Life At The Circus

When our son was 36 hours old we were getting ready to leave the hospital and the nurse came in for official discharge.  Those of you who have had kids know this is the time they give you all those important instructions, “back to sleep”, “umbilical cord care….”  Those of you who have had more then one kid know that this speech gets  progressively less interesting with each discharge.  While I am sure the nurse had Scott’s undivided attention the first time we heard the speech, he seemed easily distracted this time around.  The lighting though the window had caught his eye and I could hear he was taking a constant stream of pictures…  click, click, click, click… I've never been so happy to see him distracted.  I love the way he captured our little boy. Visit here or here for more fun with pictures.

Just a few short weeks ago I was reminiscing about the birth stories of my first 3 children… I can’t believe I am now “on the other side” of this pregnancy as well and finally able to share the details of my son’s entrance into the world. It actually starts out very similarly to my first birth story .  The night before my due date Scott and I went to bed early and as we were going to bed Scott jokingly said, “Feel free to wake me at 3 am and tell me you are in labor.”  Instead our 2 yr old woke us twice complaining of her ear hurting.   We gave her some Motrin and Scott ended up sleeping on her floor.  At around 3:30 I went in to wake Scott and have him come back to our bed.    I also mentioned that I thought I might be having contractions.  Neither of us fell asleep after that. The contractions weren’t strong, but I was fairly certain they weren’t Braxton Hicks either as they kept coming repeatedly.   I tried falling back ...

Our son was born at 10:27pm.  Unfortunately, because he was born so late, his brother and sisters didn’t get to meet him until the next morning.  We loved the first night with him but it felt like the birthing process was somehow incomplete until we were all together.  When the moment finally came Scott brought them up and they eagerly ran to the bed to meet him.  When I told them his name, my son’s face light up as it registered that he got the baby brother he was longing for.  He said to me “Mom, I am so excited that he is a boy!”  Me too, I replied.  “But Mom, you said you would be excited about a boy or a girl.”  “Right,” I said, “and I would have been… you said the same thing.”  “Yea,” he answered, “But I REEAALLLLY wanted a boy!” Doesn’t that look on his face say it all?  He wasn’t the only one instantly smitten though.  The girls were truly taken by their baby brother.  They wanted to touch his toes, and count ...

This week we welcomed a new member to our family.  Our sweet baby boy was born this week… weighing in at 8 lbs 14 oz and measuring 20” long.  It was love at first sight for all of us.  We really can’t get enough of him, so it seems.  I can’t wait to fill you in on the labor story and share the pictures from his fist visit with his big brother and sisters.  Nor can I wait to share all the gazillions of photos we’ve been snapping as we strive to bottle up and savor each precious moment this past week.   I will leave you with these snapshots of his first few hours.  Check back often this week as we’ll have many more pictures and details to share.    For now, please join us in celebrating his healthy and safe arrival into our family.

Typically, I try not to make this a picture blog or just a family scrapbook type blog.  I try to mix it up a little with the blog content and I do my best to show restraint on pictures.  (believe it or not) Therefore I felt it necessary to give you a heads up that at least for the next week or so, there are going to be a lot of pictures on the blog.  We have a new cast member here at the circus and we are quite smitten with him.  Prepare yourself for the onslaught of photographs coming soon!!

It’s time to stop pretending.  The act is over.  Who am I kidding? I am not a gardener. Each spring, I get bitten by a gardening bug and I think that I will turn over a new leaf and suddenly spawn a green thumb.  So, I buy some plants and seeds and the kids and I set off to garden.   Each spring Scott asks why am I doing this when I know what will happen.   And each spring I assure him that this year will be different. The way gardening typically works for me is that I get all excited about it in April.  I weed the garden area, plant a few plants and then pretty much that is it.  I don’t eagerly run out to check for sprouts. I don’t weed.  A lot of times, I don’t even remember to pick the tomatoes off the vine.  I am literally a one day gardener. The problem is, I don’t enjoy it.  I don’t think it is fun to weed and water and prune the plants.  I don’t wait in eager anticipation to see the fruits of my la...

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Check out the size of these diapers!! Have you seen anything so little?  It’s been a long time since we’ve had diapers that small around here… I think I forgot how tiny they were.  Seriously, my hand is bigger than the diaper!! Granted my swollen hands are bigger than a lot of things these days so maybe that wasn’t the best bench mark, but still….what a tiny little bottom we’re going to be wiping soon!!

I’ll be honest.  When I think Memorial Day celebration, I typically think cook outs and swimming pools.  This year being 9 mths preggo, we didn’t really make any big plans for Memorial Day weekend.   Scott grilled for us several times and even got out this smoker and cooked a chicken for Monday’s dinner.  We went to the park, did a few things around the house and basically took it easy all weekend.  It was perfect.  So, my plans for Monday included sleeping in, eating sticky buns, perhaps a trip to Target in there somewhere and smoked chicken for dinner. Then, I talked with my 6 yr old son. Me:  Guess what?  Daddy doesn’t have to go to work on Monday. Son: Why? Me:  Because it is Memorial Day Son:  What’s Memorial Day? Me:  It is a day we remember the soldiers who gave their lives fighting for our country’s freedom Son:  So, what are we going to do for Memorial Day?  Are we going to go dow...

In honor of Memorial Day, I thought I’d repost this post from Jan of 09 in which my son first learned of the ultimate sacrifice many of our soldiers make for our country.  As we were discussing what Memorial Day was this week, my son asked what we were going to do to celebrate.  “So, are we going to the memorial in Annapolis then?”  I realized that sadly, Memorial Day typically comes and goes without much thought at all to why we have the day off.  It seems to mark the beginning of summer and swim season and white shoes, but all to often we forget to pause and reflect on the reason for the holiday.   May you take time today to give thanks for the soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf and for those who are fighting today willing to pay that sacrifice should it be required. A Deeper Understanding JANUARY 24, 2009 [ edit ] in Weekend Thoughts Last week in church the pastor gave an illustration in which he mentioned the number of Americ...