Cuteness

 

 

 

He's here!

Jack Stephen was born last Sunday, the 18th, at 6:52 P.M., weighing 7 pounds, 4 ounces. It was a tiring day but ultimately a very fast and furious labor and delivery. I'm very happy to say that Kurt and I were able to have the birth experience we'd hoped for, though of course it was nothing I could have imagined beforehand. We spent most of the day at home together in what was an incredibly emotional and intimate experience we'll never forget, only heading to the hospital a little more than an hour before Jack was born. In fact, the midwife told us that had we waited any longer, it's very likely Kurt could have been delivering him for me on the side of the road! Thank goodness, it all worked out perfectly.

Jack is a dream, a beautiful, perfect little miniature person. His sisters love him to pieces, almost literally, as they spend so much time holding his little hands and smothering him with kisses and petting. They're adjusting fairly well, I think, though of course we've had a big increase in attention-seeking, whining and sibling arguments. Hopefully, that will all smooth out over the next couple weeks. (fingers so so so crossed!)

Kurt is home from work with us for this week and the next and we've pretty much retreated into a little family huddle just trying to get things calmed down around here. But we're happy even in the midst of the mayhem and couldn't possibly be more in love with this little boy! So, welcome Jack! We love you!

Anna loves me, this I know

Every afternoon these days, after Silvia goes down for her nap, I find myself barely conscious on the family room couch. I try not to give in to it, but I'm just tired, y'all, what can I say?

Anna, my amazing little 5-year-old daughter, totally understands. She pats me on the shoulder, kisses my head and lays little soft hugs on me. Then she says, "You have a nice rest, Mommy," and heads off to the playroom to finish up some coloring and read quietly for the hour or so it takes before I can face the conscious world again.

Sometimes she'll come and have me tear out a picture for her or help her get a snack if she can't reach something, but mostly, she just plays quietly, tiptoes around and stops by to drop the occasional kiss against my hair.

I am the luckiest mother in the world.

Looks can be deceiving

Yesterday, Anna stationed herself on the front porch with her big bin of crayons and several coloring pages. While Kurt worked on the front lawn (and I hid inside with the A/C preventing late-pregnancy heat sickness), she doodled away at her various masterpieces.

Then Silvia woke up, the girls discovered Daddy was messing with all the sprinkler heads and the coloring was forgotten in the resulting water play. When Anna came back to her crayons about 6 hours later, looking to draw some American flags for the 4th of July, she discovered a bin of goo with little bits of crayon wrappers stuck throughout. The colors had all melted together in the hot afternoon sun.

At first, devastation. Oh, no! My crayons! My vehicle to the world of art and self-expression! Melted, lost, destroyed! And then... hmmm. That melty puddle right there doesn't look like a crayon.

That part looks like chocolate!

Yes, my 5-year-old daughter, for all her brains and panache, took a big scoop of melted brown crayon on her finger and popped it in her mouth. Sweet chocolately goodness it was NOT.

She came inside, carrying the bin, making "ew, gross" faces and dragging her tongue across her sleeve. She looked up at me with a slight expression of betrayal, as if I had somehow tricked her into eating colored wax. Then she ran upstairs to brush her teeth... for about 20 minutes.

Later that night, as the girls gobbled up fresh, juicy cherries for dessert, Anna stated, "My crayons all melted today and I tasted one and chocolate crayons are NOT GOOD. Cherries are way better!".

Lesson learned: Everything in moderation... and context. If it's surrounded by inedibles, don't risk it!

Good Horsie!

Nursery in progress and Silvia, just because