2:00 am

So it is about 2:00 in the am and I am wide awake and cant go to sleep. After laying in bed for 30 minutes trying to fall asleep after I watched all of the ridiculous shows that I love to watch (Bachelor Pad/Dating in the Dark) I figured I might as well wake up and do something with my alone/ quiet time. So what did I decide to do, fold laundry and check my emails. Now that that is done I figure I should maybe update my blog since I have been so horrible about updates and it is only going to get worse once I go back to work. It actually could get better b/c I like to take what I call brain breaks at lunch, and updating the blog is a good brain break.
So these could be the reasons why I am not sleeping at this hour that I haven't seen in a very long time... Jack is going to be starting preschool in 3 weeks from tomorrow (or actually today), Addison will not take a bottle, Addison will not let anyone else hold her for more then 5-10 minutes without screaming and searching the room for me, and I am going back to work in less then 2 weeks. I have been with my kids or should I say surrounded by my kids for the past 16 weeks. It is going to be really weird not having my kids with me and having 23 other kids surrounding me for 8 hours of the day. That means I will be spending more time with somebody elses kids then my own. Does that seem right? Not really. I will actually be having real conversations and not only talking about fire trucks and trash trucks that highlight Jacks life right now.
Addie has become quite the mommas girl, but can you blame her. Her dad works 7 days a week and I have been to lazy to get her feeding from the bottle which means she has not left me for more then 2 hours, and that was only once. We have been a package deal. A pretty good package if you ask me. And wouldn't you know since I have decided to try the bottle feeding and need to pump my wonderful dog decided to take a piece of the pump (a major piece) from off of the counter and chew it up one day while we weren't home. So now that I am on a time crunch I have to wait for this piece which you can only order online to arrive in the mail. Thank you Kona for making my life a little more difficult. So back to Addie loving her mom. It breaks my heart when she gets so sad and wont calm down that her face is bright red and she actually has tears running down her chunky monkey cheeks. I don't know if you know this but when babies are first born they don't make tears, it takes a while for that to happen and Addison is just starting to make tears. I don't know what it is that she can sense about me, but she knows it is me within a second of being back in my arms.
I am excited for Jack to be going to school and to be going to school with me is even more exciting. That means we have been successful in the potty training department. Lets just hope it stays that way. I'm a little nervous that the teachers will get to see how my son is. It is going to be his first experience being with someone all day that isn't a family member or close friend. I'm just dreading that I will get a call in my class from his teacher or worse... the office.
Well I think my little man who still doesn't always sleep through the night is jumping into my bed as I type so I should probably go and claim my spot in the bed.
I am going to need a very strong coffee tomorrow. If you see me there will be some type of caffeine in my hand at all times with some blood shot eyes to go with it.

Night night!

3 weeks left

So I have been home with the kids for 14 weeks and only have 3 weeks left till it is time to go back to work. I am so thankful that I have had this time to be with the kids. It has been very busy, doing what exactly I couldn't tell you. I know there's been a lot of diapers and feedings in those 14 weeks. I have also memorized kpbs' schedule of cartoons, a couple Blues Clues episodes and the trash man schedule in our complex. I have also learned Jacks version of his expanding vocabulary. When no one else has a clue what he's saying, I do. We are still working on his potty training and have gotten pretty good, but still have a lot of fine tuning to do in the next couple weeks. The "teet" or treat/m&ms have worked great. Addison is growing up so quickly before my eyes. I'm trying to take a lot of pictures of her b/c I don't want her to look back when she's older and not have any pics b/c she's the "second" child. It's a little hard when Im constantly guarding her from her busy older brother. He's so sweet with her and wants to be right by her side especially when I'm giving her attention. He just doesn't realize it hurts when you bonk two heads together, or when you pull an arm too hard. Also whenever I take a picture he wants to see it, "I see, I see" he says.
Addison rolled over today for the first time. I missed it too. I had her laying on her back on her play blanket, went into the kitchen with Jack and then she was crying. I went out to see what she was fussing about and she was on her stomach trying to lift her head up. I couldn't believe I missed it. Addie also likes to have your attention all the time. She doesn't want to sit there by herself, she wants you talking to her or holding her up so she can stand. She has also turned into a mommas girl, it's hard not to be when she has been with me everyday,all day, since day 1, literally. We need to work on that in the next 3 weeks. We also need to work on the bottle and formula feeding. She is still sleeping through the night which is amazing for me. I wouldn't be able to keep up with her brother if she didn't. I think she knows. She doesn't sleep much during the day, just a couple cat naps, but i'm not complaining. She tries to carry a conversation with you when you talk to her. Tonight while jack was eating dinner I had her standing in my lap facing jack in his high chair. He would be talking about Addie, pointing out that she was blowing bubbles and she would start making noises back to him, with her arms flying in the air with excitement. It was really cute I wish I was able to get it on video. She loves watching him and is always smiling at him. She must not realize that he is the one that makes her cry every once in awhile.
We will be staying busy and enjoying the next couple weeks before Jack starts preschool and I go back to work. I'll keep you updated.
Love you!

Addie is 2 months

So time has gone by so fast. I can remember when I was just 2 months pregnant and then had only 2 months left to go till she was born. Now she is 9 weeks old. On Thursday she had her 2 month well check with the Dr. We knew she was getting big, but didn't realize how big. She is 11 pounds 12 1/4 ounces, and 23 1/2 inches. That means she has gained almost 4 lbs. in 7 weeks and grown 3 inches. We have a growing girl on our hands. She is in the 75% for height and weight. Jack was always on the lower end and still is. So she is 2 months and weighs half as much as her 2 year old brother, makes sense right? I'm loving all of her little dimples and rolls that are starting to form. She is awake now for an hour or 2 every couple of hours and we have a lot of fun when she's awake. She is full of smiles and talks, and makes cute little faces. When she gets really excited her arms and legs start moving around so fast. She is starting to recognize her brother and smiles when he comes up and says hi. He's pretty good at saying her name. Below are some pictures I took one morning when she was in a smiley mood.

Jacks 2nd Birthday

So we finally celebrated Jacks 2nd birthday on Saturday at Kate Sessions park. We had a little bbq and pinate with family. Jack had a blast playing on the slide and swings and chasing his cousins. The weather was nice, a little windy, but we still had a really good time. I can't believe he is 2, it seems like I was just getting everything ready for his 1st birthday. He is wearing his first Padres hat that he got on Father's Day. He is super good about wearing it, I think he looks pretty cute in it too.

Summer fun part 1

Even though I have been off for 8 weeks I wasn't able to do as much as I wanted. I was feeling better from the c-section but I still had to be careful with what I did and how active I was. Not to mention I still had to do some things at school. Now that school is out and I am done with parent conferences summer is officially here.
We went to Palm Springs for a couple of days with my cousin Rissa. She just graduated from UCSD and needed a little R&R. I don't know if going to Palm Springs with 2 kids gave her that, but it was nice to get away from everything in San Diego. We played in the pool, ate and did a little shopping at the outlets. While we tried to stay quiet so she could sleep in we did a little scootering outside before it was to hot and picked up coffee.
For Father's Day we went to the Padre game. Our first game this season. We have decided we no longer need to buy seats, we just need to bring a big blanket. The grass area they have for families is great, plus a fun little playground to keep the kids entertained. We will be taking advantage of the park at the park for sure this summer.
We will keep you updated with all of our summer fun.
Here are pictures from Palm Springs, the beach and the Padre game.

Family pictures

A couple weeks ago we had our first family photo session. We went to Coronado to a little park that was right across the street from the beach. Jack was a bit of a handful that day but the pictures came out great anyways. Out photographer was great with him as you can see from some of the shots she was able to get his cute little facial expressions. You can also see really how red Addisons hair is, just like her momma. Take a look!

http://photographybyalison.com/clientsite/rader/

So much going on!

Things have been crazy for the Rader household. Getting used to having two has been an adjustment. The biggest thing is everything takes a lot longer to do. I think I have left the house by 8am once, maybe twice. Usually I leave to go anywhere by 11. You think I'm kidding, I'm not. I don't know what I'm going to do when it's time to go back to work. Thank goodness that's not for another couple of months.

So since I last wrote many things have happened. One of the more exciting things to happen is Jack turned 2! We went to Sea World for the afternoon and played in the kids area and visited all of Jacks favorite mammals. We kept it simple and are having his "construction and tractors" themed birthday party next week. I needed a little time to get things together and recover from the baby before throwing a party. I don't know if I have shared that Jack loves Elmo. He will watch his Elmo dvd's over and over and anything he sees that is red, is Elmo. I thought for sure he would love to see Elmo at Sea World and take a picture with him. As soon as he saw him he was so excited, as soon as we started walking towards him he started to panic. His grip on my arm started to get tighter and tighter. So we ended up not getting a picture with Elmo, maybe next time.

We are starting to work on the whole potty training thing. For Jack to go to school with me in the fall he needs to be potty trained. He has an Elmo potty that he loves to sit on and now when he has to go he says "Elmo, Elmo." It took me awhile to catch on that that was what he was talking about. I thought he just meant he wanted to watch Elmo on tv. We've got a lot of work to do to get there, but at least he's interested. It's going to be harder for me to remember to take him to the bathroom all the time.

Addison is growing so quickly. I cant believe she is going to be 8 weeks old this week. She is growing so big and really filling in. I would hope so with the amount of eating she does. I think I am the only one that eats more then her in this house. In the past couple of days she has been trying to roll over. She arches her back and tries to kick her leg over. She loves ceiling fans just like her brother. She's not picky, they can be moving or still and she will be focused on them for the longest time. She likes to talk to us and her little bees that go around on her swing. She smiles at you when you talk to her and it is the most beautiful little smile. I can't wait to hear her giggle. I know I have a couple weeks till that happens, but I can't wait. Addie is the best sleeper, I don't know how I got so lucky. Sleep is very crucial for me to have and to be able to function. I will put her down between 8:30 or 9;30 and she will fall asleep on her own and sleep till 3:30 to 5:30. After a quick feeding she is back to sleep for a couple more hours. Now I just need to get little Jack to sleep as good as she does.

Jack is a fish! I can't believe how comfortable he is in the pool. He loves to jump off the step and swim to me. I have to be very careful and keep my eyes on him the whole time b/c he will do it whenever he feels like it. We have been going to the pool the past couple weekends and I would think he would be exhausted after swimming and kicking and being in the sun for hours but he's not. I of course am more tired then he is. We went to the beach for the first time this summer. It wasn't to hot, it was perfect, minus the flies. Going to the beach with children is a whole different experience. Not only do you need to bring more towels, have endless snacks for the kids and you, sand toys b/c you cant go to the beach and not build a sandcastle, umbrella, chairs, but now that there is a baby you have to have a protected place for the baby to go while you are entertaining the toddler. I wish I had this when Jack was a baby. It's a little tent that has 50+sun protection, shade and a removable screen to keep bugs out. Addison did great in it and slept most of the time while we were there.

Jack is still doing really well as a big brother. He is still really protective of her. He wants to play with her so bad. He doesn't understand that she isn't old enough to catch his big plastic ball when he throws it at her face (thank goodness it's plastic and doesn't hurt) or that she can't play with his trash truck even when he puts it on top of her while in her swing (that kind of hurts). He wants to give her the paci when she starts to cry. For the most part he is pretty gentle when he sticks it in her mouth. He just doesn't get that she doesn't always want it when she cries. Some days he is a little parrot and will repeat everything you say. Those are the days you really have to be careful with what you say.

Here are some pictures of what we have been doing in the past couple of weeks.

I'm awake!

Addison isn't awake often these days and one morning we were the only ones up and I was able to get this picture. We were having some quiet mommy daughter time with no boys around.

Our Baby Girl is HERE!!!!!

Addison Paige was born on Thursday, April 29th at 7:51 am. She was 7 lbs. exactly and 20 in. long. She started crying right away which put me in tears and made my heart melt. Her cry isn't very loud and it sounds like she's saying "lulll." Occasionally she has a cute, little, high pitched, very girly, squeal. She looks just like Jack when he was born and has a head full of red hair just like her momma which makes me so happy. I forgot all the faces and noises they make when they're first born.
She has been such a good baby so far. She has been a good eater from the very beginning and likes to eat often which keeps me busy. The first couple of nights home were interesting. She would sleep all day and wake up 6-7 times a night. Needless to say Jack and I were pretty tired those first couple of nights (Who am I kidding, we still are). We are getting adjusted to life with a newborn and a toddler.
Jack has been amazing with his baby sister. From the first time he saw her he has been giving her kisses on the head. He tries his best to be gentle, but sometimes her little eyes and ears get the best of him and he has to poke them. Occasionally he gets jealous when I'm feeding her or holding her. He wants my attention and will do anything to get it. It's very helpful that she sleeps a lot so I can still give him that one-on-one he's used to. He's very helpful with getting diapers and throwing diapers away which is so exciting to him. He loves putting things in the trash. There are days where Jack and I can't get a kiss from him, but Addison has had 20. We are so lucky with how well he has done.
Here are a couple of her first pictures. I have more, but haven't found the time to download them. Enjoy!

Baby Addie Update

So I had another Dr. appointment today. I am at the point where I start going every week until she is born. Today the Dr. wanted to check where exactly she was since her position has been difficult to tell and with my past of having babies that don't want to turn. Ends up she hasn't turned either. Her head is right under my right rib cage. We got a good look at the back of her head and spinal cord. We couldn't see much else b/c her big head was in the way. She thinks she is about 5 1/2 pounds which is good since she still has 3 weeks to grow and put on more weight. If momma keeps eating yummy hamburgers like she has been, Addison is going to be bigger than Jack at 7 lbs. 4 oz. Everything looked good, fluid levels are good so she should be fine until the 29th. She said she is going to take one last look the week of my c-section to see where exactly she is, so maybe we'll get a chance to see her little face then. All I know is the head under my ribs isn't the most pleasant feeling, but she doesn't look like she will be moving anywhere. "She's in a good, funky position," as the Dr. said. I wish I had a picture to post of her. 3 1/2 more weeks! 23 more days to be exact!

More Easter Pictures

Spring time

We have been busy enjoying the nice weather and time change. We can play outside later and visit the park more that it's sunny later. This last week was my spring break which wasn't much of a break, but a lot of fun. Little Jack and I were busy going to all the fun places in San Diego. We started off going to the Wild Animal Park on the hottest day of the week! We went on the tram ride and Jack really liked and noticed all of the animals. We were hoping to see the butterfly exhibit, but he fell asleep while in line and no strollers are aloud in. I was not about to wake him up just to see millions of butterflies. If I have learned one thing as a mom, it is never wake a sleeping baby, especially a baby who will do anything to skip a nap.
We also went to the Zoo and Sea World. We are so lucky to live in a place that has the best parks. Now that Jack is getting a little older he is noticing the animals more and gets excited over them. He tries to ditch the stroller, which can be a good thing, but also a lot of work. He gets tired, which means he's going to sleep good, but you have to run after him. He loves to smell all of the flowers he sees and even touch the ones that are poky.
We went to Palm Springs with my parents and family friends. It was our first time there with kids, which makes it a different experience, but a lot of fun too. We spent a lot of time in the pool. He loves to kick around and splash on the steps. He doesn't usually get free time in the pool to do what he wants since we're usually at lessons.
We filled his Elmo Easter basket with fun little toys and some eggs had jelly beans in them. He liked shaking all of the eggs and the sounds they made with the beans inside. We had an Easter egg hunt on our patio and then went to one put on by the place we were staying at. He did such a good job and really got a hang of what he was supposed to do. Every time he picked one up he would shake it, open it, and then drop it in his basket. I was proud of him and I think I had more fun then he did.
Before we went out of town we colored a couple eggs. He was having fun grabbing them with his hand and splashing around in each cup. He would dip it, leave it for a second and take it out. He didn't quite get the concept of coloring, but it was still fun. He cracked a couple and wanted to kiss them. His little hand was blue and green when we were all done.
Here are some of the pictures from this weekends events. We were busy! We hope you all had a Happy Easter!

The Rader Family

5 more weeks and baby showers

I had another dr. appointment on Tuesday and it is set that baby Addison will be born on April 29th around 7:30 am unless she decides she wants to come a little earlier like her brother. It was exciting to pin down an exact date so I can figure everything out. My last day of work will be April 23rd, which will give the three of us a couple days to spend together before we turn into four. I'm really excited and feel like it is only 5 more weeks, but it's still 5 more weeks, which I am sure will fly by so quickly. When we go in in 2 weeks we will have another ultrasound to see where she is. I don't think she has flipped, and think her head is right under my rib cage on the right. It's really a great feeling when she starts to squirm.

We had a baby shower on Sunday, which put us over the top in cute, pink clothes. Everything is so cute in pink and when it is so tiny. The shower was so much fun and it was good to get together with family and friends. Who knows how often that is going to happen after the little one arrives. We played some fun games and ate a lot of good food. Everything was pink! I loved it! One of the games was to decorate a onesie or dress for her to wear. They were all so cute and creative. My favorite was "milka what?" I love the E-trade commercials.

My class had a shower for me yesterday in class. The kids loved it, one actually thought he was going to take a shower! I got a lot of diapers and some clothes more clothes. Getting necessities is always good.

SO Jack is obsessed with ELMO. We don't even say the word at home, we spell it, or else he wants to watch it. I think it is hilarious how we are spelling already around our 22 month old. He wants to watch it from the minute he wakes up to the minute he goes to sleep. He gets mad when you turn the tv on and it's not Elmo. He hands you the remote until you put it on. It's sad how much he loves it, but also works to my advantage when I need to do something without him in the way. I just ordered more Elmo dvd's for my sanity. Jack and I had a date night for our anniversary and during dinner we were reciting lines and singing songs.

Next week is my spring break so we are going to be out and about San Diego, enjoying it as much as we can. Or until I drop from being so tired.

That's our baby update.

Monica

The cutest thing ever!

Jack has started to give kisses when you ask him for them. At first he was kissing dolls and books and not his mommy or daddy. Occasionally he would lean over in the morning and give me one while laying in bed, but never when I asked. We were so confused by the book thing, but every once in awhile he would kiss the characters; animal or human. I have a really cute book called Hugs and Kisses that we read together and he gives every farm animal a kiss. Now that he gives kisses more willingly I decided to see if he would kiss my belly. I know he barely has any concept of what is going on with me and what is going to come, but I decided I needed to try and talk about it a little more. The belly is getting in the way ALL of the time. The poor guy can't get comfortable at bed time when we read books, and when I hold him it's only for so long before the back starts to give out.
So one night I decided to see if he would give his little sister a kiss good night when he was giving us kisses good night. I asked him to kiss my belly and he didn't quite get it, so then I had Big Jack kiss my belly to see if he would follow. Sure enough he bent down and gave my belly a kiss. It was the sweetest, most gentle kiss ever! I was almost in tears, I couldn't believe how gentle he was about it. So every night we have our little routine of giving everybody kisses goodnight. I hope he is as gentle with her when she is here. I will try to get a picture of this to show you, but who knows if he will do it under the pressure of a camera.

We had our 32 week appointment last week and it went well. We talked about possible delivery dates since I am most likely having another c-section. It looks like Addison will be born on April 29th. Once I know for sure I will pass it along. That means six weeks from now our new little girl will be joining the crazy Rader-Vasquez families. We can't wait, yet there is so much to get done at home and school to prepare for her.

Mammoth 2

Baby Addison

So I am about 30 weeks along and can't believe how fast it has gone by. We have been so bad with this pregnancy, we haven't taken any belly pics or posted any of her ultra sound pics. I will try and work on posting her pics from our 20 week ultrasound. Most of the time she had her hands up by her face. It will be interesting to see if that is how she sleeps when she comes out.
At our last appointment 2 weeks ago we were able to hear her little heart beat. Jack actually got to hold the little machine that finds her heartbeat. It was cool that he was able to actually do something to hear her. I get to feel the movements all day long and he gets too when she lets him at night. She'll be moving around quite a bit and then he puts his hand on her and she'll stop. Or I'll tell him to watch my tummy move all over the place and she stops. It never seems to fail.
I am starting to feel really big and get uncomfortable. The "big" has just started and I am only going to be getting BIGGER. When I look back at the pics at the end with Jack I can't believe how big I was.
I think she is laying sideways which makes me think she isn't going to turn like Jack. All of the movement is on the right side and down low. I don't know if it's her hands or feet that keep poking me by my ribs. When I slouch over, which is quite often these days she gets mad and starts to kick. I think I'm taking up some of her room when I do it.
Little Jack has no idea whats going on with my belly, to him it's getting in the way. When he sits in my lap to read a book he wants to lean back like he always has, but there isn't as much room to. When I hold him I have to hold him above my belly which can be difficult for any extended amount of time. He still likes to poke my belly button and I can get him to touch my stomach gently sometimes. I tell him his sister is in there and to say hi, but he pulls his hand away and runs off. I guess he'll figure it out soon enough.
So we are on our last 10 weeks and counting down. I still have so much to do to finish her room. We have painted it, put the crib in and some bedding, and hung up the curtains. We need to finish making her bedding, which I love. My grandma and cousin have been helping make her quilt, pillows and panels for the closet. All I can say is there is a lot of PINK! As I move more things out and get more done I will take some pictures and post them. We are so excited to meet her and hope that these next 10 weeks will fly by. Now we just have to sit down and pick a delivery date. I was hoping to wait it out till the beginning of May, but I'm not sure I can wait that long, maybe the end of April, or maybe I wont have much of a say and she'll choose her own day like Jack tried to do.
SO that is my update on baby Addison! I'll keep you posted.

Mammoth

Over President's weekend we headed to Mammoth to play in the snow. I hadn't been there since the old college days and both Jacks had never been there before. I remembered why I love it up there as soon as we drove into town. The white snow everywhere makes everything so pretty and peaceful. I was ready to get out of the car hours before. Our little man did great in the car. Dora and the dvd player saved us for the last 2 hours of the car ride.
It was Jack's first time seeing snow and he wasn't to sure what to think about it. He didn't want to touch it, but loved walking through it and listening to the crunching sounds it made as he stepped. When he would finally touch it, he kind of wiped it with his hands and brushed it off. I have a funny video of him at Canyon Lodge wiping the snow.
Since I can't ski or snowboard with a belly we had planned on staying inside and sledding a bit. Unfortunately Jack woke up with a nasty cold one morning so he wasn't as pleasant as we had hoped and I didn't want to take him out too much. He wouldn't leave my side and didn't want anyone else talking to him, looking at him or playing with him unless he initiated it. Even then it was short lived. We took a couple of walks around the complex which he really enjoyed. Getting him bundled up was fun and he looked so cute in all of his snow gear. It was hard for him to move his arms with his puffy jacket on and he would barely move his head with his hats on. The gloves would last a little bit, but then he would shake them off.
The weather was great so we didn't need his snowsuit. It was always sunny and in the 40's. From our bedroom you could see the gondola going from Canyon Lodge into the Village. He would stand on the beds and look out the window all morning and any time we would let him. As soon as his eyes opened, he popped up, moved the blinds and was looking for them to be going by. Since he wakes up so early they wouldn't be moving yet and he would have to keep checking back until they were. He would run over and say "see, see." We didn't do any sledding. Every time we talked about it something else would come up.
It was a lot of fun and we were sad to leave since it meant getting back to reality.