Pic 1: Love the park by our house. We load up the stroller and take the long two-mile route to fun. As soon as it is within sight, Camryn shouts "Play!!!".
Pic 2: Beck just loves life. He sits in his little seat and grins as if he knows something we don't.
Video: Look at little man going for the toys today at Angela's house! He can look past the fact that it is pink.
My favorite activities as a child always involved art. Beads, painting, clay, baking, sewing...you name it, I had to try it. I have been waiting and waiting to start doing art projects with Camryn. She has always loved coloring and we keep several coloring books and an assortment of Crayola products within her reach at all times. Sometimes those Crayola products end up on the walls though and thus, I have been trying to come up with "clean" art projects. Is that an oxymoron? Anyways, here are a few that succeeded.
Project 1: Painting in a Ziploc bag. Actually really fun and captivated her for hours.
The finished product. She added a few Disney princess stickers for flair.
Project 2: Fun "no spill" bubbles from Grandma K. Miss Independent loves that she can tote this around and actually blow them herself (without Mom hovering with a towel).
Project 3: Watercolor painting in the tub. And on the body. And on Elmo the water spout.
Yesterday Camryn learned a very essential skill she will utilize forever. One she will someday pass on to her children. We really worked on technique all morning. For breakfast.
Last weekend we went to the Portland Saturday Market with Aunt Lizzy. Always a fun place to visit a few times every year. I love all of the eclectic vendors and colorful art. Camryn loved playing in the fountains!
Pic 1: Enjoying yummy summer fruit with my Aunt Lizzy.
Pic 2: Checking out the fountains.
Pic 3: Refreshing on a rare 90 degree Portland day.
Pic 4: Came home from working the night shift this morning to a sick baby girl who promptly puked all over my scrubs. We spent the afternoon cuddling and watching Elmo. Chicken soup while sick is necessary, even if you do more playing in it than actually eating it. Therapy.
Pic 5: This kid never stops smiling.
Video 1: One of our daily dance parties. Everyone gets involved: stuffed elephant, stuffed Elmo, baby 1, baby 2, baby 3, Daddy, Baby Becks...
Just enjoying the end of summer around here. Today we had fun at the Learning Safari daycare/preschool picnic. Camryn loved running around, digging in the sandbox with her school buddies, stealing cookies off of the picnic tables, and cooling off with her first Otter Pop. Being there reassured me that I am making the right decision by accepting a three-day-a-week job. I have been a little worried about putting them into daycare more days but I know that Learning Safari is a fantastic place and we are lucky to have our children enrolled in such a nurturing and educational environment. Lots of cute videos for you today!
Pic 1: Love.
Pic 2: First bath together. A little premature, but we thought it would be fun. As you can see, Camryn was amused.
Pic 3: She totally rocked the Balance Bike at the daycare picnic!
Video 1: We discovered a way to get her to eat more at dinner. This technique doubles as a method of getting Dad to eat more veggies at dinner.
Video 2: Baby B is serious about his bathtub exercises.
Video 3: Caught his first real true belly laughs on video this afternoon. Is there anything cuter than this sound?? Watch until the end.
So yes, it has been awhile. I could have given this post many, many titles, to include: "Camryn is adjusting just fine as a big sis", "I am a zombie", "A visit from Aunt Kacy", "A visit from Aunt Lynnie", "Two trips to the Children's Museum", "We love the zoo", "Skinned knees", "All four Great Grandparents", "Black eye", "Becker was up every hour last night", "Mom got a new job at the Pediatrician's office", "Camryn visited Grandma and Grandpa in Aberdeen all by herself", "Becker's first smile!", "Have I mentioned how much I LOVE coffee?", "Camryn is still obsessed with Elmo", "Becker peed on Dad", "Becker pooped on Dad", "Becker peed, pooped and vomited on Dad (twice)", "Ice cream family date", "The girl loves to color", "A concert in the park with Nana, Grandpa and Aunt Lizzy", "Berry picking on the farm", "Becker finally sleeps a nice four-hour stretch at night", and "Becker pooped on Dad again". And so there you have it, the last two months of our life. I apologize for keeping you out of the loop. My excuse: my son adores the boobs from about 8 to 11 every evening, conveniently when Camryn finally goes to bed at night and thus consuming my only free time of the day. So I sit every night, attached to cute little "Munch" (as I have affectionately and appropriately been calling him), staring longingly at my laptop, falling even further into a pool of guilt for not keeping up with this blog. Those of you with a child two children understand. I guess I will just let these pictures do the talking.
JULY
Pic 1: Big Sis and Lil Bro.
Pic 2: Rare moment of silence.
Pic 3: Great Grandma Bonnie and Great Grandpa Jerry.
Pic 4: Great Grandma Ilene and Great Grandpa Jim.
Pic 5: "Sharing" her Elmo with Beck. Along with her milk, her goldfish crackers, her markers...
Pic 6: Hanging out in Aberdeen with Kacy and Mike's dog Baxter or "Bastard" as she has named him.
Pic 7: First bath. Loves it.
Pic 8: Sneaking a kiss with her boyfriend August at Munchkin Playland.
Video 1: August and Camryn, BFFs.
Pic 9: Happy one month Beck!
Pic 10: Snoozin.
Pic 11: Enjoying his bath while Sis helps out.
Pic 12: Loves his tub.
Pic 13: Cooling off on a hot July day.
Pic 14: Snoozin.
AUGUST
Pic 15: Becker learned to smile and hasn't stopped since!
Pic 16: Little Rynnie loves her "mahkuhs". My rugs/walls/appliances/table/clothing does not.
Pic 17: Coloring with Daddy.
Video 2: Coloring.
Pic 18: Cuddles with Fiona.
Pic 19: Girls love their ice cream!
Pic 20: Family trip to the zoo.
Pic 21: Just a few more monkeys.
Video 3: Starting her early.
Pic 22: Peace.
Pic 23: Picnic and concert in the park.
Pic 24: Want some hummus?
Pic 25: Stylish baby.
Pic 26: Auntie Lyn and the kiddos.
Pic 27: Enjoying the tunes.
Pic 28: Other new favorite pasttime: Matchbox cars.
Pic 29: Children's Museum. So fun we bought a membership.
He finally made it! Just a bit late but perfect as can be. It was such a magical day for us, I wanted to write down the events so I could remember. Here is how it all happened...
Labor for me was another fast and furious experience, just like I had with Rynnie. My induction was scheduled for Thursday the 16th (would be 6 days overdue) but on Wednesday morning contractions started at 8 AM. They hurt like hell and so I thought I'd start timing them to see what was going on. At my appointment the day before, I was four cm dilated and 80% effaced. Sure enough, the contractions were coming exactly three minutes apart, and lasting anywhere between 30 and 45 seconds. When my Mom saw me working though one, she said, "Get in the shower, you're in labor!". I called Kev at work and said "This is the call you've been waiting for!". Since my labor with Ryn was four hours long, he wanted me to get to the hospital right away, but of course I needed my shower first. While my parents and Ryn drove me to Kev's hotel so we could go to the hospital, Rynnie was copying my weird breathing I was doing through the contractions and that was cute.
Kev and I finally got to the hospital at 10:30 and the triage RN checked my cervix. She said, "Do you want to know how far you are or do you want to just keep chugging away at it?". I said, "No, I want to know!" and she laughed and told us I was at eight cm. I thought she was joking. At this point, contractions were still 2-3 min apart and a minute long and I had control of them, so when she asked what I wanted to do for pain control, something inside of me just took over and I thought to myself, "I can do this. I will do this.". Going natural was always sort of in the back of my head, though I am a go with the flow kind of person, and it seemed like the best decision was to just do it without the epidural. I was never pressured to do anything I didn't want to do by the hospital staff, and they encouaged me to walk around, though resting in the bed seemed the best to me.
Next, the contractions intensified and were mostly in my back. Having Kevin push extremely hard into my lower back helped relieve the pain, and I developed this weird breathing kind of like making a "kahhhh" sound. Who knows where that came from. Every time a contraction ended, I felt totally calm and normal. I chatted with my nurses. My OB came in at about noon and I was at 9+ cm. She asked if I wanted her to break my water to speed things up and I said yes. After 15 minutes, he was still not decending so she determined he must have been sunnyside up (hence the horrible back labor) and had me lay on my side. At this point, I began shaking like crazy and that contraction was the worst part of my entire experience. It hurt so bad, I seriously thought I was going to die. Turns out this was when he flipped back over to normal position and began decending lower. I started crying because I was really really scared for what was to come. My OB is an amazing, calm woman and she assured me that what I was feeling was totally normal, and that most women actually think the pushing is the easier part. I trusted her and began pushing him out. After about four or so contractions, I could feel his head way low and she said, "Okay, this last contraction will be it, you can do it!". I curled my body around him as she said, held my breath and pushed for what felt like forever. I yelled "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!" as he was being born, because I just wanted her to grab him out of me for the pain to be over with. That "ring of fire" is absolutely no joke. It was instantaneous relief once he was out and they let me hold him for as long as I wanted before taking him away.
Becker Jerry (Becks) was born at 1:07 pm, at 9 lbs and 21 inches. He was totally healthy, Apgars of 9 and 9, though he had a huge bruise on his face and benign eye hemmorhages due to the fast nature of the labor (they will go away in a few weeks). He is an excellent latcher and we are home getting used to a family of four. Ryn has adjusted okay so far, just a few incidents of jealousy that completely broke my heart. But mostly she is indifferent and even tried giving him a "high five" and when his arms were tucked in a swaddle, she smacked him on the head instead.
We are slowly getting the hang of having two kids, though this last week would have been impossible without the help of my parents. They entertained Rynnie, distracted Rynnie and gave her so much love she never had time to be upset. I think the key for us will be to keep her as active as we can; keep her on her normal schedule. We don't do well just lounging around the house, so until Beck's immune system is stronger (in a few weeks) we will have to make do with lots of Elmo and walks. Anyways, now for the part you really care about, the pics and videos.
Pic 1: Arrived at hospital and all settled in.
Pic 2: This is what it looks like when your uterus is not contracting.
