Fun, fun, fun

More scenes from summer... One of our favorite things to do is to visit Daddy at work. It doesn't happen very often, but every once in a while, we'll be able to go meet him for lunch. The boys think this is about the coolest thing EVER! (Jaxon-left, Dexter-right) Shortly before Shea was born, my friend Elisa came over for a visit. It had been ages since we'd seen each other, so it was so fun for me to re-introduce the boys to her and watch the three of them play! Below, she becomes the ideal playmate, reading Entertainment Weekly to the boys (their all-time favorite... what goofballs) and helping them climb trees!!
Jaxon-left, Dexter-rightElisa actually took some of these photos with her phone. Amazing!

After decorating most of the boys' birthday cupcakes, we let them do a few themselves. What fun to see them get so excited about adding sprinkles!! Despite the fact that we occasionally have to go through major degotiations to get the boys to stop playing for bathtime, once they're in the tub, they never want to get out!!

Fun with T

Still behind on posting!

Missing my boys

My parents kindly invited the boys to spend some time this week with them, which has made it possible for me to get the rest needed to finished recovering from the c-section, as well as getting some wonderful time to bond with Shea. The downside to this generous gift, however, is this oh-so-quiet house, the absence of little footsteps and squeals... and the extent to which I am missing my boys.



Fun with paint, as usual. Jaxon is left, Dexter is right... in all photos.

The boys had so much fun with Haley and Taylor last month. As usual, Jaxon was quite taken by all their pretty dress-up clothes!! I love that he's young enough to not yet be aware of gender roles. I dread the day I have to persuade him NOT to wear the pink dress, for fear that he'll be teased... A friend of mine recently did a great post on this issue at: http://coloringinthelines.blogspot.com/. Well put!



A little video of the boys sharing... I love their sweet little brother moments...

Scenes from a summer afternoon... or two

I'll post more photos of little Shea, soon. In the meantime, I really need to play catch-up with photos I took of the boys over the summer. These are pieces of our summer days that truly kept me smiling during my last month of pregnancy...
With our laundry room under construction for a good month, I had to cart our laundry about a half-block to the nearest available laundry room. Luckily, I have our little red wagon and two wonderful helpers!

Jaxon (left), Dexter (right) and Maren... getting geared up for some fun with sand and water. I tried so hard to get all three munchkins to smile at the camera. Dexter was not, however, amused at my attempts. I had to include the second photo, as the look he gave me was just too funny.
Jaxon and Maren begin their sand creation.
Dexter has plans of his own.
Work goes so much faster when you work together!!

What makes playing in the sand even better? Water, of course!

And, since we're already wet and sandy, why not splash around in a puddle before heading inside?

The favorite game of late July involved climbing up any slide available and crashing into each other at the bottom. I think the best was when the boys managed to get 5 or 6 neighborhood kids to play with them. THAT was quite a smash-up in the end... and, somehow or other, every child thought it was absolutely hilarious. :)

...the rest of the story

We've been home from the hospital for almost a week and I'm finally beginning to feel like myself again. Despite the fact that I've been through this before, I had somehow forgotten how slow the process of recovering from a c-section can be. Luckily, every day is a little bit easier for me...

Anyway, as D.R. wrote in the previous post, on August 11th we welcomed little Shea into our family. Due to the fact that I had a scheduled c-section with Shea, there was much less chaos surrounding her birth than with the boys. Rather than rushing into an emergency c-section, I calmly (or not-so-calmly!) signed consent forms and sat myself onto the operating table. There was much happy banter with my OB and the nurses and other individuals in the operating room before and during the surgery. We all thought Shea was going to be a bigger baby. Even my OB gave her official weight estimate at 8 pounds, so we were all more than surprised when this tiny little girl was lifted out of me! Shea was a healthy pink and cried immediately...

Of course, just as I experienced hemorrhaging with the boys, I experienced a fair amount of blood loss during the surgery, as well. Due to the amount of adhesions from my previous c-section, it took a good hour to stitch me up. In fact, I was beginning to regain feeling toward the end of this hour and was able to move my legs by the time I reached the recovery room. Good thing we finished when we did! As a result of the blood loss, I was pretty light-headed for the next few days and since the doctors weren't ruling out the possibility of a blood transfusion, I was lucky enough (oh, yay) to keep my IV in during my entire 4-day stay. Lovely!

In the recovery room, the saga continued, as we discovered an arrythmia in my heart. Apparently, this isn't entirely uncommon following surgery, but it was worrisome enough that for 36 hours I was monitored by a holter monitor to make sure my heart was functioning properly. Though it was a bit disconcerting at the time, we were pleased to find that everything is just fine and that the arrythmia had completely disappeared. Whew!

Much like the boys, Shea's bilirubin levels were higher than we would have liked. However, unlike the boys, she didn't need to spend days under the bili lights at the hospital. Instead, we were able to have a bili bed brought to our home and she spent a mere 24 hours in her little bed, until her bili levels started to go down. Once again, I was SO relieved when I could hold her as much as I wanted... another big Whew!

So, we're home now and I am trying to envision a life for us where accomodating this new little person, caring for her and, of course, enjoying her become a part of our routine. For now, I'm still learning how to find a balance between caring for this baby, keeping peace with the boys, healing from my c-section and dealing with the demands of D.R.'s current schedule. Luckily, we have had some wonderful help over the past few days. Both sets of our parents were kind enough to care for the boys while we were in the hospital. This made it possible for D.R. to stay with me and Shea, which was so very much appreciated! My mom was generous enough to stay with us for several days this week, which meant that the boys had a full-time playmate and I had the moral and emotional support that only a mom can give. Thank you, Mom! My sister has also been a huge help, too, giving up the past few days to come and help entertain the rascals and making me take naps whenever possible. Yay, Sarah! Of course, the first thing the boys ask for, now, is whether or not Sis or Mimi will be coming to play today. Oh, how sad it will be for us all when I'm unable to answer yes!

Let's see... what else? Shea is a complete delight. Despite the fact that she seems to think days are night and night is day, I cannot get enough of her and I find myself just sitting and admiring her, the way I did the boys when they were born. It's a huge relief for me, as one of my biggest fears was that I wouldn't be able to love this new baby like I love the boys. Fortunately, we all love her very much! The boys are such wonderful helpers, trying so hard to soothe her when when she cries, hold her and pet her when she's happy and fetch me everything from clean diapers to blankets. I hope this innocent and sweet admiration for their little sister lasts. :)

Shea Parker

It is with great pleasure that we annouce the birth of Shea Parker. She was born on 8-11-08 at 12:00pm. She weighed in at 6 lbs. 13.5 oz. measuring 20 inches. Both mom and baby are doing well.

"Wow!" says daddy. "Those are two fine looking ladies."

Last few minutes before....

...we're a family of five!

Having Keith, Sandra, and Sarah visit was very special for us. We're so thankful for all the love and support of family and friends.

This is normally Jenn's blog, but I wanted to share what a special time this has been for us. We're so thankful for Shea and excited to start a new chapter in the life of our family. I also need to mention just how thankful I am for my truly amazing wife. She's dealing with a newborn and recovering from surgery like a pro. How did I get so lucky?

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers,

D.R.

After much ado...

We've been without our primary computer for the past few weeks, which has been more than tough! It's amazing how reliant we've become on these little things... and how frustrating it is not keeping up with email and blog posting. :)

There has been much that I would have posted about. Summer outings, the big three-year-birthday for the boys, the big 31 for D.R. and my looming C-section tomorrow. I have spent the past 24 hours scrambling to get things in order. Even my dear sweet husband helped me with my last-minute mission to completely organize our life. I am now breathing a sigh of relief as I look around a tidy and ready-for-baby home, a fully stocked kitchen, ALL laundry washed, sorted and put away (how often does that happen in a family of four?!) ... even freshly scrubbed floors. Now, I just need to pack for the hospital and find a way to settle my nerves and get some sleep.

The next time I post, I'll have updates about the newest little member of our family and how our funny little duo is handling the change. Speaking of our silly little pair of rascals, they've been spending the past week in batman masks and capes. I'll have to post photos soon. They're even sleeping in them. Seriously adorable.

Wish me luck!

Almost there!

With less than two weeks to go, I am celebrating every new way the boys find to entertain themselves... every new trick that helps to diffuse near-three-year-old arguments... every good friend that offers a lending hand!

Over the week-end, I was most grateful for:

1. An egg timer the boys and I found in an old board game. My goal was to clear out more space in our little home for this baby and all her gear. So, the boys and I tackled our game collection and all my old cassette tapes. After an hour and a half of sorting (the boys busied themselves by sampling cassettes in our boom box), I had a full garbage bag of tapes and board games that were no longer needed. Yay! We did, however, keep the little timer. The boys were so fascinated with it! At first, it was just a fun trinket for them to play with. As the day went on, however, it proved quite useful in resolving disputes over toys and games. If they couldn't share, I'd hand one the timer and the other the coveted item. This seemed to work fine for them, as they would quickly switch as soon as the sand reached the bottom of the timer. Whew!

2. Hullabaloo. A friend had given me this game for the boys last Christmas. Since it said ages 4+ on the box, I was hesitant to pull it out. But, as D.R. was working a 15-hour shift on Sunday, and Jaxon was more than determined to try this new game, we gave it a whirl. The boys LOVED it! It's perfect for little balls of energy. Lots of jumping and being silly. The best part of the game was that I could enjoy the whole thing while sitting (yes, SITTING) on the counch! Yipee!! So fun to find a game that doesn't require me playing the role of supervisor. There were no real arguments, because everyone's a winner... and the rules are not that complicated, so the boys could figure it out on their own. LOVE IT. I highly recommend it to anyone with little busy bodies at home.

3. Theresa. As usual, she saved my life! In the midst of a long stretch sans D.R., she was here to keep my morale up, play with the boys, provide good conversation and help me eat up left-overs from the fridge. :) Now, if she would just quit her job and move in next door, my life would be complete!! :) Seriously, though, she's been the BIGGEST help and I'm so thankful for your friendship, T!

4. The giant bin of storybooks that my mother-in-law dropped off this week-end. There had to by 100 books in there... most of them from D.R.'s childhood. The boys spent hours pouring over them this week-end and they continue to pick out favorites. I had hidden about half of them away, wanting to save them for a time when they'd be more age-appropriate. The boys, of course, discovered my hidden stash of big-kid books and now that's the most-desired lot of them! Yesterday, we had to read about the solar system all afternoon. The boys want to know the names of all the planets and have a new fascination with stars and galaxies.... too funny.

The Fourth... finally!

We were so happy to be able to spend the evening of the 4th with our friends, the Quales. It was sort of a last hurrah for us, as well, since they moved out of student housing a week later!! We miss them... but are happy they're not too far away!
Dexter, Jaxon and Lily enjoy popsicles. Yum!

Jaxon and Lily were pretty sweet. Lily was giving lots of hugs and kisses (which, of course, we missed on film) and Jaxon was happy to be close to his pretty little buddy! Luckily, Dexter was busy with his popsicle, or he might have wanted some special attention, too!

Dexter, showing off his blue lips...


We got snakes for the kids. I seemed to recall them being a bit more entertaining than they actually are!! I remember loving them as a child. Of course, as an adult, I found them to be messy, anticlimatic and smelly!! :) The kids really got a kick out them, though.... which means they must still carry that childhood appeal that worked on me!

"I won't grow-up!!!"

Recently, we have employed the "big boy" tactic in trying to convince our strong-willed little munchkins to comply with our wishes. It worked about once and then the boys came back with a snappy, "I'm no big boy! I'm a little boy!"

And, you know, ultimately... that's okay with me. I know there are better ways of getting near-three-year-olds to follow directions and we have several other methods that have worked really well. If they want to stay little boys, that's just fine.

The other day at the table, thinking out-loud, I said to them, "You guys are just growing up too fast!" My little literalists started laughing and stretching their necks toward the ceiling. Ha ha.

A few weeks ago, it was all I could do to keep the boys from bouncing out the front door in the morning. Now, I find that I'm having the opposite problem. We recently started a new rule at home. If you want to take out a new toy or game, you have to put the last one away. I know it will be a work-in-progress for awhile, and there will always be exceptions to the rule (playdates, etc), but basically, the boys caught on really quickly. The one downside is that they have practically no desire to leave the apartment anymore!! Given the fact that, in all honesty, I have no desire to move these days... there are worse battles I could be fighting. That being said, I really believe that these little boys need time to run and climb. It's just this new toy rule! Now that they can only have one or two toys out at a time, their little mental list of toys they want to play with is a mile long, and they seem to be having trouble seeing beyond that.

Since this new "I no want to go outside" phase really just began a few days ago (and is usually overcome with an offer to hook up the sprinkler or go for a car-ride), I'm going to try not to push the boys. They have a tendancy to go through phases and I'll just hope this one is a short one! In the meantime, I'm enjoying a bit more time playing referee from the couch and overseeing a few more creative endeavors from the comfort of our air-conditioned interior. :)

With glue, shapes and markers... the boys were in seventh heaven!

A few of my favorite things

The boys, much like their daddy, have a history of LOVES. They don't just like something, they LOVE it. If it's a new song, game, toy, playground, etc... they live and breathe it until they move onto their next little obsession. They frequently have a few of these going on at once and it's always entertaining for me to see what's going to be the next big thing. Right now, the IT topic is anything Batman. I think this began by the fact that we subscribe to Entertainment Weekly magazine and the boys LOVE (yes, LOVE) Saturdays when it arrives in the mailbox and they can pour over all the photos and movie ads (yes, they LOVE movie ads... what silly boys). A few weeks ago, they saw their first photo of Batman and had about a hundred questions that needed immediate answering. They've since discovered Batman cartoons, action figures (thanks to several highly anticipated playdates with their older and wiser cousin, Jake) and have little heads filled with basic facts about Batman, as well as most of the other members of the Justice League. (I should say that they've also moved on to wanting to know all about the Marvel Comics super-heroes, so we're frequently discussing everyone from Spiderman to the Flash, as well.)

Anyway, despite the fact that I find all of this completely adorable, what I love most is when Jaxon tries explaining to me how "Goose Wayne" is really Batman. Yes, he calls Bruce Wayne, Goose Wayne.... and it just keeps getting funnier and funnier.

Of course, the downside to all of this is that the boys' playing has branched off into a direction that I'm not altogether pleased with. They've always been rather physical with each other, but it's always been in a non-agressive sort of way. There's rarely been a hit or a bite... usually, there's just giggles and gentle wrestling or sitting on each other. Really funny and pretty harmless. Yesterday morning, however, I heard them chasing each other around and then I heard Dexter say, "I fight you, Jaxon!" I can only conclude that this idea of "fighting" came from Batman. I know we can't shield them from it forever, but I guess I was shocked to hear them play-fighting. I intervened and said, "Boys, we don't fight, okay?" Jaxon answered, "No, Mommy. I'm a good guy!" "And I'm a bad guy!" shouted Dexter. Great. Great.

Anyway, another one of my favorite things is their very simple, highly entertaining and long-lasting games of "crash." We were pulling out baby toys a few weeks ago and the boys have apparently discovered a whole new use for these plastic wheeled objects. I'm posting a video below to give you an idea of how funny this gets. And, oddly, it never gets old.



Lastly, the boys have started requesting that the hall-light be left on after we say good-night. They've never had a problem with the dark, so the first few nights it happened, I assumed they were just developing a new fear of the dark and, so, I complied with their request. The other night, however, after going upstairs to get ready for bed, myself, I found both boys huddled in their doorway, pouring over storybooks in what little light was creeping in from the hallway. I didn't know whether to giggle, get the camera or scold the boys for not being in bed. As it was, I was able to contain my giggles AND my desire to capture the moment with my camera and gently but firmly told the boys that bedtime was indeed bedtime. Reluctantly, they climbed back into their beds. I had to smile as I walked away, though, remembering all the nights of trying to read after lights out in my own childhood. I even seem to recall starting a bathrobe on fire as I used it to drape over my bedside lamp in an attempt to hide the light from my parents. There are certainly worse battles to fight than this one. I think we'll have to start giving them a cerain amount of post-good-night, pre-lights-out time to read in bed. Maybe that will help!