Update

Hi Kids, Well, Abby has been with us a week now and you all seem to have adjusted fairly well to each other. I really am surprised that you are doing so well, and Matthew, I actually feel a little sad that you aren't struggling more with not having as much mommy-time as you are used to. I guess you are more resilient that I thought and a lot more independent. Although I know you are very independent as you frequently go off by yourself when we play outside and find other things to do--you blaze your own trail and do as you please. I have a feeling that may cause some contention down the road, but for now it's an interesting trait.

Abby, you are an excellent baby. You cry when you need to eat, when you are gassy or just when you want to be held, but you are really quite good. You sleep all night, waking only twice for eating and go right back to sleep. Granted, we haven't figured out your sleeping "formula" yet and you mostly sleep in my or Daddy's arms. By formula, I mean that we haven't figured out what gets you to sleep and stay asleep for a good few hours. For Sam, the formula was: swaddle + pacifier + swing = sleep 4 hours. For Matthew it took us a long time to find a formula, but eventually we realized that if we put you to bed right as soon as you started to show signs of tiredness, you would sleep. We didn't even have to have much of a routine, other than give you a pacifier. It was the time window that mattered most. And the time window was usually between 5:30 and 6:30 PM.


Abby, we don't have a formula for you although we've only had you for a week, so it's understandable that we haven't figured you out yet and also, you are just a newborn, so maybe there is no formula to be found at this early stage of life. Anyway, you don't care for pacifiers and the other night, Daddy was extremely frustrated and said, "She hates the pacifier!" You don't seem to care for the swing and don't really like to be swaddled. Hmmm... I don't have any other tricks in my arsenal. You like to be held against the chest, so Daddy or I usually just hold you on our chests and doze as best we can throughout the night. It works, for now. I have a feeling your formula might involve thumb sucking as you seem to have found your thumb an amazing number of times during your first week of life.

In closing I have to include a story about Sam's bedtime tonight. I was feeding Abby and Jason took Sam up to bed. They went up the stairs, then a few moments later Sam started yelling down the stairs, "Hey everybody! Daddy didn't brush my teeth!" Then it was quiet and I assume the bedtime rountine went on as normal. When Jason got downstairs I asked him what happened and he said that Sam asked about brushing his teeth and Jason told him something like, "Oh, we don't need to tonight" and then Sam ran to the top of the stairs to tattle. There are no secrets in our house these days. Love you lots, Mom

Welcome Abby!

Hi Kiddos, Well, now there are three of you. Abby was born yesterday, Oct. 19, 2011. After a few days of fruitless contractions, when they started up again early yesterday morning, I pretty much ignored them. I got dressed to go to the Y, told Jason to go to work and then suddenly, around 7:15AM or so, realized this was the real deal and we needed to go to the hospital ASAP. We arrived at the hospital a little after 8AM and Abby arrived (via waterbirth) at 10:48AM. Daddy broke a few traffic laws on the way to the hospital, but we still made it with plenty of time. Sam, you seem very excited about having a baby around. You frequently come over to the baby, touch her, kiss her, bring her toys and just look at her while saying things like, "Ahhh, look at her eyes!" "Ahh, how cute!". You've said many other cute things over the past day and a half about your new sister, but I can't remember them. Matthew, you are a bit more skeptical about the baby. You point at her often and say, "Baby!" and tried saying goodnight to her tonight, but she didn't wave back. You waved and waved, but got no response. 

Abby, other than being a girl, you seem much different from your brothers. For one, you have a lot of hair and dark hair! I was quite surprised at your hair and didn't want to put on your hat much during our stay at the hospital so I could look at your unruly dark hair. You also seem to have a darker complexion, but I can't remember what your brothers were like at birth, so maybe it's just the hair throwing me off. I'm sure other differences will emerge over the years, but those are the ones that stand out now.

In the picture, Sam you had swaddled a baby doll we have (I bought it a few weeks ago in preparation for your sister's arrival) and were cuddling with your baby doll as Daddy was cuddling Abby. Welcome to our new life together as a family of five. Love, Mom

Fall is here!

Hi Kiddos, Well it's been much too long since I've written anything. I guess I'm a little distracted these days and also tired, so I just haven't sat down to write anything lately and I don't think things will get much better in the coming days, weeks and months, but we'll see.

Fall is officially here! After a weird September and strange start to October, it is finally cool and time to do some fall yard cleaning. Sam, you especially like to rake. So much so that we had to buy another rake so that you, Daddy and I could all have one. I tried using yours a few times (when you stopped raking and were diverted by playing) but you would have none of it. So we bought another. Not a kiddie rake, no, when asked if you wanted a kid-sized rake at Menards the other day, you said no, we already had a rake for you at home, which is a full-sized rake. Matthew, you also enjoy raking, although not to the extent that Sam does and I'm afraid the rake is a little unwieldy for you at this time. You will have to grow into it. Both of you love running, jumping, falling and flailing around in the piles of leaves. This makes for somewhat of a mess and involves much re-raking for whoever is actually doing the raking (generally Daddy), but it also makes for a much more enjoyable time raking. And when Daddy loads the leaves onto the tarp to load into the back of the truck, the real fun begins. You kids get to ride around the yard on the tarp while Daddy pulls you and the leaves to the truck. I can't believe how happy this makes you two, but it sure is fun to watch.

Today, Daddy even threw you two (one at a time) into the leaf pile, much to your enjoyment. Sam, although you are usually one to stay away from risks, you loved being thrown into the leaves. Matthew, on the other hand, although you are usually one to take risks, you didn't really enjoy being thrown into the leaves. Interesting how that worked out today. Anyway, we've had some happy fall days this past week.

Here you two are playing in the leaves from last weekend (notice the shorts and t-shirts...it was quite warm!)

 And here you are enjoying a ride on the tarp...

And this is from today...leaf raking and throwing...(notice the change in attire...it was much cooler today.)

Happy Fall! Love you lots, Mom

Matthew sees the moon

Hi Matthew, last Friday we were at Grammy and Papa's house to celebrate your cousin Josh's birthday. Since there were lots of evening festivities going on, you ended up staying up later than usual which meant that you were awake when it got dark outside. Which also meant that you got to see the moon. It started after Josh opened his birthday presents and someone pointed out the moon outside. You got very excited about it and would regularly interrupt your playing and running around to go to the window and see the moon, excitedly exclaiming "Moon! Moon!" while pointing and waiting for other people to acknowledge your finding. We eventually headed home and the car ride consisted of you saying, "Car, car, car, moon, moon" over and over and over. And we did see lots of cars on the way home, although we couldn't see the moon so I can only assume you were looking for it.

When we got home you again looked for the moon. We went from window to window looking for it and you would ask, "Moon go?" with your palms upturned as you usually do when seeking something. Unfortunately we couldn't see it as it was hidden behind some trees. It was a disappointing way to end a happy evening of seeing the moon. Jason estimates that you must have said "moon" at least 100 times that night and I don't think his estimate is too far off. I was pondering your fixation on the moon later that night after you went to bed, I realized that you had never seen the moon before and had realized that it was actually something real, and not just something that we read about in "Goodnight Moon" and other books. If only we could all be so amazed at something as seemingly simple as the moon.

On Sunday afternoon we were playing outside and again you spotted the moon. It's crescent could be seen in the afternoon sky and you were very excited at it's appearance. We couldn't hardly get you to come inside you just wanted to point and look at the moon and excitedly say, "Moon!" It really made for a fun afternoon and it's neat how something so simple can bring our family so much joy. I love to see how much you love the moon. Well, goodnight and sleep tight. Love, Mom

Sam's Party

Hi Sam, when I was looking through the pictures that we took after the photo shoot on Saturday, I realized I hadn't written anything about your birthday party. Well, it was on Sept. 25 and lots of family came. You were very excited for your party and presents and cake. Uncle Brian brought some helium balloons which you loved.

 You got lots of other great presents including puzzles, games, books, clothes, and of course, cars and trucks. This year you opened all your presents before playing with them (for the most part) unlike last year, where you opened a gift and immediately wanted to play with just that gift. We've read every book you received many times over the past week or so, played with your games and put together puzzles frequently. Matthew has also tried to enjoy your gifts, although he too received some nice gifts for your birthday. Yes, Matthew got some presents too and you have some very nice family. I don't really expect you too much to share your presents, but I do let Matthew try them out if you're occupied with other toys. Sharing isn't a really strong part of who you are right now, but you're getting better and at least more tolerant of Matthew's desire to play with your stuff, and he's also getting used to hearing, "No, that's Sam's" so he leaves some of your stuff alone.

Your cake was a Cars cake that I put together. You picked out the design and enjoyed the singing. You blew out one candle and didn't want to attempt the other two, despite much prodding, so to get things moving along (Matthew was getting impatient for cake) I blew out the other candles. And then both you and Matthew ate cake, well, I guess you just ate frosting. You even picked out the layer of frosting between the two cake layers and your plate was a heap of chocolate when you were finished. After I said you couldn't have any more frosting you tried the cake and realized it was pretty good too, so then you ate the cake. 

We had a lot of fun and I can't hardly believe we've been blessed to have you for three years. I wish I could remember how far you've come over the last year, but you change and grow so quickly. Happy Birthday, kiddo. Love, Mom

Church pictures

Hi boys, Yesterday we had pictures for the church directory taken. We had decided beforehand not to order any because our family is going to change in a few weeks, but we still wanted to get pictures taken for the directory. So we did. Boys, you wore sweater vests that I knitted over nice button down shirts and jeans. You were so darn cute. I hoped to get a promising picture, but wasn't really thinking that was too realistic. Regardless, I figured I wouldn't be too compelled to buy any pictures due to my advanced state of pregnancy and dislike of pictures of me in this state. Anyway, Sam, while we were getting dressed for church Daddy told you to practice a big smile. And a big smile you certainly produced. You opened your mouth wide, with the corners of your mouth slightly upturned and "smiled." It was hilarious. We didn't actually get any pictures of you with your "big smile" but I'm sure you will reproduce it later. I guess you're at the point where fake smiles start. You did really well for the family pictures and we got quite a few nice, and real smiles out of you.

Matthew, however, you were another story. You were chipper and happy while you were running around the church hallways before the picture, but when the photographer started trying to interact with you, you turned very serious, even grimacing or glaring. You do that sometimes. When a stranger tries to talk to you, you just glare. Wow. It's very serious. Your expressions during the photo session involved grimacing, glaring or crying. There was nothing even remotely close to a smile in the 40 or so pictures taken. In fact, for the picture we selected for the directory you were looking, well, ticked off. We really didn't base our selection off of your expression as you were just not cooperative. Of course, when we were looking at the proofs afterward you were your happy self.

After we got home from the church photo session, we decided to have our own photo shoot. We still didn't end up with anything "perfect" or even close to it but there were some funny moments and expressions captured.