Michael at Christmastime

I cannot believe that Michael is 2 months old! The time has flown by and the first few weeks of his life are a blur. He is still working out the whole digestion-thing, but has made up for that grumpiness by starting to smile quite a bit. I expect another two months will find us with some semblance of a routine and rhythm to our days and nights. While I am trying to be in the present, I do look forward to a little more normalcy.

Christmas so far has been rather busy, so while fun it is also a little exhausting. We got lots of new games for Christmas, which I think deserve their own blog post in the next day or two.

In the meantime have fun perusing my new favorite blog:
My Monkeys And Me

Michael's Second Week

I have had this saved for a month, hoping to add in some text. Obviously I think that's not going to happen--so I'll just put up the pictures! They're in reverse order--so the one at the bottom is from Thursday, the one above is from Friday, then Saturday, Sunday, Monday, & the one at the top is from Tuesday--nearly 2 weeks old.

These are Michael, the first week in November--and some of the people who have loved him from before he was born. Miss Tina is holding him on his first outing--to Jane and Bernadette's gym meet Friday, November 6.

The Rest of Michael's First Week

Sunday November 1st, Michael 4 days old

Snuggles with Jane

Our friend Ashley and her son Austin came for a visit Sunday afternoon and brought lots of easy fixin' kid-friendly food.



Monday, November 2- Michael 5 days old

The dads wanted in on the action. The Jasons came with their families to get their newborn baby snuggle on. And dinner found us eating some delicious Hubbard chicken soup.

Tuesday, November 3-Michael 6 days old

With proud (and silly) big brother, Andrew

Tuesday evening, Rachel and Jennifer came over bearing sushi and cans of Coca-cola (an essential part of every Cleaning Club). Pat had stopped at Transmetropolitan earlier when he was out and got us some dessert. It was great to just sit and chat and laugh and take silly pictures involving wax lips-which you can see here. I was really going a little stir crazy and their visit really lifted my spirits!!

Wednesday, November 4- Michael ONE WEEK OLD!!!!

To celebrate his one week birthday, Jennifer came over to do a newborn photo shoot. I will edit in a link or some pics.

Wednesday evening, Lucy got to introduce Michael to her best friend when she, her sisters and Dana, their momma brought us very yummy pizza and salad!! (Sorry we were sleeping on Thursday and missed you!)

Halloween

The kids all had a great Halloween. My husband took them over to Jennifer's house for their annual Halloween bash. You can see more pics of all her awesome decorating and everyone's costumes at her blog. When I was taking pictures before they left Andrew insisted that he was NOT Captain Jack Sparrow, just Andy, and took off his costume. Once he got to the party and saw everyone else dressed up, he gave up his Andy personae for the rest of the night.


Andrew, errr Captain Jack Sparrow, was apparently quite the hit of the party. You can see more of that on Sarah's blog. My little Bernadette loved her costume so very much. She has been enthralled with The Wizard of Oz for well over a year now.
Tim and Jane, in particular were very excited to wear their costumes. Now that Halloween is passed, they both still can be seen from time to time in their costumes. Lucy, I think, liked being Alice from Alice In Wonderland, but most enjoyed hanging out with her friends.

Halloween was also 3 days old for Michael.

Michael's First Week

I will edit this over time as I get more organised and will eventually post a birth story.


Nearly my last day being pregnant. This was taken on Monday afternoon, Michael was born on Wednesday morning.

Michael just a few minutes old. Wednesday, October 28th.


Michael - One day old, Thursday Oct. 29, I think this was the day Sarah and her kids met Michael and Rachel brought her kids to meet Michael. Still trying to hunt down some pictures of that!

I think on 2 days old, Friday October 30th. Jennifer brought her kids to meet Michael. Kids came in costume so I could see!

Saving Dinnertime

Before on here, I think I mentioned that my husband brought home a big table from work. We had a round table at which it was nearly impossible for us all to fit. We also only had four chairs, which meant every meal we'd have to pull chairs from all over the house to accomodate the seven of us.

For my birthday a couple weeks ago, my parents gave me the immense gift of 8 new dining chairs from IKEA. The only drawback was that they all had to be assembled. My husband put together a few late at night after the kids were in bed, but the day before my birthday Rachel and Jennifer of Cleaning Club Posse fame assembled the rest of the chairs while I cleaned my counters.

Now every, single time I sit at the table I am surrounded by love. My husband found us a table, my parents bought us the chairs, and my husband and dear beloved friends put together the chairs. I have hated, loathed, resented mealtime and all it's chaotic crappiness--but now when I sit down I fell like I have a little secret, and it makes it all a little better. As well as us all just fitting at the table, and not having chairs which either spin or are too low.

Thank you all for saving dinnertime in our house!!

Alrighty---I Think I'm Back

After a long early pregnancy hiatus, I think I am feeling back up to blogging regularly.

Baby news: I am 20 weeks, which means halfway! Woot! The baby is a boy, who will be named Michael Francis. Everything looks good baby-wise. Still not totally sure where I'm having this baby, but the plans are beginning to come into greater focus. I have been feeling pretty good--but much achier than my pregnancy with Andrew. I am hoping to hunt down a chiropractor covered by our insurance over the next week and see if that doesn't help.

Here's baby at about 13 weeks:




And here's my baby bump at 20 weeks (and my VERY dirty mirror!!):