Happy Birthday Rehearsal Dinner

This past weekend Nathan and Katie got married in State College. It was an absolutely perfect day. Friday night was the rehearsal dinner in Boalsburg. It was also Eli's second birthday, so we had a combined celebration. Nathan and Katie got Eli some very fun presents- first was a Dirt Devil vacuum. Eli was done with dinner at that point. He spent the rest of the evening vacuuming under and around the table. He loved it. They also got him kid's cleaning supplies- it's a whole kit with a broom, bucket, sponges, gloves, etc. The child was in heaven.

My cousin Lindsay and her husband Bill got Eli a Mickey Mouse mini sleeping bag. It's so cute. My Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Brad got Eli a Mickey Mouse puzzle that has race track grooves in it. A little wind up Mickey Mouse car cruises along. Eli loves it. We've played with it a lot already.

Thanks Nathan and Katie for sharing your special evening with Eli. You made his second birthday very special.

A grown up cake for the grown ups

And a Mickey cake for the birthday boy. Thanks Mim and Pop!

Hugs and kisses from Aunt Phyllis

Pumpkin Patch

This past Sunday afternoon, we went to Mayne's Farm with the Walsh family. Eli and Julia both loved the hayride. Neither one of them was super fond of the pumpkin hunting. They kissed and hugged a lot on command which was really cute. Here are some pictures from our day.

Seconds later this little daredevil jumped off the top of the hay into her daddy's arms. My son wouldn't go near that hay. "No hay mommy."

There was a baby calf in here sleeping.

You'd think after taking 100,000 pictures they would both be looking in one of them. But no...

Eli picked a big one for himself and then we picked two little ones for the babies.

Choices

Eli is very much into “choosing” these days.

For instance, at bathtime, he has many choices. I’ll say, “Eli, let’s go upstairs for bathtime.” He responds with “No bubbles!” or “Bubbles!” After bath, he rifles through a stack of diapers looking for a specific Sesame character. Sometimes he’ll pull out 15 before finding an Ernie. His choice changes every night, but he knows exactly which character he wants to wear. And pajamas… oh boy. I’ll usually grab a pair of weather appropriate pajamas. He always rejects my choice and says “No deese! No deese” Then he’ll open up his drawer and pull out pj shorts or two pairs of pants or some other crazy combination. He’ll make up his mind, hand them to me and say “Deese please!” There have been a few instances where he has firmly decided on two pairs of pants… and two pairs of pants it is! I’ll let him wear them (both at the same time) for awhile and then he allows me to dress him normally for bed later on. At bedtime he decides if he wants to say prayers in his crib right away or if he wants me to sit and rock him and say them. (Obviously my choice is the latter). Luckily it’s usually his choice, too. We’ll turn on the sound machine and he’ll say “sit mommy.” When we’re done saying prayers, he’ll say “tib (crib) mommy.”

At dinnertime, I’ll ask him what fruit he wants. The answer is almost always “applesauce.” Sometimes it’s yogurt. I know that’s not a fruit, but there is usually fruit involved. Sometimes it’s banana. He’s usually pretty adamant about what fruit he wants, but lately he’ll decide and then change his mind when I put it in front of him. “No applesauce mommy.” Stinker.
This picture has nothing to do with this post. This was from Isabella's first birthday party last weekend.

Crafts

Eli loves to paint- actually he enjoys crafts in general. When I pick him up at Smita's house, he often proudly shows me that day's project. Between crafts he does there and things we do at home, we're getting quite the collection. I asked Eli to pose with some of his work today.

He made this last week. I asked him what colors he used and he rattled off (correctly) "Orange, Red, Yey-yo!"

He loves the color chart that he made. He knows every one on it except he sometimes can't remember light green and light blue. He'll go through the first 8 easily now.

Peek-a-Boo, it's Eli

I don't normally see his hand print in green. Normally it's a more of a"yogurt" print. :)

Surprise! Change of Plans...

Like I mentioned in the last post, Kevin and I found out on August 9th that we were expecting another baby. The due date would be mid-April according to babycenter.com and Eli would be 2 and a half exactly by then.

I began thinking about what all we could reuse of Eli’s, which kid would have which room, etc. I decided that we would use the nursery for the second baby and give Eli the larger room with a new bed. I had it all "planned"out.

We thought about daycare cost and vehicles and all those not-as-fun-to-think-about parts of adding another child to the mix. But I thought, for the most part, I had it all "planned" out.

We were so excited to see Dr. Apgar for our first appointment. We went in for the highly anticipated, can’t-wait-to-hear-a-heartbeat-and-see-a-blurry-dot sonogram.

We saw the beating “dot” right away. Nice strong heartbeat. Any sense of anxiety was washed away. It’s the most beautiful sound you can hear. Then sonogram tech’s expression changed and I immediately asked, “what’s wrong?” She said, “Nothing’s wrong. I’m just trying to decide how to tell you this.”

And before we knew it, she shifted the sonogram thing to show us ANOTHER strong heartbeat. I nearly fell off the table and Kevin started laughing.

Yes, we are expecting twins! The due date is set for April 16, but they told us to plan on early to mid-March.

Let the adventure begin!

Here is Baby A at today's photoshoot- 11 1/2 weeks

Here's Baby B!

August 9th- A Very Special Day

August 9th is a very special day in the Kim household. It holds as much meaning to me as the big ones- anniversary, birthdays, holidays. I assume that most people who read this blog know that my pregnancy with Eli was not exactly a smooth one. Around the 19-20 week mark, we were told that he would most likely not survive the pregnancy. The doctors told us that his heart would fail before he would be strong enough and developed enough to make it on the outside. They said the earliest they would take him (via c-section and perform surgery) was at 28 weeks. Each week we went for at least one ultrasound to continue checking fluid levels around his heart. August 9th was the 28 week mark. When Eli’s heart was still strong at 28 weeks and he wasn’t showing signs of failure, Kevin and I went to dinner to celebrate. For 8 weeks, we had just prayed. And those prayers were answered.

So August 9th, 2008 was a day of anticipation, of hope, and of rejoicing. It was only fitting that August 9th, 2010 was filled with the same. Kevin and I had planned a couple day trip to Williamsburg. My parents had gifted us a 2 night stay at a bed and breakfast at Christmastime.

And Monday morning, August 9th, we found out that we are expecting.

Anticipation, hope, and rejoicing.

The Kim Men (and a bat)