My Mute Daughter and Swinging Baby

We've had a busy week or two.  I've been getting ready for my open house, and with two kids it's taken me a little bit longer than usual.  But in the end, I got everything set up and all is going well.

William is growing and changing.  He smiles a little more often now, and he's trying really hard to start cooing.  It hasn't happened, but you can tell he's really trying.  He really likes to lay on his back and kick his feet.  We started using his swaddle blanket at night and now he'll sleep for a 5-6 hour stretch.  So nights are getting better.  Sometimes he still keeps dad up pretty late before he settles in for the night, though.

Bethany is still using that imagination and making me laugh everyday.  When my mom was visiting last weekend, Bethany decided to sing her a song.  It went like this:

               Jesus!  Do not be afraid.  E I E I O.  With a clap, clap here, and a Jesus there.

As you see, she's quite creative.

My two cuties.

 

Bethany discovered Sesame Street.  First she watched some clips online, and now I record the episodes everyday.  It's her new favorite show.

 

William, deep in thought.

 

 

Bethany had her program at our Bible study this week.  Grammy, Papa, Aunt Amanda, and Daddy all came to watch her.  And, she didn't sing a word.

 

As if we didn't already have a hard enough time seeing her, she decided to sit down halfway through.

 

Then after sitting there awhile with nothing to do since she wasn't singing, she decided to check out her name tag.

 

Afterwords, I asked her why she didn't sing.  She told me, 'I didn't know the words."  Later at home, she was singing along with her Wee Sing Bible CD and several of the songs from the program were on the CD.  What did she do?  Sing along and do the motions.

We got out the baby swing for William this past week.  The batteries had corroded and it wouldn't work anymore.  However, Shane performed a miraculous fix job and took parts from another broken toy, so it lives again.  William really likes it, and it usually puts him to sleep.  Very handy for a busy mom to have.

 

How cute are they?

 

 

 

William at 7 weeks.

 

One of the many faces.  Love it.

 

Halloween

Yea!! I've finally found the time to get our Halloween pictures posted.  We had a good Halloween other than the fact that Bethany was sick a couple of days before.  She still wasn't back to 100% by Halloween, but she had no problem eating the candy.

Daddy was excited about carving pumpkins only because he got to use his jigsaw.

Bethany kept saying she didn't want to smell the pumpkin.  I have no idea why.  This was as close as she got to helping us carve them.  She was asking over and over if she could go in the living room.  How many kids do you have to force them to carve a pumpkin?

We took Cinderella and her pumpkin treak-or-treating at Shane's office.  They were both a hit.

Bethany enjoying some of her loot.  She did a great job saying trick or treat and then saying thank you.

The next day we went to our church where Shane and the youth group had organized a treat tunnel for the kids in the neighborhood.  William had a new pumpkin outfit today because the one that I had made was fleece and he was roasting in it the day before.

Here's both kids with their pumpkins.  And yes, those are really William's hand prints.

Cinderella in her beautiful dress.  My mom did a wonderful job making it.  That was something I could have never accomplished this Halloween.  Thanks Mom!

One Month!

In some ways it's hard to believe that William is one month old, but when I think about all the sleep I've lost, it's not so hard to believe.  He's definitely changing.  His head is getting bigger and his face is filling out.  And he doesn't fit in newborn clothes anymore.  Nights are getting better and he's not up for as long.  Still, we'll have a big celebration when he starts sleeping through the night.

Today, William smiled at me for the first time.  He's always smiled a lot in his sleep, but he wasn't sleeping this time.  It just melts your heart.  I'm not sure how long it will take to get a picture, but I'll try.

I took both kids to the grocery store this week all by myself.  It went really well.  Bethany asked to ride in the cart, but I just told her that William had to ride there and she was fine.  She did great about staying with me and not grabbing anything and everything off the shelves.  We had a funny moment when she was helping me get the milk.  She was standing in front of the milk and I let the door go.  It sandwiched her between the milk and door.  Then she says, "Hey!  Get me out of here!"  She gets out and says, "I'm not milk!"  I cracked up.  I've told that story a couple of times and now she's telling it.  Sounds like her daddy, telling the same story over and over again. ;)

Another funny Bethany thing.  There is some imaginary person who lives with the toilet paper under the sink.  His name is Mr. Growl.  She came up with this all by herself and we have no idea where it came from.  She also has an alligator who lives in her closet.  Her imagination is gigantic.  It makes you wonder what she's going to come up with next.

Here's what we've been up during William's first month.

We had a visit from his great grandparents.

William's first bath.  Bethany really likes helping with bathtime.

He didn't cry at first, but was wailing by the end.

We went to Friday's for lunch on my birthday.  I got an ice cream sundae as my free birthday treat.  Bethany didn't have any problem helping me eat it.

William and Daddy cuddling on the couch.

William's First Week

Everyone wants to know how Bethany is doing with William.  She's really doing great.  She has to know where he is at all times.  One time when he was sleeping in his crib, Shane came in to find she had covered him up with another blanket and was proceeding to put all his baby toys in the crib with him.

We've had a decent week, and I'm feeling 100 times better.  Once a get another week under my belt hopefully I'll be almost back to normal.  It really nice to be able to bend over to pick up things off the ground and not have a big belly get in my way.

William has spent a couple of night up for several hours, but we're making due.  Naps are very good for everyone.  He's still a good eater and always keeps his hands up by his face just like his sister did.

One thing we have fully come to understand is just how different it is to change a boy's diaper versus a girl's.  Shane thought a boy would be easier, but that is soo not true.  We've gone through lots of clothes.  One night he had on four different sleepers!

Here's Bethany with one of her "big sister" gifts from my cousin, Kelly.

Kelly made a great blanket for William, and Bethany had to give it to him.  He's under there somewhere.

He's got the furrowed brow just like Daddy does sometimes.

 

In a stare down with his seahorse.  Shane is slightly annoyed with this toy because it plays music for 5 minutes, but William likes it.  It always seems to calm him down.

 

Finally a picture with Mommy.  See how he has those hands up by his face.

 

 

Getting a sponge bath.  Almost time for the regular bath.  We're just waiting for that belly button to fall off.

 

William Boyd Has Arrived!

William Boyd was born Saturday, October 3rd at 8:00 pm.  He weighed 7 lbs. 4 oz. and measured 19 1/2 in. long.  He is very sweet and a great eater.

Just shortly after he was born.

Not happy about being cleaned off.

Bethany is quite taken with William.  His grandma likes him too.

 

Daddy and William watching their first Bears game together.

William with his namesakes.  His grandpa is William and that's his daddy's middle name.  He's in good company.

Baby Update

I went to the doctor on Monday and the baby doesn't seem like he's any closer to making an appearance.  So the next course of action is to have some tests done on Friday.  If the results look fine then the doctors are still going to try to let me go on my own.  If they don't like something then they could induce on Friday.  I have a feeling that won't happen though.

If the baby still hasn't come by Tuesday, then I will be induced at 9:00 a.m.  So I'm pretty sure that's when it's all going to happen because I really want him to be born so bad.  Do you think this is him displaying an act of defiance already?  Let's hope not.

About a week and half ago we asked Bethany when the baby would be born and she said, "On Tuesday."  We've gone through two tuesdays since then, but it appears she's right.  We were wrapping the present that she got Baby Brother and she was telling the dog good-bye.  I told her to tell him that she'd see him again at the hospital.  So she said, "Bye, see you at the hospital . . . on Tuesday."

So for now we're sticking pretty close to home.  I still have contractions everyday, but they never lead to anything.  It looks like we'll have another October birthday in this family.

The Nursery

Well, yesterday I woke up with contractions and had them pretty regularly every 10-12 minutes for a couple of hours.  They were a lot stronger than ever before and actually hurt.  But as the day went on they dwindled to nothing.  So it was a no go. Bethany kept asking if I was "having 'tractions'".  I went to doctor today and don't seem any closer than last week.  The baby is a little farther down, so I guess that's some progress.  I know I haven't reached my due date yet, but I am very ready to have this baby.  Especially since we finished the nursery!!  So here's some pictures so you can take a peek.

The Roman shade was the last thing I had to finished.  I'm so glad to have it done.

We're planning on putting his name above the crib.

A friend of ours painted the turtles for us.  She copied them right from the fabric.  I love them and think she did a fantastic job.  You don't even want to see what my attempt would have looked like.

 

The Belly

There's a picture of me as a three year old with my mom just shortly before she gave birth to Amanda.  I'm sure my mom loves the picture of her big belly, but I've always liked it.  So I wanted to make sure I got one of those pictures with Bethany before the baby came.  I figured I'd be in labor and on my way to the hospital, but have to get this one last thing done.  Fortunately, we were able to get it done before that all happened.

Bethany is already very excited about her baby brother and he's not even here.  Hopefully the love will still continue when he's an actual person and not just some idea in her head.

We finally have some tomatoes ripe enough pick.  It's only the middle of September.  And wouldn't you know that's one of the things I've craved this pregnancy.

Bethany tried one of the cherry tomatoes. You can see what she thought about it.

This is something that cracked up both Shane and I.  It looks like Bethany's doll is into some unsavory habits, but Bethany says it's a popsicle.  Apparently, Shane and I will have to have a conversation with Baby Elizabeth about the dangers of smoking.

Tanner's Apple Orchard

Before I tell you about our trip to Tanner's. I have one story to share with you.

Last week, I had given Bethany her bath, and was getting her ready for bed. I told her that we could read some books before bedtime. We read one, and then I told her to go pick out just one more book. Of course she brings back her Toddler's Bible, which has many condensed Bible stories in it. I let her know that we wouldn't have time to read whole thing, but we'd pick out a few stories and read them.

We always read the ones at the beginning, so I flipped to the middle and started reading. While we were reading about Jonah, Bethany said, "Where's the baby?" So I told her there wasn't a baby in this story. She looks at me and says in a tone like, I can't believe you don't know this, "Yeah, mom. There's babies in the Bible." What can I say? I guess we're teaching her something.

So we went to Tanner's last Friday. We went with the mom's group I belong to, on a tour. We did this last year and really enjoyed, but since it fell in October, I didn't think we'd get to do it this year. Imagine my delight, when I discovered they scheduled it for early September this year. I knew we had to do it, and just hoped I'd be able to make it through.

Bethany liked riding the wagon out to the orchard. She loved picking the apples.

I wonder if she's remembering the story of Snow White right about now.
It's my goal to get one of these every year.

Last year's picture. Look how much she's grown!

We had a great time at Tanner's. It was a little warm for me, and I was pretty exhausted for the rest of the day. But it was worth it. Especially because we came home with cider, apples, and donuts. I love Tanner's, and I hope we'll be able to squeeze in one more visit after the baby comes before the end of the season.