2 Month Check-up

Abe had his 2 month check-up this morning which went quite well. His doctor and I respectfully disagreed on necessary vax's but overall I enjoyed the visit. My little guy is currently 16 pounds 10 ounces and 24.25 inches long! The doctor asked what I was feeding him, as he weighed 11 pounds 9 ounces at his 2 week checkup! He was off the growth charts at both visits which I love!!

Here he is awaiting the doc's arrival. He loved looking at himself in the mirror and kept smiling at himself!

Conversation with Cohen at the dinner table:

Me: Let's bless our food.

Cohen: Thank you Lord for ...(long list including, but not limited to food, family, pets, nature). Amen.

Me: Amen.

Cohen: I said thank you Lord for Mary.

Me: Mary, Jesus' mother?

Cohen: Yes.

Me: Well, we should be thankful for her since she brought Jesus into this world.

Cohen: Did she play soccer? (And yes, he was asking if Mary, Jesus' mother, played soccer!)

I was not sure how to answer that one, but I did get a good laugh!! Kids are so funny, the stuff they think about!

Daddy's big helpers

We met Daddy at his most current project and the kids were thrilled to be able to help. The Bobcat is Cohen's absolute favorite piece of equipment right now and he cannot wait to grow up and work on a Bobcat like Daddy does (sometimes)!

Blackmail

My kids invited me to a "performance" which is very common at our house, what is not very common at our house is seeing Cohen dressed like this:

I know his sister talked him into it but one day these pics will be embarrassing!

Thumb-sucking

I was so excited about Abe taking a paci, as he is the only of my three kids that has shown the least bit of interest in it. Well, it appears that he has a new interest...

thumb-sucking. I was kind of against it at first, but now I think it's adorable. Every time I place the paci in his mouth within moments he spits it out and starts working that thumb into his mouth. I worry that he will have a hard time dropping the habit but I guess we will cross that bridge when we get to it!

Does Abe look like a little Sumo Wrestler to you?

More river pics!

Cohen and Piper, looking silly:

Cohen, with seaweed (or riverweed, I guess) on his chin:

Abe, passed out in the camper! He did not go to sleep Friday night until midnight, so he snoozed until 11:30am the next morning:

Piper with her bathing suit filled with river rocks! She thinks pregnancy is so intriguing after seeing me carrying Abe; I constantly find her with her clothing packed like she is preggo:

The kids climbing an awesome tree looking over the river:

Call Us Crazy...

but we took the kids on their first camping trip this past weekend, even Abe at 7 weeks old! We went with another couple and their kids to a lot on the river with a pretty nice camper. We were not totally roughing it, which is my kind of camping! We had running water (cold only), electricity and even beds to sleep in (one was an air mattress, but that's not bad for camping!). We enjoying fishing, swimming, canoing, grilling and a lot of lounging around talking.

Here are the kids playing in the river:

And Chad fishing with Daniel in the middle of the river:

Chad guiding the canoe with Cohen and Daniel inside:

And Abe chillin' in Rebecca's lap (he looks so serious!):

I think I'll make another post with just pics, there were some cute ones from our trip!

R-Rated Cohen Post

A few days ago, Cohen was in the shower rinsing off. I came to wash him since he has not mastered that skill yet and while I was scrubbing he pulled his penis up towards his body, pointed below it and said, "Look at those things Mom. Me and Daddy both have 'em. I can't remember what he called them but we both have 'em!" I tried not to laugh too hard in front of him, but I am still laughing when I think of the conversation. In 3 1/2 years he has never noticed those "things" below his penis, nor does he remember what they are called!!

Turn that frown upside-down

Abe's first bath was a disaster, he cried the whole time:


He has since learned to enjoy bath time, even smiling on occasion:

Bounce U

The kids and I went to Bounce U the other night for a birthday party. It seemed to be as big a treat for those in attendance as it was for the birthday boy! The huge slide was definitely a crowd favorite:




And my kids could not resist a good wrestling match on the bouncy terrain. They have not mastered the concept of wrestling in good fun, they wrestle until one walks away crying. The one who cries first is said to be the loser!

After a hard day of play...

I found Cohen in his room passed out cold! I think he had actually been sent to his room for "time-out" but he didn't last long; when he got still for a minute he was out like a light!

Piper's Style

Piper has such an unusual sense of style!

I got a kick out of seeing her fly through the yard in this get-up, so I had to snap a picture.

One might think that this sort of outfit (her "red-belly snakeskin" leotard and cowboy boots) would be confined to home, but no, I have taken her to the grocery store in similar sets. My favorite is the lime green leotard with sequins and fringe (seen in the pic below) paired with her pink furry snowboots, in the heat of summer mind you!

Family Reunion

Piper, Abe and I attended the family reunion this weekend. It is our week to clean the church, but Chad and Cohen kindly stayed behind and took care of that duty. We had a great time and lots of good food. It always surprises me how few people I know when I go to these functions, but everyone was thrilled to meet "the 11 pound baby" as Abe is often referred to. Nanny carried Abe around to show him off for a few minutes then brought him back because he was so heavy!

Crazy cats

I am constantly finding kittens hanging out in the kids helmets, not sure what's up with that!

Vacation Bible School

Cohen finally got to take part in VBS this past weekend! He was thrilled that he was now old enough to take part in the activities. He has been a spectator each year since he was born so this was a big deal! They sang some adorable songs and danced, made crafts, did an obstacle course, slid down an enormous slip 'n slide and even visited the on-site petting zoo! Piper would not visit the petting zoo once she saw there was a snake (I have unintentionally passed on my fear of snakes to her) but Cohen said he LOVED the snake and enjoyed petting him. I think he really LOVED being braver than Piper and actually touching the horrid creature!

Here's a pic including all three of my kids. None of them are wearing the tee-shirt they were supposed to. Cohen is in front in the gray tee, Piper is to the left in a purple tee and Pastor is holding Abe behind them.

A Sweet Treat

During an evening walk around the property, we happened upon a sweet treat. Just around the pasture as we started to enter the woods we found several blackberry bushes. I craved blackberries constantly with my first two pregnancies, so I guess that explains my children's excitement when we found the berry bushes! We picked and ate every ripe berry and I have a feeling we will make several more trips down there in the coming days!

Happy Birthday Poppy!

We had dinner at Poppy's house to celebrate his 68th birthday. Here's the birthday boy ( I should have got a better pic, Piper took this one):


Aunt Ashley, Piper and Abe:

Cohen laying on the ground after a bicycle wreck (and yes, he has chocolate around his mouth from Poppy's cake):

Aunt Caroline, her friend Aaron and the kids:

Funny Picture

Piper's Soccer Career

In our quest to let our children try any and every sport that interests them, we signed Piper up for soccer this past Spring. Chad also signed up to help coach the team, which is funny because he has never played soccer before in his life! With the exception of some earring drama, the season went really well and Piper seemed to have some natural talent for the sport (being her mom, I think she has natural talent for everything :)

When the season ended, I asked her about playing next season and she replied very matter-of-factly that she no longed wished to play any sports that required socks or shoes, she didn't like her feet to get hot! The child never ceases to surprise me!

I guess we'll stick to gymnastics!

Birth Story

After arriving home from the hospital with each birth, I have written each child's birth story for their scrapbook. Last night I sat up way too late writing Abe's, so here it is:

May 27^th started like any other day, I straightened the house and hung the laundry out on the line, took a shower and prepared for my 41 week appointment with Dr. Masciello. I arrived at Hawthorne for the ultrasound first and was told that Baby was measuring very large, approximately 11 pounds 1.8 oz. Assuming they were off by 1-2 pounds I didn’t worry and went on to complete the non-stress test so I could head home. Well, the non-stress test was not going the way Dr. Masciello wanted so he said I either needed to head to the hospital for an induction or go have lunch and come back to see if the test results were better. I chose to go to lunch and practically ran to my van trying to hold back the tears. I had planned all along that I would go into labor naturally and this was not in my plan for today. I did not even have my hospital bag packed. After calling Chad and Grandmommy to let them know what was going on, I ate and headed back to Hawthorne for the non-stress test again.

Dr. Masciello had left to go on-call at the hospital and Dr. Thompson monitored my test. After about two more hours of trying to get the desired result, Dr. Thompson agreed that I needed to head straight to the hospital to start an induction. Having been at their office for so long, I was ready to accept their diagnosis. At about 3:30pm I headed across the street to the hospital all by myself, no bags or anything. Chad planned to have Anthony drop him off as soon as they were done working and Amber headed over to be with me until Chad could get there.

I checked in with Admitting and headed on up to the 4^th Floor. As I laid in a bed in the Triage area waiting for a Labor & Delivery room, Amber arrived. She notified the Pastor and a few church members to begin praying for us and then she prayed with me. While she was praying, I began contracting! I was thrilled and so proud of my body. I could see the contractions on the monitor and bragged to Chad as soon as he arrived that I was actually in labor on my own!

Around 7pm, a Labor & Delivery room was available and I was moved there. They broke my water and I continued to contract on my own going from 2cm dialted to 3.5cm by the time they started the pitocin. I had a wonderful nurse who was softspoken and kind. They were so busy that night with deliveries but she took great care of us.

As the pitocin increased, so did the pain. Around midnight it became unbearable and I requested the epidural. The epidural procedure was terrible and lengthy but at least the pain was greatly decreased as the result of it.

About an hour later, Baby’s heart rate was looking questionable, so the nurse asked me to turn over on my side. Before I moved she checked me and found that I was ready to deliver! “No practice pushes,” she said and alerted Dr. Masciello that we were getting ready to meet this little guy. Chad was sleeping on the couch, so we woke him up with the exciting news.

Dr. Masciello arrived and I pushed through one contraction to get the head out and another contraction to get the shoulders out. Jesse Abram greeted us at 2:19am on May 28th, 2008. He was handed directly to the NICU nurses since there had been a trace of meconium in the amniotic fluid. He was so adorable and everyone was talking about how big he was!

The NICU nurses took him for monitoring because his breathing was a little labored, although his apgar scores were 9 and 9. After the delivery, I was laying in the bed thinking about everything that had just happened when the nurse came in saying “I have breaking news! Your son was 11 pounds 2 oz!” She said she had never delivered a baby that big before. I couldn’t believe it either! My son was 11 pounds 1.6 oz (almost exactly what the ultrasound tech had guessed) and 23 inches long. He had quite a reputation around the hospital and looked so crazy in the NICU with the preemies and average size babies!

We were moved to Room 9172 for the rest of our stay, and Piper and Cohen visited first thing Wednesday morning. They were thrilled to meet their little brother just as we had been early that morning! With it all said and done, I know this was the day my son was supposed to enter this world, whether it was my original plan or not, it was God's perfect plan.

Sweet Belly

When I was pregnant with Abe the ultrasound tech at my doc's office mentioned two different times that his belly measured 2 weeks larger than the rest of his body. When he was born, I could see why! He has continued to maintain his girth and I am so proud! My body created and continues to nourish this chubby little cutie.

Just like Daddy

Cohen seems to have one goal these days: to be just like Daddy! He loves to run around the house with his shorts and no shirt because Daddy does it. Abe fit right in as I was dressing him for church, so Cohen thought this would be a great photo!

Picnic on the roof

Sam spent a few nights with us this week. She is wonderful to have around because she seems to reduce my kids bickering to less than half. She loves to play with Piper and always includes Cohen, helping him if she needs to.

One evening they packed their dinner in a cooler and climbed onto the roof to eat. Since the roof of the basement entrance is right by the kitchen window, they would knock on it for me to serve them anything they had forgotten to include in the cooler.

Whoa Max!

Grandmommie saw the kids and me putting out our FREE KITTENS sign and stopped to offer the kids popsicles. The kids know that to keep their treats from Max they have to get up high where he can not reach them. This time they mounted their dad's big work truck and settled to eat. Out of nowhere, Max jumped right up there with them! We were shocked that he was capable of such a task, but now we know!

Little Mommy

Piper has such a natural mothering instinct. I had to run outside to rescue a kitten from our dog (after aforementioned post, we do not allow our dog to play with the kittens at all, even though he is pretty good with them) and laid Abe in Piper's lap. When I returned she had grabbed up the bottle I had pumped and was feeding Abe like a pro. She has often asked why no one else gets to feed Abe except me, so I am going to try to pump an occasional bottle so she can help!

Car to the ER

I often find my children with the following set-up in the living room floor:


They refer to it as their "car" which they proceed to drive to the ER, where Cohen is always hurt and Doctor Piper always wraps his leg up, gives him a crutch and follows that up with a shot. All doctor's visits end with a shot in their opinion.

The car, according to Piper, contains all of her children and she will always rattle off their ages and let me know which are old enough to sit front-facing and which are still required to be in rear-facing seats. She is such a details kid (kind of like her mother to be quite honest).

Our family circus

Every night when Chad gets home the kids begin begging to play "the feet game." This game was inspired by our trip to the circus a few months ago where two men performed some pretty amazing balancing acts with their bodies. Chad lays on his back on the floor and holds his legs up and the kids perform their balancing acts on his feet. They started by getting up onto their knees, then sitting on his feet and eventually standing on them. Now he has begun to challenge them more by requiring that they balance on only one leg.

This has become a nightly ritual that we all enjoy. It won't be long before Abe is right there with them arguing over whose turn it is!

Mad Skills

Last month, Piper got her real gas-powered 4-wheeler (as opposed to her brother's battery-powered one) that she waited about 6 months for. I had real mixed emotions about it and chased them in the yard for 2 nights with that remote in hand, ready to turn it off at the least sign of trouble. Well, I quickly realized that my kids are quite talented when it comes to driving just about anything, even gas-powered 4-wheelers!

Piper drives super-responsibly just as we figured she would but her brother is a different story all together. All he is concerned with is going as fast as humanly possible! Without any encouragement from Chad or me, he started doing tricks like riding on his knees and braking to do doughnuts in the gravel, he seems to think the dust cloud created is something to marvel over. What is so crazy though, is that he has some real natural talent when it comes to driving.

My kids have an older friend, Sam (I have mentioned her before) who spent some time here over the weekend. Her dad had purchased a 4-wheeler for her also, so they brought it over and the kids took turns riding around the yard and through the trails by the creek. After riding with Cohen for a half hour or so, Sam came in the house bragging that Cohen had some "mad skills" on the 4-wheeler! I have often thought the same thing but never phrased it exactly like that!

(And yes, he is wearing his sister's pink helmet)

Baby Abe

I spend so much of my time trying to get this little guy to sleep and his daddy lays him on the couch like this and he sleeps over an hour!

Abe is so not a sleeper during the day, I guess he feels like he is going to miss out on something?? He sleeps great at night but trying to get this little guy to take a good nap is almost impossible these days. I figure he is just going through a stage, but I have a hard time getting anything done around the house because his daytime sleep is few and far between. On the other hand, I really enjoy having a good excuse to sit in the rocker with him for hours!