“I'd like to walk you through a field of wildflowers, And I'd like to check you for ticks.”

(Peek-a-boo!!)

Happy spring everyone! Finally, some nice warm weather. We’ve even seen a little bit of sun in the past couple days. Sarai is enjoying the ice cream…

Please sir, can I have a bit more??

And I’m enjoying the…
                                 

TICKS!!! Yep, found this tiny little deer tick in my arm (after not even being outside) the other day. Really?? Really. Just my luck. I got him right out, I let the doctor know, no reason to be concerned.


I’m feeling totally great. The baby is getting HUGE! Check out this “little” Pillsbury dough-boy…

He reminds me of Sarai on ACTH! Of course we’re not without bumps in the road for this pregnancy. That wouldn’t be any fun!! Yesterday I had a few contractions close together and ended up staying the night in the hospital for monitoring and getting some IV fluids. I’m sure I just didn’t have enough to drink in the morning and the sudden heat and humidity just got the best of me. All is good, the baby is very active, I’m having a few little contractions here and there. I’m 32 weeks now, so that’s totally normal, but since Sarai was already born by this point in my past pregnancy, everyone is being super cautious.

I haven't said much to you guys on here about names, but I thought maybe you could give me your input.  We thought we were settled on Cameron a while back, and I'm suddenly starting to waffle.  What do you think about Cian?  (It's pronounced Key-in, it's Irish.)  I kind of like it!  Then I wrote a limerick with it...

There once was a boy named Cian,

Who went looking for a lake he could pee in.

The cops finally found 'um,

And with handcuffs they bound 'um,

Cause he couldn't find a car he could flee in!

What can I say?  Being in the hospital brings out my inner poet.  What do you like, Cameron or Cian??


So you guys know that Sarai was supposed to be getting a walker and that we’ve got a loaner right now. Turns out, early intervention actually denied the walker saying that it’s a medical issue, not a developmental one, and that makes it an insurance issue, not theirs. This is the first time we’ve ever had a problem with early intervention. This is all coming from all the cutbacks from the state, they are apparently denying a lot of things these days. The funny thing is they approved orthotics for her feet to help in foot placement and walking, but denied the walker. How can she use the orthotics without being able to walk?? I said, it’s like they approved her floating devices, but denied her access to the pool. People just don’t think. But of course our Vanessa came in, saved the day, fought like crazy, and I think we’ll be moving forward with the walker after all. Vanessa is the best!! LOVE HER!


Sarai had an EEG the other day, I hate those tests. Adam and Yvonne brought her in.

(Just look at that itty bitty hospital gown!!  I can't take it.)

Within just a few hours the neurologist was calling me to tell me it’s normal! So we’ll continue to wean her off the Sabril. We’ve been doing that each month. She’s now down to just 3ml 2x/day. We used to put her Sabril in a bottle to let her drink it down because sometimes she would fight it, but now it’s such a small dose we can only put it in the nipple and it takes 2 seconds. Adam will get two nipples dirty at the same time, one for the med and one for milk, but I like to use the same one so we only have to clean one. What’s the point in cleaning two nipples if one will do the job for both?? But, Adam likes to use two nipples at the same time, so I let him.

Get your mind out of the gutter.

I wanted to ask you all if you could to please include one year old Gracie Lawton in your prayers. She is the granddaughter of a former coworker of my Aunt Kathy and she’s fighting stage 4 cancer. I’ve subscribed to her caringbridge page to keep myself updated, here’s the link if you would like to do that too… www.caringbridge.org/visit/gracielawton. God bless you, Gracie. I’m praying for you every night.


I haven’t updated in ages, so here’s a few Easter pictures. I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, and let's keep our fingers crossed that baby boy Tirado stays right where he is for at least another 5 weeks! Smooches!

That is Sarai's great-great Aunt Olga

Tonight, tonight, I'm on my way, just set me free, home sweet home!

And here we are!

With the help of about a bakers dozen worth of Tirado's, plus Katie and Steve, then mom coming out for a whole week, one broken foot, lots of sore bones and muscles, 3,000 trips to Lowes and Home Depot, and two very confused cats....

...we're moved in!  Moving was, in a word, AWFUL!  And settling in has been, in a word, taking lots of time (wait, that's 4 words).  Our house has needed lots of work and we've had lots of projects going on so far.  I think we're about done with projects and the house will be what it is for the next year or so, but here's some before and after shots of some of the rooms we've been working on.

kitchen

living room

family room

(OK, so maybe we'll work on those bricks as a project!)

Sarai's room

(This picture does not do justice to how adorable her room is!)

We even have our new little boy's room mostly done.  He's inherited furniture from Sarai, but look at this adorable bedding!

   Not everything has come together yet.  Some rooms and spaces still look like this...

But hey, we're getting there!

We're busy back at work, Yvonne is back with Sarai and everyone is starting to settle into new routines.  Sarai started a playgroup that we'll now go to every Saturday through early intervention.  She doesn't interact much with the other kids yet, but she loves the songs (she knows most of them) and she keeps smiling the whole time!



I hope that it will help her to start to get more comfortable around other people, because this stranger danger nonsense is getting to be too much.

She also got a walker the other day.  This one is a loaner until hers comes in, but so far she seems to really like it, and her PT keeps saying she's doing AMAZING walking!  So the only news to report there is that, Sarai rocks, as usual... so... no news really!

Of course you guys know that we're having another baby in July...

...and you must have guessed that OF COURSE we'll be banking the baby's cord blood and OF COURSE we'll be banking with CBR.  I honestly can't say enough wonderful things about that company and their staff. 

I decided to set up a registry with CBR so if friends or family would like to contribute to our cord blood registry that'd be great.  If not, please please please don't feel pressure to do so!  We've been very lucky to get lots of baby boy clothes and supplies from our friend Beth, and I've had lots of other offers also that I'll probably  be taking people up on (I adore hand-me-downs!!).  So we're pretty well covered with supplies, thank goodness.  But if you felt you wanted to send a gift, maybe this will take a little pressure off  you and give you an option.  No biggie, no pressure, really.  But here's the link if you're interested... just click here,  type my name (Amanda Tirado), and that we're in NY and it'll take you right to me. 

So I think that's all for now.  The pregnancy is going well.  We had a tiny bump in the road (low-lying placenta), but that seems to be resolved, or is resolving.  They're telling me that the baby is looking pretty big on the ultrasounds, good news in case I go into labor early (heaven forbid) bad news if I have a termie!  I'll be 7 months this weekend, time is flying!!  The school year is winding down and spring is here!  Looking forward to sunny, warm days!

Gotta love that little face!!

“You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog, cryin’ all the time!”

Is it spring yet?? I could go nuts with this winter. These long, dark and cold days have just done me in and I’m ready for 60 degrees like you wouldn’t believe. Adam took Sarai car shopping with his sister a few weeks ago and when they got back she smelled like the outdoors, it was the sweetest thing! She hasn’t smelled like fresh air in AGES! I’m looking forward to more of those days.

So much has been going on… where to start? How about here… we bought our first house!!

I’ve had my eye on this house for years. I drive past it on my way to work occasionally and I’ve said to myself a zillion times, “I could live there. I could picture our family there.” The house is in a beautiful neighborhood, .3 (yep, that’s POINT-3!) miles away from my job. When I first looked it up a couple years ago it was WAY too expensive. To make a long story short we put a very low bid on it a couple weeks before Christmas and our realtor said, “They won’t accept it, but at least you’ll be in the game.” Wouldn’t you know, my dad was looking out for us because on the day before the one-year anniversary of his passing, they actually accepted our ridiculous offer! (I know for certain Dad had everything to do with this!) The house needs work and it’s getting a lot of work done before we move it. We’ll be moving the last week in March. YIPPEE!! Who wants to carry some boxes?? Do a little landscaping?? Anyone??

And of course you all know we’re having a baby, and you probably know too that it’s a boy!

I can’t believe it. Between mom and Bill they have EIGHT granddaughters! This will be the first boy. I don’t even know what to think, but I’m so excited. He’s busy kicking away, I’m 21 weeks now, which I can’t believe. I have doctor appointments about every 2 weeks and I’m also getting progesterone shots weekly to try and prevent preterm delivery again. I was SO against the shots but after asking around and hearing from about 99% of health care professionals that it was the right thing to do, I caved. A nurse comes right to our house to give me the shots here. She says almost every client she’s had on the shots makes it to 37 weeks. So, fingers crossed!

As for our tough little peanut, she’s doing great! They’ve started to wean her off the Sabril, so that’s a little scary. She’s getting a bunch of teeth now and has been feeling sick and a little upset, and whenever she has a day of being grumpy I can’t help but wonder, “Is she having seizures that we can’t see??” But she bounces back happy as can be, and keeps us on our toes getting into trouble! She’s now army crawling all over the place. We started calling her Elvis (hence the song title for this blog). I don’t know why, but every time she crawls out of the room and out of sight, I can’t help but think,

“Elvis has left the building!”

And then we use it when she gets into things. “ELVIS!! NO!!”

“ELVIS!!”

She’s getting stronger, we’re still working on her sitting alone, and after some practice she can sometimes sit for up to 30 seconds unassisted.

One thing that’s not getting any better is HER HAIR! I mean, really, she must be related to Einstein somehow…. I don’t know where else she gets it from!

They say, “Brush it.” Here it is, brushed.

What do you do with this? Are there products for this?? I said to Adam, “If our son has this hair we’d have cut it by now, right?” He says, “That’s special baby hair! You can’t cut THAT!” Is he kidding me?

Next time you hear from me, we may just be moved into our new house!! Wish us luck!! MUAH!

Bonus... like father like daughter...

(I had to take this picutre in the dark with both of them sleeping, standing on a step ladder at the foot of the bed.  Yep, I'm THAT good!)

“Baby you got me, and ain’t nowhere that I’d be, than with your arms around me!”

(Sarai’s absolute favorite song! “Oh na, na, what’s my name?”)


Happy New Year friends!! I just thought I’d put together a quick update and say HOLA. I can’t believe Christmas was already three weeks ago. We had a great one. First of all, Pompey was absolutely beautiful! They had gotten TONS and TONS of snow, and all the trees looked like this…

If you can imagine driving past that everywhere you go, it really was beautiful.

Sarai had fun opening her presents, of course she was more interested in the paper.

And she sure was the purdiest lil’ Christmas girl I’ve ever seen!

We saw lots of family and as always, had a ball at Ilion Christmas seeing all the cousins. In case you weren’t at Ilion Christmas, you might have missed an announcement!....

Dum-da-da-dum…..

Sarai’s going to be a big sister!!! I’m about 14 weeks along now and I’m feeling fine. The baby is due July 16th, just 10 days after Sarai’s second birthday. I’ve got to tell you, Adam was really hoping for twins. (I think he’s crazy and I have no idea how we’d handle that!) Well, just a couple days after we found out I was pregnant, he goes to make breakfast and his egg looks like this...!

A double yolk!! I know that can happen, but I’ve never actually seen one! Then the next day Yvonne had a double yolk at her house from her own dozen eggs!

I thought we were really in for it. What are the chances?! I got an ultrasound as quickly as possible and here it is…

ONE BABY! And just so you know, the tech took an early guess and thinks it might be a boy! We’ll find out for sure in two weeks. I’m super excited either way!

In other news, Adam was promoted in The Guard to Sergeant! Know what that means? If you happen to run into him, you’ve got to salute, recite the preamble, and drop and give him 20 or face being shipped to Guantanamo and getting water boarded. Congratulations, Sarge!

In other, other news, we might be buying a house. We’ve got an accepted offer in on a house in Goshen, .3 miles away from my school! The whole place is totally outdated but it’s really big and could be perfect. It would be great if it all works out. Fingers crossed, send happy thoughts.

Sarai has been an army crawling fool lately! I’m so proud of her! She was going a couple inches at a time, but now she’s moving feet at a time! She got a seating system that we feed her in and have her sit and play with toys in too. It props her up really nicely and I’m sure will help her posture. The look of it is ominous (kind of looks like a pre-wheelchair), but I’m trying not to think about it. There’s too much good to be thinking about right now!  And Sarai is kicking some butt anway, so why let it  bother me??

Happy and exciting days! Love you all!