with the arrival of curtis, our already very full days have become even more full...which has, and will likely continue to, kept us at home more often than not. big brother and sister have gotten used to letting momma and curtis sleep a little later than the rest of the house (something that will end when deedee leaves on friday, but my goodness i have appreciated it while it lasted!) and as soon as they hear him fuss in the morning peter is at my door knocking and asking to please come in. they love to come in and check on his, say hi, give a hug and a kiss, and then after watching curtis and i do our best trick (nursing) for about half a minute, they are bored and move on to something else a little more exciting. betsy, however, tends to stay a bit closer, telling baby "its ok, baby curtis" (even when he's not crying) and patting his head, and asking to sit on my lap or just stand next to me. she loves to be close to her momma which makes my heart happy, and keeps me plugged into where she's at - she's big but she still needs her momma. with these three littles, each with their own set of needs and desires i will have to learn to dance a balanced jig around here to meet them exactly where they are right now. pete is mr. independent but needs a lot of encouragement, support and praise for his endeavors. he's also full of things to share and i love hearing his endless chatter - need to make sure i stay tuned into what he's telling me, because there are so many interesting stories to hear. i love watching his imagination explode onto a whole new horizon of awesome ideas and inventions. he also needs a big space to move and jump and run every day, its part of his dna. he loves to cut paper with scissors (zizzors) with a super-serious concentrating face involving a lot of tongue-sticking-out and he is quite into drawing now. i love that he verbalizes what it is that he is drawing as he goes, its fun to get a glimpse into the amazing amount of brain activity taking place in his happy little head. there are lots of drawings of family members, trains, daddy's jet, but then he also adds a lot of other random things. its just so cool to see it all unfold - all those thoughts and ideas, along with a lot of letter "P's". betsy is full of go-power too and more than ever also needs a space where she can be her spider-monkey physically strong and busy self. she too has a lot of chatter, her favorite phrases are "don't do that again, peter!" said in a very stern voice and "look at me!" as she very purposely does something she is definitely not supposed to be doing (like dancing the cha-cha on the coffee table, climbing on top of the television...the list is long, actually!). she is busy and fast and full of questions - she is a sponge and wants to know what everything is and discuss the details of what she sees and hears everywhere we go. she's also become very good at concentrating - its amazing to watch her do puzzles, she actually examines the puzzle and the pieces and puts it exactly where it should go (her style is a bit different from pete's early puzzle attempts where he'd try to power the piece into every available hole in the puzzle and then end with a dramatic squeal of frustration...luckily he's gotten better now!). she does an amazing job of keeping up with her big brother. and then there is this growing babe of ours, at 13 days old he's now a big 9 lbs 4.5 oz (up from 8 lbs 2 oz at birth), we're just watching him grow by the hour - legs and cheeks filling in, his color is beautiful now that all the jaundice has worked its way through his system. he's starting to sleep in 2-3 hour chunks which feels soooooo luxurious for this momma (last night i was asleep for 45 minutes before he woke up for his first night feeding and it was odd how refreshed i felt after such a short sleep - am grateful that i am sleeping hard as soon as i'm able to lay down again). he's having longer and longer awake periods each day with his eyes wide open, exploring the shadows and movement of the room. his little mouth is starting to busily explore his hands and fingers to see just what he can do with them, i'm sure he'll find his favorite finger to suck very soon. he has all kinds of facial expressions that he showcases mostly when he is asleep. his awake face is mostly full of wonder as he takes in his surroundings.
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| checking on their baby |
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| getting his finger prints and foot prints |
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| filling the tub for his first bath - unfortunately the room was too steamy for good pictures, but we have video footage to share. like our other babes, he seemed to accept the warm bath without any fuss. he didn't love the drying off/chilly part of getting dressed but once he was bundled up and had a full tummy, he was happy to fall asleep for a nice nap. |
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| post-bath naptime :) |
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| loving this little one's nice long toes |
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| helping deedee plant some new flowers in our sad empty flower pots |
