2011 in Review

What a year it has been!

I think this has been the most life-changing and exciting year yet. We have...

• Welcomed the birth of our daughter

• Built a house

• Moved

• Travis changed jobs

• We attended our 3rd Hydro Walk

• Became IRL (In Real Life) friends with some more Hydro families

• Tyler started 1st grade

• Tyler had eye surgery

Those are the big highlights of the year in addition to the regular day to day stuff. Tyler continues to go to therapy and is getting stronger every day. His biggest achievement is voluntarily putting weight through his legs. He will stand with a walker for 2-3 minutes with you balancing him at the waist (I will eventually finish my post about this). He is also getting much better about lifting his head while laying on his belly.

After all of that, I am ready for a laid-back and relaxing 2012. I'm not sure how that will happen with 2 kids but that's what makes it exciting.

Wishing everyone a
Happy
and
Healthy
New Year!

Christmas 2011

Tree
Family Skip-Bo
Kenna's 1st Christmas
Presents Nerf-gun battles
Friends Abundance of Food
Over-night guests Wii playing
Movie watching Fun
Scrabble
Laughter

Girlfriends

I was wondering when this day would come, but I really didn't think it would be this soon. Tyler has been coming home from school with several notes from girls. The notes usually have hearts all over them with Tyler's name in the middle. They are so precious. The kids in his class adore Tyler, but especially the girls. His teacher always tells me the kids argue who gets to push Tyler's wheelchair to recess and then they all take turns pushing him around the playground and that Tyler has a smile on his face the entire time.

But when I saw this one, I cracked up laughing. I love kids imaginations.

A band-aid with Tyler's name on it, that fixed a broken heart.

Aren't boys and girls at this age, still suppose to think that they have cooties?

The Weekend

This past weekend, Travis and my dad went deer hunting. So while they were away, the kids and I spent the weekend at my moms. Most of our time was spent baking Christmas cookies with several breaks for snuggle time.

Making Cut-out cookies

Taking a break for some snuggle time

Here's the finished product of a few cookies we made.
Chocolate Gooey Butter cookies
Cut-out cookiesOreo balls & chocolate-covered pretzels

Sharing Toys

Tyler is doing much better with his sister. He is realizing that she is not going anywhere. Her cries don't seem to bother him too bad, unless she is screaming at the top of her lungs. =)

One of the next issues I think we have to deal with having 2 children is SHARING. Tyler LOVES to play with Kenna's portable swing. He will scoot his way over to her swing and will swing it back and forth. I think he could do this for hours.

And even sometimes he gets a little carried away.

No one was injured during this event.

1 month

When did he get so big?

Due to my recent c-section, I was out of commission for awhile, in the regards of caring for Tyler. I still haven't been cleared to lift him. But this past week, I have slowly and carefully been lifting him. Travis and my mom have been wonderful in helping out. Travis has been taking him to school, giving him baths and so much more. My mom has picked him up from school several days and been taking him to therapy. So the first few times I picked Tyler up he felt like he grew and gained so much. Has he? Or is it that I'm around a 5-6 pounder, called Kenna, all day that makes him feel bigger.

Belly Time

We are making it a point to place Kenna on her belly at least once or twice a day. She is tolerating it okay. And if she has to do belly time, I think that's a good time for Tyler to do some as well :)

Old habits die hard

Do you see something similar in these 2 pictures?

1 week old

32 weeks gestation

Getting settled and adjusting...

Today was suppose to be Kenna's birthday, 11-11-11. She had other plans and decided to come early. Yeah, it would have been cool to have a birthday such as 11-11-11, but really that's a lot of 1's and dashes. So I like that she decided to choose her own birth date.

I wonder if this is a sign of her saying 'you can't tell me what to do or when.' If so, we may be in trouble :)

Things are definitely different in the Demarest household now. But a baby will do that. We are getting settled and trying to get on somewhat of a schedule. But of course, that is Kenna's schedule. She likes to eat about every 2-3 hours and does not like to be laid down when she is sleeping. This causes for a lot of things not getting done. But I am treasuring those precious moments because some day she will not want to be held. And she is just to darn cute to not hold.

Tyler is still adjusting to his baby sister. I think the best way to describe his behavior is "tolerating her". He has done remarkably well and better than expected with her crying and little squeks. He is very sensitive to different noises and has really only got upset a handful of times. But don't get me wrong, his demeanor has changed tremendously since we brought her home. He just hasn't been acting himself and we don't get as many smiles and "sounds" out of him. This really breaks my heart but I know he just needs time to adjust. I just hope it's sooner than later because I miss my silly Tyler. However this morning, I did get a couple smiles out of him when I turned on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Welcome Kenna Grace!

Kenna Grace
5lbs 5oz
18.5 inches

Trick or Treating

First let me say, don't expect a spectacular costume from Tyler this year, like he had last year. Maybe next year will be better. But I have to say, Tyler 's costume was very super-heroish. Is that even a word? And he liked his big muscles (so much that he wanted to eat them as we were going door to door).

Dash from The Incredibles

The whole clan

Well one was missing. He decided to be Peter Parker instead of Spiderman, LOL!

Squeezing in a tradition

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It's that time of year when you can dress up and be whoever you want to be. Another reason why it is my favorite holiday is the tradition of carving pumpkins.

Due to our busy and hectic lives right now, I wasn't sure if we were going to continue this tradition this year. But we made it a point to carve pumpkins this weekend.

Every year, I wonder if Tyler will "help" gut the pumpkin. If you remember, Tyler isn't a fan. Click here to see last years post. Well this year was no different. He decided it would be more fun to watch than participate.

"Mom, please don't make me do this."

"No!!!!!!!"

"Thanks mom"

Tyler has a communication device and I asked him what shape he wanted for the eyes and nose and this is what he told me.

Back Tracking

So the last time I posted on the progress of the house, besides the other day saying it's complete and we have moved in, was back in September. So let me back track a little. At that time, the outside of the house was completely done (besides the deck), tile was laid and cabinets were just put in. So here are a few pictures of the last details.

Countertop was installed.

Appliances were put in.

Fireplace was finished.

Shelving in closets were done.

Tyler enjoying the new carpet.

COMPLETION

The house is COMPLETE!

We started this journey last July and now 1 year and 3 months later we got to move into our brand new house. Last summer, Travis and I decided that the houses we were looking at just were not quite right. We were looking for something that would accommodate and make our lives easier with Tyler and making it more accessible. Yes, most houses could have been remodeled and made more accessible, but in the long run we had decided that we would build instead.

So July 2010, we purchased a 2-acre lake-front property. The view was definitely the selling point and it was also a foreclosed lot that was selling at a price that couldn't be passed up.

The next big thing was deciding on house plans and finding a contractor. We finalized both of those and then the battle with the weather began. We were hoping to start before the winter but that didn't happen. There are so many steps before you can even start that prolonged the start date.

The last week in February was when we finally broke ground. A month went by when we were making good progress and then the weather decided to intervene for the next month. It rained and rained and rained.

Fast forward 7 1/2 months and we are DONE! This past weekend we finally got to move into our new house. Several people have asked, 'If you could build again, would you?' Right now, the answer to that would be "heck NO." Yes it was nice to be able to pick everything out yourself and make it completely your own. But by the end of this process, I was to the point of saying I don't care, you decide. No matter how prepared you are, there is a lot of stress that goes into building a house.

Stay tuned for pictures. Since I was slacking on posting about the house here lately, I will go back and post some of the main things that happened this past month.

Is Tyler ready for a baby sister?

I sometimes am leary on how Tyler is going to handle having a baby in the house. He is not fond of babies and puckers up at any little sound they make. He has noticed my growing belly and likes to "hit" it whenever he is close. But I also wonder just what he is thinking.

The babysitter he goes to started watching newborn twins this summer and it has been good practice for Tyler. The babysitter says he does really well with them and doesn't usually get upset when they cry. So that is definitely a step in the right directions :)

There was one day this past summer when the babysitter sent me this video of Tyler helping out. I cracked up when I first saw it. He LOVES the portable swing she has and he always scoots his way over to it so he can swing it back and forth. I think it's his way of saying I want in this thing. But of course he is too big for it. And then I thought maybe he is just practicing and wanted to swing the baby. What do you think?

Sorry for the angle of the video. It wouldn't let me rotate it..ugh!

I can't remember if I have shared this video or not but thought it was appropriate for this post. This was in therapy awhile back (I believe last September). When his therapist was trying to play pretend play and Tyler picked up the baby and gave it a kiss. It was so sweet. Let's hope he's like that with his baby sister.

34 weeks

I am 34 weeks today. Earlier this week, I had another doctor's appointment. I am loving how boring these appointments are and they are so routine. I go in; get weighed, give a urine sample, have blood pressure checked, hear the heart beat and go over any questions I have with my doctor. They typically last a total of 30 minutes. It's so different compared to my pregnancy with Tyler. Tyler's was every 3 weeks and took up the entire day. they did ultrasounds and did monitoring each time. I also had to travel 2 hours (one way) for each appointment.

As much as I love these boring appointments, it's kind of crazy for me to say, I miss having all the ultrasounds. It was so nice to "see" Tyler every 3 week.

It's been 14 weeks since my last ultrasound, so I was really excited for my appointment this week because I had an ultrasound scheduled. Even though we know everything is fine genetically, my doctor suggested at one of my earlier appointments that we could do another ultrasound later in the pregnancy also. I think he wanted to just ease my mind a little. Which I quickly responded with a I'm good with that :)

Everything with my appointment checked out good and I also got some more great images of our baby girl.

We also scheduled the date of my c-section, which will be on November 11. Yes that means her birthday will be 11-11-11. Pretty cool, huh! Now it is up to her if she likes that date, let's hope so because we don't need her to come any earlier. Remember we still have to move ;-)

4D image of our precious little girl

8 Wonderful Years!

Happy Anniversary, Travis!!

Can't pass up an opportunity like this...

As you may know, we have been extremely busy around here. We are just weeks away from moving into our new home and not to mention I am 7 months pregnant. So we have a lot of tedious stuff to finish up on the house, we have to pack, and I have to think of what I need to do before baby comes.

So when a hydro mom contacted me about a month ago saying they were coming to St. Louis this weekend and wanted to know if we would want to meet, I wasn't sure what to tell her. I was thinking I really need to stay home but then a part of me said sure. Tell me when and where.

After contemplating the idea with Travis, I finally told him, I understand if you don't want to go but I am not passing up this opportunity. Which he completely understood and said have a good time. So Tyler and I met with Jennifer, her husband Jason and 3 wonderful kids, Grant, Norah and Mason. You can also visit her blog here.

They are such an amazing family. Grant was fascinated by Tyler and was wondering if Tyler had his bounce house (the one he had at his birthday party) with him, LOL. Norah is just the sweetest little girl and I love when she just came up to me and grabbed my hand and said "let's walk". I loved watching her walk around in her walker and I even got to see her take a few independent steps on her own. Which her mom says she just began doing. And Mason, who is the happiest 3 month old. I loved getting so many smiles from him.

Here's a couple photos I got from the day. I wish I would have got more but I got too caught up in visiting :)

St. Louis Hydro Walk

Last Saturday, we participated in our 3rd hydrocephalus walk. We had a lot of fun and met some amazing people. Tyler's team consisted of myself, Travis, his grandma and grandpa and his Aunt Jen. Thank you guys for coming out and walking beside us. I also want to thank everyone who donated. It really means a lot and goes to a great cause.

Let the walk begin!

All that are affected by hydrocephalus.

Tyler checking out his poster we made.

Cardinals Mascot, Fred Bird, even made an appearance.

Tyler wasn't quite sure of him. But he did eventually give him a high five.

We also met some more amazing families and became IRL (In Real Life) friends.

Sandy & Noah

Nichole & Carson

House & Baby

Both the house and baby are getting closer and closer. I am excited to be nearing the arrival of each of them. We don't have a set move-in date yet, but I would say in the next 3 weeks, we should be able to start moving. And of course, that gives us plenty of time before the baby.

First the progress on the house:

I finally got to park in the garage for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

Our yard has been graded and seeded.

Tile has been laid.

And just put in today -- CABINETS!!
Next on the list

• Carpet
• Trim & Doors
• Countertop
  
• Garage doors
  
• Deck (which may be done after we move in)

I think that's about it. Tyler and I even started cleaning a little this past weekend. The windows were disgusting and will need to be cleaned a few more times before we can say they are clean.

"No Tyler, we are getting all the fingerprints off, not adding"

And now baby news:

I am 30 weeks (and a few days). So let the countdown begin. The doctor is still planning on delivering at 39 weeks because I am having a c-section and he doesn't want me to go into labor. So I only have 9 more weeks. YEAH!!!