On the day my girl was born...

December 28th, 2012....

This was a day marked on our calendar for quite sometime! We had a planned C-section for our little lady. It was such a crazy time of year for us, in November we several family birthdays, not to mention Thanksgiving, and then Christmas. November and December were kind of a blur. I was pretty uncomfortable for the duration of this pregnancy. My sinus's were so crazy for about 7 months I felt like I had a cold... clogged and runny nose, and lots of drainage, made sleeping pretty hard. It also made me sick, and though I never suffered from morning sickness, I got sick quite often from all of the drainage in my throat. YUCK-O! Needless to say by December I was ready to have this baby - BUT I DID NOT want to go into labor early. In fact, I had quite a bit of anxiety that I would go into labor and be in the hospital on Christmas day. I was so excited for Christmas, to celebrate Christ with some sweet family traditions, and to enjoy the holiday with Anderson - he is at such a fun age. Thankfully we made it through Christmas and then it was go time!

I did not sleep AT ALL the night before she was born. We had to be at the hospital at 5am for our C-section scheduled at 7:30am. I was so excited and not tired at all - in fact the nurse said she had never seen anyone quite so perky at 5am - haha. My unplanned C-section with Anderson did not go well at all, but this time the doctor told me it should be much smoother since I wouldn't have already labored for over 24 hours. She was right! They were able to get me numb completely and it happened much quicker! Recovery was a breeze too.... unlike last time. Last time I could not stop crying and I was in pretty bad shape so I couldn't have Anderson there with me. This time I felt great and I was able to nurse Camille in the recovery room! She was a great little nurser from day one - praise the Lord! I was so anxious to get out of recovery and take Camille to meet our family who were waiting in our room!

Thankfully, Camille's birth story is short and simple - just as planned :) We are blessed beyond belief to have this precious, sweet, quiet baby girl. She came into this world smoothly and easily and has not strayed from that path! She is an easy baby - sleeps well, eats well and is a joy! She is also so beautiful! Everything about her is so girly. She is tiny, has lovely hair, big, bright, happy eyes, sweet tiny lips, and even the way she uses her little hands is so feminine. We are smitten by her and every day we love her more and more. Anderson simply adores her. He can't stop kissing and hugging her, wants to hold her all the time, and talks so sweetly to her. If she cries he comes running and he is so gentle with her! He has never once acted jealous - which is a HUGE answer to prayer. He is basically the best big brother ever - it has made the transition from 1 baby to 2 so smooth.

We are loving life as a family of 4!

Here is our sweet girl, born 12/28/12 at 8:13am weighing 7lbs 9.5oz and 21 inches long!

 

 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2012... Just Pictures

 

 

 

Merry Christmas

One of my favorite Christmas songs

LABOR OF LOVE

It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David's town

And the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother's hand to hold

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love

Noble Joseph at her side
Callused hands and weary eyes
There were no midwives to be found
In the streets of David's town
In the middle of the night

So he held her and he prayed
Shafts of moonlight on his face
But the baby in her womb
He was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the faith
That could make the mountains move

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
For little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
It was a labor of love

Malko Family Update

My poor, long neglected blog readers... haha. I have been terrible at posting. This pregnancy has been much harder than my first, and I simply have let myself take it easy these past couple of months - well as easy as you can with a 2 year old running around! We are getting so excited for the arrival of our sweet baby girl, Camille Elizabeth! We have a C-section scheduled for December 28th, three weeks from today! This pregnancy has FLOWN by, in a way I am so ready to not be pregnant, but I also know there will be new challenges to face having 2 little ones that I do not even foresee coming, not counting all the sleep deprivation, the adjusting to sharing parents for Anderson, and all the other life changes coming our way! I have been loving on my sweet little man so much extra lately - knowing that I won't be able to give him all of me all the time in just a few short weeks! I have also been praying so much for his sweet little heart to adjust well, to love his baby sister, and to still feel just as loved from his mommy and daddy! He is such a joy!

Speaking of Anderson - he is seriously so grown up! It amazes me so often the things he says and does and how much understanding he has! He talks so well and his vocabulary is nearly limitless. Some of my favorite things he has said lately are "I'm sowwy daddy" to which Jon replied "why are you sorry buddy" and Anderson said "betause Anerson yocked daddy in Anerson's yooom" - Anderson had just left the room for a minute and shut the door behind him but I have been telling him lately that it is not polite to close the door on people. So he took it upon himself to apologize. He also LOVES to sing "Wheels on the bus" and sometimes at naptime or bedtime we hear him singing it to himself to help him fall asleep. Anderson also knows all of his ABC's and he sings it ALL the time. The cutest part is at the end he says, "now I know my W, X Y, Z's" instead of now I know my ABC's. haha it is so precious. He can count to 15 without any help and is pretty close to getting all the way to 20. He is so smart. He also loves to draw - we spread out a big piece of paper on the dining room table and he makes works of art! I love to hear him tell me what he is drawing. He can also recognize so many shapes - circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, diamonds, stars and we are now working on octagon since that is the shape of a stop sign. Another favorite past time is arranging items - like dominos or coins in the shape of cars, airplanes, trains, etc. He is such a little builder. He also like to build towers out of stuff and then knock it over. He has the sweetest conversations with me and often will just come up to me and hug me or rub my face in the most gentle way. The other day he rubbed my hair and said "you so seeet mommy" (you're so sweet). He has such a tender heart. I could just go on and on about what a blessing it is to be his mom and how proud I am to have him as my son.

Jon is doing great! He is such a hard worker and great provider for our family - both with our physical needs and our emotional ones as well. His job has freed him up to spend so much quality time with us, and we love having him work from home. We get to have lunch as a family most days, and he has been such a help to me as I am getting so close to the end of this pregnancy and need help with little things - like tying my shoes haha! He is such a wonderful daddy and I cannot wait to see him holding and loving on our baby girl!

We recently had family pictures done...I have been terrible about taking any pregnancy pictures - so these are basically it!  I will leave you with our favorite pictures below!

 

 

 

 



2 years old!

Our Big 2 year old - waking up to his morning Birthday Balloons - he loves this tradition and had fun swimming in a sea of balloons when he woke up!

 On September 29th We were so excited to celebrate Anderson's 2nd Birthday with a day full of Fire Truck celebrations! He is such a sweet, smart, loving little guy. It is such a gift that the Lord has entrusted him to us! He loves cars and trucks, mowing the grass, and playing outside. He can recognize more than half of the letters in the alphabet and tell words that they start with, like "A" Anderson, "O" outside, "M" momma, etc... He can also count to 10 - and he does it really quickly - it is so cute. He talks so well and says things all the time that surprise us. He is so smart at figuring things out and has even tried to work a deal with us a time or two - "Anderson eat peas, Anderson get M&M's" - haha. We have laughed more in these past 2 years than we ever could have imagined. We have also gone through seasons of sleep deprivation, re-learning how to do everything, more prayer, more trusting the Lord, and more hope for our future than ever before! Children are truly a blessing from the Lord!

Started the morning off with Donuts! Anderson's favorite.

Then we took Anderson to the fire station to see REAL fire trucks - here he is with his daddy!

Anderson was shy around the firemen but he loved the engines!

All of us together

Party decorations

For weeks Anderson talked about having a fire truck chocolate cake. He was thrilled.

I love how excited he looks.

We just had a small family party, but we had to invite the Laing family since he and Liam are such sweet buddies. They are excited about something!

Sweet friends

Anderson's Pap playing with his new tool bench

Aunt LoLo pleaying with his new leaf blower.

Anderson got so many great gifts - TOO many!

He also got a Big Boy bed!! He has transitioned so well with sleeping in it. We are so thankful for that blessing!

I also cannot forget to add that after 2 mornings of making up his bed first thing, Anderson decided on Morning 3 to take it upon himself to start making his bed up the moment he woke up! It was so cute! I walked in the room and he started standing up his bed pillows and saying "Aersin do it" (Anderson do it). Gotta love my sweet little OCD boy - I seriously cannot complain because he has to be the cleanest, tidiest 2 year old that ever lived!