feels great to be 29!

my birthday was last week and as a great big birthday gift my friend anne jones came up to hang out and help me gain some sanity!  it was so great to have her around.  of course scott LOVED playing with his bff brody and sara was extremely excited to meet her new bff macie.  i swear she's even smiling a little bit in this picture.

                                       

here's the fearsome foursome.  (though sara is mid-diaper change and a bit naked).  part of me can't wait until they're all old enough to run around with each other but most of me wants them to stay small forever.

anne got this precious shot of the girl.  seriously anne... thanks so much for coming!

that night james and i took the kiddos to cheesecake factory for my birthday.  sara slept the whole time, scott was a great kid and my dinner was delicious!  so i would say it was definitely a successful birthday event.

i wasn't going to include this picture since i obviously forgot to put make-up on (for my birthday dinner?? hello!) but i thought it would be a good reminder of how exhausted and happy i was on my 29th birthday.  i wouldn't change a thing!

on sunday james let me go to church while he watched the kids at home (scott had a runny nose so he stayed home too.)  when i got home this is what i saw.

                  .... too cute.

then another birthday surprise came my way this past tuesday when my friend hallie tusberg brought me donut holes and a card signed by all our cub scouts.  i told hallie once that i have a secret obsession with donut holes so she brought enough for everyone to eat.  it was perfect!

and my mom has been asking all week for current pictures of sara... so here you go mom!
i took this one yesterday...

and this one about twenty minutes ago.  (it doesn't get much more current than that.)

thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes, gifts and surprises!  so far it feels great to be 29!

3 weeks and a kick in the head

before my mom left for the airport two and half weeks ago she told me that i had to send her a picture of sara every day so that she could see her grow.  well... every day is a bit much, but i thought i could do every week  (at least for a while).   so this blog post is for you mom! 

these three pictures were actually taken a few days ago.  i thought she looked adorable in this little purple outfit. 

i love her eyes.  when she is wide awake they are so big and dark and beautiful.  and there is something so peaceful and calm about her when she is just sitting there looking around.  she is such a good little girl.

these pictures were taken a couple hours ago.  today is sara's 3 week birthday and i had her two week check-up yesterday (this slacker mom forgot to call the doctor to make the appointment.)  anyway, sara had already grown two more inches (she is now 21 1/2 inches long) and she weighs 9 lbs. 6 oz.  that is almost a pound heavier than her birthweight but still an ounce smaller than scott was when he was BORN. ouch!

                                   

scott loves playing with sara on her little play mat.  he is such a good big brother to show her how it all works. 

sadly this picture was taken about ten seconds before scott crawled off the play mat and accidentally kicked sara in the head.  i wasn't sure if i should feel more sorry for my screaming sara or for my quivering lipped, distraught little scott.  he felt so bad but sara was fine in the end and i figure its probably good that she start toughening up now.

                                     

happy 3 week birthday sara!

two weeks old!

i can't believe our little sara girl is already two weeks old.  and i'm happy to announce that she was only up for ONE middle-of-the-night feeding last night!  (can't tell you how nice it was to see the sun coming through the window when she woke up the second time!!)

here's our big little girl having a bath with grandma palmer.

grandma palmer came out last wednesday to help us for a few days.  it was so nice to have her around!

bryan, annie, julia and audrey even made it up to meet their new cousin.  the hotel they were staying in had an indoor pool that was as warm as a bathtub (or so i was told...) so we all headed over there and had a pool party.

since almost all of us have a birthday sometime in the next month or two we had a joint birthday party.  james and i have been looking for an excuse to purchase this gigantic chocolate cake from costco and this was the perfect event!  (for whatever reason the cake looks really tiny in this picture... trust me, it is AnYtHiNg but tiny.)

fun family in town, pool party, birthday cake... what more could a kid ask for?

the next day we all went to the movie theater to see Gnomeo and Juliet.  Unfortunately it was sold out so we went to Rango instead.  It was kind of a weird show but the kids seemed to enjoy it... and so far scott hasn't seemed to have any of the nightmares that i was concerned he would have (or that i would have) from the movie, so thats good.

scott is really such a good big brother.  he LOVES helping wherever he can with sister sara.  he helps me give her a bottle, he helps change her diaper, and he INSISTS on going with me to check on her during her naps.

before taking grandma palmer to the airport we stopped in at Five Guys Burger and Fries since she had never been there before.  it was truly a delicious experience. 

thanks grandma palmer for coming out to visit and help so much! 

we loved having you out here!

and here's the little stinker on the night before her two week birthday (the name "little stinker" isn't completely accurate however, because she is a BIG stinker.  how can such a tiny little girl have so many messy diapers?!)

and naturally i had to get another shot of brother and sister together. 

scott's expression pretty much says it all.

and then i get a photo like this and remember why its all worth it
and why we'll do it again and again...

=

introducing "sister" sara!!!

Sara Patricia Palmer was born at about 12:15pm on Tuesday, February 22, 2011. 
she weighed 8 lb. 9 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long
she has lots (and lots) of dark, crazy hair and rosy pink skin

here she is with her daddy.  she was so excited to finally meet him. 

sara was born at fairview hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.  it was a cold, wintery, and snowy day. 

and here sara is with her mommy... who looks a bit like she's been hit by a truck (she felt that way too.)

the labor and delivery went well. we got to the hospital just before 5am to be induced. they started me up around 6am. i got the epidural at about 10:30am after which they told me i was dilated to a 5. once the epidural kicked in i was happy as a clam and ready to take a nap for the next few hours until the baby was ready to come.
BUT an hour or so later i started feeling a terrible pain down south. within minutes the nurse was in the room telling me to turn over because the babies heart rate was dropping. the pain suddenly got really intense and the nurse (upon checking me) announced, "the baby is ready to come out!"
within minutes the room was full of nurses, students and a doctor that looked and talked just like dr. burke from the show grey's anatomy (my doctor was in the middle of a c-section). but i really liked the "dr. burke" doctor (whose real name is dr. harlem) so it was all okay.
about 15 minutes of pushing later sara was born!
first family portrait with our new little addition

here i am with my two little pals.  scott has been such a good big brother to sara.  he has been calling her sister sara for a couple months now and the name kind of stuck. 

i can't stop taking pictures of this girl.  take a look at all that hair! the camera just doesn't do it justice.

i can't say enough about how nice it was to have my mom "grandy" here this past week.  i honestly don't know what we would have done without her.  she cooked, she cleaned, she played with scott and took care of the baby while i napped. she nursed me back to health and was just so fun to have around.  i am kind of in a state of panic right now wondering how i'm going to survive without her. 

and a few more shots of the girly girl because she is as cute as a button.

my mom and i tried doing her hair with a bow but we weren't quite sure how to negotiate all that hair.  tips from other moms would be greatly appreciated!

we finally let scott hold his sister sara and he was thrilled.  he is constantly calling himself a "big boy" and whenever sara cries he becomes very concerned about her getting some "milk!"   he loves playing with her hand and her hair and this afternoon after he had been fluffing her hair for a while i noticed potato chip crumbs in her hair!  i guess that's what having a big brother is all about.

my mom didn't want me to put this picture of her on the blog (i think she looks cute but i agree that she looks better in real life) but i couldn't help it since this is such a great angle of sara's hair.  i seriously can't get enough of it.

my mom left today (sunday) but we had to get a few more shots in before the sad moment arrived.

i keep trying to get a good picture of this girl but i can't seem to capture how stinking cute she is on camera.  so you'll all just have to come visit us so you can see her in person!

today sara is 5 days old.  i can't believe time is passing so quickly!  and i'm truly sorry to those of you who have had to wait for details on the birth or for me to return your phone calls.  the past 5 days have been a whirlwind of aches and pains and juggling two kids but i'm sure things will mellow out eventually... right? 

and one last final thanks to my mom for coming out to help.  i can't stress enough how much fun we had with you and how much of a life saver you were.  thank goodness grandma palmer is coming in a couple days.  i'm sure i'll have many more photos to post soon!

out with the old life.. in with the new!!!

tonight is (hopefully) the last night of our life without baby #2! 

we have been anxiously awaiting the day that my mom would get into town to play with scott

during all the upcoming events. 

and she made it! 

we're so happy to have her here and scott is in seventh heaven!



James has been working hard lately with his current surgery rotation.  And his preceptor recently told him to (and i quote) "take off all the time that you need."  

I'm still not sure if "all that time that you need" means a few days or a few hours.

and scotty and i have been spending as much time together as possible.  today he joined me while i gave myself a pedicure.  he was very adamant about me putting nail polish on every single one of his fingers and toes.  (don't tell james.)

i'm supposed to be at the hospital at 5am tomorrow morning!

so if all goes well then the next time i blog you will see pictures of our new little girl!

wish us luck!!!

p.s. thanks a MILLION to anne jones for mailing me her camera.

ours broke last week and without her i wouldn't be able to take or post any pictures of our new baby!

book signing surprise!

good news, bad news.
good news: the best people in the world (anne, bj, brody and macie) drove all the way up from columbus to SURPRISE me at my book signing.
bad news: my camera isn't uploading any of my pictures to my computer so i have no way of blogging all my pics AND i have to buy a new camera before the baby comes!!!

luckily anne loaned me some of her pictures of the event.  and even though i'm super hesitant to put these on the net for the world to see (because of that large white moon-looking-thing bulging out of my sweater) i am still thrilled that i can show how much fun we had.

here we are at caribou coffee at the book singing.  those windows surrounding us made sort of a greenhouse/sauna effect and my face was red and my armpits were sweaty but i still had a blast.

here i am with the whole jones crew (and scott... james is taking the picture).  i can't express how flustered and giddy i was upon their arrival.

after the book singing festivities we all went out for icecream at Malley's.  these little boys can't get enough of each other.  they were born on the exact same day and have been best buds ever since.

just look at them digging into their very own ice cream sundae.  (hey scott, leave some for brody!)

and how this guy can eat that humungous sundae all by himself and STILL weigh less than me (he seriously does) is beyond me. maybe his running three miles a day has something to do with it.  or maybe its the extra human growing inside of me.... oh well, i'm not going to over analyze it. :)

it was seriously such a fun day.  and a lot of my other cleveland friends came to the book singing too but again, those pictures are on my camera that is not cooperating right now. 

thanks everyone for coming and supporting me and thanks so much to the jones clan for the perfect surprise!