Kristen’s BlOg

What’s Been Going On

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:17:29 -0700

It’s been busy around here. Here’s what’s been going on in our lives:
We had a mellow and fun summer- swimming almost every day, lots of day trips to the beach, a quick visit up to the Central Coast with a night of “camping” at El Cap, soccer games, and A LOT of BBQ.
We are in escrow on the house we live in. My mom and her boyfriend bought it 2 years ago as an investment property for us to live in since we were having trouble finding a good rental. We’ve realized that it’s a great spot for us right now and so we’re excited to own it and start making changes. It’s been the easiest home buying process as possible: my mom is the realtor, no hunting, no declined offers, NO MOVING...which has been awesome, but at the same time feels very anti-climatic. No for sale sign in the front yard to take a picture in front of, no having the keys handed over, just higher monthly payments on it now. First home project in order: new windows before it starts getting really cold at night.
Current project: transforming old shed in backyard into an awesome playhouse for the kids.
The biggest ouch to date for one of our kids. We were at a beach house and Max was wrapped in a towel with arms in after his bath. He tried to walk upstairs to see me and Lola and tripped and fell. Since he couldn’t catch himself with his arms, he fell head first hitting his teeth on the edge of a step. Thank goodness they were carpeted, but he bashed his front three teeth in and up. Of course it was a weekend, so we took an emergency visit to the dentist at 8:00 pm on a Sunday. Thank goodness there were no fractures and visible damage to his permanent teeth above. They loaded him with Novocain and tried to move his teeth back into place. Max was incredible the whole time- no tears, no whining, he sat still the whole time and has had the best attitude about it. It was the hardest on me. His teeth are better, although turning a bit grey and still a little out of place- which is affecting his bite so he is getting a retainer.
Si grew another head. First it felt like one of those horrible deep down pimples and then it grew and grew and grew until the whole side of his face was swollen. Then a huge bump formed on it and it came to a head on the top. Really nasty and the poor guy had to go through numerous meetings at work with strangers. He had to have it poked with needles and a scalpel and drained (which he said was the most miserable experience of his life) and then packed with gauze and more gauze. This ordeal has been going on for a week and a half and as of yesterday he is gauze free! We found out it was all the result of a badly ingrown hair that got infected.
Lola is already 4 months and so darn cute. She is full of smiles and getting easier to get a good giggle out of. She’s rolling over all the time and just started sleeping in her crib- not all night though. I love seeing how the boys are with her. They really love her and are so careful and gentle. The other day Max told me that he was playing “I Spy” with Lola and she spied something brown and it was the TV stand and he spied “love” and she found it in his heart!
Simon and I just got back from his annual company retreat in Rancho Mirage. We stayed at the Rancho Las Palmas Resort for 3 nights- we took Lola, and Yaya came down to watch the boys. I definitely missed them, but it was nice to get away and nice to have some alone time with Lola. It’s great because my brother, a good family friend, and my best friend all work there too, so we all got to hang out. It was a HOT weekend out there, so we spent a lot of time by the pool and floating around in the lazy river. Now we really want to put one in around our house :).
Here are some pictures from the last couple of months. Enjoy!

Lola’s Photo Shoot

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 08:02:32 -0700

Lola is now 2 months old and her face has already changed so much. When she was fresh out of the chute she looked like a clone of Milo- I actually asked the nurse to hold her up so I could see her girl part. Now I think she is resembling Max more. My mom says she is looking a lot like me when I was a baby. Anyways, we were very fortunate to have her darling face captured as a newborn by an incredible local children’s photographer who is nationally recognized. Her name is Carrie Sandoval and she’s been doing Baby as Art workshops for photographers from around the country who want to learn from her. She held a casting call for newborns (her specialty) 1-2 weeks old at the end of June...and so the timing was perfect for Lola to be one of her precious little models. We received a free photo shoot and Carrie graciously gave us the digital files of our four favorite images. Here they are.

Our Baby Girl

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 23:19:31 -0700

She’s here. Lola Hazel. Healthy and beautiful in every way.

The Stats: Born June 16th at 5:20 pm. 7 lbs. 12 oz. & 20 inches

The Name: As most of you know, we keep names a secret and actually don’t even decide on one until we see our babes and spend a little bit of time with them. Lola got her name from Max. He really wanted a baby sister Lola, the name he knows and loves from his old favorite cartoon Charlie and Lola. We loved it too of course, and when we saw her it just fit. Max will always be a proud older brother for getting to name his sister.
As for her middle name, we wanted to carry on our tradition of it being a color/shade... Max Blue, Milo Jett, and Lola Hazel- we just thought it sounded pretty together- plus it’s the color of my eyes.

The Birth: Our due date, June 12th, came and went; so we scheduled an induction for June 16th. Being 45 minutes up the freeway from the hospital made it more convenient and feel safer too. They started me on pitocin around 8 am and I was about 2 cm and 60% effaced. Hours went by and I was just feeling small contractions. My doctor came and checked me around noon and I was laying in bed doing sudoku and crossword puzzles. She asked how I was feeling and my response was “bored”. She said, “let’s get this show on the road,” and broke my water. She said she’d come back and check on me in a couple of hours. My contractions almost immediately started getting stronger. Labor really kicked in and I spent much of the next 3 hours or so on the bouncing ball. I’d never used one of those with my other two- but wished I had now. When they came in to check on me I was feeling about done...I was getting the shakes and throwing up and I was really hoping that my body had made some serious progress. From my track record, I should have known better. I was only to 4. So I got my epidural and just when I was starting to feel significant relief I started getting intense pain in my bottom. We’re talking about 1/2 hour later- so the nurse checked me and I was to an 8!! Another 30 minutes later and I was really wanting to push. The nurse checked me again and said, “you are ready!!” and scrambled to get everything prepped. It caught us all by surprise. My mom, best friend, and dad were expecting to be waiting there for awhile and they ended up barely making it on time. They told me not to push because my doctor wasn’t there yet. But I had to- this baby really wanted out now! After making me try and hold her in for at least 20 minutes I finally said, “I don’t care if my doctor is here I am pushing- get someone else in here!” They brought in a triage nurse but as soon as I got into position, my doctor ran in. I pushed through two contractions and our baby girl popped out...with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck twice! The doctor was super calm about it, although surprised because her heartbeat had remained so strong throughout labor and it usually shows some dips and distress. She quickly unwrapped it, and laid her on my chest. She quickly went from purple to the prettiest pink. She was here, our sweet baby girl!

Her First Two Weeks: Lola has been absolutely amazing. She is a great sleeper, eater and is just super easy going. She rarely cries and makes the sweetest little noises. It is a very welcome change from the boys in their newborn days. She’s actually making me really enjoy this beginning phase. We are already head over heels and overwhelmed with joy that we have a beautiful, healthy baby girl in our family. Enjoy the pics.

Feelin’ Loved

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 07:15:54 -0700

Yesterday I was showered in love from the minute I woke up. It was my and Si’s 6th wedding anniversary and he surprised me with a beautiful vintage looking, chunky pink stone ring. I love it...and it feels extra special knowing he took the boys and together they picked out a pretty “pink” ring that I can some day pass on to our baby girl who is due in about 12 days! I am so thankful for my handsome man and feel so blessed to experience life everyday by his side. Nothing has been more incredible than growing a family together- I delight in watching him be a dad. In the afternoon he loaded up the boys along with my brother, niece and nephew in the minivan and went miniature golfing while I got to go receive more love at the baby shower my friends threw for me.

For some reason, I had this ‘eh’ attitude about having a shower. Initially I wanted one and then as the due date got closer I kind of got over the idea of it...I didn’t want anyone to have to go to the trouble of throwing one for me- being the center of attention feels awkward for me. But Si and my sweet friends knew that was probably just my silly hormones and made me come to my senses and realize that it’s not something that hassles them, it’s something that made them happy to do for me. It was a very special afternoon and so fun to spend some time with all my mommy friends alone and receive darling girl stuff! Oh my goodness, girl stuff is just too precious. Again, I was overwhelmed by thankfulness for beautiful, thoughtful friends and family...and the baby girl maxing out my belly. Here are some pictures of my day and finally a few of my belly.

Lovin’ the Sunshine

Mon, 25 May 2009 14:43:08 -0700

I know it’s been a long while...keeping up the ol’ blog has definitely lost it’s position on my list of things to do during my few and far between free minutes during the day. This will never be a daily or even weekly blog; it’s purpose has become a convenient way to post some recent pictures and updates every so often for our many loved ones that we don’t see very often.

The Pollard family is doing great. We’re getting ready to add a baby girl to the mix in a few weeks...she’s due June 12th. Both the boys were late, so we’ll see about this one. I’m very excited to meet her, but definitely not in a rush for her to come out. I’m extremely fortunate to have easy and comfortable pregnancies; so I’m still running around trying to keep up with the boys like always. I’m in full-on nesting mode and find it hard to be home and not scrubbing some obscure part of the house or pulling weeds in the backyard. It’s been fun decorating her room- of course we did all pink. Kidding...come on, that’s just not us. Her room still doubles as a play room...which houses the bright kids’ kitchen and train table- so we went with neutral color walls with mostly red and lime green accents. We added some awesome canvas prints from urban outfitters to the walls and it’s looking super cute....definitely something that grows with her and is still a cool spot for the boys to play. I’ll post some pictures of it when we finish up the last touches.

We also took the plunge and bought a minivan over the weekend. Although it was a hard idea to swallow for me and Si, it was a really easy decision to make. They are so stink’n convenient for families. We purchased a dark gray Honda Odyssey with all the bells and whistles and to be honest, after the initial shock of seeing it in the driveway when I walk out the front door, I’ve already got nothing but love for it. The boys love it too. They think it’s super cool.

At about 37 1/2 weeks pregnant, I still have yet to take some belly pics...can you believe it? Especially with an awesome photographer for a husband. Hopefully we’ll get a few soon and I’ll post some of those too...because many of you haven’t even see my bump this time around. She’s quite the soccer ball. But here are some pictures of the boys enjoying the sunshine in our backyard. Hopefully soon we can upgrade from their old baby bath tub to at least a plastic kiddy pool!