Catching up...

Don was back home, felling better on his meds, and is now off in Arkansas for a few days. This should be the last traveling uintil after the baby, yeah!! He had a 6 AM flight Sunday, so we left here at 3 AM to get to BWI to drop him off. He called earlier to say he ran into a friendKevin Hunt he used to work with at Freshkills (who now lives in GA), so they are getting together tonight to catch up.
Don got to watch the kids this weekend while I went down to Rehoboth Beach for a moms only weekend. 10 moms, no kids, no laptops!! We had a great time, shopping at the outlets and on the strip, walking on the boardwalk and just having a fun time together. It is an annual thing the Mothers & More group does and it was great to get away and relax before the baby! Melinda (the other pregnant mom) and I had lots of non alcoholic frozen drinks, and the other moms, well lets just say the fridge was full, but not with food!! Don was a great sport about giving up his weekend for me to go (even though I had to be back Sat night to be up at 3 AM!!), and our grass is showing the signs of him having no weekend time! If it rains this weekend and he can't cut the grass, our yard will be a jungle. Don can't stand when our grass is not as nice as all the neighbors and they were all our the last few days cutting. That's OK, because Austin will be getting another lesson and doing more tractor riding this year, along with the push mowing he does now.

We had a few nice days last week and got some fun pics:


Bell getting a piggyback ride from Austin.

Austin pulling weeds in the driveway (OK, maybe this picture is only fun for me!!)

Bell carrying her doll around the house on her back.

Austin was hosing off the dogs and Bell jumped right into the action - she got sopping wet and had a BLAST!!

Bell playing her piano she got from Grandma T (Austin likes to play it as well!!)

Daddy is home, sort of....

Don ended up staying an extra day in NJ, due to the project needing to run all weekend. He got home about 1 pm today, and by 3 pm I had him in the car to the walk in clinic (I was impressed that they are open until 5 pm on Sundays! I had a much harder time finding a pharmacy open past 5 pm today!!). Anyway, he has an infection in his throat and ears and is feeling miserable. Hurts to swallow, and he can't eat anything at this point (and you should see the horse pills the Amoxicillian are!!). A kids favorite dinner: Ice Cream, Italian Ices, and soda!! So Bell got a VERY brief hug with daddy before taking her out of breathing range! She kept trying to get back over to him and cried at bedtime to kiss daddy. She really missed her daddy, as we all did!

The weather was finally nice here this weekend!! Austin pulled weeds in the driveway (love job Mom!!), and took Bell out to play a few times. She is just to hard for me to chase around at this point!! We a great new park nearby that is just perfect for her age, and she is such a daredevil!! I need to bring the camera there, she climbed up the curved money bars all by herself and there is a plastic rope ladder type thing she also scrambled right up!

I am hoping that Don is feeling better by weeks end, so I don't have to bail out on "Moms weekend". There are about 10 of us going down to Rehobooth next weekend for a beach weekend - just moms!! It is an annual thing the Mothers and More group does, and it should be a lot of fun (and relaxing before the baby comes!!) - we have two side by side condos right on the beach (one owned by one of the moms - so it is cheap!!). It is only about 35 minutes from home, so just in case the baby decides to come REALLY early, we will not be that far away!! I am coming home Saturday night to get up VERY early Sunday AM to take Don to the airport for his flight to Arkansas, for four days - should be the last of is travel until after the baby.

My Doctor wants me to go in for a "Growth Scan" (May 4th). It is a sonogram that measures the size of the baby, bacause I am measuring a little big. Well lets see, a 9.7 lb baby, then a 10.5 lb one, hummmm - I ALWAYS measure big!! But we will have it and see what they say. I had one with Bell 6 days before delivering her and they said "about 8 lbs", so I don't really have a lot of faith in the accuracy of them.

I had a couple come try on carriers yesterday (she is going back to work and he is staying home!), and their baby was 5 lbs, and one month old! She was a month early at 3.5 lbs. It always amazes me to hold babies that small, as mine are already so big! Bell was facinated by the baby when her daddy was carrying her in our sling (where she fell fast asleep!!). They bought a carrier for mom and one for dad :))

Well, that's it for now, I am off to check on my sick hubby and go to bed! I will post the picture of Bell and daddy to this tomorrow.

Karen

Our day....

Hi again daddy,
I miss you!! Mommy said you are not feeling good, I hope you get all better tomorrow so I can talk to you on the phone.
Today we went to work this morning and then to Tiny Tumblers at the YMCA. It was our first class and it was a lot of fun! I knew some of the other kids there and got to go on a see saw for the first time with my friend Dominic. But I did cry when I had to give other kids a turn because I had SOO much fun going up and down on it!! They had crawling tubes, and mats to climb on and a slide too. At the end Miss Missy plays a song and blows bubbles from the bubble machine - I had fun trying to catch them, but I do not understand - where do they go daddy when they get to the floor??
Then mommy had a doctors appointment and I got to play with the measuring tape. I kept pulling it out and then I pushed the button and it would go back in. And I even got to see mommy get some blood taken - I was such a good girl!!
Love you daddy,
Belly

I lvoe daddy...

Daddy,
Mom let me pick out my own clothes today, becasue she said today is a stay at home day. I reached right into my drawer and picked out my I LOVE DADDY shirt.
I wanted to talk to you today, but mommy said you were very busy at work, so mommy and me made you a video instead.
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g119/handsfreebaby/?action=view&current=MVI_0369.flv
Time to nap now, I love you!
Bell

Flipping with Austin...

Hi daddy,

I just finished flipping over Austin's shoulder, a whole bunch of times!! I miss you, cause I like to flip over you daddy!!

We had spagetti and meatballs for dinner, but I didn't really like the sauce, I just got real DIRTY!! Mommy says you need to make us real us real gravy.

This morning mommy took me to playgroup and left me with Roxy's mommy, because she had to go to the doctor. I had fun and then went back to Roxy's house with them. Mommy came there to get me and we had grilled cheese and apples with Roxy and her sisters. She has two sisters, and they are going to have a little brother in August too!! I was so tired from playing I fell asleep as soon as I got in the car.

I am going to call you now befoe I go to bed to say night!!

Love,

Isabella Susan Tuscano (Thats my big name says mommy).

It was COLDDD today daddy....

Hi daddy,

Mommy and I went to a babywearing meeting this morning and I made a new friend named Sadie. She is a few weeks older than me and we had fun playing together. She also has a cat named Trixie, who let me pet her a lot. In the afternoon I went to work with mommy, I always have fun playing with the kids there, but today I kept trying to climb on the tables!!

Guess what I got to have for dinner?? Shrench Shries from DQ!!! (Austin too!). I tried to call you but had to leave you a message, but then you called me back so I could say I love you!!

I was so happy I got to talk to you before I have to go to bed, and mommy said you are going to get to see your friend Danny tonight and "shoot some pool". I don't know what that means, but I wish I could get to go in the pool too!!

Night, night daddy, love you,

Belly

This week is dedicated to daddy...

Don left this afternoon for a week in NJ, he will not be back until Saturday evening. They have a big plant shutdown at work and he needs to be in early and put in long hours each day, so it just makes the most sense for him to be there. But we will miss him and he will miss us. So this week Bell will write to daddy everyday! (I hate when he goes away, but feel blessed it is not that often, OK so a week later he is going to Arkansas for 4 days as well. My friend Lori down here just learned her husband will soon be deployed for 6 months and they have a 1 year old, so I can't complain!)
Karen

Hi daddy,
I was busy playing with my cars when you left, but stopped for long enough to say goodbye and blow you a kiss, and then right back to playing. Mommy says you took this picture of me while I was sleeping today, I love my Lucky dog to sleep with! I hope you did not get to wet in the rain and you call to say night-night to me later.

Mommy let me type this all on my own on the new computer at mommies new work desk, and then Austin and I played "foot fight" on the couch. I need to get bigger so I can beat him.

Now it is time for bed!!

Love you daddy,
Belly

Easter (in addition to the pics)

Busy week!
We had a wonderful Easter weekend visiting with our family and friends. It was nice to see everyone and get a chance to get back home one more time before the baby comes!
We went to NJ for dinner on Friday night and got to see Grandma and Grandpa T and Uncle Ed.
Saturday Michelle, Liz and I went down to he waterfront with the kids to play minature golf. Well we decided it was to cold for us, so we went and had a bowl of chowder while the kids played golf - I think we all had more fun that way, and then back to my moms house, where Maryann joined us for a while (Robbie was sick). It was great to see everyone they all look awesome - loosing weight while I am gaining!! Daddy stayed at Grandmas with Bell for some relaxing time while I went out with the girls!
Saturday night we did pizza at Dan and El's house, the girls always love to get to spend some time with Austin, and Bell had a fun time with them.
Easter Sunday we opened gifts from the Easter Bunny, and went to Mass in the morning with my parents, getting to see other Freeport friends there as well, and then headed over to Steve and Gina's for brunch. This may be the last in their house, as they have it on the market, they hope in exchange for something bigger!
Then packed up and the drive back home. Luckily we did not hit a lot of traffic, so that was nice.
It was a nice weekend and I love getting home to see everyone - we miss you all!!
K
Oh, and I finally got a picture of my belly (which many of you got to see already now). Don really pushed to get his belly out as far as he could to be bigger than me!!

Easter

A kinda, sorta picture of my belly...

Bell and I went down to Salisbury, MD (right on the border of DE and MD) last week to the first Babywearing meeting we are setting up down there. I am very excited as the group has branched out from just Dover to three meetings a month (actually mine own are the most inconsistent - need to work on that). The new moms had a great time trying on carriers and this is a picture of Bell having fun leaning backwards!! Someone wanted to know if she would fall out of the wrap if she leaned back and she had a great time showing tham that she was very securely on mom. And you can kinda of see my growing belly, I will have to get Don to take an official picture to post!!
Karen
PS - Oh, by the way that last post was on APRIL 1st (i.e. April FOOLS day!!). So for those of you reading our blog consistantly (mom, Laurie and the Fabbs - sorry to get you so excited!!). Still only one - gender still to be determined at birth.

Our BIG news!!!

So we have been waiting to tell everyone this, and decided today was the day to spread the news!!!! From this we can see who is reading the blog!!
Karen & Don