Easter! Easter! Read all about it!

As you all know, this past weekend was Easter.  Hoorah!  One of my favorite holidays for the kiddos.  Right up there with Christmas and Halloween.  I started preparing for Easter about 6 weeks in advance and purchased their Easter baskets as soon as they hit the shelves, then spent the next several stocking up on supplies for them.

I've always made their Easter baskets myself.  My mom always made ours, so naturally I made my kiddos'.  Honestly I didn't even realize you could buy premade Easter baskets until Cooper and Chloe's first Easter and I started shopping around.  (Yes, you read that correctly.  They're so close in age that they both had their first Easter's the same year. LOL)  Anyway, some of the premade baskets are SUPER cute and I certainly used them for ideas for toys and little gifts, but for me it's just fun to make them on my own.  It's like filing their stocking on Christmas.  Technically Santa does that and technically the Easter Bunny does their baskets, but since this is my private "mommy" blog, I can confess to you all that I am Santa and the Easter Bunny!  *insert evil laugh*

Well last weeks, with Easter quickly approaching, we (the hubs and I) decided to take our little bambinos to the mall to see the Easter Bunny.  Got them all dressed up, looking cute, called ahead to make sure he (or she I guess...) would be there, and headed to town.  Upon arriving at the mall, all hell broke loose.  Brodie was freaking out from the moment we entered the mall parking lot and was none stop crying all the way into the mall.  We passed the Easter Bunny on the way to the bathroom to re-group, check his diaper etc., and Bro took one look at him and screamed even louder.  We tried everything to calm him down...clean diaper, bottle, ride in the stroller, rocking, EVERYTHING, but nothing worked.  Josh and I keep switching back and forth holding him.  All of the kids had had runny noses the previous week, so at this point I'm thinking he has a massive ear infection and we need to go straight from the mall to the doctor's office.  Well everytime I hand him to Josh I notice the backs of his legs are beat red. ???  At first I thought it was just from getting out of the carseat, but 20 min later he's still screaming and his legs are still red.  I'm confused, but try to think about what's causing this, when I look down at his feet.  He's wearing a pair of "new" used shoes we had just got from his Auntie.  So I think, "Maybe he shoes are on too tight?"  I go to them off and the slide right off.  BUT, Brodie stops screaming IMMEDIATELY.  Don't know what it was or why they were bothering him, but that was the problem.  Maybe it's just the shape of the shoe or something because they were the right size and they weren't on too tight at all.  Whatever it was, he can't wear those shoes again LOL  Bummer too because they're SUPER cute.

Anyway, after everyone was calmed down we decided to make our attempt at a pic with the Easter Bunny.  That was a no go for sure.  Not one of them was at all interested in the Easter Bunny.  Probably shouldn't have bought them "Sweet Butter" popcorn only moments before....and the mall shouldn't have put him (or her) right across from the play place.  All they wanted to do was go play.  So, we headed into the play place and let them have it.  :)

They love that place!  Don't know if I've wrote much about it in my blog, but it's this play area in the mall, completely inclosed with about 3' high walls and bench seating all around for the 'rents.  It has several toys and play things, a play house, and a small slide and it's specifically for younger kids (although not all parents abide by the age limits and occasionally there'll be a giant 10 year old running around...)  Anway, the kids can take off the shoes and go nuts.  It's great! And...it's FREE!  Can't get any better than that for a family of five LOL

So no bunny pic for mom this year, but we did wonder into a photo booth and got some of the cutest pics we've ever had for $3.00.

After that we all headed home to await Easter!

Josh and my dad had to work Easter Day, but my mom picked me and the kids up early and we kept them entertained with Easter activities until the boys got home.  We did tattoos, colored Easter pics, and colored cookies shaped like Easter eggs.

(Mommy "helped" with Brodie's)

(Got a tattoo to match Daddy's)



When Daddy got there we started coloring Easter eggs, but Chloe had not had a nap and she'd had enough.  Bro was exhausted too, but there was too much going on for him to go to sleep.  Coop had a blast with it though.  We colored two dozen eggs and he still wanted to do more LOL  Chloe passed out on Daddy immediately after egg coloring and Bro went down shortly after that too.  When Papa got there they were still asleep and only Coop was awake, so we had dinner and tried waiting for the other kids to wake up, but the were O-U-T, OUT.  So we let Cooper find his basket and hid some eggs for him inside (by this time it was dark and chilly out).  He was hilarious finding the eggs and kept making the funniest face.  We had one egg sitting on the fan (the one I thought would be the easiest) and he had the HARDEST time seeing it.  Took him like 10 minutes! And we were giving him all sorts of hints LOL  Once the other kiddos woke up we headed home and Chlo and Bro got to find their baskets at our house the next day.

So Easter turned out great and the kids had a blast!

In other news, they're all doing wonderfully.  We've had a few "off" days with Cooper using the potty and he's had a few more accidents than normal, but a belive it's pretty typical to have some regression here and there.  We've got him back on track though and he's doing great.  Even pooped in the potty this morning!  (Have I mentioned that training potty is getting a little small for my "little" man's BIG dookies?)  And this morning Chloe went up to Josh and took her own diaper off and TOLD him she needed to do pee pee.  She even ran (yes literally ran) in there by herself to go!  Yay!  And of course of little Bro-dacious is turning 1 THIS WEEK!  It's crazy!  His birthday is Friday, his party is Saturday, and he has his check up next Wednesday (which means shots...boo)  Anyway, it's just crazy how fast time flies!

Well that's all for now.  Thanks for checking in everyone and I'll of course be back shortly with updates from Brodie's party and appointment. See ya!





The Potty Project: Part V (Clean Up On Aisle 11)

Mission: Potty Training
Mission Status: In progress...
Mission Targets: Cooper and Chloe Poston

Well folks, it's official.  We've had our first "out in public" accident. LOL  I took Coop with me to run my errands today.  He went to the potty before we left as usual, then went once at the library, then we went straight to the store.  He'd had nothing to drink, so I figured he wouldn't need to go until we got home. I wasn't even thinking about him needing to go potty actually.  I was too busy shopping for Easter basket supplies :)  Anyway,  we were in the baby aisle (ironically LOL) and I was picking out a sippy for Bro and I noticed Cooper just standing there staring at a jar of baby food.  It struck me as odd, but I didn't really think anything of it.  Next thing I hear...."Mommy.  I pee on my sandals."  Uh oh. LOL  I looked down and sure enough a puddle was forming in the middle of aisle 11.  Oops.  I made sure to tell him it was okay and be very calm so as not to embarrass him.  Luckily nobody was in the aisle with us, so there wasn't much cause for him to embarrassed anyway.  I told him I'd fix it, so I grabbed a thing off Pull-Ups, pulled one out, and proceeding to take off Cooper's sandals, shorts and underwear.  I got him down to a t-shirt and he says, "But mommy me nakey.  Me wanna get dressed." LMAO  At least he knows better than to get naked in private.  I probably could've taken him to the bathroom, but hey nobody was in the aisle and too be honest I was too flustered to think it through LOL  So I said, "Don't worry, mommy's gonna get you dressed" and I slapped the Pull-Up on him.  Then we headed up to the front of the store and I pulled the head clerk aside and said, "My son just had an accident on aisle 11.  I'm sorry" and of course she chuckled a littled and sent someone to clean it up.  On the way out we ran into the guy who mopped up and I appologized again and said, "Hey.  At least it wasn't barf. Or better yet number 2, but that would've been more MY problem than yours" LOL  It's all part of the process right? :)

In other potty news, Cooper is picking up on all sorts of "potty habits".  He's been mostly using the big potty in the kids' bathroom now and seeing as he doesn't tell me when he has to go I usually just follow him down the hall.  Once he realizes I'm there he pulls they "Hey.  You get outta here" and the "Please shut the door".  Some friends recently asked me where he gets that because as you all know, Josh and I are NOT private people what-so-ever.  Honestly I really don't know where it comes from and Mah-Ma (my mom) thinks it's just something inate in him.  Who knows? LOL  Typically I "shut the door" by pulling it mostly closed and leaving a crack to peek in on him, making sure he goes and what not.  Well, while peeking on him the other day I watched to make sure he peed then looked over to make sure he got his underwear up, but before he got his underwear up I see him grab hold of ALL the "goods" (for lack of better term LOL) and proceed to "shake it off".  I laughed out loud.  Apparently Daddy has taught him how to shake now. LMAO 

And in other news all together, all the kiddos are doing great.  Chloe is still using the potty off and on, here and there, but I know the more she sees big brother going the better she'll do.  One thing she IS an expert at is being a diva.  A couple days ago we were playing in the toy room and she say her big blue flower bow out of the corner of her eye and of course she just HAD to wear it, so she asked me for "pretty bow".  I put it on her of course then showered her the matching outfit, which is a summer one, so she's yet to wear it, but of course, she HAD to wear that too.  So I got her changed and she says, "So pretty!  Now me taka pickers (pictures)?"  Well, I NEVER pass up a pic opportunity so I grabbed my phone and said "Smile."  Swear.  That's all I said.  She looks at me and says, "I turn round" and starts striking all sorts of poses. LOL  Top model in the making!

And Brodacious is doing wonderfully as well. He's walking like a champ and is working on "talking" now as well.  He says, "ni-ni" (night night) when he's tired, and "buh buh" (bite bite) when we're feeding him, but not fast enough obviously LOL  And this week he said, 'no', 'hi', and 'yeah'.  And of course all the babbling too.  I also noticed yesterday he keep putting his finger in his mouth on one side and sticking it all the way toward the back. I just thought he was being silly, but Josh wanted to feel for new teeth and low and behold he's getting FIVE new teeth and already has one another tooth that broke through and I didn't even notice. In fact I was just telling a friend of my a few days ago that I didn't think Bro was getting anymore teeth right now LOL.  So now he has three on top (it was one of the teeth right next to his front two that came in) and the other side tooth is on it's way as well as all four incisors (the ones in the back, but not all the way back where the two year molars are).  He's been a champ considered all these teeth are about to pop through.

And speaking of "champs", the kiddos had their first ever sleep over with Mah-Ma and Papa this past weekend and they did awesome!  Daddy and I took off for a night on the town and the stayed over at our "old house" with grandma (papa had to work that night, but he was home in the morning).  I'm sure the fact that we had previously lived there for the last two years made it extra comfortable for them.  They played outside on the swings and see-saw, and played with all the animals, including the goats that are now roaming the land.  Cooper likes to yell at the dogs to "STAY AWAY FROM THOSE GOATS!" LOL Then they all got tubbies and went right to sleep for grandma. Yay!  In fact, when we went to pick them up Sunday they didn't want to leave LOL  We had to bribe them with cookies. Yum!  I'm sure they'll be having many more sleepovers and now that Papa is t done with night shifts he can be there for the night too :)

Well that got A LOT longer than I anticipated, but those are all the updates for now.  Thanks for checking in everyone!

Kid Quotes (#3)

How the heck am I supposed to discipline my children when all they do is crack me the hell up?? LOL

Here is a convo between Cooper and I today...

Me-"Cooper. Help mommy clean up the toys.  Please put your 4 wheeler away."

Cooper-"Uh.  I already clean up yesterday."

Me-"I know we cleaned up yesterday, but you need to put your 4 wheeler away."

Cooper-"That's Doughy's 4 wheeler..."  (Doughy is how he says Chloe LOL)

Me-"I know it's Chloe's, but YOU were riding it."

Cooper-"How bout me dust ride it still?"

LMAO

That's all.  After that I just started cracking up. I love it.

Kid Quotes (#2) "Diva Style"

As many of you know, our little Chlo Bear is a MAJOR diva and has been from day one.  I swear, even they way she would cry as a newborn just sounded so much like a little diva princess LOL

Well as you may have read in my previous blog, the other day I put on her Minnie Mouse underwear at her request.  Also as you may have read, they're a 4T because the little darling has unfortunately inherited my large behind LOL  Even in the 4T, the underwear are a little bit tight in the rear, so her little bubble butt just looked huge.  So our diva princess goes into the kitchen and is standing in front of the oven door, which as you all know is reflective, so she could see herself.  Well she turns around, puts her butt toward the "mirror", looks back at it and proceeds to sing,

"MY butt, MY butt, MY butt"

Houston.  We have a problem. She's going to want to wear make up by 5 and she'll be bringing a "boyfriend" home by 7.  We're in BIG trouble.

The Potty Project: Part IV (Get Outta Here)

Mission: Potty Training
Mission Status: In progress...
Mission Targets: Cooper and Chloe Poston

This past week or so the targets have recovered well from the "bathroom move incident".  The potties are back in their bedrooms and are again in use.  Hooray!

Cooper is doing VERY well this week and has made a lot of progress.  He's taken a liking to standing up to pee LOL  He will stand at the big potty and lift the seat like daddy OR he'll stand over the training potty and aim in LOL  His new thing is wanting to go "in private".  I'll follow him to the bathroom to make sure he can get his underwear off or see if he needs help or anything, but he'll tell me "Get outta here" and "Please shut the door".  Cracks me up.  And the underwear.  He's starting to get used to them.  He's been wearing them more and more and is really getting the hang of pulling them on and off.  He's even started to refuse diapers.  We've been putting diapers on him before naps and at bedtime, but he's been telling us 'no' he doesn't want to wear one.  He doesn't like Pull Ups either so I've been waiting for him to fall asleep and then I'll sneak one on LOL  AND he's even "trying" to wipe his own butt.  A couple days ago I heard the toilet flush so I went in and he told me he pooped and he was wiping his butt with this tiny little piece of toilet paper LOL So of course I helped him out and got him cleaned up (luckily there wasn't much poo leftover), but I was really proud of him :)  We're even going out in public in underwear now.  I just have to keep asking him if he needs to go and if he hasn't gone while we're out I'll tell him that he has to hold it until we get home, which he will.  The other day we went to the store for groceries and he held it all the way home, so I told him we'd go as soon as we got him, but we started bringing in groceries and he started playing with Sis and Bro in the front yard and I didn't take him right away, so he had an accident on the front porch :(  Oops.

Overall though he's doing very well and now we just have to figure out the next step of potty training at night.  I'm not too worried about it since he JUST started training, but I think we'll start taking some of the next steps like cutting back night time sippies.  He doesn't really have many "accidents" at night, but I know if he woke up and we tried to stick him on the toilet he'd probably freak out.  We'll just take this final step nice and slow LOL

Chloe is doing pretty well also.  She's still young so we're just taking it easy with her.  I also notice that she pees WAY more frequently than Cooper and I don't know if that's just her or if it's just because she's younger and her bladder is smaller.  I think that's one benefit until waiting until they're a little older to potty training.  Their bladders are a little bigger and can hold more, so they're not going as often.  She's still wanting to go around nakey like brother on days that he is naked and she did have an accident on the kitchen floor yesterday.  Afterward though she went straight to the potty and finished peeing there without me telling too, so she's really starting to understand the concept :)  Then Cooper wanted to go potty to of course, since Sissy was going, so they both went and then Coop asked for underwear and so did Sis.  I put on her new Minnie Mouse underwears which are a size 4T because honestly, my daughter inherited my large behind, so she needs 4T underwear even though she's a 2T waist LOL She wore them for an hour or so and then had an accident, so we had to revert to diapers for the rest of the day, but again, that's okay.  I don't mind taking our time and waiting until she's ready.

And last, but not least, Bro may not be potty training, but he is WALKING!!!!  Yes, ladies and gentleman, our 11 month old is officially walking!  He finally picked it up and is cruising like a champ.  He's still crawling sometimes, but I'd say he's walking more than half the time.  He's still a little unsure and unsteady, but we're so proud of him!  It's also kind of bittersweet because as much as I wanted him to walk, now I have three kids all walking around upright and I feel like my little "baby" is all grown up.  I have three toddlers running around now.  No more baby.  But it's still exciting and he's also starting to develope his own little personality.  He's waving and clapping now, which is adorable.  He was clapping along to "Man in the Mirror" when we were watching Idol.  So cute!  And he's starting to be able to really PLAY with the big kids.  Last week they used Josh's old video game chair (which is no longer a video game chair since we've sold our video game equipment due to lack of time to play, which we of course do not mind at all LOL) to make a "fort" of sorts.  They had it turned upside down and were playing underneath it and using it as a slide from the top and a tunnell from the bottom, and even Bro was playing.  Then yesterday they the slid the futon mattress halfway off and make a "slide" off the futon, and to our surprise Brodie climbed up it!  He was ON the futon!  He seriously thought he was king of the castle.  Only problem is, now that he's learned to climb up, he can't figure out how to get down. LOL  So a few minutes later I heard him "crying" for my attention, so I went back in there and he was at the edge of the futon and reached his arms out to me to get him down LOL

Well that's it for this potty (and other) update.  Thanks for checking in everyone!  Be back soon with more potty talk, Easter, and Brodie's birthday!

Kid Quotes (#1)

Today Josh was setting up the remote controlled car that Cooper got for his birthday and we figured out we needed to go get batteries for it, so I told Coop, "Mommy's going to run to the store and get batteries, then you can drive your car".  He looks at me, looks at the car on the counter, looks back at me with that, "Mom. Are you crazy?" face and says,

"But me no fit."

LOL  He's telling ME that he obviously can't drive that car. Hilarious.

The Potty Project: Part III (One Wrong Move)

Mission: Potty Training
Mission Status: In progress...
Targets: Cooper and Chloe Poston

Up until "now" the training potties have resided in targets' bedroom.  Last week, "mission control" (that's me) decided it was time to move the potties into the targets' bathroom.  The targets' (hence forth referred to as "the kiddos") had been using the potties on a pretty regular basis and it was my opinion that they had become aquainted enough with said potties to move them to a new, more desirable location...

Mission control....was wrong...

LOL  So I ended up moving the training seats into the bathroom the other day and I thought things were going well.  As soon as I put them in there the kiddos were stoked and each used their potty right away.  Of course they asked mommy to use the big potty (which I did LOL) and everyone clapped and was happy.  Hoorah!  Unkown to me, this success was short lived...

All day yesterday I assumed the kiddos where using their potties in the bathroom, until....I discovered one of their plastic toy flutes had unidentified brown material on the end of it...(suspensful music plays)  Instead of doing the 'smart' thing and tossing it immediately, I did the 'mommy' thing and smelled it.  I mean, who wants to get rid of perfectly good music making toys for no good reason right?  Apparently there was good reason...it was poop, and I was now alerted to the fact that somewhere in my home is the source of said poop...

So I went on the hunt and guess where I located not only the poop, but also several pee spots on the carpet?  Yeah.  The kiddos' bedroom.  The training seats were completely empty and they'd still been "going" in their bedroom. 

In all honestly I think it was my little Chlo Bear.  Cooper tends to use the real potty for pee and poop almost everytime he goes and quite frankly, since he's almost a whole year older, he's got a better grasp of potty training than our little princess does.  She still does fairly well, but it seems to be a "hit or miss" type of deal with her.  If I catch her at the right time and take her to the potty, she will use it, but apparently this time was a "miss". LOL  And who can blame her?  She's barely two.  She'll come around in her own time :)

And really I have no way of knowing who done it, but it doesn't really make a difference either way.  They're both still learning and clearly mommy rushed into the next step.  So for now I've moved their potties back into their room and we'll give the bathroom move another shot in a little while.

On the UPside, we went into town for Cooper's three year check today (which went awesome by the way).  He checked out perfect, was up to speed on all his milestones, and weighed in at whomping 32lbs!  Yippee!  But the BIG news is...he wore his big boy underwear all the way to town, the whole time we were there, and back too, accident free!  He even told daddy when he had to use the restroom at the doc's office!  We're so proud of him!

And Chlo Bear is doing excellent too!  Her verbal skills have REALLY taken off and she's quite the little chatterbox now.  She copies a lot of what Cooper says and sings (he hates that) and does, like wanting to not wear a diaper, which as you can see from above, gets a little messy LOL  She's also had a MAJOR growth spurt over the winter.  I just put their summer clothes into storage last September, so only 6 or so months ago, and when I pulled them out, she's outgrown EVERYTHING.  Her summer dresses that had been down to her knees now look like shirts.  And the shorts, forget about it LOL  She also has two of her four 2 year old molars coming in, but suprisingly she hasn't been all too cranky which is great for mommy and daddy, and HER of course.

And last, but not least, little Brode Man is doing wonderful as well.  He'll be ONE in less than a month and we're in process of planning his first birthday party!  I personally can't wait because he needs a haircut TERRIBLY and daddy says we can't do it until he turns one, so let the countdown begin! LOL  He also has teeth coming in.  He has four right now, two top and two bottom, and one more next to his two bottom teeth is poking through, so I assume the other side is on it's way soon as well.  He's still not walking walking, but he's up to about 3 or 4 steps at a time on his own.  He's in that phase where he starts walking and then gets shocked like "OH!  I'm really doing it!" and then freaks out and kneels down LOL  Soon though.  VERY soon :)

Well that's about it for today.  Thanks for checkin' in, and we'll be back with more adventures and updates shortly!

The Meaning of Being "Pree"...

As a child, birthdays are one of the best, if not the best, "holiday" of the whole year.  Next only to Christmas and maybe Halloween or Easter, for the candy of course.  Counting down the months, then weeks, then days, until finally you're a whole year older.  Yippee!  Cupcakes at school, friends over to play or spend the night, cake and ice cream, and oh yeah, PRESENTS!

Well somewhere in that whole mess of fun are mom and dad.  As a kid they're the ones setting everything up and buying your cake and supervising your party, but from a kiddo's perspective, that's really all they're up to.  I know that's how I used to think when I was five, six, seven, years old, but in reality, there's a completely different side to birthdays...

And you never see it coming until you become a parent and your child's very first birthday rolls around.  It usually starts the day or night before.  For me and the hubs, it started that morning for our oldest little guy, Bubba.  Come the morning of April 1st, April Fool's Day, we started recalling the days events as they ocurred three years ago...

I remember my parents were out of town, so hubby was driving me (37 weeks and 1 day pregnant) to work.  On the highway we joked about an April Fool's Day baby, and the fact that my parents were flying back that day, so we were officially out of the woods for baby coming while they were gone.  I said, "Unless something starts RIGHT NOW, there's no way we'll have this baby before they get back".

I got to work.  Normal day, normal comments...."You're going to pop any minute now!"  "When were you due??!!" "Wow!  You've really dropped!"  But I didn't notice anything different.  So 2:45pm comes around, I'm on my last break, sitting in the hallway talking to my mom (they had just got home) and I felt a "pop".  My very first thought was "that was my water", but I shook it off because hey, let's face it, this isn't a movie or television.  It's real life and that's not how it really works.  Less than 10% of women have their water break on it's own.  It's not like on TV when WHAM water starts gushing, plus, nothing came out, so I just continued to sit and talk for a good five minutes more.  I was getting ready to say goodbye and head back to work, so I stood up...and that's when my movie moment hit.  There was the gush and my pants were soaked.  I told my mom I thought my water broke, but she didn't believe me.  She told me to go to the bathroom, squat down and see if more came out, which it didn't, but walking out of the bathroom I had my second and third "gush".

The clinic was only a few miles down and with no car I decided to make my first attempt at calling a cab, so I could get checked out first before running to the hospital for a "false alarm".  After all, it could be pee right? Since I had no idea what the number was for the cab company, I asked a co-worker which it when the stuff hit the fan.  She noticed my pants were wet and freaked out.  Screaming  my water broke and pushing me back into the call center yelling for a doctor.  I wasn't even contracting LOL  Anyway, the docs came over and I assured them I was NOT contracting, but I think they figured I just didn't know what they felt like, so they deduced that I should take an ambulance to the hospital just in case.  I was reluctant, but hey I didn't have a ride anyway, so what the heck.  They didn't call the 911 type ambulance, it was more of a "medical ride" type of thing.

The made me take a wheelchair downstairs and had the scrawny EMT guys lift my 225lb self into the ambulance and then had to check and see if I was crowning on the way there LOL  After that things pretty much went as they normally do at the hospital.  Got checked it, confirmed it was my water, moved upstairs, and by this time my parents were convinced and started to come to the hospital, and I was finally able to get ahold of the hubs who was on his second day of training at a new job and couldn't have his phone.  What timing huh?

Upstairs they started me on Pitocin (meds to simulate contractions, since I truly was not having any. Things went slow for a while and by 7:30ish the fam decided to head across the street for sandwiches, which was fine with me becuase I still wasn't feeling contractions.  About an hour later when they got back I was in awful pain (well I considered it awful at the time...I had yet to experience "natural labor"-that comes with baby number two, Sissy).  I got the epidural and didn't feel a thing.  They checked me at about 9:30pm and I was only 3cm.  Up until this point the epi was working great, but about 10pm (only half an hour after my last check) I was feeling a TON of pressure.  I kept buzzing the nurse saying I felt pain/pressure and they kept saying they'd send someone in.  This went on for about ten minutes with nobody showing up, so I finally decided to tell them I "felt the need to push".  That got them moving. LOL

The nurse came in, checked me and said, "Wow.  Uh.  Wow."  I'm like, "What? What does that mean?"  She's says, "You're fully dilated and there's no cervix left".  I this point I don't know too much about labor, so I'm like, "Am I supposed to have cervix left?" LOL  She said, "No. You're 10cm. You're ready to push."  I was shocked.  They got everything set up, the doc came in,  the hubs came up next to me and at 10:45pm on April 1, 2008 Cooper James was born.

I remember laying in the hospital bed, holding him, thinking about how fast he was going to grow up.  I actually remember thinking, "Before we know it, you'll be three, then five, then in Kindergarten, then graduating."  I really couldn't even grasp how quickly it would actually go.

Now that I'm "grown-up", birthdays have a whole different meaning.  The word "birth" actually makes sense, and you realize just what an important day it really is.  As a kid you know what your birthday is, but you never realize what it truly means to be "pree"....