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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Baby P's first week

There's much to say about Baby P's first week at home and I probably should write it all down now before I forget, but I'm going to play the tired mom card and let the pictures tell the story for me.  For all of you who have been waiting to see more pictures of our newest nugget, enjoy!

Daddy reading with his boys
 
Newest member of his great-grandfather's team is present and accounted for!

We're doing this a lot

Morning story time on the porch

This is how Baby P feels about baths

Ringing the new bell on his tricycle

Believe it or not, this is the best picture we have of the 2 of them so far!
 

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Baby P

You didn't have to be so stubborn about being born,
but you were.

My heart didn't have to skip a beat the surprising, unexpected moment I heard your first cry,
but it did.


You didn't have to wait until the nurse held you close to me and you heard me speak to you to stop crying,
but you did.



You didn't have to be the almost spitting image of your brother,
but you are.


You don't have to look at me out of the corner of your eye and stare when you are nursing and I am talking,
but you do.

God could have given us any other soul in His creation,
but He didn't.


Welcome to the world baby P.  We are so blessed to rebuild our family's life to include the one and only you.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Two and a half-ish

For the entire nine months of pregnancy, the doctors and consequently you, define your child by weeks (as in, tomorrow I'll be 41 weeks!)  Then once the baby is born, you quickly move up from talking about how many weeks old they are to how many months old.  But at some point, you lose track; maybe it's because you stop visiting the pediatrician for well child visits as often.  I'm here to tell you that pregnancy brain or not, I am at that point.  My son is now old enough that I've lost track of how many months old he is, which is a bit strange.  Whenever people ask now I simply say that he's two, although at this point he's closer to two and a half.  And since I don't have my new little bundle of joy to gush about yet, I thought it might be time to share what's been on my mind lately about my two and a half-ish first born.


The biggest change that we have seen in Little B lately has been his energy, which has sky rocketed since he was diagnosed with celiac's disease and we took gluten out of his diet about six weeks ago.  The pitter patter of his little feet has turned into more of a thump thump thump as he runs his way around the house; he seems to have forgotten the meaning of walk.  His energy has increased so dramatically that his need for naps has almost disappeared.  Yikes!  A couple months ago he would sleep two and a half to three hours every single afternoon; now we have pushed nap time back by 30 minutes and it usually takes him at least an hour to fall asleep, if he sleeps at all.  We've taught him that it's ok if he doesn't sleep but he does have to have some quiet time in his room until we come back to get him.  I am astounded at how well he understands and goes along with what we ask of him.  I will confess that there have been a couple afternoons where I have fallen asleep longer than intended and when I wake up almost 2 hours later, he's still playing contentedly in his room.  Awesome kid!

He loves playing in the car right now and asks to do so pretty much every time we get home.  Most expensive "toy" ever!
Verbally Little B is still incredibly advanced.  He speaks in long full sentences which, most of the time, are pretty gramatically correct.  He's even started making up his own words, making games for himself out of the different sounds he makes and different tones of voices he can speak in.  He can say his alphabet and count in order from one to ten, but he can't tell you what an individual letter or number is yet.  That's my educational goal for him in the next few months.  But what has surprised and delighted me most about his little brain lately is that he's entered the world of imagination!  A great example is this conversation we had a couple days ago:

Little B: *chatter chatter chatter* intonation!
Mama P: Intonation?  Where did you learn that word?!
Little B: At school!
Mama P: But Little B, you've never been to school.
Little B: But I pretend!

What most amused me about this exchange is that, according to him, he learned a real word at a pretend school, not quite sure how that adds up!  Later on I figured out that what he was really saying was tarnation, as in "what in tarnation?" which is a phrase Mr. Rogers uses in the Amelia Bedelia books we've been reading.  Smart cookie I've got here:)


As I already alluded to, I have also been amazed lately at his ability to play completely independently for astonishingly long amounts of time.  I think this started around the time that Hubby T started leaving some of his Legos out in Little B's room for him to play with.  Between the Lego vehicles and all his miscellaneous trains and trucks and cars, Little B occupies himself for hours everyday lining them up, driving them somewhere else, lining them up again....I have no idea what scenarios are running through his little imaginative brain but those gears are definitely turning at high speed.  On the one hand, I'm so grateful that he can play by himself happily for so long, because I know it'll be helpful once his little brother is here.  On the other hand, it also makes it really easy for me to get absorbed in reading my book or house cleaning or whatever else I'm doing, and then I feel like I'm neglecting him.  He does come to me when he needs something or wants attention, so I try to be attentive and hope that makes up for it! 

Why is this a picture worthy moment Mom?
All in all, I'm enjoying how much more lively Little B has become and how he's becoming an independent, loving little boy.  It's been a really wonderful gift to have so much one-on-one time with him for the last few weeks since Little D has been home more with his mom and new little brother.  We'll have him back two days a week once the next school year starts in the fall, but anticipate lots of playdates with his family this summer:)

Hubby T's last day of the school year was today and tomorrow morning he's going in for some pre-summer school work before having a true summer break for a couple weeks.  Hubby T's parents are coming into town tomorrow afternoon to keep us company in our waiting for the rest of the week.  And if this stubborn little baby doesn't come on his own, I'll have a c-section this Friday.  All of that to say, tomorrow morning will be my last alone time with my precious first born for probably quite awhile.  It's been a wonderful season of my life to focus completely on him.  And yes, writing that makes me a little emotional.  However, I'm looking forward to seeing how God widens our hearts and lives with the addition of this new little one (if he ever decides to join us.)  Hopefully we'll be able to introduce him to you very soon!

Look Mommy!  I have a baby in my belly too!!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Peanut butter and chocolate pudding

If you give a boy peanut butter for breakfast, he might put some in his hair...


...which means he'll need a bath (before 7 am) so you might as well make the bath worth it and give him something else messy to play with first - chocolate pudding!


And if you give a boy chocolate pudding in the bathtub, he may turn his toy pirate into a paint brush.


He may even decide to paint the shower walls as well.


He may eventually start to get bored painting with chocolate pudding...


...until he realizes he can also step in it!


Skating around on slippery pudding is fun until Mommy says it's time to stop before she loses her grip and the little boy falls and gets hurt.  Grrr...


The little boy may want to keep playing but he'll eventually cooperate with getting washed off because he knows that if he gets clean and dries off...


...he may just get to eat some more peanut butter:)

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Rejoice and be glad

** Note: I wrote this on Friday but waited to post it because there's information in it that wasn't mine to make public at the time.  But now I can!  So, here goes...

I woke up at five this morning and couldn't go back to sleep.  This is fairly normal for me these days, I actually wake up pretty much every hour of the night, but this morning as my brain started to wake itself up for good I started thinking about the coming day.  I knew it was going to be rainy all day (blah).  I didn't have any projects to work on around the house (i.e. I'm bored).  I still wasn't feeling any signs of labor (i.e. I'm impatient).  It seemed like a good day to stay in bed and read all day if I didn't have a frisky 2 year old to take care of.  But then I remembered two exciting things that were happening today, and I thought "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!"  And that made all the difference... 

Today is my little sister's birthday.  She and my mom came up to play with us and have a delicious homemade birthday lunch.  I had a fun morning coming up with some impromptu decorations and planning a meal she would enjoy and then enjoying the meal with her.  She told me she'd heard that if you have rain on your birthday it means luck for the coming year.  I guess she has a pretty lucky year ahead of her!!  Happy birthday again Auntie A, thanks for sharing your celebration with us:)

Today my brother-in-law proposed to his girlfriend, and she said yes!  Weddings are so exciting, especially when they are for people you love.  Theirs will be the first family wedding since Hubby T and I got married six years ago and I'm so excited for them and for the addition his bride will be to our family.  Congratulations Uncle B and best wishes to soon-to-be Aunt K!  We can't wait to see you and congratulate you in person in a couple weeks:)

So despite the rain, despite the wearisome waiting, despite the quietness of my life right now - "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!"  Amen!  I hope that you found joyful, meaningful things to rejoice in this day too...

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Are we ready?

39 weeks today folks!  By medical definition this boy is done (if I had opted to schedule a c-section he'd be born today!)  Apparently it's the babies themselves who put out the hormone that sends your body into labor, so although it's really really really out of my control, I'm doing whatever I can (within limits) to encourage him along.  I'm eating foods that supposedly bring on labor (even though medically there is no proven link between your stomach and your uterus, which makes sense, but I'm trying anyway), I'm walking as much as I can (although my feet get tired really quickly, frustrating), and I'm going to blow up my yoga ball tonight to start bouncing on (a tip from Little D's mom, thanks again!) 

So while I try to keep my one-track mind occupied with anything other than having this baby (in vain) and listen to Little B not nap again (why did my 2 year old decide to stop napping right before his brother is born?!), here are a couple pictures of how our second nursery turned out.  When I get too frustrated with this little basketball inside me I'll just go chill in there, it's a very calming room, at least for now!

Morning sunshine

Mommy and Daddy's second bed, I mean, baby's rocking chair

Changing table alcove, I'm still looking for the right thing to hang on that wall
 
Close up #1 of the awesome paintings my grandmother made for his room, inspired by the wildlife outside her home in Colorado

Close up #2 - and now we have a little piece of our favorite vacation place in our home!  A million thanks again Gigi!