Grandpa Smiley’s 90th Birthday

In October we celebrated my grandfather’s 90th birthday in West Lafayette.  My grandparents met Matilda for the first time and we had a wonderful time honoring Grandpa Smiley with my cousins and extended family.

Halloween 2011

This year Eliza was excited to be a ladybug for Halloween.  We had a similar costume for Matilda who also had a costume change into a caterpillar.  After last year’s bee costume apparently we’re all about the insects.  Eliza has so much fun trick-or-treating with the neighbors, seeing all the costumes, and, of course, getting lots of candy.  This year she got to stay out a lot later than last year so we made it through a couple full blocks of the neighborhood.
One of my favorite highlights was when it was very dark out and Eliza dropped her only sucker (still in the wrapper) and was so distraught that we couldn’t find it.  Using the light on his phone, Kirk spent about five minutes backtracking and looking for it, and Eliza was so thrilled when he did.  In fact, instead of saying “trick or treat” she told the next two houses, “Daddy found my sucker!”  Hilarious – what a hero.

The neighbor boys were ready to go!

Matilda was a very hungry caterpillar

Nick as the nicest little devil you’ll ever meet, and Jack as Spider-Man unmasked!

Our neighbor Elle was the perfect grazing cow.  I think I’d vote for this as cutest costume in the neighborhood.

Preston was a cute Mr. Potato Head

Eliza also went to the daytime version of the haunted house at the Children’s Museum with Gae and Papa.  She had a lot of fun and didn’t think it was very scary (since the lights were on, of course!).  She loved prancing around the museum in her ladybug costume.

Driving Papa in the tuk-tuk.  Who wouldn’t want a ladybug chauffeur?

Standard construction clothes, right?

Playing in the Snow

Although it’s been a very mild winter (50 degrees in February?!), we’ve had a couple snows with just enough to play and sled.  Eliza was very excited to put on her snow suit, sled around the yard, build her first (very small) snowman, then smash him and make daddy build him again (three times).  All she wanted me to do was pull her around the yard (both front and back of course) in the sled in circles until I got so winded that I had to stop.  We also made some snow angels, which happened frequently since Eliza kept falling over in her puffy snow suit. 

Ethiopian Dinner

As we continue to play catch-up on the blog, some posts may fall out of chronological order.  Deal with it :).

Earlier in January we had the rare opportunity for a night out with our house church, sans kids.  Always the adventurous eaters, we decided to visit a local Ethiopian restaurant, something none of us had previously tried.  We adjusted to the fun family-style format although we humbly lacked comprehension of the menu items so we ordered a variety of things. 

We started with the homemade honey wine.  Overall, most people weren’t a fan (it didn’t taste like anything anyone had tried before), but Kirk enjoyed it.  We also discovered it tastes a lot better with food.

The food is served on injera, a flat thick spongy crepe-like bread, and you simply tear some off, dip it in the various items, and eat with your hands.  We ate a lot of injera, and I think it filled people up.

We had the following items:

• Sega wett: beef in spices (the overall favorite, although Kirk enjoyed them all and tried to “clean the group’s plate”)
• Doro wett: chicken stewed in spices (good)
• Yebegge alecha: mild lamb stew (good)
• Quosta: spinach and onion (good)
• Yemisir wot: red lentil stew (good)
• Yekik alecha: split peas and spices (good)
• Gommen: Ethiopian collared greens (just ok)
• Tikel gommen: cabbage and butter (good)
• Denech alecha: potatoes, onion, and carrot (just ok)
• Yebegga tibbs: sautéed strips of lamb cooked with onion, tomato, and chiles (good, but quite fatty so it turned some people off)

Lake House

Even though we’ve been MIA on the blog for the last few months, life went on for the Smileys.  We’re going to move the clock back a bit and fill you in on what we were up to. 

In September we enjoyed the last days of summer in northern Indiana with our house church at Tony’s family lake house.  It was definitely interesting with two two months old babies and two toddlers in the group but well worth all the work.  Eliza was able to experience many new things which was a blast to watch.

The sunset the first night was just gorgeous!

There is nothing like some girl time featuring wine and hair cuts.

We loved being able to sit and share meals with everyone.

The mornings started off cool but eventually warmed up enough for us to get the suits on.

The girls enjoyed some time on the boat…what the picture doesn’t show is that the boat is still on the lift.  Hey, it still felt that we were on the water.

Matilda slept most of the weekend.

Eliza wasn’t too sure about the sea-doo.Kirk had his first rafting experience as well!

Matilda’s Birth Story

I can’t believe that it has been over five months since Matilda was born.  I wanted to put it all down in writing so that the memories would not leave us. 
Even though it was my second time around, I was a bit anxious while we headed to the hospital.  We took a minute before we headed out the door to take a few last belly shots.   Since my experience with Eliza’s birth was so great, I worried that it couldn’t go that well again.  This time around I had been having contractions for three weeks and was still only one centimeter and 50% effaced.   My doctor said that some women just don’t go into full labor on their own and I might be one of them.   So, Thursday evening, July 21st, Kirk and I checked into the hospital and after all the paper work, getting an IV, and getting hooked up to the monitor, we saw that I was having contractions about every 7 minutes.  The cirvadil was placed at 5:45pm, and at this stage with Eliza I went into labor on my own within two hours.  I was hoping that this would happen again once I got some dinner!  They wanted to monitor me for two hours before I could eat and I was really hungry after only being able to have a light lunch.  Two hours later I was still at the same place with the contractions not getting closer or stronger so I called room service and ate.
After a night of little sleep (and in a bed that has countless positions you would think that I could find one that was comfortable) I was getting frustrated with the lack of progress.  I was checked again at 5:40 AM on Friday the 22nd, and I was 3 centimeters and 75% effaced.  At 6:40 AM I was given pitocin to get contractions that were closer together, stronger, and in a more regular pattern.  Nothing really changed though, and since the pitocin was through a drip they upped it a few times.  Around 8:00 AM we talked with the nurse about Kirk leaving for a while to go home and take Otis outside.  The nurse said that nothing would be happening and that would be fine.  I remember being in the room alone and feeling some strong contractions start.  I paged the nurse during the second round, and within two minutes they were really painful and there nurse still wasn’t there.  I started crying at some point because everyone had left!  Right about then the nurses came in and checked me again.  I was somewhere around 5 centimeters and they decided to call my doctor to get the epidural started.  The next twenty minutes were long, and I was having the most painful contractions.  Some of them were back-to-back but then there would be a long break in between.   I asked the nurse to call Kirk so he could get back as soon as possible.  She was kind enough to talk to him since I knew that I would just start crying and he wouldn’t be able to understand me anyway. 
By 9:00 AM the epidural was placed and Kirk walked in near the end of it.  I was able to hug one of the nurses until he got there and I was so thankful for her.  The epidural helped but I continued to feel pain (beyond normal discomfort).  At 10 AM while watching the Today show my water broke.  I was checked at 10:10 AM and I was 8 centimeters.  My contractions were still uncomfortable and they never got into a pattern until the very end.  The nurse said that some women don’t have consistent contractions but the body still knows what it is doing, and I was still making progress.  By 10:50 AM my contractions were getting very uncomfortable.  My doctor was there and she asked if I would like to push or sit in an upright position for a while since the baby was still a bit high and needed to come down.  The same thing happened with Eliza and I sat for 30 minutes and let her drop, but this time around we all thought that pushing gave me something to do through the pain.  The anesthesiologist came back in at some point and upped my epidural because the pain was still really bad on my right side.  With Eliza I couldn’t feel anything, but this time around some areas were completely numb and others not very numb at all!  Pushing was much more painful then it had been previously as well.  Kirk said my face got redder and I don’t think I opened my eyes much.  After nine long pushing cycles Matilda was born at 11:33 AM!   She was perfect and weighed 6 lbs. 13 oz. and was 20.25 inches long.
 
The pain was definitely worse this time around but I feel like since her birth most things have been easier than with Eliza.  My recovery was much less painful, and at the hospital I didn’t need as much medication and that made a huge difference in being able to feel more like myself.  I brought two of my own hospital gowns with me, and that helped me not feel so sick (and if you had seen the nasty hospital gown that was provided for me you would have felt the same way)!  It was just so much more comforting knowing what to expect your second time around.  We also felt like we had a date night at the hospital the night of my induction, since we were able to watch a bunch of movies for my entire stay.  A friend told me right before we checked in that she always loved her time at the hospital and I remember thinking that it was an odd statement, but now I totally agree!  I loved just being with Kirk and Matilda and not feeling guilty to start splitting my time between two kids immediately.  I knew that once we got home things would change. 
Eliza came to visit us the evening after Matilda was born.  We had some other friends in the room when she got there with Papa and Gram.  I could hear her outside the room calling “Mommy,” but as soon as she walked into the room she said, “Where is my baby sister?”  It was so cute but unfortunately everything happened so fast that we didn’t get the video camera out in time.  Eliza loved Matilda immediately and those moments will be a sweet memory.  It made coming home exciting for Kirk and I.  I wanted nothing more then to get back into our own schedule with our new little addition!  In the end Matilda has her own birth story that is different from Eliza but I feel so blessed to have had two healthy deliveries, my doctor to be able to be at both, and for Kirk and his support through it all. 

For a family picture I had packed outfits that were coordinating for Matilda and Eliza, but I didn’t end up using what I had packed because we all matched anyway! My mom dressed Eliza and the nursery had to dress Matilda after she spit up during her hearing test in one of their gowns.  Kirk was on his own, so it was kind of crazy that we all matched!

Matilda in the puffy hat that Eliza wore home from the hospital.  There is a big difference between April and July temperatures in Indiana.  Matilda had 100 degree weather for the first few weeks of her life so this hat only stayed on for a minute.

Going home…splendid!

Still Around

We are still here and doing well.  I can keep food on the table, the house clean, and laundry put away, but that doesn’t leave much time for blogging.  I’ve kept up pretty well on pictures of the girls (I’m trying not to let Matilda feel like the second child), so we have a lot of catching up to do with new posts.  Hang in there with us!