The Troxel Family: March 2008

Sunday, March 30, 2008

So Sweet

I have to say that the last week or so with Sophie has been... challenging. I won't go into it all, let's just say challenging. But, as I sit here watching her kiss and hug the kitty, wrap her baby doll up, rock her, and kiss her - I feel like the luckiest mom in the world. Sometimes she's so amazingly sweet! It's also sometimes hard for me to understand how this sweet, loving girl can switch into the girl from the past week. lol Overall she is a pretty happy, loving little girl who is growing bigger every day and I know that I am so lucky and blessed to be her momma.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Thank Goodness for Cousins :)

The main reason that we moved back to Colorado was because we wanted to be around family. We really wanted Sophie (and our other kids) to grow up around family and to have strong relationships with them. One of the best things about this, (besides Grandparents) is cousins! Sophie gets so much opportunity to play with her cousins, even her distant, not really cousins - like my cousin's kids. Recently my cousin Kathy was down visiting and brought her daughter Jada (who is 3 mo older than Sophie) and her brand new baby boy Jaxson. Sophie was in heaven playing with Jada and adored the baby (and she was very good with him as well).

Here is Jada, Sophie, Great-Grandma Clever, and baby Jaxson.

So, you might be asking yourself, 'why this picture? There are no cousins here...' Ahhh, but she's just not in the picture. Sophie was 'hiding' in the closet and I'd ask Jada where she was. Jada would throw back the door to the closet and they both would just giggle! Too cute!

Here Sophie and Jada are trying to hide inbetween the doors. They would have been out the door entirely if it wasn't locked.

The Gipp Cousins

We had a great early Easter with Grandma and Grandpa Troxel and the Gipp cousins. The cousins are SO good with Sophie. They love to play with her and help her out. She was really excited that her cousins were there and wanted to run after them, instead of the eggs - so they helped her find all her eggs.

Here they all are after they have their treasures.
This is before Sophie's face, hands, sweater, etc were covered with chocolate.

Now this is the sweetest story...
Sophie has always been scared of the swing. It didn't matter what kind of swing, if someone was sitting with her, if she was moving or still. She hated swinging. However, when all the cousins started swinging, Grandma Troxel decided to try Sophie too. I watched thinking, "Yup, this'll last about 2 mintues." And sure enough, Sophie was not happy with swinging - at all.
However, cute little Ale (short for Alexandria, not the alcohol) jumps off her swing and came over and held Sophie's hand. Sophie had a death grip on Ale's hand and wouldn't let go. That was ok with Ale though and she sat there and helped Sophie to swing for probably 20 minutes. By the end, Sophie was swinging by herself and loving it. Later, when it was time to go in and all the cousins were inside, she screamed and screamed when I took her out of the swing. :) Ahh, thank goodness for cousins!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

What REALLY has been happening here...

So, it's sad to say that it's my own blog but yet I haven't been exactly honest lately.... well, maybe that's the wrong way to say it. I haven't been forthcoming about what has actually been happening in our lives lately. I feel like my life has been a whirlwind and my blog seems so calm - NOT what I feel most days. So, the time has come for me to actually sit down, take the time, and blog.

THIS is what has been happening...

YAY!! Yes, we found out quite awhile ago that we are pregnant again. BOY it took a lot shorter amount of time this time around than with Sophie (another Yay!). We are now over 12 weeks along and are now to the point of "telling people." This ultrasound is actually maybe 3 weeks old, but you get the idea.

They've been watching me awfully closely b/c of of that gigantic, clementine size cyst on my only remaining ovary, but so far things are looking great with the baby. In fact, we had an ultrasound a little over a week ago (and Aaron was able to be there :) and the baby was serioulsy dancing to it's own beat. It was AMAZING to see. The first shot we had was a head-on and the baby had both arms up and waving them up and down. Then, from a side view, we saw him/her jump up and float back down again. Awesome to say the least.

As for morning sickness, I've been pretty good. I still get it, even now, but it's nothing compared to some of my friends' experiences. However the problem that I've been having is leg pain. They monitor that pretty closely to make sure it's not a blood clot, but it's not, mine is sciatica. Oh yay... there is no 'cure' for sciatica, especially when pregnant. You're not able to take the anti-inflammatories or muscle relaxers that you normally would. So, basically I have pain running down the back of my leg 24/7. Sometimes it isn't as bad as others. It did land me in the hospital two weeks ago b/c it was so bad, and then again yesterday it was excruiating. I feel so debiliated... I can't sit w/o a ton of pain. Sometimes laying down is better than standing, and sometimes the only relief I get is by walking around. There have been some nights where I am walking on the treadmill at 3 in the morning. The only thing that the doctors can do for me since I'm pregnant is give me Vicodin - which I'm not thrilled about taking because I am pregnant.

I don't mean to complain (but yet, it sure sounds like I am, huh?). I definitely have more respect for people with debilitating chronic pain. I hate pain drugs. But, at the same time, if I knew that it wouldn't hurt the baby, and if my family was watching Sophie, I so would be flat out on the couch with some narcotics in my system, just to get a break from it. Anyway, I'm not. I very rarely take the drugs and have been seeing a massage therapist, which I'm not really sure if it's helping or not... that's a total other post though. My house is falling into disarray b/c most of the time I can't stand long enough to do all the things that need to be done. I feel like I'm doing good to get the dishes and the laundry done. Ahhh, won't it just go away?

Even with the sciatica, we feel deeply grateful and blessed to have this new little life and joy coming into our lives. Our official due date is 9/29, but our doctor told us that the 'actual' date probably is between the 24th and the 29th. Unfortunately we won't know the sex until probably the first or second week of May, but I'm grateful that we're able to find out period. Ahh, the anticipation would kill me if I had to wait until September!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

An Early Easter

Since Aaron had to leave today for Manila (yet again) and won't be back until sometime in the middle of April, we decided to have a mini-Easter celebration early so Daddy could be there. In the morning we did Sophie's Easter basket - she got a Little People Airport set (how fitting since that's where Daddy spends so much time) and an Aqua Doodle Elmo mat. She was really excited about them :)

Then after nap we changed into old play clothes and died Easter eggs. That was fun! Sophie did much better than I anticipated. She drew on the eggs with the crayons, put them in the dye and also pulled them out - all by herself (or with some help in the beginning).

After that, while the boiled eggs where drying, we set up an indoor Easter egg hunt since it was raining outside and WAY to cold for mommy! Daddy sat down with Sophie before hand with one egg and explained it, showed her the egg, and then the two of them hid the egg together. Then he took her into the other room while I hid eggs. She was SO excited to hunt the eggs and really "got" the concept. Here's a cute video of the beginning of Easter egg hunting.

Although Daddy will be gone next week for our official Easter, I'm still planning on taking Sophie to a local egg hunt here in town. Yesterday was a good warm up for her though :) I'm sure that Grandma and Grandpa and maybe great-Grandma will come with us and help us tote all of the eggs home! (And of course, take pictures and video for Daddy!)

Well, if my video wasn't taking forever to load, I would probably just hit 'publish' and be done with blogging tonight... but it's not, so here I am still typing. Maybe now is a good time to reflect...
It's amazing what a year brings. It's AMAZING how much Sophie has grown since last Easter. I imagine it's hard to understand unless you're a parent yourself, but it's amazing to see this little person develop, learn, and grow. Sometimes it's frustrating as all get-out, but the majority of the time it's sorta awe-inspiring. Yeah, I know I sound corny. But hey, I'm allowed. It's my blog. Parenting really is the most important job that you can do. Literally you are shaping this little person/people into who they will be forever. If that doesn't fill you with amazement, a great sense of responsibility, love, and a little bit of fear - I don't know what will. Sure, they make their own choices as they get older and could possibility change from the person that they were raised to be, but your/mine influence as a parent is amazing. I think I need to find a thesaurus and look up 'amazing.' - - - here ya go:awesome, fascinating, incredible, marvelous, prodigious, shocking, stunning, surprising, unbelievable, wonderful - - - yeah, all of those things too.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Better Late than Never

Well, I'm definitely late on posting more pics of Edinburgh... but I had to post some of Edinburgh Castle. It was BEAUTIFUL. Some parts of the castle have been around since the 1200's... WOW.