our very Curious Susie

For Halloween we dressed up "theme" style...yes, that means that I was able to get Jim into a costume!  I have always thought it would be fun to have "family pictures" taken themed style every year.  So this is true for now 2 of our family pictures.  This year we were "the man in yellow hat's family".  Susie is obsessed with watching CG (curious george) and so we knew we were meant to be "curious susie's" family this year.  Here are a few snapshots that were taken that night.

Vince as Curious Susie's banana - thankfully she didn't really eat him...actually I think he could have eaten her-he is ALWAYS hungry.

I am pretty sure that those are tears of HAPPINESS...right? : )

The MAN in the yellow hat getting ready...without his yellow hat.

My little kiddos look so happy to be going trick-or-treating!  Actually I am pretty sure that both of them are thinking right now "why does mom make us do these things?"  I assured them that they will be so glad that they did it when they get older - it is just something that mommy's and daddy's know! haha

Here we are with the YELLOW HAT (I paper mached it) and if you can't tell I am the "woman in the yellow bow".

This look was brought to you by lots, and lots of YELLOW DYE!

Happy Halloween 2009.  You were good to us...except for Jim slicing his finger open that night and having to get stitches...that's a whole new story all in it's self because of the nature of spending time on Halloween night in the ER.  SCARY!

our boy is 2 months already!

Vince is 2 months old!

We went for his 2 month checkup today and here are a few stats on our "not so little one anymore"...take a look at his weight and you will know what I mean :)

Weight: 16 lbs 7 oz. (99 %)

Length: 24 in (80%)

Head Circumference: 16 1/2 in (87%)

Most babies don't double their birth weight until they are 6 months old but our little Vince is dyfing all the "norms" and has doubled his birth weight by 2 months of age.

Lately Vince has been SMILING...

WATCHING THE CRAZY THINGS HIS SISTER DOES...

LISTENING TO HIS SISTER, WELL KIND OF...

TAKING NAPS WITH DADDY...

AND BEST OF ALL BEING MOMMY'S SWEET LITTLE BOY!





Smile for the camera...click

and the Nobel Peace Prize winner is.....IREANA

I am posting an email I got just today about a true deserver of the Nobel Peace Prize. Read on it is well worth the time.

"The Nobel Peace Prize is a JOKE. For Gore and Obama to receive it has made it a laughing stock of the World."

THIS YEAR PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS BEEN PRESENTED WITH THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE. FOR HIS WORK TOWARDS WORLD PEACE. THE NOMINATION DATE FOR SELECTION CLOSED 14 DAYS AFTER HE CAME TO OFFICE. WHAT EXACTLY DID HE DO IN THOSE 14 DAYS TO HAVE DESERVED SUCH A HIGH ACCOLADE.? SOMETHING IS TERRIBLY WRONG AND CHEAPENS ALL WHO HAVE RECEIVED IT EARLIER.

The prize hasn't gone to the most deserving...

IREANA SENDLER

There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' ... She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize .... She was not selected Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.
What a Joke. The years 2009 has been the coolest year all over the world since records have been kept.

In MEMORIAM - 63 YEARS LATER

May we never forget to do what is right and love our neighbor as ourself.

she speaks...kind of

Our Susie doesn't talk much yet. I am convinced that she is a perfectionist and doesn't want to say a word unless she says it right...or maybe I am just in denile that my little girl doesn't say much except a few words, like...

She definitely knows and says daddy, dada, or dad. Won't say mommy, mama, or mom :(
She says more while signing the word.
She tries to say her name but it comes out more like Suzzzzzzzz.

She is not a girly-girl. She prefers balls and cars over princess stuff or hates dress up stuff.

When my mom came down to help me after I had Vince I asked her if she would bring the road map that she made for me and my siblings when we were young so I could use it as a template for the one I want to make my kids. Here is a picture of the map. My siblings and I spent a good chunk of our childhood playing on and around this roadmap. There is even a Utah Lake that my mom painted onto it for pretend boating trips for the pretend people in our cars to take. Thanks mom for being so creative and making this for us.

Here is a picture of Sue's first braid that I was able to do in her hair about a week ago.

The other day when I went in to wake Susie from her nap I laid Vince down beside her. When she woke up (Vinny was hitting her in the face) she was so excited to see her little brother and snuggled up next to him to give him a big hug and a kiss. I love having two, it is so fun to see them interact with each other.

Rare occasion

This picture is of a rare occasion at our house these days. Everyone I ever met at the hospital (staff) when I have had a baby tells me that newborns and babies in general are SLEEPY...well it is a LIE. Both Susie and Vinny from day one were not sleepy. Yes, they always ate their share and pooped their share but definitely didn't SLEEP their share. We are lucky to get Vinny to take even 1 nap during the day. He is not a particularly fussy baby. He just DOESN'T sleep.

So for all you mothers out there that are bored during the day because your baby sleeps so much or that you can say that you actually got a nap during the day...count yourself lucky!

"God, why couldn't you have sent me a sleepy baby this time around? You are making me question having a third."

Yours truly,

Want to sleep, really want to sleep, but can't...

my present this year...

This year for my birthday I asked my hubby for a full night's rest! So...this weekend yours truly is going to be able to sleep all the way through the night without feeding the baby...that is going to be Mr. Mom's job. Yahoo. Seriously this is probably going to be the best birthday present EVER! I am excited just thinking about it.

Here are a couple of pictures that I found of me growing up. Enjoy!

Me at around 3 months old

Me at around 6 months old

Me in my Rainbow Brite swimsuit at around age 5 (I think?)

Did he come from you?

All of us that have had a newborn at a shopping center know that even the strangest stranger feels like they have the right to ask you anything as well as touch your baby without you saying so...read on and my point will be made...hence the blog post name (Did he come from you?)

Yesterday I was at Wal*Mart with Sue and baby Vinny in the checkout line. As the cashier was ringing up my few items he started making lite conversation with me-this is fine-but the conversation quickly turned to my kids, more specifically the baby that was in the carrier but covered so you couldn't see him. The cashier asked me how old-I told him 5 weeks and then uncovered sleeping Vinny. The cashier was silent, looked at me and then at Vinny and asked, "Did he come from you?" I was a little confused at first at what spurred that kind of question from someone...then I realized what he meant. It wasn't because of the color of Vinny's eyes, or the shape of his little toe, if wasn't even the wolverine hairs he has on the back of his ears, it WAS because of the size of our little one...uhum...little meaning 13 lb boy! Yes my baby that was in my tummy just 5 weeks ago is 13 lbs big. He has gained 5 pounds in 5 weeks. Jim and I are convinced that everytime Vinny eats, poops, sleeps, or sucks his binkie, wait-that is pretty much his whole existance-he gets hungrier by the minute.

1 month old pics

Vinny is eating all the time that sometimes that I resort to this handy-dandy bottle holder!

On this past Sunday we were down in Houston for Jim's brothers homecoming and since most of the family were there at church we decided to bless Vinny. Here is a picture of our little family-we couldn't get everyone to look and smile at the camera at the same time. :)

Our newest member!

Vincent Edward Bassi
8 lbs. 3 oz.

20 inches

Vinny and his first birth day cake. We had a birthday party that night with our family and a couple of our best friends.

Here I am with Vinny still inside of me. This was taken on Thursday morning about 20 minutes before we arrived at the hospital for the induction.
Last belly shot.

We arrived at the hospital with homemade chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for our doctor and nurses that morning. Earlier that week the doctor said that I was dialated to a 2 but hadn't made any progess past that. I was really nervous about being induced seeing that I wanted to do it naturally like I had with Susie. The laboring experience I had with Susie was completely different than Vinny because of the fact that when I showed up to the hospital with Susie I was dialated to a 9 and within 1 hour had Susie. Vinny on the other hand had not decided to come and was growing bigger and bigger every day so after 5 days past the due date we MADE him come. Once they started the pitocin (the medicine they give you to start contractions) it took about 1 & 1/2 hour to go to a 3 and the doctor wanted to break my water. Yikes! I knew when they break the water the contractions get harder and stronger so I was struggling telling him to break my water at a 3 when I still had 7 more cm to go.

Needless to say we decided to break my water to help speed up the process. And when that didn't work they just kept increasing the amount of pitocin they were giving me. I could tell the whole time that the contractions went to a slight cramping feeling to the point where I would have to stop talking to Jim and his father, Rich (Jim's father was there in the room for the birth) as the contraction came and then went.
As the hours went by and the nurses kept asking me how bad the contractions were because they couldn't tell from how I was acting. When I labor I get very quiet and calm to help me concentrate on the task at hand. I think it took about 2 hours to go from a 3 to 5 but then I was stuck at a 5 for about 3 hours after that. The next picture is me dialated to a 5. Let me guarantee you that this smiling face was only inbetween contractions.

They hooked me up to an internal monitor to help they know if my contractions were strong enough because I wasn't sure what to tell them about how strong they felt to me. After the monitor was monitoring the intensity of the contraction they determined that I was a good level of pitocin and that it was just a waiting game now. During this time was when I seriously concidering getting an epidural because I had been at a 5 for so long and the contractions were getting really painful and I was getting nervous about how long 5 cm to 10 cm would take. The time was now 4:30 pm and the induction had started at 10:00 am that morning. It then took about 1/2 hour to go from 5 cm to 7 cm. When the doctor told me I was at a 7 he suggested that I go to the bathroom just to empty my bladder and in the time it took me to get out of the bed, go to the bathroom, and get back in bed I was ready and wanting to push. It literally took less than 10 minutes to get fully dialated to a 10 and in less than 10 minutes of me pushing our little Vincent Edward came into this world.

Jim with Vince

Our little guy!!!

Proud father

Vinny wanting a piece of his cake

That night we were able to do a proper Bassi birthday celebration. We love you Baby Vinny and are so happy and blessed to have you in our family.

B.F.F.

I think Susie and Vince have already become best friends. Sue at times can get a bit "too close" if you know what I mean. Her kisses and high fives get bigger and harder each time. I can already tell that Vince is used to her sister and her ways. Here are a few pictures of our precious little ones. Jim and I are so blessed to have each other and super blessed to have two wonderful kids.

Induction?

No baby yet. I woke up this morning at 6:00 a.m. feeling pretty painful contractions every 10 minutes. But as soon as I got up and started walking around they subsided and now 9:24 p.m. at night I am on the eve of an induction. Hopefully I will go into labor tonight so than I don't have to be confined to a hospital bed as I endure contractions. We are so excited to meet our new baby boy, Vincent Edward. Wish me luck on delivering a big boy. We are getting induced at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Pictures to come tomorrow, regardless of what happens tonight.

Vinny in 3-D!!!

This afternoon we went to our doctor's appointment, ultrasound, tummy check to check on our soon to be new addition. Here is a 3-D picture that the ultrasound technician was able to take of Vinny. As you can see in the picture he has very chubby cheeks. According to all the measurements she was able to take because of the ultrasound she said the fluid is at a great level, lung function is perfect, nice strong heartbeat, and our baby (according to all the measurements she took) is already weighing a strapping 8 LBS 15 OZ. Yikes! The doctor checked me and said that his head has come down and that I am dialated to a 2. Progress is good. With the doctor's encouragment we scheduled an induction on Thursday morning just in case Vinny still wants to be his normal laid back self. I don't know if my body can deliver much bigger of a baby than 9 lbs.
All in all we are happy that Vinny is healthy and coming in the very near future. I might not be able to do natural this time depending on how big and how fast he comes. I hope I can but if not thank goodness for epidurals.

differences

Yes, I am still pregnant. We go in for a non-stress test, ultrasound, and tummy check tomorrow so I'll post an update then. But I did want to write down the biggest difference I have felt between this pregnancy and Susie's pregnancy. The biggest difference is that Vinny is a very mellow, willing to go with the flow baby in my stomach. Susie would do 3-4 somersalts sometimes within 1 hour on nights preceding her birth day but Vinny will have only done 1 somersalt in a 3-4 DAY span. Susie is our got to be going all the time girl, so I hope that Vinny continues to be the mellow baby he is in my stomach for Mommy's sanity sake. I am not sure I can keep up with two Susie-suzes. We can't wait to see and hold our sweet Vinny some day soon. We'll keep everyone posted.

jelly belly

With Susie I lubed up my tummy every night and morning with Aquaphor. Jim quickly called it my "jelly belly" and kept telling me he was looking forward to the time he could cuddle with me at night without having to worry about getting some of it on his hands. I assured him I was doing it for the good of both of us...I was desperately trying to stay "stretch mark free". I will have to say that I was very successful in my endevor with Aquaphor. NO STRECH MARK WITH SUSIE. This time around though with Vinny I have honestly become a jelly belly maybe...a total of 10 nights out of the whole pregnancy and (knock on wood) have NO STRECH MARKS.

So here's to either using some type of cream, expensive or non-expensive, to ward off strech marks...or possibly not using anything at all.

Uno didn't do it

Vinny, Susie, Jim and I had a really fun "DUE DATE". The day started out with 6:00 a.m. basketball at the church for Jim, breakfast at Waffle House, fun around the house, nap for Susie, more baseboard painting, cleaning the house, and cleaning the windows for me. Basketball at 2:00 p.m. for Jim at the church, swimming at the gym we are a part of at 4:00 p.m., dinner with our good friends the Dana's and then a fun filled night (until 12:30 a.m. this morning) of Uno. The night before I went into labor with Susie we had the Dana's over to our apartment and we played Uno so...we were hoping the same would happen with Vinny. No such luck, but I did get some awesome cuddle time with Jim this morning because Susie slept in until we woke her up at 9:00 a.m. She was a tired little girl from "due date" activities. Today we are just taking it easy and enjoying our family of three for a little bit longer.

At the pool we had some grapes Susie literally put a whole handful of grapes (5-6) into her mouth at once. Here is the before and after pictures.

Before

After

tick, tick, tick...BOOM!

Today is my due date and I feel a lot like a ticking bomb. I am not sure when I will be going into labor, if my water will break this time, if it will happen during the day or at night. Even though I feel this way right now we are taking advantage of the time we have with Sue. Last night we have a "Bassi, party of 3" night out. We stopped by a bike shop to check out the bikes. Here is Susie riding her first training wheel bike. She is getting so big.

We stopped by the pet store to pet puppies. Here is a video of Susie with a puppy.

The next three pictures of what we were doing outside the resturant last night as we were waiting to be seated.

Up, up and away says the Susie-suz...as well as again daddy, again.

All I can say is......did I teach her that?

Susie and mommy.

the "BIRTH day" song

We have a tradition in the Jim Bassi family that on the day of the actual birth we have a cake and a number zero candle on the cake. Don't you think since we celebrate all other birthdays with wonderful cake and ice cream that we should celebrate the actual true "birth day" with the same respect.

Bring on the cake!

Here are a few pics of Susie's Birth day cake/party

I'm not sure if she is sleeping or crying in this picture but just like we all know "it's her party and she can cry if she wants to."

P.S. the nurses and doctors loved having a Bassi baby in the hospital - midnight snack in Room 246!

big sis!

No I have not had Vinny yet but I do want to post a few recent pictures of my sweet little Susie. She will be a big sister soon and I will have to share my time between the two but for right now she is my baby girl!

Cute little Sue

Watching daddy play basketball

Higher daddy, higher!

A little curious and a little bit Susie - "Curious Susie" :)

Telling dad just how life works

Taking time to smell the flowers

"I see a monkey riding a bicycle. What do you see daddy?"

Bath time with daddy

Our Susie-suz and her big brown eyes!

"Riding" her stuffed dog Bolt

"Am I not suppose to play in the gutter water?"

Susie see - Susie do

Playing " Miss fixit" with her plastic hammer

Kissing Hundley at the pet store

Fun in the swing

Swimming in Lake Whitney with daddy

Feeding the birds at Mama and Papa's house

Out on the boat with daddy