Our Trip to Babyland General

While we were in Atlanta for the Christmas holidays, Claire decided that she wanted to go to Babyland General in Cleveland, Georgia and adopt a baby!  For those of you who may not be familiar with Babyland General, it is the home of the Cabbage Patch Kids!  So on the morning of her 5th birthday, Claire, Brock and I ate the  breakfast of her choice - Chick-fil-A.  Then we went to Gran and Grandaddy's house (Brock's parents) to pick up Gran, who was having a "Girls Day" with us at Babyland General and drop off Brock, who was having a "Father/Son Day" with his dad.

Babyland General moved since the last time I visited with Audrey six years ago.  The new facility is huge and beautiful!  It sits on over 650 acres in the mountains of North Georgia!  Very picturesque!  The new hospital has the look of an old Southern plantation which adds even more charm to the experience.

One thing I will say about Babyland General is that they take all of this VERY seriously!  There are rules and procedures to follow.  The No. 1 rule is that the Cabbage Patch Kids/Babies are BABIES, not dolls!!! In fact, that four-letter word is known as a bad word at Babyland General.  So it was no surprise when we got to the front doors and it looked very much like a real hospital.

Once we passed through the "Admitting" doors, we were in the lobby, where a very nice, grandmotherly woman was sitting behind the registration desk... dressed in a complete nurse uniform, of course!

Claire signed in and told the nurse that it was her birthday and she wanted to adopt a new baby!  The nurse explained where everything was and told us that new babies were born throughout the day in the cabbage patch.

After leaving Registration, we walked through the Nursery, where we saw some of the Cabbage Patch Babies that had already been born.  Claire was so excited as she walked by each of the cribs filled with babies.

We then went to the main room, where the cabbage patch is located.  Mother Cabbage is in the middle of this room and had just delivered a new baby when we were walking in.  Claire walked around and admired all of the babies that were still in their cabbages and those that were freshly delivered from the patch!

She found a "Lullaby" baby, which is a baby that is found in one of the cabbage heads in the cabbage patch, and fell in love with her.  She named the baby "Crystal".  She has blond hair and blue eyes just like her new mom, but her new mom (Claire) has a few issues with her wild and crazy newborn hair!

While Claire and Crystal bonded on the bench close to Mother Cabbage, we heard the announcement that Mother Cabbage was in labor - 9 leaves dilated actually (I told you they take this very seriously).  We moved over to be close to Mother Cabbage and watch the delivery.  It was a special one because it was a new delivery specially planned for Claire.  It is called "Planned Parenthood".  It was very cute!  There is a little bit of background noise in the video from people chatting and kids playing in other parts of the room, but you are able to experience the delivery of Claire's baby "Natalie"... the nurse calls her "Crystal" but Claire decided after the delivery that she wanted the baby born that day to be Natalie and the Lullaby baby to be Crystal.

Once Natalie was checked out in the Newborn Nursery, Claire was able to complete her adoption papers and take the official Adoption Oath.  The nurse got started a little faster then I was able to have the camera rolling but I was able to capture the majority of the oath.

Claire really enjoyed her trip to Babyland General (and if I am being honest, Gran and I really enjoyed it too).  Thanks Gran for helping make this trip a lot of fun!

If you are ever in the North Georgia area or just want to plan something fun for your daughter/granddaughter, then a trip to Babyland General is definitely something that you should look into doing. 

I'm Dreaming of a...

 You guessed it - A White Christmas! It hasn't happened in 128 years... The last white Christmas in Atlanta was in 1882! It was extra special for lots of reasons...

1. We were there to experience it.
2. It was Claire's first snow!
3. It was also Duke's first snow.  And...
4. As obvious as it is - It was a White Christmas!!!

That is something that people dream of (at least that's what the song says). The kids saw the first flakes begin to fall earlier in the day and the excitement began. Although those first flakes melted as soon as they reached the ground, the excitement did anything but melt. By the time we finished our Christmas dinner and opened presents there was a nice blanket of snow on the ground. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words so I will save you from reading a few extra thousand of those and I will just share some of the photos from our snowy Christmas fun!

Claire checking out the first snowflakes (even though it was more slush, than flake)

Audrey enjoyed the snow... although her nose turned quite pink! :)

Claire's 1st Snow!

Rolling a snowball for her tabletop snowman!

Just one more on top will make it PERFECT!

See!  It's perfect! :)

Duke really enjoyed trying to catch the snowballs that the girls tossed up!

Audrey's Snow Angel

 

Dad and the girls working on the tabletop snowman

Downtown Melbourne Christmas Parade

This year we were able to experience the Christmas parade in a whole new way... We were actually in the parade!  Our friends invited us to join them on their float, which was actually a boat!  It was so much fun.  Audrey and Claire LOVED every moment!  We rode in the boat while Brock and some of the other adults walked along side the boat passing out candy.  The parade was at night so the boat looked amazing decked out in lights and garland.  We waved and shouted "Merry Christmas!" to the crowd.  Sometimes the float would have to stop to navigate the turns and the flow of the parade.  When this would happen Claire would instruct me to "just keep waving" and not to say Merry Christmas again because we had "already told this group"...  When we would start moving again, she would tell me it was okay to start saying Merry Christmas again.  It was so cute and also very hard not to laugh because she was so very serious about it all.  At the end of the parade, Audrey and Claire had fun modeling the "Sold" sign that hung on the boat during the parade.  A few photos from the night are below... Enjoy!

Santa's Helpers on the boat 

 Brock and Eddie getting ready to hand out candy

Audrey modeling the "Sold" sign

Claire modeling the "Sold" sign



Our friends took some more photos that I will add to this post when I get them...

24 weeks

So here is a photo that Audrey took of my ever-growing belly at 24 weeks... I am a little behind in getting this posted because we are now at 25 weeks but it's been crazy around my house (more on that later).  I went for my checkup on Monday and got a great report.  Baby #3 is right on schedule and my weight is still progressing right on track - only 9 pounds thus far - but I am sure that will change as she starts adding lots of cuddly fat to her little body.  She has been kicking and rolling around a lot lately.  Everyone - being the immediate family - has been able to feel her movements.  Even Duke got in on the action last night... He was snuggled next to me with his body next to the belly.  Baby kicked and Duke jumped!  It was very funny!  She has also found my sciatic nerve or at least found a position to hang out that presses on it... While the discomfort is not a constant issue, it does catch me off guard at the intensity, albeit a short spurt of intensity.  I have added a number of stretches and exercises to my daily routine that will hopefully help alleviate most of the discomfort.  I don't remember having this issue with my previous pregnancies, but the doctor did tell me that subsequent pregnancies tend to carry lower and that may cause more pressure to be placed on the area around the sciatic nerve.  All in all, the pregnancy is still going very well... While I can no longer see my toes, I am able to move around very easily and my energy level seems to be getting better each day, which is a very good thing since the holidays are upon us and my schedule seems to be getting crazier by the day.  We are going for our 4-D ultrasound tomorrow afternoon so I will try to post new photos soon!

21 Weeks

"You are halfway there!"  That's what my weekly e-mail told me this week.  It's seems like we just found out that we were having another baby and now I am 5 months along.  The end of March seems like a long time away, but it also feels like it is right around the corner.  So with only four months to go, I have been feeling really good (with the exception of my allergies that are always bad this time of year).  I remember how great the second trimester is - you know, when you can still move around relatively well, you can still see your toes (well, barely see your toes) and your energy level picks up a bit.  I have been feeling the baby move like crazy, but everytime I try to get someone else to feel her (like my husband or my children), either she stops moving or they can't feel the movement.  It is a bittersweet time for me because, while I want them to share in the excitement of the baby's movements, I still like being the only one that can feel it.  It is like a special bond that only the two of us share.  In the next few weeks, she should grow enough that Brock and the girls will be able to feel her kicks and flips; and I will be so happy to be able to share it with them.  For now, I will treasure each movement that I get to experience solo.

"Ghostly Girl" and the "Viking Princess"

From the risen dead to the plundering vikings, our Halloween was full of fun!  Audrey searched and searched the costume catalog for the perfect costume.  When she found "Ghostly Girl" she knew that was the one.  She loved the idea of being one of the "risen dead" on Halloween.  It was a spooky, but not scary costume.  She appeared to be floating down the street with her long, tattered gown.  Her favorite part of the costume was the wig and hat.  Claire, on the other hand, went back and forth between several costumes until she finally decided on the Viking Princess.  Her costume did double duty since she had to dress up for her school's International Fall Festival, where each child had to choose a country to represent.  Claire chose Sweden and went back into their early history to represent the vikings that pillaged and plundered through parts of eastern Russia.  She wanted to be a princess, but not your everyday Disney princess.  The Viking Princess costume was the ticket!

We had a great time trick-or-treating through a few of the houses in our neighborhood before joining Audrey's friends and their family for candy-seeking adventures on their street.

Below are some photos of the girls in their costumes... Enjoy!

"You are next!"

 "Stop!  Give me all of your gold and jewels!"

And of course, it wouldn't be Halloween without some silly photos... :)

 Hope everyone had just as much fun on Halloween as we did!

It's a GIRL!!!

We went to the hospital on Friday for my second trimester ultrasound.  The tech told us that everything looked great - the baby was just the right size for the due date and all of the parts were there and in the correct places, oh, and she also told us that more PINK was in our future! :)  Baby Ballard #3 is Baby Girl #3!  While most people have thought that we might be disappointed that we are having another girl, we are actually very happy.  We would have been happy either way, but having another girl just goes along with what we already know what to do.  Other plus is now we do not have to rename the boat! ;) 

(note the name at the back)

Audrey and Claire are very happy about having a new sister.  Claire wanted a sister all along and declared, "I was RIGHT!" when the tech told us it was a girl.  I think 'being right' is something that means a lot to a little sister!  Audrey, who really wanted a brother, was still excited about a new sister.  The fact that this means that she will get her own "big girl" teen room when the baby moves into the room with Claire probably had a bit to do with that.

Okay, for those of you who are wondering, we do not have any names at this point but we are putting our thinking caps on and getting started with the process.  Audrey's name was relatively easy.  We knew that we wanted "Grace" as the middle name and when we found the name "Audrey" in the family tree we just knew that was the perfect combination.  Claire's name didn't come quite as quickly, mainly because I put so much pressure on myself to come up with a name that was equally as perfect as Audrey's.  We knew we wanted "Claire" (another name from the family tree) but we struggled with another name to go with it for quite some time.  The doctor scheduled my induction for the 30th of December and that put the name selection into high gear.  We found "Natalie" which means born on/near Christmas, which worked great since Claire was born on Dec. 30th.  With that we had an equally perfect name for our second baby girl.  So we have "Audrey Grace" and "Natalie Claire"... and now we have to come up with another girl name that is equally as perfect as those two.  I have no doubt that we will, but I know that it will take some thought. :)