Ready for Sunday

Here are the cute boys, ready for church!

I took Jacob to the doctor this week, because after 10 days of nystatin his thrush still hadn't gone away. It had been just over 3 weeks since I took him in last, and he had gained 1.5 pounds! So even with all his bothers (thrush, eczema), he is thriving!

I have to say one of the greatest joys of getting Jacob is to watch Adam's reaction. He experienced a period of adjustment, but he was always so happy, almost relieved, to have a sibling. Even though Jacob can't do anything but lie there, he counts as a person to Adam.

Let me explain--Adam wakes up early. For me, too early. After feeding Jacob at 5am, I am not so thrilled to pull myself out of bed at 6:30 or 7:00 when Adam gets up. I often turn on a PBS show for him to watch for 30-45 minutes. But he HATES being alone. He won't stay in the family room by himself and let me sleep. However, if I put Jacob in the swing or bouncy seat, Adam is fine.

Same thing with going to bed. Sometimes he gets scared and wants someone in his room until he falls asleep. I can put Jacob in the crib and Adam is fine. It's not that Jacob needs to talk or do anything--Adam hates being alone and Jacob is the antidote.

Cute, Smiley Baby

In the last few weeks Jacob has gone from this:

To this:

Sad Baby

The last few weeks I've had a sad baby.

Around the first of November Jacob developed a horrible diaper rash and a rash all over his face. He was super gassy, fussy, and I knew something was wrong. At 2am one morning I had the realization that he is allergic to milk, or at least cannot tolerate lactose. I made a 3am run to Wal-Mart for soy formula, and within 24 hours he was SO MUCH BETTER! Next came November 13--Jacob's 2 month checkup. He got 3 shots and a total of 5 vaccinations. He was an angel until at 7:45 that night, when he started to cry. I gave him more Tylenol, but he cried and cried for at least an hour and a half. His poor little legs hurt SO BAD, and when he got upset he would kick, and that made his legs hurt even more. I finally swaddled his lower body really tightly so he couldn't move his legs, and that helped. Still, he would only be calm if one of us was holding him. Sam stayed up with him until 2:30 am, then I took over until 5:3o am. At that point Sam took him again, and finally got him to sleep by driving him around in the car. He was fussy all that day, but finally settled down about 24 hours after the shots. We had a week of a happy baby before Jacob got thrush. His tongue and mouth were all raw and white, and he was hungry but it hurt to eat. He also developed a bad rash all over his face again. I used everything, with little success. Finally I treated it with an anti-fungal/anti-yeast cream, and it has gotten better. I'm following that up with hydrocortizone and lots of moisturizing cream.

In addition to the rash, he got a big zit or ingrown hair on his chin. So, I will admit my vanity--one reason I haven't posted a lot of photos is because he seems to constantly have a red, rashy, splotchy face. I find him adorable at all times, but don't really want to capture this look for others, or for our family history.

Happy Halloween (late)

Our family was sick during Halloween, but we did do a few fun things.

First was the Halloween party at the Lehi Legacy center. I had bought Adam a stormtrooper outfit, but he chose to wear last year's lion costume. Jacob was a pumpkin head, and I was the pumpkin patch (or a Jedi warrior mom, whichever you choose).

We also did a short trunk or treat by our park. Adam was a little shy at first, but did make the rounds. By this time I had purchased (on sale!) a Spiderman outfit. He wears it nearly every day! The gloves are my size, and cost 2 pair for $1.50 at Target. Sam added the black webbing. Finally, a broken necklace is his spider web.

He was having coughing fits by the time we got home, so we didn't do any extra trick or treating. Instead Adam enjoyed handing out all the candy to the kids coming to the door.

The Morning Reports

Warming: You may need to take dramamine before or after watching these videos.

"As you can see. . ." Adam is fairly uninhibited if he's behind the camera.

Here is a thorough report on Rusty and a lovely air guitar solo by Adam.

The World According to Adam

Adam has become our resident photographer and roving reporter. This usually results in hundreds of pictures, and tens of videos. Here are a few select photos:

Self Portrait

Artsy shot of the window.

Rusty. From an angle only Adam enjoys.

Jacob, with a look that is both interested and concerned about what is happening. Closeup of Jacob's whale jammies.

Adam uses a fancy SLR--a Canon 10D to be exact. Sometimes the focus can be tricky.

Self portrait (again).

From Adam's point of view, I'm always tired.

And Sam is always working on the computer.

Another artsy shot out the window at sunset.

(Note: this is the only picture in the series that was NOT taken by Adam. It's so representative, I had to include it.)

This is us all day--me holding Jacob, Adam waiting for me to be done so I can do something for him.

Sick

We've been sick. It started two weeks ago--after his trip to Vegas (me at home with two boys all weekend), Sam got sick. Head cold type of flu: coughing, aching, stuffy. The next day Adam had a temp of 103. He had been coughing for a week already, and then got the flu on top of it. They both started improving last Sunday, but it made for a quiet Halloween. Then this week I've been sick. Started on Monday, hit in earnest on Tuesday, and I've been aching and coughing ever since. And praying Jacob doesn't get it. Here it is Sunday and I'm starting to improve. However, after getting up with the baby I had a hard time going to sleep. I just took cough medicine, so hopefully that will kick in soon. I'm giving myself one more sick day, and then I have to be back at it on Tuesday. So I've been lame--no cute baby pictures, no Halloween pictures. Come to think of it, we may just redo a little Halloween dress-up party this week, just so we can have some cute pictures. Adam was Spiderman. He got in trouble for coloring his hands red with a marker. But that's another story. . .

Brothers

To Do

This is my desk.

Do you see the piles of receipts sitting in the inbox? The blue paper is a postage due notice from the post office. It's at least a month old. This desk reminds me of the bills to be paid, accounts to be reconciled (personal and company), Mary Kay orders to be taken, Primary calls to make. . . the list goes on. In fact, if you look closely, under the camera case is my trusty legal pad with my list of things to do. But instead of all that, here I am (enjoy the headless self-portrait):

Can anyone blame me?

Confessions of a Pumpkin Baby

My mom thinks it's cute to dress me as a

pumpkin baby.

For her sake, I try to play it cool, like I don't care. . .

Just between you and me, this is how I really feel.

Twins

When my sister-in-law Kaila commented that Jacob is her son Oliver's twin, she wasn't kidding. Check out these pictures: Here is Jacob, taken today. Other than the open mouth, I tried to get the same shot.

Here is Kaila's son Oliver, taken almost exactly a year ago. Since neither of these two are biologically related (to me or each other) I think this is crazy!

Cute baby update

Our new little family. Jacob was just one month old in this picture.

Jacob isn't a huge fan of wearing hat. I think I got two photos before he started crying and protesting the odd thing on his head.

Jacob is doing so well! He sleeps at least 4 hours at night, sometimes longer if I'm lucky. He's up to eating 5-6 ounces at a time, which feels like a miracle after working so hard to get him to take just 2 in the hospital!

He loves to be held but starts fussing when he's tired--he doesn't like being held to sleep! I have to reduce the stimulation (quiet room, fan, lights off, blinds pulled), and even then he sometimes has to fuss himself to sleep. I've found if I interrupt to "settle" him, it just takes longer. So I've learned to let him holler all he wants, and he will suddenly settle down and go right to sleep in under 7 minutes. So I set my timer and grit my teeth and resist. I know I'll get to cuddle him all I want as soon as he wakes up!

He's a really cute little boy, but I have to admit he only has one expression, as seen above and below. We can't wait for him to start smiling at us!

We went to Cornbelly's (a local fall festival) and I forgot to bring a hat for Jacob, so we borrowed one from my friend Holly. He looked so funny and cute, I had to take a picture!

My Van Runneth Over

About a year and a half ago, we bought a van from my sister Rachelle. It was my parents' van, and Rachelle purchased it from them when they sold their whole life to move to Africa. To say the least, Rachelle gave us a great deal--we paid only the trade in value (which we all know is about half of the private value of a vehicle). At the time we were hopeful about an adoption situation, and I was feeling like we just might "need" a van anyway, since another baby would mean three car seats--Adam, Avery (girl I nanny), and baby.

That adoption situation didn't work out, and I have to say that it was sometimes depressing and I felt silly driving around a big van (and paying for gas) with just one child inside. I joked that buying the van was an act of faith, sort of a Field of Dreams "If you buy it, they will come."

Fast forward to yesterday--my first day since Jacob that I had both Avery and Brynlee. I've watched Avery for over two years now, and she's like Adam's best friend and sort-of-sister, combined. As Adam explained it during all this change, Avery is part of the "old days" that he sometimes longs for. Brynlee is a new addition--she's just under two, and I've only been watching her since July.

When Jacob came, I took a break from having extra kids for a while. Two weeks ago I started up again, with just Avery. Then last week I had only Brynlee (Ave was on vacation). Yesterday I had both. The day began at 6am, which was barely enough time to shower and get ready, feed 3 kids, feed a baby, and load everyone into the car in time to get Adam to preschool by 9:15am. The day went well, but I was totally exhausted by the end.

And it wasn't until this morning that I realized that my van is full. As this dawned on me I was overwhelmed, this time with gratitude. It is amazing to me how the Lord has given me exactly what I want and need, without giving me exactly what I planned. My plan was to get married and have children--between 7-9 of them. Eight years later I was 29 and having my first baby through adoption; five years after that, Jacob has come into our lives.

Even though our family has grown more slowly than I hoped, my van, our home, and our lives are full of children. I am so grateful for the opportunity to love and care for Avery and Brynlee--that their parents entrust them to me. They bring so much fulness into our lives, and I get to be a mom of a herd of little children, like I'd always dreamed.

The Irony of Peace and Quiet

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

Anywhere I go I have a peanut gallery in the back seat (also known as Adam and Avery). They provide a constant dialogue that sounds something like this: "Hey Mister Too-too!" "You are Mister Too-too, Poo-poo!" Me: "No potty language please." "This is a real dum-dum." "Oh yeah, a dum-dum!" "Look there, Pee!" Me: "No potty language please." "No mom, not like pee in the potty, the letter 'P', the letter 'P' is okay. It's not potty language." It goes on. If you've ever had a 5 year old boy coupled with any child old enough to talk, you know what's going on here. I recently bought an IPOD (from my lovely sister, Kate), and I've loaded the top 100 songs of every year from 1980-1989. I've been going through rating them so I can create a playlist of my favorites (my real dream is to recreate a playlist of classic "Super Saturday" stake dance songs). Who would have guessed that when I skipped past the song "Photograph" Adam would say "Mom, I like that one, go back to it so I can hear it!" Then just minutes later after dropping Adam at preschool I rated "Armageddon It" and Avery made the same request. Who knew these kids would like Def Leppard? So as you listen to these classic 80's rock songs, you can understand the sweet irony of peace and quiet. This is what it sounds like for me--Def Leppard blaring, kids silent. I'll take it!

Been Replaced

I wonder how our dog Rusty is feeling about the new baby. . .

Sweet Baby Jacob