Cameron Has Arrived!

I'm home from the hospital now. Cameron was born at 28 past midnight on the 28th (I was induced on the 27th). He weighed 6 pounds 1/2 oz. and was 20 inches long. I will post pictures soon!

Thanksgiving A Day Early!

We went out for our Thanksgiving dinner tonight, because I am scheduled to be induced tomorrow. We took some photos of all of us around the table at the restaurant, and I will post them in a few days or so. We went to the Kembrey Inn Carvery.

I am hoping that they aren't too busy tomorrow, because if they are, they will send me home and reschedule the induction for another day, and I do not want to wait any longer! I am already five days past my due date and will be six days past by tomorrow.

I wish my body would just get this right for once and let me go into labor without having to be induced, but since this is baby number 7 and none of them have done so before, it was never very likely anyway.

Yes, Indeed!

Yesterday, Isabella dressed herself in a long white skirt and a white shirt with sparkles on it. She said, "Look at me, Mommy! I'm all sparkly!" I answered with, "Wow! You really are all sparkly!" Bella answered with, "Yes, indeed." Why does my little three year old uttering the words "Yes, indeed" make me giggle?

About To Lose Her First teeth

Gabby woke up today and told me that her tooth was broken in two. I checked and actually, her two middle bottom teeth, which are very close together, are both very, very loose. It looks like my little girl will be losing her first teeth in the next few days!

She can't wait to get money from the tooth fairy!

New sicknesses

My 15 year old Angelica has been complaining about a headache for the past four days. I'm beginning to think it might be a migraine, because she's really pale, and she's not eating much. Yesterday, after getting home from school and walking her dog, she went to bed and didn't wake up until we woke her for school this morning. She had a nosebleed a few nights ago, but she gets nosebleeds all the time. She took Ibuprofen for her headache and said it didn't help at all.

I think, if she's still got the headache tonight, I will have to take her to see the doctor in the morning. I feel awful for her.

My 6 year old Gabby's been home for three days with an on and off fever. I might just have to set up a doctor appointment for her too. She was okay yesterday, so I decided she could go back to school today, but then last night, she developed a high fever all over again, complete with crying in her sleep and talking nonsensically.

Halloween 2008 Photos

Here are a couple of photos of Gabriella, Isabella and Connor trick-or-treating on Halloween. Gabby was a pirate cheerleader. Bella was a shaggy dog. And Connor was a skeleton.





And Kayla and Angelica had some pretty dresses with accessories to wear when we were going to go to dinner the day before Halloween. We wound up not going because of the stomach virus that was spreading through the family at the time. I took photos of them a little over a week before Halloween in their dresses.



Here they are in the dresses without the accessories.

Angelica:


Kayla:


On Halloween, Angelica wore the same outfit but with pink fairy wings, and Kayla decided to wear something different - a sort of medieval costume, but they went out with friends and I didn't get any photos of them.

Happy Halloween 2008!

I took the three youngest kids out to a few houses tonight to trick-or-treat. Gabriella was a "pirate cheerleader" (wearing a black and silver cheerleading costume with skull and crossbone designs all over it) Isabella was a shaggy dog and Connor was a skeleton. I took pictures and will share one or two of them tomorrow.

Angelica and Kayla dressed up and took Gabby and Bella out for a lot more trick-or-treating, and then the two of them brought them home and left to go meet up with friends.

Gabby wanted to watch "Ghostbusters," but we didn't have time, so she'll probably watch it tomorrow.

We didn't get our Halloween decorations up until last night. Isabella and Gabriella were so excited about the decorations! Bella kept saying, "This is the best Halloween ever!" and "I love Halloween!" while Gabby kept saying, "Halloween is my favorite!"

A Card For Santa

I just found a card addressed to Santa sitting on my husband's desk. Apparently, 6 year old Gabby made a Christmas card for Santa. Inside she added a note that says, "Santa, I fot nobudy wud gif you a card so I did." Awwwww!!!!!

I have such great kids!

Another One Sick!

While it finally looks like the youngest three who've been sick for most of this week are better now, Angelica, my fifteen year old, woke up early this morning to throw up. So we are not past this horrible virus yet! *sigh*

Connor isn't better yet either

The morning after Robert stayed up with a sick Gabby and I stayed up with a sick Bella, Connor started throwing up again. We spent one night, finally, last night, with no one throwing up, and so far everything is calm today, but I'm just waiting for the next bout of this in one of the kids, or for one of the teens to come down with it.

If Connor and Gabby follow the pattern that Bella had for this illness, then Connor should start doing better but Gabby should still have another day or two of this.

I was feeling ill last night, but I think it was caused more by being overtired than anything.

Isabella is not better yet

With Connor being sick and Gabriella falling ill too, I thought that Isabella was past the illness mostly. She had not thrown up for a day and a half, but she still was barely eating. Well, she woke up last night having thrown up all over herself and her bed again. So while Robert stayed up all night with Gabby, I stayed up all night with Bella.

Connor ate dinner last night and everything stayed down. He had some toast for breakfast today too, and still seems okay. Isabella decided she could have some toast. She ate it and then fell asleep. I sure hope it doesn't come back up!

I am so ready for this virus to have passed us by!

Sickness

Wednesday night, Robert and I were awakened to a crying Isabella (our three year old) who had just thrown up all over herself and her bed. It was ten minutes to 1:00am. After cleaning her and her bedding up, giving her a bowl and having it happen again two more times, I went downstairs with her and stayed up to catch her with the bowl in hand before she threw up each time. At 9:00am, she threw up for the last time, and the rest of the day, she was tired but seemed okay otherwise.

The next day, Friday morning, when Connor (our two year old) woke up at around 7:00am, I noticed he didn't seem well. He started throwing up too. He threw up less often than Isabella did, but his illness lasted longer and made more mess because he had less warning and refused to let the bowl be anywhere near him. He kept running a fever too. His last time of vomitting was at 11:00am today. But he ate dinner tonight and everything stayed down and he started acting more like himself.

Kayla (our 14 year old) is absolutely brave and caring for her age. At one point yesterday, Connor was cuddling up to her and threw up all over her. After showering and changing clothes, she came back downstairs and let him cuddle up to her again. Not a lot of girls her age would have done that, and I'm really proud of her.

Today, Robert took Gabriella (our 6 year old) and two of her friends (Adam and Hannah) to see the Disney movie Igor, and then to McDonald's. It was a treat for her because she didn't get a birthday party this year. She had a great time. But this evening at about 5:30pm, she told us she didn't feel well and needed a bowl. She has thrown up several times since then. She recently told me as she lay there suffering that she still had a mostly good day because of the first part of the day.

I really, really hope neither of her two friends get sick from being around her today. I honestly did not expect her to fall ill with this.

Robert is starting to not feel well now. The only three who haven't caught this awful virus so far are Angelica, Kayla and me. I sure hope none of us get it!

Really great ultrasound photo of baby Cameron!

I had an ultrasound last Tuesday when I was 35 weeks and 4 days along.

It's a better picture than I usually get at these things!



I have another ultrasound on November 4th.

Gabby's 6th Birthday Photos!

Here are some photos of Gabby on her 6th birthday. I haven't uploaded the ones of her getting her first haircut that day yet though.

She was given no instructions. She chose all of her poses herself. LOL!





















(Some of the images are cut off due to the spacing on the blog, but if you click on them, you'll get to see the whole picture.)

Happy 6th Birthday, Gabriella!

Today is my sweet Gabriella's 6th birthday. She opened presents from family (and her godmother) when she woke up this morning. Then she rode her new scooter with me to the store to pick up some mini chocolate muffins to hand out to her class in celebration of her special day. She wore a giant button that said, "Birthday Girl" on it so that everyone would know it was her birthday. :)

After school, her dad came home early to pick her up. She opened some more gifts. Her friend from school Connor had given her a birthday present. Her godfather Pete had dropped a present off for her, and her granddad and nana had left a card with birthday money. She also had a card from her friend Kieran.

Then I took her to the beauty salon for her first ever haircut. She was very excited about it! And it looked lovely!

Then we went to the park and took some birthday photos of her. I will try to get them uploaded to share tomorrow.

In the meantime, her dad was finishing frosting and decorating her birthday cake. After dinner, we all sang happy birthday to her and had some chocolate birthday cake.

She had a wonderful day, and I was struck once again by how sweet and charming a personality she has.

Giggle-fest

Connor is watching Disney's "Bear In The Big Blue House." In the beginning, Bear always smells something "nice" and realizes it is the children watching the show by sniffing his nose right up to the camera. Connor is laughing and squealing with glee at this! Isabella, when she's in the room, does the same thing. It doesn't matter how many times they see it, they always find it just as funny as the last time.

Kayla & Her Newspaper Round

Kayla has been doing her newspaper round for almost a year now. Up until this week, she only took one day off when we had to go to London early in the morning to renew our passports.

She came home from work today early and told us she was fired. Her newspaper round was given to someone else. She said that her boss said she was missing days. She insisted she wasn't. I noticed that all she'd been paid was £6, and even having not done today's round, she should have been paid £10 for the other five days this week. She said she was told she didn't work two days and so didn't get paid for them. I asked her several times, even knowing that she left each morning to do those rounds, did she actually show up and do her newspaper rounds every day she was supposed to. She insisted she had. Her dad told her he was going to go and get her money for the days she wasn't paid for. We checked again with her. She insisted that she did work those days.

So, when he got to the store and asked about it, he was shown where the days she hadn't done had been written down, and that she had claimed illness and stomach aches toget out of doing them and the owners wife said she had done those rounds for her those days.

We never made Kayla take on delivering newspapers. It was her idea; she got the job on her own, and it was her choice all along. If she didn't want to do it, all she had to do was say she didn't want to do it anymore. She appeared to love having the extra money she was earning. So why did she lie to us? Why did she leave the house each morning and pretend she was going to work? Why, when she knew we were about to find out, did she continue to lie to us?

Although I am dispapointed in that she acted so negligently towards a commitment she made, it's the lying that I don't understand.

A Poem By Isabella

Isabella surprised us this morning by telling her daddy, "I want to tell you a poem, Daddy." (I didn't even realize she knew what a poem was.) Then she proceeded to tell us her poem.

"My doggy is pretty.
My doggy likes to run around.
My doggy goes for walks.
My doggy poos."

So there, for the world to see, is Bella's first ever "poem."

Isabella's 2nd Day At Preschool

Isabella has been saying for days now that she doesn't want to go to preschool again. On her first day of preschool, when her daddy asked her what she did at school, her answer was, "I cried."

We've been telling her what a big girl she is and how she gets to go to preschool because she is older now, but Connor can't because he is too young. Yesterday, on the phone with my mom, when my mom asked her how she was, Bella answered, "I'm older."

I made sure to let Isabella show me around her class today when I took her to preschool, so she could show me all of the fun stuff she would have to play with. I asked her to paint me a pretty picture to give me when I picked her up, and I told her I would just be going home to get her lunch ready for her before I came back to pick her up. She seemed fine when I left, and when I went to pick her up, she announced to me right away, "Mommy! I didn't cry!" and her teacher confirmed that she did not cry at all. She did paint me a picture but it was still drying, so I will have to pick it up during her next day at preschool.

I'm really pleased that she had a better preschool experience today!

Severe Hip/Pelvic Pain!

I could barely walk the two blocks to pick up my daughter Gabby from school today. My left hip was seizing up due to my SPD and sciatica, and I felt like crying! Connor was in the umbrella stroller and Bella was walking beside me, but I was moving at the pace of a snail, but a snail with a pronounced limp and wincing with every step. I've got TEN MORE WEEKS of this!!! How am I going to cope?!!!!

Everyone kept asking me if I was okay. NO, I WAS NOT OKAY!!! Wasn't that obvious? I don't know anyone who lives near enough for me to ask them to start picking Gabby up for me.

Kayla's 14th Birthday!!!

Today is my daughter Kayla's 14th birthday. When she got home from school today, she opened her gifts from Angelica, Gabriella, Isabella, Connor and her dad and me. She also had a gift to open from her friend and neighbor Lauren. She loved all of her gifts. A couple of the clothes her dad and I got her didn't fit, so I will have to exchange those.

Later, we sang "Happy Birthday" to her and had her blow the candles out on her cake. Connor was sitting on her lap at the time. Despite the fact that he had his pacifier in his mouth, he managed to blow out two of her candles while we were singing to her.

Normally, I take lots of photos of the kids at the park for their birthday photos, but today was overcast and raining on and off. If tomorrow is sunnier or drier, I will take her birthday photos tomorrow. I am hoping to see some sunshine tomorrow, at least long enough to take some photos of Kayla.