Welcome To Our Blog!!!

Hi, welcome to our family blog. We were inspired by Jessica and Brandon's site. Here are a few family pictures followed by a few blogs catching you up on the past year. We've been busy. And were about to get way way busier! In early January we will be welcoming another boy. Hopefully this blog will be a great way to tell everyone what's going on, since we are so bad about keeping in touch. Thanks for visiting our site, we love you all so very much! (p.s. don't forget to visit our blog history for more pictures and such)

Cartoon Time

Halloween Bear

Taking a break from crawling.

Rowdy Boys

These two are parents ?

May-September

A visit from auntie Eve

A visit from auntie Janet

Five months brought lots of events. We had a baby blessing and godparent ceremony on the summer solstice. It was such a beautiful day of celebration. We had many out of town visitors who came to meet the new babe. Caleb completed kindergarten and turned six years old. He also learned how to ride a bike! Max learned to hold his head high, sit on his own, use his voice, eat solid foods and crawl!

It was a mild summer in Arcata, a little cooler than usual, but we found time to bust out the kiddie pool and have some summer fun. We took a little trip to the Big redwoods. Angie and Jared and Matt collaborated on a shared garden in our yard that produced a lot of good stuff. Then they bought a house and moved, which was sad, but fortunately my mom moved in so now grandma is right next door. Let's see what else? I turned 30, my mom turned, well it's not polite to say. We found out that we were having another baby, a boy. Time goes fast but it also goes slow, especially when you do the same things every day: Wake up feed Max, play 'till nap time, then second breakfast, then some book reading, a walk or tummy time, lunch, nap, crawl around the bed time, tummy time, walker in the kitchen time, fuss while mommy fixes dinner, dinner time, tummy time, book time , bedtime etc. I spend just about all my time at home with Max and the fam. Even though Matt works two jobs, he has a lot of free time during the day so we are together a lot, so wonderful!!!

Grandpa Tony, Grandma Becky,and Uncle Wes come to visit!

Staying Cool.
Godparent Ceremony

Caleb

Here's a few pics of Caleb doing his thing: being shy, being goofy, being sporty. Right now Caleb is off playing in the All Stars soccer tournament, because he is such super soccer player. Caleb lives with us wednesday-saturday morning. The other half of the week he lives with mom and Cort in redwood valley. He has a nice big room all to himself, for now. In a couple of years it will be jam packed with three beds and three boys. Caleb has really done a great job with his big brother role. I wasn't sure quite what to expect, considering all the books had all kinds of difficult scenarios for new siblings. He has a little problem with sharing, which is more about his age than anything. Other than that he has adjusted to life with a new baby really well. We are very proud. Max of course thinks that Caleb hangs the moon. I'm sure he wonders were he goes half the week, and when he sees him he gets all crazy with excitement. Caleb is now in the first grade and reads so very well! I would say that his favorite things right now are Legos, soccer, video games, dancing to and listening to "cool music" And of course looking cool too!

Max...the early days

Everybody thinks that their baby is the cutest in the world, but I knew that Max really was! The early days were a bit of a struggle for me. I was in a lot of recovery pain and was not very mobile. I was getting used to a new life totally dedicated to this baby, having to start shedding my selfish indulgent ways that I grew to love in my twenties. Life is all about growing and learning though, so I am grateful for that change. I dealt with post partum depression, which was awful. I lost so much weight because I couldn't eat from the depression. It was such a strange thing because I was so in love with this baby and my Matt and I wanted to feel all the joy that could be, the joy that was there in the first couple weeks, but it was so involuntary, I felt so out of control. Anyone who has had any sort of depression knows what I'm talking about. Through the love and support of family and friends I could express those feelings and soon my hormonal balance began to take hold and I started feeling so much better. I will be forever grateful for that love!!! I hope ya'll don't mind all these blogs involving my feelings and personal stuff but I feel that if this blog is about our daily lives, than well, it ain't always pretty, ha ha!!!






snuggling after the bath









mom and me









chillin' with bro






Ladies man





With Aunt
Jessica

greetings at the hospital

Godmother Angie Grandma Judy

Proud Daddy


Big Brother Caleb He was a big boy 9lbs. 12 0z. and 21 in. He was ready to go right from the start and has been a very active little love ever since. On the one hand it is tiring, but on the other it is great to know that your baby is healthy and smart and active. He's always been ahead of reaching those baby milestones, and that's a relief for me to know he's developing right. I try to think these positive thoughts on days when he's running us ragged!

Here I am with Max in the belly, blissfully unaware of the sleepless nights to come.... Anybody else's baby wake all night long? I really believe that there are natural born sleepers and he's not one. He's not what you call a self soother, when he wakes he wants mommy or daddy to hold him, feed him, or binky him. He has been this way since birth. I keep waiting for the "sleep through the night" thing. I have tried everything the books recommend. I will not however, practice the "cry it out" method! It was hard at first, and well it's still hard, but, I've learned so far to adjust to no sleep (although I've gone a bit crazy, ha!!)And of course they're not babies forever, which is good and sad too. I bide my time with wonderful daydreams of restful nights in soft sheets. He's now almost 10 months old... more pics of him later.

More catching up...

Looking pathetic at the birth center. This is Tues. Max started coming Friday eve. so at this point I was beyond exhausted. I don't have a lot of memory of it all. The nurses there are the absolute best! Max came right on time, contractions and all a day early, I was so glad! Only problem was my body did not cooperate. I was having large, extremely painful contractions that should have been moving me right along, but I was dialating slower than molasses! There was some morphine involved at one point which gave me a second wind, but no matter the positive thoughts, breaths, positions, etc. nothing was doing the trick. I ended up having a c-section to get him the hell out of there! In retrospect, now that the pain is over, I wish I would have seen just how long I could have gone (it may have made no difference). But in the moment of endless days and nights of intense contractions my mind had gone a bit and all I wanted was to see my baby, to know this was all for something. And when my doctor recommended it, I agreed. Plus, I knew that I could always have a second go at the pushing out another time. Unfortunately though, because the second baby is so close, the risks of Uterine rupture is too great. Our lives are on the line. So now feelings of disappointment are finding their way to me again. I'm trying to resolve them before the birth so that I can focus on the lovely boy we'll meet, but some days I still find it hard.