Montana September 2012

A couple weeks ago we took our little ones and headed to Montana for some R & R with my family.  My sister, Jessica, and her family were there as well.  The big event of the trip was a party for my grandpa, who turned 80 in July.  We would have had the party in July except somebody ended up being pregnant and due mid-July.  Hmmm.  So the family decided to hold off until September, when the Kellehers would be ready to travel.  My aunt and uncle, Jacque and Duane, traveled up from Phoenix.  I hadn't seen them in years!  Also, my cousin, Brian; I don't remember the last time I saw him.

We also made a little side trip up to Fairmont Hot Springs and spent two nights.  Unfortunately their outdoor pool and waterslide were closed due to remodeling, but the indoor pool was just fine for the kids, and is as warm as bathwater.  We had a lot of fun!  Ava had never actually been in a pool before.  We bought her a little life jacket and thought she would be ready to jump right in.  Quite the opposite!  She was really timid at first and didn't even want to go in.  Finally after watching her cousins (who are like little fish!) in the water for a little bit, she decided she would go in with Daddy.  She liked it after that, even floating on her back with us just holding her hand!  She did remain a little hesitant, though, and made sure that one of us always had a tight grip on her.

It is always fun (and a little crazy) to have everyone together.  It usually only happens once a year!  Here are some pictures from our trip.  I failed to get any pictures at the pool, but otherwise there is a pretty good sampling.  

Aunt Jess teaching Ava how to play a game on Cameron's Leapfrog Explorer.  She thought that was pretty neat.

Everett had to stake his claim on his mommy.

Ava and Cameron playing under Nana's coffee table.  They are like two peas in a pod - crazy!

Two surly toddlers eating breakfast in the morning.

We tried and tried to get a good picture of them sitting together, but there was always one who wouldn't cooperate!

Eating lunch in our Suite at Fairmont after a morning at the pool.

Playing at the park at Fairmont.

Ava loves the slide!

Whee!  Down goes big E!

Ava was all about helping Nana water her flowers.

June says, "Hey, I'm here, too!"

Nana has a new-to-her, beautiful grand piano.  The kids were only allowed to play if an adult was supervising.  This time I was playing chaperone.

Play, play, play.

Jammie play!

Aunt Jess playing ball with the boys during the party.  Is that a great shot, or what?!

Papa Ernie, the Grill Master!

Party time!

June was partying, too, rocking it in her bouncy seat.

Birthday cake!

Hurray!  Sugar right before bedtime!

Birthday boy!  Not a very clear picture, unfortunately.

The morning after the party.  Can you say Mickey Mouse Clubhouse coma?

Junie likes to wiggle it!

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Create a gorgeous, high quality wedding photo album at Shutterfly.com.

Two Months and Growing

Our little Junie is two months old!  It's true what they say . . . time flies when you're having fun!  She seems to be getting happier and happier these days, and her fussy periods are becoming shorter and less frequent.  She doesn't even scream in the evenings anymore . . . as long as Mama holds her.  :)  She has been sleeping through the night consistently for about a week and a half.  In fact, she has been sleeping 9-10 hours each night, and that's with me waking her up in the morning!  Of course, that doesn't mean I get 9-10 hours of sleep, but 7-8 isn't bad for a mom with a little one!

June is full of smiles these days and she smiles the way Ava did when she was a baby--with her eyes!  She has a beautiful little smile.  She is starting to coo more and is experimenting a little with her voice (right this minute she is squawking a little . . . I think she wants me to pick her up!).  She loves doing tummy time, as long as she isn't already mad about something.  She is doing very well with holding her head up on her own and since she can do so, we can now carry her around facing forward, which she seems to really enjoy.

We are excited to take her on her first trip to Montana soon (except for the whole 8 hours in the car thing) so she can see Nana's house and meet her Aunt Jess, Uncle Brandon and Cousins Cameron and Everett!  She is a joy and a delight and such a fun addition to our family!

Here are some recent pictures of our little Juniper:

Playing on her mat on the floor.

Having trouble staying awake after feeding time.

All smiles!

The Bouncy Seat:  June's third parent.  :)

Lying on the bed with Big Sister!

I used to hate it when Daddy held me, but now that he can hold me like this I love it!  :)

Cheese!

Little Fish

Ava LOVES water.  So much so that it's pretty ridiculous.  In fact, it's starting to drive me crazy.  I would say that about 75% of the naughty things that she does somehow involve water.  :)  A few weeks ago she figured out how to turn on each of our bathroom sinks by herself.  In her bathroom she stands on her step stool and then gets one leg up on the counter so that she can reach the faucet and turn it on herself (by the way, one of her new favorite sayings is, "Do it self!").  In the half-bath/laundry room she moves her other stool around to the side so that she can turn the water on and then moves it back to get her hands in the water.  And--most annoying of all--in our bathroom she stands on the toilet seat and leans way over so that she can turn on my sink and play in the water.  And this is where she gets into the most trouble.  That girl finds all kinds of different objects to fill up with water.  Her favorite is this:

Her baby's sippy cup.  She unscrews the lid, climbs up on the toilet and fills it up time and time again to drink from it (also filling up her diaper!).  One day I found her doing this and there was water everywhere.  I mean, all over the door even, which is across the bathroom from where she was standing.  I'm still not sure how she accomplished that.  Last night, after dinner, she snuck up and grabbed my glass off the table and I found her in the bathroom filling it up.  The other day she was trying to fill up her empty chapstick container that she plays with.  The girl will drink water out of ANYTHING.

She has had this love of water for a long time.  I've never known a one year old that loved to drink water as much as she does.  We have to limit how much water she drinks.  She drinks from her Camelbak water bottle like it's her job.  It often becomes a problem, as she soaks through diaper after diaper (and outfit after outfit).  I never worry about whether or not she is hydrated . . . not even when she's sick!

Not only does she love to drink water, but she also loves to play in water.  All the time.  Anywhere.  Any water.  Nasty water on the side of the road.  A wet spot on the couch where Mama just cleaned off the crayon that she got on there.  The water (which is actually not water!) in Mama's contact lens case.  If there's a liquid around, she WILL find it.  Yes, she drinks her bathwater.  I know it's gross but, honestly, there are only so many battles I can fight.  We do discourage her from drinking it after we have washed her up with soap . . . but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen!  Last time Nana was here she turned Ava on to bubble baths.  So now we always put a little soap in with the running water to make bubbles.  Well, she still drinks the water as she plays, saying over and over again, "I drink soap."  Apparently it never occurs to her that it tastes bad.

The most trouble she has gotten in with water came two weeks ago at Tim's company picnic.  It was held at the Island Marina in Fort Collins.  Basically it's a small lake in south Fort Collins with a few islands.  They set up big canopies, decks, tables and such on these islands and rent them out for parties.  They also have those giant water trampolines in the lake, paddle boats and canoes.  You have to catch a ride on a boat to get out to your island.  It's really quite fun.  We knew Ava would have fun playing in the water there, so pretty much as soon as we got there (they held it on a Friday, so Tim came home early from work and we headed down there together) we suited her up in a life jacket and Tim waded around with her.  It didn't take her long to spot those giant trampolines out in the water.  Since she also LOVES jumping, that was right up her alley.  My first reaction was to say that there was no way Tim was going to take our two year old out there, so he tried to hold her off for quite a while.  Next thing I know he was loading her up in a paddle boat and taking off toward the middle of the lake.  Oh my.  He tried to appease her by just circling around one of the trampolines in the paddle boat . . . yeah right.  Pretty soon he was hoisting her up and the two of them were jumping on the trampoline in the middle of the lake while their paddle boat drifted off.  I won't go into details, since this post is getting really long, but they did make it back to shore safely.  Minutes later Ava wanted to go back, but we corralled her toward dinner.

Ava's first boat ride out to the island

 After dinner Tim introduced her to the giant catfish in another part of the lake that the kids can feed with dog food.  She made me nervous the whole time by standing right on the edge of the deck.  I just had a bad feeling.  A little while later (right after I changed her diaper and got her out of her swimsuit, of course), Tim was holding June and talking to some coworkers, while I was cleaning up our dinner stuff and getting ready to take June.  Ava had been standing by Tim, but I looked up and saw she had wandered off to look at the fish at an unspecified dirt bank with no rope and a sharp drop-off into the water.  Lights and sirens starting going off in my head and I started making my way over there slowly, not wanting to cause a scene.  I glanced away at Tim for a second and when I looked back over she was no longer standing there.  Instead I saw her head just above the water and a crowd beginning to form where she had been standing.  Without even thinking I was over there in a flash.  In a split second I assessed the situation, heard Ava starting to cry and saw that she was moving further out in the water that was already up to her neck.  I threw down June's blanket and my Coke that I was holding and jumped in that nasty lake water, with the catfish.  I scooped Ava up and handed her to some guys who were standing at the edge of the bank.  One of them took my hand and helped me up and we were out in a matter of seconds.  And Ava and I were soaked in a matter of seconds.  The water hit me right about at my chest, so my clothes were pretty wet.  But what else are you going to do?  It's amazing how that instinct kicks in without any necessary thought or plan of action.  I know that any one of those people that Tim works with would have jumped in to get her if I hadn't gotten there first, and I am thankful for that.  But I'm glad it was me who had to do it and I'm SO thankful that that party didn't have to end in tragedy.  Many people congratulated me afterwards and a couple moms called me a "hero".  All I know is that if someone's kid had to fall in the water . . . I'm not at all surprised that it was mine.  :)  And now all of Tim's coworkers will probably remember me as "the lady who jumped in the lake to save her kid".

The best thing I can do is try to channel this love of water into healthy activities.  I set up a sprinkler in our lawn a few weeks ago and let her run through that.  Here is some video:

Of course her favorite thing was sitting on the sprinkler

Unfortunately it wasn't the greatest day weather-wise and got pretty cloudy and windy.  It was chilly so she didn't play for too long.  Last week I got out her baby pool on a hot day and she had a ton of fun playing in that for an hour or so.

Eating her first popsicle!

I wanted to do the pool again this week but it often clouds up and gets windy in the afternoons (although it never rains!) and that makes it a little cool for that sort of thing.  One of Ava's good friends (her parents are on our Discipleship Team) that we play with sometimes has a really neat water table that Ava enjoyed one day.  I think she would love having one of those, and it would be a little easier for me to set up quickly.  We have a Babies'R'Us gift card so I think we might go this weekend and see if we can get one on sale.  Why not feed the addiction, right?

There's a reason we call her Ava "Crazypants" Kelleher!

Fun in the Sun

A couple weeks ago we had one of those super-duper hot weekends.  We've been wanting to take Ava to the City Park Pool in Fort Collins . . . until I looked up the prices for it.  Yikes!  It would cost $20.00 for the three of us to get in for a day!  I know they have a nice waterslide and all that . . . but we're not going to do that with a 2 year old.  We just wanted to play in the little kid area.  Anyway, we said "forget that" and took her to Fossil Creek Park instead.  It has a nice little splash area with sprinklers to run through . . . and it's FREE.  Needless to say, she LOVED it.  When we first got there there were only two other little boys there with their dad.  A bit of a crowd showed up later, but there was still plenty of room.  Here are a couple videos of her running around in the water.

Introducing . . . June Kay!

In case you didn't already know (but hopefully you did), we have a new member of our family!  Our beautiful daughter, June Kay, joined our family on Friday, July 6th.  It was a little bit of a shock as she came 11 days early and oh so quickly!  We are so blessed to have her in our family, and we all have loved her dearly since the beginning.

It all started early in the morning on that Friday.  It had been a not-so-great night.  All of us had struggled to go to sleep (when does Ava not struggle with that?) due to the heat and who knows what else.  I don't think Ava was asleep before 10pm (although she had gone to bed at 8, as usual), and it was even later than that before Tim and I got to sleep.  Anything after 10pm is LATE for us early risers.  :)  On top of that I just wasn't sleeping well in those late stages of pregnancy.  For some reason Ava woke up around 3:30am.  I don't know why; she didn't cry or anything, I could just hear her up.  Of course, Tim kept on sleeping.  Finally at a little after 4am I went upstairs to try to get Ava back to sleep.  She was sitting on her floor reading books.  She laid back down quite easily and I tucked her in and left.  I think it still took her another 20 minutes or so to fall back asleep.  I went back to bed and laid there awake . . . and then I started having some contractions.  At first I assumed they were no big deal, Braxton-Hicks and all that.  After a couple contractions I thought I might as well time them, since I was awake anyway.  I half-heartedly watched the clock and saw that they were about 7 minutes apart.  I finally got up a little before 5am, unable to sleep, and came out to pace around in the kitchen and living room, timing the contractions with my Baby Bump iPhone app (such an amazing tool, by the way!).  The contractions were now around 5 minutes apart, getting stronger and lasting longer.  Tim got up a little after 5am to go to work and came out to see what I was up to.  He figured it wasn't a big deal and went to take a shower.  I sat down to see if the contractions would go away with rest . . . instead they just got stronger and closer together.  Tim came back out and we decided we probably should at least go in to the doctor's office.  Tim encouraged me to take a shower (I didn't get to take one before Ava was born and felt gross all day!) and I thought that maybe that would help relax me.  Quite the opposite--by the time I got out of the shower I could hardly stand through the contractions!  I did my best to put a little make-up on, put in my contacts and get dressed, but it took me FOREVER.  Meanwhile Tim was starting to sense the urgency and went and got Ava up and gave her some breakfast.  He tried to call Grandpa--our plan for who was going to watch Ava--but had to leave a message.  He then sprinted around the house packing up our clothes, my cosmetics and all of Ava's stuff to keep her occupied and--somewhere in there--got Ava dressed.  We called the doctor and were told to go to the hospital.  At this point I was in a LOT of pain and not a very happy camper.  It had become quite apparent to me that our little baby was coming.

We got to the hospital at about 7:15am and Tim and Ava (we had no choice but to take her to the hospital with us) dropped me off at the ER.  I was wheeled up to the birthing floor and taken to a room.  Both the nurse and doctor did an exam to check my progress shortly after we got to the room, and discovered that I was already at 10cm (!), although my water hadn't broken yet.  I was hoping for an epidural . . . but this meant that there wasn't much point.  I could have had one, but we would have had to wait for them to come administer it and wait for it to take effect, or I could just have the baby.  I opted to start pushing and have the baby.  The nurse hurried to get my IV in and get me somewhat admitted and then--just like that--it was time to push.  Right about then Grandpa and Gigi arrived and took Ava out of the room (She was such a trooper! Reading her books and eating her goldfish quietly in the hospital chair while Daddy tried to keep an eye on her AND help Mama.  They both were amazing).  About a half hour later, at 9:05am, June Kay was born!  Grandpa, Gigi and Big Sister Ava got to come in and meet her right away, before heading back to Commerce City.

In retrospect the shower may not have been a good idea.  :)  We knew labor would probably be faster with the second one, but I never guessed it would only be 4.5 hours!  It was intense and very painful, but the Lord was merciful in making it fast.  June actually came out face up, which typically makes labor take longer and is the reason for all the back labor I was having.  Dr. Cloyd commented that if she had been face down, who knows what would have happened.  We might have had her in the car.  :)

I can only praise God for His timing.  I had hoped to go closer to full-term so that I could have a couple of weeks home with Ava before Baby came . . . until I started having all the trouble with the blood clot in my leg.  I had to go off Ibuprofen the day before June was born and didn't know what the pain would be like without it.  My doctor had mentioned they could induce me if I decided it was necessary because of the clot.  I didn't want to be induced . . . but was suffering with the clot.  God took care of all that.  Although the clot is still there and I will be having surgery on it (possibly two surgeries) in the next couple months, it is no longer painful.  His timing was also perfect in that we had just gotten our couch and bed for the basement delivered the day before I went into labor.  I had managed to get the bed made that day and cleaned the new bathroom to make it usable.  Otherwise Nana and Papa Ernie wouldn't have had anywhere to stay when they came that night!

Three weeks later I still sometimes can't believe that our little "surprise" baby is here.  :)  After 9 months of anticipation, it all happened so quickly.  But she is such a joy to the three of us.  So far she seems to have a sweet, quiet personality, and has been a very easy baby.  Ava has had some trouble adjusting to all of the recent changes in her life, but I think she does genuinely like June (it's Mom and Dad she doesn't always like!).  This week has been much better with Ava and I think we are turning a corner.  I look forward to the days when the girls will be playmates; although I wish neither of them would get bigger!  It all just happens too fast.  I am doing my best to enjoy each day with these two little blessings, no matter how challenging they might be sometimes.

And that is June's birth story, in a nutshell.  Here are some pictures of our sweet baby for you to enjoy.

Ava hanging out at the hospital

Just came home from the hospital in a torrential downpour

June and Nana.  Nana and Papa Ernie were able to come visit right away, which was so fun!

First trip to church!

Ava Turns Two!

On June 25th, we celebrated our little girl's 2nd birthday.  She's not so little anymore!  We didn't do anything very momentous.  On Sunday the 24th, Grandpa and Gigi came up and spent the afternoon with us.  They brought presents, including her first baby doll, equipped with all the accessories.  Tim and I had wanted for her to get a baby before our baby came along.  I thought it might be helpful for her to have a baby to take care of while Mama takes care of hers.  And believe it or not, the girl didn't have a baby yet!  We celebrated by opening presents and eating cupcakes and that was about it.  On Monday--her actual birthday--we had cupcakes and sang to her again after dinner.  Then we had a nice conversation with Nana and Papa Ernie via Skype.  Not a bad birthday for a two-year-old.  

Here are some pictures from it.  Ava really likes to look at her birthday pictures on the computer (she loves to watch Picasa slideshows - mostly just pictures of herself, though).  She likes to sing "Happy Birthday" while she watches.  "Happy birthday to youee, youee, youee . . . " is usually how it goes.  :)

Having a snack before opening presents.  Grandpa and Gigi came while she was napping, so she was a little surprised to see them when she woke up.

Reading her "Peekaboo Duck" card.  She still loves it.  :)

Sidewalk chalk?  Yes!

Reading one of her new books with Grandpa.

Opening her baby.  Ooh . . . what could it be?

The look on her face says, "What the heck IS this thing?"

Too bad all babies don't just come nicely wrapped in a box!

So many fun accessories!  It took forever to get them all out of the box.

Baby needs her pacifier.

On a walk with her baby and diaper bag.  As soon as she opened the baby and saw what it was, she was quiet for the next 15 minutes or so . . . so serious about playing with her new baby!

Coloring Outside!  So fun.

Coloring your feet is especially fun.

Attempting to eat a cupcake . . . 

THIS is how you eat a cupcake!

Such a good little mommy!