Happy 1st Birthday Devin & Baby Update!

This past Saturday we helped celebrate our Cousin/Nephew Devin’s 1st Birthday! It is amazing how fast the time has passed.

Uncle Glen and Devin pose for the camera

Devin shared this cake, made by our friend Michelle

And devoured this one. Cool Pumpkin Cake Michelle!

For the first time in a while, we managed to get most of the kids together for a Picture.

From the Left: Gracie, Kyle, Ethan, Samantha, Brandy, with Devin in lap, Cory and Kobe. They are all getting so big!

So happy birthday1st Birthday Devin…Next, the oldest Cousin/Nephew Ethan Turns 5!

Baby Update! Baby Boy Berman is doing well. We now officially have a C-Section Day and time, Monday November 10th at 2:00 p.m. with Dr. Phillippi at Edwards Hospital in Naperville. Of course God ultimately has the final decision on this one so we’ll have to wait and see. At least we will use the date to keep us grounded the next couple weeks.

I will be enjoying two time a week appointments to monitor stress on the baby until the end. I also have yet another ultrasound scheduled for next week and continue to hope the news is good. I feel like we will be held hostage by doctor’s appointments until the baby’s arrival. To add to the hostage situation, and because their wasn’t enough going on, Bruce broke a tooth, has had a root canal and has to get a crown in two weeks. That is in addition to his routine physical next week. Go figure, when it rains, it pours. All I can say is thank god Samantha is doing well!

As the days go by, we’ll continue our regular routine, enjoy Halloween and look forward to the arrival of Uncle Alan just one day before the scheduled arrival of Baby Boy. Samantha is soooooo excited about his visit and can’t wait to introduce him to all her school friends when he picks her up. We’ll keep you posted of any changes via the Blog for the next few weeks. Keep checking back for updates. When the time comes, Bruce and I will spread the word as we can and promise to get pictures up on the blog as soon as we are able.

Ta Da!!! Samantha’s Big Girl Room!

What else would a girl want but flowers and butterflies of various colors to bring out her feminine side?After getting over the pink paint anxiety, we quickly realized the need to tone down the walls with a lot of white accents and decorations. Thank god it worked!

With help from Auntie Nancy, the border, stuffed toy net and decorations went up very quickly.

As you can see, the extra large net was not “extra large enough.” Samantha still donated a smaller net full of toys to her new baby brother.

With all the anxiety put aside, the end result has definitely been worth the work. The way her face lit up when it was done was worth every minute of it.

In other happenings…

School continues to be a highlight of Sam’s everyday life. She has adjusted nicely and likes all of her new friends. It is fun for me as well. Each day I pick her up, she tells me about her day. She loves to read and enjoys the art and puzzle areas. Everyday she draws pictures or paints and talks about writing in her journal. She gets real excited when she is line leader or snack helper. But every once in a while, she gets sad because she says some of the kids don’t share. I asked her if she asked to share with them and she says, “no I forgot, I’ll ask tomorrow.” I can’t believe the number of art projects she has been bringing home. Almost every night we sit down and talk about her friends and she likes to spell all their names on paper. I’m pretty sure she even has a boyfriend named David. I found a piece of paper on the coffee table one night that had his name written several times from top to bottom. I had heart palpitations for a moment and realized that this too was something I would have to get use to. All in all, school has been a good transition for her. She had her school and class pictures taken today and talked about it the whole way home!

In the next weeks, the school will be having their fall festival and fundraiser for the Make a Wish Foundation. Sam has themed days where she has to dress as a princess one day, wear her pj’s to school another and has to wear orange and black another day. For Halloween, she kept asking to be a witch. Once she truly realized that she’d have to wear a dress, tights and a hat, she changed her mind. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get her in a dress and tights again. She says that tights make her toes hurt. Now she wants to be a fire fighter. She still has to wear a hat, but now that the dress is out of the picture, she seems content with her decision. Guess we’ll see what happens.

Samantha is gearing up to welcome her new brother. She has been very helpful in prep work and enables me to nest. She helps load the baby clothes into the washer and dryer and actually does a pretty good job folding anything square or rectangular (wash clothes, burb rags, etc). She even tried to help me go through a huge amount of clothing Auntie Mickey handed down to the baby. (Mickey made me feel better because she had just as many boy clothes as I had girl for Sam, even items with tags. Thanks to Mickey, baby boy will be dressed in style. You rock!).

We do spend a lot of time talking about the amount of help the baby will require and how the baby won’t be able to do some of the “big girl” things like Sam. At this point, she seems interested in helping feed and bathe the baby with Mommy and Daddy. But, she doesn’t quite understand that Mommy won’t be able to help her as much for a few weeks after the surgery because she will be sore. I guess time with tell and we just need to prepare ourselves for the jealous outbursts I have been warned about. Yet another milestone of parenthood!

As for me and Bruce, we keep working a lot at work and home. Bruce has spent most of the last two months trying to get things moved around in the house, getting baby gear out and put together baby gear and new storage apparatus’. My role continues to be to worry about EVERYTHING and trying to organize our ducks in a row so we will be ready to bring home baby. As far as how I am feeling, I just got over bronchitis. I was coughing so hard I thought my water might break. The doctor reassumed me that this was not possible. Overall though, some days continue to be better than others. I notice it is better to either keep moving around or lay down. After I sit for awhile, I get stiff and it takes a minute for me to get my equilibrium in check to actually get moving. I start two time a week appointments next week (see side bar) to ensure baby boy stays stable and continue to get more and more anxious to open a new chapter in our lives.