Roll over, Matsy

3 months with Matsy

At her last weight check just before Thanksgiving, Matsy weighed 12lb 14oz!  She eats every 2-3 hours during the day, but sleeps from around 10pm to 7am. So nice!

She is a happy little girl, smiles a lot, and usually if she starts fussing it means she is ready for a nap!  She prefers to sit up on mommy's lap now and look around. 

Copying her big brother already, Matsy has started sucking her thumb! 

Here's a video of her in her bouncy seat, where she enjoys grabbing the toys...

We had a wonderful trip to Michigan for Thanksgiving.  Matsy had no troubles on the airplane and was a sweet girl at her grandparents.  Weston LOVED playing with his 3 older cousins and is still talking about going back to their house!

Two months with Matsy

Matsy is 2 months old!!


Her likes: eating, smiling, her bouncy chair, her rainforest playmat and crib music machine, riding in the car, being cradled while you walk around bouncing her so she can fall asleep.

Her dislikes: being put down, bottles that are not warmed up enough, when you sit down while holding her, when the car stops moving.

She is a good nighttime sleeper, lately sleeping for 7-8 hours!

Weston's Favs @ 4

Inside the head of Weston at age 4:

What's your favorite.....?

TV show: Jake 

(Jake and the Neverland Pirates)

Movie: McQueen

(Most likely he means Cars2)

Color: blue

Book: About Santa Claus

(I have no idea what he means, I think someone must have been talking about Santa at preschool. His favorite book series lately is actually Skippyjon Jones -  a Siamese cat that thinks he is a Chihuahua.)

thing to do with Mommy: play legos

thing to do with Daddy: play legos

thing at school: James

Who are your other friends? Ky, Connell

thing about your sister: her hands

Game: pingpongpingpong bounce coats

(no idea what this means)

Food: broccoli,  

(not exactly true... hot dog or hamburger would have been more likely, or if you wanted to say a vegetable, carrots would be accurate)

What other foods do you like? everything

Ice cream: vanilla

What do you want to be when you grow up? a giant

More Matsy...

Matilda Jean: The birth story

After 20 weeks of progesterone shots to PREVENT preterm labor, baby sister was most definitely not preterm.  At 36 weeks, they estimated her size at 7 lbs already, so we elected to induce labor the day before her due date.  So on August 30th at 6am, mom and dad left big brother home with Grandmother and went to the hospital.



Upon arriving, we met our absolutely wonderful Nurse A.  I hadn't slept well, very anxious about the induction and how big brother would handle everything.  Also, they tell you not to eat anything beforehand.  So as NurseA is putting in my IV, I start feeling very strange and dizzy.  I recall looking at Rob and saying "I'm not ok, I am going to pass out."  Next thing I remember is Nurse A. waving an alcohol swab in front of my nose... the day was not off to a great start.

The pitocin begins to cause some contractions over the next couple of hours, but they were not terribly uncomfortable.  So around 11:30am my doctor, Dr. B., came to break my water -- I was around 4cm.  The contractions started to become VERY painful and although the anesthesiologist came with the epidural, it was not fast enough. As I kept insisting that I was still in pain, NurseA decided to check me again - already 8cm! She called Dr. B. and said "I don't think Stefanie's going to get any relief, you should come on over."  YIKES!  She arrived and I was 10cm!

DrB: Time to push
Stefanie: No I don't remember how!

It turns out there is nothing you can say at that point that will convince your doctor that it is not time to have this baby!  Although, I yelled and cursed after every contraction, between my pushing and Dr.B "pulling,"  our little girl, Matilda Jean, was born @ 1:22pm.

STATS:
9lb 10oz
21 1/2 inches

The nurses gave us a brief scare when they said that Matilda was "retracting" (means that the chest pulls in between the ribs when breathing in, because the lungs are not working well enough, which is what Weston was doing when he was born).  Dr.B. practically yelled at the nurses, "These parents had a son with respiratory distress and pneumothorax!"  But it was just that her delivery was so quick that all the liquid didn't get squeezed out of her lungs.  The nurse brought Matilda to me and said, "I do hear breathing, it's just wetness in the lungs."  I was still crying, but one can't blame me for being a little emotional!

After much suctioning of the lungs, they brought Matilda to us as we reached the recovery room.

Here she is....

Weston 4.0

The first real birthday party....

More like a playdate. We hosted 4 other boys from Weston's preschool.  It was as much yelling and running as you can imagine. Actually everyone was pretty good. 


We bought a "car" for them to play/decorate/destroy.

And of course we had a car-themed cake.





This was baby sister's idea of partying...

First day of Red Door (K-3)

they said it was a great day.... this is always a sure sign!

Baby sister's nursery...sneak peek

Credit must go to grandmother for the nursery inspiration.  She was working on some fairy cross-stitch based on the art from this book:

(But those are not ready to hang yet, so no pics yet...)

To fill the large blank wall over the crib, I found this wall decal on Etsy.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/65017579/fairy-wall-decal-girls-room-decal 

We ordered it and arranged it slightly differently here, but I just love it

My other Etsy find was this fairy switchplate.  You can't see in this photo but it's a little bit glittery. Super cute.

Here's the view from the door with the crib mobile added and the curtains I "made."  I use that term loosely, as all I did was cut my fabric in half and attach a liner and hems with heat-n-bond.  (They are a bit crooked but they serve their purpose!)

Here's the changing table with storage bins below and a cute pink rack I found to store clothes/diapers, etc. for easy access above.

Credit goes to daddy for artistic consulting and hardware management!

We're ready and waiting!

How to take care of your baby sister on vacation....

In July, we were lucky enough to get to spend a week-long vacation on St. George Island Florida with Nana, Poppa, Aunt Ashley and Uncle Travis.  Weston had a great time and often talks about it.

The following conversation took place at bedtime one night last week...

W: Mommy, when we are going to go to the beach?

Mommy: Probably not until next summer.

W: But I really really want it to be next summer

Mommy: Well, baby sister is going to come soon, so we'll have to wait until she gets big enough to go to the beach.

W: She has to get bigger to go to the beach?

Mommy: Yes.

W:  But will the crab pinch her?

Mommy: No, we won't let the crab pinch her. (we saw lots of sand crabs at the beach)

W: But I don't want my baby sister to get lost.

Mommy:  We won't get her get lost, we'll take care of her.

W: But I don't think baby sisters know how to swim.

Mommy: Right, we'll hold her, we won't let her swim

W: (laughing) I think when we give her to daddy, he will dunk baby sister under the water.

You can mark it.

A growth chart for Weston...finally.

Feeling a little guilty about not having done this sooner, finding quite a few truly adorable (and $$$) growth charts on Etsy, and feeding my new addiction to Pinterest...

I found instructions to make your own growth charts.
I loved the really cute wood ones that were made to look like giant rulers, but imagining that we might move and/or want to put said growth chart in storage one day, that didn't seem very practical.

So I made this one, out of some burlap fabric....

And here's our first measurement....

Big Brother

That's right... it's "blog-official":
Leacock Baby Sister is expected in August

We're completing some rearranging of the bedrooms in the house so Weston has a new big boy bed and room.  We took the easy decorating route and put transportation themed decals all the way around the room. Add some Lightning McQueen sheets and "poof"... it's perfect - if you're a 3-year-old boy.

We took the sibling tour at the hospital today.  It's basically a regular tour but at the end they show the kids how to diaper and swaddle a baby.  Weston seems excited now... we'll see how he feels later!

1st haircut

before...

during....

after!

ka-lu-ka-le-le

You can't resist this Valentine!

Weston's daycare took the absolute cutest pictures of him on Valentine's Day!

SuperWHAT?

PBS kids has a show called "SuperWHY" that solves problems and teaches letters/reading by finding ways to "change a story."

Example: Change the big BAD wolf to the big GOOD wolf

Wyatt is the main character. He has some sort of magic pen that he points at the words on the screen.

Although we are not a "clean your plate" family, we do insist that Weston try what is on his plate for dinner and also eat a reasonable amount. (Especially if it seems like he's only saying that he's full so he can get down and play.)

In the midst of our casserole-eating-showdown last night.

He says:

I have to stop eating. It says so in my story.

(points fork at imaginary words in the air)

(reads imaginary words)

Weston gets down from the table and doesn't eat any more casserole.

Mommy and daddy were pretty impressed, but eventually won the casserole eating showdown anyway.

Welcome to Awesometown!

I'm the incumbent mayor. Happy Christmas!

When we were pondering what gifts a little boy might enjoy receiving for Christmas, there were lots of options. iPad. Mutual funds. Firearms. Led Zepplin box set. Johnny Switchblade Adventure Punk. But we really wanted to get Weston something awesome, something worthy of Weston Vicker's awesomeness.

Ultimately we decided on a play kitchen.

When it comes to kiddie kitchens, the options are endless. We considered going with the limited edition Gordon Ramsay Calphalon Zagat rated play kitchen complete with natural gas operating Paula Dean easy bake oven, but we passed. Why? Because we're not that kind of crazy, and we're not wealthy enough to buy our kid's love.

No. We're a different kind of crazy. Case in point: one evening Stefanie calls me into the home office and shows me so instructions she found on the internet on how to make your own play kitchen. Make your own play kitchen. Make your own.

A few things you should understand about what I'm telling you:

You can get anything on the internet. Anything. You want instructions on how to make your own play kitchen out of cardboard and contact paper? 'Cause the interwebs can get you some of that. (http://www.etsy.com/listing/9147055/build-a-cardboard-play-kitchen)

As it also turns out, our family has its share of shame. A few skeletons in the closet. And by skeletons, I mean cardboard boxes. And by closet, I mean garage. Lots of "skeletons" in our "closet." And our hopes that the Skeleton Fairy would pay us a visit and leave behind some Pier One merch, never came to fruition. In fact, I'm fairly certain that some of the cardboard boxes were getting a little amorous. And when two cardboard boxes--er, skeletons--love each other really, really a lot something akin to a sports metaphor happens, and the result is I need to clean out the garage.

Lastly, Stefanie and I really like to celebrate our marriage in interesting ways. Second honeymoon to Aruba? BO.Ring. Expensive gift giving? Again, we ain't got the funds to buy love. No, we like to take it to the next level: building a play kitchen out of cardboard, craft glue and contact paper from instructions we got on the internet.

Behold our handiwork in the following slide show:

Halloween

Weston told his teachers at school that he was going to be a "digger and a dump truck" for Halloween. Although I would not normally consider "making" a Halloween costume, we have a large Megablocks dump truck/riding toy that has a detachable back. So, add a couple "straps" (= ribbons) and a construction hat and VOILA:

Halloween costume 2011.

Belated birthday post

This fall was super crazy... in addition to my first semester teaching at UT, Rob's 2nd year at St. Andrews, having some upgrading done on our kitchen, in the midst of all this our little boy turned 3!!

For Weston's birthday, we had a special afternoon going to a local park to ride the miniature train, going out to dinner on the patio of a local restaurant the "Hula Hut," and then having ice cream.

Weston's new soccer goal
(although it doesn't look like it here, he kicks left-footed)

somehow Weston AND daddy managed to fit in his new lightning mcqueen tent

And here's our birthday interview: