New Year's Eve 2011

Our New Year's Eve fare consisted of a rather strange, unplanned assortment of shrimp cocktail, fried okra, crab rangoon, cut up fresh veggies, and blackberries.  But it was tasty!  The highlight of the evening was Famous Chocolate Wafer cake (the wafers having been picked up at the grocery store by Reuel, no doubt inspired by an earlier email from Ethan advertising where they can be purchased online).  My boys like dessert--almost any dessert--but I've never seen them eat quite as piggishly as when this cake hit their plates.  I went and got the camera as the second slice was served.

http://vimeo.com/34421225

[Other notes:  You may notice Owen's hair is a little crazy.  He has taken to really wanting to comb his own hair in the morning.  He does it just like he sees Reuel do it...wets his hands, rubs the water all over his hair, then combs it straight up and back and comments on how sharp he looks (OK, that last part isn't quite like Reuel).  Then, he goes and gets his new leather belt that he got for Christmas to complete his grown-up look.  His hair looks umm...fantastic (yikes!), and he will NOT let me touch it.  Speaking of hair, Asher was finally enticed into getting a haircut by my mom, with the promise of jellybeans.  He still needed two adults holding him down to get through it, but it did get cut.  Sadly, I think he actually looked cuter before the cut.  But, it was in his eyes and getting rather ridiculous.  Hard to get a good haircut when a child is totally melting down :P ]

Video boys and Eden

http://vimeo.com/34421125

Big bro love

The brothers are loving their baby!  (If she survives to the first year birthday, we are in great shape!!)  Love translates into raucous jumping and yelling, and Eden just looks in the direction of the noise and seems to love it.  I suppose she's been hearing the commotion for a good long while already (especially through my onionskin abdomen!).  I think she is very attentive for a 1 week old, and also very strong.  Quite good head control already--can really lift her head up straight off my shoulder--and she pulls up her legs neatly and rolls onto either side without much effort.  Wow!

Notes:
Birth weight: 7lb12
Lowest weight recorded at hospital on 12/21 or 22:  7lb2
Weight at check-in with ped. on 12/27:  7lb13

Swingin' sister

Self-control

Me:  Owen, you can watch a movie now while Asher is taking a nap if you'd like.
Owen:  Okay mom.  Can I start another one when it's over?
Me:  Yes, you can start one more, but two movies will be enough.
Owen:  Mom, can you *please* come and call me out of the TV room when the second movie is done?  I just can't control myself from starting another one.  Okay mom?

Delight

Eden, Day 3

Reuel took off to spend a few hours at home with the gang, and Eden is napping delightfully.  So, what to do.  As much as I like sitting around and reading or watching TV at home, somehow in the hospital it just makes me stir crazy.  I think Reuel is having the same feeling.  But this time around, I'm not actually ready to go home early just yet...yeowch!!  This recovery is distinctly tougher than the last two!  I bounced back fast from those, and was early on my feet, feeling pretty good, and only ever took ibuprofen for pain.  Well, I made it til this morning on ibuprofen, but I finally caved and asked for something a little stronger...not that I've noticed the difference yet :P  I can officially say that 2 large and 1 normal size baby and 3 c-sections were a little too much for this body.  My abdomen is stretched so thin that giving birth has revealed some spots that are either herniated or so thin that my insides are bulging out and they sent me for a CT scan and are setting me up with a surgical consult in a couple of months to discuss how to fix what used to be my belly.  When your OB and the attending surgeon tell you that your mom tummy needs to be fixed up, you know it's bad.  Well, we'll see what comes of that, but for now I'm in bad shape.  I'm sure that's some of what the extra pain is from...and things they don't tell you til after the fact...that you have much more cramping as your uterus returns to normal size after a 3rd birth than after a first.  You think???  I feel like I'm in labor every time little missy breastfeeds!  Reuel must think I am the whiniest woman right now, but I seriously have to breathe and moan a little through these feedings.  Wow.  So, that's the story.

On the other hand, Eden is absolutely delicious.  She is a tiny baby!  We've never gotten one of those before!  She is so delicate and perfect.  I think she was starving hungry yesterday, and hence the no-sleeping and irritability.  Today she is perhaps getting a tad more from me and is much easier to live with.  Her little face is so sweet and she has a soft baldy head.  Everyone is cooing over her when they come to do their hospital chores in our room, and Reuel and I were rolling our eyes...oh, come on, she's a baby, and no cuter than any other down the hall, right?  We said that to a nurse who merely lifted her eyebrows and told us how surprised we might be to discover how not-cute many, many newborns are, with their faces all smushed after delivery.  Well then, I guess C-sections yield cute babies :)  How did Reuel and I end up with such cute kids??

We are just very, very thankful for our small problems, and our big blessing of a daughter.  What a special Christmas, and I am very conscious of being in a warm room, with an adjustable bed, a clean bathroom, and staff to meet my every need...instead of a stable, with straw, and dirty animals...wow.  Thank you Jesus, for humbling yourself and coming to serve and save us.

Presenting...Eden Adele Swint!

Miss Eden Adele Swint
*12/20/2011
*7lb 12oz.
*19"
*8:58am
*Apgar scores = 9's
*Less hair than her brothers...more toward Owen's color than Asher's.  Less curly than Owen's at birth and more curly than Asher's.
*a tiny little peanut!
(*not. a. sleeper....hope that changes!)

T minus 3 days, 9 hours and change...

...little nervewracking knowing one is going into surgery.  Wish it were not so.  But alas, grateful for good care since it is.  I had my telephone pre-op today and found out that we need to be at the reception desk at 6am, not 6:30am.  So, with 50 minute transit, and the need to take a surgical shower with chlorhexadine something something that morning (hibiclens), and general getting ready, Tuesday is going to be an early morning :} Also found out that surgery with each subsequent C-section takes longer because of scar tissue and adhesions at the incision site.  How does a body take all this abuse?  (Aunt Liskin, less some divine intervention, you don't need to worry about knitting us any more stockings, know what I mean?)

But we're going to meet our little girl!  I'm mostly just excited!  We're down to a short list of names now, which is serious progress.  Owen doesn't like a one of them, and is still insisting on 'Flower', or if he really has to be flexible, 'Rose'.  Good thing I know he'll come around quickly (and I told him that he can call her whatever he wants and Flower can be his special nickname for her if he wants to call her that...he is satisfied).  Here's what happened with the girl name...we both love the name 'Asha' for a girl (pronounced like Sasha without an S); have since before we found out Asher was a boy.  Well, we didn't have many boy names we liked, and our affection for Asha actually led us to the name Asher, which of course we also liked!  But we had this conversation many times:  "But what if we actually have a girl someday...then we can't name her Asha if we use Asher for a boy!"  However, we decided not to think that far ahead.  And now we've been in a pickle of not having one name that we both equally love for a girl.  Furthermore, our front runner at the moment is an uncommon-but-not-weird name that is already owned by a little girl in Owen's Sunday school class at church (and we were her teachers last year).  Her parents seem to pick unusual names on purpose, so it will be kind of obvious that the name probably came to us more than it otherwise would have because of her presence in our class, although we really think we came on it independently as well.  But we hate to be name-swipers.  And, 2 days before Asher's birth, we discovered that a family in the church with a new baby 3 months older than ours was also Asher.  We might get a reputation...but it's a big church...

It's hard to name your child!  It feels very important!

We were joking about changing Asher's name so we could get Asha back, and wondering how long it would take a 2.5 year old to adjust to a new name.  Oh my gosh, that is so mean to even think about I feel bad that we were even laughing about it!  Can you imagine how confused he would be??

Also, I have to state that when one's husband has 5 siblings, and each sibling has between 2 and 4 children, there are a lot of really awesome name choices that have been claimed!  This is no small feat :)

My mom is coming tomorrow!  So very thankful for awesome family support and prayers as we welcome 'Flower Rose'.  We appreciate your prayers!

Capeesh?

Just overheard from the basement:

"Asher, now we have to take this basket of clean laundry upstairs for mom...capeesh?"

Ha!  I think Reuel says that.  So funny.  Awesome=4 year olds who think laundry chores are great fun.

The baby's here!

Ha ha, just kidding, not THAT baby.  The OTHER baby...the bathroom project!  I just calculated, and would you believe...the bathroom was 9 months in the making.  That is officially too long a gestation for a home renovation project, especially when it involves going down to one toilet in the house while the mother is pregnant with reduced bladder capacity.  Ah well, we've made it, and we are very happy with how it turned out!  The long gestation was the trade for spending a fraction of what it would have cost if we had hired out the job (I was SO game to spend money this time around, but Reuel wanted to DIY, and stepped up to the job with vigor...well done, hubby!).  Just in time for Mom to arrive on Saturday and not only have working fixtures, but paint and towel racks too (oh, the luxury).

Actually, I still have to get a bigger mirror.  And a few accessory kinds of things.  But it's 99% done.

Buh-bye, mishmosh peach, pink and black with crooked everything!  You are not missed.

Christmas in the air

Today was Owen's preschool's Christmas pageant.  Wow, what a crowd!  I don't know what I expected, but the parking lot was overflowing, the sanctuary at the church where his preschool meets was packed, and suddenly it seemed like quite the big deal.  Then, the spacey, glaze-eyed 3 and 4 year olds were led out in costume and stood there for about 15 minutes while a script was read, and if you studied the scene carefully, you could see that here and there some kids were executing motions and speaking parts to accompany the script.  And of course, we parents ate up every minute :)  Owen was a shepherd.  I was worried that sending Owen with the requested bathrobe costume might not be what they had in mind...his is bright blue and has trucks, traffic lights and his name embroidered on it...but when some of his fellow shepherds showed up in transformers and race car robes, my fears were relieved.  Owen was very excited about his 'show' and very concerned to ask us if we loved watching it afterward :)

Some other Christmas shots...many in response to Owen's, "Please take a picture of me with this!"

Aunt Liskin...we cheated.  We figured out that the baby's stocking was in your goodie box and we couldn't help ourselves because it looks so pretty hanging with the others and reminds us of how soon we'll get to meet our little girl!  Thank you!!  Owen has been filling it up all week with goodies he thinks his sister will like :)

Santa picture!

What a difference a year makes...can't believe how much older Owen looks this year!  Rather than crying after being sat on Santa's lap as he did last year, Asher instead planted his feet firmly, a healthy distance away from that strange man, and said simply, "No."  All urgings, comfortings, beckonings by his brother (C'mon Asher, Santa is waiting for you!):  "No."  So, we have a one-boy picture :)  When they handed out button pins as Owen got down from Santa's sleigh, Asher took his and tried to share it with Santa, though.  So he was curious enough to want to test approaching him, but no way does Asher share seating space on the first date.  And a year between dates makes it hard to get to know one another ;)

2010:

2011:

Default

Reuel, darling, if we do not come up with a satisfactory, agreed-upon name for our daughter in pretty short order, we default to one of my choices, most of which you are not very fond of.  Just stating the facts.  :)

Oh.

Asher's new thing is 'Oh.'

He has passed into the stage we all hope to avoid...smartness and willfulness have increased beyond the ability to distract, and behavior begins to deteriorate to often-intolerable levels.  I can completely correlate a good deal of the change in him to the onset of room-sharing with Owen.  They both get less sleep this way, and even though it's not a dramatic effect, I especially see that my very sweet-hearted and amiable little guy gets edgy and less sweet with mild sleep deprivation.  It's unfortunate, but not much to do about it at the moment :}

Anyway...he's gotten his first whoopin's in the last couple months (less than a handful).  He deserved them fully!!  Yesterday Owen was bugging him a bit, and he pushed Owen to the floor, took in a large mouthful of forehead, chomped down and held until I pried him off.  Owen was in orbit.  Asher was gleeful.  So, Asher got some smarting smacks, diaper down, with a controlled but intense tone from his mom.  His consistent response to this event has been unflappable silence-- no crying or upsetness--and then when he's turned around to look me in the eyes and be told NO, he responds quietly, "Oh."

Asher.  We DO NOT bite.  That is a NO NO!
"Oh."
Biting is VERY OUCHY and NOT NICE.
"Oh."
You got a big spankybottom because you bit Owen!
"Oh."
Please go say Sorry, Owen.
"Oh."
[Toddles off and says, "Sowwy, Owaaaahn!"]

It is actually rather hilarious the way he looks me right in the eye and says 'Oh.'  Luckily, I have not laughed yet...usually too mad for that.  But it softens me up quickly.  I don't think the spanking accomplishes too much, but sometimes you feel out of options for those moments when something is really off the chart.   I do think he's gotten more naughty since the first one...sort of testing what will happen.  I kind of wish I hadn't gone there with him yet...it's always easier to let oneself go to that not-so-effective option prematurely after you've allowed yourself to go there the first time (in my humble experience).

He's also on a serious nap-strike, which is not helping matters.  Right before a new baby!  Of course!

But he's still edibly cute and mostly wonderful...just not quite as fantastically sweet as he used to be.  We all have our seasons!

Should I be surprised?

Boys went outside to play (unseasonably warm weather this late fall...awesome!), and I just now peeked out the window to check and make sure all was well.  I saw that the garage door was opening...followed by noticing that Owen was 'riding' the door to the top...held on to the handle at the bottom of the door and stayed on until it started to get pretty high, then dropped off and landed on the ground.

Oh my.

Christmas for Christians

Worth linking to.  Food for thought-shaping.  Some great ideas. 

http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2011/11/29/the-christmas-conundrum

Celebrate!

Well, after a small blip around the time of grandparent visiting (note to self:  exciting events may induce need for sheet-washing), Owen has re-accomplished his goal and more and has been dry since late October.  Finally, I realized I needed to follow through on his reward.  So we had a little party!  This is what you get when the 4.5 year old designs (and mostly executes) the cake:

4 tiers, smurfy blue, and lots of SPRINKLES!  We are mighty proud of that boy, and it's awfully nice to hear him getting up, climbing down from his new loft bed, and taking care of himself at night.  In some sort of Stockholm Syndrome phenomenon, it was very hard to part him with 'the beeper'.  He just wanted to keep wearing it...sort of a security blanket I guess.  I told him that for the last 2 weeks I hadn't even been turning it on, but that didn't seem to matter.  I had to offer to give him a dollar bill in the morning if he slept without it, and that did the trick.  Here's the graduate with his prize:

Congrats, Owen!  We love you, Mom and Dad