Kitties

TJ loves cats. Curious George used to be the only television show he was interested in, but about a month ago Rob recorded a documentary about kittens off of Animal Planet; now he asks for the kitties more than he asks for the monkey. I can't remember exactly when the cat-love began, but it was prior to Christmas, since one of the things I looked the hardest for for a Santa gift was a big stuffed cat. Anyways. Sufficient to say that the cat-love has gone on for a while, and he's had time to accumulate a menagerie of cats.


You may notice he has two of the little white calico cat; the first rather mangy, the second a recent and miraculous acquisition--it's his favorite that he hauls everywhere with him, and I've learned the hard way how important it is to him: in late February the cat fell out of the car (unbeknown to us) during a long, busy Saturday of errands. We did not notice his absence until bedtime. Now if you know TJ, you know how important it is to him to have all of his precious treasures present for bedtime. The sorrow and devastation was sudden and absolute. In the face of such tragedy, there was really nothing to do but jump in the car and start searching (after an Internet search confirmed that the cat had been discontinued, and was sold out everywhere). I drove from Edmond, to the Mercy campus, to downtown Oklahoma. It took at least an hour. It was a blustery, cold day, and I'll never forget the relief I felt when my headlights lit upon a small black and white lump in the parking lot of the Indian restaurant we'd had dinner at. He'd been run over, and was definitely worse for the wear, but I'd found him. The first thing TJ said the next morning, was, tearfully, "the white kitty-cat?". I felt like a super-hero when I presented it. Just before Andy was born, I came across the second white cat at the bottom of the clearance rack in PBK. Remembering that night(and since he won't sleep without it), I bought the last two they had in stock.
TJ plays with his cats all the time.





He carries the white one around everywhere. He sleeps with all of them. He watches TV with them (George, or one of the many cat documentary and nature shows now filling our DVR). He even eats with them at the table. He likes to line them up in rows


And study them intently until he has them arranged just right















The past couple of days he's been carrying his cat around in this little red bucket


I just love this kid.



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Andrew's Blessing Weekend

We blessed Andrew this weekend (June 18-19). It ended up being a little earlier than we had originally planned, because Grandpa Tom and Grandma Sandy are moving (boo!). We have early church, so did not take pictures beforehand; I knew this would prove to be a mistake, and it was, as Andy peed all over his cute little linen blessing suit before we could do pictures. So I need to wash it, and take pictures of him in it later. He was mighty handsome.


We had a nice dinner, complete with watermelon,


and chocolate cake with almond roux frosting



Grandma and Grandpa alternately snuggled and romped with the boys


















We are SOO going to miss having them so near! It was a bittersweet weekend.

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Level 1: Complete

Dear Baby Andrew,
You are one month old today. Last night you slept nearly 6 hours at once(!!!!). It was awesome, and far and away the longest you've slept yet. I hope you do it again tonight.
You are a very sweet and alert baby, and I cannot believe how strong you are. You have been holding your head up almost since the day you were born. When I lay you on your tummy, you can inch along, and have moved up to 15 inches all on your own. Mostly, you just turn 360's; you get mad, and kick your feet, and one foot must kick harder than the other, because you will just turn circle after circle that way. I think this means you will be an early crawler.

Bath times are NOT your favorite, but you are beginning to like them a little better. Last night, you actually stopped crying when I put you in the water.

I've started sleeping you on your tummy, and you obviously prefer it, because you are doing to much better. You are so strong, you can lift your head and turn it side to side.



Big brother TJ is getting more and more interested in you. He likes to hold you, and there have been several times when you have stopped crying when TJ held you. I hope you two will be great friends as you grow up together.
You have not smiled yet, but I can see it coming. It will be soon.
Thank you for coming to join the family.
Love, Mom






I had to throw out a few pictures of TJ as a baby. I cannot believe how different these two boys look. Andrew is so fair, he looks nearly bald (he's not), although he does not have near the hair TJ did.


Baby Andrew is 1 month old today. And I have to say, it's been a long, grueling month, and I'm not real sad to see it end. I am so grateful to have had such an awesome delivery, because there simply was no time in the month for me to recover; I am so grateful to have had the strength to deal with all that May dished out for us.
Andy was born on May 2nd, a Monday. We left the hospital on Tuesday. Thursday night, he cried ALL NIGHT LONG. I nursed him for hours and hours, and finally, at 5am, I handed him off to Rob, along with a bottle of formula. He guzzled the bottle and fell into exhausted slumber... and my heart broke. I went through such horrible breastfeeding problems with TJ, I just didn't know if I had it in me to do it again. Friday was spent rushing to appointments trying to diagnose the problem: Andrew was tongue-tied; he had been unable to latch properly, and hence had not properly stimulated milk production. Bottom-line: all the hours of nursing I had been doing were inadequate, and the kid was starving. Literally. He had lost more than a pound (and when you're only 8lbs to being with, that's a big deal). The hospital was unable to get me in to clip the tie until Tuesday; fortunately, I happen to know a guy who got me in for a private appointment within the hour (I KNEW marrying a doctor would eventually hit pay-dirt). However, fixing the problem wasn't enough, since my milk supply was now lagging far behind what was needed. So began the awful cycle of feeding, supplementing, pumping, stimulating. It was a nightmarish week. He cried, I cried, TJ cried for lack of attention, I cried more from feelings of guilt and inadequacy... The tears poured and poured. By the end of a week, I had made huge progress, and was nearly there...
That's when Rob got sick.
Then TJ got sick a few days later.
By Sunday, the 15th, Andrew had it, and was so snotty and congested he could barely eat anyways.
And I went down on the 18th.
You know those long, miserable, awful cold viruses, the ones you only get maybe one of per year? The ones that you just have to almost totally hibernate for days to get over? Yeah, it was one of those. And since no one was doing any sleeping, no one could get over it. We STILL sound like a family of hacking, coughing, sniveling chain-smokers. Sans the stinky smoke-smell, of course. I spent at least two weeks sitting next to a humidifier holding one child or the other. Usually in the middle of the night. My most valued possession became this nasty little snot-sucker. Buy one. Shove it in your bathroom cabinet, and forget it; but I promise you, at 2AM someday, you'll be so grateful it's there. It seems gross. I know. But it works. And, it's endorsed by several pediatric ear nose and throat physicians, including Dr. Glade. He has lots of personal experience with it. Too much, after last month. Anyways. By the 26th, Andrew was still miserable and not sleeping, which means that I was near-crazy from all the not-sleeping. I finally took him to the pediatrician, which I never bother to do (I practically live with one, why would I expose my precious ones to those germ-infested offices?). The pediatrician made me laugh. He looked in Andy's ears. Then he looked again. Then he hummed and hawed. And looked again. "Well?" I prompted him. "Well..." he said, "in anyone else's kid I would say that it's a double ear-infection. I'm a little more hesitant to call it in the ear specialist's kid." Would you believe that I had neglected to have Rob look in the poor baby's ears? Sure enough, he confirmed the two ear infections.
Later that day, a friend asked me if Andy was a good baby. I nearly burst into tears (okay, I did indeed burst into tears, but I made it out of the room first). Was he a good baby? I had NO IDEA. The first week of his life he was starving to death, so that's why he screamed all that week. Then he was sick, and screamed for 10 days because he was miserable. Then his ears hurt, so that's why he was screaming. So is he a good baby? I think the answer is "yes", but really I'm only going off of like 3-4 days of experience here. Since Tuesday of THIS WEEK, I think he finally feels O.K., for the first time in his short life. And I feel like I have a whole new baby, one that can eat, sleep, and breathe. How novel.
So I've made the past month sound awful, and it kinda was, but it definitely had it's good, as well. Mostly, it was just HARD. Really, really hard. But new babies are always hard. I'm glad that it's over, and I have a huge sense of accomplishment because we made it through, and I've learned so much about Andrew and how he works and what he needs. And I also feel like I know how bad the worst days can be, when both kids and both parents are sick, and both kids need alot NOW, and it's good to know that we can make it through those on our own. I'm grateful for all the help we had from two awesome grandmas and one swell grandpa. And I'm really excited to see what next month brings us. It will be better.