A Week's Worth of Updates :)

So, I've been a little distracted by this little guy...

He's awful cute, don't you think? Anyway, I haven't been posting as often as I used to. I'm trying to do better at that, but I make no promises. There are, after all, more important things to think about right now ;)

Speaking of which, do you see that grin? He's been doing a lot of half-smiling and making funny faces. My daughter so lovingly pointed out that I make a lot of strange faces too - especially when I'm reading or on the computer. I didn't know that, but now I've been really self-conscious about it. Oh well. I am who I am, I guess. Anyway, it's cute on the baby.

He got this adorable giraffe as a gift, and has been really attached to it. It's his only toy. He's still a little young to care about toys - even though the two year old is constantly bringing him toys - mostly tractors :)

This is his latest thing. He loves the swing, and will sleep in it a long time. This is one of those swings that can rock the baby side to side, or back and forth (got it at the thrift store for a couple bucks!). Anyway, he always smooshes his little face into the corner. I think he likes the warmth from his own breath. It's pretty cute though. As soon as he falls asleep I move his nose so I'm sure he's getting enough air, but he usually isn't crammed that tightly into the fabric.

He's growing up fast. Already he pays close attention, looks me in the eyes, tries to smile, turns to me when he hears my voice, watches me move around the room, and he even rolls over from his tummy to his back. I thought it was a fluke when he did it at the hospital right before we brought him home. He was fighting the nurse who was trying to do his handprints, and I thought it was just because he was fighting and stiff. Then he did it twice that night at home when we tried to give him some "tummy time" on a blanket on the floor. Since then, every time we put him on his belly, he rolls over within two minutes. He hates being on his belly. I'm trying to make him lay that way a couple times a day because it's supposed to be really important for development reasons, but he just refuses :) Oh well!

He had a doctor's appointment today to check his weight again. He gained 10 ounces in 6 days! That's a lot. So no more concerns over him not eating enough - ha! He now weighs 9 pounds, 13 ounces - 2 ounces over birth weight! He had lost nearly a pound before we left the hospital, and wasn't up as high as they hoped at our appointment a week ago, so this is really good progress. He wasn't doing very well at nursing at first, but seems to have the hang of it now. Part of the problem was that he was just so sleepy all the time. Now he spends more time awake.

In other family news, our seven year old is studying entymology this summer. (That's bugs, you know). So, Sunday, his dad and I went to a local park with him and hunted for bugs. We brought home 10 of them, and four or five spiders... including a really, really icky looking spider. Afterward, we stopped for ice cream. I still feel like I have bugs crawling on me. Ugh. It's going to be a long summer.

There is a cricket in this jar. We used baby food jars I have been saving since the seven year old was a baby. (HA - I KNEW they would come in handy someday!) I haven't bought baby food since then. We make our own when we have little ones who need it. He's planning on making a display of bugs (if I can figure out how to kill them so that they won't curl up in a ball, and pin them so that they don't fall apart in the process). Hmm. This is going to require too much "hands on" work, I'm afraid...

In the process of the search, we came across this huge mushroom. It was almost as wide as my foot is long.

We brought it home so he could sketch it, but after it sat in the box overnight, it had to be thrown out. It "melted" or something. It was a pile of wet mush with maggots crawling around in it. How did that happen in just one day? ICK. So, it didn't get drawn. Maybe next time we'll take the nature journal along and have him draw it in it's natural habitat, rather than bringing all the "nature" home to draw.

Speaking of nature, we had the most AMAZING full double rainbow just outside our door Sunday night. The colors were so much more vibrant than the pictures appear. The light was really odd too - everything was sort of purple and just glowed. It was gorgeous! Very breathtaking.

It was so close to us that I couldn't get the whole rainbow in one picture, so here's the rest of it.

And another picture...

A night or two before that, the moon was full and bright, and the clouds moving around it were amazing to watch. We played with the camera and got a few decent shots of it. The rainbow and moon remind me of Psalm 19:1 "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork." Amen. Hard to look at these things and NOT believe there is a God...

Rendezvous!

Saturday was a beautiful day, so we loaded up the kids and headed to the Rendezvous parade.

The baby got the deluxe Jeep stroller. The two year old wasn't thrilled with that until...

He found out he got to ride in the bike trailer. This is one of his favorite things to do :) His sister rode the bike (and did all the work).

The seven year old also got to ride his bike. Mom and Dad walked. Mom's not up to riding bikes yet, and besides, we don't have that many bikes...

Bugga and Papa had reserved a nice place for us to watch the parade, which the two year old thought was perfect because there was a lot of dirt and sand to play in (and the bonus was we were up against a building that provided shade for the adults). He was more into the dirt than the parade. He doesn't like candy, and he scares easily, so this really wasn't his thing. But everyone else enjoyed it.

I thought this was a cute Shriner's vehicle - as opposed to the little cars they always do figure eights with. This was a set of those horses you can put a quarter into and get a little ride, followed by a chariot the driver sat in. He was passing out popsicles.

These are real Native American Indians - dressed in authentic outfits. They did a program after the parade of their dances, but we didn't get to attend. I was trying not to over-do it. In case you don't know what Rendezvous is, every year our little town holds a festival to honor the history of the mountain men and Indians that used to come together and trade goods. The event was really just a big drunken mess - and the town stays true to that aspect, unfortunately, so we limit what we participate in. Anyway the mountain men would bring in all their furs and such and trade for the goods they would need to survive the winter. There was much drinking and carousing too. The Indians would come to trade as well. So each year our town streets are lined with vendors selling all sorts of stuff - sort of a huge street fair that runs from Thursday through Sunday. If you're a local, you usually try to get out of town for the weekend - ha. Otherwise you run uptown for a funnel cake and browse all the goods. Anyway, all that to explain why we have authentic Native American Indians in full dress in our parade.

These kids on unicycles are friends of ours - see the one way up high?? Yikes!

I took this picture because my seven year old (wearing the green on the left) loves the color orange. Pretty cool car! There were a bunch of them (old cars, that is).

The baby slept through the whole parade - sirens and all. I know there's nothing wrong with his hearing. He passed his screening, and he does startle when he's not so sound asleep. He was just in a very deep sleep, enjoying the fresh air.

The two year old was happy because he got a couple toys - the clapper thing he's holding, and a car that's on his brother in the stroller. I think we got two or three cars, so everyone ought to be happy.

Then Saturday night we went to the Rendezvous Rodeo. This was the final night (they had them Thursday and Friday too). Can you tell it was rainy? We sat in the car for a bit - well, Bugga, the two year old, the baby and I sat in the car for a bit.

Despite the rain, it really was a pretty nice evening.

Again, the baby slept through most of the rodeo. He was pretty fussy and hungry, but wouldn't nurse in the car. So he slept instead and nursed when we got home.

This is Blaine, my husband's cousin's son - he's the same one who won the Jackson Hole Hill Climb on a snowmobile this past winter. He's quite talented. The man behind the chute to the right of him - wearing black - is my husband's uncle. Blaine has been riding in rodeos since he was really little - starting in Little Buckaroo rodeos and so on, at least since he was four or five. He's fearless. It pays off though. He won the three night average in the ranch saddle bronc category, and split the win for the evening ride with his cousin, who is 14. Blaine is 18, and graduated from high school this year.

The two year old had more fun running around playing with dirt. Hmm. Seems to be the theme of the day. Oh yeah, he enjoyed his hot dog very much as well. :)

The sky was beautiful. I tried to get a good picture of it, but would have had to get up and walk around and by then I was pretty exhausted, so you'll just have to trust me when I say it was gorgeous.

The seven year old's favorite part of the rodeo is always the calf scramble. He tried his best to get one of the ribbons off the calves they turned loose (you get ice cream if you catch one) but there is always such a hoard of kids that it's next to impossible to get a ribbon. This year they even had a special ribbon that would win you a "free horseback adventure." Can you tell he's disappointed he didn't win?

Now these idiots... er... contestants, are insane. This event is called "Bull Poker." Can you guess what that means. These guys are sitting on barrels (they got tired of having too many chairs destroyed and finally over the years have switched to barrels) and there is a card table in the middle. The contestants have to keep their butt on the barrel and their hands on the table, or they are eliminated from the competition. No problem... until they turn out the bull they've been poking and prodding in the chute. Last man at the table wins the cash.

Yeah. All that for a measly $200. Or a ride in the ambulance, which is NOT free. Or both. No thanks!

After the rodeo, we had a great view of the fireworks. We were further away from them than the other night, so the noise wasn't as bad for the two year old.

Most people were in a rush to get out of the rodeo grounds so they didn't watch the fireworks. We figured it would be better to let the crowd thin out and enjoy the fireworks instead.

The two year old still wasn't thrilled with them, but at least he wasn't having a panic attack like he did on the Fourth of July. I'm sure it's all a matter of how loud it was. At least we're making progress. With less panic over the fireworks, and progress on baths, who knows, maybe we'll be able to convince him to sit on the potty chair without panicking next!?! Yeah. One battle at a time.

Bath Time!

Hey! I actually did a little sewing today - YEAH! First time since the baby was born on the first. Sounds great doesn't it? Yeah. That's until I tell you that I had about two minutes, and all I did was re-attach a belt loop to my husband's pants. Oh well. It's still sewing, right? Hmm. Maybe I'll eventually get in enough of a routine that I will be able to get to more "fun" sewing. I still need to make a diaper bag. Thankfully I got a very nice, free backpack diaper bag when I left the hospital. Gotta love those freebies!

First let me say how good our two year old has been about the new baby. He absolutely adores him and will do anything for him. He's always the first to run to him when he cries and tell him, "It's okay." Usually he will then point a finger and firmly say "Shh," and then go on his merry way - as if that is all it takes to fix the problem. He loves to help with the pacifier too (mostly because we use Soothies and he can stick his finger into them and feel the baby suck.)

But even with all that love, there is still the "need" to ham it up and do things that will make him get his picture taken. This, for example, is his "thumbs up" pose. He kept trying to do it with his thumb, but he tucks his thumb under his fingers, so this was his best effort ;) Guess it worked. He got his picture taken, and he made it onto the blog - ha. Score one for the two year old.

I just love the look of a snuggling baby. This is where he sleeps most of the time. He doesn't like his bassinet. He will either sleep on my lap or in bed with me, but not more than 15 minutes at a time in the bassinet. We're working on that, but not making any progress. I don't mind so much ;) Anyway, it is easy to imagine how he must have curled up in the womb when you see him like this.

Friday was the big day for his first real bath - he was a week old. The cord came off the day before, so we were able to do a bath fully in water. He wasn't sure what to think of it that first time, but now he just lays peacefully in the water and LOVES it. He would stay there all day if we would let him. Or at least it seems like he would.

Remember the two year old is terrified of baths? This has actually improved lately and he is getting better about it. He was pretty concerned about the baby having to take one though. He watched him very carefully.

Everybody had to watch. They all wanted to be in on the action.

He was a good sport about the whole thing, and even seemed to enjoy getting his hair brushed. (He didn't really care for the lotion though.)

Here he is all cleaned up and dressed in a sleeper, ready for bed.

So I mentioned the two year old is doing better about taking a bath. We actually just started giving them more frequently, and only putting in a couple inches of water. His sister said something about him needing a "b-a-t-h" the other day and he understood what she spelled, and said, "I'm gonna play in the bath" in a real sweet, high pitched voice, followed by, "NO". It was too funny. I guess we won't bother spelling it anymore.

By the way, do you see the way he is in the bath? Just squatting, not sitting. That's all he would do for a long time. Now he actually sits, and seems to enjoy the baths. We add an inch or two of water each time we give a bath, so slowly the bath is getting deeper.

And not a moment too soon. Aah, boys and mud. Do you see his arms and face, COVERED in mud? He was playing outside in the sprinkler and decided to dig a hole. Aah. Mud. 'Nuff said.

Since We've Been Home...

This is going to be a long post. I haven't had a chance to get online since we got home. Well, I've taken about 5 minutes to scan my email, but that's it. I've been busy admiring this cutie :) ... and napping - ha.

Check out these cheeks! When he was born he was so puffy - I know his face was wider than it was tall. Too cute!

See what I mean? All that pudge?

Too cute!

This was his first outfit. What do you think? I was amazed that it fit so well. This is a 0-3 size outfit. A lot of his 0-3 clothes aren't going to fit very long.

Dad sure adores him :) as you would expect.

This was one of the first times he would actually keep his eyes open for any length of time. We were all waiting to see if he would have blue eyes like three of his siblings, or brown, like his littlest brother. Blue appears to be the winner.

This is the way he prefers to be held by me. It looks like he has frog legs when he cuddles like this. When we got home, I told everyone that this is how he likes to be held, but it turns out that this is just how he likes Mom to hold him. Nobody else can hold him this way :)

We had a beautiful view of the Elk Refuge out our window from the room he was born in. We were allowed to stay in that room from our arrival Friday morning through Saturday evening. Then they had to get it ready for someone else, so we moved to a much smaller room for Saturday night until we were released Sunday afternoon. Ironically, the smaller room had a much more comfortable bed. But the room was very cramped and inconvenient for both of us and all our extra stuff, as well as the bassinet, and baby stuff.

Before we left on Sunday, this particular nurse offered to do hand and footprints. She had even set aside a newspaper from his birth day and did his foot prints on that. It was quite a task to get his hand prints done. He wouldn't unclench his little fists.

I just love little baby feet. Here they are compared to the size of Daddy's hand.

This baby has my toes - long and skinny. He likes to spread them wide apart. Too cute!

Here' s his little hand in Daddy's. Such tiny little fingers.

Anyway, we ended up with some cute hand and foot prints and to use in a baby book...

And a newspaper from the day of his birth with his little foot prints stamped on it. I love this idea, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. The footprints will smear if they are touched. But it is an adorable idea.

Finally, after getting the prints done, we were all ready to go home! No socks. I never could find the kind that actually stay on the baby's feet, so we're going without until I find the ones I want. Besides, it was 85 degrees - UGH - when we left the hospital.

Papa and Bugga were excited to finally get to meet him.

They stopped by for a visit before heading up to camp with her brothers and sister for the rest of the weekend.

There's been no shortage of attention for the new little one. Everyone loves him. The two year old amazes me at how gentle and caring he is being. Here he's trying to help out with the pacifier.

Of course Daddy gets a turn too - usually with help.

In fact the two year old thinks he has to help with everything. Here he climbed the changing table because, "I can't see him!"

Like I said, he really loves his new baby brother.

The oldest brother does too...

And so does the 7 year old. In fact everyone fights about who gets to hold him, and who held him last, and so on. It's been a very friendly welcome home. I've been terrible about taking pictures lately. I usually hand the camera to someone else. And somehow in all that, I've missed getting a picture of my daughter holding him - though she does all the time, and is usually the one the seven year old is complaining about when he says it ought to be his turn :)

Do you like his Fourth of July outfit? The name fits - I had to take about 6 pictures before I could get one with his face looking even close to the camera.

On the Fourth, Dad took the rest of the kids (other than the two year old and baby) up to the lake to do a little fishing. They did pretty well. I'm told there were two (or was it three?) other fish that were landed, but managed to get away before they made it onto the stringer. Anyway, they had a good time.

The night of the fourth, we all went to watch the fireworks. They didn't bother the baby a bit, but the two year old was terrified. He kept yelling, "Want to go home!" and clinging to us tightly. I wanted him to look at the fireworks, but he either hid behind me or when we picked him up, he would only face the opposite direction and cling to our necks. I made the mistake of picking him up. He fought with me a lot and kicked me too much, and by the time we got home I was in some serious pain. In fact I was in worse pain than I had been in since giving birth. I was wishing I had filled the prescription for the stronger pain killer. I have been getting by on 800 mg of Motrin four times a day, but that one really tested me. Thankfully I'm feeling much better now - just a little run down.

I was surprised by a couple of things when I got home. First, my two year old looks HUGE. I was amazed that he can easily see over the top of the bassinet. I guess he has been the little one for so long that it didn't occur to me how big he really is getting. The other thing that surprised me was how small the bassinet is. Either this baby is big (which he is) or the bassinet isn't (which also appears to be true). I haven't decided. Probably a combination of both. Either way, it looks like I'm going to have to do some major re-shuffling of furniture in our room in order to fit a full sized crib in there fairly soon. I had hoped we would be in the other house by the time the bassinet was too small, but now it appears that we won't be getting the house out here at all, so now it's time to rethink everything. As in, long term, where are we going to fit everything. I'm sure it will all work out. It's just too much for my postpartum, hormone-filled brain to contemplate right now.

Here he is without the blanket. See how long he is? He doesn't love the bassinet either. Most of the time he will nurse and then sleep on my lap in the recliner (though I do have to admit that's because I fall asleep every time I start nursing :) I also like to nurse him in bed. It's the only time I get to lay down flat. He will then sleep next to me for a long time. He's a true snuggler.

See? Here's how I spend most of my days and nights - this is in the recliner. One of those rare times I was awake enough to read a whole chapter...

Tuesday (July 5) he had his first visit to the pediatrician. I was worried about possible jaundice - he looked awfully yellow to me, especially in the whites of his eyes. But the doctor said for as old as he is, it isn't a problem, and he wasn't even going to send him for a blood test. That was a major answer to prayer since our last one had to be in the hospital a couple extra days because he had such bad jaundice.

The doctor also told me I looked wonderful - that a lot of the mothers he sees are so pale that he thinks it will take two months for them to get their blood counts back up. I was thrilled to hear that - I am not feeling wonderful, but I'll settle for looking wonderful - ha.

See how snuggly he is? In one hand, he's cuddling the little giraffe clip that holds his pacifier, and in the other hand he has the pacifier.

He's definitely a keeper! :)