Preschool

Christopher started Preschool Wednesday. A woman in our ward decided to do a program in her home with 8 kids. He's just going to go Monday and Wednesday mornings. I'm excited, because we were looking into it, but everything was so expensive, we were just going to do the Spring. This way he'll do the whole year, and he'll get to know some of the kids in his Primary class better.

When we first mentioned it to him, he didn't seem too keen on the idea, but we've been hyping it up and had him pretty excited by the time it started. He had to wear his Rockies backpack, which he doesn't necessarily need, but is way cute. I had to include both pictures, because he's such a poser!

I dropped him off and he ran down the stairs and started pulling things out of his backpack (we put some paper and a folder and pencil in their at his insisting). My mom had to pick him up because I was doing hair, and he was NOT happy about it! But later when I got home, he told me all about it. The first thing he said was "I didn't learn anything, like you said, Mom! We just sang songs and played the name game." I asked him if he learned the other kids names from that game, and he said no to that too. Then he proceeded to show me a packet where he traced things and started to write his name. I guess if he doesn't think he's learning, but he is, it's fine by me! He's really excited to go back.

1 week old(ish)

So, baby Cameron is just over a week old now. He sleeps for 5-7 hour stretches, which is wonderful. He eats like a horse and was back up to his birth weight at exactly a week. We had to take him into the pediatrician 3 days in a row because he was a little jaundiced. But now he's great. Here are some pics. They're not great because they're from my phone. Our computer crashed and so we don't have the software to upload pics from our camera at the moment. The first 2 are from about exactly a week old, he was just laying around looking cute and I had to take pictures (my phone is full of pics like this!).

Hard to believe they're not smiling for a reason....

....or thinking about something very seriously.....

This one is my favorite. I put him on the changing table this morning and had to go grab something, and when I came back he was doing this:

This is funny because my sister Denise sucked those two fingers just like this for years. I myself was a thumb-sucker. He's only done it once, but I think it's pretty funny. He almost always goes for his fingers when he's hungry. He seems to think there is supposed to be something in there he can eat.

Anyway, I'm thrilled to be a new mom again. Christopher is a great big brother. Not to say we're not having some growing pains, but what's cute is that he doesn't even realize the source of his frustration. We ask him if he wants to spend time alone with Mom or Dad, and he wants to include Cameron. He also makes sure that Cameron always has his tiny teddy bear, and that if he's in his pack n' play or papasan, there's music playing for him. He also usually "helps" me feed Cameron. Everyone's pretty excited to have a baby in the house. Joel and I are both back to work, thank goodness for Grammy and Papa (and Mitchell too)!! Cameron came to his first Rockies game at 8 days, my first day back. My parents happened to have planned to come anyway, so he beat Christopher to a game by a couple of days. More updates and pictures to come, I'm sure. Everyone will be sick of all the pictures I'll post. Muah-ah-ah! : )

Cameron

Well, he's finally here! Cameron was born at 5:54pm on Thursday, August 13th. We checked into the hospital at 7:30am, I was settled and hooked up to saline and potocin by 8:30, they broke my water at about 9:30, and I started having somewhat painful contractions. They gave me the epidural, which made me feel a LOT better, but seemed to slow labor down quite a bit, too. I'm not exactly sure how long I was pushing, I think a couple of hours; but it was a LONG time, a lot longer than it took me with Christopher! The baby was stuck for quite a while, and when he finally came out, he was upside down with his arms up on his chest. NOT helpful! But other than a cone head that went down pretty fast, and a huge bruise across his forehead, he's pretty perfect. In fact, he looks a LOT like Christopher when he was a newborn. It's like I gave birth to twins four years apart! OK, there are little differences, but overall he resembles his big brother quite a bit. He weighed 6 lbs 12 oz, and was 20 inches long (Christopher was 6, 15 and 19 1/2).

Here are some pictures from the hospital:

Daddy and son #2

C feeding the baby a bottle (he nurses really well, but we had to supplement with formula the first couple of days, and we like the babies to take both anyway)
Another big brother/little brother picture. Aren't they cute??!!Baby Cameron chillin' in his blanket. We left the hat on on purpose, just know that under there is a horrific bruise!!
So, right now said baby boy is actually crying to be fed, so I'll do the week-old update a little later!

Birthdays and Baby....

Hmmmm....it's not letting me move the pictures around, so I guess I'll just go out of order. This is just a follow-up to the rest of C's birthday celebration. We did cake and presents on the weekend so that more people could be there. He still talks about how it wasn't his birthday. I feel kind of bad that he didn't get one big party. I really wanted to plan something now that he's a little older, but everything right now is just baby, baby, baby; and I'm so tired all the time. And now next year his brother's birthday will be so close! But we'll do something and plan better!

So, anyway, here is Christopher blowing out his candles. You can also see Joel (he had to make him lean forward a bit, since he was nowhere near the candles) and our neighbor Kimball too.
This is the cake. Most of you know I am not really crafty or anything, except in small spurts, so we almost always order cakes. Plus, I really like the whipped-cream frosting : )
The birthday boy. Isn't this a cute picture? It's on my phone right now.
So, we have moved on from the 4th Birthday and now are anxiously awaiting Cameron's arrival. No one more anxiously or nervously than me! I went to the doctor yesterday (Tuesday the 4th), and my doctor asked if I wanted to schedule an induction a few days early. I said "Yes, PLEASE!!" She said no more than a week, and her Tuesday is crazy and she's off on Wednesday, so we settled on Thursday, the 13th (not crazy about that, but oh well). So, unless I go into labor early, I will check into the hospital Thursday morning at 7:30 and the baby should be born sometime that day! I really am finding that I like having it scheduled. The idea of going into labor actually really scares me for some reason. Plus, I just like being able to plan everything. I will work Friday thru Wednesdays' Rockies games, and then miss the day game on Thursday and hopefully nothing else! I know, I'm such a dork. Anyway, that's the plan for now. I'll update accordingly. We'll be able to upload pics from my phone onto facebook right away from the hospital, so if you're on Facebook, check for baby pics Thursday afternoon/evening!!