She loves her daddy!

Here is another cute video of Elise. Every day we watch Mike read books to her and she loves it! She "talks" to him the whole time.

This will make you smile...

Here is an adorable video of Elise... sorry for the bad angle! :) She'll be 14 weeks old tomorrow.

A day of firsts...

Well it is day 6 of the deployment. 359ish to go. Ugh. I am so thankful that I have Elise with me this time. How can you resist smiling back at the goofy toothless grin of a 3 month old? She is such a good baby... we are so blessed! It is very easy to take her places because she loves being in her stroller and her Baby Bjorn. She is so predictable. For the last month, she has been eating 5 times a day around 8, 11, 2, 5, and 7:30... then sleeping from 8-8. I have had a lot of people ask me how I got her on such a good schedule so early... one of these days I will blog about it so that I have it in writing for help with a future Baby Powell :)

My sweet sleeper - 13 weeks, 14 lbs, 25 inches

Now on to explain the title of this post...

This morning I had my first experience as a mother of twins. Lynda dropped William off so that she could go to a dentist appointment sans baby. First, I finished feeding Elise while William chilled in the carrier. Then, we all watched Mike read books to Elise. She squeals and giggles while she is watching her daddy. It is so sweet but sad at the same time. Then, Elise took a nap while William ate and got a new diaper. After that, he played on the mat for a while and she woke up and got a new diaper. I still can't believe that during the whole two hours, there was never a moment where both of them needed me at the same time. I can't imagine how hard it would be to do this every day. Sara White, you are my hero!

William and Elise... he is 7.5 weeks younger (I think)

Next, Elise had her first trip to Chick-fil-a. We met Laura, Madelyn, Anna and Asa for lunch. As I pulled in the parking lot, I heard "the noise" from the backseat. As I gingerly removed her from the car seat, I saw seedy yellow liquid dripping from her backside onto the carrier. Great. Miraculously, it didn't get on her clothes! Her shirt was just far enough up and her jeans were sagging below the diaper line. I quickly pulled out the changing pad, wipes and a diaper (with one hand) and changed her in the back seat. End of story? Not quite. Read on.

We enjoyed our lunch and then went to Old Navy to do some shopping. Elise did great during the whole outing. I love how predictable she is! We arrived home about 5 minutes before she usually eats at 2. I got her out, thoroughly cleaned her, changed her clothes, and fed her.

Fast forward a few hours. Elise was playing on her tummy. She tolerates "tummy time" a lot better than she did in the beginning. Sometimes she pushes her head and chest up and looks around, other times she just lays there and sucks her thumb. Today she kept pushing up with her arms and then all of a sudden she was on her back! She had a "Mom, what the heck just happened?" look on her face. I scrambled for the camera and video camera and rolled her back over... and no luck. I guess she didn't think it was that cool. We'll try again tomorrow.

After the big roll... the little stinker wouldn't do it again though :(
She's 13.5 weeks old.

Next, we got in the car to make a quick run to Barnes and Noble. I opened the car door and a putrid odor permeated the garage air. This smell was worse than the trash when the diaper champ gets emptied. I looked in the back seat to make sure I had thrown the dirty diaper away from Chick-fil-a. It was in the trash can. I look closer and I see it. A big liquid puddle of mustard yellow in the car seat base. Ugh. That poop had dribbled down through the strap holes of the carrier to the base. This also meant that it got tracked into the house from the bottom of the carrier. Lovely. What a first.

Now if only there could be a first day that I haven't corrected Boss with the spray bottle since Mike left... he looks angelic here. Don't let that fool you.

We love you, Mike!

Well, here is the last Powell family pic of 2009. We dropped him off last night and he'll return next April or May. Elise was not in a happy mood... probably because it was past her bedtime and she knew her daddy had to leave. We are so thankful for Mike... he is an amazing husband and wonderful father. Please pray for safe travel, health, and a smooth transition between the incoming and outgoing units.



On a happy note, Elise turned 3 months old yesterday! Here are some recent pics when she was in a better mood.

6 years ago today...

...is the day that Mike proposed! We had the big "DTR" talk on January 12, 2000 when we were seniors in high school. Soon after, he went to West Point and I headed to A&M. I got to visit him in NY several times a year, including Easter weekend 2003 (our junior year of college). We had been talking about getting engaged for quite a while so I thought there was no chance that he would be able to surprise me. I went to New York for the weekend hoping it would be "the weekend". I'm sure that my roommates (Jamie, Gretchen, and Cassandra) were sick of analyzing with me to figure out when he would most likely propose.

That weekend, Mike and I met up in New York City. I got in pretty late on Friday night, so we just had time for a late dinner. On Saturday, we spent the day in Central Park walking around, throwing a baseball, and just talking. That night, we got ready to go out and Mike told me he wanted to take me for a carriage ride through Central Park. I was very excited but still not sure it was "the weekend". As we were riding along, Mike told me that he was really sad that he hadn't already bought the ring, because this would be the perfect romantic setting that he'd always wanted for the big moment. I was crushed but tried not to let him know.... he was giving himself such a hard time for missing this perfect opportunity that I actually started feeling sorry for him! Turns out that he is a superb liar. A few minutes later, he asked the carriage driver to stop and take a picture of us. I thought we were just posing for a picture, but then Mike got down on one knee, told me how much he loved me and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. I think you can tell by my expression how shocked I was... and of course I said "yes" :)

Down on one knee...

At the Empire State Building after the proposal...

The next day at the proposal site...

Engagement pictures from July 2003...

Go figure...

After writing the pregnancy post I've dreamed that I am pregnant for the last 2 nights... haha. Happy Easter weekend!

Looking back...

I've had several people ask me lately if I miss being pregnant... and I just laugh. No way! Yes, it was really cool to feel her kick and move around inside me... but that was about it. Mike and I spent a lot of evenings on the couch watching her do aerobics in my belly. Now, we just spend evenings on the couch watching our sweet little baby and making her smile before she goes to sleep for 12 hours. Which sounds like more fun to you? Here's a summary of each stage... I made the pictures small on purpose :)

9 weeks (on our 4th anniversary)
SO tired... the last few weeks of school were brutal!
this was a few days before we told our families...

13 weeks
had "evening sickness" from 10-16 weeks...
so thankful for summer because i was the queen of naps :)

18 weeks
started to feel better... first felt her move at 15.5 weeks
found out it was "probably" a girl... :)

22 weeks
regular pants were too tight (the bella band was awesome!) but maternity pants were too big so basically i just felt fat :)

26 weeks
maternity pants /stretchy skirts for sure... i LOVED the ones from ann taylor loft :)
stopped running a week or so after this picture

30 weeks
felt dizzy/lightheaded to the point that we made a trip to L&D and i started working every other day at school
wore maternity tops nearly every day... loved the ones from gap and ATL

35 weeks
Brigade Christmas Ball
almost done working... finally started to feel good again (unless i was sitting down... so uncomfortable)... still the queen of naps :)
the doctor started telling me that elise was completely out of room... really... must explain why i was being kicked in the ribs and bladder at the same time

39 weeks
no idea that she wanted to wait 2 more weeks to arrive! i think we averaged walking 3-4 miles a day during the last month trying to get her to come out

40 weeks (due date)
ugh... need i say more...
thankfully i slept great up until the day i went into labor
looking at this picture, it is hard to imagine that she actually fit inside my tummy!

one week postpartum... exhausted from the first week of being a mommy but SO glad to not be pregnant anymore :)

Bottom line... I love the result of being pregnant but I did not love being pregnant... though I would like to do it again someday. Anyone else feel the same way?