All together

A few weeks ago, my brother Kyle and his family came for a visit, which meant we were able to have all of the cousins together... a fairly rare event, but very much treasured!  

My brothers & I are all spaced approximately 3 years apart, so I never dreamed that we'd all be having kids at the same time.  In fact, with a brother 9 years older than me and parents who got married and had children young, I thought for many years that I'd be babysitting nieces and nephews when I was in high school.  Yes, I was that naive.  

In any case, despite being the youngest, I was the first to get married and to have children, so here we are... 6 cousins under the age of 5.  It is so much fun!! :) 

Gwen was not at all sure about all of her big boy cousins at first.  This is her shy face.  It cracks me up!

 

 She got a little more comfortable as time went on.  It was best if a) Kaeden was not nearby and b) Mommy or Daddy was nearby! 

Her favorite part of the weekend may have been watching Ryan run and slide back and forth across the hardwood floors. 

 

She was pretty fond of the babies too.  They weren't quite so intimidating!

 

And she learned pretty quickly that Auntie Lucia means being harassed by a camera :)

Of course, my mom was quite insistent that we get a photo of all of the grandkids together (as if I wouldn't have insisted myself)... I don't think one photo would do justice to the event that it was.  I sort of wish we had been videoing the whole thing... it was quite amusing trying to get 6 little ones to be still and look at a camera.  Fun times :)

 

 

 

 

 Thanks for the memories, y'all!  I'm looking forward to many more years of cousin shenanigans together :) 

Two Months

   Dear Ethan,

Happy 2 months :)  

You continue to grow so fast, but I can truly say that I am enjoying each and every day with you.  

 

You are doing your best to surpass your oldest brother for the easiest baby ever award.  I don't know how I managed to get two of you, but I will take it!  You, my dear, are a dream.  

Once you hit 6 weeks, you got a lot happier.  You weren't an unhappy baby before, but you were pretty fussy during the day when you weren't eating or sleeping.  Now, the only times that you fuss are when you're hungry, tired, have a full diaper, or are in your car seat for too long.   

You are weighing in at 13.5 lbs - up 2.5 in the last month and still a pound bigger than either of your brothers at this age... not bad! 

You are an incredible sleeper.  Lately, you've been sleeping a minimum of 8 hours at night, and most nights it is 10-12.  You are very insistent about your bedtime... if I'm not upstairs feeding you at 7:00, you will make it clear that it is time.  You're typically asleep around 7:30-7:45, and then you sleep until the morning.  Even after you wake up to eat, you'll often go back to sleep for a couple more hours.  If it were up to you, you'd take a long morning nap and a long afternoon nap, but since we're often on the go, you tend to take any number of catnaps throughout the morning and then a longer nap in your crib in the afternoon - it's usually at least 2 hours... sometimes 3.  You're also great at putting yourself to sleep - when I sense that you're getting tired, I can just swaddle you, put you in your crib with your mobile going, and you'll put yourself to sleep.  How did I ever get so lucky?  Over the course of the month, you've stretched out your feedings from every 2 hours to at least 2 1/2 (more if you're napping), so that's been nice too.  You do still cluster feed in the evening, usually eating around 5 & 7 before bed.  

You are a talker.  When you're happy and interacting with somebody, you just coo and coo.  I love the little conversations we have :)  I don't remember either of your brothers cooing this much, so I'm curious to see if you'll be a little quicker in your language development than they were. 

This month, you had a number of visitors.  Aunt Sara came to meet you,  then Nana & Papa came, and finally Uncle Tyler & Aunt Molly.  We love having the extra hands, and you love having the extra snuggles :-)  Aunt Sara discovered for us how much you like having the top of your head stroked.  Who knew!?!

Papa snuggles

Kaeden was very excited about the dog lovee that you got as a gift.  He is quite attached to his doggie, and now he often asks where yours is so that he can bring it to you. 

Your brothers continue to adapt to your presence in their lives. Ryan is as sweet as could be with you.  It's so nice to have a child around who I can trust to watch out for you!  Giving up more attention hasn't been a walk in the park for him, though.  For a while, he was expressing it with his "woe is me" attitude, more than average meltdowns, and impatience with Kaeden.  That has all improved a lot, especially since I've been trying to be sure to spend more quality time with him when possible.  Kaeden still adores you on the surface, but he is definitely jealous and tends to take it out on you.  I can't really let him near you unless I have my protective reflexes ready - sometimes he can be sweet and gentle and then out of nowhere, he'll pinch your cheek or squeeze your hand as hard as he can or grab your head and twist it.  You're learning to be somewhat wary of him, whereas Ryan frequently brings a smile to your face.  I'm sure you & Kaeden will work it out over time :-)  At this rate, you'll be as big as he is before we know it!

 

 You make me so happy each and every day.  There is nothing quite like the smiles and coos you give me at the end of a feeding.  

Keep on smiling, sweet boy.  You are oh so very loved!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aunt Sara

One of the reasons that I am so excited for my kids to have cousins that are close in age is that I was SO blessed to have cousins that I was very close to growing up.  I only have 2 cousins total, but they lived only an hour & a half away, and Sara is only 2 months younger than me.  If it had been up to us, we would have been inseparable as kids.  We were as different as could be (and in a lot of ways, still are!), but the very best of friends.  

We don't get to see each other very often these days, but it is always such a treat when we do.  I was so thrilled that she could come for a visit last month to see us, meet the new babies, see the new house, etc.  It was far too quick and started out rather stressful thanks to a poorly timed ice storm, but it was still wonderful.  

Lucky for Sara, most of my old photos of us are still packed up in the attic, but I was able to find a few :-)

 

At my wedding rehearsal

And, here we are present day :-)

 

Thanks for the visit, Sare!  We love you!

Courtney

  Clearly I am behind on my blog, since Courtney is now 3 weeks old, but to rewind a little bit...

I have a beautiful new niece, and I couldn't be more thrilled!! :-)

 

 I was able to sneak away from my own newborn long enough to go meet her on her birth day - such a treat!

  

Once she came home, we couldn't wait to introduce these two littlest cousins.  I still can't believe that we had babies less than 6 weeks apart TWICE.  What a blessing!

Ethan is a giant next to tiny little Courtney!

 

 

And I can't help but to include this one of big brother Atticus.  He is just so darn cute!

 I have the honor of being Courtney's "official" photographer, so here are some one-week-old photos:

She wasn't too thrilled about getting undressed in the middle of winter and being moved all around, but I love this shot anyway :)

And some with the big brother...

 

 

 The following weekend, my parents came to meet baby Courtney, so we had lots of time together for cousin bonding (and photo ops!)

 

Duke babies!

 

 

And finally, Courtney is the 4th of 5 play group babies to be born within 9 months of each other.  Since we've been together since our oldest children were babies, it's amazing & fun to see this new little generation of play group babies together.  

Welcome, sweet little girl.  Thanks for bringing some pink to my life :-)