Her Namesake

There's just something about family names that I love. Our baby girl has a rich heritage of lovely names to choose from. Miss "Eliza Kate" is named after her great grandmother on my mom's side of the family. I never got to meet this wonderful, Godly woman, but have heard many a story growing up. She passed away when my brother Clay was just a toddler.

Eliza was born March 12, 1898. Her parents Sarah and Isaac Muxlow came to America from England to Brown City, Michigan. As a girl, she often wore high button laced shoes and formal dresses. Her mother Sarah was a hat maker, so I can only imagine that she made this fancy lace hat for Eliza. She was a very proper young lady. Miss Eliza grew up in a large family of 13 siblings which boasted seven bachelor brothers. They all lived and worked on a dairy farm that's still in existence today. I researched the genealogy online this week as my aunt and cousins were in town and they know a lot about the family.


Eliza married Wilbert Aldridge whose mother coincidentally was named Emma Eliza Shay. To put it in perspective, she shared her name with her mother in-law.

My grandmother Eliza was left a young widow when her husband Wilbert passed away from lung cancer when my mom was only five years old. Eliza was left with three young children to raise on her own. No easy task for one woman to conquer. Her strength of character, resilience and faith in God are all qualities that are to be commended. Despite her hardships, she loved to laugh. This character trait has been passed down throughout the generations as my mom and I like to laugh too! As a woman, she addressed her friends as "Mrs. Kelly" even though they called her by her first name. This reflects the formal standard to which she was raised as a girl. Imagine Jane Austin's "Pride and Prejudice" formal way of speaking and social rules.

Now Eliza thought her name was old fashioned when she was growing up, so her family called her Liza. Her family continued to call her Liza, but when she started her new married life in Detroit, she introduced herself as Elizabeth.

The family tree has a strong thread of Elizabeth running throughout the generations:
Here's how the Elizabeth chain works...

Sarah Rippen Muxlow named her daughter Eliza(no middle name). Eliza then named her daughters Sara Elizabeth and Mara Jane. Mara Jane named her daughter Erica Elizabeth. Erica Elizabeth will now name her daughter Elizabeth Katherine. We have a little trend going on and we didn't even coordinate it:)

On Landon's side of the family, his great grandmother's name was Elizabeth.

Now Miss "Eliza Kate" will only see her formal name on her birth certificate and formal documents. We plan on always using Eliza Kate until she wants to drop the Kate and just be called Eliza. However, she has options with her formal name later in life.

28 Weeks: The Home Stretch

We are now in the third trimester, the home stretch. I'm still feeling great, but definitely need an afternoon nap a few times a week. This is a luxury I didn't have the first go around as I was working full time and on my feet all day. I'm hoping that my kankles won't swell with baby girl. Landon refers to them as "oompa loompa" feet. Lovely, I know.

Baby girl is most active late at night or after I've had a tall glass of ice water. She's a mover and a shaker. I'm sure this will be her sleep pattern to break as a newborn. Ahh, switching those days and nights on me.

At the grand weigh in last week, I've gained 21 pounds so far. My iron levels looked really good. You can tell I'm much more relaxed this time as I didn't even remember to ask about the results of my glucose screening. Totally slipped my mind. I thought for sure I failed it as I found out later you're not supposed to have juice that morning. The doctor gave me no directions or cheat sheet before the test. I guess she assumed I remembered the low down from 3 years ago.

My dear friend, Mr. Braxton-Hicks has greeted me with stomach tightening throughout the day. Nothing uncomfortable, I'm just aware of it this go around. With Miller, I just thought he was changing positions in utero until my midwife felt the contraction and told me what it was.

Baby girl's birthdate was set for Thursday, April 29th, 2010. If she cooperates, she'll make her grand entrance nice and early in the morning. My earliest date to deliver was the 27th, but I know I'll need a couple of days to wrap up all the details around here.

There are lots of things left to do on the checklist:
Paint the nursery
Purchase a new pack n' play
New bottles, burp cloths, all things pink
Start journaling in her baby book
Clean off all the equipment
Order new high chair strap covers
Organize her drawers and closet
Carpets cleaned
The list goes on and on!

Landon has been a huge help accomplishing my "honey do" list during the week and on the weekends. We went to buy bed rails for Miller last weekend at Babies R' Us, and just browsed the pack n'plays. We had a Chicco Sahara that broke when Miller was 15 months old. Landon kept gravitating toward the pink Graco pack n' plays! He's already in love with this little miss. I can assure you, we won't be getting any pink equipment. Who knows if we'll ever have a little boy in the future?

In other news, we have a name! You just have to hear Miller call baby girl by her name..it's simply precious. We had a heart to heart the other day before nap as he was patting my belly. I'm trying to prepare him as much as possible that there is not a baby truck in my belly. He asked me what baby girl was doing in there and I told him she was swimming. He asked, "Is she running too, momma?"

Can you guess what baby girl will be called?

Birthday Season

We've been partying it up with some of Miller's good buds over the last few weeks. Nothing beats the cold winter blues than an indoor birthday party on the weekend. I have learned not to mention the upcoming party to Miller in advance as he gets upset when we're not driving to the party that day. The mere mention of cake, or friends' names, or the party venue in conversation to Landon prompts Miller to bombard me with a flurry of questions. That party animal!!

We had a jumping good time at Caden's birthday. Notice me holding Miller back from touching the Cars characters. He even gave a practice blow after the birthday chorus. I swear I pulled a muscle on the inflatable slide. Sometimes, I just forget I'm pregnant and think I can keep up with all the action.

We rang in the big three with Miss Caroline at Chuck E. Cheeses. All of Miller's friends from Miss Karen's house were in attendance. My parents have taken Miller to Chuck E. Cheese several times, but this was our first time to experience the blissful chaos as a family. I love taking Landon to these events,because we tag team with Miller so we can actually have a conversation with the other party guests. We loved watching Caroline wear a princess crown as the whole crowd sang to her. Miller even met Chucky himself. He's not much of a fan of confined rides yet, but just loves costumed characters.


From about February to June, we enjoy sharing in the birthday season. I'm sure it will be a year round season once Miller's in school. We're in party planning mode at our house too. Our family does an every other year friend party for Miller. The big three is his year again to invite friends. Don't get me wrong, in a few years he'll be old enough to ask for a party. We won't be able to get away with the every other year bonanza!

*Forgive the quality of the last two pictures. I'm still learning the functions on my new portable Canon.

The Snowy Day

 

Here's a little recap of our snowy Friday. Miller awoke from his nap listening to the shrills and laughs outside our front door. He told me, "I just wanna walk in it momma!" We bundled up and joined in on the snowy adventure. This go around we had plenty of ground cover for some real snow fun.

 

Snowy races down our street was the game of the afternoon. "Oh what fun it is to ride on a snowy tricycle" These boys were too cute taking joy rides in the snow... up and down the block leaving tire tracks to mark their way.

 

Then it was off to help Maddie and Leah load the wagon full of snow. We didn't really have the right mittens for all of this snow packing fun. He's lucky if he can keep his thumbs in the right little hole. Miller lost a mitten or two, and a boot along the way...that stinker! His poor hands were like ice blocks. It's not too often that we get any accumulation down south. But, when we do it's nice to be prepared.

 

The older boys and dads were pounding eachother with snowballs. I think the dads had the most fun dodging eachother's fire. Mr. Chris was a sport and played a human target for the boys to pound. Check out his cool 80's resort ski wear that he was harassed for. We joked that the lift ticket still attached read "1986".

Ryan showed off his cool Lightening McQueen boots. Miller was fascinated by his snow kicks. We've got the McQueen fever around here. All good things must come to an end. After about an hour of dashing snow fun, it was time to head inside to thaw the little snowman out. Surprisingly, he was ready. He commented that he had fun at the party. Landon and I looked at eachother puzzled. I guess he had as much fun on our street as he does at a birthday party...minus the cake of course.

Even though the falling flakes cancelled our fun evening plans with friends, we made the most of our family time and headed out for pizza. We're looking forward to our three day weekend!

Sneak Peak

I've been MIA the past few weeks. What's keeping me so busy, you might ask? Well, besides the obvious reason of being pregnant and chasing around our almost three year old, we've been "under construction" over the last month. Miller's big boy room is in full swing. Between furniture deliveries, room assembly, mattress testing & buying, researching mesh bed rails and accessory shopping on Etsy, I've been super occupied. The UPS man makes weekly trips to ring our doorbell with the production we've got going on over here.
There's been a little detour with his bed and some irregular staining on the footboard, so I've been on the phone with Stanley on numerous occasions trying to work out the kinks. Miller's theme is a construction zone, mainly focusing on all types of trucks, his fave. I always thought we'd do a sports theme, but we have time for that later. Transportation, trucks, cars have been his favorite thing for quite some time. My next direction is looking for lamps. Wish me luck!

While I've been busy with the big boy room, I've also had my energy in baby girl's nursery. What a whirlwind, dreaming of pink and thinking about trucks at the same time. The bedding, accessories and fabric are all on order...4-6 weeks! After the fabric comes in, it's off to the seamstress for table making and pillow sewing. Sheesh, I hope it all comes together in time. Hope you didn't think that this was the actual nursery, ready and waiting. Oh, how I wish! And, I must give props to my dear friend Mandy for all her help coordinating the nursery. I'm so thankful for my girlfriends with great ideas and resources.


Here's a sample picture of the English Garden bedding from the website. I chose the colors of soft pink, white and light cocoa. This works perfectly with the soft cocoa upholstered rocking chair we've used in Miller's nursery. It's a cross between "Once Upon a Time" and shabby chic. We're using Miller's cherry nursery furniture, so it will look a little different than this.
While, you're looking at the name "Fiona", you're probably wondering like us just what letters will be hung with ribbon. No news in that arena yet! Have I mentioned we're having commit-o-phobia in the name gaming department?

When I came across a photo of baby Rain in her crib, I couldn't help but picture our sweet little thing peacefully sleeping. The pink is much softer than this picture shows.
So much to do with so little time. It will all come together in the end:)

SNOW much fun!

Miller danced a little snow jig last night donning his new rain boots and last year's mittens. I wasn't sure if he would actually keep these striped suckers on as confining hats and hoods aren't his favorite. As soon as I slid them on his cold hands, he said... "Oh mommy, just like Luke!" I guess a little peer pressure does wonders for the little guy. So there we all were in the family room dancing and watching Miller's dress rehearsal in his snow gear...just in case! Snow in the south is a big deal. A few districts dismissed early in our area today with just the looming threat of snow. Crazy, I know!


Today we spent our afternoon watching the skies and wishing for a grand white dusting. And, little by little our wish was granted.
Without further adieu, I present to you our "Snow Dusting" of 2010!
Can you believe this down covered bundle of toddler wanted to use the lawn mower to plow through the dust? Quite the entertainer!

After about 15 minutes of dashing snow fun we decided to go inside. There wasn't enough to build a snowman and definitely not enough to enjoy any sledding or snow angels for that matter.

Miller's cousins in Minnesota would just laugh at our whole production in the South. Carrying on over a little flurry fun. They've been literally up to their eyeballs in snow since fall. We'll keep our adventure a little secret for now.

Fingers Crossed

Waiting and watching for a fun snowfall tomorrow afternoon. At least an inch of white dust would be nice! Last time this little munchkin saw snow was when he was 9 months old. Last go around in January of 08 we just stood outside and took a few snowy pictures. I know what you are thinking..bare hands and socks?? I promise we were in and out in a flash. Here's to hoping!