Da Da's girl

Arden is super cute and fun these days. She started sitting on her own about two weeks ago and is talking a lot lately too. (She appears to be particularly fond of The Carpenter's Christmas album.) Won't be long before she's crawling.

Indian Summer in NYC

We spent most of last weekend outside enjoying the AMAZING sunny, warm weather. On Sunday, we met our friends Nicole, Nate, Lucy & Owen in Prospect Park for a bagels and coffee picnic. Mason and Lucy were born two weeks apart, as were Arden and Owen. So fun seeing them all grow up together. Here are some highlights of the day...

Demon birthday(s)

Mason turned 2 on July 7th. He had three parties - one on his birthday with a small group of friends, one the day after with a different group of friends, and one the weekend after with family. He got lots of new toys and some new clothes and of course had cake at each party. While he was excited about all of his presents, the ones he showed most enthusiasm about were those related to Thomas the Tank Engine (a couple of books, coloring book, pajamas, two tracks with trains). He is obsessed with Thomas. We're not sure how this happened but are actually ok with it, since his train sets and books keep him occupied for hours.

First day of preschool

Mason started preschool the first week of July. He goes two days per week from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is in a class of 10 (all are 2 - 3-year-olds). So far it's going great. The only strange thing that we've seen is that he won't eat at school. We're not sure why but are assuming that he'll work through it eventually. In just two months we've noticed a big improvement in his vocabulary. He's learned some yoga and new songs and talks about his new friends. We're wondering if being cute is a prerequisite for being accepted at this school, because all the kids there are adorable.

Mmmm...Cake

Last Friday we had a little party in our building's playroom to celebrate Angel's 2nd birthday. I made a cake (the first cake I've made since I was in Girl Scouts!), which turned pretty well - though I give the credit to Betty Crocker for making no-fail cake mixes. Here are some adorable pictures from that afternoon.

Fist-Pumping Tunes

Dalila brought this little laptop toy to the house today, and to my surprise, Mason loved it! It's not easy to get him to dance on command, but this little thing got him pounding the table in excitement.

Being Nice with Baby Arden

We have successfully taught the concept of being "nice" with the baby. Whenever Mason sees her, he says "Nice? Nice?", which means, "Can I touch the baby gently?" Here are some adorable pictures of us practicing the "nice with baby" concept.

Pajama Party

Dalila babysat overnight last week so that we could go out to a late birthday dinner with Trent. I thought this picture was particularly hilarious. Two buddies catching up over over a frosty cold milk.

Sunday Morning Art

Mason loves to draw/scribble with crayons (well, and pens, pencils, markers - whatever he can get his hands on). We were up bright and early today drawing and coloring with some new organic crayons that we got on Friday (Clementine Art Natural Crayons). They have really great color and write on the paper without having to press very hard, but the drawback is that they break easily. The red one and half of the blue one already had to be thrown away. Boo.

(Oh, and if you look closely, you'll see Mason has a chipmunk cheek, which was a big wad of fried egg that ended up getting spit out about an hour later.)

Pre-school visit

Mason is going to start pre-school two days per week in July. They'll be full days, from 9 to 4! He doesn't really understand the concept of school yet, but once we get into the routine of going every week, I'm sure he'll look forward to it. The school is called Little Nest, and there will be 8 kids in his class, ages 2 and 3. His teachers are a husband/wife team named Mike and Tree. They have two daughters, one who will be starting Kindergarten and the other who will be in Mason's class.

I think it'll be great for him to be around some older kids. He seems to do really well when he can follow older kids (who sort of know what they're doing) around and mimic what they are doing, and there is a big difference between 2 and 3. Maybe they can teach him to share a little better and to "shake it off" when someone takes a toy from him (instead of getting mad and hitting or biting - the stage we're in currently. Sigh.)

Arden gets a bath

This wasn't her very first bath but since she only gets a bath once or twice a week, every bath probably feels like the first to her. Check out pics from one of Mason's first baths too.

Egg Hunting in the cold and rain

We are long overdue with posting the events of the past several weeks. Easter weekend ended up being beautiful, but the Friday before, when we did our egg hunt with Mason's friends from the neighborhood, was cold and rainy (hence the coats and hats). The kids looked pretty hilarious out in the yard looking for eggs. I don't think they really understood what they were doing, but eventually they got the hang of it. We put stickers in some of the eggs since 2-year-olds are still too young for candy (well, around here they are anyway). Here are some of the photo highlights of the afternoon.

Hospital homecoming

It's hard to believe that Arden has been home now for just over two weeks, after spending only 7 days in the NICU. She's already gained a full pound! Mason still doesn't really understand what it means to have a sister, nor the concept of being "gentle" when he touches her, but he is getting used to having her around and has even learned her name.

We've had a number of visitors already, several of whom have brought us delicious home-cooked meals (and all of whom have brought yummy sweet treats, like cupcakes, brownies, macarons and chocolate chip cookies).

Here are pictures of some of the highlights of the past couple of weeks.

Getting stronger every day

Jane Arden is officially in the "step-down" area of the NICU, which is where the healty babies go when they are ready for discharge. She's out of the incubator, and the only devices she has attached to her right now are those monitoring her heart rate, oxygen saturation level, and respiration. She's free of everything else! She's breastfeeding like a champ already, though we are also supplementing with pumped breastmilk so that we can ensure she's getting enough fluid and calories.

If all goes as expected over the next 24 hours, we expect to be taking her home tomorrow afternoon!

Welcome Jane Arden

There are some things in life that you just can't predict, such as strange pregnancy complications that arise out of nowhere and land you in the hospital with a new baby 6 weeks before her due date. Of course I'm talking about what happened to us this past Wednesday night. Just after I'd finished updating the blog with my post about our trip to Florida, I started having severe abdominal cramping. When it didn't go away after 90 minutes, I called my doctor, who said I should come to the ER. Good thing I followed his advice, and did so expediently, because it turned out that my placenta was pulling away from the uterine wall. If I had waited much longer, the baby may not have made it, and in the worst cases of placental abruption, the mother dies too! Yikes! So it was a very dramatic entry for little Jane Arden. She was born by emergency C-section at 1:46 a.m. on Thursday, March 31st, and weighed in at 5 lbs, 3 oz. Since I was only 34 weeks along, her lungs weren't quite fully developed when she came out, so she was on oxygen for two days following her birth. They were able to take the oxygen tube off this morning, which was a major milestone for her! She now has to be in the tanning bed for a couple of days due to jaundice - something very common in preemies. If she continues to progress at this rate, we may be able to bring her home as early as next weekend.

This wasn't at all the birth day we'd envisioned for our daughter, but we now realize how incredibly lucky we were to have trusted our gut and followed the doctor's advice. The medical team that did the surgery was really incredible, and all of our family and friends have been so supportive. Thanks to everyone for your visits to see us, calls, emails, texts, FB posts, etc. We are extremely blessed to have you in our lives!

Stay tuned...posts on Jane Arden's progress will follow as often as possible.