2 Months!

On Christmas Eve's eve, RL was two months old. I'd taken him in for his well-check on Monday since it was Christmas week, and that day he weighed in at 13 pounds, 12 ounces, so I am sure by Christmas he was over 14 pounds. His weight put him in the 90th percentile and he was in the 75th for height. He is getting so round and is just a chunk of cuteness! He's really studying faces, discovering his hands, and interacting more with sweet little coos. He flashed lots of smiles (truly some of his first) at many family members during our Christmas visits. Talk about a sweet gift!

Bathtime! He has really started to like this much more than he did those first few weeks...


He's gaining on Pooh!




Looking very serious...maybe he's pondering being 2 months old...


and realizing it's alot of fun!

Merry Christmas!

No Santa picture this year...but Daddy's lap is way better, anyway!



We wish all our family and friends a very special Christmas celebration filled with much joy and the peace of Christ!

Makes me so happy...

Two quick things:

Yesterday RL smiled at me, really, for the first time! He just looked me in the eyes and that little sweet smile lit his face up like a light! He held it for about 10 seconds, and since then seems a bit unsure of how to do it again...but no doubt he'll be flashing them like a champ by Christmas. So just another way our days will be merry and bright!

This morning AG shared the sweetest idea with me. She said, "I was thinking that when LL and I get older, we can go to college at the same place and meet a family with two brothers about the same age and we can marry them on the same day and have our party after the wedding at your house." (We've been talking about weddings this week because AG and LL are going with us to one Saturday night, and she knows T and I had our reception at my parents' house). I hope, even if this doesn't happen, that they'll stay close enough as they grow up to at least think it's a fun idea!

Up on the Housetop

AG's Christmas solo yesterday...

Our Growing Boy

For weeks lots of people have been commenting on how big RL is getting, and I've agreed that I think so, too. It was not until this week that we weighed him again and I actually realized just how true it is...he is now 7.5 weeks old, and today he tipped the scales at 13 pounds, 3 ounces. In comparison, AG weighed 12 pounds, 12 ounces at 4.5 months! We've never had such a big "little" baby. Just one of the early differences about boys, so I hear...I guess all those middle of the night meals have their results! I love his expression here...wonder what he's thinking! Lots of people have been commenting lately that RL looks like SJ. What do you think?


And here's how he shocked me last week...rolling over 3 times in one day! The third time I got it on video, so check it out if you are patient :) (and don't mind seeing a half-dressed baby! I'm not sure why I didn't have a shirt on him for such a major event:)

The Girls

A quick update on the girls...

We've been staying home alot, missing most of our usual activities due to a mild but persistent case of the sniffles that we've passed around since Thanksgiving. It's also been very rainy for the last week or so, so playing outside hasn't even been an option most days. The girls have been pretty good at making the most of these days anyway, getting creative inside and coming up with lots of different games with interesting roles for each to play. Not surprisingly, they often pretend to be moms and other kids we know, storekeepers, chefs, or characters from Narnia or Little House on the Prairie. One day they made stages out of blankets and pillows and did a concert:



SJ with her new haircut and the inflatable microphone she got as a prize from the hair place




Even though it can be trying to stay in so much, they come up with ways to have fun and never fail to make me laugh everyday. I'm thankful to have three little indoor sunshines on these dreary weather days!

Weekend before last it snowed a little on Friday night, and we woke up to a little bit of icy snow on the ground the next morning. They lasted a few minutes before deciding they'd rather come in for hot chocolate!

Thanksgiving Weekend Fun

After our Thanksgiving day celebration, the fun continued through the weekend with a few other special avtivities. On Friday morning I awoke to a quiet, seemingly empty house and then discovered AG and LL in the backyard with T, playing in the frost! It's not as much fun as the snow we got last December, but we make the most of whatever wintery white groundcover we get down here!

(We actually got a bit of real snow this weekend, but I haven't uploaded that photo yet...just one because the snow was pretty icy by the morning and the girls didn't last long out there!)

We spent part of Friday morning at the zoo...the highlight of our visit was seeing the new baby rhino, just a few months old and pretty cute for a rhino!


After the zoo, we headed out to a tree farm to pick out and cut our own Christmas tree! AG scouted out the scene as all 6 of us tromped through the "forest"...


while LL's complete attention was focused on gathering "ferns" to make soup with when we got home (imagination at work! Let her know if you need a good recipe for fern soup!)


We decided on the tree for us and T got to work sawing.


Timber! Ready to load it up and take it home!


Family photo at the forest's edge on our way out


Saturday was my birthday, and although T and the girls cooked breakfast and gave me some gifts early, RL gave me what I consider my first gift of the day...a night with only one middle-of-the-night wake up call! It was wonderful to get a four hour and three hour stretch of sleep on the same night. I was hopeful that it was the beginning of something good sleepwise, but that night and every night since he's been back to his snacking every few hours. However, he did take his first bottle later that day with absolutely no fussing (another gift!)...


We hung out at home most of the day and watched our team win the Egg Bowl...another fun "treat"! That night we went out to eat at Chili's...always a winner with the girls! It was sweet to celebrate the blessing of another year with my favorite people...our first meal out as a family of 6. (In this pic, RL is asleep behind the blanket!)

Thanksgiving

This year we were happy to be able to host our family's Thanksgiving celebration... our first time to do so with both sets of grandparents, plus T's brother and my uncle. We have so much to give thanks for...and it was great to celebrate and make memories here at home. T's mom and my mom brought lots of food, and I cooked my first turkey...with consultation at the end from those with lots of experience (which is what made it turn out as well as it did!). Here are some photos from the day...

All around the table:
PopPop, AG, and Nana


LL and her Uncle Matthew


Grandpa and SJ (who after eating her turkey asked for "more chicken!")


Uncle David, Gran, and LL


It was a beautiful day, and after lunch we headed outside. We are so thankful to have RL with us on his first Thanksgiving!


Nana rallied the troops to plant some pansies! The girls all pitched in as eager little gardeners.


AG really enjoyed the flower-planting. After everyone left, I asked her what her favorite part of the day was and she said, "Planting the flowers."


There was no shortage of arms to hold RL!


Uncle David got to know RL and helped Matthew keep the girls entertained with some fun games.


What a blessing to get to be together!

One Month Already!

Last Monday RL turned one month old! It's been a sweet month. Highlights for me include seeing how his sisters love him and those precious newborn stretches, which I keep meaning to catch on video! He is doing great and growing like crazy. We'd weighed him on the 19th and he was up to 10 lbs. 12 oz...which means he was gaining about a pound a week since his 2 week check-up. Not surprising, considering the frequency of his nighttime meals! He now sleeps in his own room, which has been redecorated (out with the pink, in with red and blue!). The last few nights he's been sleeping in his carseat since he came down with his first cold on Wednesday or Thursday. He seems to be doing OK, but is pretty sniffly at times.

Here's the little guy...I love this little face with its many expressions!



Handsome baby, handsome Daddy!

The Aliens Finale

After almost three months of soccer practices and games, the Aliens wrapped up their season the Saturday before Thanksgiving with an indoor trophy presentation since the game scheduled for that morning had been rained out. LL ended up practicing and playing with AG's team alot after RL arrived because it made life much easier! The whole concept of winning and losing likely would have been missed by our girls had they not picked it up from their teammates, since it's not really focused on by the adults involved. This is a good thing, because had the enjoyment of the season been based on goals scored, the Aliens would have been pretty sad. AG's typical comment when I asked how the game went (I missed most of the last month) was "The other team got alot of scores." She and LL never seemed discouraged and kept good attitudes and effort throughout, and we are thankful that this first sports experience was a fun one overall.

AG with her first ever trophy...


and LL with hers. The lady who organized and helped coach the team was so kind to completely include LL as a full team member that day!


Afterward everyone enjoyed cupcakes...especially SJ!

The RLP Convention

Last weekend we went to Mimi and PawPaw's house to officially introduce little RL to his great-grandparents. T's parents were also there, and it was really special and fun to have all 4 generations of RLPs together! T's aunt and uncle were there and took some great photos, and RL got to meet his cousins L and A. What a blessing to have family nearby to share such special times!

Baby RL meets his PawPaw!


Getting to know Mimi...


AG, LL, and SJ had lots of fun with cousins L and A!


Rocking with Nana...


RL with L and A. (On a side note, L was the flower girl in our wedding when she was just 4 years old, and her sister A was not even born until 4 months later! Have we been married this long, really???)

The Simple Life

Since RL arrived, we've been taking it as easy as we can. It's taking me a while to figure out how to take care of more little ones on way less sleep. Thankfully we had planned to take a break from most of our schoolwork, so our schedule at home is less structured (even by our standards!). And thanks to many very kind friends, family members, and neighbors, I've had to do very little shopping and cooking in the last weeks. We've resumed going to church and Bible study with RL accompanying us, and we've made it to a soccer game, the library, and LL's dance class with him in tow. I've even ventured out by myself with all 4 to do some shopping a few times. But for the most part, each day arrives without a master plan and we take it an hour at a time... which has been nice (though I have to tell myself occasionally that it's OK!). I've noticed a few times lately how little they really ask for much of the time. It's so easy to focus on the moments when everyone needs something immediately, simultaneously, desperately. There are those times, but truthfully, there are also plenty of times when the girls keep themselves (and each other) happily occupied for long stretches with little to no intervention or assistance needed from me. It's sort of weirdly nice to occasionally feel like a wallflower in such a generally busy season of life!

The girls have been really sweet with RL and have been pretty gracious with me as I've pretty abruptly been less available and come to expect more independence from them. Their play has, not surprisingly, often revolved around taking care of babies, and even their "cooking" in their kitchen has taken the form of preparation and delivery of pretend meals to someone in need. Today we walked around the block and all three girls took along babies, diaper bags, etc. I looked back to see that AG had her baby doll's head stuck under her shirt with her whole tummy showing, nevermind that we were on a fairly busy street with plenty of traffic. Surely I've been more discreet than this with RL's meals!?!

A few cute things I want to remember:
Monday the girls got into playing wedding before lunch (LL was marrying "Miguel", played by the biggest stuffed rabbit we have in our collection) so our lunch became the reception. All three girls had on white dress-up dresses, and as they were eating I decided this would be a good time to talk about how the Bible teaches us that the relationship between Jesus and the church is like that of a groom and bride. They listened for a few minutes before AG remarked with a question in her voice, "But not everybody in the church is a girl"!

At supper that night we were talking about the upcoming winter Olympics. The girls seem to be really excited about watching them, and I was trying to name as many of the winter events as I could. Speed skating, figure skating, skiing, all the races downhill on sleds...I paused and searched my mind for another event. "Maybe making a snowman?" LL suggested, so seriously. It was so precious.

SJ seems so much bigger and can do so much now. She totally hangs with her sisters during playtime and it works out really well most of the time. Some of the main things I want to remember about her during this season are her unique ways of saying things, particularly how she always says things at least twice, sometimes way more for added emphasis, and often with a tilted head and raised eyebrows. She likes to compare others to herself, even when it totally doesn't apply, by saying "...like me, like me!" And she constantly adds extra "-es" to her plurals, with one of her favorite words being "mineses".

That's all for now! Hope to post more photos soon...

Three's Company

We've been planning all along to move SJ into the room with AG and LL at some point in the next few months, but we made a quick decision to do it over the weekend. This was mainly motivated by a near-sleepless night due to a certain little roommate of ours that seemed to have been in the midst of a growth spurt and wanted to eat every hour. We decided it was time to have the crib available for the little guy so that we can get him in his own room ASAP, so SJ graduated up to the toddler bed in the "big girl" room. I'd talked to her about starting to sleep in there a few times, and she seemed excited. After we told her she would be moving that night, she ran around saying, "Sleep! Big girl bed!" AG and LL were excited to welcome SJ into their room. Here are some pics of the three girls in SJ's bed in their new pj's (which we afterwards decided were to cozy for that night...it's still pretty warm here).

Sweet


Silly


Sardines!


T and I went in to take a peek later on and this is what we found...


We've had to work with AG and LL on leaving the room quietly in the mornings so they don't wake SJ (a late sleeper) up, and one night SJ woke up and had trouble going back to sleep and was being noisy and keeping AG and LL awake in the wee hours of the morning, so we put her back in the crib to finish the night. But all in all, after 4 nights the transition seems to have gone pretty smoothly. Hopefully by Thanksgiving we can "depink" the nursery and have it ready for RL to move in!

2 Weeks

RL's first two weeks have flown by! It seems like he is growing and changing so quickly already.

A few days ago I was able to catch a few smiles as he slept...


At his 2 week check-up on Friday, RL weighed 8 lbs 11 oz (over a pound more than his birth weight!) and measured 20.5 inches. One of the sweetest sibling moments since he came took place unexpectedly during the appointment. I'd taken all the girls along, and when the nurse came in to give RL one vaccine, LL began to cry and say, "I don't want him to get a stick!" AG got a little teary-eyed, too. I hadn't even thought about how seeing him get a shot would affect them, but it was really sweet to see them have such compassion for him and thankfully he (and they) calmed down quickly.

14 days old!