January has been nothing but the best. I have felt this
overwhelming sense of peace and happiness as I have transitioned to having
three little ones, and all of it is due to three key players:
My mom! She was amazing and took great care of us all and had a blast sneaking treats to the kiddos (and me).
Keith's momma! It was such a treat to have her here with us and cooking up a storm and playing with Sawyer.
Can you get any more secure than my favorite little princess? Love my Captain Awesome.
I really feel like for the first time since I gave birth I
have been allowed to sit back and completely enjoyed having a newborn.
Listening to his breathing, feeling his soft skin, answering every cry, and
enjoying every last cuddle and sweet moment with my little Grant. This time with
him was the best gift anyone could have given me. On top of it all Keith has
really stepped forward to make sure I have been getting enough sleep and that I
can handle the recovery period and newborn-night-time-sleep-transition with
grace.
Following the births of both Lily and Sawyer our lives
seemed to be in such an uproar. Combine being a first time mom and scary health
concerns (post birth toxemia) made the newborn time with Lily incredibly
stressful. Sawyer’s birth went much better, as well as the recovery but we were
involved in a whole new level of stress with a brand new dump we were trying to
make into our home (we literally moved the week before he was born), and then
Keith lost his job soon after followed by a lovely bout of post pardum
depression.
Not to revisit the ugly at a beautiful period in my life,
but I think that these hard times made me stronger, strengthened my
relationship with God than ever before, and also made the beautiful that much
more beautiful. I really feel incredibly blessed that things have so far gone
smoothly, and that there has been nothing but joy and happiness welcoming Grant
into our home.
As it has been a long time since I updated on the rest of
the family here are some happenings in the K household:
K-daddy:
What a stud. He has gone from a ping-pong amateur
to one of the top players at his company. As the weather has soured for the
winter, and forced him indoors, he has picked up his brand new paddle and
worked on improving his ping-pong game along with his coworkers. They have a
board, and he is one of the top contenders. Every day he comes home with a
ping-pong war story. It makes us all smile.
The studliness doesn’t end with a ping-pong paddle. This
month he officially finished the laundry room for me. Putting up shelves, an
awesome drying rack he made, along with finishing some loose ends. He also took
over taking Lily to school in the morning (oh her pride and joy these days is
riding in Daddy’s car in her big girl booster seat). All of this on top of his
late night parties with Grant in the basement while I catch up on Zzzs, and
taking the kids to swimming each week.
Lilster:
This little girl continues to bring me immense
amount of joy and immense amounts of confusion as I try to figure out the best way
to deal with the challenges she throws my way.
She lost her two teeth this month and squealed for joy when the tooth fairy (tooth fere) came to visit for the first time. The first visit brought 4 shiny new quarters, which she promptly lost the next day. The second visit brought 6 shiny new nickels (which she thought was even better, because 6 is more than 4, right?) and she was over the moon at how much the tooth fairy seems to love her. She lost her tooth at school and the teacher let her proudly walk from student to student showing off the little bud, as she was the first in her class to lose a tooth.
She lost her two teeth this month and squealed for joy when the tooth fairy (tooth fere) came to visit for the first time. The first visit brought 4 shiny new quarters, which she promptly lost the next day. The second visit brought 6 shiny new nickels (which she thought was even better, because 6 is more than 4, right?) and she was over the moon at how much the tooth fairy seems to love her. She lost her tooth at school and the teacher let her proudly walk from student to student showing off the little bud, as she was the first in her class to lose a tooth.
She is doing awesome in school, currently plugging in at a
level H in reading and has started reading her first chapter book! She loves
being a little helper at school too. Her teacher says that when she finished
her work early she’ll walk from chair to chair asking if anyone wants her to
help them. She’s the mini teacher in the classroom, and it does not surprise me
in the least.
Lilyism moment! We had this cute little conversation at the
dinner table the other day:
Lily: Mmm. I love flamingoes.
Me: That was random.
Lily: (glaring) No.
It wasn't.
Me: (wracking my
brain) Oh! Ha! You love mangoes! (we had mangoes on our salad)
Lily: That's what I
said, I love flamingoes.
Soyboy:
My little man is looking so HUGE these days. Once
Grant arrived it seemed that he just doubled in size. He continues to be a big
help, and wants to constantly butt heads/hug Grant.
He has started to pick up speed with his reading. It’s so
cute to see him make little connections and struggle to pay attention. I can
see the lights going off, but I also see that the lights are firing in every
direction. It takes us about 5 minutes to read 5 words, but I try to keep it
fun and positive and he enjoys learning. We sit down at least once a day for
preschool and I love that we have time to bond and giggle and hang out just the
two of us.
Sawyer was in charge of Family Home Evening the other day
and he LOVED being the boss for once. He told us what to sing (The Wise Man),
who got to say the prayer, and taught us the story of Noah’s Ark. We followed
the activity by drawing rainbows. Afterwards we had this conversation:
Me: Sawyer, can you put these beautiful rainbows on the
fridge.
Sawyer: (hops out of his chair) Sure!
Me: Um, why are you in the fridge?
Sawyer: I…I…
Me: (I get up from my chair to see what he is doing). Oh!
Did you put the rainbows in the fridge?
Sawyer: Yeah!!! (with a big grin)
Me: Well, let’s take them out and put them on the OUTSIDE so
everyone can see them, ok buddy?
Sawyer: Okay!
(Sawyer's rainbow rocked! Can you see it just below Grammy's? Scribble power!)
Grant:
Well, what can a newborn be up to besides being cute
and cuddly and HUGE? My new little man takes the cake for the biggest newborn to
date in this house. He has been struggling a little with tummy issues so I am
going to try and do a dairy free week and see if that helps the little guy.
Grant is such a cuddle bug, and hates with a passion to be
set down during the day and night. He instantly breaks out in a wail if we set
him down, and will not sleep more than 45 minutes to an hour at night if we don’t
let him sleep with us. I remember Sawyer and Lily both grew out of this rather
quickly (the night time sleeping issue), so I’m trying to enjoy these cuddly
times while I can. He also screams like a banshee in the bath and whenever we
change his diaper.
I love the period too where everyone tries to dissect who
the baby most looks like. So far I think he is a strong combination of both
Lily and Sawyer. He has the same headshape, hairline, eyes, ears, and nose as
Lily, but he has the same mouth and chin as Sawyer. He also surprisingly lean
like Lily was (long, skinny arms and legs). It will be fun to see how that
morphs and changes in the next few months as he grows and chunks up.
