Memorial Day Fun

Today was a typical summer holiday. Get up at 6 am and cram in a whole bunch of fun in the sun. We started the day at 6 when Olivia, Judy and I went down to the park for the hot air balloon launch. It was really fun to watch the balloons inflate as the sun came up. Soon it was time to watch them take off. The video on the side is one that took off and went right over our heads. It was neat to see up into the balloon. After the balloons all took off we went to pick up breakfast for everyone. Then Judy and Olivia baked to cookies. That killed about 20 minutes. Then we had to find more things to do to enjoy the beautiful weather, so, we broke out the pool. Yes, that's it, impressive isn't it. The slide and diving board will be installed next week =). The girls had a lot of fun with the pool and playing in the yard and it wore them out good for a looooong afternoon nap. I hope everyone had a fun long weekend. We did!

Sunday Morning Fun

Killing time on a Sunday morning includes things like wrestling a naked Phia to change a diaper, building towers with Olivia, posing Gracie for pictures with her sisters and brushing our teeth. Oh, I forgot the occasional screaming, spanking, and getting put in the corner, but I won't put the pictures of that up here =).

Sophia is starting to communicate verbally with us more and more. She asks for "more" and tells you when she wants things or wants to give you things. She wanted daddy to eat "more" or her french fries at lunch today, so she continued to stuff them in my mouth while telling me that I wanted "more". Daddy did not want "more" but who am I to decide that!

Kim found a tarantula in the driveway the other day (it was dead), so now any time we go outside, Olivia needs to survey the area for bugs and spiders.

Weekend Fun with Mom-Mom

Judy has become the ultimate playmate for Olivia and Sophia. They are certainly keeping her busy. Olivia and Judy are doing lots of craft projects. Sophia is learning to color with crayons and like to watch what's going on. Check out the video of the dance number Jude and Sophia did for the cameras. This morning was funny cause all the girls where hanging out in their robes. You can see Olivia and Sophia in theirs in the pictures below.

Gracie is doing well. We has a well baby visit to the doctors on Friday and she weighed in at 5 lbs 12 oz. A few more days of gaining and she will be a six pounder.

Olivia had fun showing Judy the cows on the hill behind our house. They have been grazing on the hill all week. About 50 cows show up late in the afternoon and graze until sun down. Its fun for Olivia to count them and tell us what color they are. She gets very excited. I will get a picture tonight and out it up here. MOOOOOOO

Gracie Meets Mom-mom

Jude arrived yesterday to meet Gracie and, of course, have her ears talked off by Olivia and her back broken by Sophia. We are having lots of fun showing Jude all the fun things the girls do and introducing her to Gracie. Olivia has had "mom-mom" give her a manicure and a pedicure and Sophia just thinks she is a crack up. Judy brought us some treats that we have not been able to get out here. At my request Jude brought some Peanut Butter Candy Cakes and for Kim some Dunkin Doughnuts coffee. I woke up this morning and thought "Its time to make the doughnuts" =) The whole house smelled like a Dunkin Doughnuts. We will get some good pictures of Jude's visit and put them up for you to see.

Gracie is now 5 lbs 10 oz as of Tuesday and is doing well. Jude thinks she has some red hair. How funny would it be if we has a brunette, a blond and a red head. Way too cute. We will see how it turns out. We think more and more that Gracie looks like Olivia.

Cutie Pie

Plumpin' Up

A Good Couple of Days

Its been a crazy few days, but so far so good. Gracie is eating and sleeping well, and Olivia and Sophia are finally over the colds. Kim is still suffering though between the cold and allergies. The pollen count is outta control here in NOCAL. Gracie had a bath today and I got some pictures just after. Who does she look like?? I have my thoughts, but would love to see what you think. Sophia's molars are coming in so she is bouncing between delirious and grumpy. Due to the teeth coming in she is very snotty and drooly (is that a word?), and hates to have her nose wiped. The picture below is a battle that took Kim and Cheryl to win and wipe Sophia's nose. You think I could have helped, but I was happy to take pictures and laugh at two adults losing to a 14 month old. Sophia finally discovered Olivia's new bed and figured out how to climb in. Surprisingly, Olivia is very open to having visitors. Nanny came over to see Gracie last night and Olivia was so excited, once again she danced around the house. She told Nanny how great Gracie is doing and how she can not hold her cause she has a cold, etc. etc. She even showed Nanny how the doctors check Gracie out with a "Skek-e-scope". Olivia has a toy one to demonstrate and uses her stuff dog Murphy. Its quite amusing. Gracie had a check up at the doctors yesterday and weighed in at 5. Lbs 3 oz. She has a follow up next week for some shots. I can not believe she is already 6 weeks old. Check out the pictures below.

Homecoming

Gracie has come home. An interesting day that was supposed to be a nice calm, drop the girls off at nannys, go to the hospital, check out, come home etc. etc. type of day. NOT! Gracie's big sisters are both sick. We went to breakfast to kill some time before we had to go to the doctors to get them checked out (just colds). Then we had to arrange for Cheryl to come over to sit with the girls while we went to spring Gracie from the hospital. Everyone at the hospital was so nice. Gracie had a vision screening which turned out fine. She will have a recheck in two weeks. They trained us on how to make super milk for Gracie, and gave us our orders for vitamins and iron supplements, follow up appointments, etc. Below are some pictures of Grace and Dr. Pancio giving us our last minute helpful instructions. Dr. Pancio was the pediatrician at the hospital who gave us great advice and information throughout Gracie's stay. She really helped us understand everything we were facing each day and provided wonderful support. Gracie had some pictures taken then we packed our stuff and off we went. Below is a picture of Kim being taken out in a wheel chair with Gracie on her lap. This is standard procedure when releasing babies. When we came home the girls were napping, but not for long. Olivia heard us come in with Gracie and was waaaaaaaay too excited to stay in bed. Olivia was so excited to see Gracie home she was literally dancing around the house. She could not sit down or stop talking about Gracie. Olivia gave her a stuffed froggie that she bought her as a present. Gracie got Olivia and Sophia presents too. Olivia got a ballerina bear and princess stickers and Sophia got a stuffed Shih Tzu named "Murphy". All were excited about the homecoming. Stay tuned for more pictures and video of Gracie at home. Finally our miracle is home!

Countdown to Coming Home

Gracie will come home tomorrow... Kim and Greg will be completely gray by Friday. Gracie had her car seat study done today (see pics below). We basically had her in the car seat for 30 minutes and they monitor her to make sure she can breath without any problems. She did very well, sleeping through the entire test. She passed her hearing screen last night and will have a vision screen tomorrow before she is discharged. She is taking her feeds when ever she wants now and is taking about 60 ccs (2 ozs.) every 3 hours. She is 4 lbs. 14 ozs. and 18 inches long.

Below is another picture of a wonderful nurse named Marion who has taken care of Gracie a lot over the past few weeks. Marion and Danielle like to poke fun at me and want to teach Olivia to do it when we go home and they can not harass me anymore.

Gracie has a bed all ready for her in our room (picture below). Below, Olivia is showing Ram his new place to sleep since Gracie is getting his spot in our room =). The other picture is Olivia and Sophia cleaning up to prepare for Gracie's arrival. As soon as we can we will get some more pictures of her that do not include hospital cribs, sheets, tubes, etc.

Haircuts and Nurses and Binkies, Oh My!

So much has gone on the last few days and the best way to show you is with pictures and some video. Check out the pics and video of Gracie sleeping and sucking a binki, some of the wonderful nurses that have been caring for Gracie (and us for that matter), and Olivia and Sophia getting haircuts. Just a few of the nurses are pictured below. The first picture is Grace and Danielle and the second is Jennifer and Valerie. They have been great to Gracie and to us, helping Kim and I through a very scary and stressful time. Grace was there the morning Gracie was born and just happened to call the room we were in to check on the status of "Baby Groff". We had just named Gracie two seconds before she called. Spooky eh?

They took Gracie's feeding tube out because it was not working right, and since she is taking all her feedings from a bottle these days they decided not to replace it yet. Hopefully they will not have a reason to put it back it. The nurses keep talking about Gracie coming home soon but the pediatricians have not talked to us about it just yet. Kinda makes us happy, but nervous. I'm sure we will not get much sleep the first few nights at home. Enjoy the pictures.

Olivia Gets a Big Girl Bed, Phia Pees on Carpet

Olivia Mackenzie Simons = Big Girl! Check out the pics of Olivia in her new big girl bed. To say she was excited when she came home to find a new big girl princess bed in her room is an understatement. Sophia chose to pee on the carpet =). Olivia is saying some really funny things these days and just happen to mention to Kim as she was playing in her room that "I don't live in Pleasanton, I live in San Ramon" WHAT?? Where did that come from. It got even funnier when Kim walked into her room and she was singing "My sweater is on backwards and inside out...." um, daddy is playing Alanis Morrisette too much on the ride to Nannys I guess. Anyway, this was a seriously entertaining day as you can see in the pictures below.

Gracie was moved from her luxury suite in the nursery into the general population room. Its a little weird cause we were so comfortable in our own room, but a new baby must need the special room more than Gracie as she is doing pretty well these days. She is 4 1/2 pounds now and the docs increased her feeding amount again today. Kim was also told that she did not have to be swaddled anymore when we hold her. She is growing a lot of hair now, a cute blonde peach fuzz is growing on her head and cheeks. She looks very sweet in the outfits Kim got for her. I will try to get some more good pictures to post tomorrow.

Phia is getting to be quite the goof. She loves to watch Stawberry Shortcake and giggle, and dance to the music. She also makes a habit of climbing on everything and of course she thinks its a crack up. Mommy does not agree. She started giving kisses this week and if your lucky you get a "mmm, smack" at the end of it. Very cute.