3 Months Old!

A day in the life of Addison:

Mornings are tough! Gotta yawn really big, poop really smelly, and wiggle while Mom and Dad change me... Then I'm ready to start my day... I take this part from Daddy... no way Mommy could ever smile this much in the AM hours!


Tummy Time... I can hold my head up for about 5 seconds but I'm still not a huge fan of tummy time after the first 10 minutes or so I start to cry.

But looking at myself in the mirror helps alot...


I feel pretty, oh so pretty....
That's a whole lot of work.... then it's time for a bottle and a nap!

I post all of my pics to facebook, primarily because it's easier and can upload an entire file, however, for Caleb and Adrienne and my mom, here are a few pics on the blog too :-)

Daddy Can Shave Now!!

Wow.... it has been a week since I last posted! I feel like it has been an entire lifetime since then! Long story made short, Addie started to have seizure activity after being born and the doctors admitted her to the NICU at Presbyterian once they discovered this.... about 5 minutes before we were set to be discharged on Memorial Day.

It's been a crazy week - poor little girl has had a series of tests (CT, MRI, MRA, MRB, Echo, EEG, EKG, Bilirubin... the works) to figure out what was going on. Long story made really short, her labor was really long and really hard and it caused her brain to be deprived of oxygen causing some spots in her brain to be damaged (seen on the MRIs). It was not picked up on immediately because her APGARs were great and she was acting developmentally appropriate. After a week in the NICU and one large dose of phenobarbitol, Addie is seizure free and seems to be developing perfectly fine. She is even attempting to lift up her little head at 5 days old!

While she was in the NICU, Lee decided that he was not going to shave until he could bring his little girl home. Well he stayed with a beard for the first 5 days but had to shave most of it off on Friday because he thought he was going to have to go back to work for a week (so he didn't use his last week of vacation going to visit at the NICU which he could do before and after work). He shaved to a mustache which he is allowed to have at work... only to walk in to find out our little girl was getting out of jail! :-) (no really, the Presby NICU nurses are and were awesome to us and treated Addison (they called her the "big NICU baby" lol) just like she was one of their own).

Saturday was a big day for us... we got to go to the NICU and sign out our little girl! We got her home, she ate (she's eating 5 oz at a time almost and sleeping for 4 hours a stretch praise God), pooped, and then went to sleep.... it was so weird to have her in the house but it was awesome!

The puppies are adjusting well to having her around. I am sorely disappointed in Paige who has all but ignored Addie. She's wagged her tail, licked her once, and otherwise seemed completely apathetic. Brutus has yet to determine how he feels. He is the most interested in Addison's movements... but goes back and forth between licking her and waggin' his tail and barking in her general direction. Andie has done the best... for all of the people who were "concerned" that we were going to keep our Rottie... she thinks she is Addison's mom or something... she follows us around and lays at our feet wherever Addie is. She is not a fan of Addison crying and seems to get upset that we are not "fixing" things quickly enough!

Throughout this entire week we have just been reminded of how great our God is. My friend Lauren sent me this JJ Heller song that pretty much sums it up: "When my world is shaking, Heaven stands; When my heart is breaking, I never leave Your hands."

We are so blessed to have such fantastic family and friends. Everyone has been so supportive of us through the difficult labor and then the week in the NICU. Big shout out to Jason and Alesha for staying at our house and putting up with the puppies :-)

Addison Riley Saunders

Welcome to the world Addison Riley Saunders! 8 lbs 9oz, born at 8:51am, May 29, 2010 was a big day for our little girl: not just Caleb and Adrienne's 6th wedding anniversary, but also Lee's Sgt Tellis' birthday, and the day that Rebekah Goode swore Addie would be born on.

More pics and info to come!

Baby Watch 2010...

Wanted...One Baby to Fill this Nursery:








Well, the nursery is done, the bags are pretty much packed, I even vacuumed and steam cleaned! All that's left is the baby! So far no word on when she's going to decide to come out and meet us...Lee keeps thinking she will come May 25 or 26... who knows though, if she's anything like her parents she'll be stubborn and make us wait! :-)

Until then Lee will keep going to protect the Queen City one hoodlum at a time and I'll keep working at Holt until Addie drops out!

Adrienne and Caleb- it was so great to get to talk to you guys on Friday!! Lee says that you can see this blog so I uploaded the pics here... there will be more on facebook, it just takes forever to post a pic to blogger :-) Love you guys!

Everyone else - fret not, either the blog or facebook will be updated when we go to the hospital to meet Addison....not everyone will get a call from us but anyone in our various family and friendship circles will be communicated with (hopefully)!

Catch you on the flip side!

I got your crazy

"You say I'm crazy? I got your crazy" - Britney Spears


Ahh, God bless Britney and her quotes to defend "the crazy." I started this blog in the hopes of giving a glimpse into our honest to goodness everyday life.... so I suppose that means you all get insight to the good, the bad, and today, the prego....
(duh duh duh)

[side note, I am fully aware that by saying "you all" that means you mom... and maybe 1 or 2 others... lol]

Anywho, so we all know that even non-knocked up Crystal is pretty serious about her lawn... I mean, I have been known to cut it twice just to get a grid pattern and then post a pic to facebook... I realize, I'm a dork.

So I've kept up with mowing the lawn, even as I've gotten more and more preggers (I figure it's just walking, heck, I'm even leaning on the mower handle itself and it is self-propelled so I don't see the harm in it)... So the grass is finally back to being green and thick and it's pretty freakin' fantastic if I don't say so myself... here... see for yourself.


That's right, you're jealous... don't judge, I feel like I am in some kind of candid camera competition with the teenage boys down the street who make their grass look better than mine...

So long story longer, it flat out pisses me off when inconsiderate people park on my grass. I realize that the fine people at the City of Charlotte actually own the strip of grass between the road and the sidewalk, but if I'm expected to keep it up, I expect people not to freakin' park their vehicles on it. Call it a pet peeve, but few things fire me up more than walking out and seeing tires in the middle of my grass.... or parked like this moron:


So tonight I go out to get some groceries and see that someone yet again is having a party and out of the 7 cars parked along my area of sidewalk, 4 of out of them are parking in the middle of the grass by the sidewalk.

I try to be responsible.... "Crystal, you're pregnant, you don't need stress.. and flipping out on your front grass is not a good thing..." I take some deep breaths, slam my car door to make myself feel better, and leave to go to the store.

Upon my return home I find a black Impala has parked, not only on my grass, but 1/2 in front of my driveway! Literally blocking my driveway and I had to drive on my actual FRONT LAWN just to GET INTO MY OWN DRIVEWAY.

To further add insult to injury, said owner of the car was walking out of my neighbor's house and proceeded to glare at me as I tried to maneuver around her car just to pull into my driveway.

I'm not proud, but the crazy came out... and I well, lost it. Big. Time. I definitely yelled at the lady who turned out to be about 55 (which kind of took the wind out of my sails a bit). By the time I got inside I realized that I had yelled so loudly that my own dogs cowered as I walked in to the house and slammed the door for good effect. I just might be slightly embarrassed now that I've calmed down...

So yeah.... "you call me crazy? I got your crazy."

Could We Just Be Normal For Once?

I expected this pregnancy and our life afterwards to be "normal".... don't know why, nothing else in our lives has been normal yet, but for some odd reason, I realized today that I really been hoping, rather, expecting "normal." Normal... whatever the heck that even means.

I completely expect being tired, exhausted, confused, dirty even.... but I'm finding that I'm way more of a control freak than I realized... I think the more that I try to plan for this baby's arrival the worse I am beginning to feel about our situation.

I joke that I watch 16 and Pregnant to feel better about ourselves and our situation... hey, we have a house, 2 jobs, and health insurance (for what it's worth).... we're much better off than so and so.... However Lee did point out to me the other day that comparing ourselves to the stupid teenagers wasn't exactly raising the bar very high for us to climb.

I spent the first 4 months of this pregnancy puking.... that's right, there aren't many places in Charlotte that I didn't christen... so I figured once food stayed down things were fan-freakin'-tastic... I mean, I was eating....that was worth its weight in gold to me.

The closer it gets to Addie's arrival the more I realize that the puking part may have been the most "normal" part of this whole deal.... everyone has their opinions and God knows that everyone wants to tell you their opinions... or more, how your opinion is ridiculous compared to some book they've read or some article or some experience they've had. I'm a firm believer in learning by doing... always have been... I rarely read directions (well, at least not all the way through).... I don't like asking for help... I like to try to figure it out on my own. But this whole baby thing is gonna be a whole other beast...you think of "normal" Cleaver-esque type of existance... dad works 9-5, mom takes care of baby, house is spotless.... Whatever! I suppose it will all work itself out and things will just fall into place, it's just difficult to try to think now how it will all look when it does.

For us, "normal" will be me working 7-4, Lee working 1-11 (or 12 or 1 or 2...) Addie chillin' in daycare for the afternoons (which may be the most "normal" part of it all)... oh, and throw 3 dogs into the mix. I have not a clue how a single parent does it... I haven't even figured out how we are going to get the grass mowed with only 1 of us being home at the same time with Addie... I mean, even I realize that you can't exactly strap baby on in the baby carrier and go about mowing the grass!

I don't know, at this point I think I'm just a huge pregnant, emotional, and slightly swelling preggo who is realizing more and more that this is gonna be one heck of a ride for the next 18 years!

I'm Tired...

Subject: i'm 63 and tired

by Robert A. Hall



I'm 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I've worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired. Very tired.

I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.

I'm tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I'm willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.

I'm tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe, the freedom of the press of China, the crime and violence of Mexico, the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela .

I'm tired of being told that "race doesn't matter" in the post-racial world of Obama, when it's all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.

I think it's very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.

I'm tired of a news media that thinks Bush's fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama's, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush's military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn't vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.

I'm tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America, while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore's, and if you're greener than Gore, you're green enough.

I'm tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don't think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I'm tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.

I'm tired of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers," especially the ones who aren't working, but are living on welfare or crime. What's next? Calling drug dealers, "Undocumented Pharmacists"? And, no, I'm not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it's been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I'm willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn't have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military.... Those are the citizens we need.

I'm tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here's the deal. I'll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we'll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.

I'm tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I'm tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois, where the "Illinois Combine" of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama's cabinet.

I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

Speaking of poor, I'm tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn't have that in 1970, but we didn't know we were "poor." The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.

I'm real tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.

Yes, I'm damn tired. But I'm also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I'm not going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for my granddaughter.

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.

A Baby Girl...

I realize now that I forgot to post the pics from the day that I told Lee that we were preggers: I wanted to do something different as I couldn't come up a way to just say it other than the oh so original, "so, uh, we're pregnant!." We weren't trying to get pregnant so I was pretty shocked that morning when I woke up and just took the test on a whim and found:



Knowing how bad my secret-keeping skills are I figured that I had to come up with a way to tell Lee quickly in the hopes of avoiding blurting it out. I ended up taking an old tee shirt of Paige's (yes, I am a dork that sometimes thinks it's funny to dress my dogs in puppy tee shirts or polos - shut it). Anyways, I turned it inside out and wrote a note to Lee from Paige on it since she always greets him at the door as soon as it opens. I ended up getting a great second picture, the first one was pretty blurry as Lee looked back and forth between me and Paige. Once he realized that it meant a baby and not another dog he was thrilled! :-)




It's been quite the week after finding out that Mini-Lee was in fact, Mini-Leigh... we were both convinced that it was going to be a boy and both had the same reaction: "what would we do with a girl?"
After a few days I have come up a few reasons why I think God is giving us a little girl...
1) she'll be able to wear and totally pull off a pink Yankees or Jets jersey ;-)
2) she'll have Lee wrapped so far around her finger it won't even be funny
3) Lee hated every single boy name that I loved but we were able to compromise on a little girl name: Addyson! (middle name is still currently under negotiations)
4) a boy totally would have looked funny on a softball field ;-)

I found this quote online that I liked that pretty much sums it up. We go back Feb 2 to see little Addy on another ultrasound, hopefully she'll cooperate so they can get the rest of the pictures that they were looking for the other day!

"A daughter is a beautiful reflection of God's grace."

Author: Lynn A. Pena

We're Having.... Chocolate Cake!

We're having......

Chocolate Cake!!

(aka a baby girl!!) Lee and I went to THE ultrasound this afternoon and then went to dinner afterwards at Andrew Blair's to celebrate. We met up with the Waxes and Bises for dessert at Lava where we ordered peanut butter pie for a boy and chocolate cake for a girl.....

As you can see, the ultrasound pic that the waiter opened was of a girl... so we had chocolate cake!

Below are some pics of the little one. We've got a name picked out but haven't figured out a middle name just yet...

I think what Caleb and Jon Pritchett had to say sums it up best...."Lee, you've always had a way with the women", and, "I feel bad for the poor guy who tries to date her."

More to come!

Crib

Lee, Jacov, and Gary: 1
"Difficult" Crib: 0

Lee, Jacov, and Gary (Jacov's dad) got the crib together in just over 1 hour! I was impressed! The crib now has 2 mobiles on it because I am stubborn and want my classic Pooh mobile, even though our crib apparently has a mobile and vibration system built hardwired into it so it can't be taken out with messing up the crib's finish. Oh well, MiniLee will just have to be overstimulated with cute little bears to look at.

I was a little disappointed because I wasn't there to watch them put it together (or to take pictures) so I made Lee "help" (read: do pretty much himself) me put together the baby swing. I think it looks like a baby's room now... poor Paige, I think she's starting to realize that this room may not be solely for her... ;-)

Tomorrow's the big day when we find out if MiniLee is coming home from the hospital in a little pink or blue Yankees jersey! That will get its own post and will have pictures.

As promised (mom) here are some pics of the nursery so far: