And Then There Were Three

Miss Julia Frances made her appearance Thursday afternoon at 4:31. She weighed in at 9lbs 3oz and is 19 inches long with chubby cheeks--definitely takes after her mama in that department.

My delivery was easy and the hospital offered to discharge me after just one night. I was anxious to get home with the boys and foolishly took them up on it--what was I thinking??? There is a reason why Congress passed a law that requires insurance companies to provide two night minimum stay after delivery! I think there must have been a large lobbying group of moms with two other little boys at home who were behind the bill. Last night Davey was crying at bedtime, AJ couldn't fall asleep until 11 with all the excitement and then was up in the night again from 3-4. Julia so far is playing the part of the ideal third child who sleeps a lot and is relatively mellow. We'll see if this lasts. I know from having the other two that babies all sleep a lot the first week and then the real trends start to emerge.

In terms of the boys' reactions, AJ is very interested in Julia and wants to help take care of her. He asked to hold her last night and likes to count her toes and fingers (and very sweetly comes up with a different total each time--"Now she has eight fingers! This time she has eleven fingers!") He is also fascinated by her umbilical cord stump and the idea that it will fall off. I explained to him last night that when he was tiny and in mama's tummy, he had a cord that connected his belly button to me and that it fell off after he was born and no longer needed it. He was obsessed with this idea and explained it back to me 10 times last night, including once at 3am. "When AJ was a tiny baby in Mama's tummy, he had a cord that connected his belly button to mama's and after I was born, it felled off because I didn't need it anymore! Baby Julia's cord is gonna falled off on Halloween and then she will be like the rest of us and just have a bee bo (belly button)."

Davey has ventured over to take a few peeks at Julia and seems most interested when she cries. He has added a new word to his vocabulary--baby. So far no "baby down!" or "put baby down!" like AJ used to say about Davey.

Here are a few quick photos. More to come.

Happy Jack

We had beautiful, unseasonably warm October weather this weekend that was perfect for carving a jack-o-lantern in the backyard with Papa. When Papa asked AJ if he wanted to do a scary jack-o-lantern, AJ's response was that he definitely wanted a happy jack-o-lantern face, so we found a good template and they set to work sawing through the top, scooping the seeds and making some strategic cuts. I think it turned out beautifully, and AJ was very pleased with getting to use tools and the end result. He was even more excited when Papa told him we needed a candle to put inside for Halloween night--tools and fire!

Our Great Pumpkin

We did a quick trip to a local pumpkin patch in town this year. By pumpkin patch, I mean lot on the corner that has piles of trucked-in pumpkins and some Halloween decorations. This particular one benefits a local youth group, so it eases a little bit of the guilt about not making it out to the countryside to pick one off the vine.

I suggested that the boys wear their Halloween costumes to the patch to make it more festive. AJ was all over this idea, as he is enthusiastic about any excuse to put on his Buzz Lightyear costume and shout "To Infinity and Beyond!" at the top of his lungs. Davey was about where AJ was on Halloween a year or two ago, which is to say he wanted nothing to do with it. No costume, no pumpkin patch, not even an interest in the pumpkin stickers the patch workers were handing out. He did rally for about 30 seconds at the patch when it was his turn to pick out a pumpkin. He choose a small one, declared it a "ball!" and threw it as if it were a baseball into the wagon we were using to cart the pumpkins around. It somehow miraculously survived the violent attempt at pumpkin smashing, so it is now his lucky pumpkin. AJ chose a small white pumpkin for his pumpkin and a larger, slightly lopsided pumpkin for the family jack-o-lantern. We'll see if AJ and Papa are able to find a side straight enough for a good looking jack-o-lantern when they do the carving.

Wheh ah youuuuuuuuuu?

This morning I was woken up by Davey shouting from his bed at 6:30 "Mamaaa, wheh ah youuuuuuuu?!?" (Where are you?) This is the first full sentence that I have heard him use, so despite the early hour, I excitedly scooted out of bed (okay, I am 39 weeks pregnant...it was more of a roll and a lumber) and went to greet him. He seemed pretty pleased with himself that his talk got a good response from mama, so we will see if this results in more chatter out of him.

Think Pink

With 10 days to go until the baby's arrival, we have been working on getting our act together over here. It is much more laid back the third time around, to say the least. We figure we have everything that we need for baby gear or will have plenty of time to go out and get it later. I asked Joe to pick up newborn diapers at the store last week, but he said "nah, I can just get them when the baby is born."

One area that has been getting a lot of effort is turning the nursery into a little girl's nursery. We are going with my friend Kaitlyn's advice to just go ahead and embrace pink. She said she initally tried to come up with a color scheme that was something other than pink when she was planning for the arrival of her twin girls but realized it was much easier in the end just to drink the kool-aid and do pink. She ended up painting her nursery walls Paris Pink, if I am remembering the color name correctly. And her girls' nursery is gorgeous.

This turned out to be good advice, and we are thinking pink over here. I made a trip to the local fabric store with my mother-in-law, who is a champion sewer and excited to be able to use pink after years of sewing and shopping for her own four boys. The results are pink infused curtains, rocker pillows and bed skirt, which I will post a photo of shortly. If you are wondering whether it looks like a Pepto Bismol bottle exploded in there, we tried to show some restraint and incorporated some yellow and green as well. We are well outside the territory of Shelby's wedding from the movie Steel Magnolias where her colors were blush and bashful, or for those who don't speak interior decorating, dark pink and light pink. Now I just have to convince Joe to help me hang some pink, yellow and green butterflies from the ceiling.

Even AJ is thinking pink. The other day when I asked him if he wanted to get his baby sister a gift, he came up with "I'll get her a pink toothbrush so that I can brush her teeth for her!" I started to explain that she won't have any teeth when she is born but the sentiment was so sweet that I just said "good idea!" And so this baby has a pink toothbrush waiting and ready for that first tooth.

I have also been picking up a few little girl clothes here and there. The funny thing is that when I had baby boys, I always thought the baby girl clothes were so much cuter (and they are), but while shopping I keep noticing how much more stylish all the little boy things seem to have gotten since I was shopping for baby clothes for AJ and Davey. As Joe will tell you, I managed to find enough cute baby girl clothes to do a little damage on that front as well.

Nesting

Guess whose nesting instinct has kicked in? Unfortunately I channeled it to do things like bake an apple pie and plant new flowers in the garden instead of actually prepping for the baby's arrival. I have a list of baby prep stuff that needs to get done, like digging the baby swing out of storage and replacing the batteries in the infant seat, but I figure we can do that after we bring the baby home. I guess that is how it goes when you are expecting your third baby.

Night Game

We decided to take the boys to one Northwestern football game this season and went for this week's night game against Purdue. We lucked out with weather in the 80s yesterday, which made the night game doable in a long-sleeved t-shirt without bundling up. We made it through the first half and the boys did pretty well. They were enamored with two girls sitting in front of us who looked about 8 years old. The girls lent AJ and Davey their purple pom pons and the boys were grinning from ear to ear. Their other favorite highlight of the evening was definitely the food. We did pizza and hot dogs for dinner and for the grand finale introduced the boys to funnel cake. Needless to say, it was a hit. (See the powdered sugar all over my jeans in the picture?) At one point, AJ tried to close the funnel cake box when there were only little pieces left and Davey responded ripping it back open and stuffing the bits into his mouth with both hands.

In terms of the actual football watching, Davey is at a stage where he loves to clap his hands and say yeaaaaa!, so he would cheer along for both teams whenever anyone else in the stadium would cheer. AJ was able to be slightly more selective and cheer on cue for the wildcats, but he was overly generous in pronouncing everything from a field goal to a first down a "touchdown!!!" Turns out the Wildcats could have used an extra touchdown last night, but we had a good time anyway.

Davey Bear and Pops

Pops and Susan came for a visit last weekend, and little Davey really took to my dad. Here are some great pictures, especially of my dad and Davey since capturing my dad smiling on camera is only slightly less challenging than getting photographic evidence of the Loch Ness Monster.

To Infinity and Beyond!

Guess who's a tiny bit excited about his new Halloween costume?

Davey Talks

Davey's words are starting to increase in recent weeks. He still has a bit of a caveman tendency to grunt and point, especially when frustrated, and he also has started to pant like a puppy when he is even slightly excited about anything--being lifted into his seat to eat, getting an M&M, playing with trains. But in the last week I have actually heard the following words also come out of his mouth: gramma (Grandma), Papa, imean (ice cream), shoe, choo choo, vroom vroom, Gor-en (for his favorite Thomas character, Gordon), Bob (for Bob the Builder), t.v., ab-ble (apple), nana (banana), and shhh! (always said with finger to his lips).