Joanna

Welcome to the world Joanna Christine, born September 20 at 9:35am. 7 pounds 3 ounces, 20.5 inches long. I know, I'm a little late with this, life is a lot more crazy with two kids! And since I'm not good at keeping a baby book for either one, I need to record it all here, so bare with me.
Joanna decided to come 3 days late, not so bad. I went into labor monday night, about 20 minutes after falling asleep. We went into the hospital at about 2:30am after mom M came to stay with Orrin. I wasn't dilated far enough even though my contractions were every 2-3 minutes, so Scott and I walked laps around the hospital in the middle of the night. It was kind of fun, almost like a date if you don't count the contractions. We got back up to Labor and Delivery at 4:30 and got admitted. Joanna decided to come out with her hand up by her face, so labor progressed kind of slow. My Dr. was off that day, but came in to the hospital for a meeting. He saw I was there and poked his head in and said if I was ready to push at the end of his meeting, he would stay and deliver the baby for us. I was and so he did. We loved him before, but even more so after that! Delivery was pretty quick after some pushing help from the dr because her heart rate was dropping (cord around her neck).
So since we have been home, Joanna has been growing like crazy! She was 6 pounds 14 ounces at her first doctors appointment (6 days old), and 8 pounds 12 ounces at 3 weeks old (and 22 inches). She is a super easy going baby! I hardly ever hear her cry except for when she is hungry. She is up a few times at night but has just started doing one 4-5 hour stretch, which is heavenly for me! She is just now starting to be interested in toys hanging over her head, and I think she may have smiled for real once or twice. A couple days ago she spent some time cooing at one of the toys, so cute!
Big brother Orrin is smitten. He loves to talk to her and be involved in all aspects of her care. Even after four weeks, he hasn't asked me to send her back yet or anything. He did decide to stop sleeping when she came home but that seems to slowly have been resolved.
So far we are settling in well. Scott was home for a week and a half, which went by way too fast. I was sad to see him go back to work, and a little scared, but we have had lots of help and meals brought over. That has been wonderful! And I've managed a few days all by myself now and its been ok. Difficult to find time for anything beyond meeting the needs of both kids but hopefully that will get better as Joanna goes longer between feedings. (Right now she seems to eat constantly.)

Some pictures:

the Simple Things

Orrin is absolutely obsessed with buses lately (and anything that resembles one in any way is a "bus"). So last week we were walking through the Meijer parking lot and he saw a UPS truck. He was pointing and squealing "BUS!" "BUS!". The driver must have seen him because he stuck his head out and waved at Orrin. I've never seen such a look of pure joy on his face - totally made his day!

Way Behind

Well Scott says I need to update or else our daughter will hate us for neglecting her. So I guess that's the first update! She's due in mid-september. And I learned my lesson last time, I'm not even contemplating the possibility that she would come earlier (or even on time for that matter). She seems to be healthy and growing. Its a little scary to me because she seems way bigger than Orrin at this point.

Orrin is also healthy and growing. He's always been a talker, but I think the biggest developments with him the past few months has been transitioning over to real words and sentences. He's been stringing two or three words together for about a month now, and we got our longest sentence ever a couple days ago - "I don't wanna home go" over and over as we walked home from the playground. :) Its really fun watching his little brain figure all of that out.

Some of his current favorite things are letters and numbers. One day a few months ago I sang the alphabet song to him and he said a couple of letters at the appropriate time - I had no idea he knew any of them! So once that happened, we started singing that more, and I got him some magnetic letters for the fridge. So far he can pick out the A, E, H, I, and L correctly every time. He loves pointing out letters in books and anywhere else he sees them. And of course singing the alphabet song. He'll even sing along to the "now I know my abc's" part at the end. We started counting steps with him when we were on vacation last month and it just sort of stuck. So now he can count to ten, getting all of them almost every time. He loves to count everything!

He's definitely about to turn 2 - with the attitude to go with it! Now that he can communicate what he wants and doesn't want, its like living with a small dictator. It doesn't always go over very well when we don't immediately meet every request, but he does get over it pretty quickly. Overall, though, he's still very good natured, and lots of fun to be with!

Ok, enough with the words.

One of Orrin's favorite passtimes is still watching elmo videos on youtube. He gets this big cheesy smile that cracks me up. Of course, now anytime he sees a computer he asks for "elmo"


He is working on his art skills. He likes to color, but gets bored of it pretty quickly.
Giving kisses. He is definitely becoming a very empathetic kid. I had a foot cramp the other day and as I was writhing around in pain, he came over looking very concerned and kissed my foot.

He came with me on a trip to visit friends in Ann Arbor a while ago. Here he is with Joyce's dog Charlie (who was a very good sport about sharing his crate).

Another obsession is rocks. We have an abundance out front that he loves to play in, but also we have to stop and pick up any rocks we see on the sidewalk or parking lot. He generally likes to have one in each hand whenever we are outside.

He is a very hard worker, too. He loves to sweep the garage.

Found this at a garage sale for a few dollars, and he loves it! As well as a small plastic wagon that he likes to push (yeah, I can't convince him that it would be easier to pull) around.

Working again, helping daddy water the flowers. They do this a few times a week.

Helping daddy with a puzzle. Orrin is absolutely a daddy's boy! He loves to do pretty much whatever Scott is doing.

Like fishing! He sat in the boat with Scott when we were on vacation for a couple hours at a time without complaining. Scott was ecstatic to realize that he will have a fishing buddy!
Orrin's first fish!

If you ever call our house and talk to Orrin, I cannot guarantee that he isn't doing this... (I went downstairs for something and came back up to find that he had dragged both of these out into the living room)

We finally got his sandbox set up (with a little too much sand, oops). He likes it almost as much as his pool.

Helping Scott re-assemble the crib in the baby's room.

Because he got a fabulous toddler bed (thanks Eddie and Amie!) for his room! It made me sad when we first moved everything because his room looks so grown up now, no more changing table or crib. One of these days we'll get around to decorating the walls a bit. But the toddler bed went over very well, he doesn't try to get out ever, and he's only fallen out a couple of times. Much less of a battle than we thought it would be!

If you are wondering what to get Orrin for his birthday coming up, I think he'd like one of these...
Or maybe just a lake in the front yard. He just loves the water!

Yet another one of him helping. This was a great moment for me as Orrin vacuumed the kitchen and Scott got the rest of the house!


Well, maybe someday I'll update on life for Scott and I - he has done a ton of work on the landscaping and garden, and we've done some fun projects inside as well.

We're back

Ok, we were never really gone. Just not very good with updating.

Here's some fun facts:
Orrin is growing a ton. Scott and I both lost the bet on when he would walk, Aunt Becky wins again! He took his first real steps on December 10 while a friend was visiting, but didn't start really walking until about two weeks ago (Jan 27th). We were visiting Leeum that evening and Orrin watched him run around for awhile, then picked up a football and walked across the room. He's been going ever since.

Orrin is talking more and more every day, too. There are too many words to list, but here are some of the cutest:
"Ow"=Orrin
A cow says "Mmmmmmom"
"Hi Da"
A lion says "Roar" (he really gets into this one)
He shakes his head and says "uh uh" in response to almost any question

I think this might be my favorite age so far. He knows enough words to be terribly cute, but not enough to talk back!

His favorite things to do lately are feed the dogs (a few pieces at a time, takes forever!), "help" me in the kitchen or with laundry or whatever else I happen to be doing, watch elmo videos on the computer, feed his fish, unload cupboards, and look through books. I think he would like to play outside if we could convince him to leave his hat and mittens on. We've only managed a few minutes at a time in the snow. He hated wearing shoes and boots until a few days ago, now he is obsessed with them and is constantly bringing me shoes to put on. He constantly babbles and giggles and is generally a joy to be around! Tantrums are even getting much shorter, he seems to get that it won't get him very far.

And the pictures:

Playing in the dog crate

"helping" with the laundry (these clothes are usually scattered throughout the kitchen within a few minutes)

Just a pretty view from the deck early one morning

Orrin's Christmas picture. The only way we got him to sit still for more than a second, and keep the hat on his head was to play muppet videos on the laptop under the camera!

First time in the snow, he wasn't all that enthused

A budding prodigy!

We are noticing he may have inherited a little bit of OCD (take your pick which one of us he got it from). The driver of this jeep must always be facing backwards. We mess with him and turn it forward, but he always notices eventually and turns it back around.

"helping" in the kitchen. Its a bit of a hazard for me trying to cook, but it keeps him occupied, otherwise he is hanging on my legs yelling "ot" (up).

Another of Orrin's favorite toys. Not so much ours. :)

I got him a donkey for Christmas - he LOVED it! Preparing him for his future pet.

With his cousins. He was not in a good mood, Scott got him to smile by singing Manamana - one of his favorite muppet songs.

More Christmas presents. He was a lot more interested in the table full of food that day! He would sucker anyone nearby into giving him something.

Loving his Christmas present from us - 3 fish!

"helping" Daddy install a shower door.

Digging out from the snowstorm.

Lots of toys, but usually the favorites come from my kitchen cabinets. He played with this thing for a few days, but has moved on to my canning funnel lately.

A Valentine's Day treat from Grandpa. This is the first time I've given him his own piece of candy (usually we'll just share little bites of whatever yummy things we are eating).

He definitely liked it and is asking for more here.

For dessert tonight, we had some chocolate covered apple slices.

Happy Valentine's Day!