Merry Christmas!

We had a glorious Christmas Day - it was just the 4 of us and we enjoyed being together. Nate & Lila checking out their stockings. Sister Lou wasn't real happy about being awake!

She chilled while the rest of us opened presents.

It was a Star Wars & Lego Christmas for Nate...my sweet boy.

Nate picked out a new Lego set for Scott and was so proud to give it to him.

My little Darth Vader...oh my oh my...needless to say the light saber was a big hit.

I am so thankful during this holiday season, especially for my family. With the cold weather this December and the fact that we have a new baby, we've had a lot of togetherness. Learning patience is on our continuing education agenda for this winter! But I'm so blessed to have them and be able to share such a wonderful holiday with my family of 4!

Christmas Eve

We started off our day by dressing up Lila in full Santa Baby gear. She was tired afterwards, so she took a little nap.

The price of receiving wrapped gifts from Scott. Both kids in the bathroom with me while I took a shower. Privacy is a thing of the past.

After we got cleaned up, we got messy again by making Christmas cookies for Santa.

His face says how I felt when we were done!

My sweet kiddos...Lila was tired after having Nate home all day. He loves to kiss her and tell her how cute she is just when she nods off.

For Christmas Eve dinner, we were lucky enough to be guests of Hamil's in-laws, the Page Family. We had so much fun celebrating with them! Sarah's mom, Cathie, and her brother Ryan admiring Lila.

Nate watched movies while the adults chatted. He was happy, we were happy.

Sarah & Hamil talking to Lila - she slept the entire time we were there.

Cathie and her mom, Virginia having fun with Lila.

Sarah is such a good aunt - not only did she & Hamil pick out a winning Star Wars lego set for Nate, she helped him get started too.

Back at home, we had the first gift of Christmas. Lila was ready for bed.

Cookies and milk for Santa and fruit for the reindeer!

The tree after the kids were in bed and Santa had made his stop...

We got to bed too late but it was all worth it to see Nate's face the next morning!

Lila - 4 weeks

This blogging about not just one kid, but 2...it's a workout. I think I need an assistant. Lila is 4 weeks old today and is doing great. She's eating and sleeping well and I'm anxious to see how much she's grown when we go to the doctor next week. She's starting to coo just a teeny tiny bit and scrunch up her face when she's happy. Her favorite sound is Nate's voice and will turn her head when she hears him. He's so sweet to his little sister and has even taken to composing songs for her. My favorite is "Lila Louuuuuu, don't cry pleeeeeease...," sung in his best sing song voice. Love it. She loves the bath and will skooch down so far that the water comes up to her ears and when I pull her up, she cries. And when she has to get out of the bath, she cries. Guess I'm going to get my swimmer after all.

This picture makes her hair look darker but I don't think it really is - sometimes it looks like it is going to take a turn but then I change my mind. I can tell her eyelashes are a little darker, but her eyebrows are still almost invisible because they are so white. She is definitely more fair skinned than me or Nate, and gets that from Scott.

We love you Lila Lou - Happy 4 weeks!

Confessions

Many of you are so sweet to ask me how it's going. And I'm sure I gave you a glowing answer of how great things are around here. And for the most part, things are 99.99% fabulous - I'm really telling the truth. Lila is a great baby. She sleeps more than any almost-4-week old baby should. At least based on our past experience, more than any Scott & Abatha Boyle baby should. And Nate is wonderful too. He is adjusting well and we are finally hitting our stride on the transition to a family of 4. But for that last little bit of the percentage to get to perfect, I have some confessions about how it's really going.

Is my house as clean as I'd like it to be? No. The surface cleaning is no problem, but the deep cleaning has gone by the wayside. It drives me crazy. And just when I think I can't take the grime anymore, it snows. Oh my goodness. Talk about getting on my nerves. Just getting on my nerves doesn't even really describe it, just ask Scott. I may or may not have likened our front yard to the Griswold's last week. Well we do have a canoe in the side yard, no kidding.

Do I enjoy doing laundry as much as I used to? No. Because I love to fold the clothes as soon as they get out of the dryer. And sometimes all my children's schedules don't match the dryer schedule. But I still love laundry, I just can't fall out of love with it. We are just on a break right now. Not a break from laundry, I'm doing plenty, but the love affair is on hold for a bit.

Do Scott and I have any meaningful conversations? No. We are simply providers for our children at this point. Conversations to resume some time in February when I go back to work and we can email during the day. I didn't realize how much business we transact over email to keep our lives going.

Do I get to spend enough one on one time with Nate? No. But we're both adjusting and enjoying the time we do get to spend together.

Am I getting enough sleep? No. But not because the baby is keeping me up. I've had sleepless nights since Lila was born and both my children are sawing logs. C.R.A.Z.Y. I guess it's because I just don't have time to think about alot of things during the day, so I have to do that at night. I hope this phase ends soon! I'd at least like to take advantage of the fact that Lila sleeps better than her brother did - for right now that is.

How do I really feel? Well, pretty darn good. Glad not to be pregnant anymore and ready to start on the elliptical again. But the TV commercials for the Midwest Hemmorhoid Treatment Center may or may not look appealing to me. Just sayin.

That's it folks - that's how it's really going around here. Not too shabby.

Nate's Birthday

Nate's 5th birthday was a fabulous day. I gave him the choice whether he wanted to stay at home with me & Lila or if he wanted to go to school and have cake with his friends. He decided to stay home and I was glad. We started off the day with a few presents from Mom & Dad. He was a happy boy.

After his standard breakfast of oatmeal - I begged him to let me fix him something special but no dice - Debbie arrived and we played Star Wars for a bit for heading out to lunch at Bread Company.

When I asked him what he wanted to do on his birthday, he said go to Monkey Joe's. So we did. He had a GREAT time and was fearless! A big change from last year.

After a short rest, for Mom, we met up with Dad and went to Fitz's for dinner. He inhaled his grilled cheese sandwich and moved on to their famous root beer float.

I made a crazy decision to make his cake again this year. We didn't really know what it was going to be until a few days before. It is the Ice Planet, Hoth, from Star Wars. He loved it and I was glad. Making a cake that takes concentration and a baby in the house DON'T MIX.

Happy Birthday my sweet Christmas baby. We love you!

Happy 5th Birthday Nate!

My little boy, who is not so little anymore, turns 5 years old today. How can it be? He was just a tiny infant like yesterday. Except he wasn't. But it seeeems like he was!

Nate is the light of our lives. He keeps us on our toes and is constantly reminding us why he was not meant to be an only child :) He is smart, funny and likes a solid routine, like his mother. His major obsessions right now are Legos and Star Wars characters. He.cannot.get.enough.

Many of you have probably heard me call my firstborn "Nate P." I do it in public alot and get asked what his middle name is...no, it doesn't start with P. When he was just a baby, he had a sleep sack called Kid-O-Potamus. That morphed into the nickname of Nate-O-Potamus, which morphed into Nate P. Remember? I like me some nicknames. Nate P definitely stuck and he still allows me to call him that, at least for a little while longer. I'll hold on as long as I can!

Happy Birthday Nate-Nate! We love you so much!

Free Beer

What is a family to do in St. Louis when you don't have anything else to do on a Saturday...go to the Brewery! We've been the last few years around this time and the decorations are pretty and of course the beer is cold...also a plus for a family with young children:)

Nate learning about the ingredients used to make beer.

Watching the Clydesdales outside - we didn't stay out there for long!

We headed back to the hospitality room for our free beer - without taking the entire tour. I would have loved to, but much of it is outside and it was just too cold. Nate actually asked several times why we weren't taking the tour - he wanted to see the beer being bottled...I guess we started him a little too young.

And Sister Lou was wrapped up tight the whole time but seemed to enjoy her first trip to this historic St. Louis landmark.

Brother-Sister Love

Love is reading your sister Star Wars books and she smiles.

A Visiting We Went

Lila took her first trip this week to Southeast MO. She did great and I was happy to get out of the house! And out of STL for that matter - I had been home bound since October, a long time for me!

Aunt Sarah is smitten! No pictures of Hamil, although he did come see Lila. They had already seen her in the hospital, and Hamil reminded us then that he doesn't hold babies. Seriously. We have a picture of him holding Nate for the first time...when Nate was 4 months old!

And so is Wayne...

One of the best moments of the trip was Lila getting to meet my Aunt Mil. Lila is her great-great-niece. My Aunt Mil, my Grandpa's sister, has been a constant presence in my life. She took care of my mom and her 2 sisters, and then my cousins and me, and now gets to meet her great-greats, which is just so special. Lila also carries on Aunt Mil's maiden name - DeLaney, so to say Aunt Mil was excited to meet her is an understatement. Lila performed very well and was awake and content to sit in Aunt Mil's lap. She obviously knew how much Aunt Mil already loves her and what a special aunt she is.

After visiting Aunt Mil, we had lunch at Aunt Lee's house. Lila did very well again, and slept for much of the time.

My mom and her 2 sisters, my lovely aunts, Lee & Kathy. I love spending time with them and am so thankful to have such strong women in my family.

Belated Thanksgiving Pictures

We took these pictures at our little Thanksgiving dinner, but a few hours later I went into labor and Scott deleted them off my camera card so it took some work to get them where I needed them to post! But I wanted to post them because they represent our "last supper" of a family of 3.

Warning: I am extremely puffy!

Scott's test shot of the camera timer...

Nate making sure everything is perfect. It was:)

I look way overly excited - foreshadowing maybe??

I don't particularly like this picture, but Nate took it and Scott & I don't get too many pictures of us together, so it made the cut. Oh my, I'm so puffy, it's painful for me to look at!

And then Lila arrived and we became a family of 4!

What I've Learned...

Things I learned in the 2nd week...

• Babies and almost 5-year olds are very different. For example, babies don't help you push their arms through arm holes. Bummer.
• This I already knew but I've been reminded that my darling husband's sleep pattern includes a period between 11 PM & 1 AM where he is completely MIA. There is nothing coherent about this timeframe for him if he's alseep. So take your guesses as to when my nighttime feeding takes place. Convenient?
• My almost 5-year old does not know the meaning of the word "entertain." As in, please entertain your sister so that she doesn't cry...as the crying continues...
• If I "stay-in" for more than 2 days due to the cold weather, I get cranky.
• The members of my family know exactly when my bottom hits a chair even if they aren't in the same room as me. They suddenly need me to do something.
• We are "door challenged" - as in getting in and out of doors, whether it be at our house or at a store. People feel the need to help us. I appreciate the help ever-so-much, but I want to look like I can carry the carseat, hold my other child's hand and open the door all by myself, thankyouverymuch. Call me crazy independent like that, or just call me crazy. Who am I kidding, we are going to be door challenged for a while, so I just need take the help and appreciate it:) The help is always accompanied by a "I admire you." Really? With just 2 kids??
• I'm very blessed to have an extremely helpful & supportive husband plus 2 healthy, beautiful children!

She looks so much like Nate here! With blond hair of course...when we tell Nate that Lila looks like him, he says, "She does...but I didn't wear pink."