Michelle's last day of preschool

Yesterday was Michelle's last day of preschool. She starts kindergarten in just over a week (the 25th). They had a swim/outdoor party for their last day which was nice because Michelle didn't get sad that school was over. It was a fun way to end. Michelle has LOVED preschool and will really miss her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Barnett. She is so excited for kindergarten and tells everyone that she's going to an English AND Spanish school. She seems much more interested in learning/using Spanish lately. I'm so proud of her and all that she has learned. She'll do great in kindergarten. We love you Mrs. Barnett!

Sweet Gabrielle

Gabrielle Aaliyah Panameno finally came! She was born at 3:34 AM on Monday, August 11. She weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces and was 21 1/4 inches long. She's a big baby... almost a pound heavier than we expected. (Michelle was 7 pounds 15 oz. and Ella was 7 pd. 11 0z.)

I had contractions off and on Sunday evening (but I'd been having them off and on all week). At 11, I went to bed to see if I could sleep/if they would continue or stop. At about midnight, I woke up from fitful dozing and was having contractions still. I got up, showered, walked around and decided I should wake Alfredo and head to the hospital. We left a little after 1, dropped the girls off at Janene's (they were wide awake and excited) and got to the hospital about 2:15. By then my contractions were only about 2 minutes apart. After signing in and everything, they examined me and said I was dilated to a four. We were a little disappointed, but oh well. By 3:10, the contractions were right on top of each other and I really thought I would need an epidural. They thought maybe I was dehydrated and gave me fluids to see if that would slow the contractions down. I told myself to wait 10-15 minutes before asking for an epidural. I had Alfredo help me onto my left side. Within minutes, I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. I knew this is often a sign that you're ready to push, but since I was only a four about 40 minutes before, I figured that couldn't be right. So Alfredo called the nurse and I told her. She checked me and sure enough, I was a 10. They didn't expect that and started busily calling the doctor and preparing for her birth and making me breathe through contractions which became increasingly difficult. My water broke and there was meconium in it which worried them so they called the NICU. Soon it was obvious that Gabrielle was coming, so they called in a resident because the doctor still wasn't there. (When they'd first called him, I'm sure they figured it would be several hours until I delivered). So the resident delivered Gabrielle. She was born about an hour after I was first examined. Pretty quick! But we did make it to the hospital this time! :) And while Gabrielle's 1 minute Apgar score was low and she had swallowed a little meconium, by 5 minutes her Apgar score was a nine. I was able to hold her about 10 minutes after she was born and she nursed immediately and has been nursing well ever since. Her sisters adore her, especially Ella. Here are a bunch of photos. My three sweet girls
me, a few hours before going into labor, 40+ weeks pregnant
gotta love my hair... I don't ever look pretty after giving birth, don't know how some people can... this was about 20 minutes after Gabrielle was born

going home
going home
Alfredo with Gabrielle

books for back to school

My sister and I both have children starting kindergarten in a few weeks. She mentioned on her blog that my nephew Evan is a little nervous. Michelle is way excited, but will probably be nervous and shy at first too. I thought maybe reading some books about kindergarten and school would be helpful. Here are a few that I know and like, plus a couple more that I'm going to check out and read to Michelle.

First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg This cute story has a surprise at the end. It helps kids know that everyone is a little nervous the first day.

First Year Letters by Julie Danneberg

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate (there's a whole series about Miss Bindergarten and kindergarten)

Ms. Bitsy Bat's kindergarten by Pamela Duncan Edwards

I"m Telling You Dex, Kindergarten Rocks! by Katie Davis

First Day by Joan Rankin

Brand new pencils, brand new books by Diane DeGroat... cute story

Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes (I like Kevin Henkes books!)

Many of these are obviously for kindergartners, but a few would be good for 1st-4th graders too. I read First Year Jitters to my 3rd graders every year.

don't kill me

Two nights ago, Ella didn't want to go to sleep and was screaming that she wanted to get up out of bed. Alfredo handled it all very well and told her she had to go to bed and wouldn't let her come out and play. So then Ella started yelling loudly, "Stupid mommy, don't kill me. Stupid mommy, don't kill me." Where she picked this up from, I really am not sure. I wasn't even in the room. But she was loud. Alfredo joked that we'd have a knock on the door from the police in a few minutes because the neighbors could probably hear her. Ella is a feisty one. She is sweet and smart and beautiful, but when she's mad, watch out. She has a temper.

looking back...

After we told Michelle and Ella that today we have been married seven years, Michelle really was interested. She wanted to see wedding pictures (she's seen them before) and see my wedding dress and asked a lot of questions about our wedding. She even wanted me to put my wedding dress on... I complied with her request, although, of course, I can't zip my dress up at all right now. This caused me to reflect on our wedding day and on why I love and appreciate Alfredo so much.

Ever since we started dating, Alfredo has bought me flowers. Often red roses, but not always. He buys them for most special occassions but also from time to time just because. Along with flowers, he always buys beautiful, sentimental cards to express his love. (For those who know how funny he is, you may be surprised to hear that he's never bought me a single funny card.)

Here's a wedding picture of us. Speaking of flowers, Alfredo is quite talented at arranging flowers. He did all of the bouquets, boutinniers (probably spelled wrong), and the flowers on our wedding cake for our wedding. As well as the bouquet for my bridal pictures. Along with being talented at arranging flowers, he is also good at decorating. He is the one who has done most of the painting, arranging furniture and decorating of our home. Most of the nice things we have are things he has purchased. (Just one funny example: We have about 6 different shower curtains, most with matching floor mats. He likes to change them every couple of months.)
Here are a couple of scrapbook pages from our wedding album. I know that since it's a picture of a scrapbook page that it isn't super clear. Sorry.
We were married in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a beautiful day. It was windy which kept it from being too hot and it started raining just a little while after we finished our pictures. We had a luncheon at Marie Callendars with a really nice program and ring exchange since none of Alfredo's relatives could go to the temple with us. Then we, of course, had a reception. But we only did a line for an hour (or maybe an hour and a half, I can't remember for sure) and then had dancing for the rest of the evening. We used to go Latin dancing quite a bit before we got married and for the first year or so after. Anyway, we had a DJ and spent about half of our reception dancing to all kinds of music. Our reception was fun!
Here's a picture of us today, seven years later. I had Michelle take a few, and this is the only one I'd dare show. I look HUGE (awful, whale-like) in all of them. This one was taken farther away and with Ella draped across us, I don't look as bad.
Here are some other things I love and appreciate about Alfredo:

1. He is hard-working.

2. He is a great dad. He loves his girls, and they love him.

3. He is funny. There are moments when I don't appreciate his humor, but most of the time I do.

4. He has been so sweet and concerned about me the past couple of weeks. We don't have a cell phone (I know, I know... we're the only Americans that don't. Crazy us!) and so he's been really careful to let me know exactly where he'll be and how to get a hold of him. He's offered to cancel plans to stay home with me on evenings when I wasn't feeling that great. He calls often just to see how I'm feeling.

5. He is always so willing to help others in his family or his friends.

6. He is handsome.

7. He is a good cook. He doesn't cook that often, but he is a great cook.

8. He does a lot of housework. On his days off, he usually cleans the house and takes care of the girls while I work.

9. I have two beautiful girls because of him. I can't imagine my life without Michelle, Ella and Alfredo.

10. He loves me.

I love you, Alfredo! Thank you for being the great husband and father you are!

four days?

See that baby countdown ticker to the left? See what it says... four days left! Hooray. Obviously, that's not a guarantee that I'll have her in the next four days, but we're getting close. :) I'm excited to see her and hold her and watch my girls interact with her.

And I'm happy that I was able to work this past week and get my classroom ready and really feel prepared for my class to have a sub for the first 6 weeks or so. Today I've thought of about 3 or 4 things I should have/wish I had done. My plan is, if this baby doesn't come tomorrow, to go to school on Monday and meet my students. I have a doctor's appointment Monday afternoon, so I'll have to leave before the school day is over, but at least I'll be able to meet the kids and help the sub and maybe finish up a couple of last minute things that keep popping into my head. This has been a lot of work! But I did it!

We have a new principal this year. We were all a little nervous about that, but so far we really like her. We'll see how things go as the year progresses, but so far, she seems open, humorous and to the point. She made us laugh quite a few times, which seems like it will be a good thing. But she also got right to the point and didn't have our meeting drag on and on. Plus, she gave us nearly the entire week to work in our classrooms....Certainly no one is complaining about that, especially me!

Alfredo and I went out to dinner and a movie last night to celebrate our anniversary. Our anniversary is tomorrow... 7 years! But since tomorrow is Sunday, we decided to celebrate yesterday. We went to Cafe Madrid...it was our first time going there. It was a nice cozy little restaurant. The food was really good. We had a nice time. Then we went to see the Mummy. I'll probably do a post dedicated to Alfredo tomorrow, but just want to say I love my husband!

July's Reads

Letters from Rapunzel by Sarah Holmes (children's)
Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The End of the Alphabet
The Kommandant's Girl
The Nazi Officer's Wife
The Prodigal by Beverly Lewis
The Revelation by Beverly Lewis