A Smooth Ride

Friday night, we visited a nearby gathering of old cars and car enthusiasts. Jonathan got to ride around and look at them. He thought this was just about the best thing ever...next to Legos.

We shared a chocolate milkshake as a family, too. He thought that was great but wouldn't have noticed if he didn't get a sip. He was having a great time checking out the cars. He has such a profound respect for cars that he did a great keeping a safe distance from each one so as not to bump or scratch the paint!

Grace enjoyed it, too.

A Party

Yup, this is my son, playing with plungers.

Actually, he's painting with them. Natalie's birthday party was yesterday, and Linnea brought in an art instructor to give the kids a few different art projects to work on. It was a fun idea, and the kids all had a great time. I sure know some mommies who throw great kid birthday parties. I'm not so talented in that area, but I really enjoy everyone else's creativity!

Here's another one of the projects. The "paintbrushes" the kids are using are made of toilet paper rolls with rubber band "bristles" attached. Jonathan thought it was hilarious how they wiggled.

Here, the kids are attaching little plastic shapes to contact paper. After they finished, they covered the contact paper with tissue paper. When they turned it over, the project looked like stained glass. Really neat.

Of course, all the kids had fun playing at the park and eating cupcakes, too. Thanks for a fun time, Natalie!

A Date

Last night, Jeff and I went on a Real Date. Jeff bought tickets (several months ago!) to a production at a nearby performing arts center and took me to see it. We left both kids with a babysitter. Jonathan knows her well, but this was the first time to leave Grace.

It was hard for me. I really didn't feel ready to leave Grace yet. As timing worked out, I put Grace to bed just before we left, and I had a bottle ready for the babysitter, just in case. Jonathan took a picture of Jeff and me on our way out:

Sometimes I forget that he sees everything from much closer to the ground than we do!

We had a great time and loved the production. It was so nice to be out together. When we got home, everything was fine and Grace was still asleep. And, guess what...she slept through the night for the first time last night. She went eleven hours between feedings. Wow! Of course, she's hungry very frequently today to make up for it. And I'm not counting on another night of big sleep tonight. But, her sleep last night hints of long sleeps to come...and maybe a chance to catch up on sleep for me. What a treat!

The Beginning of the Blog

When Jonathan was exactly Grace's age, Jeff started a blog for him. Almost all of our family and many of our friends lived far away, and we wanted a way for them to get to know our baby. Also, we didn't want to be emailing pictures constantly! So, he wrote a few posts, handed off to me, and the rest is history.

People keep asking-and maybe they always will-whether Grace looks like Jonathan. There's a lot of disagreement on this issue! So, you can decide for yourself. Here is Jonathan's first picture on the blog at age 2 1/2 months. (Poor baby had lost all of his hair.) And, here's Grace at 2 1/2 months, also lying on the changing table. What do you think?

Kathleen Bess

For those of you who are wondering how she is...she's gaining weight!  She's up past the three pound mark now, which is a big praise.  If you know Guy and Em and/or want to follow her story, leave me a comment or send me an email and I'll give you her Caring Bridge website that they update for her.  I know her family appreciates your prayers.

Just Pictures of Us

Despite his Lego love, Jonathan still enjoys playing with other things...like wooden trains.

And here are Jeff and Gracie admiring each other.  Our kids become more precious to us with each passing day.

Among the Things We're Getting Used To

Bloomers.

Brother and Sister

Doting brother

Sweet sister

Oops

I meant 12 lbs., 2 oz., not 12 lbs., 12 oz. in the post below. So, I fixed it. I'm not totally caught up on sleep yet! Of course, I might have made that goof even with adequate sleep!

She Did It!

Gracie gained weight this week! She went from 11 lbs., 11 oz. a week ago to 12 lbs., 2 oz. today. That's plenty, since she's supposed to gain .5 - 1 oz. per day, according to the lactation consultants. I guess we've found her current "happy medium," which includes me pumping twice a day and giving her some extra ounces in the afternoon/evening. I think Grace's job these days is to keep me on my toes. I'm very thankful she's gaining again.

Links for Ya

Just a quick note! Please stop by Rocks in My Dryer today. She has some great links posted, and I'll mention just a couple. One-not uplifting but important-tells how the young stars of Slumdog Millionaire are doing. The other-just for fun-tells how to make a little girl's dress out of two bandanas and some ribbon. Sooo cute.

Smiles

The baby gym is a favorite toy for her and was for Jonathan, too.

Celebrating Grandma

Gracie with her aunt Amanda and great grandma

Mmm...bacon!  The guys cooked breakfast...how great is that!

Gracie with her great grandma and uncle Todd

Siblings, spouses, and Grandma.  We had a really nice breakfast and visit.

Mmm...more bacon.

Make a wish!  (We forgot to put the candles in the waffles!  Oops!)

Corinne, Todd, Amanda, Grandma, Jonathan, me, and Jeff (sorry, Gracie, you slept through this one!)

Gracie with her uncle Todd and great grandma

Jonathan with his aunt Corinne

You've GOT to check these out!

The Frugal Muse (in my sidebar) has posted about free chocolate and free Legos today. Click on over and find out about these special offers. The Legos are just for teachers! Soooo fun!

Today

Jonathan thought it was really important for Gracie to wear wrist rattles and foot rattles today...

"so she can be all decoratey," he said.  You can see who was excited about this!

It's been a good day.  It's amazing how much I can do when my sweet daughter decides she can handle eating every three hours during the day instead of every two hours, 15 minutes.  Today is day two of her eating every three hours from start of feeding to start of feeding.  And each feeding takes only about 45 new minutes!  I've been able to spend good time with both kids and do a "bagillion" (as Jonathan says) loads of laundry, among other things.

Grandma's Birthday

My grandma - the kids' great grandma - turns 80 today.  This picture was taken on Monday.  She is one of the two Evelyns that our Grace Evelyn was named for.  Happy birthday, Grandma!

Milk

A quick update about how Grace is doing. I'm guessing it's mostly the grandmas who are reading this!

I'm only weighing Grace once a week now. We figured she was "over the hump" and once a week would be enough. I weighed her before our trip, and she was 11 lbs., 11 oz. When she returned, she was still 11 lbs., 11 oz. I figured that was fine with all the crazy coming and going and the fact that I didn't pump consistently while we were gone. A week later (today,) I weighed her, and...you guessed it...she's still 11 lbs., 11 oz.

She's doing great in so many ways: She's sleeping well both for naps and nighttime, and really alert during her awake times. She's very smiley and chatty (our friends on our trip commented on this!) and starting to enjoy playing with her toys (or at least looking and swatting at them) and making lots of happy noises. So I know she's doing OK. However, she does need to keep gaining weight, especially since I was told that she needs to gain half an ounce to an ounce each day. She obviously hasn't been doing that. So, I guess I am going to need to work harder on getting her to drink more extra ounces again.

I'm not stressed about it because I see that she's developing and thriving, but I am disappointed because I was really ready to say goodbye to the pump. Apparently it's not time for that yet. At least it's paid for until June 30, whether I use it or not.

So, I'll weigh her again next week and hopefully see some progress.

One More Thing

There are quite a few friends we saw and things we did on our trip that didn't get mentioned. Aleasia sent me this picture, so I thought I'd include it and mention a few other people, too! Aleasia got to meet and hold Grace. Last time I saw Aleasia, I met her sweet baby, Emma, and now she's expecting baby number two...we don't know if it's a he or she. Very exciting! (And, yes, I was tired, as you can tell.)

We were able to see a family that was both friend and neighbor to us. They have four kids, and their oldest daughter was one of Jonathan's first babysitters. Their kids are growing up so fast, and we loved chatting with all of them.

We had planned to spend our last day and night with Darren and Aleta and their boys. Unfortunately, their boys got really sick with tonsilitis, so we didn't get to stay with them. Darren had been at our house a few weeks ago, but Aleta hadn't met Gracie yet. So Aleta met us at the mall to hold Grace while Jonathan played in the play area and the grownups chatted. Thanks for meeting us, Aleta, and thanks for taking care of the boys so that she could, Darren!

Visiting

We enjoyed Jen, Ella, and Delia's company today for a playdate for the first time since Gracie's birth. It had been way too long!  Gracie was awake for a good chunk of the visit, and I was happy that Jen got to hold her again.  I think (hope) I am emerging from the fog I lived in during Grace's newborn stage.  Sleep helps everything.

Delia is really growing up.  All three kids can play together some of the time, which is fun to watch.  Ella is almost four now-I can hardly believe it.

Jen commented that we've known each other for a long time now since she remembers Jonathan's transition from crib to bed, which Delia will be experiencing soon.  I'm thankful for a good friend I have known for the major part of our big kids' lives...and for Delia and Gracie's entire lives!

"I'm Making Jerusalem!"

Imagine

Thanks to my friend, Leslie, for sharing this with me. She says it's going to air tonight during American Idol!

More Sleep

As you can imagine, when I put her down to sleep, she was in that snuggly blanket.  When Jeff and I came to check on her, she had scooted to this position.  Our sweet newborn has become a very wiggly baby!

More Visiting

On our trip, our family got to visit with Karyn and James' family.  I know this is amazing, especially considering what a faithful blogger Karyn is, but neither of us took pictures.  I'm really sorry that we didn't...but we all really enjoyed our visit!  Jonathan got to play with Jamey and Jack, we girls had girl talk, and the guys had guy talk.  It was great.  

The next day, I got to see Karyn again at Jenny's house, and would you believe it...I didn't take any pictures until Karyn and the boys were gone.  We really did have a good time!  Thanks so much to Jenny for hosting.  After Karyn left, I realized the error of my ways and got pictures with Jenny's kids.

Here are the big kids:

And here are the little kids:

(We didn't pose their sweet little hands, I promise.)  I got to pick Jenny's brain about Girly Things like The Best Hairbows and How to Know When a Dress is Too Small.  I didn't have to worry about such things with baby Jonathan.  Mostly I was worried about How to Keep a Diaper From Leaking and Keeping Up With Laundry.  Watch out, Jen, I'm going to be picking your brain next and drawing from your experience with Ella and Delia!

Thanks to Anna and Brian...Karyn and James...Jenny and Scott...Tony and Rochelle...Mel and Jan...for hosting...and to all our friends who took the time to see us.  Your picture may not appear here, but we took lots of good memories of you home with us!  And to our friends that we missed...we really did MISS you and hope to see you next time!

Bath

Kathleen Bess

Please pray for our friends, Guy and Emily, and their newborn daughter, Kathleen Bess. She was born 2 1/2 months early on May 11 and weighs 2 lbs., 15 oz. and is 15 3/4" long. They have two older kids-Meredith, who was also a preemie, and Hutch. Meredith and Hutch are doing great now. They say the chances of having two babies born prematurely due to pre-eclampsia are really slim, but Guy and Emily have done it! Emily is at the hospital with Kathleen, who is doing well, considering, and Guy is home with the kids...two hours away! We appreciate your prayers for Kathleen and her family, and we'll let you know how things go in the days ahead.

The Next Stretch

Here we are on the next stretch of our trip.  As I mentioned, Jonathan was already super tired.

We stayed with our gracious friends, Tony and Rochelle.  Not only did they host all of us, but they invited our entire (former) small group - adults and kids - over for a potluck while we were there.  We were really touched.  It was a crazy and special time to be with everyone and pass Gracie around to as many people as I could!  While I was sitting, watching our friends love on our baby, I thought that I should be getting pictures, but honestly, I was too tired.  I'll remember everyone's kindness even though I didn't capture the moments on camera!  There's something special about having your friends connect with your kids.

We were looking forward to having Jonathan play with all the kids, but it turned out that he was too tired.  He crawled into a box.  Literally.  Tony and Rochelle had a car seat box that the kids were playing with, and Jonathan showed off his introversion by hanging out in there until he asked for an early bedtime.  (Here, Liam looks on.)

We managed to get a picture of all the moms and kids before our kids went to bed.  We took a lot of pictures on several cameras, but as you can imagine, we didn't get many faces looking at the camera at the same time!

The moms are, L to R, me, Dorothy, Rochelle, Amanda, and Jennifer.  The kids are Grace, Jonathan, Caleb, Liam, Sage (at bottom,) Owen, Christine, Gabriel, Nathan, and Victoria.

Thank you to everyone for a great evening!

The Fat Lip

Back to stories about our trip...

After Brian's graduation, we joined Anna and Brian's families for lunch and swimming at the hotel where we had all stayed the night before.  It was so fun to watch all the grandparents, parents, and kids have a great time in the pool.  Soon, though, it was time to be on our way and say goodbye to our dear friends.

As Jonathan was walking by the side of the pool right before we were going to leave, he took a hard fall right on his face.  He was scare and hurt and screaming, and his mouth and teeth were bloody.  It was scary-I thought he'd lose his front teeth for sure.  And that we'd have to take him to the ER.  But, Brian's dad is a pediatrician!  He was able to take a look at Jonathan's mouth and teeth and tell us that he'd be fine-that he had landed on the front of his lip/mouth and not his teeth.  I'm so thankful that God provided Brian's dad at just the right time!

Jonathan was really tired by this point.  It's quite a trick to help a four-year-old to get a good sleep with his newborn sister in the same hotel room.  He was a good sport and rested in bed, but I know he was awake when she woke up crying.   When we suggested some ice cream to help his mouth feel better, he said, "I just want to rest."  Wow.

Sure enough, on the ride to our next destination, his lip swelled.  It's still healing, in fact.

He really was exhausted.  He nearly never falls asleep in the car!  (As you can see, Gracie's receiving blankets are still coming in handy!  And he always had his Lego magazines handy in the car.  Thanks again, Cherissa!)

We really enjoyed this stretch of our trip and our time in the South.  There's just something special about it, and although we are happy in our new home, we do miss our former towns in the South and all the dear friends we left behind.

Jonathan's Store

Two Months

Sometimes I still can't believe we have a baby...but here she is!

Her adorable dress was given to us by my wonderful, former teaching partner.  This dress is one of my favorites.  Thanks so much, Sally!  (I tried to catch the begonias in the background.  They have really gone crazy with the heat lately.)

People often ask whether Grace looks the way Jonathan did.  I don't think so, but you can judge for yourself.  Here he is at two months, before I had started blogging:

Great Grandparents

Jeff's grandma and grandpa Don are here. Check out the smiles Gracie gave to them!

Brian's Graduation

Brian and the big kids

Jeff and Brian

Boys will be boys!

(Can you tell that Jonathan is already exhausted at this point?  More about it later...)

Brian and Jeff

Great job, Brian!  We know what a big deal it is to get a master's degree!