The amount of rain that has fallen here over the last month is incredible! We've already hit the average rainfall amount for the year this year and the average amount of rainfall for the month of July (It's only the 3rd!). We missed the record for the most amount of rain ever in June by less than a half-inch. Drew keeps asking me why it's raining again..."Mom, I thought it was summer?"...and we've been spending a lot of time at various McDonald's playlands. The good news is that we haven't had to turn on our sprinklers for over a month! Anyway - here's some pics of the kids playing in the gutters during one of our regular downpours. Who needs a pool?!
Here's Noah at 1 week. He continues to be a really mellow little guy. We had to start him on prevacid though a couple of days ago because we could tell his reflux was becoming uncomfortable again and he wasn't eating well. The prevacid takes a couple of weeks to really kick in - so he gets regular doses of Mylanta too. The poor kid's a little drug addict! He's doing better now and has been such a little trooper through everything. The kid still hardly ever cries and sleeps like a rock. I had him in for a check up a few days ago, and he was looking a little jaundice so they decided to check his bilirubin. For those of you with kids, you know this means a good prick in the heel and 10 minutes of squeezing enough blood out of it to fill a little tube for the lab. The kid slept through the whole thing! He's awesome! I still don't believe Noah is going to stay this way though. After Drew and Addison, I just don't believe I can have a mellow child! We'll see...
Addie turned the big 3 on Friday. So, on Saturday, we had the Martins over for a little "Cinderella" cake per Addie's request. We weren't quite in the position to throw a full scale party with Noah only a week old, but Addie didn't seem to mind and had a great time opening her presents and playing with Sophie and Stella.
Noah Scott has arrived! He was born Friday at 1:44 pm, was 19.5 inches long and we think he weighed about 6 lbs. 12 oz. They had originally weighed him in at 6 lbs. 5 oz., but by that night he weighed in at 6 lbs. 12 oz. - so they think the original weight was wrong. Go figure. Anyway - we arrived at the hospital about 6:30 a.m. for the induction. The pitosin was flowing by about 7:30 with me at a 3 and 75% effaced. Dr Rost had two other deliveries in progress that morning so he didn't break my water until maybe12:30 - 1:00. By that time - I was about a 5. Of course once they broke my water, things started to move. I was a 7 after about 30 minutes and then all of the sudden was complete and ready to deliver. So they quickly set things up and after about 3 contractions, he was here!
We spent the next two days in the hospital, which I can hardly stand, but turned out to be a good thing for Noah. Pretty much right off I suspected he had reflux. He wasn't eating especially well and was spitting up quite a bit and made a little whiny noise literally constantly from the moment he was born. He just didn't seem content to me. So after lavaging his stomach (sucking everything out of it) and trying everything else to try to make the kid eat and not spit up everywhere, plus a night from hell (he screamed for 5 hours straight), they finally did an upper GI and sure enough, he has reflux! So they put him on Reglan, and he's doing much better already.
Now that his issues are resolved, Noah is proving to be a GREAT baby. I don't want to jinx my apparent good fortune, but he is very laid back and such a good sleeper. I had to wake him up last night after 7 hours and make him eat. I doubt that will continue, but I'll take what I can get! When he's not asleep he's more than happy to just sit back and calmly observe his surroundings, even with Drew and Addison's epic battles going on all around him.
Drew and Addie are excited to have him here, although Drew's been running a fever and hasn't been able to get very close. Addie thinks he's a doll and doesn't realize she needs to be at least a little gentle with him, but she'll get it eventually, hopefully before she rips off one of his arms!
Anyway - here's some pictures of the little guy, finally.
Also - here's a link to the always fabulous hopital pictures of Noah:
So...apparently the check from Gold's is "in the mail". Fortunately, that news comes from Andrea's attorneys rather than from Gold's, so the information should be reliable. I guess the attorneys threatened Gold's with a tell-all press conference if they did not deliver by today. I'm holding my breath though until the money is safely deposited in our account. Who knows what else these guys could come up with! Let's hope this really is over.
I thought I'd link to a few articles that have come out in the Utah newspapers over the last week or so covering our settlement with Gold's. It's a little disheartening to read some of the comments made by Ron and his attorney, but we knew this was a possibility when we decided to settle out of court. By them not having to admit guilt, they can spin this however they want. Ron was a slimy, dishonest guy six years ago. Why should we expect anything different from him now?! Of course, the drama has to continue. Gold's is taking issue about some of the things said by the EEOC in the article and they're trying to file a breech of contract with Andrea's (the other girl in the suit) settlement. We don't know yet how this will affect us, if at all, but it's pretty typical. Gold's initiates a full front page spread in the paper and then gets mad when any of the facts are actually stated in the article. Just more proof to the caliber of people we're dealing with here.
Today was Drew's preschool graduation. All those hours of finger painting and show-and-share finally paid off! Actually, the little bruiser has come a long way this year and we're very proud of him. Preschool has been a great experience for him and we have a couple of fabulous teachers to thank for that. The school put on a little graduation ceremony complete with a musical performance by the kids and a graduation certificate presentation. It was great and Wade was even able to break away from work to be there. Filing in for the "ceremony"...Waiting for his name to be called... Getting his "diploma" from his teachers, Mrs. Rutz and Mrs. Wells... Drew's class.
I finally got both of the kids to hold still long enough for a hair cut. Addie wanted to model hers so bad we decided we'd post it. We took about 2 inches off of Addie's little fro... I forgot to take a picture of Drew before I threw him in bed - so here's a cute pic of him asleep with his new summer butch.
Drew wanted us to post a picture of his new bike. We bought him a little 12" bike last year to learn on. Now that he's mastered the 2 wheeler, we decided it was time to buy him a bike that is actually the right size! We thought he might hesitate a little riding a bigger bike, but apparently not! He was immediately racing all over the neighborhood!
This picture doesn't come close to doing it justice - but we had our second big storm of the season yesterday. I took this picture after the tornado sirens had stopped and we felt it was safe to emerge from the kids bathroom (a.k.a. our tornado shelter) - so I missed capturing the really dramatic stuff on film. By this time, the 60 - 100 mph winds had stopped, the sky had lightened significantly and the rain had slowed from coming down in sideways sheets to just a torrential downpour. We lost power for a couple of hours and realized very quickly - as we sat in the pitch-dark bathroom with no way to know what was going on outside, that it's probably time to buy an emergency weather radio and a few other emergency supplies. The good news is that there was no major damage near us - just a few downed trees and fences. Keeps life exciting!
I decided it was officially hot today (my knees were sweating)...so the kids and I went and bought a little pool for them to cool off in. Here they are enjoying they're first official backyard swim of 2007.
So...we've finally joined the fraternal order of mini-van owners this week. The kids think they have a new playground and I'm loving being able to actually get my kids and all of their stuff into the car without having to be a contortionist! Actually the best part of having a van is that Drew and Addison don't have to sit by each other anymore and I'm naively expecting more peace and quiet time in the car as a result. We'll see...at least now they can't reach each other... that's got to help! Anyway, we ended up with a 2006 Toyota Sienna in a lovely blueish shade - which Addie is so skillfully modeling in the picture with nap hair, dirty face, and her shorts on backwards.
Yes - finally, this whole Gold's ordeal has come to a close. We got the call last night from the EEOC attorneys that the case had settled with just hours to go before the trial was to begin. We were able to make Gold's take some accountability for they're actions and lock them into doing some discrimination training and accept a set time of EEOC monitoring. They will also be required to post a notice of the settlement at the gym and a parts of the settlement will be publicised. Up until last night they refused to take any accountability for all of the illegal things they were doing and had even called for the class members (including myself) to apologize to them! You can see why this has taken 6 years to resolve! I guess it just took the realization that they were about to get strung up in court to bring them around. Anyway, we're happy with the settlement and are not at all disappointed that we don't have to go through a week long trial and cross examination by the Gold's attorney on the witness stand. Now we get to spend the week in Utah just having fun as a family! Imagine that!
Grandma Wanna sent the kids an Easter package complete with cowboy hats for each of them. Drew's immediately went on and didn't come off until bedtime. Of course every cowboy needs a gun (or a light saber, pirate sword and laser blaster)...and a holster (or a sparkly sequin sash out of Addie's dress up box). Hey - the kid's got imagination!
He's here!
After his bath
Going home
Glad to be home
