Fun at the Zoo!

The weather was absolutely wonderful today, so JP and I (the "stay at home gang") took Gavin, Jada and Evan to the Zoo. Jada was just there about 6 weeks ago, and Evan was in my belly. Because we went in the middle of the day/week, it seemed as if we had the zoo all to ourselves.

The kids had a ton of fun, and we are all exhausted!

Enjoy!

Jada and Gavin on the elephant - they actually got along very well at the zoo


The kids love this guy who they call 'Funny Bird'


Evan Eduardo's first trip to the zoo


Evan and I waiting outside while Gavin, Jada and JP went into the enclosed elephant and giraffe area

Warm Weather Fun!

Woah -- it was record breaking temperatures today: 93 degrees! But, as New England will have it, it will be 50 degrees tonight and then only a high of 60 tomorrow. So, good thing we got some awesome hot weather fun in today!

JP, the stay at home dad, played "tag" with the hose and the kids



Mia going in for the tackle!


Jada having Fun Dip for dessert


Tita Mari tries to get work done while holding Evan and avoiding Gavin and Jada


Jada running from the water hose



Kids Say the Funniest Things Moment:
Liza: "Jorge, I'll make salads for dinner for the next few nights. I really have to lose this weight"
Joli: "No, Mom. You're beautiful so chubby."
Liza: "I'm not so sure that was a compliment Joli...."

Jada: "Mom, let's go to the 99 and get a hot dog."
Liza: "No, Jada, I don't think we can go to the 99 today."
Jada: "Fine (pause), then can we go to the 66?"

Go, Evan! Go, Evan! Go, Jada! Go, Jada!

So Evan and Jada had their doctor's appointments today, and they both did spectacular!

Evan weighs 8.2 LBS!! Isn't that great?? He has gained 2 lbs in 2 weeks! Whew! He is 1 inch longer (going from 20 inches to 21 inches) and he's in great health.

Jada loves going to the doctor's office. She's now 30 lbs and 37 inches. Hurray!

We're bracing for a really hot day here tomorrow, so we'll take lots of pictures doing fun stay-cool-activities! :)

Evan is 1 month old!

It's hard to believe but Evan Eduardo is now 1 month old! Egads! He has a doctor's appointment on Monday, and I'm sure his weight has gone up considerably. The doctor projected Evan would be at roughly at 7.4 lbs - which is still lower than his birth weight at 7.5 lbs (by now, if Evan had not lost all that weight in the first week, he'd be roughly 9 lbs or so). But, I'm confident he has done really well!

Evan is starting to really look at us. He is spending a little bit more time awake and interacting, and he's just an absolutely lovely little guy! He rarely cries -- though, Jorge noticed that Evan has started crying real tears -- but loves to be carried!

Jada is still convinced that we should be celebrating her birthday, and it true Jada fashion - she gets mad when you tell her that her birthday is done. Jorge has spent much of the birthday money buying toys for the backyard, and with the awesome weather we've been having, the kids have put the toys to good use! She loves "Evie" and likes to refer to him as "Mr. Squishy Mushy Mushy Guy"

Joli has been really sick this past week with fevers ranging from 100-103.9 degrees. She's much better now, but it was a rough go for a while! She's finally feeling well enough to hold Evan, and she's really missed being able to snuggle her little brother!

Otherwise, we're all doing very well! Still a bit sleepless, but we're happy for the reasons why!

Enjoy!


Awww! Look at that cute face!!



Evan's measure doll is Big Bird (Joli has Tigger; Jada has Grover). Here he is at 1 month old! (Tita Mari is in the photo holding Evan!)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Jada!!

It's hard to believe, but Jada is 3 years old already! Here are some great pictures from her birthday!

We all know that Jada LOVES to go and eat Pho (a Vietnamese noodle soup). She can eat an adult sized bowl, and she often tries to eat from other people's bowls when she has finished her own.

Getting ready to eat...
Eating her favorite food! It's also a tradition to eat long noodles on your birthday to celebrate a "long life"!

And, it's GONE!


The night before her birthday - Jada is still 2 in this picture!

Taking her final 2 year old picture with Grover!
And let the birthday fiesta begin! Here is Aunt Marie, and 1-year old Nina and Jorge


Lolo with Baby Evan

Lola with Baby Evan (he's much more awake these days, and Jada likes to call him "Mr. Big Eyes!")

Throwin' out the 3 sign! Jada getting ready to blow out the candle on her cake.
Gavin - full after a delicious meal (that I cooked!)


Tita Grace with Evan (left) and Kainoa (KY-NOH-uh)

Jada with her birthday present from Tita....yes, it's a potato. Jada has named it "Dolly Doll". She carried it around with her all night and kept whispering to it, "I love you, Dolly Doll. I will always take care of you."


Baby Nina!

Mia and Lil' eating cake

It's been a fun filled year with Jada! Let's see -- some highlights and memories from this year?

• Jada learned to use the potty
• When we went to stay at a hotel, Jada loved going to the "hot pool" (aka hot tub)
• We've often referred to her as "sassy" because she always has a witty one-liner to give you when you talk to her.
• Jada is definitely a social and confident kid - if you put her in a room with people, she's often off-and-running and making friends
• She loves to eat in restaurants, and often asks people to take her to Pho, the 99 (where she orders a hot dog and mac/cheese), Friendlies, or Taco Bell - which she swears Tita Mari has taken her.
• On dates with Gavin and Uncle JP, Target is their favorite place to go. Although, Uncle JP has also added "Chuck E. Cheese" (which Jada calls "Chuck E. New Year")
• When Jada is mad, she'll turn to the first person she sees and begins yelling at them. Most recently, Jorge was the target of Jada's anger where she kept screaming, "I do NOT love you, Daddy" ... even though Jorge was about 15 feet away from her and had no idea what was wrong.
• "I am NOT cute" is her favorite reason to get mad at you.
  
• She loves to dance and do dance routines.
• Sometime half way through the year, the older girls finally let Jada play with them, and now she is fully immersed in the doll games the girls play.
• Her favorite things are The Cheetah Girls (she is Chanel and likes to wear her hair down), High School Musical (she says "Sharpay is NOT nice because she is popular"), and Dora
• We call her the iPod addict because it's the first thing she asks for when she wakes up
• She just loves to give hugs -- Jada is the best hugger ever, and when you're feeling down, she knows just how to cheer you up.

Happy Birthday, Jada! We love you!!

Welcome Baby Kainoa Navarro Talusan!

Congrats to Jenny and Jon who had Kainoa today! Everyone is doing well, and we are looking forward to Evan Eduardo and Kainoa to wreck havoc all around town!



The weather has been beautiful this weekend, and the kids have been playing a lot outside. Here is a great photo of Gavin and Jada - eating cheetos on the porch after playing a game of Water Squirters!




Baby Evan had a bath the other day and didn't appreciate me snapping photos of his nakedness....

Little Evan is 2 1/2 weeks old!



Wow! Can't believe Baby Evan is 2 weeks old. He's doing great and gaining weight steadily. He was born at 7.5 lbs, but then lost a lot of weight and went down to 5.15 lbs a few days after leaving the hospital. Two days later, he gained 2 ounces (6.1 lbs) and a week later he was up to 6.7 lbs. We're not sure why he lost so much weight in the beginning (and the doctors were very worried), but he has made a great comeback! Jorge even commented that Evan's clothes are fitting better, too!

Speaking of which, thanks to all our friends who have sent boy clothes to us! Evan is certainly a well dressed little fella!

He's much more awake these days, and it almost seems like he's looking at us and following us with his eyes.

Evan and Jada both had their retinal exams with Dr. Mukai. Evan was such a champ! Neither one of the children cried at all. Jada was amazing at the office visit - she's pretty young for doing an awake exam, and yet she was so brave. This was probably the easiest office visit we've ever had!

So, Evan will go back in 3 months for an exam under anesthesia (urgh!) and Jada is clear for a year. I honestly don't mind the awake/in office exams -- it's the anesthesia ones that I dread! But, I think we're going to ask that Evan only do 1 EUA since Joli's results did come back as non-genetic.

More to come later! Happy Easter!

Quick Update~

Just wanted to post some quick pictures of Evan. He's doing really well. In the beginning, the doctors were concerned because Evan was losing too much weight. He went from 7.5 lbs to 5.15 lbs. The pediatrician was very concerned, and we had to go back every few days for Evan to get weighed. Thankfully, 2 weeks later, Evan is now at 6.7 lbs, which is still way below what he is supposed to be. But, he seems to be on the up-and-up!

Evan is up every 3 hours (which means, so are we!) and is such a good baby. He's pretty quiet when he's not nursing, but he's starting to get more and more alert and awake these last 2 or 3 days.

The girls are just eating Evan up! Jada has been home with me, and she's been a big help. It's nice to get to spend some time with her. Joli is still going to school, and she absolutely misses Evan during the day. She's very helpful in the morning - holding Evan so that I can go and brush my teeth or get breakfast ready for everyone. Jada is great entertaining Evan when he's crying, too!

So, here you go! Some cute pictures of Evan in his swing for the first time. He seems to like it!






Tomorrow, both Jada and Evan have to go to the retina specialist for dilated exams. Jada hasn't been in almost a year, and this will be Evan's first. Hopefully, it'll also be one of the last....

Joli is going to start her appointments with the VHL clinic soon. We're just waiting on some of our blood tests to come back. She'll be the youngest patient in their clinic. I'm sure more to come on that one, later.

Enjoy!

"Evie Cakes"

Yes, Evan is now "Evie Cakes" according to Joli!

The girls are having a ball with their new baby brother. We had a tough go in the beginning - Evan had lost quite a bit of weight and the doctor was really concerned. But, he's steadily gaining weight back and doing much better.

Just realized today that we have NINE doctors appointments in SIX weeks. The retina specialist wants to see Evan at least a few times before clearing him of Rb, and he'll see Jada at the same time. Then, we'll be starting appointments for Joli's VHL, my post-partum visits, and then lots of pre-cancer follow ups that I had put off while pregnant. In the words of Teetah Grace, "Oh, graaayt."

Other than that, Jada has been enjoying time with Jorge who has been home for the past 2 1/2 weeks. They have been spending quality time at the library during story time and running around doing errands. I can see Jorge in Jada's words/actions/etc. She may LOOK like me, but she is exactly like Jorge!

So, here are some of the latest pictures from our family! Enjoy!

WE'RE HOME!

Evan Eduardo Talusan Vega is home as of 11:20am (and Lolo has already asked if Grammy was cooking rice and beans for lunch... his priorities...!).

Not a lot of time to write at this moment, but wanted to just put up some pictures. Here you go!

Sisters meet Baby Evan for the first time on Tuesday, March 24th at 5:30pm


Lolo and Lola meet Evan Eduardo

The grandparents

Grammy and Pops were the first family members to meet Baby Evan!
Baby Evan celebrating his 1 day old moment - taken at 10:15am on March 25th


Getting ready to go home on March 26th at 10:40am


Yup, still the World Greatest ($.25) Dad! (Jorge bought this sweatshirt for $.25 -- yes, CENTS -- when Joli was born!)

Jada Grace welcoming Evan Eduardo to our house!


Jada welcomes home Baby Evan

I'm sure more to come later, but c'mon, we just got home 15 minutes ago (actually, this is my -Liza's- way of avoiding the diaper change that is taking place ;)

EVAN EDUARDO TALUSAN VEGA



Hurray! Evan is here!

Details:

so, of course, I've been anticipating labor for, oh, about 4 weeks now. But, on Tuesday, March 24th at about 3:00am, I woke up feeling pretty regular (every 6 minutes) contractions. Nothing too painful, but certainly enough to get out of bed and start counting. Jorge woke up with me once I said, "I'm timing now!"

Around 4:15am, we called Lola and Lolo to tell them to make their way slowly over to our house because my contractions were getting closer and stronger - every 5 minutes or so. Knowing we were going to go, I brought out the hospital bag (which, yes, had been packed for weeks) and went to take a shower. Grandparents arrived around 5:00am, and Jorge and I woke the girls to tell them.

Liza: "Girls, Mama and Daddy are going to go to the hospital now to deliver baby! Lola and Lolo are here to watch you while we are gone, okay?"
Jada: "No, Mama!! I just want to snuggle you, Mama! Not Lola! Only Mamaa!!"
Joli: "Oh, you're going to the hospital? You think the baby will come? Okay, I'm going back to sleep."

We left the house at 5:09am - with Lolo screaming "GO ALREADY!! Stop talking and GO ALREADY!"

Had a few strong contractions in the car and made it to the hospital. Went upstairs, was 4 cm dilated already and got the most horrible, painful and awful epidural ever. Let's just say that it was good Jorge was NOT in the room because I was screaming bloody murder! I don't think I have ever screamed that much out of pain (yes, even during labor). So, needless to say, that was awful. The epidural was also way too strong once it was in, and I quickly went numb. So, for about an hour, I felt nothing. On one hand, it was a good thing because I went from 6 cm to fully dilated with the baby already descended way down into the birth canal -- imagine, that's how numb I was... I didn't even feel THAT.

When I told the doctor I couldn't feel anything, they all but turned off the epidural. The numbness went away very quickly and soon I was feeling everything! Yes, everything.

At 10:00am, it was time to push -- a few quick pushes, lots of "it HURTS!!", and Evan Eduardo Talusan Vega made his way into the world at 10:15am! Fifteen minutes - that's definitely a record in our family!

"IT'S A BOY!!" they all yelled as I actually got to pull Evan the final way out. Good thing -- because at 9:00am, Jorge and I still didn't have a baby girl name!

So, why EVAN EDUARDO TALUSAN VEGA?

Evan is named after Jorge's mom -- Eva Nydia. Vega (get it... Eva.. N... Evan)
Eduardo is Liza's Dad
Talusan is his Middle Name
Vega is his last name

The girls are the same way - double 1st names, Talusan as their middle name, and Vega as their last name.

All three babies, though, when they were born, spent the first day or so as "Baby Talusan" because of my last name. So, for the first 24+ hours, he was Evan Eduardo Talusan. But, as of 3:00pm on March 25th, he officially became a Vega baby boy.

The first text from Pedro Vega was something like, "Thank you for taking the weight off of my shoulders for being the last Vega boy... now there is Evan!"

I love the story of how Jorge came to Evan's name:
At about 8 1/2 months, I took a really bad fall. When I was brought to the hospital via ambulance, the EMT's and the Firefighters were all telling me I should name my kid after them. There was a John, a Mike, a few others, and an Evan. I told Jorge that story, and we both kind of laughed.

That night, Jorge had a tough time sleeping. I even remember him getting up sometime around 4:30am and not coming back to bed. At about 6:00am, he woke me up to say, "I think the EMT was right -- let's name him Evan. But, not after the EMT.. after my Mom." And, that was that. We knew Baby Boy would be named Evan for a few weeks now - we just didn't tell anyone ;)

So, here he is -- Evan Eduardo Talusan Vega. Born Tuesday, March 24th, 10:15am, 7 lbs 5 ounces, 20 inches long, good head of hair, dark brown eyes

We took lots of pictures and I'll post those as soon as I get home.

Yes, I am writing this from my recovery bed.... ;)

Pregnancy News

Yes, still pregnant as of March 23rd. I keep thinking the time is coming (and, of course, given the odds, the time IS coming!), but the time keeps passing by. Two weeks ago was, officially, my last day of work, but I keep going in to save up my vacation time. So, I've still been working about 40 hours a week.

Today I am officially entering into my 39th week - as we can see in the latest photo taken today. The hospital bag is packed, the car is ready, clothes are washed, diapers are here, and the girls are ready for Baby ? to arrive!






I'm not sure what this picture is from, but it's cute. So, here you go!



Jorge has been spending some really great time with Jada as he's been on vacation for the past week. The two of them went to the library for different story time events and they've gone on little outings together. It has been kind of nice for Jada to get some Daddy time since she's about to end her reign as the "baby" of the family!

So, stay tuned! It must be coming soon, right??

Here is a funny little video of the girls "naming the baby". Enjoy!

Gettin' Ready!

The girls have started to get ready for the arrival of Baby #3.

Just 1 week before Jada was born, I brought Joli to the Roger Williams Park Zoo. So, we thought we'd recreate that and bring both Joli and Jada .... hopefully one week before baby is born?? Wishful thinking, I'm sure. (though, I feel like I'm delivering every single day!)




Okay, so Joli is "mini-Liza" in a particular way. On Saturday, I was told "Mama, do NOT come into my room! I am doing something." So, of course, I went into her room. And, what was Joli doing .... she was organizing her dresser drawers!!! She took all the clothes out of both her drawers and Jada's drawers and was folding all of the clothes and neatly putting them back. Oh, be still my heart!

In the process of cleaning the drawers, Joli found a pair of pants that *I* wore when I was about 4 years old. I haven't yet found any pictures of me wearing them yet, but I was promised by my mom that, indeed, I wore them. And, given their 1970's style, a broken waistband, and the polyester, I'm pretty sure it's true! I think if you click on the picture, it will enlarge and you can see the details of the pants!



On Sunday, we decided to make "Big Sister" shirts. The girls did awesome! Check out these shirts that they will wear to welcome "Baby #3!"










And, last but not least, here is my gigantic belly at 35 weeks... egads!