Great news for a great day!

Saturday was the first day of Spring.  It was an incredible day for us.  First of all, my wonderful husband stood in line at Walmart (after he got off work) to pick up the New Moon DVD for me.  We finally were able to watch it (him for the first time).  I know Edward is supposed to be "sexy" and ripped and all of that, but honestly, I have to say when he took off his shirt, I was screaming at the TV for him to put it back on.  It just looked so gross!

Saturday morning I went in for my second ultrasound to find out if the choroid plexus cysts were still on little man Jairus' brain.  They have completely disappeared!  WHOO HOO!  I knew they would, but I was still slightly nervous.  Here are some of the ultrasound pictures in 3D of our little man from the second ultrasound.

Jairus was burrying his face and kind of hiding from us in this picture.  At least we were able to get his little ear, shoulder and back

Jairus curled up with his hands up by his face.  I LOVE this one!

Jairus' little face!  This was the best one we could get.  We think he was playing hide and seek.  It took us a while to be able to get this one.

On our way home from our ultrasound, we went decided to pick up our mail.  To our surprise, we got a bunch of plants that we had ordered.  We were so excited!  Not only was it a really good day for us (because of the good news from the ultrasound), but it was the first day of Spring, we got a bulk of plants in the mail and the weather was really nice too!  We spent most of the day planting and weeding.  I had to stop around 4 or 5pm because our garbage can was pretty full with all the weeds and Spring cleaning we were able to do.  When I got inside, I noticed I had a nice sunburn on my arms and neck.  I didn't put on any sunblock because I didn't think it was warm enough to get a sunburn....apparently I was wrong.  Brian teases me that I'm a redneck with a farmer tan.

All in all, the day turned out to be pretty spectacular....even with a sunburn.

5 Months-ish

I finally got around to getting pictures of me at 5 months pregnant.  It took FOREVER!!!  They're not the best pictures, but they're the best I could get today.  Here they are.  Enjoy!

This was the only family picture I could get.  Oh well.  There's always next month.

 I don't know why, but for some reason I kind of like these pictures.

Only 4 1/2 months until we get to meet our little man!

Tali is giving her little brother Jairus a hug.  What a good big sister!

My belly looks just as big as a soccer ball!

I really loved these pictures of Tali.  

  Gotta love that face!

This picture was probably my favorite out of the ones we took.  I really liked the kind of washed look to this picture. 
 Oh how I love my little family!

What a pain!

The last couple of days I had been having this really bad pain across the my lower abdomen and along my right side.  It was driving me insane!  I thought maybe something was wrong with little Jairus.  It had all started around 9am yesterday and I thought maybe I was hungry or something and just needed to eat.  It seemed like whatever I did (walked, stretched, sat down, etc) I couldn't get rid of the pain.  I'm talking take your breath away kind of pain where you're wincing and trying not to move a muscle.  I then started thinking, well maybe I have a cyst or maybe I have appendicitis (although I didn't have a fever)  I couldn't figure it out.  When I was pregnant with Tali, I never had pain that bad where it would take my breath away.  

I finally called the doctor and they told me that without going in, it would be hard to diagnose.  I then decided to wait until Brian got home from work to see what he thought.  I decided that if it wasn't better by morning, then I would go in or call my doctor's office again.  Brian was so wonderful.  He was basically feeling my belly for anything that may have felt weird or something and ended up giving me a much needed massage and plenty of pillows.  I love my "Dr. Monson!"  He thought it was probably just a ligament pain since he had noticed just within the last couple days that my belly has really shot out (which reminds me.  I know I'm 5 1/2 months along and haven't posted pictures yet, but I will soon....I hope).  He thinks the pain I was feeling was possibly from the recent rapid growth of my belly.

This morning I woke up and felt just fine.  Although I did have the pain a little later in the day.  So I thought, something must be wrong.  I of course call the doctor again (I promise I'm not a hypochondriac, just concerned about my unborn child).  The nurse told me that it could be a round ligament pain.  Wow!  My hubby is a genius!  Anyway, they told me to try taking it easy (Hahaha.  Yeah right.  With an almost 2 year old???), do some stretches (which I had done on the Wii doing yoga stretches with no luck), take some Tylenol, and put a heating pad on low where I was feeling the pain.

I later found out from my sister that she had a similar experience with her kids and it also turned out to be round ligament pain.  I'm just glad I now know what it was so I'm not so paranoid about it.

Toilet Training Success!

Earlier today, I decided to try doing the potty training thing again.  I don't really know why.  At first, I was expecting a lot of accidents.  When we had tried before, I had gotten very discouraged.  Although the first time we had tried, Tali did empty her own potty and change her own underwear.  So I guess it wasn't a total loss.

Today, I thought "Well, maybe if I were to just put her on the potty before her bath and see how that goes."  Sure enough, I had her sit on the potty, turned the water on (I think sometimes that helps) to warm up the bath and then I started to hear it.  She was going potty in HER potty and not on the floor!!!  WHOO HOO!!!!  She even emptied her own potty into the toilet and flushed it all by herself!

After the first time of going in the potty, she did have two accidents.  I know she's still learning so it is understandable.  Since her accidents were happening in the front room, I decided to bring her potty in the front room.  I set her on it for a little bit and let her watch a cartoon.  Not long after, she went in her potty again!!!!  She has been doing so well!  I know she'll continue to have accidents, but I'm just THRILLED she's making progress!  I am so proud of her!  

Story Behind The Names

As most of you know (those who are on facebook anyway),  our little man has a name!  There is a story behind his name which I thought was pretty neat.  I thought I'd go ahead and share it with you all.  

The day I got back from my ultrasound, I had been obsessing over what to name our little man.  I tried putting different things together, but no name really sounded just right.  I was exhausted so I decided I would take a nap.  While lying in bed, I thought of the name Jarison, but thought Jarison Monson sounded a little funny.  I thought it sounded more like a last name anyway.  I then thought "what if I just shortened it to Jairus?"  I really liked it and figured if I remembered it when I woke up I'd tell Brian about it and see what he thought.  My first thought when I woke up was the name Jairus.  I was shocked that I could even remember such a different name.  

I had later asked Brian what he thought about it and he actually liked it.  I felt like it was some sort of an epiphany or something, but didn't think too much of it......that is until last night.

Now, to give you a little background on Talitha's name.  Brian had found Talitha's name in the New Testament in Mark 5:41.  When Christ had raised a little girl from the dead, he said to her "Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise."  We thought it meant little lamb.  That's okay though because we still liked the name.  We also loved that it had a spiritual significance.

When Brian and I had chosen the name Jairus, we had no idea or at least had forgotten that Jairus is also a biblical name.  No we did not plan that.  It was by pure coincidence.  In fact, yesterday, I was looking up different spellings of the name Jairus.  When I found it, I noticed that it was a Hebrew name which meant "God enlightens."  I found it so fitting and yet so ironic that the name had just come to me and the meaning is "God enlightens."  Coincidence?  I think not.

As I continued reading on babyzone.com, about the name it said that "In the New Testament, Jairus is the father of a child brought back to life by Jesus."  I was a little curious to see if it had any ties to Talitha's name.  I then went to Mark chapter 5 and low and behold in verse 22 it mentions the name Jairus who one of the rulers of a synagogue.  Anyway as you read on, you find out that he has a daughter.  The very same daughter that Christ raises from the dead!  Another coincidence?  NO FLIPPIN WAY!!!

I really truly think that my son is supposed to be named Jairus.  This may sound a bit too personal to share with everyone, but I was so excited with my discovery as well as the story behind their names.  

Thank you to those who read this post.  I know it was kind of long, but I didn't want to leave anything out.  So there you have it.  Our son's name will be Jairus Brian Monson.

Worried to Hopeful

Today, I had yet another doctor appointment.  While I was sitting in the room talking to the nurse, she told me news that just about made my heart sink.  She was telling me the results of my ultrasound.  I was expecting to hear her say something like "everything looks fine."  That was sort of the case.  The nurse had said to me "the baby's heart and lungs look fine.  His cyst looks fine....."  That had stopped me in my tracks.  I thought for a second maybe she had grabbed someone elses chart by mistake.  When I asked her about the cyst, she said "they didn't tell you?"  I of course told her no.  I had immediately started panicking.  She then told me that they found a cyst on one my baby's kidneys and that my doctor would talk to me more about it.

As I waited....trying not to panic I thought I'd try to distract myself by reading my book.  I couldn't concentrate.  I swear I must have read the same page about five times.  It seemed like an eternity of waiting for my doctor.  When she finally came in, she started telling me that "some babies get cysts in/on their brains....."  WHAT?!?!?!?  Now my baby has a cyst on his brain?????  I told her the nurse told me it was on one of the kidneys.  My doctor looked at the chart again and confirmed it was on the brain.  She said he had a choroid plexus cyst.  Now my concern was verging on hysteria.  I think my doctor could tell I was just about to loose it and start freaking out, because she then continued on to say that she had "seen this in several babies.  Since the technology now is so advanced that now they are able to pick up on things more than they used to.  Since he doesn't show any other abnormalities, I wouldn't worry about it." 

Today, my baby's heartbeat was good and strong, and my doctor said I was measuring perfectly and my weight was good.  She also told me that her daughter also had cysts and she is just fine now.  She said some babies grow out of the cysts and they think that all babies have them as kind of a developmental type thing, but they quickly grow out of it.  

When I got home, I was still a little nervous to tell Brian.  When I told him I could tell he was just as alarmed as I was at first.  The first thing he did was look at the ultrasound again.  He then decided to look up choroid plexus cysts on Wikipedia.  As we were reading up on it, it said that most babies grow out of them by week 32.  We are both confident our little man is going to be okay.

I have another ultrasound scheduled in two weeks to make sure everything is okay.  I will keep you all posted on what we find out.  If you all could just keep us in your prayers, we'd really appreciate it!

Spring....Where Art Thou?

A few days ago, I took these pictures of a couple of my Spring flowers that had started to bloom.  

 My beautiful purple irises!  The bees were even buzzing around them!

I love my yellow narcissus!  They make me so happy!  I love the yellow flowers.  They always seem to be smiling up at me!

Tali was even joining in the fun! 

This morning, I woke up to find this:

Oh Spring.  Why do you tease me so?  I'm so excited to greet you with open arms!  Oh how I miss you!  Please come back NOW!!!

Don't you remember all the fun we have when you're around?  I miss the smell of all the gorgeous flowers, the warmth of the sun, and even the smell of freshly cut grass.  I promise if you will come back now, I will never take you for granted ever again!  I PROMISE!!!

Silly Girl

Lately, Tali's personality has started to show a bit more.  She's such a funny little girl!  Here are a couple pictures I took of her goofing around recently.  

This is Tali's "mad" face......

.....and here she is a few seconds later.

 

These pictures I took a couple days ago after we got home from our fun trip to the zoo.

She's absolutely loves this hat.

I love that big grin of hers!

Hahaha!  This picture just cracks me up!  What a little ham!

Zoo Fun!

On Tuesday, a few friends and I took our kids to the zoo.  The day turned out to be pretty nice!  It was in the 50's so it wasn't too cold.  The zoo was practically empty too!  Ahhh!  Every parent's dream!  

I ended up getting an annual pass (my friend Heidi talked me into it.  Although she didn't need to do much convincing) so Tali and I can go whenever we want to get out of the house.  :)

Tali of course was loving every minute of it.  I think this is Tali's preferred "smile" for pictures.

Here's all our little girls.  My friend's little boy didn't want his picture taken I guess so that's why he's not in here.

There were tons of little baby zoo animals.  Among some of them were this really cute baby elephant.  We were also able to see a little baby giraffe.

Every time I get to go to the zoo, I have to go see the gorillas and orangutans exhibit.  I think it is probably one of my favorites.  This picture kind of reminds me of my father-in-law when he's starting to get a little tired.  I really hope he doesn't get offended that I compare him to a gorilla sometimes.  :)

This one I took because it (again) looks like my father-in-law when he's pretending he's mad or frustrated.  You have to know my father-in-law.  He's pretty funny!

I loved watching the orangutans play.  This little baby orangutan was just happy and content playing and chewing on this little white bucket.  So cute!

Now I'm not sure, but this orangutan at first looked like it was folding laundry, so I was certain it was girl...until it started doing this and playing a little hide-and-seek in the sheet.  I thought, yeah that's definitely gotta be a boy (messing everything up for the woman to clean up).  Hahaha.  Just kidding.

Tali measured in about the size of the "juvenile" gorilla.  Awww.  My little juvenile. 

Me and my little juvenile princess.  The best part of this whole thing was Tali was very well behaved! 

Here is our whole group.  We had a pretty great day.  I had bought Tali this really cute pink zoo hat along with a really soft stuffed camel.  With the zoo pass, I even got a 10% discount!  How awesome is that?  Yeah, I think my zoo pass will come in mighty handy!