Goodbye to the Curls

As I said, it was time for Sam to get his big boy haircut.  I mean, he is almost 21 months old.  And those lovely curls kept getting knotted up and smeared with food.  Yesterday we took him to Cartoon Cuts to get his first REAL haircut.  I managed to not cry.  Can't say the same for Sam.

Now I'm gonna pause and say we took him to this place because they are completely kid themed and even have tv's in front of each chair so the kid can watch their favorite cartoons while getting their haircut.  Did this work for Sam?  NO.  Please note in the following photo that I put our ipad in front of the tv and played him Ok Go music videos instead of him watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  It's the only thing that would calm him down.  This means a few things.  One, I rock because I had the forethought to bring the ipad.  Two, Sam rocks because he has good taste in entertainment.

It's done!  I'm not gonna lie, I miss the curls like crazy.  Last night when holding Sam on my lap before bed (a nightly routine) I got really sad because I would always play with his hair while had some relax time before bed.  But Sam doesn't seem to care and that's all that really matters.  My little surprisingly blonde boy.

Photo Heavy Baby Free For All

Okay.  Yes, Ben is now 3 weeks old and Sam has officially accepted him.  How do I know this from a kid who doesn't talk yet?  When Ben cries Sam runs around trying to find him.  If Ben is upstairs crying Sam will stand at the bottom of the stairs grunting to get someones attention that his little brother needs help.  It's five kinds of adorable.  Now if only Sam would stop throwing temper tantrums when Ben is being too needy.  (Yeah, I know that's not gonna happen.  But a girl can dream.)

In true Christa fashion, I have been taking at home photos of the kids because I am too cheap to take them to a real photography studio.  I mean, the one time I did take Sam to a photographer for Easter photos with live bunnies I was more than a little disappointed in what we got.  I expect a professional to give me professional results.  I don't think that's too much to ask.  ANYWAY, here are some of what I've been doing.

Birth announcement photos - 5 days old.  Can you believe the biggest pumpkin we could find at the pumpkin patch simply wasn't big enough for Ben?  I can't.

Halloween Photos! - Ben was Robin.  Sam was a lawn gnome.  We had a grand ol' time!

Of course I had to put him in the Tonka truck.  He fits in it!

Sibling Photos - Confession time.  My bestie (Hiya, Aud!) was hired by us to take sibling photos.  She is a photographer, and a damn good one.  But the fates conspired against us and for a variety of reasons every time we tried to get together it fell through.  So here, at 3 weeks old, is my fumbling attempt to get two kids in one photo and have it look semi decent.  Turns out putting a Cheerio on the baby works wonders for creating a fake tender moment.

But the tantrumy photos are still my favorite!

And Ben was passed out the ENTIRE time.

Also, can we take a moment to love on Sam's curls?

Seriously.  I love those curls so much.  They are soft and bouncy and it makes me grin from ear to ear to see him running around the house with those ringlets springing about.  But it's too much now.  When I trim him he looks like he's the Mullet King.  And far too often he looks like a girl.  So last night we had some fun at Sam's expense as a fond farewell to the lovely curls.  Soon they will be gone and he will have a big boy haircut.  (I really hope I can make it through taking him to the salon without sobbing like an idiot.)

Yup.  Some day he will be really pissed over these photos.

October 18th @ 12:10am

Introducing Benedict Ethan!

9 pounds 13 ounces, 21.5 inches long

Labor was pretty textbook and much easier than what I went through with Sam.  From the time I was given meds to thin my cervix till he was born was about 13 hours.  Much better than 30!  And this kid broke my water for me in the most interesting of ways.  I was sitting up in the hospital bed reading when he bucked HARD like a horse inside of me and I heard a pop.  It shocked me so much that I yelped and scared the crap out of Morgan.  A few seconds later I noticed that I was leaking and then flooded the bed.  TMI, I know. But it was so freaky!

Ben is 10 kinds of awesome!  He looks almost EXACTLY like newborn Sam.  I mean, carbon copy likeness.  To the point that both Morgan and I keep catching ourselves calling him Sam.  He's a very good natured baby unless he is hungry.  Then watch out!  His appetite is pretty amazing.

We are home now.  Everyone is happy and healthy.  Ben didn't get named till Sunday, the day we were leaving the hospital, and we actually ended up filling out two sets of birth certificate forms because we weren't sure which name we were going to turn in when the paperwork lady came around to make things official.  Things are going pretty good except for a rough patch here and there as we adjust to our new family unit.  Really, we couldn't be happier!

38 Weeks

Right now I am 38 weeks 3 days pregnant with Jaba the Hutt.  Sam came on his own accord at 38 weeks 6 days.  Whereas I know that means nothing, I'm using it to keep hope alive that I will naturally start labor in the coming days.  But no matter what I'm getting induced in the wee hours of the 17th.  The end is near!

A couple weeks ago (36 weeks) I had a second growth ultrasound which revealed an estimated 8 pounds 8 ounce child within me.  Can I get an Amen and an Oof?  Which is why at 37.5 weeks my Dr did a membrane sweep to try to get things moving and went ahead and scheduled my induction for the day I turn 39 weeks just in case.  That first membrane sweep didn't bring on labor, but hopefully the one I will get tomorrow morning will.  I'm nervous about being able to fit Jaba out since I was barely able to get Sam out.  I'm also nervous about induction because I know Pitocin causes more painful contractions.  I labored with Sam for 30 hours. . . umm. . . .yeah.  That sounds awesome.

In other kid news, Sam has gone through two back to back growth spurts which have led to a kid who's sense of balance is way off!  As in his face is a magnet to all things sharp or hard.  So many bruises, scratches, and bumps.  Poor kid looks like an abused orphan.

Say what, Momma?

Anxiety lives here full time right now.  I'm nervous about my mom (who keeps saying she's going to cut his hair and I will cause her bodily harm if she does) staying with Sam for a few days while I'm in the hospital, anxiety over breastfeeding, anxious about when labor will start and how things will go, and I'm trying like hell to keep my house at some acceptable level of clean while being so huge I can barely move.  And of course the government shutdown.  Can't forget that.  Morgan is the only bread winner in this family and he's been off work for 2 weeks unpaid at this point.  Awesome.  But at least him being off work has made the tail end of my pregnancy a little easier since he can chase the kid and help clean/nest!  Silver lining, people.  Silver lining.

I love Daddy more 'cause he can still run and chase me!

The end is near.  So near.  Wish us luck as our family grows yet again and most likely for the last time!  I can't wait to see this little boy.  I know he has a full head of hair since you can see it in the ultrasound photos, but what color is it?  How pudgy will those cheeks be?  How will Sam react?  It's gonna be exciting, stressful, and wonderful!

Everything: A Final Countdown

Again, I continue the trend of not making the blog posts on a regular basis.  I just haven't been too interested lately.  But here it is.  Everything.

Baby #2, aka Jaba the Hut, is a giant.  At 32 weeks he weighed an estimated 6 pounds 1 ounces.  Which is trending quite bigger than Sam did.  And Sam was 9 pounds 5 ounces when born!  Translation - I might be in trouble.  I have another ultrasound (36 weeks) this coming Tuesday to see just how big he is at this stage.  No matter what, go time is getting nearer every day.

Sam got VERY sick while Morgan was on a beach trip with his friends.  Fever of 103.3, cold chills, vomiting, lethargic, fever rash, not eating, etc.  It was scary.  We ended up taking him back to the Dr, or actually the ER this time, once Morgan got home from his trip because his symptoms just kept getting worse.  Turned out he had a viral infection with rash and a bacterial ear infection all at the same time.  Poor kid.  And the next day Morgan came down with strep throat.  Oh the joy.  By some miracle I managed to not get sick.

Thankfully it wasn't long till he was feeling a bit better and getting back to his quirky self.  Seeing him all lethargic and miserable was really hard.  

My delightful spaz.

We went on our annual scenic train ride last weekend!  A bit early this year since I don't feel comfortable going on trips closer to my due date, so no fall leaves this time.  But it was a great operation and Sam had a great time!  They even had a local children's author on the train reading her book to the kids.

And as usual, Karen just loves to spend time with Sam so much that it made the day pretty easy on me.  She was more than happy to hold him on her lap (which is good since most of my lap is belly right now) and tell him stories.  And Sam was happy to have her lap and easy access to her camera.  Hmmm. . .buttons.

Other than that this little monkey has been getting into everything and enjoying the last of the "no pants" weather.  We go to the zoo, library, and anything else I have the stamina for while we can and the weather is great.  Hopefully we can get another zoo trip in before his brother is born.

And that brings us up to yesterday.  He is now 19 months old, refuses to sit nicely for photos, and in less than a month will no longer be an only child!  He still has no clue that there is a baby on the way.  But he does love to sit on the couch with me and look at pictures of the newborns on my BabyCenter Oct birth club.  He smiles and says "baby" and wants to touch the pictures.  Hopefully he will be just as happy to have a screamer come live with us.

Of course, he himself is quite a drama queen screamer as of late.  Yes, the terrible twos have come a bit early.  Oi.

18 Months Owl

Yup, he's a year and a half old now!  If there is one thing I can say about Sam that no one could ever argue, it's that he has a great personality.  He makes me laugh every day, even when I'm not feeling too good.  The temper tantrums of "why can't I do anything I wanna do?" have begun, but never last long.  He is a very independent little guy, which I guess is a good thing considering my attentions will soon be focused on a newborn.  He loves it when you sit and play with him, but he's often just as happy to be figuring things out on his own.  He will often walk off with a collection of items to sit on his own and fumble around with them.  He refuses to hold my hand while walking, but it's okay if Daddy holds his hand!  He's silly and smart.  He babbles non stop, but hasn't added many words to his vocabulary at all.

And he poops a lot.  A lot.  Like sometimes 7 times a day.  Good Lord.  That should make potty training a treat.

Stuffs He Do:
~  He can stack blocks.  Not just 2 or 3, but rather tall stacks of blocks.  Motor skills are good!
~  He understands how things work and demands that the light switch be flipped on & off while eating his breakfast every morning.
~  Everything is a phone.  If you say "ring ring!" he will pick up whatever is close and say "Hi!"
~  His favorite day of the week is Tuesday because that's library day and he gets to see all his friends!  At the end of the toddler program is the only time he waves and says "Bye" at the same time.  It's adorable and kills me.
~  He is a fruitaholic.  He's learning to like meat.  He hates all things veggie.  He used to love them.  I miss that.
~  The Sprout Good Night Show is our best friend in this house.  It has helped us to inch his bedtime down to 8:45!  I know that sounds late for a wee one, but it's much better than the 9:30-10 that was his norm.  Yay for Nina!

Photo time is hard.  So hard.

These Peter Cotton-tail overalls once belonged to my husband.  They are really cute, although I can't seem to wash the smell of old lady house out of them.  Anyway, the above shows Sam on his 18 month birthday and Morgan on his 1 year birthday!  So cute.

Update with stats from his Dr appointment:

Height is 34.75 inches, 97%

Weight is 25 pounds 7 ounces, 50%

Head size they didn't write down for me, but they did say it's still above the 97%.

So he's staying true to form and growing steadily!

Saturday Photo Round Up

This boy.  Oh, how I loves him.

Opinions and all.

He's not a fan of pants in hot weather.

Which means he's pretty normal.

Even if he is the world's ONLY child that doesn't like forts.

He does, however, like to nap in random soft places.

And, once again, not wear pants.

And I am huge at 29 weeks pregnant!