Michelle's Wedding Pictures

I realize my sister's wedding was 6 months ago, but she just now gave me the cds with the pictures from the big day! I thought I would share a few of my favorites. I love you sissy!

Ben and Joey (in my belly...see the big bump?)

The pantsless ring bear!

Choir Boy

Angry Joey!

Uncle Clint, Aunt Michelle, and Joey

Aunt Mal Mal, Nana, Me and Ben

The Boys

Nana and Joey

Bampaw and Joey napping together

We had a wonderful Christmas and it started off with a bang on Christmas Eve. Dean, Ben, Joey and I went to the Family Service at our church. Ben was very excited to get to go up front with the other kids to hear the youth minister tell a story. When the time came, he eagerly went up to the front of the church and sat in the front pew to listen. He did a great job and after the story was completed, the minister instructed all of the children to return to their parents unless they were a member of the youth choir, in which case they should go up to the altar to sing. I was looking at Joey at this point and heard Dean whisper "Oh my gosh, Ben is going up. Go get him." To which I responded, "I am not going up there!"

Ben ended up standing with the choir (4 year olds through 12 year olds I think) and acting as though he was one of the group. Fortunately the first song they sang was "This Little Light of Mine," which is one Ben knows so he was able to sing along. The choir sang a medley of tunes and when one came along that Ben didn't know he just mouthed the words. He really did a great job and we were so proud of him. He was very proud of himself as well and walked back to us after the performance with a huge grin on his face. Several of our friends knew that he was not supposed to be up there, including Ben's teacher who was sitting behind us during the service, and they were all loving his performance along with us. He stole the show! He is very excited to participate in choir next year!

We enjoyed lots of time with our families on Christmas Eve and Christmas day and received an obscene amount of gifts. Ben loved everything...exclaiming with each gift opened, "Oh yes, this is just what I wanted!" It was a wonderful day.

It happened one morning...

Last Friday I was feeling brave after 2.5 weeks of parenting 2 young boys and decided that I could manage taking Ben to school-with Joey in tow of course-all by myself. Dean offered, but I declined. Big mistake. All was going well until about 5 minutes before we needed to be out the door. I had just finished feeding Joey and was changing his diaper. Ben came into Joey's room and stood at the head of the changing table (now known as the "danger zone") and was talking to me when all of a sudden Joey started peeing. Time stood still as Joey's urine made an arc that went over his own head (dousing his ear and hair with pee) and hit Ben square in the face...to be exact, square in the mouth! Ben stood still for a minute in obvious shock and then started screaming and crying and saying "never, never pee on me." He was inconsolable for several minutes while I stripped him down and changed his clothes and cleaned up Joey...and quickly diapered him to avoid any further soakings. Ben was absolutely horrified and despite my promise that it was an accident, Ben was convinced that Joey had purposely peed in his face. I finally got the boys to school---15 minutes late--and was further reminded of my insanity at choosing this particular day to take both boys by myself since it was the last day of school before Christmas break and I had to not only get disgruntled Ben into the building, but Joey in his carrier, Ben's backpack, Ben's lunch box, and 2 teacher gifts. It was the longest walk of my life getting from the parking lot, up 2 flights of stairs, down what was suddenly the longest hallway in the world, and safely into the classroom. Our challenging journey was all worth it though when we arrived in Ben's classroom and all of his friends crowded around Joey and said "oh look, there is Ben's shuggy!" It was so sweet and Ben was very proud to show off his baby brother-quickly forgetting the pee in the face!

I spoke too soon

Pretty ironic that my last post was titled "Big Healthy Boys" considering Ben, who is very rarely sick mind you, has strep throat!! I am pretty thrilled to have a 2 week old in a house infested with strep throat germs...not to mention I feel terrible for Benny. He has had a terrible sore throat and a high fever the past couple days. Poor pumpkin. He has been on antibiotics for the past 36 hours so hopefully he will be feeling better soon. In the meantime, if it is possible we have been getting even less sleep lately! Dean has been taking care of Ben in the middle of the night and I, obviously, am on Joey feeding duty. Two nights ago we figured out that between the 2 boys we were up all night long. Good times.


Other than that we are still doing well. Joey is a really wonderful baby. He is still eating about every 2-3 hours and sleeping much of the rest of the time but is alert in the morning and late in the evening and I love staring at his big eyes (I can't tell what color they are yet, kind of a dark grey right now) and watching his facial expressions as he takes in the world around him. He is such a cutie pie and it amazes me how big Ben seems now that Joey is here. Ben is such a great big brother and loves to help take care of him.

At least one member of our family is sleeping well these days!!!

Big Healthy Boy(s)

Joey had his one week well-baby checkup at the pediatrician yesterday. My suspicions that he is an excellent eater were confirmed as he weighed in at 7 pounds 14 ounces. Doctors like to see babies back to their birth weight (after loosing weight immediately following birth) by 2 weeks of age. Joey has gained 11 ounces already at only 1 week old! He is such an overachiever.

His length is holding steady at 20 1/4 inches and he is in the 50th percentile in height, weight, and head circumference...perfectly preportioned!

Despite an excellent first outing to the doctor with the boys (thanks to the help of my sister) and a great day playing with Aunt Sissy, we had a rocky afternoon...it all went downhill after Michelle left come to think of it!! Something I ate or drank yesterday clearly upset Joey's tummy and he was pretty fussy and clearly uncomfortable all evening/overnight and even vomited at one point. Poor little man. We are going to have to do some investigative research over the next couple of days to see if we can figure out what caused his discomfort. He just had his 5:30 a.m. feeding and seems to be resting comfortably for now. I hate to see him in pain so hopefully whatever I ingested will be out of my milk soon and stop torturing him!

Ben is doing awesome and is such a wonderful big brother and helper to mommy and daddy. He loves to go into Joey's room with me in the morning to "wake Joey up." He even makes me put Joe back into his crib so that Ben can go get him if Joey and I happen to be up before Ben. He likes to lie on the floor and talk to Joe while I change his diaper and he likes to hold Joey for very brief periods of time. He is such a big boy and I am so proud of him.

Listening to Daddy read a book

Breakfast with Santa on Saturday morning with Daddy

Making Cookies wtih Daddy

Overwhelmed

Dean and I were just talking about how overwhelmed we are by the outpouring of love and support we have received from so many of our friends and family members. It is really remarkable. We have had TONS of visitors and it is remarkable how many calls, emails, gifts, meals, etc we have acquired over the past several days. We feel very loved and are, again, amazed by how blessed we are.

Speaking of blessings, the boys are doing wonderful. Joey absolutely loves his big brother. You can already tell they are going to be great buddies. Ben went in with me to get Joey up this morning and was laying on the floor talking to Joe while I changed him and Joey just stared at Ben. He is in love! Ben is a very attentive, kind, loving big brother so far. I am very proud of him.

Really this post was just a shameless excuse to share some more pictures of my boys, but thanks for letting me share my random thoughts as well!

Welcome Baby Joe

He's finally here! After a quick and relatively easy 5.5 hour labor, Joseph Carl was born on Monday, December 3 at 3:38 a.m. He weighed about 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 20.25 inches long. For those who are curious, Ben was 7 pounds 5 ounces and 19.75 inches long.

Proud Nana and Bampaw

Oma

So far Joey is a typical baby...he eats, sleeps, and poops a lot! He is very cute, in my unbiased opinion of course, and looks remarkably like Ben when he was born.

Ben is an excellent big brother so far. He remains confused about the fact that his shuggy (his nickname for his baby "sister") is actually a baby boy and we constantly have to correct him when he refers to Joey as "she" and "her." Oh well, either Ben will get it sooner or later or Joe will have a complex...either way we'll all survive!

We brought Joey home from the hospital yesterday afternoon and are adjusting pretty well so far. We have had lots of visitors, which is fun, and are enjoying spending time together as a family. Dean is home this week, which is a tremendous help to me. I am already a little nervous (okay, I'm dreading it) about Dean returning to work on Monday. Wish me luck!

I am doing well...a little emotional at times (darn hormones) and experiencing all the other typical postpartum feelings of being very tired and very sore, but mostly I am just feeling overwhelmingly blessed and in love with my boys. I am severely outnumbered in my house now, but loving every minute of it.

I will post more later. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and well wishes. Love to you all.

Applesauce and More Applesauce

We put out our Christmas decorations this weekend and Ben really enjoyed looking at (touching) everything and especially loved playing with the nativity scene...though Joseph's hands are now broken off so we no longer are allowed to play with the nativity! Anyhow, I was excited to be able to share the true "Christmas" story with Ben and tell him about the birth of Jesus. He liked the story and we talked about it throughout the day. Last night, when I was tucking him in bed we were saying our prayers and talking and he asked me to tell him the story again about baby Jesus. I said that I wanted him to tell it to me (I was curious what his interpretation would be as sharing stories with Benny is a bit like playing a game of telephone, you never know what will get twisted and turned around in his mind). Ben proceeded to tell me about Mary and Jophes (not a typo, he says Jophes) and their barn with horses and that baby is born and the angel goes to see all the guys with the sheep and those one guys (what are they called, mommy? Oh yeah, wise guys) come and bring the baby presents! What did they bring him Benjamin? Ummm....Gold...Applesauce and More Applesauce!!!!

Weekend Fun

We had a great holiday weekend, which included a trip with Uncle Craig to the Children's Museum on Friday. The whole intent of making a trip to the Museum, at least in my mind, was to visit Santa Claus and the Jolly Days exhibit featuring the Yule Slide. Ben, however, had a different agenda; he wasn't interested in the special holiday exhibit, which was just as well as the Museum was packed and we would have had to wait in line forever to visit Santa and go on the slide. Ben had a really great time showing Uncle Craig a few of his favorite exhibits and even convinced Uncle Craig to get into some small caves and play in the life-size dollhouses with him as well! It was quite a site to behold and very amusing--for me at least! We love you Uncle Craig!

Yesterday we put out our Christmas decorations and Ben and Daddy raked leaves. Ben had a great time helping Daddy make huge piles and then jumping into them. It was really fun to watch them play and even more fun, I am sure, for Ben to actually dive in!

And no, I have not yet had the baby! I think the little peanut is just too comfortable inside me...oh well. I am really not miserable yet so I'm not in a huge hurry, but I am pretty uncomfortable and irritable and I think my boys are ready for the babe to be born so I go back to my normal delightful self! (hee hee hee)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I am feeling overwhelmingly blessed this Thanksgiving. I try to make a list in my head of all the things for which I am grateful, and I truly don't know where to begin. God has been so good to me. I had an emotional day yesterday (shocking, 9 months pregnant and emotional?!) and it culminated with sitting in my kitchen and looking around at all of the people I love more than anything else in the world...right there under the same roof. How lucky is that? We had a little gathering to ooh and aah over sweet Miss Cadalyn and it was such a great time. How I love that little lady! Uncle Craig is in town, which is very exciting for everyone, but no one is happier than Ben. Boogie loves his Uncle Craig so much and couldn't wait to see him last night. He kept calling mom and dad to get updates on his arrival time!

Ok, I know I will forget some big things, but here is a short list of the tremendously many things I am thankful for:

• My best friend/partner/Ben and baby's daddy/husband. Dean is the greatest and there is no one else on the planet I would choose to journey through life with. He is so good to our family and is the greatest gift God ever could have given me.
• My sweet big boy Ben. Oh Scooby Doo, Velma loves you! I am in awe of this little man Dean and I created. He is getting so big and is so smart...and often times so rotten too! I know this must be a common mom sentiment, but I really can't imagine my life without him, nor can I put into words how I feel about him. He is everything.
• My growing baby. I am so grateful to be blessed with another child and can't wait to meet him/her. I am rather obsessed with thoughts of this little angel now and imagine what s/he will look like, act like, smell like, sleep like! We are ready sweet baby, come see us soon.
• The rest of my family. Dean and I are so lucky to have our families close by. I can't imagine living far away and not seeing them often. I love each and every member of both family and am grateful for the role they play in our lives. I am especialy thankful for the relationship I have with my parents. I am so lucky to be able to call on them for each and every little drama in my life and still have them "fix" all my troubles. No matter what else is going on in their lives, I know that their kids always come first and I hope that I treat my kids with the same unending and unconditional love that I have always felt from them.
• My friends. I love them all...those I walk with, talk with in the car on the way to work with, have starbucks dates with, lunch with, work with, play date with, and even those I am related to...I love having my siblings as friends now. I love my friends so much and am so lucky to have such a great support network!

I hope you, too, are counting your many blessings this Thanksgiving holiday. God bless you and your family!

Baby Update

I haven't updated on the baby in awhile and thought I would share what is going on with regards to our little one. We are about 37 weeks pregnant so s/he will be here soon. All is well. We did have a scare a couple of weeks ago, during a regular OB appointment the baby's heart rate was very low and when they put me on a monitor it was very eratic...sometimes as low as 90 and sometimes as high as 180! I ended up having to go upstairs to labor and delivery (my OBs office is in the hospital, very convienent!) for a couple of hours. I drank a lot of water and rested on my left side and eventually the baby's heart rate settled back into it's normal 120 range and I was able to go home. This experience caused me much anxiety and I spent the next 2 weeks constantly worrying and drinking massive amounts of water...my nurse speculated that perhaps the baby was under stress because I had gone on a 4 mile walk the morning of the appointment and had not had sufficient amounts of fluids following the walk. Needless to say, I am now practically floating I have so much water inside me! We had another appointment on Wednesday this week and it went much smoother...despite the fact that my OB was running 1.5 hours late...darn those babys being born!!! The baby's heart rate was great, higher than normal in the 135-145 range. In other exciting news I am almost 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. This doesn't mean that the baby's birth is going to be any time in the next couple of days, as I was 2 cm dilated with Ben for 2 weeks before his birth, but at least it means that things are progressing and my body is remembering how labor works. This is comforting, because I think I forget!! I know I have had a baby before, but I am very nervous suddenly (much as I was with Ben around this time in pregnancy) about the logistics of labor...will I know I am in labor...am I going to make it to the hospital in time...will the baby be ok...will I be in too much pain afterwards to enjoy my new baby and Ben...what impact will this have on Ben...how am I going to handle 2 children?! Needless to say, I don't sleep well with all of these thoughts going through my head. So, that is all that is going on in little peanut's world. I am sure s/he is starting to get anxious too as the environment is changing and s/he is getting very cramped and probably uncomfortable as well. At least we're in this together! It won't be long now. I know everyone is anxious to meet this little person and no one more than me, though perhaps Ben is the most excited. He remains so adorable with respect to being a big brother. He is always kissing my belly and talking to the baby. He is so excited that it is getting cold out because "know what that means, mom? That means it is almost time for my baby to come!" We were talking the other day and I was asking him questions about the baby and he said "I think she will have a big white face and lots of stringy hair like me!" Not a very attractive description, but interesting and sweet nonetheless!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Halloween was officially a success. We had a great time trick or treating with our friends and neighbors, Kirin (Princess Jasmine), Amber (the butterfly), and Audrey (the monkey). Daddy had to work tonight so Aunt Sissy came to hang out with us for the evening. Ben loved running up to every door and saying "trick or treat" and giving them a good "arrgh matey!" Unfortunately running is the operative word and after about an hour and a half he seriously hit a wall and had a minor meltdown at Mamaw and Papaw Chaplin's house. The kids were all "trick or treated out" by this time, as is evidenced by the below picture of Kirin, Amber, and Ben sitting on the bench outside of the Chaplin's with oh so happy faces! We decided to call it a night and quit while we were still slighty ahead. On our way home, however, we drove by Benny's teacher, Miss Amy's, house and Ben wanted to stop by and see her, which we did. He was very happy to show his costume to her and was all smiles again by the time we came home.

I am on dog duty now, keeping Jackson away from the door, while Aunt Sissy and Ben pass out candy to trick or treaters. They are also working on some kind of an art project, though I think it is about time to head to bed. My little pirate is so sleepy.

Trick or Treat Mateys.

Playing with pumpkins

We enjoyed some pumpkin fun this afternoon. Dean, Ben, and I carved our pumpkins and Ben even painted a few as well. Ben and I carved a super scary pumpkin and Dean carved Pacers and Colts pumpkins. Ben then wanted to roast pumpkin seeds, which we have never done before, because that is what they do on his Elmo Halloween movie. We gave it a whirl and they weren't all that bad; they kind of tasted like popcorn. Though Ben eagerly ate several pumpkin seeds, he later pronounced them "horrible." I'm guessing that we have tasted our last roasted pumpkin seeds!

ZOO BOO

Ben and I went to Zoo Boo yesterday with Nana and Aunt Mal-Mal. It was an absolutely beautiful day...about 81 degrees with no humidity and a great breeze and not a cloud in the sky. Ben was thrilled to wear his pirate costume and go trick or treating at the zoo. As usual, his favorite exhibit was water world and he loved visting the sharks and the penguins. We also got to get up close and personal with the lions...Ben and Mal were having a snack and the mommy lion came over to the bench they were sitting on to see what they were up to!

It was a great afternoon and I am so glad that we were able to spend it with my mom and sister! By the way Craig and Jarin, the picture of Ben with the meerkats is just for you guys!