What is a Mom's Work Worth?

Why hello there, it's me Mike, the husband. I don't often blog, but I thought the occasion was appropriate. I designed an infographic at work for Mother's Day and I thought some of Lydia's readership would appreciate it.

So to all you Mothers, and especially to you Lydia, thanks for everything!

[click to view full size]

Is that fun?

Pretty Girl

I know I'm biased as her mother, but sometimes Kate's beauty just takes my breath away.

Love those big brown eyes.

Handsome Devil

Little Owen is already 3 1/2 months old. Wha? How does that happen?

He loves face time and gives the best smiles and giggles. He is a great baby, almost always happy; eats well, sleeps well, travels well. Doesn't care for baths or loud noises though.

Smiley Guy

Laughing at Mama

He rolled over yesterday for the first time, but we missed it! After months of sucking on his knuckles, he finally found his thumb a couple days ago and seems to enjoy it. Loves Pat-a-Cake.

Finding his thumb

He seems to be growing well. Last time I had him on the scale he was just shy of 14 lbs, so he's nearly doubled his birth weight. He likes to stand and jump like his big sister. More updates on both kids after their doctor appointments in a couple of weeks.

This one's older (Owen was about 6 weeks) but it's fun to compare to the next one of Kate when she was about 3 months old. They look so much alike! Do you think so?

Awfully Quiet

Kate: Can we go to Nana's house?

Me: Let me go talk to Daddy about it. (Proceeds upstairs for said talk.)

....about 5 minutes pass....

Me: Hmm, I wonder what Kate is up to.
Mike: She has been awfully quiet.

...come downstairs to find this....It's pretty hard to discipline your child when you're laughing hysterically.
Yup Nutella.

Kinda gives new meaning to, "The proof is in the pudding."

And of course, this conversation from Baby Mama comes to mind:

Is that poop or chocolate? (tastes some). Chocolate!

What if that had been poop?

Like I said, kids are messy.

Pulling the Plug

After nearly three years, Kate is BINKY FREE!

That's right folks, we finally pulled the plug on this incessant sucker. We've been telling her for a couple of weeks that she's a big girl now and doesn't need it any more. Then on Friday night we told her that it was her very last night for the binky and that tomorrow we would be sending them to the cloud babies that need them.

Come Saturday morning, Mike went to the store and got some balloons while Kate and I watched the Pixar Short Partly Cloudy a couple of times so that she knew where her binkies were headed. We tried to make it a really memorable ceremony. Here are the pictures...

Oh yes, and that is the half-eaten balloon cookie she got as a consolation prize.

So it's been 4+ days and she's done amazingly well. Only asked for her binky a couple of times and has gone to bed at night without much fuss. That first night she asked for her blankie and when I gave it to her she said, "Please don't ever send my blankie away." So sad and so sweet at the same time.
I did say "at night" right? Oh, that's because since the flight of the binkies Kate hasn't had a nap. Previously she would skip her nap once a week or so, and last week she had a couple of WAY late nights after having had a nap, so we wondered if she was transitioning out of naps. I guess without a binkie, naptime just isn't worth it anymore. ;) Easier transition for her than for me BY FAR.

Kate is an amazing nearly 3-year-old. She is really into names and relationships, and she remembers names so well too. She tells us who is a daughter and who is a son and who has a mama. She loves to make-believe play with just about any pair of animals or dinosaurs or mermaids or dragons or whatever! She just has to have a toy for each hand and she's golden.

She comes up with the funniest things to say, too. She copies our words and intonations just perfectly. The other night when Mike got home she asked him, "How's your day, Daddy?" It was the way she said it--like an adult--that made it so memorable.
Yesterday as she was putting chapstick on my back (yep, my back) she was telling me, "Don't worry, Mama, it's just pressure. I'm making you beautiful." I tell her not to worry it's just pressure when I'm clipping her fingernails.

Another funny Kate story while we're on the subject:

The other night after having one of the biggest #2's on the potty Kate took a look and said, "Mama, I made some magic!"

We love you so much, Miss Kate.

First smile?

Owen Michael, the man, the myth, the legend

7lbs 2 ounces, 19 inches long, healthy and strong. Welcome to the world little buddy :)

13:27 - The end is nigh!

1:27 Lydia has now dilated to a 7.5! She's chomping on ice chips and grimacing pleasantly. We have 7 visitors present in the room, and we're very happy they could all join us for Owen's debut. More updates coming soon...

1:45 8.5, Owen's in a tight spot. Everyone's getting excited.

2:00 Over a 9 now. Mama's feelin some pain now. Jed (Dr.) came in to check her out. Baby is looking good, and almost ready to meet the world!

Progress

11:30 We're dilated to a 5 and moving to 6! Well, Lydia is anyway. I'm not dilated at all yet.

URGENT UPDATE

9:43 Popsicle Given

That is all.

Bring on the pain!

Water broke!

9:15 Water is broken, and we're on our way! A nurse came in and just poked her with some little blue rod. TMI?? Get used to it.

She's getting a catheter placed now. We're waiting to increase the Pitocin for another few minutes so we don't stress him out with all of the sudden changes. Little does he know the worst is yet to come. Passing through the canal and learning how to breathe will seem like a walk in the park compared to circumcision. *wince* Poor little guy...

Pre-game show

Good morning folks and welcome to the the second ever triennial baby pre-game show! I'm Mike Metcalf, and I'll be calling the plays today.

8:30 We're checked in, and ready to go.

8:50 Nurse got Lydia hooked up to an IV in her wrist (not the funnest place for an IV according to the patient).

9:00 Pitocin is going, and so are the contractions.

9:10 Epidural is in!


Click the picture to see that needle in it's full glory.

made the decision

So at my dr appt yesterday, Jed said, "now why didn't we have you scheduled for induction today?"

He was serious, and said that baby looks good and we can be started anytime. So funny that I want him out so much, but it seemed so hard to say, "ok, let's go!"

So after a little thought and talk, we decided to just go ahead and schedule the induction for our due date of March 23rd. The reason? Overwhelmingly the date. Call me silly, but Kate was born on 6/26 and he would be 3/23, making their birthdays easy to remember. PLUS both on a Tuesday, and from the looks of it, they'll be really close to the same size, and maybe even born around the same time. All those questions will be so easy to answer when I am old and senile. Just planning for the future, folks.

So stay tuned...a week from now I suspect Mike will be giving the play-by-play like he did with Kate.

thoughts on the eve of 39 weeks

This is the 3rd post I have started in the last 2 weeks and I am determined to get it published!

If you had asked me 6 weeks ago if I would still be pregnant today, 1 week before my due date, I would have told you there was no way I would make it. While I am glad Baby didn't come early for his developmental sake, I truly can't believe I've made it this long. As of right now, I am thinking I will likely get started on my due date like I did with Kate. 8 days and counting...

There are so many ways that this feels like I am pregnant for the first time. I don't know if I am super forgetful, or if it is just different this time. I don't remember having so many contractions, or being SO uncomfortable all the time. I don't miss the swelling that was enormously present with my first pregnancy though; THAT I can remember.

It's amazing to me that our family will be changing again. Just like any life change--getting married, having your first child--I am in that state of wonderment when you think, "what IS it going to be like?" And you really don't know until you're there for yourself.

Kate is doing awesome with the whole thing, although I do secretly suspect she thinks that "Baby Brother" is just the name we gave my big belly! We've been talking about it so long that in kid years, it must seem like I've always been pregnant. Heck-I feel like I have always been pregnant!!

More than anything, I am just anxious to get on with this next phase of life. The waiting is beginning to feel like I am watching water waiting for it to boil....

Can't wait to meet you, Little Guy. Come out soon!

A following?

So I am, as you can imagine, a little baffled by the rapid increase in traffic to my blog. Not that I mind so much, just curious. Anyone care to share where you are coming to my blog from?

the picture just doesn't do it justice, but here's the story

So I just opened the front door and there were several people standing in the street looking at up at the house to the east of ours and some were even taking pictures. So I asked what was going on and they told me there was a BALD EAGLE in my neighbor's tree. I had to see for myself, and I did. IT WAS HUGE! And beautiful. I went back in and got Kate's boots on so she see it too. We went back out and had another look. The others that were there said it had been in the tree for a while. I ran back in again to get my camera and when I got back out this time he was flying over the house to our south. This is the picture I got (zoomed in as best I could):

He bite my finger a 'dil bit.

Kate has been totally into dinosaurs lately. She got some great ones for Christmas and has been playing with them everyday.
Last night she woke us up screaming and it took me a minute to calm her down enough to see what the matter was, though I suspected a bad dream. Once she was calm she told me there was a dinosaur under her bed. At first, I thought she just wanted one of her toy dinosaurs and it fell under the bed. But no, what she meant was there was a REAL dinosaur under her bed. So I told her I would check, and tucked her in telling her there aren't any dinosaurs under her bed.
After about 3 rounds of this, I pulled her into our bed in order to get some sleep.
Right when Kate woke up this morning she went into her room without saying anything. She came back a few minutes later saying "I can't find 'em, mama."
"Find who?"

"The dinosaurs under my bed." That was all I heard of it for the next two hours, and then just now we had this conversation:
Kate: "I need to go check on 'em."
Me: "Check on who?"

Kate: 'The dinosaurs under my bed." And off she went. Upon her return:
Me: "Is he scary, sweetie?"
Kate: "No, he's nice. I check on him and he's nice. I'm not worried about him. He bite me a 'dil bit. He's nice and bite me a 'dil bit. On my finger a 'dil bit." Then she went back upstairs again, this time with her binkie and her blankie.
"I give him my binkie and my blankie. He's nice. I'm not worried about him."

I seriously wouldn't think anything of this wad of blankie by her bed if I didn't know the story behind it.

And binkie a little further under the bed.

SUCCESS!!!

Hooray for Miss Kate! She has been doing AWESOME on the potty for the last couple of weeks, but this week has had several accident/diaper free days. Today she woke up dry and held it for another hour before we finally remembered to get her to the potty.

Good Job, Kate. We sure are proud of you.