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!!

Birthday Bowling pictures

Here are the pics. Not so great, cuz they were taken with my phone. We're kind of having camera issues. Long story. But at least I have some!

Here's Christopher about to give Daddy a high five after knocking down some pins (notice, with bumpers AND a ramp : ))
After a while, for some reason he just wanted to roll the ball down the gutter, which was a challenge considering the bumpers came up for his turn. So, he and Joel switched turns so Christopher could do that. Weird kid.
He celebrated for everyone pretty equally. And he doesn't really understand the whole concept of a Spare. He thinks if anyone gets all the pins down, even in both rolls, it's a strike.

Christopher is 4!

Yesterday Christopher turned 4. It was a busy day. I had a hair appointment in the morning (to get mine done, not to do someone else's), during which time Joel and Christopher put up Cameron's crib and rearranged the room so the boys can share. This may not seem necessary yet, but the crib has its own storage and we have nowhere else to keep Cameron's clothes and such. So even though he won't be in there for a few months, now we have all of his stuff in there and out of boxes in our living room! Christopher was not completely thrilled at first to rearrange his room, but then he warmed up and helped and now he's really excited. I'll try to get pics of that up here soon.

Anyway, after that we headed out to order Christopher's cake for the weekend "party." We ordered it from Sam's and then headed down to where my doctor's appointment was. I have to see the doc every week now, so Tuesday is appointment day until this baby is born! Which is nice, because Tuesday is also Joel's day off and he can come with me. We had lunch at Costa Vida (this will also be a Tuesday ritual until the baby is born : )), which is a couple blocks from the hospital. Then we went to my appointment, and C insisted on coming in to see the the doctor with me. This is good cuz then Joel can come in, and C can hear the baby's heartbeat and such. My doctor said I'm definitely progressing (I don't want to gross anyone out, so I'll spare you the details!) and that she'd definitely consider inducing me a week early if I'm really uncomfortable. I'm thinking we may take her up on that! She said it would be really easy this time considering my body is already starting to do what it's supposed to. I have to admit, when she said last week that things were starting to happen, I was excited, but also unexpectedly scared. It suddenly hit me that I don't know what it's like to go into labor! With Christopher, I was induced from scratch! So, this compromise would be nice. I just want to get through the Cubs series at work. Cubs fans tend to make our lives interesting and I don't want to make the guys do my job that weekend! We'll see what happens as we get closer.

After that, we went bowling, which is what C really wanted to do for his birthday. My mom and Dad met us at Brunswick and we bowled a couple of games (well, not me, I'm not supposed to bowl) and played in the arcade. Christopher loved it until he realized Shauna and Lily and JoJo never showed up (they all had things come up). I felt so bad when he cried because his friends weren't there! But Saturday we're going to do cake and presents and they promised to be there. Plus, Shauna came this evening and took him out for Cold Stone, so he got to spend some time with her. After bowling, we went to Pei Wei (otherwise known as "Jaime's work," even tho both Jaime AND Mitchell work there) for dinner. Then we came home and let C open his present from us, which was Pirates of the Carribbean Toss Across, which he has already made me play several times!

Today his package from Joel's parents came with 3 more presents which he couldn't wait to open and loved. I'm a little worried about what will happen when he's not getting mail everyday, because he sure has loved getting all of his cards! I'll post more and pics after we have his little party Saturday. We wanted to do something on his actual birthday, and were kind of afraid to put all of our eggs in one basket considering something could have happened with the baby.

Randomness from June and July

It's been a little crazy since we got back from our trip. We've all been working hard, trying to get ready for the baby, etc. So, I thought I'd just try to record some things to remember/ inform people about.

Pregnancy-wise, things are pretty good. As the doctor I saw yesterday said "On paper, this pregnancy is perfect." However, being that I had a very easy pregnancy with Christopher; and with this one I've had anemia, swollen feet, braxton-hicks contractions, and now acid reflux- none of which I had ever had before- I feel a lot less than perfect! But we are getting really excited about Cameron joining our family. It can't be soon enough for me! Christopher hugs the belly several times a day and lovingly says "Cameron," and is always telling us all the things he's going to teach his little brother to do. The doctor said the baby is in the right position and everything, so now it's just seeing the doctor a lot and waiting!

Denise has been visiting the past few days from Utah. She will be here until this coming weekend, and Christopher started bugging her right away! He woke her up the first morning she was here, and just hung around wherever she was in general. Not sure what that's all about!

Oh yeah, I turned 30 on the 28th of June. I asked my siblings to give me money to get my new phone, a Palm Pre I'm hoping to use as my scheduler and everything. So far I'm having fun learning how to use it. I also got some great gift cards. Jaime gave me a movie one (that will be used for Joel and I to see Harry Potter!), and one to Olive Garden. And Joel's parents gave me a giftcard to Kohl's. Joel and I went out to dinner at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants on Saturday (the day before), and on Sunday my mom made one of my favorite dinners. All in all, it was a nice, fairly low-key birthday. I don't really feel one way or the other about turning 30, tho I joke about it sometimes. Mitchell says I'm officially really old now.

Joel started new classes in school, and is plugging away at work. He also just got a new calling as a Sunday school teacher, and is a little daunted about being asked to teach Gospel Doctrine in our ward. I think he'll do a great job. He knows the scriptures really well and is a good teacher.

Now for some really sad news. I got home from work last Thursday (the 3rd of July) to Denise telling me that some of our friends in Utah had their house basically gutted by fire. This family, the Derflers, used to be in our ward. When I was a teenager, I nannied for their 4 children a bit a couple of summers, even living with them for days at a time, and then Denise and I both baby-sat them. They moved to Utah a few years ago, and are basically Denise's family out there. In fact, Denise's car was parked in front of said house. They have determined it was an electrical fire, but their house is a total loss, as is just about everything that was in it. So sad. Here are some pictures:

I have never seen this kind of damage to a house, and definitely never thought this would happen to someone I know! Our prayers are with them. From what I know, they will be totally rebuilding and renting in the meantime.

On the 3rd, I started working a homestand that will have the Rockies here for 10 days in a row. Considering the first 2 were fireworks games WITH rain delays, and then a day game, the week already seems really long! I'm planning on working right up until I have the baby, both at Rockies and in the salon. It's becoming increasingly more difficult, but I'm determined to stick it out!