Halloween, etc.

First, Drew was going to be a robot and Grant was going to be Iron Man:

But it was actually fairly warm on Halloween, and I had completely forgotten about the Superman costume that Grant wore two years ago (passed down to us from Grant's friend Andrew).  Drew started taking his robot costume off on Halloween afternoon because it was getting hot, so I went upstairs to grab the Superman costume.  Much better! 

 

We went to the fall festival at the church where the boys go to school.  It was CRAZY!  But the boys had fun playing with their friends Josh and Will.  Then we came home and went trick-or-treating on our street.  At one house, a lady came to the door wearing a scary mask.....Drew took one look at her, started crying, and turned around and walked away.  He was also scared whenever a dog came to the door, even if it was a tiny little thing.  But while we were out, we saw so many older, teenage kids also trick-or-treating in groups, and it makes me realize that my little boys are going to grow up fast!

The three kiddos:

Some other pictures of Molly from last week:

Here's her little smile that I mentioned in the last post.  She will be a month old tomorrow!

Three weeks

Molly is three weeks old already, and I made it through my first full week on my own with all the kids.  And I haven't gone crazy yet!  :)  Things are pretty good, actually.  Molly still sleeps quite a bit during the day (although that's starting to change....she's growing out of that newborn stage where she'll sleep through anything, anytime).  The boys have been fairly good little helpers (especially Drew) and they still love their sister.  Grant often tells me, "I love Molly" or "I love my baby sister."  He'll go sit next to her and tell me that he's watching over her, and today he told me to take a picture of them together!  And Grant is doing well with his cast.....he runs around like crazy and you almost forget that he's even wearing it.

I've gone out a couple of times in public with all three kids.  Once we went to Target, where Molly slept the entire trip in the Baby Bjorn and the boys rode in the shopping cart.  Then a few days later, I took them all to Hobby Lobby (the boys had taken short naps and I knew I had to get out of the house or it was going to be a hard afternoon!).  I spent probably 8-10 minutes in the parking lot, getting them arranged in their stroller and Molly in her Baby Bjorn.  Then within about two minutes of walking inside, she started fussing and didn't stop.  So it was a very short trip.....but I guess that's what I expect at this point.  I don't want to take them all out by myself every day, but at least now I know that it's possible!

Molly had her two-week checkup last Tuesday.  She is obviously eating well, because she weighed 8lbs 9oz (almost an entire pound more than she did at birth).  I'm assuming she weighs about 9 pounds now.  I think she definitely feels a lot bigger, and I think her face has changed a lot too.  And today I am certain that she smiled at me.....on purpose!  I know she's only a day over three weeks and she's not supposed to be able to do that yet, but she must be really advanced for her age.  :)   Her newborn clothes are getting tight, but all of her 3-month outfits are huge on her.

And speaking of clothes, I am in the same position.  Everyone tells me, "you don't look like you just had a baby" and "you already went back to your normal weight, didn't you?"  This is flattering, but no!  I still weigh 18-20 pounds more than I did before I was pregnant.  So most of my old shirts are fine, but I can't even fit into my largest pre-pregnancy pants or skirts.  So finding clothes for church is difficult!  I don't know what I'm going to do now that we're actually starting to have a few cool days here and there.  I only have one pair of maternity jeans!

Here are some pictures taken around Oct 20, while my mom was in town for a few days.  I'll try posting some more recent pictures sometime in the next few days.  Even though Molly sleeps a lot, I  feel like I have much less free time than before.  Maybe because she's often awake while the boys are napping.  Anyway, I hope to start blogging more regularly again soon, so stay tuned!

 While the boys were in school one day, my mom mopped our kitchen floor for me (thank you, Mom!) and I took Molly to her room to take some pictures.  In the second one, you can see that she decided she didn't care much for the tutu!

This particular night while my mom was here, Molly had her longest awake stretch yet: from about 6:45pm until after 9pm.  She just sat in my mom's arms and looked around for probably 45 minutes.  It was so sweet!

 

The boys rocked Kitty and Ruff in the swing one morning:

 

Molly Madeline

Our little lady arrived last Sunday, Oct 10 at 1:17pm.  She is wonderful!  So far she just sleeps almost all the time; I guess that will change before too long.  Today she's probably been awake for a total of about 1.5 hours (which I may pay for tonight.....but it is really hard to keep her awake!).  She usually only eats for a few minutes before drifting back to sleep.  But when she's awake and looking around, I love holding her and talking to her. She gets the hiccups (very loud and squeaky!) multiple times per day, which she also did in the womb.  And she's just so tiny.  It's been fun having a cuddly little newborn in the house again.

Her big brothers both adore her, especially Drew.  He gives her kisses all the time and wants to hold her quite a bit too.  The other day Grant was holding her and said, "I love my baby sister.  I love Molly."  They also like pushing her in the swing.  It's totally different from the way Grant reacted when Drew came home.  He mostly ignored him, and definitely was never interested in kissing or holding him!

Nana and Papa have been here for this entire week, and Aunt Corie came for a long weekend.  We had so much fun with them and it was a huge help!  Dean's going back to work tomorrow, and my mom is coming to help for a few days.  I had a much easier labor and delivery this time (not nearly as much healing to do as I had with the boys), but I still want to take it easy for a few weeks.  And.....this is a long story, but Grant's foot is in a cast for at least three weeks.  Early last week he just stopped walking on it entirely....it hurt him so badly to walk that he'd crawl everywhere.  It turns out that there's a bone in his left foot that hasn't developed properly, so they have to immobilize the foot to allow it to grow.  I was counting on him to be my little helper, so this is really bad timing (considering he can't walk anywhere!).  So it will obviously be very helpful having my mom here.

Here are some pictures from this past week.....

 

Waiting game....

38 weeks!

First, happy birthday, Papa!

Now we're definitely expecting labor to start at any time. Every time I call Dean at work, I have to start by saying, "I'm not in labor!" And I'll feel a contraction and wonder if this could be the beginning. I'm just always aware of all of the little symptoms I feel, wondering if they might be a sign that the baby is coming.

I have actually been feeling fine for the most part over the past week. These past couple of days I've felt maybe a few more contractions than normal, and a little bit of lower back pain. But only for short times. The weirdest thing is the stretching feeling way down low when the baby moves. I guess because I'm already partly dilated, sometimes when the baby shifts around it takes my breath away and it feels like she's on the verge of popping out! It doesn't really hurt, though.....just a weird stretching feeling. I don't really remember that with the boys.....

I've been so neglectful of the blog....I've been using the boys' nap times to do some last minute things. Our camera lens went out a couple of weeks ago, so I had to research new lenses and order one so we'd have it in time for the baby. It came last week....it has twice the zoom of our old one and so far I love it!

I also ordered some of these little swaddling blankets that are all the rage (at least in our area) right now. They're stretchy and breathable and huge (much bigger than the standard receiving blankets from Carter's or Gerber), and all of my friends with new babies love them. The brand is called Aden and Anais....look it up if you're needing a baby gift!

Of the 15 or 17 things on my to-do list before the baby comes, I've actually made my way through most of them. I still haven't caught up on photo albums and scrapbooks like I wanted, but I don't think I will EVER be fully caught up on pictures. So I might as well not be disappointed about that!

And I've also been spending WAY too much time on this baby name website called Nameberry. It's so much fun.....it's my new little addiction. I posted a topic on their message boards a few days ago (asking for name advice) and it's been fun seeing how people react to the names we like. Molly is the funniest one.....some people think it's adorable, and that Molly Madeline is just perfect, especially with the boys' names. Then others say that Molly Sloan sounds like an Irish pub! Caroline seems to be the other favorite....and I think I agree. I just don't know.....I can't seem to make a final decision about any of them. I'm pretty sure we're going to go to the hospital with a running list, and we'll just have to wait until we see her.

I'm still not completely done with the nursery.....I went up into town yesterday while the boys were in school, and I bought some cute oversized papers at the Paper Source. I'm planning on framing them or wrapping them around cardboard and hanging them on the walls for artwork. When we decide on a name, I want to incorporate her name (or initials) into them somehow too. I feel a little overwhelmed with so many options.....and I know I have to get it done in the next few days or I'll never do it after she's born.

That just about sums things up right now! We'll try to post something as soon as we can after the baby's born, if I don't get around to another post before it happens. I still haven't packed anything for the hospital.....maybe I need to get busy and do that while the boys are still sleeping....

Drew at two years old....and baby update

My little two-year-old!

First, I went to my doctor yesterday for my 36 week checkup.  I'm 3cm dilated now.  I wasn't counting on having this baby any earlier than 38 weeks, so hopefully I can still make it another ten days (I'll be 37 weeks this coming Monday).  I'm definitely in hurry-up mode now, though.....I still have a lot of things I want to do before the baby's born.  And I know I'm not mentally ready; we've been so busy and having a new baby seems like something that should still be months away. 
 
Drew had his two year checkup today.   He wasn't happy with the nurse for pricking his finger (to test his blood count), so it made him nervous when the doctor came in.  It's funny......I always refer to him as my "little guy" and it is definitely true!  Grant's always been near the top of the percentile charts in height (not necessarily weight).  Drew is the opposite; he's 34 inches tall, which puts him at the 44th percentile.  And he weighs 26.5 pounds (28th percentile).  He's around the 90th percentile for his head!  Our doctor told us that, according to statistics, he'll most likely be shorter than Grant as an adult, probably more of an average height.  He got his Hep A vaccine and flu shot, and they also gave Grant his flu shot (I wasn't expecting this, but with a baby coming she said it's better to do it now than to wait for his 4-year checkup in November).  Grant wasn't excited when he found out this piece of news; and he cried as I set him on the table, but of course it really wasn't too bad when it was over.  We got Frostys at Wendy's on our way home, so I think the shots were worth the treat for them.

Some notable things about Drew at 2 years:

- Has just learned how to turn the knob to open his bedroom door.  He sleeps in a twin bed now, so he'll sometimes come out of his room after we put him to bed (usually we hear him and put him back).  But last night Dean went upstairs to get ready for bed and Drew was sprawled out asleep right in the middle of our bedroom floor, with Kitty and Brownie laying beside him. 

- Eats cereal from a bowl, and does pretty well drinking from cups.  If Grant is drinking from a real cup, don't even think about trying to hand Drew a sippy cup. They both love drinking from straws too.

- He's putting a few two-word phrases together.  He's always said "ba" for "up" and "ah-yah" for Brownie, but now he actually says "up" correctly.   And the other day, he said "brownie" and it sounded basically right.  But then he got embarrassed and said "ah-yah" immediately afterwards.  I guess that feels more comfortable to him!

- Likes putting Kitty down for "night-night" (at all times of the day), and will put Brownie on top of him while he "sleeps."

- Some of his favorite characters: Elmo (even though we hardly ever watch Sesame Street), Buzz and Woody,  and Ariel (both boys love Ariel, and Grant will always point her out to Drew when we see pictures of her at stores).

- Hops like a frog on the floor and says "hop, hop, hop" as he goes.

- He's doing a little better at school, but he's still having a hard time.  He's the lone crier in his class now (as of yesterday).   He and another little boy named Will were the holdouts, and they seemed to feed off of each other.  But Will had a good day yesterday, so their teachers are hoping that Drew will stop crying next week.  Poor thing.....when I'm getting the boys dressed in the morning, Drew can tell that we're about to go to school and he'll just stand there and cry.  It's so pitiful.  He doesn't cry in the car on the way to school, but then he'll start crying after we've dropped Grant off and we're on our way to his room.  Poor thing....I hope he starts having fun soon.

- He calls us Mommy and Daddy now instead of Mama and Dada.

- The boys love those Progressive Insurance commercials on TV.  They hardly ever understand the humor (especially Drew), but they throw their heads back and laugh hysterically every time (just because they know it's supposed to be funny.....apparently.  Dean and I think they are mostly stupid!).

- He understands the concept of "two" now.  If he has two objects in his hand, he'll hold them out and say "two."  He also knows that he's two years old now.  Good thing he happens to be two and not three, because two is the only number he knows!

- He tries to be a carbon copy of his big brother.  He throws fits just the way he sees Grant do it (great!), and he'll immediately repeat funny things that Grant says (in his own way).  He laughs at Grant and loves when they run around and chase each other.....for a few minutes, at least (until a fight inevitably starts).  Grant takes on the role of big brother very well; he likes to tell Drew what to do as if he's in charge.  Then he'll say, "okay?" or "do you understand me?" and Drew will say, "yeah" or "okay."  It's always really funny to me when they have these little "conversations" with each other.