Memorial Day Fun

We stayed in town over Memorial Day weekend and spent some time with family.  Jason and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary with a trip to the Fox on Saturday to see Jersey Boys (a great show) and a nice dinner afterwards downtown.  Also, our nephew, Kameron, was turning 7, so Jason's brother and family came into town to visit, and we had a small birthday party on Sunday.  The kids had a great time playing together, like they always do.  Ellie, Kameron, and Paige run around wild, and Max just tries to keep up.  Will and Cole hung out with the adults, but I kept thinking how it won't be long before the little boys are right there with the bigger kids...I'm sure they'll be driving Max crazy next year trying to do whatever he's doing, and all Max will want to do is play with the older kids....oh, the pain of being a middle child.

Bryan and Valerie tied up water balloons till their fingers hurt, but the balloons lasted all of about 20 seconds.  So next up was the sprinkler.  I love to watch my kiddos running around in bathing suits, playing in the water, on a hot, summer day.  I love to hear their squeals and giggles from the cold, sprinkler water....Pure Joy!

3 Months Old

Will is already 3 months old!  He is growing like a weed, and is already outgrowing some of his 6 months clothing.  One evening he was particularly fussy and nothing seemed to calm him.  Then I noticed that he kept trying to stretch his legs out, but never could quite get a full stretch in the sleeper he was wearing.  So I stripped him down and put him into a 9 month sleeper, and he was 100% better.  We're happy that it is getting warmer outside so he can start wearing shorts, and length won't be quite so much of a concern.

Will is really starting to want to be in the middle of all the action.  He still loves his swing and is usually fairly content swinging by himself, but if he starts to fuss it's usually just that he wants someone to come over and talk to him.  He'll usually stop fussing right away, and switch over to big smiles if someone talks to him and pays him the attention that he needs.  He's giving us some good smiles in the pics above.  Ellie loves to sit by him and have little conversations with him.  She'll raise her voice up into the higher baby talk and say, "Hi, Sweet Boy.  You have something to tell me?" and then Will will "goo" and "gah" back to her.  It's adorable.  Ellie was even the first to really get the big giggles out of Will, though we've all learned how to get him to laugh now.  Jason is great at finding his tickle spots, and there is nothing sweeter than hearing little baby giggles.  Unfortunately, Will inherited the same hiccup response to laughter that Ellie has...whenever they start laughing too hard they always get the hiccups.  Bummer.

Will has also improved in the sleep department.  He goes down around 8pm and will usually wake only once during the night between 1:30 and 2:30 to eat, then goes back to sleep till about 6am.  Sometimes he'll wake a little earlier at 5:00am, which sounds terrible, but is actually not too bad because then he'll go back to sleep till after 7am, whereas if he sleeps till 6am he's usually up for the morning at that point.  Both of the other kids had their first, random, sleep-through-the-night by this age, but Will has yet to grace us with that event.  He did however give me the first gift of Mother's Day and slept till 4:30am on that Sunday morning (at just shy of 10 weeks old).  That was the longest stretch he had ever slept (8 hours), and I suppose that probably counts as sleeping through the night.  Unfortunately he only did that a couple of nights, then went back to waking between 1:30 and 2:30.

Will is filling out all over and is starting to get some chub.  I just love little, squishy, baby legs, and I could smooch on his sweet cheeks all the live long day.  Love him bunches.

The Big Boy Room

Max has graduated to his own big boy room.  We started setting up his new room in January in anticipation of eventually needing to free up the crib for Will's arrival.  But we weren't overly anxious to move Max into a big boy bed for a number of reasons.  1) He has always been such a great sleeper in the crib.  2) There wasn't a real hurry since we knew Will would be in the bassinet in our bedroom for the first few months anyway.  and 3) Max was still my baby too - he wasn't even 2-years-old yet and deserved to still get to sleep in his crib.  But then things changed. 

After Will arrived, Max started waking up every night and refusing to go back to sleep in his crib.  He would only go back to sleep if we brought him into our room.  We weren't too happy about bringing him into our bed because we didn't want to mess up his sleep routine and create problems down the road (like we did with Ellie).  But since we were only getting 1 or 2 hours of sleep at a time with Will, we did not have the extra energy to fight Max back into the crib...so into our bed he went.  This lasted for about 6 weeks.  Max started to improve a little and would sleep through the night in the crib a few nights a week, but he was still coming into our bed the other nights.  I started putting him in his big boy bed for naps and he actually did really well, so we decided to try it out at night too, and he has done amazingly well.  He rarely comes into our room during the night, but if he does we'll let him into our bed for 20 minutes or so, then we take him back to his own bed and he goes right back to sleep. 

I think bringing home Will had more of an effect on Max than we thought it would.  Max had always been the baby, and then suddenly there was a new little guy taking our attention.  He didn't act jealous or try to hurt Will, but I think he just needed extra mommy and daddy attention at night.  Now Max is back to being our best sleeper.  He can get himself out of bed after naps (an extra perk for Mommy to not have to walk upstairs to lift him out of the crib) and in the morning.  He'll come into our room in the morning very quietly (so as not to wake Will) and peek into the bathroom where one of us is getting ready and give us a little, "Hi."  Then he is ready to go downstairs and have eggs with Dad (their morning routine).

And Max's new bed is pretty cool.  We got him bunk beds with the full size bed on the bottom.  We've moved the ladder away from the bed for now, because I'm still too nervous to let him climb up by himself, since he definitely can't climb down by himself yet.  The full size bottom bunk is great at bed time for cuddling and reading stories.  There have been many nights where Jason will have both Max and Ellie in there reading bedtime stories while I finish up feeding Will and getting him to sleep, and it's a lot more comfortable than everyone trying to squeeze onto Ellie's little twin bed.  Ellie also tells us that some day she'll just go into Max's room and sleep on his top bunk if she gets scared in her own room...we'll see about that.

Little Look-A-Likes

When Will was first born I thought he looked more like Max as a baby.  However, as he has been growing and changing, I started to think he looked a lot more like Ellie as a baby.  So I was totally surprised when I put these pictures together.  Now I see both Ellie and Max in Will.  They definitely look like siblings.  

What do you think?

Of course, I must caveat this and tell you I picked the pictures that looked the most alike.  There are also tons of shots of each of them where they look totally different from one another.  Each baby is certainly unique, but I also love how much alike they are.

Cuteness

Are you ready for it?  I wanted to capture a little bit of Will's smiles and sounds, and Max wanted to be a photographer too. This is just a small taste of happy, little Will.

And here's a little brotherly love!

2 Months Old

Another month has flown by, and our little boy is already two months old!  Wow, how Will has changed in the last month.  He now weighs 12 pounds, 14 ounces (that is almost 5 pounds heavier than when he was born) and is 24 1/4 inches long.  His length puts him in the >90%, and we can sure see it in his clothing.  He has mostly outgrown all his 3 month clothing, especially anything that has feet in it.  He's wearing 6 month sleepers at night, and even those are starting to limit his movement when he tries to stretch his legs out.

Will has a lot more awake time during the day.  He is very alert, and most importantly, he gives lots of smiles now.  He'll do the full body smile, kicking his legs and arms and shaking his head back and forth with a big, wide mouth whenever he's really excited to see someone.  He's starting to "talk" to us whenever anyone pays special attention to him, giving us a little "goo" and "gah."  Ellie even says, "Mom, listen, he's saying his first words." 

Will is starting to do a little better in the sleep department.  For about the last week and a half he is only waking up once a night to eat, then will go back to sleep till between 6 and 7 am (I hope I haven't jinxed myself by typing that).  I'm hoping this continues and we can get into a good nighttime routine before I go back to work.

Will loves his swing, and is most content there.  He doesn't fuss much during the day, but will get a little fussy in the evenings sometimes, especially when his tummy is bothering him.  He can definitely get overstimulated when there are too many people around or too much commotion (which is strange since his brother and sister can be quite rowdy, but their noise never seems to bother him).

Will, you are a sweet boy and have brought so much joy into our home.  We're so happy you are a part of our family.

Happy Easter

Time to dye Easter eggs.  Ellie has been begging me for the past two weeks to dye Easter eggs (Note to self: in the future, do not purchase egg dye when children are with me and hide egg dying paraphernalia as soon as I get home).  On Easter eve I finally had all the eggs boiled and ready to go, so we got to work.  The kids were super excited to try out all the different colors and to write on the eggs pre-dye with the white crayon.  However, it seems like 13 eggs take approximately 4 minutes to dye.  It probably was a bit longer than 4 minutes, but next year I'll definitely have to boil more eggs.  The problem then becomes what to do with all those dyed hard-boiled eggs.

A few of the finished product.  Don't they just look so springy.

A quick family portrait after church.  We're always running late and never have enough time before church to get a picture taken (which is why Max is wearing lovely crocs on Easter Sunday), and then we usually have crabby kids after church, but this year's picture is not too bad.

A Special Blessing

Yes, Will is a special blessing to our family, and today was a special day for Will.  We went down to Farmington to go to church with Gran and Popi, and both Will and Audrey received blessings.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the cousins together in their beautiful white outfits, but they were precious.  Both babies did great during the service and didn't make a peep.

Lots of family came over to my parents house afterwards to enjoy lunch.  It turned out to be a beautiful day so we spent much of the afternoon outside.  The dads were playing a little wiffle ball, and Ellie wanted in on the action.  She developed quite a little pitching arm.

Max mostly wanted to play with the new golf clubs Popi picked up for him.  Max was hitting some great shots and impressing everyone, so Jason finally decided to try to get a little video of Max's golf game.  Unfortunately Max was just about ready for a break by the time the camera started rolling, but he had a few nice shots left in him.  I just wish there was better sound with the video, so you could hear Max's frustrated, "Oh, dang it!" or his complimentary, "Nice shot!"

And this is what Will did most of the afternoon.  He loves to be outside...it seems like most babies love to be outside.  I think there is something in the outdoors that is especially calming to babies.

1 month already?

Will is one month old today.  I can't believe how fast the last 4 weeks have gone.  Will is changing every day, becoming stronger and more alert.  He is getting better at holding up his own head, and will turn towards a voice (especially Ellie's).  We think he is starting to smile at us, though we can't be sure it's not just gas.  The third picture below is catching a bit of his grin.  He has two adorable dimples that pop out when he smiles, so I'm looking forward to him giving us the big ones.

Will is starting to have more awake time during the day, and is generally a very happy baby.  He has a bit of a sensitive tummy (just like his sister did at this age), which causes some fussiness in the evening and sometimes during the middle of the night feedings.  He usually wakes up twice a night, sleeping 3.5 to 4.5 hours at a time.

We can't wait to see all the changes that will occur over the next month.

As I was taking these pictures of Will, Max said, "I take pictures too?"  So I had to take a few with the brothers together.  Max wanted to hold Will in some of the shots, but I love this picture above as Max is giving Will a "nosey" (also known as an Eskimo kiss).

Happy 2nd Birthday, Max!

Happy Birthday, Max!  I can't believe you are 2 years old already.

We had a birthday party at home for our little Man.  We had planned to BBQ, but mother nature had other plans and decided to dump 5 inches of snow on us instead.  Can you believe the crazy weather this year?  I'm so ready for spring to come and stay. But anyway...after hearing the forecast for the weekend, we changed plans and order Bandana's BBQ instead.  We were thrilled that so many family and friends were able to come celebrate with us.  Max and Ellie had a ball playing with all the kids.

Gran once again made an amazing cake.  Max is really into 'Dino Dan' (a tv show), so Ellie decided that Max should have a dinosaur cake for his birthday, and Gran delivered.  The cake was delicious, and Max blew out the candles like a champ.  Max got lots of great toys - we're very lucky to have such generous family and friends.

Max, you are a funny, sweet, intelligent little guy.  You make us laugh all the time, and are constantly amazing us with what you know.  We love your knock-knock jokes, and your favorite "chicken butt" joke.  You are all boy.  You love trucks, trains, and all sports.  Your dad is thrilled that you have such an amazing golf swing already.  We are so happy you are a part of our family, and we love you bunches.

Wedding Fun

Jason's cousin, Kristin, just got married, and Ellie was thrilled to be a flower girl.  She and her cousin Paige got to be flower girls together, and they did a great job.  This is their second time to share the duty, and they always come through with flying colors - walking down the aisle with no problems.  Ellie talked about it for weeks ahead of time, and was so excited when the big day finally came.  

Max and Will looked so handsome in their little outfits - wouldn't you agree?  This was Will's first real outing, since he was still under 2 weeks old.  He did a great job, and handled being passed around all day very well.  And everyone had a ball at the reception.  You couldn't get my kids off the dance floor.  I think their favorite part was the duck dance.  It has been a favorite at our house for quite a while.

Congrats Kristin & Billy.

Sleepy Time

Do you remember how sleepy those first few weeks are...for baby and for mom & dad.  I have a ton of pictures like these with the other two because they are just so darn cute.  Will looks so peaceful and sweet with his hand under his cheek.

Welcome Home Will

Ellie and Max made a great "Welcome Home" banner for Will when we came home from the hospital.  They are adjusting well to having a new baby at home.  Ellie is a great helper and brings me binkies and diapers whenever needed.  Max wants to give Will lots of kisses.  Max will hold Will for a few seconds at a time, but Ellie will hold him for hours if I let her.

First Bath

The first bath is always an experience.  Will didn't care for it much, other than getting his head scrubbed.  None of my kids have cared for those first baths much, and who can blame them - it is just too cold.  We are always happy when the belly button heals up, and we can put the little ones into the baby tub with warm water.  Ellie and Max were very excited to get to see Will's first bath and to help.  

William Michael Has Arrived

William Michael Freed has finally arrived.  He was born on February 28, 2011 at 12:18 am.  He weighed 8 pounds even and was 22 inches long.  

We were very anxious for Will to arrive, so when my due date arrived (February 27), we went into "make this baby come" mode.  We went to the mall and walked a ton, then we came home and walked some more.  

I ended up taking some castor oil (YUCK!) in the afternoon to see if that would help me along.  Then in the evening, Ellie and I had just finished showering, and as I was drying my hair I started to feel a little strange.  The contractions weren't too bad at first, so we were able to put both kids to bed before we left for the hospital.  

By the time we got to the hospital, my contractions were very intense and right on top of each other.  I finally got my epidural, then everything was great.  This was also the night that tornadoes came through the city, so we were on alert in the hospital, and my doctor was stuck in her basement with sirens going off all around.  We ended up waiting about an hour for my doc to arrive at the hospital, then Will arrived about 30 seconds after she walked in the room.  He would have been born on my due date if it weren't for those silly tornadoes.  Everyone has joked that his nickname should be Twister.

Big sister, Ellie, and big brother, Max, are loving their new little brother.  Will is healthy and doing great.  We are overjoyed with the newest addition to our family!  We love him to pieces already!