One Month

What a month it has been! Here is a very late introduction:

Aaron Martin

born November 23rd at 5:27 am

7 lb. 11 oz.
21 inches

Labor was fast -- 5 hours and only 1 1/2 hours were in the hospital! Recovery went well. I left the hospital as soon as I could the next day so I could enjoy Thanksgiving at home.

I was spoiled for a few days because he was so laid back (not at all like his sisters). I thought he was a champion at breastfeeding while we were still in the hospital, but his weigh proved otherwise. He was a very slow gainer. We did some weight checks at the doctor's office to monitor him. There were tears shed on my part as he very slowly gained weight. I tried and tried to get him to nurse more often but ultimately couldn't make him eat. Then we turned a corner. The past two weeks he has gained a pound and a half; he's gaining ground quite quickly! Despite his fast gaining, he's only in the 25th for weight compared to other babies his age. However, you can place your bet now to see where he falls next month...

We are blessed to have such a happy baby. Yes, we would be blessed regardless of his temperament, bit I am truly grateful to have a bit of an easier baby this time. He's generally not much of a crier unless there is something wrong. He likes to be held but doesn't demand it 24 hours a day. Naps don't happen much during the day without him being held yet. We're working on that -- he gave me a three hour break today while he napped! Now that he's gaining weight, I can't complain about his eating habits. He currently nurses every 4 hours or so -- sometimes more frequently during the day and often one stretch even longer at night. That doesn't mean I'm getting a lot of sleep though.

His major quirk is this: After getting u once around 2 or 3 am to eat, he wakes again around 6 to be held. He doesn't want to eat at that point. He's not ready to start his day yet either. He's just done sleeping in his bassinet and wants somebody to hold him while he sleeps. Go figure.

Chloe and Julia love having a little brother and seem to be adjusting well. There hasn't been many jealousy issues yet, but we've had a lot of company to entertain the girls. They rarely call him by his name; it's always "Baby Brother". Their favorite thing to do is read books to Baby Brother.

He was baptized December 5th in a very special gown. Kevin's great-grandparents made it for Kevin's dad's baptism. Kevin and his brothers were also baptized in it. Now Aaron has started the third generation.

It has been a long, crazy month with many adjustments (and many, many more to make). Look how grown up he looks today already:

To see his hospital pictures, click on: http://www.stjohnsmercyhospital.org/webnursery/sjmhc.asp

Choose November 23 and click on my name. From there you can click on "full details".

I'm sure there's more that could be shared, but that's all my sleep-deprived mind is thinking of right now. If anybody can figure out how to box up this present, I have a perfect last-minute present you can send my way -- a really good night's sleep!

Dreams

One of the crazy things that happens to me when I'm pregnant is this: My dreams become incredibly vivid. Even after I wake up, I sometimes have a hard time distinguishing what is reality and what was simply a dream.

What becomes really odd is that occasionally one small aspect of a dream ends up happening in reality. Now, I'm not a person who thinks dreams mean anything. But I do enjoy teasing certain family members that I predicted something happening.

Last night was a vivid dream about Chloe. I got a phone call from Chloe's teacher saying that Chloe was becoming unmanageable and she could no longer come to school unless I was with her at all times. I drove to the school to spend the rest of the day with her and watched my child act like a complete monster to all the other kids. The teacher even explained that one child had started to go to counseling because of the trauma Chloe had caused her.

Needless to say, it was a very restless night for me. The alarm interrupted the dream. I was exhausted, but glad to have that dream come to an end.

I have to admit -- I was a bit nervous sending Chloe to school this morning. It all seemed too real.

She Reads!

Chloe LOVES school! She evens likes doing the work we do together at home. Each week there are certain letters the kids are working on in the classroom. Last week they focused on words starting with the letters A and B. This week they are looking for words that start with C, D and E. One or two times a week we are supposed to sit down together and find some of those words in a dictionary.

Chloe has been very enthused about finding words in all of her books and coming up with some on her own. I almost feel like I'm in a movie scene. Think of the movie Forrest Gump. Remember when Bubba goes on and on listing all the ways to serve shrimp? That's us right now. She follows me around the house constantly saying "Mommy, ______ starts with C." Yesterday I got Chloe up from her nap and decided I needed to make a pit stop in the bathroom afterwards. Chloe stood outside the bathroom door telling me "Curtain starts with C, door starts with D, ear starts with E......" And so our day goes all day long. I'm glad she's excited, but there are times it gets a bit old. I just try to remind myself to enjoy her enthusiasm and laugh at the situation.

Today we sat down and looked in the dictionary for the first time. We talked about how the words are grouped, and she helped me find the C words and so on. After that I looked for words that she might be able to sound out. I don't know what Chloe's teacher has done in four days of school, but I am convinced she has magical powers. Chloe has known for quite some time now what sounds all of the letters make, but she hasn't been able to put those sounds together to make words often yet. Today Chloe read: cup, car, cold, cat, can, daddy, door, duck, dot, dish, egg, Exodus (she put this word on the list yesterday, but she read it to me today!), elbow, and end. She's a reading fanatic now! She saw the words SNACK and APPLES in the kitchen and read them to me without any prompting or help.

Exciting reading times! I love it! Hurray for school!!!

Third Trimester

Tomorrow will be the first day of my third trimester of this pregnancy. The aches and pains supposedly start during this time, but my body seems a bit confused. My back and legs have been giving me problems for quite some time now. Sometimes the tiniest movement can send shooting pain through my back and almost bring me to tears. In some ways November can't come soon enough! Here are some more things I'm experiencing right now:

• Heartburn has hit hard. I've been trying to eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day instead of 3 big meals, but that's not always easy to do.
• I'm noticing bigger movements from the baby. It cracks me up when I feel him hitting and kicking simultaneously, making opposite sides of my stomach move at the same time.
• When the baby moves, I'm noticing specific body parts. I can't tell if it's a hand or a foot, but it's often easy to find little body parts.
• Sleep is becoming more elusive. Because my back is causing me such problems, I can't find a comfortable sleeping position. I wish we had a bigger room so there was room for a big body pillow. I don't suppose it's very nice to kick my husband out of bed so I have room for the pillow?
• The girls are getting very excited. Last night they felt the baby kicking for the first time. Yesterday Chloe announced that we need to get toys for her baby brother. And they are still working on names for little brother. Julia's current choice is Kyle. Chloe has come up with the name Kin Bin. I have to admit, it has an interesting ring to it. Still not leaving the official name to them though.

I am getting pretty excited myself. There are so many things I want to get done before the baby comes though. I'm currently working on making all kinds of activities for the girls. About a month from now I'll start cooking up meals to put in the freezer. But my biggest goal is to get the majority of Christmas shopping done before this baby is born. Shopping for Christmas presents is not something I want to do with a brand new baby or while I'm sleep-deprived. Wish me luck!

I realized we had our second ultrasound at the beginning of July, but I haven't shared the pictures with many people. Here's a profile picture of our sweet baby boy. If you need help deciphering the picture -- the bright colored big circle in the middle is the outline of the head. The facial features are in the 10:00 position. Look closely and you'll see a little nose at the top, two lips, and a chin.

All Grown Up

sigh...

It seems like only yesterday that she was my little cuddly girl, still wearing diapers, still taking naps in the afternoon, and still riding in a carseat. Now she's all grown up and ready for her first professional job. Wait... she's not? Sure had me fooled.

We made another stride towards being a big girl today. This morning when I got the girls up at 6:45 (ugh!), Julia still had a completely dry diaper. Now, we've tried working on potty training off and on a bit this summer, but it's never been a great time to work on it really hard because this summer has been so crazy. So I wasn't really expecting anything when I decided to have her sit on the potty this morning. She surprised me by using it without any problems! Hurray for a step towards successful toilet training!

First Day of School

Chloe was all ready for school. She had got her new haircut on Saturday:

She had her new backpack filled with school supplies and decorated by me (with input from her):

Sunday we had a "Going to School" party. She helped me bake a cake, we all watched a movie in the afternoon, ate a very yummy supper with a decorated school cake for dessert, packed up all the school supplies, laid out clothes for the morning, played a short game of dominoes, and read "The Kissing Hand" before going to bed.

This morning we got up super early because Chloe isn't much of a morning person and doesn't move very fast. I had made pancakes the day before. So we were able to enjoy a big, special breakfast of pancakes (cut into fun shapes of course), bacon, and canteloupe. The ILS are the initials for her school.

Here's where we got a bit skimpy on pictures because we were starting to run a little late. All dressed and ready:

Here's our very poor "in front of school" picture. The sun was so bright I couldn't see anything on the camera. That left me guessing and hoping I had Chloe in the picture.

It was right about this time I finally started crying. I had been doing so well up until this point. I had been excited for Chloe all morning. But very shortly after this picture was taken, a mom came out of the school crying. That got me going right away. Nobody should ever be pregnant when their child is starting school for the first time. I wasn't able to take in much more of the morning because I was too busy fighting back tears.

Luckily Chloe didn't seem to give it much thought. She took everything in stride. The girls sitting at the neighboring desks arrived about the same time Chloe did. I have to wonder if the girls ever said anything to each other because they both seemed just as shy as Chloe. Here is our final picture, Chloe sitting proudly at her desk:

Then we gave hugs and hightailed it out of there before I emptied an entire box of Kleenex that we had just brought to school for the kids. Julia was a little more upset at this point than I was though. She wanted to stay. She just couldn't understand that Chloe gets to stay at school, but she didn't. Poor girl. On the way back to the van I kept hearing "I just want to stay at school for awhile." Yeah, you and me both.

The morning went relatively quickly for me. I cleaned a good part of the house and did some laundry to stay busy. I was constantly thinking I wonder what they're doing now. Julia started out playing independently. I had bought her a new magnetic book about colors. She was having fun putting all the magnetic pieces on the book pages. Then I started hearing those words I knew were coming "I want to play a game". Over and over. Game after game. I need to come up with some good activities for her to do while Chloe is at school.

Kevin, Julia, and I all went to school to pick up Chloe at 11:30 (just as we all dropped her off). We had explained to Julia that she had to be 4 before she could go to school and stay at school. When I told Julia it was time to go to school and get Chloe, she looked at me excitedly and asked "I'm 4 now?!"

Chloe was all smiles when she came out of the classroom, but is still a bit reluctant to tell us much about her day. When I asked her if she had fun, she told me she had fun at the playground. A little later she told me quite excitedly about how the teacher let them drink out of the water fountain. I guess a playground and a water fountain are all it takes to make my daughter happy. Those were the other things she could tell us unprompted. Even prompting her with questions, we're not getting much right now. Maybe after she's gone to school a few more days she'll want to tell us all about it.

Thus begins our new adventure of school. It wasn't bad, all things considered. The morning felt plenty rushed even though I had everything laid out and ready the night before. Hopefully we can all move a little faster with practice. Julia needs exciting activities to keep her occupied during the mornings. Otherwise I think we can handle this okay.

Catching Up Again!

Where does time go? How can some days simply drag and yet the entire summer is gone in a flash? It has been one crazy summer! It has been the summer of...

• another exciting pregnancy
• a surprise getaway weekend for our anniversary
• a weekend long family reunion hosted at our house
• the girls' first long vacation without Mommy and Daddy
• canning, canning, and more canning
• our first year of school supply shopping

... and almost all of this without a working camera for documentation!

Looking back over our calendar, we've had a lot of company and we've gone lots of places. There's no way to recount everything that was done. Kevin surprised me for our anniversary. We dropped the kids off at my parents' house on a Friday evening and escaped to a bed and breakfast for the weekend. We enjoyed many activities that Kevin had planned until Sunday afternoon when we were reunited with the girls.

The end of July brought lots and lots of family to our house. Everybody arrived sometime on a Friday and most left Sunday afternoon or Monday moring. 31 of us enjoyed visiting, playing games, sharing devotions, singing as a choir at the churches, and eating lots and lots of good food. What a fun time!

After the reunion, Kevin's parents and one brother stayed for several days. Chloe and Julia took a vacation back to Michigan with them when they left, leaving Kevin and me at home. I cried when it was time for them to leave (okay, okay, I cried off and on much of that day). Kevin and I left for Michigan 5 days later. It was nice to have a break, but we didn't really take good advantage of being kid-free. Most of the time was spent cleaning the house and preparing to leave for our vacation. The girls had a great time without us though!

I've done more canning this year. Two years ago was my first time with it, and I'm starting to become a little more comfortable with the process. This year we have 8 pints of salsa, 8 pints of relish, 4 1/2 quarts of spaghetti sauce, 8 pints of tomato juice, 6 pints and 4 quarts of bread and butter pickles, 7 pints and 2 quarts of dill pickles, 13 half-pints and 3 pints of pear-pineapple jam, 2 1/2 quarts of pears, and 3 pints and 2 1/2 quarts of pear sauce. All produce was given to us... can't complain about that!

Needless to say, we've been staying busy. I hope to start writing more regularly again now that things have settled down. More to come on the topics of school and this pregnancy.

Pregnancy

Here's the picture I wanted to add a few days ago. It's the picture the doctor gave Chloe of her newest sibling. I think the picture is pretty easy to decipher, but for those of you who need help: The circle at the bottom is the stomach. Above it is the head. There's a hand to the right of the stomach. To the left is the other arm, which was waving at us while the picture was being taken.

Now that I've hit the second trimester I'm slowly starting to feel a little better. I don't have to eat every two hours to ward off nausea anymore... hurray! Snacking that much only sounds fun. I quickly ran out of foods that sounded even remotely decent.

I'm still tired most of the time, but I am optimistic that this will get better very soon. (It better... my house is really suffering.)

I'm not quite at the stage of needing to wear maternity clothes yet, but pants with buttons are never buttoned anymore. And the maternity pants Mom and I shopped for two weeks ago already fit. It probably won't be much longer before I'm living in them.

I am having the most vivid dreams. My mind becomes fixated on something each night, and even after waking up and falling back asleep I will continue with the same dream. I have spent the majority of many nights tossing and turning trying to get myself to stop reciting the catechism or singing the same stanza of a hymn over and over. Weird, huh? By the way, in my dreams the baby is always a boy. Don't chalk it up to mother's intuition though -- boy was the only thing on my mind when I was pregnant with Julia. I think it's just because we already had a girl.

I'm having fun asking the girls if they want a brother or a sister and asking for name suggestions. Usually Julia wants a brother and Chloe wants a sister. The names are often jibberish, but here are some of the better names:

Chloe -- Reno (for a boy) and Chlo-mo (for a girl)

Julia -- Matthew (for a girl!) and Uck (for a boy)

Needless to say, we're not leaving the naming of the baby in the hands of the girls!

Overheard

Kevin and I have been doing a lot of explaining to Chloe about why I get to do some things (like snacking pretty close to a meal) and she doesn't. "Mommy has a baby in her belly so she....." Kevin has also been taking the opportunity to really talk up her having kids later (he's so eager to be a grandpa!). "Maybe one day when you're older and married, you can have a baby too."

So last night at supper Chloe looked like she was really thinking about something hard. "Mommy, did you get married so you could have a baby?"

How do I keep the answer simple for a four-year-old? "Yes" (among other reasons).

"Well, who wanted to get married with you?"

"Daddy and I got married."

"Oh."

I can't figure out if she was just checking to make sure I'm married or if she's trying to work out how to get married herself. Either way, it made me chuckle.

Birthday

There was just no time to write yesterday. Chloe turned 4 yesterday! I've said it before, and I know I'll say it many more times: Where did the time go? She's very excited about starting school in the fall. I'm not sure I'm ready, and now it seems very close.

Chloe had a very busy, but fun birthday. We were out of the house most of the day doing a variety of things. I had a doctor's appointment in the morning. Afterwards we had a special birthday lunch at Steak and Shake. Both girls loved the milk shake we shared. Then we did a little shopping and visited a shut-in. We didn't get home until 3:30. The girls did some reading and playing while I rested. Presents came next. Chloe was such a big girl sharing her brand new toys with her little sister. That gave me a chance to cook supper and work on the frosting for the birthday cake. Of course, we celebrated with a Mexican-style meal (for cinco de mayo) and the requested chocolate cake. Chloe was quite happy to receive a few phone calls from people wanting to wish her a happy birthday. She was also really excited about getting to stay up a little late to play her new game.

I am disappointed that we don't have any pictures from yesterday because there's something wrong with our camera. Electronics have not been cooperating with me this week. So no pictures of our now 4-year-old. Our scanner is not working today either, which means I can't show you the picture that got Chloe really excited yesterday. At my doctor's appointment, the doctor gave each girl their very own picture of their new sibling waving at them. Estimated due date is November 21st. Maybe I'll have a birthday baby?

All around it was a very exciting day. Chloe has been cracking me up all day. She keeps saying things like "I'm 4 now, so I won't _______ anymore". She's growing up so fast. Glad you had a great day, Chloe. We love you very much!

Getting Older

Yesterday I was explaining to Chloe how close her birthday is, and Kevin started in with some teasing. First he said nobody in this house likes birthdays. She was quite firm in saying she does. The rest of the conversation went something like this:

Kevin: Why do you like birthdays? They just make you get old. And when you're old your back will start hurting. And your knees will start hurting. And your knuckles with start hurting. And your insides might hurt.

Chloe was getting a worried look on her face by this point, but the next sentences really upset her.

Kevin: And your hair will turn gray and might thin out, which would be really bad with your already thin hair.

At this point Chloe is practically in tears and screams NOOOOOO!!! Poor girl.

Rest assured, the situation has been resolved. She is no longer worried about getting older, and she is back to looking forward to tomorrow's birthday!

Things That Make Me Smile

Here are a couple things that have happened today to make me smile:

The girls have been singing "holy, holy, holy.....holy, holy, holy" around the house the past few weeks. We're not sure where they picked this up because we haven't sang "Holy, holy holy" at church recently. One day Kevin decided to ask them who is holy. That led to a short, toddler discussion on God being holy. So today I was shopping with the girls in Target, and halfway through the store Chloe starts singing "Jesus is holy.... Jesus is holy..." (and not quietly, I might add). Of course, if Chloe is singing, Julia has to start too. "Je-us ho-we." Couldn't help smiling as we finished our shopping listening to their duet.

The other thing I am loving today is how much Chloe is playing with her dolls. She has played with her dolls for a long time, but today it's different. She's reading stories to her babies and answering all of their questions (No, this book doesn't have words, but we can look at the pictures. Maybe I'll make you pancakes for supper tonight, but not now.). It's as if they are her own real, live babies. It's adorable! What a good mommy she is!

School

Well, it's official. Chloe will start preschool next year. She will be going to the Lutheran school in the next town (only 5 miles away). We registered her today. She got to see her classroom and meet her teacher. She is very excited! And I am very excited that I didn't cry while we were there!

Another cute story for you: Chloe was playing house again today. She was the mommy again, but this time she told Julia to be the daddy because she didn't want to be the daddy. Kevin asked why she didn't want to be the daddy. Her response? "Because daddies don't shop."

Overheard

Chloe has started having more imaginative play lately. It's fun to watch her playing things she sees in real life. The other day she decided to play house for the first time. She declared herself to be the mommy. And what did Julia get to be? "Julia, you pretend to be the sister."

Julia had started to show quite the compassionate side. Yesterday Chloe got upset about something and was standing in the corner of the living room crying. Julia dropped her toys and ran over to Chloe. She gave her a hug and a kiss and said, "All better, Chloe?" When that didn't stop Chloe's crying, Julia started the process all over. Hug, kiss, all better? And yes, after three times through the cycle, Chloe was all better. Such a good sister.

Back to Normal

Today has been our first "normal" weekday since at least a week before Christmas, and the girls and I are having a hard time adjusting. The week after Christmas we were at my parents' house. Two days later one of Kevin's brothers was here for almost a week. The girls absolutely loved having Uncle Eric here, but it definitely did not make for a very normal week. They had somebody visiting, which meant some extra excitement every day.

Now here we are, slowly trying to get back into a calm (and sometimes boring) swing of life. The girls spent much of the morning fighting over toys. The 45 minutes of Sesame Street they watched was the only thing that stopped the yelling.

I did a lot of cleaning on Saturday, but now I'm bored with that and feeling just plain lazy. We did get our shopping done at Walmart and Save-a-lot. I guess that's worth something. The Christmas decorations are all down. The house seems so big. And there's plenty of cleaning still to do! I guess our feelings over here can be summed up with Choe's declaration: "Mommy, I miss Christmas!" Here's hoping day two of "normal" is better than day one.

Snow Blues

Yes, I gave up on my 12 days of Christmas. The only one I can really still report is the 10th day. The girls were incredibly good during church. Chloe usually participates throughout the service, and I let her color her children's bulletin during the sermon. That Sunday neither girl needed crayons during the sermon, and Julia didn't even need any books to get us through the service!

And now why do we have snow blues? It snowed a fair amount on Wednesday night -- enough that the vehicles we followed home from the circuit Epiphany service thought it was necessary to go 35 in a 55 speed zone. It's hard to say how much we got. By the time we woke up, the wind had blowed in around making it hard to estimate. We finally got enough snow to go outside and play in it... but it's too cold to go outside. The wind chill was -10 yesterday. Nobody was eager to bundle up the girls to go out there. So here we sit, looking at the pretty snow, hoping we will have a warmer day so we can go out and enjoy it.

Catching Up

On the fifth day of Christmas my children gave to me... time to go shopping without them. There is an amazing thrift store in my parents' town. I came home with three pairs of pants for Chloe, a pair of pants and two shirts for myself, 12 books, a board game, an icon, a candy dish, and a glass juicer for $8.80!

On the sixth day of Christmas my children gave to me... a sleep-deprived, crabby day. Too much excitement led to short nights of sleeping for the girls (and therefore, for everybody). Nothing special to note.

On the seventh day of Christmas my children gave to me... a quiet drive on the way back from my parents' house. Surprisingly they made it an hour and half down the road before they needed some books to read. Up until then, they were happy with just their babydolls, a steering wheel, and a toy phone.

On the eighth day of Christmas my children gave to me... a very peaceful church service to start off the new year. They were so good, I am utterly shocked. Is it too much to ask for all church services this year to be that good?

The twelve days of Christmas posting was Kevin's idea. I'm sure you've already noticed a trend here -- my children gave me peace, my children were quiet, my children were good. How else could I possibly finish these sentences? I'm 2/3 of the way done with these posts, so I will finish them. Here's hoping that the next 4 days will have something new and exciting!