Rookie Mistake

Jason and I haven’t been first time parents for a long time, but we are still suffering from some of our stupidity.

When we got pregnant with Emma, it was quite a surprise. We had not been planning to have children for another couple of years, so there was quite a bit of apprehension when we found out. However, the initial shock soon wore off and the shopping began.

Back then Jason and I both worked full time, so we had two incomes. We also found out we were expecting a girl right before we got our income tax rebate. So, first time parents + money + rebate money = some stupid purchases.

Things like the infant bathtub. My sister assured me I didn’t need one, but I had to have it. I think over the course of two kids I may have used it 3 times. Then there is the bottle/baby food warmer. While this did get used frequently, a cup of hot water works just as well.

I could keep on and on, but getting to my point…when I got Gretchen out of the tub the other night I reached into the vanity and grabbed what I thought was a hooded baby towel: (Even though regular towels work just as well.)

Doesn’t she just look so happy and comfortable? Well, although it may look like a hooded towel, in reality it is the stupidest purchase we made….

Yes, that is a bathrobe. For a baby. It’s cute, but have you ever tried to put clothes on a soaking wet baby? Not to mention that it only comes to her knees, so I had to use a towel anyway.

I guess I shouldn’t feel too bad – after all, baby gear is a huge industry, and there are warehouse-size stores and websites dedicated to all the stuff and fluff we “need” to properly care for an infant. Plus, I have managed not to buy the diaper wipe warmer, the microwave bottle sanitizer, the baby food processor, the video baby monitor, pacifier wipes….but I still really want one of those Bumbo chairs!

Dress Rehearsal

As it does every few years, General Conference falls on Easter Sunday this year. General Conference equals watching the feed from Salt Lake in our living room, usually in pajamas. This means that us mommies that live to dress our children in adorable clothes miss the chance to find the perfect spring dress for our little girls, and to dress our boys in pastels. No problem…we’ll just do it the weekend before! (Sorry daddies – those wallets won’t get a break this time.)

Since we are usually in our own ward on Easter, this year we decided to go to church with Jason’s dad and stepmom in St. Augustine. Today we celebrated Easter with my parents.

I dressed up the kids in their spring finery and we went to church. We discovered that although Grady’s shirt and sweater vest fit perfectly, the scrawny little thing’s shorts are waaaay to big. Guess I need to pin them before next week.

After church, we went to my mom and dad’s house and the kids found a surprise waiting for them:

There were three little baskets sitting there and a trail of eggs that lead to their Easter gift from Nina and Papa – a “gift certificate” to ride the hamster balls at the mall.

I love that in the note, my mom instructed them not to push and shove, and that it didn’t matter how many eggs they found. I wonder who she might of had in mind when she included that line….

After a wonderful breakfast that mom and I cooked together, Jake and Emma went in the backyard to hunt the eggs again. I put some in really obvious places for Jake, but I made Emma work for them – most of hers were above her head.

The kids had so much fun that I told them to have Nina help them hide eggs and then Jason and I would go hunting. There was some trash talking, but I won by default. Jake decided not to hide his eggs, so his (full) basket was sitting by the slide. Jason picked it up and declared himself the winner. I call that cheating!

Once all the eggs had been found (or claimed), Jason came up with the greatest game EVER. The rules are simple: pelt the children with plastic eggs, which they can throw back and (try) to hit you with. I think I am going to have to keep some eggs around the house…I got some aggression out, and they thought it was hysterical fun!

Unfortunately, the rain came and ended our fun. Meanwhile, Grady and Gretchen finally woke up from their naps and I was able to get a few pictures of my littlest Easter egg:

It took a couple of tries to get a good one, and as you can tell she wasn’t really into it:

I do love that picture. Some of my favorite pictures of my kids are the ones when their true feelings and personalities shine through!

As far as dress rehearsals go, this one was great - and I really can’t wait to teach Mimi and Papa our new game!

I think I need…

 

  A bigger bathtub!  It’s getting kind of crowded in there!

All Aboard!

Even though Jake’s birthday was last weekend, his party was today. Jake has the honor of sharing his birthday with one of his friends, so they swap weekends for thier parties!

Jake is obsessed with his Mo-Mos. (That is a whole other post…) Suffice to say that they are little train people, so his theme this year was trains. We had his party at the Main Street park in Middleburg, and he was lucky enough to share his day with a whole ton of family and friends.

Be sure to click on all the little pictures!

Customize a free digital scrapbooking design

To all our friends that couldn't be there due to illness, baseball games, soccer games, and family trips...we missed you! Although we had a great time, it just wasn't the same without you!

Why the Tooth Fairy has skipped our house

 

   Recently I got wondering when Emma was going to start loosing teeth.  Most all of her peers have lost at least one tooth, some of them two or three.  Then she came home from Nina’s house one day and my mom asked “Have you looked at her teeth lately?” Guess I should do more checks after teeth brushing because this is what I found:

  Good heavens! Where did those come from? When did those come from?  I asked Emma how long she had had extra teeth. She said she never noticed them.  I guess I can’t feel too guilty for not seeing them, considering they are in her mouth and she never felt them.

   We had a friend of ours (who is a dental assistant) take a look at them, and she assures us while it isn’t  exactly normal, its common. However, the new teeth usually come in close enough behind the baby teeth that they make the baby teeth fall out.  In Emma’s case, the new teeth are far enough back that the baby teeth are going to have to be pulled – just don’t tell her that!

    Did I mention that she is so scared and uncooperative with dentist that she has to go completely under anesthesia before the dentist will touch her?  I sure hope she has matured in the last year and a half…I don’t think any of us is ready to go through that again!

***I wrote this post as a draft a couple of months ago.  Today, Emma went to the dentist.  She was spectacular! No whining, no fussing, no complaining.  Her new dentist told me that the office I had taken her to previously over-uses IV sedation.  I guess that is why you always need a second opinion.   I was right about those “shark teeth” – they have to come out, but so do the two on either side.  She goes back on April 19th…I hope she is as well behaved as she was today! (Wish us both luck.)

Daddy’s Traveling Companions

     As part of Jason’s new position, he has to travel to all the stores in his district at least once a month.  This means that twice a month he has to go out of town, once to Tallahassee, and once to the Daytona/Melbourne area.

   Even though he is only gone for one night at a time, we miss him terribly!  Jake and the little bits don’t notice too much, but Emma and I have created our own ways of dealing with his absence.  I have him give me a blessing of comfort and strength the night before he leaves, and I try to go out to dinner with a friend and her kiddos the night he is gone.  Emma sends friends to travel with Daddy.

  Emma is the sweetest little girl.  She is always bringing me her toys to cheer me up when I am feeling down, and when he first started going out of town she would send some of her stuffed animals to keep him company, and to remember her by.  This evolved into her sending Pet Shops.

  She has about a thousand (it seems) of these things, and the night before he goes, he asks her to pick out some new friends.  She is always very careful about her choices, and then sits down with Jason and gives him detailed care instructions.   This week he has the mouse, who is a baby.  Because she is a baby, she needs to be bathed three times a day (the zebra can help with this task).  Zebra, who is a frequent traveler, has a hurt hoof, and will probably sleep most of the time.  She also makes sure that they have everything he needs to properly care for them.

   They each have their own bed, food, and yes, that is a litter box.  The baby mouse has her lovey, and in case they get bored Emma sends something for them to play with.

               

The first few times he went, the pets had to survive at the bottom of Jason’s suitcase, but now they have their own method of conveyance.  Emma picked this out for her Daddy for Christmas.  Now they travel in style!

    I love how serious Jason is about his traveling friends.  He always he makes sure that he gets new ones before he leaves, and he makes sure that he has their care instructions correct.  

   I am glad that Emma has this way to help her not miss her Daddy so much in the short time he is away from us, and I am really glad to know that Jason isn’t lonely on the road!

Priceless

  I am sure that by now you might have noticed that I have a new picture of my babies to head the blog.  Eternal gratitude to my very talented friend Katheryn for taking it, which brings me to the subject of this post.

  When the cousins arrived in town, Kendra and I didn’t want to miss the chance to get a picture of all of them together.  We should have known that the photo shoot was not going to go well after the shopping trip to pick out the wardrobe.  (Kendra and I had taken Jake, Owen, Grady and Gretchen to Target.  We were chasing at least one boy through the store at all times.  Kendra called it a success because the authorities were not called in.)

  Even though we have identical cameras, Katheryn is a master behind the lens.  She manages to capture personalities as well as great smiles.  If  Mandi (another talented friend) ever opens her wedding planning business, Katheryn needs to take the pictures.

  The girls were perfect subjects:

                               

The boys, not so much:

                      

    Then we tried to take them outside and get a group shot.  Either Grady was whining, Owen crying, or Jake refusing to look at the camera.  I actually love the shots that she got, because I laugh every time I look at them.  This is one of my favorites – just look at Jake’s frown!

             

Then he decided he didn’t want anyone to see him, but just look at him peeking out to make sure we were all still paying attention…

              

Once it became obvious that the boys had had enough, Katheryn started taking individual portraits.  Once again, the girls were ready to go, but our sons just wanted to play.  No matter – she captured all of them perfectly!

  

  

 

But out of all of them, this is my very favorite:

               

The sweetest part?  Emma wasn’t posing.  This is a cropped portion of one of the pictures where none of the kids were paying attention…

One dress, five shirts, and three headbands: $50.

Photographer: $4 (payment in the form of homemade baked goods)

Capturing all the smiles, frowns,  love and beauty of family:  Priceless.

(Thanks Katheryn.)

Homecoming

 

   As for the last 8 weeks, all I’ll say is 4 kids + no sleep = no blog.

    After 17 of the longest days of my life, we were finally able to bring Gretchen home from the NICU.  It was a a different kind of celebration than when we brought Jakers home.  Back then, we realized that we had only completed the first of what we thought were going to be many hospital stays.  Thankfully, he has proved to be a healthy little guy!  With Gretchen, we know there will be more doctors visits than with a full term baby, but hopefully the worst is over!

    We didn’t know we were going to be able to bring her home until that morning.  Her nurse called to tell us she had passed her car seat test, hearing test, and had finally taken all her feedings.  I quickly called Jason to get him home, Misty to pick Emma up at school, and my mom to come babysit.

   Once we arrived in the NICU, one of the other moms spotted me and asked if she could come see Gretchen.  Her son’s  isolette  was right in front of the nurse’s station, and she said that all the nurses always talked about how beautiful Gretchen is and they all fought over who got assigned to be her nurse for the day!

    It was finally time to get her dressed and ready to go.  I had ordered some preemie tights, but they proved to be way too big.

  So we just went with her booties instead and made sure she was well snuggled in her car seat before we made the momentous journey to the outside world.

  The most fun about bringing her home was that we didn’t tell Emma – just walked in the door with her little sister and surprised her!

Do you see the tears in her eyes? I think she was a little excited.  Gretchen big brothers were just as happy.  Emma had met her though the window at the NICU, but the boys had never even seen her except in pictures.  We were giving Emma and Jake turns to hold her when Grady held his arms to hold her.  He had never asked to hold anything before! (Except grunting and pointing, which I don’t count.)

  I think it is safe to say that she is a well-loved little girl!  Emma has been a phenomenal big sister, feeding, loving, rocking, holding, and even changing her baby.  Jake has even done his share of carrying and holding – more than I would like!  Grady just asks to see her and then pats her little head.  I personally think that he remembers her from their time together before, and is periodically making sure she is really here on this side of the veil.

   We are all so glad this little spirit chose us to be her family, and that now the Howle family is complete!