Big Sister

Phil and me want to get Olive a special gift for when she becomes an official big sister. I've been looking around and it seems like my main choices are; jewelry, doll accessories, clothes, toys. I guess that is sort of a lot, but I just want it to mean something to her. I've come across some really nice jewelry, but it seems almost a little too nice. I thought about getting her a little charm and then when we give her the charm bracelet it will be on there. Only problem is that the charm bracelet is for the future, I want her to have something now. So, here are some things that I've found.

Any suggestions??

I'm Back!!!

Well, I don't know what has inspired me today, maybe it's the weather, maybe it's because it's summer, or maybe it's just cuz, but here I am back on the blog. I think mostly I do this for me, because at the moment I only have 6 followers, c'est la vie.

So, it's been about 3 years since I last posted on here, whoa. Olive was 3 months old and I was just starting my new job being a kindergarten teacher. It would be impossible to go back and write about everything that has happened since then, but to say they have been wonderful would not do them justice.

We have had some great times these last 3 years and some major events happen to us. We moved last summer to a wonderful, not so little house. Phil and me are still teaching and for the most part really happy. Phil started coaching girl's basketball, which is something he has wanted to do for a long time. And really big, we are expecting our next little bean in early August! Our trio will be no more!

We have had some bruises along the way too. Phil's father passed away the summer that Olive was 1. It is continuously heartbreaking to know that he isn't here in the present to witness her becoming such a vibrant, fun, caring person. We also had a difficult time getting pregnant the second go around, we tried for about 7 months.  I am entirely grateful that I could even get pregnant, but it was still trying for us. Working and raising a child hasn't been a walk in the park either, but luckily I am so happy at my job and have a wonderful support team there.

With this new baby on the horizon we know our life is about to change again in so many ways. We are all really excited (and nervous) and just can't wait to meet the new baby Mitchell! Below is an updated picture of our little family. Life is good friends.

3 Months

I can't believe that it is already July 16th. Seriously, where has the time gone? So far the summer has been full of weddings and baby Olive. Plus some trips to the pool and days spent getting my classroom ready. Speaking of classroom, school starts in about 4 weeks! Yikes! But until then, Phil and me are enjoying our time with baby Olive. She had her 3 month birthday on July 9th and we took some photos to document the day. Sometimes the photos don't really show how much she has changed, but boy howdy has she. In addition to the super long eyelashes she has sprouted, she also has quite a head of hair. Also, pictures aren't able to show how active she is. She loves kicking and blowing bubbles. Just today, she started sticking her tongue out at an alarming rate (not really alarming, really cute). I would say the one down side to this summer is the hotness. It is freaking hot. Yesterday Phil and me had cabin fever, so we just had to get out. We went downtown for a bit and tried to stay in the shade when walking was necessary, but I was still sweaty and uncomfortable, especially holding a little heatbox (that would be Olive). She however, didn't seem to mind, she quickly fell asleep in my arms.

Anybody have any ideas on what to do to keep the cabin fever away during these hot hot months?

Father's Day Festivities

Last weekend we celebrated Father's Day at the Mitchell household and let me tell you, he is one proud papa.

Phil thought he should go golfing, because isn't that what dads do? That afternoon we went downtown for lunch, Phil's pick. I'm wondering if the men out there can guess where he picked. If you guessed that local brewery with delicious food and beverages, then you are correct. Freestate. Artichoke dip, lemonade for moi, beer for him, sandwiches, fries, and a lot of love. Before we went out to lunch I also gave my sweetie a couple little presents. The man is sort of obsessed with tank-tops in the summer, so I gave him three new ones from American Apparel. One was especially special, let me explain.

Before I got my new job (Wahoo!), Phil was the sole bread-winner. It's not as if he threw this in my face in an aggravating, alpha-male sort of way, but rather it was just the truth. He thought it would be really funny to have a shirt that said "bread-winner." However, he never got the chance to make one before I got my job. Well, I decided that I would make his dream a reality AND I would put it on a tank-top. Double dream land.

In addition to the tank-tops I also got him a new cd, Willie Wright. Some good old soul music. Loves.

Hope all the fathers out there had a loverly day. We sure did.

P.S. Isn't our Olive just the cutest?!?

10 weeks and big news!

Olive is 10 weeks old now (how did that happen?!?) and today we are feeling like very confidant parents. I say today, because this is subject to change at any moment. For instance, I was feeling like I really had her cries down. I knew what her hungry cry was, her tired one, and so on. But recently, she has decided to make her tired and hungry sound the same. To those of you who are sans baby, this may sound incredibly lame and silly, but this has thrown me for quite a loop this past week. However, today I am feeling confidant and Olive has been a champ in other areas. She slept for 7 hours straight in her crib! Amazing! Although the hospital and childbirth classes pound it into your head, Alone, on their Back, and in their Crib, the fam was practicing co-sleeping for the first month and a half. Olive decided that she just didn't like that bassinet or crib and would prefer to sleep with/on her mom. It wasn't so bad at first, but now that we know that I have a job (more on that later!) we figured she needed to get used to sleeping alone. Gosh, saying "alone" sounds so harsh. Well anyways, she is sleeping great and so are we. Makes for a happy household.

Now, on the job...I will no longer be unemployed starting August 1st. I will be teaching Kindergarten in Lawrence at a lovely little elementary school. I am excited and scared to death about what the future holds for me, but overall I am incredibly grateful. Everyone told me that it would be hard to find a job and I agreed, but behold I have proven them wrong! So, I have been busy organizing the room and making plans for decorations and such. My mom (also Gran CC) is going to help me make some pillows for the reading corner and some curtains to cover up some shelves. I plan on having one amazing room!

Somebody has really been watching out for me and my loved ones this year. A healthy pregnancy, a healthy and beautiful baby, and now my dream job. Life is good (pardon the cheeze).

Olive at 10 weeks on a quilt that her Gran CC made her. Absolutely perfect, the quilt and baby.

Firsts and Seconds

Olive has been having a whole bunch of firsts lately. She went to her first bridal shower, went on her first road trip, and went to her first wedding. The bridal shower was for my dear friend Lauren who is getting married in July! Wahoo! That will be Olive's third wedding. In total, Phil and me will be attending 7 weddings this summer/fall season. Wowza.

Our road trip was to Hays, KS. We got out of the house around 10 am, which I think was pretty darn good. It took us about 4 hours and some change to get there and that included an hour stop. What I think was really impressive, was that I didn't forget a single thing! Olive had enough clothes to last her a week, but I thought, better safe then sorry. Once there, we were quickly thrown into a BBQ filled evening of friends and family. Olive met her great-grandparents (Phil's mom's folks), great Aunts and Uncles, second cousins, and her Uncle Dave and Aunt Amy all the way in from Chi-town. It was quite a night for the little bean and I'm not sure who was more tired, Olive or mommy. Suffice to say, it was a lovely night and a great little trip. We left the following afternoon and the trip home was just as uneventful as the trip there, thank goodness.



As for the first wedding, I must say going to weddings is a lot different with a child in tow. Not that I look at Olive as being a "tow," but I definitely did not get down like I used to. Pre-Olive you could find me on the dance floor, white wine in hand, and miming to the song (think "I wear my sunglasses at night.") Now, I've got the little bean in my arms and she is all I can really think about. It was a lovely wedding though and it was nice to get all fancy and out of the house. We are so happy for our friends and were grateful that they invited us in the first place, because we are boring parents now. I predict though, that in the future I will be on the dance floor once again cutting a rug with husband and the little bean with sippy cup in hand.


Finally, Phil and me celebrated our second anniversary this weekend. 2 years ago on May 30th we were married and it was a wonderful night. I am so lucky to have married such a wonderful man. He has been a great husband over the past 2 years and now I get to watch him be the great father that I know he will be.



So now it is officially summer, bring on the firsts!

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

It's hard to believe that little Olive has been out in the open air for over 5 weeks now! We are adjusting to life with our little bean and she is adjusting to us as well. From what I can tell I think she likes us and will be sticking it out while we try get a hold of this parenting thing.

Phil went back to work three weeks ago and I have been left to fend for myself. It was a somewhat rough first week. I had to figure out how to get in a shower and dressed in a very short time period. You might be thinking, "is a shower really necessary?" My response is, yes. As new mommies (correct me if I'm wrong here new mommy world), but you are covered in breast milk and spit up. A shower must take place. But as the weeks have been flying by, and they really have been, my confidence has increased. Breast feeding has gotten easier and Olive has gotten on a semi-schedule too. We also have been going on walks in attempt to lose some of my baby weight. The key is to avoid downtown or places where shopping can take place. Really things are great and we love her with all our hearts. Rough patches and lack asleep aside, our daughter is a true gift.

Olive May Mitchell has arrived

Our little bean has entered the world!

I woke up Saturday morning at 3 am and I knew something was different, let's just say that the "levee had broken." However, I had no contractions and felt nothing. I woke Phil up and told him that I was pretty sure that my water had broken. We immediately went into "well, what do we do now" mode. I couldn't really go back to sleep, but I also didn't want to go to the hospital quite yet. I thought maybe contractions would start soon. Eventually I fell back asleep and woke up around 5:30 feeling like we should do something. I called the doctor's office knowing that I would not get to speak to my doctor, but at least I would get an answer from a someone! The doctor on call told me to walk around some and see if I felt a "trickle." At this point being in the house was just making me nervous, so I took the dog on a walk around the block. During the walk I for sure felt a trickle. When Louise and me got back to the house I decided that I would take a shower and get ready to go to the hospital, but still wait it out a bit. Phil woke up and he got ready also. Here's where we just sort of got silly. I had the bright idea to go to the farmer's market. I mean, what the heck right, I had no contractions. So, we went downtown and strolled around bumping into some of our friends. It was pretty funny, because people kept asking us our due date again and we would reply, "funny you should ask, because her/my water broke this morning." After the farmer's market we walked by 715 and we ran into our nurse from the doctor's office. This was perfect, because we still hadn't really figured out if it was time to go to the hospital yet. Our nurse, who is the nicest lady ever, looked at us like we were two of the biggest idiots ever! She told us we needed to get to the doctor's and make sure that yes indeed my water had broken and then get our butts to the hospital. We did just that.

The doctor sent us over to the hospital after the visit and we arrived there at around 11:30 AM. I was hooked up to fluids and it was decided that I would be getting Pitocin to start the contractions. We brought Season 2 of Arrested Development and watched some of that while we waited for things to kick in. Meanwhile, I'm thinking, "holy crap, I'm going to have this baby today."

A couple of episodes later and "Anchor Man," on the T.V. things started to get hairy. I would say that around 4:30 PM I really started to "feel" like I was in labor. The contractions were starting to get serious. The nurses were great and although I had to be hooked up, they were still great about letting me get up and use the birthing ball and other techniques that we learned about in childbirth class.

At around 6 PM I remember looking at the clock and thinking that time was moving very slow. However, before I knew it 8 PM was here and I was 9 cm dialated. Our doctor showed up around then and at that point it was almost go time. It took a while to get past that 9 cm and the doctor had to help me push past it. Finally I was at 10 cm and in less than thirty minutes I would be meeting our baby.

Phil was on my left and he was so encouraging. He kept telling me that I could do it, even when I felt like I just couldn't. One of the craziest things about labor is the noise. I never thought that I would make the noises that I did, but boy howdy did I. I have no idea how you couldn't make noise. Well, out of the noise and the pain, our baby girl was born at 8:55. After 9 months of being inside of me, out she came perfectly perfect in every way. Olive May Mitchell has arrived!

38 weeks

Here we are, the homestretch (Note: this is sort of weird to be writing this, because we already have our baby girl!) These pictures were taken Wednesday, April 6th. I told Phil that we had to document me at my biggest and it definitely was. At this point I had decided that the bean was just going to take their time. And then...what do you know, 3 days later she was here!

The lady at Macy's has spoken

It was St. Patrick's Day today and I ventured out to watch the parade. Oh the outfits and merriment. Seriously though, the outfits were incredible. People watching at its best. After the parade I headed down to the "Replay" with my friend Katie and her buddy. Then it was water and sitting on a stool for me. It was quite fun, regardless of the fact that I was incredibly sober. But hey, I got my new tank top on, skinny jeans, big belly, good friends, and gorgeous weather. That is enough for me.

Regarding the lady at Macy's, well yesterday my mom and me went to the mall. The lady that checked us out, who also happened to be Asian and old, made a prediction about the baby. She said boy. All I know is that you always trust the old Asian lady, especially if she works at Macy's. Well, that last part I'm not sure about, but why would Macy's hire a liar.

Louise and me checking out the world.