Blogworthy!

Katie, thanks for prompting me to keep blogging. I do enjoy this and like the history it is keeping of our family; it's just tough finding the time. Today I FINALLY got a great 'blogworthy' photo of Kiley's big grin. I was able to get the other kids' smiles on camera much earlier, but with the new technology, the 'red eye' pre-flash startles her and instead of getting the great grin I get the 'hey - why are you messing with my good mood' look instead! But, here it is at long last... You can also see that she has some curl in her hair.

January 28th, Kiley - 3 months & 1 week old

We've had a great couple of months. We enjoyed several holiday parties with friends, got to see both of our families at Christmas time and rang in the New Year - not with a bang but snuggled up in bed with our newest family member. We watched the ball drop on t.v. at midnight East Coast time and were ready to sleep by midnight - it was perfect!

A Christmas Nap

Kristi, me, Dawn & Shannon at our house

Kiley weighs about 16 pounds now. It doesn't mean anything to me anymore when people tell me how big their kids are because I can't remember what is 'normal', so here is a growth chart to put it in perspective. If you match her 16 pounds on the left with 3 months on bottom, you can see with the red 'X' that she falls well above the top curved line which indicates the 95th percentile. Statistically, she is off the charts in terms of weight and thankfully height as well. Jake was too for about the first 18 months and now he's a bean pole, but for now she's our little chunky monkey!

Jake has started guitar lessons. We wanted to buy a used 3/4 size classical guitar but couldn't find one, so we just bought him a really nice guitar and hope he'll stick with it. We think he's got a good instructor who is well-known around our neighborhood and comes highly recommended. I'll snap a picture soon of him practicing. It's time for soccer sign-ups again so Syd will be playing again with her team in March.

The kids got report cards yesterday and both did really well. In 3rd grade they go to numeric grading so Jake had all grades above 90. Sydney had only one area below expectations and a number of areas where she is at the level she needs to be for the end of the year, which is what you'd expect for a kiddo in special ed. Her tutoring is really paying off - she's been going two days a week for an hour each day of one-on-one help - and her reading is greatly improved! Jake is being re-tested for special education (they have to requalify every three years) and from what I hear so far I think he will no longer qualify. They've both come such an incredibly long way!

On the homefront - we got new carpet which is exciting and will be even better when we get all the furniture put back away where it belongs. For now things are kind of chaotic, but we're trying to weed out and put things back in new and fun (and orderly) ways!

We are selling girl scout cookies and just need to stop selling them to ourselves :). In spite of thin mints, I'm doing well on Weight Watchers and am down almost 40 pounds from my highest weight right before delivery. I'm getting some work time in, but either work slips or the house slips since the kiddos come first. In the back of my mind is the fact that I won't have another infant and I don't want to miss out on a single minute.

Kiley is getting a bit more predictable. She sleeps from about 10 p.m. usually to about 4 a.m., nurses, wakes up again when we all get up around 6:30 and nurses, then sometimes plays for a bit but falls back asleep until 9a.m. Then she's up for awhile and we usually have our bath and get dressed and run errands if we need to. She usually has a nap around noon and another longer nap later in the afternoon sometime, depending on what we've got going on that day. She's up at dinner time and takes one more nap before she falls asleep for the night.

Martin is amazing and continues to help with everything - housework, putting kids to bed, changing diapers, repairs around the house, replacing my laptop hard drive, etc. on top of his full-time job which has been busy and a little stressful lately because of some changes in regulations for his industry. He is managing to make some time for play... We're busy, but I like that and I'm especially grateful for it with this economy!

Martin in his office 'bunker' playing lazer guns with Jake

Let it Snow!

Surely this is laughable to anyone living further north than say, Dallas, but it did actually snow a tiny bit here last night. The kids LOVE when the weather does anything out of the ordinary. They couldn't sleep and so were outside checking it out and throwing a slush ball or two at about 9:30 and then up at 5:00 wondering if school might possibly be cancelled. :) Here are a couple of photos. I thought it was precious that Sydney wanted to catch a snowflake on her tongue...

So Much Has Happened

Can you believe baby Kiley is 7 weeks old today? She's gone from a skinny, not focusing, sleeping all the time brand new baby to a chubby, double-chinned, smiling, staring at Mama & coo-ing little one. Above is a picture of her first bath when she was less than a week old; left is her today at 7 weeks - look at the difference in those arms and tummies!!!
One of my favorite little baby positions that I had forgotten about is when babies stretch really big. They arch their back and squinch their face all up with their hands in fists by their cheeks and their elbows sticking out. Their their legs come up (they naturally cross in the fetal position they were in) and their booty sticks out. I don't know why I find that so very cute and typically 'baby', but I love when she does that. Another thing I love that comes later is when they sleep with their rear ends in the air - can you imagine if we slept like that for even 20 minutes? I wouldn't walk right for a week! :) I LOVED going into a room at mothers-day-out during naptime and seeing a dozen little toddler booties up in the air.

Anyway, she's doing great and getting so very big. She sleeps pretty well. For my birthday a few days ago, she slept 5 hours - YES FIVE - in a row for the first time. Parents everywhere can appreciate how that feels after 6+ weeks of waking up every 2-3 hours to nurse. When she's awake, she still likes to stare at the ceiling fan, but now we get some of her attention as well. And it absolutely melts my heart when she focuses on my face and breaks into a big smile.

On Nov. 10th, we had our first anniversary. With a newborn, it's a little less than romantic, but we managed a nice dinner at Carino's and an exchange of gifts. We stuck with the traditional guidelines, which call for paper as the 1st anniversary gift. Martin had one of those newly popular and really cool photo books created with a lot of our favorite pictures leading up to and including baby Kiley. It is a great keepsake! I gave him a shadow box with a print-out of the reading about hands from our wedding as well as some pieces of ribbon and flowers from the wedding. On Monday (the 10th), Martin took the day off and Elizabeth came over and take photos. You can see some of those at: http://ewrightphotos.blogspot.com/2008/11/baby-kiley-is-welcomed-to-family.html.

Thanksgiving (left is us at Martin's parent's house) came next and we had a chance for Kiley to meet most of Martin's 10 siblings and their spouses and girlfriends. There were probably 30 people in San Antonio Wednesday night for dinner and it was wonderful! We spent the night and then came back through Wimberley on Thursday to have dinner with my aunts, uncles, cousins, brother and Mom. We were home by the afternoon and then arranged playdates for the kids on Friday so it was a great holiday with family, friends and food!

On the 13th and 23rd of Nov., my two best friends from high school turned 40, as did I on Dec. 6th. It's nice that all of our birthdays happen within a few weeks so we can all celebrate (or commiserate :) together. Below is a picture of us - Jill, me, Dawn & Kristi. Dawn is the youngest and doesn't turn the big 4-0 until this summer.We did our AustinONE service project on the 6th, so I spent my birthday in East Austin working and playing with the kids at one of the housing projects, baby Kiley in tow. It wasn't a bad way to spend the day; it was the stress leading up to the event in order to be ready that put a little damper on the birthday, but all in all I had a great day. We stopped at Pappasito's on the way home that evening and had a delicious dinner. After that, we stopped at the same Starbuck's we stopped at after the first AustinONE. That was two years ago (just two!) and the beginning of Martin's and my relationship but before we had our first date. That night in 2006, we spent awhile in the chairs at Starbuck's talking and getting to know each other better, each sizing the other up in that 'could we make a go of this?' way that you do... On Sunday after my birthday, we got the kids back and went to lunch at Z-Tejas with my brother and Mom, then went to Mom's house and opened presents in celebration of my birthday, my Mom's (Dec. 11th) and my brother's (Oct. 17th, got missed this year with Kiley's birth happening so close). Sunday night we ate at Chuy's with my friend Kristi and her sons. She brought delicious cupcakes and a beautiful bracelet from Sundance. I ended the weekend feeling blessed by family and friends and very, very full!!!

On that note, Mom and I also started Weight Watchers a few weeks ago. Can you guess how I'm doing? HA! The first couple of weeks were pretty good; last week I gained 1/2 a pound and this week remains to be seen but I can tell you that a steady diet of Mexican food probably isn't going to get me very far. I have had to cut dairy out of my diet because it makes Kiley very gassy and colicky at night - so it's surely helping my weight that I can't eat cheese. The first 25 pounds came off very easily; I've lost another 5 the old-fashioned way and it's no fun. The next 25 surely aren't going to get any better, but I'm in it for the long haul.

Now that Thanksgiving, AustinONE and my birthday have passed, I'm hoping to get some combo birth announcement/Christmas/thank you cards out in the next week or so. I'm looking for a nanny to help out with Kiley on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while the kids are in school. In the meantime I'm trying to get work in when I can but it's tougher than I thought it would be to get focused time between Kiley's naps and times when she needs to nurse. And, when she is awake I feel guilty if I don't interact with her and help her take in all she can to stimulate that growing brain of hers!

I'm looking forward to a number of Christmas parties coming up in the weekends ahead and enjoying time with friends and family. I am trying to really focus more on people and less on commercialism this year. If you haven't seen the advent conspiracy video, check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU - it's compelling!

Kiley's First Words

Kiley's first words have been echoing in my mind for over a week now. Yes I know she is only a little over 5 weeks old but I hear them nonetheless. We were sitting around her staring into her eyes when she spoke, "ga-go-da-la-ba". You won't find it in any dictionary and if you google it you'll probably get a correction of some sort along with a few unrelated links, but translated it means, "papa, i love my papa". She is the most darling little princess ever.

She has said many other words over the past couple of weeks and all translate to about the same thing. Not many people can really interpret what she is saying but to her proud papa, it comes through loud and clear.

Above is a stamp of her foot that I thought was just cute. As you might have guessed even her little farts are pretty darn cute to me. ....so it goes. :)

Goodbye...Hello

Having a baby is a time of huge transitions - even if it is your 3rd. Here are just a few of the things that have come or gone.
I've said goodbye to...
- the big maternity pillow (like a boppy for a grown-up) that has taken up two-thirds of our queen-sized bed for almost 1/2 a year, but provided invaluable support for my expanding belly
- the Rolaids that were a dietary staple in recent months - I actually threw away what was left of my supply of these. Not very practical, but man it felt good in a strange, symbolic way :)
- the kids turning to hug and kiss and rub my belly as a greeting or parting gesture - this is one that I really miss... Right after the baby was born they turned to do that a few times and realized, 'hey, this is some weird belly now that looks like it should have a baby inside but doesn't' - thankfully that creepy belly is mostly gone now and I'm just left with the 35 pounds I still need to lose
- exceedingly frequent trips to the ladies room
- stabbing pain in the center of my chest where my ribs were torqued out of place
- the sweet connection to my unborn baby that would respond to my touch through my belly
- swollen hands and feet; I actually don't swell as badly as many women do, but it's been nice to put back on my rings and my toe rings :)

And hello to...
- beautiful fall walks with the baby and the stroller to get the kids from school (without contractions!!)
- interrupted sleep and the ditziness that goes along with it - I almost mowed down two pedestrians today at HEB and got a speeding ticket (my first in 10 or 15 years) last week; also last week I worked for an entire day on a work problem that I know should have taken me an hour to solve...
- breast feeding with all the almost unbearable pain that comes with it initially but then with the sweet bonding time that I wouldn't trade for the world; with Jake, I had advice from a friend not to give up nursing before six weeks and between 5 & 6 weeks somehow the pain magically went away and it was wonderful. It wasn't easy to stick with it because the 'experts' will tell you (why I don't know because any mother will tell you otherwise) that if you are doing it right, breastfeeding shouldn't hurt. I think when the baby sucks so hard that it's uncomfortable when they suck on your finger there's no possible way for it not to hurt your nipple - but that's just my take. The good news is that it takes much less than six weeks for the pain to fade with subsequent children.
- our precious baby girl, live and in person; having the chance to see her beautiful features and hold her in my arms

I may add to this list later, but need to take Sydney to tutoring now.

We had Kiley's 2-week well check today and she has gone from 8 pounds, 3 oz. in the hospital to 7 pounds, 10 oz. at 48 hours old - back up past her birth weight to 8 pounds, 7 oz. That officially means that my body is giving her what she needs to grow big and strong - yeah! She still has a couple of red spots in her left eye from the birthing process and the little red birth marks on her nose and between her eyes that sometimes are very obvious and sometimes not at all. Unfortunately Jake and Kiley and I all have a cold right now as well so that's a little tough, but we'll get through it. The only thing the Dr. asked us about that she's not really doing yet is tracking visually to our faces or other objects. I think that will come soon and that maybe she was staring at my face when I changed her diaper this afternoon.

Day 357

We are getting so close to our 1st anniversary. I feel like we've grown a lifetime as a family already. I was looking back at some pictures from last year today. The kids really are growing up. I was warned that would happen but never realized they weren't joking. And now that we have a new addition to our family, I'm sure nothing will be slowing down. The 11 days that have passed since her birth already seem like a blur.

I must say that we have been so blessed by family and friends that have continued to send us well wishes, prayers, gifts, food and wonderful kindness and support as we adjust to having the added company. Our little peanut is so beautiful. I never would have thought I could be this ga-ga over a sweet little girl. But here I am. I think Jake has jumped on that bandwagon too. He is definitely going to be looking out for her as she grows up. He wants to hold her and look after her every chance he gets.

Courtney and I are looking forward to the 1st of many anniversaries to come.

A couple of good pictures from today, Jake's final game of the fall flag football season.....

Halloween 2008

I was just thinking about one of our first postings. It was right around Halloween last year which means it's getting very close to our first anniversary. This year Sydney was still excited about Hanna Montana and chose to hit the streets for candy dressed as the teenage pop star. And of course it was Kiley's first as well. The pictures say it all. I think we had more fun than she dressed in her little costume but boy was she adorable.

Jake decided to go trick or treating at his dad's house with one of his friends. We hope to get pictures of his scary Ghost Rider costume.

...And even though she won't admit it I know she had a blast as well. Here are some pics of Syd, some of her friends and our little peanut.

Doesn't she look comfy? :)


Ready for some candy!!


Sydney with her pumpkin