What did you say?

Hi!  Thought I'd catch you up on things around here.

Mostly, I sleep...  and eat, and pee.

I make all sorts of odd noises (grunts, squeaks, smacks).

Some days, I cry.  A lot. But never when there's company.

Can you believe I'm a month already?

I open my eyes a little bit more now, and look around at people.

Even though I'm just 4 wks, I weigh about 10-11 lbs.  That makes it hard for mom to figure out which clothes will fit me.  Below, I'm pretending to be a meditating monk.

And here is my first or second walk outside.  It's freezing out, so I have about 3 layers of clothes plus 2 blankets on, and Mom still doesn't let me stay outside for more than 10 minutes or so.  Sigh.

This is my big brother, Kaden.  He's really nice to me.  He talks a lot.

Yesterday, I was crying, and he told me:

"Don't cry, Sammy, this is a happy house."

And the other day when I was crying, he told me:

"I know it's hard, Sam, but you gotta face your fears if you want to grow big and strong like me!"

I don't know what he meant by that.  Where's my monk robe? I need to think about it.

PS- like my sideburns?  Mom thinks they are cool.

Birthday plans

We were just looking over on Pinterest.... And Kaden saw a Disney themed pin.  "Ooh, what's that?"

The art of animation, it's a hotel near Disney.    "Can we go?"  We don't have plans to go to Disney this year.  "Not Disney, just the hotel near Disney.  Ooh, can we go there for my birthday?"

I don't think so, buddy.  That would be really involved.  " no, it will be fine, see, Daddy can take the truck and you can drive the car and...."  WAIT a minute, son, why do we need so many vehicles?  Who all is going?   "My friends.  And my cousins."    (That's over 15 kids...)

You want me to take all your friends and all your cousins all the way to Disney for your birthday?!?
"Yeah."

No.

But, we could have a Disney themed birthday party.  "What do you mean?"  We'll, we could watch a Disney movie and play Disney games and have Disney decorations.  "Yeah! That would be awesome!  So, on my birthday, have Daddy wake you up early so you can get everything ready for me, ok?"


(Two weeks ago, he planned out a Lego police themed party... And his bday is in 5 months yet.  Should we start a betting pool on the actual theme?)

quick takes: Brotherly Love

** Kaden came in the door with an empty donut bag.  "Did you bring me a donut?" I asked.
"No.  But I'll give you a thousand kisses, and that's worth more than one donut."

**  Nicknames Kaden has called his brother:  Little guy, Little man, little brother, baby brother, my baby, cutie patootie, squirrel, the cute one.

** One day, about 2 inches from his face, he jabbers away at Sam, who promptly started crying.  Kaden hung his head and softly said, "I think he hates me."  We re-explained that of course he loves you, but he's just a BABY, and babies don't do anything except eat, sleep, poop and cry.

** The next day, Kaden pops up into Sam's space and says "Hi there! It's me, Kaden, your big brother.  Do you remember me?"

** Sometime when I was pregnant, Kaden had mentioned something about someday he'd have a baby in his belly.  Without going into a lot of detail, I explained that no, only women have babies, because they're not really in the belly- we have a special organ called a uterus that grows babies.  Fast forward a few months, to a few days after Sam was born.  The first time Kaden saw Sam with a bottle, instead of nursing, he was a bit surprised and asked, "What, he doesn't he like drinking your uterus milk anymore?"

** Sam doesn't say a lot these days.  But his smacks and squeaks have us smiling!


There's a lot more, I'm sure- our oldest is all superhero and sweetness rolled into one.  But I'm still working on lack of sleep here, so we'll go with this for now!

Introducing...

In late January, our second son arrived!

Meet Samuel Joseph, 9 lbs, 2 oz, 21 inches long.

His birth story is a bit long- we'll get to it in another post :)

His older brother, born in a Florida summer, was 4 months old and traveled 4 states away before he saw his first snow- which was a light dusting.  This little guy, born in a Pennsylvania winter, was 4 days old, stepped outside his house and had over 4 inches on the ground!

Isn't he adorable?  Even when he looks like a little drunken sailor!

We haven't gotten a lot of great family photos yet. 

I'm working on it.   I'm also working on thank you notes, but then lost the list.  

And my brain is mush from sleep deprivation, so that put everything on hold until I found the list (which I did, earlier today!).

Kaden is thrilled to be a big brother.  There's a good many posts in the future about how sweet and gentle he is (and some of the funny things that come out of his mouth!).  Perhaps the next one we'll recount as much as I can remember of brotherly love from the last few weeks...

It is life with a newborn, though- so it's not all roses.  Like all new humans, he's a bit squirrel-y.  

True to his genes, he also has stomach/gas issues. Poor guy.

The good news is that his lungs are just fine, thankyouverymuch.  Very strong lungs, indeed.

Another "odd" thing (not really bad, just.. an adjustment) to having two BOYS in the house... all the nicknames I have for Kaden have to be adapted.  Because if I say "What's wrong, little buddy" - Kaden answers "nothing, why?".  Or if I say "are you hungry, goose?"  Kaden answers "no, Mom".  So we're adapting:  littlest buddy, baby boy, littlest man, littlest brother.  Geesh, I hope Sam doesn't get a complex.  Maybe we'll have to adapt those nicknames again!

One of the most fun side benefits is that we've recounted a lot of "when you were a baby" stories to Kaden.  I almost forgot what fun he was.  Especially when he hit the older baby - toddler phase. And the preschool phase.  And... oh, really, he's just a fun kid... a good son to have in the family.  

And now we have two of them :)