Zahra is learning how to write some letters!

Zahra has taken some time in learning her letters so this week when she started writing more of them~ I was ecstatic! I was cleaning up morning dishes when she yelled "Mom I made the letter 'I' come and see!" Then she did the letter t. She wanted me to take a picture she was so proud of herself! Its interesting how learning, saying, and writing letters have to be on her terms. I am learning not to push her too much- I want her to enjoy learning.

BRING IT!!

I know I always post on what the kids are doing. So I decided to do one post about what Anil & I are up to well other than taking cake of the kids and working (Anil) of course.
We (I am usually solo though) started to go to a small group (with the church we go to) in September and we meet with them just about every Thursday evening. We just started studying Galatians and I am really learning alot. My sisters babysit for the kids that go to the study and usually Ezra has some Oma time. There are some really nice couples in the group! However, we are not sure if we are going to continue to go to this church and am hoping for some clarity soon. I also just started going to a MOPs group on Thursday mornings about 4 mins from my house and that has been fun getting to know some other moms in the area. I think one of the biggest things I miss about Rochester is the SBS. I took it for granted when I was there and didn’t know how nice it was to get together with other physicians wives for their support.
In December I went off my maternity leave and was really struggling about what I should do as far as my job. Unfortunately, Anil’s job has been very busy and he has been working 100+ hours on his week of work. He will stay up for 48 hours straight with no sleep. So the kids won’t see him for days sometimes the whole week. Sometime I don’t know if he came home or not. It usually takes him 1-2 days to recover from the week of work. Our original plan was to have me work two 12 hr night shifts on his week off of work. Which would take me out 3 days of his 5/6 functional days off. So that meant we maybe had a good 3 days together in 2 weeks…and that is no exaggeration. I was feeling very unsettled with this and thought it probably wasn’t going to be good for our marriage. I went back and forth for some time and really felt torn. I never thought I would ever be a stay at home mom. I loved my job in OB! The moms and the babies were so much fun taking care of and I knew I would love L&D when I trained there. But I had to step back and see what the priority was. My marriage is more important than any job~even if I loved it. Luckily, the nurse manager said she would take me back when it worked out better for our family and that she completely understood. I still get sad sometimes when I think about it but I know it was the right decision even if it was a hard one.
Our big new thing has been P90X. Hence, the title of this blog. We had talked about getting a gym membership but didn’t see it to be feasible with a newborn little guy. I toyed with the idea of getting an elliptical until I found out how much a good one costs. Finally, I remember Anil had always told me that he wanted to do P90X but I was never on board with it because I knew it was a huge commitment and was never really into the video thing anyway. But after looking more into it I decided what the heck and I got it for Anil for Christmas. It has been a huge commitment and anyone that knows me well know how obsessed I can become with something like this (one of the reasons I always hesitated about it) but I have really enjoyed it and Anil has too. We follow the meal plan together when he is home (high protein/low carbs) and we both lost a 5 pounds the first week and a half! Anil is doing really well with it and at times can’t hardly walk-LOL! I have decided to not follow the diet except when Anil is home since I am still breastfeeding I do not want to risk losing my milk supply. It has been a good thing for us to do together.
Last but not least we are going on a vacation to Hawaii in February!! Anil has so much money a year for CME and I had a bunch of miles from Delta that paid for my flight so we are basically going for free and that is why we are able to go!! I am so excited! The kids are staying here which at times my heart aches at the thought of leaving them but I know they will be well taken care of.
I was just looking thru my pictures from the past 6 months and I don’t have any pictures with just me and Anil. So, I am hoping for some good pictures like this while we are in Hawaii…..
.

My 2nd post this month~ hurray!

Zahra

Well I don’t even know where to start with our little Miss Zahra. The past 4 months she has really become a big girl and a great big sister! I would say she adjusted pretty well to having a little baby brother. There was no regression of wanting to be like a baby~ thank goodness!  The first month and a half she was pretty unaffected and just kinda ignored him for the most part. The next month after that she started to ask more about him and had to learn how to be gentle….. This picture is during that phase when she was abit rough with him~she would put all her weight into her kisses and about 5 seconds after this picture Ezra was bawling. Even though he is only a month or so here, you can see it in his eyes~ he is saying’ “you think this is a good idea!?!”. Since then she has really learned to be much gentler and helpful. She loves to get his binky for him and will often fetch a diaper for me or throw one away. Now I can actually trust her to be in close vicinity of him without me being right there. It is nice and she has really become such a sweet sister! And Ezra already loves his big sister…he loves to just gaze at her and is already copying her too…oh great I have another finger sucker!

PRESCHOOL

Zahra started preschool about 10 days before Ezra was born. Anil & I had decided that we would like to send her somewhere a couple days a week for a couple hours  to be around other children apart from me in a learning environment. Another reason was to give her a break from me and for me to have some one on one time with the new baby. We weren’t going to send her just anywhere and towards the end of August we still hadn’t found a place that we really liked. Luckily, my sister asked around and someone she knew recommended Eagle Christian Preschool. I called that same day and then my sister and & I toured it the following day. We both really loved it.  The next week they were starting! I am so glad that we found this little preschool for Zahra & Blake. I truly believe that it has been one of the best decisions we have made for Zahra. She absolutely loves it! In fact she has never even missed a day! Zahra has learned so much already. She is the youngest in the class by quite a few months but fits right in. Her favorite part of preschool would have to be the art projects. She still loves to color & paint.

 

Walking into her classroom for the first time.

Some fun facts about Z for January

Age: 2 years 5 months

Weight: 27lbs

Height: 35 inches

Favorite toy: ohh thats a hard one…I really don’t think she has a favorite. One day she will play all day with her princess guitar (singing “Mean” by Taylor Swift over and over again) the next day she will be all into her dolls or kitchen.

Favorite activity: Its a tie between sitting at her table and coloring, playing dress-up, or jumping on her little trampoline.

Fear: Dark :(

Struggle for the month: For about a week Z would lay in her room at night time wide awake. It would sometimes take her about 2 hours to fall asleep! During the day she was exhausted! Then one morning she told me that there was bugs/spiders in her bed and that Sophie the giraffe was in the corner last night. Just weird things. So her poor little imagination was getting away with her.  That night we left her dresser light on and the door open in her room and we haven’t had a problem since. 

New favorite word: Because

What makes her sad: This just started a few days ago but when she has a hard time doing something..like trying to put her boots on or doing an art project she will say very sadly “I can’t do it right Mommy” It breaks my heart.

Favorite show:  Well this week it is Leap Frogs ABC show

Big accomplishments for the month so far: She stayed up until midnight on New Years Eve! She will now go and use the potty all by herself with no help and usually prefers it that way…especially number 2. She finally learned how to chew gum. I love it because she doesn’t suck her finger when she has gum in her mouth! Finally, just today at lunch time she recited the pledge of allegiance to me. Word for word! See the video below.  When did she get so big!!!

A moment I was really proud of her: She had some blood drawn last week and didn’t even move or cry~ nothing! I was so very proud of her!!!

I wish there was a jump counter on her trampoline…she loves it! This is our savior for the winter.

New Years Eve with the fam… getting ready to watch Rio

The night consisted of eating, playing games, jumping, eating some more, a movie, and fireworks

Swimming

 

Ezra’s first time swimming at the Y. He didn’t seem to mind..he didn’t love but did he hate it either.

SNOW finally!!

We had our first big snow here in the Boise area. I think it was about 6 inches and it was gone the next day!  Zahra had fun playing in it and making a snow man. Ezra went on his first little ride in a sled.

  We didn’t have the typical snowman accessories so we used broccoli for eyes an asparagus for the nose and raisins for the mouth…about 15 min after making this guy his head fell off! The snow was melting fast… Z was abit traumatized at first but then laughed about it.

Okay I must end this post I have been working on it for a few

days now and could still put more in it but I must stop for now….

Ezra is 4 Months old!

Well I thought I wouldn't be blogging again until Ezra was more around 6 months old but what can I say I am an overachiever~yeah right! I was reading thru some of my blogs from about 2 years ago when I started it and really loved reading what Zahra was doing at that time and reliving the past thru the stories and pictures. So I am going to try to get on top of it and make time to blog about what is going on in our lives here in Idaho and hopefully make one of those books one day. So how do I start....so much had been going on in the last 4 months. Lets start with the newest addition:

EZRA

One word to describe this little guy would be~ laid-back. Here I thought Zahra was easy and a good baby but Ezra makes her look like a monster. Okay not really but let me tell you Ezra is such a sweet calm little man. As a newborn he got the whole schedule down right away and was never awake at night time other to eat. However, for the first 2 months he was on a 2.5 hour day schedule. He was quite the eater during the day but amazingly he started sleeping consistently from 8pm-7am with one dreamfeed at 10:30ish (before I went to bed)when he was 6 weeks old! Zahra was more around 9 weeks old when she was consistently sleeping until morning. Now he is sleeping until 8am and wakes up as happy as can be! Ahhhhh I know I have said it before but I LOVE babywise! Anyway, back to Ezra. He has never been a fan of tummy time and if you put his legs up to his tummy he will always have a big ol' toot for you. He hasn't really ever peed or pooped on me. Here I thought having a boy that would happen more but Z got both me and Anil several times when she was a baby with her projectile pee and poop. While we are on the subject..poop- Ezra hardly ever does it about once every 5 to 6 days now. I think one of his favorite all time things to do when he is awake is watch his big sis. He just will watch her and will turn in every direction to be able to see her. Note he also does this to the TV when it is on. So I think his second favorite thing to do is watch TV. As much as I try to not let him...he always get a few minutes in a day while his big sis is watching one of her shows. He even got upset at my Mom when she was trying to prevent him from watching it once..oh dear! I can't wait until we can start the signing videos. He is going to love them! Another thing he does is study everything very intensely...he really looks at things. He is so quiet and honestly I will set him down to do something and almost forget about him because he is just laying there studying something being quiet as a mouse however with that said he will let you know when he is mad. It doesn't happen to often but he has a high pitched scream that can almost make my ears bleed. He also loves having his hands together and rubs them together. However, I am finding his fingers in his mouth more and more these days and am really worried I am going to have another finger sucker. I wish he would keep taking his pacifier they are so much easier to take away. 

So Ezra's new things that he started this week was being able to move abit in his walker he got for Christmas and then tonight he found his toes and was grabbing at them. He also discovered his pointy little tongue and likes to stick it out at you while you talk to him and its not just a little bit he really sticks it out. You can't help but laugh and I think thats why he does it. His 4 month appointment is this week. I am very curious to see what his weight and height is. He seems so big and tall to me but we will see! Oh another thing he started this week was watch us eat very intensely. I was really hoping to start feeding his cereal more around 6 months old but I don't think him or his Daddy is going to let me wait that long. Okay now for a couple pictures of my handsome little man.   

Look at that tongue.

 handsome man but the pink bumbo is throwing me off.I just learnt that they have covers for these things...I think I might have to invest in one. We used the bumbo with Z for a very long time..as a portable seat to eat in- when we went to the park or wherever.

 New Years Eve with his Oma.

 I have a feeling him and his big cousin, Blake, are going to be best buds!

Do you think he could get those 2 fingers in any more?

September 2011~ the newest addition has arrived....well a month ago ;o)



EZRA ANIL PATEL

Rewind a few days before the birth....

This is the last picture I have of me being pregnant with Ezra and probably the last ever picture of me being pregnant. Towards the end of my pregnancy Zahra became abit jealous of my belly and when anyone would touch it she would yell "no" and pull down my shirt. So being the little artist that she is Jen came up with the brilliant idea to have her paint my belly. She loved it!  And luckily Zahra has been anything but jealous of Ezra since his arrival like we were all worried she would be. I've been saying she has been in denial for the past month of his existence and has just recently come to grips with reality that there actually is a baby boy here to stay. In the past couple days she has actually paid attention to him and interacted with him.



My birth story

My 'real' contractions started early in the morning on Labor Day. I could not sleep and the pain was tolerable but much more than the braxton hicks that I have been having for about 7 months. They went on until the sun came up then stopped suddenly. This continued for 2 more nights and when I went in to see my midwife on Tuesday I was already at 4cm dilated! So basically I was in early labor for 4 days! 

Just after midnight on Sept 9th I was laying in bed when all of a sudden the contractions started full force. I would say the worse pain of my life! My goal was to stay at home as long as possible. I got Anil up (after about 10 minutes of me shaking him-he was out) and tried to relax in the tub. My Mom (who was watching Z) arrived and Jen (my doula) and my contractions were 2 minutes apart so off to the hospital we went. Let me tell you I was in sooo much pain and the car ride was torture. I wanted to have a natural birth with no epidural since I had such a bad experience with it when I had Zahra but that idea went by the wayside real quick! Don't ever let a resident put your epidural in!

We arrived at the hospital after 2am and I quickly told the nurse that I wanted a epidural! They got the ball rolling and the CRNA did a double type of epidural (intrathecal and normal one) and let me tell you within a minute after he finished I was never so relieved and happy in all my life. I could feel nothing! No pain and I could still moves my legs and push effectively. My labor nurses said that I had the perfect epidural! It was amazing!!!! Well shortly after he put the epidural in I was 10 cm dilated and ready to push. Some may think that I might regret getting the epidural since I was so close to having my natural birth but I totally don't. Pushing time arrived about 3:30am. Anil was all prepped for delivering our baby. I gave 6 pushes and he was out! The birth was amazing and I loved that Anil delivered our son, Ezra, and that he got to announce that it was a BOY!



Well that's all I have time for now. I need to wake Ezra up for a feeding. Hopefully, I will get another post in before Ezra turns 6 months ;)



Zahra is 2 -Part 2

 

 

Pictures are worth a thousand words right? So be prepared for a bunch of pictures and not alot of narrative.

 

 

 

 

Zahra waking up from her nap to find everyone over to celebrate her Birthday.

 

 

Our first fun thing we did was make candy necklaces.

 

DING DONG! Who could be at the door!?

 

 

Why its Minnie Mouse!!!!!!!!

 

 

Dance Party with Minnie!!

 

Hokey Pokey

Pin the bow on Minnie

 

 

 

 

The Birthday Girl!!

I wonder how old she will be when she figures out that Daddy is always missing during the special guest appearance.

The whole gang..minus Monte and Anil ;0)

 

Ring Around the Rosy

 

 

A new fun game- Duck Duck Goose!

 

 

One last dance before Minnie leaves- The Hot Dog Dance!

Opps Minnie is losing her slip

 

 

 

 

Piñata Fun

 

 

PRESENTS!!

 

 

~Pool time~

watch out Blake! Wild girl coming down the slide!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ahhh finally the cake. We had Z’s favorite for Dinner—WAFFLES.

I LOVE HER SO MUCH!! HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY Zahra.