First Day of School

Wow, lots happened in the last 24 hours. Last night Emily slept from 8:30 pm until 4:30 am. Yeaaaaaaa. Tonight hasn't started off quite as well. She woke up around 11:30. We'll see what topping off her tank does.

Eli started "school" today. He loved it. Alicia had to chase him down to give him a hug before she left. He had a blast. I'll try to pull the pictures off the camera tomorrow.

Well, it's late, I should be in bed. G'night all.

Bowling

I forgot to post a picture of this over the weekend but Eli went to a bowling birthday party on Saturday. Watching 3/4 years olds bowl is hilarious. I'd equate it to herding cats.

Emily's sleeping, sometimes aka when she feels like it. Last night was better then Saturday night which was better then Friday night.

Eli starts school tomorrow. It should be interesting. We'll tell you all about it.

She's 3 months old

Wow, it's been a quick 2 weeks. What all have we done? Let's see, went to the fire station. Had an anniversary (wow, it's been 8 years already, seems like I was asking her to the dance yesterday, wow, that was over a decade ago, yikes). Emily turned 3 months.

Here's some pics:

Chilling in the carrier


Hey, I'm too short but this works!


Now there's lots of buttons


We've got a future photographer on our hands


Chilling in the sink


Brotherly love on my birthday (3 months anyway)



Love to all, enjoy.

The Trip

Well, don't think we've taken any pictures worth posting since the last blog and I'm too lazy right now to get off the couch to see. But I can give you some dialog. dore

We loaded up the family and headed north Saturday morning to the Byrd reunion in Mountain Home. OK, technically in Midway but Mt. Home's easier for non-locals to find on a map. For non-locals it's about a 3 hour trip from Little Rock. But I digress.

Our first stop of the day was in Greenbriar. That's right, Emily made it a whole 45 minutes before we stopped. Eli and I explored the city park (couldn't play on anything because the sprinklers were on and everything was therefore drenched). We also toured the local mini-storage business. Counting the doors and locks twice. After a 30 minute stop we loaded back up and headed on. Emily soon fell asleep and slept until we stopped in Marshal about 45 minutes later for Eli to potty. After a brief stop we headed into the hills. Emily made it another 15 minutes or so to the Buffalo River.

While she ate Eli and I visited the river. I tried teaching him to skip rocks but it's a somewhat difficult technique to teach. Together we did manage to skip a rock without me throwing him in the river with the rock. We went to check on the girls and after a bit more playing and another brief trip to the potty we got back on the road. Next stop, Midway. That's right, Emily made it the rest of the way. Well, perhaps saying that we made it is more appropriate. She was fine until we got to Yellville. She displayed her displeasure until the Hwy 126 Hwy 5 intersection. At that point she was close enough to asleep that we passed right on by the church to get her good and asleep.

We returned to the church and all would have been well if Eli hadn't spotted Nana and yelled at the top of his lungs "NANA!!!!!".

Total trip time, 4 hours. Not bad.

After 3 hours of visiting it was time to decide to stay the night or hit the road. We decided if she fell asleep while eating we were loading up and heading south, otherwise we'd spend the night. She fell asleep, woke up on the way to the car, was asleep by the time we got to Hwy 126 (150 yards from the church).

She peacefully slept for a good bit. She woke up 10 minutes or so north of Harriot (fork in the road with a gas station). While Eli and I explored the store, went potty, etc. Emily ate herself to sleep again. We loaded up and didn't stop again until Conway!!! Both kids napped for part of that stretch. The both take decent afternoon naps so that's what we were hopping would happen (well, not Eli but that's another story). We treated Eli to Sonic. Imagine 4 people in the front seat eating dinner. It was too hot to sit outside and eat. Eli had, what else, grilled cheese and tots.

Then it was on to the house. Emily, and the rest of us, were tired of being in the car when we got about 5 miles outside of Conway. 25 minutes to go, we can make it. We made it, we survived. All slept well last night.

If anything the trip confirmed that taking the family to the beach would have been a BAD idea. Hopefully we'll travel better by our Christmas trip to KC.

Sam

Cute Kids

OK, 3rd time's a charm. If this thing looses the pictures again I'm quitting!

Hey look at me, I can hold my head up


Brotherly love, aint' it cute


It's good to be queen, at least for a day, it is my 2-month birthday after all


I'm a happy girl


Dad took me fishing at the "Young Adult Summer Potluck" at Ferncliff. I didn't catch anything this year but sure fed them lots of corn trying.

She's 2 months old!!! (tomorrow)

Hard to believe that it's been 2 months since we've welcomed Emily into our lives. OK, tomorrow's technically the day but I have time to write right now.

Anyway, Eli's spending the weekend with Nana and PawPaw. It was just going to be Friday night but he was having such a good time he asked to spend another night.

Nana had been taking him to the pool to swim. And they have now filled their pool. It seems he's inherited Alicia and my love for water.


Eli's been busy helping cook. I forget what he was making but it's not what it looks like.


Why clean up the legos. It's more fun to put myself in the box


Emily's working on picking her head up. She gets rather frustrated that it won't do what she wants it to.



Eli still loves holding his sister.

2 Birthday parties, 1 day, 0 casulties

Well, we survived. Eli was invited to two birthday parties today. The first was before lunch at Gator Golf (Emily screamed the entire way there), so we enjoyed a round of miniture golf in the rain. Then went inside and had cake (why is our child the only one that sat there and ate his entire piece of cake?).

Then it was off to home (Emily screamed most of the way home). On a side note, pretty sure we're not taking any long road trips until she gets over her screaming in the car habit.

Anyway, after a quick nap it's nap time for the kids. He napped, she didn't.

Then it was time for party number two. We had to wake him up which is always an iffy poposition. Turned out not too bad.

All went well at the party, added a 2nd piece of cake to his sugar consumption for the day. He was wired.

Now they are both sound asleep in bed. All is peaceful again.

Below are some photos of the kids being cute:

Pretty sure mom has a shot of Erin and me at Gaggy and Papa's house


Scrapbooker in training


Now how does this work?


Talk about your water hazards

More Emily Pics

Due to popular (or harassing) demand, here are more pictures of dear Emily.

So, Alicia and I decided we were heading out to a wedding. We convinced a very reluctant Nana (ha, she made it here in record time) to baby sit. As preperation to make sure it would work Eli (with assistance from mom) fed Emily a bottle. Hummmm, tastes like mom but it sure doesn't feel like her.





Eli turned Oma and Opa into a bridge while they were here.

A Fun Week

Well, it's been a fun an interesting couple of weeks. Emily's growing like a weed (and eating like a horse). At her 1 week checkup she had already grown an inch.


Eli's taking well to his roll as big brother. He likes to "pet" her. We're still working on the fact that it's patting not petting. He likes to hold her and has started showing an interest in helping change her clothes, etc.






He helped Alicia give her a bath earlier in the week, but prefered to continue playing out in the rain today. Go figure :).

When Ethan brought his parent's by to visit *ha* Eli agreed to hold him and Emily for a cousin's photo. All was well until Ethan stole Emily's sock and tried to eat it. It went downhill from there.




He and Paw-Paw went to see Union Pacific's 844 (Big Train) on Thursday. I'm not sure who had more fun, him or Paw-Paw.


I unfortunately must return to work tomorrow :(. I'm sure they will survive without me but I'll miss them.

Fun with Nana

Eli spent four days with Nana and Paw-Paw while we were at the hospital. We're not sure who had more fun. We do know that he wore them out. He kept them running from the time he got up until the time he went to sleep. He had lots of time in the sandbox. He went to the library. He had a blast. Thanks Nana and Paw-Paw.

Here's a brief photo spread of him playing in the sand. As Nana captioned them. Sand plus water equals a happy camper.
















Sand plus water equals a happy camper

We've been flocked

The youth group at our church is doing a fund raiser. Nana talked them into "flocking" us early. We're first on the list for "reflocking" but we haven't decided which direction to send the flock. We've got some ideas so keep an eye on your yard, you'll know if you've been chosen.

The First Day

Whew, what a day. We came home from the hospital yesterday morning. Eli met us at home where we all ate lunch and then the kids took naps. Alicia's parents came into town for the weekend so Eli is enjoying that.

The kids slept well last night. We had to wake Emily up for her middle of the night feeding and then worked for the next 3 hours to get her back to sleep. Eli slept until 6:45 and we woke Emily up again at 8:15. The pain medicine Alicia is on may be contributing to her sleep though.

Eli has taken a liking to his sister. He's been "helping" us by checking on her while she's sleeping and holding her hand or patting "petting he calls it" her head while we change a diaper or Alicia feeds her. He's even held her a couple of times and given her some hugs. We're thrilled.

It is a very peaceful time when both kids are in bed. Either for their naps or for the night. We both sit down on the couch and go "whew".

Introducting Emily Claire

Here's Emily (suddenly I feel like Ed McMann introducting Johnny Carson). Anyway, Emily arrived yesterday morning she weighed in at 7 lb 11 oz (and yes, the 7-11 joke has been heard multiple times) with a length of 19 1/2 inches.

Pictures available on the family photo gallery (see the link to your right)

Last night as 3

Well, tonight's the last night that we're a family of three. Eli's spending the night with Nana and Paw-Paw. He's been looking forward to this night for a while.

I should probably goto bed, it's gonna be a long day tomorrow.

Camera Nightmare

Ahhhhhh, the camera died.

Good thing we discovered it before we ran out the door to the hospital. We are now the proud owners of a new digital doorstop and a new digital camera. We're not sure we like the new arrival. Seems to take it forever to recharge the flash.

We'll give it a day or two to win us over.

Rainy Day

Been a few days, guess I'll try to catch up.

Whew, what an ugly rainy day it's been. We finally made it outside around 5. According to the news we got between 3 and 4 inches of rain today (with some areas getting as many as 6). We need the rain but it would be nice if it was spread out a bit more so it would soak in a bit instead of just running off.

Good thing Alicia and Eli went to the strawberry patch in Cabot on Friday ahead of the rain. We've got strawberries coming out of our ears. It's a nice problem to have :).

Eli asked the other day who was going to make Emily's birthday cake for her. Gotta love a 3 year old's logic. It's a birthday therefore a cake is needed :). Guess we'll go with the flow and see if Nana will help him make a cake for her. So far we know it's going to be lemon with strawberry frosting (his choice).

We're making improvements on interactions with babies. He's taken to taking care of Alicia's Cabbage Patch doll as the "baby". Today he was filling bottles with the pump (just putting air in) and then feeding her. It was cute, once I extract the picture from the camera I'll post it.

Sam

The First Emergency Doctor Visit

** Disclaimer -- everyone's fine, no stiches, just a little glue, everyone's sleeping at home tonight ***

Well, we made our first emergency trip to the doctor this evening. Eli was playing with his beach ball while I was spraying for bugs. He's gotten to the point where he can walk up and down stairs without holding onto anything, when he pays attention.

Well, since he was holding his beach ball stair climbing wasn't formost on his mind. Seems he missed the edge of the bottom step, fell forward, bounced off of the ball, and landed on the back of his head on the oh so comefortable gravel covered walkway.

** Since it wasn't directly witnessed the events were determined through piecing together what he told us, what he showed us, and good ol' parental thinking **

Well, I was heading out of the garage right as he was landing (heard the lid on the bench close hard so figured I should check into things). Ran to him (mind you he's screaming bloody murder at this point) scoop him up, notice his head's bleading, and while trying to calm him down head for the front door.

It's locked, ring the doorbell a couple of times. Then think, Eli does that sometimes, Alicia's gonna think he's playing. Beat on the door with my free hand. Alicia makes it to the door (she can hear him screaming now). She gasps as she opens the door. I ask for a paper towel. Then we strategize. Emergency room, yup.

Stove off, grab a cloth towel. Lish runs to get my wallet and keys. Off we go.

On the way out the door debating which hospital to goto. Decide perhaps we should call his doctor's office first. They say they can see him (humm, $20 copay vs $100, we'll go there, plus they are closer). By this point the bleeding's stopped. He's yelling "no go doctor". For some reason he hates doctors.

Alicia tells him she'll ride in the back seat with him. Off we go. As we arrive he's still telling us to go back home. We go in, they are waiting for us (imagine that).

Nurse asks us what happened. Give them our best guess at the time. "He either fell off of a 1 foot step or a 2.5 foot wall on to concrete." Then she says she needs to wash his head so Dr. Hurbert can check it out. She wants to lay him down on the table but quickly realizes that he's having nothing of that. So Alicia and I hold him in a pseudo headlock with him mumbling about going home the whole time. She gets him cleaned up and Dr. Hurbert comes in, checks him out and decides that a little glue will patch him up.

So, they glued him up. Let's just say it took 5 people to glue him up. Ok, it took 1 to glue and 4 to hold him still. Then their little fan wouldn't work so they improvised with a magazine.

Then we paid and headed home. Gave him a Tylenol and ate dinner (an hour late). Between his short nap today (possibly contributed to his clumbsiness that caused his fall). Then we went outside and he showed us what he was doing and how he fell. Then it was bed time.

What an evening, hopefully tomorrow is less eventfull.

Lazyness

I guess if I'm going to actually blog I need to write about stuff. Problem is I tend to not think like a bloger. I guess I'll just have to get into the habit.

In the beginning

Well, I hate to act like a lemming but it seems everyone else is blogging so I recon I should give it a go. We'll see what happens.