MELT!

This is how a conversation went with Rowan today-

Me:  "Rowan, who is my best friend?"
Rowan: "Me"
Me: "Who is your best friend?"
Rowan: "Elliot"

I mean, how sweet is that?  She has been the best big sister, we are so proud of her.  Cannot believe that we could be so lucky to have two precious girls!

Elliot's First Month

Do you see that smile? Does it make you want to melt?!? I know I will be saying this on every monthly post, but the first month has come and gone and I cant believe it. Elliot is such a great baby. She sleeps a lot and eats every three hours. She is such a happy girl and we hardly hear a peep from her other than her little grunts. We called her a little piggy in the operating room and from her cry and noises and she is still sounding that way today.

For the first 3 weeks, literally, this child would have slept the entire 24 hours of a day other than to eat. She consistently wakes up every 3 hours, eats, burps, and back to bed. Last week she became more alert and aware of her surroundings. She has smiled for me a couple of times and even rolled over from her tummy to her back once. I think it was a fluke because she hasnt done it again. As of last week, she wakes up every 3rd hour, eats, and stays awake for about an hour and a half and then back to bed. At night, shes pretty good at going right back to bed. She even slept from 8-2am one night! I was in heaven getting that much sleep!

We love you so much little sister! We cant wait to watch you grow and become your own little person!

Elliot Ruth McWhirter

Elliot is here!

Born 8.11.11

7:41am

9 lbs 1 oz

21 inches

She is doing great and big sister is so in love with her baby sister. We got video of Rowan saying. "my baby sister come out of mommys body" and "I love this baby." It brings a lump to my throat just typing that, it was the sweetest most endearing meeting of two children I could have ever hoped for. Grant and I are so blessed to have our family of four here, healthy, and happy.

Ropes

Funny story - but so typical of our sweet girl. Rowan was in the bath and I asked her if she was going to show her baby sister the ropes (how much we love each other, how to play, how to fit in to this world) and Rowan said..."yes." As soon as she got out of the tub she ran to grab her jump rope and put it on my belly and said, "here baby Elliot, here are the ropes." Love this girl!!!!!!!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all those daddies out there! I know that Grant feels like the luckiest guy in the world to have scored such a sweet daughter and is so looking forward to baby #2. I am the luckiest gal in the world to have married the man of my dreams, and to have an awesome dad and father in law in my life that are a constant presence and influence for me and my family. I love all the daddies in my world and I hope you had a great day celebrating too!

Anniversary Yumminess

Grant and I celebrated 4 years as a married couple on May 12th. We have been together for 10 years including premarriage, which is a long time...but those 10 years have been the best I could have asked for. We have learned so much about each other and continue to grow together everyday. I love him so!

We have never been big on fancy anniversaries, birthdays, valentines days, etc. We usually look up the traditional gift and do a gift based on that. This year was plants/flowers. I was expecting Grant to get me flowers, but he was really thoughtful and got us tickets for the concerts in the garden at the Botanical Gardens. I am so excited, I have wanted to go for years! My gift was not nearly as thoughtful as his, but I got him a lemon tree. We have been saying that we have wanted to plant a tree at our home for a while so we will always have this!

For dinner, we did a low key grill out with Rowan. This dinner was my ideal meal. Of all time. Other than a sandwich, my other favorite food, this could be my last meal. We started off with Ina Garten's ricotta toast:

*Mix ricotta with fresh herbs, I used chives, green onions, and thyme. Add lemon zest, salt and pepper. Brush country bread slices with olive oil and grill until toasted. Rub a garlic clove on the bread and spread ricotta mixture. YUMMY! And Rowan ate 2 slices of it!

Grilled Asparagus

Grilled Filets

Tomato and Avocado Salad:

*Halve baby heirloom tomatoes, dice avocado, drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper

I eat the tomato and avocado salad a lot for lunch, it is super fresh and fills me up. Im struggling not to overload on carbs this pregnancy considering that is all I crave besides sweets. Avocados offer a healthy fat that make me feel full but doesnt leave me feeling guilty.

We had a wonderful anniversary and if you are wanting something luxurious but dont want to spend way too much $$$$, make this meal!!!!!

Easter

We had such a great Easter this year. Rowan enjoyed a couple of egg hunts (both of which had petting zoos) so she was in heaven. She really understood how to get eggs and that there were treats inside. Easter Sunday we went to church, headed to Plano, and then back to Fort Worth for dinner with my family. Funny story about church - the power was out at our church so they moved the service to a banquet room at TCU. We took Rowan in with us since we didnt think they had child care and she really did good. Until the music stopped. Someone sneezed and she said in her normal loud voice, "whats that?!?" A baby cried, "BABY!!!!!" Eventually, Grant took her out after communion ("Yummy!!!! Grape Juice!") but I am glad she got to experience big church for the first time.

Conversations...

I love how much Rowan is talking and how we now have "conversations"...

For example:
We were having some quiet time playing in her room before her nap she heard the train "boom" (we live by a really loud railyard where the cars are latching together and it is quite noisy during the day.) Here is how our conversation went:

Rowan: Whoa, train.
Me: Yea, that was loud
Rowan: Train crash
Me: Yea, the cars are latching together
Rowan: Uh-oh, train boo boo
Me: The train is okay
Rowan: Train hurt?
Me: No, the train is okay
Rowan: Train go back doctor?
Me: No, the train is okay, its just getting ready for a long ride
Rowan: Ride train?!? (As in, I want to ride the train)
Me: Sure, sometime soon, we will ride the train
Rowan: No fall off the train
Me: No, dont fall, thats dangerous
Rowan: Yea, get hurt, go back doctor (and then she gets the most pathetic look on her face like SHE is actually hurt and is sad that she is hurt).

I just start laughing hysterically because of her train of thought (sorry for the pun). I cant believe that we are able to carry on conversations together. Some of them...well, alright, most of them are ridiculous...but I love that she is old enough for us to "talk." It just makes me look forward to so many more "talks" ahead.

She starts checking herself over for boo boos and inevitably finds the one freckle on her arm and points to it. This "boo boo" always requires a kiss. Grant and I together probably have thousands of freckles, but our child has one and she acts like it tortures her. It is hilarious! I am anxious to see if her little sister has freckles like we do!!!!!

Rowan at the Rangers

Grant's parents got season tickets to the Rangers games and we went for the first time in April. Rowan loves going. She likes all the colors around the stadium and to cheer and clap on her favorite Rangers players. She also loves her tradition of eating ice cream out of the small baseball hat with Mac. We look forward to many more baseball games this summer and fall!

First Traumatic Visit to the Doc...

I got a call last Tuesday from Rowan's school saying she fell and hit her head on a chair and that they thought she needed stitches. In a panic, I rushed up there and found my sweet baby girl cuddled with her teacher, Mrs. Jennifer, eating some strawberries. She was fine, but I could see the cut was not. We headed straight to her doctor's office and thats when all he** broke loose. They had to put her in basically a straight jacket to glue her head and poor thing screamed and cried for 20 minutes while they were working on her. We were all exhausted after they were finished!

She is doing just fine and likes to point at her head and say "uh oh doctor" to tell everyone she has a boo boo. The cut should heal in about 2 weeks, and hopefully she wont have too bad of a scar. She is my tough little girl!

...and baby makes 4!

We are so excited that we will be welcoming another GIRL to the McWhirter family! She is scheduled to arrive on August 11, 2011. We could not be more excited about her and Rowan is really looking forward to meeting her "baby sisteh".

Rowan's Class

Rowan goes to UCC twice a week for 3 hours per day and she loves it. I cannot stress how much this experience has helped her interact with other children and she really thrives on activity. She has so much fun! Here are her sweet classmates at their Christmas party. They all play very well together and we have so enjoyed getting to watch them grow!

Angel Baby

Well, I have learned so much about Rowan over the last couple of months. She is such a BIG girl. She is talking up a storm and adding words together to communicate. She is just bopping around learning about the world around her. We are having a blast with her, this age is so much fun. She is definitely testing her boundaries and for now, time outs seem to work. She loves to play, eat, and mess with the dogs. She turns 2 tomorrow and I have NO idea how I am going to make it through the day aknowledging that she is no longer my baby.

It's Been a While....

It's been over 6 months since I posted anything and as you probably know we have been incredibly busy as a family all fall and winter. Grant and I took a much needed relaxing vacation to Napa, Rowan has been thriving in school and BSF children's, we have really enjoyed our weekly playdates with Annalisa, Luke, and Nash, and the many crazy weekends of attempting dinners out and sick weekends in. I am thinking of giving up facebook for lent and concentrating more on blogging. I guess you can be the judge 6 months from now as to how I fared.....