Pictures of Tess's Birthday

Tess was born Tuesday June 30 at 6:52 pm. After many days in non-progressive labor, it took about 3 hours once I started to progress (4cm) to finish, again only pushing about 3 times. She is so beautiful and did great on her first night. She is nursing pretty good too and other than the constant nurses coming in to check on things, we had a very peaceful night. She was 7 pounds 12 ouces, and 20.5 inches long (same weight as emma but 3/4 inch shorter). She has very fine short black hair and makes a face like she's going to scream bloody murder, then hardly makes a sound. They broke my water at noon Tuesday and as a result, she has some scratches on the top of her head. I think she also has a good size birth mark there too, but I'll have to do more investigating.

The scary part was that she had the cord wrapped twice around her neck (Emma did too), but Tess' cord also had a knot in it (you can see this phenomenon in the picture where she is just born on my tummy). Thank God this knot was loose, because if it had tightened at any point her blood flow would have been lost and she wouldn't be here. The doctor thinks she could have done it as many as a few months ago, and was amazed that she survived as is doing as well as she is. She's a little miracle baby! We are so happy to have her here.

Her name....Tess was a name we both fell in love with and when we were coming back from the first ultrasound, still debating names, I said "but Tessie is so cute" and then we both realized the Boston Red Sox connection to their song Tessie. Then picking her middle name Elaina after two of my grandmothers (Elaine and Eleanor) gave her the initials TEK which coincidentally is the nickname of my favorite Red Sox player, Jason Varitek. So she is fated to be a Red Sox fan and already has come out fighting. We are so proud to have her join our family. Welcome little Tessie! We love you so much already!

Emma Wishing her little sister Happy Birthday.

Introducing Tess Elaina Keeney

Born 6-30-09 at 6:52pm. 7lbs 12oz. 20.5 inches long. Mom, Dad and Baby are all doing great. More pictures and video to come soon.

Love Abbey, Tracy and Tess.

Update part 2

Tuesday morning 4:50 a.m., having strong contractions, induction pushed to 11 a.m., may not need it afterall. We'll have to see! Seems like a great day to have birthday!!!

Update

It's Monday, June 29th, 5:22 a.m. No baby yet and I'm still not sleeping!!! I feel like I've been in early labor (frequent contractions, minimal to no pain, no progress/further dilation (still at 3cm), lots of pressure front and back) forEVER. But, it's really only been a few days. We went in to the hospital yesterday afternoon due to the pressure I was feeling. I wanted to make sure I wasn't in labor yet. While there, the pain increased, which was a nice reminder of what was coming, but the dilation did not. We decided to leave instead of continuously walking around the unit. We went to the mall and then have been home resting since. Half expecting to be back there last night sometime, mostly due to the nurse saying "you're definitely having contractions, I think you'll go into labor tonight". Nope. Anyway, home still, will keep you posted on things. Pressure is increasing as is pain a little bit, but that seems to just go away. Soon enough. If no baby today, induction is set for tomorrow so she'll be here then. Trying to just relax and enjoy some time alone for now. Emma is with my mom up in the mountains having a lot of fun which is good. My dad should now be well on his way into the wildnerness, on another trip. He and my cousin are doing a guided river trip on the Alsek River (I think they are starting in Canada and ending in Alaska, or the reverse).

Anyway, once this next phase starts, the doctor says it will go very fast (it went very fast with Emma, and "subsequent children are half the time", hence choice for induction) so we'll see if they are right! Keep the good thoughts coming!! Thanks for everyone's support!

Emma's Birthday Presents

We celebrated Emma's 2nd birthday by going out to breakfast, sharing cake with school mates, and then meeting my parents for dinner. After dinner she opened some gifts from mommy and daddy. She received some magic wands, a pair of fairy wings, some play jewelry, gloves, shoes, a mr. potato head, some pom-poms and a ball and racket toy. She seemed to enjoy the variety of gifts and after some attempted photo's near our spruce tree with some gifts, we had some strawberry shortcake. It was a very nice birthday for our little girl, and mommy too.

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is Emma and Abbey's birthday! Yay! No signs yet of adding a third to this day, which is a good thing. Emma already has a hard time conceptualizing that it's also mommy's birthday today. I baked her a lovely cake with some animal cookies on top to take to school and she just loves to float around in her purple dress, soaking up the attention and telling everyone that it's "my cake". What a cutie!

Happy Daddy Day

We decided to make this a "busy" weekend since it will be our last with just Emma. We spent it doing a lot of fun things! We toured a gym where Emma will start Gymnastics, went swimming, played at Harney Park and then for "daddy day" Tracy got to sleep in while Em and I prepared a picnic. We went to Boyd Lake and played, walked in the grass, got in the lake, and ate a great picnic. Then we enjoyed a long nap and more errands and back to the park again. We had a great weekend and Tracy seemed to enjoy his father's day. Emma sure likes saying "happy daddy day!"

My mom will pick up Emma Friday and keep her until we are home from the hospital with baby. So close! Emma and I will celebrate our birthday Wednesday, hopefully without adding another Keeney baby girl on the same day. We'll keep everyone posted on things and pictures from the lake should be coming soon...Happy Father's Day to all the Father's and soon to be Fathers. It's hard to be a good mother without a strong partner and our children all need you!

Growing up!

Here are some of Emma's latest pictures. Some of her napping in her big girl bed, so cute with her dolly. We visited with Becca and Todd, Emma's Godparents this past weekend. They are expecting their first son any day now as well and have a beautiful nursery ready to welcome him. They got Emma her first tricycle and man, did she love riding on it! We met up with her friend Parker down the street and watched the girls "riding" their bikes. It was super cute. We played a little at Parker's house afterward and she has the best toys! :) These two are super cute together.

Finally, you'll see some weather photo's...CO has been having some bizarre and chaotic weather fronts for the past 1.5 weeks. We've been evacuated to the middle of the building at work due to tornado's in the area, one seemingly passing right overhead, it was so loud! We've had warnings and watches for those funnel clouds every day it seems like for awhile now. Plenty of hail which put holes in our grill cover and damaged both my car and some of our plants. But, we are left with lovely rainbows afterward as you can see in the background. Se la vi!

We are becoming more aware that this may be our last weekend with Emma as an "only" child...man are our lives all about to change! Keep us in your thoughts please :)

Ibby Tibby

Emma has been loving singing her favorite nursery rhyme's lately. One of her favorite's is "Ibby Tibby", known to the rest of us as "Itsy Bitsy Spider". She is very cute with her fingers and hands going up and down. She sings "apple tursday" all the time, usually dedicated to the llama. She has also been practicing saying her name. She seems to love saying "keeney" and we have "Emma Keeney, Daddy Keeney, Mommy Keeney, and Baby Keeney" in the family. It's very cute.

We had our 36 week check-up today which was a really nice milestone to pass. Basically, if I go into labor at any point now, they won't try to stop things. Everything with baby continues to be great, very healthy and measuring well. I have been having some headaches and occasional contractions over the past week, but the doctor thinks this is related to stress, being tired, and maybe not drinking enough water. She suggested I take a nap at work and go to bed earlier. All great ideas, though highly impractical! We'll get through these next few weeks just fine and welcome this little bundle soon.

Annie

Tracy and I had a lovely dinner theater date to celebrate our 4 year anniversary this weekend. We went to see Annie and it was a great play and great food and great performers. With the exception of my physical uncomfortableness in pretty much any position I put myself, we had a great time. In order for us to go, my parents took Emma for her first overnight without us. She did great up in the mountains with "gam-ma" and "gam-pa", staying at "bayley house" (their dog) which helps me worry less about having her up there when we are in the hospital. We are preparing for this little ones arrival and I'm looking forward to being able to sit/lay/walk comfortably again soon! Baby will be here in about 3 weeks or so I think so our time is winding down with just one baby to cart around...we couldn't be more excited and happy to meet this punchy bundle.

Apple Thursday

Here are some pictures from Emma's 2nd birthday party (held early this year). She had been practicing singing "happy birthday" for several days leading up to it and when she says it, it sounds like "apple tursday" and is very very cute. We had a nice party at a local park. She had many friends come join us and play together. The weather held out nicely and kept things cool, but no rain! Everything went very well and it was so much fun to play outside with the kids. Even though the parents didn't get to relax much due to chasing kids around, I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The cake I made is supposed to look like it was two balloons on top (frosted sugar cookies) with little gummy bears holding the strings, but it didn't quite turn out how I envisioned, but hey, it tasted good going down. Can't believe she is already almost 2 years old and how much she has changed and continues to learn. She's an amazing kiddo and we are very lucky!!!

Cute Girl

Here are a few cute pictures of Emma playing. There are also a few cute pictures of Emma and Mommy.

P.S. She is not sitting in a large tupperware container, she is "wimming" (aka swimming). We knew this because she shrieked at us "mommy I wimming". Had her 2 yr old check up yesterday and is doing great overall. Doctor was impressed by her potty skills and her language and is very happy with her progress on everything.

Fishy

We have had this beta fish for 9 weeks or so and it has not eaten one bite! She loves her home apparently as she swims around and looks at us and plays with her Elmo friend who lives in the water with her, but just doesn't want to eat. Tracy assures me that even though she doesn't eat the little morsels of food that are dropped into her bowl, the ones we see sitting on the bottom of the bowl the next day, that she is just fine and "eating something". What that means, I don't know. Either way, Emma enjoys coming into our room and saying "hi fishy". So we'll see how long she lasts without eating food.

Jekyll & Hyde

I don't know who is who in the whole Jekyll and Hyde phenomenon, but I think we have a pretty solid grasp on the vast differences that can be presented. We are full swing into toddlerdom with our beautiful little princess. Yesterday after a fun and busy weekend (RMNP, and overnight with grandparents), it took her a good hour and 15 minutes to pick up her 4 books in her room before we could go to the park. It was such an ordeal and filled with so many tears. Nothing we tried (that has worked other times) worked to get her to pick them up. She would walk over, often with tear filled eyes and look at them, only to throw up her arms and come lay on her bed or on us. There was such emotion it was very hard on us as well as her. Finally, it took my re-arranging the order of the books and asking her which one she was going to pick up first to get her to come over and look, for the 100th time, and actually pick them up!!! It was such an accomplishment and a testament to the "stand your ground" battle that we will engage in many a more times with this stubborn child. I'm just glad we won!

Then tonight, we saw the opposite child, the one we are used to, the one who laughs, plays, talks, shows us things, plays jokes, etc. We had a lovely night playing with "play-doh" (flour, water, and food coloring), playing with her cups and toys, and then eating a nice dinner on our deck (with the slight breeze). So every day is different with toddlers and we definitely have one now.

The little one, becoming not so little in my belly, continues to kick and squirm and roll and punch and hiccup and stretch and pull and whew...I'm tired just thinking about all she is doing. For all the times Emma spent curled up with her hands by her head when she was a newborn, this one will be stretched out in all her glory. Can't wait to meet her and the days are rapidly ticking by. We have her nursery all ready to go and have sterilized the bottles and baby things again. When Tracy looked at the counter filled with the bottles and pacifiers, he said with a deep sigh "here we go again" with a very sweet smile.

Shower and "dress"

Some pictures of Emma playing in one of my t-shirts. She looked very comfortable and will be quite cute in something like this for jammies someday.

There are also some pictures from the baby shower we just had. It was a beautiful day and we were able to sit around the table and just relax. Tracy took Emma for a bit and we were able to just be girls instead of mom's for a minute. It was nice to focus on this baby and share the moment with some friends.

Our Helper

Emma is such a big help around the house! Every morning, Tracy makes a bagel in the toaster. Today, Emma was sitting, having some juice, and Tracy was putting his shoes on in the living room. The bagel popped and you would have thought the kitchen was on fire. "Daddy!!! Bagel ready!" came flying out of her mouth! She also tells us when the oven timer goes off or the microwave beeps. She is very helpful. Now if she could learn how to make coffee too, well, that would be just lovely! :)

Spring Time Fun - LOTS of pictures

Here are some pictures of Emma playing around the house, enjoying some sun at the playground down the street, playing in her tutu outfit, having fun at Kangaroo Kingdom, and playing outside with some baby farm animals. She's been a busy girl and seems to require a lot more entertaining than we are used to. There are just too many things to learn about and see in this world apparently, and just not enough time to do it all in! She continues to expand her vocabulary and is using many word sentences, some recent ones include "I see you mommy" (while peering at me through her sunglasses) and "no me want it" (when I thought she was done eating her yogurt). She gets more and more beautiful every day.

My belly continues to expand....rapidly outward. I feel like I swallowed a torpedo at times, a beach ball other times. Regardless, I'm getting plenty big, this baby moves a TON more than Emma did and we can't wait to meet her! The weeks are counting down and we are probably about 6-7 weeks away from her birth. The doctor thinks it would be wise to induce if I haven't had her by June 30 due to the speed Emma was born, so we are considering that. She seems to think we won't get to that point anyway. Josh and Deanna just had their daughter May 6, Molly finally arrived. Welcome Molly!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there, and to those who will be mom's in the future. There is no greater gift than to be able to love a child. And nothing compares to receiving sloppy wet kisses from a mouth covered in spaghetti sauce and hugs from hands covered in mandarin orange juice with cheese under the nails. :) I love you my Emma!!!

Emma's big girl room party weekend!

Here are some pictures of Emma over the last week or so. She has done a marvelous job of sleeping and adjusting to her new room. She loves to play in there, and we are very thankful for the 20-30 minutes she plays alone up there listening to her music. We had my parents and grandmother down for breakfast Sunday and then her friend Hanna over Sunday afternoon. The girls are so cute together playing and learning. You'll also see pictures of her hurt finger, not sure how, but she got a small cut that we bandaged up since she would just pull off any bandaid we put on there. She also loves to help daddy in the yard which is really cute to watch, and mommy really likes that time too! She continues to surprise and amaze us every day. Today on the way home, she kept rubbing her hand like it hurt, I saw nothing, but she was still upset. I gave her my cell phone (turned off) and told her to call her daddy and tell him about it. She was elated to have the phone and was jabbering away to daddy. At one point she said "daddy, my hand hurts" which was amazing to me! What a smarty pants! :) Oh, and llama was sleeping on the way home. The final pictures of her in the white shirt and yellow shorts were taken mainly to capture her super awesome hair style. She came back this way from day care, she must have had a rough afternoon.

The Llama

Every day we get to check on the neighborhood llama. We actually have two by our house, on separate properties, but Emma and I drive by one every day. As we get close, she starts jabbering on about "llama sleeping" "llama eating" as we talk about keeping our eyes open to try to find the llama. If we're lucky, he's standing by the fence so she can see him, we'll pull over and say hi, wave, and talk to the llama. In those cases, "llama eating". All the other times, "llama sleeping". Yesterday as we were looking for the llama, Emma chimes in with "not sleeping, llama up eating". I was quite impressed by this sentence! She also knows that llama eats "gass" and that "cows" and "ohorsey" also eats "gass" as do "bunnies". She is so much fun at this age and constantly amazes us!

Trevor's 3rd bday party, new room and playing at the park

Here are a few photo's from Trevor's 3rd birthday party. Cassie did an amazing job on his cake! Emma and Hailey just love to cuddle with each other and give kisses. It was very cute. Trevor had a good time playing with all the girls. Aunt Laura got us an early birthday present for Emma, her lovely table and chair set for her new room. Emma loves sitting at the chairs and playing with her dishes. It is very cute. You can see a picture of her in her makeshift bed. The twin mattress was too much for her, so we moved the crib, took off the front and put the mattress right on the floor and she has been a perfect little sleeper in her new room since we made the switch. We'll continue the transition at her pace when she's ready. Baby #2 can use the pack and play as long as needed. There are also some more park pictures. Sunday was a gorgeous day after we had two straight days of rain, and she enjoyed playing at the park and going down the big slide! She is very brave!!!

Happy Easter

We had a nice Easter weekend in Colorado Springs. Grandma and Grandpa George were with us for the weekend, we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and fed the giraffe's, watched the grizzly bear swimming, learned how to screech like a mountain lion, and saw some cute baby primates. It was a colder day (I got to wear grandpa's coat!), but we had a nice time at the zoo. We spent some time in the pool on Easter Sunday chasing the floating rubber duckies after the Easter bunny brought a basket to the hotel room while we were at breakfast. She had a fun time finding the hidden eggs and enjoyed opening them and playing with her new stickers. We then meandered through C. Springs and made our way to Aunt Donna and Uncle Steve's for a Clark family Easter. We had a nice time with the cousins and you'll see some cute pictures of all the 2nd cousins who are all within 12 months of each other (except the two older 8 yr old boys). It was fun to put her into a more fancy Easter dress (once the snow stopped) for the egg hunt in the living room. It was cute to watch all the kids finding the eggs. A great holiday!

April Fun

Here are some pictures of Emma helping daddy with work ("wuk"), playing in the kitchen, putting Finn ("Jin") to bed, and her first egg coloring experience. We finally got her hair cut tonight so she can see much better without her bangs covering her eyes!

What a beauty!

Here are some fun pictures of Emma just playing around the house. You'll see her with her lovely fabric scrap head band, very stylish. She took a nap Saturday in her crib without the side on it and did GREAT! Didn't fall out and slept just fine. This gives us a sense of promise with moving her into a big girl bed soon. There are a couple pictures with her in the rocking chair, rocking her baby and singing. That is very cute to see. And then there are plenty of pictures of her and Trevor, making out!!! We had breakfast with the Busch family Sunday and Emma and Trevor played very nicely together, with only a few spats here and there. The pictures of them holding hands is when they were playing "ring around the rosey" and then falling. It was very cute. Then the final ones of her in the orange tub, she is showing off her new pull-ups and seemed to like them. Saturday she told us at least 8 times that she had to "paw-ee" and did great on the potty front. So we're moving more in that direction and bought her some big girl panties today also to try to play around with. Don't worry, I already google'd "how to get poop out of underwear" for some hints.

Tracy spent a great deal of time Saturday painting her new room and we are starting to decorate and moved in a bed tonight so she starts to get the idea. She loves the space and it will be a great room for her to have. We'll likely move her in permanently later in April. Keep an eye for pictures of the room soon.

It's Spring Time

We have had some fun the last couple days. The weather has been gorgeous here in Colorado, and while it was 75 degrees here today, we are expecting snow tonight! At least the yard will get some much needed water. You'll see a variety of pictures in this group. Some are of her playing with her stuffed animals and this large plastic bin. She played in the yard today, both in her shorts and then she had some naked time in the sun. The majority of the pictures though are of Emma playing in her bath with her bath tub crayons, quite a neat invention actually! She enjoyed drawing on the wall and then wiping it all off. There are a lot of pictures with her friend Hanna. Emma and Hanna have been in the same day care class since infants and are the best of friends. Hanna was so happy to see Emma at her party and couldn't stop hugging her. Hopefully we'll be able to spend more time with her family as the girls keep growing. Hanna turned two this weekend and we went to celebrate her Winnie the Pooh birthday! They had a great time playing together and were both very loving and sweet. Cute girls!!! Enjoy!

(As a side note, in the bathtub group of pictures, you will notice a large green bruise on her forehead above her right eye. Friday, she was fighting with another kid at day care over a chair and Emma fell and hit her head on the linoleum floor. It quickly developed into a goose egg and bruised almost immediately. I was worried about it, as it had only been about 1.5 hours since it happened when I picked her up so we took her in to Urgent Care with Children's Hospital to have it checked out. She was very lethargic in the car on the way there and didn't have much of an appetite. Once there, she made us look like over-reacting idiot parents. She played, laughed, and was just fine as could be. The doctor reassured us that we were good parents for being concerned, but the doctors had no worries about her. The doctor did push on her bruise and said it was good that it was hard instead of squishy, as that could indicate a skull fracture! But, she wanted us to wake her twice during the night to make sure she recognized us and responded. She was so dang cute when we did this. I got her up the first time and picked her up and said "Emma open your eyes" she barely squeeked them open and then I said "give mommy a kiss" and she pursed her lips and gave me a smacker. It was very cute. Needless to say, she continues to be just fine.)

Early Spring Day

We have been having some unseasonably warm weather lately, which has allowed us to do a little of early spring yard work. Check out the pictures of Emma helping daddy pull weeds and move rocks around. There are also some very cute pictures of mommy and daughter.