Happy New Year's Eve

I had a list of things to blog about this week, but all have been overwhelmed by baby care and spending time with my mom while she's here. Maybe I'll get to it next week. Meanwhile, baby care is a lot more fun (at least when it happens during the day!).

In the picture above, Sarah was the same age as Hannah in this picture, and they are wearing the same outfit - you can see that Sarah is bigger than Hannah was at that age, and also I think more alert. Sarah holds her head up and looks around, grabs for things with her hands and even pushes her pacifier back in her mouth! Not bad for 11 days old, I think.

Today Mom and I took the kids out for some errands, and wow, it's a lot crazier with three kids than with two! On a totally unrelated note, we saw a woman wearing a full length mink coat shopping in Costco. It seemed a little incongruous, but I'm sure it kept her warmer than I was (I foolishly just wore the fleece from my North Face without the shell, and it was like 3 degrees out!)!

Raining and Pouring

In case things weren't hectic enough, we spent this afternoon at the ER after Hannah decided to do a flying leap off of her bedside table with disastrous results. There really isn't anything like walking into your child's room to see sheets of blood pouring out of her head to freak a mama out. As it turned out, she is fine, and just has a one centimeter long laceration on the back of her head.

To further liven things up, while we were waiting in triage, Sarah had a diaper blow out the likes of which I have never seen (how does such a small baby poop up to her ARMS?!?!?) and of course I didn't have a spare outfit for her, so she spent the rest of the visit naked except for her diaper and blanket. As we were being released, the nurse was looking at the baby, and probably thinking to herself, "Should we let this woman go home with this bleeding toddler and naked newborn?"

We're thankful that Hannah is ok, and hoping we can stay away from the hospital for a while now!

Christmas Highlights

I considered doing a post about how discouraged I am that Sarah screams all night long even though I stopped drinking caffeine and eating chocolate and dairy products. She is sweet most of the time, I just think she has colic at night. Yet another reason to wish I was a dolphin.

Instead of that downer post however, I decided to finally post some Christmas pictures for your perusal.

Sleeping Beauty (I think every parent of a little girl has a picture with that title)
The dining room table set for Christmas dinner

Jack, Josh and Hannah laughing at something

"I will share Daddy's baseball cards with you, Sesta!"
(Jack calls Sarah "Sesta" which is really sweet)

Hannah admiring the doll clothes my mom made for Hannah's new doll

Update

We had a nice Christmas with my family (above: my brother Thomas holding Hannah, Josh, my mom holding five day old Sarah, me, my dad holding Jack) and Josh's parents. Other than overdoing it with the preparations, I've been fine, just having trouble getting back into a groove with the daily schedule, so I've been taking a break from the computer. I'll post more pictures and updates later!

Sweet Sarah

Smiling

I look really haggard here, but I never got to sleep after she was born, so I was really tired!

My dad with Sarah

My mom with Sarah

Hannah meeting Sarah

My mom with Hannah and Sarah

Josh with Sarah at home
Jack is finally warming up to Sarah. This afternoon he kissed her and pointed out all of her facial features (he is pointing out her nose in the picture), as well as bringing her a pacifier when she cried. Of course, when she spit out the pacifier, he tried it out too! Hey, at least he's sharing (germs anyway!).

I'm glad to be home, but am really tired, so it may take me a while to catch up. I hope you're all enjoying Christmas week!

Hannah's Thoughts on Citrus Fruits

Today I gave the kids each a section of grapefruit at lunch to expand their palates. Jack made a sour face when he tasted his, and Hannah said, "Don't worry Jack, grapefruit is a...nak-WIRE taste!"

I'm sure I've used the phrase "an acquired taste" in her hearing before, but it never ceases to amaze me how she will remember things and then use them correctly later!

Cuties

Jack's Words

A friend asked me the other day if Jack was talking yet. As usual, that depends on your definition of "talking." Below are the words Jack says so far. Not bad for a boy of 18 months, I suppose!

• Mama
• Dada (Daddy)
• Nana (Hannah)
• Sawah (Sarah)
• Gee-gee (Gigi, my mom - he has only said this a few times so far)
• Tank you (thank you)
• Nigh nigh (night night)
• Zee-ba (zebra)
• Woof woof (does that count as a word?)
• Dah (dog - it's the dog sound without the final consonant)
• Bye Bye
• Uh oh (is that a word?)
• Appa (apple)
• Babana (banana)
• Jah (Jack, usually said when pointing to himself)
• Ya Mom (yes ma'am)
• Diss (this)
• Birdah (bird)
• Moo (is that a word, or just a sound?)
• Ah dah (all done)
• Socks
• Ah-mahn (amen)
• Sah cheese! (say cheese)
• Bop bop (beep beep, said when playing with vehicles, for which he also makes a wide variety of mechanical type noises)