Gareth Alan Schille 11-24-10

Hi folks! Finally getting around to posting about the arrival of Gareth! I went into labor on H's 2nd birthday 11-23. I noticed that I was having contractions at about 3pm. I knew Derek was planning on stopping off at the store after work so I called him at 3:30, about the time he was walking into Target. I told him he should pick up food for dinner but that he should get home quick! By 4 pm my contractions were 6 minutes apart and by 5pm I was on the phone with the on call doctor telling her I was on my way! Melissa came to pick up H and we hurried to get to the hospital. I hadn't decided if was going un-medicated this time like I did with H but in the car I declared "I am soooo getting the epidural!" Anyway a few hours later I was medicated, happy, and luckily my water hadn't broken. We told the doctors that it was our son's birthday and we really wanted to wait until the next day to have this little guy. They agreed to let me wait it out (unless nature had other plans) and then right before midnight they broke my water. I pushed for 2 1/2 hours! Just like I did with H! UGH! Then all of sudden he decided to come out and there I was holding my precious little guy! I don't think I have ever cried that hard in my life.

I stayed the next day at the hospital but I really wanted to be home for Thanksgiving. I couldn't stand the thought of being alone in the hospital eating cafeteria food. YUCK! So we brought Gareth home on Thanksgiving.
Here is our complete family! So much has happened of course in the last 7 months. Here is a picture I think sums him up pretty well.
He is a much more serious little guy than Harrison is. I could tell that in the womb though! He does laugh and smile(I swear!) but you have to work for it. I think he is smart, don't wear your heart in your sleeve Gareth. From my experience it just brings you pain. I enjoy his more skeptical nature! We had a rough couple of months at first. Having a two year old certainly made this harder on all of us. I don't know how I managed on ZERO sleep but I got through it. Gareth had to go to the dermatologist for bad eczema/cradle cap. You will notice he still gets spots on his face. This has cleared up a lot though, he must have been so uncomfortable!! He also grew a ton in the beginning (3 inches and 4 lbs in the first month, ouch!) so I think he was in a lot pain. We seem to be over the hump though. I hope I did enough to comfort him in his first months.

The new house is coming along. I have lots of ideas in my head and absolutely no money. So for now we try to pay our bills and are thankful we have food on our table. Times are lean around here but I know i will be thankful for everyday with Gareth. Harrison has grown up so fast and treasure the memories I have of him and I when he was a baby. I want those same memories with my Gareth!

Harrison is doing very well! He loves bugs, playing pretend, and he got potty trained about 4 months ago. He loves his brother (I know this cuz he tells him so) and loves to play with him. Here is a picture of the first Schille belly

That is all for now. Look for more posts to come!

Love,

Mama Panda

Sprinkle

Hey all,

I am a bit late but I wanted to say a big THANKS! to my sister Shannon for hosting my "sprinkle" (get it? cuz it isn't a shower) on October 30th. Here is a pic of H and I enjoying our cupcake.

It was great fun! The next day day Jeremy and Beth brought Chloe over to be H's horse for his cowboy costume...

I had wanted to dress H up as a cowboy and have Chloe as his horse for a YEAR and it was great fun to see it all come together. It is also a good example of what motherhood is like. You work and plan for a long time for these brief moments in time that make it all worth while!

Later we went out trick or treating which H got the hang of pretty quickly! It was a great weekend!

That is all for now. I am hoping this will be my last post before #2 arrives. I am getting some definite signs of labor so we will see when he wants to come, hopefully it won't interfere with H's 2nd b-day party, EEEP!

thanks for reading my blog,

Mama Panda

5 more weeks!

Well, I am 35 weeks and considering H came the day before his due date I would say that five weeks from today I will be holding my new little baby! We have gotten settled enough in the new house that I was able to finish H's room and get the nursery set up.

nursery/big boy room

Here are pics for your viewing pleasure! Notice the Nintendo curtain in H's room and the frame Nintendo fabric on the nursery. Thanks to Uncle Dustin for that!! And NO there is no initial on the wall yet! No hints this time guys!!

H is doing well, considering that he has been in the terrible two's since he was 18 months. He fell out of bed twice the second night he had his race car bed with the twin size mattress(we moved him up from the crib size mattress which also fits in the bed) but hasn't since. We also introduced a toilet seat that goes over the regular toilet. H promptly took it and put it over his head. It got stuck around his neck and I had to wrestle it off of him while he panicked and started flailing his arms about! It was REALLY funny and I laughed the whole time!! I didn't take a picture because he was REALLY upset and that would have seemed cruel, but damn it was funny.

Next weekend is Halloween and we dressing him up like a Cowboy. Chloe the English Mastiff will be his horse. I am excited! I am also having my "sprinkle" next weekend and am looking forward to a nice get together with friends and family!

Thanks for looking at my blog!

Love,

Mama Panda

Big Boy Bed

When we moved in we put H in the nursery so I would be able to paint his room. Well, I got the room painted and we moved him in Saturday night! I was a bit nervous because the first night we spent in the new house I had to sleep with him on the fold out couch. I was hoping he would be adjusted enough that switching rooms wouldn't be as hard on him as moving houses and he did really well! We even switched beds to his "big boy bed" the same night. What a trooper! So here is his new room, almost complete. Missing some toy storage, a rug, and couple posters on the wall but it is almost there.

So now it is time to start on the nursery! I came across a Super Mario Bros sheet that my brother sent to Derek at some point and we decided to make that the curtain for our new baby. I want to make sure this baby has special things that have a story and meaning just like H did. So far we have a few items that are going to be especially his and I love that!

H is speaking really well, saying lots of sentences and he knows a lot people's names now. In particular he asks for his grandparents, Jeremy and Beth, and his BFF Connor! He also said "I love you" (well really he said ah wuv ooh) to me when I was putting him down for a nap this afternoon. Yipee!!

I'll post more pics when the nursery is done. My plan is to buy paint this week so by the weekend I should have a lot of it set up!!

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Mama Panda

We are home!

We moved into our house this weekend! Yippee!! After everything we went through with this housing crisis I wasn't sure we would ever be in our own home, but here we are! Big thanks to my parents for helping us move and to Grammie and Grampa for watching H! We are in our forever home and we LOVE IT!

I was waiting until we had everything all signed and official before writing a blog about it so that would explain my absence for a while. I guess I can be a bit superstitious. I have been wanting to post though because I have so many wonderful things to share!

Another bit of happy news is that our family is welcoming a little girl! My cousin Erin and her husband Eric are expecting in January. Hopefully these second cousins will get to spend some time together as they grow up. As my sister Jen put, it was really great getting to grow up with cousins Erin and Sheri and it would be great for our kids to get to have that too! They live in Colorado though so we will have to see how soon the babies can have a play date. Either way I am sure of two things

1. This baby will be gorgeous and 2. This baby is very, very lucky!

Congrats to your and your whole family!

So what else has been going on? Well, the summer heat kicked my butt hard and I am sick of being pregnant! I was looking at pictures of H when he was first born trying to remember what it was like. Even though it feels like yesterday I can't really remember the details. Oh well, hopefully it will all came back to me! I am getting so excited to meet this new little one. I wonder what he looks like and what he will be like...

Otherwise I have been working, napping, and eating! I saw Lady GaGa with Beth and that was fun. Sheri came to visit and I got to spend a few hours with her, yay! That is about it . Here is a picture of the house. We are going to decorate H's room then the nursery. I will post pics as they are completed.
Thanks for reading!

Love,

Mama Panda

P.S. I almost forget. Melissa Mom gave me a very sweet present. It is a "first aid kit" for motherhood. It brought tears to my eyes. I didn't get to thank you properly.

Thank you for your thoughtfulness and I love you.

Harrison has a baby BROTHER!

Hey all,

We found out today that we are having another boy! I was thinking girl (as was pretty much everyone else) so I am still in a bit of a shock! He was kicking up a storm and twisting all over the place during the ultrasound. We didn't get a good profile shot of him to put in the blog. Most of the pictures of his face are straight on and to tell you the truth at this stage he has a bit a of Skeletor thing happening. I won't subject you to that! Here is the most recent shot of my belly instead.


He does have Derek's lips just like H got. Lucky boys.

As soon as the tech said, "my goodness. look at what just poked up!" we knew H would have a little brother to play with! Right after he showed us the goods he preceded to grab it with his hand. Yup. That's our boy!

Then I looked at Derek and said, "crap now we need a boys name". He looked a bit sheepish and said "Damn!" So we will be brainstorming. We had a great girls name and could never come up with a boys name. When we do decide on one I will NOT let you know what it is, HA! You will just have to wait like you did with Harrison.

All right, there is the big news. I am the proud mom of two boys. I can't believe it!!

Love,

Mama Panda

Schille Belly Part Deux

Hello Everyone,

I have been a bit behind in my posts but I am returning with a bang! We are expecting baby #2 on November 27Th! Yup three days after Harrison's 2ND birthday he will officially be a big brother, give or take a few days of course;-)

Does this mean I don't have to bring a gift to the party?

Anyway if you are surprised imagine how I felt, YIKES! My tummy is a bit larger this time around so we decided to start telling. Once I pulled out my maternity clothes I figured the jig is up!

On a completely unrelated topic Derek and I have decided to start taking separate vacations in March. Yeah, about nine months before November is a dangerous time for us!

We have an ultrasound scheduled 6/30 but are unsure at this point is we are going to find out the gender. We are maybe going with the SURPRISE! theme...

Harrison turned 18 months on Sunday 5/23 and wore a button to let his family know about the exciting news.

Here are some pics of him a couple days after I took the pregnancy tests. I put them in my bedside drawer(which is a conundrum because what do you do with those? seriously you want to keep them because if is the only visual proof you have of your little munchkin but it is also kinda weird to keep things that I peed on in a drawer...)and H was playing upstairs. Next thing I know he has the pregnancy tests and is running around with them. I thought it was cute. Sorry the pics are blurry, I only had my cell phone available to take pics with....

I call this one "wait...you I am going to have a baby brother or sister?"


and this one is "WAIT! You mean I am going to get a little brother or sister!!!?"

So if you want to keep updated on this next adventure then I will post more than I have in the past five months. (sorry about that but what was there to say in the winter? "It is cold. We stay inside. We are sick. This sucks." )

But you can follow along with our new adventure if you would like. I will be here, gestating and trying to prepare myself for life with a newborn and a two year old.

What have I gotten myself into?
Here are some cut pics of H we took for his 18 month birthday...

Love,

Mama Panda

P.S. in the spirit of being honest I kept my pregnancy tests from Harrison in my bed side table drawer until after he was born. I did not throw them out until we moved when he was four months old. Is that weird? You know what, never mind, pretend you didn't read that.

VROOOM!!

Harrison is now officially walking! He woke up on 12/28 (Auntie Jen's birthday, Happy Birthday Jen!) and just decided he was going to be a walker now. He took his first steps two months ago so I was beginning to think it may never happen!! Derek posted a fun video of him walking on facebook, check it out!!

He says "vroooom" sometimes too when he is scuttling along. Hee Hee!

We also visited his God cousin (Becky and I made that word up) Connor. They were so adorable. Connor was one day shy of his 10 week b-day and he WAVED at us! Also Harrison gave Connor a kiss, totally on his own. I have been teaching him kiss but so far he has only given me kisses. I didn't try to prompt him and it was so unexpected. He sure did love his God cousin, aww!

He has also oficially said: dad(dy), mom, uh oh, hi and bye, kitty, and doggy.

I am such a proud Mama!!


Happy New Year everyone, 2009 kicked my ass and I am not sad to see it go.

Cheers to a better 2010! and Happy Birthday Grammie!


Love,

Mama Panda

Santa

Here is Harrison with Santa

Thanks to Derek for making the picture work on here and Facebook!!

Here are pictures of Harrison the first time he saw the Christmas tree


The real present was that my Dad and Mom came home from California! My Dad had an aortic aneurysm on November 20Th. He had been working in CA since last spring. He was able to get to the hospital and the surgeon that was on did emergency surgery. I could go into all the details but I won't. Let's just say Dr Gibson said it was the hardest surgery he has ever done in his 20 year career and the word "miracle" was used on numerous occasions to describe my dad's survival. My mom was very determined to get him home by his birthday which is Monday 12/21 and they surprised us by returning on Thursday 12/17.

I went to see him and my mom that night to welcome them home. My sister Shannon and I had cleaned the house and put up Christmas decorations the weekend before so they would come home to a nice, welcoming house. I am glad Shannon and I could be there to welcome them home, it meant a lot to us all!! Family comes first over everything in these situations, am I right?

My Dad is pretty much Superman.

So Happy Christmas to all. He is indeed our Christmas miracle. 2009 has been pretty crappy but I can't help but be thankful as this year comes to a close.

I am chipping away at my list of things to do. I finally completed my master's (ya!) and I finished Harrison's Baby Book/Scrapbook of his first year. My plan for January is to spend as much time doing nothing as I can!! Famous last words though right? How many times have YOU out there blogger land said that? HA! Well, it is worth a try anyhow.

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Mama Panda

Pictures

Here is a link to pictures we had taken a couple weeks ago. There are a lot of mushy ones-you can skip those and look at the ones of Harrison. Use the password amandaderek.

http://clients.melissaoholendt.com

Be prepared to say "awwwwww"!

Also, thanks to everyone that made it to Harrison's first birthday party. It is too bad I could not be there but I was in California with my family spending time with my Dad. I appreciate all your help making Harrison's big party special!!

Love,

Mama Panda

Here is the address to some of the pics we had taken for H's first birthday and our ten year anniversary. You can also see them on Facebook.


http://blog.melissaoholendt.com/schille-family-lifestyle/



Love,

Mama Panda

The Case of the Disappearing Cupcake

H's first birthday

Love,

Mama Panda

Happy 1st Birthday Harrison

Everyday for the past year I have experienced joy that cannot be described. I have genuinely laughed, genuinely smiled, and felt complete gratitude for life. Thank you for being you, dear Harrison. Mom and Dad love you more than you will ever know...

P.S. Thank you for having your Daddy's smile.

Love,

Mama Panda

Jennifer Garner Quote

“I do know moms who pull it together every day. I am not one of them.”

I ran across this the other day. It makes me feel much better.

Love,

Mama Panda

ten year anniversary

Once upon a time two crazy kids met while working at Ragstock. A friendship and some mild flirtation had developed. She had pink hair and he had purple hair. On November 12, 1999, on what seemed like a normal day at work, he kept saying, "man I am hungry" then a few minutes later he would put his hand on his stomach and again say, "I am sooo hungry!"

This went on all night.

She thought, "why doesn't he just shut up and get something to eat then?" It was getting a bit annoying for our pink haired girl.

After the store closed these two crazy kids (she was 18, he had just turned 20) were walking out to their cars.
He said, "man I am really hungry."
She almost punched him in the stomach but instead replied, "Why don't you get Subway, they are open late!"
"Subway? Gross! I was going to go to Figlio"
"What is that?"
"Oh, it is in uptown. "
"Uptown?? Your going to go to Uptown by yourself at this hour? "
"Do you want to come with me?" he asked slyly.
Her heart jumped and she asked, "Really?"
He said, "I'll drive"

The little pink haired girl spent the next few hours giggling uncontrollably while they drank cherry coke and ate tiramisu. The little purple haired boy did not have the nerve to kiss her goodnight. (although he told his friends he did)

She found out later he had been wanting to ask her out for a few weeks and had hatched a plan to make it seem spur of the moment. He also asked to use his mom's car that night so he wouldn't drive the little pink haired girl in his Festiva.

She would not have cared what car he drove and was completely fooled into thinking the date was spur of the moment.

Figlio is no longer in Calhoun Square but this little romance blossomed into something very special. It led to this....

and of course to this...
and only time will tell what else...

Love,

Mama Panda

Happy Halloween!

Here is what we did today, what did all of you guys do?

Halloween 2009

Love,

Mama Panda

11th Month Birthday

Derek referred to Harrison as being a year old today. I very firmly reminded him he is NOT a year yet, he is 11 months;-) Time is flying by quickly enough without him rushing it more.

We are preparing for his one year birthday party though. I bought some decorations, including an adorable hat. since our camera is broken Jeremy and Beth came over and took pictures of him for us for the invitation. They. Are. Adorable. I will post the invite when it goes out, hopefully early next week. We moved the party to the Saturday after thanksgiving to accommodate out of town family that will be in town then.

We will be sending invites to all out of town family and of course we understand that you can't come, but we want to make sure you know we are thinking of you! And since it is a holiday weekend I am sure that some people won't be able to come, we understand that too:-)

Here are some pics I took today to celebrate his 11 month birthday

He is resisting walking. Only does it if he has both of our hands to hold onto. He also still won't stand on his own if he knows he is doing it. Seriously if he is playing with a toy while standing and lets go of the couch, he will stand all on his own BUT if he realizes he is doing it he drops to the floor. Silly boy.

Otherwise, let's see what is new? Well, I have had my master's paper officially approved by my advisor so I am one BIG step closer to completing that. Just some paperwork and the oral exam to do.

Yes, you are allowed to laugh at the phrase oral exam.

I have officially returned to working casual on st 77. Need the extra $$$$! The first day I was back I was talking to one of the patients (this is a mental health unit for those of you that don't know) and another patient kept interrupting. I was like, "I will help you in one minute but I am right in the middle of something" I am thinking "what is her problem? She is being so unreasonable" but the patient kept interrupting. After a minute I remembered OH YEAH! She is mentally ill! Dang, that's right. I need to resharpen my skills a bit!

I have gotten a really bad cold and have been sick for a week. It must be some mutant strain. I had to call in sick to work then a week later I was STILL sick. Hacking and coughing like crazy. My boss was like, "do you need to go home?" I said "NO! (cough, cough) I'm fine!" they kept telling me to go home but I wasn't having any of it. Then at about five (I get done at six) I had another desperate coughing fit and declared "I am outta here!" I think they were relieved.

So far Harrison has not gotten sick, thank you Sweet Jesus!

Ummm what else? Harrison has a new friend that was born a few weeks ago. He is Jeremy and Beth's nephew/Godson Connor. I believe that makes them related some how. Godson in laws? Something like that. I look forward to play dates once Connor can hold himself up and , you know, he realizes he is alive and stuff.

I have this fear of Harrison not having any friends so I cling to any baby that is his age. Derek is great at making friends but me, not so much. I hope he takes after his Dad!

I ,right now, am looking forward to completing my oral exam (insert laughter here) and getting through the holidays. It has been one hell of a year for us and I am exhausted! Can't wait for January when I can relax a bit before I take on a new challenge.

Oh and I realized something. Jeremy watched Harrison for us the other day, all day. I was feeling very grateful then I realized that he should be grateful! He gets to hang out with an awesome kid all day, bring him to have lunch with his wife, then send him home to us AND he keeps all his money and still gets to sleep late. Crafty bastard. I knew I didn't like him for some reason.

Actually, okay, I am grateful to our babysitters (Grammie especially for all the hours she has put in) and I know I am the lucky one to have such a great kid, BUT, I think I may slip a $20 out of Jeremy's wallet the next time I see him anyway....

Love,

Mama Panda

Four Year Anniversary!

Hey Everyone!

Today is our wedding anniversary! Yesterday was also Sheri and Dan's three year anniversary, congrats to you guys!

AND yesterday was my Aunt Sandra and Uncle John's wedding anniversary. I wish I new how many years they have been married. 37? Anyway congrats on the anniversary of your happy and successful marriage!! Here they are doing the Polka

Love,

Mama Panda

Two big events!!

So here are the pics from Derek's 30th birthday at the Gastoff on 9/19.

d's 30th

Derek is NOT okay about turning 30 but he had a good time so that is what matters. Thank you to everyone that came! I will share a very funny story. I had to drive my very drunk husband and his even drunker brother home that night. They were telling stories of video games, obscure movies, etc. (You know the usual) We decided it would be a good idea to get some Gatorade for them so they would hurting less the next day. I pulled into the local Snyder's drug store and Conrad started unbuckling his seat belt. I whipped around and said "where do you think you are going?" I was definitely NOT going to deal with a drunk frat boy in the local drug store at midnight. He pouted a bit that he couldn't go in then started putting his seat belt back on. He said. "well I guess I will put this back on since SOMEBODY won't let me have any fun in a Walgreen's tonight" As I was getting out of the car I hear Derek say, "Yay, and do you know why that is? This is a Snyder's!" I thought that was pretty funny. So happy birthday Derek! Even though you are old your mind is still sharp!

On 9/25 Jeremy and Beth got married! Yay! Harrison knocked our camera off the table so we have to get a new one. I tell you this because we only got a few pictures.

j and b's wedding

I had seen a picture of Beth's dress and I knew she was going to look AMAZING! and she did. One of the most beautiful brides EVER! I was surprised at how emotional I got. I love weddings and stuff but this one really means a lot to us. I felt like I was watching my brother marry my sister-in-law. Beth was radiant and Jeremy seemed a little vulnerable. (He likes her a lot!! )I asked them to dance to the song Book of Love by the Magnetic Fields with us. It was our wedding song and so I thought it would be sweet for us to dance to it all together. I guess that may be corny but that is me most of the time.... Anyway, congrats guys!

Harrison turned ten months old

He has stood by himself three times! He only does it when he doesn't realize he is doing it, once he sees we are not holding him up he gets scared and drops to the floor. He has six teeth and says both mom and dad. mostly dad but sometimes mom. That makes me feel very special!

Okay thanks for reading! I probably forgot something but oh well. talk to you all soon!

Love,

Mama Panda

back by popular demand!

Or back by my mother-in-law's demand. She requested an update for great-grandmother Hall so...
Here is H on his nine month birthday!!

He pretty much won't sit still at this point! When we were trying to get pics we just had to chase after him and these are the best two we got. He has FOUR teeth now and two more are starting to come in. I was going to bring him to get a trim the last time I got my hair done but I decided to let it grow a bit more. I might wait till he is closer to a year, which is coming up pretty soon!

I had to put my vacation request in to get his birthday off, my manager was like "my goodness that was fast!" yeah tell me about it! H will be turning one on Monday November 23rd
( that is about ONE YEAR after he was born, yes I realize that but I just REMINDING you all!)
We will have a small gathering Sunday afternoon on the 22nd, so for those of you that are out of town that might be able to fly in (I am speaking to the aunt and uncle in North Dakota) here is your heads up! For all other locals consider this your save the date. It is the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We will send out cards to everyone with a birthday picture and message, so keep your eyes open for that as the day gets closer!

For me his nine months birthday was a bit of milestone as that was my minimum for breastfeeding and I am still going strong! I get very funny looks when people find out that I am still breastfeeding. Geez people he is not even a year yet, do you also want me to make him get a paper route? I also gave birth without an epidural and most people didn't think I could do that either! So suck it!!!!

Okay Okay I'll calm down. Life has been a bit more exciting for me lately. I am still trying to get another job and I have like 2 1/2 leads right now. I should be able to go back to St 77 but I haven't heard for sure yet. If not I may still land a job at Riverside. I don't ever really count on anything being for sure so I am still in limbo as far as that goes....

We are preparing for the wedding event of the year, Jeremy and Beth of course. I went to a super fun bridal shower that was Mad Men themed

(The bride is in the floral dress.) AND I got to go out for her bachelorette party. I don't have any pics because the batteries in my camera went dead. Sad.

We are also excited for Derek's 30th birthday party at Gastoff! My brother is flying in for this and for the wedding, I am very excited! It will be lots of fun. If your reading this you are invited so don't miss out!!

One last thing. We took our annual pilgrimage to the Fair. Harrison was in my belly last year and I remember thinking how we were going to have a nine month old at the fair the next year and here were are!
H with his junior state trooper badge Jeremy got him.

H with dad and some cows.

Going to the fair made me realize that I have had this blog for over a year now. So thanks for reading everyone and I plan to keep it interesting for you.

Sometime next year we may have another BIG announcement you will want to know about!!
****wink wink****
(how is that for a cliffhanger? not so subtle huh? Well I grew up watching Melrose Place so I don't do subtle very well!!)


Okay, I'll post soon with pics from the party and the wedding, so enough for now. Harrison says Hi to everyone, especially Great-Grandmother Hall. He loves you very much!!

Love,

Mama Panda