daddy, momma, and you

Meet Graham's playmobil family. Momma and Daddy are obvious, but don't overlook "You" in the middle.

It started a while back with the bathroom mirror. See, Matt always makes G's hair crazy with the shampoo as he washes it. We would then hold up a mirror and say "look Graham, it's you!"

Then he just started saying "you, you" when Matt would wash his hair pointing to the little hand mirror. We thought that maybe this "you" only lived in the bathroom mirror.

And now we have his little family. We pulled out the playmobil when Jackson came home as sort of a "quiet activity" that could keep G occupied when we didn't want to watch Toy Story one.more.time. It has been a huuuge hit. This guy loves some small toys. But then he started talking about them by their names: Momma, Daddy, and You. The little boy's name is officially You. Always calls him You. He actually lined them up in the above picture and was so proud of himself. Notice that You is in the middle, ha. They always have on the same hats (which he calls "shats") and they always sit on the same horses. Everything is always about being the same. Graham loves the same.

We just had to make sure this little G-ism was documented before he outgrew it!

the park

We went to the park the other day. I know I know...we have a newborn. But the weather has been absolutely amazing. Plus, Matt had taken the week off and so I knew we had better go while he was with us. I'm not dumb enough to try it alone.

We went to this park with some friends recently (the day before Jackson actually) and it was a huge hit with G. He had the best time leading Matt along the pathways and thought it was so funny that Daddy went down the slide with him! Isn't the picture so cute?

There is also a little section of natural musical instruments of sorts.

We all know G loves any and all instruments...

Can't forget the 5 day old babe...

Matt and Graham playing hide and seek.

brothers

I think they're going to be the best of friends.

Eventually.

Right now we're just trying to make sure G doesn't squish him with a toy or his foot.

There are glimpses of love though. G loves to pretend tickle J first thing in the morning when J first wakes up. And the other day, when he saw J squirming in his bouncy seat (you know, newborn squirms), he went over and pretended like he was going to pick him up and was grunting and pointing at him and then came over to me and pointed to me and said "nur-nur." He knew that when Jackson squirms or cries that I nurse him...it was soooo cute!

I love seeing that Graham loves Jackson. Right now at least. We pray that they are best little buddies from a young age.

curious eyes

Jackson Bryan

Another little boy joined our family on August 18, 2010 at 7:11 in the morning. Jackson Bryan weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces and was 20 inches long. As an added bonus, little Jackson now shares a birthday with my dad!

We are in awe of God's goodness in blessing our lives with another little one!

In the interest of remembering even the little details, the following is the birth story of little Jackson, so read on at your own risk, ha! Even if you don't care about the birth, enjoy the pictures.

Unfortunately, this entire pregnancy went by without one belly shot. How sad. I can tell you that I was bigger than last time. I was waaay more uncomfortable and complained alot more. I'm so sorry if you were on the receiving end of my whining. There are probably several people (mostly Matt) that are pretty glad I'm no longer preggo, haha!

My official due date was August 18, but around the beginning of the month I had several nights where I was up for hours in the night with contractions that would always go away in the morning. We kept getting our hopes up that it was time and then had to get over the disappointment. It did help me keep myself prepared for things and enjoy my days alone with Graham. We for sure made the most of the last couple of weeks together!

My 40 week dr. appointment was on Tuesday and I was a little more than 3 cm and fully effaced. My doctor was pretty sure it would be soon and not another week. I breathed a sigh of relief at that one. For the rest of the afternoon, I was a little crampy but didn't want to get my hopes up that it meant anything. We carried on as usual but I did make sure that our bags were all sort of packed and that we had milk in the fridge.

Around 2ish in the morning, contractions woke me up. But they were just like the ones I'd been having and I had no trouble going back to sleep. They would just sort of make me stir every 10-20 minutes. Then around 4:30 I had one that made me get up. I called my doula at 4:45 and gave her an update (they were still only 10-15 minutes apart but starting to hurt.) She was glad I called and said to call her when they were more like 5-6 minutes apart. As soon as I hung up, they jumped to 5-6 minutes apart and by 5:15 we had talked again, I'd woken up Matt and we were getting ourselves ready for baby. Matt called my parents to let them know to head our way and also the doctor to let her know we'd most likely be seeing her in the next few hours. I think that with Graham, I didn't know what labor was supposed to be like and before I knew it, it was over. This time I think I was way more whiny and nervous about things speeding out of control. Matt was great though and was at my side rubbing my back or just reminding me to breathe while remaining calm himself.

My doula arrived around 5:45 and I could have hugged her. She watched me work through one contraction and then had me lay over the yoga ball. That's apparently when she looked at Matt and said that it was time to go and asked if my mom was here yet. Matt finished getting things in the car and my mom pulled up. We were in the car headed out by 6:15. Let me tell you, laboring in the car is the worst! Sweet doula rode with us and boy was I glad. With each contraction she reminded me not to yell and reminded me that I wasn't allowed to push yet. With her help I think I only yelled out profanity a couple of times and managed to breathe through the contractions for the 30 minute drive. It also helped that Matt was going like 85.

We arrived at the hospital at 6:45, walked through the parking garage, through the construction detour entrance, up the elevator and into the "labor evaluation unit". That's where you go so that they can make sure you're actually in labor and not just hoping to be in labor. They must have laughed at me because I couldn't even stop at the desk. I just paced in a circle and told them that I was pushing and needed a bed. Must have been convincing enough because they told me to go ahead into labor and delivery. Another set of nurses and desk where they ask me routine questions and such. I can't even stand still... then we're in a room. My doctor had just arrived on the floor and heard a nurse say that room 24 was a "full 10cm and pushing" and knew it was me. I was so glad to see her! I have no idea what time we were all present and accounted for in the delivery room. All I know was that between Matt, my doula, and doctor...the room grew calm and it seemed as time stood still. Such a different experience from last time with Graham where it seemed like everyone was buzzing around and everything seemed so urgent. With the first push my water broke. Maybe (probably) too much information - but because I was pushing, it literally shot water across the room. Everyone laughed. With a few more pushes little Jackson was laying on my chest trying to look at me (it was 7:11.) After all the intensity, all the transitions from home to car to hospital.... there was my baby. All tiny and pink and warm. Instant love. We immediately were in awe at how tiny newborns are and had fun talking to him and snuggling him for several minutes until she cut the cord. Everything went smoothly and much more calmly after this point. We moved to our next room around 8:30 I think. They were able to do the "bedside check-in" for us and so we were able to hold and snuggle little Jackson without him having to go to the nursery. It's just like people say... our hearts doubled.

Brand new Jackson.

Proud daddy.

Family trickled in to visit throughout the day. It was nice to have time with each person instead of everyone at once. My mom brought Graham up to us late morning. He didn't really care so much about Jackson but more about my sitting in the bed. Graham does not do well when I go to the doctor or the chiropractor. It's like he doesn't want anyone to touch or possibly hurt me. So sweet. So he was most concerned with making sure I was ok and wanted to make sure to sit as close to me as possible. He and Jackson had presents for each other. Graham gave Jackson a yuh-yuh just like him and Jackson gave Graham a toy guitar. While the gift exchange was great, the toy guitar was a mistake, it's preset songs are sooo annoying.

I must say, many thanks to both of our families for practically stopping their lives to help us and keep Graham. Matt's family was about to leave for Ireland for several weeks and my parents were getting my brother settled into college. And yet they helped us make sure Graham felt special and spent time with us. We love them so much and can't thank them enough!

First (but not great) family picture.

G is way more interested in taking apart Nana's wallet...

Sweet sister spent the first night with me, thanks Laura!

We really wanted to keep G's life as normal as possible, so Matt slept at home with him.

"Oh hello world!"

Isn't he precious?! I plan to do alot of staring at that face.

We think he looks alot like Graham but isn't that blond hair so cute?

We have this same picture with G and it's the same.

All ready to go home!

We are thankful for our sweet little boy. Every aspect of this delivery went so smoothly and was such an answer to prayer. We feel so blessed to have had the gentle, drug free birth we prayed for. Praise the Lord for this little life! Matt and I can't believe we have two little ones, wow!

22 Months

We're here again...several more months pass since Graham's last update.

And once again, he's changed a ton. He's sort of a different child.

He's awesome. We are absolutely loving this stage.

We're constantly laughing at him.

In between time-outs of course. More on that one later.

Where to start.... maybe his talking. He definitely has a mind of his own in this department. Every department really...food too. Anyway, he had his list of words that he would say and refused to even attempt almost everything else. I mean, he grunts, gestures and points to get his point across. So he just quit saying new things for a little while. The the other day, we pulled into Dunkin' Donuts and he went crazy saying "donut" over and over. So maybe we go there too much, ya think? Actually, I usually do the drive through, but Matt has taken him there for some father/son breakfast dates and apparently it's made quite an impression. But then I realized that he would repeat after me if I asked him too. So we went through a bunch of words and he did great saying most. Some of his new regulars are: thank you (tane-tu), water (tikka-tikka), again ('gain), no (quite possibly the cutest "no" we've ever heard), daddy (he used to say dada and then just switched to daddy), and he'll say all of his little friend's names (Will, Parker, Kate, Blaise, Emma, and baby Ruby).

No new food updates...still crazy picky. We did realize that if he can hold it "like a big boy" it made things like granola bars, cereal bars, bananas way more appealing. We make it through church every sunday by opening a granola bar or cereal bar at the beginning of the sermon and letting him hold it by the bottom of the wrapper and eat it down. It keeps him occupied, takes way longer than if I fed him and bonus - he eats. It's a good system.

He has some new funny G-isms and games that we keep meaning to document.

- picnics - we have this little box of kitchen stuff that it's like he just discovered. He doesn't really want to play with me with it though, it's a "daddy" activity for after dinner. He has a specific place for Matt to sit and he sets his table (the glider stool) for their special dinner. Graham always gets the plastic cookie and piece of bacon on his plate and Matt always gets the spaghetti. And they always drink lemonade. It's super cute to watch Graham "hmm" and "ooo!" around as he sets up the picnic.

- forts - Matt built a fort and it was a huge hit. G always wants all of his stuffed animals in there and also all of us. Mable (which he calls "Mow"), Baxter, me...all in his teeny tiny fort. Ha!

- body parts - He knows all of them! I mean, who taught him where his elbows and shoulders are? His chin? And yet he knows them...super cute.

- his hair game - A while back he was in the tub and reached over and pretended to "eat" some of Matt's arm hair. He just "picked" it and then pretended to put it in his mouth. Sort of hard to describe. We definitely didn't show him that one... and he was so tickled at his little game. Now he does it all the time. Really only to Matt or Bryan - but they play it up with him saying that they "need their hair" and stuff like that. G thinks he's being so funny.

- peek a boo - Just the other day I was calling for Graham, couldn't find him, and then I heard him giggling from the kitchen. When I went in there though, I didn't see him. Thats when I heard him say "boo" from inside the pantry. He apparently went in there and pulled the door closed all on his own. It was just cute that he didn't know the right time to pull out his "boo." Now he does it all the time.

- mr. collecter - He is absolutely obsessed with hoarding and collecting. It's really funny. He gets on kicks with certain items and has to have them go everywhere with us. Most recently it was Buzz and Woody figures. Thankfully he's taken a little break. But one certainty are his keys always his attached to his shorts. He's been really into money (as in coins) and finds them everywhere and puts them in his pockets. I have over a dollar right now on the dryer in change that has ended up in the washer from his laundry. He had a little lavender plastic flipper from some kitchen set he came in contact with. Apparently he made off with the flipper and didn't let it go without tears for like 2 weeks straight. Sadly, the lavender flipper has disappeared...and if G sees one of our flippers or thinks about pancakes, he asks for his flipper for like the next hour.

- music - He continues to have major opinions about what music we listen to. He says "B" over and over and over in the car if we don't listen to his CD. I'm pulling for B's next CD to have like 50 songs or something because of how long G insists on listening to it. He has discovered this (super) annoying show on nickjr that is like a pre-teen band that is catchy and they play instruments. He goes crazy if it comes on and dances and sings along. Cute.

- galloping - We got this CD recently that we listen to alot when we're in the house. It has all of those little sing-a-long songs that we all know and mostly love. One of his favorites is the "this is the way the gentleman rides..." song. Matt and I obnoxiously danced all over the kitchen and house according to each verse and now G can't get enough. He goes crazy dancing whenever the song gets to the "this is the way the cowboy rides..." And actually, his little run/scurry has morphed into more of a gallop. It's awesome!

Ok, on to the time-outs. We've most definitely entered into the 2's. He has a little mind of his own and many many many preferences that he thinks are necessities. He says "no, no, no" to us all the time but not in a mean way...just sort of a "that's not the way I want it" sort of way. We introduced time-outs and they're working out quite nicely. He knows what we mean when we interrupt something he's not supposed to be doing and ask him if he'd like a time out if he doesn't stop. He says "no, no" and usually/sometimes stops. There are several things that we almost always have to have 2 or 3 consecutive time-outs for. Those are fun.

Most days are fun. Every day is an absolute joy. Even though we left the house and went to Toys R Us today just to make sure I didn't go mental - I wouldn't trade these days for anything.

I've been home for the last 2 weeks every day. I'm not going back to work after Jackson comes and it was easier for me to have a set end date for my job than to just work up until he came. It has been super fun not having to get up and get to work but also hard. Just one more reason I love that Matt works from home....we love our lunches together.

And even when I know that the days ahead with G and a newborn are going to be hard and I'm sure I'll cry (alot). I'm so incredibly excited to be home with my boys and pour myself into them.

If only Jackson would hurry up and get here....I'm 40 weeks on Wednesday.