Bag Packed

Jillian's bag, Baby Boy Thorne's bag and my hospital bag are all packed ready for the big day. Let's hope it's still about 7 weeks away. The little guy has been very active and has been getting hiccups often. Today he seems to like punching my hip bone. Jillian rarely kicked my ribs at night but this guy aims right for them. Overall, he's doing well as far as we know. I'm getting along ok. Just trying to keep up with grocery shopping, cooking, and general cleaning around the house. My weight has stalled out the past 3 weeks. It seems if I eat anything past 630 in the evenings it's difficult to sleep due to heartburn and/or little baby boy is pushing up more so onto my stomach and diaphragm and I have a hard time breathing. So I try to eat more during the day and eat as soon as I can when I get home.

Jillian is doing well. She is having a Christmas party at her daycare today so all the parents were given an opportunity to bring in store-bought snacks. I totally forgot until this morning so I took in an unopened box of individually packaged fruit snacks. She has been off the pacifier since August at home. I didn't realize she was still getting it at daycare until I walked in one day and she had it in her mouth. That was over a month ago and she is now pacifier free! I really wanted her off of it soon anyway but especially before this baby comes. She has been eating a bunch of food the past few days. One night she ate 1/3 of a chicken breast, sweet potatoes, cottage cheese, block cheese and a few crackers in addition to her milk. She continues to enjoy pulling off her shoes and socks on the car ride to and from town. She hasn't tried chewing on them much, she just likes to grab her toes. She also knows where her nose is and her toes. We'll say "Where's your nose?" and she touches it with a finger and then we'll ask her where our nose is and she puts her finger on our nose. We'll ask her where her toes are and she reaches down to her toes. I've really been missing her last week and this week. It's almost like when I first came back to work after having her and just wanting to drop everything at work and leave to go get her from daycare. Perhaps it's because I know my time with just her is going to shortened soon.

Garrett has been very busy with work and home tasks. He put up new shelving in one of our big living room closets to help organization. He welded on casters to his big Gorilla racks in the garage so he can move them around. Once we move the off road truck out of the way of one of the bays we can put both cars in the garage. He and I are getting over a cough that we think Jillian gave us. It was all in our upper chest and throat. I've been very busy at work as well. Lots of project deadlines by Dec. 31 or early January.

We bought a small 3 foot real Christmas tree that we are keeping up on a desk. We put a select few ornaments on it. The name of the tree escapes me at the moment. It's nice to have and to smell. Christmas has arrived very quickly this year.

Wishing everyone well and Merry Christmas!

December already?!

It's hard to believe it's December. It's hard to believe that in 10 weeks or less we'll have another addition to the Thorne family! I had a check up yesterday and everything is "textbook perfect". His heart rate was 132bpm, my weight is ??? um, I'll just say normal, and he is measuring right where he should be, 30cm. Little Boy Thorne is also already in the head down position. Jillian was also by this time.

After having a cough for the past two weeks, I took Jillian in to her doctor today. She was up a lot last night which is not typical for her. She has chronic bronchitis. She also has a molar breaking through so she is quite uncomfortable right now. At least she's still her happy self most of the time.

Garrett is slowly getting over a cold/cough as well. Yesterday was the first day he felt good enough to chase after Jillian. He still has quite the cough but is sounding much better.

Sorry for the short post but I don't have much time. I'll get new photos posted as soon as I can.

Love to all!

New Tricks

Jillian has always been adorable. But in the past few weeks, even more so if you can believe it! I was taking her home after work one day and she had been jabbering to herself, which is the best sound to my ears. All kinds of fluctuations in her voice like she's really having a conversation. Sure wish I knew what she was saying. Anyway, then I heard velcro. So I figure she is taking off her shoes. (She started that a few weeks ago). Then after a minute or two I hear her start giggling. She pauses, giggles, pauses, giggles. She now has me laughing just as much. When I finally came to an intersection, I pulled out my pocket mirror and reached back to see what she was doing. She had pulled off her shoes and her socks and every time she would grab her foot and just start to put her big toe in her mouth, she started giggling. She was tickling her own feet! It was so funny that I then laughed even more every time I heard her start laughing. It was purely adorable. She has done it a few times since then and as soon as I hear the velcro I get a big grin on my face.

She also likes to go into the dining room and race around to the other side of table and hunker down on her knees. We then pretend to now know where she is, saying "Where's Jillian?" She stays quite but smiles really big until we walk around the table to where she's hiding. She then laughs and hops up and moves on to more exploring. What a fantastic age!

At daycare they practice infant sign language with the kids as we do with her at home. They practice the signs for more, all done, please and help. At home we practice with eat, milk, drink, book and just started the sign for outside since she asks to go outside daily. We have been practicing it with her since she was a few months old and were getting sad because she hadn't done them back to us. Until now! We are so excited. She is nearly consistent with telling us please when we ask her if she wants more of something. Last night she starting telling us "more" in a modified version but I think she's just trying to figure out her own hand movement for that word and it will come with time. We plan to continue practicing this with her and also plan to teach the new little guy. Perhaps he'll catch on quickly since he'll have Jillian to watch.

We have our next doctor's appointment this afternoon. I'm going every two weeks now! Time is flying by so quickly that when the doc told me at my last appointment it would be every two weeks, I paused and said "Really?" I knew it was soon but geez. It's getting difficult to bend or kneel down and still breathe and chase Jillian around. Otherwise, everything is looking good.

I'd love to keep sharing but I have to get back to work. Since I'm helping the Pharm department I have been extremely busy. If I don't get back on here again before Thanksgiving, have a great holiday!

Pics

Just before tube surgery

After a buggy ride at daycare

Climbing into off-road truck

Eating grass

Busy, busy, bees

Last Monday was Jillian's first birthday. I can't believe it's been a year with as quickly as she has grown and changed in so many ways. For her birthday, Garrett bought her a little John Deere handheld tractor that plays a couple of sounds. She opened that along with a few other gifts we received in the mail. She loved everything! We are still working through reading all of her new books. Sadly, after she ate dinner and opened gifts, she was not feeling well due to side effects from her antibiotic for her ear infection so we postponed the cake until Tuesday night. She enjoyed it and was completely wound with energy for a over an hour. Then she crashed with exhaustion.

The business my Bio department has right now has slowed quite a bit over the past couple of months. I've stayed busy with a couple projects but a number of others have struggled, working on random tasks like repainting mass spec shelving and doing other odd jobs to stay busy. Last week I was informed that myself along with two other coworkers have been selected to work full time for at least a month, probably longer, for the Pharm Analysis group in our company starting November 1. They signed a big contract for a project that requires more staff than what they currently have. They have a separate lab and do things very differently than what I do in my Bio department. I was a little nervous about this change. Then, my perspective became a bit more enthusiastic after Monday afternoon. Three people were let go from the Bio group. It's always hard to see that happen and again, I am very thankful to still have my job. Today I have started training for this new challenge. They are offering weekend work with compensation that I am tempted to go for. After talking with some people this morning, it looks like I will be doing this work through at least the end of the calendar year. It will be a big change and feel fortunate they have chosen me to help.

Jillian had tubes put in her ears yesterday morning. By the end of the day she was back to her normal energetic, happy self and slept relatively well last night. I sure hope they help keep her ears clear. We really don't like that she's been on antibiotics almost constantly since July. She has six teeth now, working on the seventh. Her bottom four incisors have broken through and the outside two incisors (not K9s) on the top. She looks a bit like a vampire. For the past week I could see one of her top front incisors trying to break through and it's taking a while and I believe causing her a good bit of discomfort. All the rest have come in without much complaint. She's on whole milk now and doing very well with it. She's also eating up a storm. I didn't grab the cable to connect my phone or camera to the the computer so I'll try to get that done soon and share more photos.

Take care.

Big Day!!

Today is a big day! It's Jillian's first birthday! I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. It's also her first official day in the toddler room at daycare. She began transitioning two weeks ago, with spending as little or as much time with the big kids as she could handle. She had a couple of days that she became slightly overwhelmed, but never full out crying. She is playing very well with the other kids and loves going outside to the playground or for buggy rides. I made her a birthday cake this weekend and it turned out bigger than I planned. I'll post photos before, during and after the demolition.

Jillian saw an ear, nose, throat doctor last week and is scheduled to get tubes in her ears next Tuesday. She had the beginning of her seventh infection at the appointment so they prescribed antibiotics again. I don't think they are helping as she continues to dig in her ears and be fussy off and on. She also has horrible diaper rash that I just can't get to be any better. I'm calling the ENT today because the infection has to be gone before she gets tubes and I'm afraid we may have to have the antibiotic shots again. Poor baby. We are all ready for her to have relief from the infections and severe rash. She continues to be a happy, active girl regardless of feeling lousy.

Jillian is starting to say distinct "words" to describe things. Her words refer to the cat, dog, outside, mom, dad, and tractor. The corn around our house was harvested last Sunday so we took her outside so she could watch the combine. She loved it! She jabbered and jabbered to it, pointed her fingers and flapped her arms. Now when she hears a loud vehicle coming down our road she says her tractor word. She has begun asking to go outside by pointing and saying her word for outside. She loves it and it's easier on us because there are fewer things outside that we need to redirect her from than there are inside the house. She's our outdoor girl!

I continue to feel pretty good with this pregnancy. The little guy goes through spurts where for a few days he is very squirmy and gives me good jabs that are quite uncomfortable, then there are days where he doesn't move around much. With being so active with Jillian, I haven't gained as much weight as I did with Jillian. I am gaining exactly if not a little under what I need to but the doctors aren't concerned since I began at a decent weight. I've been eating, and eating, and eating it seems. I suppose I should enjoy it while it lasts.

Garrett continues to work a little in the garage. Mainly trying to get things organized so we can put the cars in the garage with the cold weather approaching. We're getting ready to install the heater so he's been doing a few things in preparation of that. Otherwise, we're going with the flow of keeping up with Jillian and housework.

I'll get some new photos posted soon. Until next time....

Siding

Below are some photos of the siding finished on the garage. Great job to G and our friends that helped. This plant started growing where we'd had a large tree taken out last summer. I thought it was squash until a pumpkin showed up! This is quite far from our garden so not sure how a seed landed there but it's been fun to watch it. Probably an animal but we didn't even plant pumpkins this year. So the hummingbirds had flown south for the winter, so we thought. I had not seen any for about a month and hadn't taken down the feeder yet. I thought the leftover sugar water was just evaporating. Turns out, we still have a hummer!

Walking Outside

It's a Boy!!

This one is just for Daniel:

We found out we have a little boy on the way!! The due date is estimated to be Feb. 14, 2012 per the ultrasound. We are super excited that we'll have one of each. I went through Jillian's clothes up until now and pulled out the pieces of clothing that he will be able to wear. I went to the secondhand children's clothing store this weekend and found him a pair of long-sleeved onesies in the 0-3 month size. One is olive green with a fuzzy bear on the front and the other is olive green and brown striped thermal. They had plenty of other cute boy clothes but I resisted. For now.

Garrett started working on the siding of our garage this weekend. He is taking today and maybe tomorrow off to continue working on it while the weather is perfect. A friend of ours came out and showed us how to get started on it and he will hopefully be coming back out to help install some of it. I'm really excited about it and it's going to look so nice.

Jillian is in full walking mode. She gets excited and tries to start running but her feet aren't ready for that just yet. We are having lots of spills and tumbles but then she just starts laughing. She has two more teeth coming in around her bottom two incisors. It looks like she has skipped the top two incisors for now so she'll look extra cute until the top ones come through. She'll be extra cute anyway, just saying. She has taken to mouthing rocks. When we walk onto our driveway she leans way over while we're holding her to look down at them. If we're in the yard, she cruises over to the gravel. She is keeping us very busy.

That's about all for now. Enjoy some photos. The swing photos are of her first time in a swing. She liked it. She gets into her old bouncer and bounces on it. She typically stands on it, holds on to the back and bounces with her legs. She's a funny girl.

Soon

The one thing that has come to mind all week is that our ultrasound is tomorrow. I'm so excited and can hardly wait. I've noticed the baby becoming very active in the past week with lots of jabs. It kept me awake for a little while the other night because it was so active. It's been fun feeling that little life inside me wiggling around. I had really missed that after having Jillian. I've been feeling good. Everything is stretching out again. My cesarean incision hasn't been achy but the round ligaments are lengthening, which makes it hard to hold Jillian's hands half way bent over while she walks. Yes!! She's walking!!

Jillian cruises along if she's holding our hands or pushing her little car around the house. She loves walking! She gets a look on her face like she is on a mission and very determined. The most steps she's taken at once without holding anything is 13, two nights ago. The gate is going up at the stairs as she has become an expert at crawling up them. The crawling, scooting down them will take some time as right now she just turns around and starts heading down them without getting her footing. She has good balance, just needs to get her confidence up a bit and she'll be running. I'm happy she's walking because that means I won't have to carry her everywhere with the expanding belly, but I'm also sad because that means she's growing up. While walking down the stairs last week I didn't see one of the cats on the step and I stepped right on him and nearly fell while holding Jillian. It scared us all but I caught myself by bracing against the sides of the stairwell. My back muscles were cramped up for a few days afterwards but got through it just fine.

Jillian went through a phase where she was hitting our faces and swiping her food across her highchair tray. She has stopped hitting but continues the food swiping occasionally. With some good advice, we figured out how to redirect her actions and saw almost an immediate result. She is continuing to struggle with ear infections. We are getting over #4 in 3 months. The timeline is 6 within 6 months so she is well on the way to getting tubes, especially coming into cooler weather seasons. She was on one antibiotic that wasn't helping at all, only giving her unpleasant side effects but we didn't know it until she ran a fever of 102 and vomitted. When we took her back to the doc last week they switched her to a previous antibiotic and it seems to be helping for now. I caught something last week also and had a sore throat for the week and ran a fever for a day. Last night my throat became very sore again so hopefully it's nothing.

Garrett's work seems to be getting busier while mine is slowing down. It's normal for mine to start slowing this time of year but it is really slow and looks like it will be that way for a few months. Good for you, because I may have more time to post on the blog! Garrett's busy with his Stryker project and now they are talking about making his wind turbine setup bigger. That will be quite the job. He continues to work hard on the garage. I'm not sure of the last thing I mentioned about that but he has all of the insulation up, walls and ceiling, and is starting to install the drywall. In two days we was able to get the east wall and corners completed. It's really looking nice. We have a friend coming out to the house possibly tomorrow evening to give us (well, Garrett) tips on putting up the siding. We really need it up soon due to weather. Once it's done he continue work on the inside.

That's about all I have at the moment. Happy Autumn!

Travels

After going to Minnesota for a week and Missouri for 4 days, we are happy to be home for a little while. We drove to Eden Prairie, MN where Garrett had training at MTS. It was a very nice area. We got up every morning and had breakfast at the hotel, Jillian and I dropped him off at MTS and she and I went for a walk at nearby parks. Eden Prairie was voted the top place to live in the US in 2010. While there, she had another ear infection so we spent some time at the pharmacy to treat the infection, then to treat the side effects. We also went to a few discount children's clothing stores and found her some cute clothes and a few toys. The three of us went to the Mall of America to visit the Lego store and aquarium. The Lego store was fun to see. Jillian really enjoyed the aquarium. She had been a little fussy that afternoon so we weren't sure if we wanted to chance buying the tickets and she getting upset during the tour or if we would go back another day. We decided to try it and she did great! She intently watched the swimming fish and talked to them in her animal speak. She has a distinct tone of voice she uses when she sees animals of any kind. One evening we drove to a nearby REI store. It had a grand entrance with a curving pathway that led to the front door, lined with trees and mostly wild flowers. We walked across a short bridge over a fish pond. To the side of the entrance stood Charlie Brown and Lucy from the Peanuts crew. We also went to Gander Mountain, Ben & Jerry's, and a local BBQ restaurant. We had a good time. We traveled to Missouri 4 days later for Garrett's cousin's wedding. It was very nice and good to see all of the family, even if for a short time. We sure miss spending more time with everyone. The past two weeks flew by and we are glad to be back home. We have a few projects we need to finish, some to start and finish, hopefully before the baby arrives.

I've been feeling pretty good. I've had some lower back aches and my c-section incision has been sore. My belly has really popped in the past two weeks and I've been feeling the baby move. I haven't noticed as many distinct movements as I did with Jillian at this stage, but more of the fluttering. I had a cherry coke yesterday and the baby became very active for a few minutes. I'm excited to feel more movement. My next checkup is next Friday and then we'll schedule the ultrasound. I have a feeling it's another girl, the Belgian relatives that we saw this weekend think it's a boy. We'll find out soon!!

Jillian is a crawling machine. Yesterday evening she was zooming across the floor from room to room so quickly she was getting out of breath. She would take off as fast as she could, stop and turn to look back at me, smile and take off again. She also climbed stairs for the first time last weekend. She went up and back down the first two steps twice, then off she went, with little pausing. I know she'll keep up hopping soon, more than we know, but at least I won't have to carry her as much. It's getting quite difficult with the growing belly. She pulls up to a standing position frequently and she is standing without support for up to a minute. She has tried to turn or move but hasn't yet been able to get her feet to follow. My dad predicted she'd be walking in 30 days. I think he may be right.

Keep in touch everyone. We love getting calls and emails.

As begged for....

Jillian and......

Hi there! Jillian has been sick for the past few weeks, starting with a double ear infection, then a bad stomach bug with fever, now back to a double ear infection. In the midst of her having the stomach bug, her ears were fine. We took her back to the doctor yesterday because she wasn't drinking or eating hardly anything and the doctor said she has a bad ear infection again. So, we are trying a different antibiotic and hopefully we can avoid tubes as long as it doesn't recur 6 times. Jillian is so great even when she's sick. Even though she has felt lousy she has smiled a few times and then remembers she doesn't feel well. Her stomach bug started Tuesday evening on the drive home. Garrett stayed home with her on Wednesday, then he caught the bug and was home Thursday and Friday. Mary came to visit for the weekend and it was really great having her help. We sure hope she didn't catch it. Amazingly, I have been able to escape it so far.

On a happy, exciting note...... We are expecting a new baby Thorne in February! We had our first appointment July 15. When we arrived the nurse practitioner takes care of the first appointment for expectant families. Garrett of course was with me and the NP told him "good job" and we all laughed. She could not find the heart beat after searching for a few minutes and I was concerned so they give me a quick ultrasound to make sure the baby was ok. The doctor in the office said he had a little time so we took a look and everything looks great. The baby was wiggling and we could see it's little heart fluttering. Amazing! I am excited to hopefully hear the heart at our next appointment next week. We are quite happy that Jillian will be a big sister and hope the two will be good friends (eventually). The official due date is February 11, 2012. I have to say that I'm happy I don't have to carry a large furnace around through the whole summer. We are trying to decide what we need in terms of a car seat and if we want another crib for the new baby or a toddler bed for Jillian, then give the crib to the new baby. We will also need another high chair so we'll be talking about that also. There are some seats that look like a high chair without the legs that sit on a big person chair, but they aren't quite a booster, but convert to a booster when necessary. That seems confusing. We really don't need much. In fact, we haven't even put away Jillian's bouncer or "bubble" chair that she outgrew a few months ago. We are planning to find out the gender and should know at our appointment in September, yet to be scheduled.

Between Garrett reaching a stopping point on the garage fix-up and illness with Jillian and him, we haven't done much of anything else. We were hoping to see Part 2 of Harry Potter over the weekend but that wasn't a good idea for obvious reasons. We'll see it sometime. Our jobs are about the same. Not too busy, not too slow. Our cats and Huntley are all doing well. We try to take walks when the weather isn't smoldering. Neighbor Frank let us go into his garden last Monday and pick green beans and sweet corn. Garrett and Mary blanched and froze the corn and we need to do something with the beans. They were more than ready to be picked so they aren't the best beans but it was very nice of Frank to let us take some. He said he already canned 37 quarts of beans and hadn't mentioned how much corn he'd picked. He sure has a lot of both and more to come that he planted after the first crop. We have some tomato and pepper plants that are producing very well. I need to get out there and work on the garden. With the heat I haven't been out there much and it looks like a jungle. I went out to pick a few cherry tomatoes for my salad a few nights ago and there was something in the tall weeds making noises at me and moving around, but not moving away. I quickly picked the tomatoes and jumped over the knee high fence. I'm guessing it was an opossum but it's hard to know. It sounded like a quick hiss/spit noise. Perhaps a snake?

I don't have my cable with me to hook up my iPhone to the computer to post any photos but I will try to remember to grab it.

Happy August!

Whew!

Jillian is in full crawling mode. She has mastered crawling and pulling up and she crawls faster every day. She has both of her bottom incisors poking through and I think she will have more soon. She has been chewing a lot again and a little fussy. Generally, she continues to be a happy girl. We received all of our cloth diapers a few weeks ago that my friend made for us. They have been great. I enjoy using them in the fact that we're saving money and contributing less to garbage. I don't enjoy them so much in scraping and washing but they are overall great. They have adjustable elastic so as Jillian grows we can alter the fit.

My work has been very busy the past few weeks and Garrett has stayed busy, too. He continues working on the garage. He finished up running the interior gas line, now we need to have the gas company run the exterior line. He finished insulating the walls and has about 1/3 of the ceiling insulated. He has taken a few days off from garage work due to hot weather. I've been staying busy chasing Jillian and trying to get housework done. We've been so worn out we haven't gone anywhere fun in a while. We hope to make a camping trip with Jillian soon. At this point, it will have to wait until fall when it cools off a bit. We bought a nice Kelty pack to carry Jillian in and have been using it some on our walks. It will be handy for hiking when we take a little weekend trip. There are a number of camping/hiking locations within a couple hours from us to choose from.

That's all I have for now. I'll try my best to post photos soon. It's time to pick up my Sugar. Hope you're all doing well.
Our love,
~Chris

AHHHH! Baby on the move!!

Jillian crawled last night! It was nearing bedtime and she and I were playing on the floor in the living room. I had eaten some fruit snacks and set the wrapper next to me. Apparently that wrapper was very interesting to her! She got onto her knees from sitting, started rocking, and moved each knee an inch or so. Then she sat back down. She did that two more times, then didn't stop for a good 3 feet! By then she had reached the wrapper so I sat her back a few feet. I was in shock. I could hardly believe I'd just seen her crawl. She did it again, and again. I could hardly contain myself due to excitement so she and I went out to the garage to get Garrett and he came inside and saw her crawl. I was able to get it on video and will get that posted as soon as possible. I think she was excited because then she didn't want to just sit like she has for the past few months. For the past week or two she'd been trying to go from sitting to standing so I thought she would completely skip crawling. She has been pulling up on things from sitting to up to her knees for about a week. So, today over lunch I drove over to Walmart and bought a couple of gates to go at the top and bottom of the stairs. It has a swinging door so we won't have to take it down repeatedly. Oh my, the exploration has begun! When I picked Jillian up from daycare last Thursday, one of her caregivers predicted she'd be crawling by Monday. She was very close! Not by Monday, but ON Monday! I'm curious to see how she did for them today. It's so exciting, but oh am I nervous now!

Jillian has been eating lots of baby food! She has been eating 3 jars each day in addition to rice cereal and milk. She's also been taking good naps and sleeping most of the night. I think her napping pattern may be changing into a short 15-20 minute nap in the morning and around lunch time, then a longer 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon. She seems to only take the longer nap if she and I both lay down together. She doesn't nap much at daycare other than a couple of 20 minute naps. She continues to grow so fast.

So far we have 3 hummingbirds from what I can tell. We hope to get more but we sure have a lot of other birds. We've seen robins, cardinals. indigo buntings, the goldfinch, cedar waxwing, and some kind of thrush that we aren't sure about. The cedar waxwings are so soft looking. We only saw them for a few minutes one day last week. It was a breeding pair.

On Saturday I was outside walking in the yard and heard a crazy, loud animal noise coming from the crazy neighbor's yard. We left the house later that day to run an errand and saw they now have a donkey. I never realized they were so noisy! Such a big noise coming out of a little animal! I'm guessing they got it to protect the goats (from coyotes). Yikes!

For our 5 year anniversary on June 4, Garrett surprised me with a Kahr K9 pistol. I was totally surprised and excited. We took it out to the range a few miles from our house and put some rounds through it. It shoots very nicely. Jillian had fallen sleep so we parked the car and checked on her every couple of minutes.

We had talked about returning to MO in July but we decided to postpone the trip since most people were going to be busy. We'll try again, just not sure when.

Keep in touch,

~Chris