at two months...

sweet jonah:

:: Weighs 13 pounds 2 ounces and is 25.75 inches long (between 50th and 75th percentile for each). he is really packing on the pounds lately (4 since last month!)

:: is a whole new baby!  now that we have both rid our bodies of the dairy that was so plaguing him, jonah has transformed into a much happier version of himself.  he sleeps better and is happier when he is awake.  it is amazing the difference two weeks has made!

:: is beginning to get chatty.  he smiles and flirts with anyone who will look his way.  he even flirts with toys and the top of his car seat.

:: has a birthmark on the bottom of his foot and another on his lower back.

:: is beginning to get the hang of life as a sivyer.  we are able to get out quite a bit these days now that he will (usually) happily sleep in the car seat or the stroller or the sling.

:: is the recipient of much affection.  all three older brothers still love him to pieces and are constantly asking to hold him and kiss him.  in fact, i find that i have to ask them to please not touch him when he is sleeping or supposed to be falling asleep. steve and i think he is pretty great too.

gabe the ballerino

a couple of weeks ago, gabe's ballet class had an open house. it gave the kids a chance to show off some of their skills without having to do a full-blown recital (costumes are expensive, so i quite appreciate that). it was so much fun to see him in action. he was certainly exactly what you would expect a five-year-old boy dancer to be: energetic and excitable, wiggly and silly, and absolutely precious!

nature walk

we have started taking a lot of nature walks as a family.  we have been to a couple of newish places (washington oaks state park, guana, and moses creek conservation area) and have really enjoyed being outside together. we have seen lots of nature (snakes, bugs, turtle eggs, tortoises) and even found what we are pretty sure is a deer vertebra.  the boys think it is such an adventure and steve and i love that they get a chance to run around (even if it is insanely hot!).  here are a few pictures from a recent walk at washington oaks.

at five...

sweet, crazy gabe:

:: is 44 inches tall (70th percentile) and weighs 43 pounds (65th percentile).

:: takes ballet.  he has been asking for quite some time now (since he was three or so), but i wanted to be sure he would be ready before we gave it a try.  he began in january, and so far, he really seems to like it.  i am hoping it will help him learn some self-control and body awareness!

:: is incredibly creative.  i am constantly entertained by the games he makes up.

:: is smarter than his mother.  seriously though, his memory is insane (just like steve's) and he is always asking questions (really good ones) and figuring things out.  i am super excited about starting kindergarten with him this year and learning alongside him.  i have a feeling i will learn just as much as he does!

:: is ready to read.  with everything life has thrown our way lately, i have not sat down to teach him.  but he is ready.  he reads a little on his own and needs only a little push from me and steve to be a full-blown reader.  i am hoping to get him reading before school starts in the fall.

:: is a swimming fool.  he learned to swim two summers ago, and this year, there was no need to be retaught.  he would happily play in the pool all day, and it is nice to have at least one kid i don't have to watch like a hawk in the water.

:: loves reading with his daddy.  so far, they have read the entire narnia series and island of the blue dolphins.  he will sit and listen as long as steve is willing to continue reading.  he also happily listens to books on cd and has listened to tale of despereaux and charolette's web and james and the giant peach multiple times apiece.

:: is a really great helper to me and loving older brother to the boys.  he loves to help take care of jonah and to hold and cuddle him.  he is also helpful with the other two boys, comforting them when they get hurt, getting them things they can't get themselves, and helping me care for them when i need him to.

:: is incredibly silly.  he loves to tell jokes he has made up and generally goof off.  and of course, he still makes us laugh all the time with the crazy things he says.  here are a few of the most recent ones:

"Dad, how big do you think goliath's boogers were?"

"bless my boogers!" (meant the same way as someone might say "my goodness!")

"he [jonah] likes to smile at decent people" (informatively to his mimi and papa... he is, after all, an expert on his baby brother)

"i love you more than anything in the world. well... maybe you and dolphins are the same."  (on his father's day card to his papa... he really loves dolphins)

:: is a lovely, loving, helpful, crazy perfect son, and we are so blessed he is ours!

at two years...

our ever energetic titus:



:: weighs 27 pounds (50th percentile) and is 33 inches tall (25th percentile).

:: is extremely vocal.  i suppose with two older brothers to keep up with, he has had to learn to make himself known.  he is never hesitant to introduce himself with a loud "hi".  one of my favorite things he says right now is "yes ma'am?" we often prompt the boys to respond with a "yes ma'am" or "yes sir" when we speak, and apparently titus believes he deserves the same response.  yesterday he told me "mama, i vacuum the floor.  yes ma'am?  when i didn't respond, he prompted again, "yes ma'am?"



:: he is (finally) done with pacifiers.  after watching him steal away to a corner during the day to secretly suck on jonah's pacifiers, i decided that we ought to go ahead and get rid of them for good.  so, one evening after dinner, we placed all of the pacifiers in the house into a plastic baggie and took them to target.  we let titus pick out one comfort toy (a blue elephant) and at the register, we traded the bag of pacifiers for it (the cashier, a college age guy, looked at me like i had three heads when i whispered to him that he was going to take that bag like it was money and then dispose of it after we left).  it took a few days, but he is pretty much over it now.

:: is a cleaning fool.  he now has a titus-sized broom, mop and vacuum that he uses whenever i used my mommy-sized versions.  he never misses an opportunity to clean.



:: is fearless in the water.  unfortunately, he can't swim yet, so we have to keep him in floaties all the time.

:: is entirely too independent. if he wants a snack, he gets it.  if he would like to wash his hands, he finds something to stand on and does.  if he wants to go with you somewhere he declares, "i comin too! k? k."  sometimes this is a helpful trait.  sometimes, coupled with his two-year-old stubbornness, it is not my favorite quality of his.

:: loves to sing.  here he is singing one of his current favorites.  most afternoons, our boys can be found performing in their own makeshift rock band for an audience of stuffed animals.


:: is an extremely devoted big brother.  he loves to hold and kiss and care for jonah.  he takes his big brother role very seriously, and is always quick to point jonah out to people we come across (cashiers at target, friends at church, people who have already met jonah before, even strangers in passing know that "baby donuh" is with us!)

:: is feisty and crazy and super affectionate and we adore him!

at one month...

sweet jonah:

:: weighs 9 pounds 8 ounces (25th percentile) and is 23.5 inches long (90th percentile).  we have people tell us all the time how tall he is!

:: smiles all the time.  he started smiling at only two weeks old (not just gas, but real eye contact and smiling) and he has been doing it more and more ever since.

:: definitely has a cows milk protein allergy just like all three of his brothers did at this age.  he does, however, seem to be much more sensitive to dairy than either ezra or titus was.  he reacted very strongly very quickly and is still having some issues over a week later (hello crazy exczema and lots and lots of screaming!)

:: spends a lot of time in the sling.  poor guy and all his (dairy induced) tummy troubles!  but it works out alright since it gives us all some peace and him and chance to rest.  plus, there is nothing quite as sweet as looking down and seeing a sleeping baby.

:: sleeps fairly well at night. when we got home from the hospital after my surgery, he had his days and nights switched and would stay up at night for hours (usually somewhere around 1 ish to around 3 or 4ish).  knowing that i needed to actually get some rest if i was ever to actually recover from surgery, we decided to let him cosleep with us, and he has been sleeping ever since.  he still wakes to eat, but i don't have to stay up with him for hours afterwards and can really just nurse him back to sleep half awake.  not a choice that we made with all of our other children, but it has definitely been a good choice for this baby.

:: is nursing well!  after having to bottle feed him for 24 hours (ct scan with iodine in the hospital) and (attempt) to pump to keep my milk supply up, i am so pleased to still be breastfeeding! there was definitely a point at which i was not sure that i would be able to pull off having surgery and still nursing a newborn.  thank goodness i have the most amazing midwife on earth who got my onto the ob floor for my recovery!

:: is incredibly well loved.  his brothers can't get enough of him and want to hold him all day!

living in community when life is hard

::  all the boys with mimi and papa ::

three months ago, i went to the midwife's office experiencing horribly intense itching all over.  found out it was an excess of bile in my body (gallbladder not functioning super fantastically, usually due to pregnancy's slowing of the digestive system).  medicated it and made a plan to watch the baby closely until delivery... no huge deal.

i didnt know at the time that it was only the beginning of what would be the longest, most dramatic three months of our life as parents (to date... lets hope it's over now!)

the following two weeks were spent nursing our family through what we eventually named "megabug: stomach version".  all three boys had it at once, and then steve, and finally me (landing us in labor and delivery for an evening).  it was by far one of the most persistent stomach viruses that we have ever had.  we even ended up sending the kids to my in-laws for a few days so that i could recover (after all, i was exhausted from caring for three kids and a husband for a week while 8 months pregnant).

when megabug finally passed, we spent three weeks finishing up school and preparing for jonah's arrival ( this included reflooring half of the house ourselves).  a week before his due date, jonah was born.  on that same day, gabe came down with what we eventually named "megabug: respiratory version".  by far, one of the worst respiratory viruses we have ever had (although i would say it was not quite as bad as the year gabe, ezra and i got rsv). gabe, ezra, titus and steve all fought the virus over the course of the two weeks following our return home from the hospital (shout out to my mom and both steve's parents who all eventually caught it as well).  then, jonah caught it.  and i thought we were on our way to a repeat of ezra's first new year's.  jonah ended up on breathing treatments and we were taking his temperature during every feeding to make sure we didn't need to head to wolfson's, but by friday it seemed like we had dodged a bullet.

that night, i woke up with intense upper quadrant pain.  steve, jonah and i headed to the emergency room where they ran tests (ultrasound, ct scan, loads of blood work, x-rays... i got it all).  pancreatitis... caused by gallstones.  we ended up sending the big boys to my in-laws (again) while i spent six days in the hospital, eventually having my gallbladder removed.  throughout all that, there was, of course, a newborn to care for and nurse (although, unfortunately, some of the tests that they ran made that difficult).

since then (its been three-ish weeks) we made only one more trip to the ER (pain and tests run... no big deal... all looks fine).

please allow me to recap:
:: two intense viruses (over the course of four weeks)
:: the birth of a child
:: two weeks separated from my children by illness (so thankful for family that lives close!)
:: four visits to the hospital
:: nine days of hospital stay
:: approximately 700 needles (at least that is how many it felt like)
:: one organ removed
:: six prescriptions and about a dozen doctor and midwife and other various physicians visits (not exaggerating here)

seriously, though... God has been so good to us.  we have the most incredible community.  they have surrounded us with support and meals and childcare and love.  it has been overwhelming but there has been so much blessing revealed in it all.