Bringing Home Baby

Our sweet baby boy arrived at 6:30 PM on January 26th, 2012. Hank Michael weighed 9 pounds, 13 oz and was 20.7 inches long.  From the moment we met, he has been the sweetest, most cuddly and most handsome little baby I've ever known. Although, I guess I am a bit partial. :-)

Big sister, Josie, smiled and laughed when she met her baby brother for the first time. For the past 9 months, I was wondering what their meeting would be like. And it was sweeter and more special than I could have imagined. Especially since she was in denial that we were in fact having a baby brother up until the day he arrived. I would say, "Josie, we're going to hold our baby brother soon." Josie would look up from whatever she was doing, smile and calmly reply, "No Mama, we're not." Either that girl was playing it cool or really, she had no idea what was about to happen.

But whatever the case, they are off to a good start. She adores him. And despite the extreme loudness in Josie's voice (she knows only one volume of speech) and my fear of her always waking Hank up, her voice actually seems to relax him.

And thanks to our generous families, we came home to a refrigerator full of food and a delicious meal warming in the oven. What a great homecoming!

The first two weeks at home have been very special. For me, things are different with the second baby. I think it's because I'm more relaxed and I know that these "newborn days" will only last a short while. Also, I'm learning a lot about the differences between boys and girls. I've learned that it's ok to say "penis" (especially when talking to the doctor) because that's what it is actually called. Right? I'm just not used to saying that word out loud so much. At his doctor's appointment, I kept calling it his "little thingy" and finally realized how silly that sounded. So I made a point to just....say...it. And speaking of penises, I've learned that it needs to point down when changing his diaper, otherwise when he pees, he'll soak his entire outfit and leave his diaper completely dry. So much to learn with all of this boy business!!! I'm such an amateur! Anyway, many more lessons to be learned I'm sure. Many more pictures and stories to come.

The Good Life

This post is for me. Well actually, it's dedicated to Wrigley. But it's going to make ME happy. 

I wanted to post something about our sweet Wrigs. My first instinct was to write about how much he is missed, how 7 years was too short and how I long to have him meet me at the front door when I get home.

 But no. I'm not going to do that. A friend gave me a card that said, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." And that's exactly what I'm going to do. God blessed our family with a sweet little Cavalier for a season of our life. And for that, I'm very grateful. 

I stumbled upon these pictures tonight. They make me happy and they make me smile. So, here's to the good life.

Ok so maybe the good life doesn't necessarily mean dressing up in costume, but you know what I mean. :-)

She's TWO!!

Or rather, she's been two since October 15th. Although nearly two months later, I realized I would be amiss if I didn't post about Josie's second birthday party. She had too much fun not to document it. Picking the theme was easy. Since she has been particularly obsessed with "Snow White", or as she calls it, "Heigh-ho" (and she's really more obsessed with the dwarfs vs the princess), there was really no question. It just had to be a Snow White theme.

Aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas and cousins made up this party. All 30+ of us. Josie was definitely in her element. Not because it was "her party", but because she was absolutely beside herself that all of these people were in her home at the same time. Talk about overload for this little one. As each new family member arrived, Josie provided a greeting at the door, which included a look of pure shock and excitement, while yelling their name at the top of her lungs, followed by a "come in!!!".  She's quite the little hostess.

The same little dwarf dolls my sisters and I played with when we were little made an appearance at this party.

Josie's princess cousins

When I look back at these pictures, my favorite part is seeing Josie (and all the other little ones) become progressively sweaty as the party wore on. That's definitely a sign of a well-thrown party, don't you think?

And since I'm taking time to document her party, I want to throw in a few developmental things at this point in time:

• Although her vocabulary is growing so fast, Josie continues to speak her own language, one that I assume only she can understand, but something tells me that other two-year-olds (or even stuffed animals) might know it as well
• Josie does not know her colors, she adamantly describes everything she sees as purple, blue or sometimes pink
• Josie can jump and it's the cutest thing in the world to watch her gain about a half inch of air between her feet and the ground, while proudly proclaiming, "I jumping!"
• She loves jewelry -- necklaces, bracelets, headbands, you name it, she'll be wearing at least 5 of them on each wrist and ankle
• She loves cooking us dinner in the pretend kitchen, although sometimes she likes to it on the couch and have us make her pretend dinner 
• There's nothing greater than an overflowing bathroom sink -- apparently it's the best time ever
• She never meets a stranger
• Josie loves, loves, loves her family -- seeing any member of her extended family on a particular day is the best thing ever -- even better than a treat (and if you know this girl at all, you KNOW how she loves her treats).

So there. That's where we are today. I've always heard that I will never remember the little things unless I write them down. So that's what I've done today. :-)

My teenage daughter

We've been having a lot of fun working on Josie's "big girl room" lately as we prepare for baby brother to arrive in January. Throughout this time, I mindlessly thought we were getting a room ready for our little 2 year old. But apparently we were preparing a new room for our teenage daughter. I'm not kidding. The first thing she did when entering her new room, after climbing up on the bed, was make a pretend phone call to who knows who. She wouldn't tell us. Probably her secret boyfriend. She spent FOREVER chatting on the phone, see picture below. She would lay on her tummy, then roll over, then act like whoever she was talking to said something completely outrageous and then say something in a language only she can understand and then repeat the whole cycle. PS. How cute is Josie trying to climb up on her big bed? So cute. Not graceful in the least. But so determined. A little grunting, lots of heavy breathing and then a great big smile and an occasional, "I did it!" once she arrives on top. 

So anyway, what inside that little 2 year old body told her to do that?!?! Is it just innate for a little girl to act so grown up sometimes? I don't like it! She did something else recently. She loves going into her new room and closing the door. I am usually close behind, making sure that she's not getting into something she shouldn't be. I usually knock and this is my favorite part, she opens the door and acts both surprised and excited to see me. She then will say "Hi Mommy! Come on in, come on in!" I love that. My heart completely melts. She's so happy to see me. I couldn't feel more loved. Well, an alternate scenario happened the other day. I followed her down the hall and after she closed the door, I waited a bit and then knocked. A few moments later, she opened the door. She was completely adorned in every play bracelet, necklace, headband and bow that she owns. She sort of looked like a punk rocker. Then she put her hand on her hip, made an annoyed face and said, "WHAT?!?!" Gasp. Did she really just say that to me? Really? What happened to my sweet, little girl? This little one seems to be growing up fast. Too fast. For that, I just might put her back in the crib. At least until she turns 13. :-)

B is for Boy

Last Sunday, Todd and I cut into the most amazingly-colored, vibrantly-blue cake one could imagine to reveal that Josie is going to have a baby brother. In other words -- we're having a BOY!! On a side note, this moment kind of reminded me of our wedding; however, in this experience, Todd was relieved he wasn't in charge of opening the champaign, because if you attended our wedding, you remember how that went down.

It was a long 48 hours we waited from our ultra sound Friday morning when the tech turned off the TV where we were watching our baby dance around in my belly and then write our baby's gender on a piece of paper. She turned off the TV in case we accidentaly "saw something". :-) I took the sealed envelope to a bakery and asked them to make the inside of our cake either pink or blue, based off what was written in the envelope. And make no mistake, we had a backup envelope we kept for ourselves in case we got the "newby" at the bakery who doesn't know how to appropriately dye cake batter! My fear was that we would cut into the cake only to find the inside to be some weird shade of purple or green.

Two days later, the day we were going to celebrate my birthday with both of our families, we finally found out! Again, those were the longest 48 hours EVER! I love these pictures and I'm laughing at myself at how utterly excited I look. Sometimes laughing really hard sort of distorts our faces (as seen in these pictures). It's true, but I love it. I think this is a good time to throw out my disclaimer: for completely different reasons, I know most confidently that we would have been this overjoyed with a either a girl or a boy. We really, really would have.

Of course, Josie has no idea. Or at least I don't think she does. Just when I thought she was actually getting the fact that we were going to have a baby (because she kisses and points to my belly all the time), she went up to Todd and asked to see his baby. Which of course was his belly button. And then she in turn showed him her baby, aka her belly button. So although she really wasn't celebrating the idea of having a baby brother that day, she completely celebrated the idea of getting a blue ballon.

And of course, another highlight of the day was having endless amount of time playing in the sprinkler while wearing her "good clothes". What are good clothes for an almost two-year-old? Exactly, they don't exist.

All in all, a really, really, really good day. :-)

Josie has a surprise...

...she's gonna be a big sister. We're expecting baby Heits #2 (technically #3 if you count big brother Wrigley) around January 25, 2012. In honor of becoming a big sister, we had to do a photo shoot. I am utterly amazed that we captured a picture of Josie sitting still and smiling. I am very impressed with us. We snagged this picture after taking a "break" from our initial photo shoot.

And as any parent of a 20-something-month-old would tell you, snapping a quick, simple picture is never quick nor simple. Imagine pregnant me, impatient yet enthusiasticTodd, a million degree heat and a daughter who wants to do anything but sit still, let alone smile. Here are some of the outakes from our initial attempt. It was our, not kidding, 45-minute voyage into the backyard to take a picture for the scrapbook. We took about a hundred of these "blank stare" pictures. Despite our singing, my dancing and Todd's sound effects, Josie would not crack a smile or even change facial expressions. On a side note, she'd be really good at concentration. I don't think she even blinked once.

She insisted upon standing on the brick that line our tree in the backyard. And since balance isn't one of our strengths, she did fall a couple of times. Into the soft padding of our ground covering. Safe, but dirty. And we're wearing white pants. Oh heavens.

We decided to give her candy to bring on a smile. But we forgot to factor in that she had to eat the candy, which of course led to yet again, anything BUT a smile.

We decided to move the party inside, too sweaty for mom and dad, and then Josie just flat out got hyper. Which of course, did not aid in producing a sweet pose with a sweet smile.

So hyper that she completely...wore...herself...out. Of course, she wasn't the only one who was ready at the end of this adventure for at least a two hour nap or maybe even a drink. And since I can't drink while pregnant, I'll settled for a nice piece of chocolate cake. I earned it. :-)

The Fourth

Although nearly two weeks ago, I certainly did not want to bypass posting pictures from the fourth of July. Celebrating our freedom, devouring red, white and blue-themed desserts and withstanding the thick, sticky Kansas heat waiting in Corporate Woods for the fireworks to start...two and half hours after Josie's bedtime, by the way. How could you NOT love the fourth of July? I really do mean that. I've always loved the fourth.

Originally we were going to bypass fireworks because the thought of keeping Josie up HOURS past her bedtime (knowing she would maintain perfect timing as our 6:00 alarm clock) was crazy. But I was kind of curious to see how she would do and deep down, I LOVE fireworks, so it really didn't take much to change my mind. Overall, we couldn't have asked for a better night. Josie kept herself busy playing with cousin Emri, adorning herself with stickers and crayola markers up and down her arms and on her white top (on daddy's watch of course, kidding. apparently that happened when no one was watching her!) and having various not so healthy snacks. Not afraid whatsoever of the fireworks (although that shouldn't have surprised me, she was the toddler at the pool who just walked right off the ledge and into the water during our first pool trip this summer). All in all, she was probably more fascinated by the moon than anything else. I mean, she's never seen it in person, so I really don't blame her. I thought the world was going to end when the moon slid below the horizon. Good thing the fireworks really picked up shortly afterwards; I really don't know how long I could have explained that the moon went "night night" and have it be OK with Josie. So there. A beautiful night with our sweet little girl. Celebrating our country's independence and freedom. Although belated, Happy Fourth of July!