Anyone else feel like we’ve heard it all before? From BOTH candidates. I’ll be glad when its over.

On Sunday the 19th we had a “Baby Party” for Michaela.  We didn’t have a baby shower for her when I was pregnant with because we didn’t know if she was a boy or a girl.  Either way we didn’t need baby stuff since we already had everything from when Felicity was a baby, but if Michaela would have been a boy we would have needed boy clothes.  So, we decided not to  have anything until after she was born to see what gender the baby would be.  Since she was a girl, we needed nothing for her, but we eventually decided that she and her new life needed to be celebrated, hence the baby party.  We had it at the park next to our house.  It was a beautiful day, a little on the warm side, but beautiful none the less.  We had lots of friends and family there for the potluck BBQ.  It was so nice to be outside celebrate a special little girl!  Thanks to everybody who came for making it a nice day!!!  Here are some pictures of that day.

This past Saturday we went to a new (at least to us it was new) pumpkin patch in 3 points at a farm called Buckelew Farms.  They had wagons pulled by horses that took you out the pumpkin patch, they had a small petting zoo, and some activities for the kids.  They even had a corn field maze, but the girls are too little for that, maybe in a few years.  It was a nice day picking out our Halloween pumpkins and just hanging out.  This pumpkin patch was a lot closer than the one we usually go to, but it didn’t have the yummy apples like the other place!!  Here are the patch pictures.

Last night we carved those pumpkins that we picked out.  Felicity is turning into a little girly girl.  She didn’t like being out in the pumpkin patch because she was afraid of getting dirty.  So . . . she didn’t really like cleaning out the pumpkin because she didn’t want to get dirty.  She even took her dress off before she finally stuck her hand in the pumpkin!  Michaela thought the pumpkin guts were a little strange, but didn’t seem to mind.  Then she became more interested in the newspaper that the pumpkins were sitting on!  My job seems to be the cleaning and Randy’s seems to be the actual carving, but that’s okay, I like the pumpkin guts!  Here are the pictures of the carving fun!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

I have a big family…I’m one of 7 kids, there are 4 inlaws and over a dozen kids in the next generation.  So many moons ago I wrote a program for my website to draw names for our Christmas Gift Exchange.  It was originally at my RandyPost.com website, and then it was at NameDrawing.net.  I goofed and let the NameDrawing.net domain name expire, and some cybersquatter registered it right away. Fortunately I had registered NameDrawing.com a while ago but didn’t do anything with it.

Well, with the holidays approaching faster than we would like, I finally got my site up and running again. So if you need to draw names for your Christmas gift exchange or secret Santa, check me out. It’s free. And don’t forget to vote for me after you get yor draw.

October 15th is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, it falls in the middle of the month of October which 10 years 20 years ago (whoops, it was late!) was declared Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month by then President Ronald Reagan. It isn’t just a day for Becky and I.  Our family and many of our friends know that we have experienced a total of three losses. (Logo from Footprints Support Group)

Our first pregnancy resulted in a miscarriage in the first trimester in January of 2003.  We tried again later and our second pregnancy also ended with a first trimester miscarriage, this time in August of 2003.  At the time they happened, we didn’t name our babies, but we later decided to.  Becky is fond of her Irish heritage and we didn’t know the gender of either baby, so we picked two Irish names that can be used for either.  The first baby we named Enda, and the second we named Kiley (pronounced Keely).

We found out Becky was pregnant for the third time in February of 2004.  At around 15 weeks they did some testing (AFP and later amniocentesis) and a diagnostic ultrasound and determined that the baby had a genetic abnormality which we later determined was Turner’s Syndrome…but the more significant thing was seen on the ultrasound.  The baby had swelling on the head and the entire body and it was pretty certain that the baby would not make it.  We tried our best to cope with that news and perhaps pray for a miracle and we named our little girl Faith Emma.  At our OB appointment on June 11, they determined that Faith had passed away.  The next day, June 12, 2004, they induced labor and Becky delivered Faith.  She would have been due on October 22.

At the beginning of the month, Felicity and I along with my parents attended the Walk to Remember which is sponsored by the Footprints Support Group that Becky and I attended for over a year after we lost Faith.  It’s the 4th walk I’ve attended, Becky was extremely disappointed she couldn’t make it this year as she had a baby shower to attend in Phoenix.

Now that we are so busy keeping up with Felicity and Michaela, we don’t often find the time to think about our three angels.  But we know they are there, watching over their sisters…and we definitely have not forgotten about them. During the walk and over the last few weeks I’ve had a chance to think about them and I’m amazed how quickly the feelings come rushing back.

We love our babies and we miss them terribly. It’s hard to imagine a family other than the one we have, but now that we have watched the miracle of life and love in Felicity and Michaela, it makes me sad for the potential that will never be realized on this earth by our other babies.  We will never forget them. Please join us today in honoring their memory.

I posted some new photos tonight. Highlights include some additional photos from our trip to Sedona, Michaela’s first “solid” food, first vegetable (carrots) and a few other things.

So I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I got the idea from our friend Jennifer who did it for her daughter Brenna’s 3rd Birthday. Next time I’ll have more questions planned out ahead of time. But she’s still darn cute…and totally into princesses!

New photos are up, including August 2008 where Michaela got her first teeth and learned to sit up. Also new are photos from Felicity’s 3rd birthday parties in both Tucson and Sedona (see earlier blog post). There are some more photos from our trip that were after the birthday party, so I’ll post those in the September set in a week or three. And we also have some photos from Kendra and Jeremy’s wedding, I’ll be posting those soon.

September 17th was Felicity’s 3rd Birthday…if you can believe it. We started the nearly week long celebration with a party at our house on the Saturday before. I forgot how much work it was to get ready for a party! It was a Princess themed party, and Becky tried out a cute idea and made cupcakes in ice cream cones and frosted them but let the kids decorate their own with M&Ms and sprinkles.

Felicity was obviously very excited to have her friends and family over. But we were surprised a little by her reaction when it came time for cake. In addition to the cupcakes for the kids, the rest of us had a regular cake to eat. She was obviously excited about her princess birthday cake but she didn’t really like being the center of attention. She didn’t like being sung to and she didn’t even want to blow out her own candles with all of those people staring at her! I had no idea that shyness was genetic!

The scenario was similar when it came to opening her presents. She didn’t like everyone staring at her so Becky ended up opening most of her presents! It was cute. Maybe next year she’ll be a little more self confident.

So her big present from Becky and I was a bike. She was so excited to get it and her princess helmet.  Her legs are just barely long enough to reach the pedals, but I think she’ll get there. We didn’t have too long to for her to work on it before we took off for Sedona.

After a short stop in Mesa at Margaret and Louie’s, we made it up to Sedona on Wednesday, Felicity’s actual birthday. We had a small little birthday party that night, our friend Beth came down from Flagstaff with her daughter Kendall. Felicity and Kendall had a great time, and we all enjoyed some pizza, salad and cupcakes…princess of course! Auntie Ann came through in spades with a cool princess tent and some great little dressup shoes that Felicity has been wearing around since yesterday…I’m told they’re “peep toe slingbacks”. All I know is they’re cute and Felicity looks entirely too comfortable wearing them. Yet another sign that she’s growing up so incredibly fast…I can’t believe she’s 3 now!

She was bred to be a champion. [Fade up sad music] But before Hoover ever set a Weimaraner paw in a dog show ring, her dreams of a best in show were dashed by a genetic defect.

Born on September 8, 2003 as Top Hat’s Avalon to champion parents Windwalker’s Blue Sky and Top Hat’s Country Western Star, Hoover Post’s floppy ears were marked for greatness. As a physical specimen, she was flawless, but sadly several of her siblings were born with an overbite, a recessive trait that made her unfit for breeding. But fate held a different leash for her. [Fade up inspirational music]

Although she wasn’t viable as a breeding dog, there was a couple in Tucson Arizona that wanted to welcome her bright blue eyes into their home as a pet. In the midst of great adversity in their own lives, they looked forward with much anticipation to the day when little “Hoover” would be able to come home to them.

After saying her melancholy goodbyes to her littermates and her Mom, “Hoover” was packed up in her crate and shipped off by airplane from San Jose California to Tucson International Airport. The poor thing was stuck at the freight terminal for several hours late at night as her new owners struggled to find out where to pick her up. Once they found the right place, poor Hoover whimpering and whining from the cold as she had spilled her water during her long journey. She was relieved to find a warm place to curl up in Becky’s lap as they traveled back to her new home, an apartment Tucson’s Northeast side. Fortunately this home was a temporary one while her owner’s new house was being built as Hoover quickly showed Becky and Randy just how much (destructive) energy a Weimaraner puppy can have!

[Fade up playful music] It took some time for young Hoover to grow up into her big floppy ears and oversized paws, but everyone she met fawned over her cute puppy features and bright blue eyes. She quickly showed her masters who’s the boss as she shredded various things around the house including her soccer ball bean-bag bed, two pairs of brand new Ray-Ban sunglasses, and a host of other small items. She developed a knack for escaping from her bathroom / hallway daytime containment area and had fun exploring the rest of the apartment when nobody was around.

Once the new house was ready, the Post Family was fortunate that there was not much furniture around that she could damage. She still managed to destroy a couch or two, and some brand new blinds in the guest bedroom when she accidentally locked herself in there one day. She also astounded her owners with her ability to open door handles. For some time they were prisoners in their own house, forced to lock all of the interior doors in the house to keep her out of the rooms. She tested the doors like a caged velociraptor, waiting for the day when they forgot to lock one of them! She loved to spread out on the couch, or sleep on her mom and dad’s bed when they were home, constantly challenging Becky for the “head princess of the house” title.

[Fade up melancholy music] But it soon became apparent to her owners that this seemingly normal Weimaraner was in fact suffering from a serious mental disorder…separation anxiety. In January of 2005, when Hoover was around 1 ½ years old, her owners adopted a rescue dog named Kona. They had hoped that having a companion dog for Hoover would lessen her separation anxiety and make her happier. But unfortunately, Kona turned out to have even worse separation anxiety and she brought a whole host of new issues to the Post household!

[Fade up the odd couple theme song] The two dogs got off to a rocky start, as Hoover quickly realized Kona would be the dominant dog, even to the point of chasing Hoover away from her own dog food. But eventually their relationship stabilized, and the two became fast friends, wrestling and playing all the time, and Kona excelled at helping Hoover find new ways of getting in trouble. Together they destroyed another couch or two, and Randy and Becky eventually found out that when left at home during the day, they liked to jump up on the dining room table to better see out the back yard windows!

As time went on, the dogs destructive habits were getting the better of their masters and they banished the dogs outside whenever they weren’t home to supervise them. Of course, if they forgot to lock the deadbolt on the back door, Hoover could open the door and the two partners in crime would be found lounging on the bed or the couch with a swath of destruction around the house when their owners came home.

[Fade up dramatic music] In early 2005, it was becoming clear that something was causing Hoover to behave subtly different. When Randy and Becky noticed a mass on her side, they did what any good dog owner would do and got her in to see her Vet. The diagnosis was Valley Fever, a fungal infection that is common in the dusty desert southwest. Typically it infects the lungs after being breathed in, but Hoover seemed to have a less common variety. She began an aggressive Fluconazole treatment and everyone crossed their fingers that they had caught it in time. The treatment was a success! And Hoover made a full recovery.

[Fade up “You’ve got a friend in me”] Hoover still lives with her owners in Northwest Tucson and keeps herself very busy.  Being named after a vacuum cleaner, she has lived up to her name and then some, gladly cleaning up after the two young post children. She spends about 75% of her day napping, and splits the other 25% between napping, eating, napping, chasing lizards and insects, napping, getting into the trash can, napping, and stealing food off of people’s plates or the stove…oh, and napping.

She may not have any best in show or even best in breed titles under her collar, but she’s happy with another title, best in her owner’s hearts.

Happy Birthday “Hoover Doover!”

We decided that we were going to start feeding Michaela “solids” at around 6 months.  Then when she started sitting up by herself we decided that when she had perfected sitting enough to sit in the highchair we would start.  So, this past week we have been testing out the highchair.  Every night at dinner she sat in her highchair at the table with us.  We loaded her up with toys and she sat in there all through dinner just playing and talking.  It was great dinner entertainment!! 

Last night was the big one.  She had her first taste of rice cereal.  She seemed to like it and got the hang of the “eating” pretty quickly.  She saw the spoon coming and would open wide.  She was pretty messy by the end of dinner, as she got it all over, but hey, that is part of the experience.

These pictures are of her very first bit and the reaction afterwards.

These are some after dinner pictures.  Notice in the first picture that she has rice cereal all over her hands and yep, her foot too!!!