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Saturday, July 31, 2010

Fiscus Family Visit

So fun! Thank you for the DELICIOUS meal AND dessertSSS! Time together always goes by so quickly! We can't wait to see all of you again soon!


Friday, July 30, 2010

Ben's Godmother :)

Ben was excited to see Elizabeth and Aunt Maribeth again, and we were excited to ask Elizabeth to be Benjamin's Godmother (she said yes :). Brendan will be sharing the God-parenting, and there don't have to be any more secrets (about this) in the Wagner home. Thank you Elizabeth AND Brendan for loving our Benjamin :)

Out shopping!

Ben was chilled out as usual as we were finding deals with Grandma M and Uncle Nick!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

2 Weeks Old!

Only 2 weeks, but none of us could imagine life without our sweet little Benjamin! Over night, his umbilical cord fell off, so this morning, Ben, Carla, and I had a shower together :) He was so comfortable that he fell asleep!


Don't Ben and Carla look sharp, all dressed up?!


Carla won't stop climbing!!!!! Yikes!

Check out the Parents-to-Be!

Tonight, Benjamin was enjoying meeting and cuddling in the arms of Uncle Dan and Aunt Sara!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

New booster seat!

Anna and Carla had fun playing with Anna's pretty new booster seat -- thank you Grandma J!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Ben likes his frog and turtles!

We survived our first outing with just me and all 3 kiddos! It went surprisingly well :) We went to "swim camp" and the store.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Almost 2 weeks old!

Anna and Ben enjoy time together :) And Ben is loving his Nemo blanket -- thank you Zia Tanya!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Fine - Ward - Grossner family fun!

Thanks for coming to meet Ben before you headed back to Albuquerque Jon! We can't wait to see you again soon Robin, Zack, Aaron, and Hacina! Have fun in Las Vegas Big Ben and Lisa! Anna and Carla want to play together again soon with you David and Erica!


ALL the kiddos!


Of course Carla and Ben had their daily snuggles!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Ben slept 7.5 hours IN A ROW last night!

This morning Mike, Anna, Carla, and I were all just staring at Ben waiting for him to wake up! Our little man deserves most of the credit for being a great sleeper, but his bouncy seat (where he does most of his sleeping) AND this cool fleecy swaddling sort of bag with Velcro straps also require a shout out :)

Today Elizabeth came to play with the girls, and they had so much fun with her, as always, and ended their fun with some sand and sprinkler fun! We made it inside just as a big storm came in! It was one of those cool ones when it's really sunny and really rainy -- I'm certain there were some beautiful rainbows, though we didn't see any. Good times.





Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Ben is 10 days old!

He has been sleeping 6 hrs at night for a few nights! I am beside myself with gratefulness! Let's see, we went for our first walk with Ben. He loved being in his carrier. Anna and Carla both improved their biking skills -- Carla started actually pedaling her tricycle, instead of just pushing her feet on the ground. Anna can now right up the driveway; it's a slight incline and she used to have to walk her bike up. Carla can now walk her tricycle up the driveway on her own (she used to need help with that). Then Aunt Maribeth came and spent the day with us. We all had lots of fun and the girls especially enjoyed a trip to the park with Aunt Maribeth! Thank you for all of your help Aunt Maribeth! Ben got his first package from Aunt Jenny and everyone enjoyed Big Sister gifts, including matching swimsuits - yeah! Thank you for all the sweet cards and surprises Fiscus family :) We're so excited for your visit! The night ended with Ben and Mommy taking a trip to the store together, Ben's first shopping trip. We got some cloth diaper covers - and tried out a cloth diaper tonight - very comfy and easy - thank you Michael and Ashley!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Day 9

Today Benjamin and Brendan met; they're old pals now :) We also went out to eat to celebrate Ben -- his first time out on the town (besides to the doctor's)!

By the way, Ben doesn't have to return to the doctor's until he is a month old! This is because he is so healthy and growing so well. He was almost to his birth weight on Saturday at 8 lb 11.2 oz, and on Monday he was already 9 lb 2 oz!

Benjamin is One Week Old!

Grandma J brought Violetta for the day, so it was Ben and the girls today! Anna and Carla had so much fun with their cousin Violetta!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Day 7

Grandma J and Giuseppe came to play!
AND Ben was really waking up today!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Day 6

Today Benjamin went to mass for the first time. He also met "Uncle" Ben, Aunt Lisa, David, and Erica, and Aunt Terese and Erin, and Pas! We got our first family photo, well at least it has all five of us... As you can see the girls are still perfectly enamored with our sweet Benjamin :)

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Uncle Nick and AnnMarie meet Ben!

Thanks for visiting, helping, and playing guys! The girls really enjoyed their stroll to the park Uncle Nick, and they both had fun with you AnnMarie too, especially eating the Edible Arrangement, and eating dinner on the deck!

As you can see, the girls are head-over-heals for their brother!


Thursday, July 15, 2010

Slide Show!

These are photos of Ben and his first few days. Wow--I still can't believe he is finally here (out)! Thanks for visiting everybody!

Welcome Home Ben!

Thank you everybody for all of your sweet words! We are so blessed! Ben is just perfect in every way! And look at the awesome surprise we just came home to! Thank you ...Aunt Maribeth and Elizabeth?!!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Hat

All bathed and sucking fingers

Bundled Up

Ben is feeling good!

It's a big boy!

Benjamin Warren Grossner

8 lbs 13 oz

8.5-9 cm

soon...

7.5 cm dilated

Progressing along...

Feeling good!

Water broke

Colleen's water just broke. Shouldn't be too much longer!

6 cm dilated

We're off to the hospital!

At the Dr. office

To see Dr Slotta

Stopping at the doctor's office on the way to the hospital -- contractions are 2-3 min apart. Baby Grossner is coming finally!

Could be the big day!!!

Not headed in to the hospital yet, but I am starting to do some timing, and getting excited!!! Mike is on his way home :) We shall see!!! We are so excited for our new addition! Yeah!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Doctor's Report

Well, there are 9 more hours in the day...I'm feeling lots of contractions, still only 3 cm, more like 90% effaced (instead of 80)...so we'll see :~ Dr Slotta stripped my membranes, and that did the trick for Carla, so our fingers are crossed.

On a more exciting note...we've finally decided names! We're saving that announcement until after the baby is born :)

Bye for now!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Happy Birthday Carla!

Carla is getting SO big! Anna says she is too small to be 2 (and also that she already had her birthday (early party on the 4th) -- very confusing), but I say she is definitely 2 in all ways! She's perfected curling up on the floor with loud volume when she doesn't get her way:~ On the bright and more abundant side, Carla is doing great in her big girl bed, knows her colors, loves to count, remembers and tells us all about things she did last week (Riley...nice dog, pet him, eat purse -- though this didn't happen!, Jane (Mrs Hagan)...pick candy, eat cracker, Alta...room, toys, baby, Uncle Bob...sand -- her little brain and her smile are both so darn cute!), eating, cleaning, coloring, pottying, talking up a storm, repeating what she hears all the time, especially what Anna says, and mimicking EVERYTHING Anna DOES. She is such a pleasure and we thank God for the blessing that she is in our lives :) Happy 2nd birthday Carla!

In other news: I did my exercises this morning and went for a nice walk/run, got scared by a bulldog, and am off to the basement to do some more cleaning (how I went into labor with Carla :). Maybe today is the day :) Otherwise, I'm off to my doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon...I scheduled it thinking that I wouldn't have to come for it! Oh well, God's in charge right! We are so excited to meet you New Baby Grossner!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Waiting...

I'm really hoping now that tonight/tomorrow is the big day! I think it would be cool for Carla and new baby to share their special day. It's going to be close after all, might as well share the date :) Hopefully I won't make it to my Monday doctor's appointment. Thanks for the nice wishes Aunt Terese, Kim, and Katie!

And Jenny!, thank you for all the sweet comments!!! I meant to say it a week ago when you wrote a bunch, then a few days ago, and then again today! Carla is doing SO well with her big girl bed -- really amazing! She even came to me the last two nights without even crying, around midnight, wanting to go potty, going potty, and then right back to bed without freaking out! Also, this morning her diaper was even dry! I guess she is getting ready to be a big girl, big sis :)

We're going for a walk, so maybe that will do the trick!

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Test

Just a test to see if I can update with my phone.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Fun, fun fun!

This evening was a night full of exciting surprises/coincidences! We thought of going to lunch at El Rodeo, our favorite Mexican restaurant, but opted not to because Anna wanted a balloon -- "because she gets one every time we go there". We would go for dinner instead... We get to the door for dinner at 5:40 (Swifty the Clown comes with his balloons at 6) and there is a sign with today's date as the restaurant's anniversary party, 6-9pm! In addition to Swifty, kids eat free tonight, and a mariachi band is playing live! The girls were mesmerized as Swifty created a Strawberry Shortcake for Anna and a ladybug for Carla. We all have fun with the song La Coca Rocha at home, so Mike asked Anna if she wanted to request it, but then within the time of the conversation...the Mariachi band began playing the song! While Carla and I were in the restroom, Mike and Anna were even serenaded! Then when they were in the bathroom, Carla and I enjoyed the whole band singing and playing in our little section of the restaurant!

Next, we stopped at the library and Mike was going to run in to drop off books. Anna really wanted to join him, and then Carla wanted to come too, and so we all headed in, just after 7...inside were about 100 kids and maybe 30 parents watching excitedly as Dave the Magician began his show! Anna was again mesmerized, and by the third time the magician asked for volunteers, Anna finally raised her hand, very eager this time, each time he picked a child to come up, she started going forward. I reminded her to just raise her hand, but sure enough, she shot up to the front (un-called on), but he said "oh yes, I need one more!" and there she was magically coloring a coloring book by waving a huge inflatable crayon at the book! Then she and 2 other girls just "made" the whole book be filled with blank pages by stroking the cover with their fingers! Finally, she was the last one standing of the 7 volunteers and got to wiggle her fingers over the cover to make all drawings reappear! On the way home, we told her that Mike used to do magic as a kid, and had "magic sets". So she wanted one, but by the time we pulled in the driveway, she said she already knows how to make things disappear and reappear just by wiggling her fingers, so she just needs the coat, hat, and pants! What an exciting outing!

Perhaps the night will end with another surprise...I'm officially due in less than 3 hours! As of yesterday, I was dilated 3cm!!!!

Another fun day worth the documentation, but without photos -- forgot the camera again! Oh well, it was a "magical" night that I think we'll all remember even without photos.

Big Girl Bed


To be or not to be? Oh, Carla, the timing, terrible timing. Carla crawled out of the crib last week when she didn't want to nap, for the first time ever. And then another oh, 5x that day (once after she actually slept for her nap, and then 4 more times when it was bed time). So we busted out the big-girl toddler bed that night. As you can imagine, since she isn't even quite 2 yet, this has been a challenge since that night. She sleeps through the night once she is asleep in there -- major bonus. Though getting her to sleep in there is another thing...stroller and car rides and slipping her in bed asleep works, but it's certainly not a permanent solution. Also, with all the time we've been away from home in the last few days, she has had several complete naps in the car. She's really relaxed with the whole nap/bedtime regimen, but when it is time to say goodnight, she totally freaks out! You can probably hear her screaming and banging from down the street. Well, anyway, that was a long explanation of this snuggly photo. This was after some afternoon non-nap screaming, falling asleep on the potty, and then in my arms.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Sleepover at Aunt Terese's!

Anna and Carla had a ball at the splash park at Morton Park, and then had lunch and a movie with Grant and cousin Erin. After that, the girls had fun hanging out with Uncle Lee out on the porch and in their garden of a back yard!

Monday, July 05, 2010

Yippee -- Anna likes to go underwater!


Yesterday in the lake, Anna timidly got her face wet, all on her own (HUGE breakthrough; I'll explain later), and we got all excited about it. Before we knew it, she was swimming, underwater, between me and my mom, as we kept getting further and further apart! She was ASKING if she could get her face wet again, and swim underwater, over and over! Normally, at swimming lessons, she chooses to just be thrown in, in order to avoid bobs (dipping her head in the water at the side of the pool, in and out, 5x, and the beginning of each lesson). She had never even done a single bob before in the pool! She was so excited for "swim camp" this week and when I mentioned it to her this morning she was still excited about it, saying Miss Brianne (her instructor) was going to be so impressed and that she wanted to do 15 or 19 bobs, and swim underwater in the deep end! She said she keeps her eyes closed so they don't get wet, but "it's kinda cool with my eyes open because I can see all around under the water :)" She has been progressing really well all winter with her lessons, swim/treading water all over the deep end on her own, but still avoiding getting her head wet at all costs. So this is SOOOO exciting!!! We are so proud of her! The picture is actually from her second lesson as an underwater swimmer -- she wanted to try goggles since her eyes were stinging from all the chlorine, and they worked out really well!

Aunt Maribeth's 5th of July Party!

Sand, sprinkler, and picnicking fun at at home and THEN off to another 4th of July celebration!



Sunday, July 04, 2010

Happy Birthday to Violetta, Carla, and the USA!

Thank goodness for "Uncle Bob's lake" (Lake Erie) on this toasty day! The birthday girls and everybody had a wonderful day!

Saturday, July 03, 2010

Fast forward to July!

I guess I didn't take any pictures in the last week or so of June until today! We had the chance to enjoy some "Carla time" while Anna was having a sleepover at Grandma M's! Thanks Mom:) Both the girls also stayed over at Aunt Maribeth's last week and had a ball! I'm sure we did lots of other fun stuff too during the rest of June -- but I can't remember! I gotta remember that camera!