Zachary Is One Month Old

Zachary turned one month old today, and what a month it's been!! Today he had his doctor's visit and he has gained three pounds and grown three inches, so he is now 11lbs and 23 inches long!! No wonder Mommy's back is breaking!! Dr. M is very pleased with his progress, and was very impressed that he is already tracking objects and lifting his head.

Lexi continues to be an amazing big sister, and was thrilled to have the opportunity to feed Zachary his very first bottle! He enjoyed it quite a bit, and Lexi did an amazing job.

In other news, we got about two feet of snow this weekend, much to Lexi's delight. She LOVES stomping around in the snow, and she and Daddy spent lots of time outside. Unfortunately, the snow wasn't good enough for a snowman on Saturday, and she got too cold to build one on Sunday. But she did enjoy shoveling and playing on the swingset!

Well, I'm off to get the last minute Christmas details finished up.

Merry Christmas to all!!

I Wish I Could Bottle This Up!

It's easy to say that quite a bit has changed for us in 2008. We've certainly had some difficult times throughout the year, but overall it has been a fantastic year filled with wonderful blessings.

Of course, the most wonderful change for us has been the addition of Zachary to our little family. He's been with us for almost a month now, and while we're all still getting used to each other, it's already hard to imagine our lives without him. So far he has been an amazing baby - very happy and healthy, and perfectly content to go along with whatever the rest of the family is doing. In his short four weeks with us, he has already entertained us with his adorable grin, tiny chuckle, and perfect little coos. Zach eats and sleeps very well, although he is much messier than his neat freak big sister. He prefers to poop without a diaper on, and his favorite trick is to shock us with a diaper-less poop, then pee on us while we're dealing with the mess, and then spit-up while we wipe up the pee. He thinks this is very funny, and has laughed at us while we race around trying to get it all cleaned up. His sister never pulled such shenanigans, and still can't stand messy hands or a stain on her shirt. Lexi has learned this routine of Zach's, and one day from across the room started saying, "Good boy, Zachary" after I finished changing him. I asked her why she thought he was being a good boy and she replied, "Because he didn't poop on you while you were changing his diaper!" I guess this is the big difference between girls and boys.

What's been so much fun about having Zachary with us is watching Lexi and Zachary interact. Lexi adores her brother and wants to be with him every waking moment. She loves to help change his diapers and clothes, she bounces him in his chair, brings him toys, talks to him gently, and sings to him. One morning Lexi was playing with Zachary while I made the beds. She was singing "The Wheels On The Bus" to him, and when I walked in to check on them Zach was looking right at Lexi and giving her an enormous grin. He loves his big sister, and is often comforted by her presence. I wish I could bottle these moments up, because I know that our future holds lots of yelling and fighting, but it's amazing to know that at such a young age, both children already love each other so much.

2008 has been a wonderful year, and we are already looking forward to all that 2009 has in store for us. But first we are really looking forward to a wonderful Christmas! We can't wait to spend Christmas with all of Lexi and Zachary's cousins! We've increased in size from three to five this year, so it's going to be quite a celebration! Then the following week we are looking forward to a visit from Uncle Devan and Aunt Jen from Colorado, so that we can celebrate Christmas with the Lippman clan. It's going to be a wonderful holiday season, and I look forward to sharing all the stories very soon.

A Few Pictures...

Zachary is growing up very fast, and is getting bigger each day. Here are some pictures from the last week or so...

Zach with big cousin Sophie - who until a couple of weeks ago was little cousin Sophie!

The whole family - that's a whole bunch of grandchildren!

Lexi decorating our Christmas tree.

Daddy and Zach have a little cuddle time on Saturday morning.

Zach loves to sleep in the swing!

Great-gram with her newest great grandchild.

Zach sleepy after his numnums.

What's In A Name?

When we originally starting tossing around the idea of the name Zachary, many people told us it was a good name because it's becoming popular again due to an actor named Zac Effron. Since I've never even seen "High School Musical", it's slightly horrifying for me to think that this is why people think we chose that name - especially since there is a much deeper meaning behind his name.
Naming my children after close family members is something I have planned to do since long before I had children...or even knew Ahren for that matter. It has been a common tradition in my family to pass family names onto our children - mostly as middle names. My name is Cristina Claire (Claire after my grandmother), my sister is Amanda Lyn (Lyn after my mom), etc. I always knew that a daughter would have "Lyn" as her middle name, and a son would have "Thomas" for his. My parents have been everything to me for my entire life and by giving my children their names, I feel as though I am giving them a piece of their personality. If Lexi has characteristics of my mom and Zach has traits of my dad then it could mean nothing but good things for them.
But Zachary lucked out. Not only was he named for my dad, but he was also named after my Nana (my father's mother) Mary Zaccari Licciardello. My Nana was one of my greatest teachers throughout my life. She taught me so much about faith, the importance of family, that giving is so much better than receiving, I could go on for pages. She was a remarkable woman who touched every single person she met. I spent most of my childhood being asked if Mary Licciardello was my grandmother, and when I responded that she was I would hear time and time again what wonderful thing she had done for that person. Since she passed away in 2004, I can feel her spirit guiding me in everything that I do. I know that she is in heaven, looking down on me and making sure that I make all the right decisions in my life - especially for my children. If I have a difficult decision to make, or if I feel like I don't know what to do I always ask Nana to guide me, and things always turn out okay.
When I was pregnant with Zachary I so badly wanted to have a VBAC. I had a c-section with Lexi where I was put out completely and no one was there to see her being born. I have felt robbed of that moment for the last three years, and I did not want to relive it. Towards the end of my pregnancy I was faced with a lot of decisions that could have had a great impact on his birth - the largest of which was whether I wanted to be induced so that I could deliver with my midwife before the Thanksgiving holiday (which she would be out of town for, assuring I would have a c-section if I went into labor while she was away). I was completely torn - I knew I was gambling no matter what I chose, but I was the only one who could make the decision and I soul searched for days about it. The morning of the 24th I stood in the shower and asked Nana what to do. I knew I would have to decide in about an hour, and I just didn't know which path to choose. As I stood there I went over all of my feelings about the induction, c-section, etc. and reminded myself that when the VBAC was first offered to me, I asked Nana to please let me deliver the baby on the 24th so that I would not have to be faced with what to do if I went into labor during Thanksgiving. Here I was, November 24th, being offered an induction by my midwife who I truly trusted with all my heart - the midwife who told me that the mind controls the body, and I would have this baby when I decided it was time. Was this Nana's gift to me? Was this her way of giving me what I wanted??
Later at my OB visit Ruth assured me that my body was ready, that the baby was ready, and that she felt confident that an induction would work. So...I agreed. For the rest of the day I was nervous. While everyone I talked to was so excited for me, I was scared to death - was I tempting fate, playing with fire? Was this a mistake?? Could I really do this med free??
And then it happened - Ahren walked me into the hospital and we met our nurse...Mary. I knew immediately she had been sent to me, and I told her that my Nana sent her to protect me during the delivery. It was 4pm and I told her that I had to deliver the baby before her shift ended at 11, because I knew she was there to be with me. We both laughed a bit, realizing that it was a pretty lofty goal for a girl who was barely yet in labor, but I knew it would happen. Sure enough, things moved along very quickly, and very well. Mary protected everything I wanted in my birth as though it was law. I had requested a quiet room, and she barely whispered during my entire labor. I asked for a dim room, and the lights were out completely for my entire labor. She protected me the way Nana would have - she was sent for me. After three hours of labor, and 1/2 hour of pushing, Zachary came out as healthy as a horse, at 9:33pm - well before Mary's shift was due to end.
I ended up needing a few stitches that night, and when I was finally able to get up out of bed, Mary and another nurse helped me to stand. In the dark room I looked down and saw a suture needle on the floor. I pointed it out so that no one would step on it. Mary looked at me and said, "How did you see that??" I don't know, but it was the surest sign yet that Nana had been with me in that room that night. In her house, there were always needles on the ground (sadly we usually found them with our feet, but it did teach us to keep our eyes peeled!).
Before Mary left that night she told me that for the very first time in her life, she called in to the hospital before her shift to find out what the night was going to be like. When she was told that a girl was coming in for an induction she said, "I'll take that one." She doesn't know what compelled her to do that - I'm sure it was Nana.
So, Zachary is certainly not named for Zac Effron - he is named after the person who has been most influential in my life. The woman who protects me and guides me every day. And if bearing her name gives him the same protection that I have, I know I'll never have to worry about my son.

Announcing The Arrival Of...

...Zachary Thomas Lippman!!!

Zachary Thomas was born on Monday night, November 24th 2008 at 9:33 pm. He weighed 8lbs. 3ozs. and was 20 inches long. We opted to allow my midwife to break my water on Monday in order to ensure that we had the best chance of having the birth we wanted. I'm so glad I made that decision. I was having regular contractions when we went to the hospital at 3pm. When Ruth arrived at 6pm I was still feeling fine, but within moments of her breaking my water I was knee deep in labor. I labored for about three hours in a beautiful, quiet and dark room with a fantastic team of Ahren, who never stopped rubbing my back for three full hours, my mom, who somehow managed to always say the exact right thing at the exact moment that I needed her to, Ruth, my midwife who I could not have been more blessed to find, and Mary, the nurse who I am sure was sent to me by Nana to help me through his birth. After about three hours of labor and a half hour of pushing, out popped Zachary Thomas.

Lexi has been amazing with her little brother. She is very good at taking care of him, and has been very happy to have him home. Ahren and I are adjusting to having a newborn in the house again along with a three year old, but so far all is well and we are as happy as can be.

I will try to be a little bit better about posting updates, although it's tough to find a free moment when no one needs the mama. :)

And.........go!

I have recently come up with the best possible analogy to the final weeks of pregnancy that I can think of, and while I think many people could appreciate it, only those who have run a marathon could come really close to understanding. Being in the last weeks of pregnancy is like having trained for a marathon for nine months. Then, the race director calls you, once you're all trained and says, "Okay, you're ready to go. You've trained well, your muscles are ready to survive the marathon and we will begin the race...sometime in the next three or four weeks. That's right, we're not going to tell you when. It might be first thing in the morning right after you've had a greasy egg breakfast, or it might be in the middle of the night while you're sleeping soundly. Maybe you'll be at work in your best suit, or at the grocery store picking up an extra gallon of milk. All I will tell you is that at some point the gun is going to go off, and when it does, you'd better start running." Anyone want to sign up for that event? This Dave McGillivray would be the director?
Every day I wake up and think, "If this is the day I go into labor, what do I want to get done today before that happens?" I am constantly reminded that I could continue along in this state for another three weeks, or in five minutes my water could break and I'll be "running" to the hospital. Everywhere I go I get comments and suggestions: "Oh my god, you're HUGE!!", "You should eat Chinese food." ,"Try going for a long walk.", "Have you tried having a beer?", "Just relax, if you relax then the baby can come out.", "Maybe you're too relaxed and the baby is just too comfortable to come out" (I actually got those two comments within an hour of each other), "Ugh, you're still here, huh?", and my personal favorite, "OH MY GOD!!! WHAT HAPPENED?!?!" When I asked what she meant she replied, "You got SO much bigger than the last time I saw you!" I explained that I was pregnant and she mumbled on about how ridiculous it was that I was so big...can you believe the nerve of me? Everyone tells me not to think about it, just try to go about my regular day, but how is that possible when every single person I encounter wants to have a ten minute conversation with me about when I think I'm going to have the baby, how early, late, or on time they were with their children, some crazy horror story about when their wife or mother or friend gave birth....it's ALL anyone wants to talk to me about!
Yet at the same time, it's very difficult for me to focus on anything but this baby right now. He has nestled himself so tightly in my pelvis that my legs no longer go together. He plays my sciatic nerve like the guitar, and when he gets bored he uses my bladder as a pillow to take a little nap - but much like the cats, like to push it all around for awhile, making sure it's nice and soft before settling in. Acupunture (originally intended to get labor moving) at least helped to relieve the heartburn that was making me feel like a fire-breathing dragon, so now the only thing keeping me from being able to rest is that everytime I get cozy on the couch my legs start jumping all around and I have to get up and walk around.
Anyway, the circus side show (me) is still hanging on, and I PROMISE to let you all know when the baby comes. I'm just waiting for the damn gun to go off!

Obama

I was reading Dooce.com the morning after the election and looking at the picture of her dog, Chuck with OBAMA written on his head in treats.

Lexi came in and looked at it, and was asking me what it was. I asked her to tell me the letters and she did so I told her that they spelled out Obama, and he is our new president. I had spent a good deal of time the night before talking to her about the election, and what the president does, and how amazing it was that we were about to elect our country's first African American President. So, I told her that he had, in fact been elected as our president and a little bit about how awesome it was and asked if she remembered me telling her about him last night. She said, “Yea, but Mama? Why is he a dog??” I didn’t even realized what I was doing!! I quickly went to boston.com to show her some pictures of the ACTUAL president. It was going through a slide show of pictures and we saw Obama and his family, which she thought was awesome. Then when there were pictures of crowds cheering she said, “Oh, and a wedding…” and then there was a picture of McCain and she said, “Oh, and it’s over…”

Halloween and More

This crazy thing has happened during this pregnancy, and has become more pronounced in my final few weeks - I have a lot that I want to say, but my brain is having a very difficult time forming my thoughts into sentences that the rest of the world will understand. I keep finding myself feeling frustrated that people don't seem to understand what I'm saying, but I realize that there is just so much swimming around in my head that I can't possibly get it all out. So, because of this I've had a hard time keeping up with e-mails, and keeping up with blog posts. It actually took me a half hour to compose a two sentence e-mail to a friend of mine this week, just letting her know that I was busy on Monday and wouldn't be able to get the kids together. Part of the problem was that I changed my mind no less than ten times while writing the e-mail about whether or not I should try to reschedule the day so that we could get the kids together...which lead my mind down the path of all that needed to be done before "What Then" finally makes his appearance.

So, all of that was to ask that you please forgive my lack of posting, and my lack of clear thoughts when I actually do post. I hate to let a few cute moments get lost because my brain doesn't work, so I'm just going to do my best...

First, Halloween was super cute. Lexi had a BLAST trick-o-treating, though I think next year we need to find a friend for her to go with. She and Ahren painted my belly to look like a pumpkin because we felt that it was too cute of an opportunity to pass up.

The next day Ahren and I opened our blinds to find our neighbors standing in the driveway looking up. When we went out to investigate what was going on, we discovered that JoJo the cat (from across the street) had escaped from the house the night before, climbed the tree, and been stuck up there all night. After much discussion about how we should get him down (which included propping up a ladder and hoping he would climb down on his own) Ahren finally became the local hero and climbed up to save little JoJo.

Genius Child

Lexi has known the entire alphabet and has been able to to identify all of the letters independently since just after her second birthday. Fadia works on this with her a lot because she really enjoys it, so she has now moved on to learning "little" letters, learning about the sounds that the letters make, and learning about how letters make words, and you can sound out the word to figure out what letters make that word. We have also been working on writing letters since she's been demonstrating much greater control over the crayon and making things like faces, lines and circles for a few months now. She's been amazing me with the speed that she seems to be picking up on these new skills and every time she writes her name for me, it becomes more and more clear.

This morning she was writing on her easel and came running in to bring me over and show me what she had done. This is what I walked in and saw...

Do you know what it was that she was excited about?? The new pink crayon she'd found... When I asked her what she had written on the page she said, "my name" like I was crazy for having to ask and then followed it up with, "but look, mama! Look at this new pink crayon I found!!!"

The child is a genius...there is just no denying it. :)

Friday Fun

On Friday Lexi and I rode her bike to the playground. She can now pedal and steer the bike completely by herself all the way there and back. She has also mastered new equipment on the playground which she thinks is pretty exciting...and it is. :)

Later we went over to check out my Nana's house as new tenants were scheduled to move in on Saturday. My mom has always liked having pictures of the kids on the mantle, but Lexi is usually a bit camera shy and has given us a hard time. Not on Friday!! She was striking more poses than a model!



It was a fun afternoon.

Brownies

Tonight Lexi and I made brownies for dessert to celebrate Daddy's birthday. We also made rice pilaf with chicken because that is his favorite dinner. Once dinner was ready I put her rice at her spot at the table. She wandered over, took a peek at her plate and said, "Ummmm...where's my brownie? I'm gonna need my brownie!" We laughed for a minute and explained that we have to eat dinner first.
So, Miss. Never-Leaves-One-Crumb-On-Her-Plate eats her peas and about three bites of rice and declares that she is all done, and hands me her plate. Ahren and I finish eating our dinner and she looks towards the kitchen with an innocent little look on her face and says, "So, about those treats...can we have them now?"
I think Lexi wishes that everyday was some body's birthday. :)

Hump Day

Lexi on our way to Fadia's this morning: "Mama, what day is it today?"

Me: "Wednesday"

Lexi: "Hey! That's one of the days in my song, 'There Are Seven Days In The Week!'"

Me: "Yup, all of the days of the week are in that song."

Lexi: "I think I should sing it, are you ready?"

Me: "Yup, ready."

Lexi begins singing her song, which is always interesting because she doesn't know when the song ends...so she just keeps singing it over and over and over..."Sunday, Monday, Tuesday Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc., etc., etc.," until she pauses after about 17 verses and says, "I just had to take a break to swallow and breave" and then continues on for the rest of the way to Fadia's, while I'm getting her out of the car, and all the way in the door until she finally had to stop to kiss me goodbye.

Thank goodness for the swallow and "breave" break or she might have passed out before we got there!

Just To Comment On The Ticker...

It will go away on Tuesday, so I'll repeat in here that it currently states, "Mommy is gaining a pound a week. Lay off the cake women, you're not really eating for two!!"

Yea, so I just have to point out that at my visit last Thursday I was told that I had LOST a pound since my visit two weeks prior. I was also told that while this was okay, I was not to allow it to happen again. Since I was, by no means, TRYING to lose that pound, I am entirely unsure how I am to prevent it from happening again. However, while I am not eating cake, there is pie...and I plan to continue to eat that pie to my heart's content. At this point I could say something very rude and vulgar to the ticker at the top of my blog, but I realize that it would be a little bit crazy to pick a fight with a ticker that I, myself, linked to this blog. So, I'll let it go at that... :)

Well, What Then?

So, in about 8 weeks or so I am due to give birth to a baby, who we happen to know is a boy. The only trouble with this is that we do not seem to be able to agree on what we should call this little angel. We've discussed several options:
Jackson - there are soooo many Jacks, though I love Jackson and also J.T.
Zachary - I'm not sure I love Zack, but I love that he would be named after my Nana (whose maiden name was Zaccari)
Cameron - Too feminine, though I love Cam
Nathaniel - Eh...
Anderson - Don't like Andy...sounds like windows
Vincent - I don't think I could seriously call him "Vinny"
The list goes on and on...
Last week at dinner Ahren and I were discussing our options again, mostly going back and forth about our top two (Zachary and Jackson), but throwing a few more in the mix. Suddenly Lexi comes out with the suggestion that she thinks we should name him "What Then." HUH?? "What Then?" we inquired? "Yes" she replied. Hmmm...as we attempted to continue discussing...um...REAL names she continued to interject "What Then!! We'll call him What Then!" only getting more and more upset the more we ignored her insistence. So, finally we just had to end the conversation so that she could go back to calmly eating her dinner.
The next afternoon she was looking through the books on our bookshelf and pulled off the "35,000 Baby Names" book we have (which, even though we bought used, still goes down as the worst spent money ever as this book is full of 34,995 names that are even more ridiculous than "What Then"). She said, "Look Mom, here is the book that has names we can call my brover" "Yes" I said. Then she opens it to a page about a quarter of the way in, looks intently at it for a moment, and then jabs her finger down on the page and said, "See, Mom?? There it is! 'What Then'!"
Oh dear...well at least one of us has chosen a name she likes!

Three Months Later And...

We're ALMOST done. :) The final contractor (the carpet installers) left the house on Saturday at 4:30. I knew that once the carpet was installed it would finally look like a real room, and it really does! Before the installers got there we let Lexi color on the floor. She traced her hand and "wrote her name" so that when the carpet gets replaced (someday, by some other owners) they'll know that Lexi's hand was there.

On Sunday, we spent the entire day moving our furniture into the new room, and starting to get things ready in the now nursery. It was a looooong day, and my back suffered terribly, but the room looks really great. There are still a few details needed (mostly decorative and exterior paint) but we are pretty much done now! HOORAY!!!

Here are some pictures before the furniture...

And after the furniture...