Monday, August 30, 2010

Smiles and Loves

Jared is now one month old and smiling! He's pretty smiley if you catch him well rested right after he has eaten. Wait too long and he'll be grumpy because he's bored. I forget how much work it is to entertain a baby.
This kid is very loved. His siblings constantly want to hold him. It's can be kind of annoying since most of the time they want to hold him when he's cranky and usually he sits and cries on their laps. But they keep asking, so I guess they don't hold it against him.
J's hair is pretty awesome. It prefers to stick straight up despite my efforts to comb it down. This picture is immediately after his bath and it's particularly bad. He looks like a little mad scientist. Throwing a temper tantrum. Angry Baby! I love this kid.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Off to School (x2!)

I officially have two kids in school! Kiwi started kindergarten and G started 2nd grade. I feel very lucky that we are able to have them at the same school. G-man tested into GATE (the gifted program in our area) for first grade and goes to a school in a different neighborhood. He is in a self-contained GATE classroom with other gifted kids. We were really happy with his experiences last year and are continuing at the school. Almost all the kids that were in his class last year have returned. He also has a male teacher this year. I am so excited for that. It is so rare to get a male teacher in the younger elementary grades.

Due to the extra support from the GATE program and it's title one designation, the elementary school also was able to keep full day kindergarten. When G-man started kindergarten I was frustrated that I didn't get a half day option. Now that I have two kids in school plus the two little ones at home, I'm so glad Kiwi has full day kinder. It would have been such a pain to pick up kids from school twice a day.

Kiwi had a great week. She didn't know any of the kids at the school. I think she's slowly making friends. Although apparently her favorite past time at recess is chasing boys. The second day Chad took her to school, intending to walk her to the area she lines up. When they got there she hopped out of the truck, told Chad she remembered where to go, and ran off to the playground equipment. She is such a brave, independent little thing. I think it took half the year for G to let Chad drop him off outside his school when he was in kindergarten. By Wednesday I had G-man picking Kiwi up from her kindergarten class so I didn't have to unload the boys from the car.

It's amazing how fast these kids are growing up. I think I may have to walk to pick up Kiwi a few times a week just so I don't feel like she is growing up so fast. But I'm so glad she was able to go without being afraid. I'm so proud of my little girl!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

My Four Babies

G-man
Kiwi
Mr. S
J-Dub

I wanted to see all their baby pictures side by side. They all look so different.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Thoughts on a Two Week Old Baby

My three boys!
Seeing as I'm two weeks postpartum these thoughts may be scattered and a bit crazy. But that's how I be these days.

-We decided to give our little guy the middle name of William. We've been having fun with nicknames. J-Dub is my favorite. Chad came up with J-Will. I'm think we should call him J-Willie and hope for a future in rap music.

-The delay in giving him a middle name caused a mix-up with the social security and vital records office. I guess they don't deal well with people who haven't had names picked out for all their children since middle school.

-I really love the place where Jared was born. It's a free standing birth center right next to the hospital. There are no OB's, only midwives and nurses. The beds are regular queen size beds, there are no epidurals, and there are no IV's. Most importantly, you can take your baby home when it is four hours old. Unless you have group B strep. Then you get to make the nurse feel like a jailer when she makes you wait until the baby reaches the 12 hour mark. The best part is now I can say two of my kids were born in a bathtub.

- The nurses are awesome. One nurse got out our camera while I was giving birth and started snapping photos. Most of those will be deleted. Within 30 minutes of J-Dub's birth, Chad and I were left alone to bond with the baby along with a bowl of strawberries and angel food cake. When I came back two days after he was born (for rhogam) they gave me a plate of snacks to eat while I nursed him. I've decided that food is the way to my heart.

- One nurse made cards for each of my kids with J-Dub's footprints on it. She has three kids of her own, so it was nice to have someone who understood siblings. I've also gotten calls every couple of days from the nurses to check up on me. It makes you feel good.- One of my regrets from this birth is that he was born on a weekday during clinic hours at the birth center. One half of the building is for prenatal visits and the other half is where the real fun happens. Labor was harder this time than the last two. J had the cord around his neck which made things go slower than I am used to. Let's just say I may have scared a few women away from the natural delivery option.

- After two weeks I am even more sleep deprived and Jared has gas. The last few days have not been fun. Luckily my parents took the older three camping so at least I can just sit and hold a baby. Now if I could just stay away from the bad food that's making him uncomfy!
-J-dub has a fair amount of hair, and it makes a pretty good mo-hawk. Kiwi had one as a baby too, but hers was caused by two cowlicks on the back of her head. Luckily I can grow her hair out long to hide them. It was fun trying to deal with it when she was a baby.-Seth is starting to warm up to the baby more and has a lot of fun "holding" him. I love that holding basically involves the baby lying on his lap.All in all, I think I'm slowly getting used to this. The kids start back to school in a week and then I'm sure everything will change again. But most of the day will be just me and my tow little boys. It'll be a lot quieter around here, that's for sure.