And Baby Makes Five

She is here at last!  On Tuesday, July 27th at 1:48 p.m. our Tessa Charlotte was born.  She weighed in at 7 pounds 8 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long.  Everything went wonderfully, and we're all doing well.  I took advantage of the full 48 hours insurance allows you to be in the hospital, and just enjoyed the quiet time holding Tess.  With Ellie and Matt in the house, there won't be enough of those quiet hours to just hold a newborn.  I loved it.

Here are some pictures taken a few hours after she was born:

We're completely in love with this girl.  Ellie and Matt beg to hold her and can't get enough of their Baby Tess.  Ellie looked up at me with a smile yesterday and said, "Now we have two chicas in our family!"  Today while looking at Tess sleeping she said, "She's OUR baby and we get to keep her in our family forever!"  Smile.

Wanna Go Nana's!

A few days ago, Matt came to me holding a swim diaper and said, "Wanna go Nana's!"  Smart kid.  I immediately called Nana and arranged a pool day.  The kids have recently taken to jumping into the pool from the top of the hot tub, and for some reason yesterday I asked if they were brave enough to try the diving board.  They were, and we spent an hour there before I was too exhausted (er, pregnant) to chase them around the deep end of the pool.  They were exhausted enough for good naps, and I got to spend some much needed time alone poolside.  Whew.  Thanks for taking such good care of us Nan!  We love you - not just your pool!

Believe the Hype, Part II

Today we went to the park

Then we ate popsicles

They were messy!

Oh my!

Something Unavoidable Came Up: Summer

Today I was scheduled to see my OB at 2:15 p.m.  But also today, it was 85 degrees and sunny.  Today Dani Jensen and Camie Christensen are in town with their kids.  The next two days are supposed to be cloudy and rainy.  Today was the perfect pool day.

So I called my OB this morning, put on my best kind apologetic voice, and explained, "I'm just so sorry to have to cancel, but something, um, unavoidable has come up and I can't make my appointment this afternoon."  Then as soon as preschool was over we changed into swimsuits and headed to Nana's for the afternoon.  On the way, Ellie declared, "Mom, I made it to summer!"  My thoughts exactly.

We swam and talked and ate and then swam and talked and ate some more.  All seven kids had a blast splashing and squirting water guns and giggling.  I loved catching up with Dani and Camie, both of whom live way too far away from me for my liking.  I'm sure Nana agrees.

My OB is going out of town and can't get me in for an appointment until June 7th.  Totally worth it.  I now have a bad sunburn on my back, and it hurts to carry my purse on my shoulders.  Also totally worth it.

In other news, today was Ellie's last day of preschool for the year.  They took a class picture, handed out awards, and then played and ate snacks.  The moms proudly took pictures.  We adore her teacher, and are so grateful for all she's done this year.  And I'm proud of Ellie for being a big preschool girl!  She's a champ!  Here's a picture of her big smile during today's final playtime.

Confession:  today was not actually our first day at Nana's pool.  Yesterday was sunny and warm, too, and we swam all afternoon with Nana, Camie, my friend/her sister-in-law Liz, and all our kids.  Dani was on a plane headed to Cinci.  Rob is out of town, so I was in no rush to get home and cook dinner.  But then Nan started prepping dinner and must have noticed me salivating as she sliced the fresh fruit and salted the gorgeous fresh tomatoes.  She knew I had chicken nuggets waiting for our dinner at home, and took pity on us.  Thanks, Nan, for letting us stay through scrumptious dinner and all the way to bedtime!

Second confession:  Now that summer has officially arrived, there's little chance of me posting blogs.  Maybe I'll post something when our baby girl is born in July.  Then again, maybe I'll just take her straight from the hospital to the pool.  I made it to summer!

"Mom, what's your name today?"

Here's our Eleanor Elizabeth, almost four years old.  I love this picture because it captures all of her energy and personality.  She's quite a chica these days!

I love the way she takes care of Matt.  When this tired Momma is fighting the battle of the bedsheets in the early morning, I can sometimes hear Miss Ellie over the monitor in Matt's room, reading him stories and talking to him until I get there to bring the kiddos down for breakfast.  Sometimes she even helps herself to the Cheerios in the pantry and carries them up the stairs for a pre-breakfast snack.

Lately, she's big on pseudonyms.  She generally chooses Meredith or Akrisa (?) or, simply Big Sister.  Then I have to choose Holly or Kathleen or Ellie.  Sometimes she uses my pseudonym, sometimes she just calls me "my dear" or "sweetheart."  Then she pretends that we are taking naps, going to the parade, visiting relatives, or making food.  Sometimes her imaginary friends and sisters come along:  Daney,  Riley, Laney, and a few others I can't figure out how to pronounce or spell.

Here are some other things she likes:

Working on her computer alongside Rob

Being Doctor Princess Ellie.  I am a very good patient.

Wearing her heart-shaped pink sunglasses. She earned all the money for them by potty-training.  The Family Home Evening where we counted her pennies and quarters and turned over the sunglasses was, in her words, "The Best!"  By the way, Rob subsequently took the bag of change to work for his afternoon soda fund, and thought that was The Best.

Riding her bike.  She's learning to pedal and is quite proud of herself when she can do two pedals in a row.  She informed me yesterday that she needed a helmet to be safe.  Hard to argue with that one, so off we went to Wal-Mart to find one.  Amazingly, they had one with all her favorite princesses on it!  Whew.

A few other things:

• She will only wear twirly dresses to church
• She has all kinds of t-shirts with flowers, turtles, and other cutenesses (including my personal favorite - a white t-shirt with a map of the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens on it).  But everyday she wants to wear a plain brown short-sleeved t-shirt that I bought at a consignment store for $3.
• As soon as she walks in the door from anywhere, she immediately takes off her shoes and puts on a pair of purple and gold dress-up slippers.
• She told me recently that her three favorite songs are "You Make Me Feel So Young," by Frank Sinatra, "Human," by The Killers ("Except I don't like their scary name"), and "You're Not From Texas," by Lyle Lovett.  I'd say that's a pretty good cross-section.
• She loves the feel of the wind in her hair when we drive in the Jeep with the sunroof and windows open.  My thoughts exactly, babe.

Here she is overlooking the Ohio River and feeling the wind in her hair.  We love this chica!

Believe the Hype

I'm not usually one for kids' clothing with phrases, but I couldn't resist this one in the Gap outlet yesterday:

BELIEVE THE HYPE

It's exactly how I feel about my little boy!  I just can't get enough of him.  Those big blue eyes, just like his Dad.  That light hair, the giggle, the way he signs "more" and "milk."  The way he pats the sofa and pulls out books and invites me to read to him.  The way he chases Ellie around the house.  How he wants to wear his aviator sunglasses and sit on Ellie's little potty.  How he climbs up the climbing wall and slides down the slide on our backyard swingset.  The way he swings his blow-up plastic baseball bat at the blow-up plastic baseball and claps his hands when he hits it.  How he looks up at me intently at bedtime when I talk about all we've done that day and all we're going to do tomorrow, nodding his head and saying "Yep" at each thing I say.  Yes, indeed, believe the hype.

I put him in his new shirt first thing this morning.  He spilled his lunchtime apple juice all over it and we had to change clothes before naptime.  Oh well.  Rob is worried that the shirt is in University of Michigan colors and, combined with its enthusiastic statement, implies that we're rooting for the Wolverines.  I assured him Matt wouldn't wear it on any game day.

Believe the hype, everyone.

Our Matthew Bryant is something incredible.

My Loofah Attacked Me, and Other Tales

Once, several years ago, I went to three different stores with my father to find the exact brand of shower loofah he preferred.  I was amazed that my low-maintenance Dad was particular on this matter, while his high-maintenance daughter bought her shower loofahs for a dollar at the grocery store.


My current loofah is large and pink and round (nothing like Dad's), pretty basic Target variety.  The pink loofah generally does its job adequately.  But one morning last week I felt something uncomfortable while loofah-ing.  Something sharp.  Loofah?  Later, in the mirror, I noticed a very long pink scratch all the way down my arm.  Loofah!  A few hours later it started hurting.  A day or so after that, during the healing process, it started itching.  Yes, my loofah has betrayed me.  It's still sitting in my shower, but I usually just give it an angry stare before moving on to the bar soap.  I'm looking for a loofah that won't betray me.  Any ideas?


A few other things that have been going on lately:

• This morning for breakfast I ate half of a Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookie.  My friend Monica can recreate them perfectly.  Baking is a two day process.  Eating can take as long as a minute.
• Rob and I set a goal to watch every episode of Chuck before it comes back from a three week hiatus.  We finished season 2 last night.  Just 13 episodes of season 3 to go before Monday night at 8:00.
• I finished reading Mark Kurlansky's wonderful book about the world history of Salt this week.  I insist that I am not obsessed with salt, but Rob counters that during the several weeks it's taken me to read this book, I've purchased numerous jars of "gourmet" salts as well as a salt cellar. We now have 4 varieties of salt in the house, including a pink-ish Himalayan salt that you have to hand grate.  But that's not enough to count as an obsession, is it?
• Rob and I took an Operation Strengthen Marriage/Recover from Winter vacation last month. We spent three days on a cruise ship through the Bahamas.  We highly recommend it.  Maybe I'll blog about it sometime.
• Ellie is potty-trained.  She's three and a half, so it was beyond time.  I also realize that it's not exactly the sort of glamorous news one shouts from the rooftops, but it feels like a major accomplishment in my life (and hers, obviously), and I just can't stop talking about it.
• Sleeping in and leaving Ellie in charge of Matt is seldom worth it, because it takes longer to clean up the mess they made while unsupervised than the time I lingered in bed.
• Leaving Ellie and Matt in the bath for 45 minutes while I do laundry and vacuuming is almost always a good idea.

I'll sign off with a few confessions:

• I take an afternoon nap almost every day.  Recently, a guest blogger on Apron Stage wrote about the joys of naps.  My favorite comment came from a woman wrote that all the women in her neighborhood take naps.  I want to move there.
• After 6 and a half years of folding Rob's dress socks, I still can't tell the navy from the black
• Sometimes, like today, I don't get dressed until noon.
• Ellie watches Project Runway with us and can pick the designers that are going to be In or Out.  I justify it as a lesson in what qualifies as modest clothing and what does not.
• I can't remember the last time I bought a new pair of shoes.  That's a major accomplishment in my life.  Perhaps some obsessions can be overcome?