The days fly by. She learns and grows more every day.
The rest of this is to remember Zoe at two…

She is still obsessed with books and the alphabet. She can count to ten. She loves to dance and jump. She doesn’t start eating the crayons until a few minutes after the coloring starts. And when I ask her not to eat them and tell her I will take away each crayon she puts to her mouth she continues to put each one in her mouth as I take them away. I am sure she is just looking for the attention, and she will enjoy coloring more than being scolded one day. She has been in time out a few times and she is very good at staying still until she is allowed to come out, although she sometimes cries through it, upset to be in trouble.
Every color is yellow, even though she has said red, blue green and purple.
Her favorite shape is the circle, which she calls werkle. She knows the rest of the shapes, but refuses to say triangle. She usually calls them werkles, even though I have heard her say triangle before. She is the master of the shape sorter – circles stars triangles squares.
She can do basic puzzles – and loves to take them out.
She plays with all of her stuffed animals, and calls them out by name. She calls the monkeys ‘bears’. Her method of playing is to take every animal out and put them in another place, whether it is on the couch or in her brother’s playpen while he is sleeping….She says ‘Here Bubby’ when she loads him up with animals.
She loves the moon. She looks for it every morning.

Last week we started a dance class! I need to get a picture of her at it, because watching a 2 year old at dance class is like going to the cute overload convention.
She works on kicks and spins and front rolls.
I started to write out what she is saying, but there is really too much to write.
She is smart and funny and great at being a big sister. She starts the day with ‘Hi Bubby!’ and continues to make sure he is happy throughout the day by giving him toys and kisses.
Some days she is an awesome napper. Other times she flat out refuses and will loudly cry in her crib until she is allowed to get up.
Right now her favorite song is ‘Where is thumbkin’ and she tries to sing the words, but you can only understand a few, like thumbkin and thank you.
There is so much more to say.
She is a fabulous two year old, so much fun to have around – even if she pees on the floor every now and then when we are trying to air out her bottom and potty train or whacks her bubby on the head handing him a toy.

He got a 9 on his apgar scores.

He is beautiful and healthy.
I am home from the hospital. Zoe is back from her cousins house. We have only had one little meltdown. And things are really going well….

He is such a good baby! I can’t tell if the Zerker was just more work or whether we are just more relaxed. I was breastfeeding at first, but I have to admit that we decided not to now. He stopped latching well and my main goal is to have the least amount of stress possible. This allows for both Nadie and myself to take care of him equally. He is eating well and taking the bottle fine. He likes to chill in the swing and sleeps well in the evening between feedings…..so far, so good…..now to enjoy maternity leave with these crazy beautiful people….

Oh and Happy Mother’s Day to all you mums out there!

Also, she figured out how to use the Walk portion of her Walk n Ride so that she can push herself across the room:

She is sleeping much better, which tells me she was having ear issues before when she was waking up at all hours of the night. Or maybe it is just that I am used to it now, so it doesn’t seem as often. Last night I actually went into her room and brought her into our room. Partly because I had been up for an hour and I knew she would be waking up just as I was falling asleep, the other aprt was because I just wanted her close. As my friend Jess said, there is only so much time we have to snuggle with her. And pretty soon it will be hard for me to roll over in bed, let alone deal with a little kid kicking me in the stomach. LOL

A few weekends ago we went to the Feast of the Hunter’s Moon in Lafayette, IN. It was extremely muddy, but we had nice time seeing all the old costumes and eating buffalo stew. Nadie got to visit with some of his good friends, so that is always a plus.

The next weekend we had a memorial concert for my college choir director, Sister Sue. It was good to see my friends and have time to grieve with others for a while. There was an alumnae concert and singing with those beautiful voices is always a treat. I miss Sue. It is hard to know that the Zerker will never meet her. It is so unfair.

I got the h1n1 vaccine at my OB.

This week I am 12 weeks pg with the blobbles. It is starting to be more of a reality. And, I am not so nervous about having two young kids anymore, more just excited and ready for these next months to speed up so we can meet a new person.

I have a doctor appointment on Friday. I wish it was Friday. I want this appt to be over with. I am worried things will go bad. I will always worry. I hate infertility. I will never be able to enjoy pregnancy. I will always be worried that things will all fall apart.

I am sure I will post after the appointment. With the Zerker at this appt we couldn’t find the heartbeat with the doppler and they did an ultrasound to check. I hope that doesn’t happen. I feel like I would have some inclination if something was wrong. I have are different symptoms than I had with the Zerker. I feel different. I am starting to come out of the fog of exhaustion. And my face is erupting like it never has before. I have never had a lot of breakouts. Now I am getting a new pimple a week. Ugh. I sort of feel my belly growing. My pants seem a little tighter. I haven’t had any spotting. I don’t know if that matters. You know, I don’t know what in the heck to expect. Please keep your fingers crossed.

Happy Halloween!

She is tiny at 1lb 12 ozs. She is already off of the respirator, but still on the CPAP. She is breathing room air.

We present to you – the Zerker’s first BFF, the God Daughter of Nadie and I….

Delainey Marie….

Keep the prayers coming.

We have been waiting for this little girl, so anxious for the Zerker to meet her. We hope they become bestest of friends. They announced their pregnancy on Christmas eve and Nadie kept going on and on about how it better be a girl! Zerker’s BFF is what we have called her since we found out she was a girl.

Being part of the ALI community helped prepare me for what to expect in this situation, but I know that my brother and SIL have a long road ahead of them. They are being very strong and I am proud of them. July seems like eons from now – but that is when we should expect to even think about bringing her home. Every day is precious….

We love you, Delainey! We can’t wait to play with you!

They first sent her to Bloomington Hospital, then sent her via ambulance to St. Vincent’s in Indy so that she is close to Riley Children’s Hospital.

As far as I know they are keeping her on antibiotics and hospital bedrest for as long as possible.

Please pray (or however you practice faith/spiritualism) that our little niece can stay in the womb as long as possible and that she is strong.

Nadie, the Zerker and I will be walking in this years Indy Race for the Cure. If you feel compelled, we would SOOOO love it if you could donate a few bucks for the cause…

Yay! I am so happy for them. I know they have prayed for a child for a long time and I am so glad they have welcomed this new prince into their lives.

Here is what I say:

I had to take this off – it was driving me nuts playing automatically when the blog loaded….

This is not a formal college event, but a small gathering of some of the wonderful ladies I went to school with. I was in choir with all of them, and although I was a few years older than most of them, they have welcomed me into their gatherings. It is a delight.

Here is a quick pic of the group….we were so color coordinated with reds/blues and bookend blacks …

And today I did a small craft project.

I made four onesies for little Z. I have been looking at different funny onesies on cafepress and various other sites. I decided rather than paying 20 bucks for them I could just buy a pack of onesies and some iron on transfers and make my own!

Here is all four of them…proof they are onesies….

And here they are individually…
Righteous Baby – my hommage to Ani Difranco’s record company….little Z will be one tough chick….

A little Pink Floyd for the DH (it is his favorite band)…

A reference to DH and I being from opposite sides of the state (at least when it comes to college athletics)….

And a math geek’s way of showing love….(both DH and I are pretty geeky – especially when it comes to math…I majored in it and he still does problems for ‘fun’)…

I did one more, only to realize after I had ironed it on that I had deleted a letter prior to printing the iron on…You don’t spell grandchild without an L. It was definitely a challenge…I had to figure out how to reverse all of the lettering and pictures prior to printing. I know the typo wasn’t in the original document, so I must have deleted it when I had to transfer it to powerpoint to get it to print properly. Ugh. Now do I keep a onesie with a typo? I mean I am going to make other one for public consumption, and maybe some more since I have quite a bit of the iron on stuff left over. I coud just use it as an undershirt i guess… It is funny really.

Enjoy!

It took them a few days to get her CO2 levels down and her Oxygen levels to where they needed them to do a stress test.

They did the Non-Stress Stress test today and gave her the all clear on her heart.

She has/had pneumonia and it has been causing so much stress on her lungs/heart that it really weakened her.
She is feeling much better. Looking better too.

Thanks for all the prayers!