A break from the rain...

The boys were so cooped up yesterday from all the rain, that at the first sign of clear skies we let the boys ride their bikes on the road. It wasn't long before they had the Jeep out instead. Connor has mastered the driving now that he is a little older with just the right timing of his turns to avoid the grass and curbs and taking full advantage of the reverse and forward controls. Brady on the other hand...needs to return to driver's ed. I love the pictures of Connor as a passenger below...at one point, he said "just let me out" and it sounded just like a dad talking to his child ("just pull over and I'm taking over").

"Wait, I need to fasten my seat belt"

"Help!"

"I'm calling for help!"

Claire's 1-week appointment

Claire had her 1-week appointment with the pediatrician today. The pediatrician was glad to see such progress for our little Claire. No surprise, our little piggy has exceeded her birth weight and weighs 8 lbs., 3 oz. and is now 21 inches long. She was at 55% for weight and 85% for height. Great job Claire - you are keeping a strong pace with your brothers!

We will be seeing the pediatrician weekly for weight checks and pulse ox checks so we will be able to see how quickly she grows over the next month. After that, she will return to the Cardiologist to have a 2nd Echo Ultrasound done to measure the growth and operation of her pulmonary valve. A hissing sound was identified by her pediatrician on the day of her birth and they did an Echo Ultrasound and EKG where they determined she has a narrowing of her pulmonary valve. Right now, it is not creating any issues as evidenced by her pulse ox readings and her nightly monitoring from the sleep apnea machine. However, they want to monitor it as she grows to make sure it keeps pace. We will know more after her next appointment. We have faith that Claire is a trooper!

Claire's First Week at Home

While it is too soon to tell, Claire's first week at home has been very promising. She is a very content baby that loves her bouncy seat, loves her brothers, loves her paci (which makes it very easy to appease her) and after the first night figured out how to put the day/night confusion behind her. She sleeps 3-4 hours between the bottle feedings at night, so she is up once or twice for a 15 minute period.

Our first weekend at home, the boys were very protective of her and kept watch. They actually sat on the couch playing their Leapster while she snoozed in her bouncy. If we left her sleeping in another room, the boys got concerned that she was alone. She received her first sponge bath, which she seemed to enjoy mainly because Connor was talking to her the whole time.

By the end of the weekend, Connor got up the nerve to ask if he could feed her. He now claims this is his "job" and wants to do it all the time. Brady got the opportunity to feed her the next night. Connor convinced him that he had to hold Claire while he did it because she is "heavy".

We love having our baby girl, Claire, finally here and part of our family! We love seeing the reaction the boys have to her everyday!

Happy Birthday Zeus!

The boys' school has an annual musical/play that the entire school participates in. They practice the song and the dance moves for a couple months, have a formal dress rehearsal, and then they perform to a packed house at the Victory. For a couple months, the only CD playing in my car is for the school play. The boys had all the songs memorized - not just their own.

This year's selection was "Happy Birthday Zeus" (all the Greek Gods were preparing for his birthday). Connor was Poseidon and the song was "Respect Your Elders". Brady was Hephaestus and the song was "I'm a Big Boy Now".

Chris was able to attend the dress rehearsal where he was able to get some video footage (in the event they didn't perform the next night). It was a little questionable on how the actual performance was going to go, but they delivered. Chris attended the performance along with Mimi, Papa, Aunt Julie, Gma Darla, and Papa Tommy. Claire and I stayed home for obvious reasons, but were able to enjoy the video later. Connor was so cute with his old man cane and performing all the cane links with his partner. Brady was one of the smallest kids in his group which made it that much cuter when you saw him shuffling across the stage from one spot to the other for a dance move.

Great job boys...we are really proud of you!

Time to head home...

After spending three days at the hospital, we were ready to get Claire home and settled in. The boys had spent the last three days running between their grandparents, their best friend's house, school, and the hospital. Connor was ready to see his mommy and lil' sissy at home. We went home from the hospital Thursday around lunch time and then Chris headed to the boys dress rehearsal for their school play. It was a late evening for the boys as we wanted to give them the opportunity to visit. They were very excited to see Claire and you can tell that they have already formed a strong love for her.

Welcome Baby Girl!

We are proud to announce the arrival of our baby girl, Claire Katherine!!!

Everyone that was waiting with us at the hospital made guesses as to when Claire would make her presence....the doctor even participated. After all time guesses expired except for Chris's of 11:30, she was born Tuesday, April 13, 2010, at 11:33am. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 1 oz, 20 in. tall and had a head full of dark hair. She snuggled with mommy for a bit (they call this skin-to-skin contact) before taking her over for measurements. It was a full day of excitement the rest of the afternoon including the boys' arrival that evening. The boys had the opportunity to see pictures of her before their arrival thanks to Brady's teacher and Connor had already nicknamed her his "little sissy".

Connor was especially excited to see her and was very interested in making as many observations about her as he could (her long fingers, her tiny curled toes, her hair). The first night, Connor held her several times while Brady would only look at her on the digital cameras. The second night, Brady was more excited to hold her. I think he finally made the connection that the baby he was being asked to hold was the baby that mommy had been carrying all these months. That or he finally accepted the fact that he had been replaced as the baby in the family.

This is it...almost a family of five

Everything was happening the same as it did with the boys, but with a little more advanced notice. With the boys, I went to the doctor on Monday and he admitted me that evening for an inducement. This time, the doctor scheduled my inducement a week ahead of time. Fortunately, we were able to plan for where the boys would be going, when I would leave work, wrap up loose ends at work, etc. Every day that passed allowed us to be a little bit closer to a state of readiness! Chris and I both worked Monday and took off a little early to meet at home. We then went and picked the boys up early from school for our last dinner as a family of four. The boys were so well-behaved at dinner and asked a lot of questions about what the week would look like. Many times, Connor kept forgetting that he would actually see me at the hospital as he kept telling me he would see me in a few days.

We then dropped the boys off at their best friend's house for their first sleepover of the week. We had reminded them of the rules several times about it being a school night and they had to go to bed at a decent time and not give the parents the same issues in the morning as they do us. Other than the three boys getting the Wii taken away and redirected to other activities, they seemed to have a good time and were well-behaved. Enough to be asked to stay there again in a couple days!

After much wait and stalling, we then proceeded to the hospital for a 10pm check-in to prepare for the 4am inducement. We were so ready to welcome our new baby girl!

Last weekend as a family of four....

Katie was trying to prove to me that she can be a good babysitter

The last weekend as a family of four did not start off very well at all! On Saturday morning, the boys started arguing and fighting so we decided to separate them. I took Brady with me to run a couple errands while Connor stayed home with Chris to help him mulch. While Brady and I were out running errands, we got an invite to join his cousins, Ethan and Katie, and Grandma at Kids Kingdom for a picnic and then play on the playground. Brady had a blast! I felt a little guilty that Connor wasn't with us and was instead doing mulching and Home Depot runs, but luckily Brady didn't "brag" to Connor about his afternoon.

We returned home after getting a call from Connor that he missed his brother. When asked how his afternoon with daddy was, he responded "fine, but kind of boring". After our return home, you could tell the boys had really missed each other and were perfect angels towards each other and for us the rest of the weekend. They actually joined together for various activities both inside and outside and made the weekend very enjoyable.

On Monday, the plans were for the boys to start the round of sleepovers while mommy and daddy spent the next few days at the hospital welcoming their new little sister!

Birthday Parties

Tis the age for classmate birthday parties....

Two weekends in a row, the boys were invited to at least 6 different birthday parties. We chose two for the boys to attend based on the relationship they had with the child and whether they were both invited. The first weekend, we attended a birthday party for Connor's classmate at Bouncing off the Walls. This was the first time we had been there and it was a lot of fun! Very similar to Pump it Up, but with a little more variety. The following weekend we attended a party for Brady's classmate (which used to be Connor's classmate) at Acros. Brady had never been to Acros and was a little hesitant to jump in the pits at first. After a friend's mom offered him a $1, he was all for it and was hoping to collect a $1 per jump. Even though that deal was off, he still had a lot of fun after that first jump. He did collect on that dollar also about 3 weeks later - he doesn't forget!

Written words...based on how they sound to a 5 year old!

I love how much Connor is learning and how he is learning...he is now writing words based on how they sound to him and I get asked to read them. Did you know that Lhcr spells Locker, Rcq spells Rock, and hs spells house. I do now! I love how he removes all vowels. He will also spell a word out loud that he heard in conversation based on how he thinks it should be spelled and ask for confirmation.

Unfortunately, he hasn't been as interested in reading books lately. I think his feelings were hurt when the books started getting harder and required more than one day of learning the words. I guess it is a lot for a little guy to learn all at once. Regardless, I have to say that we are really proud of the progress he has made!

Easter Weekend

We started off the Easter Weekend with our tradition of coloring Easter eggs. This was the 2nd year for this activity and the boys thoroughly enjoy it. Connor loves hard-boiled eggs, so having them colored is an extra treat. Brady has been working on a new "work" at school where he has learned to peel and slice hard-boiled eggs.

The next morning, we had a nice little Easter surprise - bunnies! My brother-in-law had moved them from the yard into an orange bucket to protect them from the lawnmower. The next day, we went out there to check on them. After some research and phone calls, we determined that they were old enough to fend for themselves and the best thing to do was return them to the nest. By the next day, they had all fled the nest and were out on their own.

Saturday evening, we went to Mimi and Papa's for an early Easter dinner and the traditional Easter egg hunt in Papa's garage. The boys were so cute the way they would help each other out and try to make things even. Afterwards, the boys played outside and in the garage with Mimi and Papa while the other adults all relaxed. A shocking outcome - the boys got DIRTY playing in the garage. Usually, Papa's garage is cleaner than a chef's kitchen, but not this time!

On Easter day, we headed to my parent's house for the Easter egg hunt with the cousins and lunch. There were over 100 eggs hidden and I can't tell you how many times we counted each basket to see how many were still hidden! The boys were a little bit more competitive for this Easter egg hunt compared to the day before. After lunch, the adults all played cards while the kids played outside most of the afternoon. It was a very nice end to the Easter weekend!

Isn't that how you play?

The mommies had plans one Saturday and decided that the boys could all hang out together. We figured that the distraction of having Carac to entertain our boys would make it easier for Chris. They spent the afternoon playing Wii and Ben unlocked several new levels on Super Mario (since Chris and I have not really played and the boys were still stuck in the first few worlds). They were thrilled and had a fun afternoon!