Baby Tag

I have been tagged a few times and never responded, so I am going to attempt one. For those of you non-bloggers, that means that a friend wrote about a specific topic in her (or his) blog and asked others to play along by writing about the same topic, in this case answering questions about when your baby was born. How could I not write about that?

Especially because I haven't been in much of a bloggin mood lately, with Chuckolate being gone almost three weeks, spending much of last Saturday at the hospital because Tessa had a minor ear infection, and getting a red light ticket in the mail! This is not my year so far. Though Baby Tag really doesn't sound like much of a game, it will be fun to write about when my babies were born. So here goes-

1. Were you married at the time? Yes, for 6 years the first time and 9 the second.

2. What were your reactions when you found out you were pregnant? I danced around the kitchen with my dog the first time and tried to hint for Chuck to check something out in the bathroom (the test) the second time because we were having a BBQ and I wasn't ready to announce it to everyone. He didn't get the hint, though, and I had to tell him what to look for.

3. How old were you? 25 and 28

4. How did you find out? The first time I was grocery shopping and wanted roast beef (the deli kind you eat in sandwiches and I usually don't like), chocolate chip cookies, and pickles. I knew right then and there (it was the meat, really).

5. Who did you tell first? Chuckolate. Are there many people out there telling someone other than the father first?

6. Did you want to find out the sex? Yes, though I knew it was a girl both times before the ultrasound.

7. Due date? I think Sophia's was May 13th (I can't remember exactly because the doctor and I didn't agree) and Tessa's was June 2nd (though I thought she would come earlier).

8. Did you deliver late or on time? Sophia was about 3 weeks early and Tessa was almost a week late! I was expecting Sophia late and Tessa early, so that proved to me not to expect anything and how different they could be.

9. Did you have morning sickness? Definitely, and it didn't end in the morning. Fortunately, both times it went away shortly after the first trimester.

10. What did you crave? Fruit, lots of fruit. And once a burger from Burger King. It is the only time I have ever had one...and I can't even remember what you call them!

11. Who/what irritated you the most? Raw meat made me really sick and I couldn't buy it, but I don't remember anyone that irritated me a lot.

12. What was your first child's sex? Girl

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout pregnancy? Too much!

14. Did you have any complications during pregnancy? Nope.

15. Where did you give birth? Yokota base hospital, though Sophia was almost born before we made it there. I was pushing the whole time as Chuckolate drove us across the flightline. By the time we got there, it was only 7 minutes from the time we entered the emergency room until she was placed on my chest. And Tessa was born at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, NM.

16. How many hours were you in labor? Well, my water broke 16 hours before Sophia was born but labor didn't start until maybe 6 hours before. And my water broke almost 24 hours before Tessa but they had to induce me because my labor wasn't EVER going to start.

17. Who drove you to the hospital? For Sophia, first a friend (Autumn), then Chuckolate, then Chuckolate again. For Tessa, just once and it was Chuckolate.

18. Who watched? Chuckolate and some nurses/techs/doctors (I wasn't too observant at that point)

19. Was it natural or c-section? natural both times

20. Did you take medication to ease the pain? The first time I was given a pain pill and a sleeping pill and told to go home and "sleep it off." Obviously THAT didn't work. The second time I got an epidural because I had to be induced and thought it was going to take forever and they wouldn't let me move. Actually she came before the epidural took any effect that I could notice.

21. How much did your child weigh? Sophia was 7lbs 4.5 oz and Tessa was 7-11.

22. Did your child have any complications? None.

23. What did you name her? Sophia Kalena and Tessa Kinley

24. How old is your first born today? 4 1/2 and 1 1/2

I know I was supposed to answer about just one child, but I don't like following directions sometimes! And I am supposed to tag someone else now, but I don't know anyone else that blogs and has children except who tagged me! I couldn't resist sticking in a photo of each girl a few hours after birth.

Show Day: Our little Gymnast(s)

Sophia had Show Day at The Little Gym today. Parents, family, and friends were invited to come into the gym and watch the kids do the different skills and routines that they have been working on. It was a way for Sophia to demonstrate her abilities and for me to get plenty of videos and pictures. She has greatly improved on the high bar, the balance beam, and the floor routine. They also had a little free time to play and show us their other skills. Sophia was mostly interested in the bars and the rings for that portion. She loves flipping over the bars or spinning around on the rings. She was disappointed that the bars were at a lower level today because she likes them to be higher up! She certainly doesn't take after me!

For Tessa, it was a dream come true. She has been trying to get in there since August, but the door is very heavy and the teachers or Mommy always block it when it is open. Unfortunately, it was difficult for me to devote my entire attention to both children, so I did a lot of running around and restraining Tessa when she just wouldn't sit still for me to watch Sophia. Some of my videos may have a bit of jostling as I tried to juggle children. Hopefully, Daddy will be in town the next time there is a Show Day!Sophia's class poses for photos.Tessa can do a TaDa too!

Here is her gold medal...

A few minutes in the life of Tessa

Here is Tessa, trying to take the camera away, looking in a little mirror on a hairbrush, and answering a few animal sounds questions. She is also telling me when she is no longer interested.

A quick update on her skills: last night she completely undressed herself in the crib. I suppose I should be thankful that Sophia came downstairs so many times that I finally had to walk her back to bed and noticed my naked baby in the crib! She also has managed to figure out how to close doors, from the outside. So she grabs the handle and pulls them shut, next step, opening doors! She really tries to do this one but doesn't get a good enough grip on the knob, I think. And she opened the refrigerator the other day. Sophia never even tried to do these things until she was 2 or even 3. I am in so much trouble.

Museum girls

Sitting on an Albertosaurus' toes.

Daddy is still gone, and us girls wanted to do something fun (and free is always good!) so we made a trip to the museum. Not to mention that I was quite tired of figuring out breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day and the museum has a great cafe!

Sophia thought going to the space area was the most fun today, especially pressing the buttons that made different galaxies light up. Tessa thought that running away from me was the most fun, which was the LEAST favorite part of my day. But we all enjoyed seeing the dinosaur statues and exhibits, watching the sharks, playing with the dinosaur eggs and eating yummy food that Mommy didn't have to cook or clean up after (besides clearing off our table).

I am almost always the Mommy telling Sophia that the museum store is "just for looking" so I decided to let her pickout a small toy to take home today. Our museum membership is ending soon, so I thought I would take advantage of our store discounts!

She picked out a Prairie Dog that she thought was so cute and even moves her head around. Prairie has already had a tour of the house, tried some blueberry yogurt, and is helping Sophia color some pictures now. She is fitting right in.

Tessa is 19 months!

I thought I would do an 18 month blog, but she hadn't been weighed or measured in awhile and I didn't know how big she was then. Well, she had her doctor's appointment last week and I found out that she is still super tall. Her height is 36 inches, which is off of their growth charts for a 19 month old. That means she is taller than more than 98% of other babies that are 19 months. Wow! Her weight is 23.5 lbs, which is about 25%...a little heavier than she has been in the past which is great. Her head is small (only 10%), though the doctor says that is not a problem as long as she is developing normally.


The questions they ask are things like whether she is starting to take off her own clothes, following simple directions, eating with a spoon, stacking a few blocks, coloring with a crayon, saying about 10 words, using two fingers to pick up small objects, kicking a ball, and putting together a two-word sentence. The only one I said no to was the last. However, since then I decided that her telling me "Book uh-oh" and "Fia uh-oh" or "Sis did-it" probably qualify as two-word sentences for a toddler. And later that day she told me "Tessa's shoes" and I recalled her telling me others things that were "Tessa's ___" so I guess I just hadn't thought about it long enough.

Yes, she does call her sister both Fia and Sis, and yes she does often blame her sister for things, even when she didn't actually do them! She bonked her head on the counter and told me, "Sis did-it!"

Since I knew she could say her name, I decided to start asking her, "What is your name?" Sophia helps me play this game with her by giving her an example of how to answer. She often answers, "Tess!" though occassionally will tell you "Tessa" and sometimes won't say anything intelligable at all! Here is a little video of her saying "Tess" and then not answering at all because she thinks it is her turn to take the video!

She also loves to play the animal game and can tell you "meow" for a cat, can pant or say "woof" for a dog, says "ooh, ooh" for a monkey and "moo" for a cow. She says "oke, oke" for a pig, but who really thinks they say "oink" anyway? ;-)

Happy 2009

Here are a few pictures from New Year's Eve that I never posted. Sophia and her friend Sydney stayed up past midnight! I really was shocked at Sophia, but she did just fine. I kept thinking I would put her to bed as soon as she got whiny, or mean, or unpleasant to be around. That is usually how she acts when she is overtired but that night she was fine so I let her stay up. The girls decided to make domino towers and had amazing dexterity for being so very over-tired.

Here are a few photos of the girls enjoying their new toys. Tessa was so busy playing, she didn't notice her pants slipping right down, oops!

Sophia poses with her new uni-sus (unicorn/pegasus).

Here Sophia tells me what she would like for a snack.

There's a Museum for Balloons?

In Albuquerque the answer is Yes! And it is pretty cool. We went there for the first time a few days ago and had more fun than I expected. I wanted to do something different than usual, and not too expensive, and something for the girls to have fun with their Daddy while he had some time off and before he left for a TDY of undetermined length. (We're hoping he will be gone only a week, but it could be a month. We really don't know.)



The Balloon Museum has many interesting things including a hot air balloon flight simulator, build your own mini balloons, a machine to test the strength of balloon fabric, a space capsule/stratolab to sit and play inside, a book nook with books about weather and flight, and a life sized old fashioned hot air balloon that was much more like a boat. There were many displays about the history of hot air balloons, including their early use in military combat, but I didn't have much time to read any of that. We were rather busy chasing after our very active daughters that wanted to see everything right away. We took several videos while we were there, so here are some of them.