Kidisms

• After we had Tanner things got a little out of control around our house.  For example, while I was upstairs in bed, and Josh was I don't know where, probably in the shower, the kids had some fun downstairs.  Josh went down to find that they had gotten out two spray water bottles and had sprayed the entire kitchen floor with water and were sliding around on it.  The best part?  Sidney was completely naked from head to toe because "it was easier to slide around."
• Jayden's prayer the other night: "Please bless that Dad won't like, hurt himself, like twist his ankle or anything while he's playing basketball tonight."  Can you tell how common it is for Josh to injure himself at church ball?
• Last night the kids were playing on Josh.  He was just laying on the floor letting them climb on him and jump on him and basically abuse him any way they wanted.  During this fun, Sidney randomly shouts, "This is my sacred duty!"  (Words from a church primary song.)
• And as I'm sitting here typing this Jayden is sliding down the stairs inside a play tent, and I'm pretty sure his vision is obscured.  How these kids stay alive sometimes is beyond me.

One Month Old

The past month hasn't exactly flown by.  For the first time I feel like I had a baby 6 months ago, instead of just a month.  Part of that reason is because it was the roughest recovery for me, but also because Tanner is just growing like crazy.

 

Stats:

9 lbs. 7 oz.-50th percentile

21 1/2 in.-50th percentile

 

He is growing so much, over 3 lbs. from his smallest weight, and 2 1/4 inches.  He is a really good baby.  He cries when cold, or hungry, and he's my first baby to not like baths, but he's usually pretty content to just lay around.  He loves the swing, to cuddle, and to be held by anyone.  We are all really enjoying him.  When he was about a week old, Jayden was holding him.  He loves to play with his little hands, and to stare at his face.  It was bedtime and so we told Jayden he had to put Tanner down.  We told him he could hold him again the next day, and he replied, with tears in his eyes, "But he won't always be like this."  He is an awesome big brother, and hearing him say that brought tears to my eyes too.

 

As rough as my recovery has been, having to basically sit in one spot for almost two weeks, it gave me the excuse to hold Tanner as much as I wanted.  He got super spoiled those first two weeks, especially with my mom and Josh here, someone was always willing to hold him.  Now that I'm up and around, I don't regret holding him too much, or letting him fall asleep in my arms as much as he did.  Like Jayden said, he won't always be like this.

 

More about Tanner:

He snorts when he cries.

He has lost all his hair on top of his head.  The poor little guy looks like a balding old man.

He is waking up about every 2-3 hours at night.  He once slept 8 hours, but he hasn't come close since.

He has a very peaceful spirit.

We'll keep him.

 

A couple of weeks ago this blanket arrived in the mail.  It is really cute.  It has his name and birthday embroidered on it.  But there was no name or card attached to it, so we have no idea who sent it.  If it was you, thank you, we love it!

 

 



Daddy's Girl

Whenever Sidney gets hurt, she wants her daddy.  She will always go to him first.  If he's not home, she cries for him.  He must be a better comforter than me.  She was sick all week, and about once an hour I heard her say she wanted daddy or she missed daddy.  Even when she's not sick, she talks about him all the time, counting down the hours until he gets home from work.  She also fell asleep on the couch every day, which allowed me to do the same.

 

Bird

A couple of nights ago Josh and I started hearing a noise coming from somewhere while we were getting ready for bed.  But we were really tired, so we didn't think much about it.  The next morning I could still hear it.  I followed the noise into the laundry room. 

 

Something was in there.

 

It sounded like a small animal wildly scampering about.  After debating if I should open the door, I very cautiously cracked it open, bracing myself for whatever was in there.  Nothing came out, so I peered into the washer, which was open.  Nothing.  So it must be the dryer.  The thing sounded out of control.  Once again I stood there debating whether or not I should open the dryer.  I was envisioning opening it and a large rat leaping at my face and clawing my eyes out, or a bird flying at my face and pecking me to death.  So for whatever reason I very slowly opened the dryer.  Nothing came out.  But the thing continued to make noise all day, giving me the creeps every time I walked by the laundry room.

 

When Josh got home he investigated.  Something was in the vent.  A bird most likely.  So he put on some gloves, shut the door, and went to work.  Meanwhile, I got Sidney and I as far away as possible.  (I had an incident with a bird in college.)  I expected to hear wild noises coming from upstairs, but luckily it was pretty uneventful.  When Josh opened the vent up a bird flew out and started flying all over the place, actually trying to avoid Josh, not peck him to death.  I don't trust wild animals, even little birds.  He finally caught it with his hands, and a few minutes later came downstairs to show it to us. 

 

And that was the excitement of our week.
 



Big Brother and Sister

I could tell that Jayden was smitten with Tanner when he first saw him.  He sat there holding him in silence.  I could see the awe in his face, maybe even tears in his eyes.  Tanner looks a lot like Jayden did as a newborn, so to see him holding him is a little weird.  It's like he's holding himself.  He loves to hold him whenever he can, and every few seconds he'll look over at me and smile the sweetest smile, then turn back to Tanner and just stare at his little face and loves it when he grabs onto his fingers.  He keeps saying he is so excited to finally have a brother.  Yesterday he was holding him and I came up and Jayden said softly, "I just love him so much."

Sidney is mostly over the fact that we got a boy and not a girl.  She loves him too, though.  She loves giving him kisses, but is still a little shy about holding him.  She's done it a few times, but if he even makes the slightest noise while he's in her lap, she starts shouting, "He's freaking out!  He's freaking out!  Where's the pacifier?"  She's always saying he's so cute, and likes to help get out the diapers.  One time she kissed him and said, "Oops, sorry!  I accidentally kissed Tanner!"



Christmas

We had a great Christmas.  My mom was here for a week.  Technichally it's the first Christmas we've spent with her since before we were married.  About 8 or 9 years ago we were able to celebrate with her a few days early, so it was so fun to have her here.  She was such a tremendous help with the new baby.  We were sad to see her go.

 We had our own little baby Jesus for our nativity.  Gifts from the wisemen lay at his feet.

 

 We were sad to see Sparky go.

Tanner had the perfect first Christmas.  He got to sleep all day. 

We have a picture like this of all of our kids now.  The same outfit, the same Minnie. 

Grandma with Tanner in the baby blanket she made for him.