When family comes to town

We were fortunate to be able to spend our first week as a family of four together. Jeff was given a really nice amount of time for paternity leave for which we were so thankful. I wasn't sure how I was going to tackle being a mom of a newborn and a 2 year old while I was recovering. My parents were able to make a trip to meet Ellie when she was just a little over a week old. It was perfect timing really because they arrived just in time to help us celebrate Benjamin's 2nd birthday and to help me out when Jeff went back to work. One of my sisters was also able to make a quick trip to see us for a weekend when she was given a surprise day off from work. Here's what our time together looked like...

Benjamin was thrilled to see Grandpa and Grandma "Gold Tooth" pull up in the driveway. They were wonderful about making a fuss over him before they met the baby and he LOVED the attention.

Grandma meets Ellie.

These two have the same middle name. She shares her middle name with my mom's grandma too. Elizabeth has the same first name as her paternal grandma and great-grandma and Elizabeth was her maternal great-grandmother's middle name as well as her great-aunt's name. I love that her first and middle name are a reflection of so many wonderful women in our families.

Benjamin catches up with Grandpa and Banjosie. He just loves that dog.

Grandma gets to know grandchild number 7.

Grandpa meets little Ellie.

Benjamin shows grandpa how he does his chores, one of which is sorting the silverware after it comes out of the dishwasher.

One of Ben's birthday presents from Grandma and Grandpa. I think he likes it :)

While I made the birthday cake.

Osa is worn out from tussling with Banjosie.

So sweet. I remember pouring over books for hours with mom when I was a kid. It's so fun to see her share that time with her grandkids now.

Good company. Mom and dad were so helpful. Not only did they entertain Benjamin, but they helped with housework. One day they watched both kids while I napped. When I woke up mom had swept the whole house for me. They vacuumed, washed dishes and helped with dinner not to mention lots of other little tasks. Seriously such a blessing to this tired mama.

Auntie meets Ellie.

Mom and dad's first visit to the Arch.

This is the second time my sister has been able to visit the Arch.

When the rain from Hurricane Isaac cleared we celebrated Benjamin's birthday at the zoo. Here we're waiting for the sea lion show to start while Benjamin sucks down some lemonade. The kid doesn't normally drink anything but milk and water, so he was really going to town.

And just to prove that I was there.

Rob the sea lion wows the crowd.

My family being "wowed".

The kids and I took mom and dad to the butterfly house. On a side note, in a few months my folks will have been married for 50 years. Pretty awesome, eh?

Benjamin loves him some bluegrass so he was happy that grandpa brought his mandolin.

This picture is terribly blurry but I love how delighted Benjamin looks that he gets to sing and play with grandpa.

Josie was really interested in the baby and took every opportunity to cuddle near her.

Mom and dad with my babies just before they left.

Hours after they left Benjamin waits for grandma and grandpa to come back.

So happy to have had the company and the help from family. Now we are looking forward to introducing Ellie to the rest of her family.

Slow and steady wins the race

We've had our sweet little Ellie with us for just about a month now and I just couldn't love her more. But there is somebody in our house who could....her big brother. Ben's actually doing pretty good considering how much his world has been rocked this summer with moving to a new city, new house, new friends, new church and new sister. There are moments when I know he would be happy to go back to the way things were, when he was the center of the universe. For example, when I'm nursing Ellie he'll still say "all done" on occasion (he said that all of the time during our first week together). Or if I'm holding her or changing her he'll say things like "Ellie go night-night". But there are glimmers of friendship that show up throughout the day like when he offers his baby sister his sippy cup. Or when he wants to come with me to check on her and says "Oh hi, Baby Ellie, hi!" Or if she's fussing he rocks her in the swing or tries to plug her up with her pacifier (not sure if that one qualifies and a token of affection so much as an attempt to shut her up). But we're making progress with these two young siblings. Slow and steady progress. And hey, that's what wins the race, right?

Smarty pants

I know every parent thinks their child is smart. I am no exception. I think Benjamin is a smarty pants. A big smarty pants. Like too smart for our good sometimes. Here's what I mean...

Recently Benjamin has started saying "Bye-bye, Mama". Now I know that this is not impressive in and of itself. The boy is 2 years old now and should be able to string simple phrases together like this. It's not what he's saying, but when he's saying it.

Benjamin feeds the dog some of his snack. I say "No, no, Ben." He replies with "Bye-bye, mama."

Benjamin tries to sit in Elizabeth's baby swing. I say "No, no, Ben." He replies with "Bye-bye, mama."

Benjamin starts jumping on the couch. I say "No, no, Ben." He replies with "Bye-bye, mama."

Do you get it? The kid does something naughty. He gets caught and scolded. He basically tells me to hit the road so that he can continue his naughty behavior without being seen. Yeah. And the best part is that he says it so sweetly....like in this endearing, loving way that almost makes me fall for it, but then I remember he's just trying to get out from underneath my supervision.

What a stinker. A smart little stinker.

Happy Belated Grandparents' Day

I sort of missed the boat for writing this post in a timely manner considering Grandparents' Day was yesterday, but I'm pulling the "I just had a baby" card to excuse my tardiness. Yesterday Jeff and I had to run to the store for a few things and I walked by the greeting card section and kicked myself when I realized I had forgotten to send cards to Ben and Ellie's grandparents for the occasion. Again, the "I just had a baby" card comes into play. There are plenty of people who probably feel that Grandparents' Day among other holidays are made up so that companies such as Hallmark can con us out of our hard-earned money, but I'm a sucker for cards so I buy into it.

Although I didn't get cards sent out, we were able to call Grandma and Papa "Gold Tooth" and Grandma and Papa "Kitty". Yes, this is how we distinguish which grandparents are which. My parents gave themselves the name "Gold Tooth" because they each have a gold crown and we started calling my in-laws the "Kitty" grandparents because they have 2 kitties which Ben likes to see when we Skype with them.  I know we could just used their real names, but Ben gets these names...and it's cute. Anyway, the holiday made for celebrating grandparents got me thinking.

Our kids are so blessed. Benjamin and Elizabeth have two sets of grandparents who love them dearly, who spend time with them, who show kindness to them through gifts and attention, and who treasure them. But more than that Ben and Ellie are blessed to have 4 grandparents who will be a good influence on them, who will pray for them, and who raised their own kids (Jeff and me) in a home where we could know and follow Jesus. What a gift. What a legacy.

So here is my "card" to Ben and Ellie's grandparents. We love you and pray that God will bless you as you have blessed us. Happy Belated Grandparents Day!

Benjamin sings with daddy before bedtime...

(audio only)

Belly bump

The other day Jeff and Benjamin were playing blocks. As with any toddler the best part about stacking blocks is knocking them down. Well they decided to get creative and with their method of tower destruction and Benjamin started knocking the blocks over with his belly. It was good entertainment for all of us, although Osa doesn't appear to be enjoying it as much as the rest of us.

Happy babies

I took a smiley picture of Elizabeth when she was just a few days old. As soon as I loaded it onto the computer it reminded me so much of a picture that I took of Benjamin when he was a few weeks old. Here's a side by side comparison of my "smiling", happy babies. Gosh, I just love them both so much!

Benjamin

Elizabeth

Many hats

As adults we find ourselves wearing many "hats". Well, so do my children. Only I'm talking about real hats, not metaphorical ones. For better or worse they are stuck with a mama who likes to craft AND dress them up in ridiculous hats. Fortunately for Osa, she is not the target of my attention in this area. Unfortunately for Benjamin and Elizabeth, I fear my obsession with adorable hats will not end any time soon. We'll see if they let me do this to them when they're older. Here are a few of the things I made for little Miss Ellie while I was waiting for her arrival (except for the pink flower hat....that was made after we knew she was a girl). Benjamin has a matching owl and monkey hat. We're planning on using one of those for his Halloween costume if we can manage to convince him to keep a hat on for more than 30 seconds.

Choo choo!

One of the advantages of living in a big city is that there is plenty to do. And happily there are some free activities too. One of the little gems we were told about it a place called the Whittle. It's in a small industrial pocket of the St. Louis metropolitan area and there is no way we would have ever know about it if somebody hadn't told us. It's tucked away between an off street and some railroad tracks, which is totally appropriate as they sell wooden train sets. But the best thing about this place is that they have train tables set up all over the shop with no shortage of tracks, trains, trucks, buses and everything else you would want to play with while making choo choo sounds.

Jeff is still on paternity leave, which has been such a huge blessing to our family, so we decided take Benjamin on a little outing to get him out of the house and to give him something special to do. He was a great little railroad conductor, sharing the track with all of the other kids and using nice manners. But my favorite thing about watching him play at The Whittle is seeing how seriously he gets about his play. Don't you just love it when kids get totally engrossed in something and they act like they have a big, important job to do? So funny.

Very serious about this train business.

 Setting up.

 Hoarding.

 Sharing with daddy.

 Ben is totally into buses right now. Every time we see one in the car he says,
"Oh, look at the big bus! I touch the bus?"

Crazy bowl head

This was Benjamin's object of affection yesterday afternoon. I asked him if he wanted to help mama by bringing her the white bowl. He loves to help, but occasionally gets distracted from the task at hand and sort of turns his "chores" into games that only a 2-year-old can dream up. 

So after he went to fetch the bowl for me he turned it into a hat and then spent the next 15 to 20 minutes running circles around the table. Gosh, I love that kid.

Now I picture him wearing this as his Halloween costume, going door to door saying, "I've got a bowl on my head. I'm CRAZY bowl head. Now, give me some candy!" (From Saturday Night Live, in case you didn't know)

Labor time....almost.

Unless something happens between now and tomorrow morning, Jeff and I will be heading to the hospital at 8am for induction. This little baby has been baking long enough!

Jeff started leaving little messages for me on the fridge when he gets ready for work in the early morning with Benjamin's magnetic alphabet. His first message was "smile qt" which made me smile, of course. His most recent message as of baby's due date was this....

We left it up since it has seemed appropriate for the entire week. Tomorrow it will be labor time.

And for fun here are a few final belly pictures at 40 weeks and 5 days. The next pictures posted will be of our sweet little baby boy or girl.

This is how the belly looks.

This is how the belly feels.

 

Praying God will
*help me sleep with all of the excitement
*give us a smooth delivery and protect our health
*help Benjamin do well without me the next few days (we've never been apart more than 8hrs before)
*provide a good transition of growing our family from 3 to 4

Will accept prayers from you, too!

Too close for comfort.

Jeff and I were relaxing on the couch tonight, taking in a little Netflix, when Osa starting doing her crazy "I have to go outside" routine. So I slipped on my shoes and waddled out the back door to tie her up. Normally I take her out the front door because I can turn the porch light on from the inside of the house and it seems a little scary to go out the back into the dark backyard. But tonight I was feeling brave. It was dark out, but not so dark I couldn't see where I was going. Still, I decided to flip the outside light on (which is only accessible once on the outside about 6 feet from the door) so that I would be able to bring her back inside more easily (really just so it wouldn't be so scary). Immediately after the light flooded the deck, I saw that I had come much too close to a giant spider that was dangling a few feet from where I stepped just moments before. I, of course, was totally repulsed and nearly let out a screech. Then I did what anybody else would have done. I grabbed a broom and, well, you know....

Needless to say, I think I will be returning to the well-lit front door potty option in the days to come. At least until it's too cold for spiders. I wonder if it ever gets too cold for spiders in Missouri.

He won't know the difference...

Our little boy's second birthday is fast approaching, and on the heels of the arrival of a new baby.  Needless to say that it appears August is going to be a busy month for this family.

I LOVE buying gifts, especially for my boys. But we have recently decided to trim our spending, including birthdays and other gift giving occasions. Of course there are a zillion things that I would love to get for Benjamin, but those things will have to wait until another time. So here's how we're going to economize and maximize all at the same time to celebrate our little buddy's birthday.

Ben loves to play with daddy's stethoscope and was recently spotted playing with the toy blood pressure cuff at the church nursery. Enter this little gift which is less than $13 at Wal-mart...

I also had a gift card to Shutterfly at my disposal. I have no recollection of where the card came from, but I do know that it allowed me to put together a personalized ABC book for Benjamin complete with pictures of himself, the dog, mama and daddy and the things that he loves with almost no cost to us.

I understand that this is more than enough for a two-year-old, especially considering he already has quite the collection of toys.  In fact at this age we could skip his birthday celebration altogether and he would be none the wiser. But I just want to shower my little boy on his big day, especially since he's going to be sharing the undivided attention he's become accustomed to over the past 24 months  with his little baby brother or sister in the days leading up to his birthday.

Then I had a stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. Last summer I sold nearly all of my teaching materials with the exception of a very few items which occupy the space of half a paper box. But I couldn't bring myself to sell my children's books. I somehow managed to build a huge collection of picture books and chapter books during my short stint as an employee at Barnes & Noble and in the 6 years I spent as an elementary teacher. Probably half of the books are in like new condition with the exception of having my name written on the inside cover. Although I was able to part with a fraction of my collection I just had to hold onto the "good" ones. I always pictured having a library room where our kids could just go and pull books off the shelf and pour over them for hours. And though we don't have a "library" we do have a little boy who loves books and who has a birthday coming up and I have boxes of books sitting in the basement just waiting for little hands to open them. So sometime between now and the end of the month I'm going to head down to my pile of book boxes and gather a nice little selection of colorful books for my buddy. I suppose it will sort of be like re-gifting....but he won't know the difference....at least until he's old enough to notice that my maiden name is written his books.

A sneak peak.

Little baby is still holding out for a later birth date, so this morning I went to an OB appointment that I had been hoping to cancel. Both Jeff and Benjamin were able to come along which was nice. Usually it's just me and Ben at these appointments and trying to keep a toddler happy in a stroller at the clinic after a 25 minute drive is not easy. There are often toys, crackers and fruit snacks involved. I was so thankful to have the extra set of hands along....and it was just nice to be able to share the experience with my baby daddy :)

The clinic where I'm being seen gives patients a non-stress test and a bio-physical profile (ultrasound to check on baby and fluids) when they enter their 41st week of pregnancy. Since the baby hasn't arrived yet we had the full workup. Everything looked good, but this baby is perfectly content to stay right where he or she is. Nothing is happening in the dilation department. Absolutely nothing.  Looks like this baby is about a punctual as I am.

If baby decides to hang out a while longer I'll be induced next week. Until then, we were given a sneak peak of our little darling. The anticipation is getting to be overwhelming and I wonder if this is the face of a baby boy or a baby girl. In either case, I cannot wait to see this sweet little one in person and I am so thankful for the miracle I see in these pictures.

"For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

^{How precious to me are your thoughts, God!}

^{How vast the sum of them!}

^{Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand-}

^{When I awake I am still with you."}

^{Psalm 139:13-18}

Lunchtime ramblings

Today's lunchtime conversation with Ben....

Ben: Ooooooh noodles (mac & cheese)! Ooooooh grapes. I like it!
Me: Me too, buddy.
Ben: I see the hummingbird.
Me: Not right now. The hummingbird went bye bye.
Ben: (Takes a bite) Ooooooh I like it! Daddy home soon?
Me: Daddy's working, but he'll be home after your nap and he will eat supper with us.
Ben: Mmmmmmm.......supper! (Eats a grape. Spits out grape skin. Throws grape skin on the floor) Oh no! Grape fell down.
Me: The grape didn't fall down. You threw the grape and that makes a mess.
Ben: Mama sad?
Me: Yes baby, mama is sad. It makes me sad when you make a mess.
Ben: Oh sorry, mama.
Me: I forgive you. No more messes please.
Ben: (charming smile) Mmmmmm....noodles. (Proceeds to drink the "juice" at the bottom of his bowl. Dumps his grapes on his tray.) Oh no! Grapes fall down.
Me: (trying not to smile) Uh oh.
Ben: Uh oh. All done. I have the cookie? (Hears ambulance in the distance). Ambulance? I touch the ambulance.
Me: No Ben Ben, it's too far away. We can't touch it.
Ben: See reach it (stretches out arm towards the window)?
Me: Nope. We can't reach it.
Ben: Mama reach the ambulance?
Me: Nope. It's too far away.
Ben: (can no longer hear the ambulance) Ambulance? Where are you, ambulance?
Me: The ambulance went bye-bye, buddy.
Ben: More cookie? (lets out big belch) Ah-choo, Ben. Ah-choo!

I could go on and on, and on and on. Never a dull moment with this little friend around :)

It's time...

I love my little baby and I am so excited to welcome him or her to our family. I'm ready to see this new little person for the first time.

And let's be real. At 40 weeks of pregnancy, I'm ready to be done.

It's D Day (baby's due date) and it seems I am constantly finding myself stuck. I'm stuck between frequent hunger pains and heartburn, laziness and nesting, excitement and worry, insomnia and exhaustion. And the other day was no exception.

Lunch. Chores. Heartburn. Chores. Exhausted. Tried napping. Heartburn. Finally fell asleep. Dog starts crying. Dog has diarrhea. Fantastic. Let dog out. Clean up dog. Try napping again. Toddler wakes up from nap. Nap fail. Chores. More heartburn. Dinner time comes. Still have heartburn. Skip dinner. Bedtime comes. Hungry but afraid to have more heartburn. Can't fall asleep. Read. Still can't sleep. Baby has a party in my belly. Can't sleep. Finally fall asleep. Dog starts crying. Dog has diarrhea. Fantastic. Huge thunderstorm. Take dog outside. Clean and dry off dog. Hungry. Snack. Heartburn. Try to sleep. Thunder. Baby kicking. Read. Finally fall asleep. Dog starts crying (seriously). Dog has diarrhea (seriously). Fantastic. Take dog outside. Try to go back to sleep. Read. Finally fall asleep. Husband's alarm goes off for work. Toddler wakes up. Two and a half hours of sleep.

It's time for a baby.

Hurdles

We have enjoyed watching the Olympics this summer...possibly a little too much as Benjamin asks, "I watch the Impics?" off and on throughout the day. His favorite event  is "splash" (also known as diving), but he also enjoys "running" and "jumping" (gymnastics). While watching the Olympics I am baffled by the sprinters and hurdle sprinters. How is it even possible to be that fast, especially while jumping over stuff? Amazing.

On to the real story. Every time I see people jumping hurdles I'm reminded of my own experience in this event. Here's how it went down.

When I was but a wee middle school student, my older and cooler high school sister and her friend let me tag along with them to a movie. Nice, right? Of course before the movie we had to make a stop at the grocery store to pick up candy and soda for so that we could smuggle them into the theater. Don't judge me. It was cheaper and I was simply being thrifty. Well at some point during our grocery stop we were near the checkout lanes. The closed lanes were blocked off with a chain that hung about 3 feet above the ground, possibly less. My sister's friend ran and jumped over the chain. Hurdle cleared. My sister was then inspired to do the same. Again, hurdle cleared. Well I wasn't about to be the lame little tag-along sister. I had to prove to these girls that I was just as cool and fun as they were even though they were 3 years my senior. I ran. I jumped. I tripped and fell flat on my face. You can imagine the embarrassment that immediately followed. Truthfully, I'm not so sure that they even paid attention to what I was doing at all while we were together that night so they may not have seen me and my epic fail as a grocery store hurdle jumper. I'll have to ask. But that's how I knew my career as an Olympic hurdle jumper had ended before it began.

"I touch the moon."

Benjamin is a little talker. Wonder where he gets that from? Everyday we have a million conversations, most of which consist of the following exchanges...


Ben sees a flag.
Ben: I wanna touch the flag
Me: No baby, we aren't going to touch the flag. It's too far away.
Ben: I can't reach it.
Me: Nope, you can't reach it. Just look with your eyes.
Ben: Oh hi flag, hi! Bye bye flag. (Slight pause) I see more flags?
Me: I don't know Ben Ben. Let's keep our eyes open.

Ben sees a dog.
Ben: I wanna touch the puppy.
Me: No baby, we aren't going to touch the puppy. It's too far away.
Ben: I can't reach it.
Me: Nope, you can't reach it. Just look with your eyes.
Ben: Oh hi puppy, hi! Bye bye puppy. (Slight pause) I see more puppies?
Me: I don't know Ben Ben. Let's keep our eyes open.

Ben sees a pretty flower.

Ben sees plane.

Ben sees anything of interest....same conversation...every time.

Well today on our morning walk with Osa, Ben saw the moon hanging in the morning sky. And can you guess what happened? Yep. Same dialogue. Then we turned the corner and saw the moon again. Repeat conversation. We arrived at home and I took Benjamin out of his stroller. He wanted to check the sky to see if the moon was still there. We checked and then we talked about it, just like we had two other times on our walk. About an hour later we went to the park to play and Ben spotted the moon again, and then again, and then again. And each time he saw the moon he wanted to touch it, but it was too far away.

Even if we have the same conversation a million times a day, I love talking with my boy and soaking up his enthusiasm for the simple pleasures in life...a flag, a puppy, a plane, the moon.

Carseat cover...check.

I resisted the Pinterest craze for a long time, but alas I was sucked into the black whole that is crafts and recipes and decorating and such. You know what I'm talking about because you've probably been sucked in too.

Approximately 30 weeks ago (according to Pinterest), when I was 9 weeks pregnant, I found this little gem of a tutorial for a home made car seat cover for summer.

http://cally-cruze.blogspot.com/2009/10/infant-carseat-blanket.html

Benjamin was born in Minnesota so obviously we already have a winter cover, but I knew that this little Missouri baby was going to need some protection from the sun during those early months so I added it to my collection of "repins".

Last night Jeff was on call so I decided to spend my evening working on the cover for the baby and since I have a hard time sleeping these days (a problem which is magnified when Jeff's not home) I worked on it from start to finish. Needless to say it was a long, late night and my feet swelled up to the size of watermelons by the time I was done, but I finished.

The only difficulty I ran into was that the cover was a little to big on the larger end, so I just attached some ribbon and gathered up the extra material with it. I tried flipping the cover around but had the same issue no matter which direction it faced. I'm not sure why this happened. Perhaps our car seat is smaller than the once used in the tutorial, but it's a Chicco and I always think they look so much larger than every other brand of car seat. I don't mind the extra length though because when the babies feet start to hang over the edge they will still be covered.

Now it's just too bad that I can't find the inserts for the car seat ANYWHERE. I tore apart every box of Ben's old baby clothes looking for it and after 2 hours of looking I decided to call the customer service department at Chicco to order new inserts. When I found out the replacements would only cost $12 I wished I would have called before opening up all of that cardboard.

The tipping point

There comes a time during pregnancy when the expectant mother is "ready" to have her baby. In this case "ready" means that enduring labor and delivery sounds like a more pleasant, comfortable option than pregnancy which, until today, has seemed like an unimaginable preference. I refer to this as the tipping point....and I think I may be reaching it. One more 100+ degree day and I'm pretty sure I'll be there. Recently I commented to my husband, "I don't remember feeling this uncomfortable when we were expecting Benjamin" to which he lovingly responded, "You were miserable." Hmm. Do not recall that. At any rate, I think I'm just about "ready" to have this baby which means I should probably get off of the computer and go pack my hospital bag.