Little John

and his big brother

John is six days old now.  He had an appointment today and is doing great.  He had a few issues in the hospital that are mostly all cleared up now, with the exception of his broken clavicle, which is still healing.  He's eating and growing well and, so far, he's been a great sleeper too.  I'm happy for any sleep I can get.

 

Here's John the day after getting home from the hospital.  Grant was super excited.  Grant has recently started saying the word "baby."  And he'll run over and point at John while saying it.  He has been mostly friendly with John, but I'm not sure he realizes yet that the little guy is here to stay.  He did try to pull him off my lap while I was nursing once, and one time he gave him a few cars to hold, but mostly he seems to be pro-John.  I hope that lasts.  Grant looks happy here, but he has been having a hard time this week.

Poor Grant has had an especially hard time since John got home from the hospital.  He's teething and has had a bad diaper rash and a few fevers.  He's had some pretty miserable days.  We've had him into the doctor and might take him back if things don't improve.  It's definitely stressful having too very needy little ones at home.  Especially since I can't hold both of them at once.  Thank goodness Grandma is here to give snuggles.

But it hasn't been all bad.  Grant has had some good moments too.  He has been more interested in taking care of Anna's dollies lately.  Here he is with one of the dollies.  I'm glad he is acting somewhat positively towards the babies.  Again, I hope it lasts...and that Grant can get over all his sicknesses.  Having two needy babies is stressful and hard!

Goodbye Daddy

Just two days after getting home from the hospital, Scott had to leave for his deployment.  It came so fast!  It was a hectic morning.  Here we are before leaving for the airport.  John is lounging in his chair.  I know I look very harried and tired...'cause I was.  I'm going to play the "I just had a baby four days ago" card here.

We went to the airport so see Scott off.  Because he was deploying the airline gave us passes to go with him to his gate which was nice.  John got to go through security for the first time.  He didn't like it.

 At the gate the bigger kids check out the planes...or lack thereof.

Scott with Grant.  They have a special bond.  I think Grant is going to be disappointed when he realizes I will be putting him to bed for the next six months.  He likes it better when Daddy does it.

One last goodbye before Scott boarded.  John took it well.  He just slept, but the rest of us were pretty sad.  Last time Scott deployed Anna was six months old and Matthew was 2, so they probably don't even remember.  Hopefully this time will go by fast and we'll all be back together before we know it.  :)  And in the meantime we can be thankful for skype!

Better Late Than Never

At 4:45pm on August 9, eight days after my due date, the day before my scheduled induction and the day after Anna's birthday, John Parker Guptill was born.  He finally decided to come on his own.  We arrived at the hospital at 4:30 pm and he was born 15 minutes later at 4:45pm.  It was a harrowing ride to the hospital involving stopped freeway traffic, detours and my water breaking just before we left, but we made it just in time.  In my defense the labor was only three hours total this time, so we tried to get to the hospital in time. 

He weighed 9lbs, 6 ozs and was 22 1/2 inches long so he is on the big and tall side!  We're so happy he's finally here and that Scott could be here for our crazy delivery and to meet our new little guy...and that we didn't have to have the baby stopped in traffic on the freeway.  Welcome baby John!

Read John's birth story HERE.

Resting

More resting

Resting while getting ready to go home from the hospital

And at home.  Awake and alert!

Happy Birthday Anna!!

Anna turned four years old today!!  I really thought we would have the new baby before her birthday but our new little guy isn't ready to be born yet...so we had Anna's birthday without baby.  Here is Anna with her 4 shirt and 4 crown from Aunt Angie.  She told everyone who asked about it that her Aunt Angie made it for her.  In the morning we had to go to the hospital for a non-stress test on the baby (he passed!) and then we went to Focus on the Family, an indoor play place.  Anna wanted to have french fries for lunch so we got Happy Meals (a special treat).  It was a fun morning!

I bought a cake for her instead of making one 'cause I didn't know what our baby situation would be when her birthday came.  Here is her cake!  Anna wanted to have homemade pizza and bread sticks for dinner.  We made the dough in the breadmaker and Anna helped me make the pizza.   She wanted cheese and pineapple pizza.  Scott was sorry we didn't throw some pepperoni in there.  :)  The pizza turned out good and we ate it while watching Mary Poppins.

 And then we had cake!

 Here's Anna blowing out the candle!

 The cake was good.

 Matthew had a green frosting cupcake.

 We did a little scavenger hunt for presents.  Matthew helped.  :)

Anna was so cute opening her presents.  She liked everything she got and kept saying these were the presents she was dreaming of.  :)

 Green mouthed Matthew watches Anna open gifts.

 More presents

Grant came to check out some gift opening too.  It was a fun birthday!  Happy 4th Birthday Anna!!  We love you!!

Grant's Baby Quilt

Grant's baby quilt is finally finished!!  My mom is here and she helped me finish it by tying it and finishing the sides.  Thanks mom!  Grant really loves the quilt and will lay down and snuggle in it.  It even got finished before the new baby came - thanks mostly to the baby being very late, but still.  I'm glad it's done.  Now I can I start thinking about a quilt for the new baby.  See Anna's baby quilt HERE and Matthew's HERE.

A Proper Tea Party

We had a tea party birthday for Anna today.  Her real birthday is August 8th, but I thought it might be better to try and have the friend party before the baby comes.  We had the party on a Friday when Scott was at work (so he got off easy on this one) but my mom was in town to help me, so that was nice.

First we decorated princess crowns.  Here are some of the girls working on it.  We also beaded some teapot necklaces.  I was impressed that the little girls could focus on the crafts for so long.  It was definitely a different dynamic than a similarly aged group of boys.

And speaking of boys, Matthew found an alternate use for the connecting spring: mustache!  Matthew was the only boy at this shindig, except Grant, who slept through most of it.

We played pin the cherry on the cupcake, which they seemed to like.  We also played a sort of game of musical cupcakes where the girls jumped from cupcake to cupcake every time we said "Fancy" while reading Fancy Nancy.  We made it a non-elimination event since most of our crowd was pretty young.

Then we had our tea.  It was made up of fruit, cheese and crackers, ritz sandwiches with ham and swiss inside, PB&J and turkey and cheddar sandwiches cut into shapes, cream cheese and jam spirals on tortillas and punch for our "tea."  The kids seemed to like the food...although we had lots of leftovers.  

Here we are at the table getting ready to eat!

Anna was very excited to pretend pour the tea for everyone.  My mom and I did the real pouring which there was a lot of since the tea cups were so small.  It was fun though.

Everyone eating some lunch.

And Anna getting ready to blow out some candles.  We had tiny cupcakes in place of a cake.

Blowing out the candles.

And along with the cupcakes we decorated some cookies.  The cookie decorating was big hit with everyone!  The kids were all so sweet and quiet during most of the party, but after cupcakes and cookies things got a bit more rowdy!  Everyone had fun hitting balloons around for the last few minutes.  All in all I think it was a successful party!

After the party was all over we let Grant have a cupcake.  He really went to town on it!

Happy (early) Birthday to our little Anna!

Anna at T-Ball

Truth be told, I had reservations about Anna playing T-Ball.  I imagined there would be a lot of resistance to going, wearing a uniform, doing what the coach said etc.  Most Saturdays (when we have T-Ball) she will whine and tell me she doesn't want to go to T-Ball, but once we get there she does great.  She jumps right in and participates and does everything the coaches ask.  I have been pleasantly surprised.  Here she is playing pitcher with the coach.  She did a good job fielding the ball and throwing it to first base.  Good job Anna!!

 Here she is in line to bat (she is second in line here with her pink mitt).

 Anna waving and waiting to bat.

 Here's Anna at bat.  She does a good job hitting the ball off the tee.

And she always does a great job running the bases.  Sometimes kids that age get confused about where or when to run, or they try to run after the ball after hitting it, but Anna knows all about base running.  Hooray!  Here she is running into home.  So Anna has been doing great at T-Ball.  I thought she would have an even better time playing soccer in the fall, but she has already told me she doesn't want to play soccer.  :(

Matthew likes T-Ball also and does a good job.  His T-Ball team is a bit more competitive than Anna's, but he 's still enjoying it and having a good time.  And Matthew says he wants to play soccer in the fall, which I was also unsure about since he has not enjoyed playing soccer in the past.  So we'll see how it goes.  :)

About Mr. Grant

A video of Grant telling us a story that only he can understand.

He does this a lot.

Grant is just over 15 months old.  When the new baby comes (in a few weeks) Grant will be about 16 months old.  He is full of energy and loves running around screaming with his brother and sister (not my favorite thing, but at least he's happy).  He also likes to wrestle with them and I'll often hear cries for help from the older kids like, "Help, Grant's sitting on my head!"  He's not afraid to jump right in there with them.  He's giggly and wiggly, likes dancing to music and is happy most of the time.

Here's Grant wanting to bowl just like the big kids

He doesn't look too happy here.

He wants to do everything the older kids do.  I have to force my two older ones to wash hands after going to the bathroom sometimes but when I do, Grant is right there waiting in line for his turn to wash hands.  He's so small I have to lift him up to wash, but he understands when I say "go dry your hands on the towel" afterward.  If the bigger kids go outside to play, Grant will make a beeline to his shoe bin (he knows shoes are required to go outside).  Usually he comes back with one of Matthew's shoes instead of two of his own, but he's trying. 

I've been putting him down to nap in the baby swing lately 'cause he can just swing and go to sleep without having to take him upstairs and leave the other kids unattended.  Now when he gets really tired or grumpy he'll walk over to his swing and fuss and jabber to get in.  I've never seen a kid that age ask to take a nap.  Also if he has a dirty diaper and I don't notice right away, he'll bring me a diaper and the container of wipes and jabber at me.  He likes being clean!

He also jabbers A LOT.  He talks and talks and has been doing it for a while.  He doesn't make much sense.  He can sort of say "All done" and "Down" and things like "Mama" "Dada" and "night night" but the rest is gibberish, squeals and screams.  This kid screams A LOT. I think he's influenced by his sister.  :(  When she stamps her foot and screams (as in the start of a tantrum) Grant will do the same thing.  Again, not my favorite behavior.  So he doesn't talk that much yet.  I thought he would have more words by now since he jabbers so much, but he does understand a lot.  Most things I ask him to do, he can do.  He spit some cheese on the floor the other day and I asked him to please go throw it away in the trash, and he went right away and did it.

Grant also thinks he needs to do what the big boys do.  When Matthew plays Legos at the big table, Grant tries hard to climb up on a chair to watch him.  He will then offer him random Lego pieces to help him build.  When we go to Matthew's T-Ball games and practices, Grant wants to run out on the field with all the big kids and collect balls and bats.   He likes playing with cars and "vrooming" them across the floor or letting them drive down our Little People garage.

So Grant is still our little guy, but growing bigger each day.  I can't believe he is going to be a big brother in just a couple weeks.

Here's Grant "asking" to get in his swing for a nap.

He knows when he needs a rest.

I like to go bowling

We spent the afternoon bowling a few days ago with some friends.  This was before Scott left town.  Here's Anna.  She inadvertently matched with her bowling ball.  She picked her own outfit, as she almost always does.  This is a mumu we got in Okinawa.  It finally fits her.  She could just barely carry that 6 lb ball but she was having lots of fun.

She was also very supportive of Matthew's bowling.  Matthew sometimes used the ramp to roll it down and sometimes did it all himself.

 Grant was excited to be there.

He so wanted to be a part of it all...as he always does these days.  Matthew was nice enough to let him bowl a frame using the ramp.  Grant loved it!

Here's Anna focusing.  She was smart about using the ramp and would adjust which way it was pointing based on what pins she had left.  I think she bowled a spare at one point!

 Here she is hefting it up on the ramp.

 And watching it go!

 She was having a good time!

 Matthew getting ready to bowl.

And the reason for the get together was to celebrate our little friend, Luke Keller's birthday party.  He is turning 4!

Luke is the son of Scott's college buddy who is also stationed here in Colorado Springs, but only for another month or so.  We had a lot of fun hanging out with them. Happy Birthday Luke!!  Thanks for all the bowling fun.