Scary Movies

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Elise

Because the girls are deeply effected by mean or aggressive characters in movies, even animated ones, Peter and I try to be very careful about what films we let them watch. They’ve only seen a handful of full-length movies in their entirety. But for our recent trip to Iowa, Peter thought they might enjoy a new movie to watch in the car, so he bought Disney’s Cinderella. We both agreed that it seemed like a safe choice. No wicked witches or evil sorceresses. Just a step-mother and step-sisters who aren’t kind, but are rather harmless in the grand scheme of things.

Well… we forgot about the cat. You know, Lucifer, the cat who is always trying to eat Cinderella’s little mouse friends? Yeah, well, he scared Lydia stiff.

Will Jaq and Gus and the rest of the mice escape the clutches of the evil cat?!??!

Oh, the suspense!!!!!

4th of July Pictures

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Elise

We spent most of the 4th of July holiday weekend visiting my grandparents in Iowa. This isn’t going to be a long post, because it’s late and I should go to bed, but I wanted to get some pictures up before it’s long past the event.

Can you believe that I actually managed to be organized enough to pack red, white and blue outfits for the kids and no one managed to soil their clothes before we sat everyone on the front steps to snap a few pictures? It was a 4th of July miracle!

Ignore my arms in the next photo. The girls decided it was too hard to hold Caleb and wave flags at the same time.

We spent a large portion of the 4th at the pool. The girls thought it was great, although they were actually a bit cold when they had to get out of the water since it was pretty windy. I thought it was perfect though since I was wearing Caleb in his baby carrier. I’ve never been much of a baby wearer, but I really enjoyed the fact that I could keep Caleb close to me and still walk around a play photographer at the same time. Maybe I’ll become a baby carrier convert yet.

We let the kids stay up late to go sit in a field next to the fairgrounds and watch the fireworks. Everyone enjoyed them. Even Caleb thought they were intriguing. We thought he might cry when they started, but he just looked and looked, right up until the end when they shot off a bunch at once and then he decided it was too loud for his liking, so we covered his ears for him.

And of course, the best part of the trip was getting to spend time visiting with Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Jim, and eating all of the delicious food Grandma cooked up for us. The girls were especially pleased to be served dessert with every meal. I should have taken a picture of the homemade strawberry ice cream and star shaped sugar cookies, but alas, I was too excited to taste it to bother finding my camera, so you’ll just have to imagine. Yum!

I did get a picture of the kids with their great grandparents though, which is really more important.

Thanks again for a great time, Grandma and Grandpa! The girls are already talking about everything they want to do “next time” in Iowa.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend too!

Caleb John: Weeks 2 and 3

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Elise

Today Caleb turned three weeks old. Happy three weeks, Caleb!

Since I didn’t get around to posting last Wednesday, this update is covering weeks two and three of our little guy’s first month.

Overall, these last two weeks have gone well. Caleb continues to sleep well and is becoming less fussy about routine daily occurrences like diaper changes and getting dressed. He rarely cries over those things anymore unless he’s impatient to begin his next meal. He can sometimes even get himself to sleep without needing to be soothed.

The only down side has been that he’s been spitting more and more as the days go by. He definitely has some degree of reflux. It seems to help quite a bit if I don’t eat things with garlic, onion and peppers in them, but even then he often cries and spits up after meals. I’m trying to decide if I need to do an elimination diet to find out if he’ll benefit from me cutting out other foods. Alethea definitely did better when I went off of dairy, so that may be something I should try eliminating. Just trying to work up the resolve to do it.

On the social front, he’s definitely been becoming more alert during his awake periods. He’s smiled at people a few times, although still not with any regularity. He doesn’t show many signs of recognizing Peter, Alethea or Lydia yet. He does know who feeds him though. The other night Peter was holding him and sitting next to me on the couch. Caleb, with his mouth wide open, kept throwing himself over to the side, trying to land in my lap. It was pretty hilarious!

The beginning of week two was when Caleb lost his umbilical cord and had his first at-home full-body bath. Getting into the water seemed to surprise him at first, but then he relaxed. In the end, I’d say he really loved it… all except the getting out part. But I can’t blame him, it’s not fun being cold and wet.

In general we’re continuing to do well in adjusting to our new daily schedule. It helps that Caleb is moving toward eating every two and a half to three hours instead of every two like during week one. That’s given me just a bit more time to do things with the girls and get things done around the house. And Caleb seems to find being outside very soothing, which is good, since it’s summer and that’s where the girls and I often want to be.

I think that’s all the Caleb news for this week. I am looking forward to his one-month check up to find out how much he’s grown, although it seems impossible that he’s already going to be a whole month old next week. How in the world did that happen?

Lydia and Caleb

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Elise

This morning there was some gorgeous light coming in Caleb’s bedroom window, and I thought the girls were sound asleep, so I pulled out my camera to snap a few quick pictures for his birth announcement before they woke up. We just got started when the door opened and Lydia ran in.

So you might have to wait a while longer to see his birth announcement, but in the mean time, here’s a cute shot of Caleb and his big sister, Lydia.

Happy Monday!

Happy Father’s Day!

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Elise

Happy Father’s Day, to the best Daddy in the whole wide world!

With Love,

Your Three Little Stinkers

Caleb’s One Week Update

Posted on June 14, 2014 by Elise

Caleb John turned one week old on Wednesday. Happy Birthday, Caleb!

When I told Alethea that Caleb was turning one week old, she wondered if we would have a party. No party, but we did do a photo session with my little muscle bound man…

Caleb had his first well-child check-up and at six days old he was 9lbs 9oz, 21.25 inches and had a 38 cm head circumference. That puts him in the 92nd percentile for weight and 94th for height. And naturally he’s in the 99th percentile for head circumference, because he is a Bobble Head Baby.

His pediatrician declared him “perfect” and said that since he’s doing well and already made it back to his birth weight plus an ounce, she doesn’t need to see him again until he’s one month. Yay!

And he is doing really well. He eats a lot (every 2 hours during the day) and is sleeping well during the night. I feed him before I go to bed around 10:30 or 11pm and then he does a 3am feed and a 6am feed and then gets up with the girls and me around 8 or 9am. I’m officially calling that up two times during the night, despite the fact that Peter says 6am doesn’t count as a night time feed. But whatever, I’m never up at 6am if I can possibly help it, so I’m counting it as two.

During the day he has an awake period in the morning and then around dinner time and one more during the late evening. He does prefer to be held when he’s awake, but he’s generally pretty good if you need to put him down for a bit.

And here is his “who are these people and please tell me I’m not related to them” expression…

Sorry kiddo, you are related to us. I think he most strongly resembles Alethea at this point, other than the fact that he has deep stormy gray eyes, as opposed to her bright blue. The resemblance is especially strong when they both are wearing their contemplative faces…

It can’t be all bad being related to us though. He’s got the whole family, sisters included, wrapped around his little baby fingers. The other night at bedtime, when we asked Alethea what the best part of her day was, she replied, “Seeing my baby brother.” Then she added, “That’s always the best part of my day now.”

Lydia thinks he’s pretty great too and will hover around him saying his name over and over and trying to get him to look at her. I’m excited for him to start smiling and laughing. I’m sure the girls are going to love that!

So far we’ve discovered that Caleb likes eating, sleeping, Mommy, and having his hair washed. He does not like being naked, having his diaper changed, or being asked to wait when he wants to nurse. He is deeply offended if you offer him a pacifier.

There you go. Our sweet Caleb John’s first week in a nutshell. Now on to week two…

This and That

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Elise

Just a few not necessarily congruent thoughts on the last week…

We are home from the hospital. And so glad to be home. Peter and the girls surprised me and Caleb with a balloon bouquet on the mailbox for our homecoming. It was very sweet and the girls were super proud of themselves for their part in the plan.

Caleb continues to be a pretty easy baby. He likes to eat and he likes to sleep. And we like that he likes it.

The girls absolutely adore Caleb. They want to constantly give him hugs and kisses. So far there doesn’t seem to be any resentment towards him. Peter and I have had some emotional turmoil directed toward us however.

We have been trying to do some fun things that aren’t all about Caleb as a way of keeping peace in the house. One of those is the introduction of a bike trailer as a fun daddy/daughter activity for Peter and the girls. The girls have decided that it is their “carriage”. When Peter told me about their terminology, he added, “You know what that makes me, right?”

Some people have asked if Caleb’s nickname is going to be C.J. and the answer is that we are planning on just calling him Caleb. Alethea and Lydia however call him “Baby Brother”, “Baby Caleb”, or just “Baby K”. I actually favor the later as a nickname since it hints at a future career as a hip hop artist.

Overall, this first week of being a mother to three has gone as well as I could have hoped and better than I expected. I’m hoping that as we enter week two, we’ll be able to settle into a bit more of a routine and tame some of the emotional upheaval the girls seem to be experiencing.

Planning to take one-week pictures of Caleb tomorrow. In the mean time, enjoy these of the girls playing outside this afternoon…

Thanks for stopping by!

24 Hour Update

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Elise

Caleb is nearly 24 hours old now and I am completely in love with this little guy! Not only is he a total cutie, but thus far he’s been eating and sleeping like a champ.

He reserves crying for something really offensive like when he managed to scratch himself on the cheek, or when the doctor took of his clothes and he got cold. Other than that, he’s either eating, sleeping, or looking around with a slightly perplexed look on his face.

Big sister Alethea thinks Caleb is great. She’s only upset that I’m not coming home at night and bringing him with me. This morning she was crying because I’d decided to spend one more night in the hospital, so she declared she was going to stay overnight too. When I pointed out that there was only one bed, she decided that she was going home to get her sleeping bag and would camp out on the floor.

Lydia has been going back and forth on whether having Caleb around is a good thing. When she arrived to visit this morning, she ran right over to him, smiling and cooing. Then a little later she declared that she didn’t want to be his big sister. Then another while later, she was holding him and giving him kisses.

Regardless of Lydia’s wavering opinion, Peter and I agree that he’s a keeper!

We love every bit of his 20.5 inches…

Including his goofy faces…

We’ll be headed home tomorrow morning after we get through discharge. Alethea is so excited to surprise him by showing him his room! Hope he likes it!

Introducing: Caleb John

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Elise

We are happy to announce the arrival of our son, Caleb John!

Arrival: June 4, 2014, 5:10pm
Stats: 9lbs, 8oz, 20.5 inches long, 15 inch head circumference

Big sisters think he’s a “sweet baby brother”.

Mom and Caleb are doing well. Happy to finally be an official family of five.

He already is showing a talent for getting his thumb in his mouth!

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers today. It helped to know there were so many people rooting for us!

More pictures tomorrow!

“Officially In Labor”

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Elise

3pm – Those are the words of my nurse. Contractions are definitely on the pain scale now. Last check was still 2-3cm though, so still quite a ways to go.