My dainty princess

Today is Z's birthday. 3 years ago right now I was staring in wonder at my very tiny but perfect little girl.

Should I continue the Parsons' tradition of sharing the birth story on the birthday? Sure!

I'd been on bed rest for about 10 days in the hospital. Modified home bed rest (you know how well I follow directions) at the beginning of May which turned into full bed rest at home (again, I can do "one" load of laundry, can't I?) at the end of May and then full hospital bed rest the middle of June. My original due date was July 29th. Ugh. I guess I should have listened to the medical professionals, eh?

So, I can only get up to go potty or shower. Bet your butt I showered every single day! And being 7 almost 8 months pregnant, I had to pee a lot. I made it through several seasons of CSI, CSI Miami and got addicted to Desperate Housewives during this time. Thank goodness for wireless internet, too!

So, my blood pressure kept rising and it finally stayed too elevated and the doctor said we were going to induce me at 35 weeks. Cervadil was put in place and I was also given a happy sleeping pill. Little did I know this would be the last good night's sleep I'd have for a VERY long time!

Sunday morning, June 25th about 7:30 I was taken to labor and delivery. Doc said it would probably take a VERY long time since I was only dilated about 1 cm. Pitosin given via IV and epidural started. Water broke on it's own.

I didn't know how low at the time, but Z's heart rate would take a significant dip each time I had a contraction. Finally about 2:45 Dr. LeMaster's decided to do a c-section because Z just wasn't tolerating the labor. Since she'd be a preemie anyway, we didn't want to take any chances.

3:07 pm Z was born. I wish I'd been able to see - can't wear your glasses during an operation - but they brought her close to my face after they cleaned her up a bit. She had little perfect little face, skinny red limbs, long fingers and toes. Only weighing in at 5 lbs. 4.8 oz., she was so small!

Fortunately, I'd been given steroid shots and her lungs were great and she was able to stay with us the first night in the hospital. No NICU! :-)

She's definitely the best thing that I've ever done. She's a pretty cool kid.

I do have to post, along with this, how she fell asleep yesterday in her new princess dress from Mamaw and tiara watching Little Mermaid received from Uncle Mikey and Aunt Krista for her birthday,

Happy birthday my sweet girl!

Off we go.......

into the wild, blue yonder!

Yeah, that used to drive me crazy as a kid when EVERY time we'd get in the car for a vacation my dad would burst into this song. Now it brings back fond memories of family vacations.

Every summer we'd take off IN THE CAR to a far off destination. Yup. In the car. The destinations were great! I slept most of the way where ever we went in the car. Lucky thing about being a kid!

This will be our first family vacation in the car. We usually make a trek to Florida to visit my dad and SM but it's via a wonderful but alas too expensive now AIRPLANE!

We're taking off tomorrow evening after Chris gets home from work. Here's hoping I get a nap in tomorrow since I'll be taking the first shift driving. Unlucky part about being a grown up.

So, wish us luck that our two VERY chatty children will sleep the night hours and be quietly (ha!) entertained by the various electronic media we'll be taking with us.

Hasta luego amigos!

Mobile Me!

My darling husband set me up with a Mobile Me account which will sync ALL my calendars, email and photos! Whoohoo! I can also now add a photo gallery like he has on his blog site. Hmmmm, I might have to migrate over to iWeb stuff and set my blog up that way.....

Gallery will be: http://gallery.me.com/zapmommy

Funny Z story

My girl definitely has a sense of humor. She enjoys a good laugh and can just find fun about anywhere she goes.

We were at J's birthday party today and my pretty princess, in fancy dress, tights and her "ballet flats", lets a very unladylike toot. A big one.

"Oh, that was a fart," says Z. "Excuse me."

All the adults - "Giggle, chuckle, snort."

Next thing, we hear a very large what was probably a drill or some other power tool make a very large toot-ish sound. One of the grown-ups says "Zoe, was that you?"

Z totally got the joke! She laughed and laughed! She covered her mouth and said "No! That was a car!" She laughed as much as the adults did!

I guess you had to be there. But, as the late George Carlin said - "Farts are funny."

Especially when they come from my prissy little girl in a very NON-prissy manner and she just goes on like nothing happened.

Holy crap, I'm glad that's over

The presentation to the school board is finished.  So much time preparing and the anticipation was definitely the worst part.  What should we add?  What should we not include?  What possible questions will they have about this or that?  What should we wear?

All pressing questions.

Anessa and I rocked out the math portion.  I'm still so in awe about how well her kids did last year on the math OAT test.  Completely off the charts with respect to how much progress they made in a year.  

She and I are meeting next week again to work some more on the extended response math journals.  We knocked out the Kindergarten one in a little over an hour.  Hopefully the teachers will think that it's as awesome as we do!

Anyway - BLT team, we knocked it out.  Everyone knew their stuff, we got to show off a little of what we've done at Woodlawn Elementary School.  

Testing's over, let's wrap up this school year.

She's definitely a girl!

My little princess has found a new favorite movie!  Tinkerbell!  

I think we watched it 4 times in the last 2 days.  

This morning we watched it in full princess gear - a Thumbelina dress, ballet slippers and her new crown from Mamaw that lights up and has pink maribou feathers on it.  

Oh, my.  

She's fond of running through the house, more like prancing, singing at the top of her lungs - "I'm a girl, I'm a girl, I'm a girl!"  

Daddy and I just look at each other and say "Oh, yes.  She's definitely a girl!"

Egg Hunt Fun!

Today was the annual Franklin Egg Hunt at the park and what a beautiful day for it! Zoe had a ball and has discovered Tootsie Rolls!