The Little Things

It is all the little things with the kids that really crack me up, bring a smile to my face, or frankly - drive me crazy some days.  So, here are some of the little things from the past little while.

ELIJAH:
We 'celebrated' his 5 1/2 year birthday this past week.  I use the term celebrated very loosely.  It is just an excuse to make/eat a cake.  This year he wanted to strawberry cake.... so I made a from scratch strawberry cake - complete with pureed strawberries.  Yummy.  :)

GAVIN:
He has taken on the role of our in-house clown.  He is always trying to make us laugh and just being silly.  The toddler phase is pretty entertaining.... some of my favorite examples recently.

* Do you know The Muppets song "Mahna Mahna"?  It is recently been redone by "The Fray"?  Well, Gavin has taken to singing the "Mahna Mahna" part.  SO CUTE.  But he will NOT let me get it on video.
* Seeing a small dog, pointing and saying "meow".  Obviously looks like a cat to him and just makes me laugh.
* Food combinations:  For example, dipping orange slices in ranch. Ick.  He LOVES maple syrup... to the point that when he is done with the pancakes he will use his fingers to get the rest of the syrup.  And if that doesn't work, he just starts to lick the plate.
* We went out to lunch over the weekend.  He ate almost nothing while sitting at the table, but as we were getting ready to leave, he started to pick chips off the floor to eat them (the same chips he had thrown there moments earlier).  Why?!?!?!  Toddlers are funny creatures.

Cheesy grin.  Love it!  He loves to get in Owen's bassinet.... we borrowed it from a friend who obviously has girls.
Shhhh.... don't tell Owen that he slept in a bassinet with a pink bumper. 

OWEN:
I had heard about babies like Owen, but I honestly thought that people were just exaggerating or wanted me feel like a failure while my babies were screaming for some unknown reason.  But Owen is the real deal.  HE PUTS HIMSELF TO SLEEP.  No, really, I am not making this up.  It is not all the time, but on a fairly regular basis, when he is tired he will close his eyes and go to sleep.  Really.  Amazing, huh?

Example:  This weekend - changed his diaper on the living room floor.... left him there for a moment, knowing he was getting tired.  Come back to find this....

Owen - fast asleep on the living room floor.  And excuse the funny outfit.....
He was in need of new pants while we were at church and the sleeper was the only thing in the diaper bag.

MARTY:
He's just a great guy.  Our anniversary is tomorrow.  Happy 8 years of marriage!  :)

Marty and me in 2003.... just a couple months before our wedding.  :)

I have super powers.

Don't worry if you didn't already know this; I didn't either until just recently.  You see, after Owen was born I spent about 36 hours in the hospital.... during that time we had some wonderful family and friends who helped out A LOT with the big brothers.  Marty also had the opportunity to spend more time at home than normal.  It was then that he discovered that I must have super powers.

While I was in the hospital Marty washed out his first poopy diaper (we use cloth diapers and while Marty regularly changes diapers, under no previous circumstances has he ever washed one out).    I didn't think that leaving a poopy diaper sit around the house until I got home was a good idea, so I encouraged him to take some gloves from the hospital room and wear those to wash out the diaper.  All went well.... until he accidentally flushed a cloth wipe down the toilet.  Whoops.  So, after I was home, he had the opportunity to unseat the toilet in order to remove the cloth wipe.  Thankfully, with some assistance from his dad, it was a success!

It wasn't that incident alone that earned me the honor of possessing super powers.  The moment Marty was aware of the mommy-super-powers was a couple of days after Owen and I came home and he hadn't yet gone back to work.  It was just a standard day in our home..... children screaming, possibly throwing things, using an innocent toy as a weapon, or a sippy cup to crush Cheerios on the tablecloth.... any one or more of those things was likely happening when on top of that came the questions.  You know the big "Why?" questions and the "How does that work?" questions that seem to fill every potentially silent moment in our house.  THAT is when Marty announced that I have super powers.  It made me smile and that comment has really stuck with me.

Then, this week, at about 2am I knocked over my glass of water on my nightstand while feeding Owen.  Marty got out of bed, got a towel and cleaned up the water.  When I told him "thanks" (in my barely awake state) he told me something like "thanks for taking care of our baby".  I think he helps give me super powers.  He also unloads the dishwasher almost every morning.  It might take him 5 minutes, but with the help of our small children, that task could take me all morning.  I have a great husband.

And while I thought it was the coffee that helped me make it through the day, I now stand corrected.  I kind of want to get myself and all my mommy friends capes.  We have Super Powers.  :)

Elijah in March 2010.  He also has super powers.  

And then there were FIVE!

First family photo:  Owen is 2 1/2 weeks old

Owen is almost one month old!  I cannot believe how the time is flying by.  He is a big guy, so there is already clothing that I am setting aside that is too small for him....

I've been asked a lot in the past 4 weeks how the transition has been with adding Owen to our family and I have to say it has been better than expected!  I am usually asked by other moms who then go on to tell which family-growth-transition was the most difficult for their family.  Some say from one child to two children.... others from two to three.....

This time around, it really helped that my mom was here for 2 weeks.  Amazing.  I was able to catch up on some things around the house, she cooked and cleaned and I got to focus on recovering from childbirth, getting to know Owen and playing with the big brothers.  It was an amazing time.

For us, the most difficult transition was from zero to one; also known as adding Elijah to our family.  Definitely, hands down; that transition rocked our world.  I wasn't one of those women who just knew I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom.  I wasn't even confident that I was going to enjoy being a mom - I clearly remember talking to Marty while I was pregnant with Elijah and questioning how women could be so certain and so confident about mothering (and/or choosing to stay at home) before they had children - for me, I had no idea what to expect prior to actually being in the "mom shoes".

Being a mom is great - and I love it - and it completely and totally stretches me in new ways every day.  By kiddo #3 I am a much more laid back mom than I was with kiddo #1.... and yet I am still ever so thankful that we only had one colicky baby.

So, that's that.  Loving being a family of five.  It is busy and chaotic and great.

It's a BOY!

I think that anyone who might possibly read this blog already knows that we have another boy in our family, but I'll go ahead and post it anyway.  :)

Super abbreviated version of events for the evening, appropriate for all readers: after finishing up that last blog post on "Baby Stow #3's" due date, Marty and I sat around and watched "Parenthood" on Hulu.... just as we were heading to bed, I started having contractions.  We eventually called our wonderful friend Merrielle to watch our boys and then got to the hospital around 11:30pm.... around 12:15am the wonderful nurse, Deb, arrived (the hospital was full, so they needed to call someone in)..... at the point they talked about sending me home because labor wasn't progressed far enough..... at 1:20am the nurse said things were progressing and I was not going to get sent home..... the midwife arrived at 1:48a..... and baby Owen arrived at 1:58am!  It was a super duper speedy all natural delivery.



And here is beautiful baby Owen Anthony - born at 1:58am on 1/11/12.  He weighed 8 lb 3 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long.

Owen's first picture - welcome to the world little buddy.

Gavin snuggling his little brother on his first day home. 

Owen and his big brothers.

6 days old.

2 weeks old