not such a big girl

Isabel had her two month check up (already she's two months old!) and she is doing great! She is 10lbs 5oz and 23.25 inches. She no longer looks like a newborn at all, and everyone comments on how long she is (75th percentile... not bad). Since I am in no hurry for this baby to grow up, I am a little sad that she's already getting so big. But I am absolutely thrilled that she is healthy, of course. When I got home I checked the boys' growth stats, and realized that she is not that big compared to her brothers. When Alex was two months old he was the exact same length as Izzy, but he was two and a half pounds heavier (many of you remember those amazing rolls in his thighs, I'm sure) and at two months Devin was 3/4 of an inch longer (24 inches) but he was three and a half pounds heavier. So she's not such a big girl after all. =)

Speaking of big girls, today is Loretta's third birthday! Happy Birthday Retta!!! Devin and Alex wanted to call her this morning to sing, but I knew Loretta would be at daycare and then I completely forgot to call this evening. The boys will be anxious and excited to call tomorrow, so I hope the Tarnuzzers are ready for an early morning phone call complete with some enthusiastic singing! We love Loretta in this house.

anniversaries

This is a week of anniversaries for us. First was our wedding anniversary (our seventh). Sometimes I can't believe all that Andy and I have done, been through and accomplished in a mere seven years. We're on our third house, third child, third job for me (if you count staying home as a job - which I certainly do!) and third job for Andy (which is an accomplishment in itself, since he was changing jobs far more frequently before our wedding). With the multitude of things that need to happen and people who need something from us in our daily lives I think we sometimes lose our focus on the love that brought us to this place, and I am glad for a chance to regain that focus. Plus we get a date night, and I'm always happy for a reason to spend some additional quality time (i.e. kid-free time!) with Andy. =)
The second anniversary that we recognize this week was the third anniversary of Brianna's death. My sister and my family in Illinois maintained their tradition of sending off notes to Brianna on helium balloons. Annie and John maintained the tradition that we started of participating in the 5k road race to benefit Children's Hospital in Boston. And I think I have found a new tradition. I spent some time alone with my thoughts while walking in a beautiful wooded park near our house. It gave me a chance to really reflect on Brianna's life and all the wonderful things that it brought to my family and to many of the people in our lives who were touched by Brianna in some way.
I also watched our wedding video for the first time in ages. It was so wonderful to see all the images of our families at such a fun and celebratory time, but also it is among the only videos I have of Brianna. There are scenes of her walking Andy's parents down the aisle, dancing and hamming it up for the camera and even trying to touch one of the chickens that escaped their pen during our reception (very brave!). But the image of Brianna that touches me most from the wedding is one of her cuddling Andy as he was holding her. Then she smiled at me and said, "Maybe I'll marry Uncle Andy."

I miss you Punkin, and love you forever.

dream baby

Isabel is still a wonderful baby. The last couple nights she has been sleeping five and a half or six hours a stretch! If only we could keep her brothers in bed then Andy and I wouldn't be so exhausted... but she's doing great. She started smiling a couple weeks ago and has been stealing all of our hearts with her little smiles and gurgles. It is truly adorable.

I loved this series of pictures and couldn't pick just one to post, since they each are cute in their own way.

This one is my favorite.

Tummy Troubles and misc...

We think that the dream baby has tummy troubles. It started a week and a half ago, but really got intense this weekend. Izzy would start nursing and then a couple minutes later she'd drop the latch and start screaming, arching her bad and hitting me. This would happen once or twice an evening. Not exactly a fun way to end the day. It was clearly upsetting for her and rather stressful for Andy and I. I took her to the doctor yesterday and they think she may have a mild case of reflux. They likened it to heartburn, which doesn't sound like fun at all. So Izzy is taking a low dose of Zantac and so far it seems to be helping.
Tomorrow Devin has the follow up appointment for his eye. It looks so much better already. I hope he gets the all clear to go swimming soon, since our neighborhood pool opened early this year and he is already asking to go. Not that we won't have ample opportunity to swim this summer, if I can figure out how to get them to the pool while keeping Izzy out of the sun. I can't believe that we only have three more days of school (actually one more day for Alex). I'm not sure if I'm ready to have these hooligans all to myself all summer long. In some ways I am looking forward to it, since we all enjoy mornings where we don't have to hurry out of the house. However, on these lovely schedule-free days the boys often get tired of entertaining themselves by late afternoon and they start getting "creative". Which means that I am counting the minutes until reinforcements (i.e. Andy) arrive. I guess that is where the margarita machine comes in handy. =)

Happy Mother's Day!

What a wonderful day! My day started with a sleep in morning (other than nursing Isabel at 5:45 am, of course). Then the men in my life woke me at 8:30 with breakfast in bed. Devin, Alex and I devoured Andy's creme brulee french toast, chicken apple sausage and the fresh cut strawberries and bananas. The only thing I didn't share with the boys was my coffee. =) Each of my children presented me with presents (even though Andy and I said we wouldn't do presents for Mother's/Father's day this year. His argument was that the gifts weren't from him...) and I love them all. After breakfast was digested I jogged down to the neighborhood fitness center to lift, came home for a shower and left for church with Devin. Those of you with three small children (or with a baby of any age) know that getting a workout and a shower in the same morning is an unbelievable luxury! After church, Devin and I went to lunch and did a little shopping (since he needed a new bathing suit and none of my shorts fit me yet). When we came home and I puttered around the house, played outside with the boys and held my little girl a lot (Izzy is going through a growth spurt. She nursed seven times today and had two bottles. Wow!)
This day was more relaxing and fun than I had anticipated. I have to thank my kids and my amazing husband who made it all happen! I am one lucky Mama.

Pirate Devin

Devin's surgery went well. The doctor said that it really couldn't have gone better. Other than the vomiting in the car on the way home, he did great. He had to wear an eye patch yesterday, and that really bothered him. We tried to talk up the whole pirate angle, but that only appeased him for a while before he decided that he really wanted the patch off.

There were tears, but he was much better this morning when the doctor said he was doing well and only needed to wear the plastic eye shield at bedtime. His eye is red from the trauma of surgery, but the doc says it should look better within a couple weeks. He doesn't seem bothered at all about it now.

quick update on goals

Hi there,
Aunt Jo and Eileen are here and we are having a great time. Since I would rather spend my "leisure" time with them than online, I'm just doing a quick update on goals.

Here is how I did on my goals for last week:
1) Finish Alex's thank you notes - done!
2) Clean bathrooms & vacuum before my sister and Aunt Jo arrive - done & done!
3) Catch up on email - blew that off again
4) Get some exercise - two walks, one pilates tape and one run! woohoo!!
5) Assemble and print labels for Isabel's announcements - done and sent
6) Get through to Alex about his behavior at school - we had a better week this week, so maybe?

This next week I want to get more exercise and catch up on email. Other than that I'm planning on laying low, what with company here and Devin's surgery and all. Dev is having eye surgery on Wednesday to remove a red bump (that the doctor likened to a mole) from the white part of his eye. Hopefully things will go well and the pathology report will come back with good news. =)

closure

It's official. We no longer own a house in Massachusetts. This was supposed to happen months ago, but we ran into an issue with the title and had to wait for the builder and the Shrewsbury conservation committee to sort things out. Luckily Wachovia was great about it and continued to reimburse our mortgage until the close, and the close finally happened today.
Andy and I are both breathing a sigh of relief. It's a little strange though to know that the house there is no longer ours. We really are Southerners now.