Kaitlyn Turns 3!

Happy happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl, Kaitlyn Rose!  She turned 3 this past weekend, and we had a great weekend celebrating HER!!

On Friday, we brought cupcakes into her classroom for everyone, and she wore her birthday shirt, and of course a tutu.

Cupcakes for her classmates!

One of her teachers even got her a present, awww!  A baby and a stroller.  Kaitlyn named her "muffin".  I'm pretty sure Kaitlyn is the teacher's pet ;)

On Saturday, her actual birthday, I got last minute tickets to go see Disney on Ice, Princess and Heroes. She loved it!  I got us the cheap seats, and they were actually really good!  We weren't close by any means, but we didn't have anyone on either side of us, so we had plenty of room to spread out.  And Kaitlyn needed her room, because she was up and down the whole time, dancing and singing.  The first part was 45 minutes, and then there was a 20 minute intermission. The second part was about 30 minutes.  It was just long enough to keep her attention, but the intermission was great because we got up to run around and have a potty break.

The Little Mermaid

Goofing around

Kaitlyn and her souvenir Ariel snow cone cup

Me and my girl

Sunday we had her birthday party at the park.  It was "Under the Sea" themed with the Little Mermaid.  We had it earlier in the day so it wouldn't be too hot, and so we would miss the normal afternoon Florida storms. Not only was there a playground, but they also had a splash park.  Kaitlyn had a blast, and was tuckered out by the time she got home!

The mermaid cake - my first time using fondant

Top left going clockwise: The cake, her little mermaid vinylmations, Ariel chilling, sand art, presents & cupcakes

Birthday girl opening her presents

Just before singing happy birthday!

Kaitlyn, happy birthday sweetheart.  You are such a joy in our life.  You are kind and so smart, you amaze me daily.  You're very shy when you meet new people, just like your mama.  But boy when you come out of your shell, there's no stopping you :) (Also just like your mama)  You can dance like nobody's business, I can't even do some of the moves you do!  You already have a wonderful, on pitch, singing voice (you definitely DON'T get that from me, but from your daddy) and I love hearing you sing all the time.  I love watching you grow and learn new things.  You just learned how to ride your tricycle ("That's because I'm THREE now!" You told me)

XOXOXOXOXOXO, Mommy

Weekend Recap ~ Labor day at Disney - Part One

 Happy Monday....errr Tuesday!  I hope everyone had a nice relaxing Labor Day Weekend!  We sure did!  We stayed out at Disney on Saturday night and Sunday night, with Andrew's parents and brother, Matt.  The resort we stayed at was the Pop Century.  On Saturday morning, we woke up, got the kids dressed and fed and packed!  Kaitlyn was so excited we were staying at a hotel!  We got to our resort and went to check in. 

 

Kaitlyn and I hanging out in the kids area

Disney really knows how to do it right!  We had a bit of a wait at check in, but Kaitlyn was fine jumping from ottoman to ottoman and watching cartoons in the kids room.  We also got to test out the new magic bands from Disney!  And if you haven't heard about these, OMG they are soooo awesome!  They are your room key, your park ticket, even your fast pass!  And of course true to Disney fashion, if you check in early, you can get personalized bands, and then you can add some bling to them as well.  It was so nice not having to keep track of our room key, or worry about having my credit card or any money on me.  Just as long as I had my band on my wrist, I was good to go! 

 

My Magic Band! LOVE!



Thebestmagic.net

I'm so thinking the pink one!!!!

 

We had a short walk from the lobby to our room, we were staying in the seventies building.

Remember the rotary phones?

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the room...bad Suzanne!  We dropped all of our stuff at our room and headed to the food court.  They have a pretty nice food court, with many different options.  Andrew and I both got the pizza bread, and Kaitlyn got a mac-n-cheese.  After eating lunch, we went back to the room and went swimming.  Luckily, Zack went down for his long nap for the day, so I got to go swimming with Kaitlyn and Andrew.  Andrew's parents stayed in the room and watched some college football.

 

We went in the "hippy dippy" pool. Again, no pictures!  We got back to the room, and Kaitlyn was pretty tired. She didn't have her nap yet and it was already almost 5!  She wanted to take a nap, so we let her sleep some before dinner.  Once she was up, it was time for dinner.  We decided to head over to the Animation Resort for dinner.  The Pop is connected to it, so we could walk over there.  It was a nice walk, the weather wasn't too bad, and Kaitlyn got to see some turtles on the way, and we checked out the big blue pool and the Nemo themed buildings.  We also had the dining plan for this trip, so I got to order an entre, a drink and a desert.  I don't remember what I had for dinner, but I do know I got a humongous cupcake, it was pretty good. 

 

After dinner, we decided to walk around the resort and check out the other buildings. 

First up was the Lion King themed buildings.

 



Zazu!

They had a cool play area of caves for the kids - It was with the hyenas, the elephant graveyard!  We watch the Lion King a lot, so Kaitlyn really enjoyed seeing all of the characters.  We also saw Simba - all grown up, Scar and then the scene of Little Simba, Timon & Pumba walking across the log.

 

Up next was the Little Mermaid!  I was super excited because Kaitlyn is in love with the Little Mermaid right now, plus her birthday party is going to be Under the Sea themed, so we were all excited!

 

Prince Eric (well his statue)

A "snarflak" You can see the rooms behind there

Family photo with Ariel and Flounder!

Love all of these colors!

Ursula!

And across is King Triton!

Don't forget Sebastian!

Dinglehopper! Kaitlyn thinks she's funny and will twirl her hair with her fork at dinner.....



Kaitlyn usually is scared of the villians in every movie, but for some reason she likes Ursula! She wanted her picture with her.

Kaitlyn really enjoyed pointing to all of the characters and calling out their names!  We definitely will want to stay here in the near future.  Even though we didn't head into the parks on the first day, it was still fun!  And I think Kaitlyn thought we were in the parks anyway! 

 

We walked back to our resort and put the kids to bed, they were both beat!   We snuck out for an evening dip in the pool.  It was very nice to get some quality one on one time!  And a perfect ending to our first day!  Up next, day two - do we get into the parks or not??

My Magic Band! LOVE!

Zackary - 2 months

Oh my sweet, sweet baby boy.  I can't believe you are already 2 months old!  That means I only have one more month of maternity leave.  This makes me so sad, but this is not the time to think about that!  I still have a whole month to enjoy your precious coos all to myself, everyday! 

2 Month Stats:

• 11 lbs, 15 oz (49%)
• 24" long (91%) - everyone definitely comments on how long you are!

You love to:

• Smile at mommy (especially in the mornings)
• Coo and make cute sounds
• Go for walks
• Swing and swing
• Be bounced and rocked, constantly.  You need to be constantly on the go, I have a bad feeling about this that as soon as you learn to crawl and walk, you will be all over the place!

Firsts:

• You had your first time in the pool!  I think you loved it.  You didn't cry and just looked around and enjoyed yourself.  I think you will definitely be a water baby like your sister!

You are such a good baby.  You nurse well and you sleep well.  Right now you are taking about a 2 hour nap in the morning and between 3-4 hour nap in the afternoon.  You go to bed around 8-9pm and sleep anywhere from 3-5am to feed, and then usually go right back to sleep.  Sometimes though, you want to play and coo with mommy for about an hour, and then you go back to sleep.  Kaitlyn still loves and adores you.  She is constantly kissing and hugging you and pushing your swing for you.  Not sure you like being poked and prodded, but that's how it is!  I am always saying to her, "don't touch your brother", and she always replies, "I'm not touching him".  And usually she has her fingers mere millimeters away from you, almost but not touching him.  I can see this same thing happening when your are both older...hee hee.

And time for some pics:


Look at the difference! Definitely fills out the onesie now!

Handsome boy

Photo shoot with Mama

Birthday planning

Well it's less than a month till my baby girl turns 3!  How is this possible?  I've been asking her every now and then what kind of party she wants.  Now that she's old enough to have an opinion of her own, I thought it would be best to get her input.....well if you have ever asked a 3 year old that question, it changes daily!  So far she has wanted a princess party, pink party, Tinkerbell party, poopie party (yeah....I know)....and this week she wants an Ariel party!  She has started watching The Little Mermaid, and that is her new go to movie.  Which I am ok with, so I thought, hmmm...let's throw her an Under the Sea birthday party!  Which could work great because I wanted to throw it at a park, and the park I am thinking of has a splash pad, as well as a playground.  Hmmm, maybe this theme will work pretty well!

Here are some inspiration ideas that I have found perusing le-internet.


Sun and Sand Themed Cupcakes from Cupcake Cutiees

Jello fish bowl from MarthaStewart.com

From http://www.blog.birdsparty.com/2013/06/a-magical-under-sea-birthday-party.html
 

Aren't these oyster cookies so cute? 

 

Today is a Kaitlyn, Zackary and Mommy day, so I might just take them to the splash pad to see what it's like and if I want to use it as the party location. If it's a go, next thing on my list is invitations!

Weekend Recap

We had a great weekend! Saturday we took an impromptu trip to Disney. We went with my in laws and  brother in law. Epcot was the park we went to.

We got there around 930.  The in laws got there before us, so they got fast passes for Soarin and they waited in line. Once we got into the park, we headed to The Land.  We couldn't bring any strollers in, including Zack's, which was a bummer since he was sleeping. But I got to really test out my Ergo, so that was nice. 

 

Me and my boy in the Ergo

Once we got to The Land, we had about an hour to kill before our fast passes were ready.  We met up with the family and found a place to sit that was out of the way. I fed Zackary while Andrew went and got us some snacks. Finally, it was time for Soarin!



Fast pass for Soarin

It's been a while since we were on Soarin.  Love that ride! 

Can't you smell the oranges and the pine?

After Soarin, we met back up with the in laws and the kiddos. Zack slept the whole time, and Kaitlyn ate a whole thing of Pez, so she was bouncing of the walls. We then went on Living with the Land, a boat ride.  This was Kaitlyn's first time on it. She didn't like the dark parts, but she enjoyed seeing all of the plants and vegetables.

We had lunch at the Electric Umbrella and then headed to the Character Spot so Kaitlyn could get her Mickey and Minnie fix. Pluto was also there, so she got to meet him too!



Super Excited for Mickey and Minnie!

It was getting late in the day, so we decided to head out of the park.  Spaceship Earth had only a 10 minute wait, so we went on that too! Again, Kaitlyn didn't like some of the dark parts. Zackary also started to get fussy, so I fed him for a bit, gotta love the dark rides!! And air condition too!

After the ride, we headed home.  Kaitlyn passed out pretty quickly in the car, she had a long day! 

And mommy and daddy got some ice cream!

Tuckered Out

Shhh...don't wake up the kids!

Sunday we went to church where Zack is going to be baptized next weekend. After church, we went to lunch with the pastor and his family at Smokey Bones.  We ended the weekend with dinner and swimming at grandmas pool. Great way to beat the heat!

How was your weekend?

 

My Birth Journey - Through Pictures

The condensed version of Kaitlyn's journey into the world.

One year ago today, Kaitlyn Rose was born @ 8:22pm!

At 7am I woke up to go to work, but as soon as I got out of bed, I felt a gush and quickly ran to the bathroom, my water had broke!

Arriving at the Hospital

Once we arrived at the hospital, I was admitted into triage where they ran some tests to make sure my water hand indeed broke, and it had!  Once in my labor room, they hooked my up to the monitors to make sure everything was ok.  Since I wanted a natural childbirth, I asked if we could get the mobile monitor so I could walk through my contractions.  As they went to hook it up, they realized it was broken.  So the nurse said I could walk the halls for 15 minutes, and then come back to be monitored for the next 10 minutes.  So that's what we did.  Walk the halls, come back to the room and sit on my labor ball.



Andrew was a great coach, we skipped through the halls..(in the beginning)



Lunch time, all I could have was a popsicle, Andrew got Pizza!

Since my water broke at 7am, I had 12 hours for my labor to kick start due to increased risk of infection.  If my body didn't go into labor on it's own, they were going to give my Pitocin.  That was the last thing I wanted!  So we kept walking the halls, and slowly but surely, the contractions were getting more and more intense.  My doctor visited me and said he would check me at 6:30pm for my progression, so I knew I had till then to get my body laboring!

Around 5:30pm is when the contractions were getting really intense.  I could no longer walk through the contractions, and had to stop and lean over.  Andrew helped immensely by pushing against my back for counter-pressure on my back, because that was where a lot of the pain was.
At 6pm, we were back in the room and it was getting real bad.  I started feeling the pressure down below and I felt a "I gotta go #2" sensation.  Once I said that, the nurses hurried me into the bed to check my progression.  Sure enough, I was fully dilated and 100% effaced, it was time to push!

Our OB was notified and I remember hearing that he wasn't at the hospital....and then a little later, he comes running in, out of breath!!  I think he felt bad he wasn't there on time!!!  At around 7:15pm, I finally started pushing, but had no idea what I was doing.  Andrew held up one leg and one of the nurses held my other leg.  Once a contraction would come, I would push.  After each push, I kept asking..."am I doing anything?"  I felt like my pushing wasn't accomplishing anything.  I know I pushed for about 45 minutes, but it felt like forever.  During my rest period, Andrew would give me my water to drink, and placed a cold rag on my head.  I tried the ice chips but they did nothing for me, ha!  Also in between pushes, I distinctly remember our OB nodding his head to my birth CD music, pretty sure it was a Dave Matthews song.  Seeing him dance to it, just made me laugh inside. 

I think my OB, Dr. Karen realized I wasn't pushing effectively, so we changed techniques.  I used the bars attached to the bed to hold onto, instead of my legs, for pushing leverage.  That seemed to help a lot.  Then once the head started to crown, they brought the mirror over so that I could see what I was doing.  I was a little leary seeing EVERYTHING down there, but it really helped me focus on my job and I could see what was working and what wasn't. 

At 8:22pm, our beautiful daughter Kaitlyn Rose Meyer was born, at 7 lbs, 6oz, 19.5" long!

Getting her first bath

As soon as they put her on my chest, I was in awe.  I think I said, "Hi baby, I'm your momma!"  It was so amazing!!! 



All clean and checking each other out



After I delivered the placenta, I needed to be stitched up, and it was BAD!  I had a third degree tear, and let me tell you, that stitching was way worse than the actual labor! LOL!   

The next morning, 9-15-10



Our Celebration Dinner, Kaitlyn got to "sunbathe" by the window with us!



I love her!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAITLYN ROSE!  You are so loved by so many people, and your daddy and I think the world of you!