March 2006 Archives

We are almost there! Jake and I can't wait to meet the new little Stephens and for Sophie to meet her new little brother or sister. Here are some answers to our most frequently asked questions.

How are you feeling?
I am feeling LARGE! I don't remember feeling this uncomfortable or large in the belly when pregnant with Sophie. The worst time of the day is while attempting to sleep. Currently I have four pillows plus Jake to help me get comfortable but it never seems to last for longer than 20 minutes before I need to turn over or change positions. This makes for a restless night to say the least. You would think that nature would help you get rested up right before the birth but maybe this is a way to get you used to waking up all night for feedings.

How are things with the pregnancy?
Well I had my weekly checkup yesterday and got some news that scared me a bit. The doctor had mentioned induction before but it sounded like she would only want to take the baby a week early if I didn't go that long on my own. Yesterday she mentioned that due to the Single Umbilical Artery thing, there is an increased risk for still birth so she wants to start the induction process at 37-38 weeks if I haven't gone into labor naturally by then. YIKES! That is only two weeks away. I can't believe that we are going to have a baby that soon.

Is Sophie excited for the baby?
To be honest, I think she is clueless. We purchased the book 'I'm a Big Sister' for her and she passes over it every single time she goes to pick her books out. We sneak it in daily and try to get her interested in the baby. She does kiss my belly when I say that there is a baby in there. But I am pretty confident it will be a suprise to her when she sees the baby for the first time. She is great at helping so we are hoping to involve her as much as possible with diapering, feeding etc. We are both confident that she will be a great big sister.

Are you ready?
This question is laughable. Who is ever really ready? We are excited and trying to prepare as much as possible but without knowing what the baby is going to be like or the dynamic that will develop with Sophie, I don't think we can say we are ready.

Before Sophie was born we got a gift certificate for Sears Portrait Studio from Aunt Shelley and Uncle John, at the Reno shower. However we felt wasteful using it because the daycare had posed pictures taken seasonally, conveniently right in the facility. Now, four months out of daycare, with Easter coming up and some great fashions to display, we decided to schedule an appointment and have some professional pictures taken.

Here are the results, thanks Aunt Shelley and Uncle John! We've already ordered a bunch of prints, but if you're interested in seeing the entire session just email us and we'll send you a link.

"Ma" and "Da" went out of vogue a while ago. Now we are elevated to two-syllable monikers that we find hilariously fun. In fact I've never loved a name so much, even when it's spoken at 4am by someone who's entirely ready to get up and have breakfast.

Seen here on a springtime walk through the local university's nature preserve, my beautiful wife turns 28 today! Please join Sophie & I in wishing her the best birthday ever.

For a trip down memory lane (and to jog your memory in case you've forgotten what she looks like), here are some pictures from past birthday celebrations in Reno and Tahoe!

Here's an update on Sophie's talking status and a little translation guide for any of you who are lucky enough to have a chat with her on the phone or in person.

Boo-E = Binky
Butt = Belly Button, Back, Butt
Duck = Any bird
No (while lauging) = This usually means yes, she just hasn't mastered using yes as an unpromted response yet.
Dow = Down
Up
Uck = Yuck, Trash, the Toilet
Eye Boo = Eye Brow
Net = Neck
EULIE!! = Eula

We hope your corned beef and cabbage was as good as ours! Thankfully we didn't try to microwave it this year, and the results were fantastic. I didn't have any Guiness on hand but made do with some porter from Southern Tier Brewing Company. Mazel tov!

Welcome to the Baby Stephens #2 baby pool. Please feel free to click on the banner above and enter the Game Name: StephensPartDeux to place your guesses for our upcoming arrival!

Sophie currently has a great interest in her own and other people's "butts", or belly buttons. Depending on how well she knows you, she'll even go so far as to lift up your shirt to help you find it. Then if the exposed "butt" lingers in view, it's fair game for a "tickle tickle". She'll even pursue this entire process herself, including the self-tickling part. Clothes catalogs are a great opportunity to see other peoples' "butts".

Belts are also "butts", along with backs.

Lots of things are also "ducks," including birds of all kinds, the derelict hornet's nest in the tree outside, turtles, clocks, and generally anything above eye-level. Eula has also been on occasion called a duck, while Eliot just gets a hairball-clearing sound to imitate his purring. Fish are a "pop pop pop" sound that only someone without teeth can really do justice to, and clocks (formerly ducks) are recently a "tick tick tick tick". Elephants are a flatulent raspberry sound, following Mom's excellent trumpeting imitation.

This morning it was a sunny but blustery 50 degrees, so we went outside right after breakfast to enjoy it. The sunshine felt great, but the wind literally knocked Sophie over at one point. Still, she had a nice time watching the bubbles and leaves blow around.

Last night Brandie heard geese flying overhead, and we saw several flocks while we were outside this morning. We're not packing away the snow shovels just yet, but it certainly is an exciting sign. We've both missed this transition, and how deeply and subconsciously signs of spring affect us.

Thanks again to George & Sue for providing us the opportunity to enjoy it!

Sophie's uncle Jesse turns 30 today! We hope he gets spoiled all day long, and wish we could be there to celebrate with him! Welcome to your thirties, Big Guy!

Hooray, I'm only a day late this month!

Sophie's biggest development over the last month seems to be attitude, or maybe I should say temper. We very rarely yell at her, like only if she is in physical danger and needs to stop doing something, however, she seems to enjoy yelling at us. For example, the other day she was climbing on the fireplace, which she knows she isn't allowed to do, and I asked her to get down. She refused so I walked over, picked her up and moved her from the fireplace and told her "no, no." She proceeded to march a couple steps from me, bend herself in half and yell "NOOOOOOOO, NOOOOOOOO, NOOOOOOO!" at me. It sounds funny but as a parent, I just don't even know what to do. I tell her, "That's right, you can't climb on the fireplace." But I know she is scolding me, not actually reiterating my point.

She has also started crying if you tell her no which gets her Dad, Grandma and Grandpa all running to see if anything is wrong. Nothing is "wrong" per say but she seems to get enough positive reinforcement from this behavior that it keeps coming on strong.

She's not all temper tantrums and screaming though. Her love for the outdoors has become very apparent in the last month. Almost every morning she will run to the laundry room, get her shoes and then run to the door and say "bubble". This means she wants to go for a walk and maybe blow some bubbles. We've been trying to get her out every morning to either run in the snow, go sledding or for a walk. The hard part is getting her to come back in without throwing one of the above mentioned crying fits. Usually a bottle and a snack are enough to tempt her back inside without too many tears shed.

She is also starting to feed herself with silverware. We skewer something with her fork and hand it to her. She loves eating off of the silverware and is even getting close to skewering things by herself. She eats a lot more protein now that we can make eating turkey fun!

She is currently working on sprouting 5 teeth. Who knows how long they will take to come in but it seems as though at least one of them is close to cutting through.

Today Sophie got her first haircut, and we are a little sad. For as few hairs were cut, the change in her appearance is (at least to us) quite dramatic. Where did our baby girl go? Who is this toddler running around shouting "NO!" at the top of her lungs?

Check out the video here.

Today we got our first big storm since before Christmas, and all the schools were closed. It seemed strange to us at first, since didn't really start snowing until mid-morning and even then didn't pick up steam until late afternoon. When it finally did though, it really came down and the roads got really messy.

While I was plowing the driveway my eyelashes literally started freezing shut, there was so much snow falling. You couldn't even tell I had plowed when we got home from running errands. All told we must have gotten at least 8-10 inches, the majority of it in the late afternoon.

Until Mark! shows me how to embed video in my blog entry, here's a link to video of Sophie sledding, and Eula enjoying the snow.