Sorry for the Confusion!

So everyone thought my mom had passed away on that last blog post...  guess I should check my writing a little more closely!  Not to worry, she's alive and well.... back in California! 
Meanwhile I've survived my first few days without her here to help us.  Today is my last official day of maternity leave, and to celebrate it I've been working on a slide presentation for a talk I'm going to give at the National Health Care for the Homeless Conference next month.  I'm pretty excited to be able to give this talk, I'll be highlighting our respite HIV team and how it benefits our homeless patients.  So... no slowly getting back into the work life for me!  Just taking the plunge right back in! 

In other news, we finally took a picture of Luca in one of Daddy's t-shirts... to take one every year on his birthday.  He's definitely a little chunkier than he would have been if we were able to take it at his birth weight of 4 pounds!

Mom's Headed Back to California....

This morning we had to say goodbye to my mom, who has been with us since November 11th.  She's headed back to her home in California, and we are truly sad to see her go!  She was an irreplaceable amount of help and good company to us while I was on bed rest, and while we had to go back and forth to the hospital for several weeks before Luca came home.  I really don't know what we would have done without her!!
Vince was already moping this morning, "Where's Grandma?!, why isn't she here in the kitchen like every morning!?".  I made sure to wake him up to say goodbye to her this morning, but I guess it's going to take a while before we get used to her absence.  Zoë has recently started yelling "Mama... where are you?!" when she's walking around the house sometimes (except the 'where are you' is turned into one long word of 'whehaaahyhhuu!').  She'll interchange mama with Dada... Vincent.... whoever she is looking for at the moment.  Well this morning it was "g'ama..... whehaaaahyhhuu!?".... for a little while.  Heart breaking!  We are all just hoping that she comes back to visit soon!!  I secretly hope that she misses the kids so much that she jumps back on the plane ASAP and comes back for a visit! 

Now I cannot say it was all roses and good times while she was here, we definitely got on each others' nerves here and there... but for as much time as she was here, I'd have to say it went pretty darn smoothly.  Here's a few photos I never got around to putting up:

My mom prepared some Swiss Fondue for us and we had a fun night of lots of cheese!  It was time the kids got introduced to their Swiss Heritage ;)

My mom was a trooper, considering we dragged her to almost every birthday party and Doctor's appointment we had!  Here's one picture I've been wanting to get for a long time: Vince with the Midwife that helped deliver him!  My mom wound up in that pic too....

She got a good handle on how to deal with Luca too

She got in lots of snuggling time...

And of course, we wait until the last day to get a photo of Grandma with all her grandchildren!  I'm soo bad it's ridiculous

ok, this time don't forget Luca please!!

 

We are sad to see you go mom!!  We'll try to get along without you!  I threatened that Vince would be lucky if he even got cold cereal in the mornings now, let alone the huge plate of bacon and eggs he used to get from Grandma every morning.  But this morning, after my mom left, I stayed up and made him his own big plate of bacon and eggs.... and somehow I managed to get Zoë dressed and fed, made Luca his bottle, dressed and fed him... and was able to get dressed and eat something myself.  Yes....maybe, just maybe... I will survive without my mom here.... but it won't be easy.

Easter

We thought Vince would wake us up early on Easter morning, so we could all go looking for his Easter Basket!  Well, 7am rolled around and we were still happily sleeping in bed.... NO VINCE waking us up!!  I started to get a bit worried because he never sleeps that late (I know, depressing isn't it), and when we heard bumping around the house I knew something was up.  I went downstairs to check out the scene, and I will always laugh when I think of what I came upon.  Vince was in the living room and comes over to greet me.... stating in his exact words: "Mom! I have exciting news! The Easter Bunny came and left me a basket!".  It was sort of dark in the living room still, so it took me a few minutes to realize that Vince had a huge chocolate ring around his entire mouth.... making him look bearded with a mustache (lol!).  I said "oh really, did the Easter Bunny happen to leave you chocolate!?"..... 
He had already inventoried all his chocolate stash and toys, and little remnants of chocolate wrappers were scattered all over the floor.
It was a miracle he didn't find Zoë's Easter Basket and riffle through hers too!  When Zoë woke up he helped look for her basket, and it's wasn't long before she had the chocolate ring around her mouth too.  But the poor thing had a fever and was out of it the whole weekend. 

Here's some pics of the great easter egg dying event.  Zoë just kept throwing hers on the floor, I'll spare you the mess it caused

We picked the 'monster kit' this year (LOVE the hair and 3 eyed options!)

Vince and Luca cleaned up real well and both opted to wear ties for Easter.  No pics of Zoë cause she was so ill :( Thanks to my mom for staying home with her!

Vince had a great time with Ramona and Lucy as they ran around the backyard looking for Easter Eggs

 Time to eat till we get sick!

The First 10 Days....

You can  basically figure out how our first 10 days have been as a family with three kids (all under 4) by looking at us: tired, dis-shelved, generally un-kept, and sleep deprived..... but sooo happy Luca is home!!

Vince and Zoë are still trying to figure out who this little guy is, and where his place in the family belongs.  Vince lights up whenever he sees or hears Luca, but both kids have been extra clingy toward Mike and me.  Vince has regressed from his potty training triumphs, has had major meltdowns, and poor little Zoë just runs around hugging our legs and attaching herself to us as we walk through the house.  It's clear that they love him and are so excited when they see him, but they are also feeling like maybe they won't get our love anymore, so heartbreaking to see!  We have the PERFECT book that we've been reading to them called "You're All My Favorites"(thanks Beth-Ann!).  It's about a bear family that has three baby bears, and each baby bear wonders if they are loved as much as the others.  It's so cute and perfect for us, as the order of baby bears is boy, girl, and boy just like us.  So when we read the book of course their names are Vince, Zoë, and Luca.

 We haven't managed to do much, but we did manage to get a family picture!

My mom has been instrumental in making sure we all get fed, and has even stayed up during the nights for part of the time so we can get some sleep.  We will SURELY miss her when she's gone.  She has her ticket to go back to California on April 18.  Until then, she's getting lots of cuddle time with all her grandchildren.

We've had to spend lots of time teaching the kids NOT to swing Luca so fast, lol!

she's getting so big!

 Vince holding his little brother!

 I love my boys!

 Somehow we also managed to start a family tradition we are calling "pajama Fridays".  Mike came up with this in part to make our Fridays easier... where we all sit down to Friday dinner already washed up and in our PJ's.  The idea is that the nanny will get the kids bathed and ready for bed and WE DON'T HAVE TO DO IT!  Last Friday was our first time doing this, and we ate breakfast for dinner and watched a movie after wards. 

Nothing like wine with pancakes!

Happy First St. Patrick's Day Luca!

We are so very happy and grateful to announce that Luca is now home with us!!!  Mike left work early on Friday and came home so we could go pick our boy up from the hospital-and bring him home to the rest of the family!  It is the most amazing feeling to have the whole family finally together.  I can't even describe how elated we are after this long, difficult, and emotionally trying journey..... we now come to the end and have our healthy little baby boy home with the rest of his siblings.  We are truly blessed and fortunate to have three amazing little beings that we are able to watch grow up and blossom into their own personalities.  For the first time I really feel like our family is complete.  I always knew I wanted children, and after having Vince and experiencing the joy and laughter he brings, I still felt like there was someone missing in the family.  Then Zoë came along and she definitely filled a gap, and brings even more joy and love to us-she's our cuddle bug!  But even after Zoë we still felt like there was more room in our hearts for another child.  I felt that someone wanted to come along and was supposed to be in our family.  Well little did I know he wanted to come along so bad that he made himself arrive 7 weeks early!!  ;).  Having Luca home finally completes our family, and we are so excited about what lies ahead; to see him grow and see how Vince and Zoë interact with him.  So far they absolutely adore him.  Vince smiles ear to ear whenever he looks at him.  He's officially in charge of making sure no one touches Luca on the face or hands-but only touching on feet and kissing on the head.  Zoë just looks at him and smiles and says "baby! baby!".  She's very interested in the care I give to Luca, and has already started to mimic my doings.  She's an adorable little mama to her dolls. 

I dressed Luca in his 'going home outfit'

Hurry up!-lets get outta here before they change their minds!

 

He did great his first night home!  His only issue is that he has a hard time swallowing fluids-so we have to thicken his formula with rice cereal.  This helps him swallow his formula easier and decreases his risk of aspirating during his feedings.  So with the rice cereal added-he's getting lots more calories, so he can go longer without feedings.  Going longer between feedings = getting to sleep longer before needing to feed him. More sleep is ALWAYS a better thing.  

Already trying to hold his own bottle

Today was a bit difficult however.  Mike had to work all day, and the weather wasn't that great out.   So I found myself sort of fumbling on how to manage all three kids (I know, I need to give myself a break... it was the first day!!).  Anyway, I ended up letting Vince and Zoë watch a ridiculous amount of television today.  I feel really guilty about it, but I couldn't manage to figure out any other way to ease my stress of dealing with Luca and Vince and Zoë!!  Hopefully I'll get better with time.  I know it'll be easier once Luca is less vulnerable with his health.  That being said, with the television on for a greater part of my first day with three kids, I did manage to get all the kids dressed into green in order to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!  Nonna forgot to bring anything green to wear, so I just told Vince and Zoë to sit on her and that would be her green ;). 

Our Little Good Luck Charmer-isn't he the sweetest!