How I feel lately

Tell me I'm not the only one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNkp4QF3we8

Halloween Celebrations

With the church's trunk-or-treat on Friday, the Ghost/Goblin festival at the Arboretum & hitting the most wonderful Halloween street ever in Sierra Madre on Halloween, it was a packed couple of days. It was tough to narrow down all the cuteness, so you'll have to endure a few pics on this post.

Trunk-or-Treat (indoors this year)
Fun stuff at the Arboretum. They had tons of crafts & games for kids.

We call it Halloween Street, but it's a fabulously decorated street in Sierra Madre where the homes go totally over-the-top with decorations. Max got a huge kick out of it even though we were there early and some had not finished setting up and not everyone was ready with candy. We attempted to charge Max the obligatory parent tax on his candy, but G.G. beat us to it and had already cleaned him of all the good candy. She's pretty quick for a Grandma ;) At one house Max decided to just sit and wait. It took us a while to get him to come away from their porch.

Tate was a Monkey on Halloween. I swear he breathed a sigh of relief when we got home and took the costume off him.

We stopped at a nearby neighborhood on the way home where Max finally grasped the concept of going to the porch and saying "Trick-or-treat" to get candy. He was very polite and would shout "HOORAY!" after candy was dropped in his bucket and then say "thank you" all on his own as we would walk away. Sadly I didn't have the camera with me.

Hope everyone got to charge a fabulous Parent Tax this year! Thanks to my sister for the idea in the first place, we were just gonna steal it, but a "tax" sounds so much better.

Traumatic, Tiresome, Terrific, Tender, TWO!

Max turned 2 today. I know,right? Who can believe I'm old enough to have a 2 year old? (humor me please).

Max on his Birthday:

Max on his 1st Birthday:

Max on his 2nd Birthday (in his jammies from GG):

Here's the run down on my tenacious 2 year old...

He can be so sweet snuggling his brother, but he also loves to test boundaries and climb on things he shouldn't.

He loves to do anything Daddy does, including trying to golf. He also sleeps in a big boy bed now.

He is obsessed with anything to do with trains, especially Thomas & loves to "collie" (color)

He can throw a tantrum like nobody's business and 2 seconds later go kiss his brother.

Today I tried my first solo excurssion where there were no friends around to help out. We went to the LA Arboretum and I let him run around all the paths and trails. Fun for an hour and then a lunch time/nap time tantrum hit so it was time to go. It was a beautiful day & we'd never been there before, we'll go again with Daddy.

Happy Birthday Max! I love you!

Thankful

At least something other than the word "NO" occasionally comes out of his mouth. In order to speed things up a bit he started with "Amen". I tried prompting him but as usual he had his own ideas. I didn't even make first mention! Seriously, I spend all day with the kid, Daddy shows up for 2 hrs a night and gets fun weekends and Daddy is the first person he is thankful for. At least I beat out the baby.

One of Tates latest pics- cheeks are getting fuller.

Officially Fall

Even though it is still in the 70's you can't find t-shirts in the stores, every little kid you see is wearing a backpack, & the costumes are out, so it officially must be Fall.

Today we took Max to his friend Ellie's birthday party. It was good for him to get out and it was a painting party (such a great idea!). Max loves to color so he had a blast painting and playing with playdoh for the first time. Good thing we got him an easel for his birthday- don't tell him. The party started at his nap time and he did good but after lunch he stopped listening to mommy so it was time to go home.

In the afternoon we hit the Kidspace Museum pumpkin festival for 30 minutes. Max enjoyed the bounce house, eating a rice krispie treat and watching the musical performance. He refused to put his shoes back on to ride the train and then proceeded to throw his worst tantrum ever. Naturally it was in public. He didn't get to ride the train.

After dinner Daddy & Grandpa went to pick up his latest toy. His friend Ellie was getting rid of her mini-trampoline so Max took it off her hands. Even though today was not his best day (he had 3 more tantrums just while Daddy & Gpa went to pick it up) we let him jump in it for a bit. Oh well, so much for consistency in discipline.

Practicing good oral hygeine

Max has not shown much interest in Tate. However, we did catch him trying to teach Tate an important lesson.

Tate Michael Brownstein

He's here, & he came earlier than expected which makes me love him even more :)

The play-by-play...

8/28 11:30 a.m.: Dr's appointment where I find out already 2-3 cm dilated and almost fully effaced. Dr. suggested scheduling induction because I am strep B positive. If I went into labor before then, to not wait too long to go to the hospital. My mom was booked on a flight for Wednesday the 2nd but the Dr. suggested we schedule sooner than that. So Monday 8/31 was gonna be the day.
8/28 evening: Several large contractions but they were a couple hrs. apart.

8/29 9 a.m.: Leave the house for 3 hrs. so Terminex could come treat the ant problem (whole other blog post for that!). IHOP with my dad for breakfast. Small contractions every 15 minutes or so.

11 a.m.: Hit a park for some outdoor play time for Max. Poor air quality the last couple weeks from the fires has had us all cooped up inside. Called my sister to tell her she better plan on coming to our house because I was pretty sure the baby was on his way.

12 p.m.: Sis shows up, fed Max lunch, put him down for a nap, left instructions for Grandpa & headed to the hospital.

1:30 p.m.: Admitted to hospital, blood work drawn and IV put in. Waited for the Dr. who was coming in any way for another delivery. Contractions were getting stronger but still bearable. 1st round of antibiotics given.

3:45 p.m.: Dr. came in & broke my water. He said if I wanted an epidural to do it now. The anesthesiologist was due to go into a surgery with a surgeon who was known for being slow so they didn't want me to miss my opportunity for the good drugs.

3:55 p.m.: Anesthesiologist came in to explain the procedure to me and do the paperwork. She said she was waiting on my blood test results which would be a couple minutes and she would be back.

4:20 p.m.: Contractions were unbearable so I sent Mike out to ask where my epidural was.
Nurse:"Your blood work is taking longer so the anaesthesiologist had to go into surgery."
Me: "Are you serious? This really hurts."
Nurse: "I wanted to be honest with you and not give you some story. I don't know why its taking so long. Do you want something else for the pain?"
Me: "Um, hell yeah" (or something close to that).
4:25 p.m.: Statol injected into IV. I was checked again (dilated to a 6). Ticked to find out I still felt enormous pain. The only difference was I also felt fuzzy headed. The nurse informed me that it would only help take the edge off. It sure didn't feel like it. So now I was in pain and incoherent- fantastic.

I'm not quite sure how to explain the pain of contractions & now have serious respect for ladies who go w/o the epidural. The next 40 minutes until Tate was born was just plain painful.

4:45 p.m.: Holding Mike's hand & gently squeezing it (not according to Mike), I told him I had to push. I looked at his face as he looked at my sister who was rubbing my back, it seemed like they were giving each other a "Oh, poor girl. That's not possible" look. I quietly said it again & patiently waited while Mike got the nurse (again, not according to Mike). Humoring me, the nurse peeked under my gown and said "Oh, there's a head!".

Basically the room filled with people very quickly trying to rush and set up. I was flipped onto my back and told to use my breath to "preserve yourself instead of using it to yell". I looked at Mike to give him a "tell her to go take a hike" look. I had to push NOW. Dr. rushes in & at 5:01 p.m. Tate Michael Brownstein was born weighing 7 lbs. 5 oz. & 20.5 inches long.

My nurses and Dr. all made sure to tell me that if we have another child to be sure and tell everyone that I am fast after my water is broken. I'm just thankful it was only 1 hr and 15 min. from when my water broke. I'm fairly certain I would have been trying to knock myself unconscious if it were longer.

We were a little nervous at first because he wasn't breathing well, but apparently it was because my statol injection was given so shortly before he was born. We also didn't have time to give me my 2nd round of antibiotics. Everything ended up fine & Tate ate and slept like a champ in the hospital. Max wasn't so interested in him, but was very happy to see Mike and I. We're home now & adjusting well to having another little guy around. Thanks to everyone for the phone calls, meals and well wishes! Can't wait for you all to meet him.