City Park, NOLA

Our plan for this day was to head to New Orleans, meet up with some friends, and take Brantley & Emery to the Audubon Zoo. Well, things got a little derailed so we ended up meeting our friends at their house (where there were waaaay too many presents for the girls and a pair of rabbit ears for Brantley from their morning grocery shopping), going to a late lunch where I was pleasantly surprised to get my turtle soup, and taking the children to Storyland at City Park. Blessings in disguise, right? Kris nor I had never been to City Park (although it was one of the venues that I had looked at when planning our nuptials) but our friends are frequent visitors so they thought it would be a good outing for the time we had. Brantley didn't have a nap all day but was a real trooper and I think she enjoyed herself. Emery on the other hand, slept the entire day. THE. ENTIRE. DAY. She slept on the way down, woke up when we got to our friends' house for a diaper change & to eat, slept through lunch, slept through the park, awake for diaper change & to eat, and then slept on the way home. And yes, she slept just fine that night too!



Carousel Ride (our friends videoed part of this but I couldn't get it to post on here)...





She was NOT happy when it was time to get off...



Daddy and Brantley with the alligator from Peter Pan...


Dancing a jig with the 3 little pigs...



The cow that jumped over the moon...


Hugging naughty Peter Rabbit...

We're Back!

Today was our first class back at Mommy & Me since Emery was born! Well, my first class back...Brantley was able to stick to her Monday routine thanks to a very great friend. Andrew and his chauffeur picked Brantley up every Monday for 5 weeks! This gave me some very, very special time alone with Emery and kept Brantley in touch with her friends. Talk about the things that are truly priceless in life...
Our first class back, as a unit of 3, was also the Easter Egg Hunt & Party! Emery is 6 weeks old and Brantley is 17 months. This was a lot different than last year when the majority of the class were propped up on blankets... They still don't grasp the "hunt" aspect, one egg was perfectly sufficient, but they all looked precious and had a great time!



This was my favorite sequence!





Taking the party outside...

Coloring, Swinging, & Sleeping

The title sums it up...

Emery Rose is One Month Old!

Sweet girl is one month old today!


She is a champion eater and a great sleeper so far (big knocks on every piece of wood in the house). And Brantley is an EXCELLENT big sister! Although Emery still sleeps most of the day, when she is awake Brantley is very interested in her in a really sweet way. And she thinks that every move she makes is hilarious! She calls her "E" and makes sure that anytime someone new is around they see her "BABY! BABY!" followed by lots of pointing at Emery. It melts my heart.

And this is a huge sign that Brantley's class at play school made for her & Emery...

We are not sure what Brantley and Vivi were doing but it doesn't appear they were paying too much attention to the task at hand. When they gave me this while picking up Brantley the Friday after Emery was born I was so, so touched. Trinity Episcopal is a great play school and I am so thankful that Brantley is there and loved.

It's the Zoo's Birthday!

The Zoo celebrated it's 61st birthday today and we attended the party!

"Here, Sweetie, it's a celebratory mask."


"No, Daddy! You wear it!"

She's the boss...

This is how the cool kids wear it anyway...


For the record, Emery DID attend the party...

The newly installed Splash Park

Her favorite "animals" are still the "ducks" aka The Huge Plastic Swans

If my heart had a face...

A Grandma Sally Kind of Week...

Grandma Sally and Bill came to town this week and brought the FUN! There were lots of stroller rides around the neighborhood (for JUST Brantley, the poor child didn't have to walk behind the stroller like when we take Emery out. A double stroller is near future purchase), tons of bubble blowing sessions, sidewalk/driveway chalk art, and a trip to the zoo AND the park! All of that coupled with tea parties, infinite loading and unloading of the Ark, lunches, a hamburger (from Mugshots the night before it burned down), and countless hugs made for a wonderful visit for everyone. The time was short but sweet and we can't wait until October!

Bubbles!!!





ZOO!!!
Emery and I elected to stay home and nap while they ventured off to the zoo but we got the executive summary when they returned:
- Brantley wanted to walk the entire zoo as opposed to riding in the stroller. Kris eventually convinced her to let him carry her.
- Her favorite animals were the "ducks" which are actually huge plastic swans purchased by businesses & organizations to support a local cause.
- Her favorite activity was the jaguar board with the cut out for children to stick their face through.
- Brantley had a blast! It was the first time she had been to the zoo since October (for Zoo Boo)and was much more enthusiastic about it this time!

Emery Rose Powell

On March 5 Emery Rose Powell was born. We went into the hospital at 7am and by 7pm had a brand new healthy, happy baby girl! She weighed in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long. And she had hair! Beautiful brown hair. When we were checking in I saw the L&D nurse that we had during Brantley's birth (the one that I raved about and will be forever thankful for having during my first labor and delivery. She was beyond phenomenal)and I wanted her with us again. Badly. I started wondering if I could even do it again without her. I asked Kris if it would be a bad thing or like telling people their job if I asked to have her again and he said that it appeared that she was leaving. I was a little devastated. Luckily, compared to my labor & delivery with Brantley, this one was a cake walk. After I started "labor", which our nurse (whose name I don't even remember) informed us begins at 5cm, I had a few hours of contractions and approximately 30 minutes of pushing. The contractions were manageable through breathing. Heavily. And when she started pushing, I was ready. It was amazing.



However, going home was a different story. GrandPattie had arrived at our house at 6am that morning to stay with Brantley. We knew that I would have to stay overnight in the hospital and that was going to be a first- my first night away from Brantley. Ever. But I was okay with that as Pattie was going to stay at our house with Brantley so that she would be comfortable and she was also going to be taking her to a birthday party on Sunday afternoon that would be guaranteed fun. Sunday morning came and I was cleared to go home and Emery had to stay in the hospital 24 hours after her birth so that should have put us at about 8pm to be discharged. GrandDaddy & GrandPattie were supposed to bring Brantley to meet Emery at the hospital before the birthday party on Sunday but GrandPattie reported that Brantley had a fever (102.5) and was not acting well. Kris went home to assess the situation and later that evening ended up taking Brantley to the ER. Luckily, the pediatric physician on call for the ER was the same one who had been upstairs with Emery. He said that, if possible, we needed to keep the children separated until Brantley was fever free for 48 hours. She was diagnosed with an ear infection and started on an antibiotic. It broke my heart not being able to be with her when I knew she was sick. So GrandPattie took Brantley home and Kris, Emery, and I went to Lux at about 11pm. On Monday we took Emery to start her bili rueben testing at FGH's outpatient facility (that went on for a week & a half) and Kris checked on Brantley at our house. This day was also our anniversary, which I didn't realize until I looked at the date on the paperwork from the outpatient visit. We'll do better next year...On Tuesday, we were finally reunited with Brantley and got to introduce her to Emery. Not how I had planned for this to happen but it was precious nonetheless...




And Big Sister presents are pretty cool...


PS: The nurse that we had with Brantley's labor & delivery recognized Kris as he was going out to pull the car around for us to leave the hospital on Sunday night. She came by to say 'hello', meet Emery, and ask how everything went. I honestly couldn't believe she remembered us but was thrilled. There were lots of hugs. And I may have cried a little tear or two...