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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Our New 2-Year Old

Silas turned two years old last Tuesday. It's so hard to believe that he is already 2! We had a wonderful day of celebrating him.

Silas woke up to some birthday decorations and a few gifts.

 One of his favorite gifts was this dump truck from Great Grandma Kapusta. It has buttons that make the back go up and down and that make the truck move forward and backward. 

 I made these monkey cupcakes for dessert. Silas thought they were the best thing ever and has been talking about monkey cupcakes quite often since his birthday.

 We didn't do a whole lot during the day of Silas' birthday. I took the boys on one of our big shopping trip outings to Omaha. That is eventful enough for me! In the late afternoons for the past week and a half we have had parent/child swimming lessons. We usually get home around 6:00pm and give the boys quick baths before eating supper. That is why Sy is in his jammies for the rest of these pics. At swimming lessons that night, everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Silas. He felt pretty special!


 Silas thought his monkey cupcake was pretty tasty!

I think Silas enjoyed his day. He kept saying "birthday" all day long and was in a fantastic mood the whole day. He got to open a few gifts from family after each meal and was excited about them. From us, he got a new carseat - a Britax Frontier highback harness booster seat. Thankfully, he is at an age that he is satisfied with not getting a "fun" gift from us. But, he has been very excited about his new carseat that matches Jonah's seat. 

We are so thankful for our new two-year-old boy! We love you, Silas! The Lord was good in giving you to us!



Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Our Little Girl - An Update


Little girl and I are now almost 29 weeks along. We went for an ultrasound yesterday as a check up after our 20-week ultrasound to make sure the placenta had moved to a better place. And, it has! The ultrasound tech working with us was super nice. She turned on the 3D ultrasound and got this precious picture of our girl. Isn't she just so sweet?!?!

It was great to see our little girl again - 20 weeks is a long time to wait! She seems to be doing well. The measurements showed that she is big - measuring about 1 1/2 weeks ahead in most areas. The doctor mentioned something about her being somewhere in the 80s for percentile at this gestational age. I guess that we had better be prepared for another big baby!

I was supposed to have my glucose screening last week at my 28-week appointment. However, I started the morning with nausea and my stomach rejected my breakfast. So, it was no surprise to me that my stomach also rejected the yucky sugary glucola drink. I go back for another appointment next week and will have the glucose screen done then. Thankfully, my midwife is giving me the option of eating 18 Brach's original jelly beans instead of the drink. I don't really care for jelly beans (other than red Starburst ones), but anything is better than the glucola. Hopefully, I will be feeling okay that morning and my stomach will accept the jelly beans. My midwife mentioned some other suggestions on how to proceed if I vomit the jelly beans, and I really don't prefer those options. 

Other than that, we are doing well. I am mostly feeling better. I still have some mornings that I feel nauseous, but overall I am much better than I was for so long. I am measuring big - about 2 weeks ahead, which is no surprise since the baby is measuring big. I am getting occasional looks of disbelief when I tell people how far along I am. But, I am still expecting to go past my due date with this baby as I did with the boys. We are praying for me to go into labor on my own this time, and we are thankful to be delivering with a team of midwives who are willing to let me go past my due date with another VBAC.

We haven't done much to prepare for this baby's arrival other than pick up some girls' clothes at garage sales. I am expecting that we will keep her in our room for 4+ months until Silas is ready to move to a bed and share a room with Jonah. There are a few girly things I would like to get - a boppy cover, crib sheets, maybe a new bouncy seat and some pacifiers, but it doesn't seem like there is a whole lot else that we would need to be prepared for her arrival. It really is strange how your perspective changes from one baby to the next in terms of preparation! I just realized the other day that I should look into a hospital tour at the hospital we where will be delivering. We are in the third trimester now and should probably know where to go if I go into labor! 

And now for a name...
We have settled on a name and enjoyed sharing it with our family when we were home not long ago.
She will be
Lydia Lucille
We have continued with our desire to have our children's names be ones of significance. We had a few names and variations of names that we considered, but we landed on Lydia Lucille. The name Lydia comes from Acts 16 in the Bible. There isn't a lot known about the Lydia referenced in the Bible. She first comes into the picture when Paul and Silas were in Philippi on a missionary journey. They went outside the city to a place of prayer along the river and found a group of women who were there together. Verses 14-15 say, "One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us." What is known about Lydia is that she is the first known European convert to Christianity, she was a worshiper of God before hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ but accepted the Truth taught by Paul and was baptized, her family also came to know the Lord which says something about her character and family life if her family readily accepted the Truth she understood at the riverside, and she was hospitable - she invited Paul and his companions to stay at her home during their time at Philippi. She was regarded as a faithful woman of the Lord by Paul and Silas as they visited her after they had been freed from prison. From what is known about Lydia, it is our prayer that our daughter would emulate her character. Lucille is my grandmother's name. She is a joyful woman of God. At 93 years old, she continues to live in her own home and still drives, shops, cooks, bakes, goes out all the time with her friends, and participates in many church activities. She has spent her life caring for and serving others through difficult life circumstances- her siblings, her dad, her husband. I stayed with Grandma during the summer of 2007 while doing my final internship for my master's degree. It was a sweet time that I will always remember. There was coffee brewing every morning and evening. And, she made supper for us just about every night. I'm sure that her hard work ethic, her service to others, and her joy in the Lord have been what have kept her going and healthy well into her 90s. It has always been my desire to incorporate her name somehow into the name of a daughter, and thankfully we are now having a girl!

We are so excited to welcome our Lydia Lucille into our family! Jonah is also very excited about this baby and talks about her pretty much every day. He knows that she will be here in September and will tell that to anyone who asks. I'm not sure how much Silas understands about the baby. He does know that we point to my belly and say there is a baby in there. In fact, one day at church, he pointed to the belly of the man he was sitting with and said "Baby!" Ooops! Also, he knows that the girly clothes I have gotten at garage sales are for the baby. Life will be changing again soon. It is good.