New Baby, check! New House, check! What's next?

On one of the hottest days of the year (100+), Greg and I moved from our humble 2 bedroom house on Lavern Place to a house twice it's size in Tower Grove South, a friendly neighborhood in the city of St. Louis. Thank goodness for movers. We were just shocked by how much stuff we have accumulated. The move was smooth but now, over two weeks later, we are still unpacking and organizing. Our dining room is empty waiting for new furniture and our family room still needs a couch. All in good time I guess.

Delaney loves all the extra space. She runs from room to room claiming "I'M RUNNING!" Her room is nice and big and has a big wall that will soon have a musically themed mural painted on it. Adele's room, although smaller, is still very nice and will will soon be filled with an animal theme.

Our neighborhood is called Tower Grove South. It is south of Tower Grove Park (imagine that!) This is where Greg and I were married. www.towergrovepark.org
There are two playgrounds, lots of green space, and a number of festivals and events through out the year. May through October there is also a great Farmers Market. They sell locally grown/raised fruit, vegetables, and meat. There is entertainment and a fountain that acts as a water park for the little ones. Wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning.

Our list of to do's for the house is long but we are eager to have it ready to show off. We will be ready for a housewarming party soon. In the meantime, check out these pictures of our beautiful girls.

What did you say?

We are at the point with Delaney that we have to be very careful with what we say around her. She has an amazing ability to mimic us exactly. Greg had her saying "contradiction" the other day. She is so entertaining though with things that come out of her mouth. One of our favorites is strawberries. While she call blueberries "blueberries", strawberries are "strawbabies." We can't help but call them that as well.

While taking a bath the other day, she was fascinated with the water dripping out of the faucet after I shut it off. I told her they were drops. A few minutes later she said the faucet was "dropping." She then corrected herself and said, "no, not dropping, dripping." Huh? When did she learn dripping let alone how to change from dropping to dripping. Very cool.

Just like in the Movies

Introducing Adele Therese Plank

Born Saturday, June 4 at 9:37 pm

Weight: 7 pounds, 10 ounces

Height: 20.5 inches
















The baby "Boppy" was due May 29. Just like with Delaney, the due date came and went. It was no secret I was eager to have the baby, I just didn't think I would have it like I did. Mild contractions that I have been having the past two weeks started in the afternoon about 1:00. Nothing to get too excited about. Then, at dinner, stronger contractions were about 20 minutes apart. Again, nothing to get too excited about. Then about 7:15, they were all-of-a-sudden strong and 5 minutes apart. Dr. said to wait until this goes on for about an hour and then call. But only after about a half hour, they were stronger and 4 to 3 minutes apart so we headed for the hospital. This is when all you have to do is imagine all those cliche scenes in movies and TV shows of the wife screaming and panting, the husband speeding down the highway and running for the wheelchair, the water breaking in a most inconvenient place and the doctors/nurses saying, "I am sorry but it is too late for an epidural" ..... and you know what happened to us. It was seriously just like in the movies.

Later we learned that had it not been for the crooked positioning of her head, she would have been delivered in three pushes, less than 10 minutes but instead she was "vacuumed" out after 30 minutes of pain-filled labor. I like to think that those 30 minutes of pain were better than possibly delivering in the car. Madness all over, we had a beautiful baby girl and were looking to settle in for the night when the adventure continued. Shortly after going to the postpartum room, I began hemorrhaging blood without any explanation... so my pain-filled saga continued as doctors and nurses tried to determine the cause. In the process there were 3 failed IV attempts and 1 failed catheter attempt, a little swearing and A LOT of hand squeezing. Bleeding wasn't bad enough for major concern, just extra monitoring through the night until the doctor could explore in the morning. Finally.... sedation and pain relief. They discovered a laceration in the birth canal caused when delivering. A few extra stitches and finally a normal recovery could begin.

It appears the Plank girls enter the world in dramatic fashion. (See the post from July 5, 2009 "Delaney Clare Arrives June 23"). We are so blessed to have them both and wouldn't trade the Drama Queens for anything. May the adventure continue.

Delaney's Farm Dance

Delaney has a toy on the fridge that is farm themed. She can match pieces to make animals but she prefers to play the music and dance instead. This video shows off her moves AND if you look close, you can also see wax stuck in her hair that resulted in her first (non-official) hair cut. How did she get wax in her hair? You will have to ask Dad.

Wheels on the Bus

Here is Delaney and Daddy singing Wheels on the Bus a while back. It is still her favorite song.

Fall is here...

Despite only working part-time, I haven't made more time to keep this site updated. It seems to take us a while to move pictures from the camera to the the computer in order to post. I have decided to just post a bunch a photos with some descriptions so that you can see how our little girl is growing. Next post I hope to have some videos.

Feeding goats her goldfish at Halloween themed Grant's Farm.

Enjoying Pumpkinland at Theis Farm in Creve Coeur.

Halloween Bee

Playing with Daddy.

Watching Yo Gabba Gabba in her cheerleader stance with hands behind her back.

Sign up to cure breast cancer!

How can we cure something if we don’t know what we’re curing? Plain and simple, the Army of Women hopes to STOP CANCER BEFORE IT STARTS. By enlisting ONE MILLION WOMEN to participate in breast cancer research, we will be able to finally take the research out of the lab and look at real women. This will enable us to finally find the CAUSES of breast cancer and ultimately figure out how to prevent it all together. BILLIONS of dollars have been spent on breast cancer research to date, but we still don’t know what CAUSES it. While many advances in treatment have been made, our goal is to eradicate it once and for all, by preventing it in the first place. We discovered that cervical cancer was caused by a virus, the HUMAN papillomavirus . The way we discovered the cause of cervical cancer was by studying WOMEN. With a lot less money, and in a lot less time, we now have a cure because we now know WHAT to cure. We need to follow the same path and move breast cancer beyond a cure.

Join today at www.armyofwomen.org

That's Logistics!

UPS has a new commercial that explains logistics. I find this very cute and a great way to explain what Greg does at A-B. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKjm43_K-tY