Liam is here!

We waited until the very end for this boy to arrive. Liam was born on Friday April 24th @ 6:22pm. He weighed 9 pounds, 14 ounces and was 21 and 1/4 inches long. As you can see from the photos, he has lots of hair, which I'm guessing is kind of a strawberry blond.

From April2009

The Friday Liam was born, I had a doctor's appt @ noon. I managed a sympathy admit from my doctor along with the fact that we do live about 45 minutes away from the hospital. I'm so glad they admitted me. I was @ 6cm @ the doctor's office and when they broke my water at the hospital around 1:30, I went from 6cm to 10cm in about an hour. Thank goodness for the epidural :-). I had to start pushing early because the doctor was concerned about Liam's heart rate-he totally recovered with pushing. So, after about 2 hours of pushing + some help from pitocin, Liam came into the world. Everyone @ the delivery kept saying "he's so big!" and he did look huge-especially his head and shoulders. The nurses watched his blood sugars overnight because of my gestational diabetes, but he did fine.

And now we're home, adjusting to having a new very small one to take care of. Grammy Pammy was at our house with Marcus, Cale and Ewan while we were in the hospital and I think Grammy Linda is coming out this week to visit Liam (since he was not born during the time she was here last week). The pictures for this post will link you to others. :-)

From April2009

Andy's birthday

We celebrated Andy's birthday a day late-on Saturday-because of his schedule and Marcus's school schedule. We had a pie for his birthday dessert and his big present was a new gas grill he went and picked out. His coolest gift (according to the boys) was a lightsaber with a purple blade-we have 3 others, each a diferent color. Now Andy can defend himself against the "bad Star Wars guys" that terrorize our house on an almost daily basis.

mmm- pie from our favorite store-dutch apple this year




testing out the new grill-works great!

Early anniversary gift

Thank you Mom for our picnic table/bench. We love having more places to sit when we are outside with the kids and last night, I fed them dinner outside. I think "eating out" will become a trend-much easier clean up!

baby update

So, I had a doctor's appt on Friday. Everything is fine, I was tired since I had worked the night before (last night of work for 12 weeks!). 5 Cm dialated (sorry if that's too much info) with orders to call the office if I have any contractions. No one seems to think I will make it to the official "40 week" mark and both the Grammies and Andy are expecting this baby to come any time now. So now we wait, and wait to see what happens.

Spring break in review

This past week was spring break for preschool, kindergarten and even for Andy-no events and no practices. Here's some of the fun they had....

Friday-Sunday: Andy and the boys went to Decatur to see Grammy Linda, Grandpa Jerry, Chris, Kim and the girls and even got to see Grammy Pammy, Aunt Courtney and Xander, and Stephen and Ranae Bradd and their boys. (I had to work Friday and Saturday nights-a little jealous that Andy and the boys got to see everyone)

Monday: We took the boys to the Childrens' Museum along with Grammy Linda. We saw the Lego castle exhibit, the comic book exhibit, the dinosaurs, the trains. Everyone was tired by the time we left.

From April2009

Tuesday: We stayed home and played. I got a few errands run. Marcus lost his first tooth! In the afternoon, Grammy Linda took Marcus and Cale to the library for a free showing of the movie "Bolt".

Wednesday: Andy, Linda and the boys went to the mall to the play area (it was too cold/damp outside to play). After naps, swim lessons and then church.

Thursday: I had a doctor's appt. Andy took the boys to the YMCA so they could get out of the house.

Friday: Andy took the boys to the Y again while I slept after a night of work.

Saturday: Cartoons in the morning and then a trip to the Indianapolis Zoo after lunch. That wore the boys out walking all over. On the way home, Marcus was complaining that he was tire and wanted to go home. We asked if he would like to go get some Chinese food to eat for dinner and did he perk up like a dog who hears the food bowl getting filled. He was so happy we were going to the little buffet place we had been to once before and, according to Marcus, is better than Burger King.

From April2009

Sunday: church in the morning and the the Easter bunny visited during naptime. He brought the boys each a chocolate bunny, a Cadbury egg and a pair of sunglasses. When I left for work, the boys were at the park playing and then Andy took them to rent the movie "Spacebuddies". According to Andy, he won the "Dad of the year" award.

this baby is not that big

Went to the dr yesterday and had an ultrasound to measure how big this new guy is. Turns out, he's about 8 pounds 1 ounce and measures @ 38 weeks. I know that in 2 weeks, he will gain more weight, but the dr and I are pretty sure that he will not be a 10 pound baby. I've been scheduled out for 2 more weeks of visits and then, I guess we'll see what's next. I have 4 more days of work, too, and I'm hoping to be able to work all of them before this guy comes. And finish painting, and get a couple more baby items, and move Ewan to his new room....still lots of stuff to do!

Marcus lost his first tooth!

Marcus lost his first tooth today! That tooth had been so wiggly for so long, but he was anxious about letting someone help pull the tooth out. I figured it would come out while he was eating, and this morning, Marcus was eating a donut and with the first bite, the tooth just came out! No bleeding or anything and you can see the new tooth popping through already. I'm not too sure what the tooth fairy will bring, Andy suggested Pokemon cards, which means the tooth fairy will have to go out and buy those tonight. I have the tooth saved right now, it's so tiny. (sigh) I don't know whether or not to keep it. I know when Marcus goes back to school after spring break, he will get to share this event with his class and will get a sticker on a tooth chart his teacher has in the room. Right now, Marcus is enjoying playing with the new space in his mouth and feeling his tongue move over the opening. :-) Good times.

proof

Just for posterity, I wanted to post Andy's brackets for the NCAA tournament. Oh yes, I made fun of him when he picked Michigan State (or "State" as he wrote it) to go all the way and win the whole tournament. What luck he has that now they're playing in the finals. My brackets, not that great-thank you Pitt and Memphis. So I won't post those here for people to laugh at. i guess Monday night will reveal if Andy made a good choice.

Marcus's prayer

I'm always excited when the boys say a bedtime prayer that is a little more specific than the automatic one that rolls off their tongues most nights. The other night, Marcus's prayer contained the phrase "please let me find someone to play with at recess". I guess recess is a tough time for Marcus at school because some kids that he wants to play with don't include him in their games, or change the rules so he's left out. It doesn't help that Marcus is bigger and faster than the other kids he's trying to play with. It hurts to know that kids-kindergarten kids!-are already learning to be exclusive and, in my opinion, hateful (strong words, I know, but it's my kid). Anyway, Andy was there that day and encouraged Marcus to ask another kid to play with him, she did. I just felt bad for Marcus. He said, "It's hard to make friends". My poor boy, my prayer for him is that he does find some nice little guys to play with and that he will try to play with other groups of kids than the ones he knows at school. Just thought I'd share this, it's been on my mind today.

work in progress

Here is Ewan in his toddler bed that we bought @ the beginning of March. However, he has yet to sleep in the bed, even though he is very proud to have this bed. He still likes sleeping in the crib, which really isn't a problem, except that as of Thursday, he has started to climb out of the crib during nap time. It's a new experience for me b/c Marcus and Cale never tried to get out of the crib. (That could be b/c I didn't keep them in crib as long-had to pass it along to the next baby.) I'm thinking that when we move Ewan his new room, we will make the transition to just the toddler bed. I think he's ready to think of himself as a "big boy".