MY MOM MEETS THE PREZ

this is no photoshop illusion, that is really my mom with president bush & the first lady. and, yes, they're in the oval office. my mom received this amazing honor and was selected as the 2006-2007 iowa teacher of the year. think about all the amazing teachers K-12 in the state of iowa, and my mom beat them all! anyone who has worked with her professionally will agree that she is more than deserving of this honor. she has had many amazing opportunities through representing our state, one of which is traveling to washington d.c. to attend a conference with all the other winners. a little like a miss america pageant, but with a whole different demographic. she had the opportunity to spend time in the oval office with president bush & laura, WOW, how cool is that!?!

MAMMA MIA

eric and i ventured out last sunday to see mamma mia at the civic center. we left zaida with a responsible babysitter... al. if you don't know, mamma mia is a musical that features the songs of ABBA. we sat down and the lady next to eric said, "you may want to trade your wife places, because i'm going to be dancing this whole time!" well, she wasn't kidding. she was seat dancing through almost every song. i thought that she must be the biggest abba fan ever... but i was wrong. during the finale, everyone stands up and claps along, but there were these ladies who were not only clapping, but they were swinging their hips, singing along, and goin nuts! it was so entertaining to watch. :) oh, and the show was fantastic, too.

THE SMELLY KID

zaida has logged another bath into her list of accomplishments in the two week span of her life. she totally hates them, and i'm convinced we're going to have the smelly kid. not really... everyone says that little babies HATE baths, but then start to love them once they get a little older. we're still doing the "sponge bath" style, eric holds her in a towel, and i clean her up. last night she managed to shart and pee during the 5 minute episode. poor eric! washing her hair is a real trip, afterwards it looks like she just got blonde highlights. her hair gets approximately 8 shades lighter when it's clean. good times, good times...

THE NAME: Zaida Augustine

whenever we tell people the name zaida augustine, they always ask how we came up with it. well, zaida was just a name that i found in a baby book. i had never heard of another zaida before, and that was the first appealing thing about it. eric has always liked names that start with "z". not sure why, but whatever! :) it was a name we could both agree on.

the name augustine is from our time spent in st. augustine, florida. when we lived in orlando, we took several trips to st. augustine. it is such a cool little city-- the first one in our nation. there is all this great history there, and a spectacular beach, too!

ZAIDA AUGUSTINE JOINS THE WORLD

the miracle of life has happened, and we're celebratin'! there is absolutely nothing more amazing than the creation of life... when you stop and think about it, it kind of blows your mind. i look at her and think, hey, you've been hangin out inside of me for the last 9 months. WOW!

as you know, i have been more than ready for her arrival. a week before her due date (at our doctors appointment) they told us i was 4 cm dilated and 75% effaced. we thought, "this is it, it's going to happen any moment". the doc had us make another appointment in a week, but told me that i'd never make it that long. WOO- HOO!! well, wednesday came, then thursday, followed by friday and nothing. we agreed that if there were no signs of baby by friday at 5, we were going to go out for dinner so we had something to look forward to. the weekend came and went, and then there was monday morning. (the pits!) monday morning is never fun, and this was a major low. :( we had papa john's for dinner, and i went to bed just like every other night.

it was 1am, and i was up for another bathroom break, and encountered more than was expecting... my water broke. and just like that labor started. it wasn't like what you see on tv where people are running around like their heads are chopped off, eric took buddy out, and i made the bed. my bag was already in the car, and eric's was packed, too. we were on our way to the hospital by 1:20, and checked in by 1:30.

i will spare you the gory details of what happened next, all i can say is... get the epidural. i still experienced PLENTY of pain, so i don't feel like i missed out on any of the "natural" stuff. after pushing for 45 minutes, she arrived at 9:53 am on Tuesday, April 10th. she weighed 7lbs. 14oz. and was 19 inches long. she has a full head of blonde hair. of course we're biased, but we think she's pretty adorable!

we spent the next couple days in the hospital, and had a wonderful experience with all the nurses and doctors... except for the lactation consultant (aka- the nipple nazi). that experience was borderline traumatic.

we've been home now for 10 days, and each day gets a little bit easier. we're getting more used to having a baby around. and i am functioning better on the little sleep i get. :) i am hoping to get on this thing more often and to keep a record of what's happening in zaida's life. it looks like the little lady is waking up and ready to chow-- that means i'm needed!!

THE STAGES OF PREGNANCY

This is in October-- 3 months prego!


One month before she was born... I'm HUGE!

Zaida and I getting ready to leave the hospital!