Kate's shenanigans...

As Kate has reminded me, the computer is "for pictures of Kate" so here are some of her doings in the last few days....

The horse clinics are on at Grandpa Bill's house! Kate got to see lots and lots of horses and cowboys. She announced to them all: "Look at all those cowboys on horses!"

Kate rode lots of saddles and was determined that "Kate can ride a horse right now." I think she thought there would be pony rides like there were at the fair. I told her there were only big horses and that they were in a class. To which she replied, "then Kate wants to take that class." Perhaps you could expand into some kids' classes next year, Gumpa Bill?? :)

Happy Birthday, Addi! We went to her 2nd birthday party where she had an Easter egg hunt (why not?!) and had lots of ice cream for Kate to enjoy!

Kate has taken to cooking and her favorite thing to make is "yummy little stir-fries." This yummy little concotion had green beans, half a yellow pepper (with seeds), M&Ms and a tortilla. Anyone hungry?

Kate LOVES Ryan and Shaun and their big kid bikes. She lobbies hard for them to trade bikes with her. They didn't go for that, but she was happy to ride with them as fast as her little legs could go!

With a little (or a lot) of help from your friends (& family)!

We are a lucky family, this much I know for sure. In the little more than two weeks we've had Will, we've witnessed what an amazing support system we have. Ryan's parents spent more than a week with us and my mom has been here pretty much everyday since Ryan has been back at work. She's gone WAY above the call of duty by letting Kate use her as a horse. And I never thought I'd see her bear-crawling around our living room, but I have now. :) Thank you, thank you, parents (more importantly now known as grandparents!) Aside from our fantastic family, we've had friends making us dinner! Our new friends Heidi and Ryan provided us with two night's worth and now Josh and Jen are on their way over to make us a Sunday dinner. We won't ever take all the help and love for granted--we know we have it good. No, not good, really, really GREAT.

Kate, have I told you lately....

...how very, very much I love you? I know I say it all day long, but I just hope you know how truly special you are to your mommy and daddy. You are our greatest joy and, at times, our greatest challenge. :) We love that you have personality for miles and we could never tire of hearing your sweet little voice explain the world to us. Everyday, we are lucky to be your parents and you will always, always be our first beloved baby.

Reality check!

Will is now 12 whole days old, and he, Kate and I had our first solo morning. Ryan went back to work today and the reality of having two little ones hit me this morning when I was trying to feed both of them while also playing play-doh. Definitely not enough hands. We knew that Kate would get more feisty once Grandma and Grandpa left, and we were right. Yesterday, she was "sassy" (as she says). She was definitely testing us and, as the day wore on, I was having more trouble being patient with her. Today, though, was a new day and I resolved that my mantra would be "patient mommy, content kids." And I think it's worked so far. Kate woke up happy, but when Will woke up soon after her and she had to share attention, she started to melt down. I just told her that she could decide to be a big kid and a mommy's helper, or she could decide to spend some time on her own in her room if that's what she'd rather. She quickly decided she'd rather stay with us and she's been great ever since. Will has been fantastic, too. He was a bit fussy yesterday, but he's back to his mellow self today. I thought it a great success that I got all of us bathed by 9 a.m. Small victories! I know this isn't going to be smooth and easy, but we're finding our way and I know we'll find our rhythm soon!

When Kate met Will

First game of peek-a-boo
Family Legos!

Well, we're 10 days into this adventure with two kids and we're settling in quite nicely. It feels like our family is complete now that we have little Will. Kate is being such an awesome big sister. I know it won't always be easy for her, but she is thriving right now. Whenever she doesn't know where Will is she says, "where did baby Will go?" and asks to go check on him. She does love to use some of his baby gear, but she's good at taking turns with him. She likes making faces at him and laughs the hardest when he pees on mommy (I'm learning about the perils of changing a boy!) All in all, I think we're doing well. We're happy, maybe a little more tired than usual, but definitely happy. AND we need to say the biggest thank you to Grandma Starla and Grandpa Bob. They left today and will be missed ENORMOUSLY. Having them here made our first week so much easier and we are eternally grateful!!

Will in action

Our first home movies of little Will.....

Will's first outings

Pretty much everything is a first for Will these days, but here are a couple from yesterday:

First of MANY trips in the Bob!

First trip to the Ski Inn for ice cream cones

Kate's got the hang of it, but announced "Hot Dog's don't eat ice cream"

Yum!

It's a BOY!

Well, well, guess who decided to join us a few days early? It's our wonderful, fantastic little BOY! Will David Singleton was born September 9th at 8:30 a.m. He weighed 8 lbs 7 oz and was 20.5 inches long. We're sooooo, so immensely thankful that he arrived safely and is healthy but, wow, he made a surprising entrance. We had our scheduled (and re-scheduled) c-section planned for the 14th, but he just wasn't going to wait. All was normal until about 5:30 a.m. on the 9th when I felt a pain just like I had when I went into labor with Kate. I thought they'd probably go away or would at least be spread out, but the contractions kept coming and picking up steam. I showered and started packing, but I wasn't still totally convinced that it was really TIME. I was more convinced when I called Ryan at 6:30 and told him he better start thinking about coming back (poor guy, he'd just been at work for 30 minutes after driving all the way out there!) I phoned my doctor and he said to show up about 7:30 and they'd see where things stood. Since my last labor was SO excrutiatingly slow, I thought I'd have lots of time to get there. Even so, my mom got there pronto and it was a good thing because I could barely function by the time she got there. HOLY OUCH. I really had blocked out the pain of back labor. We drove to the hospital (not fun) and got there by 7:30. Nobody was in a great hurry until the nurse checked me and I was 7+ cm!! All of a sudden, there were about 10 people hovering over me, all in "this baby is coming out NOW" mode. There was already someone in the operating room being prepped for a planned c-section, but they had to boot her out so I could go in (I'm sure she hates me and I don't blame her!). Once they got the epidural rolling, my outlook improved quite a lot. Luckily, Ryan made it and was there in the operating room the whole time. We were just having a chat when we heard a muffled cry and then a much louder cry and, BANG, the baby was there. Ryan got to check and announce that we had a boy, and then he cut the umbilical cord and we got to see Will for a few minutes before they took him off to get weighed, measured, poked and prodded. I got stitched up quickly and was soon back in the room where Kate, Grandma Connie and Grandpa Bill had already met Will. We weren't expecting Kate to be there when Will arrived, but circumstances made it so and she did great. She actually seemed fine with it all, which was a huge surprise to us. She decided to name Will "Hot Dog." Will passed all his checks and was soon eating his first meal. He took to it like a champ which was not surprising considering he literally had blisters on his hands from sucking on them in the womb. The day that followed was a joyful one and all his grandparents were there to see him. Kate was happy to be spending the night with Grandpa Bob and Grandma Starla while Ryan and I stayed at the hospital. We could already tell Will was a way different baby than Kate. She came out a spitfire from the start, but he's much more laid back. He's looking like a squishy newborn now, but we think he and Kate will look something alike because there are definite similarities to how she looked when she was born. We'll see. For now, we are just SO happy to be home and together as a family. We are also so fortunate to have so much help around us right now. I couldn't be more thankful to have a support system like ours. I know it's not special to have so many willing, helping, loving hands. We are a lucky bunch and are ready for the wild ride we are just beginning. I know it won't be easy, but we're just where we want to be: a family of FOUR!! Lots more photos to come.....:)

Perils of bathing with your toddler

Today, in the bath with Kate, I was told "look at those tiny, little boobies" and "mommy has a big daddy tush." Neither of these were said with a hint of malice; rather, they came out in the sweetest little voice. Granted, Kate is REALLY into adjectives right now but, come on, that was a total double whammy! If only she'd reversed them.....

PS Yes, the bath is supposed to be green. It's colored bath fizzy things that Kate loves. Trust me, this is one of the nicer colors she's produced. Kate + lots of color choices = lots of brownish-greensih-blackish baths!

PPS Kate just informed me that she wants to name the baby either "Big Yellow Bird" or "Hot Dog." I think she's trying to torture her sibling already!

Love. This. Town.

Period. I really do. I am 100% happy that we chose Sisters. I love its cozy, alpine feel. I love that it has everything we need without having "big box" anything. I love that we can walk downtown. I love that there's a different festival or event every weekend. I love that there are fundraisers for the schools nearly every week and people from the community ACTUALLY GIVE MONEY TO THE SCHOOLS. I love that people are genuinely friendly. And we're talking everybody--even the people at the post office; if this isn't a rarity today, I don't know what is. Yesterday, I took the car in to have the oil changed and the "check engine" light checked. He wasn't sure how long it was going to take, so he offered to give us a ride home before he got started! You don't get that at Jiffy Lube, I'm quite sure. Anyway, I truly feel at home here. On top of all the things I've come to like about living here, tops on the list has to be "The Nugget" which is the town's weekly newspaper. It is an informative, useful paper, but that's not why I really like it. No, that would be because it has the most covertly sarcastic writing I've ever seen. It's not in-your-face, rather it's just subtle enough to be really, really funny. It's not every article or every writer, but it's definitely there. The absolute BEST part of the paper is the "Sheriff's Calls" section. I'm not kidding when I say that I want to this to be my job one day. Here, they let the sarcasm fly, apparently at a nod to the stupidity of some of the calls and probably also because the section's very presence shows how little crime is present. So the writer has to doctor them up a bit. Here's a selection from this week: * A 49-year-old man was arrested for DUI even though "he only had two beers." * A man reported another man following him around town. Apparently he thinks the guy wants to start a fight. * In a couple of instances deputies were forced to dispatch road-injured deeer. *Balloons used in a demonstration of the visual impact of a cell phone tower were cut from their string. The reporting party suspects sabotage... Oh, how I long to doctor these up some day. In the meantime, I'll be content knowing that our kids will grow up in a safe, beautiful community that values its schools, neighbors and natural surroundings.

Kate's first act of mothering

The washing machine: better entertainment than television!

Let's face it: Kate's really not the type of kid that is going to fawn over her new baby brother or sisters. She has not one iota of interest in dolls and looks at babies I point out to her as if to say "and WHY should I be interested in THAT?" At this point, she's expressed interest in the baby so that she can go in the double stroller, play toys with the baby and take the baby to the creek (hopefully not for a drowning). I'm fine with all this. So what if she likes trucks and bikes instead of dolls? But this is why I was very surprised today when she told me she wanted to take the little stroller while I pushed the big stroller. I put stuffed animals in them, which she normally takes right out in favor of pine cones or trucks, but today she said they were our "babies." We walked all the way around the block, which is really about a 30 minute walk and she pushed her "baby" the whole way. Granted, she did tell me she'd rather run and wanted to race, and the baby ended up riding with quite a few pine cones, but STILL, she did do something big sisterly. This mommy was quite touched. We'll see her real reaction in under two weeks!

Thanks for making our day!!

There's just something about receiving flowers that always, always makes you feel good. I'd just returned from the doctor's office (where I learned there's been no more dilation--yeah!)yesterday when there was a knock at the door and a man delivering a wonderful bunch of sunny sunflowers. What could be nicer than that?? This lovely bunch was sent by our fantastic long-distance friends Kate and Jim, who are not only extremely thoughtful but made such an effort as they live in England! Thank you, thank you, you two, for totally and completely brightening my (and, obviously, little Kate's) day!