christmas time

So sorry it has been a while since i last blogged...motherhood has consumed my time and for some reason, I have such a hard time balancing my time well. I spend most my days playing with Carmen, feeding Petra and adoring them both. I couldn't ask for anything better.

Carmen had her christmas concert last week. and, of course, she shined.



Here is some video of our little sugar plum fairy.



Santa Claus also visited after the concert and Carmen actually wasn't afraid of him this year.



In between feedings and play times, I've managed to snap a few shots of the girls. I can hardly believe how fast they are both growing. Petra seriously grew two inches last night and I'm afraid of how big she'll be tomorrow. But with each passing day, she becomes more animated and cute.













The other night we went to Disneyland. I just have to say there is no better time to go. Disneyland is so magic and with all the Christmas decorations they have up and all the Christmas music playing, it makes both Disneyland and the season even more magical. As I was there, I got to thinking about how amazing Walt Disney was. I wondered if people must have thought he was crazy when he proposed making a place where people could go and go on rides where they could experience far away and imaginary places. A place that always brings the hugest smile to everyone's face. A place where a bad day doesn't exist. The place is just so well done and absolutely amazing. I realize that this sounds mushy and all, but I've been lucky enough to go to Disneyland several times this year and every time is more special than the next. And it just got me thinking about how amazing that visionary man was. I think I could go to Disneyland and never get sick of it. I'm pretty sure Carmen could too. As we were leaving the park, Carmen was half awake and still asking to go on rides. Awesome.

Petra's 2 months old

I can not believe 2 months has gone by already. It's nuts.
We went to Petra's 2 month check up yesterday and she's growin' up real good.
She was 11 lbs 11 oz and 22 inches tall. She's getting so big.

Today, I had a little mini photo shoot to commemorate her 2 month birthday. I got some good ones of her and actually got some good ones of BOTH her and Carmen. It is so tough to get Carmen to hold still enough to get a good shot and she absolutely does not take direction. So, I get what I get and even the ones where she is crying or angry are cute.









I love this one below because Petra's face is like, "what the hell?" as Carmen screams into her ear:



Carmen freaking out:



A sweet moment:



My favorite:

Romy

Today our sweet Romy passed away.

We rescued her 10 years ago. She had been left in a shelter for so long she was going to be put down. A coworker of mine volunteered with the humane society to rescue dogs who were on the verge of being put down and asked me to foster her. The moment she came into our home, there was no way I was letting her out. She was so docile and sweet and I fell in love with her right away. As our family grew, she continued to be as sweet and wonderful and warm as the day she walked in. She was so sweet around children. Carmen absolutely adored her.

She became ill a few weeks ago and never recovered. We are so sad to have to let her go now. Our family feels like there is definitely something missing. Goodbye sweet Romy. We love you and will miss you greatly.

Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to a pumpkin patch for the very first time ever. Carmen's class went there on a field trip so we figured we'd all go. There were rides and a petting zoo. Carmen's favorite ride, was of course, the carousel. Here are some of the pictures:







Petra is going to be very tough:



and very loved:

It's tricky

So, I love, love, love our new addition:



But I am definitely finding it tricky to balance Carmen, Petra and finding time to clean, do fun things with Carmen and do fun things for myself. Being a full time mom is hard. But, I do love it and will be sad when I have to go back to work.

Petra is a little different from Carmen (when Carmen was Petra's age). Although they do look ALOT alike (I'm very curious to see how Petra's looks will unfold). Petra is pretty calm for the most part. Carmen was impatient and still is. Petra loves to cuddle. She loves being around people. She's very strong. And she likes to eat! Both Carmen and Petra are good babies. I love them both so much and really like this family dynamic, although there's not enough time for everything (this blog post took 3 days to finish..hahah)!

Here are some pictures we managed to take this month:

Making cookies:



Carmen gives Petra "buddies" while she is in her swing:





One month old now!



and smiling:

ABC

Here's a cute video my dad shot of Carmen singin' her ABC's.

Petra Arden Mehrdad

Our little baby girl has finally arrived! Petra Arden Mehrdad was born September 18, 2009 at 2:03 am. She weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and was 20 inches long.

The week before I had gone to the doctor and had made no progress, but Petra was in position as she had been flip flopping every week. At this point, I was pretty sure she was probably going to be late, but decided to try to get things moving by going on walks and trying to keep active. So every night leading up to her birth I had gone for some walks in the park. The night before, Shay and I went to see the Killers where I did my best and trying to dance.

(Side note: we met Ronnie back stage where, of course, he had a gathering of guests. One of whom was Dave Grohl. Ronnie introduced him to us and started immediately giving Shay daddy advice as Dave had just had his second daughter a few months before. It was very entertaining to hear his words of wisdom. He and Ronnie later rubbed my belly and congratulated us).

Thursday, September 17 I was too tired to do another walk, so I took it easy. I finished packing my hospital bag and I went to bed about 11. Soon after, Petra started moving around like a maniac and I sort of thought to myself, "my water's going to break." A few moments later, it did. It popped like a water balloon. We jumped up, scrambled to collect everything and off we went to the hospital.

Once we got there and checked in, the nurse checked me. I was dilated to a 3 but they couldn't feel a head, so they ordered an ultrasound to find out where she was positioned. Of course, she couldn't stay still and we discovered that this little girl was breech...which meant c-section. We weren't thrilled about it, but, oh well, we were excited to meet our new daughter. So, they started prepping us for surgery and moments later, we were in the operating room i was getting all numbed up and then Shay joined me.

A c-section is very strange compared to natural birth. I could feel the pressure of them trying to get the baby out and then, she was here! And she was gorgeous. I got to hold her for a few moments and then she went to the nursery with Shay and I went to recovery where I had to wait several hours to hold my sweet baby again. We stayed in the hospital until Monday and so far, I think I've been recovering fairly well.

She's amazing. She looks a lot like Carmen. So far, she seems like a pretty chill baby. And we just love her.

Carmen has been such a great big sister. She's always so sweet to her and wants to hold her all the time. So far, it's been pretty great and we are really enjoying the new addition.

Old Pictures

I downloaded my camera the other day to download the new pictures of Petra, and discovered all these gems I had failed to upload. So, here's a little smattering of some great pictures.

A couple months ago we went to Sea World and Carmen got to meet one of her favs, Elmo:



I had been doing something in the kitchen, when Carmen called out to me, "Look mom, I made a 'J'."



Just an adorable picture of Carmen and my sister Janna:



Everybody has these, but here are my babies, sleeping so cute together:

Last weekend of summer

Sadly, I had to work a lot this holiday weekend. But, I still managed to spend some QT with the fam. And sadly, the stress of work has not induced an early labor. So, we still wait on that. Shay, Carmen and I managed to go to a park to day and play and run and hang out. There are several parks that overlook the ocean on the Palos Verdes pennisula, so we decided to go to one of those parks. It was so nice and cool as it has been really hot for the last couple weeks. It was a lot of fun. Carmen played on the playground while we chased her around. I managed to get some fun pictures of the day.









This little boy just grabbed her hand. The little boys like Carmen. I think we're going to have to ground her for her teen years. But the boy was cute and i loved that he was wearing a Ramones shirt and he had the cutest little afro.



Below are some pictures we took of us. I probably need to have my sister do a family shot of all three of us as it will probably be the last of just the three of us. sad and happy. i can not wait for the arrival of Petra, but it is





In other happenings, we decided to stop letting Carmen watch Princess movies for a little while. We had Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid in constant rotation. This weekend Carmen informed Janna that, "She could not wait to get her crown." And we also caught her kissing her reflection romantically in the mirror and really admiring herself. No more princess movies for a while. We're now onto Jungle Book and Alice in Wonderland.