Ode to Bjorn

Today I paid bills, worked on primary stuff, cleaned all three bathrooms, read books with Emily, did laundry, and made dinner ... all with Jacob strapped to the front of me.

He's still only napping well if he's held and the past couple of days it seems to have gotten worse. He's now not content during his awake time unless he's being entertained. He can't quite hold his toys by himself yet so unless I'm there to play with him he just cries. He has such a hoarse little cry it makes it extremely hard to just let him cry things out. I feel so guilty. So today I gave in and just carried him around with me. I'm sure I'm just making things worse in the long run. But I guess I'm the one that has to deal the consequences - let's just hope they won't be too bad. So I want to say thank you to the Swedish for saving my shoulders. I've used our baby bjorn more with Jacob in the last week then I ever used with Emily. Oh, and the extra $40 we spent on getting the one with better back support - totally worth it.

Two Months & Counting

Wow - it's already been 9 weeks since Jacob joined our little family. As long as some of the past days have been, the time really has flown by. He is now over 12 lbs - 75th% for height and weight. The last 4 weeks Jacob has been busy perfecting his smile, sleeping 8-10 hours at night (Hallelujah!!!), only napping when being held, and testing out his vocal chords. He's also started tracking (he loves to look at his toys... and unfortunately the tv) and he's started grabbing things. I have thoroughly enjoyed snuggling with him. I love how he always watches me and is very eager to smile back.

Emily continues to love having her brother around and she is such a good helper. She is always so willing to sing to him, give him his paci, hold him, and try to make him smile. Today she read books to him while I ate breakfast.

Of course there are other things demanding my time and going on in our lives besides taking care of Jacob. So here are the rest of our pictures and adventures the past several weeks:

Jeff and I try to make Valentine's Day more of a family day. We spend the days before writing "love notes" to each other and then on Valentine's we have a "fancy" dinner and read each other the notes. Emily LOVES it. She was so excited to have the lights turned down and use the china. Jeff and I loved her notes this year. She has learned so much in preschool the past few months. She wrote all of our names on them and signed her name. She also drew some great pictures. She is such a sweet little girl and we just love her.

No candles this year... I wasn't as on top of things because of Jacob.

We went to my brother's house to watch the Superbowl. Emily had a blast playing with her cousins and with Gma & Gpa Newman. I wasn't that into the game (but was actually suprised the Saints won) and I thought the commercials were pretty crappy this year. There were only two or three that we liked. I have to say I loved the Doritos commercial with the little boy getting mad at the guy going out with his mom. And the Betty White Snickers commercial was good. There was a lot of wasted money on the others though.

We celebrated Lucy's and Lisa's birthdays the beginning of February. It was the first time everyone from my family had been together since Thanksgiving. The kids were running around and having a blast together. Sara & Emily got to help decorate the cupcakes and then the kids all got to blow out their own candle. It was fun being all together again... even if it was loud and crazy.

We had a field trip to the fire station with Emily's preschool a few weeks ago. Emily got a hat, badge, and coloring book. They also got to climb inside a fire truck and ambulance. The captain came out with his accordion and played for the kids too. Then to end the tour they took them out back with the truck mount fire hose and sprayed it. The kids had a lot of fun.

I love the little boy dancing next to Emily

Post Pregnancy Rantings

I've noticed that after the arrival of baby #2 fellow bloggers posting trends tend to drop off. I now find myself in that same boat and completely understand why. As I'm making lunch with one hand, holding a crying baby with the other, have spit up running off my shoulder, and the phone is ringing, I find that my to-do list is accumulating quite a layer of dust. As I mentally add things to my list, blogging initially starts out at the bottom and as time passes it moves up to the top till I'm so guilt ridden that I haven't documented my kids life that I finally have a marathon post in an attempt to squash that feeling. I then vow I'm not going to do that again and I'll post again in a couple of days. Then lo and behold it's been two weeks or even a month and I've yet to even note that the kids are driving me insane and I'm wishing I was in my best friends shoes right now as she's on a cruise with her husband or that I could swap places with my sister and be leaving for Cancun tomorrow. But alas, I'm here with a constant barrage of whining and a baby that will only sleep if he's being held and wondering how I'm ever going to have time to prepare my sharing time for Sunday. Now in an attempt to start thinking positively (and so this post doesn't seem so depressing) let's just move on to pictures.

Dress shopping with Aunt Niki and playing cards with soon-to-be Uncle Mike. (And note that Mike is playing princess go fish. He's going to be a good uncle to all those girls).

And here's what completely makes up for the disastrous looking house, numerous pancake or grilled cheese dinners, once-a-week showers, 3-days-a-week pajama days, and one out-of-the-loop primary president:

One Month

I can't believe our little guy is already one month old. Time has just flown by. Jacob's had a lot of firsts this month - first Christmas, first New Years, first bath, first family trip, and first cold. (And he actually had his first time away from mom. I decided to attend primary for a little bit on Sunday and was surprised at how normal it felt. It was really weird the first time I went somewhere without Emily).

Jacob has done so well adjusting to his new life. We're very fortunate that he will usually go 6 hours between feedings at night and I'm very appreciative of his desire to eat every 3 or 4 hours during the day - instead of the customary 2. Jacob has such an intense stare and a thoughtful expression. I love staring into his eys - they look bluer and bluer every day. He has such a quiet, hoarse little cry that it either makes me smile or want to cry when I hear it. He is also very strong. When laying down he pushes himself all over and he's almost always in the top corner of his crib when he wakes up. Several people - grandparents, doctors, nurses, and Jeff - have all commented on how strong he is (of course my ribs and I already knew that). Jacob is such a little cuddler. I love how he curls up in my arms and snuggles. And of course I'm still totally in love with his dimples. I love it when he cracks a smile while sleeping, eating or at other random times (like yesterday when Emily was showing him how silly her potato head looked).

I am grateful for what a wonderful helper and big sister Emily is. She is always so good to get me things when I'm stuck on the couch or help cheer up Jacob when I'm busy making dinner. We are all so grateful for his sweet little spirit. I just can't imagine life without him or my sweet Emily. What a wonderful blessing to be a parent.

Holbrook Family Festivities

Saturday the 26th we got together with Jeff's family. We began with pizza and family pictures and ended the afternoon with presents. Emily was just as excited for her gifts as she was for Ella's. And Niki was nice enough to paint the girls toenails.
The next day we all headed up to Bear Lake for a three day retreat. We got a late start and ended up driving the last half in the dark. Thankfully Jacob slept the whole way and Emily slept for part of it too. I have to mention (and praise) Jeff's amazing driving skills. Just outside of Evanston we came across several deer that decided to see what was so great about the other side of the road. Jeff was able to navigate our car in between two of them and we thankfully arrived at the condo all in one piece.

We then spent the next few days relaxing, laughing, sleeping, playing in the snow, and unfortunately getting sick. Shortly after arriving I started to not feel well and took advantage of the numerous babysitters and spent a good part of my time resting in my room (and nursing of course). Jeff and his siblings all went snowmobiling on Monday. I'm sad I missed seeing Jeff fly 15 feet through his windshield and Brad catching his snowmobile on fire. Thankfully they all returned in one piece - even if the snowmobiles didn't.

Emily had a blast with Ella. They played all day long and we practically had to drag them kicking and screaming to bed. The first night they wanted to sleep together - it didn't last long. They spent the rest of that night and all the others on the floor in their parents rooms.

Jeff and Emily went sledding with Ella, Brad & Gpa. I love how fearless Emily is. Even after running into a big bush she was still laughing and wanting to go again. She loved it and of course she ate as much snow as she possibly could. And maybe that's where she got it - or maybe it came from someone else - but Emily got sick that last night. She complained that her head hurt and while Jeff was holding her and trying to convince her to take some medicine she threw up all over him. We then spent the next few hours dealing with her and trying to get Jacob to sleep. There were a few times that Jeff and I almost packed up and left right then - even if it was 2am.

Thank you Dave & Arline for the great time. Even with all the sickness we still enjoyed it all and we look forward to the next adventure in May!

Christmas

Traditionally we spend Christmas Eve with both or our families. This year we got together at my parents house and had dinner and watched The Polar Express. It was the first time Emily had seen it and it was fun to see her excitement when Santa and his reindeer were on. Per tradition we also tied blankets for Primary Children's Hospital. After the movie we came home and wrote a letter to santa to put out with cookies and milk (and carrots for the reindeer). Then Emily got to open one present - new pj's. She loved them and has wanted to wear them everynight since. They are fancy jammies - like Fancy Nancy - because there's a sparkly kittie on them.

Christmas morning was really nice. Emily didn't come in till 9 so we all got decent sleep. She was so excited for her presents. She got a scooter and Snow White dress up from Santa, a game and scrapbook from us, and her favorite - a Snow White polly pocket - from Jacob. Jeff and I were happy with how things turned out this year. We think the amount was just about right and not overdone - which is a hard line to walk.

That night we had dinner at my parents, played games, and opened presents. Jenn's girls got matching sweaters for Christmas and since Emily already had one that matched we had to get pictures of all the girls.

It was a nice and relaxing Christmas this year. Because of the baby we didn't attend a lot of parties and weren't frantically running around all month. Of course Jacob did bring a lot of changes and things weren't "normal", but they were better. We are so grateful for our new addition and love him so much. We can't imagine life without him.