Finally! Some pictures!

Yes, it's true! We finally got a card reader so now you can see all the pictures we've taken lately. I'll try to organize them a bit for you intow 3 sections: Jilly, Jason and Family. Enjoy!

Jillian:
Jilly fell asleep eating her nuggets one night. Being 2 1/2 is hard work!

Jilly climbed into Jason's bouncer after I'd pulled him out, with her Bunny Lovey and pulled the blanket over herself, like she was the baby now. ;-)

Jilly holding her little brother for the first time. What a joyful smile!

Hammin' it up during a mini-photo shoot.

She buckled her teddy bear Zvijer into the car seat, all correctly and was quite proud of herself. We were proud of her too!

Making a mess of her ranch dip with her lunch of nuggets and tater tots.

So proud of her mess. And yes, that is a Mountain Dew bottle, but no, I did not let her drink it. It was empty and she commandeered it for her own devices.

She helped me make funeral potatoes one night for dinner. Notice the left-handedness? Yep, she's quite the lefty!

Much to our chagrin, Jilly got a hold of my red Sharpie one day and thoroughly decorated our table and her legs. (Note: baths, baby oil and about 24 hours gets red Sharpie off toddler legs and faces.)

The underside of the table that sustained the most damage. Ugh! At least it's mostly hidden underneath and not on the top!


Jason:
This is the week Jason was born. Look how huge I am! Giant I tell you. No wonder my clothes didn't fit.

That week at my appt, the midwife offered to draw on the baby's position. I said okay, and it turned out really cool!

Being cuddled by his Daddy.

I love this outfit- which he's already outgrown! Pardon the pink pacifier, we hadn't dug out the "manly" ones yet, so we just pulled this one out of Jilly's toy basket.

Hanging out in his bouncer with his Longhorns pacifier and football blanket. He can't wait for College Football Saturdays with Daddy!

Check out these awesome pacifiers Aunt Becky sent him. Longhorn Pride baby!

Sweet sleeping baby boy in his bouncer.


Family pictures:
She is quite excited to be a big sister!

I heart my family!!!

I look pretty awful, but ignore that. I was snuggling Jason on the couch and Jilly apparently needed some love. So rather than fighting her brother, she climbed up and cuddled up with my legs. It was so cute I made Steve take a picture of it.

Then they both fell asleep. So I extracted myself carefully and took a picture of the sleeping kiddos.

Another angle. Such sweeties!

Photo session! Look at my big kiddies!

Auntie Katie loves snuggling with her niece and nephew. Jilly wanted nothing to do with me when Auntie Katie was there, even if she was holding the baby.

Jilly is happy to share her crib with her brother one morning. I don't think that will be a long-term solution. ;-)


So there you go! Lots of pictures! Now that we have the card reader, I can keep up with them more regularly. :-) Stay tuned- I have another post in the works about our past weekend and when I get the pictures and full report about Jilly's weekend in Chelan- that will be blogged about too!

The Big Giant Fuzzy Man

Jason is over 3 weeks old now and I thought I would post just about him. He is mostly a sweet baby but he’s been developing this annoying habit of getting cranky right as I want to go to sleep. He’ll sleep peacefully during the day and evening, but as soon as I am ready to turn off the light, he wakes up and gets snotty. I have been up until 1 or 2 am for the past several nights. The most frustrating part of it is that he doesn’t seem to know what he wants. I will nurse him, burp him, cuddle him, rock him, lay him down, give him my finger or a pacifier to suck on, etc, but each thing will only soothe him for a few minutes, then he fusses again. I usually can tell that he’s tired, but won’t give up and go to sleep. So I end up out in the family room, really to fall asleep on my feet, constantly nursing and patting and changing his position. That’s not exactly my favorite thing.

We find he is less and less like Jilly each day, both looks and some other things. When he was first born, I thought he looked like her as a newborn, but everyday he looks less like her. *gasp!* I might actually have a kid that looks like ME! He is definitely longer and skinnier than she was. He has longer legs and a shorter torso (like me) and the super long monkey arms that Steve and his father both have. I’ve compared a few pictures of newborn Aimee to newborn Jason and there are some similarities, but I still don’t feel like he necessarily looks “just like” anyone. We’ll keep seeing as he gets bigger and bigger.

Another interesting thing is the color of his eyes. Jason was born with those typical dark blue-grey eyes, that most Caucasian babies have. Well, his eyes darkened within days. We have always figured it’s inevitable for our children to end up with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, but thought it would happen when they were older. Jilly’s eyes stayed blue for a very long time, like 9+ months I think before turning brown. Jason is the opposite! You can already see lots of brown in his eyes, with some grey around the edges. Pretty much both kids have the same eyes at this point. I was not expecting that to happen when he was only a week old!

Jason has the strangest hairline. On his temples, his hair actually covers them and starts to blend in with his eyebrows, but above his eyes it goes way back. It’s hard to describe. But it is changing, I think some of his hair is coming off, so his hairline is evening out a bit. It’s still brown, and yesterday I swear I saw a little red in the sunlight. Just like his daddy.

Our little boy really loves to sleep cuddled up with us. He hates his cradle. At the moment, I’m okay with him being in our bed at night, though I am ready for it to end soon. It’s the same during the day, he wants to sleep on our chests. I let him cuddle with me a lot, and Steve too, but sometimes I have to put him down to get something done! He’ll often take one nap a day either in the bouncer or in Jilly’s crib, but it’s always a toss up for when that will work out. He would probably sleep okay in the cradle if we let him sleep on his tummy, but I’m a little hesitant to do that because of the risk of SIDS. We’ll see.

He definitely has a more pronounced need to burp than Jilly did. I used to spend 15+ minutes trying to get a burp out of her and she never would have one. I finally realized she didn’t need to burp and wasn’t uncomfortable, so I stopped trying. Jason needs to burp much more. But the good thing is, he’s usually fairly easy to burp. He hardly spits up at all, and only if I’ve overfed him, he’ll just let some leak out his mouth.

It’s really interesting to find all these little ways he is so different from Jilly. He is plumping up, but doesn’t have the cheeks his big sister did (and does). I am happy to see he seems to have inherited his daddy’s eyebrows too. I would be so disappointed if he didn’t have them. He also has this quivering lip thing. It looks like he’s cold and shivering, but really, it’s just because he’s thinking about crying. It’s pretty cute! I have been surprised in all the ways the two kids are different. I expected Jason to be more similar to Jilly. But he’s so cute in his own way!! I certainly wouldn’t want to trade him. ;-)

And I’ll leave you with a few pictures from my cell phone (hence the bad lighting and sub-par quality) to tide you over for now. :-)

The Mogwai and his adoring fans

It’s been awhile since I last blogged. I’ve been meaning to for several days, but every time I sit down to do it, something else distracts me. So here goes.

Jason is now 2 ½ weeks old and utterly adorable!! We love him so much!! He is a grunty, squeaky, fuzzy baby. Seriously, this kid grunts like none other. He makes such funny noises that Steve calls him “Mogwai” from Gremlins. Hehehe. He’s mostly a very relaxed, calm baby, as long as he’s being held or sleeping on his tummy. Not so much a fan of sleeping on his back, alone, in the bassinet. He gets cuter every single day. He is getting bigger, I can tell and it makes me a little sad. Can’t he just stay my teeny, tiny baby forever? Please?! I just weighed him, and according to the incredibly scientific process of me standing on the scale with and without him, he weighs about 9 ½ lbs. We also call him our little red man because he’s often quite pink! He still loves to have his hands up be his face a lot. And you may not believe me, but this kid is trying very hard to get mobile. He can roll from his back to his side and tries to get onto his tummy. He also tries to crawl and can move himself a little, especially if he has something to push his feet against. I don’t think I have to worry about him waiting until 17 months to walk, like his big sister. ;-) One great thing about Jason is that he seems to have very distinct, but simple needs. He cries when he needs to eat, burp, or be held. That’s pretty much it. I do find that I need to burp him after every feeding, and sometimes during them, otherwise he can get uncomfortable. But he’s quite easy to burp and it settles him down nicely. Nursing has settled into a routine for us and we’re both happy with how it’s going. Holding him seems to be the trickiest to manage and the quickest to elicit an unhappy response, if not fulfilled. It’s a bit more difficult to manage holding a newborn while still getting everything done around the house with a two year old as well, even with two parents at the same time. Sometimes, I need to be doing the dishes while Steve is cleaning up the toys with Jilly, and it’s not easy for either of us to hold him. He does like being in the wrap or sling, so that helps at times. We’re still figuring it all out.

Jilly is doing well. I haven’t seen a huge reaction to the new baby, but little things here and there. We have started making her help clean up her own toys and books (which she loves to throw all over the floor, then step all over them, UGH!) and she absolutely loathes it. It must be pre-programmed in kids to automatically turn into a limp noodle and whine “I can’t do it” when asked to clean up their messes. She’ll just cry and cry and cry as we make her do it. Unfortunately for her, we’re not gonna give up. She has to learn that she either shouldn’t make the mess in the first place, or has to clean it up when she’s done. Honestly, I’m fine with either option, but I will not let her make the huge mess and then leave me to clean it up completely. Steve is even less inclined to accept that. But other than those tantrums, she is great. She talks so much. She is certainly in that mimicking stage and repeats everything we saw. And I mean everything, good and bad. We can mostly understand a lot of the words she says, which is very fun. Jilly also does this thing, where she goes up to whoever is holding Jason and asks them to help her. Whether she wants a drink or someone to play “buckles” with her, it doesn’t matter how many other people are in the room, she will ask the person with the baby. Maybe she thinks they’re the ones in charge or something. Pretty funny, if you ask me.

I am doing fantastic! I hardly have any pain anymore and my body has adjusted to nursing very quickly. I have enough energy, but still have to take it easy a lot. I find I get tired if I’m exerting myself physically; my body’s way of reminding me “Uh, lady, you just had a baby- take it easy on me!” Hehehe. But I’m getting back into the swing of things. And, oh!! The glories of not being pregnant anymore!! It’s wonderful!! It’s lovely to have more clothes to wear (though it’s not like anything looks good, oh well), as well as not have to worry so much about eating constantly for fear of nausea. I can lay on my stomach comfortably and the pulled muscle in my leg has been healing. There’s not nearly as much weight and pressure on my hips and back and for that, I am truly grateful!!! I am settling into being a mother of two, which is still surprising to me. We are pretty lazy during the days. We sleep in late (like 10 or later), I get the kids both changed and dressed, Jilly and I eat breakfast, and then we just hang out until Steve gets home. Sometimes, I’ll do things around the house. Clean up the kitchen, unload the dishwasher (which Jilly helps me with), or do some laundry. But I don’t do tons. Thank heavens Steve understands and still does most of the cooking and cleaning. Steve is adjusting to being back at work. Can’t say he’s happy about it, he’d rather be home with us, but hey, someone’s gotta make the money, and we’re grateful he has a job!

We have been very blessed by so many friends and family members. I don’t think I can appropriately express our gratitude to everyone. We’ve had people bring us meals, loan and give us lots of clothes, offer to baby-sit, and take over work and church responsibilities. My mom has crocheted receiving blankets, burp rags, is knitting a hat, and bought lots of clothes and shoes for this little guy. She is having Jilly spend the night Tuesday night and stay all day Wednesday with her, to make it easier on me. My sister and brother have both come over to hang out with us and are quick to get me something if I need it, or just entertain one of the kids so I can deal with the other one. Let alone everything that my family did for the actual birth! We are incredibly blessed and are grateful everyday for it!!!

Well, there you go. A little update on how we’re all doing. Still no cord for the camera, so no pictures. But I have been taking them, so as soon as we get the cord, you’ll get inundated with tons of pics! :-)