Field Trip to the farm

Maegan's first field trip of the year was today! It was VERY cold because it was VERY windy, but we did okay! Molly snuggled up in the mei tai sling and was a trooper! (She slept the whole time.)

Ready to learn about farms!


The popcorn she picked:




Using the old-fashioned popcorn thingy:



All three girls are doing well! Everyone asks me how the older two are adjusting, and they truly are both doing much better than I thought. Of course there is chaos, but it's good chaos. They both have a lot of fun smothering Molly with hugs and kisses. Here they are this afternoon, sharing Molly's first tummy time!


Molly's first doctor's appointment is tomorrow!

A few Molly pics

Here's some pics from the last week. We are all doing great! Molly is already just one ounce shy of her birthweight, after being down 12 ounces 4 days ago! She's eating well! :) Both Maegan and Anna-Kate are doing awesomely with Molly. I can't even begin to tell you how neat it is to see them doting on her, to hear Maegan call her "my baby" and to see them run for her when they come home from Grandma's house, instead of running for me! :)

(Copy and paste link, I can't direct link here for some reason.)

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8Abt2TNi0ZuXeA&emid=sharview&linkid=link2

Introducing...

Molly Lyn Dolan
born 9.26.07
9 lb 5 oz
20.5 inches





dark hair!

The countdown is on!

10 more days!

Here's my (ACHING) belly!




I don't have much to say, as my thoughts are completely consumed with the upcoming birth. I'm totally excited for my hospital "vacation" and look forward to just sitting and enjoying my new baby for a few days! Now I just pray that she is healthy, and that I avoid this cough that has been plaguing Ryan and Maegan!

Big girl beds and elephants

I had no part in this at all. Can I just point out a few things? 1. A-K's hat on backwards? Yeah, she did that. 2. Ribbon tied to scooter? Maegan did that. 3. Cupboard lock used as handle? Maegan did that too. These kids crack me up!


A-K has moved to a big girl bed! Here she is after we showed it to her for the first time:

That night she was way too wound up to sleep in it so back to the crib she went. But last night she did perfectly, and then today at nap time I found this:


Clearly she was having a little party in there before she fell asleep. Big Valentine Bear, Nemo, and Pink Bunny were all there. She has on a hat, and the lotion is out. It smells like Baby Magic in her room. :)

Anna-Kate's Halloween costume is a hit, with the little:


and the big:

First day of school!!!

Today was Maegan's first day of 4 year old preschool! It went very well, as she is going to the same school with the same teachers she had last year. I think she was pretty excited to go because this morning she was saying things like "at my school we get to have a snack!" and "at my school we have some new toys!" Aside from going one more day per week this year, as compared to last year, she also has HOMEWORK and gets to go to the LIBRARY each week!
Here she is, all ready for school:




And I'm pretty sure had I left Anna-Kate there she would have done just fine! She jumped right into the toys and could have played all day I think. I've said it before but her verbal skills continue to amaze us- her latest sentence last night at dinner- "I don't like that." (as she moved her dinner plate from her highchair to the dinner table.) Ryan and I just stared at each other, where has our baby gone?!

And, my 34 week belly! Only 30 days to go!!!

8.14.07

We got home from vacation last week and I had every intention of posting pics right away, sorry to those of you waiting on pins and needles to see them! :) You'll have to copy and paste the link, for some reason I cant link to it through here:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8Abt2TNi0ZuXWg

We all had a great time being away from the real world for a week. The girls travelled well and loved spending lots of time with daddy! Maegan, Ryan and I got to go on a dolphin tour, which was really cool. We did lots of relaxing, swimming and playing in the sand.

It's good to be home and back into normal life, although normal life is sort of unscheduled and boring right now. No classes, school or planned activities, it seems that this is the calm before the storm? Maegan starts school in 12 days! I'm really looking forward to that, and so is she. She has the same two teachers she had last year, so that is nice. I can definitely see a loss of some things she was doing well at the end of the school year, so I'm eager to see her get those skills back. She will start her dance and tumbling classes on September 7th, and I know she's very excited about that. She is determined to learn how to do a cartwheel and a headstand, boy do I hope they come through for her.
Anna-Kate won't have any activities of her own until after baby sister arrives, when I hope to get her into a fall music class. I look forward to getting to do a class with just her! She's been quite injury-prone this summer but has had a good couple of weeks (knock on wood.) She's still picking up words left and right, a couple of my current favorites are "i did it!" and ryan says last night she was saying "i want mama!" She really amazes us with the things she can say- as I look back at things I wrote and videos of Maegan, she is saying things at 19 months that Maegan didnt say until closer to 3.
Baby girl arrives 6 weeks from Wednesday! I'm done being pregnant and ready to move onto this next stage of my life, as scary as it may be! I'm pretty uncomfortable at times, which I keep reminding myself somehow that pain and discomfort magically disappear (and are replaced by other pains!) as soon as baby girl arrives. So I hold onto that :)

One of Maegan's many talents

Who knew she was so talented, right?!


30 weeks pregnant today! 65 days to go!

Anna-Kate's injury

Poor baby got hurt on Saturday! We were at Rick and Kelly's house, and the kids were playing on the swingset. Maegan was swinging on the 4-person glider thing and Anna walked behind her just as Maegan swung back and Anna-Kate got totally plowed over. I saw her feet go flying! The glider has a metal frame and it caught her just below her eye, and so she has a perfect circle cut. And a pretty bruise and some swelling to go with it! She handled it really well, though- we all know she's a tough nut!

A few things...

Most exciting news- baby Dolan #3 will arrive on Wednesday, September 26th, at 9:30 am! That's 77 days away!

Maegan and Anna-Kate had their 4 year and 18 month checkups today. Maegan is 39 pounds and 41.5 inches, putting her in the 80th %tile for both. Anna-Kate is 23.5 pounds and 31 inches, putting her in the 40th %tile for both. They are the picture of health, and Dr. Omar was pleased that we only saw him for one "sick" visit the entire winter (Maegan's bloody nose problem, which is solved thank goodness.) Let's hope next winter is just as healthy!!!

And I have a funny story from each girl to share:
Maegan had to give a urine sample and was quite perplexed about why I needed to catch her pee in a cup. She finally agreed and gave me the sample, and when she saw the cup she blurted, "MOMMY IT LOOKS JUST LIKE LEMONADE!!!!" and then was so proud of her lemonade that she insisted on carrying it from the restroom, down the hall to the exam room. No one can say I haven't taught my girls to be proud of their accomplishments!!!

Tonight at dinner Anna-Kate (the horribly picky eater) had eaten one small serving of applesauce and a teeny piece of cheese. Since she has eaten pretty much nothing else but fruit snacks today, I was begging her to eat something else. I asked her what she wanted to eat, if she wanted a banana, some melon, pancakes, goldfish, crackers? And I kid you not, the girl said, "candy."

We did our retake of Anna-Kate's 18 month pictures and this is what we got (better than last week!)

5 amazing years

Before I write about Maegan's birthday, I need to show you what Ryan and I have accomplished in our first five years of marriage:

Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:


Exhibit C:






It blows me away when I look at these three beautiful girls and realize that Ryan and I have only been married 5 years! LOL We have started an amazing life together and added two, soon to be three, of the most awesome little girls to this world. Thank you to all of our friends and family for supporting our marriage and for loving us. And most importantly, thank you to my husband for being the most amazing husband and father I know.



Onto Maegan's birthday! She had a great day and is so pleased to tell people that she is FOUR now. She received many awesome gifts and is sooo thankful for all of them :)
The pictures above are from our attempt at Maegan's 4 yr pics and Anna-Kate's 18 month pics. As you can see, someone was feeling a tad uncooperative that day! I can't wait to go try again. (HUGE eyeroll here.) Here is a few other pics from that great shoot!









Pregnancy update:
I had my 28 week appointment yesterday. It went well...for the most part. I passed my glucose tolerance test! YAY! The Good Lord must know that Erin and a special pregnancy diet would not make for a happy Dolan family. And just to make that a little bit funnier, I've gained EIGHT POUNDS in the past month! No wonder I've been feeling huge all of the sudden. I was just telling Ryan on Wednesday that I'm huge and I think I'm as big now as I was fullterm with Anna-Kate (which I'm not, i just feel that way!) and now we know why! I dont know why the big jump, so i'll blame the baby. :) Oh and maybe my body was just holding back so I could fit into my bridesmaid dress for Nicole's wedding, and now that that's over it's no holds barred!
I should be getting a call today (I'm hoping) with my day/time of baby girl's birth! I cant wait.

26 weeks

Sorry for the blurry pic, we are redoing the master bathroom (my usual photo site) and this is the next best thing to that room. As you can see my belly extends from my throat to my...well you get it. Heartburn city!

Wedding!

Kyle and Justine got married yesterday! And here is what you get when you try to photograph an *almost* four year old and 2 one year olds. CHAOS!


The wedding went very well and I have about 300 pictures- half of them with Maegan looking at the camera and the other half with Anna-Kate looking at the camera. :) Both of the girls really enjoyed the wedding. Maegan walked up the aisle like a pro and Anna-Kate needed a little help from Daddy, and it was the cutest thing ever. He was kind of shooing her up the aisle and then she started to go, turned around and realized he was walking the other way and then she ran down the entire aisle back to him! So then she got to walk up the aisle for a second time, in Daddy's arms. (Anyone else thinking maybe this wasn't an accident? :) The girls had an awesome time at the reception, they showed off all their dance moves (Maegan's seem to include a lot of galloping?) and made some new friends in the process.

Only two more days until cousins Ellie and Lindsay are home! Maegan is extremely excited and has lots of big plans. It will be a very fun few weeks!

Oh, and I just realized we have approximately 95 days until baby girl arrives!!!

New feature

I've added a feature on the far right of our page, where if you enter your email address you will receive an email each time I update the site. Nice huh?

She's a she!!!

I spoke to my OB today about our ultrasound last month and how disappointed we were (the tech was not very friendly nor helpful.) He was very apologetic and hooked me up with another ultrasound right then! And we had much better luck this time, the tech was awesome and our little girl is definitely a girl! Here are the pictures I got today:

A great profile shot!


Face from the front (I think she might look like Anna-Kate!)


And the tell-tale girly parts shot:


I've only gained 2 lbs in the last month! Hurray! I have no idea how I managed that. Next appointment I will schedule my c-section, have my glucose screening, and get my Rhogam shot. Big appointment! Then, if you can believe this, I begin my bi-weekly appointments! It's just so hard to believe that this girl will be here in just 15 weeks!

First dance recital!

Maegan performed wonderfully!!!! We are all so proud of her, it was so amazing to see her up on stage and doing the dance! I dont have any pictures of during the recital because no photography is allowed, but here is a picture I snapped of her before we left. She LOVED having her hair and makeup done and made me reapply makeup and hairspray several times :)



And 22 week belly!

School's out for summer!

Maegan is all done with 3 year old preschool! Her progress report shows tremendous growth in the past year! She knows all of the concepts that they look for at this age, except for understanding "medium" and "less." There are 32 concepts total, and then 19 colors and shapes. So we think she did great!!! Here are some samples of her work they sent home in her folder. The self-portrait comparison is my favorite! It's kind of hard to see the August one since she used a light green crayon, but I think it's good enough. There's her name samples, the first done in January and the second in May. She can actually write it even better than that now, she must have been in a hurry that day :) And the last comparison are the pictures of her from August and May! She's grown so much!
August:


May:



Name samples:


August:


May:



Maegan's first dance recital is tomorrow! She did AWESOME at the rehearsal last night. Those of you who know Maegan know that she's very, very scared of loud noises and not the most adventurous person when it comes to trying new things. But she was so brave and did great standing in line, walking the long walk to backstage and then going out onto the stage. She did her dance well, and then later we went back to rehearse the finale and she did that perfectly (with all the other 200-some students on stage with her!) and then sat there on stage through the whole awards ceremony which included a lot of screaming and clapping! I am just so proud of her, she's been through some big changes in the past month and it's like I can see her changing into this little girl right before my eyes- she's not my baby anymore! She loved loved loved getting her hair done for the rehearsal, and putting on the makeup! Oh and we're very busy planning Maegan's 4th birthday party. She has lots of ideas and changes her theme daily.

The other kids are doing great! Anna-Kate is working on at least 3 new teeth right now, including her bottom molars! She's down to one nap per day, but that's a good thing since we are busy playing outside and going places since it's so nice out. She's still picking up words right and left, and loves to climb on things she shouldn't. If you pause a moment to talk to her, she loves to tell you about her ouchies. She's also a little brute, we had a playdate here yesterday and she was roughing up the little girl that's 4 months older than her. :)
Baby #3 is thumping and kicking away! She seems to move a lot in the afternoon and then at bedtime. Ryan's already felt her kick, although only once. I've tried to get Maegan to feel her, but Maegan moves around too much and then thinks she feels her when she hasn't. :) It will be easier when baby #3 is bigger and those kicks are undeniable.
I still can't believe it's really another girl, so I'm going to do a lot of pleading for another ultrasound...or maybe convince Ryan that it's worth it to pay for the 3d ultrasound. It's hard not knowing for sure! I'd rather not know at all.
Here are two of the ultrasound pics we got, I finally got them scanned in. In both shots her head is on the left, and she is facing you. Cutie huh? :)

5.11.07

Our big ultrasound was today! Yes, of course we caved and we found out that baby Dolan #3 is *probably* a girl!!!!!!! She is in a breech position and wasn't showing her stuff off a lot but the tech guessed girl and that's what we were thinking too! I looked at the video we got of her, and after seeing it more I think it's definitely a girl. But who knows- we could definitely be surprised at the delivery!
All looks well with baby, and she is measuring a couple days ahead. She weighs about 12 ounces and her heartrate was 132 bpm.
We are both very excited to be having another girl- what's more perfect than 3 girls?! (And of course it guarantees we'll have another baby, so we'll get our boy someday...right?!)

5.1.07

Happy May Day!

Updates all around...
Maegan is having a rough time lately. She's developed a fear of being away from mommy, and has had awful crying jags every time she has to seperate. It started with dance class, then her museum class, preschool and then for daycare at Mom's Morning! It's made it quite a difficult couple weeks, but Miss Klopp said it went better today and she cried much less, so hopefully we've turned a corner and she'll be over this soon! It's awful for Maegan of course, but it really is hard to just walk away from her when she is screaming "I JUST WANT MY MAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Lots of tears around here lately! :)
Aside from the crying, she is doing well. Preschool wraps up in just 3 weeks, her dance recital is in 3 weeks and she started soccer two weeks ago. It's hard to believe that in just 2 months she'll be four. She's an amazing little girl, and a phenomenal big sister! She is so mushy to Anna-Kate, it's really adorable.

Anna-Kate is doing well! She is a motormouth and is already saying at least 50 words, as well as mimicking most things we say. She really seems to have a knack for picking up words, we dont have to say them much for her to begin using them herself. She even had her first two word phrase (well her first was "good girl" but that is obviously just mimicking mommy and daddy :) this weekend, she said "hi daddy!" and "hi doggy!" She's also very much into climbing, jumping and loves the swimming pool and being outside in general.

Baby #3 is doing well. Our big ultrasound is next week, and we are trying to stay strong to have a surprise, but the pressure is getting to us! It will be interesting to see if we actually keep it that way. I haven't felt any definite movement yet, but a tap here and there that I think could possibly be the baby and not just gas or digestion. I certainly have the heartburn and backache that remind me I am indeed pregnant.

Some pictures and videos from the past couple weeks:

This video is funny- Anna-Kate and i were in her room putting away laundry, when i turned around to see her army crawling underneath the crib. I ran to grab the camera (thank God!) and captured this video:



The girls playing outside last weekend:






Maegan playing soccer:


And a video of Maegan playing soccer (she's on the far left and does the arm flapping/jumping around thing at the beginning. Ryan's the coach in the grey shirt:)

4.26.07

16 weeks!