Growing pains. . .

Hey, look at these cute shoes, they look just a little bit too big. .

I wonder why?

Maybe because they are MY shoes on my 9 year old daughter!!

Just in time for Halloween.

The other night I heard a little "scratch-scratch" coming from inside the fire-place. Hmm. A mouse? IN the fireplace? How would it get in there?



"Matt"



"What?"



"Come down here. . ."



"There's something making noise in the fireplace? I think it's a mouse"



He grabs our videocamera to use the light on it.



"Um, yeah, NOT a mouse."



"What is it?"



"It's a bat."



"WHAT??" As he begins to OPEN the fireplace doors, and I quickly leave the living room "I'm NOT watching this."

He grabbed his gloves and took the bat back outside (my HERO!). The bat was making some great cries and Matt said it was trying to bite through the gloves.

I have no idea how or why it was in there. . .does it prefer to eat ashes? We also have a nice grate/cover on top, I guess it was small enough to sneak inside.

Now fastforward to last night. . .Matt has his big flashlight out for something else and decides to take a peek up the fireplace. . . .check it out.

Here's what he saw. . .

Now, I promise the thing was NOT that big (maybe the size of the small part of your palm). Apparently my husband is an expert on bats, because he quickly said. . ."It's dead, hanging on the damper." I however, was not convinced and left the room again when he got out his 9-iron to knock it down. I did stay close enough to listen for him to scream like a girl when it flew out. . .but I stood corrected. Dead. Eww.

p.s. When he first came and showed me a picture, I smiled at him and said "could you get a better picture for my blog??" thanks honey, it's all for the bloggers.

Road trip!

Just a couple of weeks after Simon was born, Matt and the girls loaded up in a 15 passenger van with 15 passengers (no empty seats!!) with his family and road-tripped to Maryland to see his grandparents. I humbly volunteered to stay home (post coming soon about how crazy of an idea THAT was). Let's see. . . .15 people, 6 kids, 9 adults, and about a 22-24 hour drive--both ways. Matt said it best. . "well, it'll be an adventure." His sister even designed shirts for the crew. I had told her about my idea for a new reality show, Family Vacation Survivor, so she designed the shirts after the Survivor logo.
I think the "Stop Touching Me" was particularly a nice touch.




They did have a good time, but I'm sure no one will want to make that trip again for a LONG long time.

These next pictures probably deserve their own post but I'm too tired, so I'll entitle them

"SOMEONE PLEASE HELP MY HUSBAND AT THE BEACH!!"
Alternate title: "A lesson on skin cancer."


Matt had sunscreened up the girls when they hit the beach at Ocean City, but then was all by his lonesome to get it on his back, and he thought "Well, that should be good enough."


I present to you PROOF that sunscreen works. . you can even see how far his fingers could reach.







And this is even a good week after the "incident". Ouch babe.

Sigh

Wow. Simon is 10 weeks old today. I finally feel like I'm coming out of that "sleepy-fog" that overcomes you when you bring your newborn home. Here's what I CAN remember.

Simon's delivery was by far my easiest. All the more reason that he should be my last.

Madison was born 2 weeks early, labor was only about 7 1/2 hours but I was pushing for 2 1/2-3 of that. NOT fun, and exhausting.

Molly was fast and furious. I was dialated to a 4 for about 3 weeks, and by the time we made it to the hospital in the wee hours just a day after Madisons 2nd birthday, I was already an 8. I begged for an epidural and she was born just 30 minutes later.

Whitney was my longest labor, 11 hours. I'm not complaining, I'm fully aware women are in hard labor for much longer than this, but for me, it WAS my longest, hardest labor. She was a sunny-side up baby, making for some great back labor. She finally rolled over and decided to come out and see us.

So, Simon. I was again dialated to a "good-3" for about 2 weeks. I actually was able to convince my midwife to induce me. (The stars aligned!!). She broke my water about 9am, and I walked and walked, and walked AND walked. Just after lunch I was a little more uncomfortable, about a 4-5, and my nurse asked if I wanted my epidural. Honestly, it wasn't bad yet, but we decided, why wait until it's bad?? Let's get that epidural on board. So my midwife finished up her appointments and came right over about 1 to hang out and wait. Just when we were ready for some pitocin to keep the party going, I was complete. After about 4 pushes at 3:48pm our baby boy was here! It's amazing all over again. I remember saying to Matt that "we KNOW there's a baby in there, but when he's right there in front of you, it's a complete miracle!!" Matt's sister Tyley was there videotaping (my view only please!), and she had made it BARELY in time. Matt's mom made it just a few minutes later. She had been watching the kids and was going to take them to a friends and come up, but we called and said "you may as well just come up here with them, he'll be here in a few minutes!!" The girls were in the waiting room, so they got to come and meet Simon just a few minutes after he was born. One of my favorite things that my midwife does is that she brings in a little tub and helps Matt give the babes their first little bath. I get to just sit back (and take photos) and watch my amazing huband interact and bond with our littles ones right away.

Coming soon

Hah, you just THOUGHT you were going to breast-feed!

Oh, no, it's a "Whitney" all over again.

How many different meds does it take to cure reflux?

Are you SURE it's even reflux?

Why did you leave me all alone with a newborn and go clear across the country?

"if you see any sanity at the store, go ahead a buy that too."

Don't worry, he won't be newborn forever.

Sounds fun huh?

Oh, and a teaser of what Simon looks like now! Givivg a cute little smirk!

What's for breakfast??

Well, when Mom sleeps in a little too late, apparently, it's BROWNIES for breakfast!!

Smokey

April 1991-September 10, 2008