6 weeks

My little guy has gone from this precious newborn...

...to an alert and smiling six week old.  He still sleeps like a champ and is a laid back, easy going little brother.  It is very rare that he actually cries, which is good because the other two still do plenty of it!

Some Pig

As a preface, this spring Zach and I read "Charlotte's Web" together.


Last week I prepared ribs for dinner and as I was spreading a rub on the raw ribs, Zach asked what animal the meat was from.  I answered that these particular ribs were from a pig.  His response, without an ounce of remorse or sadness...

"Bye, bye Wilbur!"

Half Birthday

For Zach's birthday we took the boys to play Jurassic Putt miniature golf.  My game was lousy but I blame it on having Marcus in the carrier and putting one handed.  Steve and Zach each played a good game of golf. But Eli had a great game of baseball!  No matter how many times we told Eli and demonstrated for him how to play golf, his game looked a lot like baseball.  Eli took huge swings at the ball and then would drop the club and take off running around the green.  

 

Underwater shark

Zach has been strongly against putting his face underwater.  We have tried bribing, coercing, tricking, everything to get him to try.  Swim classes haven't help, in fact I think the pressure made it worse.  Finally at the beginning of this season I told Zach that he was in complete control over when he wanted to go underwater.  No more pressure.  I told him when he was ready he could do it then.  He was thrilled with that conversation and told me one day he would be an underwater shark, but for now he would stay on top.

While we were at the beach, Zach overheard my aunt and I talking about a couple of strong swimmers that we knew.  Truly I was just making casual conversation with no hidden agenda.  When she and I were done talking, Zach asked me if he was a strong swimmer.  At first I was going to placate him because I didn't want him to feel insulted, but instead I gently told him that no, he wasn't a strong swimmer yet but that I knew he would be one day.  He accepted my answer without arguement and then turned around jumped in the pool and has been swimming underwater ever since.

Apparently honesty is the best policy.

To the beach

Last week we went with my family to the beach.  We had perfect weather and a wonderful week.  It wasn't quite as relaxing as last year's trip because we were trying to keep Marcus off of the beach, so one of us always had to be at the house.  

At first Eli was miserable on the beach and kept asking to go back to the house, but eventually we figured out that he was sensitive to the sunlight and wearing glasses helped.  After that both boys had a great time, especially at low tide when natural tide pools formed.  Zach has gotten more brave each year going out in the surf and this year he played where the waves were breaking.  Eli, completely out of character, was very afraid of the waves and would only play in the tide pools.  Maybe next year both of the older boys will enjoy the ocean.

Can I have a juicy thing?

So what's a juicy thing?....

Why it's a plum, of course.  And as you can tell they are very, very juicy!

After this plum, I learned to take his shirt off
when he eats a 'juicy thing'.

According to rumors...

I have always heard rumors that babies sleep.  I even read somewhere that when a newborn is tired you can't keep them awake and when they aren't, you can't put them to sleep.  Well I have plenty of experience with the second part of this adage but I have had no opportunity to see a baby who likes to sleep.  Until now.....

Marcus sleeps!  

He sleeps in your arms, in the Ergo, in a crib, in a bouncy seat and even with his brothers screaming in the same room!!  I feel like I am witnessing a miracle.  At night he will even go 3-4 hours between nursings.

So not only do I feel reborn from no longer being pregnant, I also don't have that haggard new mother exhausted feeling either.  Life is Good!!

39 weeks and 3 days....

At 8:24pm on Wednesday, May 30th Marcus Alexander was born.  He weighed 8 pounds, 12 ounces and was 19 3/4 inches long.  His delivery was fast and hard starting around 3:15 that afternoon.  We are so grateful for a healthy, beautiful baby boy.

Big brothers Zach and Eli have welcomed him with open arms, lots of kisses and frequent requests to hold him.

37 weeks, 6 days and 3 hours

Not that I'm counting......

Baby #3 is due to come soon and I feel like I have been pregnant with him for over a year.  I will spare you the majority of the list of grievances I currently have and only let you know that this little guy is quite comfortable.  Apparently he is so comfortable he is doing somersaults and cannot decide if he wants to be breech or if he wants to cooperate and put his noggin down.  Right now he is fluctuating between the two options.  As I write this entry he is head down, I believe, but I will have an ultrasound later today to verify.  If he's not, I am scheduled to have a 'version' on Tuesday (it will be my second scheduled one).  Basically it will all come down to what position he is in when I go into labor whether I can deliver naturally or if I have to have a c-section.  In the mean time I keep praying he doesn't get tangled up...

Males

Zach's assistant teacher at school had a baby a few weeks ago and today she came in to the classroom for the kids to meet him.  Zach told me about her visit when I picked him up and he asked if her break was over and she would now be coming back to school.  I told him that she wouldn't be back this year, that she was going to stay home and take care of her new baby.  After a minute of silence, Zach asked,

"Do the males ever stay home to take care of the young?"

Brotherly love

(Please don't judge our parenting based on this entry!)

On Saturday morning, Zach and Eli were playing with pretend guns.  Eli was becoming increasingly frustrated at his lack of success with the 'gun'.  As he started getting more and more upset, Zach said,

"Eli, I'm not trying to make you angry.  I'm trying to kill you."

Me too!

The other night at a restaurant I offered Zach a choice of chicken fingers or pizza.  He said that he wanted pizza.  A few minutes later he said,

"Mom, I give up my mind.  I want to have chicken fingers instead."

The Crowd

(This post will only be meaningful to those of you knew my Papou, Marcus Stephanides.)

The other day, while we were leaving swim lessons, we passed by a cemetery and Zach asked what it was.  I told him it was a place where people who had died were buried and that loved ones then put a stone above the spot to remember them.  This led to the question of how a body could be buried but also go to heaven.  So I tried to explain that our bodies stayed here but our spirits went to heaven.  So he asked where Papou was?  I said that his body was buried at a cemetery in town but that his spirit was in heaven.  "Can we go see it?", was his immediate reply.

So...we went to the cemetery.

Papou's burial site is in a large cemetery but his particular spot is very isolated by the water.  Most of the sites are very close together but I guess when my grandfather bought his they had opened up a 'new' area and he is one of the first buried there.  So Zach, Eli and I went to see the spot where he was buried and I read the tombstone to them.  Zach accepted all of this as very matter-of-fact and we loaded back into the van to leave.  As we left the isolated sectioned and drove through the very full part, Zach asked,

"Why was Papou buried outside the crowd?"

Little League

  Little League started on April 14th with a parade.  Zach is loving the whole experience!  He wears a big grin on his face the whole way around the bases.

 

At bat

Running to third.

On third base.

Taking the field

While Zach is playing in the real game, Eli has his own pretend game going on the sidelines.  

Every game he asks if he can play today?

32 weeks....and counting

On Easter Sunday I was 32 weeks pregnant.

Easter

Goodbye Hall Drive

 At the beginning of this month we sold our first home!  Looking back I'm not sure how all of the packing and organizing happened while still functioning as a family, but it did and I am glad it is behind us.  Thankfully the weather was beautiful for the month of March and the boys were able to be outside all day while I packed inside.

After we moved out and before settlement, we took the boys back to the empty house to say "goodbye" because Zach was expressing some confusion as to why we couldn't go back there.  He helped us go through the house and pick out a few last minute bits we 'forgot' (such as a washcloth, baby spoon, garden shovel, plastic bags and other treasures).  Zach collected all the items and then said, "Goodbye Hall Dr!"  He hasn't expressed any anxiety about leaving the house since then.

We are currently living with my parents while we look for our next home and await the 8 weeks left until the baby is born.

In the midst of packing we managed to have a picnic lunch!

This was taken at 27 weeks pregnant.