Domestic Adventures

I bought a really cute sling. It was an adorable pattern. It looked so simple and easy. I really wanted it to work. Every time I tried to put Isaac in it though, he screamed bloody murder. He was fed, he was happy, he still did not like the sling. I even watched the instructional dvd. Sigh. So I broke down and bought a Baby Bjorn Carrier. We love it. Within ten minutes of putting Isaac into the carrier he fell asleep. We’ve used it for several outings thus far and it’s been great. I really appreciate having my hands free and it’s so much easier to carry Isaac in the Baby Bjorn than in his cumbersome infant seat. I’ve also used it to carry him around the house when he just won’t calm down, but I need to be doing things. Once he’s fallen asleep in it, he transfers very easily to the crib. While I still love the idea of the sling, I find this to feel much more secure, and I’m guessing Isaac does too.

…I think he’s kinda cute.

My garden has quite predictably gone by the wayside and been overwhelmed by weeds and creepy crawlies. Ah, well, I kind of expected that. I did manage to harvest one beautiful cucumber though, and the kids were more than willing to eat it. I also have a lovely little watermelon I’m keeping an eye on. A few weeks ago the watermelon was just a tiny little green striped ball. Micah excitedly declared, “Look! It’s as big as Isaac’s toe!” It was. Now it’s as big as Isaac’s head!

Love you!

I can’t believe it’s been one month since Isaac was born! This month went by a lot faster than the previous one. We’re adjusting to the new normal and living life in three hour increments - funny how that makes the days (and nights) go by so quickly - wow, has it been three hours already?!
Isaac is growing chubbier and looking more alert. He’s made his first trip to the grocery store, first trip to the park, and has been sitting under the poolside umbrellas with me watching his big brother and sister at swim lessons. He’s made his way into Micah’s imaginary dinosaur family and into Emmie’s drawings.
It’s good to be a family of five.

Afternoon snack time:

E: I paused our pretending while we eat our snack.

M: Mmm, you make yummy pauses.

During Bible story time this evening…

E: I’m thankful for my Savior and God’s Word.

M: I’m thankful for IKEA!

Emmaline’s reading has really improved over the past several weeks. Not long ago, it was a struggle to get through the sentences in her reading workbook, but suddenly things are clicking and we’ve entered the world of chapter books. It started with the discovery of Mercy Watson - the “porcine wonder”. I love the look of these books. They have wonderful color illustrations on nearly every page, and the print is larger than most chapter books, which is particularly nice since we are still working on some vision issues. The chapters are only three or four pages each and the stories are hilarious. These are books I want to own a collection of.
We’ve also been checking out the Magic Treehouse books at the library. These are just at the upper reaches of Emmaline’s reading level, but each time we sit down with them, her reading gets smoother. We’ve settled into a nice routine of reading together during Isaac’s mid-morning feeding, taking turns reading chapters. It’s turning into one of my favorite times of day.

The transition to a shared bedroom for Emmaline and Micah began a few months ago, but the final touches just got finished this week. The old room was lavender and girly, so we needed a theme that worked for both kids. Emmaline has been begging to paint her walls blue for forever and lucky for us, both kids have recently become infatuated with dinosaurs. They are thrilled with their new dinosaur room.

The bed, shelving units, leaf canopy, and stuffed animal holders are from IKEA (it only took us several hours to ponder our numerous options in their showroom) I love that the bed is half-lofted so we can still reach Emmaline’s bunk without any climbing. Micah’s consolation for getting the lower bunk is that he has lights down there with his very own light switch. He takes a lot of pride in his light switch.

He also has his very own baby dinosaur. When we first started talking about the dino theme, the kids were begging me to paint dinosaurs on the walls. I can paint some things, flowers, leaves, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to paint a dinosaur that didn’t look like an enormous kindergarten drawing. Lucky for me, I found these giant wall stickers, and I completely love how they turned out. All I added were some ferns and leaves.

Because the bedroom isn’t all that big and we wanted to maximize both storage and play space, Trent took off the closet doors and we slid the dresser right in. There’s still a little room for some hang-ups off to the side, but most of the clothes go in the dresser. To minimize the cluttered look I bought some inexpensive baskets at Old Time Pottery and labeled them for storage. I’d like to paint the inside of the closet, but that will have to be a project for another time.
When it’s clean, the room looks great. Too bad it isn’t always clean!

My little veggie garden has enjoyed the rain lately. The timing worked out well to cover the last few days of my pregnancy and my time in the hospital. Look at the tiny vegetables waiting for me when I got home! Micah is especially excited about the corn, but my favorites are the tomatoes.

I’m a big fan of epidurals and all, but as far as the hospital stay, I can see the appeal of a home birth. Isaac’s first night, he slept pretty well with only one period of middle-of-the-night-wakefulness. Unfortunately, the day started at 5:30am with someone there to draw blood to check my iron levels. Between 5:30am and 11am, I counted at least 11 different people in and out of my room…

Tech to draw blood
Nurse to take vitals
ob-gyn
two techs to do hearing test
delivery person from “nutrition services” to deliver breakfast
separate person from “nutrition services” to take next day’s order
pediatrician
housekeeping
hospital photographer
birth certificate people

It wasn’t all bad though. Trent and I played a game of Carcasonne between disturbances and I beat him fair and square despite my lack of sleep.

Sigh… it’s good to be home.