the room, dancing and I hear Adeline fall down. Now, again, if you know anything about Adeline, you know that she isn't the most coordinated little girl and she falls ALL THE TIME. She didn't fall particularly hard and Jeff was holding her arms as she landed, so we didn't think anything about it until she started crying... and didn't stop.

          She cried and cried for almost an hour as we asked her where it hurt, put some ice on it, offered her anything she wanted to see if she would stop crying (***See the bottom of this post for a funny story***). Finally, she fell asleep in my lap (which she never, ever does) as she was so exhausted from the long day. Well, we put her to bed, but about 3 hours later, she woke up crying and holding her arm. We knew that something was really wrong and debated taking her to Urgent Care or the Emergency Room. I decided Urgent Care, a b-a-d decision. We took her (and sweet Lylah, she just hung out in her car seat all evening) to a nearby Pediatric Urgent Care and walked right in to see the doctor, there were no other patients. The nurse took Adeline's stats and when we explained to her what happened, the first thing she said was Nursemaid's Elbow. We had never heard this term before, but we just continued on, talking with the doctor (who barely spoke English), getting some excruciating x-rays taken and waiting... The doctor came in and told us that there was possibly a hairline fracture in her forearm so they were going to splint it and give us the x-rays to take to our pediatrician to look over. They splinted her arm twice (the doctor really couldn't decide what was wrong, it was very obvious) and we were finally on our way home...

          Such a big, strong girl!

          Adeline was such a trooper and the next day she was definitely in pain, but as long as her arm was in a sling she seemed okay. But, every time we moved her arm at all, she cringed and we could tell she was not faking it. We looked up Nursemaid's Elbow online (what in the world did we do before the internet?) and it seemed to us, this is exactly what had happened to Adeline. When she fell, Jeff held onto her arm to "cushion" her fall (wouldn't any parent do the same?) and it dislocated her elbow joint. We decided to take her to a pediatric emergency room (remember, it's Thanksgiving weekend, the pediatrician's office was closed until Monday). Lesson #1 - NEVER, EVER go to Urgent Care again, go straight to the Emergency Room!

          We went right in, and the doctor agreed that it was probably Nursemaid's Elbow but needed to take x-rays just to double check that it wasn't, in fact, fractured. Poor Adeline had to endure more x-rays and when they came back the doctor took her arm and "popped" the elbow back in place. (It was never fractured!) It literally took one second and within one minute she was completely fine, like nothing had ever happened.

          Oh, the guilt!!!

          I couldn't believe that my little girl had endured this pain for more than 24 hours and that was all we needed to do - pop it back in place. I don't know how to fix it myself, but I plan on learning so we will be prepared (just in case). Lesson #2 - be very careful of the girls' arms, especially between the ages of 1 and 4.

          I know we have all done it, walking along, dad holding one arm, mom holding the other and... "1...2...3...weeeeeee" swing our little one alongside of us. DON'T DO IT! I know it's fun, but apparently, this pretty commonly results in Nursemaid's Elbow. I have seen parents doing this since then, but I restrain myself from saying something. What a party pooper I would sound like to some stranger!

          I joke that poor Adeline, the first child, has to endure all of our first-time parenting mistakes. Hopefully Lylah will have it a little easier!

          We took Adeline out on Saturday morning for a special breakfast of Dunkin' Donuts! She definitely deserved a treat for a rough two days.

          Orange frosting and sprinkles - yummy!

          ***This is the best part of the story... As we were trying to console Adeline we were offering her milk, crackers, even candy to see if it would make her feel better. At one point, Jeff said "Adeline, would you like some chocolate? That might make your arm feel better." Adeline stopped crying for a few seconds, looked at Jeff with a very confused expression and said "Baba, why would I want to put chocolate on my arm? That wouldn't make it feel better. That would be very, very, very messy!" You are right, sweet girl! What a silly thing to say!***

          Two Freebies

          Monday, January 19, 2009
            Two freebies that I am definitely taking part in this week, so I thought some of you might want to check them out as well...



            Krispy Kreme is giving out one free doughnut tomorrow, Tuesday, January 20th in honor of Inauguration Day. Check with your local KK to make sure they are participating.



            Two years of Parents magazine for free! It doesn't look like there is a catch, the website says "no strings attached". I have heard of many people who have vowed to "never pay for magazine subscriptions again" so I'm pretty sure this is legit.

            Disneyland Day 1

            Wednesday, January 14, 2009
              Finally, some pictures from our trip to Disneyland! We went the week before Christmas and stayed at a hotel about 4 minutes from the parks. The weather forecast was crazy for that week - rain and very cold temperatures (even some snow) in Anaheim, CA - definitely not the norm. I was pretty nervous about it raining all week, but it ended up working out and we really did get to see everything we wanted to in the 3 days we were at the park. We even got to go on some rides twice, I think the longest line we waited in was about 10 minutes. Of course, since it was just the four of us, we didn't go on every ride or see all the shows, but really had a great, great time! We joke that we can tell if Adeline really likes something if she reenacts it later. We hit the jackpot buying tickets to Disneyland, because we "go" there EVERY single day!

              I decided to go ahead and post a slideshow of Day 1 pictures. One, because I am tired and I am going to go watch an hour of 24 with my hubby. Two, I'm the type of person that doesn't want to look at 100 pictures at one time on someone's blog, so I decided to break it up and at the same time make the grandparents happy! Enjoy!!


              Click to play Disneyland 2008 Day 1
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              Not Me! Monday

              Monday, January 12, 2009
                I'm sure some of you ladies will understand when I tell you that there are a few (just a few) blogs that I read daily, even though I have no clue who they really belong to. One of my absolute favorites is MckMama's blog about her "charming kids" (4 under the age of 4!!!) and her Prince Charming of a husband. I have prayed for her and her little baby, Stellan many nights and it is just a really fun read!

                So, in honor of MckMama, here is my first attempt at Not Me! Monday. In her own words, "Not Me! Monday was born out of a desire to admit some of our imperfections and reveal a few moments we'd rather forget. 

Why? Well, for one, because it's just plain fun to pretend that we really did not do the things that we actually so did do. And, two, because reading through great tales of other people's Not Me! Mondays each week is a great way to level the playing field. We're all human, we all take embarrassing shortcuts, and so we may as well show each other that we're all in good company!"


                First and foremost, I do not have anything else to be doing right now as I spend the girls' naptime blogging!

                I was not excited at all this week for The Bachelor and 24 to start back up and I definitely did not tape both of them to ensure I wouldn't miss a second. (I also did not just use the word "tape" as a verb because I am a child of the 80's and 90's and haven't adjusted to using the acronym DV-R as a verb!)

                I did not cry my eyes out watching this video and proceed to pray hard for Angie and a few friends who have experienced this tremendous loss over the past few years.

                I most certainly did not consider attending my first MOPS meeting last week, and then did not chicken out at the last minute because I wasn't too excited about walking into a building full of ladies I don't know and leaving my kids with people I've never met. Not me!

                Does anyone else have this problem? I am not losing all of my hair due to crazy post-baby hormones! This did not happen after having A as well, but this time it seems much, much worse.

                I did not let L experience the sippy cup for the first time this week, and did not get sad at all because she is growing up too fast!!!



                Along those lines, I did not have my husband get up and give L her paci back at 7:30am one morning (okay... multiple mornings) because I wanted to sleep a little bit longer! And, I did not get just a little bit jealous that L is saying "Baba" all the time and "Mama" is nowhere in sight! (Yes, I realize she doesn't know what she is saying, but she will soon!)

                And, finally, J and I did not watch The Net 2.0 this weekend and I did not miss Istanbul at all and even wonder, "why did we leave again??"!!! Nope, not me!!!