Welcome to our blog!

Hi everyone! Welcome to the Pridemore family blog! I intended to do this when Ella was born so that our friends and family who don’t see us very often could keep up…now 2 years later with baby #2 almost here we are finally up and running. If we haven’t spoken with some of you in awhile – here is an update on how the 3 (and a ½) of us are doing…

Ronnie is completing his 2nd year of residency at the University of Louisville. He is specializing in Emergency Medicine and will finish up in June, 2011. He has already started communicating with hospitals about his first “real” job and we can’t wait to see where God takes us! He works a lot of hours right now, but we are thankful because the ER has tougher restrictions on the number of hours residents are allowed to work so it could be much worse. And the best part is he is never on call. He also comes home with some very interesting stories! About 6 months ago Ronnie had knee surgery after tearing the ACL, MCL & Meniscus in his left knee while playing softball. (You can feel free to tease him for having such a brutal injury while playing softball.) Conveniently, one of his teammates is a very well respected orthopedic surgeon and Ronnie’s surgery went well. His knee has healed well, though he has been frustrated lately as he has tried to exercise more and isn’t able to do things as well as he could before. A couple of days ago he took Ella out for a 4 mile run in the jogging stroller and I caught him limping soon after. He tries not to limp in front of me because I tell him to stop pushing himself so hard and remind him to wear his brace!

I’m doing great. I quit my job about a year ago and absolutely love being a stay at home mom. Ella and I have a blast together. We spend a lot of time at the YMCA, once a week we go to Open Gym at the Kentucky Gymnastics Association and we often get together to play with friends. I am currently nearing full term in my pregnancy. At 33 weeks we discovered that I had started progressing so I was told to rest and take it easy. I’m still trying to figure out how you are supposed to rest when you find out that your baby may come early and you have nothing ready…not to mention when you chase a 2 year old around all day long! But thankfully she has stayed put and I will be full term (37 weeks) on Tuesday. Though she is likely to make her debut any minute – at my appointment on Wednesday I was 3 cm dilated and 70% effaced. Ronnie has a few days off this week so we are now hoping that she comes sooner rather than later!

Ella is fantastic. She turned 2 in January and is extremely active and enthusiastic in everything she does! She constantly makes us laugh with her goofy personality. She loves to talk in silly voices and make silly faces. She loves reading books – I have to set a limit on how many we read before nap time and bed time or we would read for hours. During my “rest” time I allowed her to watch more TV than usual and her favorite movie is now The Lion King. One of the first things she asks every morning is if we can watch The Lion King. She quotes lines from it all the time (often telling Ronnie, “Dad, you promised!!”) and sings Hakuna Matata. She also loves Dora and had a Dora birthday party. We don’t have cable so she doesn’t have the pleasure of watching it on TV, but she has tons of Dora books and one video that I found at a consignment store. She also loves to play outside and we have been enjoying the spring weather we have had recently.

Our second little girl, Kendall Brooke, will be here any day! We are so anxious to meet her. We often wonder if she will look like Ella (though we think she won’t have much choice since Ronnie and I could pass for siblings when you look at our baby pictures) and if they will have similar personalities. One thing we do know is that she will start out bigger than Ella! I had an ultrasound at 35 weeks and she was already measuring as big as Ella was when she was born (6 lbs 5 oz) at almost 38 weeks! Ella has always been long and lean. At her 2 year checkup she was in the 8th percentile for weight (a jump up since she was at one point below 3rd percentile) and 50th percentile for height. Kendall also seems to be extremely active. Ella was very quiet in the womb but Kendall feels like she is going to kick herself out or break ribs! She isn't even here yet and she is already keeping me up at night!

I hope you all enjoy keeping up with us this way!

Kelly