Dropped the Ball!

Sofia in her "Victorian" nightgown

Mommy and Sofia

I have completely dropped the ball on this blog thing. I've good intentions of keeping it updated but for some reason I just can't find the time. It's that Facebook thing. It can suck the life out of you or rather eat up time. Hopefully, I'll get better. Promise! I'm also having a hard time with my background. I've spent hours trying to figure out the banner part of it. I'm not happy with the one I have.

Last night Sofia started walking all over the place. She was sooo tired and kept standing up and walking around the room from place to place. Then this morning it was like she forgot. She took maybe one step at a time today before getting on her hands and knees. She is definitely not in a hurry.

I've got a teether on my head

Hair Bow's and things

Wow, Sofia gained 9 oz in 1 week!! The average weight gain for a baby her age is 1-3oz/wk and she gained more than a newborn!!! She is certainly making up for lost time. Yesterday I took Sofia and Ryan for a flu shot. Sofia did fabulous. She cried a wee bit when the fluid went in but her big brother kept her occupied and mostly laughing while playing peek a boo with her. I dosed her with tylenol before we went and so she was happy for the rest of the night. Lately Sofia has decided 6 am is a good time to wake up. We moved the playpen into our room so that I can put her in it with the night light on so she can play while I try to catch more sleep. So far I haven't gone back to sleep because I'm mesmorized by watching her play with her toys and chat. She's such a cutie! Speaking of cutie she just woke up and we are heading off to mom and me exercise class. Her is a picture with her wearing her first hair bow! The wet shirt is due to drinking a glass of water after dinner. She still dribbles while drinking.

Couldn't wait to share....

Okay, I couldn't stand not posting at least ONE updated picture of Sofia and her big brother. So here it is. This picture is probably two months old but at least you get to see how much she has grown.

Been awhile....

Okay, so it's been quite some time since I've last updated my blog. There are two reasons for this. First of all, I find uploading pictures onto blogspot to be tedious and slow. Secondly, I have started to blog all about Sofia on another blog spot. Yes, I know I'm cheating on the official blogspot but it looked so much easier to blog on this other site than here and it was....until I realized they won't allow me to add videos unless I pay a monthly fee AND I can only upload so many photos before my 'account' is full. So I think I'm going to come back here to blogspot very soon and start updating my page. It will likely jump from 'little Sofia' pictures to 'bigger Sofia' pictures. So don't be alarmed that she grew from the wee tyke in Daddy's chair to a bigger wee tyke.

Sofia is fattening up here. She is relaxing in her Daddy's chair.



















I just LOVE this photo! It's one of Sofia's earliest pictures of her smile. She looks so skinny in this photo as she must weigh approx. 5lbs here.













We are back home now. This is the day of Jaeden's service. I look pretty tired in this photo.



















Sofia is going home! Or at least to Easter Seal House.

















My first cuddle with Jaeden. He is not well and would only live about another week. I held him for four hours straight without a break as I knew I might not get another chance.

















Sofia's hand next to her Daddy's. I think her hands are pretty big compared to other preemies

One week old

Jaeden around 1 week old. Jaeden was born with Down Syndrome, an atrial ventricular septal defect, Hydrops and Luekemia. The doctors told us he had a less than 10% chance of survival. We chose to deliver early not because I was in labour but because Jaeden would have been stillborn had we not delivered when we did.






Jaeden on the ventilator












So many lines for such a small baby.













Sofia being cradled by her Daddy The circle next to her eyes was for her "sun glasses" that protected her eyes from the bili lights. She also had an IV for about the first 10 days.









Sofia being cradled by her Mommy

Twins Arrive Early

Sofia Jenae 4lb 4 oz (1945g)

Jaeden Marc 4lb 14 oz

31wks

This was taken 1 week before the babies arrived. Who knew how much my life would change a week later.

27 wks

I know it's blurry. Ryan has been taking all my belly shots and he tried over and over again to get this clear. I think it was probably b/c of the lights on the tree. Anyways, we will try again another day as this was taken a week ago. The pregnancy is going well and today was my last day of work.

24 Weeks

This picture was taken last weekend at 24 wks. I found out the day before that the babies were both 1 lb 4 oz each. It sounds like they might truly be identical twins. No, we don't know the sexes of them as our hospital won't tell. Only 3 more weeks left of work and next week I'll be cutting back an hour each day. I'll miss work but I really need the rest now that I'm getting bigger. We've bought some baby equipment (double stroller, one car seat-the other is on back order, a playpen, a little bit of clothing, and that's about it so far.

20 weeks

Here I am at 20wks along. This was taken a week ago today. Not much happening here other than I'm growing more and more everyday and I'm finding I can do less and less everyday. Both babies are kicking so much stronger than I can tell they are gaining strength. I've been told no more stairs at work and to avoid them whenever I can, plus no more lifting (other than light stuff) as I have placenta previa. We are hoping things will change as the pregnancy progresses. I have another u/s on Halloween to see if it has moved at all. I could be put on bed rest anytime now but hopefully not at all.

Okay, I'm not morbid to be taking this picture of a graveyard. This happens to be a gravestone of Skagways most famous villain, "Soapy Smith" who was a liar, murderer and crook. You can google him to learn more as I don't have enough room to share the whole story.









Here's Ryan looking for gold. I won for the most amount of gold found. My gold would sell for about $16.50. Whoohoo, I'm rich!!!












This is "Soapy Smith's" Saloon. This was also the last place he was before he was shot and killed by the town's hero who was later to be found just as much of a villain as Soapy.










Wow, a Monkey!!














A beautiful sunset seen from our ship near Campbell River.

Skagway, Alaska

This was our last stop on our cruise. A cute little town that hasn't changed a whole lot since it was first build in the 1800's. The building on the right of this picture is all covered in Driftwood. I think I like this town the best because it had the richest history.








The Golden Hotel. I'm not sure if it's still actually hotel. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's not as we were told this other hotel was the only hotel in town and the bottom floor was the tourist bureau.










This one's a bunny!













The Glaciers! Apparently this is what everyone wants to see when they come to Alaska. I expected to see more ice. I will say that it was extremely cold though.











More ice.

Alaska

This is Dolly's Whorehouse. The owner, Dolly asked that her 'house' be left as is so that future people could see how she lived. Apparently, she worked into her sixties---ew! I was going to go in for a tour but the lady dressed up as Dolly was smoking away in the doorway and smoke while being pregnant makes me vomit literally. So I passed.







Here is another towel animal by our cabin steward. This one is an elephant. Where do you go to school to learn this stuff??











This is the back of our ship (in case you didn't know that by looking). Dave kept asking me to take pictures of the ship for some reason so I made him pose for me.

Ketchikan, Alaska

Our cabin steward surprised us several nights with animals made out of towels. Sometimes they used props from our room too. Very talented person. Actually, our cabin steward was awesome. He treated us like royalty and the room was cleaned twice a day so it was always spotless.







Ryan, my mother in law, and Dave just before we got on the trolley behind them. This trolley took us around town to show us the sites and to share a little history.











A lot of streets in Ketchikan are built on a hill. This road is propped up by stilts attached to the hillside. Some of the roads in Ketchikan was just very, very long stairways. They have street names and are maintained by the city. The garbage man has to travel up these staircases to collect the garbage and then return the can to its rightful place. I couldn't get a picture of it as we went by too quickly to get one.

Cruising To Alaska

This is a picture of us leaving port at Canada Place (on the right). It was beautiful and warm that day and lots of people were already in the pool.














Dave and I posing for the camera.












Ryan and Dave wishing they remembered to pack their sunglasses.

I'm having TWINS!!

On July 20, 2007 We found out we are expecting twins. I'm currently13 1/2 wks pregnant and this picture was taken a week and a half ago. As you can see I'm already showing!

Holland, Germany, & Vancouver

Eindhoven, Holland
My brother Paul pretending to use the public urinal. We thought it would make a funny picture for my son and let's say he thought it was pretty funny.








We could not believe the amount of bikes parked here when we arrived in Holland. We were on our way to a shopping area when we noticed all these bikes and then only a couple of hundred feet away were more bikes. There had to almost a thousand bikes parked. How does one remember where you parked your bike?





Back in Germany, our last night before flying back to Canada. We enjoyed dinner at this pub that was built several hundred years ago.









Here we are inside the pub for our last dinner. Notice the couple in the background? I think they were posing for the picture as well. It was one long table that we all sat at even though we were not with the other people.






This picture is taken from the plane window looking down on Horseshoe Bay in Vancouver. If you look closely you can see the ferry.

A Day Trip to Cologne, Germany

Cathedral in Cologne. I can't recall the name of it but it HUGE! In fact, you can see this cathedral from the Rhine Tower in Dusseldorf which is a 20 minute train ride away.














Another view of the cathedral. It was impossible to capture the whole cathedral in the view frame of the camera.
















A stained glass window inside the cathedral.



















A view of inside the cathedral. Unfortunately, it's a bit blurred.
















I met with a couple of friends while visiting in Cologne. Sanna lives only 20 minutes away but Vera flew in from Austria.