From the mouths of Babes...

Maeve has been saying some really funny things lately, and her inflection just cracks me up. she really likes to imitate me when she's in trouble (a bad sign for the future, right?) and points her finger back at me and repeats what I say ('Put your nose in the corner', 'get back in bed'). I don't think she is doing it to really annoy me, and in fact I think it's kind of funny. At least I know she is listening.

She has also started to call Finn all the little nicknames that I make up for him, with 'Chunky Boy' being the one that makes her laugh the most. I better stop saying that! This morning she told Zar 'goodbye Sweetie, see you tonight' as he was leaving for work which completely cracked him up.

Once again, I am reminded that even in the mundane, everyday parts of her life my influence as her primary care giver is AMAZING. Talk about pressure! We are definitely going to maximize this opportunity and filler her little sponge brain with knowledge and her little heart with as much joy as possible and then hope for the best. I guess that's all we can do as parents, right?

Thankful

As a stay-at-home mom in a 'new-ish' town with few friends and no family around, I often feel isolated. The cold weather has arrived and I keep thinking about how long and miserable this winter will be while I am holed up at home with my kids. But, today marked a change for me. Despite the near single digit temperature outside, I loaded the kids in the car and went to a playgroup.

It was warm and cozy in the Blazer's house and as I sipped my coffee and watched the kids play I became very thankful for the opportunity to be with them rather than at work. I was also taken aback by the warm welcome of everyone at the playgroup and the possibilities of new friendships. I look forward to a time where my days are full of friends and playing!

Yo Gabba Gabba has taken over our world.

I am thinking about instituting a 'Yo Gabba Gabba' free week at our house because Maeve has a serious addiction to the show. This was not one of our standard shows, and I actually was a bit wierded out by the show so we never watched it. Then one day while watching live TV, Yo Gabba Gabba came on and Maeve's love affair with the funky hipster show began.

As far as I am concerned, it's a really great show. Sure, the characters are totally bizarre, but they always have a great 'moral lesson' each show and some really catchy songs. Maeve's personal favorite is 'Keep Trying, Keep Trying. Don't Give up'. I'll try to post a video of her singing it soon. They also feature some indie artists and some celebrities and that makes it more interesting for me to watch, too.

So, what's the problem? She won't watch ANYTHING else, and I am staring to dream about Yo Gabba Gabba. We are stuck inside due to colds, and cold weather so there is a lot of TV watching going on right now and I just don't think I can take another episode. Oh my, it's going to be a long winter.

Bad, Bad Blogger

I have been completely remiss in keeping up with the blog, and for the two of you out there who check this page that is TERRIBLE! Actually, I feel quite bad about it because this is one way for me to record the happenings in our lives as a keepsake. A scrapbook for the new millennium , if you will.

November has been a busy month for us, including our first trip away from the kids to New Orleans (yeah!) and Thanksgiving with my parents. We took a ton of pictures in New Orleans and not a SINGLE photo on Thanksgiving. go figure. I think that by the time Turkey Day rolled around, all of were exhausted from watching the kids and we just needed some time to relax.

Now that Christmas is nearing I have a new mantra to "take it all in". We are not traveling this year and will be having our first Christmas as a family in our own house. We are ready to start some new traditions and I am lookinf forward to a warm cozy house full of Christmas Cheer.

But first, I have to clean up from Thanksgiving! :)

Pictures from Elizabeth

Click here to view these pictures larger

It's been a while....

I have been terrible about updating the blog! I can't believe how fast September has gone by (although there are days that pass by incredibly slowly). Everyone is doing well and adjusting to our new routine. Maeve is a wonderful big sister and Finn smiles every time he hears her voice. Maeves favorite thing to do right now is tickle his feet and "pet" him. This picture was taken while they were both laying on Maeve's bed playing.

Rosie to the Rescue

This weekend Zar met up with my dad in Tupelo, Mississippi to run a marathon, so my cousin Rose flew from Virginia to help me keep my sanity while watching the kids. We had a great time playing and catching up. Rose was able to spend some great quality time with the kids and that was awesome. Today we begrudgingly took Rose to the airport and we were all sad to see her go, especially Maeve who ended up crying most of the way home.

Come back, Rose!

Siblings

It doesn't look like it will be too long before Finn can hold his own against Maeve... he is catching up so quickly! I am blogging from my iPhone right now at the doctors office and it is so strange to me to travel around with only one child. strange and easy! it is crazy how I would have thought this was so hard if I were doing it by myself with Maeve, but now that I am more seasoned, I cherish this quiet time while my newborn son sleeps. , even if it is while running errands and sitting at an appointment. :)

Giggle Monster

Although Finn is a snuggly little guy, he is quite serious and doesn't smile nearly as much as we remember his sister smiling. He is starting to crack some smiles and tonight Zar was able to make him laugh! We will try to capture it on film, but so far we haven't been so lucky. Here he is at one month old:

Finn's portraits

Here's a link to Finn's portrait preview:
http://lphotographie.com/blog/?p=1350

They turned out so well, and we are so happy with our photographer, Kristie. She will also be designing his birth announcements featuring some of these pictures. I'm so excited!

Popsicle

Maeve was so proud that she ate an entire Popsicle without dropping it. Too cute!

1 month doctor's visit

Today was Finn's one month check-up and everything went great! The doctor was really pleased with his growth (he is huge!) but she was a bit concerned that his eyes are still jaundiced, so she would like to check a bilirubin level this week just to be safe.

So, his stats were:
Weight: 11 lbs 4 ounces
Height: 22 inches
Head Circumference: 37.8 cm

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Wow, what a week. We started the week out well, and felt like we were finally getting into a rhythm with errands and chores and basic life stuff. On Tuesday Maeve and I had a lot of fun, but she was sleepy and I knew something was up when she started throwing up while we were playing outside. She threw up again before bed and started having some terribly watery poop that her diapers were unfortunately unable to contain. It was pretty gross. I happily took Finn to spend the evening with the girls playing Bunco and left Zar to watch our sick little one. We set up Finn's crib on Tuesday night and all went to sleep somewhat happily. I, however had a restless night and woke up Wednesday with a severe case of Mastitis. I felt like I had the flu, complete with aches, fever and nausea. Fortunately I had scheduled a babysitter already so Catherine came to my rescue and I was able to get some rest. Once I checked my fever and it was up to 102 degrees, I called the doctor and she prescribed some antibiotics. Maeve continued to have terrible diapers, but fortunately didn't have any more vomiting. The medicine helped me a bit, but Thursday was a very rough day for me because I was soooo tired and in pain. We managed to get through it by watching a lot of TV. Maeve still wasn't eating or drinking much at this point, but she was in good spirits. On Thursday night I woke up and started vomiting and was up all night..sick as a dog. I was able to keep nursing Finn, but Zar thawed some milk for him around 4 am so that I could finally get some rest. Zar called into work on Friday morning because he knew I needed his help at this point to take care of myself and Maeve. At this point things were looking up, but they actually took a turn for the worst once Zar got hit by this terrible flu and the couldn't leave the bathroom for the better part of the day.

We both kept saying that we had never felt worse in our lives and were counting the minutes until Maeve went to bed. We could barely function well enough to take care of ourselves much less a wild two year old and a one month old. But, we survived. Phew. Let's not do that again.

Chunky monkey

Finn has been an eating machine and by our count he now weighs over 10 lbs! He is such a wonderful little guy and is doing so well...he is a good sleeper, but his "witching hour" is between 4 and 6 am (!!) which wouldn't be so bad if we could go back to sleep, but Maeve has been waking bright and early at 6 am, so no such luck.

He tolerates his sister's "hugs" with a certain toughness that will likely suit him well for the rest of his life. She has started hitting him on the head while he is nursing and when she gets scolded she promptly hugs him and says she is sorry. She has also started telling me when he is crying and that he "needs a binky". She also thinks that he is quacking when he is really crying hard. It's too cute!

Some New Pictures

Here are some updated pictures of what we have been doing this week!

Playing outside



Strolling around in our new 'stretch limo'



We took our first trip to Target. Not much room to buy anything, but we were able to get the essentials!



This is Tinkerbell with her nose in the naughty corner for hitting my glasses off of my face. What you can't see here is that she is dancing while she patiently waits for her minute of time out to expire. I'm not sure this is an effective form of punishment.

The first two weeks

Wow, I can't believe that Finn is going to be three weeks old tomorrow! I had to double check my calendar to make sure I hadn't miscounted because it seems like A LOT longer than that. Our house was just buzzing with excitement and fun from the moment that we stepped in the door and while it was wonderful, it was very tiring. Now that everyone has retreated to their own homes (and they are likely still catching up on sleep!) I am so sad and missing my family a ton. I am still catching up on mundane tasks such as cleaning, and the fun tasks like uploading photos and sending them out to everyone. I have uploaded a bunch to the shutterfly site, so check those out!

We are slowly getting into a routine and I seem to have at least 20 minutes a day where both kids are sleeping at once (except Friday, but I hope that was the exception) so I can shower and catch my breath.

Finn is growing like a weed, as is expected considering that he is eating nearly every two hours! Maeve has nicknamed him "Finny" and "Buddy" and she wakes up every morning asking to see him and 'tickle' him. She is already showing signs of being a really awesome big sister.

Finn gets a bath!

Today is Finn's two week birthday, and it has been quite eventful for him so far. We had a houseful of family and while it was hectic, it was so much fun. Finn has now been exposed to a lot of noise and activity which is great for him to learn to sleep through. Maeve has been worn out daily by her cousins and this morning she was so sad to come downstairs to an empty house.

My mom is still here for a few more days (thankfully!) and then I am on my own during the day. That's when the real fun will begin! If anyone has suggestions on the best way to wrangle a newborn and toddler, please let me know!

Day 5 at home

We have been home for 5 days now and Maeve is finally warming up the idea of having Finn around. She said 'good morning, finn' today and enjoyed patting his head and only tried to poke his eyes a couple of times. Overall, she is adjusting just great bit she did catch a bug at the hospital, so hasn't been feeling all that great. She is getting very used to having Zar around and loves to say "Hi, my daddy". I am a bit worried about how she will handle it when he goes to work next week.

Fortunately there will be a lot of distractions next week because we will have a ton of family visiting! liz's sister and nieces will be staying for a week and her Aunt Phyllis will be here for a few days as well. We are so excited!

New pictures!

I finally posted photos on our Shutterfly website! Email me if you need the password.

http://teamtoolan.shutterfly.com/

On the left is a picture of Maeve and Zar at brunch Sunday am after Zar ran the All Star 5K.

Below is a picture of Zar holding Finn right after he was born!


We have many more pictures that are on our camera and we will get them uploaded to the Shutterfly website tomorrow when we are home from the hospital. Yay!

Delivery Details..for those of you who are interested

And for those of you who aren't....just stop reading here and look at the pretty pictures that I posted.

As most of you know, I have been wanting Finn to arrive early as I just couldn't stand being pregnant any longer and I was really worried about delivering another large baby. I was doing pretty much everything possible to induce myself, but it wasn't working. I was walking a lot (mostly from chasing after M), eating spicy foods, and pretty much every other wives tale that you hear. Well, on Sunday night we had dinner with some of our friends and it turns out that Brad BBQ ribs did the trick! I started having some contractions around 9 pm, and they were somewhat painful (nothing like what you see on TV) and I wasn't sure if they were just muscle aches or real contractions. So, Z decided to download an iphone app that helps you time your contractions and it maps out the intervals...very fancy stuff. So I recorded my first contraction, started to read a book, and about 20 minutes later recorded my second contraction, read some more of my book and at about 10:30 pm my water broke. This was a new experience for me as I was induced my first pregnancy, so I wasn't really sure what happened. I woke Z up told him and he got a huge smile on his face and started furiously getting ready to whisk me off to the hospital.

Our friend Suzanne came over to watch M, and ended up spending the night with her while we were at the hospital. At first I was triaged in the pregnancy center and had the wonderful experience of working with a medical student and three residents. That just means I had to give my history to four different people, which got a bit annoying. Especially because they all asked me if I had been taking my prenatal vitamins and foolishly told them the truth...no. They confirmed that I had 'ruptured' and they admitted me to the hospital, and at the time I was 3 cm dilated and I wasn't having any contractions of significance.

So, we settled in and actually got a bit of sleep, when I started feeling some more contractions, not extremely painful, but definitely there. I hadn't progressed much in dilation (I was 4 cm at 3 am) so they started pitocin. I knew I wanted an epidural, so I asked when I should get that and the nurse told me there was about a 15 min lead time for the anesthesiologist and that it was a slow night, so we decided to wait a couple of hours. Well, the pitocin kicked in and I really started to feel the pain. The contractions were taking my breath away and were about 3 min apart, so I asked for the epidural. I had to wait nearly an hour for the epidural because the team was in another room at that point ( very difficult placement) and I was freaking out a bit that I would miss the window of opportunity for the epidural. These were seriously painful contractions, and I can see how women in labor scream profanities and really life. Well, they came in and placed the epidural at about 6:30 am and I felt SO much better. I even got some more sleep, anticipating at least 4 more hours until I would be fully dilated. The MD's checked me again around 8:30 am and concluded I had fully dilated, and was ready to go. It was so fast, and so awesome. She asked for a practice push and had to tell me to stop because he was crowning. After two contractions/pushes we had our baby boy at 9:13 in the am!

It took the doctors a little bit of time afterwards to take care of some bleeding that I had, which was unexpected. After about 45 minutes, things were all taken of and a little later we headed up to our room.

The recovery process is a bit difficult, but I am feeling much better now than I did earlier today. My iron levels are a bit low, so Z brought me an O'Connell's burger for dinner, and even snuck me in a pint of Guinness to celebrate our lucky Irishman, F.

Day One

Things are going great here for TeamToolan, which we are aptly named because there is some serious All Star fever going on in St. Louis. We like to think that the onslaught of celebrities, including the President, and all of the commotion going on in the city are to celebrate our newest "All Star".

Last night was our first night with F and it wasn't that bad. You get interrupted a lot at the hospital, but they did a great job of just letting us 'do our thing' and leaving us alone. F ate a couple of times during the night, but for the most part enjoyed a really nice slumber. This morning was a different story as we were awoken at 6:30 am by the first resident, then the housekeeper, juice lady, birth certificate lady, hospital photographers, lactation consultant, the attending physician and the food service worker. While I appreciate all that these folks are doing for us, it was quite a bit of commotion for first thing in the morning.

M has handled the transition quite well so far and she has now come to see her 'baby brotha' twice. Z and my mom are doing a great job of shuttling her around from the hospital to home while still keeping somewhat of a routine for her. We owe a VERY special thanks to our friends Suzanne and Brad for stepping in and watching M in the middle of the night and the next day while we were at the hospital. We also have an awesome baby sitter, Catherine, who was able to step in at a moment's notice and help out as well.

The troops have retired back to the house for a while to take a nap and I am happy to have some quiet time while F sleeps....something that I know will be hard to come by in my near future.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes and prayers!

Finn Charles Toolan

He's finally here! Z started live blogging the event 7 am when I was 7 cm but was interrupted from posting it when the doctor checked me and I was fully dilated!

After two quick contractions (< 15 min) we had our precious baby in our arms at 9:13 this morning. He is healthy and happy and we are just over the moon! Finn Charles Toolan born 7/13 @ 9:13am 7 lb 7 oz 19.5 inches

A Room with a View

This was Z's attempt at a 'live blog' of the delivery.... Although he is quite humerous, I am happy that he was interrupted and that it was a quick delivery!

All right, folks, we're moving into the top of the seventh. Pitocin is moving things along, epidural is keeping things tolerable. L is 7 cm as of 7:30 am. We watched the sun rise over the park from Room 5484 as we settled into the day's events. Our whiteboard reads the following: "TODAY IS: 7.13.09. PLAN FOR THE DAY IS: Hold that Sweet Baby Boy!"

We had what can aptly be summed up as an All Star Weekend. M and I started Saturday with a run around Tower Grove Park ("Wheeeaaah arr u skwirrrel??? There he is!!") followed by swim class at the Y. Saturday afternoon included live blues and BBQ

It's happening!

Finally, it is time! I started having some regular contractions around 9 pm and they were low in intensity and about 20 min apart. Z quickly fell asleep as we had a pretty busy weekend only to be woken up by the infamous phrase "honey, I think my water just broke".

We quickly called our friends Brad and Suzanne to come watch M and headed to the hospital. We are now in the l&d unit getting settled in for the night. I hope we will get a bit of sleep before he gets here, but we are very excited to meet him!

Yesterday we received a 'sneak preview' of our family photo shoot from a few weeks ago. Our photographer was amazing and I think she really captured the essence of our family. She will come back after Baby Boy is born and take come newborn photos of him, which I can't wait to see! As a budding photographer, I can really see how much better the photos turn out for someone who knows what they are doing, but I will still do my best to capture the memories of our newest addition.

I am still waddling around and waiting for some contractions to start. I am walking A LOT (mostly running after M) as I have been trying to keep M out of the house as much as possible before it is super difficult for us to get places with a little baby in tow. The nursery is fairly well put together, and all the essentials are in place. We haven't done much decorating, but that doesn't stress me as I know now that it doesn't really matter until the baby is older anyway. I am just happy that M continues to sleep in her bed and the crib has been taken down from her room and is hidden away for a bit. We'll probably pull it out once the little guy gets too big for his bassinette (maybe as early as a month, if he really is 8 lbs already!) and hopefully M won't want to sleep in it instead of her bed.

My hospital bag is packed and I am ready to go--wish that this baby felt the same way! It must be pretty comfortable in there...

37 week check up

My doctor's appointment went very well today and Baby Boy is doing great. My BP is fine, his heart rate is great and I even lost 1 lb! My doctor's are not concerned about his size and as one MD told me today, "You've proven that you can deliver a 8lb 11 oz baby, so don't worry!". That's not really what I wanted to hear!

Actually, I felt really good about the appointment and that I was listened to by the doctor and not simply patronized in my late pregnancy. She said that I am now 2-3 cm dilated and she felt that if I progressed this way for next week we could plan an induction at 39 weeks, because I am a favorable candidate for induction. According to her, my risk of C-section will not be different at this point if I go into labor naturally or if I am induced. She won't induce me before 39 weeks though (despite my questioning and encouraging....), and while that is still two weeks away and I am getting so anxious, I still feel good about having a specific end date.

Of course, it would be ideal if this little guy would simply decide to join us on his own! I keep telling him that it's really nice here and he will have all sorts of room to stretch out. Let's hope he starts listening to me!

We'll keep you posted!

July 4th fun

We had a great 4th of July weekend here in St. Louis! On Thursday we kicked off the weekend by going to a cardinals game and listening to some great blues music a little dive bar near the stadium. The rest of the weekend was spent getting ready for the baby, working in the yard and resting. It rained on the 4th so we spent the morning at the City Museum, and then went out for pizza and ice cream for dinner. We were all three asleep before the fireworks, but it was a perfect day nonetheless.

Big Baby Boy

I went to the doctor yesterday for an ultrasound just to check in on our little guy and see how big he is. My doctor's don't want me to deliver a really large baby because of the complications we had with M. At my last visit, I was telling the doctor that I felt this baby was large, and I could tell she was thinking "All pregnant women think that..." but I really meant it! I also explained to her that while my belly is not large, that is just because of the way I am carrying and trust me-there is not a spare inch of room in this belly. So, she conceded and scheduled the ultrasound.

The ultrasound tech was great and she did a thorough exam. She even got us some 4D pictures that Z promptly sent to facebook. Our little guy looks just like M did when she was born. It's crazy! He is also very healthy, complete with chubby cheeks, and even some fat rolls on his neck. Needless to say, when she came back in the room and told us that she estimates him to be 7 lbs. 4 oz right now I nearly started crying. Ultrasounds at this stage can over or underestimate weight by 1/2 lb, so he really could weight anywhere from 7-8 lbs but with three weeks left to grow that means he could be 8.5-10 pound by the time my due date rolls around.

The good news is that I had some Braxton hicks contractions a couple of days ago and I think he is really getting ready to come out. I say, let's the get this show on the road...the sooner the better!!!!!

Zar, the Toddler Whisperer

Last night marked a huge milestone for our little girl. After numerous attempt to cajole M into sleeping in her 'big girl bed', including special toys, book, extra privileges with binkies, I have been unsuccessful at getting her to stay put. We have been talking about the bed a lot and how special it is, but she would still require the confines of her crib to fall asleep.

Last night while I was out, Z decided to take matters into his own hands and see what all the fuss was about. He simply asked M where she wanted to sleep (crib or bed) and at her first hesitation, he plopped her into the bed, let her drink her bottle, handed her a teddy bear and quickly left the room. She cried for a bit, but never got out of bed and eventually fell asleep hugging her three foot tall clown, Gymbo.

Way to go, Z! I guess sometimes you just need to rip off the bandaid.

Wish us luck today continuing this trend!

Susan Komen 5K

Yesterday was Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in St. Louis which was sponsored by Z's company, Wells Fargo Advisors. St. Louis has one of the largest races in the country and they estimate that 65,000 people participated!! This year both Z and M ran in the 5K and they had a great time. He pushed her in her jogging stroller and it was tough at times navigating through the crowd, but once he got through the large pack of people they did quite well. M enjoyed saying hi to everyone and she mercilessly waved 'bye-bye' to people as she and Z passed them.

We didn't make it to her swim class in time after this, but that was ok because they really needed a break after all the commotion of the race. If the weather cooperates this week, M and I can go swimming during the week.

We are still plugging away at the nursery and getting the house ready for the new baby. My mom will be here for a week starting on Tuesday and she will be a great help in getting the room ready. Z will be gone for a few days to attend a SigEp conference in Richmond, so she will be helping me with M, too. She better bring comfortable shoes! :)

Anniversary!

Today Zar and I celebrated our 6th Anniversary! We had a nice candle lit dinner at home with some takeout from a fabulous Italian restaurant...it was perfect!

Here's a toast to many more!

Today is the start of a very busy two weeks for us, and all that I can think is 'the calm before the storm'. M and I are having some great playtime in her room while the nursery is being painted down stairs. She is so curious and learns new things everyday. We can no longer keep track of all the words she knows (maybe 100+ at this point) and she is now putting together 3-4 words. We are trying to encourage her to sleep in her big girl bed, but she just isn't ready yet. She likes to read and snuggle in there, but asks to go to her crib for sleep. Hopefully she will be ready soon so that baby will have somewhere to sleep!

Yesterday she discovered her shadow while climbing up the stairs and it was adorable. First she said 'hi baby!' then when she moved and the shadow disappeared she said 'where are you?'. Finding it again she told her shadow 'there you are! Let's go.' and proceeded to climb the stairs up to her room. It just doesn't get much cuter than that.

Swim Class

M has now started taking Saturday morning swim class at the YMCA. She is in the beginner class for 6mos-2 years and the first class went really well. She loves the water, has no fear and really enjoying singing, splashing and getting thrown in the air by Z. I will be in the water with her in the next couple of weeks and she will likely be disappointed that I can't throw her around.

Here she is practicing her floating and kicking with Z.

This is a group shot of the class. As you can see, swim instructors look a bit different in St. Louis than they do in Florida. I'm also not the palest person here... finally.

Baby Shower!

I was so lucky to have a SURPRISE baby shower thrown for me by the wonderful ladies that I play Bunco with (a.k.a. Bunco Babes)! I was so stunned when I walked into Debbie's house that I was tearing up and completely overwhelmed. It was such an unexpected and really sweet thing. Baby Boy received a ton of new clothes and we are excited that he won't be wearing Maeve's pink hand-me-down's. Debbie went all out with a ton of balloons, cupcakes and a delicious dinner. It was so fabulous. Pictures to come soon!

33 weeks and counting

One week into June and we are really starting to get busy! I am 33 weeks pregnant and really starting to feel the 'bulge'. All of my Doctor's visits have been very uneventful (yay for that) and despite the fact that I think my belly is huge, at my last visit I had no weight gain and my belly was on the small side. My Doctor was not concerned, and she said if she is worried, they can do an ultrasound to check on the baby. His heart rate is strong, and he is QUITE active. M is now 19 months and is active as ever. Her favorite things to do now are to swing in the backyard (thank you Papa!), color pictures, play with her 'guys', sing/dance and go to Gymboree.

This week we are very excited to have a painter come and paint the nursery (I'll show pictures when it's done). We will also be celebrating our 6th anniversary on Friday!

Welcome!

Welcome to our family blog, which we will hopefully update often as our family is growing this summer.

We also have a photo share site through Shutterfly where we will upload most of our photos and it will also allow you to purchase any that you may want as well.

You can access the photo share site by clicking HERE

It is password protected, so e-mail one of us if you need the password.