Happy Birthday Zoe!

Today our little Zoe is 2!!  

 

Wow!  Can't believe it!  

 

 

She looked so Asian when she was born!  :)  But we all know that quickly faded.  Oh well..She's still pretty cute.  

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!

 

 

Silly Zoe!

It's hard to get really good pictures of Zoe.  Whenever she sees you hold up a camera who face instantly turns sour.  But this weekend, I got lucky and was able to snap a few cute pictures!

Nice crooked pigtails!

Playing on the floor with momma.

She found something she wasn't supposed to have...Straw from a basket.

It looks like she's eating the straw, but I assure you she wasn't...After this picture I took it away.  :)

Sunday night we had a bit of a trauma.  Zoe fell and she bit the inside of her lip really badly...Blood all over her shirt and hands and mouth.  She also banged up her chin pretty good too.  After a little cleaning up and assessment, I decided she didn't need to go to the ER.  It didn't bleed much for very long and it didn't knock out any teeth or anything.  It's healing up nicely now.  The scratch on her chin is almost gone and the inside of her lip is healing up.  Thanks to my Grandma T who taught me many years ago that cold water gets blood out of clothing, I was able to salvage her adorable shirt.  :)

We have been very fortunate in the way of illness and injury..(I better knock on some wood).  No major injuries or illnesses.  In fact she has yet to get a stomach bug (knock on wood), only just colds a couple times a year.  And we haven't had to take her to the ER or even urgent care for an injury.  We've been so lucky, we feel like Noah might be the "trouble child" in those areas!  Haha!

Zoe's birthday is coming up on Sunday..Can't believe my little baby will be 2!!!  We're working on potty training...Some days she does better then others.  We're still in diapers/training pants though.  She's really great about sitting on the potty, but usually she's just gone and told me a little too late or she just wants to sit on the potty.  Oh well...At least she's not scared of it and she knows what's it for.  I think we're doing pretty well considering she's not technically 2 yet.  My goal is to have her potty trained by the time Noah comes around but if that doesn't happen, it's okay.  I think I'll hit that goal pretty close though. 

Well, I guess that's it for now.  We'll post some birthday pictures next week.  I'm going to attempt to make her a birthday cake this year..It won't be super fancy but hopefully really tasty!

ARGH!

Alright...Today I had another appointment with my midwife and if you can't tell by my blog title, it didn't go particularly well.

The good news is I am 28 weeks (as of Friday..So tomorrow..) and only up 7 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight.  But I gained that 7 pounds in 4 weeks.  (Oh and weighing with shoes on makes a difference...A pound in my case.)

Wanna guess what the bad news is?!

BLOOD SUGAR!

Yup.  So, when I "passed" my 2 hour blood glucose test a few weeks ago, I barely passed.  Anything under 94 is considered normal.  I was at a 91.  So, pretty borderline.  Today, I was spilling sugar into my urine (sorry TMI) like I have at every appointment, but my actual blood sugar was 155!  The highest it's been. 

After all this blood sugar drama over the last few months, I've been trying to change the way I eat just to be on the safe side...Clearly I'm not doing enough. 

So, my midwife was going to contact my old OB/GYN, the one that I had with Zoe, to get some advice on what to do next.  She's going to push for a week of testing my blood sugar at home to see how it does...The other option is to do a 3 hour blood glucose test. 

I can't begin to tell you how frustrated I am! 

Then the other set of bad news was that my blood pressure was a little high.  Higher then it has been normally but when she looked at my previous BP readings from when I had Zoe, it's about the same as what it was at this very same time when I was pregnant with her.  So, nothing to worry about...Yet.  But of course it's in the back of my mind, because I really don't want to be induced again.

My belly is measuring a little bigger then normal.  Midwife wasn't too concerned about that.  Gestational diabetes can lead to bigger babies...That is something I don't need!

Because I'm 28 weeks, I'll now be seeing my midwife every 2 weeks.  When I hit 36 weeks, I'll go every week. I also have another ultrasound coming up in 4 weeks. 

Things are going by waaaaaay too quickly.  I need to figure out where to store Noah's clothes...We're out of closet space and I honestly have no idea where we'd put another dresser...Yes, I'm stressing!

We have room for him to sleep luckily.  Haha. 

That's it for now..I'll keep you posted on this whole blood sugar thing.  AHHHH!!  :)

Our Weekend...

...Mostly involved food.  Ha.  I recently bought my first crock-pot and I LOVE it.  I mean, I never thought I'd be excited for a kitchen gadget, but I honestly have no idea why we didn't buy one years and years ago.  I could have been cooking this whole time! 

I made some yummy mac n cheese...chicken cordon bleu...And more recently pot roast.  I know...I'm not really a meat fan, but I have to admit, the pot roast came out really well.  It just fell apart.  I think Tony was in heaven...He's definitely a meat and potatoes kind of guy.  All the ingredients for all the meals have been pretty cheap and easy to find...Nothing too crazy.  And really, if I can do it, anyone can do it. 

I also made some muffins.

One of the things I recently discovered that Zoe loves are mini pizzas on English Muffins.  Seriously..So easy.  Leftover spaghetti/marinara sauce and some cheese on an English muffin with a side of veggies and the girl is seriously happy.  You could add toppings but she never eats them.  (I tried it...It's pretty good!)  Really fast and easy to make.

Friday AND Saturday, Z refused to nap.  And she is the toddler you can tell did not get a nap.  She drove me crazy Saturday afternoon.  But later in the evening we watched a Curious George movie and she got all cuddly and quiet and life was good again.

We also painted our nails...(I paint her toenails and then I paint my fingernails).  She picked out the colors...She got red on her toes and I got pink on my fingers.  We went to Church Sunday morning and she had a mild panic attack when she had to leave the baby doll behind at the Church nursery.  She kept saying "Wait wait..Baby".  Luckily there were a lot of people to say good-bye to on the way out the door, so she eventually forgot about the baby.  But it was cute.  She loves the babies...And stuffed animals...When I went to get her she had the baby all wrapped in a blanket.  She's a good mommy.  :)

Well, I think that pretty much wraps up our weekend.  Nothing special...Nothing major.  Hope you had a lovely weekend too!

Oh Boy....

We are down to 90 days.  What?!  How did that happen?!  When did that happen?!  And so far, I've only got a handful of onesies and a few pairs of pants.  Better get a move on it!!  HA!

Name is Decided!

Alright, so we finally decided on a full name, and it won't be the surprising.

Noah Hiroshi

Again, Hiroshi is Japanese and it means "Generous" and the meaning of names means a lot to me.

I know a lot of people were pushing for family names, but we really felt it important to stick to a Japanese middle name.  Naming Zoe after my birth mother wasn't because we were taking the family name aspect of it...We considered many other Japanese middles names for her as well.  But knowing everything my birth mother went through to give me life, I couldn't not name my daughter after her.  And I don't have any other way of thanking her or honoring her in my life.  

I've said before that there are many men we would love to honor by naming Noah after him...Tony's got a few Eugenes in his family, there is my maternal grandfather, my Papa Chip (I lost my grandpa and Chip within a few months of each other..It was a very hard summer..), or even Tony himself.  But since we gave Zoe a Japanese middle name we felt it would be weird to not give one to Noah.  And, it's a way for us to recognize their Japanese heritage.  (They need something to remind them they're Japanese, considering how 'white' I am!)

So anyway, I hope no one takes offense to us not naming him after someone specific.  But even if we had decided to not do the Japanese thing, there is no way we could choose between the men we love...They all mean so much to us.

Making a Marine

Remember Tony went to San Diego back in January to visit Camp Pendleton?

Well, their 3 part series ran the first of February (for sweeps of course) and so I wanted to share the videos and stories with you.  It's crazy to see 5 very INTENSE days crammed into 3 short news stories.  But they did do an amazing job and definitely gave you the 'gist' of it.  :)

Of course while watching these videos, I was thinking about my brother...Wonder if this is exactly what he went through.  And I never felt more proud of him.  My heart will always belong to the Marines.  :)

Please go here for part one: Making a Marine: 'It's a lot more intense then I was anticipating.'

Please go here for part two: Making a Marine: 'Every day feels like it's going to be the hardest.'  (In this part you can see the footage of Tony running one of the obstacle courses...Kinda funny.)

And finally, here for part three: Making a Marine: 'The day I became a Marine'.

I really hope you go and check out the videos.  He and Beth (the reporter) are so proud of their work-as they should be!  Tony definitely loves what he does.