Winter Fun

Love these kids! 

Brothers

Our Professor was the baby of the family for 2 1/2 years.  He had the bulk of his sisters attention and our attention.  He was played with a lot and yes....spoiled.  I was really worried how he would react to baby 4.  Nothing prepared us for his reaction.   Pure love.

He has not shown even one ounce of jealousy.  He is protective, caring and will ask to have the baby lay on his mat so they can play and talk.  It is the cutest thing.  I know there will be a day when they are old enough to fight and bicker....just like the girls do.  But for now, I am soaking up their brotherly love.

A Beautiful Sight

4th Grade Thoughts

The Genius is in the 4th grade.  She is rapidly entering that in-between time.  Not quite little girl and not yet a ready to leave behind toys and things.  She will be 10 this year and if you want to make my husband and I cry, just remind us that she is over halfway done living at home.  Major sniff, sniff.
Anyways, she still does and says things that are so cute and I wanted to get down a few of them.
She is like her mom (me) in her love for reading.  She rapidly outgrew younger books and was ready to tackle slightly older books.  First she read, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.  She loved it and is currently reading book 2.  She mentioned to me about Edward eating the Turkish Delight.  I said, "Neat! Maybe we could make some together!".  In total sincerity, she says, "Oh Mommy, we can never make that.  Remember?  The White Witch said it was 'enchanted turkish delight' and we do not know magic Mommy."  LOL!
The other thing is that she has been reading The Red Scarf Girl.  This is a non-fiction book about the Cultural Revolution in China.  Now, we did buy our kids this book, but I did read it before giving it to them.  It just so happened as the Genius was reading this book, in home-school we began studying Karl Marx and capitalism vs communism.  Every day I ask about what she read in the book and if she is scared or has any questions.  The other day she said, "No.  It does not scare me.  But I really understand why communism is so wrong.  I mean, basically, you are in charge of nothing and you get no choices in anything.  And then, if someone decides you are wrong they send you to jail.  And the only way to get out is to say how bad you are...even though you don't even believe it.  Then you get out of jail and go back to find out your life is even worse.  I really like capitalism and am glad to live in America."  I LOVED this!  First off, I am just so proud of her for reading this and grasping these concepts.  Secondly, what a great definition!!! Adults try to fancify definitions and give long explanations but I think she pretty well hit it on the head.
So proud of our girl!

This Face...

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this little chubby cheeked face.  Sigh.  He is getting bigger already and does not seem like a newborn anymore.  Tomorrow he will actually be 5 weeks old.  But we love our little guy.  Love these baby snuggles!

Mastitis Round 2

Yesterday I spent the better part of the morning in denial.  I had a headache and felt a bit "off".  When you get about 3-4 hours of sleep though sometimes you can feel that way.  But around dinner time I started feeling grumpy and sore and tired and my lower back began to hurt.  I knew exactly what it was.  Mastitis.  Sigh.  I get it 3 times with every pregnancy and I don't know why.  I do everything I can to prevent it.  Thankfully my doctor will call in the meds without seeing me so I have 2 doses in me already.  Now to just wait for them to kick in and start helping.

Bless His Heart

Yesterday was our little man's appointment with the pediatric cardiologist.  If you recall, during our pregnancy they had discovered a hole in his heart.  They expected that is a "normal" hole and that no surgery would be needed.  However, I was still very nervous for the appointment.  We got there and of course, he decided he was starving.  One awesome thing about a Children's Hospital...the doctor says, "Oh poor guy.   Go ahead and feed him.  Take all the time you need and just open the door when you are done."  30 minutes later he was done eating and no one was a bit bothered.  They took him right back for the echo on his heart.  He was so unhappy.  I tried a paci, but he has never liked them and did not like it yesterday.  He screamed and cried.  But the tech got what she needed.  Then they wanted to do an EKG.  It was so scary to see all those wires hooked up to his tiny little body.  That test was very quick.  The doctor only kept us waiting about 5 minutes and then came to tell me the results.  The results were what we had expected and prayed for.  The hole does not need surgery.  It is evidently a medium sized hole.  A larger one would need surgery and a smaller one would have possibly escaped notice.  The doctor said no action is needed! Thank you Lord!  We have a follow up appointment in April.  The doctor did say that his hole has a 50/50 chance of healing itself, but that being medium sized it may always be there.  But it will not restrict him or cause any troubles.  We are very relieved and it reinforces that we chose the right name for him (if you know us in person then you know the meaning).
Today our little guy is one month old and I am filled with gratitude to have him here and healthy.

What No One Likes To Discuss....

Poop.  Yep.  I am going to blog about poop.  Specifically baby poop.  Exclusively breastfed baby poop and the extremely wide range of what is considered normal.
If you are squeamish…just stop here.
Our first child was fairly textbook.  She pooped several times a day.  Our second and third were much the same way, with poops 2-5 times every day.
Then….we had our 4th.  First off, he was the first we had who had his first merconium poop while inside me.  In fact, the nurses informed me it was a gargantuan amount.  They pumped 8 cc’s from his tiny belly.  Evidently, it was massive and nurses kept talking about it.  In fact, nurses who had not even been there came into the room to talk about it.  He never pooped again while we are in the hospital.  As we were being discharged, I asked how many days could he go without pooping.  The doctor told me to call in on Monday (this was Friday) if he had not pooped.  Well, Sunday he finally pooped and it was the perfectly typical mustardy, seedy breastmilk poop.  And then….we waited.  10 days later I had him in for check up and asked about his lack of poop.  I was honestly not concerned because he was passing gas, his belly was still soft and he never seemed to be in any pain.  The doctor said that breastmilk is like the perfect food and is so “clean burning” that exclusively breastfed babies can go 2 weeks without pooping because they just use it all.
The day after the appointment, our son did poop.  About 10 days later he pooped again.  Today was day 10 and he pooped again.  And these are different than the other kids poop was.  His is more of a very deep yellow or orange color…and the smell.  It smells SO disgusting.  I cannot even describe it, but trust me, it is gross.  And the poops are massive.  Think blowout diapers times 5.
All this served as a great reminder that parents are ALWAYS learning and all kids are different.
Do you have any poopy stories?? Please share in the comments below!
Oh and as a side note….for breastfed babies did you know the poop is considered normal in a rainbow of colors including green, yellow and orange.

Wordless Wednesday

Just like Daddy......

Dear Nana

Dear Nana,

Remember the other day....

When my parents asked to you baby-sit for me and those big kids who live here too?

Do you remember how I had a major blow out poopy all over you, and all over me, and all over my changing table?

Well I just wanted to say I am sorry.  I am so sorry that I allowed Mommy to change my outfit and I wasn't even dirty! Sigh.

See Nana?  I really do love you and am sporting a onesie to prove it.

Come see me soon! 

Look at this Face!

Is he cute or what????

Wordless Wednesday

Life is tough when you have two big sisters......

Time Off

Next week cannot get here soon enough.  My husband has to take 5 days off before his contract renews.  Sadly we do not get to choose his days they are automatically the last 5 of his contract.  We did not even realize it was coming so soon.  Needless to say we are VERY excited!  He has not had more than 2 days off at a time in over a year.  He has not had a single Saturday off and almost every week has worked 6 days.  Yes, we are thankful for the job but it gets very lonely never having him with me at events, taking the kids everywhere by yourself and since his only day off is Sunday, we NEVER have an entire day to spend at home.  We have no real plans for the week.   He has some projects to do around the house, I plan on snagging some majorly needed naps, we are going on a date and leaving, gulp, all four kids with my mom and sister (our heroes) and we definitely plan on creating some special family moments with the kiddos.  Meanwhile....here are a few pictures for your enjoyment!

Someone is 2 Weeks Old

This little guy is so sweet, so cuddly and so well loved by all of us.  At 2 weeks old he is up to 9 pounds 9 ounces.  Thanks to Gripe Water his colic seems to be under control and I am getting bits of sleep now!  He is still not on any semblance of a schedule but that is ok.  All of us love holding him, talking to him and snuggling him.  He is such a content baby.  He rarely fusses and typically just cries when he wants to eat.  When he is awake he is happy to lay there and look around.  Now that his eyes are open more often he enjoys focusing on our faces or staring at a toy.  He's only been here 2 weeks and we cannot imagine what we did before he came into our lives.  We love our little guy!

Wordless Wednesday

Sorry. Not really wordless.  I heard the door to go outside rattling and walked over to see the Professor looking just like this.  He said, "I go out to da snow and play Mommy. Bye!"