It's a...

GIRL!!!

We're tickled pink that we're getting another little baby girl in May. The ultrasound was great, she looked perfect. It was so clear we could see her drinking in the amniotic fluid...absolutely amazing! We already have a name picked out, Darcy Rose.

Our Thanksgivng

Well, the mood was set the day before when I left my phone at the doctors office. I was the last appointment they had until the following Monday. Yeah, 4 days without a phone is not a fun prospect. On Thanksgiving morning we get up and going and in the car only 30 minutes late. I'm helping Lily walk out to the car when she gets going too fast and falls facefirst into the gravel. Big scratch on her head, great.
About 20 minutes into the 70 minute drive I realize I have left my wallet behind. Not good when the next day is Black Friday and I was planning on spending the night at my in-laws... So we decide to turn around.
We get back to the apartment, I run upstairs, grab my wallet, and as I come down, I see Shane headed to the dumpster. Oliver had just thrown up EVERYWHERE. All over himself, his carseat, and the car, too. We rush him upstairs, bathe him, wake up Lily from her nap to bring her upstairs, clean the car seat, and call my parents to see if they still want us. Oliver the whole time insists he is well enough for GaGa PopPops, he loves their house. We decide to give it another try. Oliver throws up one more time before we leave, and we're on our way, spew bucket in hand.
Oliver and Lily sleep part of the way up north (did I mention Lily was VERY angry that she was woken up and made it known? Ugh.) with no throwing up, yay!
We get there so late that we basically sit down to eat. Lily tantrums through dinner, getting angry when she's in her seat, angry when she's on the ground. Oliver spends the meal with his head on the table. He tries to eat some salad, pushes it aside and quietly says "I don't think I'd like to eat, I'm all done now." Anybody who knows this child, knows that this is NOT him. So, he goes and lays on the couch through the rest of dinner. As we're chatting, I hear the familiar sound, I run into the room and see the spew. Of course, it's just bile at this point, which is even sadder. Oliver tells me he has to spew again, so I hold up the bucket, he wretches, curls into the fetal position and goes back to sleep. We decide to stay the night, we can't subject this kid to 70 more minutes of driving.

It was a long, hard day, but we felt like we had reached a parenting milestone. Surviving a holiday with a sick child, everyone goes through it, right? It also made me grateful for the times the kids aren't sick and aren't angry at the world. It made me grateful for a supportive husband that cleans the car seat and makes decisions when I'm too frazzled by life. It made me grateful for parents that are understanding and empathetic to the struggles of young parents. It made me grateful for Christ who knows what days like this feel like, that I can pray for comfort when times are hard and recieve it.
Here's to hoping Christmas is a little smoother!!

Pregnancy so far

I'm not sure if I've written about this current pregnancy. Have I even blog-announced that we're expecting? Well, we are. Yes, it was a surprise, but we are still thrilled to welcome another baby into our family. I thought I'd know straight away if I was having a boy or girl by my cravings because I craved savory with Oliver and sweet with Lily. Well, I just crave any and all food with this pregnancy, so that's no help.
A month ago I got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. It was so great! Because I had already seen the little bean in a dating ultra sound (7 weeks along and I could already see a little arm!) I thought that listening to the heartbeat wouldn't be as, well, exciting. But it was totally great. She barely had to put the wand on my belly and you could hear the hearbeat loud and clear. Even the doctor was surprised with how loud and strong the heartbeat was!
About 2 weeks ago I started to feel little tiny kicks. I only feel them about once a day because it is still very early to be feeling them, but it was so cool to feel it. I'm excited for the kicks to get stronger so I can feel my sweet baby inside me all the time!
I am excited about next month because (hopefully) about a week before Christmas we will find out if we are having a boy or a girl! I looked up on the Chinese Gender Chart what gender I'll have, and it said a girl (it also said Oliver would be a boy and Lily would be a girl!) but Shane is convinced that it is a boy, and he has been right with the other two. Like I said, I really have no feeling either way, and even if I did, I'm always wrong, so it wouldn't really help!
So I am 16 weeks along (4 months!) and it just seems to be flying by. With each child I have, the pregancies seem to go by faster and faster, because I have less and less time to just sit and ponder and appreciate my pregnancy. I have been trying to do my pregnancy yoga, which has helped, but I have babies crawling over me, yelling at me, trying to get my attention, so it's not always undivided mommy/baby time:) Aside from the EXTREME fatigue, everything is going great and I'm so grateful to have easy pregnancies an awesome family!!

Happy Belated

Happy birthday to my wonderful baby boy! I have enjoyed being his mother so much. He makes it so easy to be a mom. All he wants to do is make me happy. He loves to snuggle with me. We've started learning Primary songs, and he even requests church songs in the car. He loves his family so much, but possibly loves his cars, trains, and blocks more. He loves being a big boy in his big boy bed, but still has a hard time going to sleep because he misses mama and dada when he goes down for the night. He loves eating, especially string cheese and "treats". He wants to cuddle his little sister all the time, even if she screams to get him off of her... but he loves to tickle and distract her during diaper changes, which is very helpful to mama.Sometimes I am sad about how fast he is growing, but I love each new phase he enters, so I try to be excited about the future instead of longing for the past. Right now the future that we're looking forward to is a future without diapers. Ever since seeing his best bud Carter pee on the potty, Oliver has been very motivated. We've been able to go out in public several times now with no accidents, and he has not problem going potty on public toilets. Yesterday he went to his first big boy story time at our library. They take the kids into another room and do story time for 45 minutes sans parents. He did great and he loved it! We're already excited to do it again next week! I was very impressed because he made it without a diaper, what a big guy!!

Happy Halloween!

Fun Words

Oliver does great with his speech, he knows so many words, but there are still some that he makes his own, and I love it. He still calls tractors "GungGungs". I will admit that that is facilitated by Shane and I who always refer to them as gungungs, even when Oliver isn't around! His knowledge of construction equipment has narrowed down gunggungs from every yellow construction vehicle, down to only excavators. He know how to identify bulldozers, steam rollers, cranes, bucket trucks, and dump trucks, so the only one that gets called gunggung now is an excavator!
Oliver also calls helicopters "hoptercopters" which we force him to say often because it's so cute. He throws us for a loop sometimes and calls them helicopters, but I think he sees the disappointment in our faces at his big boy word, and reverts back to hoptercopter. We're great for his speech development;)
Lately he's been saying a new word that we have no idea its meaning. It seems to be an all encompassing word, "Doomba." It just seems to replace any word that he feels like replacing, so word. We like to mess with him and just say "Doomba" and he looks around and says "Where? I no SEE a DOOMBA!" Okay, maybe its a little mean, but it cracks us up!

Lily is still taking her time with her speech. She's got mama, dada, and hi down. She makes a lot of noises that will turn into words eventually, but for now its just NOISE!! She LOOOOVES giving kisses (big open mouthed ones!!) and we love getting them! Even when she gets up at 330 am to give them to us! We seem to have spoiled her in terms of bedtime, because she won't sleep in her crib anymore, she only wants to sleep in bed with us. We're going to have to train her to sleep in her own bed by May because...
we're expecting baby #3 May 1!!! It was a surprise, but a wonderful one, to find out that we're pregnant again. I'm 12 weeks along and am having a pretty easy pregnancy, as they all are. Fatigue is probably the biggest complaint, but I think most women on their 3rd baby complain of that!! We'll find out in a couple of months what we're having. Shane is really hoping for another boy to pass on the Sargent name (Oliver is the only one right now!!) I don't really care either way, and I have no inkling as to which it is. This pregnancy seems to be a combination of my two previous ones in terms of cravings and feelings. With Oliver I was hoping for a girl and Lily I was hoping for a boy, so I'm excited to go through it with no expectations!!
DOOMBA!

We're back!

We just took a family vacation out to San Diego for a week. I unfortunately left my cell phone in the rental car, so I don't have any pictures. Fortunately, my in-laws, who are still in CA, were able to get it so I will have pictures in a week. It was a fabulous vacation, we did everything we wanted to, and Shane's sister, Crystal, was a gorgeous bride and we are so happy for her and Derek and their new adventure! They are honeymooning in Tahiti right now!!

High Five!

(I wrote this entry a week ago, but for some reason it didn't post, so here it is now...)

Lily has learned how to give high fives! Its too cute! She looks like a little robot doing it. Up goes the arm. Pause. Move forward. Pause. Hand to hand. Heehee!

She amazes me with her smarts. She understands so much. She can't always express herself, which is where the tantrums come from, but she definitely knows what we say to her. She can easily follow most commands (does that make her sound like a dog?) and is able to respond to yes/no questions (smile=yes shake head=no) We've started doing a little sign language with her in hopes that she'll be able to express herself that way. She seems very close to being able to speak, though, so we'll see what happens first.

She's also learned to say "hi" and she says it to everyone, especially dogs!

Sweet!

Something we discovered (but we weren't surprised by) at Lily's party...Lily loves chocolate cake! Like Mama like baby!

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday my little bean! Your smile lights up a room and your giggles make me giggle. I love the way you walk and your impressions of cows and dogs. You love your big brother so much, and I love watching you interact with him. I love watching you bounce around on the bed, and nose dive into your beanbag chair. The times you are happy, I love watching you! The times you are sad, it is hard to watch you suffer. You already remind me of myself, which is why we don't always get along... We're the same strong headed person 23 years apart!It has been a long year coming, I won't lie. We've certainly had our trials together, but I hope that it will prove to strengthen our love for eachother in the years to come!

More summer pictures

Driving fire trucks at Dover Night Out...



Building sand castles at Old Orchard Beach...

Soaking up the sun at OOB...

Story time at Barnes and Noble...

Playing with the train table at the library...

Admiring the library gerbils...

Happy Birthday RahRah!

Hermana RahRah is 22 years old today! We're so proud of her and all the good she's been doing in the San Diego Mission! She is loving her mission to death and this last 6 months, though long for us, are going to fly by for her. We love you RahRah!!! Feliz Cumpleanos!!

What we've been up to this summer...

swung on swings...

played in the sandbox...

picked blueberries with GaGa...

Slept at the beach...

Made friends at the beach!

More to come tomorrow!

The rabbit tells me so...

Oliver has a stuffed rabbit that sings the Jesus Loves me song. (You know the one, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so, yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so) Well I challenged him to sing it on his own yesterday, and this is what he sang...

The Bible tells me SOOOOOOO!
The rabbit tells me SOOOOOOO!
Jesus loves meeee!
Ever!

I'm glad the bunny gets a shout out in the song, because, really, the rabbit is the one telling him:)

Healed!

Poor Lily has been battling a diaper rash/yeast infection for two and a half weeks! I would put on desitin to clear the diaper rash, then her skin would get all pimply, so I would put Nystatin on to clear the yeast infection, only to have the skin turn raw and red again! It was an unpleasant cycle and was heart breaking when she would scream through her diaper changes:( I did find an amazing product, though. Desitin Maximum Strength. Most diaper creams have between 12-16% zinc oxide, the active healing ingredient in diaper cream. DMS has 40%!!! Works wonderfully!
We tried to not go into the doctors after finding out that an office visit (because we haven't met our $1200 deductible) is $90!! So I guess the insurance company achieved its' goal, which is to exhaust every option e before going to the doctors, because if it hadn't cost us anything (like it used to) we would have gone in about a week ago. About 2 days ago I decided that I was going to take Lily in the next day, because she couldn't even sit in her high chair. That night Shane gave her a blessing, and what do you know! The next day ALL BETTER!! Having a man of such great faith in the house is such a blessing!

Cutest Kids Ever!

Cleaning up

This past Sunday Oliver decided to empty out his entire closet. This included the two vacuum bags full of clothes that he had out grown. He had a pile of clothes as tall as his bed. I walked in, saw it, and walked out, refusing to believe what I had witnessed. On Monday I took the kids to my parents' for the week because Shane had to commute all week, so we wouldn't see him and wouldn't have a car. He left Oliver's door closed so that he would not have to look at the massive destruction either.
Today the kiddos were playing in his room, amongst the massive pile of clothes which I still haven't brought myself to do anything about. I went in to tell Oliver that Curious George (his fave show) was on. He stopped me and said "No mama, us is just cleaning up!" And he indeed was putting all of the toys and clothes into his toy box. I loved that he took the initiative, even if it wasn't how I would clean it. And what a good example to set for his little sis that despite the size of the mess, we pick it up! Oh, I love that boy.

Walking, etc.

On July 14, at exactly 10 months old, Lily took her first steps! We were at our friend Shauna's house and she took 4 steps. This week she has finally been trying to really walk. I forgot how cute it is to watch a little baby learn how to walk!! I love watching her little marching steps! She loves to walk over to me, put her hands up, and just fall onto me. Sorry about the lack of picture updates, Shane and I got new phones mid-month and I've been taking pictures and videos on there. It is blue tooth enabled, so Shane just has to set it up. What this means is that I don't have to plug the phone into the computer to get the images/videos off of it, the computer just senses that teh phone is near and loads them on it automatically! Anyway, I've had trouble getting on the big computer with the phone meeting all my needs, so the blog has been abandoned for a bit.
Lily has also said her first and second words (other than mama and dada). She's super obsessed with dogs, so she can say "dog." She gets VERY excited whenever she sees one. She flails her arms, bounces up and down and says "dog! dog! dog! Dog!" Super cute!
Last night I was holding her and she pointed to the picture of Jesus that we have in the living room and said "Jesus!" (well, more like "jee-jus", but close enough!) I'm excited for her growing vocabulary! A week ago she weighed 23 lbs 11 oz.
She has also finally figured out the food tastes good! We introduced solids at 8 months and have had a tough time getting her to eat anything other than cheerios and blueberries. In the past week, she finally figured it out! She's eaten lentils and rice, sweet potatoes and chicken, and pears and rice cereal! All things she would tantrum about a month ago! She also likes to feed herself. When we were at the Laconia Ward RS pool party she downed probably 1.5 cups of wagon wheel pasta. Thank you, Erin F. for bringing that!! She also ate a whole meatball on Wednesday night!!
Oliver continues to be the cutest boy in all the land. He comes up with new phrases daily. He loves to repeat our oft repeated phrases "that sounds like a good idea!" "thats a good deal!" "dad missed us sooooo much!" "oh COME ONE" "this is fun/great!" "my FRIENDS!" "stop this RIGHT NOW!" the last one is his favorite. He says it over and over when he gets his diaper changed. He's also gotten in trouble a few times for saying "shut up" and "crap". Obviously he's heard them somewhere (ME) so when I catch myself saying them in front of him, I put myself in timeout so he knows its not acceptable. I am glad that those are the worst words that come out of his mouth, that we have clean enough language we don't have to worry about worse issues.

Reminder

Did anyone else need to hear this today? Or just me?

Bad drivers?

Something else Oliver seems to be picking up on is our driving habits, and what we say to eachother in the car. He's always telling Shane "slow down Dada!" and for some reason he's always telling me to crash into the other cars (does he know I'm tailgateing!?) Yesterday he was in the car with Gaga following me in my car. A car got in between the two of us and Oliver started yelling "Follow her, Gaga! Follow her! Hurry up! Drive faster! Beep your horn! Beep it louder!"

Do you think we need to work on our aggressive driving? :)

Exclamations

Lately Shane and I have been very grateful that we don't swear. Oliver has been picking up on our exclamations. He doesn't always repeat them, but stores them away and uses them later. We were driving by a big truck the other day and Oliver exclaims "That's a big big GIANT truck! OH. MY. GRACIOUS!" It was too funny! Other exclamations he likes to use. "Oh Come ON!" "Dang it!" "Oh boy, oh man!" It's so fun each day to find out what he is going to talk about and to just see his little imagination develop!

Busy Times at GaGaPopPop's

We had a vacation at GaGa's house last week, doing all of the things in the summer growing up. It was so much fun to do it all with my kiddos! And thank you so much to GaGaPopPop for all of their help and patience with the kiddos!

Monday- Shopping day finished off by a dip in the pool!

(I was washing Oliver's jammies, so he wore PopPop's shirt that night, love it!)


Tuesday- Leavitt Beach with my childhood friend, Amy and the children she nannies, Laura and Sammy. Laura, 4, and Oliver got along so well! She would tell him "Now we're going fill up the bucket with rocks!" and he would diligently follow. What can I say? He likes a girl who takes charge:) Lily, who usually HATES strollers, sat in the stroller for about 3/4 of the time, happy as a clam! It was such a great day with a great friend.

Wednesday- We went through a hike through Chamberlain Reynolds Experimental Forest. Its such a great walk for a 2 year old. Wide trails, mostly flat land, and not we only encountered probably 5 people on the trails!

(On the way back, both babies wanted to be carried by Mama! What a work out!)

Thursday- In the morning we visited my friend Courtney and her sons Xander and Nolan (Nolan just turned 1 month!). Oliver had a great time with all of Xander's great toys (lots of cars and tractors, he even has a bouncy house!) Lily enjoyed switching between the dummies that Nolan gave her (he only likes Nuk) In the afternoon we went the the Squam Lakes Science Center. What a cool place! It is like a zoo but with all local animals. They have great interactive exhibits, too. It's all about understanding the life cycles of the animals and plants around us and how we can affect them for better or worse. Pretty much , Oliver just liked the slides and the waterfalls...

(notice the sleeping blackbear behind Oliver's head!)

Friday- Our final morning we went to Heritage Farm Pancake House. Some friends of ours from church own it. They serve hearty, delicious breakfast platters using all local foods. They also have a petting zoo behind the house. Oliver liked the piggies and the bunny. The geese were terrifying, honking and hissing at us! Laura May, the owners daughter, even let Oliver ride her pony, Black Beauty! Shane came up for dinner (he'd been at work all week) and took us out for ice cream after. What a joyous reunion!

Protect

Before Shane leaves for work each day, he tells Oliver to protect his sister. A few weeks ago, we were at a party and there was a baby with the same hat on as Lily's. Her Grandma was holding her. Oliver spotted her from across the yard and started yelling "Hey! That's my sister! Hey! Let go my sister!" then he turned to me, pleading, "Mama! Its my sister!" It was such a beautiful display of a brother's love for his sister. I of course pointed out that Lily was on MY lap, and he said "Oh. Ok" and continued playing in the sand box.

Tonight Lily woke up about 45 minutes after she fell asleep. I guess I took too long getting to her, because Oliver yelled at me "Mama! Beanbean's crying! Go rescue her!" I love how much that boy loves his sister:)

Southern Belle

A big thanks to Ariane for this adorable dress/hat combo! We love playing dress up in it!

ugh.

we've had a very sick family lately, hence the small number of posts. Memorial Day weekend Oliver started throwing up Saturday night and kept puking right through Tuesday. Right as he got better, Lily started gettinga phlegmy throat. Last Monday she developed a small fever and developed nasty cough. Two days later I felt like I was coming down with something; yucky tummy, sensitive skin, achy, etc. Saturday afternoon it hit me like a ton of bricks and hasn't let up yet. Lily was having the same unpleasant "digestive issues" as me, but hers only lasted a day. This morning Oliver filled his diaper with those same "digestive issues." I can't catch a break! I'm feeling very weak, as I haven't kept anything in my system since Friday and I still have to take care of these babies! My mom came down on Friday to help, and Shane was great all weekend (doing the grocery shop, making meals, keeping Oliver occupied, etc) even though yesterday was his birthday!! Luckily we have some awesome friends who approached Shane at church and told him they would bring him a birthday dinner! Shane said that it was amazing. I'm so grateful for great friends like the Klicks in my life!!



In other news, Lily is 9 months old today!! She's been out as long as she was in! Happy 9 months, big girl!!

Florida Day 7

Oh my goodness, let's wrap this thing up so I can move on with my (blogging) life!

On Friday we went to Downtown Disney. If you've never been its just a bunch of Disney stores. It is not in any of the parks, you don't have to pay to get in, but it still has a nice Disney atmosphere. It was the hottest day, so the perfect day to go shopping!

Our first stop was the Lego store! So much fun! There are just so many Legos and it is so easy to get carried away in there! You kind of forget most of this stuff is stuff you can get in Wal-Mart. The best part are the awesome Lego statues they make. They also have a small playground outside of the store, which was fun for Oliver.

At the Disney store we got all of our souvenirs. A crazy straw cup and a set of cups with Mickey, Goofy, Pluto and Donald on them for Oliver. A Minnie rattle and Minnie/Daisy sippy cup for Lily. And for me? A Mickey Mouse colander, of course! (I have a colander collection that I LOVE)

It was so h0t out that we let Oliver play in the ground fountains for about a half an hour. He loved it so much! What a ham! After we changed him, MyMy paid for him to have a little train ride by himself. He looked so pensive the whole ride, it was like his unwinding time!

For lunch we had Ghirardelli sundaes. Yumyum! They were eaten too quickly to have photographic evidence:)

In the afternoon we took one last dip in the pool. For dinner Sheena made everyone some delish pasta and meatballs.

Saturday's return trip went even smoother than the trip down. The kids did super great. Lily decided she'd had enough on the bus ride home. She screamed for about 20 minutes, but was find the rest of the ride.

It was just such an awesome trip and I am so grateful for my great family and that I was able to enjoy all of these experiences with them!