My nursing literature

So far I've spent a couple hours drooling over the amazing pictures in November's issue of "Seattle". Check out the teaser . . .

"The Best Chocolate EVER- Best Desserts- Where to find the 95 richest cakes, creamiest pies and most decadent desserts for every craving."

That's 95 desserts at different Seattle/Eastside/Tacoma restaurants!!! If this article does not make you beg and plead for a dessert date with your hubby, there is something wrong with you.

For more date ideas or if you have any great date ideas, check out this blog www.marriedandstilldating.blogspot.com!

P.S I've had these Chocolate Graham cracker with toasted Marshmallow cupcakes at Trophy Cupcakes and they are lip-smacking good. Thanks Michelle!

Halloween preview

Our church had their annual trunk-or-treat last night. People decorate the trunks of their car and hand out candy so the kids can walk from car to car. If you can't tell- Belize is Curious George, Brannon is the man in the yellow hat, I'm a banana (or a yellow gang member), and Rio is a cute baby in a yellow blanket. :)

Rio- 2 weeks

The saying, "Sleeping like a baby," always cracks me up. We're on week 2 now of baby sleeping. Sometimes Rio has 3 hours stretches but it still takes over an hour for a feeding (plus multiple changings). I guess I forgot how much newborns poop!!! His umbilical cord fell off this week so he got to have his first official bath. Rio still has some jaundice but it seems to be getting better cause he's eating like a champ. A couple days ago he really started lifting up his head to get a better look at who's holding him. Also as of right now it looks like he's going to have dark blue eyes, as soon as I can get a good picture to prove it, I will post it. In the last picture he's next to the REAL baby Noah (Belize is still having issues). His big sister is very gentle with him and he's a very consolable baby, I love him a lot and am excited to see his little personality grow. Today he weighed 8 lb 4 oz, that's my boy!

Alki Beach

Our first family of four outing to Alki beach, it was chilly but definitely good to get outside.

Belize Update- 23 months

The pictures say everything.

Some sweet perspective

Mr. Popular

Rio has had lots of visitors . . . in no particular order:
Mari- 5 months old, future sweetheart
Uncle Kyle - Birthday boys, Kyle was born on October 12th which is great because we can combine birthday parties in the future (am I a horrible mother planning that already?)
Nana - who was a trooper and let me get some beauty sleep (who am I kidding? I am beyond help at this point)
Great Grandma and Grandpa Hawkins- Love that we call them exactly what they are- GREAT!
Aunt Sarah- who looks smokin' in this picture.
Belize- I love that Rio looks like he has a giant foot. :)

Belize update

Until today, Belize has seemed relatively uninterested in her baby brother and refers to him as Baby Noah (our friends the Freese just had a baby and named him Noah) no matter how many times we correct her. Today while Rio was in his carseat she became very interested and said, "Hi", gave his carseat hugs and rocked him. My friend Michelle gave Belize this cute party hat, which she calls her birthday hat and we've been practicing the Happy Birthday song a lot, I don't think a month is to early to start celebrating. We gave her a Little People farm set, which keeps her entertained just long enough for me to feed Rio. It also plays the Old MacDonald song and today in no particular musicality she "sang"-
"E-I-E-I-O, E-I-E-I-O. Moo-moo-moo. MacDonald."
and then finished it off by raising both her hands and shouting, "Ooooooooooooooooh!"
Nana was over and had this brilliant idea to make different faces out of playdough on Belize's pumpkin. Much better alternative to carving, plus it's reusable. This one was a silly face.

Coming home

We got discharged early mostly due to the fact that Rio and I were feeling so well, a little due to Dad's ironic dislike of hospitals.

Rio Rodriguez Orton

Born October 11th 2008
Swedish Hospital at 6:03 AM
7 lbs 8 oz & 20 1/2 inches

Birth Story - if you like the details.

Friday, I went into my doctor's apt, 3 cm dilated on my way to a 4, 70% effaced. She said that she could massage my membranes if I wanted to see if that would speed up the process, and I DID! The rest of the day, I spent having lots of cramps and pressure and wondering if my anticipation had gotten the best of me. At about 9:30 I started having some sporadic contractions but at 11:30 or so Brannon and I decided to go to bed just in case this was all a hoax. Then at 1:23 I was painfully awaken to consistant painful 8-5 minute apart contractions. We waited for a few and then packed up the rest of our things, woke up Belize and headed to Swedish hospital, by then it was around 2:30am. We handed Belize off to Abuelo and Abuela who kindly met us there. Things moved along really quickly as I was dilated to 5cm and having contractions every 2 -3 minutes. They moved us into a room from triage and the anesthesiologist caught up with us and gave me a HEAVENLY epidural! The whole labor was night and day difference from Belize's (the epidural did not end up working at all). The doctor (Megan McKeever) broke my water an hour and a half later, and I laid down for a rest. Half an hour later, I told the nurse (Katie) that I felt like I needed to push and low and behold when she checked me I was completely dilated and ready to go. I pushed for 2o minutes or so, keep in mind, I was in NO PAIN! So I was able to keep a lot of control and I didn't tear this time either. Then gloriously at 6:03 AM, 3 1/2 hours after arriving at the hospital, Rio Rodriguez Orton was born!!!! He looks almost identical to his sister in a boy sort of way with dark eyes, black wavy hair and the cutest little nose i've ever seen!

The real Labor Day

Taking a walk w/ Belize in the pea patch by our house trying to induce a little thing called labor.

Baby brother

Funny things

I've been meaning to record the funny things Belize says on the video camera, but I don't think that will ever happen so here are two things she's been cracking us up with lately:

1) When passing gas, she yells, "Mine! I tooted!"

2) When Brannon or I are upset with her and she knows she's doing something bad, in a soft sweetly voice, "Hi Mommy, how you doin'?"

Fake out

I'm bummed, I had some Braxton-Hicks contractions last night followed by some intense ones that were spaced 1/2 hour apart. Just when I got excited, they stopped. Baby brother is considered full term now so I am ready to welcome him into the world ANYTIME!!!!! Let's see what are some other cute tidbits from Belize this week . . . . I overheard her singing the whole alphabet song, but will not repeat it and she refers to ants as "party ants", i'm not sure if that's really what she's saying but that's what it sounds like. Brannon started a new rotation for Emergency Medicine at UW and Childrens, it is so much fun to see him, sometimes I forget how much i love seeing that guy all the time. Me- please put a fork in me, i'm just done! But on a random note, I started a job this week. It's doing day-care for a small local gym but Belize loves the playdate and I just get to sit down, pretty sweet!