Loving life...

BEST day of my life

2012-08-20T21:29:00.000-07:00

Our son is CMV free! This is the best day of our lives.

39 weeks

2012-08-12T10:46:00.004-07:00

Well I was convinced our little boy would come out at 37 weeks but now I'm thinking he might just make it for the full 40 weeks (or more).

We have finished up the nursery and even took our first family photo before Chad and I headed out to Carly and Emily's wedding at the James J Hill Library last night:)

Right now things are looking ok with my weekly ultrasounds and stress tests. We have tentatively set an induction date for August 20th if Alex hasn't decided to come out on his own. This way Chad will be able to spend time with us and we can get all our hospital testing done during the week if he is induced on a Monday.

We are however having issues with our little guys name...I'm (along with all the Verdos crew) calling him Alex, and Chad (along with all the Roline crew) is calling him Jack. Amalia changes her mind everyday depending on who she is with. She will correct you and say "no Jack, Alex" when she is with me BUT when Chad is around it's all about Jack. I'm sure I'll break down (especially if he looks like Chad) and start calling him Jack someday, but for now he is my little Alex and I can't wait to hold him in my arms.

In order for due date: Stella- Heidi- Valerie and Carly!

21 months

2012-08-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

Amalia is now 21 months old and quite the little girl. She is talking up a storm, 4 or more words at a time, and randomly says things in both Greek and English that I had no idea she knew! Just this afternoon my mom told her to go nani and she said "min kemethes". She's only heard it a few times when we are driving in the car and Yiayia tells her not to fall asleep so we had to ask her to repeat it a few times before we knew for sure she had said it.

Here are some of her favorite things at the moment:

Activity: Running around the house and playing outside with all the neighborhood kids. To say she is outgoing is an understatement. Apparently Amalia thinks she is 7 years old like the rest of the kids and doesn't realize she is only 21 months old and very lucky that the older kids want to play with her so much.

Food: Every time she sees a menu she pretends to read it and says "burger fries". She is also still a big fan of "beans and rice" and asks for it frequently.

Toy: She doesn't have one special toy at the moment but picks different ones to sleep with her. When she wakes up in the morning she gives them a hug and kiss and then tells them "sit in bed",

Thing to do with Mama: Trim all the bushes and water the plants outside.

Thing to do with Daddy: Run around the yard and race each other. Chad was inspired by the olympics this last week and taught her to properly start from a race line like a sprinter:)

Chad painted both of our nails for the first time.....I physically could not reach mine and Amalia was so excited for her pink toe nails that she showed everyone and talked about it for hours!

Just a random Tuesday in the suburbs

2012-08-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

Today we found a random little festival at the community center with emergency information and Amalia took advantage of peaking in all the service cars and petting the police horses and dogs. Later on in the day Chad was off of work so we went fishing and then to the park for some fun:

Getting ready for baby!

2012-08-03T10:30:00.001-07:00

With the false alarm yesterday, we decided to get the car ready for our little boy to come! Amalia wanted to help out by wiping all the car seats...I guess she has started "nesting" too. Chad must have caught the cleaning fever as well because he fixed up the yard and grilled us some dinner too!

This is Amalia's current face when you ask her to "smile"

False Alarm

2012-08-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

Chad got home around 2:30 am and I woke up feeling like I might be going into labor. I called the hospital and they said we wouldn't really know unless I came in so we headed out for a 45 minute drive (at least there was no traffic) to United Hospital. After around 3 hours of testing they sent us home and said our little baby boy was going to wait a while.

As excited as we are to meet our little guy we are relieved that we will have a little more time to get the house ready and make it closer to the full term mark. Today I'm 37 weeks and 4 days so if he can hang out for a little while longer he might just beak Amalia's date of 38 weeks and 3 days.

The first week in our house....

2012-07-28T21:46:00.000-07:00

It has been a crazy week! Chad and I had two days to pack up the apartment while the Roline's drove into town to help out. They stayed at the house and Amalia was shuttled back and forth in order to supervise everyone.

We finally spent our first night in the house on Sunday evening and then took the whole week to attempt to unpack and really figure out the things you take for granted in a home, like how the sprinkler system and washing machine work etc...

Despite my best efforts, being 9 months pregnant can really slow things down. I thought I could have everything done before Yiayia came into town today, but there are still boxes all over the house and a two page list with things to do. Thank God she is here for an indefinite period of time to help out with setting up our house, Amalia and the new baby!

Here are some of the best pictures from the week:

Amalia went to the park and came back covered in dirt. Now that we own a home she can get naked and hosed down outside:) I just hope after a few years when I look back at this picture I can remember her telling me her body parts and doing a little dance when she got to her "kolo-kolo-kolo".

The first time using our new grill. Chad has become obsessed with making yummy food and his girls (and little boy) love it! So far we have had BBQ chicken, steak and salmon

Every night Kate, Brendan and Jackson play with Amalia. Usually they are all waiting outside and when we open the front door she sprints out saying "Hi Brendan....hi sister....hi Jackson" and joins in whatever activity they are involved in. Sidewalk chalk is a favorite and she tells everyone what to draw. To my delight they play along and even ask her what they should draw next.

Home sweet home:

Amalia is in heaven

2012-07-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

She has a hot pink room, 2 stair cases to climb all day, a basement that leads to a yard filled with bugs/grass/rocks/birds, and most importantly, a cul de sac with 6 boys. Amalia is in heaven.

Amalia and I have spent the last 3 days at the house with the painters and trying to get her used to being in a new environment before we make the big move this weekend when Chad's off work. Needless to say she has had zero problem adjusting to her new house and is obsessed with all the boys in the neighborhood. As of now we know there are 6 boys and 1 girl between the ages of 3-15 in the court alone. Amalia is the youngest for now, until her little brother will join us in just a few weeks.

Every time we were outside she would run to the boys playing and would scream "hi boy"! She even followed Brandon into his house and I had to go get her out of the entry way and explain that we can't run into other houses. At one point she actually said "Mama go" so I would leave them alone to play. It's cute, but might be a bit of a problem in the future:)

Our house!

2012-07-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

After a one hour final walk thru and a 30 minute closing meeting we are now the official owners of a beautiful home in the burbs! We will miss Saint Paul very much, but are excited for the new phase of our lives and giving our kids all the childhood memories we had growing up in Colorado.

Amalia 20 months

2012-07-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

Amalia's vocabulary is expanding.......around 50% of the things she says has two or more words together ( "daddy toes tickle tickle", "white dog", "mama crackers", "more paper")

Chad has taught her to say "thanks buddy", which she says quite often to him and it makes us both laugh.

Her favorite song is "Wiggle it...just a little bit" (yes that somewhat inappropriate 90's song). She starts dancing like a maniac when Chad sings it for her and when we have our family dance parties she requests it.

Art is still one of her favorite activities and she asks me to "draw and color" around 5 times a day. We have moved on to cutting shapes and gluing them on paper along with anything else we can find around the house.

She has 8 teeth top and bottom plus all 4 molars and is getting her last 4 teeth in slowly, but all at once. Surprizingly they didn't not bother her much during the day but at night she had a few weeks of screaming in her sleep. We finally figured out it was due to nightmares so we starting letting her pick a doll or stuffed animal to bring to sleep with her and that has thankfully solved that problem.

Here are some of her favorite things at the moment:

Activity: She sings all the time. We can understand her saying "baby bus , wah-wah-wah (pretends to cry), all town" as she is trying to sing "the baby on the bus says wah-wah-wah, all thru the town". She also likes to check everyone's temperature.

Food: Blueberries.

Toy: Sticker books. She likes matching the colored stickers to the black and white pictures in the book. As a result she has learned all the Sesame Street and Dora characters.

Thing to do with Mama: Dress up, use a purse, wear jewelry and put on fake and real makeup.

Thing to do with Daddy: Make coffee with him in the morning while

New words she can say clearly: I can't even begin to write everything she is saying. She repeats everything and has all of a sudden starting saying the most random words. It's amazing to see how well she can communicate with us and that other people can pretty much understand what she is saying too.

Baby boy Roline 34 weeks

2012-07-08T20:56:00.001-07:00

Oh baby! We have seen you on ultrasound every four weeks and you are definetly growing. Today it feels like you changed positions and it looks like my tummy has dropped. We are all hoping you moved from the Frank Breech position you were in last week to the more traditional head down position to make delivery easier and to avoid a C-section.

I still don't feel you move very much so I was actually a little excited this afternoon when I felt what was either your little head or bottom shoved up into my ribs. As uncomfortable as it was, it reminded my that my little boy is growing inside of me and that makes my heart happy.

Right now you are 34 weeks old and we are getting ready for you the best we can. We close on the house this week and then will move in shortly after. Your room should be ready to go if you can just wait to join us in August and we will make sure to have the fire truck your daddy bought you today in a safe place waiting for you.

We also got the tuxedo shirt your daddy has requested you wear home from the hospital and it is now Amalia and Mama approved. We can't wait to see you wear it and hold you in our arms.

Love-Mama

Breaking down

2012-07-08T08:05:00.003-07:00

I write this so we can laugh about it someday....

Yesterday I woke up with hives all over my body. Despite multiple doses of Benadryl they would not go away and the day was spent being incredibly uncomfortable. I'm assuming it's a result of my third IVIG infusion and will hopefully go away soon, but I'm still itching as I write this. Chad is also experiencing his second week of being sick and we finally have a doctors appointment set up for him.

Since Yiayia is still here we decided to drive to Hopkins for a kids theater show of Dr. Seuss to entertain Amalia. As we were driving there a warning came up saying "Low oil pressure. Pull over and turn off engine". When we did, Chad found there was absolutely no oil in the car!!!! I had just gotten and oil change on Monday and so we were all beyond furious that the car was running for a week without oil and was now, 20 miles from home. Chad had to walk about a mile to a gas station to get some oil to put in the car. He also found it was leaking so by the end of the show, a good quart or so was gone. When we finally made it home and opened the hood, it looked like the car was overheating so it will be interesting to tow it on Monday and find out what is going on.

The only good news of the day was how much Amalia loved the 70 minute show. She literally sat on the edge of her seat the whole time clapping and pointing out the characters. We were all nervous initially about how quite she would be, but were pleasantly surprised with how well she did. On the way home she must have told us a hundred times "big cat hat"..."dance"..."girl dance" while imitating what they were doing.

"Beko"

2012-07-05T06:15:00.001-07:00

Amalia has loved to dance since she was in my tummy and would hear the music during my weekly Greek dance classes. Yesterday we were dancing zebekiko and she didn't want to stop. She kept on asking for "beko" late into the night and woke up in the morning asking for it again. I love my little girl!

Chocolate?

2012-06-23T18:59:00.003-07:00

We pretty much put potty training on hold for a while with all the craziness that has been going on the last few months. Recently however, we have tried a few bath time potties with good sucess.

Tonight I was giving little Miss Amalia her bath and all of a sudden she asked for "chocolate".....I looked down and she had a huge kaka right below her juicy kolo. I tried to explain to her that you don't get chocolate unless you do potty in the potty but she was trying to argue with me that she did her job so she should get some chocolate as a reward. When I refused to give her any chocolate she sat in her potty and tried to go again while asking for chocolate.

My little girl is hilarious!

More cookie Mama

2012-06-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

Today Amalia spent the morning on the phone with Yiayia and then we took a family trip to the Children's Museum. After a cookie treat in the afternoon she followed me around the house
saying "more cookie Mama". At this rate she will be talking in full sentences in just a few months:)

I have been behind on posting pictures so here are some favorites from the last few weeks plus a dance video:

19 months

2012-06-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

Amalia is now 19 months old! She is still as independent as ever 50% of the time and the other 50% of the time still wants to snuggle and begs for Mama to hang out with her. She is going to daycare once a week to get used to being away from adults and socialize with little kids. She has gotten better at drop offs (only uncontrollably crying for a few minutes) and per her teachers does really well the rest of the day. She loves kids and when we are with her she says "hi" on her own and tries to play with them.

She can correctly identify most animals and people in our family that we talk about. She also knows the key colors and asks for them specifically when we do our daily art activities.

Running around the house and having races with us, where she counts to three and says "go" is also a favorite pastime of hers. For as active as she is, she still loves to read books and will do so on her own for a few minutes at a time, pretending to read the words by pointing to them and saying random things.

Here are some of her favorite things at the moment:

Activity: Dancing around the house while singing. She is also obsessed with flossing her teeth (she does it at least twice a day)

Food: Blueberries, Miso soup and Salmon.

Toy: A tiny little puppy she calls "Amalie" and a pink Barbie doll that has a huge white horse to ride on.

Thing to do with Mama: Copying everything I do.

Thing to do with Daddy: Dance parties.

New words she can say clearly: Her vocabulary has exploded and she repeats the majority of the words we say. She can also put two words together and has even said a few three word phrases. The other day she said "I don't like" a million times after we read it in the Green Eggs and Ham book. She also repeated me when I said "good move Daddy" after Chad threw something off the deck and she tried to do the same.

She also likes to give speeches while standing on the baby's crib:

House update

2012-05-24T11:46:00.001-07:00

People have always said it is stressful to buy a home but I guess you have no idea what it is like until you start the process...

Chad and I had put house hunting on hold for a few weeks but decided on a whim to look at just one house yesterday when he had the day off. We took an hour to walk thru it and decided it would be perfect for our family!

As you can imagine it was scary to commit to this house and make the decision to place a formal offer as we have seen over 25 houses in person and then hundreds more online over the past 7 months. To make the situation even more dramatic, in true Roline style (as in "when it rains it pours") I contacted our mortgage broker at Clearwater Mortgage to get our paperwork going and at 9:30 pm got an email back stating that his company is not going to be giving loans out after June 15th. We panicked a bit, then laughed it off and contacted our Wells Fargo person to set things up with him instead. This afternoon, I got a surprising call from him that he is leaving the bank on June 1st (yeah that is in about 5 days), and going to another company. Although he can thankfully get our pre-approval letter to our realtor today so that we can submit our purchase agreement, tonight we have to decide where we are going to get a mortgage from:) The promising news is that this mortgage guy is starting at Bells Mortgage, which according to Nevin our relator, is a good company. To make life easier I think we are just going to move along with him because the thought of finding another company or person to work with is too much at this point in time with the other millions of things going on in our lives...

Yiayia's visit

2012-05-18T05:20:00.000-07:00

Yiayia came out to help us for 12 days. She was beyond amazing....waking up at 6am with Amalia, cooking, cleaning and even helping us to have some fun.

Here are the best pictures from her stay including watering Amalia's new flowers, a trip to the Zoo and Weaver Lake for fishing:

Summer time!

2012-05-17T05:40:00.000-07:00

We took a walk down the street to let Amalia fish for the first time and then play in the water area....gotta love living downtown:)

18 months

2012-05-11T20:31:00.000-07:00

"Amalie" as she calls herself now (and so do we) is 18 months old! She is such a happy little girl and so enthusiastic about life that it helps us get thru the most difficult days with a little bit more hope.

She is 22.8 lbs (slightly less than the 25%ile), 18 1/4 inches head circumference (45%ile) and around 32 inches (she was very squirmy so I think she is a bit taller- 60%ile). Her doctor said she is doing very well and the toe walking she occasionally does should be ok over time. We just need to do some heal exercises and if it becomes a habit, might need to get some special shoes or braces.

After 18 months of life she is finally sleeping at night....well she cries a bit because she is teething (cutting 5 new teeth and just starting to get her lower molars) but its nice to have her go down at 8pm and up at 5:30/6am. She still occasionally gets up around 4am to talk about the days events but it only lasts for 30-60 minutes and then she puts herself back to sleep.

We are still slowly working on potty training but have not committed 100% to it yet. Our goal is to be fully trained by the time the baby comes so we will see if that will happen in the next 3 months.

She is spending more time playing by herself and will often sit down with her toys, dolls and stuffed animals having what appears to be conversations, and telling them jokes as she laughs allot at the end of her rambling sentences.

We are amazed that she can count to three by herself in English and we are slowly working on the Greek version. We have also started working on colors, which she can correctly identify blue, green and purple:)

Here are some of her favorite things at the moment:

Activity: Any type of art work or craft. She runs and sits on the kitchen floor when I tell her we are going to paint or play with our art bag.

Food: Blueberries.

Toy: A tiny little puppy she calls "Amalie". She has also named her big Saint Bernard dog "Daddy" and the medium sized dog with the droopy eyes "Mama"...should I be offended?

Thing to do with Mama: Have cozy cozy time, where we cuddle and sing to each other.

Thing to do with Daddy: Going to the park and playing on the slide.

New words she can say clearly: Abby, Elmo, Oscar, Murray, Bee, I know, Happy, Owie, Please, Turtle, Purple, Blue, Pink, Tiri, Gata, Puppy, Apple, Doctor, Fish, Cookie, Dora, One, Two, Three, George, Towel, Dirty (it's her favorite word because she tells me everything is dirty so that I can give her something to clean it).

New words only Chad and I can understand: "Zoozoo" for Zouzouni, Shirt, Shoes, Bad, Clean, Big, Truck, and Thank You.
Songs she likes: All the typical kids songs (Bingo, Wheels On The Bus, 9 Melisoules, Ax Kounelaki etc...) but she likes to make up her own songs the most. You can hear her singing "Daddy-daddy-daddy, Mama- mama- mama, Amalie-Amalie-Amalie, Yiayia- yiayia-yiaiya" followed by a very enthusiastic "yeah" at the end, numerous times during the day or anytime you ask her to sing the "Daddy's song".

Amee

2012-05-01T20:18:00.000-07:00

This past week if you ask Amalia what her name is she will say "Amee" with a huge smile on her face. Every once in a while she will say "Amalie" if you try to correct her, but she gets excited if you call her Amee. Chad has picked up on this and it has replaced his "Goobie" nickname:)

Yesterday I had her parent teacher conferences and was surprised that they thought she was bashful and quiet. I guess it makes sense because she only goes to daycare once a week and has a hard time the first half of the day. She typically cries when I drop her off and spends most of the day following around her teacher Mrs. Molly, who slightly resembles me. This is a complete 180 from how she acts when she is with Chad or me. When she is with us she is little Miss Social, talking to everyone, waving and giving kisses away left and right. In fact, she has become so outgoing that we hope she will develop some stranger danger soon so that we can keep her safe!

Baby Roline 6 months (24 weeks)

2012-05-01T18:43:00.000-07:00

Oh my little baby! I love you so much and can't wait to meet you. After this weekend's scare I hope you are still healthy and growing strong. You haven't been very active but it is still early on and I'm sure all the kicking will start soon. My tummy is much bigger right now compared to what I looked like last time I was 6 months along, but it is all worth it knowing you are inside of there! The "morning sickness" is pretty much over (thank you very much for the break) and besides nightly heartburn, things are getting better. Words cannot describe the love I feel for you and I hope that one day you will understand the special place you hold in my heart.

Your Daddy talks about you all the time and dreams of his happy, healthy little "buckaroo" running around the house. He plans on coaching your football and little league teams and teaching you all about rockets, science, camping, etc...

Your sister loves you so much already that she asks about you all the time. She will randomly ask "baby" and only get a huge smile on her face if I show her you are safe in my tummy. She even pretends you are in her belly and says "baby.....boy" when she pats it.

17 months

2012-04-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

Amalia is now 17 months old and even more amazing than ever. She is still extremely social but has become incredibly attached to me, which wasn't evident until we were in Colorado and I left her for a few hours with Yiayia. She cried and was asking for me until my mom distracted her by Skyping with Mimi and Leni, where she could show them all her new toys and how she can do the splits.

At this point in time she remains a mix of Chad and I both in appearance and demeanor. She takes after me with her feistiness, love of dancing, doing gymnastics, and "singing". She's all Chad when it comes to her sense of adventure and food preferences: we are talking about lemonade, smoked salmon and peppermint patties.

Here are some of her favorite things at the moment:

Activity: Mimicking everything we do and then saying "no-no-no" when we try to help her do something. Her need for independence is challenging at times but important in the long run.

Food: Pagoto which she calls "tow". She also asks to take "coe" (farmako) whenever she sees her Vitamin D drops or any medicine. This is surprising considering that I would have to pin her down and she would spit out anything I put in her mouth up until this month.

Toy: Hot pink toy phone where she calls Kai (the little boy down the hall she goes to school with).

Thing to do with Mama: Imitate everything I do. Also running up to me with her arms wide open for a hug and then saying "hi". It melts my heart every time!!!

Thing to do with Daddy: Make coffee before he heads to work and then ask a million times where he is when he leaves. They also like to hang out on the deck together where she enjoys a popsicle and Chad has a home brewed beer.

New words she can say clearly: Boy, girl, purple, blue, tree, avgo, kaka, moon, eye, nose, chin.

New words only Chad and I can understand: "Coe" for framako, "poe-poe" for sagapo, "bowow" for elbow.

New body parts she can identify: Chin, "boobies", elbow and back.

This month's obsession has been dressing herself in underwear and her new tennis shoes.

Colorado

2012-04-15T09:36:00.003-07:00

Amalia and I took a week long trip to Colorado to visit family and friends for Greek Easter.

Both plane rides were amazing (a complete 180 from our last flight experience leaving Key West) as Amalia sat in her own seat and was entertained by the seat belt, window and the millions of games/toys we had with us. She is such a character! Every time she would snap the seat belt shut on her own she would shout "yeah" at the top of her lungs. She also got a special treat of apple juice and chocolate during the landings to keep her from crying. The look on her face was priceless and I wish I had a picture when she took her first bite of candy and said "yum"!

At home we had play dates, outdoor adventures and even a short visit with Chad (who unfortunately had to make an unexpected day trip for Andy's dad's funeral). Amalia appears to be a true Colorado girl and loved the outdoors. She became fascinated with birds and identified them every time one would fly by. She also loved a little wagon ride we took from the Roline's house to the magazi for lunch with Uncle Jeff.

Lunch date with Aunt Liz....of course we had some art time and then Amalia fed her dogs apples and a banana. I think that was the highlight of her trip to Colorado!

We also had the whole Greek Easter experience over the weekend complete with eggs, church services and good food.

Both Christina and Chrisanthy asked to baptize the baby and Chad and I are very excited to have them fill this special role in his life! Here is the "Boy" sprinkles poster Amalia made now that "boy" is her favorite new word. She points to my tummy and says "boy" when we ask her what the baby is:)

Minne Hop-Hop Egg Hunt

2012-04-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

Despite the rain this morning we headed to Minnehaha Falls for the Easter celebration. We visited an amazing animal area with camels, bunnies, turtles, a kangaroo and even an alligator! Chad was brave enough to hold the gator for some pictures right before the egg hunt. It was hilarious to see hundreds of kids run into the enclosed area and scramble for eggs. It was literally over in 45 seconds. Amalia scored two eggs after taking a graceful face plant into the wet grass. We even have some bunny ears waiting for Baby Boy Roline to wear next year....I'm not sure if Chad will wear his again though...check out the picture below:)